Gardeners: how are your gardens doing?

[grasshopperlegs]

My garden is really good this year. I have already picked cucumbers,green beans,and some peppers. I had a little problem with slugs on my cabbage but all I had to do was use Epsom salt. I just sprinkled the salt around each head and that's all it took. The only animal problems I had was a ground hog. I used a live trap with lettuce and I took a few miles away and let it go near a small river. So other than that it has been a really good year.

 

[grunt soldier]

came home to blown over plants tonight. the wind and heavy rain really weighted on them. Hopefully I'll be able to stand most back up tomorrow. they were even staked down. wtf!!


some black prince and green peppers. Also a amazing jersey wakefield. probably 8lbs lol

 

[hooky]

I hate to be the one who exposes these subliminal messages to all of you, but...

This thread is simply an excuse for grunt soldier to show off all of his blades!!!!

 

[eldirector]

Today's harvest!

Gonna start some sauerkraut and can some beans, I think.

 

[88GT]

PIC HEAVY!

Finally got the pics taken and uploaded. Though I don't seem to have the pics of the garden from a couple weeks ago. Not that it's important but I think it's always fun to see the progress in "time lapse" photos. Without further ado:

"Aerial" view

"Aerial view of other end

Looking down the main "aisle"

Last year's onion I'm hoping to gets some seeds from (this is one of 4)

Jalapenos

Bell peppers

Onions

First tomato fruits. I have 11 tomato plants, 9 are Roma and two are salsa plants.

Dry beans. This is one bed. When the peas are done, I'll plant more.

Sweet potato and zuke.

Green beans are climbing all over the place. I have 3 beds of those. I wish I had been able to get things in earlier. I'm jealous of y'all who are eating from your gardens already.

 

[Cozy439]

I tried to post a pic but its not letting me in. Anyways, for the last month, chipmunks have eaten the tops off my green beans. Those beans are finally producing. Wife and I sweated our butts off this afternoon picking 2 almost-full 5-gallon buckets. ...and now she just gave them all to her aunt instead of canning or freezing any. Oh well.

 

[grunt soldier]

well my cabbages are the best I have ever had. I'm hoping this will translate into the best sauerkraut ever also


some big heads this year and probably the juiciest I have seen. it's my first time growing the early jersey wakefields (I think that's what they are called)










A few more





Decided to cheat this year and shred them with the kitchen aid but I may have to get me a old school mandolin instead. it shreds it a bit smaller pieces than I like but it was 100 times better than my kitchen aid mandolin which just doesn't do a good job





Put 35 pounds in the crock this year. hopefully the are done in about 4 weeks so I can grab more from the local farmers market and put another batch in. I love the kraut and put cook it often. I would like to try a batch with some onions and crushed red pepper mixed in but the wife keeps saying no

 

[red_zr24x4]

We picked some cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash. Should be picking jalopinoe's end of this week

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Finally got the pics taken and uploaded. Though I don't seem to have the pics of the garden from a couple weeks ago. Not that it's important but I think it's always fun to see the progress in "time lapse" photos. Without further ado:

"Aerial" view


"Aerial view of other end


Looking down the main "aisle"

.

I love those raised-raised beds on the right.

I'm on a poorly drained clay and we garden in raised beds and two plots in the ground. In wet years like this one, it's too wet and muddy to get into the regular plots. And I'm already having to spray fungicides on the tomatoes.

 

[hooky]

Sometime this afternoon, one of the main branches in our peach tree split from the trunk. It's loaded with peaches this year and I wondered this weekend if I should brace some of the lower branches.

 

[grunt soldier]

Sometime this afternoon, one of the main branches in our peach tree split from the trunk. It's loaded with peaches this year and I wondered this weekend if I should brace some of the lower branches.

I feel your pain buddy. My apple tree lost one of its main branches loaded with apples. I shed a tear!

 

[88GT]

I love those raised-raised beds on the right.

I'm on a poorly drained clay and we garden in raised beds and two plots in the ground. In wet years like this one, it's too wet and muddy to get into the regular plots. And I'm already having to spray fungicides on the tomatoes.

Thanks, but I can't take any credit beyond using what was available. The raised area for those beds was originally one very large landscaped area. The boundary had been defined by stacked stone (you can see two pieces of granite-ish stone I saved from it in the pic). We thought we'd convert the flower garden area into a vegetable garden area when we decided to start gardening. But when we started to turn the ground over for prepping it, we discovered that they had used small stone as a mulching substrate. There was no way we were going to be able to garden in that stuff, and it was too much to remove. So we built the raised beds on the raised bed, removed the border stones, added the landscaping timbers (that part isn't done), and built it up level with mulch. There were originally five 4x8 beds, two 4x7 beds, and one 4x6 bed owing to the curve of the area. But I quickly found out that wasn't enough, hence the 4 on the left. And I still need/want more because I can't grow a decent corn crop in this config. It doesn't work well with pumpkins, watermelon, or cantaloupes either. As it is my sweet potato has to be wound through the walking paths so it doesn't strangle out nearby plants.

 

[Ash]

Sometime this afternoon, one of the main branches in our peach tree split from the trunk. It's loaded with peaches this year and I wondered this weekend if I should brace some of the lower branches.

