McKinney 2015 Garden

[McKinney88]

Here is a pic from this morning

[McKinney88]

[imafan26]

Check the rules of the community garden. Most of them have rules about what can and cannot be grown, height limits and what you can spray. Most only allow organic controls, but it does not mean people comply.

Although you have a huge plot, even bigger than mine, don't go overboard with the planting. Space things out a bit and plant for succession. If it is the first time, you may have to do some tweaking to figure out the best places for things and if you plant too many seedlings in a tray, you can still run out of room once they are planted out. A few extra are fine in case some break, grow crooked, or die. I seeded some romaine lettuce in my garden and have to thin them now and I have to choose which ones to transplant and which ones to have for dinner.

[McKinney88]

There are no rules in the garden about spraying anything, not intended for a organic garden area. Really the only rule is you maintain your plot and keep it up or you lose it. This will be my 3rd year out there.

[McKinney88]

Transplanted my tomatoes, couple pepper plants, and 4 cauliflowers.

[McKinney88]

These pics are from earlier this week

[rainbowgardener]

Looking good! Your tomatoes are well ahead of mine -- the earliest of which are just now putting out their seed leaves. Your peppers are a bit ahead of mine, which have small true leaves. But all that seems appropriate, since you are in zone 7 and I am in zone 6 (for the time being!! ) (We are thinking about moving down by you, to Chattanooga, later this year!)

[McKinney88]

Looking good! Your tomatoes are well ahead of mine -- the earliest of which are just now putting out their seed leaves. Your peppers are a bit ahead of mine, which have small true leaves. But all that seems appropriate, since you are in zone 7 and I am in zone 6 (for the time being!! ) (We are thinking about moving down by you, to Chattanooga, later this year!)

I hear Chattanooga is nice! When my kids get older I want to take them to the children's museum down there and this train place.

I started getting some yellowing on the true leaves of my tomatoes. I think I am over watering them.

[McKinney88]

Weekly update. Put my cauliflower plants in the ground this morning. Weather should be staying in the 50s in the day and 40s at night.



Here are my other plants now, pretty much all the yellowing is gone. I gave them a light fertilizing a week ago and haven't watered since.




Roma Tomato


Tomatillo. First time growing these. Have some interesting leaves.


Eagle Fork Big Red Tomato


Rainbow Tomato


Cherry Jubilee Tomato


Red Pepper


Strawberries


This is the greenhouse I am using for my starters. I use the top shelf with 4 lights and my dad uses the bottom two shelfs.

[McKinney88]

Cauliflower is doing well:



Planted my thyme outside as well:



Kinda hard to see but have 3 small rows of carrots coming up:



Also planted several small rows of basil, oregano, cilantro, and lettuce. Probably a little late on the lettuce though.

[vaporizer]

wow, you look like you know what your doing. I am a first time gardener, but can appreciate what you have going on so far. I hope you don't mind me tagging along during the growing season in your forum to see if I can pick up on a couple of things. happy growing.

[McKinney88]

wow, you look like you know what your doing. I am a first time gardener, but can appreciate what you have going on so far. I hope you don't mind me tagging along during the growing season in your forum to see if I can pick up on a couple of things. happy growing.

No problem, tag right on along!

Late update. Here is an update on my tomatoes. The community garden is not ready yet so I bought some bigger pots for my tomatoes till I can plant them out there. I have 16 of these right now.



Here is my cauliflower and carrots:



In this picture top to bottom is cilantro, basil, lettuce, and thyme.

[RedBeard1987]

love the green house/indoor seed starting operation you got there! Blows mine out of the water, I just have some shop light hanging from the ceiling of my garage on some string. its a pretty sad set up. I hope to do something like yours next year. great job, keep up the good work!

[McKinney88]

Pulled up a carrot yesterday to see how they were doing and I got a baby carrot! Mine first one ever.



Also got my garden at the community place planted Monday. Loaded up all the plants I had and my tiller and got it done. Also planted my corn, squash, and cucumbers and a few other things.

[McKinney88]

Time for another update. The community garden is going well for the most part. It literally rains almost every other day so I have a lot of weeds I have not been able to get after yet and till. This is my plants before the rain season started back a few weeks ago:



This is some of the tomatoes I have on them now:



A few tomatillos also:



Picked a little of my cauliflower this week, has a weird purple tint on some of it too.



This is one of my tomato plants at home!



Also picked some of my herbs this morning:

[imafan26]

If you fold the leaves over the cauliflower head when it is forming to shade it, it will help to keep them blanched.

You have done very well for a first time gardener. Your community plot is much larger than mine and mine is big by local standards. I have way more weeds.

[McKinney88]

Yea I was told by an older man to fold the leaves in and put a thick rubber band around the cauliflower but I kept forgetting. My community plot is covered in weeds right now unfortunately. Been too wet for the past few weeks to till them. This my third gardening too.

[McKinney88]

Been a while since I updated. Things are going ok. Weeds at the community garden got way out of control because of the constant rain we had but it finally dried so I could get in and till them up.

Had some tommy toes coming in, these have already ripened and been consumed by my son lol.



Been a really good year for my lettuce I started from seed. Tasty too.



This was my tomato plants when I first got them out and no weeds:



Some green Romas:



Some tomatilloes (which have been consumed by some kinda worm now)



Cauliflower:



Some cilantro, thyme, and basil, cleaned and dried all of them for storage.



My cherokee purple plant at home. Probably 6 to 7 ft tall now. the tomatoes on it havnt turned yet, I think it been to hot,



This is what my garden looked like before I could get in and till it!



After I got done tilling:



Picked some nice carrots at the house:



First squash came in the other day too:

[sweetiepie]

It all looks yummy!