How Does Your Garden Grow??????

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Great links xtsho.

Pickled beets are so effin good!

I just introduced steamed beets to the baby. Stained his little tongue pink, lol
They are so good fresh that I've been unable to make any pickled beets from my last few harvests. I just started harvesting my beet seeds. I'm carpet bombing one of my beds with them for a fall/overwintered crop. I have some already started but I'm planting a ton more. They overwinter well and give you an early harvest in the spring.

 

MICHI-CAN

Well-Known Member
They are so good fresh that I've been unable to make any pickled beets from my last few harvests. I just started harvesting my beet seeds. I'm carpet bombing one of my beds with them for a fall/overwintered crop. I have some already started but I'm planting a ton more. They overwinter well and give you an early harvest in the spring.

Roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper is preventing "Harvard Beet" making. My favorite version. May follow your lead on the seeds. TY.
 

DrOgkush

Well-Known Member
I didn’t plan my tomato’s well at all. Screwed myself bad. Sucks because I eat the hell outta them. Next year I have much better ideas and will be more successful for sure. Wind worms and just bad placement. They grew fucking huge. But doesn’t matter if you can’t eat the shit your growing
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I didn’t plan my tomato’s well at all. Screwed myself bad. Sucks because I eat the hell outta them. Next year I have much better ideas and will be more successful for sure. Wind worms and just bad placement. They grew fucking huge. But doesn’t matter if you can’t eat the shit your growing
That sucks. What kind of worms?
 

BlandMeow

Well-Known Member
I've actually managed a decent harvest of tomatoes despite the damage they took earlier in the year. The delicata squash are almost all dead, but should have been growing for at least another 2 weeks.

Potatoes all harvested and really pleased with my first crack at them. IMG_20210818_193610.jpg
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
The cucumbers are kicking my ass. I can't keep up with them.

When Sister was getting ready to have me niece, Mamma and Daddy went out to Colorado, leaving me in charge of the farm. It rained everyday they were gone, and the cucumber patch went crazy. I sold to all the neighbors, the grocery stores, to anyone who would buy a bucket of cukes. In the end I fed way more to the cows than I ever sold. But some good came out of it. I wrote Cucumber Blues. It goes something like this.

I woke up this morning,
had them cucumber blues
yea I woke up this morning
had them cucumber blues

I know they need picking,
but Lord it ain't no use.


There are several more verses, but my memory isn't what it used to be. I do remember the last verse. . .

if I don't pick them soon,
my big legged woman will put one to ill use.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Hornworm ass holes
I've never had them. I do have lots of predatory insects and birds in the backyard though. I do spray a few times with a sesame oil+ spray I mix up. All organic and bee friendly. Pretty much no bug issues at all. I leave all those small wasp nests intact they build under the roof overhang. I think there's a half dozen or so. The juveniles eat caterpillars and other bad bugs. And the birds are all over the garden looking for a meal. One predatory insect I'm worried about is the Dragonfly. I saw some early in the spring but with this drought and no rain there isn't the small puddles of standing water they need for their nymphs to grow in. I haven't seen them like I have in the past.
 

DrOgkush

Well-Known Member
Mine are those giant months. I’m going to be using a similar method to large farms farther than a cage. Also my grape tomatoes grew in a pair and I shoulda chopped one down and did better training to the other. But mistakes make reward in the future. So no big deal.
 

BlandMeow

Well-Known Member
I was actually out in the garden yesterday and plucked a hornworm off a tomato plant. Put it inside a tin container and going to feed it some of my weed leaves. The kids love to check in on it and gives them an opportunity to learn. This little fucker takes dumps like a truck! Non-stop eating leads to non-stop shitting!

IMG_20210820_091631.jpg
 

DrOgkush

Well-Known Member
They turn into big ass ugly moths that will amaze your kids! Or scare them.
The worms don’t bite pintch nothing. 100% harmless. Secretions is just plant matter vomit. Safe to touch.
I feed a dozen a day It seems to the chickens
But they get big Real big. And turn into giant ugly moths
 

BlandMeow

Well-Known Member
Yeah, the hawk moth! Last year, the hornworm caterpillars we had, had parasitic wasps lay eggs on the caterpillar! They had little white "sticks" all over them. Instead of removing them from the plants, I would pluck them off and move them to the other side of the garden so the wasps would hatch. Unfortunately, the two caterpillars I found so far do not have any wasp eggs. Maybe that rainy July held them back.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I was actually out in the garden yesterday and plucked a hornworm off a tomato plant. Put it inside a tin container and going to feed it some of my weed leaves. The kids love to check in on it and gives them an opportunity to learn. This little fucker takes dumps like a truck! Non-stop eating leads to non-stop shitting!

View attachment 4968907
I bet if you had enough of them you could collect that poop and use it like EWC.
 

DrOgkush

Well-Known Member
Yeah, the hawk moth! Last year, the hornworm caterpillars we had, had parasitic wasps lay eggs on the caterpillar! They had little white "sticks" all over them. Instead of removing them from the plants, I would pluck them off and move them to the other side of the garden so the wasps would hatch. Unfortunately, the two caterpillars I found so far do not have any wasp eggs. Maybe that rainy July held them back.
THATS A GOOD THING!
Those predatory insects will eliminate an entire population of hornworms in a few square miles!!!!! However if you live in a suburban area. Not the best idea to allow.

but the years iv had those hornets. Major insect problems were always at a minimum. This is my first year trying tomatoes again and I failed miserably. But that was mostly my fault. Not worms.
 

BlandMeow

Well-Known Member
I bet if you had enough of them you could collect that poop and use it like EWC.
They eat so much faster and produce more castings than red wriglers that's for sure. If you could keep a population in rotation for long enough, but I think the seasonal life cycle would be hard to maintain the population.
 
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