This is a continuation of Texasrockgarden's thread about general happenings and free discussion of our vegetable gardens. Added a new thread since the second one was over 200 messages and would load slowly for some members. We came from here:
Part 2: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1253515/
Part 1: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1244336/
Thanks for the new thread David.
I've pulled all my garlic and many of my tomato plants are giving me BER tomatoes. I've been careful with watering, use a moisture meter to determine dryness so that BER is a conundrum - and an irritant. Between the birds nibbling and the BER I'm having trouble getting some for myself. grrrrr on that berrrrr.
I picked some "Sugar Sprint" snap peas this morning. It seemed like they took forever, but they were sown on March 8th.
Too much rain!
Honeybee... what are you mulching with on the pathways? I want my raised beds to look as nice as yours, but my pea gravel just caches dirt and then make a weed bed :(
mimitho - all the pathways are filled with fall leaves to a depth of at least 6 inches. Earthworms break these down into usuable castings, which I spread on the raised beds twice a year.
Here's a watermelon and tomato plant.
Is this zuke going to be edible, or tough as rawhide?? The wife never saw it in the garden till last night....
That is a big Zuke!
That's a BUDA-full zuke!!!
No it won't be tough or inedible. Those cook up great as 'boats'. Spoon out the center, chop and add some onions etc...Google 'zucchini boats', there will be lots of good recipes. Zucc pancakes are wonderful too. Topped with either sour cream or applesauce.
Them suckers can hide!!
Make bread out of it.
oooo, zucchini crusted pizza.....*very* good.
I set out 6 watermelons yesterday...with IRT100 mulch and cloches. The cloches are nice for the early melons.
Love the pictures of the gardens! Except for the flood picture, we got a big storm Monday night, took down about half of the corn. It was well into tasseling, so I'm going to see if I can salvage some. A few broken tomato vines and okra will need to be staked.
I got the pole beans planted and will get support up tonight. Tomatoes need to be tied.
Inside, I've started
Winter squash: Sucrine du berry, neck pumpkin, Thai lg. pumpkin, waltham, Long Island Cheese, Black futsu, Long of naples.
Melons: charentaise, prescott fond blanc
Cucumber: national pickler
Other then the mess it made, the rain made for some happy plants.
we got a big storm Monday night, took down about half of the corn. It was well into tasseling, so I'm going to see if I can salvage some. A few broken tomato vines and okra will need to be staked.
I've got such a mess, it was hard to decide where to start today.
Most of the corn righted itself, amazing it can do that. But the storm left some areas so saturated I'm loosing tomatoes.
Pic #1 upright corn and my first attempt at building a support for the pole beans
pic #2 after much complaining and batting eyelashes , we now have Dh putting up the support for the pole beans (with wire and more posts). my hero. The beds in the foreground are for winter squash and I planted buckwheat to keep the weeds down, I'm loving it, it's so pretty. The bees seem to be eager for it to bloom as well.
Pic #1 sunflowers, the first bloomed today, these are for chicken feed, the okra is blooming. Pepper are ok, not great looking. I picked the first handful of bush blue lake beans today. There are some sesame plants in there as well, but still tiny and slow growing.
This message was edited May 10, 2012 8:05 PM
Wow cocoa, everything looks grand. My buddies around town think I have such a big yard, but no way I could plant those long rows. Looking good!
I grew buckwheat last year too, just to have something in that bed, and I agree it's a pretty plant.
Cocoa ~ everything looks grand in your gardens but I hate to say this. If I had to guess your tomato loss is due to one of the wilts.
It looks like what is commonly called cotton root rot in this area. It often happens after a good drenching rain. I will hope I am wrong as it stays in the soil. After last years tomato crops, I know you were hoping for better.
What will you have growing on your cattle panel arches? I can't wait to see that when fully covered.
This large cucumber got overlooked too long but it doesn't appear overripe. I think I will like the cultivar ~ Alibi.
A friend said they dug over 8 bushels of potatoes today. He offered me some but I said I wanted to see what my harvest was first. I wasn't planning to dig for a couple weeks but I got curious and rummaged till I came up with one.
Todays' yield...
The rain has really helped green things up! All of your veggies look great, Lynea!
Pod, how did the cukes taste?
I have lots of blooms on my lemon cukes. I should have cucumbers forming soon. I think I'm going to regret growing them on this support, though.
The okra has germinated and is doing well. This is Hill Country Red.
I am up to my ears in peas!! We've never had this much success with peas. Maybe planting them a month late is the key??
The Marketmore cukes are finally taking off. We had a patch of dill right in front of this bed and found that it was blocking too much sun, so we harvested the dill and cut down all the plants.
Thank you, Mary, I've seen the amount of rocks you move around. Your selling yourself short, you could easily plant a few rows :0)
Kristi, I just updated a thread in the tomato forum. I think your right, it's some form of wilt, drats! My neighbor called to say she has it as well. I'll be calling the Ag office in a few days, thinking they are probably testing the larger fields around here. One gentleman on the other side of town grows 5,000 toms, I don't want to bug him, but I thinking of driving by and seeing what his field looks like.
