View Full Version : What's Up in Your Garden?
My Sun Gold tomatoes are in full swing right now. I've been eating them for about 2 weeks now. This year I tried to be consistent with pinching back new growth from any "forking" branches and the fruits seems to be larger. They taste amazing.
My red tomatoes for this year "Red Siberian" are just now showing a hint of color change. I found a few tomato horn worms on them a few days ago and so hunt them each night (but so far haven't found any more).
My eggplants are beginning to bloom. This is my first year trying them and it will be interesting to see how well they do.
Last year I had a volunteer muskmelon which grew so well but wasn't at all tasty. This year I deliberately planted a few and they are starting to flower, with a few fruits already on their way. I hope these will have a better taste.
So what's going on with your garden today?
(I'm in a desert climate)
We're eatting peas, radish, and lots of lettuce. Everything else seems to be coming along nicely. The tomatoes seem really slow, maybe because we had too much rain?
Spinach, mesclun greens mix, icicle radishes, and more greens! We just planted the tomatoes - trench planted them - and they are under a cloche. Peas just starting to bloom. I seeded carrots, beets & planted potatoes over the weekend. I think we'll have tomatoes in September as usual! The Great Northwet... it's still below 50 at night here.
I'm in the South, but we've had a rather cool and very wet spring. Otherwise I think things would be a bit further along than they are. I picked my first batch of green beans over the weekend and probably need to pick more tonight. I have a few green tomatoes, but the plants themselves aren't very tall yet. One teensy baby zuchinni is trying to grow - again, the plant isn't very large yet. Other than that, stuff is just finally starting to grow now that the sun has actually decided to come out. I wonder if I should pick those green tomatoes so that the plant puts more effort into growing taller? It's a thought.
Sounds like all sorts of good things are coming up in the garden depending on where you live. By late July I'll be out of tomatoes and envious of everyone else that is just starting to harvest and eat.
Redfox, I remember tomatoes in the PNWet (more in the Portland area) last year had the hardest time. Folks were still just seeing green tomatoes into September. I hope you have better luck this season.
Nothing to harvest yet, here in zone 5. I just got my tomatoes planted and the cages put around them. My pole beans are growing, but slowly. Just planted the zuchinni. The peppers are still hardening off. Cucs are planted, but aren't sprouting so well. May have to replant. The snow peas are just now making blossoms.
My tomatoes are sharing their space with a bunch of milkweed. I wanted to leave the milkweed for the monarchs.
Simpler at Fifty
6-3-11, 12:57pm
Zone 5 here too. The radishes, lettuce and beets are just peaking through. The tomatoes have flowers so that is a good sign they are rooting in. The peppers are looking good too. I will plant bush bean seeds. I bought bush bean plants but I think they are a climber instead. The onions are laying down yet and will perk up soon. Our garlic will be ready in 6-8 weeks. We are hoping for large bulbs again this year. Last year they were bigger than golf balls.
Haven't even put in my tomatoes yet---there's been no point--too cool. They would just sit there. I've always had better luck waiting for warmer weather than my friends who try to plant early. My tomatoes seem to just yield so much more. I really don't mind if I harvest tomatoes in September. If that's when they ripen, so be it. Still better than store-bought.
Right now all I have coming on is spinach, bunching onions, herbs and buttercrunch lettuce. As our weather is supposed to be great this weekend and stay warmer from now on (it's been SO cold) I'm going to put in my bush beans, corn, tomatoes and another succession of the aforementioned greens and onions.
Zone 6b, here. I've had leaf lettuce for over a month now, but not much else except spearmint and my faithful, inedible Clematis. Had my yard guy weed and mulch in late spring, and he used some amazing organic stuff with manure in it so I've already got a few tiny, green berries on blueberry bushes that were planted about two months ago, and seeds I planted last weekend were already coming up well when I checked last night. :D
5b, second cutting of lettuce. just now cutting spinach that we let go too long. green guys on the sauce tomatoes and the peas and early potatoes are both putting out flowers. picking radishes every day. Had to pinch all the buds off of the blueberry plants last month, which was sad.. but can't wait for next year!
