So Happy Its Produce Time!

[KitchenGardener]

Just had to post. I love it when I go to the store and I hardly buy any veggies.

I just step outside to my own little store: Lettuce, radishes, sugar snaps and snow peas (just finishing up), scallions and onions, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, beets and tons of herbs all in abundance. Okay, I break down and buy tomatoes (and occasionally peppers) until my plants start producing (typically late July). I still buy tons of nectarines/peaches, but I've got my lemons, blackberries and soon, apples. I could always go foraging in the neighborhood for an avocado if desired. Just an abundance of happy greens and happy me!

What I can't manage here unless I grow it in Winter are the greens I love like chard, as the leaf miners destroy them (of course they get my beet leaves too but oh well). I used to have a hugely productive corn patch in my back garden until every, raccoon, rat, possum, skunk etc. figured out that there was an all night buffet in my yard. Now I sadly don't bother.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, indeed! I love the bounty of summer in the garden.

I have never seen a leaf miner infestation so bad it could destroy a swiss chard crop (usually nothing bothers mine). Those big leaves can tolerate a lot of squiggles before it slows them down too much. But if you are really having infestations like that, here's some things that help against them:

Lamb's quarters (aka wild spinach, a very nutritious edible weed) is a trap crop for them, as is velvetleaf. Grow the trap crop around the outside of what you want to protect and the leaf miners will attack them preferentially. (When I had a lot of velvetleaf in my garden, I hardly saw leaf miners anywhere else; they love those soft leaves.) Then you just keep pulling the squiggled leaves off the trap crop and trashing them.

Their life cycle is that the adult lays eggs on the leaf. As soon as the larvae hatch out, they burrow into the leaves and eat their way around leaving those tunnels. Once they are big enough, they chew their way out and drop down to the soil. They burrow into the soil and pupate, emerging later as an adult to start the cycle over. So if you cover the soil around the affected plants with weed cloth or heavy mulch, they can't get to the soil and that helps prevent the next generation.

Keep monitoring the leaves. As soon as you see a tunnel starting, find the little bump at the end of it and squish it.

The answer for your corn is fencing. Here's my corn with just a bunny wire fence around it: (If you click on the picture, it will turn itself right side up)

I can get away with this out here in pasture land where everyone has lots of dogs. That is mainly to keep the dogs out, I don't have much problems with other critters.

When I lived where I had all those critters you mentioned, plus deer and corn eating birds, I used deer netting:

With heavy attack by critters you may need to pull the netting across the top as well. You can buy those metal stakes with hooks for the fencing pretty cheap and use them for a lot of seasons. To make that practical, you may need to grow some variety that doesn't get quite as tall as my Silver Queens!

[KitchenGardener]

RB: Maybe some day I'll get my stamina back, but for some reason leaf miners plague me, and I'm just not diligent enough to spend hours squish and picking leaves (I did it a few times, but it didn't even dent the population). If I really cared, I'd somehow net them in...

As for the back area with corn, I've "temporarily" given up on it. It currently has a forest of wild fennel growing on it that is well over my head...

[imafan26]

I actually feel guilty if I have to buy vegetables I usually grow. I never realized how much money I saved by growing my own. It was also hard to pay for soft cucumbers. limp greens, and wrinkled peppers. I do buy bananas, potatoes, onions, beansprouts. carrots, and the occasional celery and cabbage. But most of the other vegetables I either grow or can get trading with my other gardening friends.

I have definitely been spoiled by the taste of fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, beans, peas, herbs, and greens.

The things I buy are things that I either can't grow enough of to be sustaining,relatively cheap, and are not that easy for me to grow (carrots, onions, potatoes), I don't need a lot of (bananas), I try to grow in my small space the things that grow well, taste better fresh and are more expensive to buy (beans, herbs).

This year, I haven't grown much since I broke my arm and can't do some of the heavy work in the garden yet, I can only round up weeds because I cannot really pull on them, and my work schedule and physical therapy makes it hard to find time to do much of anything besides watering at 6 a.m. in the garden.

I do have the potted herbs and I have managed to plant some of the pots. I finished beans and peas, and I now have cucumbers and zucchini flowering with the start of a few fruit. I even have 4 zucchini so far. In the last few years, I was lucky to get 4 zucchini for the entire harvest. I hope it keeps up. My eggplant was looking unhappy, but the leaves are getting bigger so maybe it is turning around.

[jal_ut]

Did you say peas?

[Gary350]

Yea I know exactly what you mean. Everything got ripe all at the same time we been eating, corn, beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, potatoes, onions, greens, herbs, wow it is all do good.

Tonight we made the First Garden pizza of the summer. Canned pizza crust. Rage Pizza sauce. Pepperoni's. Thin sliced Big Beef garden Tomatoes. Thin sliced garden sweet bell peppers. Thin sliced garden onions. Garden herbs, Marjoram & Thyme. A sprinkle of crushed Red Pepper, black pepper, salt. Top with Mozzarella Cheese. Bake crust first, add the toppings, add cheese, bake until golden brown. Yummy. Wow its good. Fresh garden herbs & vegetables really makes an amazing good pizza. Wife and I ate all but 2 pieces I will have 1 slice for breakfast with 2 pancakes and coffee.

[imafan26]

OOH, that looks so good.

[KitchenGardener]

Yup, it does. Gary, we're all waiting for an invitation to dinner at your house.

[ACW]

As an ex pizza hut manager I can honestly say that looks marvellous!
Just wish I had a bigger garden with more sun so I could match that !

[wisconsindead]

Garden Pizza!