I had the best lettuce last night grown in containers on someone's deck. It was a fun and tasty pot luck with an Eat Local group.

Digging, no tomatoes? OTH one year I grew quite a few bush beans in a 3' square raised bed.

Bordeaux spinach is bolting. Looks like some of the oriental greens are bolting, too, but only a couple of inches tall. Tomorrow night: Stir Fry!

I'm having a magnificent year with greens. We are eating lettuce with every meal, and it seems like I put more lettuce than anything else on lunch sandwiches! I only have 4 heads of pac choi left to eat - another thing we are eating with every meal! And the strawberries are great! We skipped picking today, so I will probably have enought for a batch of jam tomorrow!

Lettuce and cucumbers

Pac Choi and Neon Lights Swiss Chard

Strawberries

Finally saw flowers on my peas this morning! Yay. I've been beginning to wonder where they were.

I used to have a large veggie garden at my previous house for many years, hardly grew any flowers. Now, it's the reverse. This house has very little full sun. Large lot, but was very overgrown and has many large trees. BUT - I have been digging a new veggie garden this year - over the leaching pit in back. Never thought to utilize this area, because it's over the septic and part of the lawn, but the grass doesn't grow well there anyway. The soil is decent, and no I don't worry about the septic because it's a pit, not a field.

So far - just planted a dozen tomato plants and some Basil this week. Tomatoes are Brandywine, Beefsteak, Ace 55, Sugar Lump, Chocolate cherry, and Sun gold. I've also got assorted herbs scattered in the garden beds (Cilantro, Thyme, Oregano, and Parsley). I plan to add at least Cucumbers and some greens.

I also sometimes grow potatoes in the compost pile - they do okay there even with minimal sun.

Pixie, your garden looks fabulous!

My sunflowers poked their heads up out of the soil this week. (I know they're not vegetables, but they're in the vegie garden!) I haven't planted vegetables (except tomatoes from plants) since the 1970s, so I'd forgotten the thrill of seeing rows of plants emerging. Hoping the corn, carrots and pumpkins will be showing themselves soon.

Oooh goodie, my sweet corn and pumpkins are poking out of the ground too! They must have enjoyed last night's rain!

spedigrees - thanks for the corn planting idea. I have leftover seed from last year, but I don't have the space available to plant corn for eating. So I just planted the seeds in front of my brush pile - hopefully the stuff will grow and then I will have corn stalks to decorate for Halloween. As a bonus, I may get a visual barrier to block the view of my brushpile!

Does anyone know if Oregano is winter hardy in this area? My neighbor gave me a plant - and knowing if it is annual or perennial will help me decide where to plant it.

Technically I'm in zone 6A, however, I typically won't buy a perennial unless it is hardy to zone 5, so I pretend I'm in Zone 5.

Pixie lou,

Oregano is hardy in zone 5. Have been growing one of mine for 28 years and a neighbor's is 45 years old.

I do my veggies and herbs in pots and window boxes on the ground.

dig out the perennial herbs, leave just a couple of chives and garlic chives in the ground and pot them up for the summer and return them to their winter beds in the fall.
Seems that no matter what I do, they grow far better in pots.

Tomatoes from WS are

white wonder
cherokee purple
sungold
black cherry
persimmon
green zebra
early girl
warren's yellow cherry
tiny tim.

just finished the last of the lettuce till fall, along with the spinach and snow peas.

will be sowing beets, short carrots, radishes next week

Also have bush cukes,

herbs, use herbs for all kinds of things as don't add salt to anything so have

parsley
sage
rosemary
thyme
variegated thyme
marjoram
greek oregano
italian oregano
chives
garlic chives
mammoth basil
siam queen basil
dill
tarragon
french tarragon

Fran

littleonefb - thanks for the info on the oregano. Now I know where to plant it!

We had a great strawberry harvest today! Had shortcakes for dessert, and still have half a bowl left for breakfast tomorrow!

I have
- pole bean
- yardlong pole bean with both white and brown bean
- squash
- sugar snap pea, it is over 5 ft tall and it is flowering now
- Rosa Bianca eggplant, seems insects love it even it still small
- peppers: Thai hot, Cayenne, Flemingo
- tomato: brandywine, black prince, better boy and Ultrasonic, Ultrasonic has already have small tomato on it
- cucumbers, it is very small this year, and the leaf are curl not sure what is the problem, I also see cucumber beetles there, put in some neem oil, not sure if that works.
- garlic, plant last full, 2 varities there, one I get from Masspike, some kind Italian garlic..

