Summer Gardens 2015 Part 4

Me being here with my parents provides quite the restrictions on what i can grow, or where i can grow it. I lucked out with getting my vegetable bed a couple of years ago, and even better luck when dad agreed to let me double the length of it. (my parents have more of a landscaped yard preference, where as i like to focus on growing eats wherever and whenever i can)

This message was edited Jul 11, 2015 8:20 PM

I don't consider Bulgarian Carrot hot. At least it hasn't been for me, I just eat them plain. A mini bell will look just like its name implies, a mini bell. The dark peppers you are growing look kind of like mini bells.

Lisa, we're eating a lot of tomatoes and sharing some as well. I'm also going to can some salsa, I think.

Brenda, yes, those are grapes. Our first ever harvest! We've had grape vines for about 3 years now. They have seeds though. :( LOL The grapes are hubby's "thing", along with the asparagus.

We've got 4 muskmelons (cantaloupe) out in the melon patch. Lots of pretty blooms on the burgundy okra this morning. I'm a fan of hibiscus, so I love these flowers. Just wish they'd open more fully.

Can anyone tell me what's up with this okra as well as what's going on with my cucumber?

Had our first REAL tomato today - YUMMY. We have been eating small cherry and grape tomatoes to sufice for the REAL tomato.

Steph - I have never seen okra do that (?aphids). Haven't a clue on the cucumber problem.
Cantaloupe sure looks healthy.

The okra looks like a type of mildew but I'm not sure. I'm thinking Spider Mites on the cucumber but I'm not sure, it is a possibility.

Well, at least we know they aren't mini bells. I have trouble sticking with one type. Good luck!

i may not even stick with that claim myself, lol, while jimmy nardello would be my mainstay, knowing me i would stick some other random pepper plant in my garden somewhere or another ;)

and todays harvest. Some Purple opal basil, some "Superbo" basil, and more peppers and tomatoes and cukes.

moms brother brought us some extra cukes, i think he may have let them go on the vine a bit too long though. We plan on making old fashioned icicle pickles with them.

I have been planting that type cucumber for a few years now and I have good results and very easy to grow.

Everyone's garden looks wonderful!

We're about to burn up down here. Only things going are beans and okra.

If anyone in Houston needs to give away some figs, I will surely come and pick them...

LMK.

THANK YOU!

My latest harvests.
Tomatoes are still producing very good, but I think they will stop soon. The weather is getting too hot here.
Lots of peppers. My favorite sweet pepper this year is RED MARCONI.
Eggplants are seating there ... one plant have at least 6 fruits to be harvest real soon.
Long beans are growing really well under the tomato plants. I bet I they will start to produce as soon as the tomatoes will stop, which it is perfect!
This has been the worst cucumber season ever ...ouch.
My squashes are mostly making male flowers which I harvest them daily and eat them in my salad. The plants are alive and making tons of leaves, which I keep cutting to feed my husband pets.
Most of the squashes I planted this year are the "moschata" type, which they are "supposed" to be more resistant to the SVB because if their thick stems ... so far so good. I think most of them will produce in the fall if they survive the summer.
The large squash on picture #3 is "Long of Naples".
Happy gardening !

am i seeing Green Zebra tomatoes floating around in that endless sea of toms?

Yes, you see Green Zebra.
The larger green tomatoes are Malachite box, which produced my largest tomatoes this year. The taste is amazing and especially on tomato sauces: http://www.rareseeds.com/malakhitovaya-shkatulka-tomato/
The medium size green tomatoes are this year surprise and they taste much better than Green Zebra and they produced so many fruits: Green Vernissage http://www.rareseeds.com/green-vernissage-tomato/
The only problem with Green Vernissage is that the fruits slightly change color when ripen. You will need to touch the fruits to check for ripeness.

we may have to make a seed swap for some of those Green Vernissage, if you would be up to it of course :)

Lots of cucumbers picked today. These will probably be the last of the spring/summer crop as it's getting way too hot for them now. Several okra pods and a couple of bell peppers today as well.

looks great there.

Also seeking some advice from you guys. It seems that after i pick some cukes off of my vine, they start getting soft and bendy and shriveled WAY too quickly, is there something that im not doing right here as far as storage goes? Ive been sticking them in our fridge crisper drawer

I put them in a plastic bag and then place them in the fridge. I use either a plastic produce bag or just a regular plastic grocery bag. Keeps for several days that way.

