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So what's everybody growing this year?  We've had a very cool April here with temps getting close to freezing quite often at night, so I haven't planted any vegetables yet.  Now that it's May though, I suppose the time has come to get working on it.

So far I've just planted a few bushes and flower...thingies

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0195.jpg?t=1335913085)

And this other thingie:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0196.jpg?t=1335913071)

I picked those red and yellow things out myself   :teddyr:

So what have all you other gardeners got going on?

Already hot in Phoenix.

I have a spot between the house and a block wall that only gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight a day where I've planted and herb garden: basil, oregano, cilatro, Italian parsely, and mint.

I've also planted a rose bush, two tomato plants, and a zucchini squash plant. Next year I intend to do much more. I just recently got some area in the backyard freed up for planting and got kind of a late start. Next year I plan to add peppers, yellow squash, green onions, and strawberries into the mix.

I went to a fair last year and they had one of those huge ass pumpkins, like 1000 something pounds. they had seeds from it for sale so I bought one or two and gave them to my Mother. wonder how they'll do

I built raised beds last year and we put in a small fall/winter garden of beets, carrots, spinach, and bibb lettuce that just finished.  Only the lettuce is left and I'm pulling the last of it today.  We are going to be giving some of that away, because there's still way more than we can eat.  Chicken club sandwiches for dinner tonight!

We planted beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce, and onions a few weeks ago.  Last Sunday we planted the beans, cucumbers, peppers, and half of the tomato plants.  Normally I'd consider this a little early for the tomatoes and peppers, but it's been so warm that I'm going to count on the danger of frost being low (and we'll cover them if needed).  Plan on planting the squash, zucchini, and rest of the tomatoes this week.

On Sunday I also built a raised bed back near the kid's playset for them (they asked for one of their own).  Jenna already wants sunflowers, while the boys are planning on watermelon and cantaloupe.  There will probably be an eclectic mix of other things as well, because they have also said they wanted beans, carrots, and cucumbers.  Luckily I had some idea of what they wanted to do, so it's a pretty big raised bed.

Also extended the raised bed for Garrett's strawberry patch to double its size.  Just going to let the strawberries grow into it on their own.  It'll be overflowing by the end of the summer.

In between each pair of long vegetable beds I built a pair of square flower and herb beds for Katie.  Quite a few of the early flowers are in bloom, like the Gladiator Alliums.  There are gladiolus, butterfly weed, cilantro, bee balm, and a number of others in various states of growing.  Looks like it will be a very colorful flower garden, plus lots of flowers to attract those bees!

Oddly I haven't even begun planning yet.  I've been cleaning up the yard at the new house mainly.  Its been brush central and luckily I've been putting the fire pit to good use when it comes to disposing of it.

I may keep it simple this year.  Tomatoes definitely and I'll decide at the garden shop come time on the other stuff. 

Who are you and what have you done with Mark?

EDIT TO ADD:  putting the "d" in "and"

 :teddyr: :teddyr: :teddyr:

There is no Mark, only Zhoul.   :teddyr:

So far I've got spinach and lettuce sprouting (we had an unseasonably warm March & April so I started them early outside), tomatoes, a couple bell pepper plants and a raspberry bush.
I also just planted flower seeds/bulbs - sunflowers, daisies, moss roses and dahlias - and have moved my herbs outside - rosemary, mint, chamomile, wild sage, yarrow and lavender.

My brother has some jalapeno plants in the backyard, but they keep get eaten up by something or other.

So for those in Phoenix, how to keep them alive? I'll freely admit I know nothing about plants, but I would love some fresh jalapenos. What are we doing wrong?

I'm not in Phoenix, but: are these young, tender plants, newly set out?  Do the tops disappear, leaving just a bit of green stem sticking up?  Our peppers were eaten like this and it was birds nipping them off.  In that case a bit of temporary netting will protect the plants until they are more mature.

Not sure if your environment has slugs and snails as they generally like moister areas, but they will eat tender young plants as well.  One of the most effective ways to deal with them is to put out a saucer of beer overnight.  The little pests climb in and drown.

If you suspect bugs - leaves and peppers are eaten and/or have holes in - there are other bugs that do that.  Beetles and white flies.  Beetles one generally hand-picks off.  For most other pests spraying with an insecticide soap works well.  Or you could try planting a row of marigolds: they seem to draw off insect pests.

From your description, I'm betting on birds.

The growers who get the half-ton pumpkins actually feed them milk - sort of intravenously.   :tongueout:  They make slits in the stems and insert a wick that sits in a container of milk.  They swear by it.  If I did that, I'd be calling my pumpkin vine 'Audrey', I think!

I still haven't gotten any vegetables planted - it's been raining just about every day.  I don't want to dig in a bunch of mud  :bluesad:

Thanks for the info! It just seems to be the leaves disappearing, so we'll probably try the insecticide.

uch...  :bluesad:  It's all my fault, I'm such an a***ole.   :bouncegiggle:  It's true.  But, aren't we all? Eh.  I'm the spelling witch!   :bouncegiggle:  I only use it for revenge...  :bouncegiggle:
Okay, I like to be a pain in the ass too... (figuratively, Menard, figuratively...)  :bouncegiggle:  I'm a such a jerk.  :drink: :twirl: :bouncegiggle:

I winter sowed a lot of flower seeds this past winter - red poppies, california poppies, baby's breath, black-eyed susans, dianthus, rose campion, gaillardia, snapdragons, and oriental poppies.  I've recently potted up some into 4 inch pots to let them get larger before I plant them in the garden around the end of May. I also started some morning glorys and mexican sunflowers inside to get a jump start on them since they take a long time to bloom here in northeast PA.