Just flowers this year. I was sick much of the spring and here on the Texas Gulf Coast we are in the middle of a terrible drought. So we are looking at a fall/winter garden. I'll just enjoy hearing about all your luscious fruits and veggies.
Here in zone 4a we're just getting started. We've had an extremely cold and stormy spring, and are just now seeing our first days above 80 F. The cold-hardy tomatoes have been transplanted and are faring well, but no other warm weather crops are seeded or transplanted so far. We're harvesting lettuce, radishes, collards, kale, mini bok choy, sorrel, chives, and some of the medicinals. Doing well are the usual suspects: bunching onions, cipollini onions, strawberries, rhubarb, hardneck garlic, red potatoes, dill. Still waiting on the peas which I put in too late :( I'm commandeering another big chunk of the backyard to grow Katanya watermelons this year, hoping to get those seeded and under hoops this weekend.
zone 10, coastal SoCal. Been enjoying the first tomatoes of the season, but alas the critters have found them too. But there are many that are setting so there should be enough for everyone. I also planted some San Marzanos for the first time. They should do well here, but you never know. Some are already setting.
I had some extra tomato seedligns so I put them out into 15 gallon black plastic pots on the front drive. The mix was mostly decomposed city mulch with no amendments and not even sifting out the big chunks. The plants are doing wonderfully! LOL.
Zucchini is a bit behind this year - my fault, I didn't get them out soon enough. I lost the cukes from an earlier cold, very wet spell, but never got more planted. Oh well. Lettuce is doing great - just got another batch planted out before last night's rains. (Rain in June here is very unusual.) Peppers doing well too, as are the beets. I'm having bad luck with green beans. They germinate, but something is eating all the leaves. I put a short fence around them, but it's still happening so it must be ground squirrels. Time to get the traps out...
The blueberries are still being harvested, but nearing the end. Many are eaten fresh of course, and the rest are being dried whole, or made into fruit leather for use later in the year. My favorite recipe/ratio is simply about 2 pounds of bbs plus one banana, plus a bit of something sweet, ...blend, pour, and dehydrate. That amount will cover 2 trays, so a full dehydrator takes about 8-10 pounts bbs plus 4 bananas. Tastes just like boysenberry pie filling. Big yum!
So much exploded into bloom over the weekend! Strawberries are showing, very small & green, as are raspberries & apples. Tons of cutting greens being eaten daily, and the tomatoes finally went into the ground - yay! Under a cloche unless it's over 70 during the day. Peas are in bloom, and the cauli & broccoli are HUGE! I think I planted them too close together too... potatoes went in last weekend, and they have top growth. Waiting for carrots, beets, & breadseed poppy to sprout. I love spring.
We had an unusually cold, damp spring. I'm not sure that my asparagus is going to do anything this year. We have a ton of rhubarb, though, and the cherry tree, strawberry plants, and currant plants are loaded with green fruit. Salad greens are small despite having seeded them the first weekend of April - nothing germinated until early May due to the return of cold weather. Radishes and peas are growing well.
DH is bringing in onions now. The spinach is bolting, so I cut off tops and blanched and froze them. Our cherries are almost full out but the cherry crop is very sparse this year, hardly any. That's unusual because our cherry trees are good producers.
shurflo (http://www.spraysmarter.com/public/buy/category/default.aspx?ID=196)
My Sun Gold tomatoes are in full swing right now. I've been eating them for about 2 weeks now. This year I tried to be consistent with pinching back new growth from any "forking" branches and the fruits seems to be larger. They taste amazing.
My red tomatoes for this year "Red Siberian" are just now showing a hint of color change. I found a few tomato horn worms on them a few days ago and so hunt them each night (but so far haven't found any more).
My eggplants are beginning to bloom. This is my first year trying them and it will be interesting to see how well they do.
Last year I had a volunteer muskmelon which grew so well but wasn't at all tasty. This year I deliberately planted a few and they are starting to flower, with a few fruits already on their way. I hope these will have a better taste.
So what's going on with your garden today?
