jjannie's 2020 gardening

[wiperhunter2]

yeah they typically won't start curling until they get little larger. Our second batch started sprouting yesterday. These pods stay pretty flat like yours were until they start forming peas inside. But the pods alone work nice in a stir fry and our granddaughters get kick out shelling and eating any that have larger peas in them. once we get this round harvested, we'll start another round that we'll harvest in late fall - rolling them inside if any hard freezes are forecasted.

Jeff planted one half of SP that I was growing slips in the greenhouse for fun of it. Pretty sure it will never give anything to harvest but it'd sure make a nice looking houseplant - LOL.  My slips are looking pretty good, and I hope they really start growing soon, but mine are never as grandiose as yours look so we'll see what I end up with once we harvest them later this fall.

With the hotter temps in your GH, you might be surprised how well your SP grow.

[jjannie]

The SP vine has taken over the GH but we doubt its going to have any potatoes growing beneath it - but we shall see eventually. The green beans have vines everywhere and they are even creeping through edges of our polycarbonate panels and growing outside as well. The cherry tomatoes have really spread and we have them tied up to the support structures to keep them off other plants.

The SP in box out front have over grown well surpassing the growth of last year so we are hoping we get some good potatoes from it.

The melons - have about 3 watermelons that are maturing nicely, and I think 6 cantaloupes that seem to get bigger each day. So fingers crossed.

We are about to be overloaded once again on Armenian cukes. the GH has produced very well and the ones in the bales have several that will be ready in a couple weeks. Need any? Our neighbors are making out well as we have ben sharing with them.

[wiperhunter2]

The SP vine has taken over the GH but we doubt its going to have any potatoes growing beneath it - but we shall see eventually. The green beans have vines everywhere and they are even creeping through edges of our polycarbonate panels and growing outside as well. The cherry tomatoes have really spread and we have them tied up to the support structures to keep them off other plants.

The SP in box out front have over grown well surpassing the growth of last year so we are hoping we get some good potatoes from it.

The melons - have about 3 watermelons that are maturing nicely, and I think 6 cantaloupes that seem to get bigger each day.  So fingers crossed.

We are about to be overloaded once again on Armenian cukes. the GH has produced very well and the ones in the bales have several that will be ready in a couple weeks. Need any? Our neighbors are making out well as we have ben sharing with them.

If you are getting a lot of vines, that is a good thing, at least it was for my SP plants. From the sounds of it your GH is working out really good and all this hot weather has your outside garden is doing well too. We are starting to get the green grapes coming on now, maybe you and Jeff would like some of them? We are getting more cukes than we can handle right now but thanks for the offer.

[jjannie]

The SP vine has taken over the GH but we doubt its going to have any potatoes growing beneath it - but we shall see eventually. The green beans have vines everywhere and they are even creeping through edges of our polycarbonate panels and growing outside as well. The cherry tomatoes have really spread and we have them tied up to the support structures to keep them off other plants.

The SP in box out front have over grown well surpassing the growth of last year so we are hoping we get some good potatoes from it.

The melons - have about 3 watermelons that are maturing nicely, and I think 6 cantaloupes that seem to get bigger each day.  So fingers crossed.

We are about to be overloaded once again on Armenian cukes. the GH has produced very well and the ones in the bales have several that will be ready in a couple weeks. Need any? Our neighbors are making out well as we have ben sharing with them.

If you are getting a lot of vines, that is a good thing, at least it was for my SP plants. From the sounds of it your GH is working out really good and all this hot weather has your outside garden is doing well too. We are starting to get the green grapes coming on now, maybe you and Jeff would like some of them? We are getting more cukes than we can handle right now but thanks for the offer.

 The cantaloupes have done really nicely so we will do them again next year. We only got one watermelon to full size and ripeness so think we'll do something else in that bed next year. So far frost has not annihilated the SPs just yet although we have some 32* temps and those winds earlier its still growing well so guess maybe it has just enough shelter  from the trees and some heat from the bricks on our house.

