How's Your Garden Doin'?

[Chef Munky]

Thanks Munky - I might try a couple of the mentioned actions (especially like the Vaseline one as they make me feel like this) . It would be funny to watch both the squirrels and the raccoons slowly sliding back down to the ground

Bob

LOL!!! Get a video.Post it on You Tube.That would be hilarious.

Munky.

 

[CasperImproved]

Alas, I have no video camera, and my phone has only a very cheap vga camera. Last picture I took with it was of an obviously very fuzzy spotted brown thing in the "needed to be cut grass" thing that I labeled "baby doe". Almost ran over her/him on the garden tractor. They don't move unless you poke them as momma said "DON'T MOVE". At least deer babies listen. What do our kids do? They'd be down the road looking for mischievous activities after ten minutes.

Bob

 

[luvs]

jake just re-potted my basil! flowered, my oops!

 

[Chef Munky]

jake just re-potted my basil! flowered, my oops!

On the bright side,they didn't die.

 

[babetoo]

had carrots from garden, night before last. my gosh they were very sweet and so tender it only took one minute in the micro. wish i had planted more. getting ready to resow some of the kinds of seeds i had left over. however got two new varieties of lettuce to try. hop it doesn't get to hot before i can harvest some.

 

[Chef Munky]

had carrots from garden, night before last. my gosh they were very sweet and so tender it only took one minute in the micro. wish i had planted more. getting ready to resow some of the kinds of seeds i had left over. however got two new varieties of lettuce to try. hop it doesn't get to hot before i can harvest some.

Babe,
What's your secret to growing carrots? I started the seeds indoors,and nothing happened.
I have to resow most of the corn I planted.Only a few sprouted.It's been 2 months.The lates showed up,but the earlies never did.Dunno what happened there.I'd blame the dog but he doesn't have thumbs.

Tomatoes haven't disappointed me,should have some ripe enough for picking in a week or so.I plan on making sundried tomatoes,and bruchetta toppings..
Everything else was planted in the ground,so far so good.I'm looking forward to the cucumbers,making all the relishes I want.Canning my own squash.Peppers,nice summer projects.

Is it too late in the season to plant lettuce? I picked a nice spot for them.It will have indirect light all day,the house should block most of the wind,they might have a chance.

Munky.

 

[Loprraine]

We ate our first cherry tomatoes this weekend. The herbs were very slow to take off, but seem to be doing well.

 

[bethzaring]

Babe,
What's your secret to growing carrots? I started the seeds indoors,and nothing happened.
I have to resow most of the corn I planted.Only a few sprouted.It's been 2 months.The lates showed up,but the earlies never did.Dunno what happened there.I'd blame the dog but he doesn't have thumbs.

Is it too late in the season to plant lettuce? I picked a nice spot for them.It will have indirect light all day,the house should block most of the wind,they might have a chance.

Munky.

Munky, we grow several hundred pounds of carrots each year. We sow them right in the garden, in firmly compacted soil...dh rototills first, then tromphs the row by walking back and forth, then runs the seeder machine and finally re-tromphs over the rows of seeds. It takes up to three weeks for the seed to germinate and the seeds need moisture every day. If it does not rain during that three weeks, I hand water the seed rows in the evenings, so the seeds are moist all night and into the next day.

We also are planting something in the garden up until November. The second planting of spinach has been thinned, just planted black eyed peas last week, will plant bush beans this week, if the soil drys out. I would try the lettuce, just may work, if it does not get too hot.

Another tip, on spinach. Even though my first planting is going to seed, the leaves growing on the flower stalk are just as tender and tasty as on younger plants. You can't harvest a huge amount of leaves, but they are perfectly delightful leaves to eat.

We just replanted corn also. I think our problem was old seed. We should be able to tell in a week how well the second planting went.

 

[babetoo]

Babe,
What's your secret to growing carrots? I started the seeds indoors,and nothing happened.
I have to resow most of the corn I planted.Only a few sprouted.It's been 2 months.The lates showed up,but the earlies never did.Dunno what happened there.I'd blame the dog but he doesn't have thumbs.

Tomatoes haven't disappointed me,should have some ripe enough for picking in a week or so.I plan on making sundried tomatoes,and bruchetta toppings..
Everything else was planted in the ground,so far so good.I'm looking forward to the cucumbers,making all the relishes I want.Canning my own squash.Peppers,nice summer projects.

Is it too late in the season to plant lettuce? I picked a nice spot for them.It will have indirect light all day,the house should block most of the wind,they might have a chance.

Munky.

no secret just planted them in a large pot. not a huge crop but enough for me.
tomatoes , specially , small yellow pears shaped are doing well. one squash just plain died. have to clue why. i am going to give the lettuce a go. not much lost money wise if it doesn't do well, in part sun in long narrow pots. basil bolted so cut it back and will see. we have not had much sun this month so everything seems to be slow.

 

[Chef Munky]

Thank you both for the help.I'll see about finding a spot for the carrots, and try again.

