How Is 2018 Treating Your Garden?

Well, I was just out in the 93° heat and checked out the 'mater patch and they look like the tilling gave them a boost, they look really deep green and lush today. Not that they were struggling before, but I guess aerating the soil thru tiillings helps. Plus, it’s a bright sunny, hot day, and they’re liking that, too.

“…here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

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Yesterday I picked my first tomatoes. I usually get some earlier, but I’m planting later these days. Anyway the wife was surprised how good they were, well rather remembering after a winter of store bought blandness. Her expression was priceless. A few cherries, Mexico Midget, a fairly sweet cherry that is an heirloom, very sweet for an OP type you can grow over and over again from saved seed, which is now part of my keepers.

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It looks like I’ll be able to pick 4th of July by that date, but it’s a question how long my plants are going to live at the current rate.

4th is much healthier than Big Beef so far

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my indigo treat/gem honey berries are near ripe. another week or so in get a couple cups to try. the auroras still green. ate a few earliglow strawberries.

Is that a variety? If so, I’ve never heard of it.

Just about all my plants have blossoms, but no little fruitlets yet.

It is frustrating to say the least. While I was at work, the groundhogs dug underneath my fence and ate most of my edamame, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, etc. I’m always fighting wildlife here. If it’snot the birds, it’s the rabbits or the groundhogs, then the chipmunks, mice and other critters. It is exhausting

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Sorry to hear the bad news. You need a dog .

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That’ll be me at 90…getting my exercise chasing chickens out of the maters n peach trees! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Chased turkeys out of the garden area this morning. They were not in the garden, but left evidence behind that they were. A small green tomato pecked off the vine, and bird droppings if you look close.
Most of my tomatoes are grafted, and growing, but not setting much. I guess if they live and grow I can try and figure out a more productive variety, or look at nutrient needs later. Survival is the first necessity.

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I do enjoy white oak acorns. My grandpa and grandma fed their pigs on acorns they raked up. They called acorns poor mans corn. Your obviously smart enough to know the good ones from bad acorns. The ones with high tannins can be leached out with water and eaten in a pinch. Glad I’ve not needed those tricks in awhile but your right it’s satisfying to know how to stay alive from what nature gives us in abundance.

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We’ve continued to get nights in the 40’s until this past week so everything is barely growing. My corn won’t be “knee high by the 4th of July”, what’s left after the turkey’s were plucking out the seedlings. Peppers are a horrible yellow and not growing. The tomatoes just greened up and are finally growing. Cabbage and collards look good, they don’t mind the cold. Beans are doing well but choked by what I call Pig Weed, but is actually Lambs Quarter. The Hubbard type squash never germinated, and other cucurbits didn’t germinate well, but no cucurbit beetles this year, I assume due to the cold nights. I got all the squash, pumpkins and cucumbers weeded out today, and will continue to try to get at least two rows a day weeded out until it’s all caught up. Between the two gardens I have a couple weeks of work to do. Has been really dry, we need more rain just two days after our last storm. Too embarrassed to take a picture…

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and a female cat.

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it just started to get in the mid 70’s herelast week but next week is getting in the mid 80’s and some 90’s . everything is taking off now !

Yes, a smaller early tomato

Garden gave me 2 more head of cabbage. I’m suprised how the heat doesn’t seem to bother them (95 deg, heat index above 100).
But maybe that’s why my beans didn’t come up - they baked under the dark soil. :persevere: Think I’ll try a white sheet over my next planting.
Harvested some tomatoes and lots of cukes. The grafted cuke is not doing as well as the non-grafted. For some reason my grafted veggies took very long to heal over and get going. The grafted tomatoes have def caught up to and surpassed the non-grafted.
I wasn’t going to do zukes this year but changing my mind. I have an anti-squash vine borer dust I want to try. So far no borers in the cukes with it.
Game camera saw the raccoon that tried to raid the blueberry patch. Looks like it got tangled in the bird netting and struggled to escape…ripped the netting some and bent the chicken wire…never got to the berries but has come back 2X without going after them. After I saw the damage I activated the hot wire and I think it can hear the zinging sound. Don’t look forward to trapping it but it is my civic duty. :thinking:

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We planted a 50 foot row of green beans every 3 inches, and used an innoculant too…not a single bean grew. I am thinking of trying them in seed flats, and transplanting, because two years ago I started them in compost, in pots and we had full rows of blue lake Bush beans. Last year we only had a few plants and we planted maybe 3 almost 50 foot rows.

Okra plants are tiny, but once the rain gets here they should take off.
Our onions, chard, cabbage, eggplants, and cucumbers are going good. Peppers are small.
Summer squash are coming off now. I wish everything grew and made food as fast as zucchini.

The nursery is a jungle of weeds and gopher mounds (ggrrrrrr) but there are a LOT of trees out there.

We ordered seed taters from Irish Eyes…never again. They substituted at least two varieties on us. We only got one variety that we actually ordered. They sent them late, and many rotted instead of growing.

These are sweet peppers, and the tomatoes. There are cucumbers planted under the high trellis in the back.

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Love your trellising. Are these the grafted tomatoes?

My thought exactly - forget direct sowing even with a sheet. Have to go lowest risk… except I’ll use cells instead of flats - less root disturbance and easier to push out. Never had problems like this with beans. Not sure what happened. I can’t afford the next go to fail. We’ve past the solstice so it is ‘go’ time.

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Let’s see.

New peach has 18” of new growth and the new growth is already more than pencil thick at the base.

Tomatoes are 4-6’ tall with some red showing on the paste varieties Opalka and San marzano Redorta.

First planting of sweet corn is tasseling (I do succession plantings).

Potatoes are ok, was worried about late blight, but it has not progressed any, so it may be something else. The earliest variety has yellowed a bit at the lowest leaves but that could be natural dieback setting in.

Sweet potatoes are small, but coming along.

Peppers are good - will harvest the first pickings soon.

Picked a handful of Carminat purple pole beans yesterday.

Picked a nice head of broccoli, but that’s probably it until fall.

The rabbits get my beans - so many rabbits this year!

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Yes those are mostly grafted. The runts are on their own roots.

Good idea on the green beans @JustAnne4! We have some 50 cell seed starting trays…I think I’ll fill a few up.

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