On The Farm/In The Garden

[Lovebug]

They're awesome, much sweeter, less acidic. I've never been able to find them in store, not even a farmer's market. I"ve never heard of the ones you have.

I use them in my Greek salad. I dont like black olives so mine is tomatoes, red onion, lemon cukes, feta, and boutique sweet peppers (replace the olives) with a Greek/olive oil dressing.

I grow everything but the feta and dressing! This yr I didnt put in any red onions tho.

Same for the Armenians. Very mild, never bitter. Beware, if you think they are too small for picking, the do grow a yard long in the blink of an eye. They are a melon, but we used them as cucumbers.
The first year we grew them, we waited for them to green up. That never happened, but they rapidly grew to the size of my leg.
Armenian cucumber - Wikipedia

 

[ModerationNow!]

Lemon cucumbers is something I haven't tried, yet. Very interesting. We do grow Armenian yardlongs.

I grew some lemon cucumbers a few years ago just out of curiosity. They are good. They don't look like cukes, until you cut them open.

 

[ModerationNow!]

Mine:

View attachment 67282872

Tomato varieties, lots of different pepper varieties, bush green beans, and lemon cucumbers. There are strawberry plants hanging from the rafters.

There are tomatoes and peppers in the big containers too. This is about a week after planting. Now just about everything is in cages, growing great guns. July seems so far away....

Growing strawberries far off of the ground is probably a safer strategy to avoid slugs, ants etc. Our strawberry patch has been producing for about 10 days, and they are at their most prolific right now. Unfortunately they have also reached their yearly point where the insects are destroying roughly 80%(as of last night, Saturday 6/6). By Tuesday it'll be very difficult to find strawberries that haven't been ruined by them. Same thing every year! I'll get a few quarts of strawberries altogether by season's end, but the insects end up with at least 5x to 7x that many! BTW: strawberry plants make a pretty good ground cover! This patch has looked like this for at least 5-6 years! These photos are a couple weeks old when it was still cool outside, and they are thicker now.

 

[Drawdown]

I grew some lemon cucumbers a few years ago just out of curiosity. They are good. They don't look like cukes, until you cut them open.

I grow them every year in addition to the more traditional cucumbers. Have been doing for about 5 years now. I like them for pickling and they do not seem to have the same critter/disease problems as the green ones. They do tolerable well in containers as well. I usually put them in last to fill in space and also because I move them around year to year. I added some solid white cukes into my experimental plant column this year to see how they do in various light conditions. The one problem I have experienced with the lemons is that they sometimes have a fertilization issue because their blooms are kind of small and deep. For that reason, I plant them close to the house on trellises or in pots to make me remember to hand pollinate them. I get much longer vines but far less product when I plant them out in the fields and rely just on bees to do the pollen thing.

 

[nota bene]

Mine:

View attachment 67282872

Tomato varieties, lots of different pepper varieties, bush green beans, and lemon cucumbers. There are strawberry plants hanging from the rafters.

There are tomatoes and peppers in the big containers too. This is about a week after planting. Now just about everything is in cages, growing great guns. July seems so far away....

Oh, lovely!

 

[nota bene]

Same for the Armenians. Very mild, never bitter. Beware, if you think they are too small for picking, the do grow a yard long in the blink of an eye. They are a melon, but we used them as cucumbers.
The first year we grew them, we waited for them to green up. That never happened, but they rapidly grew to the size of my leg.
Armenian cucumber - Wikipedia

Do you grow them from seed?

 

[Lursa]

Oh, lovely!

Thank you. Here's some updates. I just found some teeny peppers, tomatoes, and string beans coming in too.

I cant wait for a whole 'nother month!

 

[Lursa]

Growing strawberries far off of the ground is probably a safer strategy to avoid slugs, ants etc. Our strawberry patch has been producing for about 10 days, and they are at their most prolific right now. Unfortunately they have also reached their yearly point where the insects are destroying roughly 80%(as of last night, Saturday 6/6). By Tuesday it'll be very difficult to find strawberries that haven't been ruined by them. Same thing every year! I'll get a few quarts of strawberries altogether by season's end, but the insects end up with at least 5x to 7x that many! BTW: strawberry plants make a pretty good ground cover! This patch has looked like this for at least 5-6 years! These photos are a couple weeks old when it was still cool outside, and they are thicker now.
View attachment 67283122View attachment 67283123

Ugh, because I have a green house, I dont have to deal with deer, rabbits, etc but I do get slugs. The strawberries are safe but nothing else is!

wild strawberries grow all over here...they do make a nice groundcover.

 

[Lursa]

I grew some lemon cucumbers a few years ago just out of curiosity. They are good. They don't look like cukes, until you cut them open.

They are amazing and you cant find them to buy anywhere. Not even farmer's markets.

