Garden 2016 Underway
- Thread starter SuperChooch
- Start date
This year the the pine vole population seems to be under control. I tried every trick in the book, and found Giant Destroyer Smoke-Bomb Gasser to be the only reliable remedy (Sodium Nitrate 50% Sulfur 38% Charcoal 9% Other Ingredients 3%). I buy one case over the 'net every Spring, which seems to just enough to season's end. Do a heavy barrage at first planting, then tactical strikes as new tunnels appear.
Spring 2016 has been a bumper harvest, helped by a relatively cool start.
The garden a month out from the last report, with Big Blue (duck), Henrietta (duck) and Bayberry (cat, after Kent Mountford's cat) added for scale.
Any guess as to what this tasty treat is?
S-M
I'm going to give that a try for my out of control Chipmunk invasion, I've tried to small ones from the hardware store. If they don't work, it's on to a silent live fire exercise.
Here's my garlic haul this year. One of my garden favorites.
That looks great! My garlic, Transylvanian (really), was a bust. Onions and garlic don't like my soil. Leeks do well but are ambrosia to voles (as are artichokes). Instead I grow lots of scallions, chives (including a strain reputedly from our ancestral Carpathian village) and garlic chives.
Oh, the mystery vegetable is bitter melon (gourd), which contains quinine. Salt them like and eggplant and the bitterness disappears and cooked semi-soft it is very tasty and healthful.
hey,
This is so very interesting to do. I love gardening and sowing seeds to get nice and fresh vegetables.
This is so very interesting to do. I love gardening and sowing seeds to get nice and fresh vegetables.
Looks like a very good year so far. My San Marzanos that I was concerned with at the start of the season straightened right out and took off nicely. All the other tomato varieties are kicking too.
We are eating zucchini, (blecch) my wife's favorite, and cucumbers. The cubanelles are getting ready for a first pick in a week or so and so are the cherry hots. Eggplants look somewhat stalled.
I am having a major vole problem though and I have been scratching out their tunnels almost nightly with a cultivator and I have been spraying the garden perimeter with coyote urine. I think it's time for the smoke bombs !
I pray that they develop a taste for zucchini roots but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.
We are eating zucchini, (blecch) my wife's favorite, and cucumbers. The cubanelles are getting ready for a first pick in a week or so and so are the cherry hots. Eggplants look somewhat stalled.
I am having a major vole problem though and I have been scratching out their tunnels almost nightly with a cultivator and I have been spraying the garden perimeter with coyote urine. I think it's time for the smoke bombs !
I pray that they develop a taste for zucchini roots but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.
Welp, the Super Gasser didn't do the trick. I used it at night since the little devils are out running around during the day. Puts out a lot of smoke, an OOTL stopped to ask if I needed help, but he wouldn't comply with what I asked of him. 
Looks like I'm headed for the nuclear option, or wait until winter and try the Gasser when their in their beds for the season.
Looks like I'm headed for the nuclear option, or wait until winter and try the Gasser when their in their beds for the season.
I buy a case of 48 gassers every season. You need to go through at least half-a case (24 gassers) over a period of a couple days to be effective (at least in the beginning), then spot treat whenever a new tunnel appears. I hit key points around the perimeter at least three times to achieve control. After a couple seasons the son-of-a-guns learn that my garden is not a very welcoming place.
Been a while since I posted on here. We got a good bunch of turnips:
...our collard greens, kale, and mustard were huge and we got some great dishes out of them.
Tomato plants are 7 feet tall and loaded:
Here's a closer look at the strands of cherry tomatoes. We already got some ripe ones, the kids are warming up to them, I'm loving 'em.
Beans started to come in last week:
...and the scotch bonnets are coming in as well...
We've been making tea with the lemon balm, and we saved dill seed and coriander seed. The coriander seed was used with some cardamom, pepper, ginger, and cinnamon to make chai tea. I was never a chai tea drinker, but figured since we had the fresh coriander and some fresh honey that I would give it a shot. It was very popular with the family, good stuff.
Note that three of the beds have sunflowers in them. I got the soil tested and picked up what they called a normal, background level of lead in the soil (100 ppm). I was unhappy with having any in beds where I'm growing leafy greens, so I'm doing a phytoremediation project with the kids. The sunflowers will uptake lead and any other heavy metals in the soil. It's good for folks to know, in case you order topsoil and want to make sure that it's clean before planting leafy greens in it, etc. The key is to have the pH below 7 so that the sunflowers can take it up. Mustard greens can also take lead up.
We just started some of our fall crop; collard greens (2 types), mustard (2 types), kale (Russian red), and some basil and parsley, and two more rounds of dill and cilantro. We plan on rotating in beets, turnips, and maybe some spinach in the end. Hopefully this carries us far into winter!
Happy gardening!
...our collard greens, kale, and mustard were huge and we got some great dishes out of them.
Tomato plants are 7 feet tall and loaded:
Here's a closer look at the strands of cherry tomatoes. We already got some ripe ones, the kids are warming up to them, I'm loving 'em.
Beans started to come in last week:
...and the scotch bonnets are coming in as well...
We've been making tea with the lemon balm, and we saved dill seed and coriander seed. The coriander seed was used with some cardamom, pepper, ginger, and cinnamon to make chai tea. I was never a chai tea drinker, but figured since we had the fresh coriander and some fresh honey that I would give it a shot. It was very popular with the family, good stuff.
