I'm one to be trying different types of veggies to see what works the best for me. For instance, this year I tried General Lee Slicing cucumbers and they have produced very well so far, bugs(squash bugs and mexican bean beetles) seem to ravage other plants but left these alone for the most part, and the flavor is very good.
Anyone else w/ recommendations?
Sue
Veggies: What's working and what's not...
I didn't get a chance to start my veggie garden this year. I just have tomatoes on containers on my deck, haven't picked any yet.
This year has not been a great year. I picked a few beans yesterday and so far have a couple of tomatoes. The zuchinni (only one plant) rotted from the rain. Lots of blooms on the peppers but so far no peppers......can't figure that out.
I have had to spray the tomatoes with fungonil because of the late blight threat. My neighbor lost all theirs. It is not the insects it is the rain that got me.
flowerjen, are the tomatoes a type that you've grown before?
bookreader, Sorry to hear about losses in your garden. The rain was devasting to everyone this year in one way or another. Hate to go out in the garden and see the plants under water. I hope that the late blight stays away from your garden.
I've had good production from the peppers: new this year to me(I usually plant California Wonder) is Carmen, Mini-Red Bell, and Gypsy. Excellent flavor on all and started picking almost a month ahead of other years when I only had the C.W. So I will start this from seed again next year.
I lost all my onions from the rain(all rotted); beets, picked a few the rest rotted from the rain.
zucchini(Eightball) has been very slow in production(only 3 meals so far from 6 plants).
Swiss Chard was a total loss.
Beans: Red Burgundy, won't plant again if any beans are allowed to get oversized the whole plant begins to produce very stringy beans; Bush Blue Lake 274, good production and hasn't become stringy. Lost quite a few of these to a 6 pt buck that liked to jump over my garden fence(errrr!) Can't wait for the season to open! Of course by that time he'll be long gone!
This message was edited Aug 12, 2009 9:37 AM
Nope, something new, Big Beef and Black Cherry.
My last year yellow currant tomatoes in the back yard morphed into yellow cherry tomatoes in the front yard! Started digging potatoes and I should come out even with the seed potatoes I bought. Let's see that makes my homegrown potatoes cost about $6 a pound. Better than the $64 tomato anyway. The potato plants growing in the compost pile, on the other hand still look great - maybe I will get some russets. The volunteer trombicino zucchini has already produced two HUGE zucchinis and has a couple more on the way. It is also running all over the garden! The regular zucchini died after two small squash. The volunteer patty pan in the asparagas bed has produced 1 squash so far. I had to pull up most of the onions and they are underwhealming - but this is the first year I got any onions! I just planted pumpkins and so far no blooms - we maybe buying pumpkins for the neighbor kids this year. :)
swiss chard here has been good although slow to start as some critter was eating them as they broke ground - we have eight summer squash plants and have picked about eight squash so far very slow to grow even though the plants are everywhere - we have about 100 leak plants that are doing great - carrots seem to be ok as well.
Bill, what do you do with all the leeks?
jen every year i get laughed at by my wife and in-laws about how many i plant and every year at the end of the season it is a mad dash to get the last of them.
potato leek soup or squash leek soup - substitute them for onions for cooking for a different flavor - they go pretty fast
Are leeks pretty easy to grow? I use them all the time and they are so expensive.
One of my my favorite salads in roasted tomato with carmalized leeks.
Squash - Spaghetti is doing very well so far .... no clue on the ID
Squash - Acorn - Cream of the Crop is doing very well so far
Winter Squash - NOID Orange & Green is doing very well so far
Zucchini - Black Beauty has been VERY productive ... probably 60 pounds out, so far BUT, COVERED in mildew.
Cukes - Straight 8 and Marketmore 76 BOTH started off vigorously then were the first to get mildew. Only about a dozen cukes.
Rhubarb - Glaskin's Perpetual is doing very well so far
Swiss Chard - Orange Fantasy is doing very well ; Harvested a LOT, so far
Tomato - Special Turkish is doing very well ; many green ; 1 ripe, so far
Tomato - Super Sweet 100 is doing very well ; many green ; Harvested many, so far
Tomato - Pomodoro Roma is doing very well ; many green ; Harvested about a dozen, so far
Tomato - Pomodoro Rio Grande is doing very well ; many green ; Harvested about a dozen, so far
Tomato - Sungold F1 is doing very well ; many green ; Harvested about a dozen, so far
Coriander - aka Cilantro is growing like weeds
Brussel Sprouts - Mezzonono is doing very well ; All 8 are loaded with tiny sprouts at every leaf junction
Chive - Garlic
Sage - Broadleaf
Parsley - Dbl. Curled doing great
Summer Savory doing great ; planted more
Marjoram - unknown variety ; doing great
Mediterranean Oregano ; very productive
ALL basil is doing very well! TONS of pesto
Basil - Violette
Basil - Sweet Green
Basil - Mammoth
Basil - Aroma 2
Basil - Summer Long
Eggplant - Lavender Touch ; doing very well ; harvested one, so far ; many forming
Eggplant - Viserba ; doing very well ; harvested a dozen, so far ; many forming
Hot Pepper - Bhut Jolokia - VERY HOT - growing like a weed now, but no flowers or peppers yet
Hot Pepper - Piccante calabrese ; very productive ; not yet ripe
Red Pepper - Tollie's Sweet ; very productive
My leeks Musselberg Imperial have been doing VERY well, as have the onion sets. The onion bulbs are about 5 inches now.
if i can get 100 seeds going they are easy to grow :) the only problem is waiting until fall to pick them - they look good now.
Oh yeah my lemon lime basil is HUGE!
Yumm, on the basil! I saved all kinds of seeds from last year and I did a mini test in February to see how they would turn out. I liked one much better than the rest. I labeled them and was going to direct sow. However, my lovely DH thought he would help me 'organize' my seeds(I have boxes of them everywhere) and there is one missing-the one containing the basil. I'm hoping it turns up sooner or later!
My basil trial using a cut-out milk jug bottom:
