SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2017

• Was in garden mode after work today and decided to clean out one of the beds. I left one eggplant and the marigolds, the eggplant had a couple possible fruits on them.

• Pulled the leeks for a buddy, they were puny but he didn't care. Gave him a bunch of Cherokee purples, celebrities, Box Car Willies, some basil, and some rosemary. I kept a few leeks for dinner. I had given a few of the CP's earlier to a neighbor

• The Leeks in the Air Pruning Pot will be pulled next, Ill leave the leeks in the ground go till late October early November. I still have another pot of leeks that will be harvested sooner.

• The Zucchini plant is doing well, I need to hit it with some BTK. I never grew Zucchini in the fall, we will see what happens.

• Cut back the Raspberry and planted some more Garlic.

• Time to play in the dirt, it is really nice being able to garden and not need a jackhammer. The Hori Hori wasn't even needed. Tore out most of the Oregano and left a little in each corner for next years pollinators.

• The compost bin was full, it was actually about a foot higher a few weeks ago and the lid was just floating on top, it dropped quite a bit the last few weeks but I needed to make more room for the end of the season cleanup.

• I pulled about 4 bucket loads and top dressed the top of the upper retaining wall, I'm concentrating on building the soil up there especially the ends because I plan to plant Asparagus beans and Spaghetti squash next year on either side.

• I really need to do something with the Ghost Chili's, I'm thinking on drying a few and making a Ghost Chili salt.

• The Tabasco and the ghost chili plant are really doing well here, I'll probably try a Serrano in place of the Ghost Chili next year.

• I'll also space them a bit better and try not to shade out my Bee Balm. I also need to cut back the iris.

• Since I was in garden mode I decided to have a garden dinner.

• Thickened with Eggplant Flour

• Made some Horseradish and Horsey Mustard for a buddy and myself.

• Made some Datil Pepper salt and Ghost Chili Salt

• Got a chance to try the eggplant flour on some flatbread pizzas, I used it 7 parts wheat one part eggplant flour, I'll try doubling the EP Flour next time 6 to 2, and go from there.

• Had to pull a few of my leeks, the neighbor trampled them.

• Prepping an area for some Phlox Transplants

• Harvested some peppers and played a little.

• Since I had the smoker going, I Roasted, Smoked and dried some Poblanos

• Before

• After

• Eggplant from moms Hugelkultur bed, Her eggplants are still putting out fruit, this guy was peeled, diced, blanched and dehydrated for winter addiction needs.

• Prepped a third area to plant GARLIC, waiting for garlic to sprout.

• Strawberries are still spitting out some fruit here and there, just enough to enjoy a treat when in the yard and to share with the turtles.

• Sprayed the Zucchini and Broccoli with some BTK and put out some "Sluggo Plus"

• Planted some Oat seeds and covered with cardboard to keep the birds off of them, they were up in three days. I'll be tossing down some more Crimson Clover as well. Prepped the garden area by the back fence with a load of compost and some rabbit dung. I really need to suck it up and pull the eggplant plant.

• I had to get away from the garden for a few days, I was starting to obsess over everything. Saturday we walked at Challenge Grove Park in NJ for "Energy For Life Walkathon" to benefit United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.

• Stopped at my Daughters Fall festival at the PennyPack Environmental center and Celebrated my SIL's birthday as well as mine with the family. It was actually nice to get away from the gardening.

• August 27th

• September 22nd

• Oats in one of the raised beds on the hill, they're not even a week old yet, covering in cardboard the first three days really helps.

• The other raised bed still has a few Cherokee purple plants that seem to be doing pretty good, the tomatoes are actually coming off less cracked, split and bug infested. Maybe due to a lot less rain?

• Ghost Chili's and Tabascos are doing great, the entire pond area is doing great, I'll have to cut back the irises this year.

• Front pond, the Poblanos, Corno Di Tori Giallo and Ruby Red peppers are still producing. The plants are definitely deficient in something here, but this is a balancing act between the nutrient, plants and fish. The plants are mainly there to clean the water, the veggies that are harvested are a bonus.

• Asparagus

• Side Hugelkultur bed.

• Zucchini test, direct sowed August 21st, next year if I have issues with the SVB and the Btk does not work, I'll try planting zucchini late July. I have sprayed this twice with Btk and will continue for another week, but I don't think that the Squash Vine Borer is active this time of year.

• Side hugelkultur bed, year 2.

• Backyard hugelkultur bed, left side year 2 (section with patio), right half year 1, (section with mulch). Got some romaine in the 2 year Hugelkultur bed. Have some struggling broccoli in the 1st year Hugelkultur bed.

• Eggplants in the first year Hugelkultur bed (mulch section). I wouldn't bet on these getting any bigger than a baseball, but we shall see. The eggplant plant on the hill is getting flowers but no fruit. The plant in the side Hugelkultur bed have quite few flowers and may have a few eggplants forming.

• Zucchini has some flowers, I'll start hand pollinating this week.