Munky.

 

[Treklady]

This is my first year to bat when it comes to any type of gardening. I was made to do yard work as a kid and in the heat of the day and in Florida. You do the math.

But in my wiser years I am learning to love being in my garden. I just do it late in the afternoon and early evening as not to overheat.

But all in all we are not doing so bad. We have some sweet peppers, along with some green bells. Those are just beginning to flower now. But it is our herbs that are doing great.

We have curly and flat parsley, some garlic, spearmint, oregano, basil (we are making pesto for the first time tonight), cilantro, and dill. And arugula that was to die for.

My pride and joy thought are my tomato plants. I have over 50 plants. Yes, I plan on canning and putting up some jelly as well.

We have okra but I don't know if I will grow them again, they need lots of space and that is one thing I do not have an abundance of right now.

I would like to do cucumbers and did, but they all died. they started out great but fizzled out. I was disappointed, for we all love cucumbers here.

So that is my gardening story.

 

[babetoo]

did a little searching on the squash. looks like i might have two the same sex. no pollination. now i have forgotten which, but male or female ones don't turn into squash. strange isn't it.

 

[CasperImproved]

My zen approach to having my tomato plants grow well in their very roomy pots with fresh potting soil, is being squashed by the weight of rain I've had in the last three days.

I'm sad now, as I did plan for the animal deprivation, but not mother nature crying so much my maters are curling up and turning yellow. :-(

I will be surprised if they last till next Wednesday at the rate thy are cringing.

But I'll keep the faith for them and pray to the green tomato god... uminah, uminah... oh mighty tomato god, please bless these tomatoes so they can be cherished in their role as part of a worshiped BLT......


oh well, sigh.. I can hope. I have a fresh jar of Hellman's with their names on it.

Bob

 

[Claire]

My tomato plants look like fashion models for the perfect tomato plant, which almost scares me. Seriously, I feel sometimes like the uglier, scraggly plants put out more fruit than the pretty ones! Last year they looked so bad at this time that I went and bought a couple more, and had a bumper crop. So the pretty plants are scaring me. I've Super Cayennes and Poblanos, and they're doing fine. What always kills me is that I grow some of them in whiskey half barrels, one of which is in the shade most of the day. Now, peppers are supposed to want, no need, full sun. But that particular barrel always (going on 7 years now) the most prolific producer. Every year I try either zuchini or eggplant, and as usual they're going to be a flop. When I lost my nose a few years ago (I mean my sense of smell, not literally my nose), cukes and watermellon actually smelled terrible to me. I've regained my sense of smell (I think it was a menopause thing), but still don't like cukes and watermellon. This apalls me, those are things I used to love! So, after literally needing to throw cukes away lasts year (I gave away as many as my community could absorb) this year I regretfully didn't grow any, leaving room for more tomatoes and peppers. THe herb garden is going great guns, but I've always had luck with that.

 

[CasperImproved]

Claire - Nice update... I've only got the potted tomatoes this year that due to heavy and excessive rain over the last three days, look like their not very happy.

Oh well, some years we're blessed, some we're not. I'm glad you're having a good year.

Bob

 

[Claire]

Casper, we are in the same sort of weather zone, and the fact that you've planted in pots will probably pan out in the long run, because you have good drainage. The excess water has some place to go. Right now we have such long days (people who live in the south, which I did for much of my life) don't know about these long days. They will really work their magic on those potted plants, and the roots get a chance to dry out between drenchings (and yes, we've had a lot). On top of that, we had a very, very, very, extremely windy spring. I haven't seen so much wind since I was a child living out west. It just sucked the life out of many of my early plantings.

 

[katybar22]

OK here's my problem...I went out to water my 2 sweet little tomato plants on Friday. They looked good, both had a few little cherry tomatoes, and had lots of buds. I skipped Sat. as I wasn't feeling great and went back on Sun. to check them. Well!!! Something has taken not just the tomatoes, but the whole plants!!! They're both just gone!!! OK, that's my rant for today, gotta go to the MD, see you all this afternoon.!!

Katy

 

[bethzaring]

did a little searching on the squash. looks like i might have two the same sex. no pollination. now i have forgotten which, but male or female ones don't turn into squash. strange isn't it.

LOL babe, it's the male squash flowers that pollinate the female flowers and the female flowers then go on to develop the fruit. Every squash plant will eventually produce male and female flowers. There is some environmental condition (heat, moisture) that your squash plants are not making the male and female flowers at the same time. They make the male flowers first, just give it time for the female flowers to come along...

 

[babetoo]

sounds like plan. beside squash blooms , i have an odd ball purple flower. what's up with that.

 

[nanat]

It's so hot here that my garden is on it's way out. Did get a lot of tomatoes this year! Canned a bunch of salsa. We're still eating them for now, but it's 100 here today and each day the pickings are getting slimmer. Munky, you said you planted red, green, and yellow bells? I did too and never got anything but green on all the bushes! I think somebody screwed the tags up on them.