Garden 2023

[larry_stewart]

Sunflowers have always been one of. my top bee attractors in. the yard ( and also American Finches).

 

[pepperhead212]

Speaking of bee attractors - here are those garlic chives, and you can see how they take over as weeds! Not a bad thing, as the pollinators love them, when they are flowering, in spring, but even more now. There were countless bees, wasps, and butterflies on them today.
Garlic chives and other weeds flowering, with countless pollinators having a field day! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[blissful]

Our gardens are looking good, the squash are starting to have a few vines die off. The tomatoes have their regular disease, but still produce.

Fall is beautiful!

 

[larry_stewart]

When did you plant the squash ?

 

[blissful]

When did you plant the squash ?

About June 1st, might have been the week before that. Seeds, in the ground.

 

[pepperhead212]

I'm finally getting some cukes on some plants that I planted on about 7-20, when I was pulling some tomatoes or other cucumber plants that had either died, or were not worth keeping. The regular County Fair cucumbers did not do well, but the CF Improved plants are doing well, and I'm getting cukes on them, in just under 2 months. And there's a lot of smaller ones. I sprayed Surround on them a couple of times, early on, but the main thing I've been spraying on them is H2O2, 1/2 c/gal, w/nothing added (H202 reacts with just about everything.
First cukes on the County Fair Improved on 9-17, planted around 7-20. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Today, I cleaned out one of my beds, and put about 1½ 32 gal trash cans full of old potting mix, from re-potting, or when refreshing the SIPs. The leaves were in a pile at one end, and I pulled them onto the end I cleaned and re-covered, before cleaning out the other half. I didn't put any more leaves in, since it was supposed to rain (and actually did rain .21", so far), so I figured that would level the soil better.
Bed cleaned out, with a layer of old potting mix, saved when re-potting. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Before it started raining, I pulled the zinnias out front, to throw out with all that stuff from out back, since Monday is lawn trash day here.

 

[taxlady]

Is there a reason you don't compost the zinnias?

 

[pepperhead212]

Is there a reason you don't compost the zinnias?

There's not really much left to them - the leaves and the flowers have almost all turned brown, and there are a bunch of solid stems. Plus, I probably don't want to grow those varieties again, so I don't want all those seeds in there! For the same reason I don't compost tomatoes any longer.

 

[pepperhead212]

Early on, the weather was cool, and breezy, though not as bad as yesterday, and it soon got better, so I went out, and got busy. The best thing was, after it got cold (48° and 49°) the last two nights, there were no mosquitoes or no-see-ums! First time since May, maybe! I cleaned out the row, where all those squash grew, and pulled that landscape fabric out, and sort of shook it off, then rolled it up (amazingly, it's still good after 6 years!). Then I 'tilled the row - I might cover it with black plastic, since I probably won't be planting there until spring.
Cleaned up row from the butternut squash, behind the rosemary. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This season, the garlic I think I'll plant in a raised bed, and I got that bed cleaned out more, and scratched some fertilizer in the surface of it. I was going to plant it this weekend, but rain is forecast for both days, so it looks like Thursday and Friday the garlic is going in!

 

[pepperhead212]

I did go out and cover the garlic bed with some leaves today, since I have a feeling it is going to get windy, along with that rain that is coming in, and I don't want those strips to blow loose. After looking at everything else out there, I pulled all my okra out - I hadn't gotten much out of that all week, so the cold has done them in, but the peppers are still going nuts! I got some beans, but the long beans have especially been slowed up by the cold, and most of those I just left to save the seeds from. I picked a few eggplants, and more cherry tomatoes, but the cucumbers seem pretty much killed by the cold temps. Chard, bok choy and some other brassicas are doing well, but, as usual, cauliflower just isn't growing for me! But I keep trying! Sound familiar @larry_stewart?

 

[larry_stewart]

I have broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages in large pots. The same pots I used in the spring, same fertilizer and everything else. For as well as they did in the spring, is equally as crappy as they are doing in the fall. Other than leafy greens ( lettuce, arugula , kale). anything else they say is a good fall crop never does well ( for me). But like an idiot, I keep trying. My carrots failed, my beets are about as sorry as a beet can look. The rutabaga may be ok, not sure yet. But I'll fall into the same trap next year. Oh, my fall peas failed too.

 

[pepperhead212]

That's what I tried the cauliflower in, pots - those sub-irrigated planters, started in early August, some of them! Cabbage, and bok choy is doing well, but not cauliflower. I think it's something to do with the irregular weather here, with the temps that keep fluctuating well above, or well below average.

 

[dragnlaw]

Ahhh.. poor Sad Sack umm no, make that Larry.

 

[dragnlaw]

The bok choy I planted last year has been sprouting off and on during the summer. I looked down from the deck this afternoon and all of a sudden the garden bed looks gorgeous with them.
I'll go down in the morning and see what they look like under the leaves to the stems.
thinking a stir fry might be in the near future!

 

[blissful]

Our beets did better than ever before and I had let them go to 4 and 5 inches. I thought they'd be woody but they were smooth and nice inside, so I canned them. I'll plant this variety again, since I loved the greens from them and got beets. Burpee Detroit Supreme. We used BT on greens and that helped a lot.

 

[larry_stewart]

Our beets did better than ever before and I had let them go to 4 and 5 inches. I thought they'd be woody but they were smooth and nice inside, so I canned them. I'll plant this variety again, since I loved the greens from them and got beets. Burpee Detroit Supreme. We used BT on greens and that helped a lot.

I'll check that variety out. Al lI want is just one good year to prove I'm not incompetent.

 

[blissful]

I'll check that variety out. Al lI want is just one good year to prove I'm not incompetent.

You're one of the best gardener's out there, so rest easy. There is rarely any year which everything does well, it's always one thing or another that doesn't produce in any given year. I had a hell year for lettuce this year. I planted a half dozen times, bought new seeds, planted more, finally just gave up on lettuce. Some years I have lettuce all spring/summer/fall but not this year.

 

[larry_stewart]

Thanks for the encouragement, but I have yet to have a good beet year. It's a bucket list item of mine. I'll get there eventually.

 

[Kathleen]

I have broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages in large pots. The same pots I used in the spring, same fertilizer and everything else. For as well as they did in the spring, is equally as crappy as they are doing in the fall. Other than leafy greens ( lettuce, arugula , kale). anything else they say is a good fall crop never does well ( for me). But like an idiot, I keep trying. My carrots failed, my beets are about as sorry as a beet can look. The rutabaga may be ok, not sure yet. But I'll fall into the same trap next year. Oh, my fall peas failed too.

I could have written this. Truly. I cannot seem to grow anything that produces below ground well. The potatoes were a surprise, but not a huge crop by any means. I have garlic. Will try again.

 

[pepperhead212]

I wish I could eat beets, as I have no trouble growing them! Unfortunately, to me they taste like I'm eating dirt! I think it's a genetic thing, like the soapy taste of cilantro. I even tried growing several varieties, even some white ones, and that flavor was there. Yet the greens don't taste like that to me, nor does chard, including the stalks.