Garden Progress

[wtxbadger]

Planted pretty much everything by mid-march and made a stand of blackeyed peas and squash. Our weather was pretty much up and down temp wise March through mid-April so I'm guessing that affected the green beans and corn with about half of the green beans coming up and about a third of the corn. Reseeded both and waiting to see how that works now that we have warmer temps. Figure on planting okra mid to late May.

[Matt]

With the possibility of food shortages we wanted a garden but knew that we would be moving from GA to AL asap. We hope to make the move in 2 two weeks so we should still be able to have a good garden. The new place has a large raised bed slap full of asparagus that looks like it is several years old and should produce quite a lot.


Matt

[Bob Riebe]

I have roto-tilled both of my gardens; it was amazingly dry.
I put in approx. 50 hills of potatoes down south and covered them with the leaves I took off of the roses.Have not decided exactly what I will put in but it will be at least corn and squash.
I have had horrible results with corn often in the past ten years with total failure three times.The soil is fine, and the seed has come from different sellers, new for the year.
This year I will cover the planted corn with Cocoa Bean hull so if some thing is digging out the seeds they will not be able smell them.
I planted new seeds twice last year totaling hundreds and one stalk came up.
For decades I could darn near just say let there be corn and it came up; it is getting very frustrating.

Mean while, potatoes planted in rotation in same soild, often treated with Sheep manure, do as well now as they did fifty years ago.My North garden does well but up there the ground is the sandy type that is best for potatoes and while they do well, they do not give as large a yield as the black gumbo in the
South garden.
Only the first year I put them in up year did it give an out standing result with the largest potatoes I ever grew but that is not uncommon with putting potatoes in new soil.

[Matt]

I am of the opinion that Monsanto has ruined corn, no matter where it comes from at some point you can bet it was exposed to Monsanto corn pollen and from that point it is all down hill. I gave up on it several years back, I do not even eat it anymore. Beans and Greens all the way but no corn. We do hope to have tomatoes, cucumber, squash, and some melons for sure. 

[wtxbadger]

When we lived in west Texas(Midland/Odessa area) corn was always a challenge and we gave up on trying to grow it. Moved to the Texas Hill Country(Central Texas) several years back and our first corn crop in 2017 did really well but its been downhill from there. We rotate what we plant every year like we did before but it doesn't seem to make a difference with corn.

[Lloyd Smale]

i gave up on this year. My neighbor allways tilled it with his tractor and he died about a month ago. It was covered with about a foot of leaves before winter that have settled and my little garden tiller is just to much work for this old bod so I think im just going to pass this year.

[Ranger99]

I'm still trying, but we had a lot of cool/cold nights that messed up quite a few of my 1st seedlings. The beans I was semi counting on aren't doing well at all. My maters are finally taking off. The pepper plants decided to start growing finally. I didn't plant any onions at all. They're still plentiful and cheap and trying to grow any costs more in water and labor than any return I might see 

[Ranger99]

I am of the opinion that Monsanto has ruined corn, no matter where it comes from at some point you can bet it was exposed to Monsanto corn pollen and from that point it is all down hill. .  .   .

oh I sincerely believe that, but I don't think it just stops with corn.  I've been having trouble with bell peppers for a long long time as far as germination and producing ugly misshapen peppers. I've changed the variables enough to eliminate everything except poor or GE/GMO/GURT seeds. I did notice that the farther this epidemic progressed that the more scarce any kind of gardening plants/seeds/tools were getting in my area

[Bob Riebe]

Iput in 15 chile plants, did not really know how many I bought till I started planting.
I have three tomatoes coming I bought online as the garden shops around here this year are lousy, for veggies.
 I am going to put in two ground cherries, first time I bought them in decades after some I bought way back then infested my garden with a virus.  :'(

I will put in some corn as I went through my seeds and found enough corn, various kinds, I could probably plant a half-acre if I put it all in.

At that I bought two new seed packs of kinds I have never heard of before.

[wtxbadger]

Been picking squash and tomatoes for a few weeks now, got an early start with the tomatoes, the boss lady bought a container grown cherry tomato plant that was fairly good size back in early April. The other tomatoes are doing good and putting on now. Green beans are starting to put on so we'll be picking fairly quick. Blackeye peas are growing well but no pods yet. Finally made a stand of corn but it took several plantings to get there, probably not a bad thing as our corn harvest will be staggered somewhat. For the first time in years we planted cucumbers and the plants are looking healthy and blooming. Sure would be nice to pick some fresh ones for a salad. We're still waiting a week or two to plant okra. Put up several quarts of blackberries in the freezer and figure they'll play out in another week.
 
 So far not a bad year for our garden.

[wtxbadger]

So far we have close to thirty quart freezer bags of yellow squash in the freezer, three one gallon bags of corn, ten or eleven quarts of green beans and a couple of quart bags of blackeye peas. Tomatoes have been doing really well and we started giving them away along with squash this past week. Has been a really good year for our gardening so far. Still haven't planted okra but maybe in a few days we'll find some time to do it.
We quit canning years ago and freeze everything we harvest.

