Any green thumbers out there?

[j_dunlavy]

For years I have been gardening and fully enjoy it.
How many of you all are green in the thumb?
What are you all growing this year?

I just built some raised beds (to keep the tortoises out of the veggies when they are at large) and have started all kinds of good stuff: the typical onions, carrots, beans, tomatoes, cilantro, cucumbers and some basic peppers like jalapeno, habanero, serano, and relleno. I also have a few unusual things going like bittermelon (my wife and her parents like these), kabocha, shishito peppers (better than bells) and a couple ridiculously hot peppers (for fun) like bhut jolokia and Carolina Reapers. I planted some fruit trees as well.
I have also been growing all kinds of strange/rare cacti and succulents for many years. Lots of Euphorbia, but more varieties of other stuff than I can name off the top of my head.
Once the seedlings have been moved outdoors, I plan to post some pics; raised gardens and cacti/succulents.

 

[Lucille]

I have a small garden, in front I grow wildflowers, day lilies, roses. In the back I have some small raised beds and containers, I am growing tomatoes, blackberries,cucumbers,peppers, chard, eggplant, onions, squash, beans and some newly purchased dwarf citrus.
Later in the spring I'll grow a few melons, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes.
I envy you your Reapers, I wanted to grow some but could not find true seed.

 

[j_dunlavy]

I got my exotic pepper seeds from a place called "Hell Hot Peppers"
I will know in a couple months if the seeds are true but this company seems to be totally legit. They advertise that they grow them all themselves and test germination rates. So far only 2 seeds of the 50 or so I planted have yet to germinate but peppers normally take a while. I have been germinating them in an empty space in my snake rack... it has the perfect temp for germinating long season peppers.

 

[deedeeiam]

I have a small garden that traditionally produces a lot of food. I made raised herb garden out of an old filing cabinet.

One perimeter of my property line has all the thorns, hot peppers, and pokey plants I could find. But still...nothing keeps the children away. People really need to leash their kids.

 

[j_dunlavy]

I harvested a couple peppers the other day...

 

[Helenthereef]

 

[WebSlave]

Wow! Looks like you had a good year.

Here's a few pics of one of Connie's garden areas out behind the garage.

Those tall tree like things are tomato plants. She also is growing sweet peppers and tried to get some bean vines going.

This was a pretty bad year for caterpillars and grasshoppers. She won't use pesticides so it's all manual labor finding the bugs to kill them. Many of the smaller pests went to feeding the venus fly traps I've been playing with.

I don't think she's planning on doing too much next year as this year pretty much wore her out with the gardening stuff. Each time we went away for a few days the bugs took full advantage of that. It's pretty unbelievable how huge hornworms will get in just a couple of days. A couple of them will completely destroy a tomato plant.

 

[Shadera]

Random stream of consciousness here ...
I've been doing a lot this year to keep me busy and sane while Shawn is across the country for medical stuff.

I'm deep into adding a permaculture food forest to the property. I'm tired of mowing all this yard. I added a 10' electrical deer fence because any other efforts I've made to grow things result in them being immediately and completely eaten.
(anyone want to come bowhunt whitetails in Montana?)
I'm also working on a permaculture design course.

This year I've added several varieties of peaches, apples, pears, honeyberries, elderberries, cold hardy kiwis and a couple beds of herbs - one for medicinals and one for culinary.
I've done a lot of sheet mulching to help with soil fertility. Every time I clean out the chicken coop and run I have enough to do a 8'x8' area so I do so.
Right now I've got a couple hundred pounds of mangel beets ready to put up for the winter for the livestock, and I also grew some of the three sisters trinity in there. I'm throwing a seed mix that includes vetch, plantain, clovers etc everywhere too. Comfrey under the trees for chop and drop fertilizer/mulch.

Misc veggies in raised beds, turned the old decorative pond into a strawberry patch, and I planted a dozen bayberry bushes down by the hot tub for privacy and berries for candle wax.

Planted some bamboo along the deck, for privacy and shade. I also like eating the new shoots and look forward to having bamboo to use around the homestead for all sorts of things. I planted three dozen small potted misc spruce trees around the yard as well. There was only one lone hawthorn here when we bought the place, now we have lots of trees! Dug about 50' of new ditch to irrigate them all, and installed simple drip irrigation systems using water barrels for the rest.

