23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Thanks, all, for your help. I was really hoping I could pull the plants up.

-Anne

If you also have ripe squashes, you should use the unripe ones first. I think Seminole Pumpkin has an especially hard shell, and it will probably be quite firm even before the fruit is ripe.

If the skin is still tender, use like zucchini (maybe saute with garlic or onion rather than steaming). When a little older, try in soup (peeled or steamed, then scooped out of the shell). If almost ripe, you can probably bake it.

My chokes have never made it overwinter yet, but we've had some funny springs and I have never really mulched them. Voles really seem to enjoy their roots, which is a problem in my light soil here, and the ones that have survived winter predation usually snuff it in the freak late frosts we've had. Oddly, my cardoons always make it fine with absolutley no fussing from me. Have you tried contacting Monticello? The folks who run these historical places seem to enjoy talking to interested folks about how they replicate what was done all those many years ago. I haven't tried the folks at Monticello on artichokes but I did recently spend a day talking to curators at many historical parks about Dorking chickens.

I'm in zone 7, and people here don't cut them or cover them. I have seen them survive as low as 8 degrees F.

I'm not even close to being ready due to my tendency to procrastinate. I've got to dig my garden beds and add 400 gallons of grass clippings to them. I've got to add about the same amount of shredded leaves to them. I've got to mulch my beds. To get the leaves I need, I pick up the bags of leaves that people put out to the curb (I don't have any mature trees in my yard) and shred them. I'm still waiting on my sunchokes to die down so I can harvest them, add compost to the bed, and replant them. There's nearly finished compost I need to screen. I've got to build a new compost pile. I've got to start some new leaf mold piles (actually they aren't piles, I use garbage cans with the bottoms cut out to contain them). I have to build a shelter for the semi-stray cat that hangs out at my house (technically its owner is across the street but the cat stays at my house for the most part). There's sod that I have to lay down as I recently moved a portion of my garden due to invading maple roots. I have a bunch of tree seeds that I need to plant (about a dozen different species). And my garage needs cleaned up, it's a real mess in there.

Rodney

Our growing season started just a bit ago... although the temperatures are still in the low high 80s to low 90s and nights are mid to upper 70s.

I actually should have planted seeds 2-3 weeks ago.. but I wasn't planning on growing anything this year. Then I caught the gardening bug and decided to just try out a few things.

I finally successfully grew tomatoes last year so I will try some peppers and eggplants that I failed growing 2 seasons in a row. Will plant seeds tonight.

I think I will grow a few cucumber plants... hopefully to get at least a few cucumbers, but to use them as aphid bait in hopes they will leave the peppers and eggplants alone. I will practice washing away aphids and spraying them with a soap spray mix (last 2 seasons the soap spray mix turned the leaves yellow and brown... even though I followed instructions the first year, and 2nd year I even diluted it more)

I have these molds to grow cucumbers in that will shape them so when sliced they are heart and star shaped. The cucumber varieties I have are too big but at least if I learn to deal with aphid problems this season I might be successful growing the right cucumbers to use in the molds.

And since I failed at growing flowers last year I will try some flowers. I really can't believe I failed at growing flowers. Some varieties like zinnia were described as very easy to grow but it wasn't working for me!

Appproximately one inch apart in the row, rows 10 inches apart. No more than 4 rows at a time so there is a place to walk when harvesting. I use pea plates in a mechanical planter.

Jennie, I can't help with your climate questions, but snap peas are wonderful fresh. Since you've never grown them before, you could always start small and see what you think before committing a large space to them. But if you've got the space available, definitely go for it. (As for the weather, if you're only talking a couple dollars for a packet of seeds, try it and see what you get -- if they don't grow well, save the rest of the pack for late winter/early spring and see if that works better.)

As far as support, I've grown dwarf snap peas in containers with an inexpensive tomato cage (the flimsy WM kind) in the middle to help get them started. They do cling to each other, but they also cling to the wire cage and I think this helps them withstand wind a bit better.

