How are your gardens doing?

[CathyA]

Mine's doing pretty good this year. We've had adequate rain, which is great. My soil is still pretty hard from the drought 2 years ago though.
I'm starting to get zuchinni, pole green beans, green peppers, roma bush beans and a few cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. Something was eating my cherry tomatoes, so I had to move the fake owl from outside my bedroom window (to scare away a female cardinal who would bang on it from dawn to dusk), to right in front of the cherry tomatoes. It seems to be working. The female cardinal showed up at the window again, so I had to buy another owl.

Some of my tomato plants seem to be suffering from leaf spot. Hopefully it won't get too bad. I planted 2 varieties of pole beans.........I'm getting lots of the Kentucky Blue, but the Blue Lake are barely making blossoms yet, even though they are about 8' tall.
Cucumbers are doing well, and hopefully I'll have enough to start making refrigerator dill pickles. I've already started our summer tradition of always having Danish cucumber salad all the time. YUM!
I love my garden! (especially when DH keeps it weeded!). I love watering it. It's very peaceful. I get to see all sorts of birds flying around. This morning I saw a Great blue heron take off from the creek. And there's the house wren who has a nest in the center tube of the swingset I use for a cucumber trellis. I can hear babies in there now.

So........how does your garden grow?

[awakenedsoul]

Your garden sounds wonderful. Mine's doing well, too. I've been harvesting zucchini nearly every day. I have had several large tomatoes, and a steady supply of cherry tomatoes. Some of my giant sunflowers are going to seed. It saves me money for next year. I've got sage, rosemary, and oregano bursting in the herb garden. Have been picking Valencia oranges. They are a little dry, because of the drought. Had a small harvest of apricots. It's a young tree.

The more established trees are loaded with fruit. In a few months I'll have crates of winter fruit: pomegranites, persimmons, meyer lemons, guavas, navel and blood oranges, and a few grapefruit.

There are bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, mourning doves, finches, and robins everywhere. They love all the flowers...

[KayLR]

DH And I are ceremoniously picking our first 2 ripe tomatoes tonight. We've been watching...and waiting....

[Blackdog Lin]

I've been HOPING that someone would start this thread. Enjoy hearing about everyone's gardening successes and travails.

- Green beans did great this year - 10 pickings, 25 quarts canned, sacks and sacks given away, and I got sick of them and had DH mow them down last week. I hate the waste, but I am only one person, and can only pick so much garden.
- cucumbers and zucchini - the zucchini is doing perfectly, producing just more than enough without being WAY MORE than enough. I have some in the freezer, and we're eating and giving away the excess. Cukes: OMG. There aren't enough people in my small town to consume all these cucumbers. DH pickled 12 quarts, which is more than enough, and my days are now mostly consumed with trying to figure out who I haven't given a bag of cukes to recently. People are starting to lock their vehicles against me and my cucumbers.
- tomatoes - we have blight, but I'm still picking 50-70 tomatoes 2-3 times a week. Canned 24 pints of picante, 6 qts. of tomatoes, and 5 qts. of juice. And my kitchen right now is covered in tomatoes. So doing okay in the tomato department. But boy it's a lot of work.
- bell peppers out the wazoo. I'm only picking what we can eat, and leaving the rest on the plants now hoping for sweet red peppers to put in the freezer. We'll see.
- okra - don't ask. In another week I will be able to supply our town with all the okra they may want. We're tired of eating it already, and it's only been 2 weeks.

So, the garden is doing great this year. And I'm already thinking about convincing DH that we need to downsize next year. Our traditional garden is just becoming too much for me to keep up with (and I'm RETIRED! I have all the time in the world!)

First world problems, eh?

[KayLR]

Wow, Lin! What a haul!! That would sure cause me to consider downsizing!

Okra is so hard to grow here, I'd sure take some!!!

[iris lilies]

The weather had been beautiful for days at a stretch.

But it is entirely too dry. Seriously dry.

DH is having wonderful tomatoes, corn, cukes.

[CathyA]

I LOVE vertical gardening most of my stuff.......beans and cucs grow great on a trellis, and it takes up less space.
Gardens ARE alot of work.......but usually when it starts producing, it's worth it! Just wish my veggies would grow as aggressively as the weeds!

[Float On]

wow Blackdog Lin, your garden skills rock!

