Lets see your garden !

[finsruskw]

Digging spuds at week 15 week for Farmers markets.
Somewhere around 400 pounds so far, mostly sold and given away to friends and the local food bank.
These are Kennebec, a very nice white thin skinned potato, great for baking and just about anything else.
Some hills are yielding 3+ pounds!
beans are coming on strong now so will have some of them on the table this next market.

 

[Karl_T]

We need to add a bit of home machinist work to this thread...

First anybody peel potatoes with their drill press or mill? Just put a toilet bowl brush in the spindle. Put about 3 -5 pounds of spuds in a five gallon pail 1/2 full of water. Run at high speed for a few minutes. BANG yer done!

Second, I built a one row potato digger. here's a pic as it came out of the shop a few years ago:

 

[Larry$]

We've had exceptionally good rain this year. But now it is hot & dry, typical. Cool weather crops are all done. Cucumber plants have grown over the trellises and up a nearby tree to over 12' high. I've been giving them to anyone that will take them. Tomato plants are loaded, I got behind on pruning them, now they are a jungle. Lots of very nice solid fruits. Peppers are loaded and starting to turn colors. Most herbs are still doing well. I've traded with neighbors for things I didn't grow. I have two horse radish plants that have grown huge. Will process them this fall.

 

[finsruskw]

We need to add a bit of home machinist work to this thread...

First anybody peel potatoes with their drill press or mill? Just put a toilet bowl brush in the spindle. Put about 3 -5 pounds of spuds in a five gallon pail 1/2 full of water. Run at high speed for a few minutes. BANG yer done!

Second, I built a one row potato digger. here's a pic as it came out of the shop a few years ago:

View attachment 498434

My son just called last night and he has an idea for a digger to install on my Cub Cadet loader rig based on a rock bucket.
Something like an oversized sileage fork I presume to just go down one row at a time.
Will learn more about this when he gets home tomorrow.

 

[Just for fun]

We need to add a bit of home machinist work to this thread...

First anybody peel potatoes with their drill press or mill? Just put a toilet bowl brush in the spindle. Put about 3 -5 pounds of spuds in a five gallon pail 1/2 full of water. Run at high speed for a few minutes. BANG yer done!

Second, I built a one row potato digger. here's a pic as it came out of the shop a few years ago:

View attachment 498434

That's quite the machine you have there Karl.

 

[homebrewed]

Today I spent about 2 hours picking tomatoes in our garden. It doesn't seem to matter if the varieties are supposed to be early or late, it seems like they all want to ripen at the same time. Maybe it's a space-tomato singularity created by all those tomatoes in close proximity:


Most of the garden plants in this photo are different tomato varieties.

Along with the tomatoes, we have something else interesting happening in the garden --



Those are a variety of edible mushroom, Stropharia Rugosoannulata (also see here) . Not commonly grown in the US, they're more popular in Europe. We have tried them but weren't impressed by their flavor. Vaguely mushroomy. So folks might be asking why we're going to the effort of growing mushrooms we don't like, and the reason has nothing to do with their culinary value. We use a lot of so-called "arbor chips" in our garden, to control the weeds and reduce water usage. The Stropharia mycelium (somewhat like plant roots) are pretty aggressive decomposers, so they quickly turn raw wood chips into compost.

We get the arbor chips for free so we're saving a fair amount of money compared to going someplace and buying several yards of their compost.

I'm going to try drying some to see if that will concentrate their flavor, for use as mushroom powder in soups and stews. What the heck, the're free!

 

[Larry$]

I've had a bumper crop of tomatoes from just 5 plants this year. I give them to my kids and neighbors. Plants are still loaded with green ones but the season is rapidly nearing the end. Last year I made green tomato relish and caned some ripe ones at the end of the season. I have a very small garden, mulch with leaves and mowed grass. Compost all year and turn it under in the spring. Don't use any chemicals. Bugs got to eat too!

 

[Karl_T]

We had a bumper crop from our 30 plants as well. As we have a road side market, the extras sold quite well. They will be played out in another ten days or so. just enough to have on salads and sandwiched till they freeze. Always bring in 1/2 bushel or so the last possible day before a killing frost to have fresh tomatoes till late October.

 

[WobblyHand]

I seem to have a crop of ground hogs. . One has figured out that it can climb chicken wire fence. Saw him at 5pm eating my green beans. If it wasn't for the fact that there were two panes of glass and a screen between me and him, I'd have taken a shot at him. He was only 7 feet away! I opened the kitchen door and he climbed the fence and then dove under my kitchen porch. This is the first time I've seen him in the garden. Trying to make it the last time.

About the only thing producing right now are some chillies, the green beans, and a few cherry tomatoes. The other stuff is basically spent.

I have an IR sensor that rings when he emerges from under the porch. Just haven't been able to get a clean and safe shot these past three days...