Gardeners--

[Sterling]

I'm curious to see if any of you gardeners have had luck this year with your veggie gardens? Anyone try veggies in a pot? I know a couple of you had mentioned you were going to do that. I have to say I am pleased with the location and the "crops" so far this year at our farm! We put the new garden in a spot where the old chicken coop was...and it was RIPE and waiting for some seeds! It's true what they say about chicken manure!! That stuff is like black gold! When I planted my seeds this year they exploded!

And I'm finding it has way less more weeds than horse manure.

This year I planted bush beans, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, scallions, sweet peppers, ajicitos, basil and recaito. I've already harvested a crop of bush beans and sugar snap peas, and am getting grape tomatoes everyday along with peppers and scallions. I just planted radishes, leeks and another crop of bush beans. They start out purple and when you cook 'em they turn green!

Who'd've thought that I'd be growing all kinds of this stuff!! Goodness my tomatoe plants are HUGE!!!! Everything is so green! So all you gardeners out there, please share!!!

 

[jayne]

Thanks for starting this thread. Your garden and pictures are lovely.

It's interesting to me how our garden is different every year. We live in a cooler climate so have trouble with tomatoes and peppers, but I still try them every year. Things that seem to grow well are potatoes, corn, beets, peas, leeks, bok choy, and lettuces. I am trying carrots, broccoli, green beans and onions this year. I got my beets in a little late this year, but they can grow well into fall, so I'm not too worried. They are in those naked looking mounds in the front of the picture.

I was talking with the manager of our feed store the other day and he said that there is a big increase in the amount of garden things he is selling. I guess the economy is making people think more about growing some of their own food. I have always felt that it was important...not necessarily for saving money, but to know where it came from and how it was grown.

I look forward to see how other people's gardens are doing as well!

Jayne

 

[Shari]

Been fighting with a gopher.

My Veggy garden is limping along. Not much in the way of peas this year, yield is down by over half.

Did get spinach and lettuce.... though not enough spinach to freeze any up.

Tomatoes are not doing much of anything, but the string beans seem to be finally coming on, will have a great crop of storing onions and we really need to harvest the potatoes. Might even get a sugar pumpkin or two....same with the corn. Pepper plants died... pretty sure the gopher ate the roots. Also have Delicata squash, a Japanese melon..that starts with a K.. for the life of me I can't remember right now. Cucumber and even the Zuchinni is limping along.

Should be buried is Brussel sprouts though.

Is a strange year.

Haven't really taken an over all photo of the garden but here is one shot.

Added:Sorry will have to figure what is up with the picture. Sigh ~~

Both your gardens look really good and ...well... perfect!

 

[Sterling]

Jayne - Your garden looks so lush and healthy! How big of a space do you have? I see you have corn planted in rows. I tried that years ago and mine did not do well. Someone told me it had to do with the pollenation. I had maybe two rows if I remember correctly. You're so right about growing your own. It's so rewarding to plant and harvest! I'm growing some veggies I'd never thought I would! I'd like to try carrots again next year. Lat year they didn't do well, but now that we changed the spot where the garden is, we planto make it bigger for next year therefore I think I can grow more things.

Shari - Aww.....I was so looking forward to hearing that your garden was thriving! I know last year you had a huge one and had so many veggies growing!! Darn those varmants!! I've had moles take my plants and veggies along with cut worms and it's enough to make you wanna throw your hands up in the air and quit! I gave up on zucchini and pumpkins. They'd get to a certain point and then the flowers would fall off and the plants would look horrible. (I couldn't see the pic you posted btw)

 

[Hosscrazy]

I planted a little tomato garden and it's doing GREAT!!!! I also have a large variety off succulents in pots and in the ground - they sure love the desert heat! They are blooming and thriving - beautiful!

Liz R.

 

[Sterling]

Liz --you always have beautiful flowers and fruits growing! What kind of tomatoes? I've got one cactus growing on my garden window.

 

[jayne]

Shari....sorry to hear about your rodent problems. I was going to ask you about your potatoes...we always harvested ours about the 2nd week of August, but they look ready to me, so when you said you need to harvest yours I was wondering if maybe I should harvest mine early. Do you remember when you got them in? And as for the delicata squash...I didn't plant any this year, but last year had a great crop from just a few plants. One word of caution: try to pick them and leave the stems ON. If some come off, eat those first. I noticed that the ones with the stems on stored a lot longer than the ones without. I guess misery loves company because my peas didn't do much this year and the jury is still out on the cucumbers too. Must be our weird NW weather. I did plant another round of peas a few weeks ago and hoping that one is more successful.

Sterling...Our garden is probably 25x30. I know that 100 feet of deer netting around it comes about 10 feet short, so that's probably about right. About the corn...I've learned that they do need to be in rows to pollinate but two probably isn't enough. We usually plant 3 or 4 fairly short rows. I'm guessing mine are about 15 feet long.

I just wanted to tell what we do to our garden every year...for about a month every winter, the stall cleanings are put on the garden to the point it's about 18 inches deep all over. We try to get this done by late February. Then we cover it with a big sheet of black plastic (weighing it down with cinder blocks) and let it cook down for a couple of months. Our neighbor comes with his big farm tiller (on the PTO off the back of his tractor) and tills it all in really deeply. Needless to say, our soil is absolutely wonderful. One thing we have to watch is if the plants start looking a tiny bit yellow, I need to add nitrogen. The pelleted bedding I use, which is essentially sawdust, depletes nitrogen as it decomposes, so sometimes my soil is a little nitrogen deficient, but this is easy to fix.

Thank you all for talking about your gardens!

