How is your garden doing so far?

[jlmann]

Reinbeau - I know exactly how you feel. We have had more cool rainy days this year than we've had for a long time. The only thing that has helped us is the days in between the rain have all been in the upper 80's or low 90's. I am so hoping I don't have to deal with blight on my tomatoes this year but it's shaping up to be a good summer for fungi.

 

[obsessed]

My garden is just about over. I finally done with the monster cukes. I harvested the pop corn. The watermelons died when the ducks ate all the leaves. I do have some cantaloupes left that will hopefully get rip (if I can keep those toddlers from man handling them). The green beans have done a pretty good job. I get a family size serving every three days. The big tomatoes not so good. I have harvest a few but now I am plagued by these tiny little caterpillar things which are eating the leaves and boring into the tomatoes. The grape tomatoes are just wonderful. I have 4 plants total which is just enough to have a basket every day for snacking.

A quick question for southern gardeners. I have read that tomatoes, eggplants and peppers will go dormant in the summer heat but will come back into production later in the fall. Any truth to that?

 

[lupinfarm]

Well, everything grew... however I'm DONE with plot gardening. Our biggest problem here is that the previous owner asked the farmer behind to plow out the big field my orchard is in every year for vegetables and he never once planted in it, rather he let it all get incredibly weedy every single year for 5 years, now the weeds just take over any patch of bare soil, even mulched doesn't help.

I am putting in some raised beds this week, I'll see what I can harvest from the plot garden this year...probably just potato, onion, a handful of peas, maybe if I'm lucky corn, tomatoes, and peppers...

I still have time to put in a few rows of short-season corn, our season didn't get real hot out until well into the late part of May, people are still putting out seedlings around here! My beans in the front garden are doing wonderfully and have started to flower, the grapes are slowly climbing but will obviously be better next year. The fruit trees have been attacked horribly by caterpillars and earwigs BUT I have sprayed them and unfortunately I HAVE to take the rabbit guards off (the caterpillars are living in them!). We are getting the problem in check and while we will not have the harvest we had hoped for, we will have SOMETHING... the nectarines are doing pretty good aside from being eaten alive by earwigs. The apples have suffered the most, and there are a few cherries ripening on my cherry trees.

We will have wild raspberries, and some domestic this year... while the new raspberries are only about 2 feet tall, they have produced quite a few berries and even my blackberry that I thought was dead has sprouted some great greenery and is already taller than the raspberries AND has flowers on it. I will be moving my wild raspberries to a berry garden in the fall after they have finished fruiting.

As I said... we are going to nix the idea of plot gardening, the weeds are just too much here. Instead I have some 2x10x10 that I plan on starting into raised beds. I'm going to landscape fabric under them, the first one I plan on building tomorrow will be 20ft long by 5 ft wide and will have my short-season corn in it... probably 2 or 3 rows to see if this works and broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

OH the brussels are looking mighty fine, we have 6 in the front garden (potager garden) with our kitchen herbs and such and I can see the baby brussels forming. How exciting!

Next years garden will be MUCH better, I will not be plot gardening again...we're on a hill and those weeds speed along. There are some that are taller than me, I AM NOT KIDDING.

 

[digitS']

Finally, a week of warmth is promised! Often, we need to get past the 4th of July for this to happen but I'll take a week earlier .

I finished weeding the cutting garden today. I don't think it was a moment too soon. For one thing, it is time to get some more trellis up and pulling weeds thru a net just doesn't work very well.

The vegetable gardens are a different story. Some things are just about weed-free, onions and peas for example. I got the broccoli weeded, fertilized again, and hilled. The big tiller has made its passes but that is now impossible in much of the gardens. Next, it will be the little tiller and by hand, the only way to get it right.

A smashing year in the salad garden. There's a little more lettuce and a second planting of spinach is coming off now but, with temps in the 80's every day, we're leaving the greens behind .

There may be a veggie lag this year. I was a couple weeks late in planting the peas. I noticed 1 flower this week. Those vines don't look too good but others are growing nicely. Well, I don't expect them to get much taller but having a crop of peas without having to go too high with a trellis will be okay.

I'm fairly sure that there wasn't enuf cool, wet weather to kick the legs out from under things this year. The peppers & eggplants may be the exceptions . . . I've got some cucumber starts and will turn a critical eye on the eggplants tomorrow. If they aren't going to make it, they aren't going to make it :/. And some additional cukes wouldn't be bad.

