Is your garden reaping or weeping?

[disneymarie]

This year has been so different for growing then last year for our garden and at its peak. This year, we have high 80*, many 90*, lots of sunny days, I do have to water some days. Especially my sunflowers. Some years they grow 14' tall. The sugar snap peas do not like the heat, I have to water them a lot.

Only 15 X 35 or so.....but most is corn, it is over 7 ft tall so many ears, so green and healthy. The tomatoes, OMG there are so many, son planted so close. At least 50 cherry tomatoes every day and several best girl. The Cukes have been nuts.....I am picking at least 4 a day and they grew so fast. I only had 2 plants. My watermelons are like footballs.

BUT the dang deer is having a feast on my flowers from the zuccini and pumpkins. The other night, he left the garden, walked down the drive, we are 300' from the road, my hoofed garden theif got to the roadway, stood as I heard traffic coming......he waited, he looked both ways, waited again, then crossed

Next year I want to grow some herbs too...

A past Bloomsburg Fair Blue ribbon winner.

 

[Evi]

My tomatoes and peppers are doing fabulous. But my squash didn't survive the squash worms and my broccoli just doesn't seem to be putting out this year. My husk strawberries tomatoes have taken over also so I think they will do well in late summer early fall. I think I may give up on the squash next year since I'm starting to develop allergies to it. I seem to be becoming allergic to everything. I will make my garden heavy on tomatoes,basil,garlic, onions,a variety of peppers and other herbs next year. I get lots of other veggies in my csa so my garden is more for whatever I want to try out.

 

[sherry7]

I don't have a garden, but I have 2 flower beds that we grow stuff in. My stuff is doing AWFUL. I've only gotten a handful of cucumbers and the vines are starting to die. Other people are buried in zucchini, but I've only gotten one so far. The tomatoes are doing so-so. I'm getting 2 or 3 small ones each day.

Thank goodness I'm not a pioneer and have to depend on this stuff!

 

[tavettava]

My tomatoes are booming. I planted 10 and the guy behind me asked i wanted 9 more and he wasn't sure what they were (turned out they are all cherry), mine are doing better than his garden . My cucs are growing and I pick 1 or 2 a day, the green beans I get about 2 handfuls a day (note to self plant more next year), my ds watermelon is growing but not great (he has 5 and they are about the size of a baseball), the zucchini and squash are just going crazy (3 or 4 picked a day.)

 

[Mkaz]

We are somewhere in the middle. Our tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers are doing well. Sadly our peas, beans, zucchini, aren't doing very well. It's kind of shocking considering that those are the three things that we always have an abundance of.

 

[Mickey527]

I went to FL for the 4th and was away for 2 weeks. My 31 year old son PROMISED to water my plants every day. Well I should have hired a neighborhood kid.
I came home to dead tomatoes and all my petunias in the front yard were dry and dying.
I also put all my house plants outside during the summer and they were panting for water when I got home. They survived but I have to replant all of them, they lost all their lowere leaves. Even my never can kill philodendrin suffered.

 

[disneymarie]

I went to FL for the 4th and was away for 2 weeks. My 31 year old son PROMISED to water my plants every day. Well I should have hired a neighborhood kid.
I came home to dead tomatoes and all my petunias in the front yard were dry and dying.
I also put all my house plants outside during the summer and they were panting for water when I got home. They survived but I have to replant all of them, they lost all their lowere leaves. Even my never can kill philodendrin suffered.

Same thing my son promised to hold down the fort last spring while we were away. He had the cats mainly. Never kept up on the litter boxes and cats went next to the box. Carpets were a mess.

All the plants were dying for a drink. THey did have some rain,
He did well with my son's cats, he related that the one cat looked really sick, not eating losing weight. We thought he was missing everyone. It was a huge infection, our buddy did not pull through and it was heartbreaking.....

Now when we travel I always want a paid person to follow up. Especially to watch for water breaks, damage windows,. lights on timers, plants and pets ok...

 

[disneyfan'ole]

The plants always "weep" when I am near! That is why my husband does all that!!


LOL!