[Jig-fisher]

I know WH2 mentioned this thread last year when I posted some of my fall harvest of my backyard orchard.  I have 4 apple trees, 4 plum trees, 1 apricot, 1 peach, 2 cherry and 2 pear trees.  The cherry, peach, and pear trees are recent additions and are not yet producing.  I also have a raspberry patch and 2 varieties of grapes.   I grow very limited things in my garden patch.  I put in garden boxes this year.  Mostly tomatoes, peppers both hot and bell, and tomatillos.  This is to can tomatoes and make fresh salsa.  I also grow cucumbers, a little bit of peas and beans just to eat fresh, raddishes, a few carrots, summer squash both yellow and zucchini, then leave a big space for pumpkins.  

I have canned 21 quarts of tomatoes, which my wife uses primarily to make homemade pasta sauce during the year.  I have made several batches of fresh salsa which goes like wildfire in the house.  

As far as fruit, our berries have been doing fantastic and we are still picking every 3 days.  The Jupiter grapes have done really well and I did 13 quarts of juice recently.  The Neptune grapes are just ripening and are also really good. The plums did well on 3 of the 4 trees, and I dried and froze a bunch.  3 of the 4 apple trees did well and I have already harvested the Ruby Jon and the Cortland.  I made sauce and have a lot of fresh in the downstairs fridge.  My golden delicious is loaded and is nearing getting ready for harvest.  

I didn't get a lot of pumpkins but have 2 that are probably about 60 to 70 lbs. The rest are just small carving varieties.  

Now that I know where this is at I will check in regularly.  Sounds like you have great gardens.

[jjannie]

Great to have you join us on this board. Sounds like you have a great garden actually. Would love to see any pictures once you create your 2021 garden thread. We all learn from each other just like we learn about fishing, its really helpful. Where are you located? We're in Morgan County.

We avoid any fruit trees here as we don't like to spray them for pests due to a good sized back yard fish pond we have. We do have green grape vine we got from wiperhunter2 to try but it is not yet producing any fruit - hopefully we'll get a small harvest next year.

We haven't yet dug up our sweet potatoes which are work in progress for us but we've had much more vine growth above ground so our fingers are crossed that we will have decent harvest this year, we'll see.

We have an abundance of tomatoes as we grew more then usual this year trying several different options to compare what does the best. We planted some in large pots that allowed us protect them in the spring and now again in the fall by moving them into the garage if any threat of frost is possible, some are in the greenhouse so they're still doing great, and we have some in our straw bale garden that have frosted so we've harvested those. Some that were in the ground in protected area all got harvested yesterday. We too have canned tomato juice, spag sauce and salsa. Yesterday's harvest we are going to can up with tomato soup that we found recipe for we really like. Any green tomatoes that got harvested we've put in the cooler basement like we did last year that kept us in tomatoes all thru Feb, so we're doing it again this year.

[wiperhunter2]

I know WH2 mentioned this thread last year when I posted some of my fall harvest of my backyard orchard.  I have 4 apple trees, 4 plum trees, 1 apricot, 1 peach, 2 cherry and 2 pear trees.  The cherry, peach, and pear trees are recent additions and are not yet producing.  I also have a raspberry patch and 2 varieties of grapes.   I grow very limited things in my garden patch.  I put in garden boxes this year.  Mostly tomatoes, peppers both hot and bell, and tomatillos.  This is to can tomatoes and make fresh salsa.  I also grow cucumbers, a little bit of peas and beans just to eat fresh, raddishes, a few carrots, summer squash both yellow and zucchini, then leave a big space for pumpkins.  

I have canned 21 quarts of tomatoes, which my wife uses primarily to make homemade pasta sauce during the year.  I have made several batches of fresh salsa which goes like wildfire in the house.  

As far as fruit, our berries have been doing fantastic and we are still picking every 3 days.  The Jupiter grapes have done really well and I did 13 quarts of juice recently.  The Neptune grapes are just ripening and are also really good. The plums did well on 3 of the 4 trees, and I dried and froze a bunch.  3 of the 4 apple trees did well and I have already harvested the Ruby Jon and the Cortland.  I made sauce and have a lot of fresh in the downstairs fridge.  My golden delicious is loaded and is nearing getting ready for harvest.  

I didn't get a lot of pumpkins but have 2 that are probably about 60 to 70 lbs. The rest are just small carving varieties.  

Now that I know where this is at I will check in regularly.  Sounds like you have great gardens.