I also started garden peas and lettuce outside in window boxes back in March.  I never grew veggies before, and so far they are doing all right.  We already eaten some of the lettuce already.   :teddyr:

Finally got about half the garden tilled up - a shovel and rake are my version of "tilling".  It's not supposed to rain for a couple days so hopefully I'll get some stuff planted.  We've got plenty of seeds - peas, beans, onions, lettuce, spinach, egg plant, Fennel, beets and Pak Choi (Chinese cabbage).  Can you tell my wife did the shopping?   :smile:

All I've got planted so far is the Jalapeños and some salsa peppers.  And a whole ton of flowers (with another ton to go) and the herb garden.

Everything is planted.  Even got the tomatoes and an additional pepper plant. :thumbup:  Nothing to do now but sit back and water them once in a while.  And weed everything.

Oh, plenty of flowers left to plant I'm sure.   :smile:

I have a type of cacti (don't know the name of it, looks like it has tentacles) that toads loves to be in :question: don't know what to plant, rosemary bush is out of the question (dad hates it), tried peppers- they died, just don't know.

Our little sweet basil plant in the herb garden died   :bluesad:

Other than that I'm just watering the dirt and hoping to see some little green sprouts one of these days.

Well...here's my current status on the gardening front.

I planted 3 various cherry tomato plants at the house.  Figure that'll give the kids something to munch on in the summer time without having to go too far to get them.  I got a bit artsy fartsy and built a little rock border around the plants. 

In the corner of the yard I put 6 broccoli plants.  I'm sure with my neighbors forest of oak trees they'll be invaded with worms.  Oh well, I'll deal with that when it happens.

As for the big plot I usually do, I have plans of cutting back a bit.  Though cutting back for me includes 36 tomato plants, onions, beans and maybe corn.  I plan on planting tomorrow, I need to do some shopping after work today.

If all goes as planned, we should be planting today. Man, the plot looks huge when it is tilled and empty!

 :hot:  Everything is sprouting!  We didn't get the seeds in until last Wednesday, so this seems early.  It has been very dry, so I have been watering rather heavily and the heavy layer of manure we put on has added a lot of mulch, so the soil holds water well.  That must be it.

Twenty-four (I think) tomato plants, of four varieties.  Planted half a pound of sweet corn seeds (also four varieties) and one row each of broccoli, carrots, two kinds of cucumbers, three kinds of squash, beets, radishes, green beans, yellow beans, peas, snow peas, two varieties of sweet peppers, lettuces and celery.  About half in nursery plants and half or more in seeds.  There are shoots coming up all over so now it's a race with the weeds.  I plant densely so there is less room for weeds to thrive once the crops get going. Oh: also watermelons and musk melons.  I threw a LOT of pumpkin seeds that we kept from last year on the manure pile.  That should get interesting.

We're doing pretty well here overall.  The peppers (red, yellow, orange) are all over a foot tall and healthy.  I just mulched them.  The beans (both pole and bush) are looking good, and the pole beans are starting to climb the twine lattice I made for them.  The carrots look good.  The spinach and lettuce are full - we've been picking and eating that.  Going to pick some of the beets this weekend to go with either Saturday or Sunday's dinner.

The tomatoes are huge.  I'm working on training them to a single vine each that will climb a long pole.  Goofed up two of them by removing the main sucker (main vine), but I've gotten the hang of it now and one of the plants has produced a new main vine.  It's funny when you remove the main sucker because the plant is no longer able to grow in height - they get all thick and gnarled.  We have nine plants, all of different varieties.

My squash and zucchini are looking awesome too, with huge leaves.  The cucumbers are about ready to start climbing the trellis I made for them.  Most of Katie's flower beds are filled.  The Gladiator Alliums already flowered and seem to be done (we thought they bloomed all summer).

Our disappointments were in the strawberries mostly.  They produced a huge crop, but many went soft and bad quickly.  I'm wondering if that was due to the sudden hot weather.  It went from the 50s to the 80s this year in about a week.  We' haven't been too happy with these strawberries (Ozark Beauty) so we're going to pull the present plants and replace them with Tribute plants that sound promising.  Another day-neutral strawberry we might do is Evie 2.  There is a June-bearing variety called Allstar that is another possibility.

Andy's blueberries - some look very good but one of the four set a huge number of fruit and now appears to be dying.  Maybe it set too much fruit.

We removed a lot of bushes from the front and side of the house last weekend.  That's something we've been meaning to do since we bought the house.  We replaced them with Knockout Rose bushes, azaleas, a camillia, and a rhododendron.  Should be very nice-looking in two or three years.

