What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

FBG Gardening Thread - 2025 (1 Viewer)

Cowboysfan8 said:
Do those pepper plants  have blossoms?
Click to expand...
Nope. Just green leafs. It literally just grew to a few feet tall and seems to have “froze in time”. Never had a plant do this to me. Same exact spot I grew them the last few years too and they did great there.  Last year my Jalapeños were my best producing plant.  

 
dkp993 said:
Nope. Just green leafs. It literally just grew to a few feet tall and seems to have “froze in time”. Never had a plant do this to me. Same exact spot I grew them the last few years too and they did great there.  Last year my Jalapeños were my best producing plant.  
Click to expand...
Try some Epsom salts maybe

🤔

 
Cowboysfan8 said:
Try some Epsom salts maybe

🤔
Click to expand...
Thanks. Good advise, though I have done that. I was actually wondering if using it was the issue, purely guessing at this point.  This year I started doing an epsom salt spray on all my veggies not just tomatoes so that’s why I’m wondering if it stunts pepper growth for some reason. 

 
dkp993 said:
Thanks. Good advise, though I have done that. I was actually wondering if using it was the issue, purely guessing at this point.  This year I started doing an epsom salt spray on all my veggies not just tomatoes so that’s why I’m wondering if it stunts pepper growth for some reason. 
Click to expand...
I started with the Epsom salts a few years ago. No issues with blossoms or fruit 

ETA: if it’s been 10 days or so try the epsom again . Nothing to lose at this pt

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Picked one tomato and two little grape tomatoes over the weekend.  The tomato was only orange, but I have too many varmints around (squirrels and rabbits) to let them get ripe on the vine.  

So excited.  In about two weeks I will be swimming in veggies!

 
It’s going to be 117 degrees in Phoenix the next few days. Things are going to get interesting…

 
Rained BUCKETS the night before last. Plants took a beating but appear to be ok. 

Also had a groundhog and rabbit sighting. I will have to tighten up the lower fencing and have resumed my search for a 10/22. 

 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Rained BUCKETS the night before last. Plants took a beating but appear to be ok. 

Also had a groundhog and rabbit sighting. I will have to tighten up the lower fencing and have resumed my search for a 10/22. 
Click to expand...
Staring to think the same. I never had rabbit problems, but I also used to have a cat that was a roaming murder machine.  Really helped control the population. 

Now I'm getting overrun and they think they own the place. Can't use a .22 since I live in town though.

As always, my first recommendation is Rent-A-Raptor.

 
wife bought three "winter hardy" hibiscus.  tropical plants. full sun, they say.

put them in the ground last week. we've had upper 70s/low 80s and loads of sun this week with a nice rain last night.

these things are ####### dead, dead. all the way dead. not coming back dead.

wtf

 
Had off today, gave the entire garden a good weeding and watering. Everything coming along nicely (knock on wood).

Will be picking cucumbers in a week I believe 

😃

 
A couple days of good rain and hot sunny days mixed in in the last week + and everything is looking good

Have more cucumbers than I can give away 

 
mr. furley said:
wife bought three "winter hardy" hibiscus.  tropical plants. full sun, they say.

put them in the ground last week. we've had upper 70s/low 80s and loads of sun this week with a nice rain last night.

these things are ####### dead, dead. all the way dead. not coming back dead.

wtf
Click to expand...
Im a novice so this isn't my advice and Im sure you already did your research but maybe this will help..

Also...did you have cicadas? The are very rough on new plants. 

Choosing and Preparing a Location

Hardy hibiscus do best in medium to wet soil that drains well. The soil shouldn’t be too heavy; however, these plants will not do well in sandy, dry, or poor-draining soils.

Therefore, if the soil in your garden is sandy or drains poorly, mix in a few inches of organic compost before planting your flowers.

In cooler climates (zones 4 to 6), hardy hibiscus will do best when planted near south-facing wall, where they will receive plenty of sunlight and are protected from wind.

If you live in a warmer climate, a location that receives about 6 hours of sun a day would be ideal; however, do note that if they receive too much shade, their stems will likely be long and leggy and their blooms may not be as healthy or they may not produce any blooms at all.

Watering

In the wild, hardy hibiscus grows in swamp areas. While cross-breeding has reduced the water requirements for many varieties, they do still need to receive adequate water in order to thrive.

Make sure that the soil remains moist; however, you don’t want to water the plant too much, as doing so could lead to root rot.

Smaller plants with less leaves don’t need to be watered as often as larger, leafier plants. During the growing season, hardy hibiscus should be watered on a daily basis.
Click to expand...

 
Picked over 30 full-size tomatoes over the holiday weekend.  Took most to my family and kept enough for a nice batch of salsa.  

