The Garden Patch

[sgt.barney]

It's a hobby ... but it wouldn't be called "fun". More like "survival". Sarge slings SQL for a living (database programming) and hasn't taken a contract in near 3 years now - trying out the whole Early Retirement thing. Gotta eat so it's more like ... survival.

 

Easy Peasy

[sgt.barney]

Do you guys can for winter?

4 freezers and almost 1000 canning jars ... but the dehydrators see the most action.

 

Cheapest, easiest, best way to preserve most of it is drying/dehydrating.

 

Easy Peasy

[Sazerac]

Do you keep bees ?

[sgt.barney]

Do you keep bees ?

Next Spring.

 

CCD (colony collapse disorder) has devastated the local native/ wild population and 3 disappointing years in a row in The Orchard were the last straw. No / minimal pollinators leads to crappy yields.

 

Downloaded plans last month and picked up materials/parts last week. When it gets cold next month, Sarge will be in the garage building hives.

 

Watch for pics ...

 

 

Easy Peasy

[Sazerac]

What do you think,  Loofah out of control...only male flowers and no fruit.

Soil too high in Nitrogen ?  It is in a new bed/former compost heap

[sgt.barney]

Sometimes plants have it too easy and if you stress them a bit , they kick into survival/reproduction mode.

 

Other times you get a dud.

 

Not familiar with loofah - have you tried hand/manual pollination? Grab a q - tip and start swabbing ;)

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[Sazerac]

There are Male flowers ONLY....no female flowers at all !  

plenty of wasps and bees (thank you BEES).

 

Well, there may be female flowers somewhere UP THERE.  Not getting out ladder yet.

I think it is Drunk on all the richness and too much N.  

Loofah is a squash thing, edible when small, big dried ones are those groovy sponges.

Haven't grown them in years and never ever had a behemoth like this.

 

Happy Harvest to you.

Please send some pickled Cayenne for a perfect Bloody Mary, won't you ?

  S

[sgt.barney]

Yesterday's harvest (because it's raining this morning and who wants to go out in that?)

 

 

Please send some pickled Cayenne for a perfect Bloody Mary, won't you ? 

 

And because you asked (we don't pickle Cayenne, we dry it  - but there's plenty)

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[Sazerac]

Sarge said, "And because you asked (we don't pickle Cayenne, we dry it  - but there's plenty)"

 

I am still using home dried Cayenne...but, damn the cayenne I pickled one year was GONE in a heartbeat.  

It was SO good.  If you are into a capsicum sort of explosion.

Butterfly caterpillars wiped my crop out this year...nice pretty worms turning into Butterflies don't taste as good as pickled Cayenne.

A secret ingredient in many dishes.

I also stash the dried in Olive Oil. 

[Nicole Diver]

Do you have room for one more person at your house?

I will be very quiet, but I will eat a lot :/

[beacon]

That's some good healthy living

[beacon]

I wish I could find better tasting tomatoes. South of me there are still some fields growing veggies and strawberries where I can buy but that is in the winter. Store tomatoes suck. Even fancy stores. However, down here now the avocados and mangos are ripe and are everywhere .

[Tink]

whats growing this winter ?

[sgt.barney]

Nothing growing here at the moment. We had 10 degrees (F) a few weeks back, but made plenty of additions late fall and in the last few months for next year (and many more years into the future). Most of this season's additions were to the Nut Orchard and will take more than a decade until full production.

 

4 Chinese Chestnut trees in the nut orchard.

4 Allegheny Chinquapin (a kind of mini chestnut)

4 varieties of English Walnut trees.

Planted 16 Black Walnuts from a wild patch at the woodlot. Hoping 4 make it from seed to maturity in the Nut Orchard.

Propagated the existing Hazelnuts from 6 bushes to 26 - made a "living fence" of future Nutella along the East property line.

 

4 Hardy Kiwi Vines (3 cultivars female, one male for pollination). 6 years 'til fruit production on these vines

 

Started Pineberries (a dozen starts - will be hundreds next year, and thousands in future years - they propagate easily and weed-like)

 

Planted 50 Pawpaw seeds, hoping to end up with a handful (maybe 5 or 6) make it to maturity.Tried this year but 100% failure. Probably dead seed. These 50 are "take two" - if at first you don't succeed ...

