SUMMER GARDENS

Yes, after curing for two weeks, the stems are cut approximately 2" above the bulb. The only time I wouldn't cut the stems is if a buyer wants to braid the garlic (only softneck is braidable).

The paper sacks can be bought in any grocery store. They will be found with the plastic baggies. They often will have two sizes, though both will say "Sandwich Bags". I use the smaller ones for 1/4 lb. and the larger ones for 1/2 and 1 lb. of garlic.

Ken

thanks
do you also bag the onions?

I do and in fact have a few dozen large bulbs to dig up. They won't keep nearly as long as the garlic though. We will end up making several gallons of French onion soup and freezing the bulk of it. I don't sell my onions.

Ken

Last year I planted an Egglant called Thai Purple Egg. The plant was huge, more like a ornamental/edible bush, then a regular eggplant. It was loaded with fruit that I thought tasted terrible but it was really pretty. Last summer I thought that winter might kill it back to the roots but just maybe it would come back this summer. After it got so cold this winter I was shocked, when I went to the garden a couple days ago and it was coming back from the roots. I'll try to post pics later, I'm not on my computer...but while not very tasty IMHO it is a beautiful plant.

Jo Ann-your onions are beautiful!! I'm afraid my onion harvest this year is going to be pretty pathetic.

Ken, all the garlic is sold for planting, but you can always eat it. I think he does have some offerings that are used for cooking. I watched a video of a story done on his farm on the TV show, "Texas Country Reporter". The guy was harvesting some of his garlic and just bit into one like you would an apple. All I kept thinking was, "At least I don't have to smell him!"

Well I'm gonna have to wait til next year for the islander peppers, I already have too many seeds to justify buying any more!

Thanks for the link to the garlic guy, Steph, you're right, he's only about 2 hours out! If I do make it out there, I'll get with you first and see if I can pick any up for you while I'm there :)

Lisa, you're right, I'm gonna have to start hand pollinating for sure, this one was already growing though, about 3 times the size of the immature "babies" attached to the female blooms. And it was looking bigger every day until I noticed the bloom end was darker than te rest and now is shriveling from that end. I'll post more pics tomorrow, just been a crazy week w kids grad ceremonies and whatnot.. And btw that eggplant sounds like my kind of plant.. Crazy!

Drthor, that sounds like the route for me, planting cloves to border my beds, so I can still plant other stuff between harvests. I like your squeezer mentality!

I was at the grocery today and saw some purple streaked garlic bulbs, what kind would that be and could I buy/ store some now til fall planting?

Lots of garlics have purple streaked bulbs, so I don't know what they were. Do you know where this garlic originated?

IF these bulbs came from a commercial grower, they may have been treated so that their shelf-life is lengthened. This means that they will not/might not germinate when planted. There is just no way to know this. I have a solution though and will D-Mail you.

Ken

You could be like me and not plant any garlic and still have garlic come up from bulblets missed in previous years. LOL

Yesterday's blackberry harvest, only about 2/3s of what was out there, too. I think I'm going to bake something with blackberries everyday for the next 5 days that I'm off.

My blackberries look sad. Tiny fruit. But the blueberries right next to them look great. Maybe next year.

The only garlic around here is wild but it grows and I harvest it so I'm not complaining.

I'll try to post pics of that Eggplant in PFs too. It really is/was a beautiful bush that required next to no care and wasnt bothered by pests. I planted it too close to other EP bc I didn't know it's growth habit but I could see it being used for landscaping. It got about 4' by 4' and was loaded with little purple eggs. I'm wondering how it will look this year. It must be a strange yr if ts just coming back and my volunteer tomatoes are only about 4"tall.

My last harvest.
I am still harvesting lettuce ...but it is starting to bolt.
Tons of tomatoes this year.
Finally I can grow squash. I am so happy.
Today I saw both a squash bug seated on top of the squash cover and one SVB flying around the cover. I hope they will NOT find an entrance.

The tomatoes this year are huge.
I have the largest Jeaunne Flamme ever this year.
Today I did apply pine needles on my veggie garden.
I have spotted the first watermelon.

