Happy Lughnasadh - How Does Your Garden Grow?

The sundew nursery is doing well, have already given away over a dozen, with the next batch starting to thrive.  (This batch is drosera capensis)

The nepenthes are still my fave, had never grown them before, now i'm hooked (cool little carnivore)

I don't know what happened, my garlic was wimpy and most of what I planted never came up. Kind of sad.

My dear friend Al who has had the pepper garden in my backyard for 25 or 30 years wasn't able to do any work since his cancer returned recently so a few of my friends and I planted a small garden in his established beds so if he got stronger and felt like it he'd be able to just step in. We planted maybe 12 pepper plants (Anaheims, Poblanos, sweet Red Bells and a Jalepenõ) instead of his usual 200+, 4 tomatoes (he wanted sauce tomatoes so we planted Romas and San Marzano and also an heirloom salad slicer), and a lot of flowers. He wasn't able to tolerate any spiciness lately so that's what dictated the types of peppers we chose. The crazily self-seeding Amaranth is thick and growing tall and the Tomatillos are also all over the place. I'm plucking a lot of amaranth and tomatillo volunteers since there are way too many of them in the beds with other things. 

I'm so very very sad. Al died last Wednesday... I'm going to miss him so much.

I'll post pics of the garden sometime soon.

Sorry for your loss Judit  

Small garden this year. Some of the tomatoes and cannabis starting to take off like they should. Eggplants and squash as well.

For some reason the plum trees have about 2 plums each after getting many hundreds last year.

Sorry about your friend, Judit.

When you said you weren't a fan of the Q, I knew you must have had some kind of background turmoil going on.

Very sorry for your loss Judit

Garden's kicking ass on some things, tomatoes (tho all still green), cucs, beets, peppers, squash - not so good with potatoes (half my normal yield) and garlic was also under achieving. Cold wet spring when nothing germinated put a lot of things behind (lima's, pole + bush beans). Should be a hell of a late summer harvest.

Happy Lughnasa to you all, and a Happy Samhain to me!

Surfdead, I wouldn't be surprised by the variance of fruit with your plum trees. In my experience with plums, apricots, peaches, almonds, etc. is that they usually have one really high yield year followed by a low yield year. I wouldn't worry about it unless the same thing happens next year. Also, spring rain and snow can knock off the flowers in spring leading to a low yield.

Happy harvesting to you all! May your tables be bountiful, your bellies full and your loved ones healthy and happy!

If you're ever in Corvallis Ken, should drop by and pick up some sundews!  

I harvested my garlic in June. Was not as big a yield as I hoped, but they will last me awhile and are very good.

2 sungold tomatoes are kicking ass as is the roma.  The one dwarf only grows one at a time but they are delicious.

The zuchinis are what they always are. Mega producers and I can't come close to eating them all. But they are delicious.

Cucumbers are a strange variety but are pretty damn good.  Getting one every few days so just right.

Collard greens and napa cabbaged are being ravaged by insects.

5 Serrano pepper plants are having various degrees of success. But hey seem to have stagnated at the mid sie range. 

2 Poblanos have one pepper each and the Anaheim has a couple.

All the carrots that I planted took forever to emerge and they have stayed the same microscopic size for over  month. Not sure what I am doing wrong there.

Tomatillo is growing well but no fruit.

Couldn't keep all my basil from flowering heavily. I need to plant some more.

Building my next planter in the garage. Should be ready to plant next yrs garlic(in Oct )

Sorry to hear about your friend Judit. That pepper garden was always something to behold.

rest in peace Al, and may your soul float in eternal joy.

(((peppers)))

Thank you all for your kindness. This is totally sucking.

Ken, haven't used the amaranth seeds - Greg and I collected them one year to spread in the alleys around here but I don't remember what happened to them. Maybe he took them to the country and spread them. I would like to grind them to use as a flour, but I don't think I will. I try to give them away every year but I don't put a lot of effort into it.

((AL))  

Mark -- my carrots don't really start to pick up steam until later in the season.  I have hundreds planted in various containers and the ground. Once the green starts growing above the soil I know that they're moving along.  I mix my soil with guano and usually never have to fertilize--maybe PH adjust with lime. I harvest them all at once, save a bunch for fresh carrots and pickle the others -- the smaller/baby carrots are the best.   

We also have a ton of animals that feast on whatever is available.  I only make an effort to keep the deer away from the golden produce.  

Hey Judit, quinoa is very similar to amaranth and easier to find. Even though store-bought quinoa has been processed to take the outer layer off the seeds, you can still get a pretty high germination rate, especially if it's organic. I like the idea of planting food plants in unused areas. If you still want to try doing that, pick up some quinoa and toss it around all over the place. Probably get a bunch to grow...

‎Things I didn't know: Quinoa is in the Amaranthaceae family!

I just read a few sites and can see how it could be a welcome addition to alley plantings. This is my year for spreading the amaranth seeds around and I would be fun to see the quinoa, too.

Yup, both quinoa and amaranth are basically a very similar plant. There's also black quinoa and some other kinds but I've only seen them sold for food, not the plants. The problem with quinoa is that it has a layer of saponin around the seed which needs to come off before it's ideal for consumption. This is done normally with a machine that shoots the quinoa at a grinder type rotating object and then separates the seed from the saponin. Indigenous cultures around here used to do it with fire and ash, but I don't know the exact process. The saponin is then good for a ton of stuff, including laundry detergent, and other cleaning items. 

Much love to you, Judit. May you have a bountiful and joyous harvest season.