How does your garden grow?

[DFB]

So scored me some Heirloom Creasy (Greasy) beans last night during the 1st annual town seed saver library seed swap and I got soaking wet setting up my poles and planting them in the rain just now.

Can't wait till I see them come up...can't wait to eat some either but I have to save seeds too...

Ideal Market Bean - Seed Savers Exchange

 

[Larro Darro]

So scored me some Heirloom Creasy (Greasy) beans last night during the 1st annual town seed saver library seed swap and I got soaking wet setting up my poles and planting them in the rain just now.

Can't wait till I see them come up...can't wait to eat some either but I have to save seeds too...

Ideal Market Bean - Seed Savers Exchange

View attachment 472391

Great find. Are you going to be saving seeds?

 

[DFB]

Great find. Are you going to be saving seeds?

I guess that's the plan

It was originally the plan of our past town librarian to have a seed library and its going to happen in memoriam to her, she passed young only 50 so we formed a group..the new librarian a close friend of mine, some other active gardening town folk, library board of trustees etc.. Its cool SeedSavers helped us out with a decent seed donation and several others are in the works. Plus local people had plenty of stuff to donate. Seeds are free to take out and though saving and donating back is not requirement I think enough people will, to make it work. There is a bunch of literature from seed companies and of course our little town library is packed with great books on gardening and seed saving so those interested can learn about the necessary things like cross pollination and proper seed drying procedures.

Plus the Library is integrated in the town school (it does a double duty) so we are also hoping to establish an educational garden that the school age kids can partake in.

Overall it's a pretty sound group of professional/commercial growers, educators and volunteer gardeners and I am glad to see it happening.

 

[Larro Darro]

I guess that's the plan

It was originally the plan of our past town librarian to have a seed library and its going to happen in memoriam to her, she passed young only 50 so we formed a group..the new librarian a close friend of mine, some other active gardening town folk, library board of trustees etc.. Its cool SeedSavers helped us out with a decent seed donation and several others are in the works. Plus local people had plenty of stuff to donate. Seeds are free to take out and though saving and donating back is not requirement I think enough people will, to make it work. There is a bunch of literature from seed companies and of course our little town library is packed with great books on gardening and seed saving so those interested can learn about the necessary things like cross pollination and proper seed drying procedures.

Plus the Library is integrated in the town school (it does a double duty) so we are also hoping to establish an educational garden that the school age kids can partake in.

Overall it's a pretty sound group of professional/commercial growers, educators and volunteer gardeners and I am glad to see it happening.

That sounds great. I love to see kids showing an interest in gardening. I've been getting heirloom Asian seeds from a little old Filipino lady. So far I have been able to keep the pole beans from crossing with anything else. This is my first year growing the gourd seed I got from her. I took the precaution of growing no other gourds this year. The way she describes them, they sound like a snake gourd. But she says it isn't the same thing. You eat them when they are young, cooked like you would cook a squash.

 

[lakngulf]

Hot, humid, and HOT weather leads to some tomato problems for me. I cannot grow tomatoes in same soil more than a couple of years. But I never know whether a plant will make it in particular container or not. So I plant a tomato, watch it grow and put on fruit. If it succumbs to what I think is Southern Bacterial Wilt then I pluck the green maters, pull the plant, and replace with corn or okra seed.


I have one larger area where I emptied many pots last winter. For the most part I have peppers, squash and corn in this are, but planted four Gary O'Sena tomato plants. They have been doing so well. I guessed that perhaps moving the soil helped with the issues in the pots. Well, two days ago one of the beautiful plants showed signs of the Southern Bacterial Wilt. My issue may be something else, but everything I read points to this. One day the plants are beautiful, the next they completely wilt, even with consistent watering. Here is a picture of the dying plant. It has a half dozen beautiful green tomatoes on it.

