what's going on in your garden?

From this morning;

Have been out of town for a few days.
Great that your first tomato of the season is almost ready! 'Black Krim' has lots of tomatoes in various stages but I think I'm still a couple of weeks away from the first ripe one. DD in MI is having brilliant results with her tomatoes in her big box on her rented back deck. Plants are 4 ft tall, loaded with tomatoes in various stages. Her squash plants are HUGE and she's already been harvesting zucchini.

CindyMzone5; How is the JB situation mine aren't any worse,prayers at least so far for that. Sounds like a bottle of booze instead of a garden question(LOL).will do some more pics of cukes in pots when it ain't so scorching hot.
I Tend to keep losing flower starts, that is getting a little frustrating.That heat index already at 110) at 11 am, makes for misery outside, 93 or 94 being about it for me.
I was pollinating daylilly the other morning when I got an early start,hoping to have some more nice ones.
I'm kinda jealous of the zucchini , my melon plants almost look like they would when I start them.
Had been giving some thought to starting some more greens only that is going to be while off in this weather,wow that is getting to be a never ending story kinda thing.

I think DD's fantastic success with her "boxed" veggie garden is that the planting box is about two feet deep, filled with Pro-Mix, aged manure and Dr. Earth's organic fertilizer (one of the types with a phosphorus being higher than nitrogen). They haven't had rain for weeks up in her area so all watering is done by hand. This is an amazing reward for her as she had been desperately trying to garden up on a ridge in TN where it's mega hot and dry. With a well that could run dry at times and not having an efficient way to get enough water to her garden, it was often a disappointing challenge. Coupled with the rocky clay soil, it was depressing. Now the leaves on her squash are about the size of dinner plates with no pests yet.
As for the JBs, I collected about 40 of them within an hour of arriving home yesterday. They were using my absence to party pretty seriously.
As for greens, my Swiss Chard and red kale are doing okay but the latter will wilt if it gets too dry so, with this heat, I have to water them about every day since they're growing in big pots. I'm not about to start any fall crops just yet although it is supposed to cool down to the 80s next week.

Today wasn't a day to do much, I will try a few more pic;s when the weather cools. I have a half a dozen yellow tomatoes on the plant turning yellow, so I guess now I get to start counting how many E. H. tomatoes I am going to have.I''m guessing 3to5 hundred by the time it is done.
CUCUMBERS; well they are growing. I'll find out later.Small cukes are setting on though.
BEANS are anything from six to say10 inches tall, that is the worst I have ever done even when I was ILL.
MELONS; we aren;t even going to go there. I do have an Orangeglo that tomorrow I might get to see if the little melon has set on ,happy as can be with that.!!? ORMI

Definitely too hot to do anything outdoors today except catch a JB or two from time to time. We did get a severe little thunderstorm yesterday so we got rain although it did blow the roof off of an apartment complex a few miles away. Tomatoes are looking good and may be just starting to get a little color. They're still blooming too which is a good thing with all of the heat. Even the snow peas are still blooming and producing which surprised me. I'm training my cukes to grow up trellises due to lack of space and they are blooming. I'll have to check to see if I have any babies forming yet. Also keeping an eye on my Meyer lemon tree. It's got about 20 flowers on it, an explosion since I got it a month ago. Guess it's finally settled in its pot.

from this morning; more tomatoes and a cuke leaf pic went wrong ,still it is fun to look at food!!

Those yellow tomatoes are still looking good! I have a 'Black Krim' that's now about 5 inches across. Cucumbers are climbing and blooming nicely. Still only male flowers on the squash though. Still picking peas although DGD eats them as fast as we can pick them.

HI YA! CindyMzone5, I was sitting here typing on gasrocks thread when you posted,it is trying to decide whether or not it wants to rain here at the moment.( it hasn't at all in weeks)
Nice here your "Black Krim" tomato plant is doing well! I could make some more weather comments only that's burned out by this time. That wasn't meant as humor purposely.
That cuke has a little one I was trying to pic.All the cuke plants are blooming nicely for me also.

I'm like that with the fresh picked green beans, I can eat those things faster and more than I can grow.I even pick them and eat them raw!! YUM,,YUM!!!.
. Thank you for complement about the plant!!,that is one tough old heirloom. I have a feeling that one's coming back for next year.

"...burned out..." - HA! Maybe you'll get some rain with this weather front settling closer to you this week.
I must admit that my peas are starting to look a little pale and not looking quite as vigorous. Has anyone managed to keep them going all summer or should I just let them decline away?

Rain went past,clouded up, thunder, lightning, then poof,gone, not a drop of measurable rain.

