Gardening 2017: Fruits, Veggies, Flowers

[Lady tehMa]

Into the food processor! That is how I sneakily added greens to sauces and cassaroles for years. And don't forget, zucchini cake!

[Bsuds]

Zucchini bread Mmmmmm.

I rebuilt our Garlic drying rack today. The screen was still good but the frame was rotted.

Picked about 6 cups of Raspberries too. What looked like it was going to be a poor season is turning out better than expected.

[Relentless]

After having the best Sugar Snap pea harvest ever, I have re-planted my second crop of peas today.
I have never done this before, so it's purely experimental, and if the crop pans out as good as the first, I will be very happy.
Anyone else plant a second crop of Peas yet?

[Queen K]

I thought the second pea planting was supposed to be in August for a Sept harvest?

But like you said, purely experimental.

[slootman]

Interesting. I have an empty spot that would probably suit peas again. Maybe we can share results on a mid-summer batch. Gotta plant carrots again too.

My tomato plants are getting "too big". I've already tied the cages together to keep them from falling over, but now all of them are leaning one way. Gotta get more string in there to prop them up. Its gonna be a big harvest!!

[Lady tehMa]

I know the feeling, slootman. I made my own tomato cages, and they work way better. You know the weldmesh that you put in concrete to make it stronger? I bought a sheet of that at Mara, think the spacing was 4" or so. The sheet was 8x10, I think. I asked the guys to cut it down for me so I had four sheets out of one (they used bolt cutters). Then I bent the edges down, curved them into a half tube and sat them in the garden. I use garden stakes to hold them in place. Works well!

[Lady tehMa]

Is it just me, or are the tomatoes taking longer to ripen this year?

[Queen K]

I thought it was just me. Not the cherry types but the larger ones. Taking forever. I fear for tomatoe canning if this keeps up.

[Lady tehMa]

Yes! Weve been eating cherry tomatoes for about a week, but the others are still lagging greatly.

[Poindexter]

We got lucky with the cherry tomatoes, bought some hanging plants that look sickly but just keep pumping out the fruit.

Large tomatos are a different story, really sparse and green still. Hoping the current heatwave gets them ripening . Shared the first large tomato with my mother yesterday from her garden and it reminded me that there is nothing like a fresh garden grown tomato.

BTW, has anyone else noticed that it's been a bad year for saskatoon berries. We have a forest of them growing behind out house but this year they barely had any fruit at all. Last year we picked a couple buckets in under an hour but this year it wasn't even worth harvesting.

[Queen K]

We got lucky with the cherry tomatoes, bought some hanging plants that look sickly but just keep pumping out the fruit.

Large tomatos are a different story, really sparse and green still. Hoping the current heatwave gets them ripening . Shared the first large tomato with my mother yesterday from her garden and it reminded me that there is nothing like a fresh garden grown tomato.

BTW, has anyone else noticed that it's been a bad year for saskatoon berries. We have a forest of them growing behind out house but this year they barely had any fruit at all. Last year we picked a couple buckets in under an hour but this year it wasn't even worth harvesting.

You are so right about the fresh tomato out of the garden. I saw colour on some today so I have hope.

And ask for Saskatoons, so I am not the only one! Last year I was harvesting them like nothing I've ever had, we made saskatoon everything. This year? NOT ONE. We had the blossoms, and then? Nothing. I was so sad Mr. QK found a pie recipe that was amazing for saskatoons and we can't even use it.

I had a bad potato crop where last year I had a great one. And I'm slowly getting cukes finally. Garlic harvest was disappointing but we got some. Not much but some.

Rasp/Tay/Bosen are all done for now. Bye til next year.

And oh, we had a lousy apricot year. Last year? Bumper crop. This year? Nada.

[Bubalouie]

Our veggie garden is doing incredibly bad this year, seeds we planted for beans, only one came up, cucumbers, got one growing out of 6 plants........and my poor hanging baskets, just can't keep them watered enough. Next year will have a watering system in place we hope and might not be so bad. Sure different than last year. Tomatoes we will make a trip to Keremeos to buy near end of August, cheap, cheap, got them last year for 10 cents a pound.

[Lady tehMa]

Blackberries are slow to ripen too

Tayberries are done, as are my regular raspberries. The autum gold raspberry I planted last fall though - I figured I'd get just a few off of it - and I did. They don't have as much "raspberry" flavour and they are a lot sweeter. What I did not expect was 3 new shoots coming up, with flowers forming! So it looks like I'll be in berries from June through the fall.

Grapes though - look amazing.

[Queen K]

Did you get many Tay berries?

And my Goji is growing. And the blue berries are being kept alive and oh, more cukes will get picked tomorrow.

I dug a few more potatoes out.

[slootman]

My tomatoes are doing very well, other than being too big for the space they're in. Watering is a challenge for sure. Peppers are growing, though mostly still golf balls. I finished curing garlic that's been picked.

And my peach tree is producing, even after the terrible leaf curl in spring. There were branches with not one leaf in them, but it came around. Phew!