Summer Gardens 2014, Part 3

I saw the pic of the cake and I wish I had a hunk of it right now!!

I'll try that tulle trick next crop. I yanked all my corn yesterday and it made me sick to see it go to waste. Again, I loathe grasshoppers on the deepest level..

jmc1987 - I remember that photo now! Gettin' old...... my grandkids have picked more blackberries so there is another buttermilk cake in our immediate future. I guess I won't get a lot of blackberry jelly made this year!

The row covers seems to me to be a good way to go. Soooooo thankful that I found this thread!

Becky, my oldest grandson has "adopted" a lizard of some exotic sort and she loves to eat grasshoppers and crickets, so now we have cricket hunts around my garden. I know that it won't even dent the actual population, but every little bit helps. So sorry about your corn! Heartbreaking!

My 7 pounds of cucumbers made 10 pint jars of Kosher Dill pickles. Not really enough for all year but I have hopes of another batch before the season is done.

This is the "lull" between the late spring/early summer canning rush and the late summer/ early fall figs, apples and pears canning rush. It's nice of Mother Nature to give us a bit of a rest during the season.

Still no signs of damage from spraying my soap solution. Just lots of dead bugs! Love it!

Worth the mosquito bits this morning.

I am totally overrun with cantaloupes right now. I have TWELVE in the fridge. Ack!

NicoleC - Looks like you ain't doing so bad in the blueberry department either lol! Twelve cantaloupes! Wish I was your neighbor!

Latest harvests.
Tomatoes are still producing and the plants are loaded still ... but I think the taste is not as good as the tomatoes grown earlier when the night time temperature is cooler.

The hard work in my zucchini plant has paid off ... Lots of amazing squash this year ... but I don't know how long it will stay for.
I found many eggs of squash bugs underneath the leaves. I did squish many squash bugs and I have noticed that the SVB laid one egg under every leaf !!
So ... I need to enjoy what I have right now !

Lots of melons ready to harvest soon.
The cucumbers are really getting large and delish.
peppers and eggplants producing slowly !

i tell ya what, i wish i was Drthor's neighbor, LOL, just look at all those goodies!

Yes, jmc; I'd be your roommate? ;)

really big blackberry harvest today, turns out there was an entire patch of berry vines that i didnt even know about--because my nearsighted vision couldnt pick them out, lol, only way i found out about them is because mom came with me to pick some of what i DID knew existed, then hear her exclaim out "Holy mackerel!" lol. there are still tons and tons more, but its too densely grown up around there with weeds and such that we wont be able to get to most of them.

Also while i was down there, i found something that looked SO MUCH like a dill weed that i just had to take a clipping of it and put it into a glass of water while i looked it up. It turns out to be wild fennel (which explains the lack of dill scent when i tried smelling it, lol), wonder if it would root if i left it in the water?

also ive been trying out a single swiss chard plant in a container just to see how it would do, so far so good, lol. More colors of cosmos starting to show themselves. Moms german johnson tomato has gotten a lot bigger, mine still staying about where they were weeks ago, lol. Cukes are starting to show some promise. and yes i did check to see if that sprig i found was really a cosmos plant, totally different scents entirely between the two when the greenery was mashed up, lol.



This message was edited Jul 13, 2014 6:46 PM

Wow it's definitely summer, just look at all those veggies!!!

Today's harvest includes Fortex beans, Marmande tomatoes, National Pickling Cukes, Muncher cukes (sooooo good and prolific!), cherry tomatoes, and Pantano Romanesco tomatoes.

I found this huge Pantano Romanesco among the plants this morning. Now I wait.

That's great !
I did order the seeds for Marmande tomatoes for next year. It looks like a good variety for our area.
Happy gardening ... even if it is sooo hot right now !

still my beefsteak type tomatoes continue to suffer. now it looks like they have contracted that stinkin' fusarium, or at least it appears that way. perhaps my garden soil is more pitiful than i thought. which is strange because everything was flourishing last year....perhaps i didnt restore enough of the nutrients to make up for what was depleted from last season? as i forgot to apply bagged manure this season, where as i did put some in last year. may also have to do with the fact that they were struggling as seedlings: going limp for some reason, then perking back up, etc. perhaps these plants were weak from the start.

on a positive note, the sucker that i clipped off of the "Great White" a few weeks ago has taken root and starting to take off, but will need to go into something bigger now. and i found this little guy munching away on one of my romaine lettuce plants, but thats ok though as its just a plant that i left in there to go to bolt for seed collecting, lol.

and i dont know what is up with the soil over at my dads auto shop, but he asked for some of my cosmos seed early this year, and they have gone absolutely berserk compared to mine, and he simply leaves everything to fend for itself, lol

Lucky auto shop!

