Garden Loose Ends August 2008

[misskisskadee]

thanks alot blink for ur responce , u really help alot of people like me who dont really know how to do gardening !! i think im learning from u !!take care may GOD bless LONG LIFE & GOOD HEATLH !! so u can teach us more abuat gardening !!!

[misskisskadee]

why u thin it out for what reason ? the thicker the better , am i wrong?

[Blinkazoid]

All plants need a certain amount of room to grow properly. With okra one plant per foot is definitely as close together as you need to plant them.

[misskisskadee]

blink do u think if i plant egg plant it will apply the same method u use with the the okra ? do i need to measure the distance between its plant ? !!!

[Blinkazoid]

I'm afraid you'd be better off just Googling planting methods for egg plant because I've never planted it before. I will say that on *everything* I plant I always plant plenty of it and then thin it out when it's 2 or 3 inches tall.

[chitter0chatter]

What do you use to weed it? Hoe-ing in back breaking. We have a mini cultivator. Works only when soil is moist. When dry, it takes forever.

[Blinkazoid]

Mostly I mulch it with lots and lots and lots of grass clippings, and do a small amount of hoeing/pulling/tilling on occasion.

[chitter0chatter]

I wish you could have came to our house this summer and helped us out. Our two gardens took over the got mostly choked out by weeds. :( We always try, but can't commit because of kids sports. Maybe one of these days, I'll have the garden like yours that I have always wanted.

[ussyless]

could they be crystal apple cucumbers?

[Blinkazoid]

It's already gotten big enough to where I can tell it's a cantalope. It's been pretty dry here and I havne't kept it watered very well so the vines are starting to dry up now. It actually might produce a few half sized but still mature cantalopes though. I'll do a short video eventually and let everyone know if they were edible or not, and show me cutting into one of them.

[cooksterz]

But still the cucmelons are worth the try! Wow okra is looking delicioushhhh!! Good squash choppin recipe! Dogs must love it.. hehe

[Blinkazoid]

The melon I showed is now about 3 times bigger. It would still surprise me if I get an edible melon out of it though. I haven't had any more problems with dogs digging up my peelings since I've started putting the unused tomato cage on it. Next up..... An okra cooking vid:)

[PrisonerInGlass]

Biodynamics for the win!

[Blinkazoid]

Yayyy Biodynamics!

[GramsandPapi]

LOL! Hope you at least get a few good melons! Thanks, Grams

[Blinkazoid]

The one I showed is growing pretty fast. I'm still skeptical about it becoming a full fledged eating melon though.

[dorotwhy]

AHA So that's your perfect garden secret. Blinkazoid Goulash!! I have to catch up on your videos. Been away on vacation :O) Missed you while I was away.

[Blinkazoid]

I've been pretty slow posting vids lately so you haven't miss a whole lot. Hope you had a great vacation! I'll soon be making a giant pot of for real Goulash/soup and probably filming it. I'm afraid it'll wind up being super long though.

[dorotwhy]

I had a wonderful time on vacation, Thanks :O) The gardening/sunshine/soil etc. agree with you! You look so healthy. I enjoy your super long videos, I'll be looking forward to the SOUPER Vid! :O)

[PappyStu]

looks like work.... well watched...

See ya in a couple weeks...

[Blinkazoid]

Unfortunately the formula pretty much works out to Garden=Work. I need to find a more efficient formula! Ahh, looks like your going on a trip. I'm behind so I need to go check out to where. Have a great trip!

[LeSaMilano]

*oooh* -we might run into trouble with that compost recipe what with that funeral home next door! LOL

[randomwritings]

Darling that was "man chopping" at its best! My turn to prpaare the veggies today - thanks for the tip Blink!

[Blinkazoid]

Glad I could help RW! Every kitchen should have a shovel handy for those extra heavy duty chopping chores, LOL.

[Blinkazoid]

It's a shame it's not a cemetary next door instead. They would be totally used to shovels and burying stiff..... er stuff:)

[Praxxus55712]

I have never seen the tomato hole thing before. Do you do this every year? It sounds like a great idea though.