I also have a little patch of cilantro, green onion...

How you can load the picture here, I am new to the forum, I can load some pictures here

Yan

Yan - Claire posted a thread on how to upload pictures. Mainly you need to upload your photos to a photo hosting site. Then it is important that you copy the HTML code, not the web page or the IMG code.

Yay - I have female squash blossoms.

We picked our first snow peas today. They were small. And we only picked 3 - one for each member of the family! But yay for snow peas!

We were away for the weekend, but came home to a bountiful harvest of peas. I planted snow peas on one side of the pea trellis, sugar snap peas on the other side. Steamed peas for dinner tonight, and probably for tomorow dinner as well!

I'm totally overwhelmed with lettuce. I got small crops last year, so planted more lettuce this year - currently have about 25-30 plants in the garden, and pruning 3 heads gives us more than enough lettuce for our dinner salad. I'm about to become the person who shows up everywhere with bags of lettuce to hand out!

Picked my first chard today. I'm going to try to stay on top of it - I don't want to be forced to eat chard with every meal. Though I could easily freeze it if it gets out of hand.

I'll hopefully pick my first yellow summer squash later this week.

In the meantime - peas!

My accidental strawberry bed is doing terrific. I intended to plant a border of strawberries along a perennial bed. Needless to say, the strawberries "infested" the new bed but last year the critters got everything. This year the berries looked great and DH went to check on one big one in particular. It was GONE and there were a few berries lying on the ground. One maybe chewed but the other definitely pecked probably by the crows. We covered the bed with two lengths of garden fabric (Agribon) and problem solved. We have been feasting.

Spinach did poorly this year but we'll have sugar snaps tonight for dinner. I planted far less than last year because last year we just had too many all at once. I even pickled some.

Broccoli is beginning to head. Some tomatoes are starting to blossom. We also have striped cucumber beetles. Hoping my late planted cukes survive. So far the summer and winter squash look ok even though a lot of beetle damage. Sprayed with a bonide product.

Perennial herbs are fantastic. Sage is almost finished blooming and needs to be cut back. My annual herbs are at the seedling stage.

Other good news (I'm slight north of Concord NH so zone 5) is blossoms on first planting of bush beans. I planted them in early May before a trip under a fabric low tunnel. They must have been just warm enough to survive. The same tunnel also sheltered the broccoli seedlings and a row of kale and summer turnips (1/2 row each).

Early plantings of Asian greens were a failure. All bolted early.

We need to start eating beet greens to thin out the row. I don't think I thinned the summer turnips enough. Thinnings are being donated to our DIL's new chicken project. The chickens love turnip greens.

I'm beginning gardening again after many years without. I've lived in apartments and had no yard to plant. This summer I've applied for a community garden plot. Just 6 people ahead of me.
I live in the Boston are called Jamaica Plain, and the community garden is about 1/2 mile from me. I used an electric scooter to travel and can make it there in less than 15 mins.
Any here from around the area? I'd love to be in touch to find what you've been growing and what seems to work.
BTW Any of you on FB?

BTW Anyone doing SFG?

SwampCatNana - I tried a community garden plot last year. I tried to grow corn and pumpkins there. Those are 2 crops that are expensive to buy, and take up a lot of garden space. So I rented a lot in our town - it was 20'x30'. Even though it was only a 10 minute drive to get there, I found it a major pain in the buttski to get over there to tend my garden. Good luck on your endeavors.

defrost - I'm a tad jealous of your bean blossoms. When I was in the garden today, I noticed something has been nibbling on my bean leaves. Definitely looked like insect damage. I'm hesitant to spray, since my beans are planted right next to the peas, and we are picking and eating peas almost daily. I do use an "organic" pesticide that claims that you can use it day of harvest - but really, I don't want to eat bug killer, even if it's organic.

Is anybody growing eggplant? Is it a bad year for eggplant? Or just a bad year for me? I have 5 plants - I think the biggest one is about 3" tall.

