Welcome to the jungle. I planted some mint 15 years ago in a bed on the front side of the fence next to the gate. I have spent the last 13 years trying to kill it off. round up weadeat it to the ground and still. The [censored] is sprouting up in that bed and up to 100' away from it. My next door neighbor has mint instead of grass on that side of his house. It does smell good when he mows.

Mint and oregano are best planted in containers where they can not spread.

Yeah, I planted my mint in a half-barrel because I KNEW it was going to take over everything. We have the "strawberry" variant and use it for fresh tea and in water.

We keep a large water dispenser jug in the fridge with water, mint, lemon slices, and strawberries. It kind of promotes the kids and my wife to drink more water. They complain that they don't like the "taste" (or lack of taste, I'm better guessing) of plain water, so the natural flavors make it more appealing to them. It's good stuff!

I think my 'maters have finally reached critical mass with fruit on the vine. I counted 98 'maters on the 32 plants last night. Still no red ones, but they're getting large. Hopefully in the next week or so they will start turning.

Nax, I was in Buena Vista last week and the tomatoes that I saw in a friend's garden only had blooms and no fruit. The short growing season sure limits what they can grow.

I would add a few garlic cloves to that. Also, I like to smoke all the ingredients on a charcoal grill long enough for the tomatoes skins to start bubbling off.

Oh yeah, especially over there! That's between Salida and Vail, right? I'm at least further west in the desert so I'm a little better off than they are. My tomatoes didn't really start growing until 3 or 4 weeks ago. They were just kind of status quo. We had a very late hard frost and then temps didn't come up until the middle of June.

There's not a lot of things I miss about Texas (sorry, but I'm a mountain boy), but the awesome garden potential is one of them!

I also like cumin and fresh cilantro in my salsa.

Yep, just north of Salida on the Arkansas River. Gotta have a high fence around your garden or the deer will eat everything.

Just a few from this evening:



Can't figure out why some of my cucumbers curl like they do.

Water.. they curl more when thirsty. But I think they taste better too.

interesting since they get watered everyday along with the rest of the garden

thanks

I had that problem last year. Thought it was a watering problem too but like you mentioned, I watered almost everday so they were starving for water. Seems as though the first batch or so was like that then they were fine. This year, my cukes have been non-existent. Only enough to make a couple of quarts, pretty disheartening. 1st year I can remember when I wasn't able to pickle at least 12-15 qts. Granted, I don't have many plants. They looked great and loaded with blooms, I guess the bees just didn't get their job done.

Sorry , Bill . That's not salsa . That's hot spaghetti sauce.

Out of ten squash plants ( yellow crookneck , straightneck , zucchini and patty pan ) I got 4 squash this year . The plants looked fine and flowered but just never produced . I'm going to try again for a fall crop.

I had to plant cukes 3 times due to the late frosts but by the time they started flowering they withered from the heat ( as well as the pumpkins ) . Definitely gonna start the vines inside next year.

Maters did really well . I have a "black cherry " tomato that looks like a small Roma and it's prolific as heck . I've been making sun-dried with them as well as pickling / canning. I have about 25 lbs of Early Girl and Celebrity in the freezer waiting on my chilis to catch up so I can make salsa .

Just now starting to get decent yields of tabasco , diamante , thai , pequin and hab chilis. It's definitely been hot enough but way too dry.

How long does jelly last ? I cleaned out my pantry today and found several jars of plum and blackberry from 2010 . Think it's still good ?

When is a good time to plant the zucchini for a Fall crop? I have seeds ready to go. I tried to make cukes in the Fall last year but about the time the vined nicely, the dang aphids got on them so bad and so quick, they wiped out my plants before I could get rid of them. Not sure I want to try Fall cukes again but zucchini would be good.