All my veggies are still setting (I know I'm way late) pole beans are finally starting to bloom. I fertilized with a high phosphorous fertilizer and they were sown on May 28th so I'm not sure what made them decide to bloom. Tomatoes are still setting BUT it's getting too hot for me actually it's too humid.l. Lol

Great looking haul Stephanie.

Jmc what do you have your crisper set on? You may have the humidity set too high....just a guess.

it actually doesnt have a humidity dial at all, lol. One of those cheaper models of fridges.

jmc1987
try to store your produce on a closed ziplock bag with a piece of a paper towel. It will help to absorb the extra moisture of the produce. Good luck !

thanks for the advice there.

Had to pick a couple of the Blue Beauty tomatoes a bit early because our excessive rain caused some cracking, and i always bring in cracked tomatoes so the ants and stink bugs wont have a hay day.

Also one pink oxheart tomato from the plant that i gave to mom, but hers is also dying off like mine did, i dont think that variety is well suited to our area, or maybe a problem with the seed to begin with.

This message was edited Jul 14, 2015 1:02 PM

The heat has settled in my part of the state and my thoughts are turning to the fall garden as well as next spring's garden. I've decided I need to plant twice as many bell pepper plants and about 10 jalapeno plants. I really just need a larger garden, but we're pretty maxed out on space. Today's harvest.

Good looking harvests.

I see those little purple tomatillas are still producing.

Guess we are all experiencing this hot. Since it has gotten so HOT/HUMID, I've been using my cucumbers in nice icy cold cucumber water. Pretty tasty! Our temp gauge read 99 just after noon and the heat index must have been close to 105....... WHOEEEEE!~ I should have picked the okra this morn, but it's too darn hot to check on it now. Maybe late!

jmc - About half of my tomatoes have cracks, too (all the way across the top), sometimes more than one crack, that is why I picked the one on the green side - I attribute the cracks to excess rain a while back.

I accidentially came home with a different pepper plants this year (Bell Boy), and I'll not make that mistake again. I've never had a problem with white like blotches on my bell peppers before, but my Bell Boy has that problem.

here has been the daily harvests for the past 4 days, including today

This message was edited Jul 18, 2015 5:32 PM

Anxiously awaiting the first ripe cantaloupe! And the sweet potatoes are just about all the way over to the other side of their planting bed, i would have thought they would have rooted down in multiple places, but they are still all just loose vines with the main root base being over at one end.....maybe that will compensate for itself and i get some HUGE tubers, lol!

Wow everybody, great looking harvests. I've never been able to grow Bell peppers, at least not like the ones you all have! I usually plant sweet non bells bc I get a much better yield (usually plant Marconis).

Stephanie,what type of bells are you growing?

My pole beans (sowed 5-28) are finally flowering and just starting to set.

Brenda, its hard to believe its as hot up there as it is here.

Look inside, it might be corn borers.

I am inundated with tomatoes right now. I planted Paragon beefsteak and Smarty cherry tomatoes. Both are prolific producers. The cherries are nice and sweet and actually taste best before being totally red.

The Paragon tomatoes are seemingly bred for greenhouse culture. The ends of the plant are extremely pliable -- perfect for tying up to a wire, but you have to help it climb your cage if you use those. Nice, uniform beefsteak; a generic tomato in taste. Best picked at semi-ripe stage (orange) and then it holds there for a long time before ripening to red.

well heres something you dont see every day, peppers growing from inside of another pepper.

Just picked my first Steak Tomato before it broke the branch,and also some Roma.

Lisa, we're growing Red Bullnose (very tasty) and Yellow Belle sweet peppers. Both are very nice tasting. We've grown red bullnose in the past. First time for the yellow belles.

I think I'm giving up on trying to grow a decent sized sweet bell pepper...miniature fruits and veggies are not worth my real estate, LOL!

and here is todays harvest. Got my very first Ground cherry and this whole time i had THOUGHT they were tomatilloes, big surprise for me, huh? lol

and heres the first fully opened dahlia bloom of the year

The Bell peppers seems to be doing fine this year.I usually plant in containers.

Nice produce jmc1987, I am waiting for my dahlia to bloom,the bud is just forming.

Linda, this is the first time I've ever gotten a truly decent sized bell pepper that looks like you'd buy in the store. Must've been all the rain.