I put in my first garden in 13 years this year. 3 of them actually. Indoor and outdoor. Expensive, unplanned, make shift, spur of the moment, SHTF, Covid Freedom Gardens. I kill the hell outta game, fish and mushrooms, but I needed to bolster that with veggies, eggs and chickens.

Now I got 10' tall cherry tomatoes in my living room, 15' tall scarlet runners which the humming birds love; 8' mammoth seed sunflowers that are just babies and about 500 pounds of onions and taters on the way. Plus all the other chit. I've put up about 15 pounds of spring peas and 10 pounds of spinach already. More spinach than I can handle. I grew radishes, no lie, that looked fake they where so absolutely perfect.

Then the not so good. I just can't get my beets right. I lost all of my Brussel Sprouts to mealy bugs. Carrots are struggling - which is the biggest bummer of them all. I fvcking LOVE garden carrots - spit, dirt and all. I lost a whole cucumber mound. I have a dozen or so indoor peppers that got hammered by aphids a while back and that was a killer set back on the pepper front. They are rebounding, but the damage has been done.

On deck are cucumbers, LOTS zucchini and cherry tomatoes & beans of many flavors. Swiss chard and Kale are going nuts. Acorn and butternut squash are fruiting well. Mature onions are getting plump. Spring onions, lettuce, spinach, micro greens and alpha or bean sprouts are always on tap. I'm waiting with baited breath to see how my taters turn out. I'm hoping for a triple digits at the minimum.

Considering how I literally had no plans for a garden prior to March 1st, I'd say I'm very happy with my results so far. Including the new chickens, it's been a busy pandemic on the ol' ponderosa.

So, how's yer' chit growin'?

We just do containers on the deck.
Last year the chipmunks destroyed everything, this year a stray cat showed up and took care of that problem. The cat follows me everywhere, even fishing in the boat, it likes to eat the fish I catch.

I can catch dozens of crawdads a day right out front, so thats a nice treat.

A pig showed up right after the cat, it was very friendly. It stayed for a few weeks. The dogs, cat chickens and ducks all got along great. Walking around the yard having this group follow you was interesting.

The pig wandered away one day, I assume one of the predators got it.

Starvation should be averted, basics covered well, though my butternuts and spaghetti's seem to be failing, round three of lettuce, buttercrunch, romaine, and big fat head, purple cabbage is prime, broccoli and the big white stuff are over with, corn, beans, red spuds, fingerling spuds, Finn spuds, spud spuds, k-rots, cukes, lemon cukes, onions red, onions white, onions sweet, leeks, jalepenos...more jalepenos, Anaheim's..not so much, dammit. Zucchini, more zucchini, got the fat hummingbirds on the fat Scarlet Runners, too, all organic...all the time.

One freezer full of beef supplemented with elk and moose, one freezer full of King (thank you for raising the limits Alaska) hali and ling.

Do love me some garden.

Last winter we had raised beds installed. They were filled with topsoil instead of our clay. We had ripe tomatoes in June (first time ever, before August) and lots of lettuce, beans, peas, and fruit from the vines. Some crops, like carrots, aren't happy for some reason. This is setting up to e a bumper year.

And, as an aside, the rest of the landscaping os going bonkers. Everything seems to be having a good summer of growth.

We are just getting into my favorite time of year...where most all of my meals are entirely from stuff I caught, shot, gathered, or grew...good times.

Fish on...

Todd

I grew peppers one year so much fun!

Been eating Sungold tomatoes for a week-and-a-half now, with more ripening daily now that it's consistently hot weather. And Early Girl 'maters got a sudden growth spurt and starting to ripen also.

My raised bed garden has struggled this year. The first round of strawberries were reluctant to ripen in June's cool and wet weather, and those that did got hit hard by slugs and bugs. The second crop is looking to be the best ever for me, however. Blueberries did well and are almost over, maybe one more picking.

Veggies have struggled. Planted onions and sugar snap peas 3 times, green beans 4 times. Slugs and rabbits. Damn rabbits were getting through the plastic deer fencing - they just chew holes in it - and 2" chicken wire. Had to redo the perimeter with 1" chicken wire, so most everything is doing OK finally. Lots and lots of lettuce, but onions are a good month behind. No spinach this year, after 2 or 3 plantings, I just gave that up. Brussel sprouts look like they're gonna' succeed, although I had to spray some organic bug killer on them. I know corn is not suited to raised bed gardening, but I saw these corn starts at the nursery when I was buying flowers this spring, so I bought one little pot with 5 corn starts in it. 3 survived, and one is about 5' tall now. Got 4 whole ears of corn developing, so, whoo hoo, that's success. Have managed to keep the deer out of there this year, but it's a constant struggle.