 

[Lursa]

I grow them every year in addition to the more traditional cucumbers. Have been doing for about 5 years now. I like them for pickling and they do not seem to have the same critter/disease problems as the green ones. They do tolerable well in containers as well. I usually put them in last to fill in space and also because I move them around year to year. I added some solid white cukes into my experimental plant column this year to see how they do in various light conditions. The one problem I have experienced with the lemons is that they sometimes have a fertilization issue because their blooms are kind of small and deep. For that reason, I plant them close to the house on trellises or in pots to make me remember to hand pollinate them. I get much longer vines but far less product when I plant them out in the fields and rely just on bees to do the pollen thing.

I grow them in a greenhouse but they grow like weeds. The flowers are large and I dont know what you mean by 'deep?' And once they get going, they grow up the tomato cages in there, they take over if I dont 'guide' the vines.

I dont know what you mean about them getting fertilized, it's never been a problem. Interesting.

 

[ModerationNow!]

Ugh, because I have a green house, I dont have to deal with deer, rabbits, etc but I do get slugs. The strawberries are safe but nothing else is!

wild strawberries grow all over here...they do make a nice groundcover.

I have to keep an eye out for WILD strawberry plants and wild violets growing in the strawberry patch(es) pictured in my above post. I bought several domestic, summer bearing strawberry plants about 10 years ago for my mothers house. That particular variety sent out runners and spread like wildfire(which was exactly what i wanted). So about 3 years later, I pulled up about 8-10 plants from my mother's property that had spread into an inconvenient area, and replanted them in the largely empty beds next door shown in the above photos. It only took 2 full seasons for those 8-10 plants to fill those areas. Now we get LOTS of strawberries every year.

Strangely, some established strawberry beds will start quickly thinning out after awhile. The ones at my mother's home had thinned out and been misplaced by other plants a few years ago. Now they are actually making a comeback, entirely on their own!

 

[Drawdown]

I grow them in a greenhouse but they grow like weeds. The flowers are large and I dont know what you mean by 'deep?' And once they get going, they grow up the tomato cages in there, they take over if I dont 'guide' the vines.

I dont know what you mean about them getting fertilized, it's never been a problem. Interesting.

The ones I grow don't get large flowers. They get a prolific number of small deeper flowers that the bumble bees seem to struggle with pollinating. While honey bees are still about, bumble bees are our primary summer pollinators.

 

[Drawdown]

I have to keep an eye out for WILD strawberry plants and wild violets growing in the strawberry patch(es) pictured in my above post. I bought several domestic, summer bearing strawberry plants about 10 years ago for my mothers house. That particular variety sent out runners and spread like wildfire(which was exactly what i wanted). So about 3 years later, I pulled up about 8-10 plants from my mother's property that had spread into an inconvenient area, and replanted them in the largely empty beds next door shown in the above photos. It only took 2 full seasons for those 8-10 plants to fill those areas. Now we get LOTS of strawberries every year.

Strangely, some established strawberry beds will start quickly thinning out after awhile. The ones at my mother's home had thinned out and been misplaced by other plants a few years ago. Now they are actually making a comeback, entirely on their own!

It is what they do. The plants only produce fruit for a few years so you should thin out the more mature plants to let the ones that formed off the runners to have more space.

 

[nota bene]

Thank you. Here's some updates. I just found some teeny peppers, tomatoes, and string beans coming in too.View attachment 67283253View attachment 67283254

I cant wait for a whole 'nother month!

No, thank you for posting these pics. Everything is just gorgeous, and I'm envious. I don't grow veggies because I'm the only one who will eat them, so I focus on plants and flowers and wait for my friends to gift me with their extra veggies.

 

[Lursa]

The ones I grow don't get large flowers. They get a prolific number of small deeper flowers that the bumble bees seem to struggle with pollinating. While honey bees are still about, bumble bees are our primary summer pollinators.

Weird, I wonder if it's the variety? I dont have pics on this laptop but I can post one later that shows the flowers.

 

[Lursa]

No, thank you for posting these pics. Everything is just gorgeous, and I'm envious. I don't grow veggies because I'm the only one who will eat them, so I focus on plants and flowers and wait for my friends to gift me with their extra veggies.

Oh I used to do loads of container flowers, in cute little containers like a old fiddle back chair with a bowl for a seat or little wagons, hanging baskets, etc. But I could EASILY spend $300 on flowers, even buying the cheapie packs of petunias, etc. And I would mostly decorate my covered front porch and just love being surrounded. But I go away alot on the weekends and it's hard enough to find someone to care for hens, feed whichever horse I leave home, etc, much less water loads of plants. So that, and the $$$$$$$, I gave it up I have 3 hanging baskets out there now, that's all. It was a ridiculous amount of $ too but I sure did enjoy them.

So you can at least get alot of enjoyment out of yours. I do miss them.

 

[Drawdown]

Weird, I wonder if it's the variety? I dont have pics on this laptop but I can post one later that shows the flowers.