Our little garden's doing okay.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0201.jpg)

My peas are by that little fence kind of to the left.  About half of them came up, but they're looking pretty good.  Then there's 4 rows of lettuce and a couple of spinach.  Don't know what that stuff in the nearest row is - either Chinese cabbage or some sort of onion thing.  And yeah, I need to mow the lawn   :teddyr:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0203.jpg)

Tomatoes look about like they did when I planted them.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0204.jpg)

Peppers seem to be doing well.  Six of those are Jalapeños, and then there's 6 salsa peppers or something like that.  Don't know what the last one is   :question:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0205.jpg)

Something ate my beans  :hatred:  Bugs of some sort I'm assuming.  I ripped up two-thirds of them and replanted, and the remaining ones I've sprayed with bug killer.  Sprayed most everything in the garden with bug killer.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0200.jpg)

This thing's doing quite well   :thumbup:

OH - I forgot the permanent stuff:  we have been eating asparagus since early April (it has been that kind of year) and are letting it rest now.  I don't expect much from the cherries this year as the weather pulled a switcheroo (from cold to hot and back again) on them at the wrong time so they did not set much fruit;  the apples (MacIntosh and Mutsu/Crispin) look promising as long as they get enough water (and the darn horse stops breaking limbs off with his back-scratching); the pears are doing well; the strawberries are going NUTS and the red currants and gooseberries are bearing heavily.  Something took out a wide swath of our raspberries during the winter so this year will be minimal, but the growth we are getting now promises a huge yield for 2013.  The wild grapes and the elderberries are yet to flower, so we'll see.  Even so, I anticipate making a LOT of pies and fruit jelly this fall.

Seriously considering putting in some rhubarb again and replacing our two plum trees with peaches.  Next spring maybe.  Wish I had a place for blueberries too.

Jack do you get beatles where you're at?  They probably gnawed the leaves.

Oh and stop reading this and get on that lawn already.

We've got Japanese beetles around here, I bet that's what's doing it.  I was reading about them:  "They chew leaf tissue from between the veins, leaving a lacy skeleton."  Sounds kind of familiar   :hatred:

That spray I used is supposed to kill them.  If not I'll go out there at night and kill them in person   :teddyr:

Oh and it's raining today so I unfortunately can't mow the lawn   :bluesad: :bouncegiggle:

The beatles traditionally hatch and do damage for about a week or so.  Usually when stuff is just sprouting unfortunately.  They should cease soon.

Paul, or Ringo?  :tongueout:

We've been picking beets for the past two weeks.  They've been very good, though the greens are tending toward bitter probably due to the very hot weather (it was 94 Sunday).  The spinach is just about done and it starting to bolt.  Hoping to start picking carrots, zucchini, squash, and cucumbers soon.  The tomatoes are steadily setting fruit as are the peppers.  The really warm weather does quite well for some of the vegetables, so it's a mixed blessing.

We're also finally starting to get rain today, which we needed.

Our peppers are getting a few flowers and baby peppers on them

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0208.jpg?t=1339773440)

Something's also eating the leaves, even worse on the spinach

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0209.jpg?t=1339773505)

Slugs maybe?

Lettuce is doing great, nothing ever bothers that stuff

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0210.jpg?t=1339773547)

Tomatoes are slowly inching their way upward

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0212.jpg?t=1339773627)

Anybody know what this weird tree is I've got growing in the herb garden?   :bouncegiggle:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0214.jpg?t=1339773681)

Id try smoking it jack but thats just me

Slow here due to rain.  Havent got in the big garden yet. The familys strawberries are early this year and have beeen delicious

Jack it might be ragweed - you'll know when it flowers.  Or after DS smokes it.

I can't wait to move this fall and have a real yard! I wanna grow some hot peppers. :thumbup:

Peppers are looking good, Jack!  Make sure you give them some bone meal sprinkled around them.  They'll love you for it.  They should also turn a deep green once they get established.  Our pepper plants are looking awesome.

We pulled the last of the spinach over the weekend and made creamed spinach to go with dinner.  Also removed the last of the cilantro that had mostly gone to seed.  It will be back, mostly likely growing in the yard by the raised bed.  That stuff never stops; it's a weed that tastes good.  

We're overwhelmed with beets right now.  Katie is planning to finally learn how to can to store some for later use.

We also just started picking squash and zucchini from our plants, which are all huge.  Just two yellow crookneck squash for now, but I was counting and believe we'll have another six by Saturday.  That's along with three more zucchini to add to the three we picked, so I'm already asking Katie about zucchini bread.

Beans are coming along well, with a lot of young beans on the bush type plants.  We've also got a lot of tomatoes on the vines, but I'm guessing at least two weeks until any are ready to pick.

Edit to add: 

I forgot to mention that about 3 weeks ago the zucchini and cucumbers started to show powdery mildew (it's wind-borne, and it's windy here), which has always meant the end of my plants well before their time.  I did some research and found two suggestions that I started immediately that stopped the powdery mildew in its tracks.  The old leaves still show the damage, but new leaves are healthy and the plants look great.

First, I installed soaker hoses to water the plants.

Second, I bought a cheap sprayer at Lowes and started applying a spray to all of the leaves that was 30% skim milk, 70% water, with a few drops of dishwashing liquid added.  They suggested spraying once or twice a week.  I did it twice a week the first week and now once a week ever since.

