A Gardening Thread

[dog-days]

13 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Y’all, a family of rabbits have moved in under my cucumber frame.  I guess some of the netting (which was at one point properly buried in the ground around the fence) has degraded over time.  I now identify strongly with Mr. McGregor.  I will say the cats were freaked out last night at the window, so I turned on the outside light and saw something distinctly feline, so either there is a stray cat in the neighborhood, or the bobcat in the woods beside us will take care of the issue….Also, I was lazy and didn’t protect the stems of my squash this year and am suffering the consequences (though the butternuts seem to be ok).  My carrots failed.  The shishito peppers are miserable this year.

BUT, my tomatoes are doing awesome (spent a bunch of time pruning them over the weekend), the okra and peas are so-so, the eggplant is going gangbusters (anyone have any good recipes?  I don’t love eggplant in the ordinary course - I bought these as rescue plants on sale because I had an empty bed).  My green beans are their usual productive selves, and my melons (watermelon and cantaloupe) are doing great.  Bell peppers also very happy - they are yellow bells, so just waiting for them to turn.

Sounds fantastic. 

I love eggplant/aubergine. A favourite easy recipe of mine a few years ago was: cut them into round slices. Lightly slash the surface of each with a knife. Make a rub with soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, rice vinegar to taste and brush it onto the aubergine rounds. Put them on a baking tray and grill them for five minutes. Take them out. Brush the other sides with the soy sauce mix, and put them back in the grill for another five minutes. Serve with chopped garlic chives. 

Baba ghanoush and fish fragrant aubergine (called after the spice mix, involves no fish) are great too, though have never tried to make the latter at home.  

I made Caponata around the same time the linked recipe came out and thought it was delicious. But the aubergine does suck up lakes of olive oil! 

Edited August 7, 2023 by dog-days

[Tears of Lys]

There's the ol' standby, Eggplant Parmesan.  I make a passable one, but there's a restaurant near us whose sauce is to die for, and it absolutely makes Eggplant Parmesan.  

It's all in the sauce, don'cha know.

 

[Tears of Lys]

1 hour ago, dog-days said:

Sounds fantastic. 

I love eggplant/aubergine. A favourite easy recipe of mine a few years ago was: cut them into round slices. Lightly slash the surface of each with a knife. Make a rub with soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, rice vinegar to taste and brush it onto the aubergine rounds. Put them on a baking tray and grill them for five minutes. Take them out. Brush the other sides with the soy sauce mix, and put them back in the grill for another five minutes. Serve with chopped garlic chives. 

Baba ghanoush and fish fragrant aubergine (called after the spice mix, involves no fish) are great too, though have never tried to make the latter at home.  

I made Caponata around the same time the linked recipe came out and thought it was delicious. But the aubergine does suck up lakes of olive oil! 

Y'know, I've found that really young, fresh eggplant, if it's flash-fried, doesn't soak up olive oil like the older stuff does.  I've been able to fry several batches of eggplant IN THE SAME OIL!!!!!

[Tywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Y’all, a family of rabbits have moved in under my cucumber frame.  

My guess is you're the nice type when it comes to this so try and trap and release them somewhere else. I always enjoy bunnies when they're goofing off on the lawn, but stay out of my garden you cute big ear monsters. 

Quote

BUT, my tomatoes are doing awesome 

I'm jelly. My plants have mostly failed. There's a lot of tomatoes, but they're not ripening. Holding out hope, but low expectations. 


Unrelated, the devil's lettuce is now legal here. My buddy who has lived in legal states for a while now sent me some info on how to start growing. He said it's a little difficult at first, but you can figure it out with practice. 

@Spockydog, one day I will need to bother you for advice, but I'll wait until I've got an indoor kit set up. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

30 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

My guess is you're the nice type when it comes to this so try and trap and release them somewhere else. I always enjoy bunnies when they're goofing off on the lawn, but stay out of my garden you cute big ear monsters. 

I'm jelly. My plants have mostly failed. There's a lot of tomatoes, but they're not ripening. Holding out hope, but low expectations. 


