Second Full Year with a Garden (updated journal)

[tomf]

I like your circle.

[mattie g]

I like your circle.

Thanks. My wife came up with the idea and we both worked on putting it together. While it reduces the amount of garden space, it leaves us with enough room to grow what we like and simply looks really nice in the backyard!

[mattie g]

May 29 update:

Everything seems to be taking pretty well. I do have some slugs in the back of the garden, and my attempts at sowing cukes have taken a hit because of it. But I still have three plants that have gotten going - that should be plenty for our needs.

Here's a picture of two - with beer trap in the foreground protecting them!

[img]https://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3959/dsc0063ns.jpg[/img]

My one cabbage has taken a real hit from cabbage moths caterpillars. No worries though...it was more an experiment with a leftover plant my friend gave me.

Here are two shots of a Brandywine that "split" naturally at the growing tip about two weeks ago. The first shot is after a new sucker began growing from it 11 days ago. The second is a shot taken today - it's grown about a foot in that time and has just popped a truss!

[img]https://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9041/dsc0034kv.jpg[/img]

[img]https://img842.imageshack.us/img842/9662/dsc0058hh.jpg[/img]

Mortgage Lifter Ãœbertruss - I counted 21 flowers/fruit on this bunch. Pretty awesome. But is it odd?

[img]https://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8089/dsc0061em.jpg[/img]

A couple of my white onions on top, and a couple shallots on the bottom. The onions will probably end up being fairly small, but it's my first shot at onions, so I'm happy they're growing. Same for the shallots, but I think a couple might turn out to be pretty substantial.

[img]https://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1341/dsc0055ct.jpg[/img]

[img]https://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9038/dsc0057ek.jpg[/img]

Garlic. Of the 20 or so cloves I planted, I'll probably get 8-10 useful bulbs. Learning experience, for sure.

[img]https://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8213/dsc0065yf.jpg[/img]

And I just noticed hundreds/thousands of these little bugs on a bunch of my garlic plants. Anyone have a feeling for what they might be?

[img]https://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4996/dsc0066ycu.jpg[/img]

[mattie g]

June 9 Update:

Firstly, I'm really bummed about the squirrel raid on my peach tree. As mentioned in [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46330]this thread[/url], they have completely stripped my tree of upwards of four dozen peaches. My wife - an avowed pacifist - is ready to kill!

My San Marzano tomatoes - first truss on top, second on the bottom:

[img]https://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8922/691202.jpg[/img]

[img]https://img220.imageshack.us/img220/993/691203.jpg[/img]

SM plant - you can see the two fruited trusses on the bottom and in the middle, with a healthy truss flowering on top. I'm really excited for these!

[img]https://img856.imageshack.us/img856/5108/691210.jpg[/img]

"Mortgage Lifter Ãœbertruss" tomatoes. Notice I've tied up some support since last time.

[img]https://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4914/691204.jpg[/img]

Couple trusses on a Cherokee Purple plant. There are probably 15-20 flowers/buds on this plant. The plant in the background on the right is a containered CP.

[img]https://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5928/691206.jpg[/img]

Close-up of a couple shallots:

[img]https://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7488/691211.jpg[/img]

White onion close-up:

[img]https://img21.imageshack.us/img21/900/691212.jpg[/img]

"Panorama" shot of the garden, with my helper on the left. He's just enjoying an afternoon in the sun.

[img]https://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7311/691209.jpg[/img]

[applestar]

Looking really good! You are going to have a great harvest.
Back in the previous post, those little black bugs on --garlic was it?-- Looks like oily black aphids. They are worse than regular green and red aphids but the usual GardenPatrol likes them all the same.

[mattie g]

Looking really good! You are going to have a great harvest.
Back in the previous post, those little black bugs on --garlic was it?-- Looks like oily black aphids. They are worse than regular green and red aphids but the usual GardenPatrol likes them all the same.

Thanks, applestar! I'm really looking forward to those San Marzanos, as well as trying my first-ever shallots and onions. I'm just bummed about the peaches.

Thanks for the feedback on the aphids. I took Bon-Neem to them, which got rid of them pretty quickly. I waited a few days to see if the ladybugs would do their work, but I just couldn't wait much longer - the colony was threatening to get quite big.

