Garden Planning and Installing a Trellis 

Yes, he so loves it when I hijack him for manual labor! Good to see you, Kari!

Thank you, ArkansasSquaw! I'm adding yellow tomatoes this year specifically because of your beautiful jars last year!

@@growandpreserve yay! Can't wait to see them ❤

You are so right. By August I'll be wondering what on earth I was thinking! It sure is fun now, though!

Jill, I'm so glad to have you here. Tomorrow will be the anniversary of your husband's death. I know that can still be so hard, even after all these years. Wishing you happy memories and much peace tomorrow. I find being in the garden quite therapeutic. I hope you will as well. Thanks so much for being here.

Is your pantry ready, Mary? I am so excited for you to have the wonderful new space.

You’re so sweet! It’s getting there! Some of the appliances arrived last week and lighting has been installed for the most part. They’re expecting to be done early June. I can hardly wait! Hoping to get to preserve my summer harvest in the new house. 🧑‍🌾 🍀 🤞

Thanks, Roberta!

Awesome! You have a fun weekend ahead of you!

Susan, your garden must be really starting to fill in down there on the coast. I'm thinking you may be 4 weeks ahead of me here in Tennessee? I bet it is gorgeous. I would love to see the bamboo trellis. My email is carter@growandpreserve.com , if you get a chance. 17 beds! How wonderful. I would think it's fun to play with the different sizes as well.

Thanks so much!

You are right that squash and cucumbers can cross-pollinate; however, it's only an issue if I'm planning to save seeds as cross pollination only impacts next year's crop. We had lots of issues with seeds during 21-23. I'm guessing you got a batch that hadn't been saved properly. One other thing to note is that it's my understanding that squash will only cross pollinate within their same sub-family. Butternut is in the Moschata group, and spaghetti is in the Pepo group. Both the spaghetti and the butternut versions I'm growing are hybrids, so I'm not planning to save seeds anyway. If I also have zucchini and crookneck flowering at the same time as the spaghetti squash, those can all cross-pollinate. I'm waiting until later in the season to plant my summer squash and zucchini, but unless the world falls apart in the meantime, I probably won't save those seeds either. The cucumbers I'm growing this year are gynoecious. They produce all female flowers, so they can't pollinate anything else. Glad your peppers and tomatoes are in! As of about 2 hours ago, mine are as well. And what is it with men who think they can take over your project and immediately have better ideas?? As I was planting one of the tomato plants today, I came across some very tiny potatoes that were coming from one of last year's missed potatoes. I harvested those and a handful of strawberries to go with dinner tonight. So good! Can't wait for full production. I ended up ordering sweet potato slips because mine just didn't produce enough. Looking forward to getting those in soon. Will you do sweet potatoes at your house too, or is that all with Art or down south? Art is feeling well, I hope?

@@growandpreserve I'll email you later!!! Thanks for the info. Yes our seeds were saved!

Thanks, Dani! Glad it's not just me. Good to see you!

Indeed!

I think I'm with you on tomatoes. I still have some in my freezer waiting to be turned into something, but I have no needs right now. That is such a new thing for me! At least you have a good local source for green beans. Mine too were a bust last year, and I just skipped them altogether. Good to see you, Ohio!

You are so right about the peppers being expensive, Sheila. The peppers we generally have in my Costco are from Canada. Go figure! Wish I could send you some of mine. Good to see you!

Hey, Poodle! This is my first year trying to be good about the sun hat. It keeps flopping in my face, but I'll persevere! I'm in Middle Tennessee.

Thank you!

Erika! So good to see you. I hope that you are well rested and fully detoxed from social media. I hope that your days are starting to cool off now as ours are heating up.

You may be on to something! I will have to hide them from my husband though...he thinks the garden has overrun his backyard. ;-)

@@growandpreserve Its Just Patio Decor Honey, that just happens to be useful too! LOL reminds me of when I was at my aunts and reached into a cupboard to get something and pulled out a Joann's bag of Fabric, She made shushing Motions and I put it back in the cupboard. when her Hubby left the room she says, "He says I have to use the fabric I have before I buy anymore, he doesn't know about that stash!" A woman after my own heart, I quilt. I dont think you can have too much fabric or too many books, and never enough garden either ! Priorities! I'm building a new Chicken Run this weekend.

@@bhavens9149 Fantastic stories!

Hey, Chevy! As far as I know, the vast majority of poblano seeds are the heirloom variety, simply called poblano. My guess is that's what you'll get as a plant start, but if you have a choice, I would pick a hybrid for this one. I meant to buy hybrid poblano seeds from Johnny's this year in the hopes for a more productive and sturdier plant, but all I had was the heirloom version. They are my smallest, least sturdy starts. I love stuffing poblanos. Hoping we both get plenty!

Thanks ! I'm goin today to look for a couple plants. I've never grown them before. ❤

Right?! That's what I keep telling him. I have tons of grow bags from my patio garden in Atlanta. David's not a fan, but maybe if I put hot peppers in them, he'll let them slide! You are so right, I definitely overdid it. It'll be a busy harvest and preserving season. Always good to see you, Donna!

We did try one right away, but the rest we waited. They were all delish!

I do! I'll tell David you said so!

I'm so glad you went with beef and chicken first. Siphoning happens. It sounds like yours was minor. No worries for safety and longevity if all is sealed. The only time I would be concerned for longevity is if, say a jar of soup or sauce, siphoned half it's liquid. If that's ever the case, I would use that jar in the near term. Did you enjoy the whole experience?

I did once I got started. I did have some trouble and don’t know why. I followed all instructions and canning recipe as instructed but on the third time using my Presto electric pressure canner when it had vented and instructed me to place the weight on, I did but the valve was up but never stopped venting and the timer never started. I was watching some of your videos when I thought wow that has been venting for over 30 minutes and it never closed. I had to cancel it and start over. The value closed the second attempt but the food looks like it is just mush. Like I said. It was my third run in a row. I didn’t take everything apart and clean it between runs because everything had clean water and it was the same product??? I haven’t used the canner after that. Have you had any issues? I didn’t do anything different from one time to the next. I haven’t reached out to Presto because it didn’t happen the last time I went through the cycle. I don’t know what I should do and if I need to do anything. Being a newbie is frustrating until you learn for sure. I hate bothering you and leaving you this long post. But when you don’t know you don’t know. I am thankful for Carter and your kindness

@@littlemscrafty I did have a similar experience once in that it vented for an extended period. It gave me an error message indicating that I didn't have the regulator squarely in the closed position. That did seem to be the case. I restarted the processing and haven't had an issues since, but I do double check the regulator every time now.

I never got an error code? I read and reread the manual too. I am not going to worry about unless it happens again then hopefully I can reach out toPresto for help

@@littlemscrafty Good plan. Let's hope it was an anomaly.

Carter. I can't help myself. Best laugh all day. 😂😂😂😂😂

@@buckleymanor4658 That's why I put it out there!

I like the way you think!