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Home Gardens - Tips, Tricks, Methods, and the Bounty


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Add fennel to the list of vegetables that are so much more amazing when home-grown that they deserve the space in a small garden.  I planted more seeds of Zefa Fino Florence after dinner last night, and I hope there's enough time before first frost to get a few more bulbs.  Just wonderful.

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looking at my squash plants, it looks like all of them have exclusively male flowers (or i'm really bad at telling male from female). does anyone know why this would happen, and if there's anything i can do to encourage female flowers. i read that sometimes the first blooms are male, but for at least half the plants this is their second round of flowers.

Also, all my lettuce has gone bitter, and there's lots of it so i think the only thing to do is cook it. for next year, does anyone have any tips for keeping it from going bitter, or is it just a given in our heat?

thanks!

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Made our first tomato and eggplant sauce Sunday! Such a small batch, hope I correctly divided the recipe by 4!

Cucumbers have given up the ghost. They were eaten back early in the season by deer. The plants bounced back but they never did produce as they should.

Strange season for our garden. More strangeness to come when it cools off again in the near future (next week?)

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looking at my squash plants, it looks like all of them have exclusively male flowers (or i'm really bad at telling male from female). does anyone know why this would happen, and if there's anything i can do to encourage female flowers. i read that sometimes the first blooms are male, but for at least half the plants this is their second round of flowers.

Also, all my lettuce has gone bitter, and there's lots of it so i think the only thing to do is cook it. for next year, does anyone have any tips for keeping it from going bitter, or is it just a given in our heat?

thanks!

We had dozens of male flowers starting about 3 weeks ago.  My plants got hit pretty hard by squash vine borers, and I had to cut the little suckers out by hand.  After re-burying the stems they seem to be OK, but I've read that the stress of infestation and surgery can delay fruiting.  I saw the first female flower just a couple days ago and pollinated it by hand, so we'll see how that goes.  One of the plants looks like it may not make it, but maybe I can get at least one squash!

It's been a bad season for the rest of our small, urban plot.  Tomatoes are just showing fruit in the last week (but I started some of them late from volunteer seedlings), and the plants seem smaller than usual.  The peas I was excited for all succumbed to some sort of wilt (fungal, maybe) and yellowed and died; I got 4 small pods, total.  Cukes got shaded out by the aforementioned squash plants; I thought I had given them enough of a head start, but they never even reached the trellis.  A couple eggplants and sweet peppers, both of which suffered pervasive blossom rot last year, are my last hope.  I think I need to test the soil.

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I have read on more than one occasion that squash plants produce "male" flowers first to insure a good supply of pollinators before investing in "female" flowers that will result in fruit.  Evolution and whatnot.  It looks like our biggest crop this year will be the eggplants.

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Also, all my lettuce has gone bitter, and there's lots of it so i think the only thing to do is cook it. for next year, does anyone have any tips for keeping it from going bitter, or is it just a given in our heat?

It's just a given in the heat.  Lettuce is a cool-weather plant.  There are varieties developed for heat tolerance but none will last long (with good flavor) into summer.  You might be able to get some autumn crops (from new plants).

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Your best bet for hot weather lettuce is probably Jericho.  Shade cloth and daily watering will help a lot too.  You can also start new plants now and plant them out in late August, as well as direct seed September into October (they'll survive most winters in the area and get an early start next spring).

I don't bother with summer lettuce because it's a lot of hassle and by mid July there are lots of other goodies competing for my stomach and attention.  For summer greens, the curly kales (if you can keep the bugs off) and Swiss chards seem to be the best bets in this area.  I can usually get a couple weeks of lamb's quarter tops from weedy patches, before they start elongating and getting nasty.  

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last year i planted asparagus and a pomegranate tree. so far no asparagus pushing up, and no buds or signs of leaves on the pomegranate. or my 2 year old hardy kiwi, or 2 year old fig tree (though i scraped a branch and saw green under the bark). has anyone else had any signs of life from these plants? i'm trying to figure out if they're dead and i should start shopping for replacements, or if they're just late because of the bad winter.

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My pomegranates, which survived the previous winter with most of their top growth, appear to be killed to the ground by this latest winter.

The cooler temperature may balance out the lower precipitation. Greens and peas will like cooler temps, but heat lovers such as okra and sweet potatoes will be less productive. I would plant based on near term forecast than predicted summer temp trends.