 

[Larro Darro]

Hot, humid, and HOT weather leads to some tomato problems for me. I cannot grow tomatoes in same soil more than a couple of years. But I never know whether a plant will make it in particular container or not. So I plant a tomato, watch it grow and put on fruit. If it succumbs to what I think is Southern Bacterial Wilt then I pluck the green maters, pull the plant, and replace with corn or okra seed.


I have one larger area where I emptied many pots last winter. For the most part I have peppers, squash and corn in this are, but planted four Gary O'Sena tomato plants. They have been doing so well. I guessed that perhaps moving the soil helped with the issues in the pots. Well, two days ago one of the beautiful plants showed signs of the Southern Bacterial Wilt. My issue may be something else, but everything I read points to this. One day the plants are beautiful, the next they completely wilt, even with consistent watering. Here is a picture of the dying plant. It has a half dozen beautiful green tomatoes on it.

I have gone through this same thing for years. Once you have it in your soil, all you can do is move off and leave it. Or do like I did this year, and make a soil mix {with none of your dirt} to go in the pots. I'm about three weeks into ripe tomatoes, and {knock on wood} no problems so far.

 

[lakngulf]

I have gone through this same thing for years. Once you have it in your soil, all you can do is move off and leave it. Or do like I did this year, and make a soil mix {with none of your dirt} to go in the pots. I'm about three weeks into ripe tomatoes, and {knock on wood} no problems so far.

Yes, thank goodness the tomatoes I have in pots with fresh soil are doing great! And the tomatoes this year have the best taste ever = Cherokee purple, lush queen, Amos Coli and Better Boy

 

[Larro Darro]

I want to grow some Cherokee Purple. They are a little darker than my Pruden's Purple. I also have some Beefsteak, Yellow pear, Cherubs {grown from store bought tomatoes} and just now going into gallon pots, a few Homestead.

Edit: And Margie brought home a bunch of really round cherry tomatoes that I'm going to sprout a few seeds from. Not sure where I will put them.

 

[Larro Darro]

This morning before work I put in 9 more pepper plants in my 2nd pepper patch. Also replaced one cashed plant in the other patch.

View attachment 472874

 

[Larro Darro]

I cut my first Crimson Sweet melon last night {clipped on Monday}. About 95% ripe. There should be some ready now.

Blooms on my 2nd planting of green beans. {can't find the picture. I must have used the other camera}

Tassels on 2nd planting of sweet corn. {again, no picture of tassels, but here is one of the cardboard I'm laying down in the corn patch}

View attachment 472875

All the 2nd plantings of the viney stuff got side dressed and hoed this week. I used a mix of 5-10-15, 6-6-6, 10-10-10 and 13-13-13.

View attachment 472877

 

[Larro Darro]

My sweet pumpkins are turning orange.

View attachment 472878

Melons on the Tendersweets {orange meated}.

View attachment 472879

 

[Larro Darro]

Lots more going on, but no time right now.

 

[DFB]

I want to grow some Cherokee Purple.

I love the flavor of Cherokee Purple I didn't get to plant any this year just Brandywine, Old German and Pineapple.

Got some tomatillos going in this week

 

[LA Confederate]

Yesterday I picked out the rest of the sweet corn. The Merit and G-90 did very well. All total I had 4 rows about 50' each and I'm guessing I got at least 200 ears out of it that were pick able and edible. So after I picked the corn I gave the Mahindra a workout. Tilled up the rest of the garden except a small patch of blackeye peas, heirloom okra that's finally producing, and snap beans. Thinking of doing a second planting of corn and a large bunch of cow peas.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Tomatoes here in Bismarck and most of Arkansas are suffering from a mold that quickly kills the whole plant in just a day or so. Mine all got it and all but one vine (one grape tomato)died. Also most of the fruit trees have a fungus that rots the fruit when it starts to ripen. Plums did great and had a bumper crop with no worm damage, but nectarines and peaches aren't doing so well with the fruit rot. One of my pear trees is going to die from a fire blight that seems to be uncontrollable, sprayed it a half dozen times and it just keeps dying from the top down. I lost one last year from the same thing plus one cherry tree. Looks like two more cherry trees will bite the dust this year. I wont be replacing them anymore since it seems a waste of money to keep putting in new trees for them to die from the same disease and no cure for it.
Okra didn't come up this year due to a heavy rain right after planting so I just tilled in the few remaining plants but squash is doing fine. Looks like that is all I will have this year. I don't plant a lot anyway, mostly I like the fresh tomatoes which I wont get this year either.

