I actually have a good setup now for growing some Riesling vines. They grow well in colder climates (NJ), and I'm right by a lake which always provides for a nice breeze to keep things cool. I think I'll buy a couple of vines, and set them up in their own pots in my sunroom which gets a full day of sun, and see what I get. It'll be a fun (and possibly delicious) experiment.
To the washington guys - you could always grow pinot noir or gamay or something thats known to grow well in Washington. They are used to cooler climates, and as long as you don't have anything blocking the sun (when its actually out) they should do just fine. Washington is getting well known for its world class pinot noirs.
Our backyard was created by a madman. We bought the house off him without knowing a damn thing about what was back there. One really good surprise was the grapevines, which we thought were purely decorative. Turns out they're Red Seedless, and produce like a motherfucker in late May.
I wasn't aware that Pinots liked the cold climes. Although I'm familiar with the wines, what do the grapes taste like?
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited March 2007
Wise_A all of the wine grape vinyards in Washington are in Eastern Washington, which is more like a desert in some areas. it's a lot more arid and hot on that side of the mountains.
Our backyard was created by a madman. We bought the house off him without knowing a damn thing about what was back there. One really good surprise was the grapevines, which we thought were purely decorative. Turns out they're Red Seedless, and produce like a motherfucker in late May.
I wasn't aware that Pinots liked the cold climes. Although I'm familiar with the wines, what do the grapes taste like?
To be honest, I've never eaten a Pinot Noir or Gamay grape, although I've had a bunch of bottles of each type of wine. I don't know that they are meant to be eaten really. The Gamay grape is what they make Beaujoulais out of, including Brouilly. If you wanna try something neat, next time you have a lighter tasting dinner (salad, soup, sandwiches, etc) get a bottle of Brouilly and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Its just about the only red wine that tastes great after its been chilled.
Wise_A all of the wine grape vinyards in Washington are in Eastern Washington, which is more like a desert in some areas. it's a lot more arid and hot on that side of the mountains.
Ahh. But even in Western Washington I would assume you could grow colder weather varietals, like I am doing. Reisling and Sauvignon Blanc are both pretty hardy, and are grown in colder climates. Hell, Reisling is grown in Germany, which has some very cold winters.
Wise_a on
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RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
edited March 2007
I'm actually planning on tilling up a corner of our lot this weekend so I can prep it for gardening. I want to install a raised fence to bring the whole area up about 9 inches, bring in some topsoil and frame in the old garbage cage (this thing that the old residents used to put the trash cans in back when they picked up the trash from the alley) to convert it into a compost recycler.
I plan on growing tomatoes, peppers, a little corn and beans, some squash and probably some carrots and radishes and shit.
I still have to go clean out the flowerbeds this year, they're coming in fast but they're still all choked with leaves and detritus from this past fall.
But fuck yes, gardening is awesome.
Rankenphile on
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited March 2007
Yeah I could probably do Reisling. But man, having to wait over a year before I could taste my wine. need a lot of patience to make wine.
Weaver on
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RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
Wise_A all of the wine grape vinyards in Washington are in Eastern Washington, which is more like a desert in some areas. it's a lot more arid and hot on that side of the mountains.
Ahh. But even in Western Washington I would assume you could grow colder weather varietals, like I am doing. Reisling and Sauvignon Blanc are both pretty hardy, and are grown in colder climates. Hell, Reisling is grown in Germany, which has some very cold winters.
weaver, there are a LOT of grapes that grow over here. A friend of mine's mother is starting an organic winery and vineyard upriver from us - some of the best soil in the state is right where the Samish River dumps into the Skagit, near Concrete. Fantastic places to grow grape.
To be honest, I've never eaten a Pinot Noir or Gamay grape, although I've had a bunch of bottles of each type of wine. I don't know that they are meant to be eaten really.
I got to try Muscat and Syrah grapes once. Both were quite edible, although the Syrah were slighty too tart for my tastes.
The Gamay grape is what they make Beaujoulais out of, including Brouilly. If you wanna try something neat, next time you have a lighter tasting dinner (salad, soup, sandwiches, etc) get a bottle of Brouilly and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Its just about the only red wine that tastes great after its been chilled.
