When the garden has finished producing

My garden is being invaded by weeds and peppermint. The owner before me grew peppermint plants and let's just say they are everywhere now. I did not start gardening till this year, but after fighting with those plants and getting my butt slammed I think I may hire a professional to make everything better.

God I love this time of year.




There will be good eating for months to come.

wupy

reply to post by Equinox99


Mints are not so bad, peppermint keeps a lot of bugs away... check out Tomatoes love Carrots for a good primer in companion planting.

reply to post by LLoyd45


I have found a great way to keep deer and rabbits out of my garden. Hang red flags around garden, place aluminum pie pans tied together where they will rattle when the winds blows and spray around the garden with a loud nasty smelling perfume. I never have a problem with anything raiding my garden.

I have heard that to keep the deer away from gardens, you can lay wire fencing on the ground around the garden. Supposedly deer and other larger animals do not like to walk on it, plus it doesn't look obvious like some fencing.

If you pick your tomatos green and put them in a shoe box upside down, this inhibits the ripening. Sunlight ripens them. The putting them stem side down helps to get even ripening, otherwise they come out with red bottoms and green tops. They can last litterally for months stored this way in a cool place, like a root cellar. I think the closing them in the shoebox helps keep exposure to certain ripening gasses minimized. You can individually wrap them in newspaper to help keep them from touching as moisture can develop on catact points and promote spoilage, depending on the humidity.

I think root cellars are cool, and if you are into living the old fashoned way they are essential. A springhouse is the best form of root cellar. This is where a stream runs through your root cellar and keeps it at a constant temperature. Natures refridgerator.

rain/snow collection + UV /gravity filtration + large underground planting arrays = gardening year round.

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reply to post by prevenge

rain/snow collection + UV /gravity filtration + large underground planting arrays = gardening year round.

Looks to me like rain/snow collection + UV /gravity filtration + large underground planting arrays = a ton of $$$.

You got any plans for underground gardening facilities?

TheRedneck

I guess we'll till our garden with manure and let it go for the winter. I'm going to try my hand at building a greenhouse. One of the posters here was kind enough to send me a link on how to construct a greenhouse for around $100. Our garden is doing well considering we are amateur gardeners. I have about 14-17 watermelons coming on now. My cucumbers didn't fair so well though. A large part of the vine died off with many cucumbers on it. I don't know what happened there. I did manage to get two from it. Hopefully the rest will take off and produce more.

I will be getting canning recipes from my mom and aunt. My aunt cans just about everything she grows. Don't really have any tips yet but, when I do I'll share them.

Good growing to everyone.

The Victorians in the UK used to store wax beans in a huge barrel, layered with salt. When they wanted beans, they would soak and soak and then cook. They would also pile up their potato harvest around a pole for ventilation, surround the pile with straw, and then pack garden soil on top of the straw. You can see this in action by watching Victorian Kitchen and Garden and the Wartime Kitchen and Garden. Both were done by the BBC I think.

As far as canning tomatoes, there are so many things you can do with them.

Things like salsa, stewed tomatoes, and pre-made pasta sauce. I opt for the latter usually because it's really easy to just crack open a jar of sauce, cook up some pasta and voila! Dinner. If you want it a bit more fancy of course you can add extra veggies or a bit of meat and top off with some parmesan cheese on the plate.

Anything acidic can be jarred via the water bath method. Well so can jam. I always do my strawberry jam in the water bath.

Pickles too you can do in the water bath.

Other things you need the pressure cooker to do it properly. I have a book around here that talks about it. It was printed in the 1970s.

Study what the Brits did during WW2 and how they stored food. Pretty interesting stuff!

When the season is just about over, till up your garden and if you have any leftover bean seeds plant them. Let them grow as long as you can until it gets a little cool out and then till them over as a mulch or compost. They are loaded with nitrogen and next year your soil will be screaming to grow some plants of your choice.

About canning, I have canned for years. Its easy but a lot of work. So worth it though. Clean and hot is the key. I wash my jars in the dishwasher , take them out and put them on their side in the preheated oven at the lowest setting (mine is 170). Make sure whatever you jar is hot, and put it in a hot jar (there are utensils for this). Wipe the rim with a clean damp cloth and put a lid and ring on that have soaking in hot water.
Different foods require different tricks but all require clean.
I have even canned Deer meat, and other kinds of food.
The best thing to do is get a book to refer to.

