September 2023 Chat Thread

[Bean]

Another month gone!

We're due a very warm and sunny week here (after a pretty mediocre summer weather-wise) - just as schools go back, which is pretty typical. A bunch of schools are having to make last minute alternate plans for housing their kids as there's a safety issue with a type of aerated concrete which was used quite widely in the construction of schools. It only has a life of 30 years, and people have been aware of it for some time, but some collapsed in a school over summer with no warning signs, so things have stepped up.

[3piggles]

All that triple digit heat from southern and central US has finally reached us. We kept it at bay all summer. Schools have had to reschedule games until evening or October. Pro Football starts Thursday night, and one game will be in Massachusetts. It's still supposed to be hot, but not in the 90s.

I'm staying indoors in my bathing suits. Been quite comfy

[Bean]

We're getting hot temperatures for us. A bunch of veg plants which prefer the warmer weather that I've had in the ground doing very little for a couple of months have suddenly taken off in the last week - hopefully they'll have time to fruit fruit before it gets chilly again!

[3piggles]

With the eggplants I found first the extreme rain, then the extreme heat tended to make the fruits bitter. I'm hoping I won't lose all the pasta sauce I made with the eggplant, but the last batch I tried to use was too bitter to even try to fix it It wasn't that bad out of the pan, so I'll learn if sitting in the freezer frozen stopped the eggplant from getting bitter. The eggplant plants are blossoming, and I'm debating pulling the plants, because I don't think the fruit will be very good. We've had such a weird summer, I think it's best to just let them go.

I googled best way to grow tomatoes in containers, because the ones we planted in the ground at the neighbor's house are doing fabulously. Ours barely produced fruit, and what they did produce wasn't very good. The articles I read said to give each plant at least a 10-gallon pot, which we definitely didn't do, so next year we'll plant them in the big pots, which are probably closer to 30 gallon pots, so should give each plant more than enough space. Last try, as every year we've had spindly plants and iffy fruit. Again, the bell peppers we planted never got big enough to be counted as anything. I don't want to keep going through the motions, doing all the summer maintenance on the plants, and not getting much to use.

I will definitely plant more flowers, next year, and I think they make the veggie plants look better during the awkward stages. Marigolds also help ward off mosquitoes.

[Bean]

That's a shame the aubergines didn't taste great when the sauce was reheated, and that the tomatoes and peppers haven't taken off.

I have half a dozen tomato plants in my beds, but I didn't plant any of them - I wonder if it's tomato seeds that found their way into the compost bin, and the seeds survived? It happened last year too. They should really be in a greenhouse over here, but given my lax watering habits, they stand a better chance out in the cool!

[3piggles]

You should put out a soaker hose on a timer, just to see what you get for fruits, and if they're especially good coming from a compost heap You might get the best tomatoes ever

[Bean]

I don't have one, so they'll have to rely on me remembering! I got a new (and massive) water butt rigged up earlier this year, and I've managed to avoid using the hose this year. If I were a more conscientious waterer, it might not have been enough, but that's not the case!

[3piggles]

Unless you're counting on the produce from those plants, providing them with the water nature provides you is what they would get normally. Feeding, extra watering, etc., are ways to increase yield. You'd rather have the time to go on school break trips than to have to be home to water, feed, pull of suckers, etc. If that changes, you'll change your routine.

Most of our veggie plants are pulled and gone. That season is over for this year. We're going to do a lot of things differently next year, hoping to get a better tomato yield. We've also had the raised planters in the middle of the lawn, which made it hard for Vic to mow around and under them. We're planning on keeping them on the periphery next summer. I think the tomatoes got too much water from the two months of endless rain, but I've also checked and they shouldn't have more than 8 hours of direct sunlight each day, and ours were getting about 14. I think moving them back to the shadier part of the side yard, so they don't get the sun until later, might also help. We're also going to use the bigger pots and not the raised planters, so not sure what we'll plant where. Don't have to worry about that for a good six months.

[Bean]

Even when I'm home, I'm rubbish at looking after things! So maybe I'd still stick to the veg which are forgiving of neglect! Or at least that naturally thrive well in my garden. I have local friends who I've given a bunch of spare seedlings to each year, and what goes well for them (without them being attentive) is often quite different to what's thrived in my garden, probably just from small differences in the soil type or light.

After the warm spell we had, I'm getting more veg now than I have all summer. So many courgettes still coming through too!

[3piggles]

I have to do at least one more harvesting of tomatoes, then I think this year will be done. These are in my neighbor's plot, which is in-ground, not raised bed. His did fabulously, because all the excess water could drain away. I hope you get some veggies for a summer of being planted in your garden Do you know which veggies are the most drought/rain tolerant? I know lettuce grows in standing water, like rice in rice paddies, but it also bolts quickly, so not a good veg for doing much summer traveling.

[Bean]

Things like carrots and parsnips do well in dry weather. And as long as they get some water while they're getting established, I don't find things like beans and courgettes are fussy about being watered. Also fruits - rhubarb seems to thrive whatever the weather, and bushes like blackcurrant, raspberries and blueberries, once established, seem happy to keep on churning out without much attention. My friend says asparagus looks after itself too, but I've not grown that yet - I did have a try this year but I think the birds ate my seeds.

[3piggles]

Asparagus, like rhubarb, takes over the bed once it starts to grow. It comes back every year, and uses more space every year. I would plant asparagus to get the tasty, young ones at the beginning of the season. Too bad only 12g of asparagus is low FODMAP. Rhubarb we get 150g per serving allowed

[Bean]

I know you can't have much asparagus in the elimination phase, but I think it's one of those that you plant and don't get anything until the following year, so who knows what you'll be able to eat then! It's not really a veg I eat much of, probably because it's usually expensive to buy here, and I don't like it so much that I want to splash out.

We've had quite a few days of it tipping it down constantly, so I'm enjoying the dry sunny morning which we're having today.

[3piggles]

Asparagus isn't my favorite, either, but I like it with some foods, and I like the really young shoots. I don't think I'd grow it just because it's an in-ground plant, and we don't really have a place to built an in-ground garden. If the yard were ours to do with as we chose, that would be different. It's hard to find the young asparagus, and as you said, it's pricey.

We've had a run of great weather. Clouds have moved in. Supposed to be rainy Saturday, chance of rain on Sunday, but no one is saying how much, and possibly rain on Monday, then another stretch of nice weather. After each rain the temp doesn't bounce back, so after this rain, temps will only be in the 60s instead of in the 70s. Autumn is here. Tomorrow is the official first day

[bazookagoof]

I'm working on a volleyball video for my daughter's team- my wife volunteered me for it, but that isn't a complaint. Doing someone else's project on someone else's deadline has shown me that I still got my mojo. I was worried that cranking out the videos would take a week or more, but I put in almost seven hours and managed to get all the rough cuts finished.

All I have left to do is put in transitions and smooth things out. I can do that all tomorrow. I will send off the completed versions and still have time for any revisions; the deadline is October 2nd. 

Some of the jobs I've looked at required lots of output in a short time. After today's experience, I know I can handle it.  

[Bean]

It sounds like a fun project - supporting your daughter in one of her passions and reminding yourself you've still got it!

[3piggles]

Excellent! You've gotten past some major doubts, lately, and I'm liking your new attitude