I can shove you in the direction of several others that benefit from the same treatment:
- Santedame Chianti, Ruffino Vinyards
Although this one is already probably the best lower-end chianti they produce, if you chill it SLIGHTLY it mellows the nose out like a mofo, resulting in an even better flavor.
- Frog's Leap Zinfandel
If you can stomach this wine at room temperature, you're a stronger man than I. Chill it well and it tastes downright delish. It is, however, a little pricey for such shenanigans.
Yeah I could probably do Reisling. But man, having to wait over a year before I could taste my wine. need a lot of patience to make wine.
Ask Darth about my wife's Mead.
I've had mead before, its pretty wierd tasting, but it grows on you. Isn't it made out of honey?
I think it'll be a cool experiment with the grapes, if anybody else wants to grab a vine or two and see what they get I'll let you know how my experience with this shipper goes. They have grafted vines already done, 2 years old (so ready to produce fruit). Grafted vines are good because you don't have to worry about Phylloxera, which has killed many vines in the past.
You might be better off starting with Gamay grapes, to be honest. Pinot Noir is notoriously hard to grow, even though it does work well in your climate. Plus, they make Beaujoulais Nouveau from Gamay. Its available every November, which is like only a few weeks after they harvest it. It's good for people who don't want to wait to taste the wine.
You might be better off starting with Gamay grapes, to be honest. Pinot Noir is notoriously hard to grow, even though it does work well in your climate. Plus, they make Beaujoulais Nouveau from Gamay. Its available every November, which is like only a few weeks after they harvest it. It's good for people who don't want to wait to taste the wine.
Unfortunately, the only experience I have with gardening is picking weeds. But I do remember growing a sprout in a plastic cup in elementry, and how magical that was.
You might be better off starting with Gamay grapes, to be honest. Pinot Noir is notoriously hard to grow, even though it does work well in your climate. Plus, they make Beaujoulais Nouveau from Gamay. Its available every November, which is like only a few weeks after they harvest it. It's good for people who don't want to wait to taste the wine.
Ils sont fou les Francais! (Those caarrazzyy Frenchies!)
This is awesome! I really enjoy those lighter wines now that the weather is warming up. Nobody wants to drink a heavy ass shiraz in 70 degree heat.
Nouveau is great because its cheap, and its just meant to be drank and not kept. Just drink it and enjoy it, which is a good philosophy on all alcohol as far as I'm concerned!
Did anybody ever play SimLife? That game rocked. You could just make up any kind of tree you wanted, and then create the icon that it would show on the screen. It was really alot of fun.
They should come out with a 3D sim game like that, where you could create lands, populate them with animals and plants, and then just watch them live.
Lots of sunlight and water. Warm weather helps too. Try and find a greenhouse start of whatever pepper you're after, give it some fertilizer then water it every other day or every day, depending on how hot it is.
I accidentally grew bells last year.
Was doing a mini-compost experiment in an old but very large planter in the backyard. Apparently, being the dunderfuck that I am, a bell pepper core got in the mix.
Bam! Bells all over the place.
I let them grow until they started to get an orange sheen, and good gawd, they were delicious. So this year I have two planters of bells and one of anaheims. My biggest hope is they'll cross-pollinate. If last year is any indication, you don't really have to do a goddamn thing to get good bells in the South. I poured water on them, and that's about it.
We also have grapes, tomatoes, peas and canteloupes growing. My biggest fear is the heat will destroy the peas at some point, so I dunno what to do there. The canteloupes are doing much better now that I found the giant fucking rogue snail who was eating the shoots and pitched his sorry ass over the fence. On top of all that, we have pumpkins and a new raspberry bush that my daughter and I just planted last weekend.
Did I mention my love for this thread? Because it rocks.
There is a chance the bells and anaheims can cross pollinate if you planted them close enough (and if you have bees in the area). Just save some seeds and throw them in a planter next year. But I can't say that I saw any on our plants last year.
