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Gardenering

Garden-er-ing- The act of doing a thing and it occurs in and around the garden. Activities surrounding the planting, nurturing, harvesting and cleaning up in and around the Garden.
 


 

Lots of things go into gardenering. Lots of experimenting, questioning, googling, and lots of errors. Hopefull some things here can be helpful.
 

Howdy!

Some of the Veg we grow

Written By
Brian MacCormack
Tags
2024-08-07

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Cantaloupe is my all time favorite thing we can actually grow around here. I put in two plants this past season and they took over a 40 foot by 40 foot area in no time. I also put down a lot of old horse hay mulch where the vines grew. The mulch protects the fruit from contact with the ground as well as slowing down the weeds that grow under the vines.  They take a LOT of water so the mulch helps to keep water from evaporating. The temptation is to pick these too soon.You will see them on  the ground and they look all Yummy, but if you pick them early they won’t have the full soft sweetness. Be patient!

Tried to grow watermelons a few times, but our season is too dry for that. No luck.
We also grow probably the most popular garden veg – Tomatoes
Tomatoes love our climate. It is very warm, we usually have a good bit of rain – sometimes not. I put a ton of hay straw mulch on our tomatoes, don’t plant them in the same place as before and put in the cages/t stakes at the same time as planting.
Our plants are fast and furious and so are the pest and diseases. I have found that the pyrethren and BT Thuricide work well to combat the aphids and worms. We also have every imaginable kind of bacterial, viral and fungal problem every season. I’ve taken to doing the “Second Tomatoes” program (there is post for this) to extend the life of the plants and to give us a longer growing season.		 image
image WE also grow PEPPERS. Some of the same rules for tomatoes apply to Peppers. We have Green/Sweet/Bell peppers for cooking. They also freeze well for cooking later in the year (Slice carefully with a mandoline)
In addition to sweet, we’ve grown Spicy peppers: Carolina Reapers as well as my favorite the Fatalii. The Fatalii has a serious heat (more than a habanero) with an added “Citrusty” kick. Hard to describe but I associate the smell of Fataliis with the smell of summer.
We have also grown things like Corn (our first season, probably won’t do it again since there are a lot of farmers growing and selling really nice corn in our area) Green / Bush Beans; Tried Yard Long Beans  this season. They took a long time to get started but I prefer the flavor and texture. Greens: we can’t grow much in the way of greens (collards, spinach etc.) EXCEPT we found an Asian cabbage variety that absolutely stuck it this summer. It has a title in an Asian language on it so I don’t know the exact variety. It tastes wonderful whether fermented or cooked. Squash both Summer and Winter varieties. Summer squash grows quick. I used to put it in as soon as the threat of frost was gone, but the squash bugs were waiting for me. I’ve started planting Zuke and Yellow summer squash later- June or July and many of the bugs are already gone. The BT and Pyrethren helps to keep the bugs at bay.
In the fall and winter we grow Collards as well as Broccoli – Last season’s Broc was a hit – all the stars aligned and they were perfect. Lettuces and Spinach and Chard grows well. I put an enclosure around the lettuces and spinach to help it on the few really cold nights around here.

Cukes – Cucumbers are a rite of spring. They go in after frost ends and we usually are sharing with the neighbors within four to six weeks.
Cabbages- These grow well in the autumn and winter around here. They take a while and there are these bugs that are annoying but the BT stuff works wonders.
Blueberries- We planted three, added three more and tried another three bushes. Unfortunately four of  them crapped out so we are at five plants now. Two of the plants put fruit out early – June and the other three are July fruiting.  Our last season was dry, but I watered the plants a lot while the berries were fruiting.  We picked over 12 Gallons of Blueberries. Most of them are in  the freezer.
Potatoes- Put in about twenty eyes this past season (April) and by the end of June I dug up about thirty pounds of spuds. We process  them and freeze  the results.
Garlic- Probably one of the easiest things to grow around here. I have deep composted raised beds – for good drainage- and add mulch as the plants grow. The bulbs are planted in October and usually ready to harvest in late May or early June.


 

I will probably think of some of the other things we have tried and add to the list.

  

Other things...