 

[extremesoccermom]

Although mine is doing much better than last year it is still not what I would call a success. The pole beans are growing like crazy if I can keep up with the japanese beetles but something else is eating the flowers so no beans. The cucumbers are growing and we finally have about 5 cucumbers starting. The zucchini is huge but not one zucchini. They are drying up before the flowers even open. The tomatoes were doing great until we hit a 3 week stretch of over 90 highs then all the flowers started falling off. Imagine a row of tomatoes at knee level then nothing now small tomatoes are starting at the 5-6 foot level. They are out growing the cages but few tomatoes.
The corn did OK until a major storm blew them down. I got 4 nice ears and the rest are small but I can probably cut them off for freezing. Carrots are just starting to crown. My one big success was my lettuce. I am now replanting lettuce for the fall along with peas, radishes, broccoli, and spinach.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

it's been so hot most everything is dead.

I still have a few tomato plants left and they have small tomatoes growing so I'll probably more tomatoes, the pepper plants have taken off and are doing great.

I've still got my drought tolerant perennial flowers growing but all the annuals died. I just didn't keep up with watering as well as I should have.

I think this fall I'll plant a few more drought tolerant perennials so I can cut back on planting annuals next year.

 

[indimom]

Ours is doing surprisingly well despite the heat. We've put up 60qt of corn and have started on the beans (only 12 qt so far, but they are looking great and we should double that next weekend). Too many zuchinni and cucumbers, we've been giving it away. Have frozen some slices for zuchinni bake and shredded for zuchinni bread. Still have pickles from last summer so I'm not canning any this year.
Our tomatoes are sooo much better than last year. We've had to pick them a little early and let them finish ripening in the windows because the heat was splitting them open, but we've gotten tons. 16 qt. of spaghetti sauce and I'm canning stewed tomatoes tomorrow. Plenty of potatoes also, although they are more average sized this year. Last year, they were huge. Like split one between three people huge. Carrots look good so far. Melon is coming in nicely. Radishes did fine also.
We work our garden with my parents on the family farm. My mom also froze 8 gallon of wild blackberries and my dad gathered two 5 gallon buckets of walnuts. No idea how we're going to use them all...
I'm really pleased with our garden this year. Last year only the corn and potatoes did this well.

 

[michellejed]

I was so proud of my Garden a month ago but the zucchini never came on the plant and the egg plants are tiny, my tomatoes got black spot and the spaghetti squash, acorn squash plants are almost gone but I have about 6 squash per plant that seem OK.

The peppers and corn did just fine and the beets and carrots are doing OK, cucumbers are just so so but my crowning glory lol, is my sunflowers courtesy of a chipmunk planting, they are almost 12 foot hight!!! lol

I have only had to water 3 times so far this summer so that is not the problem.

I guess I can't have a good year every year.

 

[Halbleib1]

We bought a tomatoe plant for our deck this year instead of planting them in the ground and they got blight again. So no homegrown tomatoes for us again this year. Better luck next year hopefully.

 

[usnuzuloose]

This year has been so different for growing then last year for our garden and at its peak. This year, we have high 80*, many 90*, lots of sunny days, I do have to water some days. Especially my sunflowers. Some years they grow 14' tall. The sugar snap peas do not like the heat, I have to water them a lot.

Only 15 X 35 or so.....but most is corn, it is over 7 ft tall so many ears, so green and healthy. The tomatoes, OMG there are so many, son planted so close. At least 50 cherry tomatoes every day and several best girl. The Cukes have been nuts.....I am picking at least 4 a day and they grew so fast. I only had 2 plants. My watermelons are like footballs.

BUT the dang deer is having a feast on my flowers from the zuccini and pumpkins. The other night, he left the garden, walked down the drive, we are 300' from the road, my hoofed garden theif got to the roadway, stood as I heard traffic coming......he waited, he looked both ways, waited again, then crossed

Next year I want to grow some herbs too...

A past Bloomsburg Fair Blue ribbon winner.

All I can say is WOW! My jaw is on the floor. That is huge. You have a heck of a green thumb

 

[daisyduck123]

This is our first year gardening. We have tomatoes coming out of our ears, almost literally.

I've got about 30 tomatoes in the fridge, and more that need picking. I can't give them away anymore..already done that. DH & I want to make pasta sauce, but don't know how to go about it.

Anyone got a simple recipe? We would like to do this tomorrow. I just need to know what I need to go buy & how to do it.

 

[disneymarie]

Tomatoes this year are making up for last year, especially the cherry ones.
There are so many super thick vines and and loven the heat.