There is something in the milk that, when combined with sunlight, kills the mildew or interrupts its reproductive process.  So, I spray all of the leaves in the morning after the dew has evaporated but before the sun is strong.  No sun scald and the required interaction of sun and milk kill the mildew.  They warned against using high concentrations of milk as it can damage the plants, while the dishwashing liquid is to breakup the surface tension so the mixture coats the entire leaf and doesn't form droplets.

Use skim milk because the more milk fat the larger the chance for sour milk smell to be caused by this.  I haven't noticed any such smell using the skim milk as suggested. 

Ragweed -  just a plan old weed of no value.

Yeah that disappeared last week, my wife must have ripped it out.  I thought it was kind of pretty lol.

Had our first raspberries on the weekend.  The tomatoes have taken off and are blooming.  I saw the first cucumbers starting to develop yesterday.  The pressing question at the moment is: what on earth am I to do with a bumper crop of red currants?  They are particularly big and juicy this year, and coming ripe *now* which seems a bit early...but here they are.  I am cringeing at the thought of putting up jelly in this weather.  (Hours hovering over a steaming kettle in July - yikes!)  I may drop some into a few batches of muffins...other than that, does anyone have any recipes calling for fresh red currants?  Anyone??  Not to mention the gooseberries which look to be coming close behind... :buggedout:

Cheeze!

We finished picking one raised bed of beets (had beets for two days and canned the rest), then replanted with parsnips.  Wish the tomatoes would hurry up, we've got quite a few on the vine but nothing ripe yet.  Picked some cucumbers and those seem to be doing well.  We're getting a whole lot of squash and zucchini.  Made a yellow squash soup that was very good and used a bunch of them, and zucchini bread took care of some of those.  We still have a lot of zucchini though.

Picking beans, which have been very good and going into salads.

Had a close call the other day with weather.  A line of severe thunderstorms ripped through and brought down a  lot of trees 10 miles north of us.  I mean whole neighborhoods with most of the trees down or damaged.  We had it bad at our home, but the only casualty was some of Katie's gladiolas and one tomato plant was broken.  One of our neighbors has a tree that took a permanent lean (the tree is about 16 feet tall).  He's planning to hook the truck to it to pull it straight and then stake it.

Picked 7 zucchini this morning, 3 yellow squash, and 3 cucumbers.  The zucchini are still producing like crazy; by my count we have picked 38 zucchini in 8 days (perhaps 9 days).  We made a lot of zucchini bread and have been giving them away, and we still have 12 or so of them in the kitchen right now.

We're going to get some tomatoes this week!  A number of the yellow cherry tomatoes are quickly changing to their mature color.


Oh man, I've actually had gooseberry pie.  Good stuff.

Finally got the big garden in.  A few rows of onions, about 22 tomato plants and 6 eggplants.  I'll probably do some hills of corn. 

Peppers are coming along nicely - they love this hot weather.  I'll be having some Jalapeño poppers pretty soon   :teddyr:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0216.jpg?t=1341411309)(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0217.jpg?t=1341411357)

Peas are almost ready to pick

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0218.jpg?t=1341411395)

You know, I was inordinately pleased to have a farming neighbour comment (from the seat of his tractor, no less) that our garden was looking good - he knows his corn, as he has a few hundred acres of the stuff!   :teddyr:  The haat has brought the corn on so fast you can almost see it growing in front of you. It's thigh-high at the moment. The tomatoes are also thriving, as are the cucumbers and broccoli.  I'll get the peas tied up today: they are in the shade of an apple tree, so I am hoping it is cooler enough for them to do OK there.

Making my first-ever gooseberry pies later today.  I hope I don't mess them up.

Jack, we picked a green pepper this morning and cut it up to have with lunch.  Delicious and really crisp.


We didn't plant any corn, but there is a lot of it planted around here and it's all huge already.  Most of the fields are taller than me.  Must be all the sun and rain we've been getting.


You could send me one and I'll tell you how you did.

Sounds nice, I'm looking forward to chopping a few up for some chili.

Photos from yesterday:

(I am in this one): corn with watermelon and musk melon vines in front.
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Walknuk/Children%20of%20the%20Corn/GardenJuly202012b.jpg)

The corn and tomatoes:
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Walknuk/Children%20of%20the%20Corn/GardenJuly2020125b.jpg)

Here you can see broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, celery, peppers, beans and corn:
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Walknuk/Children%20of%20the%20Corn/GardenJuly2020128.jpg)

Corn and tomatoes again, with the apple trees on the left.  Oh: and there I am again!
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Walknuk/Children%20of%20the%20Corn/GardenJuly2020122b.jpg)

Tomatoes and corn with the cucumbers and squash in the foreground and the apple trees behind:
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Walknuk/Children%20of%20the%20Corn/GardenJuly2020126b.jpg)

Newt, that is an awesome looking garden.  I am envious.  There is so much that you could get lost in it all.

Thanks, Andrew!  It is a real luxury to have the space for it.  This year has been so dry, we are pleased that it has come along so well.