Seems like you really have the fruit trees nailed down. I've been thinking for several year about adding a plum tree to my group of fruit trees. Had a really good harvest of peaches this year, just finished up freezing drying the last batch a few days ago. Do your plum trees need more than one to pollinate or are all 4 different varieties?

[Jig-fisher]

Great to have you join us on this board. Sounds like you have a great garden actually. Would love to see any pictures once you create your 2021 garden thread. We all learn from each other just like we learn about fishing, its really helpful. Where are you located?  We're in Morgan County.

We avoid any fruit trees here as we don't like to spray them for pests due to a good sized back yard fish pond we have. We do have green grape vine we got from wiperhunter2 to try but it is not yet producing any fruit - hopefully we'll get a small harvest next year.

We haven't yet dug up our sweet potatoes which are work in progress for us but we've had much more vine growth above ground so our fingers are crossed that we will have decent harvest this year, we'll see.

We have an abundance of tomatoes as we grew more then usual this year trying several different options to compare what does the best. We planted some in large pots that allowed us protect them in the spring and now again in the fall by moving them into the garage if any threat of frost is possible, some are in the greenhouse so they're still doing great, and we have some in our straw bale garden that have frosted so we've harvested those. Some that were in the ground in protected area all got harvested yesterday. We too have canned tomato juice, spag sauce and salsa. Yesterday's harvest we are going to can up with tomato soup that we found recipe for we really like. Any green tomatoes that got harvested we've put in the cooler basement like we did last year that kept us in tomatoes all thru Feb, so we're doing it again this year.

Sounds like you have a great garden.  I am in Davis County, so quite a bit warmer than up in Morgan County.

---

I know WH2 mentioned this thread last year when I posted some of my fall harvest of my backyard orchard.  I have 4 apple trees, 4 plum trees, 1 apricot, 1 peach, 2 cherry and 2 pear trees.  The cherry, peach, and pear trees are recent additions and are not yet producing.  I also have a raspberry patch and 2 varieties of grapes.   I grow very limited things in my garden patch.  I put in garden boxes this year.  Mostly tomatoes, peppers both hot and bell, and tomatillos.  This is to can tomatoes and make fresh salsa.  I also grow cucumbers, a little bit of peas and beans just to eat fresh, raddishes, a few carrots, summer squash both yellow and zucchini, then leave a big space for pumpkins.  

I have canned 21 quarts of tomatoes, which my wife uses primarily to make homemade pasta sauce during the year.  I have made several batches of fresh salsa which goes like wildfire in the house.  

As far as fruit, our berries have been doing fantastic and we are still picking every 3 days.  The Jupiter grapes have done really well and I did 13 quarts of juice recently.  The Neptune grapes are just ripening and are also really good. The plums did well on 3 of the 4 trees, and I dried and froze a bunch.  3 of the 4 apple trees did well and I have already harvested the Ruby Jon and the Cortland.  I made sauce and have a lot of fresh in the downstairs fridge.  My golden delicious is loaded and is nearing getting ready for harvest.  

I didn't get a lot of pumpkins but have 2 that are probably about 60 to 70 lbs. The rest are just small carving varieties.  

Now that I know where this is at I will check in regularly.  Sounds like you have great gardens.

Seems like you really have the fruit trees nailed down. I've been thinking for several year about adding a plum tree to my group of fruit trees. Had a really good harvest of peaches this year, just finished up freezing drying the last batch a few days ago. Do your plum trees need more than one to pollinate or are all 4 different varieties?

I have 4 different varieties, 2 that need each other for pollination.  What would you like to do with your plums if you decide to plant one?  Fresh eating, canning, drying or jelly?  I dry and eat them fresh.  My family isn't a big jam or jelly user, although I like it. A good single self pollinating tree is an Italian plum.  It is a purple with yellow flesh European variety, blooms later in the spring, and is a good all around plum.  It ripens late, (I am going to pick mine tomorrow) and is freestone which makes for easy eating and working with it.  Very sweet and flavorful.  Although I like all my plum varieties for differing reasons, mostly because I have plums ripening from June through October, I have not had anyone say they did not like this plum.

