How does your garden grow?

[Larro Darro]

Hey guys. I haven't posted here in a while, so here is an update on my garden.

I picked the first cucumbers on the new vines this morning. Just in time too, as the old vines are cashing out fast.



Of the next to last planting, the purple hulls and squash are doing the best. The hot dry weather killed all the green beans and slowed up the corn.



The newest planting of purple hulls have a pretty good stand. Although there are more banana cantaloupe volunteers than anything else. The green beans, melons and cantaloupes I planted the same day haven't done as good. I should have watered them better, but it has been very hectic here the last couple of weeks.



The peppers are still chugging along. The plants never got very big, but they are bearing good.



The pinto beans are also doing good. This is my first time growing them, so I don't have anything to compare this crop with.



I know we talked about me planting the flowers in the garden. Not sure if I had posted any pictures though. So here is one.



Larro

 

[lakngulf]

As per normal, okra is loving this hot, humid weather:





I like the color of peppers this time of the year:


And some new growth squash is looking good. Hope it can make it thru August and provide some great fall produce

 

[lakngulf]

Hey guys. I haven't posted here in a while, so here is an update on my garden.
Larro

I really like the way you get maximum use out of your garden area. Have Soil, Plant Seed. Dead Plant, Till Soil, More Seed.

 

[Larro Darro]

Your garden is looking good lakngulf. I guess you will always have plenty of water close by The hot dry weather is playing havoc with my garden right now.

I ran the cultivator between the rows of peas, getting rid of most of the volunteer cantaloupe. Then I made it rain.



I only had one crimson sweet sprout where I had planted the last planting, yet there were hundreds coming up where I had tilled. That got me to thinking.... Maybe the juice in the watermelons was why they were coming up so good. I went and checked for the next good planting day. What do you know, it was today and tomorrow. Since I'll be working all day tomorrow, I went and got one of the over ripe melons my BIL was going to feed to his hogs but hadn't got around to yet. I opened it up and put a handful of melon and seeds in each hill. We will have to wait and see what happens.



Mamma had picked up some yellow eye beans and has been after me to plant some. Since today was a good planting day, I went ahead. You always want to soak dry beans before planting, but that was not an option. So I soaked them after planting. There was an old Chief on my ship during my Navy days who had a saying for situations like this. He would say Proper Preparation Prevents P!ss Poor Performance. Since I had no preparation at all, you know what I had. But I got them planted, then put the soaker hose right in the drill. I'll turn it off about Sunday. The seeds should be good and soaked by then.



I saw a few of the last planting of green beans are sprouting. But if it stays as hot as it has been, I don't give them much chance of living. I will try to get the water to them sooner than I did the others.

Larro

 

[tcreeley]

We had some fried french fries from out red pontiacs last week. We've been getting soaked with rain every few days. The potato bugs got ahead of me and plants are getting scraggly on top. But I think what's in the ground will be plenty. We picked and froze my 4 green cabbage and ate a fifth- stuffed cabbage and egg rolls. We've been cooking and freezing beets and eating the greens, and dried a bunch of cucumbers and zucchinis. We sealed and froze some cherry tomatoes too. We'll see what the freezer does to everything- never used it much for this before.

 

[sixdogs]

Larro--did you ever plant your snake gourds? Mine are going gangbusters.

 

[Larro Darro]

Larro--did you ever plant your snake gourds? Mine are going gangbusters.

I clipped most of them yesterday. The vines are dying back, and I gathered all the ones with brown stems. We are getting afternoon thunderstorms everyday, and I figured it was best to get the mature ones out of the weather.

Larro

 

[sixdogs]

I clipped most of them yesterday. The vines are dying back, and I gathered all the ones with brown stems. We are getting afternoon thunderstorms everyday, and I figured it was best to get the mature ones out of the weather.

Larro

The ones I left outside over last winter looked better than the ones I kept under cover so this year they will all stay outside and in the vine until Spring. I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[Larro Darro]

The ones I left outside over last winter looked better than the ones I kept under cover so this year they will all stay outside and in the vine until Spring. I'm cautiously optimistic.

I may leave the rest of them on the vine. The ones that are touching the ground anyway.

Larro

 

[Larro Darro]

My newly planted melon seeds came up, as well as all the ones already in the ground. Now I need a break in the rain so I can work them.



I cooked the 1st mess of squash from my 2nd planting tonight.



The thunderstorms beat one of my new tomato plants down, but the other two are doing good. I saw the first blooms on them a couple of days ago.



The purple hulls are blooming and there are a few small peas on the vines. Won't be long now.