Something to throw into your compost mix would be zucchinis. A few good plants can produce alot of zucchini, unlike other plants. I'm looking at you broccoli and caulifower. Caulifower has a rather shitty output, one head to the plant, and then all it takes is the head getting exposed to the sun and then its not worth trying to sell. Broccoli does a little better, but the second and third heads on the plant are way smaller than the first. But yeah, you can't go wrong with zucchini.
Don't grow attached to your peas. They'll probably bloom once or twice, after that just dig them up and replace them with something else, like green beans or peas again. Peas are something we plant in spring then disk under and replant that part of the field with something else by June or July.
And your raspberry bush will probably need to be trimmed. I don't know what variety you have (we grow Meeker and Chilliwack) but even after we cut ours down to 6 ft or so during the spring, they still hit 7-8 ft when we start picking.
On the backe fide of the houses through the whole length of the ftreet, lye large gardens inclofed rounde aboute wyth the backe part of the ftreets...they set great ftore by their gardeins. In them they haue vineyardes, all manner of fruite, herbes, and flowres, fo pleafaunt, fo well furnifhed, and fo fynely kepte, that I neuer fawe thynge more frutefull, nor better trimmed in anye place...
I can listen to her talk for hours and oh god she is so cute when hes curls up on my couch and falls asleep watching a movie I could state at her like that for hours.
I've always been attracted to her but damn this scares even me.
God dammit we are talking about manly things like plants
Not vaguely creepy behavior related to girls.
I distilled alcohol and made shitty minute-made wine for a school project once, it was pretty cool but due to "safety concerns" I had to use a hotplate instead of a flame. That took forever. Goddamn that was boring.
I can listen to her talk for hours and oh god she is so cute when hes curls up on my couch and falls asleep watching a movie I could state at her like that for hours.
I've always been attracted to her but damn this scares even me.
take pictures of her sleeping and then make a creepy shrine to her in your room and show her pictures of yourself prostrating before the shrine
(P.S. I have a ton of extra dried basil. Whats should I do with it?)
Can you turn dried basil into pesto? Or is that just fresh basil only?
t Wrench N Rockets: Asking her out again couldn't hurt.
Okay, maybe it could hurt some, but people change and so do who they want to date.
Just don't get all creepy and fuck it up.
But it also sounds like you're talking about a cat.
Are you talking about a cat?
Just hang all the dried / drying herbs and peppers and stuff in your house, if you have room somewhere. They look cool and they smell good, plus its nice to have home-dried herbs and peppers and stuff for cooking. Yesterday, the recipe I cooked called for 1 dried habanero pepper, but all I could get at the fucking pathmark was a regular jalapeno. Needless to say, it didn't add anything (spice or flavor) to the sauce. It sucks too, because my grandfather always grows tons of hot peppers in the summer, but I never remember to bring any home to dry.
The problem with Kale (or any other soup greens / salad greens) is that you have to have either a ridiculous defense system, or a place where rabbits, groundhogs, and deer can't get to. I can't grow anything like that because of the damn vermins.
Posts
Our backyard was created by a madman. We bought the house off him without knowing a damn thing about what was back there. One really good surprise was the grapevines, which we thought were purely decorative. Turns out they're Red Seedless, and produce like a motherfucker in late May.
I wasn't aware that Pinots liked the cold climes. Although I'm familiar with the wines, what do the grapes taste like?
I plan on growing tomatoes, peppers, a little corn and beans, some squash and probably some carrots and radishes and shit.
I still have to go clean out the flowerbeds this year, they're coming in fast but they're still all choked with leaves and detritus from this past fall.
But fuck yes, gardening is awesome.
weaver, there are a LOT of grapes that grow over here. A friend of mine's mother is starting an organic winery and vineyard upriver from us - some of the best soil in the state is right where the Samish River dumps into the Skagit, near Concrete. Fantastic places to grow grape.
We also planted lettuce, radishes and cucumbers (another huge turnout.)
This weekend I'm going to tear up the back yard (if it stops snowing again) and get things ready to start planting this season.
I got to try Muscat and Syrah grapes once. Both were quite edible, although the Syrah were slighty too tart for my tastes.
