Summer Gardens Part 2

wow, how pathetic is it to not get rain off of a passing hurricane, lol, towns on all sides of us got soaked, but us, not a drop! and its been doing this since mid may--teasing us thinking were about to actually get something, and right as it gets close, it either fizzles out, or shifts direction to miss us by just a hair's width. but this time it really has left me baffled, LOL!

Well, I just skimmed over this very long thread & I have a few comments.
First, Linda, I will be praying for Lolita & the rest of your family. What a devastating diagnosis. And I know you are a faith-filled Christian woman. May you all experience the love & peace of our Lord. I'm here for you. Dmail me anytime.
Second, wow! You all are having some great garden successes. I'll have to take pics of my cantaloupes. I'm growing Ambrosia & they've gone crazy! I planted 3 transplants that I picked up at Whole Food. Probably should have gotten one! My other variety never did this well. Pics coming soon.
Third, ewww, I hate stinging insects & am so sorry about your attack, Jo-Ann. I really miss figs. We have a small tree so no fruit for a while. We're from s. La :)
And last, yall are such a great group of veggie growers! Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge & garden adventures! Janet

Happy fourth everyone! Gonna fire up the grill in a few hours, daughter and family coming over!

My green beans are fighting back! We put down new soil and compost mixture and watered them in and it seems to be paying off. The poor stems that were chewed on by the deer are putting out new leaves, saw no sign of japanese beetles this morning and harvested up a pound of good tender beans. Haven't been getting but a handful lately so this is a great surprise. Gonna make a green bean casserole today!

Cucumbers are doing very well. I put up 13 pints of bread and butter pickles yesterday morning. Picked a few more cukes this morning to make tomato and cucumber salad today.

I know that bragging isn't polite, but, if you will indulge me.... I'm so proud of our garden this year! So far I've picked and either eaten or put up 47 pounds of tomatoes, 35 pounds of green beans ( I didn't include the handsful I picked all last week), 23 pounds of squash, and 11 pounds of cucumbers. And I haven't even begun to pick other things like Waltham butternut squash, melons, corn, and okra.
God has been very good to us this year.

Stephanie, what kind of tomatoes are the bigger ones in your picture? They look so good!

Janet,
Thank you so much for keeping Lo in your prayers! She is bouncing back remarkably well from the chemo, better than we expected. They changed her anti-nausea meds, which truly helps!

Linda

hey, you have every right to brag--this IS a garden forum after all, lol ;)

after putting up my makeshift shade cloth and some mulch around my tomatoes, the progression of the yellowing leaves seems to have stopped. so i guess thats what it was--too much heat and beating sunlight!

This message was edited Jul 4, 2014 12:47 PM

Lois, the larger tomatoes are Marmande and they aren't usually that large. Not sure how these got so big! LOL

Here's my Ambrosia cantaloupe. Dang, the rest of my pics go upside down. I'll have to edit them. I planted kinda late this year & my okra plants are just now starting to grow. But unless something strange happens, we should have okra until Nov. or so. I'm also growing Cherokee Purple, Creole, Black Krim & for the first time, Morgage Lifter. For cucs I have Carolina, Adam, & Satsuki Madori. I'm trying the milder Jalapeno from TX A&M, & a couple of purple bell peppers. And a fabulous yellow cherry tomato. Could'nt find any eggplant this year. Planted seeds but probably too late.

Well, there seems to be only one small deer that is doing so much damage to my garden. Last night it got into my sweet potatoes and just chewed them down. We had one of the deer repellent "pods" that seem to be working on the green beans in the sweet potatoes, but this one was close to the ground instead of hanging up. I have put it on a pole now and hope for better things! Also, I noticed that the deer ate almost all of the leaves that were in the section that I had weeded out last week. They had been covered by grass before. The section that I hadn't gotten to is still relatively okay. I'm wondering, since sweet potatoes grow underground, and the grass doesn't seem to bother it in any way, should I just let the grass grow and see if I can manage to have a harvest this year?

bariolio - I do so love cantaloupe! Those look scrumptious! I can't seem to do well with Cherokee purple tomatoes no matter what I try. What's your secret? I've always tried to grow them from seed, Should I try to find seedlings instead?

Here some pictures from last week.
Everything is doing well. I think the tomatoes are slowing down ...
My first melon and for the first time ever 2 Lemon cucumbers !!!
I am very proud of my squashes !

These are my squash plants.
I did remove the covering cloth 2 weeks ago.
So far so good. I did find some squash bugs and destroyed them ... than yesterday I did broke one leaf by mistake and right there I saw a SVB inside the leaf !
Sooo... I know the SVB is here already ... I will enjoy the one I get !

Tomatoes are still producing like mad ... but I lost control of the suckers.
The LONG BEANS are growing well under the tomatoes and soon they will take over !

