How's Your Garden Doin'?

[babetoo]

getting tomatoes. not as many as i would like though, green onions, Basil. and carrots ok. squash is looking sick. got seeds to plant. just afraid of going out right now on my knee. fell down out there , yesterday. no harm , no foul but made me sorta scared.

 

[bethzaring]

things are looking pretty good right now, am harvesting broccoli, some cabbage is ready, the garlic will be ready next week for its mass harvest, carrots are big enough to harvest but I still have some from last year in the frig. yesterday I put seeds in pots to start my fall broccoli and cabbage plants..

 

[Uncle Bob]

Rough...Hot--Hot--Hot---Dry--Dry-- Having to water just about every other day just keep it alive! Yellow Crook Neck has done very well...Some days a 5 gallon bucket full...Tomatoes fair...This time last year a bucket full everyday...This morning about 12-15 tomatoes...Pickling cuke vines beautiful, but little ones seem not to want to grow off very fast.... Hot peppers, cayenne, jalapeno, and cow horn look good and beginning to produce pepper...Not very hot right now, but come late summer and fall they'll be smoking!! Yum! Pink-eyes are blooming, putting on baby peas...Yields will be small...That's Ok....Freezer full from a bumper crop last year....Other stuff just fair.

 

[Mark Webster]

From the midwest:
a white sweet cherry tree, basil, cilantro, 4 eggplant, watermelon, 5 types of peppers, 4 types of tomatoes, 1 cantaloupe, 2 cucumbers, 1 chocolate mint, 12 stalks sweet corn, 1 acorn squash, 2 types of sweet potatoes.
Everything is up and growing.

 

[Dove]

My patio tomato is so full of Cherry tomatoes an blossoms..but with today's hot temp. I may have fried green tomatoes... ;-) ( 109*)

 

[sparrowgrass]

This has been a rough spring for gardening, at least for me. May was so wet I couldn't weed without sinking up to my knees, I was gone on vacation for 10 days, and then I got some kind of flu bug that kept me down for 2 more weeks.

The weeds were hip high, corn and peppers and squashes lost in the greenery.

Too much for an unarmed woman to tackle, so I fired up the weedeater and buzzed off weeds for a couple of hours.

Looks better, but I think I lost the green beans and the onions totally.

 

[kadesma]

Tomatoes doing well and keeping us happy just made a basil honey dressing to put over them yummers, have already made and frozen 14 containers of pesto, a huge 12 cups of onions and cucumber refrigerator pickles, and more basil is ready to use,as are the cucmbers parsley is wonderful as is oregano, tarragon,sage, mint bit the dust, cucumbers are growing fast and furious, all peach trees getting ready, apricots are ready, applesalmost ready, found recipe for cucumber bread and want to try that, eggplants are so many I will be giving them away. watermelons about4 doing well..nectarine tree is full and ripening..Ahhh gardening
kadesma

 

[CasperImproved]

Tomatoes doing well and keeping us happy just made a basil honey dressing to put over them yummers, have already made and frozen 14 containers of pesto, a huge 12 cups of onions and cucumber refrigerator pickles, and more basil is ready to use,as are the cucmbers parsley is wonderful as is oregano, tarragon,sage, mint bit the dust, cucumbers are growing fast and furious, all peach trees getting ready, apricots are ready, applesalmost ready, found recipe for cucumber bread and want to try that, eggplants are so many I will be giving them away. watermelons about4 doing well..nectarine tree is full and ripening..Ahhh gardening
kadesma

I envy you your trees. I've tried a number of times to plant apple and cherry trees here, but if the deer don't eat the bark off of them in the winter, the bucks trash them in the early fall when trying to get the velvet off their rack.

Hope yo have a successful growing year.

Bob

 

[Chef Munky]

I envy all of you that are harvesting already.It must be my part of Cali that is slowing the process down.
The only thing producing anything yet is the tomatoes.They're close to 5ft tall.I'm 4'11.It's getting harder to see if anything is hiding at the bottoms of the plant.It's been my best year for tomatoes.
Everything else is still too small yet,but looking good.
Training anything that grows tall,or as vines to trail up the the twine.Their getting the idea.
That old swing set is made of steel poles,that have been secured underground with cement.It should hold up nicely.
That's my pit area.
Anything that loves the extra heat,or needs good drainage was planted in it.
My dog ate the green onions (Baaaad boy!) Did he think I wouldn't find out?

 

[kadesma]

I envy you your trees. I've tried a number of times to plant apple and cherry trees here, but if the deer don't eat the bark off of them in the winter, the bucks trash them in the early fall when trying to get the velvet off their rack.

Hope yo have a successful growing year.

Bob

Thank you,
so far things look wonderful..No critters to nibble on the trees. The cows and horses are in the pasture so no worry there and the only wildlife are coyotes at night.And they are not interested in the trees
kadesma

 

[Snoop Puss]

I have no idea how plants cope. We're currently 40ºC (104ºF) in the shade. Most of the plants are down in the fields exposed to the sun. The heat is generating strong winds in the afternoons as air is sucked inland. Not an ideal environment at the moment.

The courgettes (zucchini) are producing far more than we can eat, so I've started giving those away, along with lettuce and cabbage. We've started picking the potatoes, which are delicious.

