2022 Garden Thread

[EatenByLimestone]

We’ll that’s unexpected! I can start peas in the aerogarden! Awkward, but you can see how many peas I was willing to experiment with, lol.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We’ll that’s unexpected! I can start peas in the aerogarden! Awkward, but you can see how many peas I was willing to experiment with, lol.

View attachment 294691

They sprouted fast!

I was almost hoping it would rain today, but tomorrow looks like the stormy day. After 3 days of fencing work, both of us are so sore and achy, especially our hands, arms, backs, legs, and feet. Our noses and ears are about the only things that don't hurt.

But, today is going to be nice, so maybe we can get the 4th side of fencing up and the garden will be enclosed. After that, we still have to go back and secure the fencing in 3 places on the rest of the posts (two sides done already) and attach the 2 foot ground apron all the way around (1 side done already). I'm aiming for Easter Sunday to be finished. Next week I'm planning to get the perimeter electric fence done. Then, finally, I can remove all the cages I built around each individual tree and bush.

 

[begreen]

We are having a week of nighttime temps in the mid to low 30s. Yesterday it even snowed briefly. This is more like WA weather from the 1970s. I'm glad I bumped my schedule back 2 weeks this year, though it may be more like 3 weeks. Still, I have a lot of babies that just got transplanted to 4" pots in the greenhouse that don't like cold feet. I may need to start up the wood stove in there at night.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I feel like I’m playing catch-up this year. I did find a store closing out seeds for a dollar a pack. I bought 3 packs of spinach, lol

 

[Dan Freeman]

I stopped using my grow lights over my tomatoes they are growing so fast; I'm afraid they will be so big I'll have to up pot them before planting them outside. All my flowers are coming up and in various stages of growth. My peppers and the few eggplants I have seem to be growing so slowly. I need to get the remainder of the new raised gardens filled so I can get my squash, melon, beet, turnip, pea and string bean seeds in the ground.

We got the 4th side of fencing up today, so the food forest is now completely fenced in. I still have some minor wiring to do where there are seams and at the corners. We also got another 100 feet of apron fencing on the ground and attached to the main fence. Two more sides of that to do, and we can move onto the electrical part. I am actually glad it is going to rain tomorrow. My body needs the rest. I'll spend the day getting orders ready for delivery. It's spring and everyone is beginning to put in their first big orders.

 

[clancey]

That.s a lot of fencing you all did and it took a lot of planning plus some amount of money to do this project..What a job you are doing...That electric fence would scare me--lol lol..I bet you start on another project soon just as big to fill it in with your plants as they grow and grow...clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Congratulations, @Dan Freeman . What sort of business do you run that spring is a busy order season? Is it garden related?

I did a little more potting up today, just a few plants the roots of which were already getting long in the Aerogarden: a single luffa that is the only one I’ve successfully germinated so far, one cucumber that needed reseeding when I potted up my others, three Balsam flowers, and two little tomatoes that got started later than my others. It was cooler today than yesterday by about 10 degrees (86 instead of 95, I think), so it was a good day to get them exposed to the outside in some shade.



There are still mostly herbs and flowers that are slowly growing or still germinating in the Aerogarden. The back row is basil that only took about two days to sprout now that temperatures are in the 80s in the room where I start them. Then there is a tiny za’atar plant that I’ve been nurturing for weeks, some lemongrass in the middle, and a tiny bit of thyme in front.

We’ve now eaten the last of the beets that were growing alongside one of my trellises, so that area is open now. I have plans to grow Seminole pumpkins there, so I need to think about sprouting them soon.


Last Saturday when I planted my peppers, I pulled up some onions to make room. I didn’t need that many green onions so I decided to dehydrate them to renew my supply of onion powder. I filled my five dehydrator sheets last night with slices of the onions themselves and then the abundant green tops. They dried down and ground down to a fine powder with a wonderful smell.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Nice! Homemade onion powder!

