How does your garden grow?

[FlyGap]

Yummm!!! What kind of green chilies do you use (brand)? Do you ever add cilantro?
I make buckets of salsa too, but that recipe sounds yummy!
I never simmer mine but love the roasted taste of others, going to do it!

[Missy May]

Originally Posted by FlyGap    

Yummm!!! What kind of green chilies do you use (brand)? Do you ever add cilantro?
I make buckets of salsa too, but that recipe sounds yummy!
I never simmer mine but love the roasted taste of others, going to do it!

Haha. This is interesting...I live in the "chili capital of the world" state, and everyone just calls them "green chilis". I don't know their true name. The big green fresh ones - the kind you roast and make chili rellenos out of. :) I am not a fan of cilantro - so I don't use it, but I imagine most would.

You just have to be careful to use gloves or remember not to touch your eyes - or face for that matter. I often forget this fact...it ain't pretty. :)

Yeah, I only keep store bought salsa for "back up" in case of emergencies...we can't be w/o salsa!

[Lockwood]

Thanks Fly! :)
Wow...you're still getting toms??
Suddenly I have a hankering for a huge pot of marinara sauce.
(Sorry Missy, I'm not much of a salsa girl... peppers and I don't get along very well.)

The basket of eggs is just beautiful. All my girls are molting and I'm getting one whole egg a day.
Of course with the storm, I'll be lucky to see an egg at all this week. My ladies are sensitive.
We did all made it through ok. Roughed up a bit and tired, but ok.

[FlyGap]

Ok, Gurney's is having their 50% off sale (spend $100, get $50 off etc..).
Burpee has free shipping, code NEW321, I want their new "Super Sauce" tomato seeds...

What are you guys planning, anything new or cool?

DH is going to stroke if I type those magic numbers again!! LOL!
WHAT TO DO!!

[Lockwood]

I just had to dig up the Burpee catalog to see, and then remembered their prices are double.
I would really like to try their Sweet Treat Carrots, Big Mama Roma toms, Sunny Boy toms, Sweet Tangerine toms, and Golden Egg Summer Squash and even with free shipping I can't make myself pay the catalog prices.

Checked out Gurney's but all I'm getting is the regular $25 off they always seem to advertise. I'll tell you what though, Jung Seeds have always grown well for me, and I can't wait until it is time to replenish my seed stocks, and then Johnney's Select Seeds.....here I come! I love that place!!

I usually hit the Lowe's and Home Depot stores early spring to find most of what I need and when I find something unusual I snap up extras. This way I only order every three or so years the stuff I can't find locally, like my purple cauliflower or Romano beans which far out perform the traditional green beans and taste better too, I think. I'll dig through my seeds and see what other different stuff I have.
Considering I just now (last week) picked the last of the Cauliflower, Chard, and Bok Choi, then planted garlic and put the garden to bed.... I'm taking a little break for a while and not thinking anything plant, beyond watering the herbs in the window.

For those who are going to order, if it helps to know, most seeds last quite a few years so you can take advantage of sales and stock up.
I have an awesome book called "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" by Edward C. Smith and it is my top gardening book.
Here is a list of seed longevity:
(So I can enable Fly's tomato obsession- and feel free to blame me when hubby hits the roof )


Veggie Seed Longevity
Years:
2 Amaranth
5 Artichoke
5 Arugula
3 Beans, bush & pole
4 Beets
3 Broccoli
4 Brussels Sprouts
4 Cabbage
5 Cardoon
3 carrots
4 Cauliflower
3 Celery
3 Chinese Cabbage
1-2 Corn
5 Cress
5 Cucumber
4 Eggplant
4-6 Endive
3-4 Fennel
4 Kale
3 Kohlrabi
2 Leeks
1 Lettuce (I’ve had some that made it 3 years)
5 Mache
4-5 Melons
2 Okra
1 Onions
1 Parsnip
3 Peas
2 Peppers
4 Pumpkins
5 Radicchio
4 radish
4 rutabaga
1 salsify
3 Spinach
4 Squash, summer & winter
4 Swiss Chard
3 Tomatillos
4 Tomatoes
4 Turnips
4-5 Watermelon
Herbs:
5 Basil
1-2 Chives
5 Cilantro
5 Dill
1 Marjoram
1 Oregano (my plants survive outside through the winter)
1-3 Parsley (plants- same as oregano)
2 Sage (my plants come back in spring)
? Thyme (plants- same as oregano)

[Taffy Clayton]

My favorite is Jung's seeds. Good variety and by far the cheapest.

