when are you sowing your garden this year?

[rbeau30]

Added one 4x8 foot raised bed. Filled with a years worth of compost and EKO planters mix.

Planted two heads worth of garlic cloves for the summer!

Ill take pics in the morning!


EDIT:

[Brian]

Can you plant garlic cloves in 5gal buckets or other containers?

I want to get some more garlic in the ground, but I am planning to redo my soil mixture in early spring (or still in very late fall if I get around to it).

Or... does garlic transplant well?

[rbeau30]

Can you plant garlic cloves in 5gal buckets or other containers?

I want to get some more garlic in the ground, but I am planning to redo my soil mixture in early spring (or still in very late fall if I get around to it).

Or... does garlic transplant well?

I have read that they do very well in barrel planters, like the whisky barrels or 55 gallon drum tops and bottoms. Haven't actually tried it yet. My 5 gallon buckets are being reserved for potatoes this upcoming year.

[Dave]

Haven't tried garlic, but I know from experience that leeks and bulb onions do great in wine barrel planters, and they are in the same family.

[rbeau30]

I have been watching a lot of this guy's videos. Good info.

[Brian]

Looks like it's going to be very cold for a while starting Tuesday. This is my first year planting garlic, so I'm not sure I know what I'm doing. Am I better of getting it in the ground tomorrow, maybe covering it with some black plastic, or skipping and hoping that it gets warmer after this "polar vortex" rolls through? I know it would have been better if I had planted it all this time last month, but...

My gut says to plant it tomorrow... but then again I used my gut in the spring and I didn't exactly have an amazing garden this year. LOL.

[rbeau30]

Looks like it's going to be very cold for a while starting Tuesday. This is my first year planting garlic, so I'm not sure I know what I'm doing. Am I better of getting it in the ground tomorrow, maybe covering it with some black plastic, or skipping and hoping that it gets warmer after this "polar vortex" rolls through? I know it would have been better if I had planted it all this time last month, but...

My gut says to plant it tomorrow... but then again I used my gut in the spring and I didn't exactly have an amazing garden this year. LOL.

I say go for it... If they don't sprout up in the spring just replant some. Perhaps put some mulch over the top of it straw, chopped up leaves, shredded newspaper, etc.



I was out in the beds yesterday picking the last of the tomatoes. Today I'm going to pick all of the green tomatoes and do something with them run the tomato vine carcasses though the chipper. Wow it has been a year with a LOT of learning! EDIT: I will be dehydrating the green tomatoes to make "tomato chips" out of them.


UPDATE TO MY GARDEN:

I now have 3 - 4x8 foot raised beds. I am going to plan on doing a LOT more vertical farming this year to maximize my space. I also am going to try to find a place to put a smaller 2x2 or 4x4 bed so I can dedicate that to sunchokes.

- I got some red and white sunchoke bulbs in the mail. These supposedly grow with very little effort but they can take off and they are hard to get rid of, so a small bed it all I am going to do for these. Supposedly these are native to North America and grow everywhere.
- I just got my Scarlet Runner Bean "seeds" in the mail yesterday. Very Beautiful Purple/black beans. These are also native to north america, and are easy to grow. I hope to grow these on some sort of trellis, and let them dry on the vine and store them. I want to work them into my diet so I can rotate them out and have a good stock of them on hand.
- One bed has my garlic already in the ground for a couple weeks already. I have some hardneck and softnecks planted around the perimeter of the raised bed. We will see how that goes! I want to be able to get a good stock going and plant what I grow and eat what I grow on the above three items.
- I am going to plan out the tomatoes a lot more. I had 6 plants in two beds this year and they TOOK OVER! They got well over 8 feet tall this year and bent over the trellis' that I had. I had very little room for anything else. I am also going to plan on rotating the tomatoes every year to a different bed so the soil has time to recover. I have some heirloom "Indigo Apple" tomatoes I'll try next year.

- My goal this winter is to learn more about Pruning trees in time for the spring. My fruit trees are in desperate need for pruning. I want to start doing it the right way.
- I plan on adding a second pear tree in the spring. i have one small pear tree that did really well, I heard they need pollination from another tree so hopefully this will help.
- I found some Palisade Cresthaven Peach trees at a nursery in Elizabeth that I liked, and I am going to try adding them this year. I got on their order list for when they get them in the spring in time for planting.

Since I have so many fruit trees, I want to research building a solar dehydrating box. Get some of these fruits that we can't eat all at once from going bad, and also not have to make so much jam and jelly.

Ohh and research on how to help protect the stuff from hail will be on the agenda this winter.


YUM! (I hope) (Sliced Green tomatoes and seasoned salt)

[rbeau30]

Okay, first batch of green tomatoes are okay I guess. The dehydrating seems to have REALLY intensified the flavor of them. I didn't put a lot of season salt on them so I don't think that is what it is.

Next batch I think I will put garlic salt and basil on them, and the batch after that will be plain.

I think I might just keep them in a jar to throw into soup or stew or something. Eating them like they are I think will take an acquired taste.

[Dave]

You might want to try kosher salt on them for about 5 to 10 minutes and then adding garlic powder and dried basil. The salt will help pull some excess moisture out and allow some salt to enter the cell membranes through osmotic equilibrium.

[rbeau30]

You might want to try kosher salt on them for about 5 to 10 minutes and then adding garlic powder and dried basil. The salt will help pull some excess moisture out and allow some salt to enter the cell membranes through osmotic equilibrium.

I'll do that next batch. I had so many Green tomatoes I don't want them to go to waste. Some of them taste good. Surprisingly, compared to raw green tomatoes which have very little flavor the dehydrated ones are quite intense.

I can always have them on hand to throw a handful of them in a stew or roast.

I need the ability to dehydrate more stuff faster.