Almost all of our gardening is done in raised beds and containers. Herbs, veggies, and flowers are evenly balanced to attract hummingbirds and pollinaters. This year we started late, but since the weather warmed up the plants are making up for lost time. Four varieties of tomatoes are set, but not ripened. Blueberries have been plentiful for a couple weeks. The beans and cukes are coming along nicely. Golden zucchini have been good in stir-fry, salad and sauteed with parmesan. There's a couple peppers still in the blooming stage; looking for them to come on strong next month.We've had more leaf lettuce than we could eat this spring; perhaps Nick has an old-timey recipe for pickling it, or drying it for a tasty trail snack .

Salmo - it sounds like you are having the exact opposite specific veggie type success from me. It's all so fickle. We should trade successes! Ha!

So this year, I slammed in my victory garden using those flexible fabric / cloth planters. They are super cheap compared to hard sided containers. Plus root structures hit hard walled pots and spin and spin till root bound. For some reason, roots naturally terminate themselves when they hit the fabric sides, which supposedly makes the plants stonger. They are cheap and easy. 15 gallon pots x 5 per bag for like $20 bucks total on Amazon. I got 8 (100) gallon, 8 (45) gallon, 8 (25 gallon), 10 (15 gallon) and 10 (2 gallon). I then bought 2 yards of Cedar Groove Garden Booster (50% compost / 50% manure), 4 yards of Pacific Topsoil Garden soil (50% dirt / 50% compost), sand, vermiculite, sawdust and every PH modifier and fertilizer known to man. From there, I custom built specific soils in a cheap plastic swimming pool to specially match the PH and fert req's for certain plants. For example, I did (6) 100 gallon planters with soil built specifically for potatoes (low, acidic PH + lots of potassium). It was a ton of work to slam in by myself in such a short time, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

Just picked my first zucchini of many (hopefully). A nice specimen at that. Goes about a foot long and as big around as a Campbell's soup can. I can't wait to get full off that hog.

Vegetables can be so sensuous don't you think?

Lettuce did well this year. Lots of carrots and onions. Peppers didn’t do so well and neither did tomatoes. Raspberries did well until a deer got into the garden and ate the fukkk out of them and the blueberries.

The chinook harvest has been solid as well... accumulating a decent stash of fish for the freezer so far and prime time isn’t even here yet.

My buddie's garden has been ravaged by deer. They destroyed his squash and zucchini . His peppers are rockin ,but his weed looks like [Bleeeeep!] lol

We used to have a large garden patch where we put the firepit and more garden across the street on my Aunt's lot. Came over here and worked when I was a young kid and then we would go get candy and treats at Blandy's. When my dad bought the farm he eventually gave up here and planted a garden at the farm. There's still some raspberries. Now I just have some peppers, tomatoes,strawberries, and herbs in containers and raised beds. Yellow cherries are done and now the Gravenstein apples are starting to ripen. Peaches are getting ripe and so are the blueberries. The squirrels are attacking the Hazelnuts. Lots of Bumble, Mason, and Honey bees. Humming birds out too.

Help! I am inundated with two types of green beans. I may have over planted. I did 16' total. 3 foot of big Scarlett Runners that are 20+ ft now which I'm going to let dry on the vine. 5 foot of Cabot Bush which I've barely touched and 8 foot of Cobra pole. Everything is outta control. I picked (6) mounding 14" large steel bowls of just Cobra's. They get about 8 - 10" long when fully mature.

So...I made chit tons of canned spicy garlic dilly beans and spicy mixed veggies. The mixed veggies had cauliflower, bell peppers, cut beans, cut carrots, pearl onions plus with all the spicy seasonings, garlic & dill. Just whatever was handy. Grew most of it except the cauliflower and carrots. My carrots kinda suck this year.

(28) Pint & a Half tall wide mouth jars later. I left the dilly beans long for beverages. Put up another dozen or so vac. bags of blanched beans for cooking.

And...I still haven't got through half of what is on the vine right now. I've got crazy Kale, Swiss Chard and Cucumbers on backlog right now.

Gotta process the all the Kale to make Kale Pesto for pasta - which is the absolute best use for chitty Kale.

More later...

PS: Go ahead and make fun Corny

Picked beans, ganja? Well slap me and call me Sally.


Nick, Have you ever tried tempura fried kale? Game changer.
The pesto sounds pretty good too!

Shelling those scarlet runners will be almost as much fun and exciting as hunting deer from a tree stand, though the chili cannot be beat. I recommend at least a growler of something cold and delicious with a high ABV rating, putting your favorite Gordon Lightfoot album on the turntable and getting to it.