You were right: the gooseberry pie was a real treat.  :thumbup: I would have sent one if I could!  I couldn't resist making some jelly as well; that came out a surprisingly pale pink and captured the gooseberry flavour nicely. 

Awesome garden Newt!  I see you in there   :bouncegiggle:  I'm especially jealous of all that sweetcorn - yum!

Took a few pic's of my pint-sized little plot yesterday:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0223.jpg?t=1343043502)

Tomatoes have grown a bit.  We've only gotten half a dozen tomatoes so far, but they should start producing in the next few weeks.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0220.jpg?t=1343043663)

Despite being almost completely destroyed by the great beetle invasion early in the year, the beans have made a nice comeback.  We picked them a couple times - haven't got much yet.  But soon.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0221.jpg?t=1343043764)

Peppers keep growing.  And I keep waiting for them to turn red or yellow or something.  Could probably pick some jalapenos but I'm kind of waiting for them to get that "corked" appearance so I know they're ready.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0222.jpg?t=1343043863)

A few onions and beets.  Not too many of my onions came up, but the ones that made it look healthy.  We've picked some beets already, they must be good because there's never any left for me   :smile:  The peas in the back are pretty much done - we picked them a couple times and got a few nice meals. 

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0224.jpg?t=1343043935)

That's all that's left of my Bok Choi.  There used to be a whole row of it but something ate it.  I'm blaming the pair of doves that seem to have taken up residence there.  There's a bit of fennel behind it.  Hardly any of it came up, but those are the ones that did.

I ripped out the lettuce and spinach, it was all overgrown.  I may plant some more, but Gwen has to remind me a few more times first   :teddyr:

I haven't had gooseberry pie in a long, long time (21+ years).  Never seen one for sale, not even at an Amish market.  You've got me wondering very hard if I could get them to grow in our climate zone.  What I found says that they should, but when I've seen them it's always been in places like Colorado or the mountains of Pennsylvania. 

Jack, your garden is looking good.  The beans look really nice.  We've picked quite a few from our pole bean plants, but they look terrible due to the recent attack by Japanese beetles.  If those are the same beetles you had a problem with, we also had a massive plague of them this year that just tapered off a week ago.  I put out traps for them and the traps were filling daily.

Yeah they were probably Japanese beetles, I looked at some pictures of the damage they do to plants and it was identical to the way my beans looked early in the year. 

Traps eh?  I'll definitely have to get some of those next year.

We picked a bucket of green beans (bush and pole varieties) yesterday.  Last night I blanched and then froze three freezer bags of them.  We still have enough in the fridge for multiple meals.

The tomatoes are starting to come in faster than we can eat them.  Planning on taking some by for the Marines to take home.  That and I can give quarts of them to the neighbors.  A number of the peppers (yellow, orange, and red) are starting to turn now.  Next week we are going to make red peppers stuffed with sweet Italian sausage and mozzarella and also fajitas with them.  Pretty soon we will be drowning in peppers.

The cucumbers have tapered off, but I'm still picking about one a day and that is more than enough.  Especially since the marketmore variety is averaging about 14 inches long.  I removed the squash and zucchini, it was taking too much damage from downy mildew and we are finally finishing off the last of those in the fridge (we picked about 60-70) anyway.  Planted carrots there for the fall.

We're picking carrots as we need them.  Still looking like we have enough to last us until September.

Well our Rosemary bush died because we neglected to put it somewhere. Also, my dad hates rosemary bushes, killed the last one.:lookingup:

Newt, thats a nice hand.

I'm a bit slow over here due to getting my stuff in late.  Although the tomato plants at the house are well over my head.

Thank you.   :teddyr:

Just picked over six dozen ears of sweet corn.  What was I thinking and where the heck is Jack?   :wink:

I'd be very happy to help you out with the sweet corn Newt :teddyr:

I picked a peck of (unpickled) peppers the other day.  Those things are doing great.  Got one red jalapeno but all the rest are still green.  Tomatoes are starting to produce, we get a couple of larger tomatoes each day and a handful of grape tomatoes.  Beans still haven't hit their stride - we picked them again but most are still rather small small.  Since the peas, lettuce and spinach was all done I tore that all out and planted a bunch more stuff - pretty much emptied out all the half-empty seed packets we had sitting around.  Carrots, onions, eggplant, fennel, bak choi, lettuce, parsley, and probably some more stuff I'm forgetting.  It's probably a bit late in the season to be planting some of that stuff, but oh well...we'll see what comes up   :smile:  It's been raining every day since I did that planting, so Mr. Lazy over here doesn't have to water anything.

Picked tomatoes today, which I hadn't done since about Thursday and this was the result:

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/forum/tomatoes_20120805.jpg)

Also picked about half a dozen cucumbers in the last two days.  Those seem to be dying off now, probably a combination of how much they have produced and the downy mildew which is still a problem.

We're having stuffed peppers tonight, because the pepper plants are full of red, yellow, orange, and green peppers.  Katie makes an awesome version of stuffed peppers with sweet Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese.

If anybody wants Jalapenos, please stop by and just pick all you want.  I'll even give you a couple of bags of them out of the refrigerator  :teddyr:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0258.jpg)

Tomatoes are doing good.  They've got tons of tomatoes on them but they're taking their sweet time getting ripe. 