(I'm in a desert climate)
I love watching fruits and vegetables bloom. It also makes them taste so much better when you see all of nature's process. I have never done eggplant before. Let me know how that goes since I do eat them a decent amount. :)
Nimble, my eggplants have been blooming and as of yesterday tiny little eggplants are showing where the blooms were (I am so use to squash, you know the male and female flower with the tiny fruit at the back end of the female). I planted a variety called Black Beauty and so they look like tiny dark purple eggplants....very exciting for me!
zone 6 and 7 here. Lots of lettuce. It's been unusually cold and wet, but finally the peas are blossoming! The peppers/tomatoes are a bit traumatized and the beans miserable, I will probably have to replant. The cucumbers died off completely.
I got a lot of great advice here about a square foot garden and have assembled mine and it's going well. I think I'm zone 4 (Denver), and got a little late start, but have spinach and bib lettuce to harvest a couple of times a week for about the last two weeks. Chard, beets, and tomatos are coming along but still small. I just set out basil and peppers from indoor starts and cucumbers just sprouted. It's been a cool spring and and hoping the hail stays clear during our storms.
After a slow start, the first zucchini is ready to pick. Should have picked it today... And in the morning I'm going to harvest the first chilis. They set fruits too young and I want the plants to resume growing vigorously for a larger harvest later this summer.
Lettuce is going gang-busters. We are having cool, foggy weather and they are loving it. I also harvested the first beets last week. Green beans were being eaten as seedlings, so the latest now have complete fencing, including over the top, and they look happy.
I also planted more tomato seeds (early girls) so I can plant more in extra 15 gallon pots. The San Marzanos are growing well, but not setting very many fruits. Unless the fruits are extra special, I'm not sure they are worth growing. It could just be early in the season however.
The blueberries are still producing. I'm almost at 200 pounds picked. Most have been preserved. I'm guessing another 2 weeks of harvest, but it's really slowed down. Harvest will have lasted 3 months. When that is done, I'll have to prune them - most for the first time. It's been a very good year for blueberries here. :)
Broccoli is coming along:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pM3F4maqAdU/TgFYvHDjWJI/AAAAAAAABCE/iOkVbTK5abo/s1600/060.JPG
so is the cabbage:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B77beD5nmK0/TgFYwJzpDWI/AAAAAAAABCI/ZkFkXJC9eAE/s1600/061.JPG
Been harvesting lettuce for quite a while and just started harvesting peas:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7W9NsshWXhc/TgFYkAS_2_I/AAAAAAAABCA/t00-acaSweA/s1600/052.JPG
Been harvesting spinach for quite a while as well and just started using some of the cilantro:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O8namkS1w38/TgFYg4FvF0I/AAAAAAAABB8/QJychJu42vA/s1600/050.JPG
finally been consistently hot enough here that the lettuce and spinach are going to bolt soon. The spinach is a hybrid but I might try and save some seeds from it anyway and see if I can't nurse it back to an open pollinator (for fun)
Two beds of potatoes look great:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AGvzA-1vnlw/TgFYRV0ATWI/AAAAAAAABBw/aQ0Lhmv_0OI/s1600/043.JPG
Third bed looks really bad but I'm not sure what to do:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--ehBWRiqZP0/TgFYdFKV6II/AAAAAAAABB4/n9qHGYckAt8/s1600/049.JPG
These ones weren't certified disease-free so I'm not sure if there was a fungus on the spuds or if they caught something. We've had a problem with flea beetles and maybe this strain is just more susceptible? The little marks are just small black dots, not a bullseye like I've seen in photos of blight. Maybe just flea beetle chew marks. We're on the fence on if we dig the bed up now and plant something different (maybe beans or wait a bit and plant spinach for a fall crop) or if we let it go longer and see if they limp along well enough to give us some tubers. They are flowering so I guess not all hope is lost?
Beautiful garden, Benhyr! We've been struggling to just have a garden this year with all of the drought - so far we had a good potato crop, arugala, 10-15 onions and then it turned 100+ in early may - we've been keeping it alive trying to salvage something (beans, tomatoes)but it is pretty much over for us in Central Texas. With 100+ degrees things have a hard time "setting".
Peace
Nice pictures, thanks for sharing - your plants look so lush and healthy. You must live where there is rain or higher humidity.
Good luck with the potatoes. Do you save tubers for growing your next crop?
