Yesterday was all about the dill. OK maybe not ALL about the dill. I had three dill plants in the rock wall garden. Though I didn't mind having them this year. I don't want to have the dill come up there in future years. I want it in the main garden. If you let dill go to seed it is the biggest weed. For years it has been the biggest weed in my garden. I encourage it so it is only my own fault.
Since I didn't want it there and it was flowering, I figured I'd better pull it up now. These plants were huge. They had no competition at all early on. Now I have strawberries and my baby fig trees there, but early in the spring they grew all alone. So they grew better than usual. Usually my dill has 1/4" stems maybe as large as 1/2" if they are given a good spot. But these were almost 1" wide. The biggest plant had over 30 flower heads on it.
I trimmed off all the stems and just left the ferny leaves. I got 10.7 oz. The flower heads weighed in at over half a pound. I froze all the flower heads for pickles. I may not have any dill in bloom when I want to make them, so freezing them works fine. And I dehydrated half the dill leaves. That was enough to fill up a spice jar totally packed. Now I have way too much dill in my fridge. Anyone need any dill? I'm going to have even more when I dig up my garlic. I'd let them go to seed there, but I doubt I can dig up the garlic and not destroy the dill in the process. I think I have about 20 dill plants that came up in there and were never weeded out. I'm drowning in dill.
And I haven't even talked about the dill I planted on purpose because I thought I would need it. You would think the self sown dill wouldn't come up in a garden with new soil, but you would be wrong. Where the garlic and the circular herb garden is, I used my old compost from the last house that was in buckets for a whole year. Dill seed can last through anything.
Melons climbing the trellis
In other news, our heat has broken
Wow! That is a lot of dill. I'll be harvesting and dehydrating some this weekend too. My plants are getting floppy. I never knew the stems could grow that thick.
ReplyDeleteMy dill has not preformed nearly as well as yours. That's a lot of dill. I never thought to dehydrate it though. Need to put that on my list of things to do.
ReplyDeleteMy melons are a little set back this year. Between the groundhog, blight and cucumber betters, the melons are slow to form. I grow them on the ground because it's said that you get better yields that way but this is my second year growing them this way and so far, I am not impressed. I will most likely trellis them next year to make my life easier. Oh, are you growing a french melon type?
Cool! All of your melons are together in one spot, and I wish mine would do like that. Also, they appear to be growing the same - which will give you a huge bounty later. Thanks for showing them!
ReplyDeleteDill is probably my least favourite herb, because I associate it with fish and seafood, which I do not eat at all. Still if you like Dill, you have certainly got a nice harvest. I hope the cucumber harvest is in proportion!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Daphne. I'm going to need you to send some of that dill my way. It needs to meet my pickles and peppers. The three would be fantastic friends :)
ReplyDeleteI don't see you tying up your melons! How're they holding up against the vertical fence? Melons looks really good. Mine are yet to form(:
ReplyDeleteGrafixMuse, I didn't know they could get that thick either. They were just amazing plants. I don't expect to see them like that ever again. Usually they are crowded in the garden, not given yards of space per plant in the best of my soil.
ReplyDeleteThomas, I'm growing your typical cantaloupe. It is Halona. I hope it does well. I haven't tried cantaloupe in a long time.
EG, lol well a lot of them are. And they are all very close to the same size. They all set at about the same time. It would have been nicer for them to set (and mature) over a few weeks. Maybe I'll get more later, but they don't seem to want to set any more right now.
Mark, I love dill pickles so dill is essential. I use it for cucumber salads too. Interestingly enough I rarely use it on fish.
Ben, too bad you don't live close. I really do have too much.
RandomGardener, They are tied up. I made netting slings for them. It is just very hard to see unless you are closer.
I had a heck of a time getting dill to germinate in the house. I needn't have bothered, as the garden has many volunteers, twice as big as the coddled seedlings.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness lady, that's a lot of dill! I froze mine too for making pickles later in the season. They never seem to be in sinc with my cucumbers.
ReplyDeleteThose melons are looking good!
Wow, that is a lot of dill! What else can you use it for besides pickles? I've used it on fish before, but that's a lot of fish to eat.
ReplyDeleteSue, it is always easier to get dill started if you just let it self seed. It is such a weed.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I'm just starting to get cucumbers right now. And the dill is blooming. So for a few weeks at least they will coincide, but then the dill will all be gone. Luckily the seeds can season the pickles too.
Ribbit, I only use it for pickles and cucumber salads. I rarely ever use dill for anything else.