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Peppers |
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This years peppers had a mixed result. I had some good large peppers and some that did not do well. It was not all the plants fault. I had planted the ground cherries too close to them. I also had a tomato plant too close. They shaded the plants so the 2 outside rows did now do well.
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Zucchini |
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If you are new to growing food and looking for something
that could give you a lot of food, try growing Zucchini. Zucchini fruit is a green summer
squash that grows on a vine.
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Swiss Chard Seeds |
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Some times when you are gardening you get a chance to do
something that you did not plan. This year I was unable to get to one of my garden spots.
I had some health issues and the weather did not help. Last year I had swiss chard growing
in that garden spot and it started growing. I was able to pick a few leafs off the plant
but it soon went in to the flowerings stage. Some plants produce seeds their second year
like swiss chard and beets. I had a lot to do with keeping up my other garden spots and
just let it go. Some of the swiss chard went to seed but soon tipped over.
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Wrong Time of Year |
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I was out back near my swarm trap on September 3rd and
noticed several bees around it. This is not the time of year that you would expect a bee
swarm. The next few days I went out to see if there was any activity at my swarm trap.
After checking 3 days I found that yes a swarm had moved in to my swarm box.
I would have been more excited if this happened in May or June. This is the wrong time of the year to get a swarm. The chances of get them to make it till spring is doubtful even if you feed them. The plus is, it shows the swarm trap I made works. ( You can see where I made this box earlier in my blog. )
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After I let the stem dry out I cut the stem off leaving
about 2 inch. Then cut the roots off and took of the first outside layer leaving a nice
clean bulb. I will now place them in a mesh bag so they can dry more. I will hang them in
a cool dry place to store until I need to use them. Here is what I had for my garlic this
year.
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Jet Star Tomatoes |
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The jet star tomatoes I planted this year grew well. The
jet star plants were just loaded with large green tomatoes.
If you dont mind growing hybrid tomatoes it is a good choice.
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Eggplant |
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This years eggplant grew quite well and I am getting several set on the plants. I dont know much about eggplant because we never had them to eat when I grew up. I looked at the ones at a local store to see what they looked like. Two on my plants look the size they were selling at the store. I cut them off and took a photo of them here.
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Jelly Bean Tomatoes |
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This year I planted some seeds Jelly Bean Tomatoes for a friend. I was thinking it would be good to try something for snacking tomatoes when I was working in the garden. Most years I planted current tomatoes for snacking. The Jelly Bean Tomatoes turned out to be a bit bigger than I was expecting. They are bite sized but on the larger side of bite size.
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Ground Cherry | |
I planted these Aunt Mollys Tomatillo seeds and
didnt know much about them. I just wanted to give them a try. To my surprise the
plants grew much bigger than I thought. These plants are about 3 feet wide.
Become Self Sufficient on 1/2 Acre
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Lambs quarters |
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Lambs quarters You may have this weed growing in your garden around
your fence or almost any place.
Check out Purslane under salad below for another weed that you can eat. |
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Baby Steps to Gardening |
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If you are new to gardening you need to know that
everything in gardening does not go as planned. Last year I planned on growing a lot of Cucumbers, Broccoli and Zucchini as some of the things I planted. All 3 of these failed to produce what I had expected. I planted the Cucumbers three times but no Cucumbers. The Broccoli grew for a while but just stopped growing and I dont know why. The Zucchini only produced a couple and died. Right next to the Zucchini I had planted Butternut Squash and they grew fine and produced a record number of squash for me. Something just happen and I dont know why. Growing food is a lot of work. You need to tend to them often as they grow. Weeding and checking for pest is important. If you are new to gardening it is best to plant a small number of things to start with. Some people start with a large garden. They can soon find they are overwhelmed with weeds and pest problems. Take baby steps so you can learn before you jump in big. Green beans, radish, swiss chard and leaf lettuce are a few easy things to start with. With the green beans you need to pick them at least every other day when they start having pods. If you let them get too big the plants can stop producing and die. I am just starting to get some of the things that I had
trouble with last year.