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0262.jpg)

Beans are really producing well too now

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/DSCN0256.jpg)

Only raised bed still left from the summer garden is the small tomatoes, which are still making so many that about half fall off.

Besides that we have raised beds of daikon, carrots, beets, turnips, lettuce, and spinach growing.  There are also four cauliflower plants, but I think we got them planted too late.  At least they were an experiment anyway.

The everbearing strawberry patch we planted in June is so full I'm going to thin the plants before covering them with straw for the winter, but they are currently blooming and setting fruit. 

Our tomatoes are pretty much the same: the cherry variety are going great guns, the beefmaster are done (but don't know it) and the rest are still pluggin along.  I hope we don't get a good frost for at least a week so the green ones still on the plants have a chance to ripen.  The blossoms that are out there won't set fruit (too cold at night) but it'd be nice to have a few more ripen (no fans of green tomato anything here) before we close up the garden.

Cleared out all the corn stalks; considering the possibility of a big bonfire at Halloween.  The wiccan neighbours might appreciate that.

The freezer is full of corn and apple slices.  Carrots are still coming, squash (at least 16 more out there), celery (one plant left: been using them for tomato sauce), some beans, broccoli and mutsu apples.  So many apples this year, I am researching good recipes to use them all.   

Ripped out most of our garden last weekend.  Still had some lettuce and parsley but we had quite a frost last night so I doubt it's in good shape any more.

Good year for the garden - had lots of tomatoes, decent bean yield, and those peppers...our freezer door is completely full of peppers and there were still tons of them on the plants when I tilled them under.

We still have raised beds filled with beets, daikon, carrots, turnips, and spinach.  We have so much daikon that I'm looking for various recipes to use it all.  Having some luck, but one of them was a terrible thing that shall never be revisited.

Picked about a pint of strawberries from Garrett's everbearing patch this morning.  That's probably the last of them.  They were very good.

I usually grow jalapeños and red peppers every year. But I was thinking about growing some strawberries. Anybody ever do that? What all would I need?

We have been growing strawberries for a few years.  Finally starting to get the hang of it.  They are pretty versatile as far as how you grow them:  we use raised beds, but I have seen them in pots, in a regular garden, and even just tucked into a corner of the yard. 

There are a lot of different varieties.  You'll want to find one that you like the taste of.  Strawberries also come in two different kinds:  June bearing and everbearing.  The June bearing make most of their fruit in spring, while the everbearing have a spring crop and then continue to produce (at a slower pace) until Fall.

The big thing with strawberries is maintenance.  After June bearing finish their crop you are supposed to cut them down (mowing works) to about 3" above the ground.  You don't do that with everbearing or you won't get more strawberries that year.  You also have to keep them thinned out by removing runners so there is space between plants.  To keep fruit from insects or rotting you want to use straw or black plastic around plants.  In cooler climes you also cover them with straw when freezing temperatures arrive.

When you want to encourage the plants to set fruit you remove runners so they are not spreading.  Finally, you want to remove older plants (2 or 3 years) and replace them with new ones to keep the patch producing.  That is a reason to allow the plants to put out runners and then use those new plants to replace the old.

We have a June bearing called Cabot that looks promising.  I'll be able to say how they did when we see our first crop in the Spring.  Our everbearing is Evie.  We had about 2 quarts of Evie this fall after planting in late Spring.  They seem to be ripe when a light red, so we had a number rot because we didn't think they were ripe yet.  The flavor of the Evie's has been good.

*BUMP*


I've got lettuce, spinach and radishes started so far, and they're looking good.  Hope to get bell peppers, tomatoes and carrots going soon. 

Our lettuce, spinach, scallions, beets, and carrots are all sprouted.  Just planted the beans, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini.  Going to buy pepper and tomato plants soon and plant them.

The strawberry beds are recovering from the damage the vole did to them over the winter.  We might even get strawberries this spring.

I've got our garden all tilled up (with my shovel) but haven't planted anything yet.  Probably get that all done this week though.  I think I'm later with planting this year because we had snow up until last week, so hopefully I'll miss the damned beetle hatching season.  Stinkin' things ate just about everything last spring.

We've got a rhubarb plant that's about a foot tall and the other one is about 6".  Also a pretty good chives plant from last year in the herb garden.  It survived 2" of snow just fine  :thumbup:

Ive been doing some planting here and there around the house.  Vegetable wise ive only put in lettuce seeds which are sprouting.   i aquired some free herb seeds so im giving that a go. Ive been transplanting grass into a bare spot where we had bushes. So far its taken well.   The crap i do to save money...

Unless we get some things finished in the yard, I don't think we will have a garden this year.  There is a large trench across it with the electrical supply to the barn pulled out for replacement...which is not happening in a timely fashion.   :lookingup:  I am not holding my breath.  :bluesad:  That leaves just the berry bushes and fruit trees.  Oh well.

I spoke to Mom about two hours ago and she told me that her sister has some odd things growing in her garden, among which are some marijuana bushes.  :question:

 :bouncegiggle:  Oh naughty Auntie!