 

Added a second type of Elderberries to the existing Elderberry hedge. Elderberry wine next year! The existing hedge is 5 years old. Had enough for wine this year, but let the birds have the berries 'cause we were on vacation climbing mountains in Colorado and New Mexico.

 

Added both Raspberries and Yellow Raspberries to the Berry Patch.

 

Added Egyptian "Walking" Onions to the Salad Garden (perennial onions)

 

and finally, started an experiment in Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichoke) and American Groundnut companion planting.

 

 

 

 

Gonna be an interesting year next year. :)

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[Chrysalis]

Nothing growing here at the moment. We had 10 degrees (F) a few weeks back, but made plenty of additions late fall and in the last few months for next year (and many more years into the future). Most of this season's additions were to the Nut Orchard and will take more than a decade until full production.

 

4 Chinese Chestnut trees in the nut orchard.

4 Allegheny Chinquapin (a kind of mini chestnut)

4 varieties of English Walnut trees.

Planted 16 Black Walnuts from a wild patch at the woodlot. Hoping 4 make it from seed to maturity in the Nut Orchard.

Propagated the existing Hazelnuts from 6 bushes to 26 - made a "living fence" of future Nutella along the East property line.

 

4 Hardy Kiwi Vines (3 cultivars female, one male for pollination). 6 years 'til fruit production on these vines

 

Started Pineberries (a dozen starts - will be hundreds next year, and thousands in future years - they propagate easily and weed-like)

 

Planted 50 Pawpaw seeds, hoping to end up with a handful (maybe 5 or 6) make it to maturity.Tried this year but 100% failure. Probably dead seed. These 50 are "take two" - if at first you don't succeed ...

 

Added a second type of Elderberries to the existing Elderberry hedge. Elderberry wine next year! The existing hedge is 5 years old. Had enough for wine this year, but let the birds have the berries 'cause we were on vacation climbing mountains in Colorado and New Mexico.

 

Added both Raspberries and Yellow Raspberries to the Berry Patch.

 

Added Egyptian "Walking" Onions to the Salad Garden (perennial onions)

 

and finally, started an experiment in Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichoke) and American Groundnut companion planting.

 

 

 

 

Gonna be an interesting year next year. :)

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

Sarge, did you ever find the paw paw plants you were looking for? This nursery in Indiana has some: https://indianaberry.com/products/1/10/Plants/Novelty_Plants

 

Also, I never heard of hardy kiwi before. I'm thrilled! They will make a great gift for someone I know (and thank you for mentioning that you need both genders).

[sgt.barney]

I have 4 cultivars of grafted Paw Paw on order for spring (March) delivery. These will likely be better than the seed-planted specimens (if any of those actually germinate and survive. We were 0 for 30 this last year. Not a one.) AND they will have a 3 year headstart on the seedlings so they'll fruit sooner.

 

The hardy kiwi are different (some say better) than the standard fuzzy kiwi everyone knows. Google and youtube are your friends - check out some videos. Make sure the recipient of your gift isn't afraid of work (pruning). These things are vegetative as hell.

 

Easy Peasy

[beacon]

How about cashews?

[sgt.barney]

> How about cashews?

 

Cashews freeze and die in Ohio winters. If they get below 50 degrees (f) they have problems, and they die at 30 degrees (f). We regularly have minus 15 to minus 20 (at least once or twice a decade). Gotta live closer to the equator... and have more rainforest-like precipitation and humidity.

 

We have mediocre-ish success with both Virginia and Spanish Peanuts. About 50/50: one year = great crop, the next year: nothing survives.

 

On the nut front this is what we now have: Hazelnut, Chestnut, Chinquapin (Chinkapin), Walnut, Black Walnut, Hickory and Peanuts (not really a nut - more like a bean). Not many other tasty nuts will grow in Ohio. There are more nuts, but they're nasty/not-edible.

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[beacon]

I was speaking to a friend who had a farm in Nicaragua that grew cashews