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ICC
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# Posted: 26 Aug 2024 06:30pm
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(who remembers the nursery rhyme that is from?....)
I don't have much of a garden anymore. We used to grow all the usual vegetables; potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc. But I quit a few years ago. I can buy all those at the local farmers market and have the same quality. That also supports the locals who grow, sell, and earn some of their livelihood.
Instead of the old bigger garden, I have a reduced-size raised box garden. That's easier on the knees and so on. I grow mostly pepper varieties which I cannot buy in local stores or markets. I dry some and grind them for chile powders. Some I freeze. This year the banana peppers were so prolific I have pickled some.
red marconi peppers
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thai peppers
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harvested banana peppers
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ready for vinegar, spice mix
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2024 01:06am
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We gave up on gardening years ago, then tried some planters on the deck and that is long over too. It is just too easy to hit the local farmer's market or wait for friends and family to ask if we want some of their over production.
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Nobadays
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2024 11:23am
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We try.... We find here at 9,500' the weather is fickle but invariably cool/cold at nights. The growing season is short.
Since June this year I have only seen three nights in the 50*s, most nights in the mid 40*s even if the days hit the upper 70*s. Our 10'x10' greenhouse is unheated so hot in the day but still cold at night. Oh, this year has been wet! Only 10 rain free days since June 1st. It's green and the fire danger is low....
That said, the porch cherry tomatoes are starting to produce, the greenhouse tomato vines look great but only a few tomatoes set. Cold hardy plants are doing ok.. The carrots look good and will produce nice carrots by the end of the year. The beets are trying... I tried three new varieties that are supposed to be well suited for cold climates, germination was dismal so planted Detroits late after the others didn't come up. The big surprise is the turnips! We had never planted them before but had some seed and they not only came up but are making nice tubers! The Swiss Chard has done ok but it has been a bit wet and cold for it even. I'll take some pictures next time I harvest.
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ICC
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2024 01:45pm
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I applaud youfor even trying to grow at your altitude. We had a couple of hoop gardens at our cabin years ago. (Garden in a box with breathable fabric covered hoops to protect the plants and keep it warmer but not Hot. They worked for kale and spinach and I forget what else..., but were more bother than we wanted.
Growing season is quite short up there. It is interesting to hear about the turnip success. Years ago an agronomist suggested turnips for our cabin area
. We never did.
Yep, this has been a rather wet summer here too. It's very green with lots of tall grasses where cattle are fenced out.
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Tim_Ohio
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2024 01:59pm
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I like to grow potatoes and squash at my cabin. They are no trouble to deal with. Plant in the spring, harvest in the fall. They last until about February in cool storage in a closed cardboard box. I do use a tractor to make it less labor intensive. Other gardening is done at home, where we are there more of the time to tend to it.
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Nobadays
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# Posted: 5 Sep 2024 09:07pm
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Harvested these a few days ago. The purple top beets are doing pretty good. The chard and spinach, not so much, which is weird as we usually have tons of Swiss chard and spinach. The carrots are coming along. We may get a pretty good batch on Nantes.
Turnips and chard
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Carrots and beets
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 5 Sep 2024 11:03pm
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Been a wet year here in s-c WI too. We had drought last year and not much snow so we started the spring out dry then the rains came. Until a few weeks ago we were well ahead of the normal rainfall, now we are going dry again.
When we found our current cabin place about 4 years ago the meadow was lovely. This year the Little and Big Blue Stem took over. In some places you can't see a large whitetail fawn unless its head is held high, so no spotting shorter critters  .
I have no idea if, or when, this will change....likely cyclical.
And in spite of the rains the Blackberrys were just so-so.
The neighbors that have successful gardens have about 10' fences. Those that try it without fences just have 'food plots', lol.
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ICC
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2024 01:23am
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Quoting: gcrank1 In some places you can't see a large whitetail fawn unless its head is held high, so no spotting shorter critters
Damn right. We have been cursed with the spread of Mullein, an invasive species, in areas that were burnt in the wildfire. I hate that stuff. We always had a bit of it but it never used to predominate. It has reached 7 feet tall in places. Very soft velvety leaves. I've read that there are medicinal uses. You can even buy seeds! That is nuts to me! Very hard to eradicate without resorting to herbicides like glyphosate.
weed
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not that kind of weed!
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travellerw
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2024 03:24pm
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My garden grew awesome last year. The deer and bears have never been happier. I wasn't too excited to eat pumpkins and potatoes with bites out of them though.
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Nobadays
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# Posted: 6 Oct 2024 07:29pm
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Second bunch of carrots this year. So cold and wet this year that nothing grew well except turnips. Still have probably twice this many carrots ready to pull when we want them. Planted 3 times this year so the next group still have a few week and the last bunch, which are in the greenhouse have a month or so. Planted Nantes and Danvers, not sure which these are but they are super sweet!
The beets have grown so slow we haven't had a one yet. I'm going to leave both the carrots and beets in the ground to see how they overwinter. The worst will be they get woody.
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ICC
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# Posted: 6 Oct 2024 09:44pm - Edited by: ICC
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No picture, but at my cabin, the weeds had a bonanza year!
Thanks to the rain this summer.
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travellerw
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2024 02:24am
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At our little garden here in the city we got 90lbs of tomatoes. No idea what the hell I'm going to do with 90lbs of potatoes. You can only make so much sauce and chilli.
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paulz
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# Posted: 9 Oct 2024 01:46pm - Edited by: paulz
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Quoting: travellerw we got 90lbs of tomatoes. No idea what
Sounds like a tomato fight to me.
Actually we were given a tub of meaty spicy tomato chile not long ago. Sure was tasty. 90 lbs would take a while..
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 9 Oct 2024 09:49pm
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If they are 1/2 water that is only 45# (lol)
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 11 Oct 2024 10:14pm
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The peppers are still producing
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