Cohutt's Garden 5th Try (2013)

[MIZZOU_RAH]

Rainbow chard, standing on its head in the rinse bucket

Cohutt, do you have any tips on cooking chard? I've had great success growing it this year! I keep cutting and cutting and cutting and it keeps on coming back no matter how hot, cold, rainy, or dry it gets. I love this about it, as I can't get spinach to grow very well and lettuce is prolific for about 2-3 weeks before going to seed in the Missouri heat. However, aside from cutting up the stems in stir fry, I haven't found a good way to cook it that my wife and I both enjoy. I didn't like it cooked in oil like spinach and the stems can make stir fry very pungent if I add too many. What do you do? I hate having all this abundance and nothing to use it for!

[cohutt]

Yeah, I hear you on new things, it keeps the curiosity up which keeps the attention span up lol

Ground cherries- I planted Aunt Mollie's in 2010 and nature has planted them every year since, although they have moved from the original area to the back edges of the yard.  Mrs cohutt never really warmed up to them as a planned planting en masse but now that we have "wild" ones we both snack on them and sort of consider them "pet plants", not really sure where they will appear each year.  They earn their spot as volunteers, if they sprout they stay

[cohutt]

bushel basket & apple gourds coming along





soybean "envy" /edamame





First eggplant I've ever grown.  Man the flea beetles love the leaves of this thing



Slow start but harvest is steady now



Although my spacing this year is so tight I have to step outside the fence just to change my mind (ba-da-bing)

[LvsChant]

I'm very jealous of your beautiful tomatoes... I bought plants at the local HD this year (no chance to start my own during construction), and so far 75% have come up with that curly-leaf fungus. I'm getting ready to rip out another plant.

[cohutt]

Cool August so far, tomato and Asian long bean production has ramped like it is mid September. geez, more feet of beans on the vines than there are feet of vines now.

[cohutt]

Sweet potatoes with a couple more hills to go yet



Been busy with this and other things, so not much updating lately. 

[LvsChant]

OMG. I am very jealous of your sweet potato harvest...

[cohutt]

two more buckets tonight and the harvest is complete.  I weighed them all a minute ago

164 lbs

[LvsChant]

Maybe next year... I did just plant garlic today... hoping for a good harvest next summer. My rutabagas are doing great, too.

[cohutt]

too early for garlic here yet but I have my seed stock from last year ready as well as some new varieties to try here in the land of pretend winters (lately anyway)

[Cedar]

Glad you said you had a late season too. Makes me feel a bit better about my garden this year.

Cedar

[cohutt]

This was a goofy year for sure. 
In July I really didn't think there was a chance in hell I would be sick of processing tomatoes by september.
I am, for the record.

[LvsChant]

I would love to be sick of processing tomatoes... we have virtually none. I have one remaining plant that gives us a few rather small tomatoes every few days, but certainly not enough to worry about storing... we're lucky if we have enough for salads. I think our climate here is a bit different than the climate in Georgia, even though we aren't really much north of where we lived there... but the altitude is higher and the dryness and wind makes a difference, too. Our local feed store said on/around Sept. 25 is the optimum garlic planting time around here.

I am continuing to get a nice crop of zucchini and peppers...

[BassManNate]

I'm planning on planting sweet potatoes for the first time next year but your pictures above have me a bit worried about storage. How on earth do you store those long enough to eat them without them sprouting all over the place? I suppose it's not the problem it is with regular potatoes since the whole thing can be eaten.

[cohutt]

I would love to be sick of processing tomatoes... we have virtually none. I have one remaining plant that gives us a few rather small tomatoes every few days, but certainly not enough to worry about storing... we're lucky if we have enough for salads. I think our climate here is a bit different than the climate in Georgia, even though we aren't really much north of where we lived there... but the altitude is higher and the dryness and wind makes a difference, too. Our local feed store said on/around Sept. 25 is the optimum garlic planting time around here.

I am continuing to get a nice crop of zucchini and peppers...

You'll get it figured out, I know that much. 

I am the only gardener I know of who can't grow Zucchini for $h!t.  Vine borers. boo.

[cohutt]

I'm planning on planting sweet potatoes for the first time next year but your pictures above have me a bit worried about storage. How on earth do you store those long enough to eat them without them sprouting all over the place? I suppose it's not the problem it is with regular potatoes since the whole thing can be eaten.

They will actually keep as well or better than regular potatoes imho.

They have just been curing up on the back porch.   After a couple weeks (ie this weekend) they will be moved to the cooler, dark, dug basement where they should be good for months.  I just need to construct a quick galvanized hardware cloth "cabinet" to keep the occasional vermin from nibbling on them.

[cohutt]

the tasty fall stuff is doing well so far this season



the kiwis first summer was a slow start but one of the 2 females and the male pollinator have put up pretty decent primary vines with a little assistance from me cutting off secondary growth every couple of weeks.
Sample:


Okra was terribly late starting (cool wet soil until mid june = no germination) but once it started it did well.  A couple of weeks ago we decided we had enjoyed as much okra as we cared to  and i decided I'd let the plants do what they wanted until frost.  The just keep growing (10, 11 + feet now) and putting our more pods, which left alone get big enough to tip the stalk.   The apple gourd vines came back to life and is making an attempt to jump the fence into the okra "grove".



first frost is still likely a couple or three weeks out but could hit at any time really.