I am so dry here its not funny and I heard there going to start a water ristriction soon if we dont get rain I hope I wont loose anymore than already burnt up

I WAS DOING THESE CUKES AS RESTARTS; I lost some to frost and some to lack of water early ,these potted are my control effort. Restrictions are every around me and some of those places even had rain, it's bad where it is happening this year.
Last year early ,everything drowned, water was1/2 inch from entering the house.My plants drowned. others rotted out.My established flowers are all survivors of that. Feast and famine!

photo #4 is one the potted vine blooms way up in the Sun chokes,next bloom,cucumbers!

Don't blame you for trying to control moisture/cold by putting veggies in pots. I bet you're watering the pots every day though? Sorry you missed out on the rain. Little storms moving down from WI along Lake MI and it looks like Green Bay is getting a few showers as well.

The most recent three or four days,watered them twice in a day, one those days I even had two water one of them three times. Before that though it had been once a day to water them ,by the little finger in the side of the pot test.
Definitely gets monotonous watering repeatedly!!
This coming Thursday thru Monday those chances of rain I hope are a welcome shower,usually it happens as storms that destroy though after it goes for such a long time without raining.
I guess it is worth it though if it pays off with some good cucumbers, even if they are not my favorite green.

We have gotten a few unexpected pop-up storms over the last few weeks. They appear even when no rain is forecasted and are usually short but very gusty. Not sure if it's the lake effect or something else.

Here's a better look at that tomato plant, cuke thinking about growing. Lack of rain and high temp effects are obivious with either.

That's a pretty sturdy tomato cage. I usually underestimate the weight of a plant with tomatoes so my cages have a hard time controlling the plants. Yippee on the cucumber. Hoping to see some soon on my plants.

I really shoudn't about picking through the garbage but that where those four by four posts were going so I drilled them used some screws and put them together for that a cage.. An extreme without a doubt! There are some lego curtain rods I have been using for that that aren't bad.There is also a couple of green wire cages back there in the garden that aren't bad, those are a little flimsy, though you can grow any of the vines on them as well.
A couple of red tomato plants with that wire behind them, usual stuff or, junk ,you know.

I forgot those wooden sawhorse cages are just under five feet tall,the plant is almost right at six feet tall ,maybe an inch or two over that.

I do like to repurpose stuff as well although not too handy with the tools. My last tomato seedling had gone in a pot (didn't have space in the ground for it) and I didn't want to buy another cage for it so I used those green garden stakes wired together for it. Hadn't thought about using curtain rods but don't have any of those laying around.

Those curtain rods I use look like stakes,I think they make portable tables and things from them.I heard them referred to as toggle or lego rods in reference to the tables ,curtain hangers, or shades and the like.
There a threaded round with a hole for connecting them that has a water faucet tightner.I will pic them them sometime and show you.There similar to all the pvc connectors that they make for trellising and such except they are threaded.

I'm not familiar with the lego rods. Sounds like I'm missing out on something versatile.

Picked about 20 little yellow tomatoes yesterday, I've got two little melons an Orangeglo and a Moon & stars. The Cantelope vines have started to grow some more I was beginning to wonder if that was going to happen.The cukes deformed ,oh well..
I have things to try and have done about everything I know to do so far,what a season this has been.
I'm learning how to trim tomato plants for super production ,I use to know how, so I will again.7 times the blooms,as to usual,has to with getting the bloom stem leaves to appear after the bloom stems.LIKE you have those three sets of leaves that appear before the blooms on a branch,if you get those to appear after the first set of blooms ,each one that appears will have and make a set of blooms.Yeah ,I know you have seen that ad also,that is how though.That most likely is all the e-book says, (haven't read that) and that is an old technique, little practice, is all.

Wow - didn't know you could increase production like that. I'm still a veggie gardening newbie. Is there an on-line tutorial somewhere?

I honest'ly don't know, I will keep looking, I was reminded when I saw that 19.95 e-book being advertised.What I said before is about all that most likely says,And as for me I'm not paying for what I know and as I rarely get what I pay for as to things like that, it is "ain't happening"
Maybe we should post that on the tomatoes forum,I for one am not to good at explaining things other showing myself how or another when there standing near.
You know the leaf of of the tomato plant appears side then another the other side,then another,and the blooms appear.
Well somehow by trimming those, they will re-appear after the blooms,making more blooms each time,and so on so forth. I'm going to try a while with a couple of my plants During the 1970's I had bred one of those Marglobes to do that on it's own, of it's grow pattern. It took 8 or 10 years to breed that and the seeds and a couple of others were lost later of circumstances. That is one those "drat" things Feel free to ask on the tomato forum, or I can,.. while I work on that once again.I will remember or re-learn how eventually!!

I wanted to come back for a minute to say the confusing part, and me , is tomato plants do not grow that way anymore. when I restarted growing I was wondering why all the talk about trimming and suckering the tomato plants,The plants
really aren't the same anymore(e--gad)!!!

Only I have seen and had them as they were so I will figure it out.Darn confusing!! this is!! Pardon I need a minute.....

