Gardening 2020

Cecil20

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I grow some peppers in the garden every summer, this year's are a mix of jalapeños, Fresnos, Scotch bonnets, banana and maybe cayenne if I remember whether any of those germinated.

Just starting to get fruits developing now and last night I cooked with one for the first time this summer.

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Graceful-Lily

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Does anyone know what this is? There was a few of them growing in my yard and I dug them all up before my mom had the opportunity to run them over with the lawnmower.
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The stems seem very woody like some type of tree. I was thinking it might be sycamore trees but the leaves don't look quite the same to me.
 
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Winchester

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Latest pepper haul yesterday from the garden. So pretty!

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Isn't this just gorgeous! This is how a Carmen pepper is supposed to look. I almost hated to chop it. (Yeah, I get excited about garden veggies.) We each had a piece; it was simply so sweet and tasted wonderful. If you plant peppers, make some room in your garden for some Carmen peppers. You won't be sorry. They take a while to turn and you have to keep an eye on them, but they are wonderful.

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We're going to get the corn today; the tassels have turned and dried, so it's time. Rick took an ear yesterday and, while it was small, it was filled out nicely. We might get a few ears. I hope so.

While he was up there, Rick also got a ton of tomatoes, both grape tomatoes and regular ones. And some beans. I froze some of the beans and used the rest in bean salad with dinner tonight. We can't complain; the garden is doing well, even though we've not had a lot of rain this summer.
 

pearl99

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Isn't this just gorgeous! This is how a Carmen pepper is supposed to look. I almost hated to chop it. (Yeah, I get excited about garden veggies.) We each had a piece; it was simply so sweet and tasted wonderful. If you plant peppers, make some room in your garden for some Carmen peppers. You won't be sorry. They take a while to turn and you have to keep an eye on them, but they are wonderful.

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We're going to get the corn today; the tassels have turned and dried, so it's time. Rick took an ear yesterday and, while it was small, it was filled out nicely. We might get a few ears. I hope so.
Peppers look wonderful!
When I lived in an apartment and had a community garden plot 25x25 feet I would grow corn. It was heaven picking it and taking it right home and steaming it and eating fresh off the stalks!
 

MoochNNoodles

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Peaches are a big crop here. I don't think I'd try from seed though. I don't think I'm patient enough to grow a tree from a seed. I'd just get a peach tree with a few years on it. I don't know how mature a peach tree has to get before you can expect fruit off it. I do remember a local orchard posting about how they were removing the old peach grove because the trees were too old to produce good fruit anymore. It said they'd planned ahead and already had a new peach grove in for some time. The neighbor 2 doors down had a big peach tree in their yard. I could see big peaches from my house over the top of theirs. I don't think they ever harvested though. At least not that I saw. They had a bunch of trees cut down a few years ago; including that one.

I have grown an avocado from seed. They are fun to watch. We eventually potted it and gave it to my mother. We've never had one get big enough to produce avocados; but its still a neat plant.
 

NY cat man

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Peaches are a big crop here. I don't think I'd try from seed though. I don't think I'm patient enough to grow a tree from a seed. I'd just get a peach tree with a few years on it. I don't know how mature a peach tree has to get before you can expect fruit off it. I do remember a local orchard posting about how they were removing the old peach grove because the trees were too old to produce good fruit anymore. It said they'd planned ahead and already had a new peach grove in for some time. The neighbor 2 doors down had a big peach tree in their yard. I could see big peaches from my house over the top of theirs. I don't think they ever harvested though. At least not that I saw. They had a bunch of trees cut down a few years ago; including that one.

I have grown an avocado from seed. They are fun to watch. We eventually potted it and gave it to my mother. We've never had one get big enough to produce avocados; but its still a neat plant.
Same here. Along the south shore of Lake Ontario, as far east as Oswego is a big fruit growing region, and peaches are near the top of the list. Given that, nobody but the nurseries grows them from seed- it just takes too long, although Graceful-Lily Graceful-Lily is likely young enough to see one grow to maturity and produce a crop.
 

Winchester

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We did get some corn. The ears are really small, but some of them are nicely formed. We did get four nice ears for munching on last night as well as four more that we blanched and froze on the cobs. The rest were simply blanched and I cut the kernels. Still this was more than we expected to get. We have the later corn coming on, but, if anything, those stalks look worse than the earlier corn. Between not getting enough rain and the beetles, the corn crop is not good. We'll take what we can get. (Those are my containers of stewed tomatoes cooling down to be thrown into the freezer. I think I'm at eight quarts now, not including that little pint in the picture.) I'll be doing tomatoes again, probably either Saturday night or Sunday night in the dehydrator.

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MoochNNoodles

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My corn is just about ready. Just in time for the freezer getting here tomorrow. The one I taste tested was good. DH and my stepdad are picking up a uhaul to get it after the electrician comes.

I stayed up last night freezing beans. I think I counted 20 bags but I’m not sure if I counted some twice. I had to take some pierogi and kielbasa from the freezer in order to fit those; but the beans couldn’t wait another day. Gee darn right?:yummy:

I shelled some limas too. They were pretty small and some were plain tiny. I ended up with maybe half a sandwich baggie full. I’ll cook those tonight. I think part of my problem is just being unfamiliar with growing them. They were so hidden under the foliage. Tons of foliage so I expected more too. Maybe I can find some at a farm stand. I’m craving another tomato sandwich and mine haven’t been good.

My yard is still a mess from the storm; but garden work first I think.
 

Graceful-Lily

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Not sure if anyone here cares for bonsai but my mom brought home more hibiscus syriacus for me to practise on. I have 20 shrubs in total now. 19 of which are currently too young to bend or do anything extreme with. They are all in small pots because I'm trying to get their root systems going and bring down their leaf size before moving forward. This one in particular stood out to me because it had grown really tall due to lack of sun. I tried the kengai style on it. Didn't get the exact bend that I wanted because I don't have the best wire. It's diameter is slightly larger than your average pencil. I was surprised at how easily it bent for me. I will continue to alter the style a bit as it catches itself and matures.
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WillowMarie

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Graceful-Lily Graceful-Lily Cannot wait to see how it turns out! You mentioned bringing the leaf size down. What do you mean by that? You can manipulate the plant to make the leaves grow smaller? Bonsai-ing is so interesting!
 

Graceful-Lily

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Graceful-Lily Graceful-Lily Cannot wait to see how it turns out! You mentioned bringing the leaf size down. What do you mean by that? You can manipulate the plant to make the leaves grow smaller? Bonsai-ing is so interesting!
Yes! 😁 From what I researched and understood, you train the tree to reduce its leaf size by defoliation (once a year at most) when the tree is strong enough to handle the stress of having all its leaves remove. Or you can cut the leaves in half and the new leaves should come in smaller than the previous ones. With the shrubs I have, their leaves are large because they were growing underneath much larger shrubs which blocked them from getting adequate sunlight (they prefer full sun). Now that I have them in full sun outside, their new leaves are smaller so I don't think I'll have to do too much to it unless they get too big. I'm slowly removing the huge leaves as the smaller ones grow in to replace them.
 

lizzie

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Sounds like me with summer squash. I intended to only plant 2 this year (2 in case one didn't make it). I must have dropped some seed though because I have4 plants and they are the only thing in the garden that are going crazy. My husband isn't fond of squash so I only fix it once in awhile, but I love it. I had so much squash that yesterday I tried a recipe for pickled squash. I have never had it before so don't know if I will like it. It is refrigerator pickles so they aren't ready yet. Hubby says he won't eat it.
What about making a relish with the squash?I made zucchini relish last year and it's to die for.Just a thought....
 
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