For harvesting, snap peas are eaten whole -- you eat both the pod and the peas inside, all at once. The pods are nice and crunchy when raw. You can also add them to stir-frys or just steam them as a side dish. We tend to mostly eat them raw in our house. They are one of those "pick a handful while out in the garden and eat half of them before you get back to the kitchen" kind of veggies. :)

Good luck!

Kathy

If the maters have reached their mature size, and they are unblemished(on the vine or in handling) it is possible to ripen them. Newspaper, shredded paper , ...help prevent rotting.
But the best use that I have found for green tomatoes is pickling and making green salsa, in place of tomatilllo.

I always end up with tons of green cherry tomatoes. I tried pickling them but they weren't that good. This year, I found this green tomato sweet bread recipe online: http://www.food.com/recipe/green-tomato-bread-53325

I tried it last weekend and it was really good. I tweaked the recipe and used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour. I also used coconut oil rather than vegetable oil. Finally, I added a half teaspoon of ginger and another of mace to the cinnamon. I also used half brown sugar rather than all white.

The result was a moist and spicy bread, darker than the one in the photo, with a nice crust. I chopped the green cherry tomatoes in the Cuisinart and they were unnoticeable in the bread, although they smelled horribly bitter and nasty when I chopped them.

I'm not sure if the tomatoes actually help the texture/moistness of the bread but it was quite delicious; I'm going to make more this weekend with my remaining green cherry tomatoes.

PS. Black rot is a tropical disease. It originated in West Africa. It loses fights with the local temperate microfauna (hence the suggestion of more OM), but it can survive in bits of brassica (stems for example) that are in the garden and have not composted yet. Just eat all you can, then clean it well in February or whenever you are ready, then add something fast composting, like good grass clippings and shredded leaves well mixed together. I prefer shredded leaves and shredded kitchen scraps, or semi-fresh manure, but I see you are far neater than I am.

As I understand, the BR is just a plant disease. You can consume the vegetable. Don' throw them away. Just trim off the affected leaves.

They are definitely easier to clean than if I had hilled them.

Just to be clear, I look back at the picture and though the whites are high on the leek, the flash makes it seem more than it is. I'll try to get some better pictures soon.
-Mark

I grow Bleu de Solaise leeks, a late, enormous leek. I start them in mid Feb in a deep pot, set the pot outside as long as the temp is above freezing (bringing them in at night) and set them in the garden some time in April when I'm sure night time temps won't get too cold. (If you have too many very cold nights, the leeks think they've been through a mediterranean winter and they bolt).

When I set them out, I set them deep, but no deeper than the lowest leaf. As they grow I pack hay around them--hay keeps them clean. Now, as I harvest, they have very long and very thick white portions that have no dirt in them at all.

Sorry, no pictures. I'm a good gardener, but I'm technologically challenged.

Pinching off with fingernails also works.

You don't have to thin all at once to the mature spacing. Baby onion sprouts and spinach are not only edible but a delicacy in salads, so you can thin gradually until your plants become full sized.

I would look at it this way:
What is the diameter of an onion ? 3 inches " then i will grasually thin them so they are about 3" apat.

What is rh e diameter of a carrot? ONE inch : Then thin them one inch apart.

I will let the spinach grow in clumps. Thou you can tin and eat them as thin them. Same goes for things like parsley, coriander, chive. Let them clumpup. That is ok.

SNIPE them with your finger nails. Or just pull after watering.

'Stomping'......using your size 11s to firm the ground where you will plant the brassicas.
Seems they don't like a loose root area and will not grow firm heads or sprouts, prevents plants from falling over.
I do know, since I remembered this my brassicas have improved tremendously.
Give it a try, nothing to lose.

Reviving this thread to do a follow up post........

Still no heads on my cauliflower (Snowball), but some of my broccoli (Pacman) is maturing........ Last fall & this spring's plantings produced main broccoli heads the size of golf balls & the cauliflower produced zip! Can't imagine what could be different.... Oh well, I'll take whatever mother nature gives!

Here's a head from this fall's Pacman.........