I have been picking snow peas, but your beans are far ahead of mine. My bush beans (yellow) are only starting to flower now, and my pole beans are growing vigorously but nowhere near flowering. My cherry tomatoes are just starting to turn colour (ie not all green) on a few tomatoes, the larger slicers are at the hard green stage.

Picked the first two zucchini yesterday.

We had swiss chard for lunch!

Peas are just starting to bloom and there are 6 little green baby tomatoes - can`t wait!!!!!

Picking eggplants, chard, zucchini, and green peppers. Also, the last of the snap peas. I like to plant my snap peas very early, so I've been picking them since late June. On the flip side, they also die off quickly in the July heat. Next year, I should try staggering them. Some tomatoes are ripening, and tomatillos are ready to pick as well.
Radishes were a bust this year due to root maggots. I like to plant my radishes before the maggots become active, but this April was just so cold in SK, I wasn't able to plant anything until the very end of April.

None of my tomatoes are worth a picture. They are bearing but aren't anything to write home about. I may snap something in August. My second garden is doing well, but my home base just isn't performing under the shade....definitely two weeks behind. Peas and pole beans were a bust this year. What is odd is that this is the first year the banana peppers and cherry bombs are well ahead of the tomatoes this year. Go figure.

Second base.

Home base

My peas are the best I've ever grown, I can barely keep up eating them and that's saying something with my DH and kid.

The cucumbers should have been thinned down to about 3 plants. They are way out of control, I will never eat them all. The hot peppers were doing well until they got swallowed by cukes. Pole beans are just starting to flower. Tomatoes have several small green tomatoes. Zucchini just starting to make tiny zukes. Cilantro has also gone crazy. Skyphos lettuce is heading up and I've been eating it.

I have hundreds of blossoms on my tomatoes and pole beans. There are a few tiny tomatoes as well on the Sunsugar and Stupice plants. I had my first Cool Breeze cucumber the other day. The dino kale has been good but I have to be diligent about picking off the cabbage worms, so far there aren't a lot but to me, ONE is too many.

As hot as it's been over the past month, my lettuce hasn't bolted yet.

I think my little patch of peas is almost finished for the year :( I did plant a few more but I doubt enough came up to give us a meal.

We ate 9 pole beans two days ago ! Absolutely delicious.

Lots more blossoms on the tomatoes and my friend helped them along yesterday by brushing her hand along all of them. She's still more old school than even I am. When I reminded her that tomatoes are self pollinating, she said "they always did that years ago" :)

I hope the garlic is doing as well underground as it is above ground. Curliques all over the place. I wish I had a bigger garden......

I'm having a rather bothersome time with house sparrows in my garden - I had to cover the snap peas with shade cloth because the birds were eating them (fruit, leaves, blossoms). I have picked a lot of the peas, though, and they're really good. They really are better when cooled in a plastic bag in the fridge.

The bush beans are producing like mad. They're big, healthy plants that still have lots of blossoms. I picked about 2 icecream gallon containers today and will pick that many again on Sunday. I was also able to pick a few from the pole beans.

My cucumbers are, I think, finally starting. Loaded with blossoms but ver few cucs are setting and growing.

I'm still disappointed in the tomatoes. There's some fruit set but really not very much. They're still blossoming though although again, not very heavy. Oh well.

The corn is also falling victim to the house sparrows since the flower stalks are emerging and the birds want to clean those stalks off completely. No flowers = no pollen = no corn. So, I tied a bunch of string and grocery bags around to scare them off - that seems to have worked but they have caused some damage. The second (later seeded) bed of corn is still quite short but today I looked down and saw a flower stalk starting to poke up.

Lettage, that tender cabbage I've got growing in my mom's garden, is having a great season. We're now at the point where we have to look for ways to use it up because it's on the verge of cracking. 7 or 8 head left, they may have to get cut out of the garden and get stored in my basement fridge.

The peppers are doing pretty good - they set fruit early which are steadily growing. The poor things are kind of swallowed up by the giant bush bean plans but it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm.

Surprisingly the lettuce is still quite good. Skyphos and The Pearl are the two varieties I'm growing this year. I cut a few of the Skyphos plants to the ground when I harvested and they are sending up new growth (which I've not yet tasted so I don't know if that is going to be worth it in the end). I've got a shade cloth over the lettuce

I don't grow potatoes but my mom does and they're really nice (there's some for supper tonight along with roasted cabbage)

Pudge,

Roasted cabbage sounds delicious. How do you make it?

