Haven’t seen the annual gardening thread, so I thought I’d start one. How is your garden doing this year?
My squash ( 8 ball and zucchini) is generating so much we are putting it on the curb, where it gets picked up right away. Beans are good. Onions, snow peas and lettuce are done, but were good also.
My tomatoes last year were a disaster, so I moved the plants and am getting only a few with holes eaten in them. I’ve already had my first BLTs of the season.
Last year we had over 20 butternut squash from volunteers - best bargain ever. We bought one this year, which turned out to be two plants, and we have a dozen big ones on the vine already. They should be taking over the entire garden after we pulled stuff out.
Despite the unusual drought and heat here, the peas have been the best I’ve ever had, and they’re still going. The onions are pretty decent considering how late they went in, beets surprisingly good, the sole cucumber’s producing more than I can use, when they’re usually marginal outside, and the beans are looking OK, though a bit later than normal. The sole tomato plant I had outside (we get blight badly, everyone said it was unlikely to crop) is smothered in fruit, with the first few just ripening now.
The courgette (zucchini to most of you) has barely done anything however, and I may get one winter squash out of the 5 plants I planted, though admittedly that plant was down to half a leaf at one point due to slug damage, so I’m pretty amazed it’s done anything. Parsnips were a total failure, and I don’t think I’ll get many carrots either.
Spring generally was a bit of a disaster; it was late, wet and slugs and snails were destroying everything I planted, but the few things that did get established seem to be doing their best to make up for it once it properly warmed up.
A week of rain caused serious tomato blight. Complicated by the fact that I planted too many too close together. Still, the plants linger enough to get in a decent crop. At least I no longer have to worry about drought.
Last winter killed every fig tree. We may get a few figs from new root sprouts. Meh. These sprouts are healthier than the old trees were.
Got a bumper crop of raspberries this spring, so fall’s crop should be huge. Much jam to make. My aronia bushes are finally fruiting after three years of lingering. I will pick and make a drink out of those today.
Constant bean harvest is nice for a dinner every night, just a handful a day.
Nice crop of squash, no mildew, plants are growing very well, so they should hold out until the squash are ripe and then toughened by the cold, so they can be stored over winter. We ate so many blossom fritters we just don’t want them anymore.
Huge crop of herbs, and it looks like my toaster oven on Desiccator setting gives better results than sun-drying. So that’s worth storing.
I grew potatoes in felt bags, that made harvesting easier. Nice crop – 5.5 lbs from 2 sprouted potatoes. I planted them again, and I’ll get another crop before it gets too cold.
All in all, I’ve had fun. But I wouldn’t want to do this for a living, and I was seriously considering doing just that last spring when I planned this all out.
Container plantings: Discovered squirrels really like roma tomatoes. So far I’ve only harvested one. One little mater. They’ve had quite a few. Right now there are a dozen ripening. They got a green pepper, too. There are still a half dozen growing. Luckily, they don’t like jalapenos. I’ve harvested a few.
Herbs are growing like mad.
DC area, and the big rains have made it hard to avoid split tomatoes. I only grow large grape tomatoes as a rule, because of this.
I tried a new variety of cucumber this year that looked all right, but tasted bitter. I used to grow another type that never got bitter, even with our crazy weather extremes, but the shrinking bee population can’t seem to pollinate it well these days.
I only have space for a couple of each plant. Herbs and green beans have produced and gone by. A critter keeps taking bites out of the few zucchini.
My window-sill Cilantro refuses to thrive. Gets about 2", then starts to turn yellow. :mad:
I’ve got 10 :eek: zucchini, all flowering big-time, and not a single one producing anything! I’ve tried hand-pollinating, extra water, satanic spells. Nothing! When you can’t grow zucchini, you should just give up.
The Japanese eggplant, however is doing okay, and the tomatoes are coming along for a strong finish.