SwampCatNana - I had a plot in the Fenway Victory Gardens for a summer, probably two or three miles from JP, and it was awesome. Everything grew like wild, and the vegetables were delicious. It was about a 10-minute walk from my old apartment on Beacon Street. The distance wasn't too bad, but it was helpful to split up the garden duties with my neighbor.

I've since planted some more veggie seedlings in the garden, some came from the swap, and I bought a few seedlings at Mahoneys. The current tally -

11 tomato plants - Beefsteak, Brandywine, Sungold, Chocolate cherry, Sugar Lump, another "Gold" something but the tag faded!
1 regular sized pepper and 2 mini bell peppers
Russian red kale
Red cabbage
Swiss chard 'Bright Lights'
Cucumbers
Lots of herbs - Parsley, basil, oregano, Fennel, Bronze fennel, Dill, chives, sage

The kale, cabbage and swiss chard are caged in wire fencing. Not taking any chances on a woodchuck or rabbit eating my precious veggies!

terrene, where did you get the mini bell peppers? Did you grow them from seed?

I sort of use SFG principals. Mostly on seed spacing. I don't follow what it says on the package. I usually put 3 rows together and then leave a narrow footpath. Exception would be beans. They are so leafy that they really do best in two rows to get better air circulation. In the past I have followed the SFG spacing for beans in a small, square bed that did fine but with more garden space and more plants, it's easier to harvest beans that are only 2 rows wide.

My densest planting right now is the broccoli plants with beans on the south side and kale on the north side of the plants. We were able to fit a fabric low tunnel over this bed for an earlier start.

Our youngest granddaughter is a very picky eater but she loves sugar snap peas fresh from the garden. This weekend we had company and I spotted her and a visiting 6 yo sitting in the garden snacking on sugar snaps. The vines suffered a little from their harvesting but I think a couple of trampled vines are worth it to have children enjoy the garden rewards.

The strawberry patch is mostly done and now left uncovered for the strawberry thieves (strongly suspect crows). I have volunteer plants of cilantro and dill here and there as well as loads of calendula, an edible flower I mostly enjoy for color among the green things.

Seeded a short row of broccoli which I wish I had done a couple of weeks ago. We have 5 heads now (one already eaten) all at once and now more getting ready. But it will be ok with my husband if we have a broccoli-free month.

Sorry it got so muggy and hot yesterday (4th of July) since I only spent a couple of hours in the garden. I need to edge the beds with wet newspapers and grass clippings to prevent (or deter) the spread of a nasty weed (creeping jenny?). I am cheered to see tomatoes doing well and beginning to flower.

Hi Defrost,

Your ongoing summer harvest sounds very successful! My best harvest has been lettuce, in abundance! I am wondering when it is going to bolt. It would be great if it could keep going all season. I used the Eden's gourmet salad blend. I have it in long cement planters outside my kitchen door that get some shade. I have been harvesting my peas and have been happy with the harvest but don't expect them last long. I want to plant more in August and hope for a second harvest. My Ruby chard seems to be bolting, but my swiss chard is hanging on. I had an early and successful season wih the greens: chard, kale, beets greens, mustard greens. The mustard greens are still going strong as are the beet greens but the Kale seems to be waining a bit, just not producing too many large leaves. Unfortunately, I have never had so far any luck with growinbg Kale. I have some yellow summer squash that I should be picking this week. My broccoli doesn't even have the begiining of heads on it. My cabbage seem to be developing nicely though.
I am so envious of all your volunteers. I live in the middle of the woods and have had to work really hard getting soil to grow vegtables in. I seldom get a volunteer anything! I love calendula and read that it readily self seeds. I have put down loads of seeds over the past few years. I have bought organic calendula plants every year for the past few years and yet I have not gotten one volunteer or self seeder. DO you have a trick of how you produce so much calendula? I just love calendua and wish I could grow it!
I am harvesting lots of parsly. I have already put up a gallon glass jar of spearmint for tea all winter. I am working on putting up sage, parsely, dill, peppermint, greek oregano, thyme, rosemary. The herbs seem to be producing better this year then last. I started a new bed of cat nip but it is so new with such young roots that I am more or less leaving it alone. I had a skunk go through my garden the last few nights and he dug up all of my onions! So I don't think I will be reporting any harvest on those. My garlic is doing great and I suspect I will be harvesting it in a couple of weeks. I have been pulling a few heads of fresh garlic for cooking and the bulbs I did pull are large. I tried growing carrots but not one came up. So I got a cube box, one foot deep, and I am going to try and plant the carrots in that! Anyone have any success with growing carrots?

