# Sept - fruit & veggie general chat



## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I now have a little hope for the fall garden. (RAIN!!!!!!!!! :2thumb I will wait and see now. 

On a side note ... It looked like a few of the cotton were getting ready to open.


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## lhalfcent (Mar 11, 2010)

I have concord grapes growing on my backyard fence. An older guy comes by every year and picks some for himself with the agreement of the owner of the house I am renting.
well this other old guy (older than snot I think) and he comes to the door and says the owner says he can pick some grapes for using so I say ok. I live in a decent area where we all pretty much know each other or almost know each other.
anyways, today the second older guy comes and I am not home but my mom is and when I come home from errands this old guy has stripped my entire grape vines clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I have no grapes for this year!
I am so mad I could spit bricks!


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

lhalfcent said:


> I have concord grapes growing on my backyard fence. An older guy comes by every year and picks some for himself with the agreement of the owner of the house I am renting.
> well this other old guy (older than snot I think) and he comes to the door and says the owner says he can pick some grapes for using so I say ok. I live in a decent area where we all pretty much know each other or almost know each other.
> anyways, today the second older guy comes and I am not home but my mom is and when I come home from errands this old guy has stripped my entire grape vines clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> I have no grapes for this year!
> I am so mad I could spit bricks!


How RUDE ... :club:


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## lhalfcent (Mar 11, 2010)

*Andi said:


> How RUDE ... :club:


got that right!!!!!!!!


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

Wow, that pisses me off on your behalf! Jeez. He could have left some for you. In fact, I'd have gone out after the first time and stripped the plants myself. Hmph!

We had our first frost here Saturday morning (Sept. 3). That's later than normal. We usually have frost by the middle or end of August. I start covering all the frost-sensitive things around the second week of August. 

Time to start digging potatoes, carrots, and onions. I left the root cellar door open tonight, and tomorrow I'll haul everything outside and give it a good cleaning.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Garden was kaput....the soil was obviously so poor and our summer too short, nothing matured, and we finally gave up. Have to work to improve it for next year and hope we have a nice spring and normal summer, it has been about three years and we have had these awful wet and cool springs, and short and cool summers. 

I think I am talking to the local ex ag teacher turned feed store owner about what the alamanac says for our area this coming year and after. Seems we are in a cool cycle and this would mean to only bother to plant cold weather veggies. Our neighbors many fruit trees did not bear any fruit he said. All were small and green and inmature.

I do plan to do some things to trick nature to some degree. Using wooden raised beds as we had in the past, topping the nicely ammended soil with black plastic, cutting holes to insert starts and perforations for watering, but leaving the plastic up all summer to generate more daytime heat if it is going to be cool again, at least this for tomatoes and maybe even the strawberries. For others, I am thinking about taking some lumber and clear plastic and making panels I can tilt for the morning and afternoon sun, but will be freestanding, just on each side of the beds, in order to amplify the sun, but not be a full greenhouse.

If it works as I am hoping, I will share it (pictures) here.


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## lhalfcent (Mar 11, 2010)

my garden for the most part did really well this year!
because we have to move grrr I have decided to dehydrate most of our veggies.
so i have 30 lbs of dried maters! and bags of dried eggplant, green peppers, red peppers, green beans, corn, cukes, onions, carrots.
also canned beans and mators.
when the kale is ready gonna dry that and can't wait for the brussel sprouts!
had a good year over all. not much of the squash did well for some reason but did get a nice small variety of zucchini and yellow squash for stir fry. Oh and we ended up eating all the snow peas lol. my mom loves them. next year's garden will be double methinks. 
the only thing I froze so far is sweet corn, green beans and strawberries. we picked alot of berries this year but didn't get to making jam yet. so I froze them until ready. 
guess that is next. lol


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

We had our first picking of turnip greens for Sunday dinner. Sure tasted good. The zucchini is blooming and the butternut squash have tiny squash on them. The peas are just forming buds. Cabbage looking good. If we could just get some rain I'm sure everything will jump.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

LOL @ lhalfcent!! I plant more than I think I can eat of the sugar snap peas every year and every year we end up getting only enuf for dear grand daughter and myself to snack on .. the chickens get out and will bee line for them and the deer eat them every other year. and some years it just gets to darned hot before they really grow and fruit..  I still think everything in my area loves my peas! More than me!

Right now my tomatoes are finally starting to ripen and quite a few all at once! I have the best cucumbers that I have ever had and have one big one that was hand pollinated to be pure so hopefully I'll get cucumber seeds enuf to trade(it was an old heirloom called Muncher) but for the second year running my zucchini plants have been trampled and are not producing well-I haven't gotten a one.. first the neighbor's dog ran all over them and then the darn chickens got out and trampled them a bit.. There are babies on the plants now and blooms but there is a pesky frost predicted Thursday and friday.. lucky there is usually very nice weather for weeks afterwards so the tarp patrol is going to be out there(hehehe boychild and hubby and myself!)
I'm going to get all of my older holiday light strings out(incandescent ones.. I just bought all LED in the last few years) The incandescent strings put out a bit of heat and with a tarp over them they will keep the nice and toasty.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Still learning lots. Like the fact that the dogs really like the blue corn. 

