What's happening with your garden?

[razyrsharpe]

got some zucchini blossoms today...and i noticed that my cherry hot peppers have two pods, while my hole mole peppers are also showing pods!

i strung up stakes and string for my purple hulled peas (cow peas).

[Daphne]

I got everything planted last night. I ran out of green bean seeds...didn't buy enough....so I had to make a stop at the farm supply store on the way home from work. I was dropping and covering seeds while it was sprinkling but I wanted to get them in before it rains harder.

The only thing I am wondering about was that the seeds I bought today are a different color than the ones I already planted! The ones yesterday were white. the package said bush beans. The bean seeds I got today are brown with some striping. I told the guy at the feed store what I wanted but when I got them home and opened up the pouch, I saw that they were different. I hope they are green beans!

[damethod]

My tomato plants are producing their last crop. I've trimmed all dried parts and excess leaves from them so they can concentrate on the fruits.

I just planted two pepper plants, jalapeno and red bell pepper. The bell already has a full sized pepper on it, just waiting until it turns red.

My raspberry and blackberry plants are both growing at a ridiculous rate.

All of my herbs have done well except the cilantro. It went into seed far too quickly. I am going to replant some more in an area of my yard where it only receives about 25% sun. The basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, greek oregano, mint(in a container), thai basil, lemon basil, and culantro are all coming along well.

This was my first year planting any herbs and I've learned plenty. Thanks for all the help!

[opabinia51]

Been so darn cold here lately that I haven't been able to do much! But, I have turned all my cover crops into the soil, planted a few tomatoes plants (cross my fingers), planted some peas and beans, Started 128 + tomatoe plants in my home plus some eggplants, and some other good stuff as well.

Right now, I'm wishing for February to go away and for May to come back to us.

[Cuke]

I just checked my garden about 20 minutes ago and now there's around 13 cucumber plants coming up.The dill is much taller,they're around 2 inches now.Tomatoes will be transplanted Thursday since it's going to rain tomorrow.I'm going to buy already started tomatoes from a local grocery store that I've had good luck with so far.

[Reptilicus]

I've gotten a good bit going on now. I've figured out how to get grass to grow well. Decide to make a garden and not want grass in that particular area. It'll grow beyond belief.

I've been behind schedule on most things and trying to catch up at this point. Here's some pictures of the garden taken last nite.

I tied up the tomato plants and layed out some soaker hoses. This weekend I will lay out some newspaper and layer it with pine straw to choke out the grass and weeds.









My onions have made seed so I'll pull them up this weekend and plant something in their place...



Hey I have tomatos!

[elementfiftyfour]

Been so darn cold here lately that I haven't been able to do much! But, I have turned all my cover crops into the soil, planted a few tomatoes plants (cross my fingers), planted some peas and beans, Started 128 + tomatoe plants in my home plus some eggplants, and some other good stuff as well.

Right now, I'm wishing for February to go away and for May to come back to us.

128+ tomato plants?

Do you not expect them all to grow or do you sell the procuce at a market or something?

[opabinia51]

I will grow a lot of them, some are going to friends, a few to a few places that I am landscaping. But, mainly for tomatoes sauce in the fall. I have about 8 Lemon Boys and I just like to eat those like plums.

[Daphne]

Wow! That is a lot of tomatoes! I only planted 4 this year. The summers get so hot here that I couldn't afford the water bills to keep too many. I just want to get enough to can a batch of salsa and a batch of spaghetti sauce. I'm thinking about sneaking in a few Roma tomato plants somewhere....just not sure where yet!

[opabinia51]

I've also planted 9 tomatoe plants and have 9 more out front that I bought

[elementfiftyfour]

I have been told to expect about 90 -100 tomatoes from each healthy plant. So from my nine plants I expect close to 900 tomatoes. I don't know what you could possibly do with 12000 tomatoes.

Although i guess up in BC you probably don't get the bounty that comes with living down in the hot and humid south.

[Charlie MV]

Well

[Daphne]

Well, here in SC we've got 16 plants and we're gonna eat them because we're ...well hungry from all that work in the garden.

LOL! Sounds like a good plan to me!

[opabinia51]

With smaller varieties of tomatoes like Sweet 100 and sweet 1000000, Hawiian Currant (these things are amazing, literally the size of a currant but, they just explode with flavour!), chadwick's cherry and so on I can expect up to a hundred tomatoes per plant but, with larger varieties like Russian Black, Cherokee purple, beefmaster and so on the yields are considerably less. If I did get a hundred tomates from each plant, I would be very happy though.