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Inventory of what survived, taken this weekend: thyme, sage, tarragon(!), mint.  Defunct, the usual suspects, basil and oregano.  Very surprised that the tarragon made it.  All herbs in big black pots, the ones you get trees in.  Everything spent the winter underneath a heap of leaves.  Sage is almost a foot tall! We will never use that much sage.  All herbs purchased from DeBaggio, selected for cold-hardiness, but I have no recollection of the actual varieties.  Kind of surprised the oregano is defunct, it had been coming back.

Planted 5 containers of greens and three containers of peas in March.  Mizuna ready to harvest.  Pea shoots about 8-10 inches tall.  Everything else looks pathetic.  They need nitrogen.  I have three big bags of chicken manure  on the back patio but may need to haul them up myself, husband is squeamish.  A friend of mine keeps chickens.  I keep telling him it's just dried manure, doesn't smell like anything but fertilizer.

Heck, I can't even get him to bring up a tub of compost, and so missed the time to start tomato seeds.  He will put veggie scraps and coffee grounds into the top of the composter, but won't dig the finished product out of the bottom.  Worms.  Lovely fat earthworms freak him out.

For the past couple of years a volunteer grapevine has been taking over a big boxwood, and Saturday he finally pulled it off.  I persuaded him to save the vine and will bring it to the picnic for someone who likes to use grapevines in their smoker/grill.

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Should you live/work anywhere near the Herndon/Reston area, you are welcome to either harvest or dig up some of my garlic chives.  Just PM me for info.   They are really amazing steamed or stir-fried with shrimp but since shrimp started sending me to the ER, there is no way I will get even close to consuming them all.

My lavender is looking pretty dead; the sage and rosemary both survived winter, and I am still hoping the figs did; they got quite the wrapping this year.

Debaggio's run for heirloom cherry tomatoes is scheduled for this weekend.  Matt's Wild Cherry volunteers will show up in a few weeks.

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don't give up on your lavender yet--mine, which is in a pot no less, just started showing new leaves last week, even though my rosemary had clearly gone to that great compost bin in the sky. a few tragically thin asparagus came up last week too, which was great. but sadly, my broccoli (which i was trying for the first time because i heard it is mildly shade tolerant) has "buttoned" due to the cold snap, and i think this means i won't get any nice heads from it. i plan to trim the tiny florets and hope for either side shoots or lots of broccoli leaves, which are supposedly tasty. btw, if you're looking for another thing to do witht he galic chives, i sautee them with a decent amount of butter, add a bit of cream, and then put over polenta, so delicious. i bet you could use them in many of the ways you use leeks.

no leaves from my fig yet, but the twigs are green when i scratch a bit of bark off, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed....

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Broccoli buttoning: my understanding is it buttons (only forms one tiny head the size of a small floret) because it was in the seedling container too long, not because of the cold. Someone on Gardenweb told me that broccoli should be planted-out no more than 5 weeks from the seed planting time. (I think 5 weeks is correct. I have a note on it at home, but I'm not there right now). They said it had something to do with the plant getting root bound and sort of shutting down.

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I picked up a couple of Jalapeí±o Gigante plants the other day & I need to clean out my Earthboxes to plant them, & also pick up some Sungold tomatoes. I should clean out the stacking planters, too, & make room for herbs & lettuce. Lovely weather that we're having lately...

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Any advice on where to buy tomato plants in  Montgomery Co?  Looking for interesting heirloom varieties like Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, etc.  Thank you!

Try any place that isn't Lowes, Home Depot or Walmart. Also look at your local farmers market

I was just at a little garden center in Alexandria and they had about 20 different heirloom tomatoes. Last year they only had a handful, so they're becoming easier to find.

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I used to work at a garden center & I asked a colleague about this rosemary. She told me that sometimes plants bloom nonstop right before they die, that was 5 years ago & this is the plant-attachicon.gifimage.jpg today

I had a Rosemary plant try to eat my house. I had to take her out completely. I kept cutting it back and it kept just getting...more dangerous looking.

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The fucking squirrels are already at it.   <_<

We had a small strawberry plant that I'm shocked survived the winter; this reminds me I need to go pick the scrawny first berries before they are plundered.

