What's Happening in the Garden Today?

[cecilsgarden1958]

I finally got back into garden to tie up tomatoes for a third time. I was suprised that I had green tomatoes on. I see lots of Druzba, Big Girls,Suersonic and Monsters. I didn't see any West Virginia 63, Mortgage Lifter or Abe Lincoln. I did see a few Nebaska Wedding, Moonglow, Ganti, Big Boy.
Loads of Stupice & Silvery Fir Tree growing in the bales and Sweet Baby Girl & Matina on lattce.
Disappointed that Moonglow seem more prone to Early Blight then others.
I only grow tomatoes and Tomato Hornworms, so that is all I have right now. OH, No worms yet

CECIL

[korney19]

Originally Posted by kelleyville

Mark,
I feel for ya and know how it feels to be slow gardening because body parts won't comply I take it you have cats? (the buckets!). If so what brand is that bucket from? if it wasnt kitty litter well then where did you get the square buckets? I been looking for white ones with no print!
Kelleyville/Kelley

Thanks Kelley. Nope, no cats. I got these over the last 6-7 years at a local lumberyard... they were from "whole salted eggs" and when I started buying them they were around $0.50 each. Over the years they raised the price, I think the last time I bought them they were $0.89.

Some restaurants, pizzerias & sub shops have them too, they get mayonaise in them, I think 30lbs worth, or sometimes sliced pickles. If you find them, avoid the opaque/semi-transparent ones--they don't last very long in the sun.

A few of mine are starting to get a little brittle along the top if you grab them by the lip when full but most have been in the sun 24/7 and even the snow & freezing temps in the winter--I don't bother putting them away at the end of the season & they stay out 365 days a year. I'd say I got my money's worth many times over!

Mark

[kelleyville]

Ahhh! My cat litter buckets are getting old as well and I quit buying cat litter in buckets for the most part because I could not see throwing them away and most of them had the writing printed on them and they look kind a tacky on the deck and around the yard They are coming in handy right now as water storage containers when it bothers to rain!

Thanks for replying!

Kelley

[nctomatoman]

I took advantage of the lovely cool morning and did a garden walk through prior to work to get an overall sense of what's going on. What a relief to have a low dew point, upper 50's crisp morning in early July!

First, tomatoes - I am picking from Kimberly, Mexico Midget and Sungold. Several are on the cusp particulary Lime Green Salad, which has more fruit than leaves, I believe!

I did an assessment of the health of my plants and used the old elementary school rating. The news is pretty good (better than usual at this time of year - I suspect because everything is in pots!). 57 plants rate an A, and 11 rate an A- (perhaps just a hint of yellow lower foliage). 6 plants rate a B or B+ (disease on the way, but prognosis in the near term is pretty good), 3 rate a C, and 7 are dead or on their death bed. Of those in trouble, the issue is either Tomato Spotted Wilt (6 plants), Fusarium Wilt (7 plants with moderate to advanced issues), and Bacterial wilt (3 plants suffering).

Sweet peppers are loaded up - I am going to wait for the ripe stage, but bells and elongated sweets alike are going to yield very heavily.

Eggplant - actively picking Neon, Lavendar Touch, Green Giant, Casper, and Zebra - Ripples (a new OP I am stabilizing from Zebra, looks like Listada di Gandia but more productive) has small fruit formed, and New York Improved has buds.

Hot peppers = growing mostly experimental (working out some new ones) - all are loaded with fruit, some ripening - got to get to work with the camera for these.

main garden - picking loads of summer squash (Zephyr, Raven, Sebring), cukes (Diva). Swiss Chard bright lights is producing more than we can use! The corn I planted last week is up (a new bicolor sh2 from JSS). Basil is under attack from Japanese beetles. Blueberries are producing enough to put on cereal each morning. Beans are incredible as well - Fowler, Cupidon, Roc d'Or. 2-3 pounds per day, been going like this for a few weeks - plants still healthy, so assuming they will rebloom as long as they are well picked.

Melons - large (3-4 pound) Passport is still dark green; found a few Touchdown canteloupes forming (still small). The melon area is a sea of intertwined melon vines - I have no idea how I am going to find what is going on in there, and am hoping that as fruit enlarge, they will become more apparent!

What a great time of year! We had breakfast on the deck and watched Ruby Throat Hummers checking out our salvia and crocosmia and lantana, and occasionally chase bees and goldfinch from their hoard.

[Tomstrees]

Whats happening in the garden?



















Lovin summer ~

Tom

[kelleyville]

Wow! Yall are having a really great year! It is nice and cool here this morning after the temp dropped to 73 early in the evening yesterday due to all the storms AROUND us...not a drop here! But hurray, I finally got someone on the phone about this total water ban from my city, and YES I CAN WATER MY VEGETABLES! Just can't water the grass while I am doing it!