Chop it up, add a diced up onion, drizzle lightly with olive oil, minimal salt (you can add more to taste after its cooked), lots of pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. Cover and slow roast at 325F for about 2-3 hours. Check periodically if its too dry which will cause it to burn - add a bit of broth or water and continue to roast. It's yummy!

I have many tomato plants with big green tomatoes, but none ripening yet! I blame the cool weather. Last year I had huge ripe tomatoes at the end of July!

Well.... We've eaten about two dozen pods of peas off the hail damaged plants, but I seeded a row mid July optimistically hoping they'll be ready 1st or 2nd week of September.

Many bean plants did not come back after the July 8 hailstorm, so I removed the stumps and stuck another seed in it's place and am hoping for the best for those too! Oddly, the ones that have regrown from the storm are an anemic yellow, the newly seeded ones have the dark green leaves.

As for tomatoes . . . I ripped some out and kept some as an experiment. They are beefsteaks and just producing their first trusses. I'll pinch off any future ones with the hope I'll get a couple of slicer tomatoes from my garden. I don't have high hopes for that tho'.

Lettuce came through fine, candy onions are puny, garlics have no leaves so don't know how they will finish.

Spuds came back bigger and stronger than how they were growing before. I'm almost afraid to dig them up for what I might discover under there!

Strawberries doing great. They were covered with 1inch square type netting to discourage the robins, and I think the netting saved them from severe hail damage, they only had a few rips and tears in their leaves. I might have to buy some more, just to throw over the tomato plants should we have another hail-ish summer next year.

Chives are the greatest with smashed spuds! I tried an onion called "multipliers" and they gave great tasting green onions, but went to seed and then lost all their foliage in the hail. I tried roasting a few of the bulbs but did not like the taste. Internet searches don't yield too much info, 'specially since their Latin name was not included on the package. I don't think they are 'potato onions'. Anyone grow and use multipliers?

Sorry, response was posted twice.

This post was edited by kioni on Sun, Aug 4, 13 at 0:31

I grow multipliers for green onion. If you can leave them planted in a corner of the garden or somewhere you don't till, they will return in the spring and provide very nice green onion quite early in the season. They don't produce all season, though - they do die down just as yours did. I usually pick off those flowering stems.

I divided the bulbs this spring which was fairly easy to do, teasing apart those roots, but after I divided them they didn't grow very much so I think the time to divide is after the foliage has died down, now to early fall. Mine grow in a rasied bed in quite sandy soil. They winter with no protection other than snow.

NAF - what variety of pole bean are you growing this year? (I know you've said somewhere, but I'm too lazy to search for it!) I planted Kentucky Blue, and I'm finding it to be just mediocre in taste. My bush beans (Lewis or something, I think) are far tastier. The pole beans just taste...drier, or something. I dunno. I wouldn't describe them as delicious anyway! Maybe I didn't water them enough.

weeper,

Have you tried Rattlesnake pole beans? They are quite good...tender and very prolific. I like bush beans the best (I plant Derby), but the pole beans extend the bean season.

No, I haven't tried Rattlesnake yet...I do appreciate the pole beans extend the season, and I'll definitely plant them again next year..I just wish they tasted as good as bush beans!

Weeper, I'm growing Early Riser pole beans. I think they're delicious but I really should compare them to the bush beans. Maybe they're not delicious, but because they cover half of a large square plate, maybe the thrill is clouding my judgement, LOL!

How big do Kentucky Blue and Rattlesnake get?? The last two years are the only times I've ever grown pole beans, so I have no idea.....

It's been a slow start, tomatoes are behind, the greens do OK.

I grow the Blue Lake S-7 pole beans and I think they're really good, hard to tell the difference from the Blue Lake bush beans. I do water frequently once they start producing, though. I got the seeds from William Dam, it says they are a vigourous strain for northern gardeners

Here is a link that might be useful: damseeds.ca

What are those greens, Konrad?

NAF - My Kentucky Blue has grown to be about 5-6 ft so far, and still growing. It is planted on a bit of a slope, so I think a lot of the water has been running off instead of soaking in. I would probably give them another try next year. Sounds like I have some other varieties to try too!

