Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[jinman]

Hello guys, just a little update from my tomato patch experiment...tomato jungle out there, by the way I could not belive my eyes .. I had about 14" of water in the bucket hung off of the T-post... all in few days.

You really have it going on the tomatoes, JC. They are comin' on strong. I just look at them and get a mental picture of you down on your knees, pulling apart the vines to find the tomatoes in the middle. That's an easy image for me because that's exactly what I have to do to get inside my vines in the cages.

Like you, my plants have all grown together. That's okay if we don't get a fungus that spreads due to all this wet weather. If that happens, there won't be any separation between the plants to keep the fungus from passing from plant to plant.

As to cross-pollenation...I think some of that can happen to very similar varieties of plants like pumpkins, squash, and some gourds. But I would not expect it to happen between gourds and melons. I think they are too different. I actually believe I got cross-pollenation between my pumpkins and squash. That big yellow mystery fruit is just a huge yellow squash that got cross-pollenated by a giant pumkin. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[TBDonnelly]

I have been told that you can't plant gourds close to watermelons,cantalopes, cucumbers and squash because the gourds will cross pollinate and everything will taste like gourds. Is this true ?

I have heard of sweet banana peppers having a 'kick' that were planted next to the jalapeno section.
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The Broccoli and Roma tomato pictures look GREAT!

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Bird, I attached a picture of the blended lettuce seed packets. I have some Italian blend started in the Italian section (near the Roma tomatoes ). Our Iceberg lettuce is shipped in mostly from California. We anxiously await our own fresh lettuce (and tomatoes) to come in every year. In Michigan, there is no comparison between the fresh grown and the California Iceberg.

Did I see more rain forecast for TX today? I may have been watering too much but it was self imposed . I purchased a 'moisture meter' with a probe to check at the root level. Four days since the last rain and the meter still showed a high moisture level in the root zones.

Don

 

[randy41]

Randy, I know that all broccoli is sorta blue, but that is really blue. It looks very healthy and I believe I can even see water droplets on the leaves. You said you harvested 40 heads. Did you sell all of them? My grandkids helped us pick tomatoes yesterday morning. We had 125 large tomatoes almost as big as your fist and about two gallons of cherry tomatoes. I wish we had a farmer's market close by.

i did sell all of them. i enjoy selling at the farmers market.

i plant all that stuff together....gourds, pumpkins, and squash. and i have 4 beehives so they are well pollinated and cross pollinated. there's never been any effect on the taste of the squash and pumpkins. i would think it would make the seed you get not true to what you got the seed out of.

 

[schmism]

quick update... (sorry didnt take time to resize so 56K warning)

http://www.snjschmidt.com/07-02-07/DSC02900.JPG

that was sat picking, sunday picking was 3 more squash and our first greenbeens.... enough to make a meal out of.

julie picked our first peas today at lunch, only a couple as a "are they ready" sample... we will likely give them another day or 2....

an overview from atop the compost pile
http://www.snjschmidt.com/07-02-07/DSC02907.JPG

giant sunfowers along the left edge, (east side) (pic takeing looking due south)

from bottom moving to the top
corn, cukes (that have exploded takeing over), greenbean type 1, beats, greenbean type 2, a row of lettice, and onin sets on either side that you cant see, then the mutant squash thats belly tall, then the peas on the strings, some diffrent corn, and more sunflowers on the south end you cant see.

cantalopes mixed in the south corn, pumpkins in the north corn.

thats the main garden, there are 9 other "plots" (5x8 or so...one pass with the tiller) containing gourds, pumkins, pickleing cukes, more greenbeans that were planted 2 weeks after the first, 4 beds of tomatos (6 diffrent types), watermellon, cantalope.

not to mention the asparagus (which a sharp eye might pick out the "gone to seed" plants, as well as a few mystery squash (perhaps acorn?),
oh and bird house gourds and lufa sponges (in front of the house).

this is typical of our extra plots

http://www.snjschmidt.com/07-02-07/DSC02912.JPG

(you can browse that root directory ... 2904-2915 are garden pics)

 

[Bird]

Did I see more rain forecast for TX today?

70% chance, Don, and it's raining all around, but not on us YET today. I mowed this swamp in spite of the puddles. I knew with the grass catcher I'd have to stop every few feet and mulching would bog down the mower, so that left side discharge. My yard looks like a miniature hay meadow with the windrows ready to dry, rake, and be baled. If it every gets dry, I'll use the grass catcher again and try to get some of the clippings up. Of course there's rain in the forecast all week, and even a 20% chance this weekend.

 

[TBDonnelly]

(you can browse that root directory ...

"root directory" Is that garden humor?

I'll interject a little garden humor.......

If you've heard of Almond Chicken....then maybe you've heard of "Zucchini'd duck".

Don

 

[Bandybear]

"root directory" Is that garden humor?

I'll interject a little garden humor.......

If you've heard of Almond Chicken....then maybe you've heard of "Zucchini'd duck".

Don

"Zucchini'd duck". That just quacks me up. I better stop before the puns start to get really fowl.

 

[JC-jetro]

Wow ... great looking mess of greens everybody. What a nice looking lettuces and salad greens, Love that broccoli.. one of the favorites in our family along with asparagus and artichoke. I just wished I lived in place with 11 month growing season such as Medford, Oregon and have y'all with green thumbs as neighbors

Jim,

I share the same concern with fungus as my tomato plants are getting crowded. I'll space them apart further next year. Hopefully here in Kansas we'll have enough sunny days with a little less rain to remedy the situation.As they say "too much of good thing (rain) may not be so good " but I guess I'll take it over drought or fetching water bucket by bucket from the creek. What I'm happy with was the use of "weed block" or "earth fabric".. I have to yet pick one solitary weed out of my tomato patch. I kind of gave up in the back of garden where I have the cantaloupe and gourds as it is "survival of the fittest" battle going on between the weeds and the rest. We cultivated on either side of tomato patch and we'll probably have enough watermelon and pumpkins.

Great result by everybody

 

[DUMBDOG]

Randy, I know that all broccoli is sorta blue, but that is really blue. It looks very healthy and I believe I can even see water droplets on the leaves. You said you harvested 40 heads. Did you sell all of them? My grandkids helped us pick tomatoes yesterday morning. We had 125 large tomatoes almost as big as your fist and about two gallons of cherry tomatoes. I wish we had a farmer's market close by.

Roadside stand.

 

[schmism]

I forgot to add i have a half a dozzen pepper plants, and some carrots next to the lettice

but my question is about the peppers.... they are REALLY sorry looking... i cant seen anyone eating on them, but cant figure out why they are " suffering" while everything else in the garden as exploded and taken off BIG TIME... my poor pepper plants are stuggling to grow any bigger than they were a week after i put them in...