We have helicopters flying over fairly regularly once the field crops (mainly corn/maize) are at a certain stage, checking for patches of marijuana planted among them.  Sometimes the pilots circle and buzz the horses to see if they can make them run - they must be bored to tears!

I'm trying to get a garden going, but I still haven't figured out Oregon Weather.  I have some chocolate cherry tomatoes in the ground and that's about it.  Hopefully next year I'll have a good size garden going.

With Spring being drunk and not coming out, there hasn't been a chance to plant stuff. :hatred:

We turned over the last two beds from the fall/winter garden.  Been giving away scallions (we had a lot in that bed) all weekend.  That is along with using them any way we could, like me making open faced roast beef sandwiches with sauteed scallions and mushrooms.

Need to find a few more pepper and tomato plants, but both of those beds have been planted.  We want a lemon boy tomato, a jalapeno pepper, and a orange bell pepper yet and haven't been able to find them.

Beans, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini are all sprouted.  One of Garrett's strawberry beds has recovered and is full of blooms.  Andy's blueberry bushes are also full of flowers.  Looking forward to some home grown berries this spring!

Got peppers, tomatoes, carrots and chamomile planted this weekend.  Also put in a flower bed w/sunflowers, zinnias, and daisies.  My raspberry shrub is sending up shoots but I doubt it'll get big enough to produce any fruit this year...

I've put in 4 or 5 tomato varieties,brocolli, carrots, radishes, tomatillos, melon, squash, corn, peas, and ground cherries. I had potatoes over winter and the asparagus actually did something.

Got most of our stuff planted - peas, beans, two kinds of lettuce, spinach, and onions.  Still need to get tomatoes and a pepper plant or two.  Once I see how much room the tomatoes take up I'll fill in the rest of the area with beans.

Couldn't plant until now because it was getting below freezing at night.  Of course right now it's 89 degrees.  Think I'm safe  :thumbup:

Got our tomatoes planted yesterday, some more beans, a row of eggplant, and single pepper plant.  Our freezer is still full of jalapenos from last year so I think we can go kind of light on those.  :smile:

So all the planting is done and now I can just do some weeding for a few months 'till harvest.  Hopefully the lawn lady won't spread grass seed all over the garden like she did last year - 5 seconds for her to shoot 'em over there, two hours for me to pull them all up.

Most of our stuff is doing pretty well.  Tomatoes, lettuce, onions, eggplant, even the spinach is doing good.  We've got two little bean patches - in one almost every bean came up, in the other maybe 20% of them.  Only disappointment in the peas - out of maybe 30 I planted, 3 came up.  THREE  :hatred:  I replanted a bunch more but I imagine those seeds aren't any good, I'll probably have to get another packet.  Probably replant some more beans too.

Ummm...... I raked my garden yesterday evening.  :wink:

The lettuce and spinach is doing great, so we have been eating a lot of salads.  Harvested some beets the other day that was enough for two dinners.  Barely put a dent in the number of beets, so we are set on beets for the summer.  The tomatoes are looking great, and the beans, squash, zucchini, carrots, scallions, and cucumbers are doing good.  The peppers are doing OK - I don't think it is hot enough for them yet.

Garrett's strawberry patch has recovered pretty well from the vole damage, but it's been so wet that we have to pick the strawberries when they are still not quite ripe - if not they go bad before we get them.  Next year I'll try putting down the black plastic around the plants to help keep the fruit away from wet soil.

Andy's blueberry bushes are loaded with maturing berries!

Nice avatar Trev...I presume you are staying on top of tending those pizza plants?

It has been wet here too.  Picked the first strawberries of the season this morning.  The other berry bushes are covered in tiny fruit...rain must be good for that at least.

 :bouncegiggle: :teddyr:

* EXCRUCIATINGLY LOUD TUMMY RUMBLES * Hmm: pizza..... I haven't eaten much at all today.

We have had a good strawberry season so far, brocolli is doing great and peas are almost ready.

The radishes & lettuce are doing good.  Everything else, ehhh....

Tomatoes and some beans on the right

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/2e5aa632-2e47-40b1-bdb7-8919df2d906a_zpscfd145ef.jpg?t=1372624873)

Peas are doing okay.  Only 3 came up originally but I planted some more and most of those came up.  That's some spinach to the left.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/037b94ca-d088-41ce-9e9d-14153861a2e7_zps7d451496.jpg?t=1372625002)

Onions (I suppose I should thin those out), lettuce and eggplant.

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/2bed323d-8394-490c-8c84-c17f9ea1c3e4_zpsadd7d32f.jpg?t=1372625082)

Flowers.  You can just never have too many flowers.   :smile:

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/eb2af49f-5043-43a9-9074-34c7269e6700_zps41685dce.jpg?t=1372625164)

Jack, if those are scallions or green bunching onions you can just let them all crowd together.  The larger-bulbed type do need thinning.  Thanks to Darksider for the gift of onions a few years back that got me to try them.  Now they are a staple in our garden all year!

We have had a steady cycle of sun most of the day and then rain at night for about a week.  Our garden looks like something out of a prehistoric movie.  Over the last five days we have picked about twenty cucumbers, about the same number of zucchini and squash, and a made a huge pot of beets that barely put a dent in them.  Some of the beets are larger than tennis balls!

