2017 Gardens

I looked at the weed guard for a few weeks and different kinds this one is supposed to let rain and air in. So far with watering it's going through. I hope it dose as it and the reviews said it would do lol. At least if not I can remove it if I see it being a bad thing and I can write a review of it either way fingers crossed.

As for the kids I try to get them involved in this kind of stuff along with canning and preserving. We had 12 chickens for a few years and they got the eggs everyday. They also packaged them up and sold them at the farmers market we have every other weekend. My wife and myself try to teach them hard work pays off and is gratifying.
 
I'll certainly be interested in how the weed guard material does for you.

Do they even sell pressure cookers any more? When my Dad died, I took the family pressure cooker (used for canning), but to this point it has been sitting in my garage unfortunately. Don't even know if you can buy the rubber gaskets for them anymore.

Sounds like you're doing things right with your kids. Hopefully it will instill a life long appreciation for hard work, the fun, and the enjoyment of growing your own veggies. I have my first ripe tomato ready to be picked on the vine right now.... it's a bit small, but it is the first of the year.
 
22-rimfire said:
I'll certainly be interested in how the weed guard material does for you.

Do they even sell pressure cookers any more? When my Dad died, I took the family pressure cooker (used for canning), but to this point it has been sitting in my garage unfortunately. Don't even know if you can buy the rubber gaskets for them anymore.

Sounds like you're doing things right with your kids. Hopefully it will instill a life long appreciation for hard work, the fun, and the enjoyment of growing your own veggies. I have my first ripe tomato ready to be picked on the vine right now.... it's a bit small, but it is the first of the year.
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I'll let ya know on the weed guard.
And yeah they still sell them gaskets for a older one I don't know about. We have 3 one was my grandmothers and is still in great shape other 2 are newer. My favorite the first tomatos with salt right off the vine.
 
22-rimfire said:
I agree on the well tended statement. I had to swerve around a large snapping crossing the highway yesterday. I noticed that other folks were doing the same thing. On my return trip, he apparently made it across the highway. I can only imagine my robo lawn mower cruising down the street in search of grass to mow. Feed me! :D

Gonebad; I think it's great that your kids were willing to help with the garden planting. It is great training for kids. Hopefully they will want a garden of their own later in life. - Z - Spent many an hour however weeding the big garden I grew up with. I was always the guy who made the rows with a hoe for corn and so forth because I made very straight rows. This is on what we called "the patch" and the rows were probably in the 75 yd kind of length thing. The patch was for big stuff like potatoes, corn, and my Dad always put out about 100 tomato plants as we canned. That was always a big late summer/early fall activity with bushels and bushels of tomatoes being picked and carried to the house for canning.
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You know it's so funny ... comparing upbringings that lead to the love of growing.

I totally agree, it starts young ... so the example is a gift to a child. It may not show right away ;) ...

Well, if I looked to my dad, a Saskatchewan dust bowl survivor of the Great Depression, I would have no love of farming or their work or their tragic outcome. My mum gardened to grace the house and for veggies even with her upstart plantings that were red and flashy and original, yet which dad had no eye for.

Now, for my love of the grow, I look to my mum's dad. His little acre of Eden, just a stone's throw from the moderating shore of Lake Ontario, was full of plums, strawberries, grapes, pears, veggies (I had yet to learn to appreciate). Robins in the maples that pooped on my summer dresses ... a hose ready to squelch the squirrels from robbing the nests. I was chased out of the strawberry patch as a kid more times than I can recollect. I was scolded roundly for entering the hen house after sundown to let the chickens perch on my arm - I thought they appreciated having their 'feet' warmed - but my grandfather did not. He saw a disruption to egg laying.

You know, my love of the pocket knife came from him. We would walk along the row of pear trees and he would pick a ripe one, neatly slice a piece off for me, and we would continue along, eating the bounty of the garden in delicious slices.

Never underestimate the value of the gift of growing that you have in your hand - children get it. May take a while :D
 
I completely agree my grandparents had a garden I worked with them not because I had to but because they loved it and it made them happy so I helped and it made me happy. We used to go blueberry picking "my grandmother made the best blueberry pies" with 5 gallon buckets the first time she had a full bucket me and my brother had about 10 berries. From then on she made us whistle so she knew we weren't eating them I miss those days a lot
 
Funny story Gonebad. Adults simply pick berries faster as they are focused on the end result. As a kid (teen), we picked strawberries as a way to get a little money and got about $0.08/quart. My younger brother was a berry picking machine. I would have 50 quarts and he'd have a 100 in the same time frame. He is also a fishing machine.