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Garlic |
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Here is some of the garlic I pulled 7/9/24. The weather
said it was going to rain for the next 5 days.
We learn sometimes as we grow. |
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Sweet Potato |
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Last year I showed you how to grow sweet potato slips. I
tried to keep the plant growing till this summer. I was able to keep it going till now.
Here are the slips I got. They are not very good looking but I will give it a try.
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Potatoes |
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This year I am going to retry growing potatoes in a box
and a feed bag. Last year I didnt get very many but found the dirt to be dry. Also I
didnt use any fertilizer. I saved a couple store bought potatoes back in January to
let them sprout so I could use them. They didnt sprout. I then found out that they
spray something on the potatoes so they dont sprout. I wonder what harm that might
do to us as we eat them. I got a late start planting the potatoes June 26th. I got a couple potatoes from a farmer that had sprouted and used them. This year I am going to use some fertilizer and try to give them more water.
Become Self Sufficient on 1/2 Acre |
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Fresh Salad |
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This week 6/21/24 it has been very hot, so a nice fresh
salad was on my table at super time. Tonight I am going to make a large salad topped with
canned chicken and ranch dressing. I went out to the garden for the fresh vegetables. I
planted Little Gem Romaine and Nevada Batavian lettuce this spring.
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Tomato Plants |
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You planted your tomato plants in your garden. You had a
few leftover. You keep these just in case of a late frost or something else happen to your
plant. Well that is what I did. Then a few weeks later something dug up 4 of the 10 plants
that I planted. By that time the plants I saved were big and leggy.
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Celery |
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I had some celery seeds so I planted several in some
trays to see if they would grow. Several of the seeds did germinate in the tray.
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Peppers |
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I planted my peppers outside on 6/28/24 in my old raised bed garden. The first row I planted the ones where I had saved seeds from a store pepper. The second row was the Big Red Sweet peppers. The third row was the Chinese Giant organic peppers. I did get 4 of the king of the north to germinate but they took a long time and are a bit small to plant outside. I will give them a couple weeks then plant them in the fourth row.
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Tomatoes |
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I planted 2 rows of 5 plantes. One row Amish Paste and
one rowJet Star.
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Eggplant |
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Last year I planted fingerling eggplants. They did quite
well in my straw bales. This year the straw bales have broken down a lot.
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Onions |
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As I was told, it is time to plant the onion seedlings outside. Plant the seeds inside on April 1. Plant the seedling between May first and the 15th outside. I planted them outside on May the 7th . I would have said they were to small but here they are.
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Marigold |
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When you get old, things happen that keeps you from doing some of the things you should do. The last couple weeks were like that for me. I made sure I watered my plants but put off putting some in larger containers. That is what happened to my Marigold plants. A couple got so big they were against the grow light. That is why you see a cricked neck near the top of a couple of them.
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Transplanting Tomato Seedlings |
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The tomato seeds I planted are now ready to transplant. ( 4/24/24 ) I am going to use some Solo cups and yogurt contaners I have to transplant the tomato Seedlings into. The first thing I need to do is put some holes in the bottom of the cup. Some people use a soldering iron to do this. You will notice that the tomato seedlings have some fine hairs on the stem. These hairs will become more roots.
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Aunt Mollys Ground Cherries. | |
I have been trying something new each year
that I have heard of. This year I am going to try Aunt Mollys Tomatillio or called ground
cherries. They are started indoors in early spring with bottom heat, and transplant out in
warm weather about the same as tomatoes. I planted the small seeds about 2 weeks ago. They
are up already.
