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Jul 15, 2014 12:22 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Tom
Southern Wisconsin (Zone 5b)
Butterflies Vegetable Grower Keeper of Poultry Irises Keeps Horses Dog Lover
Daylilies Cat Lover Region: Wisconsin Celebrating Gardening: 2015
I like to try new things once in a while, and this year Collard Greens are new to me. I'm not sure when I can start eating them. Do I have to wait until frost, somewhere I read that they are better after a frost. Or can I start enjoying them now. The plants as you can see are getting quite big.
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Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.
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Jul 15, 2014 3:10 PM CST
Name: Horseshoe Griffin
Efland, NC (Zone 7a)
And in the end...a happy beginning!
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I prefer them after a good frost or two on them as they'll sweeten up a bit but have friends who eat them year round. I think you should go ahead and pick some of the lower leaves on some of the plants and give 'em a try now. You can still have plenty left in the garden to try when cooler weather sets in.

VERY nice looking garden, by the way. You've been busy! Congrats!

Shoe (collard green lover, with smoked ham or ham hock or salted fat back or my favorite, smoked turkey leg in the pot~!!) Sticking tongue out
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Jul 15, 2014 3:18 PM CST
Name: Dillard Haley
Augusta Georgia (Zone 8a)
Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level
In your climate they are probably ok now. I don't eat collards until winter. Too many veggies available in summer that I like better. Collards are sweeter in cold weather, The sugars acts as an antifreeze. They are really good from New Year on as most everything except kale has retired for the winter. Collards to me are better tasting than kale.
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Jul 15, 2014 6:12 PM CST
Name: cheshirekat
New Mexico, USA Zone 8 (Zone 8a)
Bee Lover Dog Lover Herbs Garden Procrastinator Vegetable Grower
I love collards but haven't grown them in years.
"A garden is a friend you can visit any time." - Anonymous
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Jul 15, 2014 6:34 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Tom
Southern Wisconsin (Zone 5b)
Butterflies Vegetable Grower Keeper of Poultry Irises Keeps Horses Dog Lover
Daylilies Cat Lover Region: Wisconsin Celebrating Gardening: 2015
I had a friend give me a whole flat of them, so I cut some off the little plants and cooked them and tried them. They were very good then. So I planted 10 of them. I'll have to give them a try soon then and see what they are like now. My garden was late this year. I didn't get most of it in until after the first week in June. My tomatoes are doing pretty well, still just green ones though, but growing well.
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Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.
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Jul 16, 2014 5:26 PM CST
Name: Arlene
Grantville, GA (Zone 8a)
Greenhouse Region: Georgia Garden Sages Organic Gardener Beekeeper Vegetable Grower
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Your garden looks wonderful! How'd you keep it so weed free?
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Jul 16, 2014 5:30 PM CST
Garden.org Admin
Name: Dave Whitinger
Southlake, Texas (Zone 8a)
Region: Texas Seed Starter Vegetable Grower Tomato Heads Vermiculture Garden Research Contributor
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Master Level Region: Ukraine Garden Sages
I also wonder how you keep it weed free! That soil looks exactly like the soil on my grandparents farm in Elroy, WI.
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Jul 16, 2014 6:17 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Tom
Southern Wisconsin (Zone 5b)
Butterflies Vegetable Grower Keeper of Poultry Irises Keeps Horses Dog Lover
Daylilies Cat Lover Region: Wisconsin Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Haven't you heard about my famous weeding chickens??? Rolling on the floor laughing If you follow any of the threads in the Iris forum, you would have heard all the jokes about my chickens. Anyway, It's not always weed free, but I try hard. I set the rows so I can run the tiller through to keep the major areas weed free. Then I have an Action hoe that I use between the bigger plants and of course it's on my hands and knees to do the detailing. I use the plastic mulch where I can, and I re-purpose tarps that I use to cover hay for mulching larger areas. You can see that in the tomato patch. I'll post a picture of the peppers so you can get a better view of the tarp. I just cut an X in the tarp and plant. I'll also show you my plastic mulch. My neighbor does truck farming on a large scale, and he has a machine that lays this platic mulch. When the roll gets toward the end, he changes it and gives me the remaining plastic. I put it down by hand. I have amazing soil here, very sandy loam base with about 24 inches of very dark top soil. Of course I have lots of horse compost to add to it as well. Dave, your Grand parents live in Elroy? You will have to stop in if you ever come to visit them.