Blake

Hi Defrost, I got the mini-bell peppers at Idabean's swap from Ontheteam, who had them leftover from her plant sale, along with the Fennel. Somebody else gave me a bell pepper and some dill plants (was that you Blake?). I also bought a few tomato plants at a plant sale at my son's school - Brandywine and Sungold and the other "Gold something" and they have flowers.

I did start some tomatoes from seed, but they are much smaller. Also I direct sow the cucumbers which do very well that way. I would have started more veggies from seed, but my veggie garden is new this year and I wasn't sure how much space I would have.

I mulched the plants and edges with wet newspaper and municipal compost. Much easier to work with when it's wet first! That seems to be working well.

I continue to be inundated with lettuce. Almost wishing it would bolt! I did start a few more seedlings this week - but I am foreseeing (or hoping) for a few weeks lettuce free.

The past few years I have had no luck with cucumbers. This year I moved them to a new bed, with a new trellis, and I seem to be having some success.

And I am happy to see some little green tomatoes. I don't know if these are big boy or early girl - I don't remember which side of the trellis I planted each on. And even though the labels are there, I didn't bother to look!

I had dh mow the lawn and save the clippings - I used those to mulch the vegetable beds. He had mowed on Monday, so when he mowed again on Saturday, (hopefully) nothing had gone to seed. I had originally planned to use halfway composted compost, but some type of bees have taken up residence in my compost pile. I need to find out what I'm doing wrong compost wise.

Pixie lou, everythings looking great!

Terrene, thanks for the clue to the mini bell peppers. I'll have to see if I can email ontheteam for the seed source.

Blake, I've gone from a home in the woods without a lot of sun to a home with plenty of sun. Both the calendula and a lovely annual dark purple poppy (similar to the bread seed type) self seed in sunny places. The partly sunny area doesn't seem to be getting volunteers. I'm going to guess that the amount of sun has a lot to do with germination. The poppy was purchased from a greenhouse and planted in a place that only got morning sun (backed up to a barn on the west side). The volunteers look like they've blown across the yard to settle in my garden space next to the house and a little perennial garden maybe 75' away. I've transplanted some of the volunteer calendula to the vegetable garden. I always used fish emulsion solution when I transplant. The veggie garden gets composted horse manure each spring.

I'd be happy to give you seed at the fall or spring swap at Annie's. I don't think I made last year's fall one because of a date conflict. I don't know if the seed likes to spend the winter outside but I think I've also planted saved seed in the spring. The original source of the seed was Johnny's and it's solar flashback series.

But I don't have squash yet!
Last weekend I edged the squash bed with wet newspapers and then grass clippings. When I went to water yesterday, one pad of newspapers had been dragged out and a poor dehydrating night crawler was lying on top of the grass clippings. I put him on the soil before I started watering and hope he survived. I have had critters mess up seedlings in the past and think they've been attracted to bone meal. We've been seeing 4 coyote pups and wonder if they come into the yard at night or it's skunks or the porcupine.

I grew lacinato kale for the first time since it seems to be more tender then other varietis.

Fresh green beans tonight for supper! I planted in early May under the fabric low tunnel so I really lucked out. Heard other people lost early bean seeding due to the cold, wet weather we had.

I think the worst of the striped cucumber beetles is over with but I'm not sure the cukes survived. The zukes and a new winter squash did even though the young plants were severely eaten. I used an organic spray that contains bonide.

Now I wish I hadn't planted the cherry tomatoes in an area that doesn't get full sun. The plants are small and not growing quickly. In the past they've gotten huge.Goes to show what doesn't happen in part sun. Well, I didn't want a lot of cherry tomatoes. I put in 4 plants only because I wanted some of each color. Had to plant more cukes to replace those lost to the beetles.

My daughter and I spent the week in New Jersey. DH stayed home and watered the garden! However he didn't do any harvesting, so I came home to a bumper crop of fresh veggies. I picked the last of the peas today and pulled the vines. Picked the ripe cucumbers - they were so yummy just sliced and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I had 3 baseball bat zucchini, plus another half dozen assorted squashes of normal size.