Hoping to get one more canner load of tomato sauce in the next few days, as well as finishing up the potatoes (dehydrating lots of them - learning which varieties work best for us). And have another round of herbs to go - I swear, every time I pass the oregano I start craving pizza. 

Other than that, we're down to waiting on the peanuts (not ready yet) and the beans and flour corn (drying in the field). The flour (indian) corn varieties we grew this year are just the prettiest things - can't wait to grow them again next year, and allow more space for them!

Oh, and working on fermenting tomato seeds as we speak. Of all the tomato varieties we grew this year, my two favorites are the ones that I'm not sure what kind they are (one was an unmarked variety on discount, another was supposed to be Amish Paste, but it most definitely isn't). I don't know if they're hybrids or not, but I'm working on the seeds anyway, and giving it a shot.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Had a decent year ourselves.

Peas, beans and onions didn't do well but my cup runneth over on the other things. Tomatoes in particular did great and I've been canning once or twice a week for the past couple months. Pumpkins and sunflowers are getting harvested now.

Didn't grow corn this year due to space so I bought some from a friend's sister yesterday. OMG is it perfect. Large, juicy and sweet! We froze 17 quarts off of 8 dozen last night. The kernels from just 3 ears was enough to fill a standard sized soup bowl (the amount we need for 1 meal).


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

I need to get busy fast!Have'nt even plante4d greens yet .I have to weed the old garden first.
We are going to plant containers in the greenhouse soon as we can get to it.
We are worn out from getting new garden ready and lean to greenhouse built.


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

My garden is so blessed.........we are starting to pull a few things up cuz I can't give all the stuff away. You know, how after awhile people start locking their cars and rolling up their windows! We pulled a zucchini up today and pulled up some of the cuke plants last week. Tomatoes are awesome and I just keep making salsa! It's suppose to be warm through next weekend and then maybe really cool off. We've had much cooler weather for the last few days but that is passing. DH is going deer hunting ( finally cool enough for a day) and wood cutting tomorrow. This is 1st year for spaghetti squash, oh my gosh, I love that stuff. Getting ready to pull the onions.......yum yum


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

> My garden is so blessed.........we are starting to pull a few things up cuz I can't give all the stuff away. You know, how after awhile people start locking their cars and rolling up their windows!


LOL, that is so funny, must be a small town thing...my mother said each year in summer, people around town here had zuchinni in abundance so much so that they'd walk to their cars and find someone had snuck some zuchinni into it thru the open windows. She said one woman she works with left a big note on her rolled down window "No more Zuchinni"

I only planted one plant, I do not like it really and did it for my daughter and her husband.

We started pulling out our potatoes. They did not all develop, and many of what we are pulling out are small (yay...baby potatoes), but we're glad some did grow and we at least got something for our efforts.

A nice amount of sugar pumpkins, so cooking those down for pie mix.


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## MyBackAchers (Jul 28, 2010)

*September garden*

What an early freeze we had in MN!

We covered our tomatoes but they still got frosted. I did manage to bring in the tomato plants in pots though. They are in-determinate and sit in the winter patio doors for winter sun all winter. They already started producing before I brought them in so I expect tomatoes coming in until Feb...at which time I will cannibalize the plants into a few dozen starter plants.

Last year it worked with the cherry tomatoes, celery and Swiss chard. This year I am going for a bigger tomato, celery, Swiss chard, and herbs. I also want to try string beans and pea pods in the winter windows but like all winter producing plants, they should have been started in July to produce all winter....guess I can try again next year.....

Anyone else doing cold framing or indoor winter gardens?


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

Got 2 1/2" rain last night. Thank you Lord. We have been so dry. Our 2nd planting of curley leaf mustard is peeking through. The onions and garlic are poking little green shoots out. Will have to pick collards and turnip greens this weekend as well as process the remaining rabbits. Picked a dozen bell peppers this week and the eggplant is ready to pick again. Have butternut squash about 8" long. The zucchini are blooming like crazy but not setting fruit. Peas are starting to bloom. I love fresh peas.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Clarice said:


> Got 2 1/2" rain last night. Thank you Lord. We have been so dry. Our 2nd planting of curley leaf mustard is peeking through. The onions and garlic are poking little green shoots out. Will have to pick collards and turnip greens this weekend as well as process the remaining rabbits. Picked a dozen bell peppers this week and the eggplant is ready to pick again. Have butternut squash about 8" long. The zucchini are blooming like crazy but not setting fruit. Peas are starting to bloom. I love fresh peas.


How long is your garden season in your area? Will you garden on into winter? Very cool that your peas are starting to bloom ... (I wish, for my area )


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