Vegetable Gardening

[smilingcat]

Wow.. Carrots look delicious. And the scallions look really good.

Soup.... yumm... My partner and I were commenting the other night that our food definitely tastes better. Only produce we buy right now are avocados, onions, potato and occasional bunch of scallions. And oh stone fruit.


We think we have a racoon problem in our garden one of our flowers were dug up and newly planted tulip bulbs were scattererd every where. Couldn't make out the foot print but the animal is too heavy to be a cat and too small for a big dog and too heavy for a small dog.

My neighbor found two full sized racoons in his attic the other day. AND WE LIVE IN A CITY!! We've been told that the racoons live in the storm drain during the non-rain season.
Time to borrow a racoon trap. I really don't want to deal with racoons. They are vicious. I also don't want them to mess with our dogs. Dogs wouldn't have a chance.

smilingcat

[tulip]

I finally got around to planting my garlic today! Something's been munching on the kale, and I found out what it was...green worms that are the exact same color as the kale. I picked them all off, and I'll keep doing that every time I water. I think my collards and kale and mustard would benefit from some fish emulsion, so I'm off to Southern States tomorrow to pick some up. That always makes plants happy.

I mulched the leeks and watered everything. We have not had a frost yet, and I've got a few more weeks before I'll put the scavenged storm windows on the raised bed boxes at night. I still have tomatoes ripening, although at a slower pace than before. I'll also have a big load of basil for pesto. I'll harvest that before the frost.

[GLC1968]

I finally got around to planting my garlic today! Something's been munching on the kale, and I found out what it was...green worms that are the exact same color as the kale. I picked them all off, and I'll keep doing that every time I water. I think my collards and kale and mustard would benefit from some fish emulsion, so I'm off to Southern States tomorrow to pick some up. That always makes plants happy.

I mulched the leeks and watered everything. We have not had a frost yet, and I've got a few more weeks before I'll put the scavenged storm windows on the raised bed boxes at night. I still have tomatoes ripening, although at a slower pace than before. I'll also have a big load of basil for pesto. I'll harvest that before the frost.

Green worms - kill them now or they'll turn into cabbage moths and you'll never get rid of them!

If you blanch your kale, the worms fall off and die (and turn yellow so they are easy to see). I had to do that to quite a bit of ours before I dehydrated it. It's even worse when they get in the broccoli because they have lots of tiny little places to hide!

[Photoflygirl]

We harvested about 15 one gallon bags of basil leaves over the last week. We gave several bags away and froze the rest after pulsing with olive oil in the food processor. The temps are down into the high 30's this weekend, so the basil bush is finally dying out. We were in Italy for two weeks so no one picked the flowers off. I picked the rest of the tomatoes and squash from our garden. Have to forget about the lovely swiss chard and broccoli that are out in the bed the yellow jackets are underneath.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Have to forget about the lovely swiss chard and broccoli that are out in the bed the yellow jackets are underneath.

You might get lucky- swiss chard can supposedly withstand some light frosts, and by that time the yellow jackets may have gone into dormancy in the cold. Keep an eye on the situation, you may well get the chance to harvest your chard.

[deeaimond]

Hey Lisa, just saw those carrots, indeed beautiful.

So yeah my tomato plant has had loads of flowers but no fruit. I think its the lack of direct sunlight... but that i can't help. We only get direct sun on the plants for half the year. next time i will start growing in January so when the sun comes over it'll be ready.

but i still feel kinda sad coz its really tall and looks gorgeous.

D

oh and i will try to get some heirloom seeds when i'm in the US in dec. here we have like... one kind of tomato in the markets.. and thats about it. small, mealy and quite tasteless

[tulip]

If you don't have direct sun, you'll probably have better luck growing things that don't require it. Lettuces, in particular, will grow in a bit of shade. If you have lots of shade, you might do better with ornamentals that do well in the shade, of which there are many.

[OakLeaf]

Great carrots BSG! I've got some pretty nice ones this year too. Hope I remember the variety, so I can get some more seed next year.

Smilingcat, bummer about your flowers I don't know if raccoons dig randomly like that though, they're usually after something (usually a beehive). Someone's been tearing the heck out of our lawn in the last week or so - I'm pretty sure it's skunks. They do that, hunting worms and grubs.

Raccoons sure can be destructive when they find something they want, though. But the good part of them being smart is that, once you've found something effective to deter them, they'll learn and quit trying. Once I had an electric fence on my garden, they stopped trying, even when I let the grass grow up too high and ground the fence out. Same thing with my bird feeder pole - I greased it for about two weeks and the 'coons don't even try to climb it any more.

I've still got some basil that survived the frost since it was so well sheltered by weeds. Maybe make another batch of pesto, maybe we have enough already - not sure.