The BT Garden Thread (Page 12)

Josh, it took until about age 4 in our house.  I think at four they could really understand being threatened;)

I'm joking, I'm joking.  Sort of.  Ugh.  Maybe a low parenting moment or two in there.

Seriously, when the girls were younger--3 and 5--and I was pregnant with my son, we did a very small (4 box) CSA, just to see if we'd like it.  It was a hard summer--lots of rain, and we had planted only heirloom seeds.  The tomatoes were a complete disaster and had no hybrid vigor, so we had every tomato issue known to man.  Sucked.  Out of 150 plants I think we got 30 tomatoes that were edible all summer, but offering a CSA and having no tomatoes was stressful.  At one point, my three year old daughter picked a tomato  I had been eying for a couple of days, really hoping it would make it, and I, well, I didn't handle it well.  I realized something was seriously not OK if I was getting upset about my three year old picking produce from our garden. 

Happy to report that the peaches are coming on now!  Yay!  These are our first peaches in our young orchard.  They smell incredible and are the best peaches I have ever tasted.  My kids were literally giddy last night eating them :)  Warm peach right off the tree?  Yeah, that's good. 

I probably should have thinned them more, which would have made them bigger.  Right now they're all a little smaller than a racquetball.

My husband runs a summer camp and he took a group to a berry farm yesterday where the 18 kids picked 42 pounds of blueberries!  We'll put some of those into the ice cream we make with the camp kids on Friday, and some into their pancakes Saturday morning, and the rest I'll make into jam. Yum.

I'm sorry to hear about your tree Josh. but your garden looks GREAT!  Wow!  I am going to have to do some liberating this weekend as I have some weeds that are bigger than my plants:/

Brian, I read a lengthy article about how to push zones for fig trees.  It sounded like more work than I was willing to do for an iffy pay off here in Iowa.  I believe you're zone 6, right?  The fig thing--is it Italian?  If you can push citrus to zone 6 I am all ears.  I love figs, but I will happily buy those from my coop when the urge strikes.  Citrus on the other hand, I would go to great lengths for.

Hmmm, I'm not sure if I actually hate you or if I'm just so extremely jealous of your property/garden/orchard/teepee.  But you're definitely making me realize city life is not for me.  

:)

Kevin, I have experienced living in really urban (DC, London, Melbourne) and really rural areas (where I am now), and lots of stuff in between (Kent, Connecticut; Park City, Utah; Iowa City, Iowa), and I really, really love the rural life.  I like having the land and the ability to do stuff on it, that my kids can go out and play for hours and I don't worry about them, and I don't have to see or hear any neighbors unless I want to.

It really is awesome, and if you find yourself drawn to that lifestyle, I really hope you can make it happen :) 

Thanks!

I'm jealous of you warmer zone growers--zone 8!!! I'm afraid I won't be able to do citrus unless we go with a greenhouse :)

These are either Reliance or Contender peaches  (both super hardy freestones) from Stark Bros in Missouri.  I'd have to check our planting map to know for sure.   They do a really nice wholesale ordering program if you are able to buy a large number of trees.  They end up being between $10-12/tree then, depending on the cultivar and caliper.  We ended up ordering 8-9 different varieties of peaches, and we have three different trees producing this year, so we'll get to have a taste test:)

Josh--I know you'll make it happen :)  You are SO young and look at all you've done already!

Maybe some day I'll get my Green Acres life.  For now I'll have to make do with my potted tomato plants and two backyard chickens, and continue to read this thread with envy.  Seriously, your peaches look amazing.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html

Me? Tonight I am going to go gangster on some aphids with neem and Doc Bonner's.

Edited by bootygirl 2013-08-17 3:58 PM

"We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves."

This is awesome.  Wheat is something I'd LOVE To give a try when we get back to the US.

Update:  Our "pumpkins in pots" garden did not come to fruition.  The heat here in Beijing was just too much... not enough soil in the pots to make it happen.  Maybe next year we'll try deeper, narrower buckets instead.

Switch, your peaches:  would still shake your tree.   *JEALOUS*  My 4yo absolutely LOVES them.   The peaches from my hometown (Madison, IN) were especially good this year, he ate a ton of them.

Sorry to hear that the pumpkins didn't make it.  Honestly, though, I would have been AMAZED if they had.

This must be a good year for peaches in general.  I don't really have anything to compare it to, as this is our first year with fruit, but going from nothing to so many has to mean something :)

The girls picked a bunch this afternoon and we had our first fruit pie with fruit from our orchard tonight!  Very sweet.

We did!   My family was "home" in the US for about 7 weeks, just got home on Friday night (traveling with 3 kids for over 24 hours... my wife is a SAINT)

I only got to go for 3 weeks, have been back for about a week-and-a-half.

The weather in So. IN has been really wet and unseasonably cool this year, so maybe that had something to do with it.  We are lucky to have a local orchard that has just UNBELIEVABLE apples and peaches.  When I got "out into the world" and had apples from other sources... I couldn't believe people would eat such bland, mealy apples. 

Apples here in Beijing are good in texture, but not so great in the taste department, in general.  My wife has found a couple of vendors that seem to have good sources, we buy from them whenever we can. 

I need to find a source of some good "pie apples" so that I can make a pie for my co-irkers.  None of them have ever had apple pie.   For the most part, the confectionery here is very, very "floury" with not much sugar.   A real apple pie will probably bowl them over.

Came home from a long day of work travel yesterday and my husband had made a meal of things completely from our farm:

Grilled kebobs made with lamb, zucchini, yellow squash, onion and and garlic and sliced tomatoes. 

(august dinner.jpg)

Here is just for pretty - and to make my yard popular with bees and butterflies, and even humming birds.

(image.jpg)

Mary, those are lovely!  I used to do pots of flowers and I loved thinking about the colors and habits and how they'd work.  You've got a really nice combination there, especially with that pot.  Nice!

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NXS, if you ever find yourself in Iowa, just give a holla. You're welcome at dinner any time :)

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5 new piglets born on Friday!