And for now last night it rained and it rained and rained and rained tra -la la- la la -la -la
for two hours it rained and it rained ta la la-- la Silly isn't I

Happy you got some rain! We've seen dark clouds and heard thunder all around us but nada.
This summer, gardening for the past month has been nothing but watering, sweating, catching JBs and cleaning up raccoon destruction. I miss spring.

It is raining the way it needs to for the plants and all at the moment,Harvested a few yellow tomatoes every day this week and picked my first red tomato yesterday.
I will be back with some pics eventually,too hot mostly for that, or other things to get done.
I got a few melons growing nicely and the plants all look much better a few brief showers of rain.Real nice morning all in all!

We finally got rain last night. I was so bummed due to heat, lack of rain, JBs and sweating. Several thunderstorms originally headed right for us broke up and went around so I didn't think we'd get any rain. But amazingly, it started about 10 last night and got a little windy, knocking over some potted plants but everything survived. Tied up indoors today but I don't want to be tromping around outdoors while things are still wet. Still collecting JBs daily, anywhere from 10 to 20 per day. Thought they'd only last a month so hoping they'll gradually disappear this week. My first 'Black Krim' tomato is starting to color up. It's the biggest one so far and can't wait to eat it but I'm guessing it'll be another week or more until it's fully ripe.

It rained twice yesterday and this morning again,misting,foggy and cool this morning,plants all look refreshed. Some things and those toggle devices.

And more from this morning

and a couple of more

How are your yellow tomatoes holding up? What are the toggle devices for?
I'm still hoping to get some cucumbers going. There's plenty of flowers - both male and female - but unfortunately, no cucumbers yet. I have plenty of bees and pollinators and don't use pesticides in the garden so maybe it's the hot weather killing off the pollen?

With the the rain the tomatoes are doing all right.

You see the stake the toggle is laying on,it is for connecting two of those together.You see the hole in the bottom toggle for putting the stake through, the top toggle shows the cap for tightening the toggle.Putting the stakes halfway through the toggle then tighten them,you can make those as tall or however you might want them .

My cukes aren't setting either,could be the hot weather,to warm in the morning when they pollinate? They are well past the fifth bloom so they should be setting fruit.The rain and a couple of cooler nights should help,cucumbers tend to get finicky sometimes no matter what you do.
Next year the no pollination necessary type cucumbers are on my list,hot weather the reason for that.The weather forecasters are saying this might continue for a few years (decade trend) Planning that way.


How's the JB'S still at ya, are they?

Yep - still have the JBs. Collected approximately 60 the past two days. I gave up counting but I know I'm over 300. Set personal record today though - got 6 of them in one swat and 5 in another.
Now I understand about the toggles. Pretty neat idea. A couple of my tomato cages were leaning from the wind the other night and I'm wondering if the 4-legged square cages are better than the standard round 3-legged ones.
Lots of flowers on cukes and even have male and female flowers next to each other. I read that the plants don't like to be stressed and temps in the mid-90s can generate more male flowers. Also read that cukes are heavy feeders and to keep them watered to avoid bitter fruits. My squash plants are shaded somewhat and so far I'm still only getting male flowers. So much to learn about growing veggies for me.

Only watering enough to keep a few plants alive,melons are setting and won't pollinate,If it doesn't rain soon my garden is toast!!!

Yea! I finally have cucumbers growing. Still only male flowers on the zucchini though. I did water from the rain barrels today since they filled back up after the storm earlier this week. At least it will be cooler (relatively) for the next couple of days. One of my poor 'Black Krim' tomato plants - the stem buckled under the weight of the tomatoes so I harvested my first big one (tasted very mealy - not what I was hoping for) and a couple of green ones as well and then tried to string up the plant to the cage to help support it. Don't know how it will do or if it's toast for the season. At least the top of the plant is still healthy and not wilting so I guess that's a good sign.

It is rather nice to have some rain, It rained for four or five hours shortly after I typed that yesterday.Good to hear the cukes are coming along, mine have a couple set . The ones I let grow in pots are not doing as well as they might ,but I will get a few cukes. Next I am going to have to finish the lean to screen for them to grow on.(this fall for next season)

I like the raised bed though with the six foot tomato plant, I seemed to have mulched that well enough to keep the plant healthy and it has withstood the lack of rain and water with vigor.It is plainly nicer when one does not have to water.(If I had little more go to me I would try a few more, and things similar)

My larger tomatoes taste like tomatoes,only they have no sweetness to them at all because of all the heat.

I'm sure your "Black Krim" plant will make a comeback,at least you grew it past disease or beetles,A few weeks it will probably be all green with leaves and branching everywhere.As for tomatoes, they almost never or rarely are what you hope for,I'm still always looking for what tastes good and grows well for me.That can be more difficult than it sounds. I think I have found a couple this year only nothing overly impressive as far as taste.