re: The 2021 Garden Thread

Starting to get a little overwhelmed.


And then I have a bunch of eggplant almost ready. The okra is starting to come in. The Marconi’s are finally turning red. The yard longs are loaded down and I’ll probably be picking a ton of them soon.


Also opened up the bee box today. Added a honey super. They’re still kicking arse.




Hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day. We remember the fallen.

I’m kicking myself for not getting bees this spring. Thanks for posting pics.

That’s the reason I didn’t get bees yet. I was afraid to mess up. Gonna jump in next spring.

No not done for. Not even close. That's pretty normal, just cut that off and move on

Yeah I agree with the others. Prune that off and maybe hit it with a peroxide treatment if you have any spots on upper leaves. Plants will be good.

My wife made hot sauce today. Pretty damn good. Has a slow heat.

Need the rain to stop. 4-6 inches predicted this week. Already had 16-18 in the last 2 weeks. Preaching to the choir for you Louisiana boys.

Nice job on those bread and butter pickles!

Something about growing and pickling them yourself makes them taste so much better.

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What method y’all baws use to can jalapeños?

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I do it the exact same way I do my pickle slices. Even use the same brine (kosher dill). I just got finished doing some and did some cucumber spears too.



And I sliced up a few of those tomatoes as well.


shite, man. You should come over one night with one of them good whiskeys and I’ll show you everything I know about pickling stuff. Although I do not claim to be an expert and I kinda cheat with the Mrs Wages stuff.

It's my first year doing any sort of garden. Very inexperienced, but as with most stuff I do, I'm diving in deep. Been following this thread. Got started very late this year, so not expecting much except to learn for the fall and next year. Plan to build some raised beds over the summer and started composting already as a way to manage the sawdust I create in my woodshop and all the foliage I get living in a wooded area.

Started small with bush beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Bush beans are producing well and don't expect much from the tomato plants since they were planted so late. But the cucumber plants have me puzzled. They look great, but I can't find a single female flower on them. Is there anything I should be doing?

No, I do the water bath canning. My understanding is that non acidic canning is what you would use a pressure canner for. Getting the water to boiling temperature kills botulism bacteria. But botulism spores can survive at that temperature. Acidity will kill the spores. So if you have neutral or alkaline foods to can, you would want to use a pressure canner to get the temperature hot enough to kill botulism spores.

I pretty much just pickle everything. So, plenty of vinegar and heat. Have never had any problems doing it that way. I’ve read that trying to pressure can pickles can be tricky.