Last year there was that blight that killed everyone, well I had a plant of yellow maters and they did well.

As for the salsa, seems that not much can go wrong what ever you do. I did buy a package of seasonings, a receipe on it for some quarts, We did a lot of canning, but I think it was so much easier to do the pint containers.then freeze.
We eat tons of the first several weeks.

I like to use Cubanella peppers, (SP) the long thinner ones, plum tomatoes has more meat in them less seeds./

I boil the water, have a huge bowl of ice water. Put some tomatoes in the boiling water, just a minute or so and the skins crack or soften, take out and put in the ice water that makes the skins peal off. Hate skins in my salsa and sauces.

 

[Purseval]

Our tomatoes aren't doing very well but our tabascos and habaneros are growing like mad. I also started a Bhut Jolokia from seed and it is getting its first flowers. We have about a dozen other pepper seedlings we are cultivating for friends. As far as I;m concerned everything else can wither as long as the bhut does well. It's the challenge of growing something difficult.

Flowers are all doing fine. We have mandevilla, bougainvillea and hibiscus that are doing great. The lilies have all flowered. Even the poinsettia that we had for christmas is thriving.

 

[NHWX]

This is our first year gardening. We have tomatoes coming out of our ears, almost literally.

I've got about 30 tomatoes in the fridge, and more that need picking. I can't give them away anymore..already done that. DH & I want to make pasta sauce, but don't know how to go about it.

Anyone got a simple recipe? We would like to do this tomorrow. I just need to know what I need to go buy & how to do it.

I have a simple tomato sauce in the crockpot at the moment!

In a skillet, melt 2T butter and add 1 or 2 garlic cloves, crushed/diced and 3/4 cup diced onions. When that's cooking for about 5 minutes, take it out of the skillet and put it in a crockpot. Add 4 cups of diced (1" to .75" on a side) tomatoes. Add a teaspoon of salt. Cook on low for 2-3 hours. Add fresh herbs (basil, oregano are the two I add) and adjust for salt and/or sugar needs. When it's cool, blend with an immersion blender or your regular blender if you like a smoother sauce.

I am blessed with tomatoes this year and so this is the second time I am making the sauce. Last time I tripled it, this time I only doubled it but that's because we had BLTs for supper.

To answer the original question: tomatoes and squash are going like crazy. The lone surviving tomatillo has flowers. We've gotten about 6 cucumbers which is much better than last year. The lettuce keeps bolting. (I need to get it out of the garden.) I started beets recently; we'll have to see how they do. Caterpillars went to town on my carrots, they're a wait and see also.

When do brussel sprouts start to produce their little veggies? So far we have plants but no signs of vegetables.

Mostly we have slugs. Lots of slugs. One problem with a white worm in a squash plant that started killing a plant. And not enough rain, not nearly enough!

NHWX

 

[daisyduck123]

I have a simple tomato sauce in the crockpot at the moment!

In a skillet, melt 2T butter and add 1 or 2 garlic cloves, crushed/diced and 3/4 cup diced onions. When that's cooking for about 5 minutes, take it out of the skillet and put it in a crockpot. Add 4 cups of diced (1" to .75" on a side) tomatoes. Add a teaspoon of salt. Cook on low for 2-3 hours. Add fresh herbs (basil, oregano are the two I add) and adjust for salt and/or sugar needs. When it's cool, blend with an immersion blender or your regular blender if you like a smoother sauce.

Thank you! I may be giving this a try in a day or two (and I'll be back if I have any questions).

 

[twinmomplus2new]

The garden is Huge, crazily over poweringly huge. However the tomatoes are not getting red yet. Can't figure it out given the size and number I would think by now I would get a few.

However the zuccini is on its second run, I have had about 20 that are over 4 inches across and 16 or so inches long. then there has been one or two for a week or so and now there a few more starting now. The leaves on this are over 2 feet across, each leaf!

Crookneck squash started by seed my hubby bought the wrong seeds!!! Those leaves are over 3 feet across. and producing 8 inch or so fruit?

My pumpkins.. never planted them by the way, they started from the jack O lantern my hubby threw in thier last fall. Are already done. Orange about 10 inches by 7 inches but finished growing. One vine is done I have 3 pumpkins that are ready now! The other vines I have about 6 more pumpkins.
weird... year for this garden!