Salutations mon amises. I have returned.
So this year I'm scaling way back, mostly because I have too much sauce still aging from last year. I don't have enough empty carboys for everything if I grew another 1500 plants, so I cut it back to about 300. All chocolate habs and yellow 7 pots. I started seeds planning to have more yellows than chocolates, but the winds of fortune and bad germination left me with the opposite.
Started on 02/25
Germination on 03/03
More germination on 03/04
03/14
Potted up on 03/31
Bottling some berry sauce on 04/04
Bottling some yellow 7 pot 04/06
Bottling curry sauce 04/06
Plants 04/08
Plants 04/21
Moved outside 04/30
Plants 05/11
Preparing the soil. I cashed in all my compost this year. Four or 5 years worth of leaves and watermelon rinds and the like, and several truck loads of that horse manure from last year. It wound up paying off (see below). Here I dug out the holes for the plants and filled them in with pretty much pure compost, which everyone told me was a bad idea. They say the roots will grow through the compost then just stop at the pre-existing soil. Time will tell if that is indeed the case. The soil here was already pretty good so I don't think it'll be a problem.
Plants 05/18
Got a pile of wood chips from the tree trimmers. This shall join the melange of my compost pile.
My ghetto ramp for getting the tiller in the truck
After tilling at the community garden. This is one of 4 spots there. I put all the yellow 7 pots here and filled in the remainder with more chocolate habs.
Plants in at the big spot 05/28. These are all chocolate habs.
Plants in at the community garden 06/04
Big spot 06/08
Big spot 06/14
Big spot 06/19. It's clear to me at this point the compost is working wonders. These plants are doing great.
Community garden 06/23
Big spot 06/26
Curry trees 06/26. They've been outside since May 5th.
Caught this guy at the big spot the other day. It's probably the biggest rat snake I've ever seen, well over 3 feet. Very healthy too.
I'll try to go update the 2023 glog with the last of those pics, but it's just going to be me making a bunch of sauce, so not very interesting. I've made some improvements to the recipes this year that have really made a big difference. The last two batches of yellow 7 pot and ambrosia were out of this world. I'm going to keep it up going forward.
Also I've been marinating everything I can find in leftover pepper brine. It's so damn good.
Carry on my wayward sons, we shall meet again when I have more updates.
So this year I'm scaling way back, mostly because I have too much sauce still aging from last year. I don't have enough empty carboys for everything if I grew another 1500 plants, so I cut it back to about 300. All chocolate habs and yellow 7 pots. I started seeds planning to have more yellows than chocolates, but the winds of fortune and bad germination left me with the opposite.
Started on 02/25
Germination on 03/03
More germination on 03/04
03/14
Potted up on 03/31
Bottling some berry sauce on 04/04
Bottling some yellow 7 pot 04/06
Bottling curry sauce 04/06
Plants 04/08
Plants 04/21
Moved outside 04/30
Plants 05/11
Preparing the soil. I cashed in all my compost this year. Four or 5 years worth of leaves and watermelon rinds and the like, and several truck loads of that horse manure from last year. It wound up paying off (see below). Here I dug out the holes for the plants and filled them in with pretty much pure compost, which everyone told me was a bad idea. They say the roots will grow through the compost then just stop at the pre-existing soil. Time will tell if that is indeed the case. The soil here was already pretty good so I don't think it'll be a problem.
Plants 05/18
Got a pile of wood chips from the tree trimmers. This shall join the melange of my compost pile.
My ghetto ramp for getting the tiller in the truck
After tilling at the community garden. This is one of 4 spots there. I put all the yellow 7 pots here and filled in the remainder with more chocolate habs.
Plants in at the big spot 05/28. These are all chocolate habs.
Plants in at the community garden 06/04
Big spot 06/08
Big spot 06/14
Big spot 06/19. It's clear to me at this point the compost is working wonders. These plants are doing great.
Community garden 06/23
Big spot 06/26
Caught this guy at the big spot the other day. It's probably the biggest rat snake I've ever seen, well over 3 feet. Very healthy too.
I'll try to go update the 2023 glog with the last of those pics, but it's just going to be me making a bunch of sauce, so not very interesting. I've made some improvements to the recipes this year that have really made a big difference. The last two batches of yellow 7 pot and ambrosia were out of this world. I'm going to keep it up going forward.
Also I've been marinating everything I can find in leftover pepper brine. It's so damn good.
Carry on my wayward sons, we shall meet again when I have more updates.
And all those jars!