[Rosemary]

It was a great year for black raspberries, and my gooseberries are nearly ripe. I made some black raspberry/red currant jam, and froze a bunch of berries to combine with the gooseberries in another batch. Not such a good year for my sour cherries (repeated heavy rains pummeled the flowers) and Concord grapes (read that the wet spring was not to the liking of local vineyards, either).

The black raspberries did so well with the incredibly wet spring that I am now ripping out canes everywhere. They are trying to take over the yard. That is quite something considering I started about 8 years ago with one plant given to me by a friend!

My wax beans are fantastic. Kale, collards, etc are tender and abundant. Cilantro and dill did very well until they bolted... I finally ripped them out this week and will plant some fall veggies.

My asparagus has died out over the past few years. Not sure what caused it; it was fabulous for several years and then one spring half of it failed to send out shoots. I need to get my soil tested. I suspect some sort of deficiency or pH imbalance based on other symptoms of plants. I'm going to take a sample to the local university soil lab this fall so that I can dig in amendments before winter.

[Gregg]

Tomatoes - minimum of a reusable shopping bag a day, usually two. Clean them up and freeze them until we have about a weeks worth. Have canned tomatoes, pizza sauce and pasta sauce, dried slices and packed them in olive oil, and made V8. Hot peppers are coming on now so will be making salsa. Lots of salsa! Tomatillos are hanging like I have never seen before. Just starting to ripen. No idea what we will do with so many...

Zucchini and other squash doing quite well. TONS of winter squash on the vines. The huge gourds for DD2 and friends to make instruments out of are a blast to watch grow. Have about 30 gourds the size of basketballs!

Cukes got hit with a nasty bout of powdery mildew so I had to pull about 1/2 of them. Still plenty for eating and as many pickles as we would have put up anyway. Will plant resistant varieties next year. Mostly just an emotional loss.

Kale bed under an oak tree is a smashing success. Has provided enough produce for DW and a few of her green smoothie buds to have all they wanted and it shows no sign of slowing down, even in the heat, thanks to the shade. Most of the other greens are done until it cools off.

OMG peppers! From bells to bhut jolokia ("ghost" peppers), they all exploded. Most of the really hot ones are just starting to ripen now, but we've given bags and bags full away, eaten all we can, put up what we couldn't and still have more. Being a couple of hot pepper freaks our fun is just beginning.

Flowers and herbs all doing nicely. Blueberries didn't do so well mostly because they got buried under squash vines. Rhubarb had a great year. We'll see about horseradish, big plants, but we had really skinny roots last year. Beets, parsnips, carrots, etc. all doing well. Overall, its been a great year so far.

[dmc]

We just moved here and know nothing about gardening in this climate. But we had a pineapple that was growing in the flower bed and it was sure good. And we have a lemon tree.

my understanding is tomatoes are planted in the winter. We have just bought from the farmers market so far, there are several close by.

[awakenedsoul]

I'm impressed with all the success. I cut way back on what I planted because of the drought. It's good to hear that everyone is doing so well, though. Gardening is fun when you produce. I did splurge on some annuals today. For some reason, the flowers really make me feel happy when I'm out on the porch...I can see them from my window, too.

[catherine]

Doing great! Just picked our first cucumber. We had a few cherry tomatoes and we have LOTS of green tomatoes of all kinds getting ready to ripen.

This year in addition to the cucumbers and tomatoes, I tried: Lettuce, swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mizuna, leeks, onions, mesculin, pole beans, and beets, and they're all growing. I've been eating the lettuce and the swiss chard.

Oddly, my herbs aren't doing all that well this year, and they're always a sure shot. But we usually grow them in containers and this year we put them in our new garden, so maybe the soil isn't exactly right yet.

Oh, but in the little pond overflow area we provided for when it rains and our little baby pond overflows we planted watercress, and it's germinating! I'm so excited!

[Songbird]

My garden is producing well. This is our first garden here at our new place, so we didn't know what to expect. We've had lots of strawberries, and now tomatoes and peppers, from which I've made lots of salsa. :)

[CathyA]

I'm having a bit of a problem with septoria leaf spot...........I think it's a fungus that starts from the bottom of the tomatoes, and works up, and destroys all the leaves. Putting straw under all the tomatoes works well, but I think what's caused it this year, is the heavy rains, combined with some extremely low night temps. I'm hoping the tomatoes can still make it.