No, our biz is not garden related. We sell our own brand of jams, salsas, bbq sauces, salad dressings and dip mixes. Our customers are mainly farm stands, farm stores and little country stores. Once the weather starts to turn nice, we get busy, and it lasts right up through November.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Oh, never thought of making onion powder! Nice!

 

[Dan Freeman]

Lime...get yourself a good dehydrator. Excalibur is the brand we have. It is considered one of the best. Don't go cheap. (https://excaliburdehydrator.com/). We do a lot of hydrating of summer crops to use during the winter, both whole and powdered. Last year, we bought a freeze dryer, too. Not cheap, but another great way of preserving food for even longer term. (Think food shortages, which are coming.)

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I’ve had a good dehydrator for about 20 years now. It has a really short cord that makes me remember the long gone puppy that thought it was too long. We mostly use it for Jerky and dried veggies, but I’ve made fish food, fruit roll ups, etc in it. I think I’ve dried basil and parsley in it too for herbs.

Every once in a while an idea comes out of the blue at you and you wonder how you never did it before.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I have lots and lots of onions planted this year, more than I intended because the company sent me extras to make up for sending me too few by mistake at first. Because of some really crazy winter weather, probably the super-warm December, a good number of my onions are bolting. Those will need to be used or preserved pretty quickly when I harvest them, so I’ve been thinking about different ways to do that. I figure I’ll dice and freeze some, but since the ones I pulled recently were lots of green and little bulb, drying into onion powder was a better option.

I have an older 5-tray Excalibur dehydrator, and I was shocked just now when I looked at their website to see their current prices. They don’t seem to make the economy version that I have any more, and that’s too bad. I’ve loved the dehydrator and gotten great use out of it over the years for yogurt, fruits and vegetables, and jerky. I hope to get many more years of use out of it.

I had a pleasant surprise this morning in the garden. I discovered seed pods on my daikon radishes. They had just appeared and were small but oh, so delicious! I’m growing them mostly as a cover crop/soil improvement, and I had actually been planning to cut the foliage on at least some of them tomorrow. Maybe the radishes heard me say so and produced this yummy surprise in an effort to save themselves (or maybe they’re just mature enough since it is 60 days from germination). The seed pods tasted very similar to the roots, and I could see them being good in salads or stir fries or even fermented. We ate a bunch today straight off the plants, so I could see it being hard to gather a big harvest.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Peppers repotted temporarily. The root structure will outgrow the pots pretty quickly.

I refilled the aerogarden with a dwarf kale that I got the seeds on clearance, lol. Kale freezes nicely. Don’t recommend kale chips. Dehydrated them once, don’t remember being enthusiastic about eating them.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I had a really spicy radish that I grew a few years ago. I think I was the only one to eat them so I never grew them again. They were great though!

 

[begreen]

Peppers repotted temporarily. The root structure will outgrow the pots pretty quickly.

I refilled the aerogarden with a dwarf kale that I got the seeds on clearance, lol. Kale freezes nicely. Don’t recommend kale chips. Dehydrated them once, don’t remember being enthusiastic about eating them.

View attachment 294780

Our kale chips came out great. I was dubious but a friend convinced me to try them out. The trick is to use the least bitter kale and season it nicely. I used spike (seasoning salt), garlic powder, and a bit of chili powder.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Maybe it was a seasoning issue. I’m willing to try it again this year.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Even though it is very good for you, I'm not a big kale fan any way it is prepared or dried.

We actually had a long break in the rain today, so we ran outside and finished the ground apron around the entire food forest, and I put in the support posts for the gates. The physical fence is officially finished. We'll start installing the perimeter electric fence next week.

Happy Easter or Passover to all!

