I think the reason my tomatoes are not doing so good is because I planted them early and they have been through too much trauma with the strange weather. I bought a 2 long chinese bean plants at the Memphis Botanical garden sale. Something got on it and I thought it was going to kill it. Then we got a ton of rain before I got around to trying to kill whatever it was and the rain washed it all away! They are doing great now. I picked a few beans the other day. I have quite a few okra plants. I love okra and that's one thing that always does great for me. I have some potatoes that seem to be doing good. I also have some garlic. The top on one of them was dying back so I dug it the other day and I had garlic!! I have some pepers also. I didn't plant newly as many as I did last year. I had more peppers than I could possible do anything with. I also have a couple of artichoke plants. I just thought they would be fun to try to grow. I've been working on my strawberry bed. It had just gotten out of control. I did some research and found I should get rid of the runners and it also says to cut them back to about 2 inches. I pulled a huge pile of runners but haven't gotten the mother plants cut back yet. I think I need to give up on squash. I just can't keep the squash borer out. I picked a couple of zucchini before they attacked but I doubt I get anything else. Every bed at out garden spot has squash borer. I think with our beds being so close together and each having different ways we garden, that if one gets them we all end up with them.
It is June let's see the daylilies and everything else !
I picked 2 zuchinni yesterday, hope the bugs stay off my 3 plants!
We had a rough night last night. Stormed (lightening and thunder and hard rain) all night. I subscribe to a weather alert and my phone went off with a loud loud warning about 2. Then Richard had his TV on and an alert came on the TV. You could hear it all over the house it was so loud. Turned out to be a flood warning. It took a while to go back to sleep after all that but I slept but very light sleep as I kept listening to the thunder and lightening. It rained really hard late in the day yesterday also. So our ground is soaked. This has been the strangest weather this year!
Poor plants! Either too much rain or not enough. I think I can probably just scratch my tomatoes after all this!
We were looking at our veggie garden yesterday. There are about a dozen tomatoes so far on four plants that are really coming along and will hopefully start turning red soon. They are the "Rutgers" variety. We bought them at Baker Creek Seed place up near Mansfield, MO back in April. The man who sold us the plants said it was a good variety and non-GMO so it will be interesting to see what they taste like. So far no tomato worms in our garden but something is eating our squash. GRRRRR. Two of the plants have been eaten off right through the stem at the ground. Then something is eating the blossoms. We had six big summer squash plants and the four that are left are looking good. I just hope whatever it is that is eating them doesn't ruin all of them.
Al picked enough green beans yesterday for me to freeze two gallon-size freezer bags of beans. We have four bell pepper plants that are doing well and each of them has several peppers on them. They aren't ready to pick yet but will be soon.
I have 4 Jerusalem artichoke plants that a guy from our local garden club gave me. I really don't know what to do with them as I have never had them before. Somebody on another forum told me to cook them like potatoes. I will have to google it and get some recipes.
We have one winter squash plant that lived although I planted four of them. It is a white squash and I am eager to see what happens with it.
That's about all we have in our veggie garden. We will probably enlarge it next year if things do well this year.
Here are some photos of the flower garden:
The first shows the Rubinstern coneflowers that Elaine gave me a start of back in Sept. 2012.
The second one is a close-up of one coneflower.
The third photo shows a bloom on the Jacob Cline monarda that Kathy Ann gave me.
The fourth is a salvia of some kind--I bought this plant but can't remember the name of it right now.
The fifth is milkweed with Fairy Tale veronica in the middle of it (the spikey whitish-looking bloom)
First photo is the big hollyhock which was blown over in a thunderstorm. We had to stake it by putting in a metal fence post and tying a rope around the hollyhock. It appears to be doing okay but it was really beautiful before it blew over.
2nd photo: Raspberry Wine monarda from Charlotte. White petunias in the pot behind it.
More blooms. I accidentally sent the post above before I finished uploading photos. LOL
1st photo: zinnias
2nd photo: Double phlox from Genna. Also, calla lilies which were here when I married Al.
3rd photo: The rudbeckia which I bought is loaded with buds in front; Bee balm from Sandra in the background.
4th photo: coneflowers and sunflower
5th photo: Asiatic lilies beside the old garden gate with Joe Pye Weed in background (it is not yet blooming)
Marilyn, your flowers are beautiful. Looks like I will be asking for some of that Raspberry Monarda! I have the red (Jacob's Cline) but I don't have any other.