Also getting a lot of jalapenos and cucumbers are starting to put on as well. No bell peppers yet, but have some on the plants.  

My zucchini are done tho.  We had over a week of heavy rain and I lost the battle to the bugs that eat their stems.  I got one nice zucchini.  Oh well.  

 
My garden has pretty much run it’s course for the year.  Early start to the year and a intense multiple week long heat wave have both taken it’s toll.  A couple cukes are hanging on and the cherry tomato is still going decent, the rest get pulled this weekend.   Always hate when it ends but we had more then we could eat or give away this year so it’s a win in my book.  

 
dkp993 said:
My garden has pretty much run it’s course for the year.  Early start to the year and a intense multiple week long heat wave have both taken it’s toll.  A couple cukes are hanging on and the cherry tomato is still going decent, the rest get pulled this weekend.   Always hate when it ends but we had more then we could eat or give away this year so it’s a win in my book.  
Click to expand...
I don't know where you live, so maybe climate makes this question moot but.....

Why not stagger your plantings so you have stuff ripening all throughout the growing season?

We'd plant tomatoes every month from April through July and have them coming on from early July through most of October. You can do this with several types of crops. We called them "early", "summer", and "late" yields.

 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Im a novice so this isn't my advice and Im sure you already did your research but maybe this will help..

Also...did you have cicadas? The are very rough on new plants. 
Click to expand...
cheers for this. no cicadas, but they are in our front yard which faces north.... in huge, heavy pots that are full of dirt. 

they seem to be rebounding. two of them at least are mostly recovered. one is still sparse. 

might make sense to move them to the backyard at some point since that's south facing and nearly full sun all day.

 
also, wife planted lily in the front. 

we found out the hard way that bunnies love them. 3 plants in the ground. all 3 eaten in a couple weeks.

we even put bunny repellent spray on but it got washed away the same day/day after each time we re-sprayed. 

 
Weird year for me so far. I planted a couple weeks later which was good because of the late frosts we had, but everything looks a month behind.

Hundreds of blooms on huge grape tomato plants, but no fruit. Romas have small fruit but I'm usually giving some away by now. 

Especially worried about my jalapeños. The plants look "ok" with some buds, but no peppers. Again, by this time last year I would have picked a couple times. Same source for those plants as last year.

It has been an odd year for us weather wise. Late frost and an early heat wave. Now the nights have been cooler than normal. Dunno.

Onions are huge though and have picked a couple heads of cabbage.

 
Total gardening noob, I know absolutely nothing, but I hope it's ok to ask a question.

Thanks to the previous owners, my home has a small busted koi pond in the backyard that they gave up on and filled in with dirt and used to plant flowers. In effect it now just looks like a small elevated dirt area with a ring of rocks around it, maybe 10 feet long and five feet wide.

I haven't kept up with it over the last couple of years and now it's dried out and full of weeds.

Anyway, if I want to start re-planting in there... what considerations should I make, assuming that the bottom is intact? That is, I assume it's basically just a giant bowl and that the dirt and water and whatever doesn't drain out into the rest of the yard. Not sure how deep it is, but probably not much. Can I just plant in there or should I re-fill it with "good dirt"? Or will whatever I put in there eventually die out anyway given that there's a concrete floor under there?

 
Runkle said:
Total gardening noob, I know absolutely nothing, but I hope it's ok to ask a question.

Thanks to the previous owners, my home has a small busted koi pond in the backyard that they gave up on and filled in with dirt and used to plant flowers. In effect it now just looks like a small elevated dirt area with a ring of rocks around it, maybe 10 feet long and five feet wide.

I haven't kept up with it over the last couple of years and now it's dried out and full of weeds.

Anyway, if I want to start re-planting in there... what considerations should I make, assuming that the bottom is intact? That is, I assume it's basically just a giant bowl and that the dirt and water and whatever doesn't drain out into the rest of the yard. Not sure how deep it is, but probably not much. Can I just plant in there or should I re-fill it with "good dirt"? Or will whatever I put in there eventually die out anyway given that there's a concrete floor under there?
Click to expand...
How deep is it?  You 'could' basically have a 'raised bed' if you fill it in with compost.  Some towns/cities/etc. have free compost at the landfill.  We have all of the free compost that we want from ground up branches/leaves/bushes/etc.  Compost is darker than regular soil because it is still being consumed so the acidity level will be higher.  In its raw form its not good for things like grass seed but it great for many veggies.  

A 10 * 5 koi pond should be at least a half foot deep.  You can pile up  compost a good 4 or 5 inches above that to get close to a foot deep which 'should' be good for most veggies. 

