Weekly Gardening Thread
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
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Suggestions needed for vegetables that do well in shade.
I have a big patch of ground that I could expand my garden into but right in the middle is an old apricot tree and in the alley are BIG Pecan trees and then to help shade the setting sun I have a big Walnut tree.
The area in question is shaded maybe 80-90 percent of the day. I was thinking of squash or some other vines but I don’t want the vines growing out into the yard as they search for sun. (Wow, I learned with a pumpkin vine, believe me!)
Does butter lettuce or peas do well in shade? I was thinking of maybe potatoes as well but I’m afraid that ancient apricot’s roots might interfere.
My zucchini is getting bushy and my yellow bell pepper is doing well, but my green bell is just sitting there. It’s not dead or dying, but it’s not growing either. I hope to have fruit by the end of September, then maybe the derisive laughter will stop.
The "Deck Project from Hell" is completed and inspection signed-off! Now, the Duck Dorm is in process after a two-day trailer camping trip to Maine.
The Dutchess has installed drip irrigation in the two planter beds and we are harvesting delicious tomatoes and the zuchini is still producing. We have two small mellons on the vine and peppers also growing. The heat wave hit the garden hard.
Jack finally got all of the pavers laid down around the firepit and the wood pile moved, so I can mow the lawn and let it recover.
The water lines to the four points in the back yard are a blessing, but now I have to add a line to the deck area where the Dutchess wants to add a drip system.
tomatoes have been doing well. I see, though, that some of the lower leaves are dying. I keep picking them off and feeding them to the chickens. Kinda scared that I’m gonna end up with no leaves left sooner or later...haha
Also, there is some sort of bug that is turning selected leaves to swiss cheese.i think i have tracked down the culprit, but am unsure of even how to describe what it looks like...
Also, began my new job this past week - I just got home from my shift...:)
Tomatoes and several varieties of peppers continue to put off a bumper crop this year. I picked another 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes yesterday. (off of 4 plants) Round 3 & 4 of my sweet corn are coming along nicely. I tilled in between the rows of the younger, #4 planting yesterday. Okra continues to produce with abundance. Grapes are just about ready. My speckled field peas are ready to pick. I’ll be doing that this morning. Oh, and my almond trees produce two almonds this year. I wasn’t expecting any this year. Couple more years and I’ll have enough for a snack!
Good morning everyone! I can hardly believe July is already gone....
I spent last month replacing the old fence between my neighbor and I. Cecil 80 years old and his wife is in her seventies, and we’ve talked for years about replacing the old fence, and after the 4th of July we got started. Cecil was out there helping me dig the post holes and get the framing started. We also both hauled a big load of the old debris from the demolition to the dumpster. We had a great time working together on this project, and I think we both kept each other from over-doing...
On the gardening front, we’ve been enjoying summer squash, tomatoes, onions, cabbage and early potatoes. I had a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes that started to sprout, so I cut them up and poked them into one of the beds off of the patio as an afterthought. They started yellowing this week so I dug them up and got about ten pounds of very nice potatoes, along with a bunch of little new potatoes that we’ve been eating for a couple of days.
I roasted a bunch of potatoes on the grill the other night along with some red pepper, yellow zukes and onion. I tossed everything with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, then grilled them until they were done and starting to toast. The Missus made a roasted potato salad out of it with a touch of horseradish in the dressing....amazing!
I’ve already picked a couple of enormous spaghetti squash and have several more forming up. My beans are looking very healthy and should be flowering in another couple of weeks.
Speaking of flowering, my potato bed has been going nuts. The plants have been flowering like crazy for over a month, and the foliage is very healthy. These are all late bearing potatoes so I keep them watered so they can spud-up. I’m confident of harvesting a couple of hundred pounds of four different kinds of spuds from that bed this Fall....we shall see....
The few sweet potato plants that survived our cold Spring are thriving now; lots of foliage on them and considering the quality of the soil they are in and the depth of the bed, I have big expectations of a very nice yield of sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving...
I pruned back the old canes on my red raspberries, and have been reconfiguring the trellis so I don’t bump my head on it every time I go in there. I’ll be out there this weekend tying up the new canes for next year’s crop. We had so many this year we couldn’t use them all...so the chickens got lots of berry treats....
My water tank has been working out extremely well. I’m down to about 120 gallons right now and am doling out the water as needed. The forecast is calling for rain on Monday into Tuesday, so there’s a great chance to recharge the tank if it rains enough.
That’s it for me, and I hope your summer was worth waiting for. It sure is here.
Cheers!
I have yet another question.
Brussels sprouts, mine have no sprouts. Big stem, lots of leaves, but no sprouts.
A) what did I do wrong?
B) can I treat the leaves like other greens and eat them?
Thanks
Rabbits wiped out my cabbage.
Now my green beans are a total different situation. I have NO clue what their ‘issue’ is but I have not had one pick-able green bean thus far.
I have finally picked my first ‘moon&stars’ watermelon and several cantaloupe. Put up thus far 4 batches of salsa and canned a few quartered tomatoes. Finally the ‘heat’ wave has receded back to Texas and we got a nice rain this morning.
I am tired and weary from the blasting heat of July and first week of August.
Not much to report other than we went to the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale Ca today. They were judging Dairy Goats today...lots of FFA Dairy Goats...
Wondering what to do with a branch that broke off patio tomato plant. Probably has over 20 cherry tomatoes on the branch that are green. I stuck the branch back into the soil for moisture until I can figure out how to save the tomatoes long enough for them to ripen.
Any hope in this endeavor or should I do something else?
Saw news there was rain today around DFW. Was hoping to read here that someone(s) got some relief.
So I have this Black Beauty Eggplant, which I actually planted about a year ago for last fall, but it never really went anywhere until this summer. I got three big fruits off of it, then nothing. There’s several dozen blossoms on it. I’ve read about hand pollination but that hasn’t produced anything.
The seed package says “produces 5 to 7” fruit. I assumed this meant “at a time”. But now I’m starting to wonder, is there such a thing as a determinate variety of eggplant? And if that’s what I have, why is it still blossoming? Is is just messing with me?
I don’t have a lot of room in the garden (massive understatement), and this thing is huge. If I need to cut bait, now is the time. But if not, I’d love to get it producing again. Anyone point me in the right direction here?
Update From South FL
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/1591/35616412.jpg
Getting ready for our Sept 15th planting date for South Florida.
Weather is HOT, It’s FL and it’s Aug... It’s also the normal rainy season so it rains almost everyday. Welcome to FL!
Anyone out there using pelleted carrot seed?
