What's going on with your Veggie Garden: Part 3

Linda, I just plant them and they grow. LOL Seriously, I pre-soaked them overnight in some hydrogen peroxide water. Then planted them around some supports. We found that chain link type fencing worked best. I planted 2 early varieties, Alaska and Wando. The Wandos are supposed to be more heat resistant. They have shorter plants than Alaska, but mature later.

Check this out as a bean trellis.

http://www.kvpermaculture.org/blog/tag/bike-wheel-trellis/

Gymgirl - I, too, am growing Alaska and Wando peas. They are easy to grow as Stephanie said. Mine were sown March 18th and I should be able to start picking any day now.

I don't soak pea or bean seeds, just sow them in damp ground with organic fertilizer. Mine are growing on trellis netting strung between 8ft t-posts.

OK, Bee,
Then you look at that trellis, too!

Hugs!

Today I planted 14 hills of cantaloupe (Casaba, Crenshaw, Kelsey and Moneyloupe) and one hill of watermelons (Jade Star). Also dug potatoes and 1/2 of the reg garlic and some elephant garlic. Finally got the tops cut off the onions I pulled about a week ago.

Been eating plenty of corn, cukes, eggplants and maters.

I recently acquired a garden buggy. Over the past couple days between showers I installed a rear flip-seat that makes into a mini truck bed.

Nice harvest and nice buggy... don't let Lisa see it. She already thinks men are suckers for gadgets and machines. ; ) I've picked a few tomatoes and a few cucumbers. The only things in full production are beans and squash. Hopefully I will get the beets pulled tomorrow and in the fridge for a few days until I can process them. Corn still needs weeding, too. (There is an Alison Krauss bluegrass song about a man who wouldn't hoe corn. I'd like to weed mine, but can't get to it.)

NICE buggy. I envy the potato harvest. Dunno why but mine was a bust. The only potatoes in the bucket were the eyes I started with. A few vines, no new taters. wahhhh.

VERY nice harvest, TRock!

VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY nice buggy, too!

I am so envious of all you down south and the wonderful harvest coming in. I guess the up side is when I am harvesting it will probably for too hot down there at that time of year.

I wasn't planning on buying more peppers as I already have one red bell pepper. But I was at Home Depot having to buy pots so I looked at their peppers. I bought a Cubanelle and a Fajita Bell pepper. The sign claims Fajita Bell is a good one for stir fry, with heat but not too much. Very darning for me as I never buy hot peppers!

The bunny has gotten the okra plants again and started going down the row of string beans. He got 7 plants so far. Peppers, tomatoes, cukes, zukes, and onions all happily growing. I'll have to put up that motion sprinkler and see if the bunny likes a shower.


-Vaughn

What buggy? I don't see a buggy. Lol : ) I'll only start teasing you about it when you start adding all sorts of gadgets and 1 upping each other, until then your fine.

TRock,

I bet you could change to all-terrain tires and get hitch-mounted implements! I know there are towable tillers, plows, and disks. It would be great!!!

Cocoa ~ I didn't weigh the taters and couldn't guess. Was hoping for more but they still taste good. I'll work on a deeper bed next year. They are tasty, sliced with fresh onions, seasoned and fried. Or boiled with chives and butter and... or.... lol

How are the crop circles in the grass looking? I thought of you while mowing this evening in the peace & quiet. I remembered saving this link and thought you might enjoy reading it. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Push-Reel-Lawn-Mower.aspx

The cucumbers are outdoing themselves. I think another reason to grow parthenocarpic cucumbers is not to have to wait for their mating season. Found two sprouted sweet taters in the pantry and am busy making plantlets. The weather will be good and hot when they are ready to plant. Just right!

It definitely has the torque for heavy pulling.

Kristi, is that how you maintain and sharpen your mower? Dh has ordered a sharpening kit, however It's some kind of compound/paste. I'm loving it, it's surprisingly much easier to use then I ever imagined.

Lucky find on the sprouting sweets. Mine for Brookshires have rotted, have 'city family' bringing me some organic sweet potatoes for us. Will try rooting those.

I canned 7 quarts of green beans and 4 pints of sweet pickled beets today. I can't believe how beautiful the weather has been. I could get use to this :0)

Yes... this weather is amazing and I wonder how long it will last. I harvested my first two tomato hornworms last nite, along with tomatoes and more cucumbers. Need to go look for more hornworms this morning.

Cocoa ~ I haven't sharpened mine but my brother told me to do it this way. http://www.reelmowers.info/ It is probably what your husband has in mind. I like the idea at the end to use a drill to run the blades backward. These mowers cut so clean and neat I love it but if I mowed a larger yard, I'd probably want a lightweight new model like yours.

Thank you, we have no idea what we are doing. I was afraid the kit might be a waste of money. Having your brother's recommendation makes me feel better :0)

Btw, I picked a handful of okra this morning. Not enough to do anything with, so I sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. I have found my new favorite summer snack! Thanks for the idea!

