Fruit and vegetable gardens 2024

[H.A.F.]

Most of my peppers are really starting to put out. only a few are getting ripe so far. On most of them there was a small flush of fruit then it stopped while they ripened. I went through a few weeks ago and snipped most of those to dry or eat. Now there is a second, and on some a third round of flowers and baby peppers. This is the Korean Dark Green that is used to make traditional kimchi. It has nice spice and flavor, but not too bad. great for snacking. around the serrano and jalapeno heat level. I strippedd this one after the pic and I have a tray of them in the dehydrator and another tray of serrano. I think I am done snipping the new shoots off the tomato trunk. I plan to put a large pile of compost near the base then let it go wild. The peppers are all above that level now, or aren't doing for shit anyway.

This is a little random habitat thing that happened. This is the ledge at the edge of the worked soil I planted two storebought thyme to eventually secure the ledge from crumbling. A volunteer Sungold tomato is getting the same fence treatment and I'll get it trained up to the regular fence eventually. Theres corn and beans doing nothing, but the little Thai Red chili on the right is making lots of little 1/2" x 1/4" peppers.
The base off the ledge is a small compost pile, feeding it all I guess. Mostly garden cliippings and fruit that got bugged or wormed. I have a few peppers that are acting as nothing but trap plants.

The 5 strawberry starts from Baker Creek I have not messed with. I need to find them a home.

Volunteer gourds from an old compost pile.

And this is the status of several of my tomatoes. One or two that germinated before the heat wave then nothing. A few died off but the rest are now spreading out and flowering. I have been pulling the early ones as soon as they turn but this one is being a pain. I have a few tomatoes on the counter getting ripe every day though so I am happy.

Also drying and making the house smell pretty nice is about a pound of lemon balm. Also pictured is some pepperrmint and plain basil, all randoms from going to seed last year. There are several other plants all over. Nice weeds.

I learned that the paper wasps make their nests out of chewed up wood pulp. Makes sense. Birds nests are made up of lots of tree trash.
Thes wasps have reduced the size of this bird nest by about half in the last month.

 

[H.A.F.]

I watered then got rain so I had to pick all my semi-ripe tomatoes This is from a few days pickin'. The left and upper left next to it are from the same pack of seeds, but in different areas of the garden. They are nothing special except being prolific in hot weather. They are too big to be a snacking cherry, to small to slice, and the flesh is only a little thicker than a cherry, so lots of seeds and juice. Really tasty though so they are prime to get juiced and saved for winter. The Queen of the Night are pretty and tasty. I have a second plant of them as well and it is doing for shit. I'll be do9ing some heavy composting this winter in some areas of the garden. It seems that the area where the cover crop grew all winter did best.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

First elephant garlic. I'll give the rest another week

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Musik garlic all dressed up. Most will return to the garden bed next month.


Orange Accordion was tasty but a bit dry in texture. Great for a sandwich or burger and won't be a soggy mess by the last bite.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

View attachment 138915
Musik garlic all dressed up. Most will return to the garden bed next month.

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Orange Accordion was tasty but a bit dry in texture. Great for a sandwich or burger and won't be a soggy mess by the last bite.

Someone on a gardening thread on Reddit mentioned the other day that those accordion tomatoes are great for stuffing and baking.

 

[H.A.F.]

Someone on a gardening thread on Reddit mentioned the other day that those accordion tomatoes are great for stuffing and baking.

But like many of the heirloom varieties there just ain't a bunch of them. I grew one out and got three tomatoes all year, only one would survive on each cluster.

I am done with Baker Creek for tomatoes just because they have no hybrids. Sure I want tasty tomatoes, but I'd like to get a few every day all summer with some bumper crop days. Haven't seen that with any Baker Creek stuff except one determinate tomato that is not determinate LOL

 

[H.A.F.]

oops

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I've done a bunch of canning this year. Tons of pickles, tomato sauce, pickled beets, green beans, and carrots.

 

[H.A.F.]

my little pepper forest is covered with pollinators and flowers and baby peppers. I went through and stripped most of the plants of any mature size peppers whether they had turned or not. This is the second big harvest for the Korean Dark Green (upper right tray) and the third for the Serrano (lower left tray). First full harvest for the rest. I have lemon drop, sugar rush peach and red then Trep Werner something up top. far right is a few bells that I didn't snip off and throw right into the compost pile because of worms, one red, one yellow and 4 Cal-wonder and below them is a pile of santa fe that look to be snackers. . A good handfull of cubanelle and a few I can't spell that I'll roast and freeze. The bright red in the middle is lipstick, which is sweet and real thick walled. That and the dark greenvpaprika lower right will hang out until they get red. I got several randoms including my first poblano. Queen of the Night tomatoes on the left are black on top, unless the bottom of the tomato is pointed up to the sky. then it's backwards.

 

[H.A.F.]