Unrelated, the devil's lettuce is now legal here. My buddy who has lived in legal states for a while now sent me some info on how to start growing. He said it's a little difficult at first, but you can figure it out with practice. 

@Spockydog, one day I will need to bother you for advice, but I'll wait until I've got an indoor kit set up. 

I mean, I think I’m about to have the tomatoing.  I could probably send you sauce or jelly cross state lines?  Have you tried the banana skin water trick?  I think it just makes people feel better, but maybe it’s real?

Also my husband is the softee.  I would be calling in the neighbor’s terrier, but my husband won’t hear of it and says that we should sacrifice for the greater cute good.  I’m going to get the pest people in to trap and release, but the problem is there are always more rabbits.  The real answer is to fix my fence…

 

[Tywin et al.]

36 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I mean, I think I’m about to have the tomatoing.  I could probably send you sauce or jelly cross state lines?  Have you tried the banana skin water trick?  I think it just makes people feel better, but maybe it’s real

You're almost a drug dealer. I wouldn't mind trying your tomato jelly though. Never made that.

Quote

Also my husband is the softee.  I would be calling in the neighbor’s terrier, but my husband won’t hear of it and says that we should sacrifice for the greater cute good.  I’m going to get the pest people in to trap and release, but the problem is there are always more rabbits.  The real answer is to fix my fence…

I miss Bailey. Sweetest husky, loved every human she met and was never an issue with other dogs, but damn she enjoyed murdering anything that came into her garden and was a boss at it. Only the squirrels could best her and she looked at them with rage while they were in the trees (but they never ate anything so who cares).  

You don't need to have pest people do it, but I know you're fancy. A few traps with some bait will do and you can just pick them up and drop them off a mile or so away. They'll be fine if they're not babies. 

[Tears of Lys]

I love to watch young bunnies frolic in the sand pit we have in the back of the yard.  Their antics are hysterical - jumping over each other, turning flips.    The pits are for horseshoes.  Also, birds love to bathe in the sand when it's nice and warm.  

My tomatoes are finally ripening - all at once, of course.  I didn't fertilize them properly this year, though, so the crop is small.  I plant Heirloom Brandywines, Super Roma, yellow pear, and a few others.  I planted sweet orange peppers, but they're not doing much.  Peppers are hella expensive in the market.

[Tears of Lys]

18 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I miss Bailey. Sweetest husky, loved every human she met and was never an issue with other dogs, but damn she enjoyed murdering anything that came into her garden and was a boss at it. Only the squirrels could best her and she looked at them with rage while they were in the trees (but they never ate anything so who cares).  

 

My dearest departed Benny was Shiva the Destroyer when it came to any small wildlife in the yard.  He was a sweetheart too when it came to humans and other dogs.  Never ate them.  Just shook them then looked at them to detect any movement.  He would have been a good dog to have around during an apocalypse.  

[Spockydog]

20 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

@Spockydog, one day I will need to bother you for advice, but I'll wait until I've got an indoor kit set up. 

Whatever you do, don't make the same mistake as me. I rushed into buying a package, supposedly containing everything I'd need, only to discover that most of it was crap, and had to be replaced shortly into my endeavour.

The most important aspect is your light. Forget those blurples you see on Amazon for forty bucks. If you want to pull sensible yields you'll need to spend a good few hundred dollars.

This is nothing compared to how much each yield is worth. You could be pulling a pound of flower out your tent every three to four months. Even more if you follow my methods. 

[Tywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

Whatever you do, don't make the same mistake as me. I rushed into buying a package, supposedly containing everything I'd need, only to discover that most of it was crap, and had to be replaced shortly into my endeavour.

The most important aspect is your light. Forget those blurples you see on Amazon for forty bucks. If you want to pull sensible yields you'll need to spend a good few hundred dollars.

This is nothing compared to how much each yield is worth. You could be pulling a pound of flower out your tent every three to four months. Even more if you follow my methods. 

How long ago was that for you? My buddy said these days you can get an all in one starter kit for a few hundred bucks. 