I'll stop for now.

Larro

 

[Larro Darro]

This is a melon Mamma grew in her garden. She had two this size, and there are four or five more on the vines.



Larro

 

[tcreeley]

Nice water melon! I've had almost no luck growing it up here.
We picked tomatoes yesterday and froze 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Used our peppers, onions, and zucchinis. I froze some vacuum sealed whole tomatoes for later use also.
-Tomatoes are not too pretty, but tasty! - especially sliced and with ground pepper on a single piece of toast!
View attachment 387547

 

[TomSeller]

-Tomatoes are not too pretty, but tasty! - especially sliced and with ground pepper on a single piece of toast!
<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/rural-living/387547-how-does-your-garden-grow-tomatobc-jpg"/>

This look GOOD, real GOOD !

 

[Larro Darro]

My Brown Crowders had been looking so bad I planned on letting them dry up. But they seemed to have found their second wind, so I decided to pick them tonight just before dark. I didn't get through though. I was in sandals and got wrapped up in big red wood ants. Thank the Good Lord I didn't get bit, but I did break one of my sandals. I could have finished in my bare feet, {and got a better picture of the sunset} but Margie came out to remind me I was responsible for Mamma's supper tonight. By the time I got back from Mamma's it was too dark to do either.

Larro

PS: I did the same thing to my other sandal on the trip down the river, so I know how to repair it. Just a note to folks using Gorilla Glue to repair shoes. It is a good idea to put them on an old newspaper or something like that. I have heard from a good source that the glue might foam up and glue your shoes to the table

 

[Larro Darro]

I got a chance to work in the garden this morning. It has been so crazy around here all I have been doing is picking what's ready, and letting it all get by the best it could. But the young Crimson Sweets are ready to vine, so they had to be side dressed. Here are before and after shots of them.



Also side dressed the banana cantaloupes, but they were not near as weedy as the melons. It went much faster with them. There are a few volunteer melons growing in the cantaloupes. I saved a couple of the best looking ones. They are blooming already.

 

[Larro Darro]

I plowed the newest purple hulls a couple of weeks ago and thought I had got rid of most of the volunteer cantaloupes. I was wrong.



Some of the volunteer cantaloupes are really pretty and full of blooms. Against my better judgment, I save a few of them. When I'm hopping around on one foot trying to pick the peas and not step on the vines I'll be regretting that.

 

[Duwop]

Looking good Larro, I've got the winter garden in now and all is up. Late fall and early winter I will get some garlic planted for next summer. Will post a pic later wife's calling me to supper.

 

[tcreeley]

View attachment 388125View attachment 388126

My Brown Crowders had been looking so bad I planned on letting them dry up. But they seemed to have found their second wind, so I decided to pick them tonight just before dark. I didn't get through though. I was in sandals and got wrapped up in big red wood ants. Thank the Good Lord I didn't get bit, but I did break one of my sandals. I could have finished in my bare feet, {and got a better picture of the sunset} but Margie came out to remind me I was responsible for Mamma's supper tonight. By the time I got back from Mamma's it was too dark to do either.

Larro

PS: I did the same thing to my other sandal on the trip down the river, so I know how to repair it. Just a note to folks using Gorilla Glue to repair shoes. It is a good idea to put them on an old newspaper or something like that. I have heard from a good source that the glue might foam up and glue your shoes to the table

Goop works really well too, any of them - marine, automotive, etc. Holds up well under use. I've used it to build heels back up on sneakers, and take care of peeling soles.

 

[tcreeley]

Our garden is winding down. -We canned 7 quarts of our beets using a pressure cooker yesterday, new experience! A few days before, it was 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce in a water bath -also a new experience! Trying to not let it go to waste! No space left in our small freezer, so it's canning. I'm holding off on the potatoes and turnips before digging. Still some cabbage left and the geraniums my wife planted. Most of the tomatoes are past, but there are some romas ripening on old stems. We have a disease that turns the leaves yellow from the ground up and prevents the plant from producing continuously until the first frost.
The local commercial potato fields are starting to be sprayed with herbicide to kill the green plants back, before harvesting. I'm sure glad we are eating our own.

 

[Larro Darro]

My squash are still making, but not very much. This fellow was in the peas today when I was picking. Watching me work must have made him hungry, he ate the moth right after I took the picture. And my volunteer Crimson Sweets must have crossed with something, because they ain't round.

My cucumbers are about done. The hot weather done them in I think. The peppers are still making, but the rain is making a lot of them have soft spots on them by the time they get ripe.

Larro