What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Prairie Rose]

Picked a few tomatoes, a cucumber, and a few zucchini. Tried to go out and pull weeds, but it is so dry here they just break off. Currently dragging the sprinkler around the garden for an hour at a time in various spots so I can weed this evening. Drip watering is great for my plants...but makes it tough to weed sometimes!

 

[ducks4you]

THAT STORM MISSED YOU?!?!? Good thing, though, we had pebble sized hail.
It was probably 3 inches of rain, judging from my horse's feed buckets.

 

[digitS']

Ran the tiller on the paths again. The soil wasn't very damp so it was a bit of a "scratch" with the tines in forward gear but I made multiple passes.

Before I began this task, I mowed the neighbor's lawn where the garden sprinklers water it. He seems to have his grandson watering beyond the garage this year. I guess that he is also mowing the other parts of the lawn. Well, together, we are getting it done.

@Cosmo spring garden , I wonder if we aren't sometimes blessed with unintended hybrids with our volunteers. "Hybrid vigor" kicks in and, if we are truly blessed, the result is not just a stronger plant but something useful and good. Some gardeners praise "land races" but I wonder sometimes if the qualities aren't mostly (or additionally) hybrid vigor. There's nothing wrong with this. It just suggests that it would be best if we don't become captivated by commercial varieties but be willing to try some of what just shows up in our garden.

I have a nice yellow tomato that is a DW favorite. It was obviously a cross when I first received the seeds. Supposed to be big and orange, it was little and red (the plant size was on the small side, also). I liked it, anyway and grew it. After about 4 seasons, I had a plant with yellow fruit - THAT is the one DW really likes! Yellow is a recessive color and the plants have stayed about the same for several more seasons. For a small plant, it's been remarkably productive right along.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

hybrid vigor may only work for that one generation, but if you are lucky it might stick in that seedline.

here the past few days it has been weeding in the north garden and around a few other gardens and also having to check on the beans to make sure the climbers are at least climbing instead of sprawling. which reminds me that i need to look up something in my planting charts because i have climbers where i don't recall planting them (and where they aren't really a great idea, but oh well. )... nope, they're not supposed to be climbers. Momma Nature had her say there...

 

[Carol Dee]

THAT STORM MISSED YOU?!?!? Good thing, though, we had pebble sized hail.
It was probably 3 inches of rain, judging from my horse's feed buckets.

Same storm system that hit us. We lost nothing! Lots of wind and thunder. Only got 1/2 " rain! Sis lives a few miles east and lost an apple tree. Lots of others lost tree limbs, corn in some areas pretty flat

 

[flowerbug]

i started picking some peas that were close to being ready. i wanted to get them harvested before any rains came along and ruined them, but also just in case the animals out there suddenly decided to start hoarding peas. this animal in here is hoarding these for the moment until they're dry enough to send some back to the person who was kind enough to send them to me - turns out he lost some of his that didn't grow for him this year so i can return the favor.

considering how i planted them i'm happy with the results so far.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Harvested parsnip seeds. Will plant some today. Save some for next year. More than this already fell to ground and about 2-3X more still to be harvested. Not sure what I’ll do with them.View attachment 36176

What do parsnips taste like? I've never had them!

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

^^yummy when sliced, then add sliced carrots, simmer till done. Then mash and add butter. YUMMY!

 

[seedcorn]

Or fried.

 

[digitS']

I did some thinking about the taste of a parsnip. Oh, they are sweet! As sweet as any carrot but, absent that carrot flavor ...

Finally, a thought occurred to me. They taste a little like Brazil nuts. I have only had chestnuts once; maybe others more experienced will correct me but that seems like it might be the right flavor. But, sweet ...

I looked online and some of the cooking sites describe a "nutty flavor" ... It isn't too pronounced. The sweetness almost overrides all.

Today: I weeded a path, which took a spading fork to start. After DW finished picking peas and with me cutting broccoli, we both moved on to weeding the cabbage.

Steve