Veggies!

AUP, Dave!

I just planted Bush Summer Squash - perfect, I think for a commuter!

Victor, you are hysterical!

Thanks Pirl. How are your many veggies doing??

We're astounded by the stems on the tomatoes. They are gargantuan and many Sweet 100's are waiting to ripen. Everything is growing very well. No fatalities....yet.

Great! How many maters did you plant? So far I'm happy with the Topsy Turvy planters. Looking good.

Three each of Celebrity, Big Boy and Beefmaster and two Sweet 100's. Glad you like the Topsy Turvey planters. I just might try it by the kitchen door next year. Could I grow some basil in there, too?

Don't see why not.

One of these days I'm going to start doing veggies, right now I just have tomatoes in containers, freebie seeds from Jung. They are looking pretty good.
My dad used to have wonderful raised beds full of all types of veggies. Growing up we lived on a lake and he pumped the water from that for his underground irrigation system.
I think(hope) I got some of his gardening genes.

This message was edited Jul 3, 2007 3:19 AM

Dave, I planted the bush cucumbers knowing they were invasive because I thought some of them might show up in your yard LOL

“Jimmy Nardello” peppers in 2 earthboxes blossomed last week. For an undetermined reason, 2 of 16 rotted out at the stem line. 8 more which were planted 2 weeks later in the ground seem to be maturing faster than the ones in the boxes.

Lemon cukes, round tri-color and yellow squash in 15 gallon grow bags are producing nicely. Next year I’ll put one plant per bag rather than two or three (two is OK but I think one would be better). 'Wood's Prolific Bush Scallop squash haven’t been all that prolific but they are tasty. Zuchino da Fiore is a disappointment. A zucchini bred to produce flowers for eating, it started out with a flourish but the flowers are becoming smaller . Added K and P hasn’t helped. Probably isn’t enough soil in the grow bag. Next year I’ll plant some in the ground.

Tomatoes…..well it’s a jungle out there. Perfect weather this year. Sungold, Orange Santa and Black Cherry are almost ripe Set out 54 plants, 24 varieties, between May 14th and May 30th. Didn’t have time to build cages for them all and the ones which are sprawling over the raised dirt beds are interesting. One entire row bent neatly into the north side of the ditch. Makes it very easy to water. A few stalks jumped up and out a few feet, put down more roots and jumped up again. Still time to tie them up but I might just let them sprawl. The beefsteak types—Marianna’s Peace, Kellog’s Breakfast, Earl’s Faux, Coustralee---have some time to go. Maybe mid August. Mid-size tomatoes—Box Car Willie, Eva Purple Ball, Carbon, Nyagous, Rutgers—look like they will ripen in 2 or 3 weeks.

This message was edited Jul 3, 2007 4:56 AM

Just the 54 tomato plants amaze me!!! We had a jungle one year with 39. Please send photos of your tomato jungle. Adam and Eve sure missed out with eating apple.

Yes, David, I'm amazed and would love to see a photo of it.

ditto!

David, You're not Gator Creek Farm are you? ;^)

Your garden sounds amazing!
I was in Clinton yesterday, ironically looking for the Westbrook Lobster restauraunt. We ended up at Lenny & Joe's in Westbrook. Fried clams and soft shell crabs. Delicous

Hi Dave.... feel like I'm in gator land after neglecting the tomato plants for three weeks. This is my first year with a serious garden and I did everything right (or good enough) until it came to harvesting bamboo and building cages with the canes. Doesn't look like the crop will be affected much though. So if you or anyone else pass by exit 63 on I-95, I hope you drop by and try some of the different varieties. We're a half mile from the exit on the right as you go toward town. Sara's Galapagos is one of the more uncommon tomatoes and its doing great. Fruits are the size of a pea. Carolyn Male doesn't mention it in her book, "One Hundred Heirloom Tomatoes", but speaks highly of it on forums. Growing one, "Ester Hess Yellow Cherry", simply because I could find no information on it on the internet.

An edible old border carnation, Fenbow Nutmeg Clove, is doing well. Thompson & Morgan say it can bloom the first year. Seeds were expensive as seeds go but all 20 germinated.

Having quality control problems with the camera but this shot gives some idea of the tangle:

Oh David! I can't wait for a follow up photo in another month. Happy tomato eating!

