Weekly Gardening Thread
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
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I was just out in the garden and had to run for cover after about 30 seconds. It was a skeeter ambush.
My garden is growing like gangbusters, especially the weeds.
I have a ton of little tomatoes growing, my summer squash is a week or so away from picking. Peas and green beans are already being harvested daily.
My best garden yet!
If I had the space, I would grown mostly in raised beds. I do compost. My main method of preservation is dehydration. I am skilled at canning, but prefer the space saving convenience of dried foods.
FReegards!
I planted a second row of purple hull cow peas this year. I picked a kitchen garbage bag full yesterday. WHAT was I thinking.
Up here “Massachusetts had its warmest spring in the 116 years that conditions have been recorded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Michigan also set records for the March-to-May period that meteorologists consider to be spring. By contrast, the same period was among the 10 coolest for Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. (Boston Globe, June 10, 2010)
Also, “much of the area from Little Rock, Ark., St. Louis, Mo., and Chicago, Ill., to Portland, Maine, New York City and Richmond, Va., temperatures have averaged 3.0 to 6.0 degrees above normal this spring.” http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/33055/100degree-heat-may-follow-reco-1.asp
In May it averaged 72 versus normal 67 and you could have planted tomatoes in April, rather than waiting till the official safe date of May 31.
This is much contrast to last year, when it think it was May that was the fourth coldest and June the second cloudiest, or vice versa, on record.
However, i was not able to work much after the middle of May in my neighbors plot, but the corn that did get planted is already knee high. thanks be to God. I also have 16 tomatoes plants on the roof, which i began inside from saved seeds, and being on the north side of a hill, with no south facing windows, the do not get that large. But some are now big and bushy with lots of flowers, though they are 3 plants in each 22”x15”x13 bin.
Our bell and jalapeno peppers are coming along. We should be awash in tomatoes in the next few weeks. We have two fig trees and it looks like a bumper crop this year.
Lettuce!!
Tons of lettuce. We’re eating salads for lunch and dinner almost everyday. My head lettuce is gone, but the leaf lettuce keeps on going.
And we got a shopping bag full of lettuce from a friend when we helped to remove their pool cover.
And we’ve been getting two heads a week from our farm share. (Yes, I admit that we bought a farm share in a local farm. My garden just isn’t big enough to supply all our veggie needs.)
Collards & a ham hock just put in the slow cooker with a can of whole tomatoes (none ready here yet) onions & garlic. I’ll throw a can of black-eyed peas in later.
Tomato question, how many people remove non producing branches from your tomato plants and exact how do you a) know which ones to remove, and b) how do you remove them by cutting??
Love to read this thread every week. Wish I had enough knowledge to give back.
Our son in law spent yesterday power washing our post and rail fence and will be back next week to paint it. It separates our neighbor's cow from our landscaping. It's made of pressure treated lumber and it wasn't primed properly when it was installed 5 years ago. Is there any primer that will stick to PT lumber?
Our ten day forecast for the Humboldt Bay Region
My garden’s coming along, slowly but surely. I’m about to get my first zucchini in the next couple days. I will be picking some dragon tongue beans later today! I may post a picture of the beans later today :) I have green tomatoes, but none ripe so far.
The Japanese beetles have descended here. They have decimated one rose bush, and are working on strawberry plants and basil, along with a few other plants. Anyone have any tips? I don’t like to use Seven dust very often, but maybe I should?
I did get a chance to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden several weeks back, and it was beautiful! It was much bigger than I expected.
Hope everyone’s garden is coming along nicely!
Onion questions: If the tops break, will the bulb still continue to grow? Should I pull onions that develope flowers? How much water because it looks like some of the bulbs are soft, they might be rotting? Thanks!