Get rid of the weeds but don't use chemicals.  Dig it out and start your own compost pile with a pile of weeds.  

Its late in the season to start a garden so you'll have to scramble to find anything to plant.  You won't be planting from seed this late and the pickings at your garden center will be slim but for gosh sakes get the weeds out of the koi pond, track down some compost, fill it in and get those plants PDQ as in right now and put them off to the side till you are ready to plant.  

Nothing better than getting everything in the soil and watching nature take its course.  Doesn't matter if the first crop isn't great.  Its just great to make that connection.

 
WDIK2 said:
Especially worried about my jalapeños. The plants look "ok" with some buds, but no peppers. Again, by this time last year I would have picked a couple times. Same source for those plants as last year.
Click to expand...
I've been out of town for work quite a bit lately, but took a closer look at my non-producing jalapeno plants yesterday.  Turns out I am growing the worlds largest jalapenos.  :lmao:  

I get most of my plants from a small local nursery.  Their jalapeno plants have been fantastic the last few years.  The old gardener must have been getting into his own supply when he labeled these plants.  So instead of 6 jalapeno plants, I'm growing 6 bell pepper plants.  A little disappointed, but still have to :lmao: ,

Need to look up some stuffed bell pepper recipes.  

 
dkp993 said:
Still never tried this.  
Click to expand...
Oh you have to try 

I slice about 1/4” or so, season with s+p, dip in seasoned egg then Italian bread crumbs and shallow fry in olive oil til golden brown. Usually a side for us with ranch for dipping. 

Really good on a BLT imo

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cowboysfan8 said:
Zoodles are good too if you haven’t tried them 
Click to expand...
Yeah I do this quite a bit.

My wife has a good zucchini bread recipe that she usually does in muffin tins.  They freeze pretty well so we stock up and freeze them in bags of 4 for off-season snacking.

 
heckmanm said:
Yeah I do this quite a bit.

My wife has a good zucchini bread recipe that she usually does in muffin tins.  They freeze pretty well so we stock up and freeze them in bags of 4 for off-season snacking.
Click to expand...
I make the bread but never thought to make and freeze muffins 

Thanks for the idea 

 
Also got about 30 cucumbers off 1 bush in the past couple of weeks.

Been trying to catch them at a reasonable size, but found a "Paige, NO!" specimen hiding yesterday

 
Being overrun w/ tomatoes still.  Made salsa the last two weekends w/ 4.5lb of tomatoes in each batch.  Probably have another 4.5lbs sitting on the counter right now.  

Peppers are also producing well and cucumbers are really coming on.  May need to do some pickles soon.  

Had to pull my zucchini, cut worms got them.  Picked enough green beans to make a nice batch and then pulled them as well.

I love summertime.    

 
For the past few years have walked past a garden laden with all sorts of peppers.  Made mental note to add more peppers to the garden.  Finally did it, they are small but coming in. 

Plan is coming to fruition.  Tons of peppers as expected.  Last night made huge pot of chili froze most of it this morning.  When the NFL starts I'll get a huge bag of tortilla chips and nuke a bowl of chili for dipping. 

I don't throw away turkey/chicken carcass' I bag them in the freezer till I have enough to make an enriched turkey/chicken broth.  Simmer it for days in the winter then freeze it.  I also save/freeze huge chunks of ham and turkey from holidays along with my 'special ingredient'. 

I make mango water by putting large sections into container filling it with water and chilling overnight.  Ice-cold mango water, soo good but what  to do with the mangos after soaking?  Chop them up and freeze them, add to soup, chili, and gumbo.  Gives a great taste. 

Will take the, ham, turkey, peppers, mango, and add onions, spices, to make gumbo.

When I have too many tomatoes and peppers, etc  coming from the garden after giving most away I chop them up and put them in a slow cooker to make a veggie base to make soups/chili/etc for the fall and don't run out till spring.  

Good way to get the most out of the garden labor of love and have that great taste long into the winter.

 
60ish green been bush.  I been a busy boy harvesting, plants going strong.  A lot of maintenance and work overall

4 Okra plant.  4 Collard green plants.  First year doing both of these.  Plants are doing fabulous I probably getting about 7 okra a week and a bunch of Collards.  Kick ### Collards recipe + shrimp....OMG so good.

4 Eggplant.  Starting to come in, a bit to go before ripe

4 squash & 4 Zucc, 4 Cuc's.  I've gotten about 6-8 fruits, doing ok but not raging good.  Always have powdery mildew and other assorted problems with these plants, particularly cucumbers.

8 pepper plants.  4 doing great and should go until October.  4 planted before a late frost and limping along.