[mattie g]

Now for a request for a little advice:

It's looking like my garlic, shallots, and onions are near ready to be harvested. In the past couple days most have fallen over and are browning up; I've also felt the necks and have noticed they've "gone soft."

So...what can I plant in their places? The shallots and onions are in two approx. 12"x12"x27" containers, while the garlic is in-ground in a ~15' sq spot that now gets about 4-5 hours of direct sun (will get a little more as the sun drops down later in the summer).

This would be my first time succesion planting, so I'm open to all possibilities for planting stuff I can harvest into the fall.

[mattie g]

Harvest update:

I've pulled all the garlic, shallots, and onions. The shallots probably did the best of all - the onions were small and most of my garlic was also fairly small. But I'll chalk this all up to a learning experience. The onions and shallots were definitely a last-minute decision this spring, so it's no real loss to not have gotten a decent return from them. I'll be growing a lot of garlic and onions for harvest next year, so hopefully I can put that knowledge to good use.

Tomatoes have started to ripen, and I've probably picked 2.5 dozen so far. The San Marzanos are the best-looking maters so far - 3-4" long and plump and shiny as could be. I chopped one up for a little pico de gallo last night, and my wife had one with cheese on toast, but we'll be ready to make large quantities of sauce once the rest start to ripen (YES!!). I've harvested quite a few Mortgage Lifters, but they've all been small (golf ball to tennis ball size). No real compalints - it would just be nice if they were bigger. My Cherokee Purples and Valencias are putting out some nice, big maters though. The Brandywines got a late start, but are starting to put on some good growth.

Bell peppers are still playing catch up, but I have some jalapenos and serranos on the plant. One jalapeno is starting to turn red (I prefer them red), while the other are all small still. But the plants are looking good. I had to pull one serrano plant as it got some kind of terrible wilt - it was a goner in less than 48 hours after it started wiliting - but the other plant is looking healthy and has some peppers on it.

Been harvesting basil for a few weeks now. The plants aren't as massive as the 3'x3' plant I had last year, but that's *quite* alright. I'm just really, really hoping I don't get downy mildew like I did last year. Parsley is growing well, and I just planted some coriander seeds from my cilantro plant that bolted. It ould be nice to get a late-summer harvest of cilantro!

Pics to follow...

[applestar]

I see no one had responded about what to plant in the boxes after shallots, etc. Did you already plant? What about bush beans?

[mattie g]

I see no one had responded about what to plant in the boxes after shallots, etc. Did you already plant? What about bush beans?

Nope - not yet, AS. I did start a new thread asking the same question and got some responses. I'll probably do beans of some sort, but I was also thinking of trying snap peas (wife loves them) and/or soybeans (for edamame).

From what I can tell, those would be better sowed as cooler weather crops, so I figured on planting sometime in August for harvest in September/October. Would that make sense?

[applestar]

I think most edamame take 80-90 days (you'll be harvesting them when the beans are almost fully mature) so you should sow them now. They like the cooler weather (60's at night) for setting pods. I wanted to sow some, but it's a little too late for me at this point. -- but you have a little more time so you can make it.

[mattie g]

I think most edamame take 80-90 days (you'll be harvesting them when the beans are almost fully mature) so you should sow them now. They like the cooler weather (60's at night) for setting pods. I wanted to sow some, but it's a little too late for me at this point. -- but you have a little more time so you can make it.

Gotcha. I have about 90 days (give or take) before first frost, so hopefully I can make it in under the wire. If I can find the seeds, of course.

[Northernfox]

Wow hue garden looks great!! My wife designed my garden as well. Unfortunately our two little helpers (dog no kids quite yet) like to eat my veggies. So they got fenced out!

[mattie g]

Given the beautiful weather, I finally got around to getting into the garden yesterday to trim the tomato plants of the diseased leaves and branches, and ready them for the final go before the season quits in about 50 days.

In doing so, I was amazed at how much some of my tomato plants have grown since the last time I spent siginifcant time out there.

I have a volunteer Roma that came up between two bell pepper plants pretty early in the season (four plants that I thinned to one). That thing is an absolute monster! I tried getting it to grow up and along some bamboo posts, but I've since given up and now it's got to be sprawled out at least 8' along the ground...and it's 4' high, to boot! And it's still putting out flowers and fruits. Determinate? Pshaw!

