What did you do in the garden today?

[CrealCritter]

first I want to say hi to both you @crealbilly and you too @Chic Rustler I've been gone a while and am slowly but surely catching up on all the older members and you new guys too. both of youall's gardens look really great.
all I did in my gardentoday was pour a concoction I made up for what is left of my goat savaged tomato plants. take about a quart of milk, crush up a bunch of egg shells, coffee grounds and bunny poo and mix it all together, let it set for a few days to brew and then pour it on the dirt around your tomato plants and water it in, good for what ails them. it has been to hot around here for them to set blooms but I'm hoping to encourage them for fall tomatos. gave a shot to the squash that's left too. the goats pulled up and ate all of my cucumber and pepper plants so I'm just going to let that go for this year. getting ready to do a little fall planting too. thanks for the concern over my dogs crealbilly. the young one is doing just fine but the old one still doesn't feel great. you can tell by how she acts, hopefully she will come out of it but she is 14 so it might take her a while.

Hey there Goatgurl thanks for the welcome - I really like this site the people here are awesome!!!

 

[CrealCritter]

Just had to again... Butter, brown sugar bake @ 400 untill the flesh is tender and it's desert!!! This is my very first time growing butternut squash and I'm kicking myself wondering why???

How long does butternut squash keep? I'm wanting to cook 6 or so for Thanksgiving dinner.

 

[Beekissed]

They keep better than most squash, I've found. Especially if you have a good place to keep them....cool and dry.

 

[CrealCritter]

Cantaloupe

Had a bad spot where a bug got a taste but that's ok... easy to cut off and the chickens love it. Besides I would rather have a bad spot from a bug than eat chemical pesticides any day of the week. A lot sweeter than store bought also.

Save the seeds the ones that float in water are hollow / immature / won't sprout. Skim them off and give to the chickens.

Left with mostly good seeds that sank to the bottom.

Dump strainer on to a rag to suck up moisture and spread out on a paper plates to dry. I check them in a few days. They will most likely stick to the plate but easy to scrape off and put in a sealed paper envelope for storage to sow next year.

I'm surprised I got so many good seeds from this one cantaloupe. Usally don't get that many good ones.

 

[Beekissed]

Playing catch up, but the garden has been the worst we've ever grown in our lives, despite better soils, plenty of rain, good spacing, good seed, etc. Seems all the gardens I pass across this state seem the same way, so it's not just us.

Was away for a couple of weeks, so the weeds took over, the tomatoes grew wild~not producing much anyway, so not much of a loss, but still, and everything else started growing fungus.

The chickens and dogs took half my spud crop, located in compost rings inside the dog's boundary, but was able to salvage the lower two rings of spuds. Not much but still a good return on the little sack of spuds planted...if the whole harvest had been obtained, it would have been a pretty good crop for the number planted.

The onions didn't make....again. Golf ball size and no more.

Suffice to say, the garden was a bust this year except a few good growth items~sugar snap peas were show quality, got some pretty rhubarb here and there but one plant up and died and the other is struggling, still have one producing. The Fortex beans put on a good show despite horrible JB infestation problems. The tomatoes are too leggy, the blooms too sparse and not producing despite many, many pollinators, the fruit is quarter the size it should be and slow to ripen. The lettuce and bok choy under the low tunnel did exceptionally well, but I've been unable to replant any tunnels since then, so will try again this week so as to get a winter harvest if I can.

Didn't get a single yellow squash and only three cukes, despite many plants planted...this is so rare as to have never happened to us before in all our lives. Squash beetle infestations killed everything resembling squash or cukes and I tried everything in my natural arsenal to stop it, but there were just too, too many. Same thing happened in my son's garden.

The flowers grew beautifully this year, though they are infected with fungus right now and have been half the summer....just too much rain, too hot of weather.

So, that's the garden review for this year....worst garden we've ever had in the history of this family. Will get a very small crop of tomatoes but we'll be gone when that happens, so hoping the housesitter will pick them and put them in the freezer.

Disappointing, to say the least, but truly beyond my control, so I won't beat myself up about it.

 

[CrealCritter]

Water Malone

I've been growing the same line of sugar babies for at least a decade now from previous year saved seeds.

It's never a let down, lives up to it's name, very sweet, perfect for the refrigerator and sized just right for two.

As my wife says if it don't have seeds, it's not a water melon - it's an it.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Lovely! Watermelon is my daughter's favorite but it's never grown well for me. Maybe it's the climate, or maybe it's me! Lol

I am just waiting for it to storm here- and hope it's enough for me to not have to water!

 

[CrealCritter]

Lovely! Watermelon is my daughter's favorite but it's never grown well for me. Maybe it's the climate, or maybe it's me! Lol

I am just waiting for it to storm here- and hope it's enough for me to not have to water!

I found for melons in general, if you don't water them they do a lot better. I know this sounds odd expecially for "water" melons. But i found they do better and root deeper, if they have to find their own water.

It's hard to not water them, expecially when the leaves droop. But If I give them supplemental water - they don't root as deep, don't grow as well and produce very little...

Maybe that might help - IDK?

My son taught me this by mistake one year. He sowed a bunch of melons and sortly after had to leave for work for the big part of the summer. It was a mild draught year that year. When he came back twords the end of summer and waded out in his melon patch patch full of weeds - he picked the best tasting melons he ever grew. Every since then I try and leave them be as much as possible and they have done well every since. I guess it's to easy to love them to death :lol

 

[Mini Horses]

Picked 28 lbs of butternut today. That is over 60# from only 3 vines!! They are still setting & growing fruits! Talk about overproducers...wow. Oddly, 2 vines produce large squash for the most part -- 3.5-5 lb -- other produces only smaller fruits that are 1.5-2.5 lb. Taste the same. Yummy! The vines are taking over & have consumed the tomato plants.

Looking at a feast.

Limas doing well. Many pods are full sized now & starting to fill. I'd say my first batch will be 2-3 weeks. Vines are full of pods and blooms. Should have plenty.

May go to produce auction & get a few tomatoes to can. May not. LOL

 

[CrealCritter]

Wow and from three vines to.