Love The Vegetable Gardeners Bible.

[jaydee]

Whats left of my veg garden is under snow today!! Peppers egg plants, tomatos, carrots, potatos parsnips beans corn & leeks all did well this year but some bugs destroyed the zucchini and cucumbers, The broccoli, sprouts and cauliflower started out great but butterflies somehow got under the insect nets and overnight I had a great collection of caterpillars - or so it seemed. I've planted fruit trees since we ame here but the late frosts killed off all the blossoms so it was a poor year for fruit, I have grapes, black and redcurrants, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries and rhubarb and planted some no bog cranberries which seem to have struggled and 2 kiwi vines that hopefully will fruit next year. Strawberries did great but our resident fox seems partial to those - and tomatos. I grow herbs around the flower borders and in tubs on the deck - handy when cooking
I freeze whatever we don't eat fresh.

[Lockwood]

Hey Taffy, I have a question for you… and anyone else who has planted fruit trees...
Where do you get your fruit trees from?

I've had pretty good luck buying peach, a few pear and one plum tree locally, but my local bought apple trees are struggling (thankfully I already have two mature ones) and Cherries? Pfft, forget it...
I've killed two already and the ones that are still alive (if you could call it that) bloom way late in the spring and by august have dropped their leaves.
They are in front of the house and are good sized, but it is embarrassing!

Anyway, since the draught killed several of my trees, I’m going to plan on replacing them as well as expanding the orchard too. (And because I am soooo jealous of MHF’s Pears!)

I’ll be adding several more apple trees (Melrose, McCoun, Honeycrisp, and Rome if I can find them) along with more pear, Asian pears, Pawpaws, and maybe a few Quince.
The berries I’m adding are: Gooseberry, elderberry, currants, and honeyberries.

I have catalogs to Miller Nurseries and Stark Brother’s, but would love to hear about other nurseries ya’ll know of or have ordered from.
It is a big investment in money as well as the time it takes to get a return and I feel like a fish out of water trying to order from somewhere I have never heard feedback on.

Most of the small orders I have done are from cheap places like Burgess and for stuff like strawberries, hibiscus, and flowering shrub types of things and for the most part everything has grown well (my weigela is as tall as the house!) but they just don’t have the trees I am looking for.

Ideas??

[jaydee]

I got the fruit trees - pear, apple, plums, cherry and peach from a local nursery the apples are struggling - I lost the first ones I planted, the pear are a bit spindly but they do produce fruit. I got the apricot and kiwi fruit and the fruiting bushes type from Miller Nurseries - all doing well
I have a lilac and a wisteria (not fruit I know) that are really huge now but never flowered - ideas anyone?

[FlyGap]

Grrr... That list! Nooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P
(I really really want those sauce tomatoes... hmmm, we do have a paypal account... :)

I got my Honeyberries from Springhill. They were tiny (6 inches), one looked great with lots of shoots, the other was DEAD. So I got them to ship me another but didn't get it until this fall. Soooo, we'll see. The first one did make it through the drought with lots of pampering so I have highish hopes...
NOT ordering from them again. Bought tons of stuff from them the past two years and all I have to show is a stupid orange plant and those pitiful honeyberries.

Have any of you tried the chocolate vine yet? I did, but the drought and heat killed it.

My fruit trees came from Gurney's. Paid for the standard deluxe ones... Three apples made it but MY POLLINATOR died. So gots to replace it. The goats ate my nectarine and it came back with a vengeance three feet tall now! It was nothing but a teeny tiny stump! With your green thumb (ARM) I'm sure you can make it with these. VERY vigorous. I won't have apples for another year, these poor babies are lucky to be alive! No water AT ALL for two months and 120 degree days.

This was my third year planting blueberries. I'm done. Drought, goats, chickens, and even the dogs had it out for them. Sooo maybe the honeyberries will take, fingers crossed!

Lockwood you are right! Talk about an investment! I need so much more but I'm not planting more trees until the drought snaps. We are still hauling water, putting in another, and I've had it. Buuuuttttt these sales... ;)

Are you signed up for Gurney's emails? Going to check out the sites you guys listed!!! Thanks!