[Blackdog Lin]

Cathy: good luck with your tomato problem. We have something similar, in our neck of the woods any bad-looking tomato plants is because of "tomato blight". Early blight, late blight, but if the tomato plants look bad, by golly it's blight!

Ours are also dying from the bottom up. It's happened before - and will no doubt happen again. (And we always mulch heavily with straw.) But so far it hasn't mattered for production: I'm picking 50-70 tomatoes at a picking (16 plants), twice a week. It's just the plants themselves look terrible.

We're just hoping to get a pantry full of tomato and tomato products put up before they give up the ghost.

[awakenedsoul]

My God...50-70 tomatoes off of 18 plants. Wow! I have four tomato plants, and I've picked about 8 tomatoes. The cherry tomato plant is producing very well. I've never gotten a lot of fruit off of my tomato plants. I'm not sure why. They look gorgeous. Green and healthy...nice yellow flowers, just a few fruits. Fortunately, the co op gives us tomatoes in our box, so I can make sauce with theirs.

[Blackdog Lin]

awakenedsoul: I came across my post tonight and worried that I had exaggerated.....but no. I picked yesterday morning, last night had company and (wonderfully!) gave away 10 or so tomatoes, and I sliced 2 for lunch today, and right now on the kitchen island there are.....61 tomatoes. Or so. It's hard to count when they're all layed out like they are. But it's close, and I guess I have not been exaggerating. So hey, move to Kansas! Well, southeast Kansas. We by golly grow gardens in SEKS! :)

Last month I made 2 qts. of spaghetti sauce, and 3 baggies of enchilada sauce, for the freezer, just to use up last year's (canned) tomato produce. Knowing there was gonna be a lot more, you know.

I need to remember more often that we tend to be blessed in the gardening department.

[Gregg]

We're right there with you Lin. SE Nebraska isn't far from SE Kansas (until late October, then you win!). Lots of people around here are saying they are having a tough time with tomatoes this year, but we are still getting a minimum of a reusable shopping bag full a day, usually a little more. Canning every weekend. We did 93 pints of salsa last weekend. That was a chore! Gave LOTS away to friends and family, but should only need to do one more batch to round out our annual requirement. We dump it on everything so go through a couple pints a week. Anyway, its been a good garden year in SENE.

[iris lily]

Great tomoatoes, plums, and decent (but not huge) zuchiini crop.

[Blackdog Lin]

Gregg: 93 pints!? 93 pints!??!!! Are you kidding me?

I know you're not - just having a hard time imagining all the time involved in getting it done. :) My goodness, the work you must have done for however many weeks! We feel like we both worked our butts off for 4 weeks to achieve 24 pints of salsa, then 18 qts. of tomatoes and 9 qts. of tomato juice. Or thereabouts. I lose track.

How are your tomatoes doing now? We think we're done canning, picking 20-25 twice a week, enough to eat and give away, but not enough to can. The plants still look half-dead from the ground up, but are still producing just fine. I may put a few gallon ziplocks in the freezer.

And (thank you thank you universe) the cucumber plants are all but dead. Only picking 5-6 at a time twice a week. If it ain't zucchini it's cucumbers, I guess. Or okra. Would anyone like to come pick some fresh okra? Fresh and free, just please, get if off my hands.

The peppers did well this year too, but I'm leaving them on to get red. We'll see how many I actually harvest before the bugs and the weather gets them.

[Gregg]

Yea Lin, we are canning nuts this time of year. Salsa verde is this weekend's chore. We have tomatillos like you have okra. Once a big batch of that is in jars I think I will cut those plants down. They grew so big that they shaded out a bed of herbs and are so heavy with fruit that they are just sprawled all over. Still time to get a good bed of fall kale in their spot!

Added: We have one canner that will hold 18 pints and a bigger one that will hold 27 so can do 45 at a time if we get everything really rolling. If we only had the smaller canner, like most normal/sane people, it would be a full time job to get this all done. We also do things like roasted eggplant and squash or green beans to freeze while the jars are cooking. One of the few areas in life where I'm actually still efficient.

[catherine]

We're a bit behind, but I'm still getting great salad: Mixed lettuce, and my goodness, I planted mizuna this year and it is going crazy!