I took a quick pic of my veg garden this morning before thse sun came out and before I picked a couple more tomatoes. You can see how big they are. The smaller pepper plant in the front right is the jalapeño. Next to it is the poblano, and further down you can't see on another row is the red bell pepper. I have one turning red that is huge. One plant has very small peppers on it still. The squash I started from seed is much better than the plants I bought. Lesson learned there. I planted most of my tomatoes on Apr 20. I also included a pic of the Lo and Behold butterfly bushes we planted around the pond. They are doing great.
We are going to a BBQ at my daughters in a few. She is having a party for her SO today to celebrate his birthday and his completion of his paramedic training and passing the cert test.
Marilyn, I see the new porch in your picture, it looks good too!
That hollyhock still looks good even after battling the storm
Look forward to seeing you veggies, Elaine when you get back from the party !
Charlotte we have had a good bit of rain overnight and this morning too
Marilyn your flowers look pretty.
The only way I've eaten artichoke is to eat the meat off the leaves after the whole thing has been steamed. You just peel away the tough outer leaves and eat the more tender ones. You usually dip the leaf in some kind of sauce then just put it between your teeth and scrape off the "meat" on the leaf and throw the rest of it away. I don't know if my artichokes will do anything but I just thought it would be fun to try. I just realized a Jerusalem is not the kind I'm talking about. I think it flowers and has tubers. The kind I'm growing makes a tight bunch of leaves at the top of the plant. That's the part you eat.
I do have several things growing from Baker Creek Seed. I got a bunch of them free. Still have a bunch I haven't planted. Some of those are tomatoes but just never got around to planting. I do have 2 kinds of lettuce, radishes and something else that I can't remember growing!
Thanks, ladies, for the compliments on my blooms!
Elaine, you will be welcome to a start of the Raspberry Wine Monarda or any other plant I might have if we both make it to the next RU, whenever it might be.
Sandra, thanks about the porch. I have put off taking pictures of it until the guttering is on the roof and I can finish the flower beds and get my garden art placed, etc. The guttering people are behind because our area has had so much rain lately. I have two fairly large hydrangeas that I bought on sale at Wal-Mart. I don't want the workmen having to work over and/or around the plants so I have held off getting them into the ground until the gutters are up. Same goes for the garden art. I have made a bird bath from clay pots and painted it red. It is going into the corner of the flower bed beside the porch. I also re-painted some of my other garden art that I have had for a few years. We still have to put mulch around the nandinas which I did plant in front of the porch.
Charlotte, I have eaten the type of artichoke you were talking about. I have not eaten a Jerusalem artichoke, though. The plants get up to six feet tall according to the man who gave them to me. Ours are almost that tall now. I don't know anything about them and need to do some research.
I thought Jerusalem artichoke was just grown as an ornamental plant. Didn't know you could eat it.
Marilyn I bet you have squash borer They attack the very base of the plant where it goes into the ground, If you take a sharp knife and slit the stem you will find big fat white worms! If you cautch them fast enough doing surgery on the plant to remove them can sometimes help prolong the plant. After you make a few slits you figure out where you need to be slitting open. I just pulled up a bunch of mine. Not worth the trouble trying to save them and some were beyond the point of no return!
Well, for some reason my photos didn't load. I am trying again. Sorry about that. I was in a hurry to leave earlier and didn't recheck my post.
Elaine those tomatoes are unbelievable!!!!
Marilyn, I meant to say that your porch looks really nice. Can't wait to see the rest of it. It is much bigger than I thought.
Here are a few more around the yard. The echinacea have been really pretty this year.
I know Charlotte. We can't believe how well they have done either. We took some to the party tonight and everyone couldn't believe how big they were. They were gone in no time. Here is one I picked today next to a Sweet 100. This isn't even as large as the 3 big ones I took today. These are Cherokee Purple heirlooms, which are my favorite tomatoes. The cages are 5' or 6' Texas Tomato Cages and you can see they are already growing out of them. We added a layer of compost to the garden this year and it must have done the trick.
Have you used any fertilizer other than the compost? Mine have some kind of fungus from all the rain. I planted two more tomato plants late this afternoon and put them in a totally different spot. I sprayed them with Neem oil several days ago but don't know if that's going to do anything or not.
Marilyn everything looks so nice and fresh. Love the porch too! Yall should enjoy that a lot!!
Elaine I'm with Charlotte! That Cherokee Plum is the largest one I've seen. It makes the other one look like a cherry tomato. LOL!!! Is it a tough meated tomato? I had found that variety at Forrest Hill a couple of years ago but mine didn't do well.