[Bob Riebe]

Potatoes are up, up North where they went in first, they came up last which is quite odd, carrots, beets, radishes , onions are also up.
Both clusters of onions I bought from Farmer's rotted in the ground, so I put in the bagged bulbs.

Tomatoes are doing fine as is the different vines, squash, melons, cucumbers.
I found out that the problem I have been having , at least the past two years with corn , is there is a dam-ed turkey now in my part of town.
It seems to favor sweet corn as my Goliath and Eureka Ensilage corn came up fine.I replanted some sweet corn and put leaves over the seed bed, that seems to have worked to a pretty good degree.
It is nice to have neighbor who sitd out in the porch as he saw it in my garden; when I get a chance that will be a dead turkey.
It also explains why the fern on one side of the house go from tall and straight to looking like a whirlwind went through.
Time to crawl around on my hands and knees and do some weeding.

[wtxbadger]

We've been trying to deal with an armadillo problem for a couple of weeks now. It's only hit the garden a couple of times but its been rooting up the boss lady's flowers and her rock parking pad and she's not happy about that. If I see him there will be one less armadillo digging up flowers and veggies.

[wtxbadger]

Been a good year for yellow squash, with enough quart bags of it to have squash every week for a year, running out of family and friends to give it away to, it was a relief when I spotted squash bugs and decided it was time to pull the vines up. Blackeye peas and green beans have done well and played out. Harvested all of our corn and have 5 one gallon bags of corn on the cob in the freezer.

Planted butternut squash in place of the yellow squash, tilled in the peas and green beans to get ready to plant a Fall crop of them and still picking enough cucumbers to eat on and give away. Been a really good year for gardening in the Texas hill country so far.

[Graybeard]

wtxbadger, off topic but how is your niece doing? I haven't seen you post any updates on her lately. She is still in my prayers daily.

[Bob Riebe]

Pulled one-half of my volunteer potatoes yesterday as they had become just huge weeds crowing out everything.I put in two more tomatoes on July 3 so I am now finally finished planting.I also pulled volunteer tomatoes as they probably are the cherry type I do not like; pulled some tomatillos also as this has been good weather for the garden plants and I have far more in the garden with all the volunteers popping up than there is room for.I have a volunteer vine that I think is a melon that went bonker over the 4th, right now there is some space with the pulled potatoes but vines can become a problem as I found out two yeas ago when my squash went wild and I let them grow on the Bridal Veil bushes.Got nice squash but they did havoc to the bushes.

The South garden is covered with Purslane in many areas but it really is harmless and I found years ago during a dry year, when I pulled it under that that mass the ground was still moist even in the hot dry weather so I will leave most of it plus it crowds out some other nasty stuff like quickweed and crabgrass.I still have to get back down there for a lot of work , not just in the garden but I have more roses to put in there yet and a lot of stuff ignored for too long.

[wtxbadger]

Thanks for asking Bill, so far she appears to be headed to recovery. She is on the maintenance side of chemo that will continue for quite a while but she's a tough kid and handling the side effects, determined to not let them get her down. We sure appreciate the prayers on her behalf, our bet is that when she's done with treatments there's nothing she wont be able to handle in life.

I'll be sure in the future to provide more frequent updates.

Mike

[Graybeard]

Appreciate it Mike. We have several of our members fighting it at this time who are also in my prayers.

[wtxbadger]

Started our Fall garden a few days ago, turned everything under and started back over again with the green beans, blackeye peas, corn and finally got the okra planted. Also found a few tomato plants in a neighboring town and they are growing good.

[Ranger99]

My beans haven't made at all.
Very little vine growth and no
blossoms.  The tomatoes are
doing fair, but only just fair.
I did have my traditional 4th
of July sliced tomato though.
I think it stayed too cool at night
for too long this year.
I did away with the notion of trying
to grow any bell peppers and went
all banana peppers and haven't
been disappointed.  I've had all I
wanted to eat and cook with.  The
cilantro did great. Always does.
Just wish I could get the squash
to do well.
I still firmly believe that our seeds
are being messed with in some way.

[wtxbadger]

We have had really good luck with a seed company out of Poolville, TX for years now and their prices seem reasonable for what we get. Generally good germination and healthy plants when mature.

[Ranger99]

Used to be a nursery just up the
road here that sold bulk seed, and
I bought from them for years and
was always successful.  Nowadays
there's only seed sold at the chain
stores and hardware stores in the
usual envelopes, usually Burpee
or Ferry-Morse. Not much else
available to be had. Mail order is
pretty much the same except with
$10.00 freight tacked on.
My solution so far has been to
plant excessively and thin any that
germinate.

[Ranger99]

I was also going to add that these
people around here don't garden,
or much of anything else that requires
getting out of the front of the big
screen. This year is the first in many
that I can remember the stores
around here selling out of seed and
canning supplies

[Bob Riebe]

Covered the open areas up North with leaves so weeding that garden will now be much easier.

