2023 Gardening Thread

[MooseontheLoose]

Great pics Charlie, Rocky, and Magoo! Super impressive.

Here's a few recent pics from my side. Shi****os, jalapenos, and banana peppers are still going crazy. Wife's loofahs are getting big.





Finally had a bunch of Thai chilis get right for picking.



My petin plant that I overwintered is loaded to the gills with pods. That process has been super productive for me this year. Definitely overwintering more peppers in the future.



Experimented with the sweet chili sauce and tried to can some of it. Going to see how that works long term since I usually just make and eat it fresh.



Getting silly hot around these parts. I put one shade cloth out this week over part of the garden. Going to get my other one out today. Plants did great under it last year with the bad drought, so hoping for a repeat this year. My plants underneath it look better than the outside plants and it’s only been a couple of days. My superhots are starting to throw pods now also.



Been eating fresh sweet corn, green beans, cukes, and shi****os almost every day. I love this time of year.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Well, while I was in South Texas on a "work weekend"... Can you say HOT!?! My bride canned tomatoes (stewed), sweet cherry peppers, and made her first ever batch of salsa out of out maters n jalapenos... I was impressed with the taste. She took out the seeds/pith of most of the jalapenos so the salsa has no heat, but it tastes really good. She's gonna do it again and leave in more whole peppers and try to "warm" it up a bit...
Our poblano peppers are going great... Never grew them before so not quite sure what they look like when they're "ready"... They're yuuuge and dark green so far... I look at 'em and think "Chili Rellenos"!! Maters are hurtin, but the peppers are wide open, all varieties. I've got some bever dam peppers that aren't quite ready yet, but they're dang near 10 inches long!! I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow... Got a few pics from Rocky I need to get up too... He's having trouble getting logged back in since the switch to the new software/server... Gonna try to help make that happen soon tho... Love his garden posts! I'm just his pic poster!

[Gumbo Man]

I’ve gotta big Black Berry Cobbler waiting on me at home thanks to you Charlie. I still can’t get over how big those berries are.

[Chew]

Lotta cleaning, weeding, and hilling today. Planted purple hulls, cushaw and spaghetti squash. Put up trellises for watermelon and cantaloupe.

[eradicator]

Haven't posted in a while, this is my busy season. Pulling about 10lbs of Romas per week currently. My bro has been doing a lot of canning for us since I've been traveling. Canned tomatoes and salsa. My slicing tomatoes are finally starting to come on. Just hard to beat a home grown tomato! Will do another big batch of pickles this week and the onions are about ready to pull. Pulled the garlic last week. Tomatillo plants look great and blooming a lot but not setting fruit..........anyone have help there? I only grew them one time before and it was several years ago. Came across a couple plants cheap this spring and added them for green salsa.

[SaltwaterSlick]

It's finally mater n pepper time! Been picking every other day and canning, freeze drying, bagging/freezing, you name it... These pics are from yesterday morning's harvest... In addition to these maters n peppers, we picked another bucket full of squash, a few peas and a little okra... it's finally starting to make a little... What few stalks that survived the early drown out are stunted, but now blooming and making okra. I gave 'em a good shot of fertilize yesterday evening. The second planting of okra, peas an cukes are coming along real nice...






Got the second batch of salsa on the stove... Man I wish y'all could smell this stuff cooking!! Mmmm Mmmm!!



Last night my bride made Babba Ganoush for the first time. Let it chill in the fridge overnight and had some with my lunch today and its taste took me back to the Middle East instantly!! Man it was good!! Gonna be trying some of that stuff in the freeze dryer!!

Anyone ever grow chic peas? I don't know anything about them or how they even grow, but I need fresh chic peas to make hummus... With hummus and babba and pita bread, I'd be a happy camper!!

[SaltwaterSlick]

We saved some of those biggest poblano peppers to make chilis rellenos and a chili relleno casserole... Also saved about a dozen to make poppers. I just love the flavor of poblano peppers. I plan to make a stuffing for the "poppers" and stuff them, then wrap in bacon and put on either the griddle or maybe the grill end of my stick burner! Makes my mouth water, just thinking about it!!

