Something Ripened This Way Comes

[DCM]

Anyone else here enjoy growing their own fruit/veggies? I mainly grow winter squash, got some Turk's turbans, kuris and sugar pumpkins growing this year. I ate the first home-grown squash of the year at the weekend, one of the sugar pumpkins. Just cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and roasted it with butter, chopped sage and salt. Served it as a side with a big BBQued ribeye steak. 10/10.

[mgil]

I've got some massive blackberry plants in the backyard. I pulled about a pound off just the other day. Awesome.

My folks grow peppers and tomatoes. Tomatoes are so damned good when ripe and so lame when store bought. I have some friends that grow squash, but I've never tried. I'm up against a wetland preserve and the rabbits and other vermin are tough to fend off. The only thing I have left is mint that is a weed and is trying to take over the yard.

[quark]

In a recent episode of BBC Gardeners' World, rabbits ate one of the host's vegetable plots. He enclosed the next round with chicken wire and that cured the rabbit problem. He made sure the fencing went deep, so the rabbits could not easily burrow under it.

[DCM]

In a recent episode of BBC Gardeners' World, rabbits ate one of the host's vegetable plots. He enclosed the next round with chicken wire and that cured the rabbit problem. He made sure the fencing went deep, so the rabbits could not easily burrow under it.

Great programme. I love Monty Don, I find watching/listening to him incredibly soothing.

[DCM]

I've got some massive blackberry plants in the backyard. I pulled about a pound off just the other day. Awesome.

My folks grow peppers and tomatoes. Tomatoes are so damned good when ripe and so lame when store bought. I have some friends that grow squash, but I've never tried. I'm up against a wetland preserve and the rabbits and other vermin are tough to fend off. The only thing I have left is mint that is a weed and is trying to take over the yard.

I tried growing tomatoes the last couple of years but they always succumb to blight. Bought some local "heritage" tomatoes last week and they're amazing, almost candy-like in their sweetness. Supermarket tomatoes are so bland by comparison, like you say. With squashes, trellising helps keep them away from slugs, snails, etc. Also saves on space as they sprawl like crazy.

[quark]

In a recent episode of BBC Gardeners' World, rabbits ate one of the host's vegetable plots. He enclosed the next round with chicken wire and that cured the rabbit problem. He made sure the fencing went deep, so the rabbits could not easily burrow under it.

Great programme. I love Monty Don, I find watching/listening to him incredibly soothing.

Exactly! Plus there's Carol Klein, who is as enthusiastic as Monty is soothing.

[brkriete]

The only thing I have left is mint that is a weed and is trying to take over the yard.

Smells so good when you mow it - I have a couple patches and I love going over them.

I'm growing some lettuce and scallions in an elevated planter right now and some green beans on a tipi of sticks because I thought my kids would like watching them climb. Next year I'd like to grow a bunch of basil so I can make pesto.

[iamsmu]

The soil in my raised bed is all tapped out. The garden was a failure this year. I'm only getting herbs and kittens.



I just looked back at some pictures of the garden at my old house, where I had a lot of good sun and 4 raised beds. I feel like I'm going to cry:





It got bigger and bigger every year.





The woman next door filled that gap with arborvitaes. That killed about half the sun and it was just going to get worse and they got taller. All good things. . . .

[DCM]

How heartbreaking, such a beautiful garden you had there, and lovely veg too - pattypans are good eating!

[ch]

\I tried growing tomatoes the last couple of years but they always succumb to blight. Bought some local "heritage" tomatoes last week and they're amazing, almost candy-like in their sweetness. Supermarket tomatoes are so bland by comparison, like you say. With squashes, trellising helps keep them away from slugs, snails, etc. Also saves on space as they sprawl like crazy.

All of our lower branches of tomatoes are blighted. Hoping that the top branches survive. Been using copper sulfate more aggressively. The cherry tomatoes survived, at least.

We're having problems with lettuce, though. Tried to start it outdoors, and barely anything sprouted. The soil we bought was filled with spores. After a big rain they all germinated, completely covering the soil, then died the same day when the sun came out. The lettuce seedlings we started indoors were limp. After we transplanted them, they got destroyed by caterpillars.

I've got basil for days, though.

[iamsmu]

I've got some massive blackberry plants in the backyard. I pulled about a pound off just the other day. Awesome.

My grandfather used to take me for blackberry gathering expeditions in the woods at our country house. We'd come back with huge bowls of blackberries. They'd freeze most of them. There was an extra freezer that was mainly filled with Blackberries in a side room. Every time I'd go to their house (at least once a week), I'd thaw a bowl with a little sugar on top.

They had a hundred something acres out in Porter TX. The 10 acres around the house where my GGmother lived was well farmed. My GD had about 3 acres as his private garden. I loved it out there. . . . He had a field of corn and another of watermelons. That on top of a huge vegetable garden.

[Skander]

Our apartment had a yard, and we had a small garden. We weren't really planning on getting a house, but bam it happened right after I planted cherry tomatoes, squash, basil and bell peppers. We managed to move the basil and peppers, and some strawberries. The dream is to have strawberries, blueberries and some raspberries some day.

The yard is super sloped, but I'm thinking of trying to build a raised bed on a kind of crazy but very sunny spot and just make it level internally. Gonna involve a lot of math on that one...

[Skander]

Does anyone grow Thai basil? Does it bolt almost instantly for you? I can only make such much thai food to keep up with it.

The place we get plants from did grow the most amazing varietal of sweet basil this year. It's bulletproof, just amazing.

[cwd]

Basil is a very tough herb, it's in the same family with mint and oregano.

These are garden plants that will go feral and invade your lawn. And survive multiple mowings.

[Skander]

Basil is a very tough herb, it's in the same family with mint and oregano.

These are garden plants that will go feral and invade your lawn. And survive multiple mowings.

I've never had that with basil (but wouldn't mind tbh), though the previous tenants had planted mint directly in the ground... The fools!

I actually have a friend who did this intentionally to replace his lawn. He wasn't that into grass and apparently "it smells amazing when I mow!"

[ch]

Basil plants will get huge and bushy if you prune them regularly, but they won’t spread like mint. My basil is going insane right now, and we thought it was going to die when we transplanted the seedlings.

Blight is killing the tomatoes though. Probably going to lose all the plants without harvesting anything but cherry tomatoes.

[neandrewthal]

My basil always dies on me Mint is super easy though. I had one in a pot for years before I threw it out. I just recently got a bundle of cut mint from the grocery store and planted 4 of them directly into a planter and they took root. Just made some mint chutney for my tandoori chicken

I really wish cilantro grew like mint cause it's by far my most used herb by volume and I can't be arsed to keep planting it.

[ch]

Yeah I’m too lazy for cilantro. Planted three or four seedlings and tried to let them self-reseed. Didn’t work.

Basil, thyme, rosemary, mint doing well. Sage got squeezed out a bit by the basil, but it’s perennial, so we’ll transplant it to a better spot next year.

Having bad luck with lettuce. Direct sowed a bunch of seeds and only 5 or 6 germinated. The original stuff we started indoors didn’t go so well, then got decimated by caterpillars.

This is the first year we’ve started from seed, and we’ve learned a bunch. Next year we need to start earlier and be much more aggressive with the fungicide and fertilizer.

[cwd]

My wife planted purple Thai basil and tomatoes in a small raised bed two years ago.

They have gone feral and reseeded themselves each year since, and the basil is spreading through the adjacent lawn.

[ch]

My neighbors untamed blackberry brambles. The suckers are invading my yard. I stole some fruit over the fence. It’s not even good.