On the cattle panels, I have melons: armenian, charentais and prescott fond blanc. And two other panels, I didn't take pictures of, are a vining zucchini and cucumbers. I have some seedlings under the panels, but have backups seeded in pots, as well. I've stopped spraying the DE, because I'm seeing more spiders and frogs, but it's still touch and go with the bugs.lol
That is one yummy, healthy looking potato! Do you order seed potatoes, what kind?
Beautiful garden cocoa.
I have a few issues with some tomato plants too. The bed stayed too wet during our rainy week. They look wilted but have plenty of water.
Hate to see a mater plant die.
I tried to grow sugar peas this year. It was hot too early. They would not bloom. Then we had cold spell and suddenly they started to bloom but too late.... I had already gave up and stopped watering them. Poof
A test ear. I've not grown corn but only once more than 30 years ago. I Googled when to pick corn and found that when the silks turn brown it should be ready. A further test is to examine the kernels near the top of the ear and if they have milk it is ready.
I took an ear with brown silk and with my pocket knife I cut across the ear at the top and peeled the shuck back a bit. It was juicy but not milk. I picked it and shucked it anyway. It looked good enough to eat to me.
I dropped it in a pot of boiling salted water and cooked it for 8 minutes (also from Googling). It tasted good enough that I think I will be eating corn on the cob for a while.
Twilley's ACcentuate Sweet Corn Hybrid
Oh, TRock, please do not boil your corn again!
NUKE IT IN THE HUSKS! You'll be thoroughly surprised at how juicy, tender, and SUH-WEET your corn will be:
Small ear - 2 minutes
Medium ear - 2.5-3.0 minutes
Large ear - 3.0-3.5 minutes
After you take it out, let it rest for ONE minute. Then, arm your hands with a couple wads of paper towels (your corn will be super hot!!!), and grab the corn in one hand. Use the other hand to "wipe" down the silks and husks in a sort of counterclockwise, twisting motion between your two hands. The SILKS and husks should all come off in one pretty EZ motion.
Try your corn with NOTHING on it....
Tell me how you liked it...
Thank me, later...
Hugs...
Linda
I already planted 38 tomatoes and have 11 more plants to go. First I have to make a new gardenbed for those last few tomatoes. But this morning I planted Snow Peas and put stakes and ran string for them. Never had Snow Peas before. I usually plant Sugar Snap Peas. I cheated and bought plants at the nursery since it is so late to plant peas already. I just didn't get to it sooner.
Oh, TRock, please do not boil your corn again!
NUKE IT IN THE HUSKS! You'll be thoroughly surprised at how juicy, tender, and SUH-WEET your corn will be:
Small ear - 2 minutes
Medium ear - 2.5-3.0 minutes
Large ear - 3.0-3.5 minutes
After you take it out, let it rest for ONE minute. Then, arm your hands with a couple wads of paper towels (your corn will be super hot!!!), and grab the corn in one hand. Use the other hand to "wipe" down the silks and husks in a sort of counterclockwise, twisting motion between your two hands. The SILKS and husks should all come off in one pretty EZ motion.
Try your corn with NOTHING on it....
Tell me how you liked it...
Thank me, later...
Hugs...
Linda
I already planted 38 tomatoes and have 11 more plants to go. First I have to make a new gardenbed for those last few tomatoes. But this morning I planted Snow Peas and put stakes and ran string for them. Never had Snow Peas before. I usually plant Sugar Snap Peas. I cheated and bought plants at the nursery since it is so late to plant peas already. I just didn't get to it sooner.
Viva Italian
Big Beef
Juliet
Parks Whoppers
Early Girl
Super Fantastic
Patio
Better Boy
Morgage Lifter
Big Boy
Sweet 100
Siberian
Cherokee Purple
Sun Gold
Fourth of July
Sugerry
Nice list Rita, just a quick question, isn't it a tad early up there? Have friends in Jersey and the last freeze was a couple weeks ago...
Stephanie ~ the Alibi cucumber is wonderful tasting and even the huge one wasn't bitter or tough. They are parthenocarpic and don't require pollination. Perhaps your lemon cucumber is needing pollination? I think you will like the mesh you are gowing them on. If you have a right angle, you should be able to pick the cukes from the back side. Easy peasy.
Cocoa ~ the taters were an impulse buy at TSC (my favorite store), the brand was Red Norland. I can't wait to see the harvest and taste it. I'm surprised there aren't many DGrs growing potatoes this year.
Salivating over that ear of corn TexasRockGarden... nummy!
And the nice selection of tomatoes ~ Rita.
The lemon cukes are very prolific; they're just getting warmed up! The boys have shown up and are waiting for the girls to show up. I've grown them in the past and them coming out my ears.
Interesting... I knew that squash suffered the dating/mating malady but I didn't realize that cucumbers had male/female blooms.
So do melons. They all have the blossom with the little fruit and the male blossoms that usually show up first.
Trock, why thirty years without corn? That ear looks wonderful, I could eat corn for breakfast!
Krist, this Dger isn't growing potatoes. Dh loves and mean LOVES potatoes. I've tried growing them for him, however I'm reluctant to give them my best soil.lol You know, I've been begging him for a bucket loader, to make large amounts of compost...I'm going to show him your pretty potato and tell him it takes compost to grow those.lol