[Spockydog]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

How long ago was that for you? My buddy said these days you can get an all in one starter kit for a few hundred bucks. 

Sure, you can do that. That's exactly what I did (in the first weeks of UK lockdown). The tent turned out to riddled with light leaks, the light a sub-par energy sink, and all the fans broke within a couple of weeks.

You're not short of a few quid. Get a tent by BudBox or Gorilla, a light from Omega or Lumatek (you'll want 300w per sq metre), and your ventilation fans from AC Infinity. 

Edited August 8, 2023 by Spockydog

[Mlle. Zabzie]

5 hours ago, Tears of Lys said:

I love to watch young bunnies frolic in the sand pit we have in the back of the yard.  Their antics are hysterical - jumping over each other, turning flips.    The pits are for horseshoes.  Also, birds love to bathe in the sand when it's nice and warm.  

My tomatoes are finally ripening - all at once, of course.  I didn't fertilize them properly this year, though, so the crop is small.  I plant Heirloom Brandywines, Super Roma, yellow pear, and a few others.  I planted sweet orange peppers, but they're not doing much.  Peppers are hella expensive in the market.

I just do cherry tomatoes at this point, and only indeterminate types to avoid this.  

Made a delicious ratatouille with garden eggplant, tomatoes, bell pepper, basil, oregano, squash, plus a shallot and some garlic.  

[Raja]

It feels criminal to have a thread like this without pictures

I feel the same way about the cooking thread

[Spockydog]

33 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I just do cherry tomatoes at this point, and only indeterminate types to avoid this.  

Hey, baby, check out my Supersweet 100s.

Been pinching the flowers and suckers while vegging through the screens. Now she's at the required height, about four feet from screen to screen, Imma let her rip.

Should be dripping fruit in a few weeks.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Spockydog

[Tears of Lys]

15 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Hey, baby, check out my Supersweet 100s.

Been pinching the flowers and suckers while vegging through the screens. Now she's at the required height, about four feet from screen to screen, Imma let her rip.

Should be dripping fruit in a few weeks.

Wow.  That's a heavy-duty setup.  You must be serious!

What are you going to do with all those cherry tomatoes?

 

[Tears of Lys]

While we're on the subject . . .  is it true that female plants are really the only ones you want? - that male plants screw everything up?

(something like Barbie-land)  

[Spockydog]

Well, if you're growing the Devil's Lettuce, you absolutely need female plants. All males must be eradicated with extreme prejudice.

Tommy plants, on the other hand, contain both male and female bits. They will self pollinate with the assistance of a couple of oscillating fans blowing air about inside the tent.

This grow is the latest in a series of crops intended to demonstrate proof of concept of using my invention to grow food in space and on Mars. I've already honed the technique with peppers and small cucumbers. I'm now in the process of documenting every aspect of how each crop grows - how much power drawn, how much water consumed, amount of fertilizers, and, most importantly, how much fruit yielded per square foot.

As far as these particular tomatoes go, some will be turned into salsa and my world-famous meaty pasta sauce. The vast majority, however, will go to the local foodbank.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Spockydog

[Toth]

On 7/3/2023 at 11:16 AM, Toth said:

Here is the state of my dates: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/856230992573366312/1125057523473461310/20230630_105921.jpg

Yesterday a fifth one came out. This time I seem to have gotten a great batch!

Also spent a good chunk of yesterday putting plants into bigger pots. Some of the oranges have developed decent wooden trunks. Still not quite a centimeter in diameter, but still. Meanwhile the number of banana plants has risen to 8. All from a single one my mother bought one day, which is multiplying exponentially with the shoots now big enough to develop their own shoots. The latest batch of chestnuts also still cling to life, despite two of them having had quite the trouble with spider mites (those fuckers keep popping up). Also... in my idiocy I put some more watermelon seeds into soil and they are all sprouting again. Also potted over one of my old tomato plants and... unfortunately it looks quite bad right now with hanging leaves. Maybe too much stress in the end. I also grew a second avocado in addition to the one my colleague gave to me and it's absolutely awesome. Very easy and quick to grow and hers is now already almost as tall as me... Meanwhile the ginger roots that I separated have turned into two new plants. Yay! Two of the physalis plants also had become ridiculously huge and gotten flowers, but unfortunately despite going at them with a paint brush, I couldn't fertilize them

So let's sum up my experiments since the Corona lockdown.

