I put in my first garden in 13 years this year. 3 of them actually. Indoor and outdoor. Expensive, unplanned, make shift, spur of the moment, SHTF, Covid Freedom Gardens. I kill the hell outta game, fish and mushrooms, but I needed to bolster that with veggies, eggs and chickens.

Now I got 10' tall cherry tomatoes in my living room, 15' tall scarlet runners which the humming birds love; 8' mammoth seed sunflowers that are just babies and about 500 pounds of onions and taters on the way. Plus all the other chit. I've put up about 15 pounds of spring peas and 10 pounds of spinach already. More spinach than I can handle. I grew radishes, no lie, that looked fake they where so absolutely perfect.

Then the not so good. I just can't get my beets right. I lost all of my Brussel Sprouts to mealy bugs. Carrots are struggling - which is the biggest bummer of them all. I fvcking LOVE garden carrots - spit, dirt and all. I lost a whole cucumber mound. I have a dozen or so indoor peppers that got hammered by aphids a while back and that was a killer set back on the pepper front. They are rebounding, but the damage has been done.

On deck are cucumbers, LOTS zucchini and cherry tomatoes & beans of many flavors. Swiss chard and Kale are going nuts. Acorn and butternut squash are fruiting well. Mature onions are getting plump. Spring onions, lettuce, spinach, micro greens and alpha or bean sprouts are always on tap. I'm waiting with baited breath to see how my taters turn out. I'm hoping for a triple digits at the minimum.

Considering how I literally had no plans for a garden prior to March 1st, I'd say I'm very happy with my results so far. Including the new chickens, it's been a busy pandemic on the ol' ponderosa.

So, how's yer' chit growin'?

We just do containers on the deck.
Last year the chipmunks destroyed everything, this year a stray cat showed up and took care of that problem. The cat follows me everywhere, even fishing in the boat, it likes to eat the fish I catch.

I can catch dozens of crawdads a day right out front, so thats a nice treat.

A pig showed up right after the cat, it was very friendly. It stayed for a few weeks. The dogs, cat chickens and ducks all got along great. Walking around the yard having this group follow you was interesting.

The pig wandered away one day, I assume one of the predators got it.

Starvation should be averted, basics covered well, though my butternuts and spaghetti's seem to be failing, round three of lettuce, buttercrunch, romaine, and big fat head, purple cabbage is prime, broccoli and the big white stuff are over with, corn, beans, red spuds, fingerling spuds, Finn spuds, spud spuds, k-rots, cukes, lemon cukes, onions red, onions white, onions sweet, leeks, jalepenos...more jalepenos, Anaheim's..not so much, dammit. Zucchini, more zucchini, got the fat hummingbirds on the fat Scarlet Runners, too, all organic...all the time.

One freezer full of beef supplemented with elk and moose, one freezer full of King (thank you for raising the limits Alaska) hali and ling.

Do love me some garden.

Last winter we had raised beds installed. They were filled with topsoil instead of our clay. We had ripe tomatoes in June (first time ever, before August) and lots of lettuce, beans, peas, and fruit from the vines. Some crops, like carrots, aren't happy for some reason. This is setting up to e a bumper year.

And, as an aside, the rest of the landscaping os going bonkers. Everything seems to be having a good summer of growth.

We are just getting into my favorite time of year...where most all of my meals are entirely from stuff I caught, shot, gathered, or grew...good times.

Fish on...

Todd

I grew peppers one year so much fun!

Been eating Sungold tomatoes for a week-and-a-half now, with more ripening daily now that it's consistently hot weather. And Early Girl 'maters got a sudden growth spurt and starting to ripen also.

My raised bed garden has struggled this year. The first round of strawberries were reluctant to ripen in June's cool and wet weather, and those that did got hit hard by slugs and bugs. The second crop is looking to be the best ever for me, however. Blueberries did well and are almost over, maybe one more picking.

Veggies have struggled. Planted onions and sugar snap peas 3 times, green beans 4 times. Slugs and rabbits. Damn rabbits were getting through the plastic deer fencing - they just chew holes in it - and 2" chicken wire. Had to redo the perimeter with 1" chicken wire, so most everything is doing OK finally. Lots and lots of lettuce, but onions are a good month behind. No spinach this year, after 2 or 3 plantings, I just gave that up. Brussel sprouts look like they're gonna' succeed, although I had to spray some organic bug killer on them. I know corn is not suited to raised bed gardening, but I saw these corn starts at the nursery when I was buying flowers this spring, so I bought one little pot with 5 corn starts in it. 3 survived, and one is about 5' tall now. Got 4 whole ears of corn developing, so, whoo hoo, that's success. Have managed to keep the deer out of there this year, but it's a constant struggle.

Almost all of our gardening is done in raised beds and containers. Herbs, veggies, and flowers are evenly balanced to attract hummingbirds and pollinaters. This year we started late, but since the weather warmed up the plants are making up for lost time. Four varieties of tomatoes are set, but not ripened. Blueberries have been plentiful for a couple weeks. The beans and cukes are coming along nicely. Golden zucchini have been good in stir-fry, salad and sauteed with parmesan. There's a couple peppers still in the blooming stage; looking for them to come on strong next month.We've had more leaf lettuce than we could eat this spring; perhaps Nick has an old-timey recipe for pickling it, or drying it for a tasty trail snack .

