Gardening Gardening

Been there justdraftn. I know how your feel.

Best advice I ever got from one of my gardening mentors after discussing impact of a severe storm with high winds and hail: "Don't look at, or do anything for days." He was right...everything looks terrible as soon as the storm passes, but after at least 3 days things often look better than expected. Many times the plants come back strongly depending on the time of the growing season storms hit. Now is getting late in the game for much of recovery for many plants however.

 

Sorry to hear what happen to your garden. I admire gardeners for their faith in the next year's success.

 

Hope does, in deed, spring eternal.
Squash have recovery very well. Get a few.


But, most of the blooms are male blooms.
Never seen it like this.
Runners finally got going on my trellises.


Take what you are given, and be grateful.
I am.

 

I'll have German Johnsons in a couple days!

 

I'm getting a lot of dud yellow zucchini this year as the male flowers were quite late initially and then they haven't been in sync either. Some of the fruit are hollow in the ends and taste terrible. (some made it to normal size instead of withering off like they usually do)

 

Pulled ours today and given’m the one or two day sun cure before going under the deck in the shade of a tarp. We’ll keep them there until the first frost or so and then into the cellar.
These are Stutgarter. White and excellent keepers.

 

Fresh out of bread for that fresh picked tomato sandwich, from the multiple BLT’s we had evening before last. Mmmmm!


On a sour note, the lettuce isn’t doing as well as I’d hoped. Have to wait and see.

 

Looking good Jason .

 

I know where you can get some fresh sweet corn to go with those BLT's. All you have to do is drive over.

 

Hey all. Been a while since i checked in.
Things started off slow in the garden boxes. The garlic is picked and drying nicely in the basement. Got 3 little jalapenos but the rest of the pepper plants are hardly doing anything. Plants are small still so i doubt we'll get any habaneros or hungarians.

But on another note, the tomatoes are going crazy and we're getting some beautiful beefsteaks. And that brings up another subject. We have no form of blight so far.


This is the first time we've ever mulched the garden with wood chips. Our neighbor has a tree service and another neighbor is letting him dump loads of chips. The first load he dumped (about 2 yrs ago) looks as much like dirt as it does wood chips so we're using it like soil to fill beds. The newer piles we're using to mulch the garden boxes and a spot out front where a tree was taken down and just refuses to grow grass. Miss July planted sunflowers there and they're doing ok.

Do you suppose the mulch is holding the blight at bay?

 

It's been a little slower on blights this year. i get a weekly update on vegetable disease's from Penn state. Not sure if the bark mulch is helping or not. the early blight spores are usually splashed up from the ground and the late blight spores are wind borne. Give them peppers a good shot of fertilizer.
Pennsylvania Vegetable Disease Update for July 31, 2019

 

Can you suggest a fertilizer?

 

Miracle grow should work. The only thing with the bark mulch is that it can make your soil more acidic. I believe peppers like a soil ph of around 7.

 

Yep! I had this very issue when I started putting all the pine shavings from the chicken coup in my garden. They didn’t break down quickly enough and overwhelmed the soil. Took me a few seasons to get it back. Lots of peat moss helped.

 

I have a little blight and have had some good luck with the tomatoes for the most part but it hasn't rained much either. Which supposedly can exacerbate some blights. Odd though, all my tomatoes growing in tubs and buckets are pretty bad and the ones in the garden are good. Kinda opposite of normal or historical.

My bell peppers aren't doing so hot either. I got a few big ones from the first flush of blossoms in June but the plants haven't gotten as big as usual and it surely isn't for lack of water. Plus they got a good dose of organic 10/10/10 at planting time. Weird weather. They're not dropping blossoms but they're not doing a lot either. Pepperoncinis are doing well but the poblano peppers aren't producing . They're big ( I think, I never grew these before ) but pepper-wise they're not doing much.
Picking a basket of opalka tomatoes and canning some sauce was the next project for tonight but I was told to come in because a T-storm was imminent and I'm glad I did. Looks like it's done though.

 

Figured I better go pick tomatoes even though it wasn't too wet from the little t-storm cell that went thru:


and while out there I see cucumbers and two zucchini zucchini that need stop growing orders:



I guess I'm having cucumber and yogurt for breakfast again.