We turned our excess zucchini into pineapples. And damn if they are not convincing! Very happy with this experiment.
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You should share the recipe!
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46 oz pineapple juice
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
Zucchini (we used 3 pretty large ones)
Shred, slice or chunk zucchini, depending on what you prefer. Add to syrup and simmer 20 minutes, then can or refrigerate.
Even fresh out of the simmer they taste like pineapple. Should get better with a lityle age.
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Thanks! That sounds delicious
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I was surprised how easy it was. Zukes i can grow, pineapples not so much.
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Stumbled upon this youtuber, who has a farm here in GA (she doesn’t say what part of the state in this video)…
She starts out talking about tresspassers, but she also gets into an irrigation system she and her dad set up… Also, baby deer!
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This is my first attempt at topping and low stress training of one of my auto flower plants. The goal is to force the plant into having several flowering stalks instead of just a single main stalk. It’s supposed to increase the yield.
I’m using 9-gauge coated aluminum wire to hold down the branches, bonsai style. It’s easy to cut with ordinary scissors yet is strong enough to hold the plant in position.
So far so good. 
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Came back from my two-week trip. I left no instructions whatsoever with my daughter. Frankly I wasnt in the mood to deal with my garden before I left. Oh well.
Spuds. Pulled about 30 lbs from 15 grow bags, so not a great return. Still 6x what I put into the ground in the first place.
Some of my acorn squash ended up being white pumpkins. Odd.
Plethora of tomatoes and beans. Some had already rotted on the vine. Still plenty of decent ones.
And either squirrels or raccoons ate ALL my grapes in the back yard!
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While you were gone, we canned about 40 quarts of dill pickle spears. This is a sampling of the 20-ish quarts we did in the 2 weeks before you left:
Dear Dog, do we have a lot of pickles. This pic might explain why, it’s from a month ago:
I don’t think we have enough cans for tomatoes now.
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I’m going to have very few pickles this year. The vines just arent growing at all. I think I have a fertilizer problem.
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Could be? We used very organic fertilizer this year, contains bone meal and blood meal - stinks to high heavan but helps keep critters away in addition to being loved by all the plants.
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Another like is another reminder! The pineapple continues to grow. It won’t fit in the corner any more, so it’s not directly under the lights anymore - but I think it’s getting enough light not to stretch. This is from a few weeks ago
Oh, and a guava update - the most vigorous ones have grown over two feet already this summer
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I love your row-trellises
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Thank you! They’re cedar cut down from 1x4 boards and stapled/nailed together. They last a good 4 seasons in swampy SE Michigan!
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I love that furring-strip look, and they seem much more economical and space saving than individual cages
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We gave up on cages a good 15 years ago, they’re just not tall enough. Our first go at the trellis panels was at that time, we used untreated pine because it was cheap, but they only lasted 2-3 seasons. 
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Our daughter got my wife a special rose bush for Mother’s Day, some guy grows roses and various other flowers in his backyard in Ferndale MI. Also known as Fashionable Ferndale a suburb just outside of Detroit.
The rose is called Queen Of Elegance.
This is the guys front lawn, the lot nextdoor is just as filled with flowers.
This is extreme for the neighborhood but about every 6 or 7 homes you will find gorgeous gardens instead of lawns.
We put it right next to St. Francis.
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Good start, but you’ll also want a Saint Lawrence to go with the barbecue pit.
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I’ve had some success using 3/4" PVC pipe. Its pretty cheap, last forever, and can easily be drilled for fasteners. I spray-painted it green to resemble bamboo stalks.
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Well, when you’ve got a carpenter hanging about, the go-to material is wood.
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