Garden out and doing great

[jinman]

You're right Carolyn. We don't do this to save money. We do this because we love flavor in our food. My wife's homemade wild plum jelly is DEEEE-lish.:licking:

 

[keegs]

My tomatoes are about 24-30 inches high. Tying them up is a treat...love that tomato vine smell.

Bell Peppers have small fruits on them.

The first batch of radishes are done. Carrots are coming along, lettuce is doing real well as is the kale and the herbs (especially the basil). Spinach is almost done. I'll be putting in some more soon.

Zuccs are still on the small side but I planted them late and transplanted the seedlings after they sprouted.

First row of beets is doing well but the second row I put in in late May not so much.

I'm not going to get too many peas. The deer have been browsing on them. I re-seeded the bare spots but those seeds didn't germinate.

Raspberries are coming along nice. Expect mid-July we'll be into them big time. We'll be getting some house guests around that time.. should be a treat.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Hubby went up yesterday to check on the corn. There should have been quite a bit ready. Deer got all the rest so its gone. Thankfully I pulled that 8 or so dozen last week or we wouldn't have gotten that either.

 

[Chuck52]

Carolyn,

One of the biochemists I work with discovered a series of compounds which form from amino acids and sugars when tomatoes are dried. One of them shows pretty good anti-cancer activity in a mouse system. In countries where tomatoes are a big part of the diet, like Italy, there are fewer of some kinds of cancer. My friend thinks since those folks use lots of tomato concentrate that the chemicals he found may be part of the reason. Those compounds form in higher concentrations the more concentrated the tomato product gets. So....another reason to spend so much time making Catsup!

Chuck

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I firmly believe the closer to nature the food is the healthier you will be.

Growing up we had gardens and hubby and I both lived rural and had good eats and a more simple life style.

I also think that chlorinated water is not good for you. Think about it chlorine kills stuff. And I doubt there is any plant that has a system that is always perfect to add it to the water. And if a twice yearly treatment at the dentists takes care of it why do you need all that in your body.

What we are really guilty of is drinking to many diet sodas, if we got off that I'm sure it would be way better for us.

But I also think there is so much cancer back home where we are from and that is big farm country is all the chemicals used on the crops. It has gotten into the food and water systems and I think is making people get cancer. All we hear about is cancer all the time.

I don't know if hubby and I will stay healthy or not, but we have already outlived many friends who have passed on younger then us. I guess time will tell. Of course we will not always be able to raise our food either. But I think growing up how we did gave us a head start at least.

Problem is we still have to buy so many products we cannot raise that we are exposed to lots of things we likely should not be eating.

 

[keegs]

Harvested some peas and some beets and some basil. The basil aroma is wafting though the kitchen and dining room right now.. fantastic.

Tied up the tomato plants again. Some are well over 40". Two were down from a heavy rain we had day before yesterday. I think they'll heel OK. We could use a week of hot dry sunny weather here to really get them in gear. We've been getting allot of rain. The beets look like they could use some more sun too. Kale is ready to start picking. I think I'll ask DW to make kale soup this week. She makes in with lots of garlic in a chicken stock ...tops it off with thick slices of hard boiled eggs.... Some of that with a nice Italian bastone ....mmmmm...oh ..yeah..

I planted two rows of red potatoes today. Should be plenty of time left to get a crop in.

Took me a few hours to weed an hoe so the garden's looking tidy again...but it won't be long before the weeds are back.

 

[ericrm2005]

Harvested some peas and some beets and some basil. The basil aroma is wafting though the kitchen and dining room right now.. fantastic.

Tied up the tomato plants again. Some are well over 40". Two were down from a heavy rain we had day before yesterday. I think they'll heel OK. We could use a week of hot dry sunny weather here to really get them in gear. We've been getting allot of rain. The beets look like they could use some more sun too. Kale is ready to start picking. I think I'll ask DW to make kale soup this week. She makes in with lots of garlic in a chicken stock ...tops it off with thick slices of hard boiled eggs.... Some of that with a nice Italian bastone ....mmmmm...oh ..yeah..