It does sound as though your tomatoes could have been weakened before they got to their final soil. Hope you find something that perks them up.

the two mystery volunteer tomato seedlings that popped out from my compost are doing really great as adult plants now, i am thinking that them weathering out the cold winter is what really toughened them up perhaps, as they never needed any cold protection, heck they even powered through two nights in a row of frost and looked nearly unscathed at all by the whole thing! im wondering if i should just set my tomato seed outdoors in soil during the last few weeks of winter next time--maybe that would toughen them out too, lol! ;)

Drthor, the Marmande has been very prolific for us this year and I've been pleasantly surprised. It has a good flavor, too. The only 'con' I have is that the tomatoes aren't always the same size. They all have the flatter shape, as opposed to completely round like a baseball, but we've enjoyed them. I hope they do well for you as well.

Out of curiosity, stx, why is the irregularity in size a con for you?

Jmc, you've made me think. Since I grow all my tomatoes in giant pots (20 gal.), what if I just planted a tomato in each one in the fall, after rotating out the soil, and waited to see what came up the next year? Geez that sounds good, lol.

We have some cooler days ahead -- going to be 57F tonight! -- so I am looking forward to more fruit set!

It's not really a "con" it's just that if you want uniformly shaped tomatoes, then this might be important. It doesn't bother me at all.

Picked our first Sugar Baby watermelon today. Sugar Babies are small "icebox melons", and this one weighed about 3.5 lbs.

Forgot to mention, we started our fall gardening today as well by planting okra seeds! Started saving seeds from our tomatoes and I made refrigerator pickles with some of my cucumbers.

I'm dropping broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower seeds tonight, if it kills me, LOL!!!!

Me too. I will start broccoli seeds today.
I cannot believe it is already fall garden time.

heck in that case i will toss a few beet seeds into a couple of large containers that i was planning on keeping them in, a good couple feet deep and couple of feet wide, i figure i can squeeze in about 6-8 beets into each container, until my summer garden space frees up a bit for some succession planting ;)

Guess we need a fall gardens thread?? Not sure.

Steph,
I was gonna say "wait," but if any newbies are peeping in, or lurkers lurking, they'd get the benefit of our seeding / planting schedules, as well as our veggie varieties.

I'm sure we'll also be posting our seed starting techniques, too.

Just sayin', LOL...

What'd the rest of ya'll think? New thread?

works for me, i dont get enough thread updates in my thread watchers, lol! although i still have to wait out my summer veggies being exhausted before i can start mine because i am limited to just one growing place--although i did sneak in getting some beets planted into those large containers like i mentioned

I admit to being confused by you-all's Fall planting. I would have thought that, being farther south, your summer would last longer in addition to starting sooner. Is it because you're getting a second harvest in, rather than planting for over-wintering?

Yes, us-all that know some but just get more confused sure could learn more.

My head is swimming.

I'm not overwintering (except garlic). I plant cool season crops now for harvest September through December, and sometimes longer for things like spinach and collards if the weather doesn't get too cold.

Some warm season crops like beans, summer squash and banana peppers can still be planted now for harvest before frost.

Ok. Looks like we need that new thread! And, we probably need to copy to last couple of posts over to the new thread (Nicole and Drthor).

Steph, will you please go ahead and set up our new thread?

Hugs!

P.S. "The best laid plans of mice and men, oftimes go astray..." MY intention was to sow seeds last evening. I got as far as washing & sterilizing 120 yogurt cups, since I couldn't get with the two kids next door. Tonight I will be washing & sterilizing drip pans and seed trays.

NEW THREAD HERE: Vegetable Gardening: FALL/WINTER Gardens 2014-15, Part 1


http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1368713/

This message was edited Jul 16, 2014 10:10 AM

Impatient much, Linda?!? *Snort* Sorry, I was at work and am just now seeing this.

Sorry, Steph!
I figured you might be busy and I wasn't, so I went ahead -- please forgive me!

I'm just teasing you. I'm glad you took the initiative and started it. No worries.

I know, tee hee hee!

What a wonderful day in the garden.
I woke up at 65F degrees ... what a dream.
It rained all day yesterday and there is not a better taste tomato harvested after ton of rain.
Everything is doing good.
My first watermelon is really small ... ahhhhhhh, but I have a long squash !!

My last huge tomato is a Cherokee Purple.
I have started to remove tomato plants. Most of them are still producing: BEST TOMATO YEAR EVER !

I have started to pickle okra every Sunday. I am getting really fast.

Happy gardening !