[Blinkazoid]

This is the first year I've done it. Basically it's just a different way of composting. I'm burying my houshold peelings in what will wind up being two long trenches (where I'll plant next years tomatoes) and letting them decompose that way instead of making an actual compost pile.

[Pippilly]

Woah, those are really tall! You are really planning ahead there, very impressive. Michelle = )

[Blinkazoid]

Hiya Pip!!! It's starting to look like a 10 feet tall okra season:))) And yep, next years tomato crop is already in it's pre-embryonic phase, LOL.

[OHTXAZ]

My husband was using a barrel to keep the compost away from animals. He sooooo wanted to have a garden. And sunflowers. We had decided not on those because of a toddler. He wanted to plant those then plant some weeds of some kind in with them. Could never figure out why He wanted weeds; Don't You usually want to get rid of weeds? ;0)

Roberta

[Blinkazoid]

Oh my:( going to all the trouble of composting and then not being able to plant a garden is just not right. I'm sure there must have been some sort of reason behind the weeds. I have plenty of weeds at the moment, and I didn't even have to plant them, LOL.

[OHTXAZ]

There was a reason!!!!!

Pssssst :::Whispering to Blinkie::: It was "Weed" He wanted to plant. ;0)

Roberta

[Blinkazoid]

Hehehe, oh OK. I guess I'll just stick with okra, LOL. Helicopters routinely do flyovers here and frown upon those kinds of weeds. There used to be 3 or 4 well publicized instances of them catching someone growing weed every summer. I've not heard of any lately. Is weed supposed to help any ALS symptoms? I know it helps chemo nausea.

[OHTXAZ]

It helped with spasms. His Neurologist couldn't give Him a script for it, but had a note in His files that He used it for medical reasons. ;0)

Roberta

[GoneIsGone]

My youngest and I just had quite the lenghthy conversation this very evening about okra... It went something like this:

"...Fried or Boiled?", and he said, "What's Okra?" lol :+)

[Blinkazoid]

I've never seen anyone actually eat it boiled all by itself in my whole life. It's supposed to be very good for you that way though. Although few people do what's good for them, LOL. I fry it, but occasionally will eat it in soup. The other ingredients seem to be a nice buffer for the okra slime, LOL.

[MightyTrebor]

Shorty!

[Blinkazoid]

Yep, garden season is winding down so there's not a whole lot of garden stuff to talk about. Maybe I'll have extra time for other vids now:)))

[MightyTrebor]

Silly I'm 6'2" I was talking about you! :)

[Blinkazoid]

Hehehehe, my mistake. My garden vids are usually so long, I figured you were talking about how short this one was. I'm 5'9" which statiscally is about average. You're TALL! Of course if you were in the NBA you'd be a shorty, LOL.

[JeepGirl2]

LOL @ volunteer cucumber! It will be interesting what you get there! I hope it's something you want and can use.

[Blinkazoid]

You'd think as long as I've gardened I could tell the difference between a cucumber plant and a melon plant, but NOPE! I'm sure It'll be something I like if it matures but I'm afraid the odds of that are fairly low. I discarded a *seedless* watermelon out there a couple of months back. It must not have been truly seedless, LOL. Or it could be a cantalope.

[petuniabelle650]

I liked that. Garden Short Stories. 

Smart of you to do that with the discarded

vegetables & compost stuff. I bet you'll have extra good tomatoes next year.

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks PB! I'm hoping for big things from my tomatoes next year. I only planted one variety this year. I'll plant about 4 different kinds next year.

[LilCav68]

My stuff is on it's last leg. I can't wait for next year already. Not doing a fall garden.

[Blinkazoid]

Ya, I never do a fall garden either. A summer garden is *plenty* enough work. I don't think I want to garden practically year round! All I've still got left is Okra, tomatoes, and peppers.

[thizizliz]

LOL! A shovel as food processor, eh? It will be fun to find out what you get - at the least it will add to your compost row. Wow, that okra is amazing. It will be fun to find the results.

[Blinkazoid]

I should probably have added salt and pepper to my recipe, LOL. I'm sure it will probably be my second best batch of okra ever. It actually might get as tall or taller than my best batch, but so far it's not producing quite as good as that batch. Probably because it doesn't get as much late afternoon sun.