I have 2 15' rows of scarlett runners and another long row of another kind of shelling beans called "Bingo", the blue lakes are another 2 20' rows that are jsut hitting their stride, red cabbage is now suitable size for bowling at the Fred Flintstone Alley, red cabbage slaw/ AK hali tacos for din din last night with yuge romaine leaves for the wrap, not kidding.

Onions are bulbing up nicely, big top means big onion and my tops are tops, leeks are going to make me sick.....too many leeks, somebody come take a leek.

K-rots
zuch's
toms
jalepenos
anaheims
buttercrunch

.....look the hell out come corn time, the bodacious is bodacious.

Life's a garden.

No - please put recipe on recipe board or pm. Imma need several ways to cook this chit. I think have like 24 or so big plants. Piles of Kale right now...

Yo - hook me up with some of dat' sweet sweet bingo and blue lake bean seed for next year.

Those Hali Tacos...fook oh dear...

Taters are about 2 weeks out and counting and then the big reveal. Hoping for piles of mashers!

Nothing like a high quality home grown spud..

Keith

Did some spud test digging a couple few weeks ago (one hill, each variety) with mixed results, some kind of mole rat shrew vole critter ate more than it's fairfuckingshare, bugs got into a few, too and I still got enough that I haven't eaten them all yet, yeller finns and red pontiacs seem to be my fave and I am expecting some B&C results come the big dig. I'm more of a roaster than baker, unless it's steak night.

4 rows, 4 varieties 15ish ft each should stave off the famine.

Will do on the seed stash, my scarlet runners are old stock from some I grew 5...mebbe 6 years ago, I ate all the rest... low yield on the germination, but enough to keep the strain alive, old timer says he got them from an old timer that says his Grandma or Aunt or some crazy witch brought them from the old country, they don't look any different than others I've seen....but it's a cool story, true or not, bro.

Blue Lakes are easy, but I'll let some dry on the vine and we'll watch them grow next year anyway.

Dig it.

Fvck yes! Let's do it. Odd, my Scarlett Runners are LOADED with pods and more coming everyday. I got them second hand from a friend. 6 beans total and 5 sprouted. They took right off and are producing like crazy, so they must be a good strain. I'll save you some for our bean swap.

I'm doing my taters in 100 gallon fabric bags. 6 of em'. No bugs but they required constant attention. Those fabric bags work good above ground, but you MUST stay on top of watering. I have one Butternut that just wouldn't keep any moisture and it continually stressed the plant. So I built a 1.5" inch PVC pipe with holes that I hammered down into the bag to the bottom and now stick the hose directly into the pipe. It's worked wonders and I may be onto something.

It's corn time...kill it and grille it!

I planted 6 corns just for chits and giggles. Mostly for chicken plant scraps. I've been expecting zero cobs, but surprisingly, I think I might have 1 small cob worthy of human eating. The other little ones....yeah...chickens.

I do want to hit up the local Corn grow for a couple of boxes to can and put up for the winter.

Still with the fookin' green beans. Always with the green beans. It's too much!

Ok. Y'all make me think I'll grow some veggies next year. Do the raccoons eat your stuff?

Lots of those fvckers at my locale.

Been eating fresh tomatoes for a month. Now they're taking a break, and it will be a few more days before we get some more ripe ones. After planting the green beans 4 times, finally got those coming on, and they are delicious. And lettuce, lotsa' lettuce of course. Strawberries and blue berries had a good season. I never grew corn before, but on a lark when I saw these little corn starts at the nursery, I put one in my cart. It had 5 stalks of bodacious variety corn. Only 3 survived, and 2 grew to maturity. Ate those last week. I didn't know you only get 2 ears of corn per stalk. It takes a lot of space to grow much corn. Fortunately I can get it at the farm down the road.

PO-TAY-TOE

Boil em', mash em', stick em' inna stew!

I've pulled all my taters and there will be no Irish famine on the ol' ponderosa this year. I put in Pontiac Reds, Red Norlands, Yukon Golds, German Butterballs, Gold Rush plus some mixed bag seed (about a pound each). Each type was in their own 100 gallon fabric container (6 total). I ended up with between 15 - 25 pounds per type so about 75 - 90 pounds total if I had to guess. Not too bad for a very small plot contained grow.

Since I'm only one person, everyone who sees me gets a bag o' spuds. No exceptions.

Tonight I'm having Wild, Bratkartoffeln Berliner Art und Gurkensalat.

For you heathens that's just venison, roasted taters n' bacon and German style Cucumber salad. But I killed or grew all of it except the bacon., so I'm pretty awesome.

Mach Schnell!!!

Ich versuche Bruder!

Verdammte Scheiße!!! Abendessen war sehr lecker!

[I think I got that right....German is retarded hard]

It's the only thing I know. Mach Schnell.

