2012 Garden Photos

[buckeyegirl]

Hello, everybody! Thought I would share a few photos of the garden so far this year! This is only our second attempt at a garden, and first using raised beds, and it has really been a success so far.

We have (4) 4' x 12' x 12" raised beds, as well as some zucchini and squash in Smart Pots, some mini bell peppers and Tumbling Tom tomatoes in pots in the deck, and spaghetti squash in the ground.

I am not a total "newbie", as I grew up on a farm and went to college for Agriculture, but I am new to starting my own veggies from seed and vegetable gardening. Hope you like the photos!

This year we have the following varieties...

Pink Pounder
Heritage Hybrid (red)
Orange Slice
Sunny Boy
Tangerine Dream
Burpee's Burger Hybrid
Big Mama (with a serious case of physiological leaf roll)
Candy Stripe
Sungold Cherry
Sun Sugar Cherry
Sweet Million Cherry
Sweet Baby Girl Cherry
Cherry Punch Cherry
Husky Cherry Red
Tumbling Tom Yellow Cherry...

and some cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, pole beans, bush beans, onions, too!

[kath]

Thanks for sharing your pictures- you have a lovely home and beautiful beds! What kind of cukes and squashes are you growing?

kath

[Worth1]

Nice spread.

Thanks for sharing.

Worth

[Crandrew]

Um.....AWESOME! This is my mator dance for you and your spread

[buckeyegirl]

Thanks, guys! I am a little worried because I have noticed some early blight showing up on a few of my tomatoes...going to remove as many diseased leaves as I can and hit them with some Serenade, and pray for the best. Not counting the cherry tomatoes, have counted 150+ green tomatoes so far, and hoping my plants stay healthy! Early blight scares the crap out of me!

Am growing Iznik and Burpless Beauty cucumbers (adding Diva next year), Golden Egg, Burpee's Hybrid, Limelight, and Sweet Gourmet zucchinis, and Zephyr hybrid, Butterstick, and Sunny Delight (patty pan) summer squash. Also Candy and Red Candy Apple onions, Rattlesnake, Ky Wonder pole beans, and Contender Bush beans, Golden Wax bush beans, Golden Mini Belle and Sweet Cherry Stuffer mini bell peppers, Sweet Heat peppers...I think that is it I went a little crazy!

I am really impressed with the growth and productivity on the Iznik cucumbers and Golden Egg zucchini...hoping their taste lives up to the positive reviews!

[kath]

EB while not your friend is something that invariably shows up. Spraying with whatever you're comfortable spraying to protect the new leaves, picking off the affected ones, keeping the leaves as dry as possible, thinning for air flow maybe, is about all you can do. I've never had it kill a plant outright and at worst I've had to throw some shade cloth over tomatoes to prevent sunburn because of the loss of leaves. I've lost plants to Septoria, though, and we don't even want to mention LB. The thought of losing so many tomatoes is scary indeed.

I've never tried Iznik before and I've only tried Zephyr and Butterstick from the squashes you listed. Are any of them regrows for you or are you trialing the rest this year? It's easy to go crazy when you are looking at seeds in stores, catalogs, etc. and dreaming of the perfect garden.

[buckeyegirl]

Golden Egg zucchini is definitely a regrow, a very healthy and super productive plant with great flavor. I hand pollinated the first few due to only one male flower and lack of bees, but now it is going crazy. I haven't decided on the others yet as I have not harvested any squash from them (most were just planted two weeks ago-I put them in smart pots after I ran out of room in my raised beds).

Should have my first Iznik cucumbers next week, as they are also very healthy and productive...planted 4 plants and there must be 20+ "baby" cucumbers pollinated and growing fast. Have read that they should be picked around 4" for best flavor, they had excellent reviews everywhere I looked, reportedly thin skinned and sweet, can be used as a cocktail cuke and need not be peeled, with flavor like a good slicer. I hope they live up to their reputation!

The limelight and sweet gourmet zukes also had stellar reviews everywhere, so I have high hopes for those also.

Cannot wait for my first ripe Sungold tomatoes either, have been craving a nice handful of sweet and juicy orange cherry tomatoes

I will give you an update in a couple weeks on the other squash and the cukes

Any varieties that you highly recommend I try?

[buckeyegirl]

@Kath...also thanks for the reassurance about EB, I feel a little better now, and will try to control as best I can. Any other tips for avoiding Septoria other than adequate spacing and keeping the leaves dry? Thanks in advance!

[kath]

Originally Posted by buckeyegirl

I will give you an update in a couple weeks on the other squash and the cukes

Any varieties that you highly recommend I try?

Ooo... your trial sounds promising! You have more exciting prospects than I do this year- I'm regrowing last year's 3 best cukes against one another. Last year Burpfree was the standout and this year it's too soon to tell- the little fruits are only an inch long. I have big leave disease problems with cukes, squash and melons- I don't spray them as the cuke beetles are impossible to control here without spraying the whole garden all season. Diva was great one year for me and ever since it's later than the others, the plant stays smaller and the leaves are a mess. I think this is it's last chance. I do like cukes small, sweet and nearly seedless, so I'm staying tuned for your review.

I'm trying one yellow zuke and 4 new zukes against the old winner, Raven F1. I like Raven because it's a "small" plant, open and the fruits are dark green. Dunja F1 was a day earlier and so far is a bit smaller than Raven but they all are looking bad today, so I'm not sure if there will be a winner this year!

[kath]

Originally Posted by buckeyegirl

@Kath...also thanks for the reassurance about EB, I feel a little better now, and will try to control as best I can. Any other tips for avoiding Septoria other than adequate spacing and keeping the leaves dry? Thanks in advance!

Aside from spraying, I don't know of any tips- I don't have that much experience with it. Septoria ended my season over a month early last year, though. The weather was awful and my spraying of Actinovate/Excel LG was difficult to keep up with because of it. This year I heard local LB reports so I started also using Fung-onil.

[Randall]

Looks really nice!

[buckeyegirl]

Thanks for the info! The only frustrating thing about gardening is when something out of your control ruins all of your hard work! Fingers crossed that we all have a productive and mostly disease-free garden this year!

I have had some powdery mildew on the squash, not too bad, and have tried a mix somebody told me about of 50/50 milk and water in a spray bottle, applied to the leaves in early morning about once a week. Seems to be keeping the Mildew at bay for the most part. Also have used copper fungicide on a case where the mildew showed up, and removed bad leaves. Seems to be under control for now!

Thanks for the cuke and zuke review! Will let you know as soon as I harvest something other than Golden Egg and Zephyr.

I did spy a spotted cucumber beetle today, and unleashed war (organic insecticidal soap) on him...hope they don't ruin my cukes and squash, the little monsters!

Have a wonderful week/weekend!

[PA_Julia]

Excellent looking plants!!

I hope you have removed the early blight that you saw.


Julia

[buckeyegirl]

The garden is doing very well, despite the 90-100 degree temps here. I am so happy with the improvement we have had this year, using raised beds! Can't wait for some ripe slicer tomatoes, though...a few are starting to blush, so should be in the next couple days. The growth that all of the veggies put on in just a few days still amazes me. I love going out every morning and evening to check the progress!

[Save$]

Your cukes look very much like "Diva". I grew them last year, and only those this year. I have 40 feet of them growing on trellising.
Very nice set up you have there.