A picture is surely worth a thousand words. That is what I was trying to describe. I will have to show a closer up pic of my tomatoes later. Conditions are better here, but seriously, they are lush as hell and these little tips contributed to their success this year. Hey Kub, if you are looking for sunscreen material, I found some cheap stuff on Amazon that we are using in our yard to cover a section of the duck run and another area. It was a better price than the stuff I looked at in HD. So, unrelated to veggie gardening. Has anyone kept African violets? My neighbor gifted me one that is 15-20 years old and it needs to be repotted badly. It's so old the stems almost look like little vines. I think I have 4-5 plants in the pot. A couple sites I read recommended basically cutting the crowns out and re-rooting them in a new substrate. This seems risky at best. Other sites recommend a more standard re-potting and keeping the root ball. I know that is safer and what I would have done with no online resources. Thoughts? Any tips from you marvelous gardeners here?
My great aunt gave me part of her mother's African violet for a housewarming gift...almost 10 years ago. So we're talking like a 40 year old plant. The main plant is doing well for the most part, but every time I try to take part of it and repot it, it never seems to go well and I end up tossing it. I found soil that is supposed to be used specifically for African violets, and I've been meaning to changes the soil of the main plant, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm curious to hear if anyone else had success with repotting them!
Anyone have orchids? Mine lost its bloom months ago and the vine itself looks dried out. The leaves are still green. Not sure if it’s cycling or if I’m watering a dead plant at this point. Poor Dexter, three ice cubes a week may have been its undoing.
Warning, picture dump. I'm not a skilled photographer at all but I really enjoy taking pictures of my plants (and stuff I cook, and the dogs). I have a shitty memory and like to go back and look at stuff I've done in the past. Spoiler The veggie patch. Peppers in the front are recovering with the help of the straw mulch. I am having a time of it trying to keep up with the suckering. I'll make a frame and cover for the peppers over winter. They can produce for multiple years. Mortgage Lifters. Let's see if I can grow some big ones this year. Marketmore 76 Cucumbers around the gem corn. God help me. 4 plants might have been too many. These things are vining friggin everywhere and there are tiny baby cukes at every turn. No idea if they'll all develop. San Marzanos: Cherry type yellow pear. I counted at least 7 large clusters with more blossoms queuing up. Beefsteak: 3 zucchini plants was too many for the space. They were supposed to be trellised upward on the duck run until the ducks started eating the leaves through the fence. I have sort of fixed that but this still isn't going quite according to plan. In the future I think I'll put them on the perimeter fence where they will have much more space. Zucchini plants are goddamn monstrosities. Those leaves are bigger than my face. I had a bunch of extra tomato plants started and planted 2 San Marzanos in a cedar planter box left from the previous homeowners in a separate part of the yard. Immediately in less than a week they were half eaten up with blight and dying (so the soil was contaminated). I did a special treatment on the plants and earth and trimmed off the worst leaves. I think it worked! It might be my new super secret treatment. I googled it and nothing came up for the chemical I used. I'm so mad I didn't take a before picture. Spoiler Obligatory ducks. Pretty sure they are actually runner/cayuga mixes. Spoiler
Finally got my tomatoes strung up. Was going to go with a more "adventurous" setup, but time was short, and I just grabbed some old scrap wood that was lying around. Have some pretty strong winds coming through today and they seem to be surviving it pretty well. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
First block of corn is aaaaaallllmost ready for harvest. Had some with dinner tonight, but it really wants another 3 or 4 days. The stand is about 20 by 20, and the plants are 6 or 7 feet tall.
Garden is coming along well. The beans, zukes and pumpkins are blossoming. Could use a little rain here, but I think it's coming this week. Our goats waste a lot of hay. So instead of using straw to mound around the taters I took some broken down hay from the compost pile to mulch them. Then I can just let it rot there over Winter. I'm thinking of putting in a few more beds, but that'd take up a lot of space. I may build a permanent bed nearer to our house for fresh herbs. Blueberries are being picked, and I'm thinking of putting in a few more ti increase production. Also, with any luck we'll have our first harvest of peaches this year. My brother said I should pull a few of them off the tree so the others flourish. Apple trees are looking good too, but I don't have that pic handy.
We had a bit of a torrential downpour yesterday that caused some damage to the garden. A fair bit of the lettuce got pummelled and some of the broccoli got pushed over. The broccoli was just stood back up straight, but I think the lettuce will be fucked. We'll see how it goes... who knows, it may just fix itself over a few days of hot weather. My peppers were looking pretty weak so I blasted them with huge amounts of fertilizer a few times, and they are now coming back very strong. I've planted them very close to each other so I know I really have to keep up with the feeding, but didn't think it'd be this much, this often. The plus side is that there are already some really good sized hot peppers showing up. Really can't wait for the cucumbers to start to take off, and the tomatoes to start to go to fruit... lots of flowers and thick stems right now, but nothing to harvest yet due to the shitty cold/wet weather that caused such a slow start. The string supports for the tomatoes did a fantastic job of weathering the wind/rain storm, which I was quite happy to see. All in all it's a case of "hurry up and wait".
First weeks haul of goodies. I have picked some banana peppers and more yellow wax beans since this pic. Cant wait for bell peppers and tomatoes! I have some small green bells on the "Emerald Giant" plants, but suspect my first ones will be on the smaller size. Don't care, ready to cook.
FYI those strings are jute from some scratching pads I made for my cat that he never used. So I stopped making them and had a whack of leftover jute. First thing I’ve used it for in years and it worked out well. Great haul, by the way. Can’t wait until I get my first of the year.
Everyone's gardens look wonderful! Don't worry Nett, when it starts coming, you will have a river of produce. So, I let a few of my first time/experiment squash grow on out a bit. I had been picking them at about a foot long, making soup or whatever, pretty tasty. Check these out, picked them last night. The outside is STILL not hard like a winter squash, I legit have no idea how big these can get .
Not to double post, but here is about a daily haul from the garden right now. The sweet peppers are still sizing up, but I have all the Anaheim and jalapenos that I want already.
We're finally getting some much needed rain here, which means those beans will be nice and juicy when picked next week. I started to buy some at the store for shepards pie and then remembered I have a whole bed of them blossoming.
Just toured the garden... broccoli is huge, and the tomatoes are doing well with the string supports.
High heat and humidity has caused the garden to go nuts... almost overnight I've got tomatoes showing.
I knew I forgot to do something.... Biggest one was 4.08lbs. "smallest" was 1.12lbs. I haven't cut the larger ones up yet but am hopeful they are still tender inside. The skins are super thin and tender, I accidentally nicked a long line with my fingernail on one with barely any pressure. Eggs from the last week and the veggies are from the last couple days. There are several tomatoes turning pink and some eggplant about the size of a tennis ball out there growing. So lots of goodies to look forward. It is probably time to start thinking about fall gardening. Does anyone do a fall planting? What do you grow? I have certain seeds I bought that should be good for a fall or early spring crop, but I'd love to know what you guys grow that is successful for you. I have little to no experience with those types of crops/plants.
Looks awesome! As to fall planting, you can squeeze out another round of green beans, corn, cucumbers or tomatoes now. If there are cold crops that you wish for fall, like sugar snaps, just plant them at such a time that they are getting big/blooming as your weather is cooling down. For me, maybe 9/1 to plant cold tolerant plants.