~*July Food Growing Mamas*~ - Page 2

[GardenStream]

Originally Posted by RosieL 

Of course, I already used up all my baseball bat size zucchini, so I'll have to wait to get more chip-suitable fruit.

I can give you a couple.

Actually, I'm pretty good on zucchini right now. All the ones that went to the market ended up selling and I'm taking another box in today. That leaves me with 5 giant ones and about 10 that are 4" or smaller.

I'm definitely going to try out the zucchini chip recipe too.

[GardenStream]

How are your gardens handling this heat?

[RosieL]

I'm losing the battle with my tomatoes. They've got mites, which always happens, and I sprayed with Neem for the first time tonight. They also have a fungus that makes their middle leaves brown. I confirmed early blight earlier, but we got through that, and I'm not sure if this is a recurrence (we did have a couple cooler nights) or something else. Nonetheless, I'm getting large, tasty fruit. I have to pick them a day earlier that I would like due to rabbits, but I'm not complaining about that too much. Haven't seen a rabbit since the dogs half-killed one last week. 
 

Our peppers, pumpkins, new cabbage seedlings, new lettuce seedlings, kale, broccoli, carrots, new beet seedlings, and all the herbs (minus cilantro!) are doing splendidly. My green onions are getting bigger than they should. Should I just leave then in the ground to see what happens?

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe 

Rosie - That does seem like a long time for them to be in the dehydrator without drying! I wonder, how thick did you slice them? I think the trick is to slice them really thin - like 1/4 inch or thinner. Then I soak the slices in salt water (1 T salt, dissolved in a cup or two of water). After they've had a good long soak (several hours), I sprinkle them with seasonings (whatever sounds good - I think I used a few tablespoons of oregano and cayenne pepper last year), then put them in the dehydrator. In my dehydrator, it takes a full day to dry.

I got a few jumbo zucchs from my mom and sliced them nice and thin with a mandolin tonight. They're in the dehydrator now, we'll see what they look like come morning. :)

[RosieL]

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg1015493630910.html

That's an awesome thread with a TON of ideas for what to do with zucchini and squash.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by RosieL 

I'm losing the battle with my tomatoes. They've got mites, which always happens, and I sprayed with Neem for the first time tonight. They also have a fungus that makes their middle leaves brown. I confirmed early blight earlier, but we got through that, and I'm not sure if this is a recurrence (we did have a couple cooler nights) or something else. Nonetheless, I'm getting large, tasty fruit. I have to pick them a day earlier that I would like due to rabbits, but I'm not complaining about that too much. Haven't seen a rabbit since the dogs half-killed one last week. 
 

Our peppers, pumpkins, new cabbage seedlings, new lettuce seedlings, kale, broccoli, carrots, new beet seedlings, and all the herbs (minus cilantro!) are doing splendidly. My green onions are getting bigger than they should. Should I just leave then in the ground to see what happens?

I got a few jumbo zucchs from my mom and sliced them nice and thin with a mandolin tonight. They're in the dehydrator now, we'll see what they look like come morning. :)

Did the zucch chips work out? I hope so! I'm still waiting to have enough zucchini to dry some this year. Hopefully soon! As for the green onions - are you only interested in using them as green onions? If you leave them in, they'll just start bulbing up pretty quickly and the tops will start to turn brown. At that point, you'd just leave them in the ground until the tops are totally brown, and then dig them to use as storage onions. I just pull them and use them green as needed until the tops start looking unappealing, and then leave the rest in the ground until the tops are brown.

[HeatherAtHome]

My garden is growing despite being neglected. ;) It's been too hot this past week to do much out there and the weeds and grass are taking over in some areas. Zone 4 here plus I planted late. I harvested 2 cucumbers yesterday, the tomatoes are starting to grow and it looks like the zucchini is getting ready to produce even though the plants themselves look so puny. I think it would all grow so much better if it would rain. I keep holding out hope. Otherwise, I will have to carry water by the bucketful as we don't have a hose installed yet.... and the garden is a good walk from the house. It actually rained last night, but I don't think it was enough. :( Pictures. 

[RosieL]

The zucchini chips were awesome! The flavor concentration was not something I was expecting. The salt soak gave them a great amount of flavor, and they were surprisingly sweet. I would cut them thicker next time (3/8 in?) so I can try using them as tortilla chip replacements, and just deal with the very long dehydration time. I have my dunce cap on...I thought the dehyrator times were in minutes, not hours. So there's a 30-hour setting I'll use next time. :) (It's a borrowed machine)

The green onions I just never got to using, since my shallots are always on hand in the house. So they'll all just go for storing onions. I planted them on a lark in a bed with a tad less than full sun, so never expected much. We'll see how the bulbs grow.

