Victory Garden

[old crow]

That is a good friend to have in your garden; we see them once-in-a-blue-moon up here and treasure them. Many years ago my F-I-L lived with my wife, daughter and me. My daughter collects spiders, toads, frogs, "toe-biters" and all manner of critters. My F-I-L was a BIG man, a PC sailor from the South Pacific in WWII and feared nothing on God's earth except for the little garden snakes my daughter liked to bring into the house to show around. Memories of a big man screaming downstairs... Thanks for the memory.

[Aragorn243]

That has to be by far the biggest of those snakes I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen one longer than perhaps 16 inches.

[jmoore]

What happens when you take ~a gallon (4 liters) of "cooked down" beans to this crowd?


You don't take much home! I'm a little surprised there's any left. No Blackberry cobbler leftovers!



Did get some fresh small bluegills using my late favorite uncle's fly rod and white popping bug out of the "fish garden".

Old bridge pilings upstream

Close enough to a "garden" for me!

Modern line, but the rest is "vintage".

[old crow]

"Cooked down" beans? I don't know what that means but they look good. Bluegills are smallish up here but worth the effort. Thanks for the photos, reminds me of Fall River in southern KS on the Walnut River that I fished as a kid, hot and humid with brown water and a lazy flow, cicadas singing in the afternoon heat...

[jmoore]

"Cooked down"- Usually it means that the big initial pot o' beans is on it's thrid or fourth reheat with some on the bottom being caramelized a bit. Texture is softer and flavor more intense. That's because the water in the pot is basically gone or quite "concentrated".

[jmoore]

Figs! Short attention span fruit. Can't just let them sit for days. They'll ripen as you watch, well almost!


One day's mess


Some semi-wild pears coming in too. And muscadines are starting.

Large volunteer tomato plant. But the squirrels make off with the tomatoes- every one so far. Errrf.


Flowers are taller than i:

[vintage hunter]

JM, get yourself one of them plastic owl decoys and stick it up somewhere near your mater bush. Did a pretty good job keeping the tree rats from making off with all my sweet corn. But, you gotta move it to a different spot every couple days or else they get used to it.

[Aragorn243]

My garden is having some ups and downs but I can't really complain. We got plenty of green beans, more than expected sweet peas. The corn is actually growing and we got 12 quarts in the freezer. I know it isn't much but we'll have a second picking next week and the white corn is starting to come in now too. Squash is driving me nuts, 25 quarts in the freezer which had plenty from the year before already. Zuichinni isn't getting as big as it should but producing plenty of smaller ones. tomatoes are growing but I'm getting bottom rot on the one type and birds are pecking into the others nearly as fast as they get ripe. Never saw anything go after my tomatoes before. Watermellons were doing great, I had half a dozen coming on but all but two have shriveled up. Those two were growing very fast but seem to have stopped at about 8 inches around. I'm watering them everyday but I guess they still aren't getting enough water. Been very dry here, no rain for two weeks so my watering was all they were getting. Red beets are growing but getting surrounded by weeds. Cucumbers didn't amount to much this year, turned yellow almost as soon as they got big enough to pick. Peppers not growing well for me. I'm getting one here and there but I don't think they are getting enough light. Tomatoes are shading them. The ground cherry experiment is quite successful. They are producing like crazy right now and I definitely have enough to make a pie if I can just find someone to make it.

[gmirsky]

My garden is having some ups and downs but I can't really complain. ....

I hear you! The root borers got my Zuchini but the corn came through enough that I didn't mind the squirrels and raccoons poaching a bit. Tomatoes seem to be hit or miss depending upon the strain. So far I have had some blossom end rot and some Fusarium crown rot on the tomatoes but still all in all I have plenty coming in.

[old crow]

Figs! I love them! Peas are something that I've never cared for unless in pea-soup and then I can't get enough. White corn, the kind with the small kernels is a favorite of mine; have a friend from Iowa who brings some up each summer - odd that I never see it for sale around here. Zucchini is a source of jokes here; anyone who grows it seems to overload friends and family with it and after a while folks begin to avoid anyone with a basket of zucchini in hand.