I can shove you in the direction of several others that benefit from the same treatment:
- Santedame Chianti, Ruffino Vinyards
Although this one is already probably the best lower-end chianti they produce, if you chill it SLIGHTLY it mellows the nose out like a mofo, resulting in an even better flavor.
- Frog's Leap Zinfandel
If you can stomach this wine at room temperature, you're a stronger man than I. Chill it well and it tastes downright delish. It is, however, a little pricey for such shenanigans.
Ask Darth about my wife's Mead.
I've had mead before, its pretty wierd tasting, but it grows on you. Isn't it made out of honey?
I think it'll be a cool experiment with the grapes, if anybody else wants to grab a vine or two and see what they get I'll let you know how my experience with this shipper goes. They have grafted vines already done, 2 years old (so ready to produce fruit). Grafted vines are good because you don't have to worry about Phylloxera, which has killed many vines in the past.
It's already got the worlds largest Oregeno plant in it.
I was living in Paris in November when the Beaujolais nouveau (no u after the j) came out. To celebrate the arrival of the wine the Parisians dress up as giant grapes and dance around chanting "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!â€
Ils sont fou les Francais! (Those caarrazzyy Frenchies!)
My flowers, not so much.
Real men grow their own damn potatoes and Corn.
And Pumpkins.
Come to think of it my garden was a lot like Oblivion.
This is awesome! I really enjoy those lighter wines now that the weather is warming up. Nobody wants to drink a heavy ass shiraz in 70 degree heat.
Nouveau is great because its cheap, and its just meant to be drank and not kept. Just drink it and enjoy it, which is a good philosophy on all alcohol as far as I'm concerned!
SimFarm.
They should come out with a 3D sim game like that, where you could create lands, populate them with animals and plants, and then just watch them live.
I weep for the future.
There is a chance the bells and anaheims can cross pollinate if you planted them close enough (and if you have bees in the area). Just save some seeds and throw them in a planter next year. But I can't say that I saw any on our plants last year.
Something to throw into your compost mix would be zucchinis. A few good plants can produce alot of zucchini, unlike other plants. I'm looking at you broccoli and caulifower. Caulifower has a rather shitty output, one head to the plant, and then all it takes is the head getting exposed to the sun and then its not worth trying to sell. Broccoli does a little better, but the second and third heads on the plant are way smaller than the first. But yeah, you can't go wrong with zucchini.
Don't grow attached to your peas. They'll probably bloom once or twice, after that just dig them up and replace them with something else, like green beans or peas again. Peas are something we plant in spring then disk under and replant that part of the field with something else by June or July.
And your raspberry bush will probably need to be trimmed. I don't know what variety you have (we grow Meeker and Chilliwack) but even after we cut ours down to 6 ft or so during the spring, they still hit 7-8 ft when we start picking.
Did that get translated from german or something?
I can listen to her talk for hours and oh god she is so cute when hes curls up on my couch and falls asleep watching a movie I could state at her like that for hours.
I've always been attracted to her but damn this scares even me.
Not vaguely creepy behavior related to girls.
I distilled alcohol and made shitty minute-made wine for a school project once, it was pretty cool but due to "safety concerns" I had to use a hotplate instead of a flame. That took forever. Goddamn that was boring.
Now I'm stuck being friends as she's friends with my friends.
I'm graduating in 10 weeks.
I know where I stand.
Ain't no H&A going on in here.
Also, that was a year ago. Things change, my friend.
take pictures of her sleeping and then make a creepy shrine to her in your room and show her pictures of yourself prostrating before the shrine
So ya, all you green-thumbed newbs should grow some spices and herbs.
(P.S. I have a ton of extra dried basil. Whats should I do with it?)
Can you turn dried basil into pesto? Or is that just fresh basil only?
t Wrench N Rockets: Asking her out again couldn't hurt.
Okay, maybe it could hurt some, but people change and so do who they want to date.
Just don't get all creepy and fuck it up.
But it also sounds like you're talking about a cat.
Are you talking about a cat?
Incorporate it into home made Pizza Dough or toss it in with some green beans in a shallow frying pan with a lot of butter.
edit: and on side note, I want to grow some Kale
that stuff is good in some soup.