I spray mine every 2 weeks with half-strength fungicide. I read that in an Alabama Gardener magazine several years back. Some Ala. Master Gardeners did an experiment with tomatoes and peppers and used full and half strength fungicides and bug sprays and found that they got better yields with a spray program every 2 weeks, starting when you first put them in the ground, and using half strength. I have been doing it every year and have had very good results using Maneb and liquid Sevin. I only spray very late in the day when bees and butterflies aren't flying and after I have picked and I try to avoid any fruit when it's about to ripen. I did use some supplemental fertilizer the other day on my peppers but not sure I'm going to fertilize the tomatoes this year until later. If they stop blooming I may give them a dose of something high in phosphorous (the high 'P' number in the N-P-K ratio). It's what makes them bloom.
Jeri, the CP's are very meaty, not tough IMO. I have had very good luck with them here. Some years, well you know, just aren't very good tomato years. I just love the taste. The first ones have split some because of all the rain, and they don't have a very long shelf life (3-4 days), but as a rule I don't think heirlooms last as long on the shelf.
Beautiful garden and flowers ! Jerry told me yesterday when he retires he is going to grow lots of tomatos I hope he is successful at that ! You are right some years just aren't tomato years.
That is really interesting, Elaine on using the fungicide every 2 weeks. I kinda do that already but I use cornmeal and epson salt. I need to use the seven more often. For some reason, I just hate to use it and always procrastinate.
That would be one heck of a BLT sandwich with a Cherokee Plum that size.
Sandra my daddy and uncles retired they always raced for the earliest, biggest, sweetest tomato each year and he planted a 1000 hill of just tomatoes. I didn't inherit the urge for vegetables at all. LOL!!!
Elaine, I agree. Those are some huge tomato plants. We will have to try some of those next year and see how they do up here. Your flowers are really looking good, too. What is that white flower that looks like a star? By the way, our new porch is 8 feet wide from front to back and 22 feet long from side to side. The house, not counting the carport, is 60 feet long. The porch has made a huge difference in the curb appeal of the house.
Charlotte, thanks for that info about the squash borer. We may try slitting the plants if we see any more with damage.
We haven't sprayed any of our plants with anything--not fertilizer nor fungicide. I have marigolds planted all around our raised beds because I heard that would keep out the rabbits and other critters that like to eat veggies. So far it has worked as we haven't seen any evidence of rabbits or squirrels or deer eating anything. Nothing so far except the squash borer! :(
We bought a fairly large potted citronella plant today to put on the front porch. Mosquitoes supposedly don't like the smell of it. It has a wonderful lemony smell to my way of thinking. Al doesn't have a good sense of smell and said he can't smell it but I could smell the fragrance all the way home as we had it in the back seat. I hope it works. We have had so much rain this month that the mosquitoes are making it unpleasant to sit out on the front porch in the mornings. I usually rub skin so soft on myself before I go sit out there. Al, being a man, is too macho to use skin so soft. LOL
I made a mistake in the fungicide. It is Mancozeb not Maneb. Bad memory again, Lol. Daconil is a similar fungicide you may have heard of and can use. The main thing is to wash well and follow the directions about usage. I used to hate to use anything but my plants always seemed to die early and never produced much because of the blight and fungal diseases.
Marilyn, I have no idea where that star shaped flowering plant came from. It is next to one of my DL's I ordered (one of the few) so it may have come with it somehow. It just came up and bloomed this year. It has a wide, dark green strap-like leaf.
Earl put up a fence around our garden and it has mostly kept the critters out of our garden. I planted one tomato plant I had left over next to the fence, and was just going to let it trail. Well, the deer have found it and one side of it is eaten to nubs. I didn't plant any okra this year so I planted several short rows of marigolds in the garden hoping it will keep the rabbits out. So far so good. They seem to sneak in now and then. So do the possums. I hope the citronella works for you. I had a couple of candles one year and they seemed to work.
Jeri that is funny about your dad and your uncles. That is a lot of tomatoes!
Marilyn hope you have better luck with the citronella plant than I did. I've had several of them even several at the same time and I could never tell it did any good but maybe it will for you. I have lots of the stakes you fill with citronella oil. They seem to help a little but you have to think to light them ahead of time and you have smoke blowing every where. The best thing I've found is Cutter or Mosquito BeGone spray. You hook it up to a water hose and spray. When they get really bad I spray my whole back yard with it. It will keep the mosquitoes away for about 2 weeks for me. For some reason the mosquitoes have not been really really bad yet. I know it's coming with all the rain we have. I have my Cutter ready to spray probably later this week.
Elaine I'm just funny about what I put on my vegetables! I'm just sort of paranoid about it. I know if I had used Sevin or something like that on my squash from the time I planted them I might could have avoided the squash borer. I don't mind putting something on the plant before it starts to produce fruit but I just don't like to spray after they are producing. I know everything that is in the grocery store has probably been sprayed.
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