What did you do in the garden today?

[saysfaa]

Lately, I dug the rest of the potatoes that aren't still growing. Then turned a wheelbarrow of the deep bedding from the chicken coop and a pail of ashes from the burn barrel into that bed. And planted the sprouted bush bean seeds into it. I'm delighted to have finished just before a nice rain came through.

A few more potato plants finished since I decided to do this. I have more room in the rows than sprouted seeds to plant.

To plant or not to plant? I don't know. It was late enough to need a late first frost and/or hope to cover the plants through a few frosts as it was. A week ago.

I think I will just direct the cucumber onto that bed instead. It is taking over the walkways.

 

[Sueby]

Tomatoes are the "gateway drug" to canning. Easy, waterbath (don't need pressure canner), and lots of uses for canned tomatoes. If you know anyone who cans, offer to apprentice yourself. They will appreciate the help, and you'll learn how to do it.

Get any version of the Ball canning book, and it'll have directions. Ask any questions you need answers to here on this thread. And don't be shy! There are NO dumb questions. We all learned at one point.

Good advice!

Maybe so. Maybe not. We have a lot of trouble with diseases and fruit rotting here at home where we've usually trellised them. But we didn't trellis here this year and are having similar problems. We know we have verticillium wilt and walnut roots in the soil, we may have other issues too.

I have little trouble with either diseases or rotting of the fruit on the farm where they sprawl. Maybe a little trouble with some leaf spotting in some years - that might be some verticillium wilt in the soil.

I know for sure ground contact does not result in damaged fruit, at least not if there isn't something else going on. My parents grew several thousand tomato plants every year. We picked most of them off the ground. Only one tomato in maybe several hundred had any rot spots. That was usually at cracks from irregular watering when a lot of big storms came through at certain stages of maturity. There were enough blossom end rot to know what it is but is wasn't a significant problem - it just needs the soil fed correctly. Otherwise, a rotten one had usually been damaged.

I thought maybe I had so much more trouble in the home garden because I wasn't in charge of the decisions about growing the tomatoes back them - I know dad had a secret sauce he applied just as they started blossoming. Unfortunately, none of us still alive know what it was. Maybe I didn't know other things too. Or remember correctly what I did know. But this year, I just planted, watered well to get them started, and weeded twice and all thirty survivors of the gohpers are big, beautiful, vigorous plants with abundant fruits just starting to turn color with no signs of trouble so far.

I think it may have to do with the type of tomatoes too. My brandywines would blight, spot, wilt & die in a week if they weren't tied & pruned, lol. Now the sungolds thrive sprawling on the ground & never have any issues, can't kill em if I tried!

 

[akroberts1085]

Wow, I’ve only got 1 grandson I must admit, after 4 kids I’m kind of worn out ( youngest one still living at home, girls come home on the weekends)

I have 5 grandsons and 3 granddaughters. My 2 oldest granddaughters were born on the same day, in the same hospital and are 3 hours and 28 minutes different.

 

[gtaus]

I'm using the Florida weave with my determinate tomatoes. Google it.

I'll check that out. But my bush tomatos seem to do just fine with a 3-foot-tall tomato cage. Where I live, my bush type tomato plants normally don't get much taller.

I've grown indeterminate tomatoes with stakes and also just letting them crawl on the ground. I never limited the plants to a single growth node before by removing all the suckers like I am this year. On the ground or staked without removing suckers made the plants dense, fruit hard to find and pick.

My cherry tomato plants are in a 16-inch-high raised bed, with 3-foot-tall tomato cages. Even though the plants reached about 6 foot tall before they flopped over, none of the vines are touching the ground. I did not bother to remove any suckers because I never had a problem before.

This is the first year my tomato plants have outgrown the tomato cages. I don't know if it because I started the seeds indoors 8 weeks before transplanting, or if it was the type of cherry tomato plant that I have. I thought my cherry tomato plants were bush type, but I am told they are probably the vine type.

my sister noticed the tomatoes grow better when they can sprawl. I watched for a couple of years and think so too. So we don't trellis them at all.

I think results might vary depending on all kinds of things - variety, soil, climate, ... Or maybe not.

After my tomatoe plants flopped over, I asked someone about them and they just told me to let them be and they would probably be fine in terms of producing cherry tomatoes. I am getting lots of tomatoes, but the plants just look like a jungle at this point. I am used to looking at well-defined tomato plants growing inside their own cage, not all over the place.

And I can barely bend over to reach the ground these days. LOL

I have gone to almost exclusively growing food in my 16-inch-high pallet wood raised beds. The less bending over during the day means I can sleep better at night.

 

[akroberts1085]

My garden last year was amazing. Got some zucchini yellow squash and pumpkins. The cherry tomatoes were also amazing and delicious. My problem is that my husband's Chihuahua figured out how to pick my tomatoes and little pain in the back side didn't even share. This year I have the tomatoes in the green house so she doesn't get them. Where my squash was I had probably around 120 plants come up so I dug out a bunch of them and gave them to ppl I know. I just got my second yellow squash yesterday and probably tomorrow I will get my second zucchini. I dug up a few of my potatoes and just left the rest to finish growing. I also have some peppers coming up.

 

[WthrLady]

6QT of tomato puree simmering on the stove
6- half quarts of pickles cooling on the counter.

I am garden weary.
3 entries for the state fair are sitting at the front door.
Just poofed.

 

[Sally PB]

What to do with a canner 2/3 full of scalding hot water when you're not going to do another batch?

Dump it on the weeds growing up through the cracks in the driveway! Buh-bye, crabgrass!

 

[muddy75]

I'm getting a couple tomatoes and got my first bell pepper this week. Should have a few cucumbers ready to pick soon

Not too bad for just a few plants put out way late

 

[akroberts1085]

Yellow squash and zucchini from the garden and frozen Brussels sprouts

 

[Smokerbill]

Yellow squash and zucchini from the garden and frozen Brussels sprouts

With chicken breast? Looks tasty!