A few years ago I supplied my friends wedding with tomatoes but, this year mainly for sauce and sauces.

Of course, I'll be suckering like mad this year. That will be interesting! I guess the old arthritis will be getting really bad in the hands this year.


There is this spot up North where we get literally a hundred prawns per pull of the prawn trap per fishing license and we get to invent a myriad of tomatoe recipes. A few years ago I invented this lovely recipe with black tomatoes:

1 black tomatoe
3 cloves crushed and sliced garlic
1 chopped onion
fresh basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt and pepper to taste
Truffle Oil (Optional)
Several pounds of prawns or other shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster and so on)

Add a few tbspoons of olive oil to a pan on medium low heat and season with salt and pepper. Sautee garlic and onions until transluscent, add chopped tomatoes and simmer on low heat until a sauce forms. Add a bit more olive oil .

Add the prawns and after they have cooked for a few seconds garnish with basil and cook for a couple more minutes.

Serve with Red Thai or brown Rice or Quinoa (Quinoa is loaded with nutrients)

[Reptilicus]

128 plants! I thought my 27 were overkill. Well that makes me want to plant some more. I'll have the room as soon as the onions come out.

I guess I can still find some plants out. I should plant some roma or heilooms one day.

is it true you can get 90-100 out of one plant? I'd never thought about keep a count on how many I grow.

I know I grew a good bit last year by accident.. I mean with my lack of knowledge it wasn't anything done on my part.

[Spud Murphy]

Hi,

Sun has been shining here for past two and a half weeks and the garden has come on greatly. Onions and shallot sets and garlic are well "on their way".. Strawberries are out of their "tunnel "and flowers have appeared.Have 3 rows spuds with six seed potatoes in each and five spuds set in a container filled with seaweed and compost and they are thriving.Carrots in two barrels were sewn at different times and are doing great but \I wonder should I thin em out a bit. In the greenhouse I set tomatoes at different times to prevent a glut when they ripen.All plants are thriving and will be tied up next week and I will start side shooting.Am going to grow courgettes, squash and butternut squash indoors in greenhouse....should I mulch the ground or put down plastic to prevent pests getting at fruit when butternut ripens? Last thing I planted were peppers which Ill try to grow in greenhouse ....never grew peppers before.
So have been kept busy ....not much time for computer.Hope all is coming on fine in your garden/s.

Spud

[JennyC]

Well, my zuchini, yellow crookneck squash, cucmbers and pumpkins are happy.

My onions are coming up, but so tiny as to be almost invisible. I didn't know you couldn't grow 'em from seeds, so...

Rashish greens are happy, but there doesn't seem to be much happening downstairs.

Lima beans should be okay, though the potatoes I interplanted them with are doing so well they're all but shading them out.

Mississippi Silver peas are coming up well. A big rainstorm hammered my baby beets almost to the ground, so I don't know if they're going to make.

Watermelon is not coming up for some reason, right next to the peas, so I know it's not the bed.

The bed I put my peppers in is high-clay content, and also closest to the back walnut tree growing by my garden fence. I've bought a flat of hot peppers and started bell peppers in potting mix to transplant into another spot in hopes of getting some peppers this year.

As I said in my intro, I'm a newbie, and this year is an experiment. Any actual produce is just a bonus. We'll have peas and squash for the freezer, I think, and not much of anything else. Well, depending on how my fall crops do.

[Daphne]

It looks like gardening weather is finally here to stay. Even though I jumped the gun in planting my tomato and pepper plants, they are doing really well. None of the seeds that I planted last week have sprouted yet but I'm sure I'm just brig impatient.
I also bought two Roma tomato plants (couldn't resist) and still have yet to figure out where they will fit in the garden without crowding something else.

I had this huge pot on the screen porch and had not planted any flowers in it sooooo.....I bought a patio tomato plant and set it outside the screen porch. It looks very happy.

I was going to do one of those tipsy pot things with herbs but have now decided to go with flowers instead. I am still going to plant some chocolate mint in one of the pots though. It smells wonderful!

I have a 2 by 3 foot space left in the garden but don't know what to plant there. It gets lots and lots of shade so I don't think tomatoes would be a good choice. I may go with some radishes and more lettuce.