Also, one of my San Mazanos has secretly been sprouting new growth from the ends of trusses, which has been developing flowers and fruit, as well. Same goes for one of my Valencias, which is also sprawled out, but this one is already well over 10' tall, and is probably 12' from tip-to-tip along the ground! I topped its potted sibling about six or seven weeks ago because it was diseased and I wanted to ripen the last of its fruit. However, since I topped it, it's put out many new, incredibly strong and healthy growth ends with accompanying flowers and fruit.

I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised with how things have turned out this year with my tomatoes. I have ten plants right now, and I filled a big trash bag with diseased growth, but it definitely served to make the garden look healthier. Hopefully it'll help ward off additional disease by allowing better air circulation given that the plants were really, really thick with growth.

I've been harvesting pretty regularly all season long, although there was definitely a lag in August after all the heat of mid-summer. The one thing I've been finding is that a lot of my non-paste tomatoes have big splits in the tops by the stems. I don't mind the look, but it can be a little frustrating in that the sections right around the splits tend not to ripen very well. Something similar has been happening with my Romas and SMs - the tops get wrinkled and never fully ripen, so I lose the top 1/4 or so of the fruit.

I have no idea how much fruit I've actually harvested at this point (I'd think easily well over 100 pounds), but I do have five or six gallon bags filled with cored and seeded tomatoes in the freezer right now. With the rest, I've made multiple fresh pico de gallo and sauces, and have canned ten pints of (ridiculously delcious) salsa.

As for the rest, I harvested my first ripe red bell pepper the other day, and have quite a few green ones on my four plants. The jalapenos are busy and happily producing, and the serrano is plugging along. My basil has once again gotten downy mildew, so I'll have to harvest and pull them in the next couple days. I pulled the cucumber plants yeterday, as well. They finally decided enough was enough after a very productive season which has yielded numerous quarts of garlic dill pickles.

Like I said above, if all goes according to normal, my growing season will go until the end of October, so I have some good time left to go still. THings have conspired against me to get fall planting done, but I do have my (lots and lots of) garlic and shallots ordered, so I'll have some good planting to do come late-October/November!

[Moonshadow]

I appreciate you sharing your experiences! It's all very informative and helpful. More people should do little journals like this.

Pretty jealous of your onions, though. My chives did nothing this year, and the green onions next to nothing. Yours looked lovely!


Did you end up planting the edamame? If so, when did you get it in? I just planted my snap peas at the end of last week. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze by.

[mattie g]

Not a problem. It allows me to brag a little bit.

I ended up not planting any fall crops. Things kind of got away from me, so I just didn't get a chance to. I suppose I could give it a shot now in hopes of a lengthened fall, but I think I'll just see out my tomatoes and peppers and be happy with that. I have plenty of garlic and shallots on order, so getting those in the ground in the November timeframe should scratch the itch a bit.

The onions were fine, but nothing to write home about - mostly quite small, but they do have good flavor. It was my first go at them, and they were a complete afterthought, so I planted them a bit late. I'm planning on researching good onions for this area and getting them in plenty early in the spring next year. My shallots turned out nicely, though. Not huge, by any stretch, but I got a nice return from them and they really taste great!

Good luck with your fall beans!

[mattie g]

I finally harvested my remaining tomatoes and pulled the pepper and tomato plants yesterday. We're expecting a frost or freeze tonight, so it was the best time to get it done. Quite a few of the tomatoes - especially the Romas, as they were sitting on or near the ground - had slug damage, but I'm hoping those without damage ripen OK indoors. If not, no big deal - I have probably 50 lbs. or cored and seeded tomatoes in the freezer at this point. The basil came out about a month-and-a-half ago, as it once again developed downly mildew and went downhill quickly. Incredibly frustrating...

Shallots went in about three or four weeks ago, and most have already put out shoots, so I threw some mulched leaves over them for a little insulation for the time being. I'll probably put some grass clippings on to help them overwinter. Garlic will go in over the next week. We may actually get some snow on Wednesday night (incredibly early for these parts), so I'm debating whether to put it in today or just wait until next weekend.

That'll pretty much wrap things up for this season. Next season will likely see quite a few changes, as we'll be growing things that we can eventually mush up for baby food (we're expecting in January), so it'll likely be more beans and carrots and the like, whereas I've done mostly tomatoes and peppers recently. I'll still have some of those, but I'll just focus more on the other stuff next year. Looking forward to it already!