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Claire

Master Chef
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
7,967
Location
Galena, IL
Now, I only have about a dozen square feet of garden. Our "spring" such as it was, was cold and rainy. But I was talking to friends and acquaintances recently, and discovered that I had the earliest tomatoes and cucumbers, and this includes some pros. Three tomatoes, three cucumbers. It made me feel proud of myself, because it has been a very difficult year in our area. It was mostly dumb luck, but I'm happy to have salads from the garden!!!
 
Congratulations! I always do better when I plant no more than I can tend to, so i ma crediting you with good planning rather than dumb luck..
 
you must have good soil and a green thumb, claire.

wasn't it your hubby who said you have soil, not dirt, right?

unfortunately, i have dirt. it used to be soil, but it's been growing a garden for 60 plus years, and i haven't amended it much in the past few years, so it's just dirt.

i got my garden in almost 2 months late this year, so i'm hoping for a warm september.
 
Yes, my husband says everywhere else has dirt, but our part of the country has soil. Since I keep it small (I do some freezing, but never could get into canning) enough for me to handle easily by myself, and after living here a decade I know what works for me and do very little experimentation and grow almost nothing from seed (lettuce, spinach, some herbs). I buy the largest, prettiest plants I can and with tomatoes I do a few early girls and then one big/better boy (gives me my fall tomatoes when the early girls die back). We, too, got a late start. Our area had over 10 year records this spring for heat, for cold, for rain, and for snow. Let's throw a little hail in for variety. So it was almost june before I got started.
 
We had lots of lettice this year, was a little bitter though. Few good tomatoes, and potatoes that sprung up from nowhere as no one remembers planting them! We also had 5 small but quite juice strawberries - despite a squirrel knocking the bird feeder onto the plant and breaking the stem. :D

Congrats on your Tomatoes and cucumber Claire - nothing better then veg from the garden!
 
I had my first tomato on the first of July--a record for me. I think I cheated, however--the tomato plants had little tomatoes on them when I planted them. No cukes yet--my first planting never came up. I do have flowers on the second planting, so I will have cukes and zukes soon. I picked a kohlrabi yesterday, too, but I think there are only 2 or 3 still in the garden.

I will be starting fall broccoli plants soon--my neighbor says she no longer plants spring broccoli, because it does so much better here in the fall--no little green worms!!
 
Well done :) I just used the last of my garden tomatoes, only a few cherry tomatoes left now. Had a good season, didn't have to buy any for 3 months. I still have herbs and chillies, the peppadews are almost all gone too :(
I still have many kinds of herbs and my papayas are nearly ready. The frost hit us bad this year so most of my plants got damaged or destroyed!
I was thinking of buying some heirloom seeds after winter and trying them out in my garden. Botswana is just so darn dry and hot in Summer, it's a real battle to grow anything. We get most of our fresh produce from South Africa, wish I didn't have to leave my garden behind when we moved. I think I miss it the most!
 
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