Garden Progress

16 years ago

Okay, I was probably a little behind since I put seed in the ground in late May and only transplanted tomatoes and jalapenos from seeds I started, but how are everyone's crops doing? It seemed like I was nursing young seedlings before I was out of town for a few weeks. I applied some extra SBM to the garden that was left over from the lawn, and added a day to the watering schedule to make sure everything was watered on the 4th, and I returned to a jungle!

Okay, it was mostly the pumpkins growing out of control, there are a few double softball size. We also went from no tomatoes to quite a few with new blossoms too. Still all green though.

A "volunteer" sunflower has over 10 flowers on it that did a good job at attracting bees. Some of the lettuce should probably be harvested. We debated last year whether to remove outside leaves and keep it growing, but it just bolted to seed in the heat. The celery does better with this approach - pick outside stalks as needed, doesn't have the problem of going to seed.

I sort of forgot/should have started earlier the peas, there are only a couple of pods, probably due to the heat. Also should have started the broccoli earlier since it is a colder weather crop, but the one that germinated is still growing.

The yellow squash is developing a couple that are close to harvest. The green beans are very bushy and blossoming. I finally broke down and thinned out the tomatillos to remove probably 20 plants, since I had spilled the seeds and had incredible germination rates. Jalapenos are making a comeback - one broke off at ground level in the wind but has just about caught up with the other. Peppers are slowly but surely getting more mature. Onions look a little better than last year, we'll have to remember to use the tops as chives. I put some kitchen waste in one spot (including the bottom of an onion) and an onion started from it!

I probably should have started another round of cilantro to make sure it was available when the tomatoes are ready, it looks as though it has gone to seed.

The melon crop is showing vigorous growth, and all are blossoming (honeydew and cantelope) except the watermelon.

Corn is probably between three and four feet tall, although it looks like birds had raided those rows since there aren't nearly as many as I planted.

A couple of new things this year - in addition to the pumpkins - are also doing well, wax beans (planted later) acorn and butternut squash (but still no blossoms). One of the eggplants is getting much larger, but still no blossoms. We also threw in some pinto beans that we got from a random mailer, and they look almost identical to the green and wax beans (so far).

I read an article recently that talked about how children who grow up with gardens are more likely to eat their vegetables and prefer them to other foods. How's that for motivation to get your kids to eat their veggies? Here's a similar article, although the first one I read was on msn or something, but this sounded like the same study.

Here is a link that might be useful: Children eat more fruits and vegetables if homegrown

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Comments (3)

spyfferoni
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I haven't gotten much fruit set on my tomatoes. I think that will be the case until we get a couple of cooler days. Nothing ripe yet. I'll be picking a golden zucchini and a striped one in the next couple of days. My beans are blossoming, but no beans yet. I planted golden wax, royal burgundy, and roma. I got a few snap peas in May---but then the guys that put in our sprinklers demolished the peas when they trenched. Oh, well I guess I'll have to try for a fall crop. My peppers where pretty small when I planted them out, and they have some kind of insect damage. I need to spray with something. There is some kind of aphid or little black fly on my tomatoes too. Many of my tomato plants have curling leaves. It seems to affect the potato leaf varieties more. I'm hoping it is due to stress from the heat, and not something more serious. I think I have had a little bit of blight on some of the plants too. I just pick off the leaves and hope for the best. My cucumber hasn't blossomed yet. I've heard good things about the variety, Diva, so I am excited to try it. I have around 28 different kind of tomatoes growing, so I'm excited to try them all. Only a few are repeats, the rest are new. My raspberries are done for this season. I got a pretty good crop, but I'm having problems with cholorosis. We had a little three year old apple tree that had quite a bit of fruit on it. It blew over during a wind storm we had last week---it was very sad for the kids. I'm wondering if there was some kind of insect damage or disease in the trunk for it to have blown over the way it did. I guess I'll be on the look out for a new apple tree along with cherry, peach, apricot and pear. I hope to plant a bunch of fruit trees in the spring and one or two shade trees. I hope I will have something more to report in the coming months.

Tyffanie
woco
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
So far we have frozen 22 quart bags of peas. We put 2 cups of peas in each bag. Also I dug up 120 garlic bulbs. That is it so far. I have four 35' rows of red onions that are doing well, 3 rows of beans that have blossoms but no beans yet, 8 rows of Yukon Golds that are doing great, and 8 half rows of a fingerling potatoes. I call them half rows because the potatoe guy substituted and gave me these fingerlings instead of the ones that I wanted and only half of them came up. We also have 12 rows of corn that are about 5' tall with the crowns on top but no tassles yet. We have 3 rows of winter squash and pumpkins with tons of blossoms but only 1 pumpkin so far. I lost one squash plant to squash bugs. My squash are the only thing that I spray. If I didn't, I would not get any squash at all.
The thing that I am most proud of this year is my married daughter with her 2 sons. She planted a garden for the first time and it is doing great. She lives in layton and you have to drive down Gentile road to get to her house. That little drive is enough to inspire anyone to grow something. The last 2 days of rain have helped a lot.

Bill
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Ken_NoUT
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I only have two 4' x 8' raised beds. Just moved here but this is the best garden I've had. I have two pumpkin mounds with a pumpkin each around 12" diameter so far. We have picked around 10 zucchini of 3 varieties with many developing. We have gotten rooted about 2 gallon bags of beets so far. I have picked a couple sweet peppers with about 10 ready soon. I have developing about 10 little honey dew and about 5 watermelon and 4 asian melon so far. I have picked 2 head of lettice No squash yet but flowering well. I have about 50 tomatoes so far on 5 plants developing. I also have 3 omatillo plants with plenty of husks developing. I also have in the corners of each bed Huckleberries that are starting to turn black. I have a few other cuke and eggplant in the beds that are small from being shaded out which I'm not suer if they will do anything. I'm pretty happy with how it is coming.