Went to the South garden after 10 days and found weeds out of control so I first pulled all the tall, 2 feet higher or taller and Quick Weed then saw that the Purslane was crowing out onions and others so I pulled 70 percent of the Purslane.
Filled two 70 gallon containes with weeds after pulling for two days.
The squash  and cucumber vines are flourishing but not in the open area they should be in .
I let them be and might redirect them next time.
Picked a few potato beetles but as I was weeding I only squished the ones seen and did not do a search and destroy.
Corn is doing well, with the field corn doing exceptionally well; the neighbor , by the grace of God , trapped the Turkeys in his garage and hauled them off to a farm he owns with his brothers.Bye, bye birdies.
It has been dry down there so I watered , heavily , parts of the garden.
That did make pulling weeds far, far easier with the penalty of having to wash the mud off of you body before going in to take a bath.

[Bob Riebe]

Thinned out the North garden as squash vines were running wild and tomatoes had merged into looking like one giant plant rather than three.
Picked my black radishes and they did real well.
Beets are doing far better than expected.
Chiles are doing the absolute best ever, even crowding does not bother them.
It rather odd, my volunteer Peruvian potatoes were over whelming one side of the garden but now the squash are burying them in a jungle of leaves.
A garden that is a lavish sea of green is kind of sweet to look at but then you realize that you have to rip parts out or it will self destruct.
They do not spray for skeets up hear and they , very oddly, are not much of a problem this year.

[Bob Riebe]

I have been doing some major fall work in the North garden.
I have my potatoes 98.6 percent out of the ground.
My one Anushka hill had 15 potatoes with 12 as large as a goose egg or bigger and three marlbels; my one Clearwater Russet had 15 potatoes with none smaller than a chicken egg.
Most large potatoes I have ever had in one hill.
I got one -half bushell out of my 4 russet hills.
The North garden's potato production was excellent this year.

Green Zebra tomatoes are still producing far more than I can use; I covered them from the frost so they will ripen on the vine.

South garden is doing well also , the one tomato down there has five tomatoes that should ripen this week; the corn did well so the squirrel will be fed well.
Cucumber, not sure why I put it in, but it is one of those Lemon Cucumbers, seed bombs, but it is still producing and they do taste good.

Squash was the only failure; I got one good one down South, other two rotten.
Up North, the vines covered over 1/3 of the garden and I got a whole two squash.
I ripped out the vines and they had a fair number of small one but they would never get near ripening.
They were flowering already in July where the first roots were but not one squash in that part of the garden; all were six or more feet over on the edge of the vine growth.
I may get one more along the fence if the frost did not zap the vine too badly.

I am assuming to much vine as it did not let the flowers get pollinated but it did seem to kill the volunteer Purple Peruvian potato that had covered the same area but at the same time there were very few insects flying around this summer, such as bee or even wasps. 
 Did not see Bumble Bees really till certain flowers they like started blooming.
Now they are numerous.

I did some digging where the potato vines were before squash covered them, and they were there for months, and got only about a dozen very small PP potatoes.
Down South I have not dug up the ones I let grown in the empty Rose garden space and I am curious to see it what come out that.

It was a very good year for gardening but some plant cycles seemed out of whack too me.
Potatoes were in down South a after up North but were most out of the ground already while those up North were not only green but some were still flowering.    

[wtxbadger]

Second planting of blackeye peas and green beans fizzled, tried a second planting of corn but it was to hot so not much luck there either. Okra diddled forever before it finally started making but at we are picking enough for a few messes of fried okra.

Our butternut squash did fairly well so we'll have plenty of it for a few months. The Fall tomatoes are finally starting to make and fingers crossed they keep it up.

[Bob Riebe]

I went home to prepare the roses for winter covering, pick the corn and dig out the stalks for shocks, while raking and bagging more leaves for mulch next spring.

Got home and it was chilly, ponds had thin ice already but I still went out and deleafed cut the roses down for winter.
Went in at dark leaving most for the next day.

Even for Minnesota this is early and odd.
Woke up the next morning to heavy snow.
Ended up shoveling six inches of fairly wet snow rather than doing any more garden work.
Put the snow tires on my car as it is well needed.

In sixty seven years this the the absolute earliest heavy snow I have ever seen up here and very annoyingly no weather forecast says it is going away soon.
In early 1990s I was laying sod in heavy snow but that came two weeks later though we had sub-zero that time.

Ground is not frozen so it is not hurting anything or making work difficult by having to pound stakes into inches of frozen ground but it is going to be a sloppy SOB for sure.
Some farmers did not get their corn out yet and now will have to deal with very muddy fields.

[Bob Riebe]

Garden work is done for 2020, mowed lawn for last time a week ago, pulled all stakes out of garden, cleaned the garage which was starting to look like an old shed with the door left open on a windy leaf blowing day.
Have to change oil on the car and took the one snow  blower in for the second year in a row with carb. problems.

Sealed a porch window at home that needs to be replaced or heavily rebuilt, as I ignored the gap for too many years.
Left three 4 feet tall Kale standing in the North garden as thier green color is nice and I may even put Christmas lights on them.

[wtxbadger]

The only thing we had left producing was cherry tomatoes and last nights freeze ended our growing season. We had a major grass burr problem this year and are going over to raised beds next spring. Overall it was a mixed bag on what did well but on the plus side we have plenty of frozen yellow squash and corn for the winter which is a favorite.