4 tomato plants.  Doing great.

4 cauliflower plants.  Died.

8 brussel sprout plants.  The brussels are starting to come in, they take a lot longer than expected to mature.  Not sure they are going to make it with the dead of georgia summer coming.

7 asparagus.  Doing good, stopped harvesting them a month or so ago.  IN general these guys don't really produce enough yet to feed a family of 4...but they are only 2-3yrs old.

7,000 weed plants.  ####### indestructible.

My best year yet, besides the weeds.

 
heckmanm said:
Also got about 30 cucumbers off 1 bush in the past couple of weeks.

Been trying to catch them at a reasonable size, but found a "Paige, NO!" specimen hiding yesterday
Click to expand...
Wtf, what state do you live in if you don’t mind me asking?

 I’m in GA and feels like neither plant likes the humidity and we’ve also had a particularly rainy summer so far.  Not just me, my neighbor too.

 
djmich said:
Wtf, what state do you live in if you don’t mind me asking?

 I’m in GA and feels like neither plant likes the humidity and we’ve also had a particularly rainy summer so far.  Not just me, my neighbor too.
Click to expand...
I'm in northern Indiana.  I have a raised bed which helps drainage, so when it's rainy, the plants get a lot of water but the ground doesn't waterlog.  Also really good black dirt instead of the blue clay that dominates the area.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
.....  Why not stagger your plantings so you have stuff ripening all throughout the growing season?

We'd plant tomatoes every month from April through July and have them coming on from early July through most of October. You can do this with several types of crops. We called them "early", "summer", and "late" yields.
Click to expand...
I didn't intentionally stagger my plantings but decided to use extra potting soil on seedlings and put them in about a month after my other plants.  

The cherry tomato plants are doing ok and I'm hoping they shoot up and fruit before the end of summer.

I hope we get an Indian Summer without early frost to give them a chance..

Like your stagger planting idea.  :thumbup:

 
4 bright red jalapenos with several others still ripening.  For jalapenos, do they get spicier the longer I leave them on the vine?  I picked the first red one I got, and it had no spice at all.

 
Cowboysfan8 said:
Picked first zucchini today. Made these

https://www.smalltownwoman.com/zucchini-gouda-fritters/#tasty-recipes-20845-jump-target

😃
Click to expand...
Fritters were fabulous.  Definitely making more of these

Cowboysfan8 said:
They were good

Zoodles are good too if you haven’t tried them 

This is next on my list I believe 

https://www.google.com/search?q=zucchini+tots&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Click to expand...
Loved the flavor on these, but not the texture.  They didn't brown much even after an extra 10 minutes in the oven, and the inside was mushy.  IDK if I didn't get enough water squeezed out, or used a little too much onion, or what.  I threw the leftovers into the air fryer for lunch and they browned up some but were still mushy.

May look at adapting the fritter recipe to use cheddar and italian seasoning, tho.

 
heckmanm said:
Fritters were fabulous.  Definitely making more of these

Loved the flavor on these, but not the texture.  They didn't brown much even after an extra 10 minutes in the oven, and the inside was mushy.  IDK if I didn't get enough water squeezed out, or used a little too much onion, or what.  I threw the leftovers into the air fryer for lunch and they browned up some but were still mushy.

May look at adapting the fritter recipe to use cheddar and italian seasoning, tho.
Click to expand...
Glad you liked the fritters!

I haven’t tried the tots yet, may need to rethink those 

made this tonight

https://www.thelifejolie.com/zucchini-boats/

followed the recipe except used hot Italian sausage instead of the ground turkey and for that reason left out the Italian seasoning.

1 pretty large zucchini instead of 4 medium because that’s what I had

Really good

 
Hastur said:
4 bright red jalapenos with several others still ripening.  For jalapenos, do they get spicier the longer I leave them on the vine?  I picked the first red one I got, and it had no spice at all.
Click to expand...
I believe they do get hotter as they ripen but red is ripe. Dunno

I grew watermelon this year for the 1st time for my granddaughter. I planted one “sugar baby plant”,  it’s going nuts. Tag says 7-8 inches wide is mature, I picked one at 8” a few days ago and it was nowhere near ripe. I have a few others that big but after doing some research I think they’re still a week from being ready 

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Joe Bryant
Small Scale Farming - Anyone Into It?
2
Replies
67
Views
2K
Peggy
Peggy
titusbramble
  • Locked
FBG FFA Countdown - The Greatest Video Games Ever - project on hold
2 3
Replies
115
Views
5K
FBG Moderator
F
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Neighbor fence issue....Here we go again!
2 3
Replies
100
Views
5K
Osaurus
Osaurus

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top