About keeping animals away from your garden, A friend of mine swears by human hair clippings. She says the scent is very threatening to rabbits and deer etc. She collects it from the local barber.
I use 5 blow up alien pool toys tied at intervals with fishing string around my blueberry barn. Not only did it outdo the big plastic owl, but a lot of people slow down to see the 6 foot blow up critters guarding the berries.
I also have 2 mediums aliens and a baby tied to the roof of the berry net shelter.
Works for me.

reply to post by TheRedneck
Thanks for the suggestions TRN. I just strung a barb wire fence since I had all the materials on hand to do so. So far, so good. If they continue to get in though, I may just electrify it.

Here's wishing you an abundant harvest!

Originally posted by soldiermom
I One of the posters here was kind enough to send me a link on how to construct a greenhouse for around $100.

Do you still have the link?

And if so, could you post it?

reply to post by mistressofspices


Great links, THX!

I've been thinking about making preserves out of the pears that grow in my backyard, but I'm too lazy so far. I think I'll read up on how to though, I do have fond memories of helping my grandmother make all kinds of preserves, like pepper jelly.

My first harvest of potatoes are in the fridge and doing well after three weeks. Hopefully they'll last a good six months, as it'll take me at least that long to eat 'em, and I like taters.

Compost... Compost... and compost some more... everything that was green, plants, mowings and leaves and rotate periodically then next spring work it into your soil... you will be glad that you did.

I have been gardening and canning for years and it is so rewarding in the end. We usually plant around 200 tomato plants ,different varieties, but the best canning tomato is the roma. It produces the best juice. I myself like the beefsteak. Ummmm.....

Green beans, I can some and dry some. Old timers call them shuckbeans. They are wonderful. This year I am planting my own pinto beans.
I freeze my squash. I slice them and roll them in flour and place them on a cookie sheet or pizza pan and freeze them. Then I take them off the cookie sheet and place them in a freezer bag. that way they dont freeze in a clunk and I can get out as many as I need instead of using the whole bag. The first time I froze my squash, I would lay out a bag to thaw..Lord what a squashy mess. I now only take them out as I am getting ready to fry them. Frozen. Much better. I do the same with green tomatoes.

My neigbor told me that you can freeze onions. Im going to try that this year. We also plant a variety of corn. My favorite is silver Queen.
But I found out you cant can corn to well. It turns dark. So I freeze it.

The first time I planted zucchini.................planted to many . Lawdy, I had enough squash for the county. Now I only plant about 4 hills.
Gosh, all this talk about food is making me hungry.

This is something I buy in the freezer section of the store, it's called recipe beginnings and is great to add to start a meal and saves a lot of prep time and that is frozen onions and peppers, sliced in long strips and mixed together, so it should be easy to make small bags of the extra peppers and onions you have this year from the garden. Their wonderful in stir fry or with beef tips and rice or noodles.

reply to post by grover


I know it does but the problem is when it starts invading your grass it stops
looking good! Plus, the roots are in about 2 feet deep.

I am sorry to have taken so long to discover your thread, Redneck. I don't do any canning, as the stores on this tiny little island don't stock canning supplies, and shipping them in on the barge would cost more than the cost of the materials. Why do we call it canning anyway, when it's actually jarring? Okay. nevermind.

What we are doing, though, is dehydrating lots of stuff, especially extra tomatoes. mmm-mmmm- mmmmmt! We're also experimenting with dehydrating and grating coconut, almond and breadfruit in pursuit of a flour that can make bread. I give away tons of coconuts. If I gave away a dozen a day, I doubt that would make a dent, but nature balances everything. The soldier crabs and land crabs gotta have something to munch besides rice burnt on a pan and taken outside for their culinary pleasures.

You might benefit by looking into dehydrating. Some things reconstitute really well. We've even dried fish..... seasoned and salted fish. It's not bad as long as nobody makes the fatal error of calling it "fish jerkey". Then it sux.

Cheers

Last year, I planted veggies in a 6 x 10 garden box. This year, I used my rototiller for a bigger area, and planted some catnip, and dill in the empty box. I have at least 50 or more voluntary tomato plants coming up in that box and one voluntary zucchini. I hate to pitch all those tomato plants, so I think I'm going to try to give them away.

Someone mentioned canning corn. I think my grandmother always creamed her corn before she canned it, and she froze it on the cob.