jjannie's 2021 Garden

[jjannie]

Looks good Jil, it won't be long before those bigger squash plants by the fence are producing.

Thanks, we have one yellow squash on but we think it never got pollinated since it was the only flower at the time so it will likely just shrivel up. But at least the plants are looking healthy and happy - the one on the far right is our carving sized pumpkin vines which we grew for the seeds and then the granddaughters and our son can carve them up for Halloween.  

Think we need to harvest our first batch of bush beans soon from GH. Then we can start another batch of them. The pole beans in GH pic have really taken off as well, just no beans on them yet. The bush beans we've planted about at 2 week intervals or so to keep the small batch harvesting up thru the summer/fall. The pole beans are to supplement  the Bush bean harvesting. 

The pea pods have begun to bloom (not sure you can tell that in the pic) but we should have fresh pea pods soon. Once we get this batch all harvested we'll plant a second batch for a fall harvest.

[wiperhunter2]

Finally got around to posting an update on my garden thread, how is your garden doing now? My snow pea pods did not do so well this year but I'm finally starting to get some pole beans.

[jjannie]

Finally got around to posting an update on my garden thread, how is your garden doing now? My snow pea pods did not do so well this year but I'm finally starting to get some pole beans.

we completed our first harvest and are on the second go around, but heat has really slowed down this second batch. We have lot bell peppers coming on, a few are are ready for picking. Maybe today but just getting ready for our trip is kind of pulling us away. Carrots are looking good, pumpkins  - Think we have 3 set  and one (the first to set) is turning orange already. Squash has really slowed down setting. Plant pots - would be nice if we got cages around them before  they sprawled out so bad, but lots of green tomatoes none the less  - hopefully when we get back home some of those will have ripened.

[wiperhunter2]

These overnight cooler temps, have that effect, hopefully the weather will stabilize and we won't see the end this early, we should have another month or two if we are lucky but I have been hearing rumors of them shutting off our secondary water in Sept. If that happens, I'll have to make some changes on how I water my garden.

[jjannie]

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Our night temps are hitting mid to upper 40s already. This upcoming week its supposed warm up to lower 50s at night. Fingers crossed. Heading out to harvest bell peppers, GH pole beans, maybe some that are in the pots if I can get to them - the tomoes in the pots never got caged up so they have run amok blocking the pathways - need to harvest some squash and there are still some bush beans in there if we can just get to them.  Looks like we'll have 3 pumpkins - next year maybe more vines will be planted - we get the seeds, grandkids get to carve them up. Melons are really stating mature so they get elevated off the grounds so they don't get bad spots from sitting on wet bark. Peas in pots are liking these cooler temps they've finally started blooming like crazy so we should get second harvest soon. 

Updated with some pics from today - we harvested 5lbs of green beans - both bush and pole types and even got 2 tomatoes from the GH. The melons  - that are actually muskmelons, but we call call them cantaloupe are coming on nicely. Didn't harvest bell peppers today, maybe tomorrow - tonight we'll be doing all those green beans - LOL

[wiperhunter2]

Wow, that's a great haul on Green Beans and those Bell Peppers look really nice. Do you blanch your GB's or Freeze dry them?  How about the BP's how do you process them? When we grew them, we use to stuff them with burger, then freeze them. Great pics. Maybe I'm forgetting what your garden did last year but it looks like yours this year is do very well, do you think it is better than last year?

[jjannie]

Wow, that's a great haul on Green Beans and those Bell Peppers look really nice. Do you blanch your GB's or Freeze dry them?  How about the BP's how do you process them? When we grew them, we use to stuff them with burger, then freeze them. Great pics. Maybe I'm forgetting what your garden did last year but it looks like yours this year is do very well, do you think it is better than last year?

We just are not fans of stuffed peppers, so now we dice some for use in winter chili but most are sliced for freezing in vacuum packed bags to use in stir frys. we eat a lot of stir fries. We have tried freeze drying some and they just didn't rehydrate very well, same with dehydrating some - they just never were as good freezing them. We recently pulled our last ones from last year's garden. I planted a mixed color pkg of seeds many got frosted badly so they were replaced with the red ones  which were all we could find by that time. We have a lot more pepper plants this year with putting some in the ring planter, some in GH, and some in the old sweet potato planter box. 

For GBs - we blanch them for 4 minutes, drain well and lay on towels till dry, then we put them on cookie sheets in the freezer so they are individually frozen, then they get bagged up and they go back in freezer. This allows us to take as many as needed for a meal putting them back in the freezer. 3lbs per bag. works well. They'll get used up before next summer's harvest. Also the bush beans are nice to pick from as they don't grow too tall out of reach. Also we spaced out the seed plantings on them. The GH pole beans are always too high for easy harvesting due to the boxes are so deep the plants start out 3ft already so they reach roof by bean harvesting time.

[wiperhunter2]

So what do you think, is your garden doing better this year, than last year?

[jjannie]

Listening to GH show, seems like everyone is having harder time this year getting tomatoes to ripen, maybe its all smoke. We did get more melons, we didn't get any tomatoes caged so that was on us. The plan was to move the potted ones into the garage to extend our late season harvesting so that won't work. Decided the bush beans are nicer since they don't need a trellis. In GH we had both types and trellis ones have always been harder access later in the year. So once the addition is done it will be accessible from both sides which will be nice we have a lot of pole seeds to use up so well keep growing them until we are out of seeds to use. Yesterday, we harvested the last of all beans except for some pole ones we just cannot reach easily. Zukes, and squash which became harder to get to with sprawling toms in the way have all been pulled out, and 2nd crop of pea pods. Tomorrow we will attempt to corral one of potted tomatoes in order to move it into the garage. Any tomatoes that fall off in the process can ripen in the basement area. Sun and Mon nights don't look very good for us, pretty sure we'll frost, so we'll also harvest the bell peppers, rest of the melons, and eggplant, Harvest any tomatoes outside of GH ones and pick the green ones to put into the winter ripening area. All things considered,, we have been pretty happy with our harvests and experiments, even the strawberries.

Your garden looks to have done well. I know its not like like it was. Hey we found few young fish living in that upper pond. They (or at least the eggs) must have gotten sucked through the pump and deposited up there in the spring. They'll get relocated to the big (lower) pond for the winter.