2015 Garden Journal

[BigVanVader]

Yeah it prety much is

[wildcat62]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Thanks Jt, it's Surround WP. Organic clay product to reduce heat stress and reduce insect pressure.

I noticed it in some of your earlier pics and wanted to ask but hesitated. Never heard of it before. Tville & it's members are a fountain of great info.

[BigVanVader]

Ask away. I'm no expert but I will help any way I can.

[BigVanVader]

Well the plant selling season is over for a bit. So far tomatoes are doing great thanks to good weather and being religious about fertilizing, pruning & spraying. I finally have a system that seems to be working well. Only a few ripe but in 2 weeks they will be rolling in. As a side note, I'm really happy with my pollinator garden this year. I've failed badly my last 2 attemps so it feels good to see it do well. The bee population is way better than the previous 2 years. Here are some pics.

[Kazedwards]

Great pics. Your gardens look great!


-Zach

[Ricky Shaw]

Looks great Van, I like the pollinator concept and will adding Salvia along the fence line to root this fall. Best of luck on a great season.

[MissS]

I can't wait to see what it looks like when the tomatoes come in.

You garden is beautiful. You might want to move a few of the cosmos to the back of the garden while they are small. They get quite tall and could crowd out the rest of your plants. I love the tropical milkweed. It just looks so pristine and perfect no matter what the setting. I'm glad that this garden is making your pollinators happy as well as you.

[BigVanVader]

Thanks y'all. I'm hoping to get some monarch cocoons on the milkweed. I've got 5 planted throughout the garden. I have a row of radish blooming in the other side. It seems to be a favorite of the honey bees. I'm also seeing parasitic wasp species I've never seen, so I will probably add some solitary bee houses at some point. Between bees and birds my insect issues are a lot better this year.

[efisakov]

The Milkweed flowers looking amazingly good.

[Spartanburg123]

What a great garden! Perhaps I can sell some of my tomatoes this year- I have 30 plants and they are loaded up!

I just realized that this was 2015! But still wonderful. As you mentioned to me previously, there has been a noted lack of pollinators this year- I wonder why?

Darin

[BigVanVader]

The recent pics are from this year. I just keep adding them here so they are all in one thread. I'm sure you could sell them if you wanted Darin. There are tomato tasting events etc as well that are fun to attend. Landrum has a farmers market that is free to sell at (but the vendors pretty much give away their produce) most other markets will have a $20-$30 dollar set up fee. I might be willing to buy your extras, but I'd have to get em cheap. Wholesale heirlooms go for $1 per lb in our area, which I find ridiculous, but that is the going rate. It all depends on how much we are moving at market. Only our second year so I don't have a good ball park yet on how many lbs we can move.

Retail you can get up to $3 per lb. $5 at a upscale market but they always have multiple "specialty heirloom" sellers so it is hard to compete with established vendors, and they limit the number of vendors selling the same thing. I know Greenville FM is very strict and you have to sign up in Jan, be approved, and if you miss more than a couple of weekends your out. They don't let just anyone sell. Super competitive b/c of the prices customers will pay.

[My Foot Smells]

Who is Nodine?

L00King G00D Mr. Big. Love the pic w/ the mrs., priceless to have a shared hobby. Garden looks great, and I see you have a spot you can see in the a.c. with a pair of binoculars to check in without overheating or getting ate up.

[BigVanVader]

I'm Nodine (last name). I stare at the garden out that window all the time lol.

[BigVanVader]

Some updated garden pics.

[Ricky Shaw]

A fiesta of color and life, you got it going Van!