 

[Sterling]

Jayne, thanks so much for those soil tips! I would love to try corn again....and hopefully if we're able to expand next year will try a few rows of them again. LOVE corn and using the stalks to decorate for the fall is icing on the cake! Hubby mentioned getting a tiller at one point....looks like that may be in our future too!

 

[Shari]

Shari....sorry to hear about your rodent problems. I was going to ask you about your potatoes...we always harvested ours about the 2nd week of August, but they look ready to me, so when you said you need to harvest yours I was wondering if maybe I should harvest mine early. Do you remember when you got them in? And as for the delicata squash...I didn't plant any this year, but last year had a great crop from just a few plants. One word of caution: try to pick them and leave the stems ON. If some come off, eat those first. I noticed that the ones with the stems on stored a lot longer than the ones without. I guess misery loves company because my peas didn't do much this year and the jury is still out on the cucumbers too. Must be our weird NW weather. I did plant another round of peas a few weeks ago and hoping that one is more successful.
Thank you all for talking about your gardens!

Thank you for the advise on the Delicata squash!

You can harvest potatoes as soon as they flower, if you want. I am hopping to do that tomorrow. Think I planted them back in Feb or March... will have to go check my blog. LOL

Will be planting more pea seeds, spinach and so on....after I do a little weeding of course.

The weather has been very strange this year... both the animals and plants seem to be having issues with it. Sigh ~~

Will try to remember to take photos of the jungle like garden tomorrow too.

Yellow on the leaves can also mean the soil needs magnesium and for some reason this year the garden has been needing a lot of it.

 

[Marty]

You guys with the gardens are just so great and talented. I really think its a gift that you are born with, like an artist or a singer.

Shari, you just crack me up.

The only garden I have is Michael's little angel garden I made him of flowers. Its not doing as wonderful as I had hoped. The flowers were supposed to spread way out and thrive and they aren't, but they aren't dead. I neglected to water them enough when we had a heat wave and then I was like oh my gosh they need to be watered so I have been good at watering them. I think I will try miracle grow and see if it helps.

 

[kaykay]

I am the ultimate authority on properly growing weeds. Yes I just cut down some 5 foot weeds growing in my front "flower" garden off the front porch yesterday

 

[muffntuf]

Oh no Kay, I am the ultimate authority on growing weed gardens. Mine garden, done with two other families, is so healthy and full of weeds up to my chest, its amazing we get anything out of it. BUT - everything we planted is still hanging in there.

Next time I garden with my brother, he won't be setting the width between the rows to 18". Silly man, what was he thinking???!!!! (Can't get a tiller through that!)

 

[minie812]

Sadly, my hubby did so much to put a nice garden in for me but ALAS....tis not to be...so far we had a single cherry tomato on one of our plants that was red and as I yelled

"I saw it first, he came running to see and he was beggin' for a bite

so we had to cut it in half and share the tiny little itty bitty mater...

 

[barnbum]

All is well here. It's been cool and just right rainy. The veggies are doing well. Here's proof on the flowers.

I just weeded today--took 3 hours--not bad--it's usually 4.5.

From today

From last week.

 

[Shari]

Barnbum,,,, can you come weed my garden pleaseeee?!!

Stunning garden as always!

You know... maybe we should have the "tallest weed or most weeds in the kitchen garden" photo contest.

 

[basshorse]

Barnbum,,,, can you come weed my garden pleaseeee?!!
Stunning garden as always!

You know... maybe we should have the "tallest weed or most weeds in the kitchen garden" photo contest.

Oh! I like that idea!

 

[Sterling]

Beautiful pictures ...beautiful gardens everyone! Thanks for posting.

 

[AppyLover2]

I tried something different with my garden this year. I'm really not good about weeding the garden so I thought I'd give weed cloth a try. I put weed cloth over half of it then covered it with straw (well actually hay cause I had it already). The plants seemed to be slow getting started and looked yellowish (almost like they were burning), so I cut the cloth away from the plants a bit further and they responded to it.

My onions, as usual, are totally lost in weeds - no weed cloth there. My zucchini are rotting before they're ready to pick....no weed cloth there either....but I'll just blame that on the strange weather we've been having this year.

I got a fabulous 100 year old receipe for green tomato chow chow that I'm determined to make this year, so only planted the things I need for that + 1 volunteer zucchini.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

I mostly planted peas. And after about the third try we have about 50 ' of telephone peas doing well! I don't know if it was my arch enemy "Bunny Bast---"as I lovingly call him as he goes down the row just grubbing away. OR my husband has a beautiful male ring neck pheasant that was in there scratching like he thought he was a chicken!

There is a row of pole beans that are starting to take off and I have two types of pumpkins this year, the Cinderella and the jack o latern type. And a Beefmaster and a tiny grape tomato. They seem to be doing pretty well. The weather here has been low 60's to near 90. SO the plants don't know what to do.

This year was one I didn't think I would have time for a garden. So I took the lazy way. I pulled up my black plastic,,,, ( LOVE IT!!!) and folded it so that I had about 4-25 foot rows about 2 feet wide. Then I dug them, threw in my peas and beans and stuck in my fence posts and fencing and pulled the black plastic back up close to the seeds. Probably have more veggies this year than normal. Because I am not a weeder!!!!!

For my birthday in February I wanted a big raised bed. It still sits in the back yard in pieces! Not lettuce carrots and such for us this year!

Beautiful gardens guys!

 

[Southern_Heart]

We had a good year for Tomatos and squash. Thats all I planted back in Feb. Our garden is now just about had it with the Tx heat and ready to be replowed. Looking forward to our winter garden now.

All your gardens look great!