Garden Corner 2011
- Thread starter jujubeans
- Start date
jujubeans
OVM Project Manager
Seed catalogs are wonderful when there's snow on the ground..in addition to everything else I grew last year, this year I'm adding cabbage, a couple kinds of lettuce (buttercrunch and romaine), candy hybrid onions, walla walla onions, O'Henry sweet potatoes, red potatoes,peas, bell peppers, early girl tomatoes, watermelon and canteloupe and am putting in some canadian red rhubarb too.
And somewhere in my yard I'm going to start a rose garden and one of those pyramid strawberry planters. And my two apple trees should be here in the spring...one McIntosh and one Red Delicious. Oh yeah...I am gonna have some fun!!!
And I'm hoping my KaBluey blueberries will actually bear fruit this year..kind of having crappy luck with any berries. And this is the second year for my horseradish and my asparagus and am pretty sure I'll get a great crop from them.
Now if I just have the patience to wait until spring!
And somewhere in my yard I'm going to start a rose garden and one of those pyramid strawberry planters. And my two apple trees should be here in the spring...one McIntosh and one Red Delicious. Oh yeah...I am gonna have some fun!!!
And I'm hoping my KaBluey blueberries will actually bear fruit this year..kind of having crappy luck with any berries. And this is the second year for my horseradish and my asparagus and am pretty sure I'll get a great crop from them.
Now if I just have the patience to wait until spring!
4 more months of winter and here she starts already...*lol*
Dakota
Veteran Expediter
4 more months of winter and here she starts already...*lol*
procrastinater!!! Before you know it Spring will be here
Dakota
Veteran Expediter
And he'll be bringing home a rototiller...probably not in the next trip home though...
Do rototillers work in the snow?
jujubeans
OVM Project Manager
Do rototillers work in the snow?
That's why he got the snowblower...so he could blow the snow off the garden BEFORE he tills it..Course I have to put the electric blankets out there to heat up the soil first..and that could take a couple of days...
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Beans?
Yes but its been a while. Most of the bean growing was done by my grandmother who seemed to like pinto beens.
The last group (three years ago) I planted a bunch of ethnic veggies which included some strotino di trento and borlotto beans - both Italian and all of which didn't last thanks to my father and his friends who eat all I picked. I did the pea thing that year which actually turned out well and that was the give away veggie.
I won't plant Navy beans for a while, I have about 100 lbs of dried Navy left (the advantages of trucking) and I have about 30 lbs of dried Pinto beans that I got for picking tomatoes a few years back.
You mentioned lettuce, should try black seeded simpson lettuce because in your climate it should do very well.
I don't think we are going to do much of the garden thing, we really have to but too much going on and I really have to screen the topsoil in the yard to get fixed up again. I have 2 acres I could tap this year near my truck, pretty secluded and it wouldn't be a headache but who knows.
However because last year I bought/given tons of produce (especially onions) and a lot of mushrooms, the project I want to complete before July is building a new dehydrator (I recommend getting one). My old one has just the heating element and the fans and it does well but removing the moisture is not all that great when it is humid out. I found that some types of onions don't like the heat well so I tried a different thing that led me to the new dehydrator and they actually turn out really good.
jujubeans
OVM Project Manager
hmmmm...do you like the barter system..say pickles for navy beans? That's my favorite bean soup. Sounds like you're pretty knowledgable about bean varieties...which is the tastiest of the strotini de trento or the borlotta beans? i just did the blue lake beans and the yellow wax beans last year and they were both prolific growers!
I tried the 6-pack heirloom tomato mix last year...the green and the yellow were pretty tasty, but I'm just going for the early girl's this year as they say they're pretty tasty and just the right size for canning. I've made some pretty darn good tasting tomato soup out of them.
And I'd love to try the dehydrator for the tomatoes and hot peppers...and I've got 4 apricot trees that would be nice dried too. And apples later on...probably a few years before they'll produce though. You dry onions in yours too?
Think I'll pass on the black seeded simpson...don't care for the taste. The worst part about the timing on the garden is that the lettuce is always ready before the tomatoes!
jujubeans
OVM Project Manager
So what do you do when you wake up to a temperature of
-20?
I personally hope like heck for spring and reach for the seed catalogs and place an order...two so far and one more to go...it makes you appreciate all of the seasons...the snow will melt into the garden for much needed moisture and as soon as I can I'll be planting!
-20?
I personally hope like heck for spring and reach for the seed catalogs and place an order...two so far and one more to go...it makes you appreciate all of the seasons...the snow will melt into the garden for much needed moisture and as soon as I can I'll be planting!
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Greg....
hmmmm...do you like the barter system..say pickles for navy beans?
I don't know about that. I will have to see if I have enough beans.
I love pickles but can I trust they make it to me or will I get an empty jar?
I like the borlotta bean but the old men from the old country like the other. I have to deal with lupinis this year down at the yard, they want to try them but I think they won't turn out well because of the dog.
Yes I dry Onions in my dehydrator, the new one will have a setting for Onions. I didn't soak them the last batch, both sweet spanish and reds and they came out kind of different but edible and very usable. I usually soak them for a hour in cold water to get the sugar out of them. I have had the biggest problem with Bannanas for some reason, apples do well and so does peaches but bannnannnanas forget about it.
I don't know about that. I will have to see if I have enough beans.
I love pickles but can I trust they make it to me or will I get an empty jar?
I like the borlotta bean but the old men from the old country like the other. I have to deal with lupinis this year down at the yard, they want to try them but I think they won't turn out well because of the dog.
Yes I dry Onions in my dehydrator, the new one will have a setting for Onions. I didn't soak them the last batch, both sweet spanish and reds and they came out kind of different but edible and very usable. I usually soak them for a hour in cold water to get the sugar out of them. I have had the biggest problem with Bannanas for some reason, apples do well and so does peaches but bannnannnanas forget about it.
Greg..you have a link for them dehydrators?
greg334
Veteran Expediter
I built them. This one is my third and it is based on a commercial food dryer.
The last one didn't have the air flow I liked and I dismantled it in October. It was based on a high end home unit, but didn't just seem to work, but neither was the unit it was based on, tomatoes didn't come out well as I wanted them to and neither did some liquid products.
They are computer controlled with a couple humidity and temp sensors and have settings for the different food based on my notes - like onions have one setting for heat, humidity and time while tomatoes have another.
I think if you could buy one, they would run about $2000 for the basic model.
jujubeans
OVM Project Manager
Well, it's still pretty white out here. Hard to believe January is almost over and we're having a heat wave...it's actually in the high 30's this week and things are melting a mite. So my sweet hubby calls me from Alabama today because he's actually in the garden section at the local Wallyworld and found some bulbs. Now I'll have three more peonies to put in the rock garden with the three that are already there.