We used to do the blackberry, huckleberry, raspberry, and elder berry picking when I was young. This happened every year with my Dad and Grandmother(s). I have fond memories of all of these things. I can remember more than once getting into a hornets nest picking berries and running for my life. They chase you a long way. Gradually the habitat changed and the raspberries and black berries weren't as plentiful within our "picking range". The berry picking thing is sort of a depression era mind set for country folks.
 
That's awesome I take our kids apple picking In Michigan and then around here it's just strawberry and blueberry picking. But I've noticed as of late it's a dying thing not many people out there anymore which is sad
 
I'm a pepper nut so right now, they are starting to flower and pod up.
Red and Yellow Moruga Scorpion, Carolina Reaper, Red Savina, Black Cobra, Fatalii, Pequin, Jalapeno, Shashito, Tabasco and Ghost.
3 variety of tomatoes, Artichoke, and Leaks.
Pics up soon :-)
 
SoCalEDC said:
I'm a pepper nut so right now, they are starting to flower and pod up.
Red and Yellow Moruga Scorpion, Carolina Reaper, Red Savina, Black Cobra, Fatalii, Pequin, Jalapeno, Shashito, Tabasco and Ghost.
3 variety of tomatoes, Artichoke, and Leaks.
Pics up soon :)
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Can't wait I love peppers also let me know how the black cobras turn out
 
I definitely will! I'd be glad to send you some pods. Let me know :)
 
I thought I would add that now a days, with ticks being so plentiful, I would be hesitant to wade through all the brush and briars picking berries. I like being in the woods and ticks are just something you deal with especially in the last 20 years of so. Ticks weren't simply a Texas thing (Lone Star Tick). You kill a deer and the damn thing is covered with deer ticks. I hate them! I have the "alpha gal" allergy to red meat that resulted from a tick bite. My older brother is recovering from Lyme right now. So, ticks are something I think about and pay attention to.
 
Picked some tomatoes today.


Yellow Moruga coming along. Planted this one from seed.
 
The Hostas are doing great but will be hve to be moved soon. Mrs. Rupe has decided that the old, beat up deck has seen better days and we need to replace it. I'm getting estimates on concrete.

Oh, and don't pay any attention to the clown dog. She likes to burn off what little energy she has as soon as I get home from work by attacking one of her rope toys and wrestling with it. :)

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Ticks are something I have never had to deal with unless travelling in the South US. Their impact on the enjoyment for everyone of our natural world absolutely KILLS me.

I follow the expansion of tick territory here, though - and see them closing in. My life is made completely by being outside, freely ... swatting or repelling mosquitoes and blackflies in spring - otherwise just breathing in deeply of my wonderful natural environment.

Please don't interpret this as offensive in any way, but if I could not go freely in the outdoors (without all the clothing and other protections against tics), I would relocate to more Northern or otherwise 'tick-free' territories in which to live my life. That's just the way I feel.

Certainly I have less of life to live at my age - and thankfully all my life has been tick free so far. So I go about my days enjoying a tick free outside world for now. But I do watch and understand the environmental threat immediately at hand.

Again, please, no offense for those dealing with ticks intended - perhaps more of my thanks that I have not had them in my outdoor life and a hope that they never will be.
 
Rupestris said:
Oh, and don't pay any attention to the clown dog. She likes to burn off what little energy she has as soon as I get home from work by attacking one of her rope toys and wrestling with it. :)

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For our love of dogs ... no higher commitment to love of life comes above the 'grass roller'

It means life is good.
 
Pretty in Pink

This is the third day in a row without rain here - yeah sunshine - and Lumpy's back to hydrate in a pansy pot!

I see from another divot (and the disrupted seedlings) in a larger basil pot that she has been staying on the patio for a bit - likely since dry weather set in.

You see, I didn't lay patio stones and sod and fence it all in to keep the dogs from tracking in sand or to keep them from watering the grass ... apparently I did it for this curious toad! :D

 
This terrace used to be a quack grass challenge to clear with a gas or electric trimmer ... is now a perennial, look-after-itself (almost) wild garden. The slope is south facing and now all I need to do with it is keep the overlap war down to a dull roar between the invasives. The spiderwort is between the milkweed and the bee balm. Never thought I would see spiderwort beat at the invasive game ... but it does need my help a couple times in summer. At the bottom, the mower stops the invasives from moving completely across the grass.




Spiderwort in tomato cages ... will be completely over-run without intervention.




The monarch habitat. It constantly is trying to take over the aggregate in the laneway - yes it doesn't mind moving uphill, downhill or sideways!




Then yesterday, keeping the milkweed patch pays off.




Milkweed almost blooming ...

 
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