I have one Better Boy that has a few maters on it, and all my Big Beefs have tomatoes all though not as many as I expected. My Romas are doing ok as well. I got a late start so no ripe tomatoes just yet. Also have potted some of those "Flower Pot Tomatoes" that say they will grow tree size bushes and produce 100's of pounds of tomatoes. Well that isnt going to happen. I do have quite a few green tomatoes on them and they continue to flower and produce slowly even though the package listed them as Pakmor and a search showed as determinate! The ones doing the best are more than one plant in the pot, the ones that got planted one plant to a pot are so much lighter and less leafy that they look like an entirely different plant! Oh well we shall see! I am having problems with both white flies and those little hopping psillids I think they are called but doing my best to keep them out of my tomatoes!

The cherry tomatoes are starting to produce, the bean vines are lush and full and I am just waiting to see a bean. the beetles have been eating the leaves an have left some nice lacy ones. Some stunted cabbage I thought was done for seems to have decided to grow? not sure why but ok! Swiss chard also very slow but growing. The eggplant is stunted or something, and the okra is very slow except out front where I planted it between shrubs just to see if it would grow! Both yellow squash and zuchinni are huge, have lots of flowers but no fruit yet.

like the cabbage, my cantaloupes finally decided to grow all the sudden, not expecting any fruit though. Same with a Casaba melon vine I saved seeds from earlier in the year. At the very least they are pretty on my arbors! The Sugar Baby watermelon finally made a baby! Watching it grow.

Cucumbers are not racing to fill out but getting one or two every other day with promise of more. Have one lemon cucumber planted and I am enjoying watching its odd shape and color fill out!

Planted Gardensoy soybeans yesterday, and hope it was not too late, but I don't recall having cold weather here ever until October or later, if nothing else they should make that nice new bed a good place for the next crop!

My peppers are all in pots this year. I guess I have about 60? 45 of those came out of package labeled All Alarm Hot Mix, so until they do something I have no idea what they are! My Tai hot has about a dozen peppers on it, habanero has only one at the bottom, but the Jamaican hot has a dozen or more. Sweet bananas finally getting peppers on them but nothing yet in the bell pepper department or other known varieties. I guess I will wait and see. Still waiting on last years tobasco to put out but not expecting anything until fall which is when it decided to fruit last year. I hope to keep most of these indoors this winter for an early start next year! Don't have a clue what I will do if all of them produce peppers! Maybe get a booth at the local organic farmers market!

My tiny raised garden bed pictures are here:
http://www.myspace.com/kelleyville

I am enjoying the cool day so much today that I am not getting anything done!

Happy gardening all!
Kelley

[tjg911]

I failed to plant any radishes this spring so I did not have any to pick.
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I've been eating parsley, basil, lettuce and chard.
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Yesterday I cut the 1st head of broccoli and cabbage. I pulled 1 dying garlic plant (music), it was a tiny bulb about the size of a ping pong ball, the flavor was nice. I pulled 3 soft neck bulbs a little bigger in size but have not eaten any yet. Despite the fact the soft necks were 1/3 the size of the hard necks and looked sickly, they are producing bulbs.
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The lettuce (2 packets of 3 different Batavian lettuces in each packet) and chard (Argentata my favorite) have been good and the parsley excellent, I love parsley.
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I sliced the broccoli stalk thin and steamed it with the tops, the stalk was actually sweet, unusual. I grew Di Cicco as a fall crop last year and did not notice that sweetness, this is the 1st spring Di Cicco broccoli.
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The eggplants (Classic and Little Fingers) have opened their flowers over the weekend and are loaded with flowers, amazing considering it's been so cold the past few days that I almost started the wood stove! It helps to close all windows at night vs leaving all windows opened when the temps are 45. I'm in northwest CT nowhere near the ocean but with the winds out of the east off the Atlantic Ocean, it is the coldest June/July I remember, global cooling if you ask me.
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Tonight I'll make cole slaw and fried cabbage. I expect it to be good tho it is a new variety (Gonzales) so not sure how it'll taste. The other cabbage is Mammoth Red Rock and is forming heads, very pretty, 1st year I grew red cabbage.
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Potatoes (Yukon Gold and Superior) are flowering but I never steal new potatoes, the yields are so poor I want every oz from every plant I can get. Virtually NO Colorado Potato Beetles - absolutely amazing, I've crushed perhaps 6 or 8, nothing is eating the leaves.
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Beans (pole beans) and cukes (County Fair) are nowhere near producing anything.
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Zucchini (Raven) has yet to germinate, started 10 days ago to avoid the SVB cycle.
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Onions are forming bulbs (Candy, Copra and Red Wing) but won't be ready until 2nd week in August.
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Tomatoes have all set fruit with slow poke Aunt Gertie's Gold finally doing so on Thursday and she has a disturbing amount of yellowing lower leaves, none of the other 8 have a problem. Kosovo and Sun Gold should be the 1st ripe tomatoes, the Kosovo are getting big. Cute little hearts on my Wes and the Prue's look like little Christmas ornaments! Azoychka in 2005 in a 5 gallon pail produced ripe fruit in a mere 42 days, ha, it's been 35 days and they show no color so I think they'll be closer to their 70 DTM. Grandfather Ashlock is a healthy plant but the fruits are dark green, same for Tom's Yellow Wonder.
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Peppers have 3-4" peppers (Gypsy) but I want red peppers so that's a few weeks away.
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I haven't even started carrots (Bolero) and if I want any I have to do this immediately.
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Butternut squash is sending out vines and I'm crushing squash bugs.
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My bumper crop - weeds, tons of weeds, my compost bin has so many weeds that I'll have quite a lot of compost just from weeds and shredded leaves.
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Tom

[kelleyville]

I love reading about everyones gardens! Some are behind me in some areas some are forward, some have bugs I don't have and I have bugs they don't want, so it is kind of like commiserating and bragging all at the same time

Tom I guess it is much cooler where you are than down here! Today's coolness was a 68 low this morning and only 86 in the shade today! You are an inspiration to me planting a fall/winter garden this year though! I could sure use some of that global cooling though hehehe!