Onions are looking pretty advanced and I reckon I'll be able to lift some of the sweet ones tonight. Toms are coming along - lots of fruit but none of them red yet. I spotted the first peppers developing this morning. Melons and butternut squash are going great. Caulis developing heads as far as I can see.

I've planted out most of my winter brassicas. They're more than just green veg but a sign that this heat will eventually decline...

 

[bethzaring]

I started the garlic harvest yesterday, dug 116 bulbs that comprised the top most row of garlic. We rotate crops every year, and this year the garlic was planted at the bottom of our sloping garden. We have had much more rain this spring than we needed, and some of the garlic has rotted, but none in this top row. I have this garlic in the greenhouse curing. I planned to dig some more today, but we are getting a gentle rain. So I processed 10 heads of garlic to make dry granulated garlic. So with fresh garlic in the greenhouse and a dehydrator full of masticated garlic in the house, it is a bit aromatic here!

Just brought to the house 2 cabbages and one broccoli. Will process the 2# 11 ounce broccoli for the freezer, and a neighbor is stopping by for one cabbage. The other cabbage is for dinner.

 

[blissful]

My garden is about 2 weeks behind the neighbors but it looks good and is healthy-beans, peas, tomatoes, tomatillas, peppers, basil, radishes, zuchinni and cucumbers. All mulched, not fenced yet (maybe not). I'm thinking of putting in some kale and lettuce yet, and we planted more beans and peas between plants so the season for harvesting will be longer.
I've got to get a picture of it, it's just so nice.
We made the garden bigger this year, added manure and soil, tilled it three times, planted seeds in the house, then transplanted them outdoors, planted seeds and as soon as they came up, we put cardboard and mulch around everything.
Claire, if you read this, if you by chance get a bumper crop of the poblanos, and can't put them up or you have all you want and you have a big box of extras--I'd love to have them in trade for something I have--like jam's pickles or homemade soap if you like any of those things. Just let me know.

 

[getoutamykitchen]

This is my first try at growing a few things. I'm growing in containers. My cherry tomatoes are doing great, their delicious. My roma tomatoes, not so good. I was able to pick one last week it was O.K. This morning I had 3 nice bright red romas on the vine/plant and 2 of them were split right down the side. Did I maybe leave them on the vine too long? Help!

 

[bethzaring]

This is my first try at growing a few things. I'm growing in containers. My cherry tomatoes are doing great, their delicious. My roma tomatoes, not so good. I was able to pick one last week it was O.K. This morning I had 3 nice bright red romas on the vine/plant and 2 of them were split right down the side. Did I maybe leave them on the vine too long? Help!

Tomatoes will split if they get a HEAVY dose of water or rain. I see they are in containers, don't know anything about that, but if they were in the garden a heavy rain will cause them to split. Tomatoes do better with a steady watering, nothing drenching.

Actually, cabbages will do the same thing; split with too much rain.

 

[getoutamykitchen]

Tomatoes will split if they get a HEAVY dose of water or rain. I see they are in containers, don't know anything about that, but if they were in the garden a heavy rain will cause them to split. Tomatoes do better with a steady watering, nothing drenching.

Actually, cabbages will do the same thing; split with too much rain.

You just hit the nail right on the head. We have had over 8 inches of rain in the last two days. They were fine a few days a go, but not quite ready to pick. Guess I just learned one of the downfalls of container gardening.
Thanks bethzaring!

 

[JohnL]

I just picked my 1st green bell pepper from the garden this morning!
My neighbors must have thought that I was crazy, sniffing this pepper like a cocaine fiend It just smelled so good, I couldn't help myself. The tomatoes are coming along fine, but won't be ripe for another week or so.

 

[Constance]

We put our garden in a week before Memorial day, which is pretty late for southern Illinois, but there's no point in setting the plants out until the ground is warm and tillable.
The 5 tomatoes and 6 peppers are strawed and caged, and look great. There are a few tiny ones coming on...It will probably be the first of August before we get much.
I do also have sweet basil and Italian parsley. The basil is doing great. The parsley is bushy and healthy, but something (surely not our deer!) keeps it munched to the ground.

By the way, the deer may have gotten all my shorter lily buds, but they didn't get the Oriental Lilies, the ones that get 4-5 feet tall, and those lillies are blooming their heads off.
All that nibbling they've done on my Knock-out roses has just made the plants grow faster, and I think before long, the roses will be tall enough that the critters won't be able to reach the top.

 

[ChefJune]

My herb garden is so prolific that I am searching for new ways to use all the goodness!

just added a big handful of mixed herbs to my Niçoise Potato Salad. It won't know what hit it!

 

[Leolady]

I just got a house, so the first thing I did was plant.....................wild garlic!

I found it growing along a highway, and sent my SO out to dig me up some. We planted it a few weeks ago and it is doing well. In another year or so I should have a great permanent garlic bed.

Wild garlic is so much more flavorful than domestic garlic!

This fall, I will plant apple, cherry, peach trees, grape vines, and a wild strawberry patch. Then I will establish my asparagus bed and perennial onion bed. If I have time/money, I will plant tulips and daffodils.

Next spring, I will start my rose, lavender, daisy, herb, and vegetable beds.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.