Our tomatoes are just coming in now, but there are tons of green tomatoes on the vines--all different kinds.

Pole beans doing fine.

Beets--first time planting those and it's been fun! Do you know my kids had never seen beets right out of the ground? I just pulled up a few and brought them on the family vacation and they were amazed, looking at the dirt still clumped in with the roots. Geez--talk about a typical suburban upbringing! I guess they thought they come out of the ground wrapped in a Dole label!

I'm also looking for some fall stuff to plug up the holes--I'm thinking spinach and garlic.

My cukes started out great, but I think they're a tad diseased. The leaves are getting blight-ish, and the cucumbers themselves are a little smaller than they should be. I did fertilize them a couple of weeks ago with fish emulsion, but I think it's more than nitrogen stress.


I'm also very impressed by the 93 pints of salsa!!

[Blackdog Lin]

Very much enjoying hearing about everyone's gardens!

Catherine, hearing about your wanting to put in some fall crops reminded me: DH just got finished (well, he supervised and I did the squatting) putting in 2 rows for fall: romaine and broccoli, and a full row of onions. I like the idea in theory, but I could almost cry thinking that I'm gonna have to start weeding again, those two rows.

I am an ambivalent gardener: love the idea, love having all the fresh produce, but dislike all the weeding and picking, and having to think of ways to use up the excess lest it go to waste, and having to think of who I can deliver to to get rid of excess.....my brain hurts this time of year. :)

On a bright note, I saute'd okra for the first time today and DH pronounced it excellent, so have a new way to try to use it up. Back to tried-and-true fried okra tomorrow. :)

[peggy]

First of all, you all know okra evolved from ancient slugs, right? Nasty stuff!!

My gardens are a mess. Shattering my wrist in early June did me in. I just hold up my hand as I walk by so i don't have to see them. It's depressing really. Especially as I read here how well everyone else is doing. I've just gotten to the point where I can type (slowly) without much pain. It's good therapy actually! And I started weeding around the house this week. (with the puppy's help, it only takes me twice as long) But this year is shot.
Fortunately, the tree crops are doing great, and they are my main focus anyway. It will be another bumper crop of pears this year and the apple tree is loaded. Hickory nuts seem to be a good number too, but we lost the persimmon in last winter's 10 below freezes. The plums and new little japanese pears are ticking along as are the chestnuts.

The daylily bed, although choked with weeds, is humming along. I was able to pick and experiment, culinary wise, several batches of buds before the 'break'. They look very promising as a perennial vegetable, having a slight asparagus/lettuce/green bean taste. I plan to try a few more recipes this fall as most of the daylilies are repeat bloomers and I'm getting better every day. (I can make a fist now and pick up 'not heavy' stuff) I'm looking forward to next year! Onward and upward!

[iris lilies]

that's all that daylilies are good for, a food crop. They are not true lilies, only weak imitations. haha!.

I'm glad that your wrist is healing. Being without a hand is tough.

[Aroha]

Still technically winter but grapefruit season is beginning already. Today I juiced a bucketful of fruit, the tree is fully loaded and I'm expecting we will have grapefruit for several months.

I also harvested a few stalks of rhubarb, a handful of banana passionfruit and one or two sugar snap peas.

broad bean plants are about a foot high, and cineraria are beginning to bloom.

[CathyA]

[QUOTE=peggy;182142]First of all, you all know okra evolved from ancient slugs, right? Nasty stuff!!

LOLOL!

I'm slowly picking a few red tomatoes that are probably ripening too fast, because there are hardly any leaves left on the plants (blight). My cucumbers are doing pretty good. My pepper plants fell over and the peppers that have been exposed to the sun got scalded. (I wonder why that happens, when it hasn't been hot)?
My early pole beans are done, but the later variety are waiting for a good rain and hot weather. It's raining now, and the heat's coming next week, so they should explode. I even have a ladder out there 'cause they grew so tall. And my Waltham butternut squash is going great guns..........with almost NO squash bugs this year!!! (Knock on wood). Last year they were horrible. I guess the hard winter killed them, fortunately.
My roma tomatoes were a bust this year.

[dmc]

Planted some tomatoes and peppers today. I put them next to the lemon and pineapple that is already there. Picked up the plants at Home Depot, they were pretty scraggly. If all else fails there are plenty of farmers markets around.