I can reciprocate yet as mine are still getting their first true leaves going.

 

[nota bene]

Oh I used to do loads of container flowers, in cute little containers like a old fiddle back chair with a bowl for a seat or little wagons, hanging baskets, etc. But I could EASILY spend $300 on flowers, even buying the cheapie packs of petunias, etc. And I would mostly decorate my covered front porch and just love being surrounded. But I go away alot on the weekends and it's hard enough to find someone to care for hens, feed whichever horse I leave home, etc, much less water loads of plants. So that, and the $$$$$$$, I gave it up I have 3 hanging baskets out there now, that's all. It was a ridiculous amount of $ too but I sure did enjoy them.

So you can at least get alot of enjoyment out of yours. I do miss them.

Tremendous pleasure, especially in baby-making. I think I'm going to break off some arms of one of my snake plants, dip them in root stimulator, and see how they grow. My coleus from seed are thriving. I have a lot of indoor plants--a lot :3oops: --and they do take time. Used to have about 75 plants on the porch but am now down to about 30 (surprise frost tragedy two years ago).

I have a girlfriend who's up at the crack tending the veggie garden, feeding the horses and goats and dogs and chickens. Lotta work. I do have chickens here, but I don't fool with them at all. New ones this past weekend, some australorps and Jersey Giants. So disappointed that the blue cochins were sold out.

 

[Lursa]

Tremendous pleasure, especially in baby-making. I think I'm going to break off some arms of one of my snake plants, dip them in root stimulator, and see how they grow. My coleus from seed are thriving. I have a lot of indoor plants--a lot :3oops: --and they do take time. Used to have about 75 plants on the porch but am now down to about 30 (surprise frost tragedy two years ago).

I have a girlfriend who's up at the crack tending the veggie garden, feeding the horses and goats and dogs and chickens. Lotta work. I do have chickens here, but I don't fool with them at all. New ones this past weekend, some australorps and Jersey Giants. So disappointed that the blue cochins were sold out.

Quick note, I find all my hens on FB. There is a local FB page but also others. I find them young and not in chick stage...I have no time for that. Lots available that people are getting rid of, or dont fit into a flock, etc etc. Maybe you can still find some blue cochins.

 

[nota bene]

Quick note, I find all my hens on FB. There is a local FB page but also others. I find them young and not in chick stage...I have no time for that. Lots available that people are getting rid of, or dont fit into a flock, etc etc. Maybe you can still find some blue cochins.

Our focus is egg production (so buff orpingtons and soon, I hope, barnevelders), but we missed out on some blue sex links recently, and the cochins will be just a pleasure-purchase.

 

[ModerationNow!]

It is what they do. The plants only produce fruit for a few years so you should thin out the more mature plants to let the ones that formed off the runners to have more space.

I wasnt aware of that! So, you're saying that older strawberry plants WILL continue to survive, but they will STOP producing berries after a few years? I have never noticed it, because, as you can see in my pictures, I allow the beds to grow into long, wide, thick patches. That must make it difficult to see each individual plant, making it nearly impossible to discern which individual plants are old and potentially no longer producing....

I REALLY need to come up with a better overall strategy for growing them so that i can reduce the number of slugs and ants that get to them. Maybe thin rows would be best, with coffee grinds deposited on the ground around them.

 

[Drawdown]

I wasnt aware of that! So, you're saying that older strawberry plants WILL continue to survive, but they will STOP producing berries after a few years? I have never noticed it, because, as you can see in my pictures, I allow the beds to grow into long, wide, thick patches. That must make it difficult to see each individual plant, making it nearly impossible to discern which individual plants are old and potentially no longer producing....

I REALLY need to come up with a better overall strategy for growing them so that i can reduce the number of slugs and ants that get to them. Maybe thin rows would be best, with coffee grinds deposited on the ground around them.

No they eventually die. The plants live about 5-6 years give or take but they peak about the third year. You can usually get 2 years of good fruit off them maybe a third if conditions are ideal. If you have noticeable thinning that is because your old plants are going to strawberry heaven.

 

[Lursa]

The ones I grow don't get large flowers. They get a prolific number of small deeper flowers that the bumble bees seem to struggle with pollinating. While honey bees are still about, bumble bees are our primary summer pollinators.

Weird, I wonder if it's the variety? I dont have pics on this laptop but I can post one later that shows the flowers.

Here's a close up of one of my lemon cucumber plants and you can see some flowers.


View attachment 67283335

 

[Lovebug]

Do you grow them from seed?

I do. They come up rather quick. Let them soak overnight. It speeds up the process.

 

[Lovebug]

Ugh, because I have a green house, I dont have to deal with deer, rabbits, etc but I do get slugs. The strawberries are safe but nothing else is!

wild strawberries grow all over here...they do make a nice groundcover.

We've been picking wild strawberries for a while now. What a treat.