Tomorrow I will harvest the first okra pods.
Cucumbers all of a sudden are starting to form and beautiful white Casper eggplant.
I love this time of the year !

My harvest from today. Three heads of garlic is pretty good when I didn't plant ANY in the fall. LOL

Found a wee baby watermelon on one of our watermelon plants. Not sure it's gonna make it, but it was a fun discovery.

This is my husband's gray striped zucchini. I think we have too many plants in one spot! We picked up some yellow frisbees at Wal-Mart yesterday. Gonna put them near the squash plants and fill with soapy water to ward off the SVB.

Thanks for the Dmail, Ken, and the purple garlic at the grocery was a hardneck type. No idea on the name or where it was grown, but I may try and get some when I go back later this week.

Lisa (and all), I have a ton of garlic growing wild along the creek behind my house too. It's nice and clean back there, was thinking about digging some up to replant in my garden. What preparations need to be taken to do this? Could I dig them up now (the foliage is brown and withered) and store them until fall?

Oh Stephanie, your blackberries are so yum looking! Your hub is lucky to have you spoiling him with fresh baked goodies!!

Another question for all, especially fellow texas gardeners.. Is it too late to start watermelons and pumpkins? Perhaps even some squash? I finally found space to put them and it would be a great project for the kiddos to get involved in :)

I don't anything about "wild" garlic, but my guess would be that this is the best time to dig them up.

Ken

According to this planting calendar for North Texas http://agrilifecdn.tamu.edu/urbantarranthorticulture/files/2010/06/Recommended_Planting_Dates_for_North_Texas1.pdf , you can plant mid-June for a fall crop. Sounds like you're ready to start your fall garden!

Its not too late to start watermelon or pumpkins (winter squash-vining) they have a much longer DTM then summer squash. As long as you have about 100 days until your first frost you can grow pumpkins and watermelon. Summer squash has a DTM of about 55-60 days. They won't germinate if the soil is too cool but they also need more water thru the heat of the summer. I grow a lot of squash (vining) from Thailand. They seem to grow very easily in our hot summers.


Ohhhh....I have baby tomatoes. I know, it's late, but I'm still excited and there seems to be a couple on almost every plant.

Congrats on your babies!

Thanks for the link Steph! Bookmarking that bad boy so I don't lose it! Yay I'm so excited, gonna work that new bed next week with the kiddos. Thinking moon and stars watermelon, white pumpkins, ananas d'amerique melons and some butternut squash. I know I have the seeds, just need to check the DTM on those.

Congrats Lisa! Were in the same boat, lotsa tempting little clusters of baby maters here too! Hope they can be harvested before the grasshoppers find them!

I've never had much luck with Moon & Stars. I have had tremendous success with Crimson Sweet and Sugar Baby. Most success with Crimson Sweet. The vines are really, really, really long, but the fruits get large and are so sweet.

My 10 y/o picked out some crimson sweet seeds so I'm glad to hear they'll do well here. I know I had some sugar baby but I think I traded them all out.. Dangit! LOL

Exactly the opposite of Stephanietx here ; Moon and stars do okay the others , CW and SB , not much ever from them here ,
I am trying a million bucks Hybrid this year Their just now beginning to grow, 4 to 6 leaves .
Everything is starting slow here , although that is no new thing here , this soil and earth here is not watermelon country .

from above ; small garden, Big Hopes .
The watermelon
Two of these are from March Sow , Does that count as winter sowing Watermelon ?

I am harvesting every other day right now.
This year I have huge tomatoes.
Picture #2 and #3 is Jubilee Golden. Its taste is just amazing. The plant might have 6 more ripening soon.
A few cucumbers, but soon more ... and also Okra.
The majority of the blackberries are eaten straight in the garden ... just a few make it to the kitchen ...
The weather is getting warmer.
I have noticed a few tomatoes have a little pin mark on their skin ... I wonder if the leafooted bugs are already here ...
has anybody seen a leafooted bug in the Dallas area yet?

Happy gardening ...

Dangit, I'm _still_ tying up tomatoes!! Good news is I'm down to my last 4 floppy plants, and all the rest have fruit on them.. Woot!!

