Gardening Gardening

Looks like you have some dill, too.

 

Yeah cheap is true but they easily store for a long time so I wanted to try some obscure varieties. One is a "chocolate runner" and the other is some black and white colored one I can't remember the name of. The bush beans I have are "purple sequoia." Honestly I probably planted way too many but they are spaced fine and happy for now. Only peppers I'm growing this year are Habanada which is a heatless habanero. Looking forward to trying those. Haven't tried onions yet but maybe next year.

 

You're supposed to be able to plant and grow beans fairly close together. Pole beans have long roots by the ones I've pulled out in the fall cleaning up the garden. I'm surprised they do as well as they do planted at the distance recommended on the seed packet. From the ones I've managed to pull out they're not very deep which can be handy to know when/if watering. Maybe they grow long roots when they're dry. LOL

 

What a weird year. Too dry last year ?
Not many blueberries. Not a good year last year either.
Rhubarb came up about half way and just stopped. They're pathetic looking. Never seen this before. They are at least 75 years old. I call that fairly well established.
My new plants that you're not supposed to pick until the third year ( from seeds) about half of them look better than the old ones.
My plum tree that I pruned a lot of black knot out of last Fall just after the leaves fell off was loaded shortly after all the leaves leafed out.
By the time I pruned it all out I'd have almost no tree.
So I cut it down and pulled the stump and roots out.
I give up. ( this has happened before) I planted a gala apple in its place. Too many black cherry trees around loaded with it.
Raspberries look like crap. One bed is almost completely dead and gone.
Got almost no strawberries - and I fertilized them good while there was still snow on the ground this year.
Grapes are looking good though, but we still have a bunch of grape jam and juice left from last year.
I left a tray of cucumber seedlings out in the rain. They got root rot from being a little too wet for a little too long.
Baby rabbits under my tubs of kale.
Got a good crop of kale and lettuce and the tomatoes and peppers are looking good.

 

I planted a bunch this year, some kinda flopped over and died and others look great. Also letting the wild black raspberries or "black caps" take over the side of my yard which is typically all ding weeds anyway. I tried to move some to that area with no success, but the established ones are spreading quick. Any idea if planted close together, will there be any affects of the black caps cross pollinating with the regular red raspberries? Hoping for positive affects if any

 

I've always pulled the wild ones out as they can harbor a disease that can affect the cultivated ones. I've never seen any evidence of any disease(s) though. I've been tempted to let some grow somewhere as I remember the wild ones not tasting so bad when we were kids. Probably make decent jam.

 

They grow way out back in my berm, so that's where I first tried them. They do taste good, just smaller and a bit seedier than regular red raspberries.

 

Some lettuce growing in a tub.


Some more:

Some romaine in a tub:

Some kale:

 

Sunflowers are taking off.

 

The rest of it is coming along as well.

 

I’ve never had zucchini plants get this large. They’re standing about 3 1/2 feet tall and sprawling into my driveway. Tomatoes in the background are a tangled mess but no blight. Peppers are taking off fast too.

 

My garden up north is taking hold despite the dry weather.

 

Garlic at home is sizing up nicely. It will be ready to pull it all soon.

 

I'm amazed that some of you can get away with not fencing your gardens, or mostly I'm jealous. The critters in my area are ruthless but so far so good this year. I had a serious wood chuck issue last year, they were breaching parts of my 6' fence but have not had the issue since reinforcing some areas. Only thing I've been noticing is I believe it's deer that have been chewing little branches off my blueberry bushes but leaving most of the berries...? Also they seem to be chewing off the tops of certain raspberry bushes.

 

I live on the outskirts of a small city so I've been lucky for the most part. I've had bears come through my yard before but they usually go straight for the trash cans and leave the garden alone. Although there's an abundance of deer in my area I have yet to see them leave the relative safety of the woods and venture into my yard. I've had plenty of rabbits eyeing my garden but so far they've steered clear. The fox/coyote populations keep them in check. The worst I've had to deal with are the chipmunks who love to dig in my raised beds, especially when they're full of young seedlings. Mostly I try to leave them alone but some have been dispatched with the air rifle if caught in the act.

 

I got away with it for a while but the deer feasted on everything last year. This year I have rabbits. I always had a fence around one garden but it needs to be updated and I have to get one around another garden. We've had foxes and coyotes that kept the rabbit population down until this year. Growing in tubs helps with the rabbits but is like a serving dish for the deer. Right now the deer have been elsewhere, but they'll be back. I see them in a field of timothy grass up the road at sunset.

 

Getting decent fencing for my garden last year was the hardest pill to swallow, because I knew I needed something tall with a small grid. So it's 6' tall, 1" grid, poly coated metal fence and it's chew proof. Had to get a 100' roll of that and it was almost $300 after tax. Hard to drop that coin when a major factor of a garden is to grow your own and ideally save a little money here and there from the grocery store, but what use is all your work growing from seed and nurturing all along the way if it takes a critter 2 mins to destroy it all? So that is what it is, and I'm definitely glad I did the fence that way.

Anyway, zukes in my garden are blowing up. I counted 12 that should be ready throughout this week, some probably even today by the time I get home. My zukes keep putting out female flowers only, which is the opposite problem from last year with a different variety. The male flowers are starting to show up but I've been doing a lot of hand pollinating to try and not have stuff go to waste.

 

Two examples of growing tomatoes on a single stem with support (sting on top and stake on bottom)


Two tomato concrete wire mesh cages with plants growing wild. There is also a rogue acorn squash vine that will soon top the 4’ high cage. On the back side of the bed are a few potato plants that come out of leftovers from last year that were left in the ground.


Explosive growth happening now.

 

So far so good with the new raised beds. The cooler weather and intermittent rain have really been a help.

 

I really like those beds. Did you drill holes in the bottom and then put a layer of stone down before adding soil?