2022 Garden Thread

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I don't like purple cabbage because it turns the water in boiling it too much of a color for me.. lol I love regular cabbage and put lots of vinegar on it and I always boil cabbage for I like it better that way. clancey
 
Beautiful cabbage, @begreen. I really love borsch, though I don’t tend to make it that often. Where’s the photo of your beets?

Yesterday my husband and I both worked in the garden. I filled ollas and did some surface watering of crops while he cut out tomatoes, peppers, basil, and bush beans. We had a light freeze last night, but we’re due for very hard freezes late in the week, so we figured we’d compost the heat lovers while they were still green instead of waiting for them to die.

In the next couple of days, I’m going to be digging out support structure materials and frost cloth and protecting the citrus as I can. I’ll be watching the forecast to see if I need to be concerned about my olives or pomegranates. Thankfully this does not look to such sustained cold as February 2021, but I think I’ll make efforts to protect what I can. We’ve got a couple nights forecast for the mid teens.
 
Mid teens... I dont think I ever saw that when I lived in TX! I dont think I've seen it this year in NY!
 
I got to thinking about the weather... I knew up north had been close to zero. Our weather must have been cold. I checked accuweather and sure enough, last week we went below 20 3 days. No idea where I was. I'm such an air head sometimes.
 
No beet pics DG, they came from the store.
The country is getting hit hard with a polar push all the way from Siberia. We're on the edge, but have dropped 8 degrees in a few hours. I shut the water off to the greenhouse today. Hunkering down.
 
@EatenByLimestone , you really did make me laugh by calling yourself an “airhead.” I can’t say I’d ever thought of you that way.

@begreen, how cold are you supposed to get? Are you expecting snow?

Our latest forecast has dropped us down to 10 degrees for the one night this week. That may be more than my frost cloth can protect from, but I’ll give it my best shot. We were actually blessed by some rain in the early morning hours today (an absolutely wonderful sound to wake up in the dark to the spatter of rain drops!), so that should help a bit.
 
@EatenByLimestone , you really did make me laugh by calling yourself an “airhead.” I can’t say I’d ever thought of you that way.


So today I already had an airhead moment. My aunt had a broken chair and I was in the area so I called her up and asked if she’d be home a bit because I could stop by and fix her chair. She gave me the go ahead to come over so I started that way.
I passed the car wash and figured I’d stop in and give her a few more minutes to get ready before I arrived. We’ll, after the car wash I proceeded to drive home.

Once I got home I realized what I’d done and drove back. I added a half hour to the job, lol.

The chair is now fixed. I’ll have somewhere to sit on Christmas, lol
 
Going to try a new variety tonight!


So, funny story about that orchard:

I once walked in to their orchard stand with my Grandma as we used to buy half bushels of utility apples. We walked up to the counter and checked out with the old lady there.

As we walked away, my Grandma says, “She doesn’t like me.”

I’m like”Huh? Why?” I’m thinking, why wouldn’t everybody like my Grandma?

“Because I stole her boyfriend.”

I had to laugh. Who knows if the orchard lady ever forgave my Grandma. Both ladies were well into their 80s.

This orchard also has a small section of old, probably nearly extinct varieties they keep going.

I hope they can keep the developers far away. We’ve lost enough orchards to houses and strip malls.

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We tried snapdragon pretty recently. It was fairly good, though perhaps didn’t keep its texture too well after a few days, if I’m remembering the right apple. Ours were grocery store apples, though, not from an orchard.

I took a couple of pictures of my Aerogarden plants yesterday or the day before. My first tomato started to blush pretty recently. You can see that my heavily pruned tomato plants are still small. The pepper that I’ve pruned so heavily is going to bush out. I think its stem is already as thick as my pointer finger.

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@begreen, how cold are you supposed to get? Are you expecting snow?
We have been right on the borderline for snow today. Here we just have about 1/2" of slush, but in town maybe 1". Just 10 miles away they got up to 6" and if you live 30 miles to the north and at elevation above 2000', 10" or more. Up to 3 ft of snow is expected in the mountains.
It's at 31F here right now. The predicted low over the next two days is 18º and much colder to the north of us. The big concern is Friday which could have a period of freezing rain. We're hoping it's short and does not turn into a damaging ice storm. By Christmas eve we are supposed to be up in the mid 40s.

I harvested a big bowlful of lettuce yesterday from the iDoo and the pots under lights. I should have taken a picture. There is enough for several salads.
 
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We ate the first Tiny Tim last night! It went on some tacos along with some San Marzanos that had been ripening on the table. It was great having fresh tomatoes! Now if only the others would get on with ripening!
 
That lettuce sounds good, @begreen. I love a good salad. How was the texture?

I ate my one red Aerogarden tomato yesterday. It was pretty tasty actually, better than I was expecting. I could have let it ripen more, I’m sure, but I tend to be happier with a slightly underripe tomato rather than a slightly overripe one, so I start testing early to see where my best flavor and texture lie.
 
That lettuce sounds good, @begreen. I love a good salad. How was the texture?

I ate my one red Aerogarden tomato yesterday. It was pretty tasty actually, better than I was expecting. I could have let it ripen more, I’m sure, but I tend to be happier with a slightly underripe tomato rather than a slightly overripe one, so I start testing early to see where my best flavor and texture lie.
Congrats on the first tomato. Looks like harvest season is upon us as a few of us are seeing red.
 
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Mid teens... I dont think I ever saw that when I lived in TX! I dont think I've seen it this year in NY!
You will shortly. NYC is forecast to go from 54º to 12º tomorrow.
 
That lettuce sounds good, @begreen. I love a good salad. How was the texture?
Excellent. The fan on the iDoo seems to help. I have a small 6" fan blowing across the plants in pots. It makes a nice difference. The leaves have much more structure, not wimpy.

how did the lettuce taste? Was it as good as soil grown?
Yes, the taste was good, so was the texture. And no cleaning needed. No slugs either.
 
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I'm imagining sad faced slugs at the window peering in at the idoo.
 
Was looking for something to do today with the bad weather and all, so I put this Christmas Video Card 2022 together from some photos I took the other day. To the friends I am making on Hearth.com, especially here in the Garden Forum, my wish for all of you is to have a very Merry Christmas! May your spirit be enlivened again.

 
This is the last of our greenhouse Early Girls. There were more green tomatoes on the plant but it was getting attacked by mildew so I pulled it. The late tomatoes are smaller, but also sweeter and more flavorful.

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Those tomatoes do look great, @begreen. A couple of those diced up would be a perfect topping for your indoor lettuce salads. I’m glad the texture was good. I agree that a little air movement does wonders in improving the crunch.

Just yesterday my kids made some salsa from some of my tomatoes that I picked green that have been ripening indoors. It was an assortment of cherry varieties and a couple of Taigas. They had good flavor.

Thanks for the “Christmas Card,” @Dan Freeman.

Merry Christmas to all my gardening friends here on the forum.