I'm also having a bumper crop of hot peppers this year. I grow all my hot peppers in pots on my patio - hoping that the heat from the patio will help the peppers produce capsican. I have 4 plants from last year that I overwintered inside (last year I got a total of 3 peppers from the 4 plants), plus I bought 4 new plants this year. DD must have picked 20-30 peppers today!

Tomorrow I will pull the rest of my lettuce - at this point all my plants have bolted, or else they are keeling over in the heat! I started some more lettuce from seed a few weeks ago - I have them in a shady spot and will transfer them to the garden in another month.

For some reason my eggplant just do not want to grow this year. My tallest plant is probably only 6" high. I had a bumper crop of eggplant last year, and bought the same variety seedlings this year. So I'm not sure what is happeneing. But then I got hardly any cucumbers or hot peppers last year, and I'm having bumper years for them this year.

We just picked a nice crop of string beans yesterday. I am not keeping up with the garden this year. I could pull out what is in three beds and replant if I had the time. I am wondering if it is too late to sow more string bean seeds? I have an open space to try it without too much trouble.

Hi guys,

I have the usual herbs: chives, basil, rosemary, greek oregano, and dill. A couple onion plants and some potatoes in a pot, to see what happens. About 8 tomatoes, half beefsteak, half sweet 100's cherry tomatoes.

My big experiment is brussel sprouts. I have four plants and the the baby spouts are just now forming in the axils of the plants cabbage-like leaves. Have NO idea what I am doing with the brussels sprouts. Anyone else ever planted these? I was told you harvest them in the fall, but I figure when the sprouts look big enough to eat, you eat 'em! Anyone else?

Hello All,

I am hiding from the humidity and the heat in a nice airconsitioned room! I will nit be out in the garden today!My lettuce is still doing well. I am kind of amazed at that. My kale is bolting and I am tired of eating mustard greens! I think I will try a different variety from Johny seeds called red giant; I like that better than what I planted that I picked up at the local store.

The Garlic IS GREAT. I Already harvested half of it and when there is a cool momment, I will harvest the rest.

I just picked my first zuccini yesterday. Tina, all those squash seeding you game me are doing great. Lots and lots of yellow summer squash.

My Cumcumber plants look good but no harvest from them yet. I pulled the pea vines last week and will reseed more for the fall as soon as I harvest the rest of the garlic.
Defrost, I would appreciate any calendual seeds thanks. I think my plan of attack is to seed in the fall, seed in the spring and winter sow a couple of gallons! Then maybe I'll be rewarded and actualy have some grow!

My tomatoes are the best I ever have grown and are huge and beautiful. I am Still waiting for the pepper and the eggplants to do something.

Every year I plant corn. Every year I end up with only four or five stocks, just enough for some halloween decorations. I plant lots of seed. But I think a crow watches me and steals them as soon as I go into the house! I keep thinking ab0ut putting up a scarecrow. I'll just have to set aside a small block of time and do it. I have those whirly things in my garden to keep animals away but I find them just knocked over most mornings.

My flowers and herbs are doing well. I got lots of blueberries and pick a cup everyday. I would pick more but its hard on the back. And I really can't use more then a cup of day. But as soon as they peak, I will have to bite the bullet and pick them all to can for winter baking.

I can't think of anything else growing in the garden. I am just so amazed at how much more you all seem to be harvesting than me. I planted stringbeans and have the plants but no string beans yet! I did sow some kale, chard and broccoli for a fall harvest but won't be transplanting them for another couple of weeks.

I did plant a bunch of carrot seeds a couple of weeks ago and only two germinated. But I will try again this week. I am determined to grow carrots and calendula!

Blake

Hi Blake, I'll make sure you get some calendula seed. If I don't make the fall swap, I'll mail you some.

I'm not a great carrot grower. The seeds are tiny, the germination seems to take forever. What I have done sometimes is seed it in the same row as sugar snap peas. It gets thinned when I weed just because I'm weeding. The rows stays moist. I find my typical problem with poor germination and/or growth is not watering enough. Right now I have a dedicated row of carrots but just a short 3' row. They seem to be doing ok but now I need to remember to thin them.