[wiperhunter2]

I have 4 different varieties, 2 that need each other for pollination.  What would you like to do with your plums if you decide to plant one?  Fresh eating, canning, drying or jelly?  I dry and eat them fresh.  My family isn't a big jam or jelly user, although I like it. A good single self pollinating tree is an Italian plum.  It is a purple with yellow flesh European variety, blooms later in the spring, and is a good all around plum.  It ripens late, (I am going to pick mine tomorrow) and is freestone which makes for easy eating and working with it.  Very sweet and flavorful.  Although I like all my plum varieties for differing reasons, mostly because I have plums ripening from June through October, I have not had anyone say they did not like this plum.

We do not eat refined sugar and are strictly low carb people, so we would only eat them fresh and we would freeze dry what we don't eat, to enjoy later during the Winter. i like the idea of a self pollinating tree and have tried the variety of plum you are talking about but we like a more tart plum with purple flesh.I agree with you I have not tried a plum that I don't like. Have you ever tried to grow a plum tree from the seed of one of your plums. I have been very successful doing that with my peach tree, just wasn't sure if it would work with plums. I kept one of the seeds from my neighbors plum tree this year, that has purple flesh and is tart, just not very big, I'm just not sure if I can grow a tree from it.

[Jig-fisher]

I have 4 different varieties, 2 that need each other for pollination.  What would you like to do with your plums if you decide to plant one?  Fresh eating, canning, drying or jelly?  I dry and eat them fresh.  My family isn't a big jam or jelly user, although I like it. A good single self pollinating tree is an Italian plum.  It is a purple with yellow flesh European variety, blooms later in the spring, and is a good all around plum.  It ripens late, (I am going to pick mine tomorrow) and is freestone which makes for easy eating and working with it.  Very sweet and flavorful.  Although I like all my plum varieties for differing reasons, mostly because I have plums ripening from June through October, I have not had anyone say they did not like this plum.

We do not eat refined sugar and are strictly low carb people, so we would only eat them fresh and we would freeze dry what we don't eat, to enjoy later during the Winter. i like the idea of a self pollinating tree and have tried the variety of plum you are talking about but we like a more tart plum with purple flesh.I agree with you I have not tried a plum that I don't like. Have you ever tried to grow a plum tree from the seed of one of your plums. I have been very successful doing that with my peach tree, just wasn't sure if it would work with plums. I kept one of the seeds from my neighbors plum tree this year, that has purple flesh and is tart, just not very big, I'm just not sure if I can grow a tree from it.

I have not tried to grow any from seed.  I bet it would work. All mine were either container grown or bare root trees.  I have 2 trees that had multiple grafts of different varieties.  I have cut out 2 of the grafts just because I did not like them and a 3rd graft that I only keep to help with pollination.  So in reality I have 6 varieties of plums and 4 trees.  Nearly all my trees are dwarf and semi-dwarf.  They still produce a lot of fruit, but are easy to prune and manage their size.  What kind is your neighbors tree?

[wiperhunter2]

I have 4 different varieties, 2 that need each other for pollination.  What would you like to do with your plums if you decide to plant one?  Fresh eating, canning, drying or jelly?  I dry and eat them fresh.  My family isn't a big jam or jelly user, although I like it. A good single self pollinating tree is an Italian plum.  It is a purple with yellow flesh European variety, blooms later in the spring, and is a good all around plum.  It ripens late, (I am going to pick mine tomorrow) and is freestone which makes for easy eating and working with it.  Very sweet and flavorful.  Although I like all my plum varieties for differing reasons, mostly because I have plums ripening from June through October, I have not had anyone say they did not like this plum.

We do not eat refined sugar and are strictly low carb people, so we would only eat them fresh and we would freeze dry what we don't eat, to enjoy later during the Winter. i like the idea of a self pollinating tree and have tried the variety of plum you are talking about but we like a more tart plum with purple flesh.I agree with you I have not tried a plum that I don't like. Have you ever tried to grow a plum tree from the seed of one of your plums. I have been very successful doing that with my peach tree, just wasn't sure if it would work with plums. I kept one of the seeds from my neighbors plum tree this year, that has purple flesh and is tart, just not very big, I'm just not sure if I can grow a tree from it.

