What's Growing in the Garden

Well I figured we are at the point of no return. Too late to plant most things so what you see is what you got. Peas were great, string beans starting today, digging potatoes as we need them, corn soon. Everything else varies from struggling to great. IMG_20220728_090535694.webp
 
sprucegum said:
Well I figured we are at the point of no return. Too late to plant most things so what you see is what you got. Peas were great, string beans starting today, digging potatoes as we need them, corn soon. Everything else varies from struggling to great.View attachment 229644
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Looks good. I wish I had squash, but my plants died before producing. Is that an electric fence around the garden? Keeps deer out?
 
djg said:
Looks good. I wish I had squash, but my plants died before producing. Is that an electric fence around the garden? Keeps deer out?
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My squash struggled through the may-june drought we had. I fertilized and mulched them, I think I will get some but not a great crop. The deer have not bothered since we built the house. I put the electric fence up this week because the corn is getting close, I did a low wire for the racoons and skunks. The high wire is because a bear has been bothering the neighbors garbage, and it tried my chicken coop last week. IMG_20220728_094503822.webp
 
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sprucegum said:
Well I figured we are at the point of no return. Too late to plant most things so what you see is what you got. Peas were great, string beans starting today, digging potatoes as we need them, corn soon. Everything else varies from struggling to great.View attachment 229644
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Ever try Tatsoi (Asian Spinach)? You can keep planting it into September and still harvest it out of the snow into December. Add row covers or a cold frame and you can go through January with fresh greens.
I got my seed from Fruition seeds in NY. It's been raised for the cold northern climate in the Finger Lakes. My seeds sprouted in less than 24 hours on a heat mat inside.
 
Spinach is one vegetable that we just buy canned or frozen at the store. I've grown it but we never end up using much before it bolts. We eat quite a few beet greens and some swiss chard, we buy a couple cans of spinach a year for spinach artichoke dip around the holidays.
 
Not a lot happening in my garden for another week or so when the first sweet corn variety will be ready. Have some early cabbage sitting in the fridge waiting to be turned into some Kimchi and am eating tomatoes every day.

Here are some pics of my garden area. Those are green and Lima beans on the cattle panels with a row of baby limas next to them.
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Picture from the other side. Fruit trees and pumpkins are on the right side of the picture behind the shed. The row of brown in the foreground will be my new red raspberry bed.

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That's a serious vegetable patch 😂. Makes me think of an old guy that used to stop by my house because he knew I would share. He usually would open with something like " you ain't never gonna eat all them carrots".
 
We do a lot of sharing too. Two sisters live in town and although they have small gardens, don't have the variety of things I can produce. It's way more than we actually use, but always plant lots since we have the space. In addition to what's in these pictures, I have three other areas for pumpkins and gourds.
 
No greenhouse, it's just an old Morton building with a dirt floor. My "woodshop" is just in a corner of it. Lots of storage, some old farm equipment, metal bench with arc welder and torch. Someday would like to partition some of it off, pour a floor and add heat/ac. Right now it's completely open inside and very dusty/dirty.
 
Yup, Tim, you've got yourself a real nice and big garden area there. And a real nice piece of land and building too.
 
That is definitely a sweet little veggy patch there... Always good to grow enough to share.

My father grew copious amounts of tomatoes and cucumbers in our little postage stamp yard but always far more than we could use. Never did preserve anything, his thing was putting up meat in the freezers. All the neighbors got tomatoes and cukes all summer long. If we went fishing and had a good haul, dad knocked on the neighbors doors with fish or crabs, just the way he was. Anybody can show up at your house with something they bought at the store on the way over but food you grew, hunted or fished was a gift from the heart.
 
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Man Tim - could I borrow that little bldg with the two window behind your garden for Lil Mikey's shop? Seriouisly - that is a sweet, sweet garden. You cannot imagine how much I want to have that much sun and room to grow veggies - AND fruit! It appears that I have more of a fight with critters for what I can grow this year. All pears are gone before they even got 1/2 grown. All the paw-paws are gone. All the persimmons have been raided even before they started expanding much. Now the figs are disappearing - especially on a white fig that they have not touched before. I will leave some on one more day to get ripe enough to enjoy and - POOF - they be gone. Maybe I'll pick them early and soak em in sugar syrup or sumthing. The pineberries and alpine strawberries are gone as soon as they set. And this year I am getting strange die off. Probably planted 30 asiatic lilies - only one growing, and it don't look all that good. Planted probably 30 oriental lilies and may be 10-12 emerged, and then died except one. Annual Vinca always does well in a front bed - I usually plant 3 trays or more. This year could only find one tray and all were growing well and then 1/3 wilted and died - mainly in one small area. All my zinnias have died, even the volunteers. Growing well, and then poof. 2 of 3 lavender - brown and gone. 3 of the mums are dead and 3 are not looking so good - luckily I have cuttings growing, but may be too late for flowering. Growing good - then poof. 4 of the first 6 tomatoes are gone - know why - a rabbit that has mysteriously disappeared! As well as the 4 peppers set out. 2 of the peppers they just ate the leaves and I was bringing them back and they were looking good. I planted 6 more jalapenos and 4 mystery tomatoes (I got them from a recycle place and they looked sad, but nursed them back) and 6 volunteer tomatoes from another part of the yard - they are marble sized but good tasting. All transplanted well and were actively growing then Poof - ALL the peppers have wilted and died - and all but one of the volunteer tomatoes. However, all the mystery ones are growing well and setting fruit. Go figure! I can't! Not crying or nuthen!
 