Note that three of the beds have sunflowers in them. I got the soil tested and picked up what they called a normal, background level of lead in the soil (100 ppm). I was unhappy with having any in beds where I'm growing leafy greens, so I'm doing a phytoremediation project with the kids. The sunflowers will uptake lead and any other heavy metals in the soil. It's good for folks to know, in case you order topsoil and want to make sure that it's clean before planting leafy greens in it, etc. The key is to have the pH below 7 so that the sunflowers can take it up. Mustard greens can also take lead up.
We just started some of our fall crop; collard greens (2 types), mustard (2 types), kale (Russian red), and some basil and parsley, and two more rounds of dill and cilantro. We plan on rotating in beets, turnips, and maybe some spinach in the end. Hopefully this carries us far into winter!
Happy gardening!
Possibly anecdotal, but it looks like the idea of using dill and cilantro flowers to attract parasitic wasps worked. Here is a tomato hornworm that my son found that has been hit by a parasitic wasp. The white protrusions are the cocoons of braconid wasp larva. Note the holes in them, which means that the wasp has already emerged. The larvae eat the hornworm alive and then spin the cocoons to complete their life cycle. This hornworm was extremely lethargic. We've also found quite a few of the wasps hanging around the flowers, and praying mantises and ladybugs on the plants. Looks like we've got some natural protection!
We got a few ripe scotch bonnets today, sliced them up and put them on pizza:
We grew a single, 12" pot of New Zealand spinach. It's wonderful. It's heat and drought tolerant and tastes better to me than regular spinach. Definitely recommended! (cell phone for scale)
My son (5 y.o.) learning how to make sautéed spinach with garlic and oil. He cooked it like a champ:
We got a crop of beans today, purple teepee, borlotti, dragon's tongue, and blue lake. We also sautéed them with some garlic and plum tomatoes:
The purple teepee bean (left) is stunning:
Speaking of tomatoes, here is a harvest that we got this morning of plums and cherries. The picture doesn't do them justice, the colors are really nice (had the flash off and didn't realize how dull the pic is).
Our sunflowers are about to bloom, and we've got kale, collard, and mustard seedlings getting ready to go in. More to come!
We got a few ripe scotch bonnets today, sliced them up and put them on pizza:
We grew a single, 12" pot of New Zealand spinach. It's wonderful. It's heat and drought tolerant and tastes better to me than regular spinach. Definitely recommended! (cell phone for scale)
My son (5 y.o.) learning how to make sautéed spinach with garlic and oil. He cooked it like a champ:
We got a crop of beans today, purple teepee, borlotti, dragon's tongue, and blue lake. We also sautéed them with some garlic and plum tomatoes:
The purple teepee bean (left) is stunning:
Speaking of tomatoes, here is a harvest that we got this morning of plums and cherries. The picture doesn't do them justice, the colors are really nice (had the flash off and didn't realize how dull the pic is).
Our sunflowers are about to bloom, and we've got kale, collard, and mustard seedlings getting ready to go in. More to come!
That's great!! I love the fact that you're teaching your kids to cook as well. My property has to much shade to achieve any decent crops. Strawberries seem to be taking over though. What we lack in what we can grow ourselves we buy from our local farms. Caning tomatoes and freezing corn is a family affair. Even the kids taste the difference.
Thanks Smoke, we love going to the farm or farmer's market too. I didn't know that strawberries were shade tolerant! Funny that you mention them because the kids want to grow them next year. Any advice for us on how to get a good-sized crop (enough for fresh eating and making a few jars of preserves)?
Fruity tropical Scotch Bonnets on pizza, the healthy pepperoni!
Gardens plots are the best part of living in the Pines. However, hot summers have caused me to shift away from conventional crops to those that are more heat tolerant.
Evergreen White Nebuka and Heshiko bunching onions are getting big, but the real surprise has been the Apollo Hybrid “Brokali” in the background, a gourmet cross between Gai Lan (Chinese kale) and Calabrese broccoli.
Sunflowers are just starting their display, with luffa, cucumbers, and yard-long beans for background. Stink bugs have returned after a couple-year hiatus so there goes the zucchini and cucumbers.
S-M
Hey Mark, looks good!
Amen about the healthy pepperoni.
Regarding heat tolerant, not sure if you've tried that New Zealand spinach but it's a winner through and through. No bolting no matter how hot, and it's definitely drought tolerant. Giant red mustard can stand some heat too.
Have you ever grown Komatsuna greens? That's another green that I've heard performs well in the heat. I've never grown it but I will grow that one next year.
I've found a few stink bugs too, the brown marmorated ones I believe. Damn those things.
Tell me more about your currants and gooseberries, especially acquiring and growing them. As I mentioned to Smoke_Jumper, I'm interested in growing more fruit and definitely welcome some tips!
Mark
Amen about the healthy pepperoni.
Regarding heat tolerant, not sure if you've tried that New Zealand spinach but it's a winner through and through. No bolting no matter how hot, and it's definitely drought tolerant. Giant red mustard can stand some heat too.
Have you ever grown Komatsuna greens? That's another green that I've heard performs well in the heat. I've never grown it but I will grow that one next year.
I've found a few stink bugs too, the brown marmorated ones I believe. Damn those things.
Tell me more about your currants and gooseberries, especially acquiring and growing them. As I mentioned to Smoke_Jumper, I'm interested in growing more fruit and definitely welcome some tips!
Mark