jjannie's 2020 gardening

[Jig-fisher]

Great to have you join us on this board. Sounds like you have a great garden actually. Would love to see any pictures once you create your 2021 garden thread. We all learn from each other just like we learn about fishing, its really helpful. Where are you located?  We're in Morgan County.

We avoid any fruit trees here as we don't like to spray them for pests due to a good sized back yard fish pond we have. We do have green grape vine we got from wiperhunter2 to try but it is not yet producing any fruit - hopefully we'll get a small harvest next year.

We haven't yet dug up our sweet potatoes which are work in progress for us but we've had much more vine growth above ground so our fingers are crossed that we will have decent harvest this year, we'll see.

We have an abundance of tomatoes as we grew more then usual this year trying several different options to compare what does the best. We planted some in large pots that allowed us protect them in the spring and now again in the fall by moving them into the garage if any threat of frost is possible, some are in the greenhouse so they're still doing great, and we have some in our straw bale garden that have frosted so we've harvested those. Some that were in the ground in protected area all got harvested yesterday. We too have canned tomato juice, spag sauce and salsa. Yesterday's harvest we are going to can up with tomato soup that we found recipe for we really like. Any green tomatoes that got harvested we've put in the cooler basement like we did last year that kept us in tomatoes all thru Feb, so we're doing it again this year.

Sounds like you have a great garden.  I am in Davis County, so quite a bit warmer than up in Morgan County.

---

I know WH2 mentioned this thread last year when I posted some of my fall harvest of my backyard orchard.  I have 4 apple trees, 4 plum trees, 1 apricot, 1 peach, 2 cherry and 2 pear trees.  The cherry, peach, and pear trees are recent additions and are not yet producing.  I also have a raspberry patch and 2 varieties of grapes.   I grow very limited things in my garden patch.  I put in garden boxes this year.  Mostly tomatoes, peppers both hot and bell, and tomatillos.  This is to can tomatoes and make fresh salsa.  I also grow cucumbers, a little bit of peas and beans just to eat fresh, raddishes, a few carrots, summer squash both yellow and zucchini, then leave a big space for pumpkins.  

I have canned 21 quarts of tomatoes, which my wife uses primarily to make homemade pasta sauce during the year.  I have made several batches of fresh salsa which goes like wildfire in the house.  

As far as fruit, our berries have been doing fantastic and we are still picking every 3 days.  The Jupiter grapes have done really well and I did 13 quarts of juice recently.  The Neptune grapes are just ripening and are also really good. The plums did well on 3 of the 4 trees, and I dried and froze a bunch.  3 of the 4 apple trees did well and I have already harvested the Ruby Jon and the Cortland.  I made sauce and have a lot of fresh in the downstairs fridge.  My golden delicious is loaded and is nearing getting ready for harvest.  

I didn't get a lot of pumpkins but have 2 that are probably about 60 to 70 lbs. The rest are just small carving varieties.  

Now that I know where this is at I will check in regularly.  Sounds like you have great gardens.

Seems like you really have the fruit trees nailed down. I've been thinking for several year about adding a plum tree to my group of fruit trees. Had a really good harvest of peaches this year, just finished up freezing drying the last batch a few days ago. Do your plum trees need more than one to pollinate or are all 4 different varieties?

I have 4 different varieties, 2 that need each other for pollination.  What would you like to do with your plums if you decide to plant one?  Fresh eating, canning, drying or jelly?  I dry and eat them fresh.  My family isn't a big jam or jelly user, although I like it. A good single self pollinating tree is an Italian plum.  It is a purple with yellow flesh European variety, blooms later in the spring, and is a good all around plum.  It ripens late, (I am going to pick mine tomorrow) and is freestone which makes for easy eating and working with it.  Very sweet and flavorful.  Although I like all my plum varieties for differing reasons, mostly because I have plums ripening from June through October, I have not had anyone say they did not like this plum.