I feel so… so… inadequate this year compared to some of you.
Nonetheless - my multicolored chard and indian corn are both sprouting, the kale is up, and the beans are growing like gangbusters. Another month and I’ll be eating regularly out of the backyard again, despite the late start.
And, in cleaning up some of the rest of the yard, I found lettuce that had self-seeded from last year. Unfortunately, already bolted, but it was interesting.
So…I’m getting really annoyed. Does anyone know of an effective way to get rid of Spotted Joe-Pye Weed? I’ve been yanking it out of my gardens for weeks, but it grows back immediately. If I use a week killer on it, will it harm my pansies?
One man’s weed is another man’s flower. 
All wildflowers are weeds. Some are pretty and non-invasive. And others attempt a hostile takeover of your garden. Mine are the latter. It also seems to be something that makes my hayfever worse.
I planted a couple bags of wildflowers in the back bed being unable to get rid of a noxious weed. I’m trying the crowding method of getting rid of it. It is still popping up but I spray it with round up and it dies.
Elfkin, You can use Roundup. Just take a piece of cardboard and shield anything you don’t want to get killed. I just lightly spray the leaves and the leaves take it to the roots.
I’ve got a ton of tomatoes coming in, pics:
Ripe red tomatoes
Same tomatoes, just picked
Roma tomatoes
Tomato plants
I really wish I had taken a photo of the delicious tomato, cucumber, basil & fresh mozzarella salad I made last weekend, all using just-picked produce. I also made 3 batches of my pasta salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers from my garden.
My heirloom pink brandywine tomato plant got so top-heavy that it kept falling over (the fruits are unusually heavy for their size). No amount of staking would do. So now I just let the vines grow on the ground.
I’ve got several nice cantaloupes coming in too. I really can’t wait for those!
Starting to get a daily picking of cukes and tomatoes (= heaven). I don’t know if all the tomato plants are labeled, but I will be saving some seeds regardless. One plant has huge tomatoes that look like small pumpkins! Sweet corn out at the farm (roughly .1 acre) may turn into a bust. I picked 45 - 50 ears Saturday, and am not optimistic about future pickings. The remaining stalks either have no ears, or ears so small they may never mature into something pickable. (Most of the plot was only waist high when the tassles and silks popped.)
We harvested our first strawberries last week - we got 15 sweet, tiny, jewel-like alpine strawberries, and ate them all immediately. The entire batch fit in my hand, they’re so small!
There are more to be harvested this week - it’s so tempting to make a little tart or something with them! They are lovely and sweet, and they have a slightly different flavor than other strawberries.
Our peas are blossoming - yay! I love me some fresh peas in the pod. Our rescued strawberry plant is finally starting to grow - it should be taking over the whole garden next year. My pumpkin has also come up - I just planted that as a lark, since there isn’t much chance of getting a full pumpkin out of it here.
I also have the sod dug out off of one of my three large beds in the front yard - time to start the topography of it (it’s dug into a steep hill). It looks like we’ll need retaining stones back and front of the beds, but they’ll look really good, I think (and a whole bunch of grass gone - yay!).
nyctea, you might be interested in the book Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew. He details how to build a patio garden, and has a really good system for vertical plants such as cukes & tomatoes. I’m doing one in my backyard this year & have been really happy with the results.
Quick question, if I use BT -bacillus thurengesis (sp?) in my rainbarrels to prevent mosquitos and then use that rainwater on plants would the BT harm beneficial insects? I want to eventually attract butterflys and don’t want to harm them or the caterpillars.
Let me second this recommendation. I saw a detailed presentation at a conference earlier this year and the method is amazing. Haven’t been able to implement much of it this year, but am already planning for next year. He allows you to make excellent use of space in a way that discourages weeds.
Don’t know the answer to your question, Wile E. Hope someone with a response will come along soon as I’m considering adding a rain barrel next year.
It’s been too hot to do more than a bit of watering and pruning for the last couple of weeks. It’s supposed to cool down to the low/mid-80s tomorrow and stay that way for a while. Yay!
Over the past few days I’ve been enjoying the first actual harvest from my gardens…
Pineapple Tomato plant; 2 tomatoes, baseball sized and incredibly delicious (the tomatoes, not baseballs 
) and there are 3 more good sized ones developing, as well as a few protomatoes
Broccoli; first floret harvested, quite tasty
Bush beans; a good dozen plus harvested
Cucumbers; four so far, especially good after being chilled in the fridge, and plenty more growing
Sunsugar tomatoes; the first crop from the main garden yeilded about a dozen or so, the sunsugar in the backup garden has been producing three or four a day for the past two weeks, problem is, I have trouble getting them back to the house, as I invariably end up eating them right off the plants, with the sunsugars in the main garden developing well, I’m soon gonna’ be buried in the tasty lil’ buggers
Tonight, had a “salad” consisting of thinly slivered cucumber slices, diced green beans, raw brocolli, and a few slices of Pineapple Tomato lightly drizzled with basalmic vinegar, and oil flavoured with herbs from the herb garden (Lemon basil, Greek Oregano, Sage and Rosemary) and a couple Sunsugar tomatoes for “dessert”
After a few rainy days, cukes and tomatoes have won the war - I am outnumbered and overwhelmed. It’s time to get the neighbors involved.
Interesting thing about the tomatoes: the plants with early blight are producing fruit like crazy, but the ones that don’t have it have gargantuan foliage but much fewer fruit. Could it be that they will pick up the slack in late season?
We ate our first pea pod this weekend; we had a bunch of saskatoon berries ready to eat, but unfortunately the birds got them first. Darn you to heck, birds! We’ve had that shrub for at least three years, moving it from one yard to the next, and this was the first year it had more than two berries on it. I’ll know for next year - put a net or something over it. We have a couple of tomatoes coming up, too, and more blossoms. I can’t keep up with the leaf lettuce - I think only one row next year.
Our hail-beaten new lilies are actually blooming - big, white, beautiful blooms. The plants don’t look like much, but they’re still alive!
Cat, Have some peas for me. I love peas but have never grown them. Do they grow like green beans? My sons high bush blueberry is full of blueberries and it’s supposed to be a big year for them. You can but a cheese cloth thing to put over it if you have too many birds.
What type of lillies did you plant? I got a catalog from Ric-A-Tee gardens and have a wish list. Many of the more popular ones are sold out. Some of the newer color combo’s are gorgeous. I may have to wait till spring until they restock or find another retailer. Some retailers want 30 dollars a bulb! 
My Monet garden is still flowering and I put in solar lights for night. All the tall phlox are now flowering and smell great.
Parade had a good article on sweet corn, but the website is funkified and I can’t link to it right now.
Peas do grow like green beans - in my experience, they are very easy to grow. Their only special requirement is some kind of mesh to grow up since they are vines.
I planted some Casablanca oriental lilies. The blooms look surprisingly good. I think they’re going to be gorgeous next year (assuming they don’t get beat up again). We’re planning a large plant bed on the south side of our front yard that is nothing but sun all day, and I’m thinking of making it my lily bed, full of lilies and daylilies. Every time I go to the greenhouses they have more varieties of lilies that I’m dying to take home with me.
Anyone want to play garden sleuth and help me ID some of these plants I have in our garden?
Re: Cukes. Keep the soil moist. I lost many due to heat drying them out (No. Cal) and now they are flourishing with 10 or so on the vine with may more sprouting. Will need to give them away like zuccini.