Mike Hill said:
Man Tim - could I borrow that little bldg with the two window behind your garden for Lil Mikey's shop? Seriouisly - that is a sweet, sweet garden. You cannot imagine how much I want to have that much sun and room to grow veggies - AND fruit! It appears that I have more of a fight with critters for what I can grow this year. All pears are gone before they even got 1/2 grown. All the paw-paws are gone. All the persimmons have been raided even before they started expanding much. Now the figs are disappearing - especially on a white fig that they have not touched before. I will leave some on one more day to get ripe enough to enjoy and - POOF - they be gone. Maybe I'll pick them early and soak em in sugar syrup or sumthing. The pineberries and alpine strawberries are gone as soon as they set. And this year I am getting strange die off. Probably planted 30 asiatic lilies - only one growing, and it don't look all that good. Planted probably 30 oriental lilies and may be 10-12 emerged, and then died except one. Annual Vinca always does well in a front bed - I usually plant 3 trays or more. This year could only find one tray and all were growing well and then 1/3 wilted and died - mainly in one small area. All my zinnias have died, even the volunteers. Growing well, and then poof. 2 of 3 lavender - brown and gone. 3 of the mums are dead and 3 are not looking so good - luckily I have cuttings growing, but may be too late for flowering. Growing good - then poof. 4 of the first 6 tomatoes are gone - know why - a rabbit that has mysteriously disappeared! As well as the 4 peppers set out. 2 of the peppers they just ate the leaves and I was bringing them back and they were looking good. I planted 6 more jalapenos and 4 mystery tomatoes (I got them from a recycle place and they looked sad, but nursed them back) and 6 volunteer tomatoes from another part of the yard - they are marble sized but good tasting. All transplanted well and were actively growing then Poof - ALL the peppers have wilted and died - and all but one of the volunteer tomatoes. However, all the mystery ones are growing well and setting fruit. Go figure! I can't! Not crying or nuthen!
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The rodents and vermin in your garden are just like the ones in the national and state capitals, if you don't do something to consistently and actively deny them, they will happily take your stuff. So what are you doing to actively deny them access to it?
An electric fence charger can be had for like $25- at Tractor Supply. They're very effective and can even be very entertaining too.
 
But momma says........ Plus I'd haveta build a full wire enclosure to deny them. I could probably stop most of the raccoons and rabbits with an electrified wire fence, but the squirrels are another matter - and would be the ones the full enclosure would be for. As long as I have a few to snack on - it's my contribution to the animal world. Momma might think different about the persimmons though - those are for her! We'll see when I eventually tell her.
 
I picked 3 quarts of tame blackberries today. Could have had a full gallon, but I only picked the biggest. Vines are starting to die back now. My trellis a 16' long hog panel supported horizontally on three posts. The top edge is at the 6' to 6'-6" high mark.

Most of my vibes grew to 9' long. I just weave then in and out the panel a couple of times and then let the tops hang over top of the panel. I thought this was a good practice until I noticed the weight of the unsupported branches was breaking the branch at the top of the panel.

I though about putting a top on the trellis like someone here suggested for beans, but I wonder if my yield would be better pruning to 6' and keep them fully supported.

My green beans (4th planting) have finally come up. Now I've only gotten a tent of chicken wire on them to protect the sprouts. We're only 30 mi. East of st. Louis so we got all the rain they did. Now the garden is too wet to get into. I'll put a 3' fence around them next week when it dries out.
 
Meant to say, I had peaches on my old tree. Not big, only 2" dia. but I was hoping to get enough for peach syrup this year. I resurrected my electric sprayer so I could spray Seven on the tree to keep the squirrels off. Went out today and every peach was gone. Nothing but pits on the ground. Had an old apple tree uproot too with all this rain. Slowly I'm loosing my fruit trees I planted over 30 years ago. And did anyone look at the prices for new trees? Yikes!

Lastly put up 5 more jars of pickles today. Forgot to buy garlic so these are without. Never could tell it was in them before.
 
Dan, here's a link to a pruning guide for blackberries. Pruning can greatly increase yields, and can keep them to a manageable size. https://www.starkbros.com/growing-guide/how-to-grow/berry-plants/blackberry-plants/pruning

Was thinking about you with all the rains, hope you haven't had too much damage from it.

I get my fruit trees from either Jung seeds in WI, or from Stark Bros in MO. If you get on the mailing lists for both of them, they have periodic sales throughout spring and early summer on their trees. Occasionally they will also offer some for fall sale.
 
djg said:
Meant to say, I had peaches on my old tree. Not big, only 2" dia. but I was hoping to get enough for peach syrup this year. I resurrected my electric sprayer so I could spray Seven on the tree to keep the squirrels off. Went out today and every peach was gone. Nothing but pits on the ground. Had an old apple tree uproot too with all this rain. Slowly I'm loosing my fruit trees I planted over 30 years ago. And did anyone look at the prices for new trees? Yikes!

Lastly put up 5 more jars of pickles today. Forgot to buy garlic so these are without. Never could tell it was in them before.
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sprucegum said:
Got to agree with you about the garlic. I always put some in the dilly beans but I think it's a waste. The jalapeno and dill is what makes them good.
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Have to disagree with you both here. We've always put garlic in the pickles, being the garlic fanatics we are we probably put considerably more than the recipe calls for and you can certainly tell it's there. Maybe you're using too tame of a store bought garlic... Chesnok, Spanish Roja, any of the purple stripe hardnecks are great. German White or German Hardy are a bit too tame for our liking. I don't just eat the pickles, I eat the pickled garlic with it.
Some say to just through the whole clove in there, we usually chop it at least in half or quarters depending on how big it is. I think it makes a difference.
 
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