Cilantro is a PITA. Our other herbs - tarragon, chives, thyme, parsley and basil - are doing great, as is the rosemary bush out front. The dill once again is anemic. Lots of green tomatoes, but few ripened so far. Cukes are doing well. The Asian pear tree is really producing this year and we’ll be canning some pear sauce for the winter.
My spring crop tomatoes were a disaster. We had a cool(for SE Texas) spring and went directly to too hot for tomatoes. This was exacerbated by getting a couple of mis-labeled plants. They were supposed to be heat tolerant heirloom varieties - Arkansas Traveler was one, but were really a roma type that didn’t set a single fruit after April. I will be going to the garden center for the fall plants sometime this week.
The peppers are doing well - I have been giving away bells and poblanos to anyone who will take them.
The satsuma oranges are looking good so far and my new-last-fall pomegranate tree/bush is outgrowing my expectations. Fresh pomegranates in 2019! maybe.
The tomatoes just stopped growing. I’m not sure why. I just gave them some fertilizer the other day, maybe that will help.
The replacement raspberries (I lost the old ones to the drought a couple of years ago) are doing nicely, but haven’t fruited. Maybe this fall. Well, there was one sprig, but the critters got those berries.
The cornellian cherry has finally come into fruit, and there’s a lot of unripe fruit on it!! I picked some under-ripe and will see if iit ripens indoors. I let the rest on the tree. We’ll see if there’s any left when it ripens, or if the squirrels take it all.
The apple is covered with fruit. And there are several partially-eaten apples under the tree. But maybe there will be enough for me to harvest apples this year.
Everything in containers until the new fence gets put in this fall. Tomatoes are problematic. Half of them are producing like crazy while the other half are giving me nothing. On the upside, we are on our second wave of production from the peppers. Santa Fe Grande, Anaheim, Fresno, Guajillo, NuMex, Jalafuego and jalapeno peppers galore. The Habanero are just now starting to fruit, but there are hundreds of blossoms on the plants, so I anticipate a bumper crop there as well. Herbs are on their second planting and the cats are enjoying the catnip that I’ve harvested and dried.
Last year our dog was too old to stalk squirrels, which was maybe why I had problems. I’m sitting two dogs now, and one likes to sit in the tomatoes. I’m happy to let her.
We planted a bunch of bright ground cover to attract the bees, and for Christmas we got a box that is supposed to attract them. It seems to have worked.
No wonder no one started this thread. It seems to be a hard year for lots of gardeners.
We never get rain in the summer, so that is no issue, but it hasn’t been as hot this year as some years, and it has been nice and cool in the evenings.
We are getting ready to plant winter greens. I had a good crop of spring greens. This land is especially good for that. Oh, and my peppers were/are great this year.
Peas, beets, potatoes, and lettuce are picked and over with. Zucchini are coming in, though I’ve had some blossom-end rot, probably because I keep having to be away for a week and they dry out. Green beans and tomatoes are just starting to come in. The broccoli will.Not.Flower, og darn it. If purple sprouting broccoli never sprouts, was it ever purple?
Flower-wise, the beds I planted last year are teaching me things this year. Spring was glorious; high summer needs some work. More sedums and Mediterranean herbs that flower, and they need to be arranged better. Dahlias are great, though, especially the ones I remembered to put fertilizer underneath. Will attempt to dig and store them this winter; fingers crossed.
Great summer for gardening here in NW Oregon. We have had a lot of very warm weather. Patty Pan squash, zucchini and lemon cucumbers doing great. First year artichokes have put out several even though they were planted late, will do better 2nd year if they don’t freeze out this winter. Bumper crop of Walla Walla Sweet onions. Strawberries are done but were awesome. Will have Himrod seedless green grapes, if the deer and elk do not pull them through the fence and eat them. They are growing in the garden fence and are like candy for these guys. Plants are now very established vines of 10 or 12 years.
And don’t get me started on the blueberries, lots and lots of blueberries. Probably 20 gallons so far and another month to go. We have 6 old-growth bushes of 3 varieties that produce all summer long.
And that doesn’t include the, ah, “entertainment” plants, because I assume we are talking vegetables.