Thanks Zigzag and Gina!
Mid-michigan here. It's been a cold and wet spring. The raised beds have been proving their worth in keeping things from getting too soggy. And, when it's not cold and wet, its hot, humid and miserable ;)
Gina, I think I'll save tubers... from the healthiest-looking plants. We've never had a garden before (maybe I'll start a thread with a bunch of pictures once I have this one cleaned up) so it's been a mass of learning. I'm letting some things bolt (like a couple radishes that I want to save seeds from) and I'm going to try and save seeds from various plants (like maybe a tomato or two if I'm reasonably sure it's not cross-pollinated... we have some San Marzano's that set fruit well before our other plants had even blossomed). There's been a few flame-outs here and there, but overall it's been pretty successful for a first-timer's attempt ;)
Great looking garden benhyr!
What's up in my garden? ..........weeds, weeds, and more weeds! That's my biggest crop!
Wow Benhyr - great photos of your garden - garden envy. We have one raised bed - a wood shipping box a engine came in at work. Last season we planted tomatoes & peppers in it. So far this year we have some "edible pea pods" growing - the seed packet said they were very prolific and that they are. So good to munch right out of the garden.
Benhyr, what did you use to bend the conduit you used for your raised beds, and how did you do it? I really want something more sturdy than regular black PVC next year, and I think conduit would be great.......but how did you get it shaped properly?
The best thing I'm harvesting right now is broccoli raab -- wow I love that stuff.
These ones weren't certified disease-free so I'm not sure if there was a fungus on the spuds or if they caught something. We've had a problem with flea beetles and maybe this strain is just more susceptible? The little marks are just small black dots, not a bullseye like I've seen in photos of blight. Maybe just flea beetle chew marks. We're on the fence on if we dig the bed up now and plant something different (maybe beans or wait a bit and plant spinach for a fall crop) or if we let it go longer and see if they limp along well enough to give us some tubers. They are flowering so I guess not all hope is lost?
Keep an eye on these to see if it's potato leaf curl - and either way, I'd consider burning the foliage or trashing it rather than letting it anywhere near your compost pile.
Tussiemussies
6-22-11, 5:49pm
Didn't get to plant veggies this year as we are renting and there isn't a spot for that, or a spot that the landlady may let me do it on. BUT did get in a nice long stretch of large headed zinnias, a stretch about 10-12 feet long so they really should be nice. I tried sunflowers but the bugs ate the leaves, and also tried 'Bells of Ireland' but I've gotten seedlings but no second leaves so far and it has been awhile. Maybe the conditions are quite right for them, but I read they are part sun/part shade so I thought they would be okay. Any advice? Thanks!
Tussiemussies
6-22-11, 5:51pm
Great looking garden Benhyr, nice and neat, everything looks yummy except for your one sick item....: )
Corn, peas, beans, potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, mustard, garlic, peaches coming in on the tree too... oh, and raspberries.
nothing. it's winter. we need to do a clean up (our landlady is storing some random stuff out there), and then we'll start with the hardscaping (gravel, sandbox, pots, painting), and then we'll work on planting.
i'm watching the sun, and this side of the house is just about south west facing (more west than south -- so there is some warmth in the main corner with the green house area), so most of it will be shade garden (along the hillside), and the area around the hillside as well, and then the greenhouse will be a little play area and herb garden for the kid.
Wow, thanks for sharing those beautiful pictures Benhyr. Everything looks so lush.
I've been starting to harvest my eggplants, using some on pizza, yum! Tomatoes are doing really well, it's that time of year for me that I'm starting to get overwhelmed with them. The melons are looking good. My meyer lemon tree decided to go into bloom last week, which is crazy. Because of an unusual freeze this past winter it did not bloom at the usual time. I'll be interested to see what, if anything, will be produced.
