What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Did you know that the leaves of sweet potatoes are edible? It's in the morning glory family, not related to potatoes. I tried to grow them one year and ate a couple of the leaves. Bleah. Tough and fuzzy is how I'd describe them. Maybe they'd be ok cooked, but I didn't try it. Didn't get any sweet potatoes, either, so that was a one time experiment.

I do the same, I let the plants totally die before I did the potatoes. I mark where the plant was with a stake so I know where to dig. I usually leave them in the ground until they start talking about frost. I have enough to do at that time of year, so mother nature can store the taters for me for a couple weeks.

But, your climate is totally different, so this might be no help at all...

No sweet potatoes?? What happened?

 

[Sylie]

Be careful watering so often, usually you only need to water every other day, I understand the low humidity may mean you need to water every day but keep in mind, once it sets fruit, too much water will split the skin and invite pests and diseases to the tomato itself. I don't know what you mean by "terrible" exactly when you are referring to how they look so maybe it is the wind but unless the wind is breaking the branches, it shouldn't be doing damage to them. 16 hours is a lot of sun! lol I have never had the experience of that much full sun on mine, there is always some shade from something (a tree, a house, a building of some sort, taller plants nearby etc) at some point during the day. Just keep an eye on them, if you can get a hold of a water meter, that would be the best thing to make sure they are getting enough water. (you'll want to stick the probes a minimum of 1 - 2 inches down into the soil to find out the "real" moisture level where the roots are deepest)

 

[Kidwantschickens]

Be careful watering so often, usually you only need to water every other day, I understand the low humidity may mean you need to water every day but keep in mind, once it sets fruit, too much water will split the skin and invite pests and diseases to the tomato itself. I don't know what you mean by "terrible" exactly when you are referring to how they look so maybe it is the wind but unless the wind is breaking the branches, it shouldn't be doing damage to them. 16 hours is a lot of sun! lol I have never had the experience of that much full sun on mine, there is always some shade from something (a tree, a house, a building of some sort, taller plants nearby etc) at some point during the day. Just keep an eye on them, if you can get a hold of a water meter, that would be the best thing to make sure they are getting enough water. (you'll want to stick the probes a minimum of 1 - 2 inches down into the soil to find out the "real" moisture level where the roots are deepest)

I like this idea. Usually even with watering once a day I end up with blossom end rot on the bigger tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes grow well. My understanding is this is not enough water? I've never had zucchini or summer squash produce.... The first year they said too much water and that I needed more than one plant, the next year they said it still didn't pollinate, this year I bought 2 zucchini and 2 summer squash and I'm hopping they actually produce something. Thank goodness I'm not relying on my gardening skills to actually eat! Haha.

My peppers did well last year, my beans didn't produce much, my broccoli was ok and my cabbage got worms... The peppers tomatoes and radishes did the best.

I have two raised beds in an arid dessert climate. So I'm learning. Gardening in Ohio was so much easier.

 

[Elyrian1]

So earlier it looked like it might rain. When dh got home I handed him the baby and said let's go outside and shake our butts at the sky. He was confused but followed me, and I promptly turned on the hose and started watering. I explained that was how I was going to do my rain dance, and then, just to guarantee it, I sprayed the worst of the dirt off my car. Now I'm lying in bed listening to thunder, hoping it will rain. We need every bit we can get.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I haven't read this entire thread of 4801 pages so maybe this topic has been discussed. I'm going to bring it up anyway. Tulle, the miracle fabric! I have had such great success using tulle in my garden this year! I make row covers, plant pot covers, wrap it around the stems of my squash plants and pumpkin plants etc (anything that a vine borer or vine bug would want access to). covers for my tomatoes to keep the horn worms away and on and on lol. The squirrels, mice, birds (including chickens) etc, hate the feel of it and won't go near it. You can water the plant through it, it doesn't block sunlight, it comes in just about any color you can imagine and is relatively cheap. I got a 54" x 40 yd bolt for something like 18 dollars on Amazon. You can do so many things with tulle in the garden. I even stapled some onto my sun hat to keep the bugs off my face while I'm working in the garden lol! One other benefit that I am finding...the tulle laying on the soil around the plants helps keep the soil wet longer, you don't have to water as often! Does anyone else use it in the garden?

I haven't used it in the garden but I did use it to cover some flowers close to the house as a deterrent to keep the chickens out. I used it because I was out of bug netting but saw the tulle sticking out of the craft box so I grabbed it. Worked out very well...

 

[Kidwantschickens]

So I did fertilize them tonight and took a picture. They're rough looking.imo.

That said they've only been on the ground 2-3 weeks. We can't usually plant until after June 1 and it was a late spring this year. I got them in on the 10th I think.

 

[chickengr]

Oh you do? Have you looked at peaches?

I have had peaches. they last 2-3 years here. pomegranate grows here but gets attacked by aphids.

I will move from zone 9b+ to 9a. I'll have a week of snow in winter and brutal summers without rain. there are a lot of pears in that area but they might need spraying. I will definitively have a few mulberries.

 

[karenerwin]

I worked about 4 hours at the farm garden. I definitely took on too big of a project there. It’s at my friend’s parents farm and is a 30’ x 100’ plot. The soil is awful . In hindsight I should have just started working on about a 1/4 of it this year.
I have a small onion patch going there. A few hills of potatoes came up (probably less that 1/4 of what I planted ).
I have 12 tomato plants left. The deer pulled up 2 others. They’ve bitten the tops off a few of them. They ate all but a couple of inches of the bell pepper plant I planted last week. But they haven’t touched the 2 jalapeño plants. The sage I transferred from my home garden is still good. The oregano is making it.
The deer kicked a part 1 hill of watermelon starts but the other hill has a cage over it so it’s still safe. The deer also like the Jerusalem artichoke plants.
The 4 blueberry plants are all most likely dead from lack of water.
All that said, I mowed the weeds around the tomatoes.Put up a cattle panel behind 4 tomato plants and some white plastic lattice things by a couple others. Moved the smaller wire cages over to some of the smaller tomato plants.
Planted 2 more blueberries. I still have 6 more to plant. I bought them on clearance. Picked through about 40 of them to find the few that looked like they might actually still be alive.
I also planted a mint plant in the top of the laundry basket strawberry planter.
I ran the water sprinkler the whole time I was there. They are on a well so they don’t mind. Also mowed the weeds around the blackberry plants and table grapes. Attached the electric fence extenderslow and high on all the posts around most of the garden.
Then called it a night. I’ll go back out tomorrow and put in some more time.
I’ve started some cukes, pumpkins and Lima beans in pots at my house to move out to the farm garden later. I tried direct sowing lima beans several weeks ago but nothing came up. They we’re brand new seeds.
My 40 hour a week job sure gets in the way of my gardening time!
Oh, and my daughter is getting married this Saturday !

 

[CNJ]

Something was constantly attacking my avocado leaves to the point where I gave up spraying the leaves. This Bio Advance Fruit and Vegetable soil treatment product seem to be working. However, I need to take a better look at the ingredients, not sure if it bio technology or chemical.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/BioAdva...table-Insect-Control-701520/202019098#overlay

 

[MandaRae]

Planted a whole chicken garden!
Also added a few things to my garden. Planted some beets & radish seeds.
Also planted a late Acorn squash hopefully I'll get a decent harvest before the first frost.