Garden stories and photos forum: Bit's garden update thread
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| I'll start posting updates about my garden here. Everyone else, feel free to start new threads about your gardens as well. If you don't want to start your own thread here, you can post individual crops in their forums (e.g. the pepper thread in the veggie forum) or growing methods in the growing methods forum. I don't have time to add a lot of photos at the moment, but here's a link to another garden updates thread I have in the Salsa Garden cubit: http://cubits.org/salsagarden/thread/view/49644/ |
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| OK, just a short update. I realize I still owe you guys pictures... It has moved from spring to summer, regardless of what the calendar says. Today I tore out my peas (they'd been crispy for a little while, but I was letting the last pods mature completely so I could save seeds) and lettuce. The lettuce actually hadn't gone to seed yet, but it was definitely bolting and it was too bitter to eat. On the flip side - the summer crops have begun! I've been harvesting beans (green beans and yellow wax) for a few days, and have harvested several summer squash - two golden zucchinis, six green zucchinis, and one yellow straightneck. Been alternating between beans sauteed with garlic and olive oil and squash sauteed with garlic and olive oil for dinner every night... guess I should branch out on the seasoning front, with all the herbs I have growing  I have big green tomatoes, but still no ripening. The corn has its tassels and silks, so ears will be here soon enough. I have full-size green cayennes and baby jalapenos, and even an eggplant that should be ready to harvest in a few days. |
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Well, harvest season is in full swing! I'm getting zucchinis, green beans, and cucumbers by the basketfull, and have just taken in the first rounds of onions and sweet corn. Had fresh eggplants for dinner last night and snacked on the very first cherry tomatoes. I also pulled all my garlic (planted in fall) and two containers of baby carrots (planted in spring). Hot peppers are hanging heavy on the plants, but are all still green, and same for all the sauce and slicing tomatoes. The melons have flowers, but it'll be a while before we see mature fruit. Herbs are going gangbusters, except the cilantro - it bolted so I'm waiting for the second round to get big enough for harvest. This time of year is just beautiful  In less happy news, there are aphids on a lot of my backyard plants. Started out on the tomatoes, which are sickly anyway (a bad round of early blight this year, as well as what looks like Fusarium wilt  ), and now they've taken up residence on the eggplants and beans as well. I need to find something that works against them before they do irreversible damage. I haven't seen a ladybug in the garden in a few weeks, despite several in May. I wonder if that ultra-hot spell we had at the beginning of the month cooked them.And things are well underway for the winter garden. The Calabrese broccoli and the Brussels sprouts have just moved outside under bird netting (to keep them from becoming caterpillar snacks). Leeks are about two inches tall and growing oh-so-slowly. I need to get parsnips in the ground soon, but don't have a bed free - they'll need to wait until the onions or potatoes are harvested. Whew, busy busy! We've finally gotten the rain we were missing, but it seems to fall only on the weekends, so I'm scrambling to get stuff done in the evenings after work. It's tiring, but definitely worth it. |
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What a bountiful harvest you have!  I have a tiny zucchini that may be harvestable next week.  |
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| Yes, the garden is quite generous at this time of year. I can't wait for summer to pick up with peppers, tomatoes (holding onto hope they'll survive), eggplants, and melons. I'm really trying to stretch out the bounty with fall and winter plants this year as well. I'll never be 100% self-sufficient for fruits and veggies on this tiny plot, but I'm working on coming as close as I can. My next door neighbor's zucchini is about at the same stage as yours. I may be a bit too daring with how early I start some plants, but getting a couple weeks more harvest makes the gamble worth it to me. |
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| You are doing great Bit! I know it's hard to get the time to take photos. I'd like to see your corn. |
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| Time for a photo-update! (If you're on dial-up, this may be bad news.) New rain barrels...  In the front of the house. We'll be building a trellis in front of it to grow the kiwis on.  And a double barrel in the back of the house. A couple pics around the yard...  Front yard melons. This was about two weeks ago, they've since been mulched and have grown a bit.  Front yard sweet potato bins and bean hedge. This was also about two weeks ago. Bean production is tapering, and the sweet potato plants are cascading out of their containers now. And of course, the harvest...  A good day's harvest. Eggplants, cucumbers, and some zucchinis that got too big.  More reasonable zucchinis and squash.  Little tomatoes - black cherry and yellow pear.  Big tomatoes - Roman candle, striped Roman, and mountain gold.  Baby carrots and garlic.  The carrots after cleaning and trimming. And the delicious results...  Fried homegrown zucchini with homemade yogurt and homegrown dill sauce, and a large glass of homebrewed strawberry wine.  The first salsa of the season.  Zucchini and cucumber pickles. The latest project, getting a start on the winter garden...  Baby brassicas (Calabrese broccoli and Brussels sprouts) under bird netting until we can plant them out. Somehow, I still find cabbage worms on them, but I think it's better than they'd be doing without the cover. (Edited to replace a blurry photo) |