Take care to prune that.
While it's difficult to tell in your picture, and you may already do it, look into pruning (most likely open-center) for your peach tree.
I prune this way on my Santa Rosa semi-dwarf plum tree. This allows one to prune out potentially weak crotches, bad angled branches, cross branching, etc. and makes the tree more manageable to care for and harvest fruit.
I've had my plum tree for 5 years now and this year is just fantasic. The pruning I did over the last 4 years has shown. (I prune every late Winter/early Spring. If needed, in late Fall.)

I take it your peach tree is a semi-dwarf?

Cheers

 

[Survivalcookie]

Canning our first bunch of pickles today about 6 quarts and 4 1/2 gallon jars.....well hubby is doing it, I just supervise, we have a ton of tomatoes that are green...next week we should be busy.

 

[Survivalcookie]

Have you tried a 3 sisters garden you can grow corn, squash and beans all together in a small space. We have not done it in this garden because we thought we had alot of space...have done it before and it it worked out well. Might do dome next year maybe will keep the coons out of our corn.

 

[hooky]

Take care to prune that.
While it's difficult to tell in your picture, and you may already do it, look into pruning (most likely open-center) for your peach tree.
I prune this way on my Santa Rosa semi-dwarf plum tree. This allows one to prune out potentially weak crotches, bad angled branches, cross branching, etc. and makes the tree more manageable to care for and harvest fruit.
I've had my plum tree for 5 years now and this year is just fantasic. The pruning I did over the last 4 years has shown. (I prune every late Winter/early Spring. If needed, in late Fall.)

I take it your peach tree is a semi-dwarf?

Cheers

I'm not sure if it's semi dwarf. It was here when we moved in 2010 and that was the first year that it produced (according to the neighbors who picked them that summer). From what research I've done, I'd say it likely is, but I don't know for sure. I need to get the county extension agent out to look at a pin oak that needs some TLC, so I figured I'd ask then. Assuming they still do that.

I pruned 2 years ago and it really wasn't in a bad way at the time. It looks like another branch began growing out of the crotch of those branches and it weakened it. The leaves aren't wilted, so it's not completely sheared off. First peach tree, so I'm a little unsure how to deal with it.

 

[88GT]

Fantastic!!!

I got the first round of peas picked yesterday. I should have 2 more picks, between what wasn't quite ready and the pods that were just forming. And I pulled a dozen absolutely beautiful jalapeno peppers.

Green beans are starting to flower. Bell peppers are formed and growing. Potatoes are looking blah, but the heat this last week might be a contributing factor. Dry beans are going gang-busters. (Funny thing, they are bush beans, but they send up runners like pole beans. They'll only grow about 2-3 feet, and it's only one or two runners, but they're the funniest looking bush beans I've ever seen. I wish they could create a variety that produces like pole beans, but only climbs about half the height.) Onions are great. Tomatoes need pruned. Started that this afternoon, but had to quit for the deluge.

The only bad news is that my zuke has been hit by the squash vine borer. This is a yearly battle for me. I really thought the late planting for zuke this year would be a good thing since it would increase the chances that I missed time frame when the little bastages hit the cucurbits. But noooooooo. Luckily, I caught it early enough that I might be able to save the plant. I sliced the little ****ers out, sprinkled diatomaceous earth around the stem (I've tried everything else but the Bt), mounded the dirt over the stem to protect it since it has been cut open, and then sprinkled more diatomaceous earth on top of that. I'm thinking of hacking a nuclear silo for a 'just in case' need.

 

[__Doc_]

pulling this every other day

 

[grunt soldier]

Man ohhh Man finally some rain lol. my garden is still doing great and these warmer nights finally got my tomato's turning red and yellow. good stuff. I been stupid busy and the weeds are trying to take over. however I did manage to get out there and pick beans. Got to start replacing last years stock lol. some peppers are coming in good now too. basil is rediculous and going crazy. this has been a good year so far.

I think on this go round I put up 35 pints and like 15 quarts or so. a mix of Italian bush beans and contender bush beans. they are doing pretty well considering all of them were blown over. I think next year I'm going to start putting them in the little cheap tomato cages. buy a couple 60 when they go on sale lol



Just a few beans




and some canning work! damn I need a partner lol. wife and the little one left me to go get some sleep!

 

[mayor al]

super reports from many of you remind me this is the best fruit and garden produce year in several for us too. Our fruit trees (50 of various varieties have given us a bunch of Plums and early apples, after losing all the Apricots to fruit drop early on. The early apples are coming in now due to the heat of the summer. Other apples are coming along nicely (for the first time, we seem to have made the right timing for spraying, as the apples appear to be bug/worm free. Pears are another first, We have two BIG Pilated Woodpeckers who seem to love pears and are cleaning out two of our three Pear trees.

We keep a simple garden, Strawberries have been small, but tons of them in recuring waves of ripening that keep us in berries all summer (so far) We grow a dozen Roma Tomato plants, a bunch of Patti-pan squash giving us tons of those 'yellow-devils', and have some good butternut squash coming allong in bloom now.