Peppers were covered with "soot" from the aphids, but, it washed off easily enough.
Dehydrated and crushed two more Ziplock Snak baggies of Tabasco and Hot Chili peppers.
I've been drinking a good brand of Ginger tea lately, and love the peppery tones. Bought some Moringa Ginger tea this weekend, but, it doesn't have the peppery tones.
Can you say, "drop some crushed Hot Chili pepper flakes into your teacup, steep, then strain?"
It's peppery NOW, LOL!!
Linda, that's an upside down Black Krim. From the top it looks conjoined, aka a "buttmato". The ones with dark shoulders on the right are also Krims. The yellow tomatoes above it are Alfred Orange, an unregistered heirloom. The crenellated ones (creased tops) are Hazelfield Farm and the large number of smaller tomatoes on the right are Boxcar Willie. Though smaller than usual, there were fifty one perfect tomatoes on the vine. I've picked about a dozen so far. There are three or four Pink Oxhearts in the middle.
Today I picked eggplants and okra and a bowl full of little tomatoes. I used the older tomatoes to prepare a tray to roast for dinner. My tomato harvest is usually heaviest now and for the next month if plants stay healthy.
I meant to thank everyone for sharing my pics. I enjoy seeing your gardens too.
Maypop - Now send us a picture of weeds as I did not see a one in you beautiful garden area. Guess it is because of the bootcamp. I'm going to have to look into starting a bookcamp around here. I enjoyed seeing all the various pole beans you were growing. As for pink tomatoes - those area always good and meaty.
Looks like the white eggplant is quite the producer. Is it as tasty as the purple eggplant?
I just recently made entries at the local fair - sweet potatoes (much better than last years crop), trombocino squash, Big Bertha pepper, eggplant, sunflower seeded, broomcorn, okra, a mixed veg entry, lots of annual flowers.
Good morning, everyone!
Brendak654,
The white eggplants are more tender, IMO, and I use them for different applications than the larger, meatier purples. I use them in Asian stir frys, or as a quick-saute' -with-some-spices-side-dish kinda recipes. If I pick them early, the skins are thin enough that I don't have to peel them.
I use the larger purples for Parmesan or grilling, or for a cassarole where thicker planks are the better application.
Also, they are really prolific, so I can keep a steady supply coming.
*SIGH*.....a gardeners work always consists of struggle it seems. I had a spider mite problem on my stone fruit tree, so i got myself some organic spray and i had gotten it taken care of, only to have a vole tunnel into my garden last night and clean me out of most of my carrot sprouts....
We are drowning in a record harvest of eggplants too, Linda.
Brenda, not only do I have weeds, but there are plenty to spare if you'd like some!
#1 Yesterday's tomatoes. #2 Today's tomatoes. Big guys include Mortgage Lifter, Eva Purple Ball, more Alfred Orange and Pink Oxheart, Cherokee Purple and six more Boxcar Willie from that one plant. #3 I mark the shoulders on tomatoes for seed saving. #4 A few of the beans shelled this morning and morning okra.
just finished dividing up my chive plants, they had multiplied into this massive tight clump. Now my eyes are watering due to chopped onion syndrome, lol. I had enough of them that i decided to put a few of the bulbs down in the garden with the carrots, and some around both dwarf fruit trees.
MaypopLaurel
this is amazing.
are you at the best of your summer season?
I was harvesting like you end of May and June.
Thanks for the weed offer - I have plenty.
Voles - Not a good thing! Had them and still have them once in a while. No fun!
I'm sitting here waiting on the 3 guinea to go to roost so I can shut them. They are dragging their feet and it is thundering and lightning and they should already be on the roost. So in the mean time, I made a pass through the garden and this is what I found. Our tomatoes are getting harder and harder to come by and they are getting smaller and smaller, but the taste is still there. I'm cutting calendula blooms and accumulating them in hopes of making some kind of skin care product out of them.
My garden is more than twenty five years old and year-to-year has had the benefit of successes and failures. I no longer waste time on crops that are short but doable (like lettuce and spinach) and plant vegetables based on how productive, how easy to cultivate or how easy to harvest and preserve.
