What did You do Right?

[digitS']

It was a good idea for me to have peppers in the little south bed in the greenhouse again. They were  surplus seedlings several years ago but they will be our mainstay peppers for 2024.

The open garden peppers are an embarrassment. It isn't clear to me why they have had such a difficult start but it might be that I sorta expected it years past when they were in the distant garden and had so much exposure. It was a windy start to the growing season and, of course, there is nearly complete protection for them in that indoor bed. Dang hot! The small exhaust fan (not running these days) has proven adequate during early Spring for the plant starts. One overhead vent ... opening the door. Air flow through the Summer doesn't amount to much. It just seems to  work for them.

What's going right in your garden? I don't think it's too early to have a good idea and unlikely to jinx anything .

 

[flowerbug]

What's going right in your garden? I don't think it's too early to have a good idea and unlikely to jinx anything .

the first beans i planted did well enough, the peas i just picked a third time. not sure how much more i'll get from them, but they did great this year and i don't really recall any year i've grown them that i've not enjoyed the results (other than the chipmunks getting almost my entire seed crop the one year).

the pepper plants seem to be doing ok, i noticed when i was watering a few minutes ago that one of the peppers is decidedly not a green bell pepper - it might be a hot one or something else. i'll have to try it out... the four peppers on the left end of the row are not doing that great but they have small bell peppers on them so we'll see what happens. all the rest of the peppers are doing better and have twice the height. the Beaver Dam peppers have some on them that are turning color already. i think i'll be enjoying those in a week or two.

tomatoes are doing well and have some about 10cm across already but still very green. the plants are sprawling all over the place. they should have been tucked inside the tomato cages but that's now too late for many of them - they'll just have to sprawl... i haven't even looked at the large sweet onions the past week so i'm not sure how they are doing.

 

[Neen5MI]

I sowed cover crop seeds between rows, once the primary plants were well established. I've got buckwheat and rye flourishing. Nicely protective with the monsoon-like rains we've been experiencing. I similarly sprinkled my garlic bed with rye and field peas within 12 hours of harvest, and the peas have exploded. At garlic planting time I'll pull the growth back, till, plant, and replace the material as mulch.

Also, my average garlic bulb size is WAY larger than ever before.

 

[flowerbug]

I sowed cover crop seeds between rows, once the primary plants were well established. I've got buckwheat and rye flourishing. Nicely protective with the monsoon-like rains we've been experiencing. I similarly sprinkled my garlic bed with rye and field peas within 12 hours of harvest, and the peas have exploded. At garlic planting time I'll pull the growth back, till, plant, and replace the material as mulch.

Also, my average garlic bulb size is WAY larger than ever before.

it looked like a good crop for me too this year (also in MI), but i won't know the true quality until i start opening up some bulbs (and i only have about three dozen to work with).

 

[Neen5MI]

it looked like a good crop for me too this year (also in MI), but i won't know the true quality until i start opening up some bulbs (and i only have about three dozen to work with).

Oh, I was carried away by the garlic habit years ago! I imagine my count this year is over 500. And no, I don't manage to eat all of it. Some I give away. Some spoils in the cupboard. I plan to dehydrate some this year, and hope for longer usage that way. I already harvest and dehydrate leaves of the plants that volunteer in my ditch each spring, and scapes from the managed bed. Thank goodness I share my life with a man who believes, "There's no such thing as too much garlic!" And is there a more satisfying crop to harvest? (Well, dry pole beans in a rainbow of colors is a very close second.)

 

[digitS']

I just wrote about 3 paragraphs of ........ on @hdan 's thread regarding peppers and a balance between leaves involved in photosynthesis and fruit production. Then, I felt uncomfortable posting it. What do I know about a bounty of peppers – growing them for decades with such limited growth on individual plants and production of fruit .

Yes, I can blame the climate , an excuse for whatever it is worth.

Not growing cover crops amounts to a style of gardening where I have tried to make maximum use of time and of ground whether I have an abundance of square feet or not. It is something of a disappointment because the few times that I tried Winter Rye as a cover crop, I was so impressed with the benefit to the soil.

Two occasions growing other plants as cover crops were failures. Austrian field peas had a terrible survival rate when I tried them through the Winter. Sunflowers didn't work well. They were planted during the Summer on my gardening neighbor's ground when he decided to downsize his garden. I intended to use the ground during the following year but knew that the sunflowers needed to be tilled in before much growth. My idea was "before they are knee high." What a mess my tiller made. I should have gone for "knee high to a 3-year old."

 

[digitS']

good idea for me to have peppers in the little south bed in the greenhouse

The difference in size:

• The Largest of the outside peppers is 14 inches.
• The largest of the greenhouse peppers is 28 inches with others just an inch or 2 shorter.

All the same varieties and started at the same Spring moment. Greenhouse peppers are double the size of those outdoors, becoming weighted with peppers and will soon need more twine on their trellising.

 

[Blueberry Acres]

My bottle gourds and mini pumpkins are flowering, and the dahlias have buds. That's pretty much it.

In all seriousness, pretty much everything has bloomed (I do more flowers than veggies) and August is just a slow month waiting for dahlias, asters, and goldenrod.

 

[digitS']

Is it the cool, Atlantic breeze that slows down the plants in your neck of the woods, @Blueberry Acres ? I used to live on the northern California coast and the wind was always blowing …

My goldenrod should be cutback. It was blooming brightly a week ago. The dahlias are full on, right now. Although, we have few dahlias compared to a few years ago – less room for them. And, I miss the asters.

My big wait is for the beefsteak tomatoes. Ho, hum …

Steve

 

[Blueberry Acres]

Is it the cool, Atlantic breeze that slows down the plants in your neck of the woods, @Blueberry Acres ?

Probably. It's chilly enough for a sweater out there this week. The dahlias love it, though.