Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Anyone like big sweet onions? Straight from the garden.

 

They can handle water, but like most of us this summer this rain might be a little to much for a lot of crops unless your soil drains well.
Garlic can handle temps -20 so frost isnt a concern.

 

thanks

 

love me some onion. I had those a few weeks ago. i plan to try them out for fall planting.

 

This has a lot to do with the "thump". Every melon you pick, flick it with your middle finger (like you use to do to your little sister) and note the sound it makes. After cutting into it , look how soft or hard it is. A quick thud usually means its not ready, to hard, a hollow sound means its softer inside and ready. Takes awhile to get the thump test down, but you'll get it. Also watch for yellowing vines then get ready to harvest.

 

Glad that MGtaco knows how to grow garlic, we've never had any luck, they end up rotting in the ground. I would love to grow melons, those look great! The cucumber and watermelon juice sounds delicious.

 

Lol, yeah, living in Maine puts me on a totally different growing schedule than you guys. Granted, things got a late start this season because it was very cold and wet this spring, and then very hot and dry for several weeks, which stunted things a bit and put me about a month behind schedule.
Thanks for the compliment, Eco. I pictured it in my mind's eye the first time we looked at the house. Bought the house in October, and got to work on the garden first thing in the spring, while there was still snow on the ground. I used just basic screened topsoil, but I enriched it pretty heavily the first year, and it gets more every year. A few more years and it should be some good-quality garden soil.

Nice! Gotta love having a stockpile of meat. I'm picking up three piglets this Thursday after work. One for me & the GF, one for my parents, and one for my grandparents. My folks raise them in a 2-acre pasture/pen/enclosure and we all split the grain bills. By October or November they should be good for about 150-200lbs of meat.
I do need to start looking for a side of beef, though. No deer in the freezer last fall means I'm running low on red meat. I think I'm down to 4-5 packages of hamburger and 1-2 of steaks. Maybe a roast lurking around somewhere in the deep freeze, too....

What variety of sunflower is that? different than mine; I usually grow the single-headed variety.
You should put a sling under that hanging melon. Take a handkerchief, rag, dish towel, or whatever, sling it under the plant, & tie the ends off to the trellising. That way the stem's not supporting the weight of the melon and as it gets heavier you don't have to worry about it damaging the plant or breaking the stem and dropping off before it's ready.
Nice looking melons, too.
They don't grow great up here; the ones I grew last year only made it to about the size of a grapefruit before it got too cold and the plants died.

Jealous. Onions and I have not gotten along in this garden. The garlic I start in the fall and it grows like nobody's business in the spring, but the onions I've been planting in the spring are not doing well. I planted 4 rows of them this spring, and only 3 plants have survived.
Same basic results 3 years in a row, too.

 

Slinging a trellised melon:

 

Thanks for the advice!

This is my first year growing any type of fruit. I will add a sling to the melon.

I am not sure of the variety. I bought a "mixed sunflower seed" bag at our local feed store and planted them all over the place.

 

Bacon please

 

I'd be lying if I said that fresh bacon isn't awesome, but honestly the freshly-ground sausage is soooo much better than the store bought stuff that it's what I like the most about home-raised pork. Although a nice set of pork chops on the grill are pretty awesome too.
And on a dark cold winter night it's really great to come home to a slow-cooked ham or pork shoulder after work....

Ok, so pretty much the whole pig is delicious, haha!

 

Round one of our garlic harvest from a couple weeks ago. Just cleaned of the dirt, trimmed them, and threw them in a paper bag. This was about 1/4 of the garlic we planted, the rest is Susanville and took a bit longer to get done. We are pulling them this week.

 

Nice looking crop. What variety of garlic do you grow?

 

Thanks! Mostly Susanville but I can't remember what the purple variety is in the picture. Pretty sure its Red Toch or Transylvania.

 

My jalapeno plant has had some strange leaf discoloration as of late. Is there anything I should be concerned about? I read that mature leafs have discoloration then drop. The plant still flowers and grows jalapenos though.

 

Looks like a typical aphid attack. Aphids usually start at the end of the leaves and move toward the stem, causing it to turn yellow, and the leaves curl up as it goes. No need for a concern unless it eats enough of the leaves to where is can't obsorb sunlight and still grow.

 

Good to hear.

Thanks for the info. For the aphids is there anything really to get rid of them?

 

Use a spray bottle and a couple drops of liquid soap, I've used ivory dish soap with good results. Just spray leaves til there wet.

 

this^^