Looks abundant!
I'm off exit 58. You, Don & I should get together

Dave47 - when is your big tomato harvest time? Ours starts slowly in mid-August and by Labor Day weekend we're bringing in 50 pounds daily.

50 POUNDS? OMG! What do you do with them all?

It's 50 pounds a day for about five days and then it quiets down a bit but not much until the end of September.

First we eat and save some for the next few days, then come the neighbors, friends and family. Last of all I'll make two vats of sauce (33 to each pot) and then I chunk up and freeze for the winter and spring.

How do you do the sauce Pirl? What else goes in?

Not much of an actual recipe, Victor. Just cooking them down is a long day. I've tried staining them but it gets to be a tremendous job.

Good one for cherry tomatoes - and quick: melt butter (or use olive oil but I prefer the taste of butter in this one), add chopped garlic and just as it begins to brown add 30 - 40 cherry tomatoes, swirling to coat them - then serve. About one minute in the pan for the tomatoes.

My veggie garden doesn't get 100% full sun. We get them at the end of August. I usually grow about 6-8 plants. No big harvest for us. I do have an heirloom that has been in my sister-in-law's family. I don't think anyone has it. Big and more similar to brandywine. Would you want seeds? They are late but delicous.

Grampapa: Tell us more about your bush cucumbers. What variety? How are they producing so far? How big do they get? I noticed several types in the Pinetree catalog and thought I might try them since my cukes are doing poorly this year. Tomatoes are going gangbusters however, so I guess that makes up for it.

Dave and David: Yes, we're just a couple exits away. Must get together sometime.
(Dave, why are you up at 2:52 am? Watching HGTV reruns?)

We weren't thrilled with the heirloom tomatoes but that's one of the zillion nice parts of gardening - we can all do what makes us happy.

Just not sleepy last night. sleepy now, though.

Should have been out weeding! Could have borrowed Pirl's miner hat.

I wore my umbrella hat to pick lettuce in the rain. Worked well and the new neighbors still haven't come over to say hello. I guess the hat worked better than I thought.

do you really have an umbrella hat? We need pictures!

Yes, I do! In fact I bought two - one for Jack but he's too chicken to wear it. Maybe after a drink or two I'll ask Jack to take a photo........sometime.

This is how new I am to veggie gardening. . . tonight as I was innocently looking around my patch, my 4-year-old grandaughter-helper asked me what "these" were. Turned out to be five GIANT cukes about 8 inches long that were hiding underneath those big leaves until they could achieve the size of small torpedos. My first ones! I know about zucchini (gotta watch 'em) but I didn't realize cukes grew so fast and were so wily. They weren't yellow yet, but getting there.
Since I have four plants, I think I'm going to need some cucumber recipes. . .
Pirl, I need your miner hat.

Yes, they're not quite as bad as Zucchini, which will grow in front of your eyes, but they do grow fast.

Emily - what you need is to check them daily. Miss a day and you have another torpedo. There is a recipes forum at DG - just do a search for cucumbers.

Cucumber gazpacho!
We had unexpected visitors the other day and luckily my wife had just prepared this recipe--a refreshing cold soup for a hot day. Unfortunately my cukes are only 2 inches long so we had to buy some, but the gazpacho plus ham salad made with abundant greens from the garden saved the day for lunch.

I am going to harvest my first cuke today - I think it's lonely out there.

I just picked my first cuke!

Don, they are 'Park's Bush Whopper'. I have always had very good luck with Park's Whopper series of veggie seeds. I have grown their Whopper tomatoes for years. the sweet peppers are always thick-walled and blocky. I have grown the regular Whopper cukes, but I don't think I've ever done the bush-type cukes before. but I'm in containers now, so it makes sense. DH will be having the first one for dinner, so I'll post after how the taste is. I set out the plants on 6/1 (late as usual), so that's 40 days. started the seeds on 5/10, had germination in 3 days.

ok...report on the cuke: tastes good, almost seedless

Picked my first one yesterday! Burpless something. Tasted good. My little guy, who is a terrible eater, likes them so we grown them in 'his' garden'.

oops, forgot the pic. it was slim for the length, which is probably why the seeds were so small

Victor, nice to find a veggie the kids like. I don't like cukes. I love the way they smell, and I've tried them many times. just don't like them.