I have not tried to grow any from seed.  I bet it would work. All mine were either container grown or bare root trees.  I have 2 trees that had multiple grafts of different varieties.  I have cut out 2 of the grafts just because I did not like them and a 3rd graft that I only keep to help with pollination.  So in reality I have 6 varieties of plums and 4 trees.  Nearly all my trees are dwarf and semi-dwarf.  They still produce a lot of fruit, but are easy to prune and manage their size.  What kind is your neighbors tree?

I don't really know what variety they are, and I haven't ask but several neighbor have them but never harvest them, they as small in size, dark purple, pretty round and really blend in well with the color of the leaves, matter of fact they are hard to even see, unless you look really close.

[jjannie]

We've learned some things this year:

1. Our soil temps is way too cool for growing sweet potatoes. While we improved their growing conditions this year and they did better, but still only got about as big as large carrots. Also our growing season just may not be long enough as well. 

2. Carrots - Frist we tried some in the greenhouse. Their soil got some time release fertilizer added to it along with water soluble fertilizers. This added fertilizer seem to have been culprit that caused them to be so badly branched out. We later planted replacements in a similar dirt mixture but not in greenhouse - they did pretty well. (see pic) Pretty sure if they had whole season they would have all matured nicely, very sweet tasting. 

3. 5 degree night temps  - Got a couple chilly nights and the heater could not  keep thing warm enough  - lost the cukes and tomatoes but the onions and carrots are still okay. 

4. The greenhouse - so happy to have had it and we are looking to slightly expand it but cant fit a full size of the one we already have - so we'll see. We were very happy we had it. 

5. Melons  - are watermelons have never don't great and this year was no different. The cantaloupe did great. So next year we'll plant the cantaloupe in the watermelon bed and grow something else in their bed.

6. Bales - Next year we won't be doing the bales. We have new plan for the area we had the bale garden in - its a surprise! Another garden test. 

 

[wiperhunter2]

Nice harvest of carrots and SP, too bad the SP were not bigger. Are there two different varieties, if so, does each variety they have a different taste?

[jjannie]

Nice harvest of carrots and SP, too bad the SP were not bigger. Are there two different varieties, if so, does each variety they have a different taste?

 We noticed that as well. The seeds all came from one seed package we bought. They were supposed to all orange but I'm guessing there were some errant seeds at the vendor that snuck into our package.  Those yellow ones are a little sweeter than the orange ones but we have no idea what kind they are. SP - We figure our soil temp must just be too cool for growing them here. Even the one we grew in the greenhouse didn't have any larger ones.

[jjannie]

Well winter has arrived. So guess we'll be harvesting the last of the GH carrots and green onions so we can turn off the little heater we've had in there. 

Already thinking about our new plans for next year's gardening.  

Hope to expand our GH as much as space allows in the spring. It definitely paid off having it if growing here.

[Cowboypirate]

I really enjoyed reading some of the older posts here - has me excited for next year.

Moving back to Henefer in early summer really messed with my garden plans. But I am really looking forward to get back in the game next spring and sharing some of our stuff. I love to try to grow melons and such that have no business growing in Utah. Got to find a spot for grapes and where will I have my giant pumpkin patch? Maybe, now I am this close to the ranch again, I will have to till up the old patch that was so good to me 20 years ago.

[wiperhunter2]

I really enjoyed reading some of the older posts here - has me excited for next year.

Moving back to Henefer in early summer really messed with my garden plans. But I am really looking forward to get back in the game next spring and sharing some of our stuff. I love to try to grow melons and such that have no business growing in Utah. Got to find a spot for grapes and where will I have my giant pumpkin patch? Maybe, now I am this close to the ranch again, I will have to till up the old patch that was so good to me 20 years ago.

How big were these giant pumpkins you use to grow?

[Cowboypirate]

I had a couple getting up towards 100 lbs at the ranch when the squirrels got to them. I know that's not really a giant, but they could have been 300 if they could have finished out. I been reading up on growing true giants this fall and looking at where to start amending a good plot at the ranch

[wiperhunter2]

I had a couple getting up towards 100 lbs at the ranch when the squirrels got to them. I know that's not really a giant, but they could have been 300 if they could have finished out. I been reading up on growing true giants this fall and looking at where to start amending a good plot at the ranch

Check out this pumpkin that were grown right behind out house.

[Cowboypirate]

Ya. I am not anywhere near that in my pumpkin journey.

Here is my early attempts at the ranch and again in Morgan