Prariemoon, I think there is time to plant more beans. They will grow more slowly as days get shorter ... the trick is to get them in the ground so they mature before frost. Last year this strategy worked. I'll have to check my notes. The year before we got a frost just has the plants blossomed. This year I will also put a fabric low tunnel over the area. My early May planting did fine despite our strange weather. That's what's producing now. Check seed packets for days to maturity.

Blake, maybe row cover like Remay or Agribon would help against crows. I have my blueberry bush draped with it now after seeing 3 crows dancing around the bush. We also used it to protect the strawberry bed. It was pretty obvious that something had pecked some strawberries. I've seen them picking large crab apples.

Nice sized beets from the garden now. At least 3 pepper plants have small peppers. I think the garlic is ready to harvest and next year I will plant more because I enjoyed cooking with the garlic scapes. Thinned new row of lettuces which are on the north side of the cucumber fence ... except the cukes aren't big enough to provide the shade I wanted at this time of year. Chinese cabbage is heading up. More broccoli to pick. Good to see some rain today.

Printed off some interesting beet green recipes. I don't grow chard because we prefer beet greens.

Defrost, thanks, row cover is a good idea for later. I think I'll try to get some seed in the ground today.

Thanks, Defrost, for saving some claendula seeds for me. I also think that is an excelelnt idea for seeding carrots to keep them moist. I will be planting fall peas soon and I will just seed carrots in with them! Hope you make the fall swap! I probably should cover some of my seeds and berries. I guess I just don't like the look of the cloth in my garden. Maybe I should get over that!

Blake

A very healthy woodchuck! S/He is eating my eggplants along with keeping the broccoli down to bare stalks and the peas trimmed short enough that they aren't managing to bloom. I spotted him ambling around the back field two days ago, but unfortunately the 22 was not at the house, so I couldn't try to remove him. I did spot where he disappeared, though, so I can hope to get rid of him when he is in his hole.

On the plus side, he doesn't seem interested in the leeks, onions, tomatoes, peppers or basil (though the Japanese beetles are enjoying the basil) and I have a bumper crop of garlic.

My veggies are doing great! Tomatoes are starting to fruit, and it looks like the Sungold cherry tomatoes will be first to harvest in maybe a couple weeks.

The peppers were from the swap and they are flowering. The cukes were direct sown and they're just starting to flower.

The kale, cabbage, and swiss chard that I bought as fairly large seedlings from Mahoneys are doing great! I need to harvest a little kale. These plants are favorites of wood chucks and I caged them with wire fencing immediately after planting. Two years ago I grew some fabulous Lacinato kale and when it was getting big and lush, a woodchuck came and ate it to sticks. The only time I saw the critter all year and he gorged on my kale!

Good Morning Gardeners,
I was out and about early today becasue it was so cool. Frankly I don't think I can possibly catch up on my wild gardens after this hot spell we had. I lost many of my new plants, and I don't know where all the weeds came from but its like a jungle out there. On the good side, I picked my first bowl of sungold cherry tomatoes and I have the best tomatoes plants that I ever had. The zuccini is popping. I can pick zuccini one day and it seems to grow overnight. I made a chochoate zuccini bread and a white frosting made with coconut milk. I was surprised that it didn't hav emore of a coconut taste to it but it made the regular frosting recipe very light and fluffy. I will always use it now. I picked my first cucumber today. The peppers are good size but still green. I seeding for my fall garden. My lettuce finally needs to be pulled out. That hot spelled sure killed it fast. I am still picking blueberries but thats about it. It so beautiful today. I hope it stays this way.

Blake

Blake - congratulations on those cherry tomatoes! My DD will sit in the garden and eat cherry tomatoes. But if I attempt to pick them and bring them in the house - all of a sudden she doesn't like tomatoes!

My first real tomato is almost red. Waiting for it to fully ripen is definitely an exercise in learning patience!

Lakota , acorn, spaghetti and butter nut squash
French melon, watermelon, corn, beets, carrots, Amish paste tomatoes,Eva purple ball tomato, Delicious, Park's Whopper,Black Krim,Principe borghese tomatoes, yellow pear tom. Mr. Stripey tomatoes, red,orange, yellow and chocolate peppers, Jalepenos,Corno di Toro peppers,Rosa Bianca eggplant, Ichiban eggplant and pickling cukes.........