Peppers, I kind of expect to "pull out of it." They certainly won't be growing very tall. Weeks when they couldn't grow because of the cool weather, means that they are beginning to flower essentially without having made any growth. I'll probably just give them some more high-N fertilizer and hope for the best. Dang, there's a lot of them, too .

Other than a rollickingly fine salad garden, another success (by the looks of 'em) is with the potatoes. I haven't always grown potatoes because of the low prices of the standards in the supermarket. Still, I like to have them and, first of all, they seem really healthy and bug-free. BIG PLUS! Also, I've always known that they are heavy users of fertilizer but the "no manure because of scab" admonition meant that I'd fertilize once only.

So, I'm not using manure - this year I fertilized the spuds a second time and the plants are HUGE!

There are lots of little bean and corn plants. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for all of them . . .

Steve's digits

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there!

The weather here has really warmed up -- it is actually very hot (for us, anyway)! I have had to move the day-run for my Dorking chicks under some trees so they have dappled shade. All the vine veggies have taken off like mad & I am now eating zucchini like mad to keep up........!!

I still have plenty of broad beans & peas, salad leaves. The tomatoes are in various stages of growing, flowering & fruiting (none have gotten to ripening point yet) but it won't be long if this weather holds up as predicted.

I have left both the peppers & the eggplants in the little greenhouse.

My carrots seem to have germinated well -- the cooler weather we had a couple of weeks ago really helped them come through. I don't have a good record with carrots so this time I planted 3 different varieties as well as making a raised bed which I picked over & eliminated every bit of stone & weed root as I filled it. So now I have only to hoe it to kill off the soft weeds. It is going to be a chore but worth it as it is by far my neatest bed. I am NOT a neat gardener I'm afraid. This root veg raised bed is a little shaded & doesn't get the hot midday sun & I intend to keep it covered because of Carrot-fly & Flee-beetle. I've got scallions in there as well as spinach. I put my salsify & beets in there too, plus one or two cuttings of lavender (they are supposed to counter the carrot-fly along with the scallions).

I have so enjoyed gardening along side of you all -- it's the first time I have shared my (almost) daily thoughts, wishes & fears.
You have all been great! :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet



:rose Hattie :rose

 

[digitS']

Aren't you nice, Hattie !

And, I'm sure that all the readers have really enjoyed you sharing. Concessions on courgettes vs. zucchini and aubergine vs. eggplant . . .

Now Americans - there's no reason for us to ask for a "deciphering" of scallions and salsify. One is a common part of our shared diet, the other is a vegetable like nothing we've seen before . . . ! Okay, I've got those darn salsify "weeds" mostly in the neighbor's yard since HE has "taken a powder" with regards to running the weedwacker!

Isn't language wonderful?!? Hattie, don't change yours too much to accommodate your cousins over here. We appreciate your efforts, tho'. I suggest recruiting another Brit so that we can all enjoy eavesdropping on your conversations.

Steve

edited to say: I just thought of the name of a flower - antirrhinum! Ha, ha Americanos, put that in your bouquet and send to Hattie :bouquet!

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there!

Do you call antirrhinums "Snapdragons" in the US? That is their common name here! I can remember my grandmother showing me, as a child, how to work the jaws of the ".dragon"!

It has been so warm here today & it feels as if we are going to have repeat thunder storms (as in last night).

I have suddenly come out in a rash, on the inside crook of my elbows & my neck & chest. I can't imagine what has caused it as I haven't been near anything I'm allergic too. I have stayed indoors& slathered it in in aloe & bee propolis cream. Luckily it is not too itchy. I hope it goes down over-night as tomorrow is my day for the charity bookshop.

I hope you are having a great weekend. :rainbow-sun



:rose Hattie :rose

 

[digitS']

Oh, I thought I was being so clever . . . I thought that the British only knew them as Antirrhinums and it was an Americanism to call them snapdragons.

So how do you pronounce zinnia: zin-nia, zi-ne-a, ze-ne-a, zen-ya. And, calendula: ca-lend-yu-la or cal-en-du-la?

Never mind . . . my hearing is no good at this distance anyway.

Well, it is still nice to hear from you and all these other gardeners, too. And, good luck with that rash. It is probably a common problem for gardeners to get rashes, worldwide.

Steve

 

[lupinfarm]

Oh Hattie! My grandmother (who lives in Harlow, Essex) taught me as well how to move the jaws of the dragon! ... I grew up in Essex as a kid, I live in Canada now with my parents (I'm 20 ha ha ha).

 

[lupinfarm]

digitS' , I always said it Zin-nia and Ca-lend-yu-la.... Although I live in Canada, I was raised in Essex, UK until I was about 9 or 10, both my parents are English.