Garden 2022

[LadyLocust]

It's supposed to be 110* today. This morning it was 90ish by 9AM (about). I dug/pulled the onions, dug up the whole area where onions and garlic had been, pulled way too many weeds and finally got more green beans planted. I need to put the bird blocker over it, but I was dripping from my eyelids, by earlobes, my fingertips - anyplace sweat could be it was! I had my sunglasses on and if I leaned forward, it would drip from my eyelashes into the glasses so I couldn't see. It's hot! Also picked 3 huge heads of broccoli and 3 large heads of cabbage. I need to cut some herbs to dry, but I came in and got into the shower instead. We are supposed to have 2 more days of triple digits then 98* then cooler. Makes it difficult to keep plants happy.

 

[Tommyice]

Yep, your are probably getting frozen every winter... If you could protect them in some manner it'd be helpful.

Just occurred to me... do you know of a "port-a-potty" company going out of business? Cut out the bottoms, hang a light bulb... instant fig tree shelter (I know, I think of the oddest things sometimes... funny, I used to get paid for it )

@Amish Heart I don't know any thing about fruit in your area. Let us know if you find a good variety. My figs like a lot of water.

Around here they are wrapped in burlap.

 

[Neb]

Around here they are wrapped in burlap.

Burlap didn't work for mine.

I plan on moving my fig tree to a large pot I can move into the greenhouse for winter.

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

Just ran across this video. Not sure if I had shared it or not. This is the design I have used for all but my 1st 2 raised beds. You can tailor your bed size to what fits your space best. For longer beds I add cross braces at the 6' point to keep the sides from bowing. Mine are 2' tall. Probably not a issue for 1' beds.

 

[elkhound]

yellow oxheart..been waiting on these all year. makes you wanna toss rocks at most of the other yellow maters. except maybe my old heirloom called big yellow. have grown it in a few years but i have one plant growing this year to get more seed from it. lots of these oxhearts coming on...best mater is my jerusalem tomato...they are close to being ready.

 

[elkhound]

random shots from last few weeks

 

[UrbanHunter]

I broke one of my cardinal rules today, I brought living plants back into the house. My spinach is coming up, but it is so sad looking because of the heat. and it is in clumps. So, I went out and "Thinned" out the clumps, taking only the weakest looking sprouts. I used the handle of a "costco" plastic spoon to gently dig out the sprout root and all and planted each into it's own starter cup (I made up a set of them before I started) and they are now in my indoor growing station. I used a plastic bowl filled with water to make sure the soil in each cup was soaked before moving the plants to their home growing tray. My thinking is the plants inside will grow at one rate and the plants will grow at another that should allowed for staggered harvesting and it gives me some redundancy.

 

[Bacpacker]

Just picked more maters, cukes, peppers, and a few late onions thar fell over. Gonna make a run to see the parents and drop off a bucket for them

 

[elkhound]

rains coming in...got my late patch of corn planted minutes before it hit. the last patch i planted is crotch to waist high now so probably no worries of cross pollination. pollination should be done and i can cut off tassels before this planting even sends up a tassel. 70 day corn...lets see if it can make ears !

 

[Tommyice]

Pulled up the spent green beans. Added peat moss and coop poop. We’ll be playing a “lean-too” of cucumbers with lettuce behind them. Fall broccoli in front. Put in more peas.

Picked 2 pounds of banana peppers for pickling.

Ate some tomatoes.

 

[Wingnut]

Looking at some of those produce shots, I'm reminded of a great irony: the perfect-looking produce found on some store shelves is actually chockablock with pesticides and other cr@p, while the produce with bug scars or bird scars is actually BETTER for you, lol. I adjust my shopping methods accordingly... also, it pays to check the "cut" where each head of lettuce is harvested, you can get a pretty good idea of the age of that harvested lettuce by seeing how brown it is at the cut. A brown cut can mean tired old lettuce, but it can also mean poor methods of transport... some reefer produce is highly sensitive, lettuce & strawberries are good examples, and if they are not transported properly aboard a truck, freshness & quality can go south in a big ol' hurry. Just my $.02, I'd take the homegrown produce any day of the week, compared to some perfect-looking produce chockablock with chemicals, lol.