• Got some pond work done I decided to cut the iris back completely so I had to go in, it was getting out of hand, it should come back next season. Since I went swimming I decided to work on the Koi pond as well, I just stirred up the bottom, picked out some pavers that had fallen in and replaced the filter sponges with a coarser sponge. The filters were clogging up almost every third day.

• Transplanted a bunch of Phlox.

• Planted the rest of my Oats and some of my Crimson Clover. I really need to find a supplier for oats and get 10 pound bags.

• I'm still rooting for these guys

• My romaine is finally perking up, somewhat.

• I might as well give up on broccoli, this is my best plant.

• Clover is growing nicely.

• Playing with my peppers.

• The Tabascos are going on year two, started these summer of 2016, these are resting on charred oak and I will try some fall of 2018 to see if it is ready for processing.

• Made some bio-char burning a lot of the marigolds, some cardboard, tomato plants, sunflowers, some old tree trimmings, woody plant stems, weeds, dog poo, and some pallets. I got about 2.5 five gallon buckets, I'll be adding some urea to the 5 gallon buckets and then topping the one raised bed on the hill or dumping in the compost heap. This stuff is great for amending clay soil but I don't think it does much good in my Hugelkultur beds due to the healthy soil, none the less I add some here and there and also will add ash.

• Pulled my Corno Di Toro Giallo pepper plant to make room for the garlic. This thing was so heavy with peppers that it completely toppled over when I removed the support.

• I'll try stuffing these this week and see how they are.

• Planting the garlic

• The eggplant plants in the Hugelkultur beds are doing well but the eggplants are growing slowly, I am not holding my breath for a late harvest, but I'm curious how far these guys will get.

• The side Hugelkultur bed is doing real well and noticed a few eggplants on this plant as well.

• This Jalapeno Pepper plant in the Vertical Garden is simply amazing, this will be my 4th harvest this year, I need to make sure and keep picking the peppers next year to promote new peppers. The first two harvests were about 18 each, the third was a dozen, looks like I'll have another 18 coming off in a bit.

• Time to shut down the veggie filter. The cover to the veggie filter was looking a little weathered, so I sanded and stained it.

• The pepper plants in the Koi ponds veggie filter are DEFINITELY finished.

• Impatients are still looking good so I need to bypass the overflow. The soil is recycled into the compost bin with the plants The pots, saucers and fabric are stored away.

• Bypassing the lower veggie filter to drain directly into the pond. Oh crap, just noticed in this picture that Laura stuck a fall decoration in the upper veggie filter, I hope she didn't tear the liner.

• Pond work always requires a beer

• Had to catch a frog that insisted on staying in the veggie filter, I called Amanda out to get him, she loves that kinda stuff. The weather is still fairly warm so technically I could have removed the stuff from the filter, placed on the cover and kept it running. There... all finished, now Laura can decorate this area with her festive fall stuff.

• Planted a few Sunchokes on the upper hill. Planted two varieties of spinach and will let them go through the winter, I'm curious if they'll make it.

• Played with the Swallowtails for a bit, easily two dozen on this one plant.

• Dam... Look at my parsley lol.

• The everlasting gobstopper jalapeno pepper plant, I'll pickle a lot of these and make some Taco ABT's

• Corno Di Toro Giallo, they really love this Hugelkultur bed.

• Oats and Crimson clover are doing well, pulled the eggplant plant and diced the fruit up for my Saturday Garden Jambalaya. The marigold blows my mind, this was cut back twice.

• The Box Car Willie still putting out red tomatoes, I got my first tomato off of this plant and it looks like I'm gonna get my last from it too.

• The rest of the eggplant plants will be pulled Saturday.

• The Composter is kicking @ss. My compost bin was full when I poured this 2nd batch of trub on it, a few days later it dropped a foot, must be the yeast.

gary s said:

That's some great pics my friend. Sorry to hear about your daughters car,

Gary

Click to expand...

whistech said:

Looks like you had a heck of a year for your garden, congratulations. I especially like your Corno D Toro peppers, where I live the temperature gets too hot too fast to make large peppers. Sorry to hear about your daughters car.

Click to expand...

• Smoked and dehydrated my Poblanos and into the jar they go..

• Made my Fall Leek Potato soup.

• I finally got around to making my Dill Bread. First I needed a way to separate the seeds. I used a colander for the first screening, most of the seeds went through the colander.

• The next step was a coarse strainer to let the smaller particles and husks fall through.

• There's still a good amount of Dill seeds in the screened pieces, these are placed in a jar to grow some dill next season.

• Worked beautifully.

For the bread I just used a box of Bread Machine mix (white) and added a few of my own ingredients.

• 1 box of Bread Machine mix follow directions, I cut back on the water 2 tablespoons and added an extra tablespoon of oil.
• 1/4 Cup of Cream Cheese
• 1 tablespoon of Dried Minced Onions (will increase to 5 teaspoons next time)
• 2 teaspoons of Dill Seed (Will increase to 1 tablespoon next time)

• The bread was fantastic, everyone loved it, but I want to increase the Dill flavor a bit next time I make this.