Loirt16, Wow! Sounds like your gardens is burtsing with good things!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I am harvesting more summer squash then I can use. So I have been slicing it thinly and dehyrating it and putting it in a glass container and when full vacum sealing it. My thought is to use them in soups this fall and winter. Has anyone ever dehydrated their vegetables? And if you have would you do it again?

Blake

My husband bought me the super sized Excalibur dehydrator. I grow an italian small plum tomato called Principe Borghese and dry them in my dehyd. and can make 'sun' dried tomatoes anytime. I have also dried zucch. blueberries and even made a fruit roll up !

Personally I haven't had much success dehydrating. I do freeze some (shredded in 2c. portions - I use it in a savory zucchini parmesan bread), but I prefer to can most items. I peel, seed and finely dice the zucchini, mix it with some sugar, lemon and pineapple juice - and it becomes faux pineapple. My DD loves it!

We picked out first ripe tomato today - we've been eating cherries for a while. Sliced it up, put on a freshly toasted (homemade) English muffin with some local goat cheese and just a crank of fresh pepper. Heaven.

Hello Lorritt16, sounds like to get a lot of use of your dehydrator. So how do you use your zuccini after you dry it and how long does it keep?

Hello, Pixie Lou, We can a lot too. This morning we are off to the farmer's market to buy peaches to can. We started canning last year, corn, beans, beets, applesauce,pickles and were very pleased with the results. Home canning tastes so fresh as opposed to the cans of vegetables you buy in the store. I was really surprised when we opened the cans and the vegetables tasted like they were right out of the garden. So this year we want to expereiemnt with canning more. I would think canning summer squash would make it to watery, that is why I was thinking of dehyrating it. I have so much on my counter right now and I know there is a lot more waiting for me in the garden

Blake

My pinwheel patch has evolved into a great green bohemoth. One row of shiny pinwheels still remains along one edge, along with the 3 larger metal pinwheels. The rest are packed away for next year. Whether the spinning tops defended against bunnies or the spikes they were on disrupted the efforts of burrowing rodents I'll never know, but I do know they halted the distruction - thanks Pixie for the inspiration!

The pumpkins I planted are the only original plants still surviving, hence their size. They've struck out to colonize ground far in excess of the small patch I fenced in for them. I have dozens of blossoms and small green pumpkins.

Then the few stunted corn stalks and short sunflowers from a second planting (after the first planting fell victim to garden pests) are trying to play catch up. The tall sunflowers did not survive. Under the massive canopy of pumpkin foliage, carrots are amazingly growing despite the lack of sun, and the pony has already sampled some early ones.

I laugh when I see how the pumpkin plants have expanded! I think probably next year we'll plant summer squash instead!

And right now, in additon to wonderful bush beans and other produce I have Tomato Hornworms!!! Noticed the tops of some plants looked like they had been defoliated - and so they were. One big guy on one plant. Two small ones on another. Hornworm patrol has started coinciding with squash bug egg squishing.

Spedigrees - glad to hear the pinwheels worked. As you can see - once the veggies start growing, the little ones just seem to disappear.

defrost - good luck with your hornworm patrol. I got squash vine borer in my zucchini plant, but with the help of a paring knife, and some "organic pesticide" - I think I've eradicated the buggers.

This is the one veggie that I have to grow from seed every year - white patty pan squash. My grandfather used to grow this when I was a kid - it was the only summer squash he grew. I've only seen seedling of the yellow and green variety. And I can typically only find the seeds at Agway.

I'm semi disappointed with the veggie garden this year. The spring was cool for too long and a lot of the warm weather crops got off to a really slow start. I did buy a few organic tomato seedlings locally and I experimented this year. I normally grow only cherry tomatoes in our backyard, because the surrounding trees have matured to the point of cutting down our full sun to about 5-6 hrs a day and I've had trouble growing full size tomatos, there. It took me awhile to figure out that the cherries were doing pretty good but the lack of sun was just not allowing the larger tomatoes to develop. So I tried two tomato plants in the front this year in a perennial bed. It worked out better than I expected. I bought a variety at Russell's called 'Bush Champion' which was supposed to only get 2 feet tall and put two plants along the walkway side closest to the house and there were roses and other perennials between them and the street so you couldn't see the tomatoes from the street. They actually did stay two feet high and I didn't even cage them. I mulched heavily under them and they produced a TON of tomatoes that were standard size and were delicious! Healthy plants too. We've had about 10 ripe tomatoes from them so far and lots more green ones to ripen.