 

[Larro Darro]

Yesterday I picked out the rest of the sweet corn. The Merit and G-90 did very well. All total I had 4 rows about 50' each and I'm guessing I got at least 200 ears out of it that were pick able and edible. So after I picked the corn I gave the Mahindra a workout. Tilled up the rest of the garden except a small patch of blackeye peas, heirloom okra that's finally producing, and snap beans. Thinking of doing a second planting of corn and a large bunch of cow peas.

I picked the last few nubs of my sweet corn last week. I still have about a gallon in the fridge. Not pretty to look at, but it's still sweet corn.

My 2nd plantings of corn, peas and green beans are outdoing the 1st ones. The melons and Armenian cucumbers too.

 

[Larro Darro]

Tomatoes here in Bismarck and most of Arkansas are suffering from a mold that quickly kills the whole plant in just a day or so. Mine all got it and all but one vine (one grape tomato)died. Also most of the fruit trees have a fungus that rots the fruit when it starts to ripen. Plums did great and had a bumper crop with no worm damage, but nectarines and peaches aren't doing so well with the fruit rot. One of my pear trees is going to die from a fire blight that seems to be uncontrollable, sprayed it a half dozen times and it just keeps dying from the top down. I lost one last year from the same thing plus one cherry tree. Looks like two more cherry trees will bite the dust this year. I wont be replacing them anymore since it seems a waste of money to keep putting in new trees for them to die from the same disease and no cure for it.
Okra didn't come up this year due to a heavy rain right after planting so I just tilled in the few remaining plants but squash is doing fine. Looks like that is all I will have this year. I don't plant a lot anyway, mostly I like the fresh tomatoes which I wont get this year either.

That's a shame about your fruit trees. We are just now getting back to planting fruit trees. We had planted a bunch 12 years ago when we first moved into the house, but they all died. Last summer we started back with grapes, blueberry, olive, apple persimmon and fig. This year we have added orange, tangerine and lemon, as well as some peach trees I started from seed.

Sub-irrigation has worked well for my tomatoes. You should Google Rain Gutter Grow System and see if it's something you would want to try. I do a simple trench lined with black plastic. But then I have to get down on my knees to pick tomatoes.

 

[Larro Darro]

I planted the skips in my squash and winter squash yesterday. Just got through and got the sprinklers turned on when this little cloud came up. I got almost 4 inches, 3 1/2 of it coming in 30 minutes. After the storm I had to unearth all my young viney things. This morning I cleaned as much dirt off them as possible, then sprinkled them this afternoon to wash off more dirt.



Also planted 2 rows of regular pumpkins yesterday.

 

[Larro Darro]

It blew over a few of my tomatoes too. Not to mention that the covers were not on my kiddie pools of soil mix, which was soup when I found it. Or the cover to my coffee ground bin was off. Or that I had left a bucket with about a gallon of my 13-13-13, 10-10-10, 6-6-6 & 5-10-15 mix out of the pump house where I keep it. Needless to say, I spent most of today trying to repair storm damage.

It also got our modem. I've got wifi here at work, but we haven't heard from the phone company yet about a repair time. I know they have a bunch to do after the lightning we had.

 

[DFB]

I planted the flat Italian Roma beans 5 short rows today (5 packs altogether maybe 250 seed)

Always one of my favorites!

Cukes are really looking good now and expect rain tonight after almost 10 days of brutal 80-90 degree sun and heat. At least the nights have been decently cool but I have had to water every day and sometimes twice a day its so dry. Plus my soil is very sandy.