Jen's old and new Dutch garden 2019

[thejenx]

Yay!

Jen, you should tell us about your ..

. mushroom growing, sometime. Did I already miss it? We have (dry) shiitake in broth for noodles, now and then.

Steve

I'm not sure if I told anything about it here, I know I did on Facebook so I'll just do it here too.
In the summer of 2016 my mom had a professional trim back the 40 year-old oak that was too close to the house. Later it turned out that he killed the tree, it's in a bad shape now.
I took a dozen or so branches 6 to 10" thick against my mothers will, since she wanted it all for the fireplace. I put them in a shaded place under some trees and let them die for 4 weeks, then I ordered 3 kinds of mushrooms. The mycelium was grafted on wooden plugs, the ones you might use for making furniture.
Then the most relaxing job ever: drilling holes in the branches every 6-8" and hammering in the plugs.

I placed them horizontal under trees. Then I left them alone only watering them when it was dry weather for many weeks.
After 1,5 years I harvested the first shiitake mushrooms, and have since then harvested a lot, probably 5-6 times a year. Last year I had 10 pounds in one go!

Unfortunately only the shiitake mushrooms were successfully grafted, the other 2 didn't take. Next time I need to dig them in a bit like this:

Because now you get mushrooms close to the ground that are in the small corner and are hard to pick.

This fall we had mushrooms but didn't get to eat them because flies had layed eggs in them and we had maggot like creatures in them, yuck.
But all in all a big success and I should be able to harvest for a few more years from these branches. In total 5 years is possible.
What I love most is that my mom is now very proud of the mushrooms and tells everyone about them!

 

[flowerbug]

envy!

i tried to do this by requesting when a friend was going to take down some old apple trees to get the green wood from him, he has a large trailer and said he would even bring it over. then he forgot about it and the next thing i knew he'd piled it all up and burned it. i could have had 'em all. he did say he was sorry... we love mushrooms here, but i don't forage for them or grow any of them other than the morels.

 

[baymule]

Those are some beautiful mushrooms. We buy them at the store. You are so smart, you grow your own!

 

[thejenx]

Tomatoes are up!
In this tray:
Ananas Noir
Chuckloma*
Cow’s Tit
Etoile Blanche d'Anvers
Green Zebra
Hillbilly Potatoe Leaf
Larissa’s Russian Beauty*
Mariana’s Peace*
Mary Robinson German Bicolor
New Yorker*
Purple Sophie
Purple Russian*
Snowball
Turks Muts
Yellow Pear Shaped
Black Krim

Aubergine:
Purple Boulanger
Red China*
Thai Long Green*

Also up;
Numex* pepper
Medusa* pepper
Straight Eight* cucumber

*= new for me this year!

 

[baymule]

I grew straight eight cucumbers last year. They made plenty of cucumbers for me to restock my spicy sweet pickles, plus enough for a friend too. I think I had 10-12 vines.

 

[thejenx]

Do you grow them outside? So far I've grown them only in the greenhouse, because that's how we always did it. We grow them only for fresh eating, are they good that way? We normally grow only 3 vines.

 

[baymule]

My pickle recipe

https://www.theeasygarden.com/threa...r-yall-that-are-tired-of-soggy-pickles.12510/

 

[baymule]

I grow them outside. Plant some more vines and try my Great Grandmother's recipe. They are the BEST!

 

[flowerbug]

Do you grow them outside? So far I've grown them only in the greenhouse, because that's how we always did it. We grow them only for fresh eating, are they good that way? We normally grow only 3 vines.

we don't have a greenhouse here so everything is done outside in the gardens. whatever starts we need we get from the local greenhouse so we don't do much seed starting either (no real good places inside that can be used for now).

depending upon how many pickles you want to put up, for the varieties of cucumbers we've grown we can get between 70 - 100 liters of pickles from 10 - 15 plants. we really like dill so that is planted too. 5 - 10 plants is plenty for us, but i'll also eat it when i'm in the garden.

 

[digitS']

I was wondering if the weather allows you to set out the cucumbers before the tomatoes, etc. Then, I read your response that you grow them in a greenhouse . Interesting.

What I have had in my little greenhouse through a couple of summers is some of the peppers.

I've grown Marianna's Peace several times. It's a very nice tomato. The New Yorker will produce a good deal, very early .

I've grown one type of Numex peppers. I should have thought of them again this year. It looks like my 101 year old father will be staying with me this summer. I know that it would please him to have some peppers from the Chile Institute, New Mexico State University in his olde hometown of Las Cruces, New Mexico .

Here is Wishing You the Best of Luck!

Steve