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Tomatoes for 2024 |
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This year I was asked if I would grow some tomato
seedlings for a friend that was going to be away for a couple weeks right when he would
plant his seeds. I decided to grow the 2 types he wanted along with one more for my
garden. The first 2 was what he asked for Jet Star and Jelly Bean. I am going to also grow
Amish Paste tomatoes. Jet Star Tomatoes Jet Star Tomatoes are crack-resistant and are popular in the northern states. They are also resistant to wilt. They produce large numbers of meaty low acid fruit. They are an indeterminate tomato. I planted 20 seeds of this type. Jelly Bean Tomatoes The jelly Bean Tomato is a Hybrid red grape size tomato. The fruit is perfect for snacking all summer long or adding to salads and raw vegetable trays. These clusters of tomatoes are resistance to cracks and disease making them a fun tomato to grow. It is an indeterminate tomato. I planted 10 seeds of this type.
Amish Paste Tomatoes Amish Paste Tomatoes are bright red
fruits grow to 8-12 ounces. This heirloom tomato has a juicy - meaty flesh, excellent for
sauce or fresh eating. It is an indeterminate tomato. I planted 12 seeds of this type. |
Onions |
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I have not had much luck with growing onions from seed in
the past. I was talking to a friend and she said that she always grew onions from seed and
said it was easy to do. She has given me some info on how to grow onions from seed along
with seeds for the type onions she has been growing. First plant the seeds on April 1. Plant the seeds in seed starting mix (not potting soil). Have the seed starting mix 3 to 4 inches deep as the roots grow deep. Keep the seed starting mix damp but not over soaked. Spread several seeds out and cover them up 1/8 to1/4 inch deep over the seeds. Then give then a good spray of water to get them started. The Ailsa Craig Exhibition seeds are dark and hard to see in photo.
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Sugar cake for bees |
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In the late winter the weather can sometimes get quite warm. Just like many people get thinking we are having an early spring,the bees can also. The bees start flying and find some things and bring it back to the hive. The queen starts to lay more eggs. With them have low amounts of honey and the need for more food a hive can soon starve. This is when a bee keeper needs to give them more food. That is when we need to add a sugar cake to the hive. A sugar cake is added right on top of the frames in the hive so the bees can get to it easily. When the weather gets back to cold temperature you cannot feed them sugar water in a feeder because it is too cold. That is why you need to use a sugar cake to feed the bees. The last several days have had been as low as 11f and some days not getting above freezing. I want to do what I can to make the hive survive till spring. This last week I made up a sugar cake to feed the bees. I put it on the have Tuesday when the temperature got above 55f. I hope this will give them enough food to get them in to spring. I will add the other half in about a week when it gets above 55f. A sugar cake is made by mixing sugar in water and heating it up to a temperature so it will turn hard like a big piece of hard candy.
We will see if this keeps them going till spring. |
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Peppers Transplant |
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It is March 22, time to transplant the peppers in to a
larger container.
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Bee Swarm Trap |
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During the spring a colony of bees can grow massively,
both in terms of number of worker bees and needed space. The available space becomes
smaller and smaller. The bees split up and part of the bees leave to find a new place to
live. Swarming bees are on their way to find a new home. Dr Thomas Seeley did a study on the size space in trees that bees lived in. He found that the space was between 30 and 60 liters of space. You can find out more about Dr Thomas Seeley from Cornell University Scout bees then go out looking for the new location to move into where it can begin its new colony of bees. That is where a swarm trap comes in to play.
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Basil and Eggplant |
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This week I planted some eggplant seeds.
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Peppers for 2024 |
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Peppers for 2024 It is February 24th and time to start
planting pepper seeds for this years pepper seedlings.
Seedlings should be planted 12 to 18 inches apart.
Seedlings should be planted 12 to 16 inches apart.
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For more post from 10/27/23 to 2/23/24 go to https://thatnew.biz/pg3.htm email garys blog, your email may be added to our blog.
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I am 69 years old and have been doing websites for over 25 years. My first website is WESTNY.com . I had a website business GLASSMARBLES.com for about 22 years. I had to stop that business because of my health. I have to use a walker to get around so I am limited to what I can do. I am doing a blog on this site THATNEW.biz. I am going to use this because I already own THATNEW.biz and going to use it as a blog. I use to do gardening, keep bees, building things and other things. This will give me something to do to keep my mind active. I hope this will give you insight to what older people like to do. 12/12/2022 | |
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