Got a ton of digging and planting done last weekend, but it’s never enough, is it? Trying to beat the heat, but I’m running out of time - whatever doesn’t get done outside over Memorial weekend probably won’t get done until fall. Which means I need to get my lazy butt in gear and stop procrastinating over cutting apart and re-potting the seriously rootbound and overgrown agave. I borrowed welding gloves from my MIL (damn thing has 5" needles and has earned the distinction of being the only plant I’ve ever named: The Bastard) and I need to get around to this project and then return them.
Ate the first of the year’s homegrown tomatoes last night, though. Mmmm…
Had a marvelous lunch using the bok choy and onions from the garden.
Going to have to freeze most of the rest of the bok choy, just too much to eat all at once. And some of the spinach will go towards the weekly salad greens, but the will also need to be frozen.
The lettuce has gone berserk. I thinned it down again this morning and the resulting pile is pretty daunting, I may be giving half of it away.
I have a 5 gallon bucket full of bok choy. Actually, it’s overflowing with bok choy.
The spinach is ready to bring in, before it goes to seed in this heat.
The kohlrabi looks about done, too.
The onions are producing nicely, the second row of lettuce is coming along, and the third row of radishes is up and growing. I found more wintering-over beets which may only be good for greens, but they’re getting ripped out this week.
Meanwhile, we’ve had to move where we park the truck because the rose bushes are out of control again. I still have to get the flower bed cleaned up. I had all sorts of plans for the garden today but the heat was already blistering at 8 am, it’s supposed to reach near 100, and I’m not acclimated to this heat. So I’m staying in for the most part - might do the grocery shopping and, oh yes, process some of that bok choy and spinach for freezing because there’s no way we’ll eat all of this before it goes bad.
Planning to put the beans, corn, squash, cukes, and a few other things in this week (I’m off Monday to Wednesday these days) but I’m going to wait until tomorrow - it’s supposed to be 30 degrees cooler and I need to put up some support for the climbing stuff.
Harvested my very first crop of pinto beans. Go me! Pintos = white flowers, black beans = purple flowers. All that extra pigment, I guess. C’mon, other bean plants! C’mon, okra!
Turns out cherry/grape/currant type tomatoes are WAY easier to grow in heat- and drought-afflicated areas (I’m in N. Tx) than the nice big slicer types, and the little-bitty currants in particular are so damn tasty! Downside: no big, fat slices of green tomatoes for frying. Got a few cuttings rooting in a windowsill for my boss, since my vines are already outgrowing their support. (Hint: if you spring for the soil amendments to grow big healthy tomato vines, don’t cheap out on the support. Damn things are getting huge.)
Only one cuke plant, but it’s producing like crazy. *Finally *got the agaves all cut up, separated, and on my way to getting them re-potted. Only got one puncture wound! Coleus and verbena are planted, finally, and I remembered to start some more cuke seeds plus some moonflower for the fence. Ooooh, and I got a good deal on a bottle of orange oil so I can finally spray the cacti against the weevil-looking things that have been sucking on them and leaving ugly spots. (Plus use it to clean the floor in the cats’ room.)
Tiny chance of rain in our area tonight. Fingers crossed.
ETA: @ Broomstick: leave the radishes, let them go to seed. (If they’re not terribly in the way.) Pretty little pastel four-square cross-shaped flowers, and I’ve had good luck with the seeds.
Congratulations to Broomstick on her Healthy Harvest.
We are going great guns here on fruit - strawberries have been coming in for the past week, I picked a ton of serviceberries yesterday, the first raspberries are ripening and blueberries (mostly from a variety called Top Hat that I planted last year) should be ready in about a week.
It is much nicer to read this thread than to do what I now need to - which is plant a front bed with cannas in 94-degree heat. We are supposed to get badly needed rain either tonight or tomorrow, then it should cool down to the high '60s. Can’t wait.
Oh, I usually have a couple radishes get away from me and go to seed every year. They are pretty. And I had the wintered-over kale go to seed this spring and it, too, had some nice tiny flowers, in yellow.
Thanks to a slightly improved financial situation I was able to buy pre-made trellises this year. I now have four, which I hope will be sufficient. If the weather cools off tomorrow a.m. I’ll be installing them. It was a bit more than I usually budget for the garden, but I didn’t have to buy much seed this year, and I should get more than their value in vegees so in the end I’ll come out ahead.
My garden is completely in as of last weekend, except for the things that need to be planted later in the season (like winter radishes).
My garden is pretty large, around 1000 sq ft of raised beds. I’m trying sweet corn again this year, even though I’ve never had any luck with it in the past. I think my problem was pollination, I didn’t plant enough rows or place the rows close enough together. This year I planted 6 rows of sweet corn 16’ long, I really hope it works out!
I just realized that the #1 problematic weed in my garden is Lamb’s Quarters (or Fat Hen, as its known in England) and its edible! Not only edible, but delicious! I sauteed up a bunch of it last night with some sweet peppers, garlic, and chive blossom vinegar (oh yes, I made chive blossom vinegar from my chives, incredible) and it was soooooo good!
I’m going to guess your culprit is Squash Vine Borers. They’re merciless. Look for holes in the stem right at the base of the vine if it happens again.
