My garden efforts

Ruth n Jersey said:
My garden is quite overgrown this year and it's mainly my fault because I started to many plants in the spring and can't throw out the leftover plants.
I planted grape tomatoes and the packet did say they get tall but they took over a big portion of the garden. I don't think they taste as good as the big ones and its worse than picking berries. lol I won't plant them next year.

Of course next year I'll see something new to try and I'll be in the same boat as this year.
Things are a bit late this year but today I did get quite a few tomatoes.
Tomorrow I'll pick some more and Friday I'll give the small ones away and make some stewed tomatoes for the freezer with the big ones.View attachment 179292
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@Ruth n Jersey Great crop of tomatoes. Never could eat cherry tomatoes, stirs up my acid reflux, but....so i got ones called SUGAR RUSH.
Very tasty and no acid reflux
 
Getting back to the acorn squash.
The five biggest ones are bigger than what i've bought in the store.
When will they be ready to pick and eat........or do you have to leave them there till fall.
Never had these before so i'm a little clued out.

I've learned about the male and female flowers.
Have had a lot of flowers die off.........thinking i now know what's wrong........there are "NO BEES"

On the farm, was never concerning, with all the flowering trees, shrubs, flowers.....bees were everywhere.

Here, i have not noticed any population of bees.

Bees were there to give me those 5 acorn quashes, and have several ones coming....definitely not a bumper crop.

Maybe my garden is too close.......on the farm, it was just outside of the main yard......i didn't check on it every 15 minutes..LOL...LOL.

I've searched and came up with......a person can pollinate by hand.......has anyone tried this.....any luck.....doesn't sound too hard.

Open to suggestions.

When are they ready to EAT.
 
MickaC said:
How do you prepare your zucchini for a vegetable.....i find it to be very bland.
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By itself it is bland. Yesterday it was cooked on the stove along with fresh tomatoes and pepper from the garden, then served over rice with a spicy sauce (https://hormel.com/Brands/House-of-Tsang-Products/Cooking-Sauces/Szechuan-Spicy-Sir-Fry-Sauce). Very tasty that way. I also sometimes use Tajin seasoning or Nutritional Yeast to flavor.

I have eaten zucchini raw, with just the Tajin seasoning, but that is more an acquired taste.
 
MickaC said:
@Ruth n Jersey Great crop of tomatoes. Never could eat cherry tomatoes, stirs up my acid reflux, but....so i got ones called SUGAR RUSH.
Very tasty and no acid reflux
Click to expand...
I have a question about Sugar Rush cherry tomatoes. Do they split on the vine or drop off prematurely? I planted Sweet Million cherry tomatoes this year and they did the above. I was able to harvest only about 1/3 of them to eat.
 
MickaC said:
Getting back to the acorn squash.
The five biggest ones are bigger than what i've bought in the store.
When will they be ready to pick and eat........or do you have to leave them there till fall.
Never had these before so i'm a little clued out.

I've learned about the male and female flowers.
Have had a lot of flowers die off.........thinking i now know what's wrong........there are "NO BEES"

On the farm, was never concerning, with all the flowering trees, shrubs, flowers.....bees were everywhere.

Here, i have not noticed any population of bees.

Bees were there to give me those 5 acorn quashes, and have several ones coming....definitely not a bumper crop.

Maybe my garden is too close.......on the farm, it was just outside of the main yard......i didn't check on it every 15 minutes..LOL...LOL.

I've searched and came up with......a person can pollinate by hand.......has anyone tried this.....any luck.....doesn't sound too hard.

Open to suggestions.

When are they ready to EAT.
Click to expand...
I read that you can pollinate by hand with an artist's paint brush by going from flower to flower.
 
Chet said:
I have a question about Sugar Rush cherry tomatoes. Do they split on the vine or drop off prematurely? I planted Sweet Million cherry tomatoes this year and they did the above. I was able to harvest only about 1/3 of them to eat.
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No, the Sugar Rush didn't split or drop off......even as they ripened.....they stayed until i picked them......but.....they hardly had any foliage.....pretty bare looking....but they still produced lots of little guys....
 