I hate to burst your bubble, but when it gets "too hot down there" for things like green peas or even full-sized tomatoes, we can be harvesting eggplants, sweet small-fruited tomatoes of every shape and color, field peas, yard-long beans, peppers, okra, sweet potatoes, blackberries, squash, melons, green onions, and a number of other less-well-known species.

If we are careful to keep fresh plantings coming along, there are even a number of "cool-season" herbs and green veggies that will make it with a little partial shade and water. And at the end of your growing season, we are transplanting our fall-winter broccoli and Brussels sprouts and kale and collards to the garden and preparing the beds for turnip greens and carrots and onions and garlic and beets and chard...

But we do generally have crappy soils - heavy clays or excessively light sands - that need a LOT of building up to make them productive.

-Rich

According to a close friend who is big into raising orchids, that turquoise blue shade is only achieved by "feeding" the plants with dye, which is taken up into the flowers. She detests them, needless to say, not least because the stores that sell them (Lowes' WalMart, etc.) don't reveal that as the dye runs out, the new flowers will revert to their normal color.

And from a Google search: "Ron McHutton, chief operating officer of the American Orchid Society, says of the orchids, 'No they're not real blue orchids, they're white orchids that have been dyed'."

-Rich

the maters got fertilized today. since the installation of the motion sensing sprinkler the beans have not been attacked. the Cardinal however has discovered he can light on the cuke cage and get a free bath.


-Vaughn

The Alaska pea plants are starting to toast, so those will be coming out sometime this week. I'll have to harvest the rest of the pods on them. I harvested onions tonight, but didn't get an opportunity to snap a pic as it was too dark.

LOL - I have some in-ground sprinklers that are turned on my manually using a large piece of PVC pipe "keyed" to fit the recessed handles. The local birds have caught on to what I am doing and start getting excited, chirping and fluttering around in anticipation, when they see me pick up the PVC tool and head towards the valves. They know it is time for their bi-weekly baths; "Bird Brains" my foot!

-Rich

I lied...apparently I am growing potatoes this year.lol
I fill beds with chicken manure, leaves and kitchen compost and cover it all with old hay. I let them sit for the summer and those beds are great for growing cabbages and broccoli come fall. I was pulling some weeds out noticed potato foliage. Because of the manure, I won't eat them, but left them, curious to see how they do. Must have been potato peels in the compost.

Speaking of chickens, my chicken food (sunflowers), are blooming. Hard to capture on film, but a happy spot in the garden for sure.

I have a neighbor who planted about three HUGE sunflowers in a row on the front lawn. They look like delightful yard art!

How long do they take to grow?

Those were sowed mid-March, they are just plain black oil sunflowers, the kind you would find in bird seed. I like to grow them in early spring or late fall, in the summer they take more water then I'm willing to give them.

Linda, how are your new beds coming along?

Well, I only have the four tomato plants at the end of the 4x8 bed. Two plants have branched off into 2 main stems, and one has branched off into infinity!

I planted 17 bell peppers at the other end of the bed last weekend. This evening, I'm going to tackle untangling the eggplant, okra, squash, and cuke seedlings in the seed tray. They've grown completely through the drain holes and are a tangled mess in the drip tray. But, some DGers came through on the weekend, and assured me I have enough roots below to cut them apart without much damage.

I've got Rosemary and Chamomile coming up in the PVC Tube tray I made, and they're looking good. Harvesting a handful of Ky Wonder Pole Beans (that are growing under the patio cover...) every other day. And, the strawberry eBucket has picked up steam, once again, after a lull in production. Problem is the berries are tart, not sweet...I'll plant less per bucket in November.

Non-veggie related, I'm working on a lot of DIY yard projects in the meanwhile. Birdbath, squash teepee, bean trellis, etc. and about to build the 2nd raised bed.

And, I have lot more organization to do before the fall seed-starting begins in about 3 weeks (mid-June)!

A couple of friends growing my seedlings have mixed bag reports. Two (including me) have vines almost 6' tall with very few (or no) tomatoes. My Sioux do have blossoms at the tops and a couple clusters below. One other gardener has 4 raised beds of a tomato jungle with pretty good production going on there. And, my neighbor two doors down showed me the most beautiful, perfectly round heirloom tomato I've seen in a long time. Big as the palm of your hand!

And, finally, my neighbor across the street showed me these this morning...go figure. From her tiny little patch sitting out in the sun...

I think the non-producers are in soil that's got too much nitrogen. All lush greenery, and no fruit. I'm advising adding phosphate to the soil, and no more nitrogen.

Pretty tomatoes gg, sounds like you work hard in your yard. I know that feeling!

Ants are feasting on my tomatoes. I just hate it when I go look at the developing crop and see someone has been munching on the fruit. Grrrrrrrrr. This morning when I looked at the huge (and lovely) Hungarian Heart, two tomatoes were just covered in ants. I sprinkled heavily with black pepper and most of them left but not all. grrrrrrrrr.