[tps7742]

Mr Charlie
you and Mrs’ have it going on for sure. As you have stated before your life partner is a worker for sure and obviously stands right beside you on step for step in your gardening process.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Terry, it's been a fun project this year!! We have grown several vegetables that we'd never grown before, and we've tried new preservation methods, and new dish recipes that most have turned out fantastic!! Probably my favorite new food so far has been the zucchini bread!! Oh Man!! That stuff is food for kings!!
Thanks for the kind words. We just like seeing the stuff grow!!

[SaltwaterSlick]

Hey guys, Rocky is still not able to sign on to the new site, but he and I have had a great text line going and he's sent me some fantastic pics. Here are his latest. He and his wife have put up over 100 quarts of pickles, many, many jars of salsa and salsa verde, and they're still pickin n canning/freezing every day what they can't give away to neighbors, friends and family. This guy loves gardening and he told me this has been his best garden ever! Hopefully he will get his profile fixed soon so he can get signed on and give us more details!

Check out this cupboard!


Here are a few harvest pics over just the past 2 or 3 days!!








Those salsa pics make me want to lick my screen!!

[eradicator]

Hey guys, Rocky is still not able to sign on to the new site, but he and I have had a great text line going and he's sent me some fantastic pics. Here are his latest. He and his wife have put up over 100 quarts of pickles, many, many jars of salsa and salsa verde, and they're still pickin n canning/freezing every day what they can't give away to neighbors, friends and family. This guy loves gardening and he told me this has been his best garden ever! Hopefully he will get his profile fixed soon so he can get signed on and give us more details!

Check out this cupboard!


Here are a few harvest pics over just the past 2 or 3 days!!








Those salsa pics make me want to lick my screen!!

I made another 7 pints today of Rocky's dills and thought I was doing good

[MooseontheLoose]

More great pics Rocky and Charlie!

It's been silly hot in SA, so I've got most of everything in my raised beds under shade tarps right now. Half my peppers, berries, and my onion and tomato experiments in containers and grow bags are all in full sun. Plants have really responded well to those tarps being up. Tomatoes, green beans, and cukes haven't missed a beat underneath them.

Made a couple jars of cowboy candy yesterday with a new recipe. If it turns out good I'll use that for some other hot peppers later this summer. I thought I planted yellow squash earlier this spring and I expected to lose it all to vine borers like I have the last few years. I guess I mixed up my seeds since I have zero yellow squash and tons of butternut squash. Doing great and no borers this year. Go figure.

My latest battle has been hornworms. Been finding about one a day right now. Suckers ruined the blades on about a dozen onions overnight earlier this week, including my biggest onion this year. I've got one pepper plant they might have done in, but we'll see. Luckily been able to catch them in the act most of the time so the damage has been minimal overall. Wish I had a farm pond nearby to stick them on a hook and feed them to a big ditch pickle. For now I'll just keep cutting them in half and feeding the birds

[Man]

Wish I had a farm pond nearby to stick them on a hook and feed them to a big ditch pickle. For now I'll just keep cutting them in half and feeding the birds

Lol...I tried and posted live last year on the '22 garden thread. But couldn't get anything to eat it.

[eradicator]

Today's batch of salsa. Had 20 lbs of roma's. Probably just can the rest from here on out. Getting about 15lbs/week currently. Peppers, onions, tomatoes all from the garden.....

[SaltwaterSlick]

We're running out of places to put stuff! This freeze dryer has been a real life-saver! This is a load of peppers we just took out last night. 2 trays of mixed sliced (in rings), 2 trays of sliced (in strips) of poblano peppers, and a tray of jalapenos, some sliced in strips and a few left whole except for the stems removed... We put them in 1 pint mylar bags...
Have a load of eggs and stewed maters in there now... They've been on for over 45 hours!! Won't be doing any more loads without pre-freezing!! Filled 2 trays with 36 eggs in each tray. The other three 3 trays are full of stewed tomatoes...



We made a fabulous chili relleno casserole out of the fresh poblano peppers!!



Finally got my Fall plot finished up and ready for planting this morning... Tarped it to terminate the grass that had started to return plus eliminate the few weed seeds and any other strays that might have invaded it... Will not plant until late August or early September. Also worked up another plot that originally was going to be melons but the rains prevented that from happening. Wife wants to plant more dang peas!! That's where she'll put 'em...