MickaC said:
@Alligatorob ....... i'm looking for suggestions as to what to fill the bottom half of the water troughs with.....something cheap...cheap.
Think i saw some troughs in your picture posts.
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The bottom ~1/3 of mine are filled with gravel, the same gravel you can see on the ground around them. Then I put a layer of geotextile on to keep the dirt from going down into the gravel, I think that is important. If you can get bulk gravel it is quite cheap, I see gravel around your planters, if you have any more of that it would work. Your gravel looks courser, larger, than mine, that would be fine so long as you use the geotextile.
 
MickaC said:
That's what i've come across on google.....so....you take the paint brush to the male flower and then brush the inside the female.
Did i get that right ???
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I can't tell which flower is a boy or girl so I guess you just do them all. That's what bees do I'm sure. It's only pollen they are after and sex is immaterial. By the way, you should go "bzzzz" as you do it. You want to be as realistic as possible. 🥴
 
MickaC said:
Getting back to the acorn squash.
The five biggest ones are bigger than what i've bought in the store.
When will they be ready to pick and eat........or do you have to leave them there till fall.
Never had these before so i'm a little clued out.

I've learned about the male and female flowers.
Have had a lot of flowers die off.........thinking i now know what's wrong........there are "NO BEES"

On the farm, was never concerning, with all the flowering trees, shrubs, flowers.....bees were everywhere.

Here, i have not noticed any population of bees.

Bees were there to give me those 5 acorn quashes, and have several ones coming....definitely not a bumper crop.

Maybe my garden is too close.......on the farm, it was just outside of the main yard......I didn't check on it every 15 minutes.LOL...LOL.

I've searched and came up with......a person can pollinate by hand.......has anyone tried this.....any luck.....doesn't sound too hard.

Open to suggestions.

When are they ready to EAT
Click to expand...

My garden is ashamed to be posted, I have tomatoes 🍅 and some herbs. They promise to be 1 pound tomatoes we shall see... I did not have enough sunlight

Here's where they're ready to pick and cook

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ed...rn squash turns dark,look at the plant's stem.
 
Chet said:
I can't tell which flower is a boy or girl so I guess you just do them all. That's what bees do I'm sure. It's only pollen they are after and sex is immaterial. By the way, you should go "bzzzz" as you do it. You want to be as realistic as possible. 🥴
Click to expand...
Great advice Chet.....lol.....i learned that the female flower has several stems in the flowers base......the male flower has only one stem in the flowers base......when you think about it......it kinda makes sense.....especially the male flower.....lol.....;):cool:🙃😏
 
Alligatorob said:
The bottom ~1/3 of mine are filled with gravel, the same gravel you can see on the ground around them. Then I put a layer of geotextile on to keep the dirt from going down into the gravel, I think that is important. If you can get bulk gravel it is quite cheap, I see gravel around your planters, if you have any more of that it would work. Your gravel looks courser, larger, than mine, that would be fine so long as you use the geotextile.
Click to expand...
The stones you see around my planter are larger stones than yours, anywhere from 1" to 2 1/2".
I have them everywhere where i have planters, yard decor [ some people call my decor, junk ], oak barrels, wheels, iron etc......that way, i don't have to move anything when i'm mowing.
Was going to put some of those stones in the bottom, hopefully some wood if it's free, then landscape fabric to prevent the soil from going to the bottom.
What you call geotextile......would that be the same as landscape fabric?
What do you think of the wood for some filler.
Any other filler ideas?
 
MickaC said:
What you call geotextile......would that be the same as landscape fabric?
What do you think of the wood for some filler.
Click to expand...
Yes, landscape fabric is similar. I buy heavier geotextile used in road construction because it will last longer, you might get the same effect with a couple of layers of lighter landscape fabric. It should work fine with your gravel.

The problem with wood is that it will probably rot and settle, may not last long.
MickaC said:
Any other filler ideas?
Click to expand...
Maybe beer bottles or aluminum cans or something. Most anything that has a little structural strength and permeability that won't settle or rot should work. Look at your trash, you might find something you can "recycle".
 


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