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2017 Lawn, Garden and Pool Thread


Eskimo Joe

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3 hours ago, mattie g said:

Hit the neighborhood pool yesterday. Absolutely perfect day for it, even if the water was a wee bit on the chilly side. Of course, I don't think a single kid cared one bit about the water temp - blue lips aplenty!

I heard it was warm and sunny south yesterday. I barely saw the sun and never made it above 70. 

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We filled/shocked the pool before we left for the beach last week.  It's balanced pretty well over the the last 8 days...with the past few nights being warmer, the temperature has really come up.  Our garden finally is settling in too.  The tomatoes, watermelons and cucumbers are taking hold and the pumpkins and squash finally have their first true leaves.  It was getting really concerned that we were going to lose a lot of our hard work with the persistent rains.

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14 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

We filled/shocked the pool before we left for the beach last week.  It's balanced pretty well over the the last 8 days...with the past few nights being warmer, the temperature has really come up.  Our garden finally is settling in too.  The tomatoes, watermelons and cucumbers are taking hold and the pumpkins and squash finally have their first true leaves.  It was getting really concerned that we were going to lose a lot of our hard work with the persistent rains.

I was late this year but got all the plants in this past weekend.  Still have some various flower plants, bean and miniature pumpkin seeds to put in, hopefully this evening.

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6 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

Absolutely.  Tomatoes are starting to blossom and we have baby tomatillos.  Garlic is dying back and cucumbers are in the ground.

Our tomatoes are flowering now, too. Black cherry tomato already has a few small ones on it. Garlic is really going strong - clipped the scapes about a week ago. Should start seeing them brown up soon. I direct seed cucumbers, and only got them in a couple weeks ago, so they're still seedlings.

Basil is finally bushing out, so I need to prune it to get it really going. Got the beet seeds in late, but they're in a much better place than any year before, so hopefully the heat doesn't affect them too badly.

I've also got a ton of volunteer dill all over the garden, so with the cukes, jalapeños, and garlic, I'll soon have everything i need for pickles!

Not sure if I'll plant green beans this year or not. If so, they'll probably go in in a couple weeks.

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We planted green beans and sugar peas back in late April.  They're starting to produce now.  Sour cherries did pretty well this year.  Strawberries seems more lush, but don't seem to be producing as much this year.

Jury is still out whether the peach tree will actually produce edible peaches.

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1 hour ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Man, we got some gardeners in this joint! Nice.

Mattie, you prune your basil? Can you tell me what you do?

I absolutely prune my basil! It's how I harvest it. It promotes bushier growth, helps keep it from going to seed, and extends the life of the edible plant by quite a bit.

To prune, you clip the stem just above a set of small leaves. What happens after is that two new stems shoot up from where those smaller leaves are. As you continue the process, the plant gets bushy and continues healthy growth. The main stem will eventually get woody, but you get a lot of good growth out of the young stems as they branch out.

In pruning, make sure not to cut back by more than 2/3 or else there may not be enough leaves to gather sunlight for photosynthesis. I personally don't cut back by more than 1/2. Also, you want to prune before the plant starts to flower, otherwise the basil can get a little bitter.

Good luck!

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Cucumbers doing well now that the heat is on. Beets ready to be pulled in another week I think. Bean sprouts my kid gave me for Mother's Day are growing nicely. Got a tomato plant already growing one little tomato. All in all, I'm happy.

And the pool is 77


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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On 6/11/2017 at 9:54 AM, mattie g said:

I absolutely prune my basil! It's how I harvest it. It promotes bushier growth, helps keep it from going to seed, and extends the life of the edible plant by quite a bit.

To prune, you clip the stem just above a set of small leaves. What happens after is that two new stems shoot up from where those smaller leaves are. As you continue the process, the plant gets bushy and continues healthy growth. The main stem will eventually get woody, but you get a lot of good growth out of the young stems as they branch out.

In pruning, make sure not to cut back by more than 2/3 or else there may not be enough leaves to gather sunlight for photosynthesis. I personally don't cut back by more than 1/2. Also, you want to prune before the plant starts to flower, otherwise the basil can get a little bitter.

Good luck!

I do the same to the basil plants that I have. I have two medium sized planters of basil and a couple smaller containers also. I love basil and use it various different dishes. I like to keep the plants smaller because I feel that they loose their taste once the plant gets bigger. I also freeze a lot of basil to use throughout the year. I will but the basil in a chopper and put some olive oil in and then put the mixture in baggies and freeze them. I also have frozen whole basil leaves in a baggies with water. I am thinking about drying basil leaves but wasn't happy before how they turned out.

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35 minutes ago, ThePhotoGuy said:

I do the same to the basil plants that I have. I have two medium sized planters of basil and a couple smaller containers also. I love basil and use it various different dishes. I like to keep the plants smaller because I feel that they loose their taste once the plant gets bigger. I also freeze a lot of basil to use throughout the year. I will but the basil in a chopper and put some olive oil in and then put the mixture in baggies and freeze them. I also have frozen whole basil leaves in a baggies with water. I am thinking about drying basil leaves but wasn't happy before how they turned out.

I'm with you 100%! I love basil, and really like having fresh basil at my fingertips throughout the summer. I haven't tried freezing it in oil yet, but I've heard that people have really good results with it. Easy enough to throw it in a sauce or something, I'd imagine.

I made garlic scape pesto yesterday, and used the first harvest of basil for it. I ended up with 1.5-2 packed cups of basil, added about the same in spinach, and popped 10 scapes in there with the standard parmesan, pine nuts, and olive oil. It's awesome, if I do say so myself! :lol: I also like making caprese salad with my basil, tomatoes, and homemade mozzarella once they start coming in. Then drizzle a little 18-year aged balsamic on it. Sooooo good...

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