How does your garden grow?

[TomSeller]

I still have some tomato plants I bought and are still in 2 gallon pots waiting to go in the ground. I have been losing ripe cherry tomatoes off of the plants and today green golf ball sized ones. I can't think of anything but rats or bushy tailed rats (squirrels), although the teeth marks look like something larger. Maybe they are bird pecks with their heads cocked to the side? I put the potted plants up on an aluminum racks spanned between saw horses. Then put cayenne pepper and and pepper flakes on the tops of the saw horses to chase off rodents. If the onslaught continues, I may conclude birds? Any other ideas?

My planted tomatoes are at a remote property in black fabric and on soaker hoses with timers. I think I will sprinkle pepper flakes on top of the fabric, although I have not seen this same thing happen there.

Birds. Caught one red-beaked. Or should I say green-beaked for the un-ripe ones.

 

[tcreeley]

New garden in this location- just tilled this year. We are using bio degrade plastic. So far it has been raining every few days so we are ok. No drip hose under the plastic. Because we moved our potatoes here- the potato beetles have not caught up. We did have a crow pulling seedlings up, and deer coming for snacks. The red tape helps. The row cover is to get some growth big enough that the crow leaves it alone. The crow is looking for ants. We also had a wild turkey coming round until the red tape went up. Slow start, but w have two good months ahead of us.

 

[DFB]

New garden in this location- just tilled this year. We are using bio degrade plastic. So far it has been raining every few days so we are ok. No drip hose under the plastic. Because we moved our potatoes here- the potato beetles have not caught up. We did have a crow pulling seedlings up, and deer coming for snacks. The red tape helps. The row cover is to get some growth big enough that the crow leaves it alone. The crow is looking for ants. We also had a wild turkey coming round until the red tape went up. Slow start, but w have two good months ahead of us.

View attachment 432230View attachment 432231

I have not seen potatoes grown on plastic before. Crows are pita When I hear crows especially early in the morning when I'm still snoozing around 5:30am they are definitely up to no good out there. Flash tape is pretty effective.

I had wild turkey in garden before they were beneficial just eating insects and never hurt my plants. Mostly in my eggplant get the same CPB problem potatoes do. I haven't seen any yet this year on my eggplant but still early though, using that row cover can help with them too

 

[DFB]

Weeded my garden yesterday just before more showers came in for the rest of day (and looks more for today too).

Cousa squash, the Burpee variety has been yielding heavy and my Costata Romanesco zucchini are forming up nicely. I like them pretty big for frying in olive oil. Eggplant, Harris Classic has to flower and set fruit along with the North Star green peppers.



So not too bad for about 35 days since transplant...



The only tomatoes I'm picking are the cherry tomatoes from the hanging baskets we sell at greenhouse. They have some great container variety tomatoes on the market today.

 

[Larro Darro]

I think you've said before, but you really like that high wheel cultivator, right? I'm looking at getting one.

I do like it. I also made a plow out of an old bike that works, but you have much more control with this one. I have the hardware of an old one we used when I was a kid, but you pay about half the cost of a new one just replacing the handles. If I remember correctly, I paid about $120. It comes with the cultivator, a turning plow and a chisel plow.

 

[Tororider]

I do like it. I also made a plow out of an old bike that works, but you have much more control with this one. I have the hardware of an old one we used when I was a kid, but you pay about half the cost of a new one just replacing the handles. If I remember correctly, I paid about $120. It comes with the cultivator, a turning plow and a chisel plow.

I think the ones I have looked at are about $140 and only come with the cultivator.

 

[Larro Darro]

I think the ones I have looked at are about $140 and only come with the cultivator.

Here are the other plows and how they attach. The chisel is reversible. There is no brand name on the plow, and I couldn't find the manual. I'm going to town tomorrow and need to stop by the feed and seed store anyway. I'll try to remember to look and see what brand it is. And upon further review, I think I paid $129.99. But is sounds better to say around 120 bucks

 

[Larro Darro]

View attachment 432256View attachment 432257

Here are the other plows and how they attach. The chisel is reversible. There is no brand name on the plow, and I couldn't find the manual. I'm going to town tomorrow and need to stop by the feed and seed store anyway. I'll try to remember to look and see what brand it is. And upon further review, I think I paid $129.99. But is sounds better to say around 120 bucks

I stopped by the little store where I bought my plow. It's called a Maxim High Wheeled Cultivator, and is selling for $135.99 now.


