Compost bin tomato bears fruit
16.2 years ago compost, tomato
For anyone that has been following the success (or maybe lack of success) of my compost bin volunteer tomato plant, it has nearly taken over the compost bin and finally did bear fruit. What is interesting is that it seems to look like an ugly tomato, which I have grown from seed nor purchased from the grocery store or farmer’s market. I guess the plot thickens, could just be caused by the ill effects of the adverse growing conditions.
Tags: cheap, compost, garden seeds, outdoor plants, tomato plants, vegetables
Brown spots on tomatoes
16.2 years ago blight, brown spots, tomato
Looks like our recent weekly rainy weather may have taken my tomatoes as a victim of blight. Living in the Pacific Northwest I should have known better and protected them with some plastic during our frequent waves of rainy weather. Being an optimist can anyone overturn my diagnosis? Any hopes of saving this fruit?
Tags: cheap, tomato plants, vegetables
Goose cucumber
16.2 years ago cucumbers, kids
My 4 year old called this our goose cucumber, I think I see it.
Tags: cheap, led, vegetables
When to pick sweet corn
I had to look up this answer myself since this is the first year I have grown sweet corn (Growing Challenge), here is the advice I found online:
- When the tassels turn dark brown
- When the juice from kernels are milky white and soft
- From GardenDesk, corn is ready when the raccoons eat it.
From my personal experience, use tassel color to determine if you should even bother checking if it is ready. Use the kernel color to determine if should actually pick it, since when I previous tried just by tassel color it definitely needed another week of growth.
Does anyone else have any proven techniques to pick that perfect ear of corn?
Tags: cheap, vegetables
Picking wild blackberries – the sequel
16.3 years ago blackberries
I enjoyed the blackberry pie so much I decided we needed some blackberry jam as well. I picked so sparsely at my first public berry picking location that I could have gone back and easily found enough berries to make jam, but it was a nice day and decided to take a walk in the woods with my youngest daughter. After exploring (getting lost for two hours) and picking various species of blackberries, I finally found civilization and called my wife to pick us, since walking along a busy road with no shoulder with a jogging stroller didn’t seem like a good idea (and I was tired).
I picked enough berries during our adventure for my wife to make 8 jars of jam (7 put in jars, 1 put in Tupperware for immediate consumption) I would provide our secret jam recipe but the nice people already put it on the package of SURE-JELL pectin.
| 7 cups of sugar | $ 1.50 |
| 8 pints of blackberries | $ 0.00 |
| Pectin | $ 2.00 |
| Cost per jar | $ 0.44 |
Tags: cheap, led, vegetables
Where do cucumbers come from?
16.3 years ago cucumbers, peas
Cucumbers seem to have a similar property of peas that they seem to just appear out of nowhere. One day you see a little flower and seem to grow 10 inches overnight. I know this probably has more to the whole green camouflage and my eyes being bad but this year I kept a close eye on them and documented their growth.
Baby cucumbers (Day 1)
Cucumbers (Day 2….ok maybe a week)
Tags: cheap, vegetables
