California - What are you doing this month?

Wow, you guys with your fever pitch temps!  I am amazed that anything is able to grow in that environment, just goes to show why cultivar selection by region is so important, and how we learn from each other's experiences! Diseases and pests are a kind of constant.  

Love your little plants, CN!

Scorpio Rising wrote:Wow, you guys with your fever pitch temps!  I am amazed that anything is able to grow in that environment, just goes to show why cultivar selection by region is so important, and how we learn from each other's experiences! Diseases and pests are a kind of constant.  

Love your little plants, CN!

They are adorable, aren't they? 

Everything else in my garden is beyond sad and we still have 2 more days of 111 highs. I'm watering 3 times a day and everything is under shade cloth, but it's a losing battle and I don't even want to go outside to check.

CC,  Never envy me, I can kill a plant just thinking about it!

Audrey,  Sooo sorry it was muggy down there.  Usually it's lovely, well, except when they have fires.  And I have chip envy.  

Another 9 days of 100+ weather.  Looks like Thursday will be electrical brown outs.  Hazardous air quality with added particulate matter from fires.

sanderson wrote:Looks like Thursday will be electrical brown outs.  Hazardous air quality with added particulate matter from fires.

YIKES! At least all we have is heat -- 111 for the next 2 days, then a "mild" 106. By Sunday we could be back down to 100.

Wow brutal temps you folks are having.

Yep. What is hard is the number of consecutive days! Cooling centers, free transportation to the centers, and free public swimming pools are now in operation.

Finally pulled my Boston Marrows - I was checking them every few days trying to determine when they would be ready.  I rolled one over a bit and there was a gopher hole underneath and some subterranean guy was nibbling away with his own private veggie bar.  So, that told me it's time before they get eaten!  This first guy is probably 35 lbs!!!



Those are 55 gallon drums for perspective.  I thought I might kill myself carrying them down off of the hillside, lol!



I ended up with 6 out of 2 or 3 plants (I can't recall for sure).  20 lb, probably 25 lb and 4 that are between 30-40 lbs.  They are an armful!  The pre-eaten one got cooked today.  I slice it into quarters, scoop the seeds, slice into about 1 inch wide strips and slice the skin off.  Then I cube it and put it into our crock pot on low for about 8 hours, puree it and am freezing it.  I am also dehydrating a batch for flour and barbecued spears (mmmmmm!)

That's a lot of squash! You need a little sled to get them off the hill.

Marrow flour, Audrey.Jeanne? What do you use it in?

Are you roasting the seeds?

And what will you do with the puree?

Pumpkin/Marrow flour can be used to replace 1/4 of the regular flour in any recipe.  I made a "Muffin in a Minute" this morning:  1/3 cup flour (mix of 1/3 almond flour, 1/3 coconut meal & 1/3 pumpkin flour), 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1 egg.  Mix well then microwave for 1 1/4 minutes.  You can add sweetener and pumpkin pie spice if you want to go dessert.

I haven't roasted the seeds yet, but will.  You can also grind them up and mix it in the flour for a higher protein flour mix.

Pumpkin pies - anything you would use pumpkin puree will work.  It tastes like pumpkin but sweeter and a very smooth texture instead of pumpkin's mealy texture.

Huh...... sounds REALLY good! I'll have to look into those.

Thanks for the info!

Those Boston Marrow squash are amazing. I'm envious. But they look pretty big for trellising -- and I don't feel like I have a good enough grasp on growing squash yet to dedicate enough of my limited space to a sprawler... unless they'd grow well in the middle of the Jerusalem artichokes...hmm. Thanks for sharing the photos and uses. I'll put them on my list of varieties to try once I have a place bigger/better garden space!

Audrey has them growing on her hillside BTE garden area. They can sprawl to their hearts content. Those puppies really are huge and heavy. Seen 'em with my own eyeballs!

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote: Those Boston Marrow squash are amazing. ...

+1

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote: Those Boston Marrow squash are amazing. I'm envious. But they look pretty big for trellising -- and I don't feel like I have a good enough grasp on growing squash yet to dedicate enough of my limited space to a sprawler... unless they'd grow well in the middle of the Jerusalem artichokes...hmm. Thanks for sharing the photos and uses. I'll put them on my list of varieties to try once I have a place bigger/better garden space!

They took on average 15 x 15 to 20 x 20 growing space.  I would not try to trellis them as their stems are not hard like a spaghetti squash or pumpkin, I don't think they would hold up to the stress of the fruit hanging off of them.  At their peak growing, the leaves were 2 feet above the soil, so they shaded anything growing around them.  They love rich growing soil.  I grew them in a huge compost pile that had a lot of cow manure, hay, coffee grounds as well as chicken and rabbit manures. 

