Faith-manor Posted September 10, 2023 Author Share Posted September 10, 2023 6 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said: I'm in the same boat as you which is why I've turned to indoor gardening. And while I didn't know the bit about the soil, it just confirms my decision to do my indoor gardening in soil instead of the more popular hydroponics. Yes. I think hydroponics is great under specific circumstances like needing to really conserve water because the water is recycled within a closed system. I know that a tremendous amount of food can be produced this way. Certainly Netherlands has lead the way on this as a solution to not having arable, agricultural land. They are major force to be reckoned with now, agricultural speaking. For us, the investment in hydroponics would not make sense. I also really want those raised beds outdoors for as long each year as I can because it gets me outside in the sun and fresh air. I need that. As a musician, it is easy for me to fall into the habit of being inside too much with the piano, my sewing machine, books. I need to get out more and gardening has helped with that so much. Taking up sailing, kayaking, and more swimming at the lake has helped a lot. But for these long, Michigan winters with untreated roads, no safe place to walk, and snow so deep I can hardly walk through it anyway, plant lights and soil is a good idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted September 10, 2023 Share Posted September 10, 2023 (edited) Next weekend we’ll plant a clumping bamboo called the Gracilis. It’s about 15-20 gallons. I like symmetry so if one side of the yard has a tree, I feel a need to balance the other side. I need a fast growing one because the other tree is probably 30 feet high. Edited September 10, 2023 by crazyforlatin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 (edited) DH just sent me this photo of a harvest from the polytunnel Edited September 11, 2023 by Melissa in Australia 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 Made me so homesick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 On 9/10/2023 at 1:01 PM, Ausmumof3 said: The orange tree has finally cropped after years of waiting but the oranges don’t seem to sweeten much. Does it have enough iron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 9 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said: Does it have enough iron? Hmm good question? How would I know? the leaves are sometimes yellowish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said: DH just sent me this photo of a harvest from the polytunnel Hang on! Are you telling me you are growing pineapples in Victoria??? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 My lovely tomato plants didn't produce many tomatoes, sadly. I kept them in large pots this year instead of planting them in the ground. Not sure if that was the issue. I may make some raised beds next year and expand my veg garden. I was focused on the hard scaping of a new pergola. My hops plants did very well, though. Well, one did phenomenal and the other was growing at a much slower pace. They both made it up the twine to the top of my 9' pergola. One has masses of hops, the slow guy has none. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said: Hang on! Are you telling me you are growing pineapples in Victoria??? Yes. We get about 4 a year. They are way sweeter then the ones in the shops 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said: Hmm good question? How would I know? the leaves are sometimes yellowish I would sprinkle epsandsalts around the drip line. The iron gets locked in the soil here in Australia. Epsandsalts helps unlock it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 9 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said: Hmm good question? How would I know? the leaves are sometimes yellowish We have an old tree, so I assumed it had consumed whatever was available already, and threw down some iron chelate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said: Yes. We get about 4 a year. They are way sweeter then the ones in the shops Wow! That is amazing 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 29 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said: We have an old tree, so I assumed it had consumed whatever was available already, and threw down some iron chelate. Ours is only a few years old and gets lots of horse manure but maybe that is also low in iron I might try that 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdomandtreasures Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 20 more pints of peach butter 7 quarts of green beans so far (probably 14 more quarts to do) 17 more quarts of tomatoes sauce with plenty more green ones. But it's cooling down quickly so they might not ripen. I'm fine with that. I have lots of other projects to get to (like, oh yeah! Homeschooling my kids! We've been off for over 3 weeks now with all this canning and garden work!) and I have my year's supply of sauce. 🙂 Pumpkins will be rollin' in soon, too. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 3 hours ago, wisdomandtreasures said: 20 more pints of peach butter 7 quarts of green beans so far (probably 14 more quarts to do) 17 more quarts of tomatoes sauce with plenty more green ones. But it's cooling down quickly so they might not ripen. I'm fine with that. I have lots of other projects to get to (like, oh yeah! Homeschooling my kids! We've been off for over 3 weeks now with all this canning and garden work!) and I have my year's supply of sauce. 🙂 Pumpkins will be rollin' in soon, too. That looks great! I am getting prepared for apple butter making this weekend as well as dehydrating apple rings. I did get 5.5 more quarts off the tomatoes. It is cool, had been for a few days, but we get a warm up tomorrow and some sun for 3 days. I think I will have 5 more lbs of tomatoes, but the rest probably done ripen because we have another cool down coming. I will probably pull the plants Sunday unless the weather forecast for next week improves. I pulled a jalapeno plant today. It was hard to make myself do it. They have been so prolific. I need to pulled the rest as well as the red chilies. Those red chili plants are my favorite thing and they are still blooming! But I am just not in need of more and there is no way Michigan is going to have enough heat left in the season to ripen the babies. The last Saturday of September, the poor things ALL must be pulled so I can winterize the garden. I am adding compost, fertilizer, and radish seeds, and letting the radishes sprout, and then die from frost, and then turn under as a kind of cover crop. Their roots are supposed to help crumble and aerate the soil which I desperately need. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdomandtreasures Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Well, I was wrong about the green beans. There was a zucchini hiding under them so it looked like there were more. 😉 I got 7 very-tightly-packed quarts into the canner and there's enough for another quart but I'm not going to do all the work for pressure canning for one jar so they'll go into a stir-fry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 38 minutes ago, Faith-manor said: The last Saturday of September, the poor things ALL must be pulled so I can winterize the garden. I am adding compost, fertilizer, and radish seeds, and letting the radishes sprout, and then die from frost, and then turn under as a kind of cover crop. Their roots are supposed to help crumble and aerate the soil which I desperately need. I give you so much credit for doing it. I can never bring myself to pull plants until they are dead from frost. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 (edited) Things are slowly going down here too. Still picking tomatoes but I'm pretty tired of dealing with them. Since it's smaller amounts, if I just keep serving tomato heavy meals, I'm mostly keeping up with them. Peppers are another matter but I'm giving my mom 3-4 dozen this weekend so that should clean off the most urgent ones for now (at least the sweet ones, she won't touch the hot ones so I still need to work on poblanos and jalepenos). I have a bunch of butternut squash out there but I've never grown them so I have no idea when I should pick them. Also I have a couple volunteer pumpkin plants (I have no idea how they got there as I don't grow, eat or even decorate with pumpkins. I honestly don't remember the last time I had a pumpkin on the property.) In my spare time I've been working on getting the indoor gardening going. I've got lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes all planted and roughly timed to start producing the end of October. I've got radishes that I'm starting to pick and will plant some more to target the timeframe of the other veggies so they can get put on the salads too. Carrots are planted and about an inch tall. They won't be ready more till the end of Novemberish but youngest DS will eat them whenever they are ready. I've got two buckets of potatoes planted and will do two more (since that's how many chitted potatoes I have laying on my counter) once I get to the store to purchase more soil. I will then start another container with more lettuce and hopefully a second one with other greens (probably spinach, kale, and arugula). And my ginger plants are a good 6+ inches tall so I'm glad I took the gamble on playing with them. I will order some apples from the Amish when I go up on Friday. Need some for fresh eating and then dehydrating and of course applesauce. I did by some tulip and hyacinth bulbs from Menards the other day to start building up my flower bed along the fence. Now I just have to find time to dig up the weeds that popped through the mulch and get the bulbs planted. And in a few weeks, it will be time to get the garlic planted. I only got 7 bulbs this year (from 12 cloves I planted but the squirrels had gotten into them so I surprised I got that many) and even though it was the most awful hard clay, the cloves were so big (even though they only got 2-3 cloves per bulb each clove was bigger than a quarter). I'm going to plants some along the edges of the raised beds that has super loose soil and hope for even better yield next year (also the raised beds are in the cage so I shouldn't have to worry about the squirrels). Edited September 20, 2023 by cjzimmer1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 2 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said: I give you so much credit for doing it. I can never bring myself to pull plants until they are dead from frost. I don't like to do it. I have had to talk myself into it. I had misgivings about pulling the cucumber plants, but they were spent and for the best to not have them hanging on and pulling nutrients from the soil. I just keep reminding myself that when I pulp the plants, I then have the opportunity to weed well - despite being raised beds, the birds keep dropping seeds from unwanted things into the beds so there are weeds, just not as many and easier to get out since I don't have to be on my hands and knees to do it - compost and fertilize, allow the soil to rest and rebuild in the hopes of good crops the next season. But man, I do not like doing it! Anyone wanting landscaping fabric for little projects or to line planter boxes like crates and you don't care about it being the uber high quality 10 year stuff, Dollar General here in the north USA is having 50% off the lawn and garden so a 45ft roll is $3.50. I picked up two. I have two large places that I am going to till with my mini tiller, lay the fabric, and pipe rocks and logs on top to kill the grass roots. Next year I will take the fabric up and seed some cone flower and zinnias in those areas, and hope they pop up. They are annoying spots to mow/edge, and I hate grass anyway so less to deal with makes me happy. I don't need any kind of super sturdy agricultural fabric for this job. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 I've got several weed pies out of my garden in the past few weeks! This is very satisfying in theory. In practice I am almost crying from the healthiness of it all. There's nothing like greens to make a person want junk food. But also, if the weeds are going to grow, I might as well leave them there until they are big enough to eat. I've got one borage plant I'm gradually dismantling with a trunk as thick as my wrist. Fearsome stuff. Anyone got favourite recipes for borage? I made borage pesto the other day and it made my pasta look kind of cartoon style radioactive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 🤣😂🤣 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikslo Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 On 9/11/2023 at 1:07 PM, Melissa in Australia said: Yes. We get about 4 a year. They are way sweeter then the ones in the shops Ours, too! Such a drastic difference. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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