Plants that are awesome to grow from planted seeds of everyday food:

• oranges and mandarins
• tomatoes
• peppers
• lychee
• chestnuts (to a degree)
• watermelons and honeymelons
• (bananas) [not planted from seeds, but still honorable mention because they multiply like Tribbles]
• avocado
• mango
• dates
• ginger
• physalis
• pomegranates

What didn't work for me:

• strawberries
• currants
• gooseberry
• apple s and pears (sprout, but then die very quickly for some reason)
• watermelons and honeymelons
• cherries
• tiger nuts
• lemons
• potatoes (definitely not indoors, though maybe I also just put them into earth too late - they turn into one long vine and then die)

The melons died again, so I had to put them back into the didn't work category.

In the meantime more and more dates sprouted. I lost count, seriously. And when I started putting them into separate pots and accidentally broke off the date seeds, I'm almost sure they just sprouted a second time. Which... I know makes little sense, but otherwise I can't explain why I have more date plants than dates I planted. XD

At the moment I have a bit of a fruit fly epidemic, which I guess is my own fault because I spent a whole year throwing out every spider I found because my mother found them icky and now the flies had no predators whatsoever. Well... I guess until a few days ago. Some time earlier I re-potted one of my methusalem tomatoes and gave it new soil. Not sure whether the soil was contaminated or the pot was, but all of a sudden I watched a couple of tiny centipedes darting around, eating all the fruit fly larvae and even sometimes tackling fruit flies to the ground who dared landing in their pot. They haven't been able to escape the pot at all, with its surface too smooth and too steep for them, so I am just watching them with curiosity. The pot is at the left side of the windowsill and now all flies are concentrated on the right.

And right now I started the next experiment. Had already contemplated it briefly before, but the price for dragon fruits was exorbitant. Well, I just ate one. And collected some of its seeds, planting a bunch of them in the container where I failed to get the melons to grow. I keep you updated if I manage to summon an army of cacti.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Toth

[Cas Stark]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:12 PM, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I mean, I think I’m about to have the tomatoing.  I could probably send you sauce or jelly cross state lines?  Have you tried the banana skin water trick?  I think it just makes people feel better, but maybe it’s real?

Also my husband is the softee.  I would be calling in the neighbor’s terrier, but my husband won’t hear of it and says that we should sacrifice for the greater cute good.  I’m going to get the pest people in to trap and release, but the problem is there are always more rabbits.  The real answer is to fix my fence…

 

Remember, you are growing vegetables mostly as a hobby for your enjoyment, you don't depend on the garden for food.  The rabbits do.  I'd have to vote with your husband on this one.  There is a great set of youtube videos about a guy whose garden was getting destroyed and he kept putting up bigger, better fencing and finally installed a camera....only to find it was a hilariously cute groundhog who was eating everything.  He eventually changed his mind and decided that 'chunk' should have access to the garden and gave up trying to keep him out.

https://www.instagram.com/chunk_the_groundhog/

He's probably now making more money on the chunk video side hustle than it costs to replace all the veggies that the groundhog eats.

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Cas Stark

[Tears of Lys]

3 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

Remember, you are growing vegetables mostly as a hobby for your enjoyment, you don't depend on the garden for food.  The rabbits do.  I'd have to vote with your husband on this one.  There is a great set of youtube videos about a guy whose garden was getting destroyed and he kept putting up bigger, better fencing and finally installed a camera....only to find it was a hilariously cute groundhog who was eating everything.  He eventually changed his mind and decided that 'chunk' should have access to the garden and gave up trying to keep him out.

https://www.instagram.com/chunk_the_groundhog/

He's probably now making more money on the chunk video side hustle than it costs to replace all the veggies that the groundhog eats.

 

Something makes me think you really took Watership Down to heart.