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| Lookin' absolutely great Bit!! What a wonderful harvest! The front yard is really neat. Do people stop and talk to you while you're working out there? How do you like the flavor of those striped tomatoes? |
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| They do, all the time. Thankfully, we've only gotten positive comments. I'd like to think we've influenced some neighbors - there are several front yard veggie patches around the neighborhood now, and there were none three years ago (of course, the economy and a general uptrend in gardening are at work too). They're actually a bit bland on their own. They're a sauce/paste tomato so that isn't surprising. I haven't cooked any yet, but that should intensify them. But I like them in salsas well enough, and I love the look. The plants are producing well despite looking sickly, so I'll probably keep growing them in future years. |
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| Bit have you ever tried making the roasted tomato sauce? |
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No, I haven't. I'd love to, but I don't think I'm going to get enough tomatoes this year for sauce  I may roast some tomatoes for salsa with some chipotle peppers, though... I should have enough for a batch of that once the peppers are ready. |
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| Bit, Are those beans going to need supports or are they the bush type? |
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| They're all bush type - a couple different varieties of green beans and also yellow wax beans. I might try some climbing beans next year. If I'm not saving peas for seed, I should be able to put the beans in when I pull the peas out and use the same trellis. But that has to be in the back yard - my trellises are not attractive enough for the front... even I have limits of what can go out there. |
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| Well nothing says a veggie garden can't be pretty. Next year, plant marigold seeds out front with your veggies and maybe something blue flowering but small too. |
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| I actually have some marigold seeds, and more of these pyrethrum seeds that I was planning on interplanting in my veggie beds next year. So maybe I will have a prettier garden. Of course, I'm also planning on moving the corn to a much more visible spot in the front lawn... |
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| I planted some corn right behind the side white picket fence here along the driveway. I figured it would be a nice backdrop against the small flowerbed on the other side of the fence that faces the street. A couple of years ago Holly made the cutest little flowebed surrounding a bird feeder with corn as the foundation planting. |
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OK, gardening season is starting up again. I really want to be better this year about updating, but we'll see how that goes  Last night, I planted 28 varieties of tomatoes. My goal is to end up one plant of each, and even that is probably more than I'll have room for. I've also started seeds for marigolds, chrysanthemums (pyrethrum and painted daisy), columbine, bleeding hearts, and lavender - so I'll have plenty of flowers to pretty up my front yard veggie beds this year The winter garden has been great this year. So much more than I expected - actually more than my husband and I can eat! We have some broccoli or Brussels sprouts pretty much every day, but the collards are sitting unharvested most of the time. |
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| Any sprouts yet? Several of my winter sown containers are green and the green house is filling up with seed trays.  |
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| Looking good, Cinda! I have a few sprouts - a couple tomatoes and peppers, a couple flowers, a couple herbs. I decided to start my tender plants in my sunroom this year rather than in the house. It isn't heated, so germination is slow, but after reading up a lot on winter sowing, I'm confident that these plants will sprout without added heat and light. Like everything in my garden, it's an experiment I have peas and carrots planted outside, but haven't seen any sprouts on them yet. My sweet potatoes are starting to form slips in a windowsill jar, but it'll be quite a few weeks before it's warm enough to plant them. Not a whole lot going on yet, but it's a hopeful time of year  If anyone else is lurking around, how are things in your gardens? |
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 This is my salad bowl , it is the greenest so far. I will be concentrating most of my gardening energy on herbs and veggies this year. In the greenhouse I have sunflowers, dill, and cilantro up, in cups waiting for the herb bed to be cleared. |
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