Posted on 07/01/2016 2:29:24 PM PDT by greeneyes
Since Hubby's tomatoes failed, I went to Walmart, and picked up some plants on sale. I got 2 Cherry tomatoes, and a beef steak tomato, dill, cucumber, basil. One of the Cherry tomatoes, I planted in a container to bring in for the winter.
The other two I put in 5 gallon buckets. Used the exact same soil in those. Planted a basil plant in the Cherry tomato bucket. Cherry has almost doubled in height. Can't tell that beefsteak has grown any.
Started a couple of San Marzano seeds, and some unknown cantaloupe seeds, and they have sprouted. The cantaloupe was a volunteer last year, and the first successful melon since 2010. It is too big to be the Minnesota Midget, and too small to be the Irquois, and I don't remember growing any other kind of melon successfully, although I did plant some seeds of others.
Anyway, I'm hoping that it has adapted to our environment, and will grow another successful melon to eat. The black berries will be ripe any time now, I think. They had some in the store, and I bought a pack.
Now I'm going to make yogurt in my crockpot to eat them with. Here's a link:
http://www.ayearofslowcooking.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html
Got the garlic all pulled, and let it dry a bit. Dug about 5 lbs of taters, and left the others for later. Picked some green beans, steamed and froze them, as it was a small batch.
Hope all is well with you. Prayers up for all. Have a great Independence Day Weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Hi Everybody!
Still diggin’ in the dirt as we speak! :-)
I have major digging and weeding to do this weekend, if I can get over being lazy. LOL
It’s been so hot here lately! I wish that it would rain!
I just upgraded my dirt digging with a Troybilt horse.So much easier.
We haven’t had too much heat yet, but July and August are the worst for heat here, so I’m sure that more is on the way. I just read though that sun spot activity has declined, so that we might actually be heading toward cooler weather overall for future summers - Remember the 60s and 70s when they were predicting a new Ice Age?
I’ll just bet it is easier!
Yes, I do! One of the problems is that although it’s been very hot here during the day, it’s been in the high 40s or low 50s at night. My plants are still in tiny little pots.
Oh my miserable tomatoes.
All are straggly and half don’t even have fruit and those that do aren’t ripening. They just sit there green.
Been a water problem: too much and not enough.
Intrawebs tell me tomatoes ripening slowly because of the high temps.
I picked some of the oldest green tomatoes and put them in a paper bag hoping they’ll ripen by the Fourth.
Very disappointing year so far.
You need to get a hot bed of compost going and put those plants in pots over that bed. I’ve never tried it, but have read about it. Some guy in New England wrote a book on growing stuff for 4 seasons.
Thought I’d never get the pickle plants to grow; but this week they’ve grown to the top of my fencing. Have to get support poles for them next week. Green plants are flowering but only a few green beans.
Tomatoes here are disappointing too, but at least the volunteer tomatoes has a cluster of flowers.
Pulled about a dozen garlic - the rest need another week or so (different variety).
Summer squash is magnificent - best we've ever had. Cukes are up, too.
No tomatoes yet, lots of flowers, though. Peppers are laggards also.
Green beans and snap peas are up - lettuce is stagger-planted so we always have fresh.
Strawberries have come and gone, (so has the kale and asparagus), but raspberries are starting to come off.
We've had lots of luxurious sun here in Konnecticut, (that's a change from the last few years) but nary a drop of rain.
We so appreciate you keeping the gardening thread going - thank you so much!
Flowers are a good sign. Great about the cukes too.
Sounding good for a bumper crop of tomatoes!
We had a compost pile, but it attracted wild animals and dogs. We can’t put one inside the fence, because our dogs would tear it apart and it would attract wild animals (woodchuck, deer, wild turkey and who knows what else) into the yard, which would cause havoc. Our seedlings are on 4 foot or so high planters on a deck 8 feet off of the ground with a gate. The deck is right up against the house, so that helps to discourage animals, too.
You are welcome. We are going into what is normally our dry spell here. Also very hot - sometimes, I have to shade the tomatoes, but this year, all I’ll have to do is move the buckets.
Fortunately we have a swimming pool full of rainwater. In 2012, we had to let the garden burn up due to drought. We hauled in enough water to keep the fruit trees and perennial berries and nut trees alive, though not thriving.
At the end of the summer, we went and bought a swimming pool that holds 4000 gallons, so we hope to be able to get through any dry spells going forward. The air conditioner will make about 10 gallons a day once the July heat gets going, and sometimes more.
Sounds like you need a fenced area for the compost. LOL
Well, a deck is certainly handier in addition to avoiding the critters.
Speaking of which, the squirrels have picked off 2 of my lemons. Little devils. My dog used to bark and scare them off. Sure miss her.
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