The BT Garden Thread (Page 6)

Asparagus from the garden tonight :)

Well, we put everything into the ground this weekend. Here are a few pics.

This is our "patch". It has corn, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon and some grapes in the back (front of the pic)

Here is our first potato popping out

Here is our broccoli, kale and some lettuce

Peas

Peppers

Some Tomatoes. That's going to be dill in the center.

Our strawberry patch

Great pics Josh.  Your stuff is so big already--jealous! 

Did you grow up in a family that gardened?  If not, how did you get so inspired?  I haven't met a lot of 28yo dudes who are into gardening, at least not legal gardening;)

The funny thing is, my parents loved working in the yard. I loathed it. We lived in the woods in Auburn, WA. Digging meant digging up buried trees out of the yard. They had an acre and we always had to go and work in the yard for awhile on weekends. Even our friends weren't spared. I hated it and always said I was going to have a concrete yard so I didn't have to do yard work. My wife on the other hand has always loved it. When we moved into our house she wanted a garden so I built her a temporary one. I don't know why but since then I've wanted to expand it and she has complained I'm trying to take it over from her. Mostly though, I just do the real labor intensive parts like building the beds, installing the sprinklers, etc. She does most of the seed starting, planting, maintenance and harvesting. Now I've moved to the point of wanting my own family farm. I just really like the idea of providing my own food.

Well, weather has gone from a foot of snow last week to 97 degrees today. I better get planting!

Gotta love South Dakota!

Bumping because this thread should not be on page 3 in May. 

How's it going growers?  What's up?  Successes? Failures?

Success: We have, literally, thousands of flowers in the strawberry patch right now.  Yay!

Failures: We had crazy straight line winds roll through last night that caused some damage to the orchard :(

And some silly bug is already stripping the kale and it's less than 2" tall. 

Yeah there aren't many states in the country I've felt more sorry for than ours this winter, but you guys have had it even worse.  That last blizzard was just salt in the wound.

I don't know about you, but I've been almost giddy with this warm up.  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and summer squash went in this weekend.  Hope to get the melons, cukes, beans and winter squash in some time this week.

I love home grown lettuce.  We're measuring ours in mm right now.  Very cool you're already harvesting.

Your peas also looked like they were well on their way (from your pics above).  Have any flowers or pods yet?

The Black Thumbs have planted a garden!!!

We have 3 kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, and a bunch of lettuce.  Plus some basil.  Time will see how long before everything dies. 

I think I had a post disappear... odd.  Anyway, had some storms blow my Cherokee Purple 'mater over.  Didn't see any visible stem damage, so I hope she makes it.  Got that sucker tied down with stakes now.

And my first ever Poblano fruit is starting to show!  Enchiladas Tacuba at my house when I can harvest some... bring tequila!

Sesh--my mouth just totally started watering, and that's the second time you've made me do that today!  The first was with your post about what to do with those stuffed pork chops.  As a woman who often uses food as a vehicle for hot sauce, I like how you roll.  I'll bring the tequila.

That's a bummer, but good save on the 'maters and peppers!  I actually haven't even put my beans, cukes, and squash in the ground.  No excuse.  We've had 2 weeks of perfect weather to do so.  I've just gotten super lazy.  I blame the drip irrigation because I don't have to go out to check and remind myself to get that stuff in the ground.  The mother in law is coming down Sunday to stay a few days, so I plan on finishing everything out then.

I make those with chicken thighs that I braise down in a skillet in the oven for about 3 hours.  So tender it shreds itself when I try to use tongs to get it out of the skillet.  Mix it with some sauce, wrap it up, place in a sauced baking dish, cover with sauce, top with queso fresco, 20 minutes or so in the oven at 350.  There's milk in the sauce, so it's not vegan, but I do make them with zucchini squash sometimes (grilled) or chayote squash (sauteed).  Gonna try to make it with some sort of soy or other kind of milk sometime to see if I can make it vegan.  

Other variations I'm going to try:

Bell pepper as the base pepper for the sauce with some habanero added for the heat.  I like the burn.

Bell pepper as the base pepper with cayenne added for heat, some garlic and onion, and shrimp for the stuffing... cajun style enchiladas! 

--- I had just typed out the recipe for the sauce but I'm forgetting something... I'll try to post it soon.  They are really simple to make.

Dang it.  Sorry Josh:/

Just out of curiosity, what is "technically" your last frost date?

Originally posted by Teejaay I am beyond jealous of your beautiful gardens. With a javelina and rabbit problem not to mention 100+ degree full sun exposure in my yard ...starting a garden would be futile unless i wanted to grow corn husks. Lol. But I love looking at all of yours.

Grow some agave and we can make our own tequilla!

That's interesting.  Ours is supposed to be May 17, and last year we had a ridiculously warm spring but then got hammered with a very late frost--almost no fruit bearing trees escaped.  Our favorite local orchard had nothing in the fall.  Glad you can restart your stuff   36 at night is still pretty dang chilly.