Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

It's good. Tangier than regular catsup. Make sure you add a good mustard seed for the best results!

 

i need to try this

 

http://www.pickyourown.org/catsup.htm

This is the recipe i followed earlier this year for regular catsup. It is awesome, but it only made about 2 pints for me. I will have a crap ton of green tomatoes. I should be able to get a lot more so hopefully it will be good.

 

Not a bad basic recipe.
I'd say double the garlic, add a bell pepper, add in a full teaspoon of mustard, and toss in that cinnamon they're recommending. But, that's me.
Obviously if you liked the original recipe, go for that.

 

any gardening updates from anyone?

Romaine lettuce:



Cabbage starting to unravel:



Brocolli and more cabbage:





Red lettuce:



Onions:



Cilantro:



Also, not pictured, plenty of green beans

 

Update on the garden....



Everything has been frost-killed for a while now. The parsnips are the only thing I haven't pulled, because I like to let them overwinter and then pull them in the spring.

 

not even onions?

 

Nah, onions I plant in the spring. The garlic is in, though. I forgot about that.

Besides, the garden might be empty but the freezers and the pantry are full.

 

WOW! I need to learn how to can

 

I'd encourage it. It's easy once you get the hang of it, and home-canned food is a lot healthier for you than store-bought. Usually tastes better, too! But start small, because it can get expensive in a hurry if you buy a canner and 10 dozen jars, lids, etc.

Heh, I suppose so. But only if they kept the lights going long enough for me to convert all of my frozen goods to canned. Or if it happened in January.
But yes, I'm a bit of a prepper. I like to keep a couple of month's worth of food on hand, I've got my seeds for next year already, I have a pair of 50 gallon drums of water in the cellar and an old-style hand pump that I can rig up to the cellar sink if we lose power.
I was brought up by people who keep a lot of food on hand and grow most of their own, and don't trust the government to be Johnny on the spot if there's a disaster, natural or otherwise. I was pretty skeptical of it when I was younger, but two weeks without power during the ice storm of '98, and then watching how the fed handled Katrina convinced me to follow more of the same path. And Sandy cemented it. If they can't get help to one of the most populous parts of the country in a timely fashion, what the hell are they going to do if there's a disaster in Maine?

But, I also just really like gardening and knowing where my food came from, lol. It's not all stuff.

 

The last tenant left this odd bush here, does that count?

 

holy crap

 

Put this garden together this past spring. Only had 3 4x8' boxes previous to this. Now 5 4x8' cedar boxes made from 5/4 decking and 4x4 posts. I tried the "square foot gardening" method this year. I was concerned as the topsoil I got seemed to be pretty sterile. I added a little bit of organic fert., and we had rain at all the right times. It did real well. Definitely too many tomato plants for the 8x4 box, ended up thinning them down pretty aggressively. Beans, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, potatoes, broccoli, and pickles. Ate most of the harvest fresh, passed out fresh to friends and family, and canned peppers and pickles. Deer ate most of the broccoli, will have to fence this coming season.

The beds get some shade late in the day, but are in full sun for most of the day. I filled the center "courtyard" with some 3/4" river rock, but can't find the pics right now.

 

Gardening update!

Green beans, red lettuce and perfect cilantro


Cabbage



Brocolli and Cabbage



Onions, before i weeded them. Looks a lot better now.

 

Our daffodils are already up about 2 or 3"

 

I don't think they are going to make it this year!!

I ended up canning around 20 pints of kosher dill pickles, 20 pints of sweet and hot peppers, and 3-4 quarts + a few pints of salsa. Probably got 35-40lbs of the best tasting potatoes I've ever eaten. They didn't make it long. Made fries, home fries, roasted, mashed, etc. etc.

 

That looks great man!

If I'd known that December was going to be so warm I would have put something in the ground. It's +30-40 °F above normal here for this time of year. El Nino sucks!!

 

We've been using fresh herbs from the garden right up to today. Scads of kale too. I have been lazy though and have failed to get the garlic in. Should have been done 6 weeks ago. Looks like we are getting the first winter storm tomorrow night so that will be the end of it.

 

Thanks Eco