What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

I made some wicking buckets for my semi determinant tomato plants. I have been growing Okra in this wicking bucket set up, It holds about 2 quarts of water.....I will try to only fill the bottom with water, so my fertilizer doesn't wash out.

 

[Acre4Me]

Another Busy Day in the garden!

The bed that held strawberries for the last 3 years was cleared out yesterday. Today it was planted with carrots in the middle section (covered with straw) - 4 kinds of carrots. And the outer edges are green beans.

The garlic was harvested on Friday, and that half of the bed now has carrots in the middle section (3 types) and beets on the edges (one kind each side). The rest of that bed also has garlic (3 types), but it was planted from "bulblets", and isn't quite ready to be harvested - I think maybe 2-3 weeks at least. Yesterday, I cut off a garlic scape from one of those!

Red Dorking are 10 weeks old and looking good. Turns out there are 3 females and 3 males. We will keep only 1 male, and all 3 females - we are pretty sure....

White Rocks - Also 10 weeks old. 20 males and 4 females (as ordered). We were thinking about keeping the four girls, but I think we will butcher all to see how they butcher out at around 16 weeks old - see if the girls are a good size. These males cost only $0.80 each! Overall, they do appear to be a good size for 10 weeks!

Its been about a week and a half since I got the sweet potato starts (well, 2 varieties arrived this past Wed). There are 2 of each of the 12 varieties in this bed. They have recovered well from transplanting. They are well watered daily.

Here are another 50 or so Sweet potato slips. They remain in full sun nearly all day. Most of these are also doing well, looks like only one might not make it. There is a watermelon mound in the foreground - I think it is a white watermelon.

This watermelon in another bed is already vining! It is a "Moon and Stars" watermelon, and we have grown it in the past and enjoyed it - it has a nice crisp red interior.

Gourds are finally beginning their climb! I may regret this as jumping spiders seem to like this part of the garden.....

The asparagus bed is doing well - we are still seeing new spears coming up. We are leaving them all alone and only watering them. We planted them this spring.

This pumpkin is vining quite a bit - we expanded its covered area. Hopefully we can safely remove the cover in about 2-3 weeks and the SVB threat will be over. The other covered area in the background are two the pumpkin types - a pie pumpkin and a carving pumpkin.

More of that squash bed - most of the trellised area is winter-type squash, but some cucumbers. The covered area on the left is rutabaga, then behind that is summer squash

Tomatillos are just beginning. we have 4 plants, two of each type. @Wee Farmer Sarah - I think you have only 1 left...which wont give you tomatillos, which is sad. This happened to us the first year also, but we didn't know that no tomatillos would develop so we kept hoping until I found out you needed two plants. So, no we start several, however it seems that due to one thing or another, we only end up with max 2 per type, no matter how many were started.

Hyacinth Bean Vine - pretty, but not the shade we were looking for. Bottle/birdhouse gourds for the win. There are Nasturtiums in the bed as well.

First red tomato! This one is "Sweetheart" as the tomatoes are small Oxheart shaped tomatoes. We will try it tomorrow!

 

[Sally PB]

I watered both gardens today. The tomatoes are looking good, though a little stressed by the heat, I think. I have a couple that are about the size of tennis ball, and lots that are smaller. I have a reason to really NEED all of my plants to produce well now: my friend's tomato plants have been ravaged by deer! I didn't think they'd eat tomato and potato plants, but they have been after hers, and done a lot of damage. I promised to share some of our bounty.

My potato plants are looking good. I'll hill them up for the last time tomorrow morning. I need to do it when the soil is still cool, because that sand gets HOT in the sunshine.

My neighbor who cans 100-150 quarts of tomatoes every year had a bad fall yesterday. She grabbed at a fence to break her fall, and proceeded to break her shoulder "like taking a drumstick off a chicken," she said. She will have surgery next week. I talked with another neighbor and said I was going to offer to help with/or do her canning, and the neighbor said she would be glad to help too.

The neighbor is in her middle 60s, and I know that we don't heal that quickly at our age. This woman does soooo much to help her daughter, son-in-law and their kids. I hope they can help her in her time of need.

 

[Sueby]

@Acre4Me - so are you done with strawberries completely? & I was wondering when the threat of SVB would be gone - I'm probably the same timing as you as we're in the same zone. What about squash bugs - does that threat ever pass at all? I would love to uncover my squash/cukes one day! LOL

@Wee Farmer Sarah - we have to run the furnace for hot water too. At least for now, we may change things eventually.

 

[WthrLady]

Spent the morning weeding and checking for hornworms.
3 hours this afternoon doing a full winter strip down of the 200 sq feet of chicken run clean out. 6 loads of flooring with the dump trailer. It was 8 inches deep. PHEW. Yes, I'm late at getting to it. It was miserably hot and the wind was blowing the wrong direction. ICKY.

I'll get fresh pellets in there later this week. I'm out.

WIll feel like 108 tomorrow. Bleh.

 

[Acre4Me]

@Acre4Me - so are you done with strawberries completely? & I was wondering when the threat of SVB would be gone - I'm probably the same timing as you as we're in the same zone. What about squash bugs - does that threat ever pass at all? I would love to uncover my squash/cukes one day! LOL

@Wee Farmer Sarah - we have to run the furnace for hot water too. At least for now, we may change things eventually.

We planted a new strawberry bed this year. We don’t want 2 beds of strawberries right now bc it would be too much dedicated to them. I gave away plants (daughters that escaped the bed last year and rooted around the bed) to two people, giving more to another friend Tuesday.

Squash bugs…nope a forever problem it seems.

SVB - from what I’ve read, it is late June thru late July. It is a moth that flies in daytime, not nighttime. The yellow bowls are out (filled with soapy water) as it was presented as a “natural” way to catch and kill some. Last year I killed all SVB in the vines, but I know I missed some as we didn’t clue into the problem until later on. This spring I think I found (and killed) a few SVB pupae in the previous squash bed when I was turning the soil. Hopefully, this netting works to prevent SVB problems.

Yesterday I found 1 adult squash bug, so they have arrived.

 

[Sueby]

It really hasn't been bad hand pollinating, I'll probably just keep the bug netting up. I actually enjoy my morning rounds. Crop rotation will be tricky next year with the cattle panels, but whatever. I'm happily bug free at the moment! *knockonwood* I may get rid of 1 6 foot bed of strawberries & just keep the 1 next year. I go back & forth on that depending on the day.

 

[riss]

My parents and I’s shared garden. I just recently bought a sunflower fountain for it

 

[riss]

My parents and I’s shared garden. I just recently bought a sunflower fountain for it View attachment 3173348

Super happy how well corn is doing this year! We never had that much luck with it in the past

 

[BullChick]

I ate some wild blackberries, saw flowers on the Romas, and planted some bell peppers and an onion set in the hot house (aka the sunroom that exceeds 100 for about two hours in the evening).