The 2019 Garden Thread

[snickerd3]

are you two trying to supply a stand at a farmers market?  When all that starts really producing you are going to be swamped!!!!  great job!

 

[Road Guy]

wow!

I wish I had a little more space to garden but not quite that much!

Those beans would be nice to have as well as some corn!

 

[mudpuppy]

Gardening is my wife's hobby, and therefore mine as well.  I'm not sure what we're going to do with all this stuff.  We still have frozen green beans from two years ago, and 20+ quarts of tomatoes from last year.  And we can only eat so many pickles.

One sad part is there is no corn.  I've not had any luck with corn in the past so we skipped it last year, and we had a hard time finding any corn seed this year.

 

[leggo PE]

Wow, mudpuppy! What a garden. Well done!

 

[leggo PE]

Two of our cherry tomatoes are FINALLY starting to turn red! We simply need more sun...

 

[ktulu]

Pulling the main garden up this weekend. Going to get it prepped for Fall planting. Have broccoli and cauliflower seed starts under grow lights in the garage. Will start bok choy, cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce, and turnips soon. 

 

[Road Guy]

What is this Fall Garden that you speak of?

 

[leggo PE]

We got a few warm, sunny days over last weekend and the cherry tomatoes are finally starting to fully ripen! We've got some solid red ones, which makes me very happy!

Our early girl tomatoes have a few solidly orange tomatoes... The celebrity tomato plant is pulling up the rear, with mostly entirely green tomatoes still.

 

[leggo PE]

I harvested tomatoes today!! The bigger ones are a early girls and the small ones (that ripened first) are cherry tomatoes. The celebrity tomatoes are still taking their sweet time.



I got a couple tomatoes from the farmer's market too, and want to make a tomato pie! Gotta make some sourdough pie dough...

 

[snickerd3]

minisnick is watering the neighbors garden and flowers while they are on vacation.  He is welcome to eat anything ready for picking they said. On monday there was cucumber about 2.5 inches long and diameter about 2 inches.  Yesterday the same cucumber was 6 inches long and about 2.5 inch diameter.  He pulled it off the vine and ate it for dessert.  

 

[leggo PE]

I found out what I think was eating out basil and mint plant! Caterpillars. They're hungry buggers.

 

[Road Guy]

my neighbor told me she bought some praying mantis eggs? but you have to put them out a year ahead of your garden but she has a fantastic setup! Guess they kill lots of little bugs.

I wonder if my garden is getting too much sun, I always though tomatoes loved the sun, but all mine have lost 90% of their leaves ( but they still produce) - I try and keep them wet. May seem dumb but I was thinking next year try and install some sort of shade above them that might not kill them?   The other plants seem to be doing fine (Green peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini) - maybe they just need more water?

 

[Road Guy]

http://www.naturescontrol.com/prayingmantis.html

 

[snickerd3]

Those guys are awesome to watch.  We usually get 8-10 inch long mantis visit the back porch once a year.  

 

[mudpuppy]

my neighbor told me she bought some praying mantis eggs? but you have to put them out a year ahead of your garden but she has a fantastic setup! Guess they kill lots of little bugs.

I wonder if my garden is getting too much sun, I always though tomatoes loved the sun, but all mine have lost 90% of their leaves ( but they still produce) - I try and keep them wet. May seem dumb but I was thinking next year try and install some sort of shade above them that might not kill them?   The other plants seem to be doing fine (Green peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini) - maybe they just need more water?

We had this problem with tomatoes last year.  There's a number of things it could be, e.g. not enough fertilizer, too much fertilizer, or tomato blight.  They also need a lot of water, but if you use a sprinkler that can promote fungal growth on the leaves.  Last year we used a sprinkler on them every day and the older leaves turned brown and died though they still produced into early September.  But this year we switched to soaker hoses (with a layer of mulch on top) and so far the foliage is still green (knock on wood.)

That's for the tomatoes in the garden.  Our container tomatoes, on the other hand, are not doing well.  Even though we water them every day, I think the containers are drying out too fast from too much sun.

 

[ktulu]

my neighbor told me she bought some praying mantis eggs? but you have to put them out a year ahead of your garden but she has a fantastic setup! Guess they kill lots of little bugs.

I wonder if my garden is getting too much sun, I always though tomatoes loved the sun, but all mine have lost 90% of their leaves ( but they still produce) - I try and keep them wet. May seem dumb but I was thinking next year try and install some sort of shade above them that might not kill them?   The other plants seem to be doing fine (Green peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini) - maybe they just need more water?

40% shade cloth is typically what's recommended for a garden. Have some being delivered today that I am going to put up when I plant out the fall vegetables. Just have to eradicate the trespassing rabbit. 

 

[mudpuppy]

First frost came Saturday morning.  We got the tomatoes and peppers covered with blankets and they seem to have survived.

So far we've canned 35 quarts and 8 pints of tomatoes, a couple pints of pickled okra, a pint of pickled jalapenos and three pints of green tomato salsa.  Canning lids are a victim of pandemic hoarding but fortunately we stocked up before they disappeared.

 

[Road Guy]

do you end up using most of your canned maters?

We had a decet snow 2 weeks ago and it got right to around 33 degrees - but it actually really helped everything  - green peppers, red peppers, jalapeno, etc have all taken off like gangbusters - my cherry tomoatoes, also have put out so many we have been making salsa just for fun..

My regular tomoatoes **** the bed a month back, not even going to give them the decency to be uprooted, going to leave them scrawny looking plants upright through the pending winter..maybe scare the next bunch into acting right  

 

[mudpuppy]

Hell no, we don't even come close to using all those canned tomatoes.  We use maybe 20 quarts tops.  Giving the rest away.

Hopefully we'll have the same luck with the cold shock.  It's supposed to be up to nearly 80 again for the next couple weeks.  Wife is now on a salsa kick since we don't have much to do with all these tomatoes and there's probably another 15 to 20 quarts worth left to harvest if it doesn't freeze before they ripen.

 

[snickerd3]

canning jars aren't cheap...seems like a break even venture or a loss if you give the jars away.  The costs of the plants, water, canning supplies...can't be cheaper than just buying the food as you need it.