Got me a whole smattering of taters as well. Mix and mash ‘em with some garlic, sour cream, butter, then top with some fresh chives next to a good cut of beef.

Don’t care how unhealthy it is. 0 Fvcks given.

Potatoes are great food. They get a bum rap because of the carbs, but they are a good nutritional source. Drowning one in butter and sour cream may not be the best for your waist line, but that's not really the tater's fault.

It's when you eat a pound of them,which is what they serve up covered in grease in most restaurants. Red skinned oven roasted potatoes in olive oil,rosemary and garlic are BOMB!

Yes Nick, you must be pretty awesome. Congrats.

I don't grow any potatoes since I just have a couple raised beds. All I have left is some carrots and onions to pick. Everything else is done with. I think I got the last of the tomatoes yesterday.

Ex fat fuk penn from penn and teller lost all his swinger life style weight from a potato only diet. That or he stapled his stomach.

Luckily, we have a horticulturist in our midst.

That's a beaut Clark! Love the purps.

I grew some sunflowers for the first time around the perimeter of new chx coop. 5 mammoths that got about 15 - 18' tall with 1 - 2' heads. Plus "snacker" style that get about 10' tall with 1' heads. The "snacker" style spits out really nice shells...well...for snackin' on....er duh.

Of course the birds and critters got to my crop JUST before harvest. I lost about half my yield, so lesson learned. I dried out the whole mammoth heads for muh chickens to peck on and then made roasted seeds from the snackers. First time roasting my own - twas pretty simple. Todd ate some when we went mushroom huntin'. They are really, really tasty IMO. Wish the critters would have left me more, but the tax man gets his share I suppose....

LOL that would make some good MJ butter for baking.

I cut up some peppers (jalapeno, Fresno, chili) and tomatoes from my raised bed. Added some celery and salt to the cubed halibut soaking in fresh squeezed lime and lemon juice. Ceviche later with some tortilla chips.

Bump for the Garden Gnomes up in here.

Chit be gettin' planted. Yard and garden is tip top. Young chicks in the brooder. Young chick out in the yard learning the ins & outs. She's a greenhorn but hot damn, does she have the smallest, littlest, most perfect carrot and lettuce seed plantin' hands I ever did see. Oh....and yeah....yoga pants. Spring has sprung indeed.

Made use of my time at home a couple weeks ago and constructed a green house in the back. My "tomato plants" are as happy as I have ever seen. Should yield a couple hundred grams easy each. Really liking sour diesel and blue dream, also got some gorilla glue going for old times sake.

Should be a fun harvest this year. Got a couple AK47 plants going to process into pain cream as well. Should be set for the year when all is said and done.

Good choices, all.

This thread is useless without pics.

My daughter (3rd generation Husky starting this fall) is taking another horticulture class in her senior year of HS and has got me to get an 32'x6' plot of garden ready for the planting. Most of the current starts are still in the garage under the grow lights.

Going to try: Roma and Beefsteak tomaters, 2nd year on the artichoke plant and it should produce something this year. Brussel sprouts, radishes, carrots, char, spinach, peas, beans, basil, green onions, thyme, cilantro, rosemary, zucchini and cucumber. Got a rhubarb plant out front.

When I asked her if she had taken this class last year, she replied "Yes Dad. Last year we learned how to grow the crops. This year, we are learning how to dry, process and distribute the crops."

Hmmmmmmm.

Just finished building some new raised beds. Adding a soil/compost mix tomorrow. Still deciding on what to have in the beds this year. Probably going to have tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, green onion, snap peas, zucchini and anything else that is user friendly for this greenhorn grower.


-Steamy

Cool, I got way ahead of the game this year and my peas are climbing up to the 2 foot mark now, put some effort into onions and got a couple packs of Elsia Craig's to go with my Walla Walla's, reds, shallots and Zermatt Leeks (love leeks) Elsia Craigs are sweet and delicious and XXXXL and I'm having a contest with myself to see how big I can grow them, Jalepenos are just sprouted and after the Anaheim shortage last year I made sure that I have a few dozen of those coming up, too, spuds are bought but not yet in the dirt, hoping Dogfish will hook me up with some Yellow Finn seed spuds to round out the potato patch, Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower are about ready to get the next size pots, they will go out in the dirt in May.
Seems wearing yoga pants matters so I will be looking into getting into those....
Small hands are nice, they make whatever they are holding look.....bigger.

The new chicks just went into the coup this week, not ready for going outside the coup yet.

I've been making poached chicken egg sandwiches everyday for lunch, yesterday I grabbed a fresh duck egg and made a sandwich.

I was sick for a couple of hours, puking and sitting on the sh!ter, not fun. I eat duck eggs often, but not from this duck. Not sure I can eat another duck egg for a while.

I knew they would be.