[Class377Trainspotter]

Nice Video.Your So Cool.

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Luke!!!

[1DRock37167]

GO VOLS! Sorry, I had to do it or they would make me leave the state.

My second crop of cucumbers is starting to come up and I have planted some romaine lettuce too. I have never tried to do a second planting so I will see where this goes. Make a batch of my sauce with your extra tomatoes, it freezes well and its soo yummy.

D

[Blinkazoid]

I'll be making a huge batch of vegtable beef soup with the excess tomatoes. That should take care of most of them. I lost one tomato plant early on so while I do have plenty, I don't have a super overabundance of them. I'll probably freeze part of the soup.

[1DRock37167]

The soup will be yummy when the snow starts to fly up there!

[shannoncopley]

i love cucumbers, they taste like watermelons to me

[Blinkazoid]

I love cucumbers too. The vines look like watermelon vines to me, LOL.

[shannoncopley]

lol

[OHTXAZ]

My Grandaughter Likes cukes.  She likes broccoli too. Pretty odd for a child. She will order salads or veggies in a restaurant INSTEAD OF fries. ;0)

Roberta

[shannoncopley]

i like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower celery

[OHTXAZ]

They are YUMMY, and good for ya too. ;0)

Roberta

[timido66]

Keep us posted on the melon mystery.

[Blinkazoid]

Will do! I'll probably even try covering them up with a floating row cover when it starts to frost. I still don't expect to get anything edible off of them though... especially if they're watermelons.

[blueclouds4me]

Was that a compost pile sorta you made??

Marylou

xxoo

[Blinkazoid]

Ya, basically that's what it is. I'll be burying my peelings in two long trenches and then putting up a fence in a V formation and planting my tomatoes there next year. I'm expecting big things:).... We'll see.

[ohhyeahzulu]

yeah thats right grow okra grow!

[Blinkazoid]

It'll probably grow 4" tonight instead of 3 now that it's got a cheerleader, LOL.

[ohhyeahzulu]

yeah it will maybe even 4 1/2" grow okra grow lol

[dl737]

Cools stuff - weird about the psuedo-melons.

[Blinkazoid]

I was shocked about the melons. I've buried TONS of cucumber peelings out there and only the one watermelon and it looks like that's what came up. There's no way in the world I'll get any edible mellons out of it.

[dicom]

Blink, this has been the year for a garden in my part of the world. Everything (except cabbage) did well. We have canned and frozen until we are absolutely burnt out on the exercise. Thankfully the only thing that remains is bringing up the winter taters and then getting the ground ready for cold season.

Where in the heck did summer go?

[Blinkazoid]

Canning and freezing can get pretty old pretty fast. Silking corn has got to be the most tedious thing to do in the history of the world, LOL. When I plant potatoes I do mine different than most people. I don't dig them up and store them at the end of the summer. I just pile extra dirt on them and dig them on an as needed basis till I get them dug up. Mainly this is because I don't have a very good place to store them. It works really well but it involves a lot of digging. Good exercise though:)

[KurtGnu]

Good to see you're busy.. very inspirering as always.. maybe NEXT year I'll get going again?? :)

[Blinkazoid]

I'll have to bug in you comments to get the lead out and get to work, LOL.

[KurtGnu]

Please do.. I miss my gardening!! Every spring I buy various seeds for plants to grow.. and about now I chuck the bags in the bin.. :( I had planned to sow Nasturtiums, Wallflowers and Marigolds this year..

[twish1999]

I have millions of tomatoes now that i don't know what to do with, they just keep growing!

:-)

x hugs x

[KurtGnu]

Dig a hole, put the tomatoes in said hole, chop them finely.. and plant cucumbers there next year.. :) Solved.. :)

[twish1999]

Hahaha :-)

x hugs x

[blueclouds4me]

twish,

omg, make pasta sauce and freeze it. You'll be dining Italian style all winter;)

Hugs,

Marylou

[timido66]

MMM SOUNDS YUMMY.

[Blinkazoid]

I've got quite a few extra tomatoes too. I'll be making a HUGE pot of soup which will take care of most of the excess. I'll probably freeze some of the soup.