 

[Neb]

Wooo whooo!

Orange tree has set blossoms for the second year in a row.

Ben

 

[joel]

Wooo whooo!

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Orange tree has set blossoms for the second year in a row.

Ben

MY Flying Dragon Citrus trifoliata loos & smells wonderful every Spring.
My fruit is sour, but the blooms are wonderful.

 

[LadyLocust]

My beans are sprouting !!! Through the night and today - many about 3" tall w/ the double leaves. I so want a crop of green beans.
We still have no ripe tomatoes. It looks like late spring/early summer rather then Aug. out there. I will say - I thought "Delicious" variety of tomatoes were determinant, but they rather appear to be indeterminants The German out back has 2 tomatoes on it. The huge one out front has none! So weird.
Tomorrow I will pick more broccoli and cukes. Might as well check zukes too cuz yesterday there were non bigger than my thumb so by tomorrow there will probably be one as big as my leg. Had a friend say she's dehydrating them with garlic salt like chips and says they are good so I will give it a shot.

 

[jishinsjourney]

My garden has been so slow this year! Has anyone else had the same problem?

Today was the first time I felt like I got a true harvest, and it’s still nothing huge, but at least it’s something!

 

[UrbanHunter]

My garden has been so slow this year! Has anyone else had the same problem?

Today was the first time I felt like I got a true harvest, and it’s still nothing huge, but at least it’s something!

View attachment 92161

I think that is a nice little harvest.

My stuff is coming on slowly, we have been able to put up some beans. My 4 squash plants are only giving me about 4 squash a week, my 2 cucumber plants are giving me about 4 cucs a week, the 8 tomato plants are giving me about 4 gallons of tomatoes a week. We are getting about 8 beets a week. The 3 bell pepper plants are only producing 1 harvest-able fruit a week. This year my celery is doing well and we are able to put some up dried. We did get a nice crop of spring onions and garlic, but they were planted last fall. We had early spring spinach and some lettuce, my fall spinach is just coming up and the lettuce is almost ready to start harvesting again. My indoor plants have done well, mostly supplying herbs and such. I did add two miniature Siam tomato plants to my indoor garden and they are each producing a handful of cherry size tomatoes every week. I planted okra in front of my row of pole beans and they are just starting to flower, I sure hope that they produce well.

Our rain situation has been an issue for the last 6 weeks, I think we got 3 rains in that period and my rain barrels ran dry 3 times forcing me to use city water for a few days.... Insects have been annoying, squash bugs and vine borers, I have seen a re-emergence of those white butterflys that lay eggs for those green cabbage white caterpillars (they are a problem for me)....

 

[Plainflatlander]

Drought continues, lost all my corn but was able to purchase from a local farm. Need to seed earlier next year, they planted April 25th. I didnt until Mid May. Cukes doing well, tomatoes finally started to ripen. Have had good cabbage as well and keeping the late summer bean crop well watered.

 

[Pearl]

My garden has been so slow this year! Has anyone else had the same problem?

Today was the first time I felt like I got a true harvest, and it’s still nothing huge, but at least it’s something!

View attachment 92161

That looks great! I'm sorry to hear about your allergies, glad you can get out and enjoy your garden! It's so hot and dry here this year that I finally gave up on my garden!

 

[elkhound]

rains coming in...got my late patch of corn planted minutes before it hit. the last patch i planted is crotch to waist high now so probably no worries of cross pollination. pollination should be done and i can cut off tassels before this planting even sends up a tassel. 70 day corn...lets see if it can make ears !

this was put in ground sunday july 31st and today friday august 5th i seen several sprigs poking through the ground. rains just rolled in too.have a solid 65 days or so till first frost and this corn is 70 days so i think we are going to be good.hope all seed comes up. not much seed in a packet and its limited old heirloom seed...and expensive for seed you get...i guess all seed is expensive now in fact.


the silver queen and silver king is growing tall and looking real nice too.