Drthor, our summer season goes from mid June to whenever. We can be picking cabbages, mustards, green beans cucumbers and more in late spring. But I think we have a mid season that you don't have. I planted cucumbers every two weeks x 4, tomatoes every two weeks x 5, green beans every three weeks x 3,
I've been at DG for awhile, but if you don't know me I live in Atlanta where my veggie garden access is limited. I have a kitchen garden in North Georgia. I have a small catering business with emphasis on homegrown foods. I have been growing and cooking from the garden for over thirty years. We have hosted four Round Ups and do pop up dinners for friends, family, charities and private small events. We have people interested in European cottage stays spend time at Maypop. I guess I've been here long enough that anything I had to share was not relevant.
well, at least i do have my carrots that are in containers, the voles cant get to those, lol
starting to see some beets popping up, and my turnips and kale too. my cabbage is going bonkers inside, and the oak leaf lettuce is off to a good start.
Three days ago I emptied one of my compost bin that I made with a garbage pail. Boy oh boy I was sifting away and I got tons of nice Black Gold ,I dump the compost into my wheelbarrow and sifted onto my used plastic bathroom liner that I had saved , then put it in buckets. I decided to sow my Bok Choy seeds and place then on the shady side of my yard ,well I check this morning and every seeds germinated. I also started my compost bin again. I have another bin to empty, but I am waiting for a nice cool day to do that one. My daughter lives upstairs and I have her save all her good scraps for me for my bins . So the entire family is composting . Lol .Thinking about sowing some Kale because DH and I love Kale.
I also want to spend time at Maypop ! Great job!
Here I am starting to harvest tons of long beans and okra. A few red peppers too.
And one melon !
so, you know how chives are suppose to be one of those "repellent" plants that bugs arent supposed to like? Well guess what, i had cutworms to come along and eat the freakin chive transplants! I caught a couple of them red handed and gave them the "under my boot" treatment, lol. Good thing chives grow up from under the ground instead of having to rely on a stem to hold them up, so at least they will grow back.
This message was edited Aug 29, 2016 6:53 PM
My eggplants are starting to make fruits again and the plants look so nice.
I was thinking on pulling them in order to have room for my fall greens ... maybe I just trim the bottom leaves of the eggplants and plant my greens underneath !
Okra is still slowly producing, but half of the plants have tons of aphids ... I think it is the sign from nature that soon the plants need to be removed.
Tons of flowers on the pepper plants ...
My Gretels are still going, and are full of blooms. However, they also have herds of stinkbug nymphs hanging on the eggplants. Makes my skin crawl to come up on a little white eggplant loaded down with orange and black nymphs.
This is a long weekend, and, I was thinking of taking the plants out. But, I may just cut all the fruits off again (after I pop those lil' boogers into a bucket of soapy water), and give them another go round, only because I don't have anything ready to go in right now..
I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many eggplants in the freezer, already!
Looked at the seed flats, and all the seedlings will get potted up this weekend. I'm targeting the end of September for planting out. Having a yard of compost and sharp sand delivered to fill some beds. I'll top 'em off with my homemade compost. Should be enough to feed the brassicas, at least for awhile.
That time of year. Days are getting shorter and I'm sure thankful for the beginning of less humidity and a cool breeze in the air. I spent a big part of my day working outside yesterday. I've just planted purple top turnip seed and a mix of radish seed and the remains of some lettuce seed I had on hand. I thought I was planting ahead of a little rain, but the rain has missed us. As long as I get a few turnips, especially to satisfy the DH. Glad you were talking about eggplant as I have a black beauty that needs harvesting. My eggplant harvest isn't near as large as yours Gymgirl. I had a time with blister bugs on my 4 eggplant and I gave in to using some Seven dust. The plants are back to looking really nice and the blister bugs are gone. Our tomatoes have about fizzled out. If I'm lucky I can find some small ones, but may have to give in to going to the Farmers Market for a fresh tom slicer. Okra still plentiful and plenty of pole green beans and peppers.
Question - In the spring I can find all kinds of seed readily available locally to purchase, but come this time of year there are no packets of seed to be found locally. Are you buying your seed all in the spring, doing a seed order, saving your own seed, other? The turnip, radish & lettuce seed I just recently planted was not seed packaged for 2016 sale (older seed that I have used from before). Thanks for your input.
I usually buy my seeds in the spring, ahead of the fall/winter rush...
Tomato Growers Supply
Johnny's
Baker Creek
me personally i try to save seed from the things that i have found to enjoy, namely the tomatoes and peppers. i just buy any seed that is in the brassica family from baker creek, in fact i buy all of the fall veggie seed.
also i found a couple of goodies while in town today, im always looking for native perennials for the pollinators around here. and found a very nice looking perennial black eyed susan, and a bright orange coneflower. I simply HAD to have that coneflower because it was the only bright fiery orange that they had, all the other oranges had a blush of pink in them.