Blueberries are coming in, and they taste awesome.  The peppers are looking better, the tomatoes look are starting to be really laden with fruit, the beans are doing well (about 3 or 4 quarts of beans already picked), and our carrots are ready for harvest as needed.

Finally I got a garden in this weekend.   Very small compared to previous years but hopefully thell do well.   Just basics this year tomatos, peppers and eggplant.

Garden onions are amazing under the right conditions.   

Jack, the tomatos look great!

Those things are up to the top of their cages already  :smile:  Got a lot of tomatoes on them, still small though.  We've picked beans a couple times already.  And I'm giving away lettuce to the relatives. 

I guess those onions don't get big and bulbous, they're not much bigger than a pencil.  And we'll have a lot of them lol.

It seems like everyone is having good luck with their gardens this year.   :thumbup:

We continue to be swamped with cucumbers.  At one point we had a pile of 30 of them on the kitchen counter.  That's even with cutting them up for our lunches and giving them away.

The tomatoes are starting to come in.  We'll soon be awash in those.  The Better Boys are almost as big as softballs!  The Brandywines taste amazing, as do the cherry tomatoes we planted (sweet million and a golden cherry variety).  Peppers are still coming along nicely, and we continue to pick beans as a cyclic rate.

Our tomatoes are starting to get ripe, mostly the little Roma ones but a few of the regular ones as well.  I pick all kinds of beans but they seem to run out really quick when we eat them - either there's a huge pile of them in the refrigerator that I haven't noticed or else somebody around here is throwing them out.  We've got a couple of eggplants growing and the rest of the plants are covered with flowers so I think we'll have quite a crop of those.  Lettuce is going gangbusters.  I ripped out the spinach because it was way overgrown and nobody was eating it anyway.  Peas are weird this year, they only got a bout a foot tall and I don't think we'll have much of a crop.  Stupid peas - about one year out of five they'll grow great and we'll get a ton of them;  the other four years they do poorly.

Oh and I REALLY need to get out there and do some weeding. 

Tomatoes seem to be hitting their peak

(http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww28/jackc8/d3ebd904-466b-4e6a-961a-47ca020cc3f3_zps001bb56b.jpg?t=1377464747)

Nobody's eating the lettuce so I'm letting that grow to see if we get lettuce trees  :smile: Eggplants are doing well, but my wife picks them when they're real small because she's impatient they taste better that way.  Beans were good this year, plenty for the family but not so many we're asking everybody we know if they want some.  Onions are doing good too, those things are really tasty.

okay,y'all, i could use some help,please?
i live in kansas,for zone purposes i think i'm zone 8?
i want to have some lilac bushes in my front yard,and i need to know these things.
1-do i need ROOT cuttings,or just limb/sapling type cuttings?
2-do i plant them in the fall,like i did in massachusetts? then they are more or less dormant until they get past 2 feet tall?
3-are they like hydrangeas,where the color changes according to the soil mixture, or are the color specific?
TIA,GUYS!!

Slow slow slow out here...haven't picked a damn thing yet.   Lets hope for a somewhat long fall.

I'm trying again. I've got some potatoes, onions, and tomatoes. I'm also trying to get some zuchini and bell peppers going.

Well.

2/3 of my chocolate cherry tomato plants, and my sun flower died from all the rain last week. I put out two more sun flowers one of which looks like its trying and the other has given up. I added a new tomato my wife found. The cilantro is still holding on just to spite me.

I did plant some lavender for my wife and some rosemary for me.

Its going to rain again next week, so who knows what will survive.

We had a batch of freezing cold suddenly hit about 2 weeks ago that damaged the new carrots, scallions, and beets.  The carrots seem to be springing back, the beets also seem to be recovering, but the onions died and I replanted.

The strawberries seem to be coming along after some minor (less than I should have done) thinning.  The blueberries are looking good.

Waiting about 2-3 more weeks before we plant tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and beans!

No plans as of yet but Ill get there eventually.

It's been raining here every day - with some snow mixed in a couple of days ago lol.  Probably be a few weeks before I get anything in the ground.

The lettuce and spinach has gone to seed in the heat.  Those were good while they lasted.

The family is already sick of squash and zucchini.  We've mixed it with pasta, put it in mac and cheese, and generally tried to use as much as possible.  We still have 5 or 6 zucchini, and more on the way.  Katie baked 6 loaves of zucchini bread on Sunday.

We're picking beets and carrots now.  Those are good, though I am going to have to do something about the beets.  They're starting to get all huge and gruesome.

Yesterday I picked something like 10 cucumbers.  Many more are on the way.  However, unlike squash and the dreaded zucchini, my family cannot get enough cucumbers.

My marijuana plants are coming on just fine, thanks. :wink:

With the new house, we just did a very basic garden.  A few tomatoes and some odds and ends were all we had time to put in.   
-Ed

Our garden's been coming along really well, guess it likes the constant rain we've been getting.  Our lettuce kind of got washed out though.  We don't have anything to pick yet, but the tomato plants are growing like weeds, the pole beans are up to the top of their poles, and even the peas are looking good this year.