Salmo - it sounds like you are having the exact opposite specific veggie type success from me. It's all so fickle. We should trade successes! Ha!

So this year, I slammed in my victory garden using those flexible fabric / cloth planters. They are super cheap compared to hard sided containers. Plus root structures hit hard walled pots and spin and spin till root bound. For some reason, roots naturally terminate themselves when they hit the fabric sides, which supposedly makes the plants stonger. They are cheap and easy. 15 gallon pots x 5 per bag for like $20 bucks total on Amazon. I got 8 (100) gallon, 8 (45) gallon, 8 (25 gallon), 10 (15 gallon) and 10 (2 gallon). I then bought 2 yards of Cedar Groove Garden Booster (50% compost / 50% manure), 4 yards of Pacific Topsoil Garden soil (50% dirt / 50% compost), sand, vermiculite, sawdust and every PH modifier and fertilizer known to man. From there, I custom built specific soils in a cheap plastic swimming pool to specially match the PH and fert req's for certain plants. For example, I did (6) 100 gallon planters with soil built specifically for potatoes (low, acidic PH + lots of potassium). It was a ton of work to slam in by myself in such a short time, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

Just picked my first zucchini of many (hopefully). A nice specimen at that. Goes about a foot long and as big around as a Campbell's soup can. I can't wait to get full off that hog.

Vegetables can be so sensuous don't you think?

Lettuce did well this year. Lots of carrots and onions. Peppers didn’t do so well and neither did tomatoes. Raspberries did well until a deer got into the garden and ate the fukkk out of them and the blueberries.

The chinook harvest has been solid as well... accumulating a decent stash of fish for the freezer so far and prime time isn’t even here yet.

My buddie's garden has been ravaged by deer. They destroyed his squash and zucchini . His peppers are rockin ,but his weed looks like [Bleeeeep!] lol

We used to have a large garden patch where we put the firepit and more garden across the street on my Aunt's lot. Came over here and worked when I was a young kid and then we would go get candy and treats at Blandy's. When my dad bought the farm he eventually gave up here and planted a garden at the farm. There's still some raspberries. Now I just have some peppers, tomatoes,strawberries, and herbs in containers and raised beds. Yellow cherries are done and now the Gravenstein apples are starting to ripen. Peaches are getting ripe and so are the blueberries. The squirrels are attacking the Hazelnuts. Lots of Bumble, Mason, and Honey bees. Humming birds out too.

Help! I am inundated with two types of green beans. I may have over planted. I did 16' total. 3 foot of big Scarlett Runners that are 20+ ft now which I'm going to let dry on the vine. 5 foot of Cabot Bush which I've barely touched and 8 foot of Cobra pole. Everything is outta control. I picked (6) mounding 14" large steel bowls of just Cobra's. They get about 8 - 10" long when fully mature.

So...I made chit tons of canned spicy garlic dilly beans and spicy mixed veggies. The mixed veggies had cauliflower, bell peppers, cut beans, cut carrots, pearl onions plus with all the spicy seasonings, garlic & dill. Just whatever was handy. Grew most of it except the cauliflower and carrots. My carrots kinda suck this year.

(28) Pint & a Half tall wide mouth jars later. I left the dilly beans long for beverages. Put up another dozen or so vac. bags of blanched beans for cooking.

And...I still haven't got through half of what is on the vine right now. I've got crazy Kale, Swiss Chard and Cucumbers on backlog right now.

Gotta process the all the Kale to make Kale Pesto for pasta - which is the absolute best use for chitty Kale.

More later...

PS: Go ahead and make fun Corny

Picked beans, ganja? Well slap me and call me Sally.


Nick, Have you ever tried tempura fried kale? Game changer.
The pesto sounds pretty good too!

Shelling those scarlet runners will be almost as much fun and exciting as hunting deer from a tree stand, though the chili cannot be beat. I recommend at least a growler of something cold and delicious with a high ABV rating, putting your favorite Gordon Lightfoot album on the turntable and getting to it.

I have 2 15' rows of scarlett runners and another long row of another kind of shelling beans called "Bingo", the blue lakes are another 2 20' rows that are jsut hitting their stride, red cabbage is now suitable size for bowling at the Fred Flintstone Alley, red cabbage slaw/ AK hali tacos for din din last night with yuge romaine leaves for the wrap, not kidding.

Onions are bulbing up nicely, big top means big onion and my tops are tops, leeks are going to make me sick.....too many leeks, somebody come take a leek.

K-rots
zuch's
toms
jalepenos
anaheims
buttercrunch

.....look the hell out come corn time, the bodacious is bodacious.

Life's a garden.

No - please put recipe on recipe board or pm. Imma need several ways to cook this chit. I think have like 24 or so big plants. Piles of Kale right now...

Yo - hook me up with some of dat' sweet sweet bingo and blue lake bean seed for next year.

Those Hali Tacos...fook oh dear...

Taters are about 2 weeks out and counting and then the big reveal. Hoping for piles of mashers!

Nothing like a high quality home grown spud..

Keith