I buy my seeds now in the end of the season sales. I just got seeds half off from Sustainable Seeds. :)
I've had seeds for years and they still germinate. I only buy new ones if it's something I want to try and don't already have. I haven't bought any veggie seeds since 2013. Lol
Long beans are in full production now.
I am freezing most of them.
Okra is slowing down, while eggplants are starting to produce. Every eggplant plants is loaded with fruits and it seems that the flee beetles are gone.
Also the pepper plants are making tons of fruits and flowers>
I found a huge zucchini in my front garden ... ah ah
I had some extra zucchini and squash transplants and I planted in the front garden ... which it is not taken care like my veggie garden.
Well ... the plants are alive and now theya re starting to produce !
I have started already to transplant out my fall/winter garden.
Sunday was a ROOT day, so I transplanted my turnips.
Today was a FLOWER, so I transplanted my broccoli.
Tomorrow will be LEAF and I will transplant all my cabbages and kale.
I am growing those huge radishes from Baker Creek this year and they are still indoor as well as the fennel, which I am planning to transplant in a couple of weeks ... I just don't have the room right now. I need the long beans to stop producing.
I love this time of the year !
had no idea that you could transplant turnip or radish, i was always told to direct seed
You can transplant beets, too. Only way I've ever done it.
This season, I'm throwing out some seeds, as well as starting some indoors for transplanting.
nice, i had always heard that they wont bulb up if you do that, lol.
speaking of turnips, my direct seeded turnips are coming along pretty well. as well as the kale, and container carrots, thinning time soon for the kale and turnips. Still a struggle with the carrot seed i planted in the ground (Dang army worms!)
This message was edited Sep 6, 2016 7:09 PM
had no idea that you could transplant turnip or radish, i was always told to direct seed
you will have to give us some photos of those guys. its fun to imagine turnips and radishes that have the potential to get as big as a pumpkin
found the first bloom on my sweet potato vine today. and im glad to see the leather-wing soldier beetles starting to come out in force, seeing as they are a beneficial
lots of beans and okra.
Now the eggplants are producing.
I haven't harvested eggplants so beautiful in years !
My fall garden is almost all planted: broccoli, kale, turnips, cabbages and cauliflowers.
I am going the long beans to produce 2 more weeks then they need to be remove so I will have room for radishes and fennel transplants, direct seed lettuce and carrots.
Then I will plant garlic on October 30th and I am done for my fall garden !!
i will be so glad when this crazy heat finally decides to buzz off, some of my fall veggie seedlings have literally cooked even being direct seeded in the ground and mulched. Im glad we will at least be getting a little reprieve from these 90s starting tomorrow
i will be so glad when this crazy heat finally decides to buzz off, some of my fall veggie seedlings have literally cooked even being direct seeded in the ground and mulched. Im glad we will at least be getting a little reprieve from these 90s starting tomorrow
seeing quite a bit of leaf dieback on my georgia jet sweet potato plant that i have growing in a giant tupperware storage bin with holes in the bottom. i stuck my finger down in the growing mix to see if i could feel any spuds, and came across one that felt absolutely huge!
dithor:
Please let us know how your giant radishes and turnips grow and taste. They sound like something that would blow peoples' minds at county fairs!
dithor:
Please let us know how your giant radishes and turnips grow and taste. They sound like something that would blow peoples' minds at county fairs!
well i am rather disgusted. I thought that i would snip off that one huge sweet potato (with the plant still growing in the potting mix), so i could let it cure, and to also get a better look at it. Woudlnt you know that it was all rotten with brown splotches all over the skin. SO in a panic i pulled out the entire plant without thinking (assuming that if i didnt intervene the entire plant would get sick), and found one....ONE good decent size sweet potato, and the rest was all just spaghetti string roots.
Every gardener has that one plant that you just cant do well with, so i will accept that sweet potato just happens to be my guaranteed failure plant. Couldnt get them to do well in the ground, couldnt get them to do well in a giant container. so i will take that as a sign. (despite how effortless everyone says they are to grow)
This message was edited Sep 14, 2016 6:06 PM
That is ok.
I think we all have a vegetable or more that doesn't grow well in our garden.
I just cannot grow PEAS (my garden is too hot and they bold before producing).
I also cannot grow squashes ...
I think you have been growing fantastic vegetable this year and you need to give yourself a big pat on your back !
Yeah,
Until I remove a large tree that's sucking up my sunlight, I won't be growing any more tomatoes...