Several swales along contour lines for water catchment and to nurture future trees there. We received only 6" of rain so far this year, and I need to keep every drop on the property for as long as I can. I'm also getting better at using the ditches and flood irrigation. Got two big gun sprinklers with some big gas pumps to power them to get what gravity will not. Everything is nice and green this year, and my pond is topped off and has a nice mat of duckweed going. (FREE high protein critter feed!)

Right now I have blue spruce and huckleberry seeds stratifying in the fridge.

Next year I'm adding fruit and nut trees, along with a lot more berries. Mulberries, pawpaws, figs - lots of stuff. Chestnuts and acorns for animal feed, as well as 1/2 acre in grains. I'll be adding on to the understories of the orchard with more berries and other plants. Lots of blooms to attract pollinators and keep predator insects hanging around. I hope to be able to set up my beehives as well.

Lots of reading and lots of research. I look forward to winter when I have the time to think and plan without having to skip out on work that needs to be done. The book "Restoration Agriculture" has been my bible this year.

 

[Robert Walker]

I just came across this today and thought, seriously? I'm not the only green thumb out there, cool! Perhaps the same interest we have in raising baby animals to adults carries over to raising/growing plants. I actually really enjoy growing plants and feeling a form of success as they mature and produce flowers/food.

I have been working with banana plants this year here in cold Nebraska.

Cool thread, thanks!

 

[Robert Walker]

I harvested a couple peppers the other day...

Combine your pepper and snake love and make a new morph combo called the: Scoville

 

[j_dunlavy]

I also collect cacti/succulents

here are a few pics:

 

[j_dunlavy]

and a few more:

 

[Robert Walker]

Those are sweet! I always stop and look at those at the store, but with little kids at home, I have to either keep walking or picture myself with crying kids - There is no such thing as just "looking", they have to touch everything!

 

[Lucille]

AWESOME pictures!! Jon what an incredible pepper harvest!!!
I am hoping for some fall tomatoes.
I had a wonderful garden going in early summer, and then I had some contractors come over to do some work on the house. They were there longer than expected, and the heat and my lack of watering while they were there shut down the tomatoes.
I'm getting peppers and eggplant right now and keeping my fingers crossed for a tomato revival.

 

[j_dunlavy]

Thanks.
I had so many peppers throughout the entire season, these are the hot ones that tend to come in later. Next year I plan to have more bells and less ghost peppers. I dry the cayenne and arbol chilies.
I give the tomatoes some extra water to get the plant moving and reduce the water dramatically to stimulate tomatoes. Mine are on round two but they are really slow now due to the cooler nights. they tend to be resilient with a little tlc.

 

[WebSlave]

Ghost peppers? Heck, I've watched videos of people eating those things....

 

[Robert Walker]

Guy in the video says, "I suggest you guys do this sometime". NO GRACIAS!

I lived in Chile for two years on church mission. I ate all kinds of peppers down there. I came home thinking I was tough stuff. My dad gave me a whole Habanero which I promptly popped in my mouth to show how cool I was. 1.5hrs later I was still in pain drinking milk, eating bread and even called poison control to ask for suggestions. I was an idiot.

 

[j_dunlavy]

Ghost peppers? Heck, I've watched videos of people eating those things....

those are small ghost peppers; mine are about 3 inches on average (same type, Bhut Jolokia)

I also have carolina reapers (that is what I am holding in the pic).
Ghost peppers are the 5th hottest in the world (about 1.2 million scovilles); reapers are THE hottest in the world (about 2.2 million scovilles).
I was planning to use them in small amounts to spice batches of hot sauce up...
and as a cat repellent around my roses...

The ones I use the most are cayenne, jalapeno and habanero. When I get a chance, I will post a recipe that I tried recently for peach habanero chicken... it was goooood!

 

[Dennis Hultman]

here are a few pics:

Besides my food garden and a couple hundred pumpkins that I usually do for Halloween then feed them to my chickens afterward, I have a yard full of succulents.

Succulents, bromeliads, all different types of salvias, fruit trees, etc..

Here are some succulents that I transplanted.

 

[Dennis Hultman]

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