Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

We had double our average of rain in July. The only thing I've been able to grow is grass.

 

Crabgrass here

 

I have a guy that treats the lawn. First year, first treatment, a week goes by. Half the yard is dead. He comes back for the second, and I say something like, you killed half my yard. He says yes I did, that was all crabgrass I had no clue. Bare spots all over the place.

It's much better now.

 

Peppers are starting to blow up finally...cukes are doing good. We have a couple butternut plants and I spotted a couple grocery store sized squash plus about a dozen smaller ones If we get one or two nice ones it will be better than nothing!

 

Canned 12 pints of diced tomatoes sunday. Tomatoes are growing well this year.

 

Was it you that makes the sauce?

 

I've made sauce in the past. Pretty easy, just need a mill or sieve. Ring the tomatoes theough it and then cook it down. Add seasonings if you like.

 

I just wondered how many are needed? Right now they are just starting to turn red but we have a bunch that will be ready soon no doubt. We were thinking of making sauce just didnt want to try and make a bunch and get a couple pints

 

A bunch will only make a couple pints. Sauce is awesome, but takes ALOT of tomatoes

 

Yeah, I make sauce and you need literally about 10lbs for a batch that's worth making. Works out to about 5-7 pints, depending on how runny you like your sauce. Definitely invest in a mill or a sieve, though; it's 100% worth it. Peeling and picking seeds by hand sucks.

Edit- As an aside, I put up about 30-35 pints of sauce per year, plus a few quarts of just tomato juice for soups. I usually have 8 plants that produce very well, but I still end up buying a bucket or two of blems at the local farmer's market.

 

how late is your growing season there? We are prob at the peak now, It will be cold and starting to freeze by mid Oct here...

 

Yeah we maybe have a good month left but most of the stuff is at its peak now. we have a few things that will go a little longer like carrots, eggplant and broccoli/califlower but I dont think we will get much out of the broccoli and cauliflower. Corn has maybe 2 weeks left

 

My better half put up some dilly beans the other evening

Canning season has begun but I'm worried with the cool wet summer we've had that the tomatoes will blight. Time will tell but others are losing theirs to the insidious brown rot

 

Up their calcium and nitrogen, that'll help prevent it. You can also try making a hoophouse for them; that'll keep them warmer.

 

Do you have a good recipe?

 

We use the one from the ball canning book but this seems to be the same recipe :
http://commonsensehome.com/dilly-beans/
She used dried chili peppers instead of cayenne tho

 

nice thanks! I like some spice so Im going to bump up the heat!

 

Had a few visitors this morning. Deer love grapes. I love venison. Win-win!

 

My corn is about to be ready...what Ive been reading the silk has to turn brown for it to be ready but thats not necessarily true. I pulled one last week and silk was clearly brown but the kernels werent ready, close but not ready. Supposed to be milky when you pop one of the kernels and I checked a couple and they havent done that yet. Im going to freeze a bunch because I have two big rows getting ready and another two not far behind!

 

This morning I went and pulled another corn just to test and its ready...98% of the corn is yellow and nice sweet flavor! I'll prob pull some tonight and blanch and freeze some for this winter