Now about the chickens. In one of the Iris threads a while back I stated that I prenatally train chickens to do weeding. I explained that I made an audio tape that kept repeating the training to the eggs as they were incubated. Of course it was meant to be a joke, but some guy took it seriously. Thought I'd die laughing. Now I keep getting ribbed about my weeding chickens.

Peppers and Egg Plants
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Sweet potatoes.
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Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.
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Jul 16, 2014 7:44 PM CST
Garden.org Admin
Name: Dave Whitinger
Southlake, Texas (Zone 8a)
Region: Texas Seed Starter Vegetable Grower Tomato Heads Vermiculture Garden Research Contributor
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Master Level Region: Ukraine Garden Sages
tveguy3 said:I have amazing soil here, very sandy loam base with about 24 inches of very dark top soil. Of course I have lots of horse compost to add to it as well. Dave, your Grand parents live in Elroy? You will have to stop in if you ever come to visit them.


I am deeply envious of the soil you have. I remember very well the beautiful rich soil up there, deposited I guess during the ice age.

(And at the risk of going off topic: the grandparents are all passed away and I don't know what became of their beautiful farm.)
Last edited by dave Jul 16, 2014 7:44 PM Icon for preview
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Jul 17, 2014 3:50 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Tom
Southern Wisconsin (Zone 5b)
Butterflies Vegetable Grower Keeper of Poultry Irises Keeps Horses Dog Lover
Daylilies Cat Lover Region: Wisconsin Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Yes, I think my land was once a lake bed. It's very flat here, and there are lots of fossels of shell fish here. It's sad to see land being removed from the agricultural base. Just down the road there's a 50 acre field being prepared for industrial use. I don't understand why they have to take prime farm land for this. There are other places where the land is not as good that could be used for that. We just keep loosing property to cement and blacktop.

It's hard to loose the old farms. My parents farm is way up North, and not in the family any more. Hopefully your Grand parents farm is still being farmed. Farming has become big business now, most of them are big corporation farms. Very few of them are family farms any more. The few that remain are usually the Organic farms. They can still make a living.
Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.
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Aug 1, 2014 5:39 AM CST
Name: Glen Ingram
Macleay Is, Qld, Australia (Zone 12a)
(Lee Reinke X Rose F Kennedy) X Unk
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Yes, the salad bowls go under suburbia and industralia here too. The large cities were often founded because of the fertility of the land nearby. The State's laws now protect rural land from development. But it has not been too popular with farmers. They cannot compete with imports. As well, if they cannot sell their land for anything accept farming, they have no money for old age.
The problem is that when you are young your life it is ruined by your parents. When you are older it is ruined by your children.
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Aug 2, 2014 8:55 PM CST
Name: Gerry Donahue
Pleasant Lake, IN (Zone 5b)
Hostas Garden Ideas: Master Level
Tom, I do not wait at all. I have been eating collards since early July. I also blanch a lot and freeze for later use.

I have some tasty beef back ribs cooked with garlic, onions, and cilantro, that tomorrow I will add garden-fresh red potatoes, and a lot of collards.

When the leaves become too thick for my taste, I serve them to the turkeys and chickens.
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Aug 3, 2014 3:52 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Tom
Southern Wisconsin (Zone 5b)
Butterflies Vegetable Grower Keeper of Poultry Irises Keeps Horses Dog Lover
Daylilies Cat Lover Region: Wisconsin Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Mine are getting pretty big, I cooked some the other day, I picked the bottom leaves, and cooked them for a quite a long time, and they were kind of chewy, I think I should propbably pick some of the younger leaves.
Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.
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