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  1. blurose

    Green tomato delema, what to do...what to do?

    We had two nights of frost this week which succeeded in smiting my tomato plants. So, I harvested all of the green tomatos, about 20 lbs worth. They are mostly "large plum" size or smaller with not a speck of any color but green to be seen. Now, what do I do with them? I don't remember what...
  2. blurose

    Canna lily ? Help please

    I have canna lilies planted in my front garden. I live in the PNW area and have had 2 nights of frost. What I want to know is, should I cut off the tops of the plants, down to the ground? Also, some of the tubers are really close to the surface and are actually above the soil. Should I put...
  3. blurose

    how long does cut okra keep?

    By all means, freeze it if you can. I can't seem to grow any decent okra here where I live, so I buy it in the store, frozen, already sliced. I rinse off the frozen okra under water, shake it dry, dredge in cornmeal, salt and pepper and fry in oil in my cast iron skillet. YUMM! That is the...
  4. blurose

    Turnips. Haven't heard anyone growing them!

    If you look closely at the turnip after you cut off the stem end, you'll notice a faint color difference,between white and off-white with the off-white part being closer to the outside. I make sure to peel my turnips down past this off-white area and I get NO bitterness whatsoever, just a sweet...
  5. blurose

    Corn!

    Great thinking to plant corn where you did. Not only do you get something nice to look at during its growing season, but you've got a ready made autumn display when they get all dried up and you don't even have to move them....just add a pumpkin or two to the base of them. Bet you didn't...
  6. blurose

    crook-necked squash ?

    Last year I grew yellow crook-necked squash and all, except for a couple of odd ones that were warty and never matured, were smooth skinned. This year, I got my seedling from the same grower and every one of the fruits are maturing but are VERY warty this year. Why? Some disease I don't know...
  7. blurose

    What kind of plums have I got?

    I was given two grocery bags of plums but they are not like any plums I've ever seen before. They are the size of small cherry tomatos and the color of red grapes. Can anybody tell me what variety they are. I'm going to make jam with them but MAN, thats a lot of little plums to de-pit...
  8. blurose

    My root crops don't seem to like the bagged garden soil much

    Thank you all very much. Yep, the bagged "garden soil" I got was marked "prefertilized" and I'm guessing you're right about the too much nitrogen for my root crops.
  9. blurose

    How do you tell when watermelon is ready to pick?

    While this is my second year growing watermelon, its the first year I've actually even gotten close to getting one to harvest. I'm growing three varieties, all smaller sized, one red, one yellow and one orange fleshed. I've got one melon about the size of a cantalope right now. How do you...
  10. blurose

    My root crops don't seem to like the bagged garden soil much

    I planted 3 kinds of beets, turnips, carrots and radishes all in a commercial bagged garden soil from WalMart and none of them have done very well at all. Anybody know why? My leaf crops, i.e. bok choy, spinach, lettuce, basil, squash and watermelon all are growing like gangbusters in the same...
  11. blurose

    The Any Wonderful Food You Made From Your Garden Today Thread!

    Yesterday I made a beef stew in the crockpot. I used the carrots and onions from my garden. I screwed it up though by not putting on my glasses when I turned on the crockpot.....6-1/2 hours on WARM just doesn't cook it. :D
  12. blurose

    Fire roasting tomatos for canning questions

    I'm gonna get a real bumper crop of my San Marsano tomatos this year and want to can them as fire-roasted, crushed tomatos as this is the form I use the most. I've canned them and roasted them before, but never canned the roasted ones. I usually roast them in a pan on the closed BBQ grill, but...
  13. blurose

    Homemade spaghetti sauce...

    I have found that the longer I cook my sauce (step grandma always called it gravy), the more acidic it becomes. So, I make a quicker sauce, bolognasi--about 1 hour, marinara--about 20-30 minutes. Adding sugar to the "sauce" is verboden in my family although a grated carrot is added for just...
  14. blurose

    My blackberry "adventures" continue

    I agree, the more you abuse a blackberry plant, the better and faster it grows, whether you want it to or not. :P
  15. blurose

    My 2009 garden (update Pics July)

    Greensage, your garden looks just great and so do your chickens. I noticed that you "named" your truck. I always name my vehicles too. I had a dark green Durango that I named Shrek cause it was a big monster. When my DS totalled it, I got a more blinged up and newer dark green Durango and I...
  16. blurose

    To straw or not to straw, that is the question?

    Commercial strawberry growers use black plastic. They lay down the plastic, cut slits in it and plant the plants in these holes.
  17. blurose

    What type of trellis for cucumbers?

    I angled a section of 5 ft no-climb horse fence attached by zip ties halfway up my 6ft chainlink garden fence and staked it to the ground about 3 feet away from the base of chainlink fence. My cucs grow up this nicely and when they run out of field fence, they continue on up the chainlink...
  18. blurose

    When is it too late to fertilize tomato plants?

    I planted my tomato plants the first day of May and fertilized them with tomato fertilizer at that time. The plants are blossoming and there are a very few scattered fruits already. Can and should I fertilize them one more time? The soil they are in isn't very nutrient rich and is somewhat...
  19. blurose

    Shallot questions in the Maritime NW.

    I planted dutch yellow shallot bulbs in April. The green part came up nicely and now has slumped over. It looks as if the bulbs are being pushed up out of the ground with some being totally exposed now. Are they ready to harvest? They don't look very large, but where one bulb was planted...
  20. blurose

    Do you think this will work!?

    I'm not absolutely sure, but I think rooting blackberry canes would be closely similar to rooting a rose bush cane. Try coating with rooting hormone and just placing the cane in the dirt. I think that is the way it should be done.
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