I have my first Ghost Chile growing. A month’s worth of gemination yielded 1 out of 12 seeds. I have it in a small clay pot and I move it from one side of the yard to the other so it follows the sun. I’m watering it from below, filling a saucer and letting the soil soak it up. It’s almost 2 inches tall and has 2 rows of leaves now. A couple more weeks and I think it will be over the hump and grow until it bears fruit. Hopefully it will winter over inside the house like my Tabasco and Habanero peppers do, then next summer I will be loaded with peppers.
Do you use any special types of fertilizers on these plants? I am just depending on whatever nutrients are in the Miracle Grow potting soil I planted it in. I know peppers in general don’t need a lot of fertilizer, any special tips for this baby?
Anyone have any experience with the EarthBox Garden Kits?
Considering them to replace the 4X4 gardens the kids are maintaining.
First of all, my miracle of all miracles -- english peas growing and producing in 100 degree temperatures. I have them in the same area corner of the garden as my greens and radishes, which gets shade at a couple of intervals during the intense heat of the day.
The pepper section has become the pepper jungle! (Indian corn in the background)
Spaghetti squash growing on a trellis.
Lady (cream) peas are producing well. We have been picking for about a week now. I love "top pick" pea varieties so that you don't have to stoop to pick them!
The green stringbeans made almost 150 lbs. We have pulled them up and replanted for a second crop. The planting dates in the guidebook were July 1 through September, so I figured a week early probably would not hurt.
Tomatoes are finally turning:
White scalloped squash is setting blooms. I think I planted about 30 days ago.
Yellow squash with one row of trelli in the background:
The oldest of the tomato section ... I still have a tray of Romas and Rutgers to set out and I'll probably start some additional seeds in the coming week.
The produce stand is a huge hit and is busy every day. I'm going to have to expand to meet the demand and that will require hired help and more refrigeration. The market is certainly there for a thriving business.
Mornin’, Red,
I’m happy to report that up here, a little north of your area, I have had several honeybees every morning on the blooms in my little garden. Been a long time since I have seen any of those.
They stay as busy as, well, bees! My squash had been planted for about 6 weeks, and done nothing BUT bloom. It is very large and has been covered with blooms, but no squash. That is, until right after I started seeing the honeybees. Now it is covered in little squash.
Finally got out to the land yesterday, after not being able to for almost a month. My weedblock experiment worked a little too well. I was expecting a few weeds to grow up through the slits I’d cut for my seeds, instead nothing was growing through the holes, INCLUDING my seeds!!! Just one little pumpkin plant forced its way through.
Still, one pumpkin is more than I had last year. And, the weedblock is obviously working to smother the weeds and grass, which is itself a miracle given that this land has been wild for at least 10 years (possibly 20, but I can’t be sure beyond 10). Next year I’ll have some fabulous garden beds waiting for me, I’ll just have to cut the holes a bit bigger when I plant. Judging from the number of wild parsnips flowering, next year I’ll have plenty of parsnips to roast. I might take some wild seed and plant it in my garden beds, just because.
My backyard container garden is doing well. Last week I’d gotten frustrated that my tomato seeds never sprouted, but my indoor tomatoes were all vine and no fruit, so I’d taken cuttings from the indoor plants and planted them outside. Every one of those cuttings has taken root, and I think I saw the start of a flower bud on one already! I might do that next year and skip the seeds entirely, tomatoes are perennials unless killed by frost, so I can grow the vines indoors for years at a time.
My sweet peas are just about done already. I only had room for 8 plants, so that isn’t too surprising. There’s one pod growing too far down in the squirrel barrier for me to get to, so I think I’ll let it go to seed and see what happens next year. One of the pea plants has new buds on it, so I’m watching to see if I get a second flush. In all my years of gardening I’ve never grown sweet peas before (the rodents always ate them) so this is new to me.
The everbearing strawberries are flowering again, and the raspberries are ripe.
Red Devil we had a foot of rain in just a few days. Fortunately we’ve had temps in the 90’s so things dry out fairly quickly.
Thankfully we are supposed to get a week of dry. You should see the damn weeds.