Not many of my intentional herbs have done well. I have had enough wild ones pop to make that not matter though. I could see having a complete cover crop of basil and mint. One of the things that is thriving is toothache plant. I have one in a pepper plant pot that has covered the pot. The upper ones are dry, just dumped out for show. the ramen tray has todays catch . And I get that many ever few days now. The tincture I made last year is still potent.

 

[H.A.F.]

I have a few of these Dahlia spread around but this is the only pair blooming, but others will be popping in a few days. I marked the plants purple and red because they have little potatoes on the roots you can treat like bulbs and transplant. The seeds are random for what color flowers you get but the tubers will be true to color.

Did you know that you can pet bumble bees Especially when they are nectar drunk. They sleep on these and in my morning glories.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I spent about 4 hours in the garden yesterday weeding the gravel pathways and cleaning up the beds. The radishes (far left bed) will be harvested this week. The tomatoes have slowed down but are still producing. I removed two of the zucchini plants that got hit by vine borers but the other 2 still look good and are still producing.

 

[Slowdrawl]

I spent about 4 hours in the garden yesterday weeding the gravel pathways and cleaning up the beds. The radishes (far left bed) will be harvested this week. The tomatoes have slowed down but are still producing. I removed two of the zucchini plants that got hit by vine borers but the other 2 still look good and are still producing.
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Beautiful place you have there!

 

[H.A.F.]

My dahlia are popping now, and oddly enough some volunteers from last year are just flowering as well so it's just a late flower.

I pet the bumblebees because I can. One crawled on me and hung out for a bit.

Today it was butterfly's. Several, and constantly. The big thing in the raised bed is a dwarf tamarillo. it looks to make plenty of berries off one 'tree' but they are kind of bland.

I went out to take pics and they didn't care.

I have a quart bag of japs and serrano in the freezer already. pop a few into chili and they're perfect. They may lose a little heat but I have plenty. This project is going well. I have a few more to add but they're tiny and I'll wait until the plant dies and get all I can first. The paprika pepper from Baker Creek seems legit. I tossed all my storebought crap into the garden as a bug repellent After Ii fill a jar I'll dry whole peppers for longer term storage

 

[H.A.F.]

Helpful hint - I have a cheap coffee grinder and set of tools just for messing with the hot peppers. Can you imagine your morning coffee with a shot of capsicum?

 

[H.A.F.]

Next day, more blooms, same damaged butterfly. I've also seen a humming bird feasting on them so they must be juicy.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Our season is over, 75% is wilting or crispy after the frost we had earlier in the week.

 

[H.A.F.]

Our season is over, 75% is wilting or crispy after the frost we had earlier in the week.

My attempt to stretch my garden back into the forest was a waste. I got some scraggly looking tomato plants and peppers that don't grow. But seeing how well stuff has done in pots and beds I will be using that to my advantage. What is crazy is that the best producing tomato I have by 1000% is a determinate tomato that is supposed to stop at some point. It has limbs everywhere and I pull a dozen or so tomatoes a day. Size of a golfball though so that kind of sucks.

 

[H.A.F.]

A few cool things up front. This is the dwarf tamarillo. the berries are flat-out nasty if they are under-ripe and mildly sweet with an odd smoky flavor when ripe. If nothing else I'll throw them all in a crock pot with a pork butt and see where that goes. Not for garden space but a cool productive weed if I can get them started in a ditsh or something.

And this is what sesame seeds look like growing. Cool pods that hold the seeds until dry then they eplode. Like vetch. These are the black ones andd I'm starting a variety of grains right now to stickn out until it freezes and see what happens.

The overview, everything upper right is trash. I have pots of hot peppers filling in gaps. A few tmatoes are looking like they might put on a last effort to do some fruit and have new green growth.

This is from my back porch.

The peppers on the left are doing well after a bad start with earwigs. Cal wonder bell, a cubanelle and another similar not-too-hot.

to the right of the path is the little food jungle. the serrano and jalapeno peppers up front, a santa fe and anaheim tree by the path, and three tomatoes that are producing, but mainly one big shrub.

The pots are killing it. lots of random stuff but the winner is the Poblano in a 7g. I'll be buying new 7g pots for my indoor and building next years around the cloth pots. There's a line right down the center of the pic, everything to the left thrives, to the right has issues. You can see how all the pepper plant pots congregated there.

The poblano is making smaller than expected peppers but a lot of them

The Korean Dark Green is another perfect little tree - loaded, hot but not long lasting.

 

[H.A.F.]

My peppers are ending up smaller than usual. First round I waited until one turned then snipped all the same size ones. Once the peppers are gone the flowers pop. Now I am seeing new peppers forming as a good enough signal for when to pick the older ones. Some I am letting turn completely on the plant but with the bigger, meatier ones they are bug-bait. Yesterday I harvested and torched a dozen poblano, day before that it was a mess of cubanelle, before that was Santa Fe, and today is Annaheim. Torched them and washed the skin off then freeze. the Japs are tiny but plump.