2012 Gardens

How is everyone's garden doing this year?

So far my peas are about 2 foot tall
Beans are still under 4" high (lost 4-5 plants to the crows)
Squash is up to two real leaves
Cabbage is very sporadic - some are 1" tall and others are 8" (lost 6-8 plants to the crows)
Spinach is about ready for initial take
I've cut enough brocolli for 2 servings
My blueberry bushes have a ton of berries, but won't be ripe for months (looks like my daughters took out a branch with the soccer ball though!)
The strawberry bushes are in full swing, ate 3 of them yesterday.  Big, fat, sweet and tart. 

Hopefully the weather keeps on like this with 4-5 day spurts of good sunshine.  Last year wasn't nearly enough and the garden was not so great.

I've been feeding from mine for a month now.

Lettuce will be going to seed soon
Radishes have all been eaten
Corn is knee high
Beans are 4' plus up their strings
Sugar Peas have been Mmm Mmm good and still going strong
1st squash and zuch's are showing up on the vines
1st Artichokes are ready for harvest

This has been a great year!  Much different story from last year at this time.

Wife started one this year, of course I was stuck with all the prep work of turning a 30 by 40 ft. patch of backyard lawn into a somewhat resemblance of a garden.  5 tomato plants of different variety, 4 growing on one and 5 growing on another, with lots of blossoms.  The other 3 are little starts that were buried (what the wife calls planting)  this last week-end.  One of the two eight-ball squash plants have 2 growing with half a dozen blossoms and the other one has 4 blossoms.  The 2 rows of "greasy beans"  (a generations old Kentucky strain of bean) are doing well now that we have mass murdered the little slugs for a week straight.  They are about 4 inches tall and almost reach the climbing net.  Lots of herbs, some thriving and some struggling.

Harvested my first squash on Sunday.  Tomatoes are 4 feet tall and bearing green fruit.  Peppers are 2-4 feet talk and bearing green fruit.  Cucumbers are lagging.  Damn bugs got most of my bean sprouts, got to replant.

-Allen

Forgot about the tomatoes, roma plant is about 2 feet tall, the heirloom is about 3 feet.  Both have flowers, no fruit yet.

I don't pay much attention to mine until around August - before then, my neighbor does all the work on it 

I'll need to do a bit more clearing to get a garden in where we'd like to have it.  Then I'd have to fence it.  There's a number of resident black-tails, plus a herd of elk that come through every so often.  Probably will be a couple years before we get it set up.

I recieved quite a surpise early this spring when turning over my compost bin.  When I flipped the soil over, a couple of, what looked like creme colored grubbs larger than chicken eggs, popped out of the compost.   

When I got over my initial revulsion, I examined them closer to find that they were potatoes.  Further flipping revealed about a dozen more.  Now I know what that plant was growing out of  the bin last year!   

BTW: They were delicious!

I'll need to do a bit more clearing to get a garden in where we'd like to have it.  Then I'd have to fence it.  There's a number of resident black-tails, plus a herd of elk that come through every so often.  Probably will be a couple years before we get it set up.

I'm sorry, I don't think I read that correctly.  You said "hey I'm planting some stuff in my backyard right now, you guys should come hang out in the fall and fling arrows at these elk walking through my backyard.

I'll need to do a bit more clearing to get a garden in where we'd like to have it.  Then I'd have to fence it.  There's a number of resident black-tails, plus a herd of elk that come through every so often.  Probably will be a couple years before we get it set up.

I'm sorry, I don't think I read that correctly.  You said "hey I'm planting some stuff in my backyard right now, you guys should come hang out in the fall and fling arrows at these elk walking through my backyard.

If that were allowed, I'd happilly invite some of you guys up.  Sadly, even I'm not allowed to hunt in the neighborhood.  My neighbor caught a guy hunting in last year.  He got a criminal trespass charge, and there's noises about getting the area closed by G&F so future incidents count as poaching with loss of weapon, truck, freedom, etc that goes along with such a conviction.

Now, I'd be happy to show you how to get to the powerline that runs through timber company land adjacent to the neighborhood.  They're happy to allow foot access to hunters.  'Course you'd still have to draw the tag.  It's GMU 418.  Might take you a decade or two.

Lettuce is doing good
Peas are still 2-4" tall
Soy beans are 3-5" tall
Zucchini are doing good
tomatoes are starting to flower
Had to pull out some bokchoy and Turnips due to it flowering because of the cold weather
Beats are looking good.
Grape vines have many leaves and tiny clusters
Cherry tree is loaded
cucumber is starting to climb the cage
Many seeds didnt germinate and ones that did early the neighborhood squirrel uprooted them.  So sad!

What am I doing wrong?




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You need to slowly bring them outside then into the ground

For vegetables, I tend to focus on tomatoes and vegetables that taste great grilled.  The yellow squash and zucchini are doing well.  The cherry bomb peppers are doing great (about 2 feet tall, taste great and slugs won't eat them). Green bell peppers were purchased by mistake (they were mixed in with the jalapenos) and the slugs have done a number on them.  Basil is filling out nicely, so in a month or so I hope to eat the first of many caprisi salads.  Just need a cow for the mozarella  .  My tomatoes are all about 4 feet tall.  I only went with six tomato plants this year because we couldn't eat them all last year.  They usually get about six-eight feet tall. 

I love fresh raw peas (the only way I can stand them) and they are already producing.  My son planted two pumpkins in school so I need to find a place to transplant them.  The strawberries are delicious and the plants have been cranking them out.  Gotta love fresh from the garden strawberries.

I was finally able to locate a couple Rhubarb plants.  It was a mission assigned to me by the wife!  Unfortunately, They will not be ready to harvest from until next year.  I put in blueberry plants this year, as well.  Hopefully they will work out.

the slugs have done a number on them. 

Get a bowl bury it to the rim the fill it with junk beer friends bring over. you will be amazed how many slugs drown to their death in it.