fidgiegirl
6-23-11, 2:21pm
I just got done planting the irises my sister gave me about six weeks ago! Eek! I also weeded part of a garden border that needed the stonecrop extended into it. I just dug the stonecrop from a different part of the garden. It's been PERFECT for what we needed. A coworker had it at her house. I was consulting everyone under the sun for ideas on what to do with this weird slope and she offered it up. She gave us two strawberry boxes full and it's turned into this edge in just the second year. Wow! And it IS just what we needed. It's really stabilized the slope.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/5863628975_2e646a2aa1_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7733846@N05/5863628975/)
Alley garden June 2011 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7733846@N05/5863628975/) by fidgiegirl (http://www.flickr.com/people/7733846@N05/), on Flickr
This garden has been a lot of work but has been relatively inexpensive. We paid for the materials for the trellises as well as the rain barrel. We probably paid for about half the plants, and have obtained the other half from other people or from somewhere else in our gardens. I alley picked the whiskey barrels and that spiral-y trellis. It's been rewarding to see the difference from when it started:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5103/5864198052_56d2fb883a_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7733846@N05/5864198052/)
IMG_3252 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7733846@N05/5864198052/) by fidgiegirl (http://www.flickr.com/people/7733846@N05/), on Flickr
Hi everyone
I have only just joined the forum, but I've been growing vegetables for 7 or 8 years. Only really starting to get serious this year (by which I mean I'm planning to fill the "hungry gap" in late winter to early spring next year, when normally I don't have much of anything in the ground). Right now things are looking pretty good though, as you would expect for mid-summer. By the way, I'm at latitude 50 degrees north, which is about the same as Winnipeg but with mild winters and often cool summers thanks to being on this side of the Atlantic and benefiting from the gulf stream. This spring was hot and dry though.
I have 3 raised beds, two are about 15 feet by 6 feet, and one is about 6 feet by 5 feet. In this photo, taken yesterday, you can see some red onions nearest the camera, then in the middle bed there is some overgrown lettuce, beetroot, parsley, some very healthy looking celery, with over-wintered garlic behind that, then a few rows of dwarf French beans (round podded green beans) and some radish:
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevindanks/5891727338/%22%20title=%22Veg%20garden,%201%20July%202011%20b y%20Kevin%20Danks,%20on%20Flickr%22%3E%3Cimg%20src =%22http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5232/5891727338_8594e92c55.jpg%22%20width=%22500%22%20h eight=%22375%22%20alt=%22Veg%20garden,%201%20July% 202011%22%3E%3C/a%3Ehttp://farm6.static.flickr.com/5232/5891727338_8594e92c55.jpg
Then from over by the greenhouse you can see the small bed, which just has a few 2nd early potatoes, Piccolo Star, the central large bed from the other side, and the second big bed, which has red onions at the right hand end and some broad beans (Fava beans) with Borage planted each side to discourage blackfly (it works, but I didn't expect the Borage to grow to twice the height of the beans, or I wouldn't have sown the seed so close!
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5320/5891168583_a8fdff1d83.jpg
What is anyone planning for late summer sowing, to over-winter?
Best wishes
Kevin
Our strawberries are done; we got about 15 pounds this year. Fresh, organic strawberries - yum!
I picked the last of our lettuce and kale this week as well.
Yesterday I picked the tart cherries - there weren't many left because the birds cleaned off the top of the tree; it's too tall to easily net now, and this year the cherries ripened in about 3 days from green, so I had little warning.
The black raspberries and currants will be next, probably in about 2 weeks.
We're beginning to harvest sugar snap peas.
Kevin - great pictures of your garden - thank you!
Thanks for the comments benhyr and Greg44. Last night we had homegrown salad to go with some sausages that I bbq'd and I also did some garlic bread (well, garlic toast really) on the grill, with garlic butter made with homegrown parsley and Sicilian Red garlic, which I sowed last November. I highly recommend it - very small cloves with a dark red skin, and a lovely spicy garlic flavour.
DH is now bringing in zuchiini, cukes, and beets. He has harvested a massive number of onions. We've got chard and cabbage.
Fidgie, your little alley garden is so bright and cheerful, so different from it's earlier incarnation. Really nice!
When checking on the garden Sunday morning I was able to harvest my first cantaloupe.....it was delicious!