 

[Tommyice]

My garden has been so slow this year! Has anyone else had the same problem?

Today was the first time I felt like I got a true harvest, and it’s still nothing huge, but at least it’s something!

View attachment 92161

Mines been really slow too. And I’m battling squirrels for my tomatoes.

 

[Bacpacker]

Thankfully we are still getting about 5 gallons of tomato every other day, from 12 plants IIRC. Cukes are down to about 5 to 8 every other day. Planning to start digging taters after the 11th. Peppers are sparce but regular

 

[LadyLocust]

My garden has been so slow this year! Has anyone else had the same problem?

Today was the first time I felt like I got a true harvest, and it’s still nothing huge, but at least it’s something!

View attachment 92161

Our garden is really behind this year. We had a longer spring - we still don't have any ripe tomatoes but I have picked broc. zuke, cuke, radishes, herbs, cabbages, onions, and a handfull of green beans. Also, we've been battling earwigs and squash bugs - grrr.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Well our rain situation changed yesterday, We got rain, high winds, and hail.... the garden is a mess, the pole beans are blown over, and I can't even see if my okra survived, the tomatoes look like some beat them with a weed eater...

 

[Amish Heart]

That's a bummer, Urban. We've had no rain since forever it seems.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

My garden will be froze out before anything starts to produce. Just hinting at starting blossoms. Not good at all.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I think I saved the pole bean plants, and I got most of the tomatoes cleaned up and supported, the bell peppers dropped a bunch of fruit. All and all I feel very blessed to still have anything growing... My okra was all laying flat, but some of it popped up once I got the pole beans off them, I sure hope we get a crop this year.

 

[jishinsjourney]

Mines been really slow too. And I’m battling squirrels for my tomatoes.

I feel your pain. I had to deal with squirrels and deer eating mine last year. The worst! Since it’s suburbia, I don’t have a giant garden, so I basically covered all of my beds with staked-up bird netting on those tall green metal stakes, with binder clips to hold it in place. It’s kept the squirrels and deer out and the insect pollinators can still get in. Luckily I haven’t had any serious insect pest problems.

Our garden is really behind this year. We had a longer spring - we still don't have any ripe tomatoes but I have picked broc. zuke, cuke, radishes, herbs, cabbages, onions, and a handfull of green beans. Also, we've been battling earwigs and squash bugs - grrr.

Ugh, earwigs. I haven’t seen those in a while, but they loooove mulch and then anything else growing close to the mulch gets taken out as collateral damage. They used to decimate my strawberries at my old property. I haven’t tried strawberries here yet.

I’m glad to hear your cool-weather crops are doing well! There’s nothing like fresh cabbage and cukes straight from the garden. It’s been summer weather here — 80s and 90s — and still stuff just isn’t doing much. I‘m hoping this means the plants think we’re going to have a long summer. Fingers crossed!

 

[LadyLocust]

Our tomatoes are still green and finally getting a "real" blossoming. I looked up and the main variety we have (delicious - heirloom) is a 75 day-er. So we should be in good shape getting the ones already out there but that's not very many so I'm hopeful for what might set within the next week. That will be pushing it towards the end of Sept. beginning of Oct. which is usually about when our weather changes. Also, if you want a good laugh. We have 2 Germans which are indeterminants so get planted in "special" places to allow for their space hoggedness. Weeeelllll, evidently "delicious" are also indeterminants I thought they were determinants I have 8 of them. You should see that 'mater patch!
Also beans are looking pretty good. I love contenders for that very reason. They are so reliable.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today we blanched, shocked, pealed, and diced about 5 gallons of tomatoes. We are planning to can them once the wife recovers from the dicing part...

 

[Amish Heart]

Alot of gardens here are already being tilled under. Mostly all you see are a few tomato plants and the sweet potato vines. I always think that's sad. No one plants for the fall. Still didn't get to picking grapes. Maybe tomorrow. It's 104 right now.