I lost about half our plot due to some pending excavation for home improvements, so this year's plantings were kind of slapdash and done without much thought (said work may be done in time for some late summer transplanting).  Trying peas again this year; only 2 sprouted out of the dozen or so I sowed, but I think the seeds were 3 years old at this point so that's not too surprising.  A couple of cucumbers were planted to fill out the rest of the trellis.  Last year I lost all of our peas to some early blight, and no sign of that this year.  The excavation work means I didn't bother to hook up the drip irrigation system this year; I wonder if they were over-watered before.   A couple rows of carrots fill out the remaining space.

Already harvested radishes and a first round of broccoli rabe (we're getting a second round of smaller shoots from the stems right now).  Some volunteer tomatoes will be transplanted in place when all of those are done.  We had seedlings all over the place from several different varieties last year, so I have no idea if they will be sun golds, pears, or Better Boys.  Hoping for sun golds.

Also planted a hop bine this year just for the hell of it (Chinook).

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Any advice on where to buy tomato plants in  Montgomery Co?  Looking for interesting heirloom varieties like Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, etc.  Thank you!

I've gotten Cherokee Purples and other heirlooms at J.R.Wright and Sons on New Hampshire Avenue, Colesville (Silver Spring). I get plants there every year. Not familiar with Black Krim. Will look for them this year.

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Black Krim is a great one.  For me, it's one of my most prolific heirlooms.  Great flavor too.

My favorite is Paul Robeson (another black tomato) that has a wonderful, deep, smoky flavor.  For some reason mine always get some sort of blight or wilt and don't do nearly as well as Black Krim and I have to end up spraying them to prolong their life.  If you come across either one, get them!

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For a while, the only thing I was getting out of the garden was arugula and herbs, but now the true bounty has started.  Patio baby eggplants are growing faster than I can eat them (not a complaint), and the jalapenos are coming in like gangbusters as well.  We also picked our first ripened early girl tomatoes this weekend, and they were heavenly.

My big Bertha green bell peppers produced a few and then seem to have dropped off, but maybe I'll get one more round.  Regular/standard eggplant aren't quite in yet, and my summer squash keeps blossoming but hasn't produced any fruit (I'm afraid it's not being pollenated).  I have two other kinds of tomatoes (can't remember what kind right now, at least one is a cherry variety) that are starting to mature as well, so it looks like year one of home gardening has been mostly successful.  Yum!

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We have six tomato plants, all heirlooms, which we transplanted mid-May.  Every day, I count the green, green tomatoes and gaze with longing, wondering when, oh when, will they ripen?   Lots of fruit.  Eventually.

Peppers doing well but nothing ripe yet.  Need to move their earthbox so that they get more sun.

Aside from the herbs, which love this weather, the garden surprise of the year is puntarelle, an Italian heading chicory, quite bitter.  I don't know anybody who grows it, and I never would have dreamed of it until I had puntarelle salad at Dino's last year.  It is really easy to grow.  Lush and green.  Pest free. Compare and contrast with the collards, which are full of little holes, I assume some kind of beetle, and many yellow leaves.

Peas were pathetic, a waste of earthbox space.  When I pulled them up I planted two more earthboxes of puntarelle.  The seeds are from an Italian seed company, via Merrifield Garden Center.  It seems to love the sun and rain.

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We have six tomato plants, all heirlooms, which we transplanted mid-May.  Every day, I count the green, green tomatoes and gaze with longing, wondering when, oh when, will they ripen?   Lots of fruit.  Eventually.

Peppers doing well but nothing ripe yet.  Need to move their earthbox so that they get more sun.

Aside from the herbs, which love this weather, the garden surprise of the year is puntarelle, an Italian heading chicory, quite bitter.  I don't know anybody who grows it, and I never would have dreamed of it until I had puntarelle salad at Dino's last year.  It is really easy to grow.  Lush and green.  Pest free. Compare and contrast with the collards, which are full of little holes, I assume some kind of beetle, and many yellow leaves.

Peas were pathetic, a waste of earthbox space.  When I pulled them up I planted two more earthboxes of puntarelle.  The seeds are from an Italian seed company, via Merrifield Garden Center.  It seems to love the sun and rain.

Ditto on the peas - it was a last-minute addition to my plot, and it hasn't done anything.

I totally feel your pain on the green tomatoes!  I still have plenty that are green, but it was so nice to grab a couple of red ones and at least confirm that they are delicious.