I planted two rows of red potatoes today. Should be plenty of time left to get a crop in.

Took me a few hours to weed an hoe so the garden's looking tidy again...but it won't be long before the weeds are back.

Im jealous. I am not doing much down at the farm this year so no potatoes for me this year

 

[ericrm2005]

Just wanted to give everyone an update here from pennsylvania on our progress up here. I am not planting anything at the farm this year so the pictures below are my main garden. All of the early crops in the raised bed are out. Everything is doing really well. The beefsteak tomatoes at the far end are about 4 or more feet tall at this point and the celebrity tomatoes that are closer to the camera are maybe 2-3 at this point. Also if you remember, I had a problem with disease/fungas in my first planting of beans. I sprayed with daconil twice ten days apart and they look great now, almost like they never suffered.

Can wait to start harvesting and canning tomatoes this year. I enjoy reading about everyones progress here, keep it coming.

 

[Kep]

My garden got a bit of a late start due to rain but it is doing good now. I need to take some more pics this week. these two are from May 26th and Jun 6

 

[keegs]

My garden got a bit of a late start due to rain but it is doing good now. I need to take some more pics this week. these two are from May 26th and Jun 6

Now I'm jealous....

 

[ericrm2005]

My garden got a bit of a late start due to rain but it is doing good now. I need to take some more pics this week. these two are from May 26th and Jun 6

Looks good. I wish I could have done my usual planting down at the farm this year.

 

[Kep]

Dirt is really clumpy this year due to way to much rain. As of now the rain gauge I keep for CoCoRaHS has all ready recorded 20 inches this year. Normal rainfall for an entire year is about 22 inches or so.

 

[jinman]

Even with our dry spring and early heatwave, I managed a decent onion crop. My sweet wife, knowing how I love green onion tops, cut up most of them and put them into freezer bags. Later, they thaw nicely for cooking, salads, and especially on baked potatoes. They're also terrific for many types of sauces.

Here's a couple of photos of the onions drying. We've already given away over 50 nice baseball sized onions and have all of these. I'll bag them and put them into a cool, dark, and dry place as soon as they have dried on my table. I whipped together the drying table out of a few boards and some chicken wire and put it across two sawhorses. It's under my deck and mostly out of direct sunlight.

 

[Chuck52]

Kep,

Are those wooden towers tomato cages?

Chuck

 

[ericrm2005]

Even with our dry spring and early heatwave, I managed a decent onion crop. My sweet wife, knowing how I love green onion tops, cut up most of them and put them into freezer bags. Later, they thaw nicely for cooking, salads, and especially on baked potatoes. They're also terrific for many types of sauces.

Here's a couple of photos of the onions drying. We've already given away over 50 nice baseball sized onions and have all of these. I'll bag them and put them into a cool, dark, and dry place as soon as they have dried on my table. I whipped together the drying table out of a few boards and some chicken wire and put it across two sawhorses. It's under my deck and mostly out of direct sunlight.

jinman, they look great. i can only hope that my onions turn out that great. i do mine from sets. ive heard that onions started from seed grow much larger and dry/store much better. i am not sure if this is true, but if my onion sets mature like it looks like yours have i wont be dissapointed. last year i barley got any.

 

[Kep]

Kep,

Are those wooden towers tomato cages?

Chuck

Yep, got tied of the wire cages getting crushed

 

[Chuck52]

Well, I don't worry about my CRW tomato cages getting crushed, but your wooden ones sure are nicer looking. I bet they seldom rust.

Chuck

 

[Kep]

Wife likes them a lot, made them out of cedar so they should last a while.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I LOVE those tomato cages, awesome dude!!:dance1:

 

[Chuck52]

If I could manage to limit myself to some reasonable number of tomatoes I'd build some of those. Unfortunately I seem to have a need to grow 50 or so. That would get expensive fast.

Chuck