Kelley

[tjg911]

kelly those temps you cited ARE the norm at this time of the year up here. july 4th week is the beginning of real heat and humidity, i dread these 5-6 weeks really. by mid august it moderates. each year is different but this has been a really cool spring and a cool start to summer. we had 1 heatwave and the temps were brutal 92, 96 and 94 with humidity. i hate 4th of july but i love the vegetables it'll produce.

tom

[rosel999]

It was a lovely cool morning here too! I have finally made some headway on those weeds.......no easy job. The tomato plants all have little green babies. A few had some yellow leaves at the bottom that I have removed. No peppers yet just some little flowers on the plants, my first time for them.

[kelleyville]

Tom,
We had the wierdest end of winter and spring. It went from freerzing to 90 degrees very early in the year back to freezing then to a normal spring then to summer time highs and back to freezing. I spent more time taking my plants in and out of the house than anything!

I too detest the heat of summer, but my mouth is watering in anticipation of these tomatoes tasting really good! This 86 degrees is nice after a week of 95-98, not sure where the weather gets temps from but they are always higher in my yard than on tv or internet! The other day it was 101 under the patio umbrella...I was wilting so had no problem understanding why the tops of my tomatoes were droopy that day!

Kelley

[bcday]

A storm blew through here this afternoon and dropped over 1.5 inches of rain in 15 minutes. Judging by the puddles in the yard, at least some of it stayed put long enough to sink in. I won't have to water the garden this week.

The hummingbirds have found the Monarda blossoms. They hit some blossoms twice per visit as if to make sure they get every last drop out of them!

The Japanese beetles are getting bad. I won't put up traps because I don't want to attract any more of the hungry horde to my yard where they can grab a snack before they find their way to the trap. The traps I used in previous years caught beetles but not before the plants got chewed up. Now I go around with a cup of soapy water and it works just as well.

[nctomatoman]

If only it would rain....seem to be spending half the day watering my pots! Got a nice visit from Lee and his wife Julie this evening - Lee brought me 2 Gajo de Melon cherry tomatoes to try (pretty good...but not Sungold!), as well as a chocolate dwarf from one of Patrina's Happy F3s. With the warm breeze, quite a few of my grow bag dwarfs toppled over, so they are now stuffed here and there up against the pots of indeterminates (each time they topple, they lose green unripe fruit...arggh!). A few first time pickings tonight - New Big Dwarf (needs a day or 2 on the counter to get a bit more ripe), Cherokee Green (had for dinner...yum! amber skin, cool minty green flesh, a perfect specimen!)...also the first Lime Green Salad. Fruits on several other tomato plants are coloring up. Already eggplant everywhere - I could go out and pick at least half dozen, but they are not on the menu the next few days, so will hang on the vine. Bell peppers by the loads - I am amazed at how the Islander F2s are loading up, and Golden Marconi looks like it has as many fruits as leaves.

I need to focus on what is going right, and not let the mini-disasters (the few diseased plants, the toppling tilting dwarfs) get to me!

[Grub]

I like this line: "I need to focus on what is going right, and not let the mini-disasters (the few diseased plants, the toppling tilting dwarfs) get to me!"

A bit like life itself...

Heard some banging, went up to back fence, neighbours repairing window. Noticed hot pepper pot down, a Fatali that's too hot for me and loaded, picked it up and puched it back almost disrespectfully. Peppers aplenty. Threw seeds to chooks. Looked at eggplants which are yellow and perfect for saving seeds. Will just cut some open and get seeds and dry them. Chucked a handful of fert around herbs. Looked at loaded lemon tree. Silverbeet is like a green carpet. Need to cut some. Threw some more seeds to chickens... found choko on the ground from the vine reaching up into the trees. Noticed one Sneezy tomato is still just alive... chives and sage and basil aren't happy at the backdoor. NO flowers on orchids yet. Bulbs coming up everywhere, mainly jonquils.

Thought, wow, I have a lot of work to do out here... headed back indoors to the home office to do some work. Yeh, right. Here I am...

[Mantis]

Have broccoli heads aplenty, silver beet and spring onions everywhere. Baby spuds still in ground from autumn crop.
Started preparing tubs and beds for tomatoes later. Have very small seedlings of a few varieties with no true leaves yet. Pepper plants in the greenhouse have stalled but still alive. We are getting a proper winter this year with good rains and cold, cold, cold.