Harvesting melons and peppers

The cucumber vines are finally growing nice and producing well.
The eggplants are still slow !
Okra plants are turning into monsters and I must harvest every day now, otherwise the pods will look like weapons !
Happy gardening !

drthor - What wonderful pictures and what a wonderful garden! Your pics of your harvest looks like some kind of polynesian feast!
I hate to show my ignorance, but is the SVB the same as a "squash bug"? I've had them for some time. We just go out and spray water on the plants and when the ground gets wet the little monsters come out on top of the leaves and we SQUASH them! Eggs too. Works pretty well LOL!
Oh, I'm betting you mean "squash vine borers" right? Cut open the vine, kill the little sucker and then mound good dirt over the cut and water in. If the stars are aligned right (!) the plant will put down more roots and keep on producing.
Your garden looks so neat and clean.... *sigh*. You are an inspiration!

yes, SVB=squash vine borers
loisf10
thanks for your nice words about my garden.
No way ... here in DFW the SVB lay down thousand of eggs on the squash plants ... I have tried everything from aluminum foil to panties to cover the plants.
This year is the first time I even had so much fruits.
I did start the plants under cover, now I hope the trunks are thick enough that the SVB cannot go inside.
The plants that are producing more are the "C. moschata" varieties and they trunks is hard like wood.
I bet these they will be the one to survive ... I hope.
Practically they ate winter squash .. but I am harvesting them when they are small and they taste just like zucchini.
If these "moschata" varieties will work, I am ordering a lot from Baker Creek next year !
This is one for example: http://www.rareseeds.com/long-of-naples-squash/

Happy gardening and thanks for the suggestion !

drthor - Thanks for the link. Good Grief! A squash that weighs over 70 pounds!!! You wouldn't have to grow but one!
I'll have to look into the C. moschata thing... isn't that what Butternut squash is? I've noticed that they aren't much bothered by squash bugs or SVB here in my garden. Something to think about when ordering.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the deer repellent works tonight. Can't afford to lose any more sweet potato vines...

Thanks Lois! I don't do anything special for the C Purple, just treat them like the others. I have a very small garden compared to most of yall. I'd be so mad at that cute little deer! Good luck!

loisf10
you are funny.
I am not planning to grow a 70 lbs squash ... but harvest them small ..

drthor - I was talking about the review of the squash on the rareseeds.com link. Some of the people that grew this had huge results! I had these visions of trying to find a knife big enough to cut up a 70 pound squash, lol ! That's gonna take a lot of Mason jars.....

bariolio - I do get mad at this critter! I ran him out of the garden about three hours ago. After that we put up some pie pans on strings to blow around and hopefully keep him out tonight. It's just one little guy, wonder where his mother is?

I WILL NOT get sentimental about this marauding critter!

But he is kinda small....

I cannot believe how time is going fast !
I am looking at my planting calendar and it is already time to start Broccoli seeds.
I just found out that "GREEN MAGIC" variety is a Texas Superstar plant !!
http://www.texassuperstar.com/plants/broccoligreenmagic/index.html
I am ordering seeds from this website ... I also found the famous "TYCOON" tomato !! which everybody is talking here in DFW and also a TX superstar: http://www.davids-garden-seeds.hostedbywebstore.com/
Anybody in my area has experience with these two varieties?

drthor - thanks for the link to davids garden seeds. I have subscribed and will order tomato seeds. What is everyone saying about the Tycoon? I wonder if it would do as well here in humid Georgia?

oh the curse of having such a tiny gardening space, lol. according to Drthor it will soon be time to get the cole crop seeds in the ground for us here too--considering she is a couple of zones warmer than me, although my cucumber plants are all located where i wanted to put my kale, chard, and beets, and i have heard that planting them near cucumbers is quite detrimental to all 3 of them, and the cukes have JUST started producing. at least i have a couple of empty large containers i can get a few beets going in at least until the cukes start showing signs of giving in for the year.

Harvest pics from the past couple of days.

The first is my Independence Day Harvest. The second is from yesterday and this morning. I think I see homemade salsa in my future! I took some tomatoes to my friend at church this morning so she could have her annual tomato sandwiches.

Jmc, I'm glad the shade is working out for you, it sucks to see your plants decline yet can't help. And don't feel bad about the lack of rain, this is the first season we've registered more than 1/10 - 2/10 of an inch at a time, but it hardly helps our drought situation. Still stage 3 here.. the weather has been playing tricks on us since moving out here in 2010 too.

Joann, wow girl you got lucky! I hope they don't return to your fig tree, but you should look it over real good again next time. Just in case :)

Lois, good job! You SHOULD be proud, it takes a lot of hard work to where you are! I need to invest in a scale to weigh my harvests, I pick a lot of cherry tomatoes everyday and they add up, but now that my bigger tomatoes are coming in, I'd like to be able to weigh them..

Bariolo, nice looking melons there! How's the flavor? Ambrosia sounds like it should be sugary sweet, yum! Hope your cherokee purple tomatoes do better than mine did. Mine failed to thrive soon after transplanting so I replaced them with 'Matts wild cherry' and 'black cherry' which are doing great now btw. I also started mine from seed like Lois did, but then ALL my plants were.. weird since I hear so many raving about how good they are, think they'd be easier to grow?

im hoping that the rest of that tulle material comes in soon (there was a better deal on it online than at our local stores), because im seeing signs of heat stress in other plants too. i am having such problems this year because mom removed nearly ALL of her rose of sharon bushes that used to block my garden from evening sun

Today's harvest.
Cucumbers are finally starting to take off !