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I have Indigo fireball, black Krim, & some other tomato (that I lost the tag)- my word to you is Sungold, the best tomato ever. I was slow off the mark this year, & got the last two at HWV, passed one on to Bart, but they're producing already, & will probably go late into the fall-small, acid/ tart orange cherry tomatoes. & thanks to a trade w/ Bart, I have more peppers than I would have imagined, & many of them are ripe-poblanos, jalapeí±os, Thai Hot- I've also got an Ichiban eggplant for dinner tomorrow. & tons of Thai basil...life is good...

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No worries.  Last winter was rough.  All my pomegranates were killed to the ground, though most have resprouted with some vigor.  Hopefully we'll revert back to the mild pre-2013/4 winters soon.

Glad to hear that the roses have done well for you.

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This is premature but wanted to post this while I was thinking about it.

I posted earlier about all the green tomatoes, wondering when they would ripen.  Mostly still green, three are a little red, but I predict many, many more tomatoes than we can easily eat.

So, wanted to pass along something I had read on DonRockwell.com, that really works.  Too many tomatoes?  Freeze them.  They take up a lot of space, so next day, or when you have time, thaw them.  Put the whole shebang through a food mill to remove the skins.  Freeze the pulp.  Takes up less space.  And fresh tomato sauce is wonderful.  Simmer it with fresh herbs while you are cooking dinner, it doesn't take long to turn into sauce.  Tastes as fresh as the day you picked them.

I did this with non-paste tomatoes, mostly Brandywines.

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Talk about counting your chickens before they hatch, or your tomatoes before they ripen. In just ten days, I've gone from anticipating a bumper crop of tomatoes to angsting over whether the blight will kill the vines before they ripen. That was fast.

Planted all heirlooms. Keeping track of who got blight first. Looking at you, Brandywine. :(

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Bart, Daconil is not organic, as the term is used in the sense of organic gardening.  My husband, a chemical engineer, would agree that it's an organic compound, in the sense of being based on carbon.  It's poison. If you look at the label, it tells you that it is toxic to aquatic life, etc.

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Oops! Thanks for the correction.

ETA - for tomatoes it has a pre harvest interval of 0 (zero!) days so calling it poison may be going too far. I don't want to get into whole health/organic/poison debate here, I'll just add that spraying it on my problem varieties (Paul Robeson, Green Zebra, Berkeley Tie Dye) have allowed me to keep the harvest going for weeks and months longer than I was able to do without it.

I never had a problem with my Brandywines, but the types I mentioned above sounded just like yours.....a race between the first fruits ripening and the whole plant dying.

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I am a 'plant & forget' gardener- after planting, these guys are lucky to get watered- Sungold is still pumping out more little cherry tomatoes than I can eat, Black Krim are small & not particularly delicious, might make tomato sauce out of them, the other oddballs are putting out a tomato here & there, & lots of peppers...& Thai basil, I put seedlings everywhere. Still getting eggplants, too...

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Just stumbled across a potential game changer for tomatoes.  Researchers at the University of Florida have developed tomatoes that have the disease resistance of hybrids but the flavor of heirlooms.  Also high yield. Garden Gem and Garden Treasure, not available commercially yet, but you will get a pack of twenty seeds for each variety if you donate $10 to the University of Florida.  Click.

Someone who planted them reported on the researcher's Facebook page that the tomatoes are surprisingly firm, which is consistent with varieties developed for commercial production, but good texture and nice, acidic taste.  Interesting article about Garden Gem tomatoes on Slate.

In the meantime I've decided that Rose heirloom tomatoes are not worth it, and neither are Costuloto Genovese.  Neither has much flavor.  Or maybe it's just this season's growing condition.  Whatever, not planting them again.  Wish I'd planted Sungold.

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In case you ever wondered, do I have to peel tomatoes before freezing them for sauce later, if you have a high powered blender, in my case a Vitamix, the answer is no. I filled a full 64 oz container worth of fresh tomatoes, quartered, worried they'd stick because not liquid added, but with the aid of the pusher, they spun down nicely, and skins were turned to smithereens. Filled two 32 ounce Chinese restaurant containers with room for expansion from freezing. Contemplated using 16 ounce containers, but this stuff cooks down quite a bit, and everything we use tomato sauce for, we use a lot. Expecting more tomatoes, will go to 16 ounce next, maybe dehydrating. The battle between blight and ripeness still tied.

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