 

[clancey]

You did quite a job there and its large but well done...May I ask this question--why so many supports for the gate --could not it be done another way more flush to the fence--or maybe the wind is strong in that area--what gives? But beautiful nevertheless,,,wonderful job and almost finished..yea....clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

You did quite a job there and its large but well done...May I ask this question--why so many supports for the gate --could not it be done another way more flush to the fence--or maybe the wind is strong in that area--what gives? But beautiful nevertheless,,,wonderful job and almost finished..yea....clancey

On one side, you need a diagonal brace to keep the gate from sagging and to keep the t-post it is on from moving back and forth when opening and closing the gate. On the other side (where the gate latches) you want the diagonal braces to stedy the t-posts so nothing can push through the gate when it is latched. Remember, these are only t-posts driven into the ground at 18 inches. They are not set in concrete.

 

[clancey]

Well that makes sense and I am into "gate mode" this week for my carpenter will be here to shore up a few things because of the wind...I am just going to patch it up here and there--nothing major., and fix a few minor things as well...Busy week for me...Everything looks really nice and your efforts was well worth it--just very nice....clancey

 

[EatenByLimestone]

That’s a lot of work! I bet it’s nice for it to finally be done!

We use kale in Portuguese kale soup a lot. We can go through a lot, quickly with that. It’s a sausage and potato soup. Pretty tasty. It also gets mixed with salads and stir fry’s.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Congratulations on a big job well done, @Dan Freeman .

We really enjoy kale in our family. I’ve done kale chips before years ago, but our favorite method of cooking it is a variation of an Indian recipe from a Julie Sahni cookbook. It uses mustard oil, which can be hard to get in our area, so we just use sunflower oil with mustard powder mixed in. We sautée the kale in that then at the very end add minced garlic and sautée lightly. Season with salt and red pepper.

I spent a long time in the garden on Saturday, working on refilling my huge terra cotta pot and then filling all the ollas. We also harvested some of our garlic, not because we thought it was ready, but because all the foliage had dried up and fallen over (despite my regular watering). I really don’t know what went wrong there. We left the green plants in place but lifted the ones that looked beyond recovery. Some were only rounds, some were small heads with cloves that no one would be proud of. We’re going to save them to replant in the fall. In the meantime I dug a lot of compost into the area where the garlic came out so that it can get ready for okra this summer.

@EatenByLimestone , how are your peas doing?

 

[Dan Freeman]

Thanks, DuaeGuttae!

I can't believe they are calling for 3-5 inches of snow tonight. Last week, we took the straw off the 39 heads of garlic we planted last October. They are almost a foot tall. We may have to put the straw back around them for tonight! We're starting to get blooms on our 2 peach trees. Between last night's 25 degrees and tonight's snow, I'm not sure if the blooms will make it. But that's OK. I am not expecting fruit this year. This is a growing year for them, but I can always hope, right?

 

[clancey]

Of course your going to get fruit this year---and the picture frames are waiting...Everything is just beautiful and such hard workers you all are--yes...There is only one thing that I do not like and that is the gate and I would think it would be a double gate so that wider vehicles can get through and I would somehow support it in concrete instead of those "wings" on it--lol lol...Kale is okay with me with "limits"--really green and curly looking but okay....Hope you all had a nice Easter and here you all go working "overtime" again but I sure enjoy all your results...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Of course your going to get fruit this year---and the picture frames are waiting...Everything is just beautiful and such hard workers you all are--yes...There is only one thing that I do not like and that is the gate and I would think it would be a double gate so that wider vehicles can get through and I would somehow support it in concrete instead of those "wings" on it--lol lol...Kale is okay with me with "limits"--really green and curly looking but okay....Hope you all had a nice Easter and here you all go working "overtime" again but I sure enjoy all your results...clancey

LOL, Mrs. Clancey; we don't have wider vehicles; in fact we do everything by hand with both of us being 66 y/o. No tractors or major equipment. It is only a few months ago we bought an electric wheelbarrow, and the gate openings are plenty wide for it to go in and out. We are "old school" and don't have the money for "vehicles". The electric wheelbarrow was a "luxury" for us at $4000. I would love to have a tractor or other all-terrain-vehicles, but that is not in the budget at $10,000 to $25,000.