Hee hee. Sorry Weeper.

I meant, how big do the actual beans get, not the plant :)

The average length of the Early Riser has been between 8 inches to 8-3/4 inches.

Oh! Ha...um, KB's beans are probably in the 6 inch range, but they get longer if you leave them to get bigger. I just prefer the taste of smaller beans!

Kale is our first priority, [left] next is a Asian veggie, Green Lance, I call it Chinese Broccoli, served allot in Chinese restaurants. Then some asparagus and beans.

That Chinese veggie is also called gai lan. How do you keep the cabbage worms from your kale, konrad? Mine are full of holes.

Rattlesnake beans are very versatile because they can be used for fresh beans and when mature, they can be shelled for cooking beans. I only saved some for seeds, never ate any of the dried form.

>>How do you keep the cabbage worms from your kale, konrad?Haven't used anything so far, been saying,.. where are these pesky cabbage butterfly, guess cool temp. kept them out.
I might harvest most of the kale now.
In the past I have used Rotenone.

Donna, I think for us the only option may be a row cover. That'll prevent the cabbage worms from ever being laid. I didn't do it this year and I'm paying for it now! A whole bunch of kale ready to go and I'm too lazy to pick off all the eggs and worms...

weeper you can dust the underside of the leaves with DE or spray with neem oil. It can be a bit time consuming but it works - I did this last year for my cabbage and this year for the cauliflower.

- Just pick the first batch of peas and ended up with just over 10 lbs shucked. There was more to be picked but the bowls were full!!

- Sugar Snap peas are almost done (thank goodness)

- Yellow Bush Beans are ready to be picked

- Carrots are maturing nicely and are being attacked by grasshoppers

- beets vary in size but some could be picked and roasted... yumm!

- kale is HUGE (and no cabbage worms ... yet), kohlrabi is almost big enough to pick, and turnips are a nice size

- swiss chard has been ready for a while

- onions & garlic are HUGE this year

- cauliflower has nice size heads, ready to pick soon before cabbage worms get too bad

- lots of green tomatoes but nothing ripening get

- some zucchini and papaya pear are ready for harvesting

- spaghetti squash is behind even though they are monster plants this year! my largest is about the size of a baseball (hard ball not soft ball), last year they were almost full size but green in the beginning of august

- tators - Norland harvestable and plants healthy, Yukon Gold harvestable and plants starting to die back

- should be able to pick my first greenhouse cucumber within the week :)

- Sunflowers starting to open

.... and I'm so glad I can start harvesting (& blanching) because that means I have no time for weeding!!! :)

My granddaughter and i were in the garden today seeing what was what.

We picked some carrots, just thinning, but she pulled a good-sized one.

The peas, for what they were worth (nothing!), are done.

I picked one small zucchini and a head of broccoli.

The beans are ready to start picking but it was too wet for that.

The first batch of kohlrabi are done, and the ones coming up are quite small.

Swiss chard - once again, we can't keep up with it even though i only planted one row and thinned it well.

Beets are ready to pick too.

I picked a cabbage last week and it was good but not fully filled in.

There won't be any cauliflower or brussels sprouts.

There are tomatoes coming but all pretty solid green (and no real warm weather in sight).

Onions are heading up well.

Lettuce is still doing well - the romaine has babies where i cut the heads off (like what a cabbage will do), and the leaf lettuce hasn't bolted. The second planting is coming along.

We planted some more radishes today - figured that the cool weather will be good for them. My granddaughter: "There's gonna be a whole lot of radishes in one spot, by accident." LOL

In my market garden, I use row covers to keep cabbage worms off. I also spray with Bt as an additional measure (row covers inevitably develop holes which butterflies may occasionally find).

Spinosad is also an excellent pest control, provided it is rotated with Bt. All three methods are organic.

Weeper, you can spray your kale with Bt, put a row cover on it, and pick it after 7-10 days. You may still have to pick some dead worms off of it.

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 1:53

What the heck was I thinking, planting so many cherry tomatoes? I have Sungold, Sunsugar (I know they are similar to SG but they don't split like SG and I actually found seeds this year), Isis Candy, Black Cherry and Sweet Baby...Fruit was slow to set but now all the tomatoes are going like gangbusters. Have I mentioned that only the two adults eat fresh tomatoes?