I got some 13-13-13 to all the new stuff, and got it plowed or hoed in. Hope it greens the corn up. It's too yellow for my taste.

I transplanted one of the older Armenian cucumbers into the garden, and potted a few of the young ones for Cousin Dee to take back to Tampa when they leave. They have a lot of roots for being above ground only four days. I've been giving them a little blue juice everyday.

The regular cucumber seeds I planted in trays were coming up today. Nothing yet from either of the squash.

 

[lakngulf]

Looks like quite a few tomato sandwiches in my future:



Included are Cherokee Purple (two trays top right), Brandywine, Lush Queen, Better Boy and Fantastic.
I have these growing at my Mother's house, on farm where I grew up. Good soil for growing veggies



And the best garden caretaker around. She just turned 90 in March, and loves helping things grow. I tell her how much I appreciate her taking care of my tomatoes, and she says "Well, I just like going out each morning to see how much they have grown"



Really some beautiful fruit on the vines. We think I planted the rows and plants too close together (PETC), but the vines are healthy, and we hope to keep them producing on into the fall

 

[Larro Darro]

Lakngulf, looks great. After you dock garden, that must feel like a huge field. My 87 year old Mamma spends a good part of everyday puttering with her flowers and garden. It helps keep them going.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My gardens are all mulched in and growing FAST... These picts are several days old, but this is my "front" garden,

I have very few weeds to pull and the gardens haven't needed any watering,

I'll have red tomatoes and grn. beans soon, also the corn will be tasseling soon too...

SR

 

[Larro Darro]

SR, your garden looks so green. Just about all of my first planting stuff is either plowed under or turning brown and needing to be. As soon as I pick the dried pole beans for seed, I'll gather my field corn and plow that under too. My tomatoes are not doing great, with only the Roma getting ripe before the rain splits them. Even the little cherry tomatoes are splitting. The pepper is still going strong though. The Anaheim Chili is just getting ready now, and it will be a few more days on the Sweet Banana. And the Mini Sweet peppers I grew from saved seed turned out like the peppers I bought in the store. So far we have had yellow, red and orange ones. Same great flavor.

 

[tcreeley]

I have not seen potatoes grown on plastic before.

- keeping ahead of the weeds, did fine last year under plastic, easy digging too

 

[DFB]

- keeping ahead of the weeds, did fine last year under plastic, easy digging too

That's cool...sure beats all that hilling work!

A lot of stuff lends itself to plasticulture...I'm thinking about popping the hundreds of gladiolus bulbs thru plastic that both the business and I do. It sure would save a serious amount of hand weeding. :thumbsup:

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Thanks Larro, my gardens are doing great and the compost in the garden really makes things green...

tcreely, that's why I mulch my potatoes in so heavy, it keeps the weeds out and the potatoes thrive in/under the mulch!

SR

 

[Larro Darro]

The Armenian cucumbers are growing like crazy. Also got sprouts on the straight neck squash, regular cucumber and at least one of the acorn squash. Tuesday and Wednesday the signs are in the breast, so I'll try to get them in the ground.

 

[Larro Darro]

Pepper update: Mini Sweet, Serrano Chili, Anaheim Chili and Jalapeno.



I picked two rows {1/3 of the patch} of field corn and got about five gallons. It's getting harder to see the drying pole beans as the corn stalks turn brown. A few more days when I pick the last of the beans and I will cut it under.

 

[Larro Darro]

I set out about two and a half trays of the Armenian cucumbers this morning. There are still a few alive from the first planting, a few I transplanted about a week ago, and a whole lot of the ones I did this morning.

I didn't get any squash or regular cucumbers transplanted, but I got the holes dug so it will go faster in the morning. Late this afternoon I gave everything another drink of blue juice, including the melons.



While I was working, it messed around and got dark. Did get to see a pretty sunset though.

 

[Barry 1]

Been raining for a month!

 

[Larro Darro]

View attachment 432990
Been raining for a month!

Ha. We had rain for ten days straight, but when it stops here, it dries up in a hurry.

I transplanted 4 rows of cucumbers this morning. I decided to wait on squash. They are still sprouting and I didn't want to dig into them until they are through. The next good planting days are the 21st and 22nd.



The Armenian cucumbers looked really good this morning. I only had to replace one. There were several that looked pretty peaked yesterday, but I gave them all another drink right before dark.