Broccoli is starting to mature:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qpRYqitsT2M/ThNSS6ypJ2I/AAAAAAAABDc/LYaBdgRF2pE/s1600/065.JPG
So is the cabbage:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b-r6-8fBrcI/ThNSaw5t-wI/AAAAAAAABDo/_iMCfVqAmOc/s1600/075.JPG
We're going to try deer netting over the cabbage (broccoli is under floating row cover) to see if that deters moths. If not, then we'll put row cover it as well.
We're probably into the last week or so of our peas. The heat is starting to crank up here, although we'll be down in the 60's at night towards the end of this week
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IWdUSp1T1AM/ThNSgCj1MUI/AAAAAAAABDw/umzpmBxFVFI/s1600/107.JPG
Poppies should be opening their heads this week!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-21_W834FRrk/ThNSmPDTDgI/AAAAAAAABD4/8_7ri7Y7OHg/s1600/148.JPG
And the picnic table will be finished tonight:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TzP1EJDyJPE/ThNS88GTcPI/AAAAAAAABEU/lkac2JFA_fc/s1600/200.JPG
Harvested my first red strawberry today (never made it into the house, of course :) ) and made more salmon with sorrel sauce last night for dinner with the crazy French sorrel. Quite possibly one of the best things I've ever made OR eaten. Lots of green tomatoes and tiny squash already (not bad for 7000 ft.!)
My peas and lettuce are finishing up. I will miss the fresh lettuce when it goes. Does anyone have success growing lettuce in the heat? I have some bells but no jalapenos. The cabbage are good but not heading at all. The tomatoes are lush but not setting fruit. the squash and cucumber are beginning to set. The beans are giving me fits! I cannot get them to germinate and come up. I just set out corn seeds yesterday. It's been years since I've grown corn.
Right now all I'm getting are green peppers, hot peppers, and beets. The lettuce has gone bitter, my beans and squash and tomatos seems very slow this year.
We were gone for a few days and what a difference! My tomatoes grew about 10 inches and will bloom soon. The black raspberries and currants are ripening, and I need to do a lot of weeding. The red raspberries are on their annual march to take over the entire garden.
Picked my first baby zucchini today!!! Added to picked chard and last year's shallots and eggs a friend gave me and made a veggie tart. One of the cukes is coming along...
Cuke are now producing here in Central Mass. Picked and ate our first green beans (masai) delish! Planted more beets and will thin out. Need to transplant basil seedlings. Tried to replant curly variety of Kale with little success. The others got root maggot...that'll hit home the lesson of proper rotation. Replanted lettuce and it's very small.... There is some thought that we are 2 weeks behind garden wise due to some very cold rainy weeks at the beginning of the planting time. Seeds just rotted in the ground. Sniff!!
terrible cuke harvest. I'm usually swimming in those. I need to be more diligent next year. No corn or beans coming up. Still. Even after frequent re sprouting. Only now, getting some small green tomatoes.
iris lily
7-26-11, 11:12am
Big red tomatoes are now coming on strong. Still lots of cabbage, beets, chard. DH is harvesting sweet corn from his little city patch, but he won't share any with me. He says that he is already sharing with squirrels and that's all the sharing he's going to do.
Yesterday DH brought in a 20 lb zucchini that he had missed in 3 days of picking. It is too big now to eat, but the dogs are gnawing on it. It's funny to see the little Frenchie working on a zucchini that is bigger than she is.
I did a sweep of all the basil plants (about 30 plants left) and pinched them back about 14 days ago, and made a batch of pesto. By yesterday, they'd all double-grown out and I pinched them back again for another batch. By next week they'll be like a bunch of little shrubs and I'll be in basil heaven. Gimme that pesto in January!!! :)
I love summer. We are drowning in cukes and zukes. Made pickles, shredded tons of zucchini for the freezer, zuke bread, brownies, cookies, sauteed, stuffed and pancakes. We have our first batch of potatoes, dried oregano thyme, basil in the dehydrator right now. One big batch of green beans canned, garlic dug, pulling out onions every day. Sun gold and grape tomatoes, I am just in garden heaven.
I planted some fresh chard which hopefully we will start eating this weekend.
