Tom,
Marigolds trap Root Knot Nematode and do wonderful other things like you mentioned.
It is fun to tell people how these special marigolds turn the red cherry tomatoes orange. 
The repeated of color pattern is wonderfully enhanced, for sure. It’s a lovely combination that you have there, David!
Tom
Johnny, I’m late to the thread, but was looking through it and noticed all the blue-ish flowers in your first pic. It looks like the spreading plant that tried to take over my largest row of apples this year. My brother said it is related to mint (it smells kind of minty too) and spreads very aggressively. Just a few days ago I spent a lot of time trying to pull it out- I think it will take some persistence to get rid of.
This is what was growing in my garden last year, but I couldn’t resist posting. That’s my grandson, he helped me water it
3 Likes
It made one really big jack o lantern. 
1 Like
@Derby42, frame that pic! He’s expressing the way that we all should feel every day out in the garden. #inspiration
I actually have a picture of this on my desk at work. It helps to look at it when I get frustrated with work.
@BobVance Those are violets and they are very invasive! I just tilled in some in the garden area. I went two years without tilling with horse manure on top and the violets started moving in, so I borrowed my friends tiller and mixed it all in. They do look pretty when they are all in bloom with moms tulips blooming too. My mother planted them 30 years ago and I can’t remove them. I’m going to let them spread to the stairs and then control them from there. They help flood out the invasive weeds too. I’ve been pulling garlic mustard and some other plants that I don’t know what they are but they try to grow everywhere too. We have a lot of oregano that I can’t get rid of from a garden we had in 74. It’s what I mow by my bird house and is the weed that grows surrounding the honey suckle and lilacs by the bird house too.
Jet’s grave. Best lab ever.
Peas and beans Kohlrabi 'Winner" Beet ‘Red Ace’ Pepper ‘Vanguard’
Planting tomatoes today
1 Like
Chikn, you either have a huge family and lots of people to give away to, or you do some selling. You’ve got actual “dirt”, too. Looks good! That’s a lot more area than I could handle with my shovel, hoe, and hand trowel. You must either get summer rain or irrigate. No way to keep that much alive with just a garden hose.
The pansies and violas look lovely. Those are what I plant for winter flowers here.
One of the many things I’ve learned this year is that I need to plant a lot more beets this fall… They’ve been much more popular than I expected.
I have a little less in the garden today. I pulled about 1/2 the remaining spinach because it’s bolting. Need to finish pulling the rest tomorrow and will freeze it. That is going to look like so much less once it’s blanched. Ah, well. We ate and enjoyed as much as we could while it lasted.
We will string drip on each row. Super easy to do and a 7000’ roll will last a lifetime. I’m pretty anal about weeds and also have a very rare cache of amiben pre-emergent. If I 'm smart enough, I plant each row so I can get my old Troybilt through them. We usually get rain frequently enough to not have to water alot. Last year not at all. Year before, constantly. Like most of us on the forum and I’m sure you too, our garden and trees are our happy and quiet places so we tend to spend our time there.
[quote=“MuddyMess_8a, post:71, topic:1303”]
One of the many things I’ve learned this year is that I need to plant a lot more beets this fall.
[/quote]We learned that too. In the pics the wire netting is for the deer who learned too. Cats also like that soil in the raised beds.
.
I had an epiphany on green beans last year, we only grow beans, except for poles, that are bred for machine harvest or heavy initial set so we can pull the plant, pick the beans, till, and reseed. Saves the back big time and gets us young beans through the season.
Chikn,
You have quite big piece of land for a “garden”! Must be lots of work. I would love to have something like that but I really don’t know if I can handle so much of this “garden” size!
Maybe I should just stick with my toddler’s sand box garden!
Tom
Derby, very nice picture of both the pumpkin and your little helper. Thanks for sharing it.
1 Like
I look at that picture at least once a day because it makes me smile.
We had lots of fun growing it. He couldn’t say pumpkin so he called it a cuppin. It quit growing just after the photo was taken, I think I got a little wild with the potash.
Had one of those annual major marker events today. Picked the first tomato. Rather, it chose to be picked today. When I touched the underside it came off in my hand. San Marzano. It’s been red for a few days, but was still very firm - as in store bought, fake ripe firm. This morning it was just right and perfect. It was grown from seed started indoors and transplanted in April.
My goal has always been to have the first before the 4th of July. This may be my first ever entirely homegrown fully ripe tomato ready before the end of May.
Pinched off some basil leaves to go with it. 
I know what I’m having for lunch.
1 Like
Here is 5b/6a a little behind you. I did pick some peppers already though and today was the first strawberries. The harvest begins! I do have a number of tomatoes, none ripe yet. I’m growing San Marzano too, among many sauce tomatoes this year.
I’m looking for more acid type tomatoes for sauce. I don’t like a sweet sauce.
Please let me know what you find with a nice acid bite. To me, tomato flavor isn’t quite complete without it.
I do have a green bell pepper on the counter, but that’s only because I accidentally got it snagged on something when moving its container out to the garden for transplant. There are also a couple that are now red. I’m just waiting for my son to get here to pick those. He’s the one who dug up that plant and overwintered it.