By the way the dried powder/flour can also be used for making soups and thickening soup etc.  I have also dried and powderized zucchini and will do other veggies as they become available.  They store so long and condense into such a small space that way.  Dried and powdered sun dried tomatoes mixed with basil and/or Italian spices can be rehydrated to make tomato paste, tomato sauce or added in powder form to my zucchini "pasta" for flavor.

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote: Those Boston Marrow squash are amazing. I'm envious. But they look pretty big for trellising -- and I don't feel like I have a good enough grasp on growing squash yet to dedicate enough of my limited space to a sprawler... unless they'd grow well in the middle of the Jerusalem artichokes...hmm. Thanks for sharing the photos and uses. I'll put them on my list of varieties to try once I have a place bigger/better garden space!

They took on average 15 x 15 to 20 x 20 growing space.  I would not try to trellis them as their stems are not hard like a spaghetti squash or pumpkin, I don't think they would hold up to the stress of the fruit hanging off of them.  At their peak growing, the leaves were 2 feet above the soil, so they shaded anything growing around them.  They love rich growing soil.  I grew them in a huge compost pile that had a lot of cow manure, hay, coffee grounds as well as chicken and rabbit manures. 

By the way the dried powder/flour can also be used for making soups and thickening soup etc.  I have also dried and powderized zucchini and will do other veggies as they become available.  They store so long and condense into such a small space that way.  Dried and powdered sun dried tomatoes mixed with basil and/or Italian spices can be rehydrated to make tomato paste, tomato sauce or added in powder form to my zucchini "pasta" for flavor.

15x15! That definitely won't work with what space I have now. Maybe I'll try this flour thing if my Lakota squash plants yield fruit. I was going to dry shredded zucchini this year once the plant does what zucchinis are famous for. I dehydrated cherry tomatoes last year, and I haven't used them up, but have thoroughly enjoyed most of the things I used them in.

YEE-HAH! First day in a week I can go outside and play. The old thermometer hasn't even hit 70 yet. Gonna assess the damage of the just-ended heat wave, clean up the dead bodies of those that didn't make it, rake up a new batch of dead leaves for mulch, and maybe start planting fall crops. If I don't get that far, today, I'll still be on schedule to plant, tomorrow. There is no more brutal heat in the 10-day forecast, so I'm back in the gardening business.   I'll report progress with pics later.

Well, it's currently 74 here in OC.  The forecast says it should only get to 83 today.

It sure doesn't feel like 74 outside now, an if you get into the sun at all anywhere it doesn't feel anything like 83.

Yippee, Temps of only 100 and high 90"s for a week! Time to start the cole/winter crops for planting out in September.

I need to clean up my greenhouse so I CAN start some seeds - what a wreck (Sanderson can attest to the honesty of that statement, lol!) 

I noticed last winter, that things that were under cover grew twice as well as those that were exposed fully to the elements even if they were cold tolerant, so I need to rig some temporary hoop houses where I want to grow.  NOTE TO SELF:  calculate how much pipe you'll need and materials and get them on the shopping list BEFORE football starts or you're toast!

I don't get it!   My summer crops are doing poorly, but my kale and broccoli just keep truckin' along.

Today I planted lots more kale and summer broccoli (it's a bunching type so I don't have to wait for heads that never form). I also planted Brandywine tomato seeds in a container that will come inside for the winter. When it cools down this evening, I'm going to plant 2 kinds of carrots. Tomorrow I'll plant turnips. Now I'm off to research onions, to see if it's time to start them. 

countrynaturals wrote:I don't get it!   My summer crops are doing poorly, but my kale and broccoli just keep truckin' along.

Go figure!

Okay, so I lied. I planted turnips, walla walla onions, and bunching onions. Today I will plant those carrots and harvest and dry a ton of basil. Oh, and replant long beans for the 4th time. I don't know why I can' get them to grow.

I got about 1/2 of my winter seedlings started.  Hopefully it will be cool enough for them to get started (that's my biggest issue).  

I harvested my now volunteer Yukon Gold potatoes out of the bed from the last few years.  There are always some itsy bitsy potatoes left behind so they just keep coming.  The gophers et. al. have discovered them so there are no big potatoes.  If I leave them they will get eaten as is evidenced by the half gnawed larger potatoes I dig up.  *deep sigh*

I have 5 or 6 55 gallon drums.  I'm thinking of making one of them for potatoes.  I'm sure someone has done it and put a video online so I can figure out how to do it.  I'm wanting to make strawberry towers out of a couple of them and saw videos on how to to that a couple years ago.  Anybody know what else you can do with the drums?

YARDSLAVE, How are you faring with the fire??