Anyone know what this little guy is? I found a dozen or so in the last week of pruning/tying and want to what he is and if he needs to go bye byes :)

A big, bad, plant-eating caterpillar. Pick them off as you find them. Some may be very small but they "grow up" quickly. Put them out on a bird feeder. The birds love them.

Ken

StillPlaysWDirt
I don't know the name of that worm, but it likes to drill a hole in the tomatoes (green or red).
Say bye bye to them.

My daily harvest. A very nice surprise this year is "Orange Icicle" which is that long yellow tomato in the right side of the picture. Huge production from this plant. The tomato taste like a sauce tomato, really sweet.
Also huge production this year from Green and Black Zebra on the left of the picture.

Yesterday I found two Squash Bugs mating under my squash cover ... I did squished one ... grrrrr..

It looks like a worm. ;) It looks similar to a cutworm.

Ok thank you for the caterpillar advice, the birds will be so thankful :)

Come to find out, is an armyworm, very destructive caterpillar, especially to corn crops. I'm glad I noticed them before they could do any substantial damage.

Drthor, I think I saw a few leaf footed bugs also, but when I searched for the squash bugs you were referring to in your last post, it could have been one of those. I'll take a closer look next time I see one.

You can release trichogramma wasps to help control the army worms.

I have the slowest zucchini ripening ever. Usually they pop up overnight and get big the next day. I've had one growing about 1/2" very day for 4 days now. Maybe it's because we've had so much rain and thunderstorms. Most of my plants have doubled in size, except the peppers which are just chugging along.

NicoleC
my zucchini are also slow to produce ... but I am no expert.
So far this year I have more zucchini than I ever had! I am very happy!
My harvest today and my 2014 record tomato .... it is Chocolate Stripes ! but I call it "the brain"!
My cucumbers are making strange shapes ... their season is not started yet !

The armyworms are all but gone now, along with all the other buggies. I've been hand picking them two or three times a week, and I feel good knowing I'm still organic.

This morning I harvested my first 'Odessa' squash! So excited about these :)

Your squashes look really nice.
Do you have a picture of how you are growing them?

Thanks! I thought I had posted some pics already, but I am le scatterbrained...

Pic 1 is the three sisters garden where my squash is growing, along with corn and pole beans. My sunflowers never came up, gotta replant them. Pic 2 shows the issue I'm having with the left side squash being less than half the size of the ones on the right. Methinks they're being shaded by the other plants too much, but that's just a guess. Pic 3 shows how I protect them from the horrible grasshoppers, once they are about half the size they'll become, I place them in a pantyhose sleeve and secure w green stretch tape. LOL kids think in weird but it works! Pic 4 is when the bed was just getting started, to show the spacing better. Pic 5 is the tomatoes, I finally finished tying them all and removing lower branches. They look a lot better but I had to remove a lot more foliage than I had originally planned on.

I realized when I was picking the squash, some of my pole bean plants are browning! I wonder if I should try to replant or if it's too late to get them going? I could replant the kentucky wonders or try asian yardlongs instead. Any thoughts on this?

I'm kind of in between harvests. I've got a lot of tomatoes that I'm waiting on to ripen and the squash and cukes have just started taking off.

Here's my garlic and the last of the blackberry harvest. It's pretty impressive considering I didn't plant any garlic last fall. These grew from either bulblets left in the ground when we harvested or ones that we planted 2 falls ago.

We have a wee baby watermelon! I'm excited as I love watermelon!

The Gray Striped Zucchini are so big! Unfortunately, the SVB moth has found them so I've been looking for eggs daily. So far, I've only found 2, but that's 2 too many.

Part of our onion harvest. Not too bad for planting them almost a month too late. We have a few more out in the garden whose leaves haven't fallen over, so they're still growing. This year, we planted Texas Early White and a yellow one, not 1015 or Granex.

A partial view of the garden. Mark's been working on the water catchment system, too.

Check the pole beans for Spider Mites. Beans are very attractive to SMs. I sow seeds all summer long.

I think you have entirely to much stuff in your small area.
Squash like a lot of room.
We plant in rows 6 ft apart & 2 ft between plants.

They seem to be happy. I don't have a ton of room.