Will have some ripe ones soon!

Drthor, you squash plants look great! I especially like the pic with the purple clematis rambling through them. Mine are still producing more than I can eat, so I'm doing only 8 plants next year. Also I tried the roasted tomatoes recipe you posted earlier and they were amazing (even though I totally forgot to add onions!). I then took the roasted tomatoes and tossed them with cooked pasta, roasted squash, italian sausage and parmesan cheese. It was amazing. I see the rest of my cherry tomato crop being used just for roasting!

I read about that 'tycoon' tomato and while it sounds like a tx superstar plant, I don't think I'll try it until I hear a good review from someone I trust. I've only heard flavor is ok, so I'll stick with mostly the heirlooms I've been growing.

Lois, poor thing! The deer here haven't bothered my garden *yet*, maybe they fear my husband who hunts them every year LOL!! That's terrible to see all that hard work being eaten up!

Steph, your friend is lucky to have you, and I bet she's gonna love her sandwiches! I'd like to make salsa this year too, let me know if you find a good recipe. Next year one raised bed is being made into a 'salsa garden'.. tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and cilantro. Maybe a few tomatillos just because I've always wanted to try them.

Here's the roasted tomatoes (ala drthor) before and after. So good..

StillPlaysWDirt
fantastic roasted tomatoes !
You cannot ever have enough squashes.
Dice them and blanch for 3 minutes. Ice bath and let it cool down.
Freeze them in a ziplock bag or Food Saver for winter soups.

NicoleC - So maybe.... 12 quart jars from ONE Squash? Jackpot! Thanks for putting that into perspective!

Thanks Becky! I started weighing our harvests this year so as to get a better idea of the cost/benefit of growing certain things in the garden. With costs going up, we are trying to decide how to get more and better food while lowering our need to buy things like composted manure and organic fertilizers. We do make some of our own compost, but we don't have farm animals and so still must purchase composted manure. I'm working on getting a good Russian Comfrey bed going.
Just trying new things to see if they will work for us. The tips and advice we get from this site are priceless!

Stephanie - I put up salsa this season. Nothing you can buy is better than your own home grown and canned salsa! A bit of summer you can taste all year long.

Good idea for the squash! Okay I'll try that too :)

Lois have you tried searching craigslist for a source of free or cheap manure? I live in a pretty rural area, so it's easier to find stuff like that here, but I bet you could find a source within an hours drive, then bring it home and let it age for a season before use. I have a buddy who let's me come and get rabbit poop (a great cold fertilizer) a few times a year, and another hay farmer a few miles away who has free hay/ straw from broken bales. You scoop it and it's yours free. I have a hay pile aging as we speak. I'll till some into the plot this year during winter since it's a relatively new bed, low in nutes, the rest will be used as mulch for the beds. I'm all about free! :D

Becky - I haven't thought of Craigslist, I will give it a looksee. I live in an area that was rural 23 years ago when we moved here. Now I have a huge neighborhood complete with HOA on three sides (we have 8 + acres). I could still have some small farm animals here within reason, but we are already getting the "eye" by the folks whose land borders ours. They are suburbanites, beautiful grass, lovely large houses and you never see any of them outside. I try to be as non offensive as possible....especially with anything "stinky" or loud. I will look around again and see if there is anyone within a decent driving distance where we could get some manure or hay. Free is good! And becoming more and more necessary.

We have lots of leaf mold around, but it is filled with tiny roots and various bugs. Any advice?

Becky, I have a fantastic recipe for salsa! I've been making it for years. I just need to get some jalapenos and cilantro.

Can you send me that recipe Steph? I'd like to try a few different kinds this year, almost have enough tomatoes for batch one :)

My japanese trifele tomatoes are ripening all at once it seems, and they appear to be another case of mistaken identity. Wonder what kind he is?

Black Krim??

Out in the garden this morning and saw a new (to me) bug on my pumpkin vine leaves. A fairly large group of small red and black bugs. Came inside and looked them up and they are Assassin or wheel bug nymphs. I guess they are after all the darn japanese beetles out there! I guess this explains the hot needle bites I got on my shoulder the other day which are still huge and itch like mad! However, forewarned is forearmed and I will be more careful around the plants now. I'm happy to see the assassin bugs since the japanese beetles are having a field day and although I kill them on sight, they seem to be extremely fertile!
Rain here this morning, not much, but enough!

Those little nymphs could also be squash bug nymphs.

loisf10
yes those red little babies are also appearing in my garden right now.
stephanietx is right, they could be squash bu nymphs.
I have noticed that the assassin bug baby is almost always by himself, while the squash bugs/leaffotted bugs are always in a group. I just try to squish them as fast as I can right now !
Happy gardening!

We've been seeing (and squashing!) the grey squash bug nymphs for a while now. These babies are new and my husband saw one killing an ant. Do squash bug babies come in bright orangy red and black? I need to find out because if they do, I have a whole lot of squishing to do!

I went out to the "bug" section a while ago. Maybe I should get a pic and post it?