All our broccoli is done, a bunch in the freezer, I'm going to direct sow some new seeds for fall broccoli this weekend. Ooooo and cabbage is ready, going to eat some this week for dinner, ham and cabbage is my DS favorite. We are eating two and three veggies a meal, cold cukes for snacks and veggie baked goods for treats. Last week I learned how to make mozzarella cheese, this weekend fresh sun gold tomatoes, basil over home made mozarella. I'm like a pig in you know what?
Oooo pigs, I forgot, we dropped our first pig at the processor a couple weeks ago and they called today, it's ready. They processed about 200 pounds of pork, ham, sausage and chops.....headed for freezer camp. So much work but a really exciting year for us. I can't wait to enjoy my very small food bills this winter!
Not much is going on in my garden right now. I've enjoyed a nice harvest of what I was growing and now it is just too hot and I don't like to baby things so yesterday I picked the rest of the tomatoes and pulled up the plants. I now have only a few flowers still in bloom slated for a dyeing project I have in mind. Can't wait until fall planting, but that's another thread.
Almost a total garden fail this year. My goal now is to turn it all over and try for a fall garden.
Almost a total garden fail this year. My goal now is to turn it all over and try for a fall garden.
I'm sorry that is such a shame, it is so disappointing to have things fail after all that hard work. What happened?
Depending on where you are you still could have time to do quite a bit, I recently planted swiss chard which is now popping up, I'll be direct sowing some fall things soon too.
Dwarf French beans, a variety called 'Purple Queen'. As the name suggests, the pods are a dark purple colour, but they go green when you cook them. A week ago I noticed tiny pods the length of my little fingernail as the flowers began to drop off, then today the plants seem to be just loaded down with beans big enough to eat (just as we are about to go away on holiday).
Can't keep up with the cucumbers in the greenhouse. It's an F1 hybrid variety which produces tons of small juicy fruit, 6 to 8 inches long. Very prolific, I think that planting them in a mixture of garden compost and well-rotted donkey manure helps.
Also in the greenhouse, in modules, I've sowed two batches of seeds. Mizuna, Kale and Kailaan (Chinese broccoli) seedlings are looking good, about 3 inches high. Then just coming up from last weekend's sowing I've got spring cabbage, spring onions, more Kale and more Kailaan. All for planting out for autumn and through the winter, some under plastic mini-tunnels for protection, some will cope with the weather on their own.
frugal-one
7-30-11, 4:23pm
Lots of tomatoes... mmmm... cherry and regular. I picked onions. This is the first time I ever have tried to grow them. The tops were peeking (half way) up from the ground. They were very small. Not sure if I will try them again.??? I did get a few SMALL green peppers. The plants are so small it is hard to imagine getting much from them. Another flop. Beginning to wonder if it is worth the effort.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QoPC-FfOADE/TjdS0yWmjII/AAAAAAAABIQ/af2vpIulMAY/s1600/024.JPG
fist-size:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V17kKGtB7YI/TjdTBJJMquI/AAAAAAAABIc/Rw9mScWfZTc/s1600/012.JPG
same:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TkOZGF-3Cto/TjdTDC4wmHI/AAAAAAAABIk/6CiLjNPNRKs/s1600/015.JPG
you know it... ;)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t7mMxdJSt7w/Tir7ZhqasLI/AAAAAAAABH0/FvzNcZxoaSA/s1600/037.JPG
A picture [I]is[I]worth a thousand words. Beautiful harvest.
chrisganon
8-9-11, 10:26am
Lol down here In Florida we are lucky to ever get tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries to last longer than the bugs can reach them. Obviously oranges grow great down here, and figs as well.
fidgiegirl
8-9-11, 12:45pm
Raspberries! What a wonderful surprised! We got these plants from my sister just this year and thought for whatever reason that we wouldn't have fruit until next year :D
These beautiful little japanese turnips (no picture from my garden, but this is what they are) :
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_xf61n6L2CCA/SwnhPUaiNII/AAAAAAAADDI/Xfo9aDsdxDo/JAPANESE%20TURNIPS%20002_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg
There's a huge exchange mentality here in my town, so I traded some basil for some sweet corn and some collards for some raspberries :D Also was gifted with a ton of mint, green onions, and baby carrots. I'm loving the last of the root crops and their greens. I roasted beets, onions, red potatoes, turnips, carrots last night -- amazing!