[Gary B]

Well we're hitting autumn this side of the globe, but in my temp boxes for this season we have some nice carrots coming up, the last of the lettuce, some nice looking beetroot that's about ready, as well awsome onions that have just broke surface as well as broccoli that seems against all odds to actually be growing rather well.

Once the new beds are in, I'm looking at doing brussel spouts over winter and a few other things.

[rootsy]

Things are just getting off the ground up here. I've pushed the envelope as far as I could this year and so far everything is still alive but not growing very quickly yet. I have a few things left to get transplanted and temperatures are supposed to take a dramatic increase in the next week, should perk things up a bit.... The sweet corn has been especially slow and has just spiked but that is to be expected with marginal soil temperature and a hybrid that likes warm soil...

Ready for my 2nd go around with the corn planter later this week though.

[Garden Girl Jo]

I was excited to see in the last 3 days that my greenbeans are beginning to sprout and my strawberry plants have small green strawberries forming!
To see photos from this week in my garden:
http://www.indianagardening.blogspot.com

[Daphne]

Things are moving along wonderfully in my garden. All of the seeds I planted have sprouted. One of my tomato plants has blossoms on it. I've been trying to get the hang of 'suckering'.

The clematis looks so beautiful this year. I think this is the most blooms there has ever been on it.

The rabbit who resides in my yard somewhere got the best of my marigolds but not before he got a taste of cayenne pepper, which I had liberally sprinkled on them. I'm not sure if they will come out of the shock of being nibbled to nubs or not. But I haven't seen the rabbit in the garden for several days since I started using the pepper.

We are in for several days of rain so I won't be able to do much in the garden other than weeding around the edges. I don't like to walk in there when it's muddy as I do not want to make ruts or compact the soil. But I have other yardwork to do to keep me busy and out of trouble.

[newsunrise]

Well my garden is planted as of May 17th. being so much further north that most of you I feeling a little deprived I think i actually planted a little earlier than most this year for my area. I will let everyone know when I see my first sprouts.

[Daphne]

We've had LOTS of rain lately and the garden is thriving. Unfortunately, so are the weeds and it's too wet to get in there and pull them. here's a few photos...

the tomatoes are going wild!

The rose trellis with the clematis growing up each side. I don't remember the name of this one but it is beautiful!

The garden during the shadiest part of the day. So far, so good.

[wurzelgummidge]

ive got spuds growing in large containers and they are coming up like jet propelled,other veg is slow i put it down to hot one week and cold the next,

[mbaker410]

Hello I am new to the site and to vegetable gardening on my own (always helped my mom and grand parents). I started all my vegetables from seeds on 4/16 and they all are doing fairly well. I have learned a lot by doing it from seeds. I have battled aphids and leaf hoppers so far as well as some near death experiences (the plants) from a lack of water, my fault! I started them inside and hope to move them into my garden this weekend.

I am growing (some of these may not be summer varieties?)

-Tomatoes (cherry, big-boy hybrid, Black Prince)
-Cucumbers (burpless)
-Green Peppers
-Jalepeno Peppers
-Carrots
-Red Onions
-Celery
-Basil
-Parsley
-Broccoli

I had great germination success and have enough of everything growing and its been over a month now so we will see what survives after transplant. I have been doing my best to harden them off and by almost killing them a couple times they should be pretty strong! lol

[Charlie MV]

da heat.

[praying mantis]

Reading about your gardens gets me motivated to tackle my problem areas. Yesterday, I planted what should be nearly the last of my summer crop. I still have some corn and pole beans to plant while trying to squeeze in a few chard, kale or lettuce. Those will probably die in the heat but I still want to try.

The tomato beds are doing well (8 plants on trellis + 3 pots) but two have white fly. The pepper bed is doing fine with an anaheim being attacked by a muncher which is yet to be determined. I think it's funny to see my pepper plants sprinkled with cayenne. The eggplants are happy with the potatoes taking over, as I was told they would. The corn grows every day with new growth on the bush beans and peas. The squash, melons and cucumbers are newish transplants. Most of my crop are locally purchased seedlings. Next year, I hope to raise them from seeds. I have been a gardener for 6 weeks with no other direct experience. I did germinate some stuff but that only taught me that I have alot to learn. After I get the second crop of corn and pole beans planted, I will be able to turn my full attention to the side yard (rock/weed infestation/shady) and herb garden (potted in the patio or arranged in the stump ridden yard).

At lunch, I walked by the local garden in front of my building and couldn't resist pulling two weeds from the root. Weeds make my fingers itch to extract.