On the other hand, none of the tomato plants in the back have done well at all. Even the cherry tomatoes didn't put on much growth. Basil got off to a really slow start and is nothing like last year.

But we've had a bumper crop of string beans and enjoyed bok choy and lettuce in the spring. I see eggplants, summer squash and peppers developing on the plants but not quite ready to use.

Really need to get busy out there and start planting for the Fall.

Well, I just had my first Sungold cherry a couple days ago! Delicious.

Most of the veggies and herbs are still doing very well. I've got Cabbage white caterpillars on my kale, which is kind of conflicting for me because I raise butterflies, and usually nurture the eggs and cats. However, the Cabbage white butterfly is not native to North America. I've been picking off the cats and putting them in the tray feeder for the birds to eat.

Also something is eating the Basil. I went out with a flashlight the other night and found an oriental beetle on the basil, so it might be them. Where ever I see these buggers, I squish them.

Btw, I would also be conflicted about hornworms on the tomatoes, because those turn into a beautiful big moth.

I'm frustrated. This is the 2nd year in a row that I have only gotten male flowers on my pumpkin plant. I have long vines that are taking up a ton of real estate. But no female blossoms. Which means no pumpkins. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. So I'm going to tear the vine out.

So now I will have an empty bed. Debating what I should plant in an attempt to get a fall crop of something.

Something ate my beans. So looks like I will have a minimal bean crop this year.

Getting tons of hot peppers. Picking 1 or 2 cucumbers a day, 1 or 2 summer squash a day. 1 or 2 tomatoes a day. Just enough to keep us in fresh eating with out feeling overwhelmed.

Now that September has hit, I'm evaluating my successes and failures this year and starting to think about next year.

Failures:

My pumpkin vine only got male flowers. This is the 2nd year that this has happened. It has been shovel pruned.

Eggplant - of 6 plants, 1 died. The other 5 have not done a thing. Teeny tiny plants - most not even a foot high. Not even blossoms. Will be shovel pruned this weekend.

Yellow Summer Squash - after a great start, the plant shriveled up and died. I could find no evidence of SVB. So not sure what happened. It was shovel pruned.

Great Successes:
Hot peppers - last year I got 3 hot peppers total off of 4 plants. This year I'm getting hundreds of peppers.

Tomatoes - this is my best year ever for tomatoes. I pick a pint of cherry tomatoes every other day, and I'm getting 2-3 regular tomatoes each day. I've started pruning the vines - cutting off all new blossoms and cutting back many of the vines without green tomatoes - hoping the plant will put all of its energy into making the existing green tomatoes red.

My zucchini and white pattypan are producing mediocre - I'm not overwhelmed with squash - we seem to be able to eat everything we produce.

I grew husk cherries for the first time. Not sure how much of a harvest we will get - I have lots of fruit, but nothing ripe yet. Same with my tomatillos - lots of fruits, nothing ripe.

Still waiting for my potato vines to die back to see what type of harvest we will get.

But most importantly I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do different next year. I think I'll give up on pumpkins. But I'm trying to figure out what to do since I will be taking a 2 week vacation - end of July/early August - since my brother will be getting married in Colorado. I'll delay planting my summer squashes and beans, but not sure what to do about cucumbers and tomatoes.

Pixie, my veggie garden has been frought with difficulties this year too, but we did manage to harvest some pumpkins yesterday before the rain hit.

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The once glorious pumpkin vines were attacked by powdery mildew which I treated by spraying with a chlorine bleach solution. However the leaves look wretched and I'm thinking the time is right to pull them, even though some big green pumpkins still remain. I'm torn between leaving them to see if they will ripen, and yanking them.

Does anyone know if powdery mildew can survive the winter on dead discarded leaves to attack new vine veggies the following summer, or if it is safe to just toss the afflicted leaves and vines into the woods/weeds? It's a lot of foliage, but perhaps I should burn all of it.

Spedigrees - I'm in awe of your pumpkin harvest! Between Hurricane Irene and our subsequent week of rain, most of the farmers around here lost their pumpkin crops.

My tomatoes are still going gang busters. At this point I am picking at least a dozen tomatoes every other day. And still getting tons of cherries.

Here is the cherry tomato harvest from earlier this week.