I planted lettuce and beet seeds recently, and I'm guessing they hate this heat. Hopefully they pull through. I think my summer squashes are just about done and my tomatoes are limping along. The fruit tastes wonderful.

I had a chest freezer delivered today! They propped open a storm door and brought it in the back. When they were going to fix the door I realized there were wasps swarming around...and then left through the front. I admit I neglected to do anything about the wasps living inside my storm door this summer, but they never bothered me, and I never seemed to bother them. Well, until I confused them by propping open the door. There were eight of them swarming where they thought their home should be. I went out to the shed to get the wasp killer and imagine my surprise when I got stung, yards and yards away from the other swarm! I found out that there was a nest *right* above the shed doors. Ugh! I sprayed the heck out of the nest (I know, not advisable), which killed those guys, then went to work at the swarm by the door. I felt like I was an anti-aircraft gun shooting down enemy 'copters...I'd spray these guys and if I got 'em good enough, they'd drop to the deck. 

Not a fun afternoon, but I feel like I got rid of the danger. I'm having twin seven month olds over for the weekend, we can't have wasp swarms around!

[onthemove]

 I haven't been out to my garden in over a week so I'm not sure what to expect today.  Last week I had 10 cucs about ready and tomatoes just starting to turn red.  Still lots of radishes and green onions to be picked.  I think the peas are flowering but not quite ready.

Corn, squash, and beans are all growing so slow due to the cool, damp summer we are having. 

Today I need to play find my leeks.  Last year I picked them all with the weeds, this year I have left them and hope they are taller than the weeds so I can see them.  Kolrahbi and beets are doing fine. Swiss chard and greek salad for dinner tonight....with bbq fresh salmon, now if only the sun would shine.( I'd even settle for the rain to stay away)

Definately want to try the zucchini chips, my dd2 will love that!

[RosieL]

Good luck finding all the leeks, I hope your harvest is great tonight.

I have to share my photos from tonight. Not food, but pollinators!

[HeatherAtHome]

Beautiful! I love the first pic! 

In my garden, the biggest news is that it finally rained. We were LONG overdue. 

[abiyhayil]

Our peaches are delicious!  The wasps worry me though.  Has anyone had success getting rid of japanese beetles?

[wasabihoneybee]

Yummy!! Beautiful photos : ) 

[Owen'nZoe]

Beautiful pictures, Rosie!

abiyhayil - the japanese beetles are just destroying my yard! I've had to pull up all of my hollyhocks, because they looked horrid, and have been handpicking beetles three times a day off the grapes, hazelnuts, plum trees, cherry trees, roses, and apple trees, which they have completely infested. Some leaves have 15, 20 beetles on them. They're also eating the coneflowers, catmint, blazing star, black eyed susan, daisies, highbush cranberries, lilacs...really it would probably be easier to list the plants they aren't eating. I think they killed my neighbor's 15 foot tall linden - it is completely defoliated - I've never seen them this bad before.

So, what to do? I'm planning to spread milky spore next month, and have been trying to talk my neighbors into doing the same, but so far only one seems serious about joining me. The neighbor whose tree was defoliated did buy a chemical spray, but said it wasn't effective, because most of the beetles flew off before she could get them - that made me feel a little better about not wanting to spray. I've read about a systemic I could use on the lindens, but since bees love the linden flowers and the systemic lasts over a year, I'd rather not. That said, I can't afford to lose two $400 trees, you know? I just read about coating the trees in kaolin clay yesterday, and want to try that. I'll update here if it works. I'm thinking of buying one of those silly traps, because with the infestation I have, I can't imagine that it could possibly attract more beetles to my yard, and it might help a bit with all the handpicking I've been doing.

[RosieL]

Wow, Owen'nZoe you sound like you got SO MUCH out there! Will you share more pictures of your yard (I can't remember if I've seen it before).

Our yard was basically bare of landscaping before we arrived. I've worked on vegetables for the last three years, and this year just started to think about and grow for decoration. The zinnias were the frist foray!

[abiyhayil]

I've thought about hanging a trap across the street next to the doggie doo bags.  OUr grapevines got hit the worst, but I haven't picked beetles in almost two weeks so I know I'll have even more next year : /  will milky spore help even if it's just me applying it?