My watermelons are tennis-ball sized, which is pretty amazing considering we're not supposed to be able to grow them at all .....think good watermelon-ripening thoughts!!
I'm blushing at seeing all of this voluptuous garden "porn"! Hehehe!
I wish there was a garden RANT thread!!! This summer has been such a bust. Yesterday I actually turned my heater on!! It was 65 deg. at 1 p.m.!!!
Last year at this time I was GIVING tomatoes away. This year, they're all greenies. Even the cherry tomatoes.
My corn is very high, and dark green and lovely, but is not in tassle quite yet. I worry they'll mature by the time the rains begin to come. Raspberries have come and gone; they were much more sparse than last year ---WHEN WE HAD WARM SUMMER WEATHER!!!
If I'd known we were going to simply have extended spring until fall, I would have planted all brassica, or more lettuce and spinach successions. I'm going to start them soon anyway for fall.
Not a happy gardener this year.
i'm so excited!
my parents send money for Hawk's sandbox, and some extra to plant up for him. :) I'm psyched.
So, garden plans have changed *a ton* but we are going forward thus:
1. veggie box to make into a sand box, lined with coffee bean bags that a friend brought me (free!)
2. two large pallets (so far) backed with the coffee bean bags, filled with soil. looking at the two we have, it should be enough for just about everything we could want in terms of herbs, micro-greens, and strawberries!
my friend at the coffee supply, she says that she can get me some small pallets as well, which I might hang to decorate some walls and make them look nice around the garden. I might just do these in shade-loving flowering plants, just for some color and lightness.
3. i was trying to figure out how to hang things, and to find inexpensive hanging baskets. Well, I got my solution (http://www.designsponge.com/2011/04/diy-project-kokedama-string-garden.html)! There are also more here (http://www.stringgardens.com). Essentially, you ball up soil (you use a mix of peat and soft clay), plant the plant in it, and then wrap the ball in living moss (though I think grass or even clover might work), and then in a good garden twine! Well, truth is, that is probably one of the only inexpensive things in NZ! I can afford that! :D
i'm thinking about doing several herb balls, but I am also thinking of doing a dwarf mandarin tree, and possibly some blueberry bushes! IDK, really, but the possibilities seem immense. :D
Also, we are thinking of taking one of the smaller pallets and making a swing as well. Yay! :D
Our apple tree is fully loaded with lovely, organic fruit that is beginning to ripen. And I think I'm going to get more butternut squash this year than any previous year, thanks to all the rain - inches every week in July.
This week, we're picking golfball-sized cherry tomatoes, wax beans, and cucumbers.
The heat and drought did my garden in this year so I am just enjoying hearing about all of yours.
Sorry to hear about your garden Florence!
My tomato crop is the lowest ever, and all my green beans have never produced anything.
But.........my cucumber crop is going crazy! We eat tons of cucs every day........sandwiches, salads, plain.
For lunch today I cut up cucs, tomatoes and onions, and drizzled it with EVOO, garlic salt and pepper. YUM!
This summer - excellent tomatoes after 2 disappointing years. Good romano beans, good squash (till the round-up drift from next door), and the bounteous chiles are just really starting to come in - just in time for the warmer weather when they will need fire-roasting. Alwasy the case, lol.
Also good lettuce most of the summer - it's been cool along the coast, and I've been experimenting with passive hydroponic lettuce so they need less watering.
I did not have great variety in the garden this year, but it was successful. Next year I want to try some melons in compost in 15 gallon containers on the hot front concrete drive.
Bab**** peaches were good, the blueberries very prolific and many preserved. Poor apricots - but thank heavens for the Upick place. :)
LOL Gina.....you grew censored peaches! :)
I grew 3 types of pole beans and the heat kept all of them from blossoming. Now that its a bit cooler, they are making blossoms, but their poor old worn out leaves and vines might not make it! I didn't realize that beans don't blossom in high heat. Interesting.
LOL Gina.....you grew censored peaches!
Ya, I laughed when I saw that I had ****ed up. Was going to creatively correct it, but decided it was dumb-**** funny the way it was. ;)
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