What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

OMG that really looks so good, I am planting cucumbers for sure next year.

2 1/2 pounds and while I throw most bass back we ate that one and it was delicious! A week later I hooked one of the 13lb monsters but after a really fun, exciting fight it threw the hook. A friend was there with the net but there was no chance. I'd been too busy with the garden and critters but I'd started dreaming about fishing and that was my cue to get out to the lake.

Hives are no joke, when you get them on the outside, you also get them on the inside. I ended up in the hospital years ago with them.

Mine are starting to decorate the run and yard as well.

That looks so good, I looked up the recipe for when I finally have the ripe tomatoes.

That sounds delicious and very much like my own breakfast cooking. You sound so much like me, we keep the little eggs and the dirty ones for our own use. We can't keep up with the egg orders right now and I never turn the sign around advertising eggs anymore. And there's a bunch of new girls out there just about ready to start laying. It's funny to watch them seemingly think about the nests and eggs. One of them was standing in a nest box scooting the eggs around.

I finally cleaned up the blueberry bed, and pulled out the lingonberries. I'm going to try running the borage through the shredder and put it back down in the bed as mulch/fertilizer. It's probably time to get serious about the blueberries and send in a soil sample to see what I need to do to get better results. Next bed that needs work is the currants and gooseberries, then the strawberry/weed bed, I think I'll switch that one over to onions, garlic, and shallots.

That’s no joke on the hives. I have them as a chronic condition and it sucks

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good steamy afternoon all. I guess it hit 95F today. Good grief. No garden work yesterday other than picking cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, a couple of poblanos and digging up the rest of the white potatoes. They didn’t do so well. I dug a few Red Pontiac potatoes to check their progress and they are doing much better. I also picked my first San Marzano tomato yesterday. This was the early one that escaped my pinching off. Today I picked more okra, and cherry tomatoes before watering everything in the backyard. My first tomatillo had fallen onto the ground so I brought that in as well. It looks fine, just small. DD sprayed her struggling SM tomatoes with a calcium and epsom salts solution about a week ago and now they’re looking good. One of her cucumber plants was looking pretty rough so she dug it up and brought it to me. I planted that yesterday and it’s looking good and perky so far. I think it was @Gammas Bearded Babies who asked when to pick okra. I guess it may depend on the variety you plant but I usually pick my okra pods when they are about 4 inches long. Like beans, picking the pods encourages the plant to make more. I’ve never got woody okra. I’ve been getting two to three pods a day and they usually keep producing into late September or early October. I collect a small bag of them then freeze them. My peaches are getting ready to ripen. I noticed they are starting to get bigger. I’ve been watering it every other day during this drought so I was happy to see the fruit start ripening. The chickens are hanging in there in this heat. My rooster is walking around panting. I scold him when he tries to mount the hens. Nobody needs to be doing that in this heat. Lol! We have one more day of this latest heat wave. That will be 7 days straight with temps above 90F. I just want it to be over. Here’s DD’s San Marzanos and her cucumber plant. Have a great day and stay cool.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Learn something new every day "Tomatoes not ripening? It's the heat. Temps >90 prevents the plant from producing lycopene and carotene. " No wonder they ripen at NIGHT in hot climates.

Where I am they just die in June and July...even with shade. Nights don't get cool enough for them to get any relief. Have gotten them through by bringing them indoors but they have to be smaller for that.☹
If theres any AZ gardeners here with tips n tricks for tomatoes...boy I'd love to hear them!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Where I am they just die in June and July...even with shade. Nights don't get cool enough for them to get any relief. Have gotten them through by bringing them indoors but they have to be smaller for that.☹
If theres any AZ gardeners here with tips n tricks for tomatoes...boy I'd love to hear them!

Are you in Georgia? When I lived in the Piedmont region of North Carolina I started my garden late February or early March.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Have you had a drought this year? I'm north of you in southern Missouri.

Oh yes... We went 2 months (June & July) with no rain at all... A little over a week ago, it FINALLY rained... We got 5.5 inches and everything started coming back to life but we've had nothing since.

I live along a ridge line in the Ozark foothills. The weather notoriously splits in this area because the ridge runs EAST-WEST. So typically the weather breaks along the ridge and rains to the north and south of us but seems to miss us completely. That's what has happened so far today. Not a single drop of rain although it is raining all around me.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Are you in Georgia? When I lived in the Piedmont region of North Carolina I started my garden late February or early March.

Arizona...our last frost is usually early to mid February so similar spring planting

 

[igorsMistress]

Where I am they just die in June and July...even with shade. Nights don't get cool enough for them to get any relief. Have gotten them through by bringing them indoors but they have to be smaller for that.☹
If theres any AZ gardeners here with tips n tricks for tomatoes...boy I'd love to hear them!

Try indeterminate and use shade. They seem to go through a dormant period for fruit but will produce again when it cools off. We’re supposed to have a warm, dry winter so they might do ok if you plant again.

If you’re in the Phoenix area I highly recommend visiting the AZ Worm Farm. They give classes on gardening here and it’s a working farm. I’ve been on their tour and did one of the classes. I’m going back next Spring for the tomato class.

 

[All4Eggz]

Picked lots of veggies today. So much zucchini today, so I decided to make some zucchini fritters. They turned out great.

I tried with a couple different cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar) and I like it best with cheddar.

 

[Sueby]

My rooster is walking around panting. I scold him when he tries to mount the hens. Nobody needs to be doing that in this heat. Lol!

This totally cracked me up! Boys!

I took advantage of the 1/8 in of rain we finally got after months of dry & watered. Now it's even hotter & more humid. Blech.

 

[Sueby]

More pics I forgot...

Ha, take that hornworm! Gross but cool.

Pretty happy with the rutabaga!

Habaneros ripening.