We got back off the road trip last week and immediately picked up our lettuce, tomato, peppers, squash, and one pickling cuke plants. Got them all planted, along with several types of basil. Wife wants to put in some garlic, also. We’re getting in a bumper crop of Hood River strawberries. Nomnom.
I believe slugs are eating my Caribbean pepper plants. But only the Caribbean pepper plants. All the other plants in the bed (tomatoes and banana peppers) don’t seem to be getting eaten.
Never put netting over my strawberries so the birds got the best of them. Didn’t put them in pots so bugs got onto them too. Did manage to pick a bowlful while an angry robin hopped around bitching about me taking his strawberries.
Put in a second crop of radishes-- these are supposedly heat resistant. Once those are up I plant to put in garlic. I wish I had more room. I’d love to do The Three Sisters.
I did the three sisters last year, which worked real well until the beans pulled down the corn plants. I dunno if I used particularly enthusiastic beans, or happened upon weak corn, or what.
Still got lots of beans, and the pet birds are still working their way through the last few ears of corn. (I grew it for them. Yes, I grow some of my own pet food.)
Hey all! A few years ago we put in a redneck garden - a rectangle of cinder blocks around a bunch of composted manure. We’ve had varying degrees of luck, but it’s been fun. Two years ago we had home grown tomatoes to eat as late as November!
This year I went crazy and ordered seeds from an organic heirloom seed company. Of course I never got around to starting stuff inside, so I just sowed in place and hoped for the best. Worked pretty well. A couple things didn’t come up, and it’s hard to tell the bitty plants from the weeds, but for fairly lackadaisical effort, we’re getting good return. One pattypan squash plant has surged up with a vengeance. It’s so big and hearty I’m going to start calling it Audrey II.
Right now I’m experimenting with recycled drip irrigation - punching a couple small holes near the bottom of a plastic bottle and burying near the plant roots, then filling the bottle. First experiment made clear that I made the holes far too large. The water just runs out immediately. Hopefully I can find a balance that will not necessarily keep the garden fully watered, but will at least give me some wiggle room for the inevitable days when I wind up not getting around to watering.
Oh, another lazy gardening boon - I had basil and peppers spontaneously reseed themselves, and I’ve got lemon balm stubbornly coming up through the holes in the cinder block wall, despite my trying to kill it last fall when I realized I don’t know what the fuck to do with lemon balm (it was an impulse purchase at the garden store).
No, I didn’t. I did have a 40 pound snapping turtle eat a lot of my lettuce and all my bok choy.
I use these little granules that are, basically, soaked in coyote piss. (That’s what it says on the jar - “genuine coyote urine”) You sprinkle it around the garden which, um, does make your garden smell like there’s been a wild cannid whizzing in it for a bit but it does seem to discourage the mammals from munching on your vegees.
It also seems to discourage the feral cats from using my garden as a litterbox.
As I said, though, doesn’t seem to impress the turtles. Nor does it seem to have much effect on birds.
I have also tried the “three sisters” method, and have one bed planted in sweet corn and winter squash right now, so a “two sisters” bed maybe? I think the trick to accomplishing the three sisters is to plant your beans at least 4 weeks after the corn, otherwise the beans quickly overwhelm the corn.
All I really lust after from a garden is tomatoes and sweet corn. I like to try rare/heirloom tomatoes. This year I scored some Abraham Lincoln plants from the FFA, to go with my Green Zebras and “Buffalo Nuts*” from prior years. They (and the local big producers) are doing well with daily hand watering. Lots of blooms and some dime-sized fruit.
I planted a couple of “Salsa” peppers, hoping to make some fresh-from-the-garden salsa.
My sweet corn may be a fail this year. The first and second plantings were too shallow, and it has been dry as hell this April and May - almost no germination. Supposed to get rain for several days upcoming, so my fingers are crossed for a miracle.
*Certainly not the real name, but it produces huge fruits.
Ha! You will never not have lemon balm again. We put it in some areas where pretty much nothing else would grow, and the nice thing is that the Other Shoe doesn’t have to be too careful about mowing or weed-whacking around them. Not gonna kill or even stun them anyway, and it makes the yard smell nice. But, yes, you will now have lemon balm in that place for pretty much forever.
I’m gonna have to try playing around with your plastic bottle irrigation. Did you use a 2-liter soda bottle or something like that?
Oh well, lemon balm does really smell nice. It’s just too “soapy” to use in food or tea, to my taste. I will enjoy its scent while I garden if nothing else!
I got the bottle irrigation idea here. I started experimenting with one liter bottles, but I’m going to try gallon milk jugs, because we don’t tend to buy soda, but come up with a new empty milk jug once or twice a week.
Got a few cuttings rooting in a windowsill for my boss, since my vines are already outgrowing their support. (Hint: if you spring for the soil amendments to grow big healthy tomato vines, don’t cheap out on the support. Damn things are getting huge.)
Coleus and verbena are planted, finally, and I remembered to start some more cuke seeds plus some moonflower for the fence. Ooooh, and I got a good deal on a bottle of orange oil so I can finally spray the cacti against the weevil-looking things that have been sucking on them and leaving ugly spots. (Plus use it to clean the floor in the cats’ room.)
But, yes, you will now have lemon balm in that place for pretty much forever.