Oh my goodness, that sound fun and exhausting! I planted tomatoes much later then usual, now that the photos of big slicing tomatoes are coming in, I'm drooling! You do have a 10% of harvest clause when you give seedlings away, right?lol
What is a PVC tray?

We cross posted, Mary. I've never had ants damage fruits before, must be one of those AZ pests. Is that a common problem in your area? A friend in Nevada once sent me a photo of a ginomous centipede that bit, stung, pinched (not sure what method of evil it employed) her on the toe. I thought right then and there, I'm never leaving this state.

Fire ants are a big problem, these just looked like tiny black ants. I've not been back out to see if they have devoured the tomato or not.

Centipede's are some UGLY critters and their bite really hurts, for days. Was bitten two separate times when living in Hawaii. I don't see them here. Rattlesnakes though!

Cocolulu,
Last year a DGer told me I exhibited an example of sharecropping at its very best. My foster parents Kept me supplied with my own veggies that I never grew in my own yard! I might need to revisit that 10% clause...

A PVC tray is a method I stumbled across in the Orchids forum. I tagged it. If you go to the tags, you can review the discussion that the originator participated in.

Here's a pic of my seed tray. I used old drawers to hold the 4" PVC tubes.

There's a link to the discussion further below and a picture of the original PVC seed trays.



This message was edited May 23, 2012 2:05 PM

Cocoa_lulu,
Oops! Here's my tray.

The Marketmore cukes are really taking off. I think I have my first cuke of the season!

My lemon cukes are taking over the universe! Vines are going everywhere, even with the trellis.

I have oodles of cantaloupes! I counted 10 cantaloupes on this one (or maybe two) plants. I've never seen so many before.

It would appear to be time to harvest these onions. They were standing up yesterday. LOL

Got back in town from a visit to Houston Sunday. A friend harvested some veggies while we were gone, but still left a bunch of cukes and a stray squash she missed. Saturday had a WONDERFUL visit with Gymgirl, and I think we both learned a thing or two. Linda, look for a D-mail...

Our first Big Beef just started to turn red and it wasn't the first fruit we saw. The Parks Whoppers have started setting fruit, but also found some leaves that look very much like what Cricket is fighting. Didn't see them until I was downloading the pictures on the computer. Will get out there in the morning and try to get this thing resolved quickly.

The watermelon and cukes are looking pretty good. Getting ready to transplant the Moon & Stars into some new pots I'm going to try as an experiment. The cukes are starting to fizzle but I don't think we did too bad. Had some good 8"+ cukes and we should have some of those plants gone in a few weeks.

#1 Red Big Beef

#2 Parks Whopper

#3 Crimson Sweets with some newly sprouted Congo's

#4 Cukes on the trellis

#5 The older Congo's...

Cocoa-when did you plant out? I'm still planting tomato plants, but that's because I still have space. Lol I have a bunch of different pepper plants so I'm trying to keep those in containers so I can keep them year round. This season is just going so fast...

I'm hesitant to put cuke or melons out because the vines go everywhere. Still have to sow my long beans, but they love the heat, and I have something for them to climb. I think trellising the other vines will put too much shade in the garden area. So I may do some cukes in containers. For some reason all I want to grow is tomatoes but I need to leave room for a few other things. Lol

I'm growing some Dwarf tomatoes and small determinates in containers under my covered deck. They receive very little direct sunlight but they must be getting it from somewhere, like GG beans, they are producing and the plants look great.

Lisa, could you post some pictures of the Dwarf you planted, curious to see what it looks like??

That was a neat thread, Linda. I'm saving tp rolls for next years seedlings, I'm going to swipe your tray/drawer with hardware cloth idea :0)

Stephanie, looking good! Where did you purchase your garden netting? I've been looking for some with 6" grid for the pole beans. I've been to HD and Lowe's...coming up empty.

Kevcarr, Looks like you had a good garden sitter :0) I'm jealous of your visit with Linda. I would love to make it to one of the south Texas's RU...someday!

Lisa, Tomatoes went out the end of March. Rain and soil prep slowed everything down. I'm envious of those that can container garden, it's not something I can do well.

Cocoa_lulu, et al,
Forgive me for not including the link when I replied. I was on the fly. Here's the link to the thread discussion for those who might want to see what the PVC seed starter tray looks like, and the discussion with the designer.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1067922/

If you scroll down the thread about 10 posts, you'll get to the pics of the original PVC seed tray design, and then the discussion about how it is constructed.

My EZ button was to secure some old dresser drawers, drill holes in the bottom, and pack in my pvc tubes. I purchased a PVC pipe cutter from one of the box stores (HD or Lowes). Then, I discovered there's a ratcheting cutter that works much better than mine, which took awhile to get used to. The ratcheting cutter is much easier to use!

Hugs!

Linda


This message was edited May 23, 2012 2:06 PM