Gardening: 2011 Season

[heidih]

I was pleasantly surprised to find actual beets when I pulled up the few I had stuck in on a whim. The greens went into a vegetable pasta dish and the cute roots will be cooked tomorrow.

[qrn]

Running really late here,,,tomatoes are long, long way from even setting fruit.(are flowering)

Today, planted the Genovese basil,Hopefully will get lots before frost...Also found some more, suitable, (hopefully),

sage..

BUD...

[Shelby]

Shortly before Memorial Day, we had a hailstorm which left about a half inch of pea-size hail everywhere. Two weeks ago, we left on vacation, leaving a garden that was meticulously neat, tidy and weed free. We returned over the weekend to a lush carpet of purslane of prodigious size and vigorous health. I can only conclude from these events that at the heart of each hailstone was a purslane seed and that the frozen water surrounding the seed contained a significant quantity of Miracle Gro. I am hoping the county extension agent will come out and investigate this phenomenon.

:laugh:

[Shelby]

Tomatoes

First tomatoes of the season (tasted like crap--they were on the plant when I bought it)

Cukes

Mustard greens, onions, radishes

Peppers

Radishes

My cats are obsessed with anything I bring in from the garden...they used to be outside cats until the coyotes got so bad...so they miss the outdoors.

[Kouign Aman]

Woohoo! That's a garden!

[Lior]

loved your pictures! And the Kitties!!! What do you do with the vegies? DO you eat fresh or cook? Will you have enough to freeze for winter?

[robirdstx]

We've been on mandatory water conservation since early in June. Got a call from the city today letting us know that we are now back to stage one - voluntary conservation - due to recent rains and everyones efforts to conserve. How is summer treating you and your garden?

Garlic Chives in bloom, with Swiss Chard and Sage in the background.

[Shelby]

loved your pictures! And the Kitties!!! What do you do with the vegies? DO you eat fresh or cook? Will you have enough to freeze for winter?

We eat a lot of salads.....a lot of Mexican food with the peppers.

As you've all heard me complain, I'm still living on the sun. Looked up the long term forecast just now. 100-112 degrees for the next 2 weeks. After that, I don't know. So, we're watering the crap out of the tomatoes. Some have set on and finally formed fruit, but not like they should be.

Sigh.

[Meanderer]

It was touch and go this year, but we managed to get our first taste of sweet corn from the garden last evening and that, to me, has always been the crowning event of the summer gardening season. This year, the corn overcame a lot of adversity. It has been very dry since Memorial Day, a fallen locust tree flattened a large percentage of the stalks three weeks ago, and the ground hogs have helped themselves to much of the remainder. Now that I have belatedly fenced them out, I figure we will have 2 to 3 dozen ears to eat if nothing else untoward happens to the patch.

By the way, while ground hogs may be a garden menace around here, I have to give them credit for having an educated palate. The ones that are bedeviling us have burrows only 10 feet or so away from acres of field corn yet they are willing to cross 100 feet of relatively open ground to get to my sweet corn. They also seem to prefer Cherokee Purple tomatoes to my other varieties and I can't fault their taste in that respect either.

[sparrowgrass]

My corn is so sad. Way too hot and dry, I guess.

Tomatoes are doing well, not quite enough to force me to do something with them, just enough to eat and to share. That is going to change shortly, and I will have to break out the canning jars. (I have 40 some plants, and I think they are about to inundate me.)

I have had a few cukes and zukes, and I tried some Italian cucuzzi squash this year--I like them better than zucchinis. Firmer, and more flavor.

No green beans yet--the first ones I planted turned out to be pole beans instead of bush, and I never got around to putting poles up. They are crawling all over the asparagus, but no beans yet. The Japanese beetles have been chowing down on them as well. I planted some purple string beans, but they only have flowers so far.

I have started some fall broccoli--I hope they get big enough to plant by mid-August.

I planted 6 Mucho Nacho jalapenos--whatever possessed me to do that--I have giant jalapenos by the ton. Very productive, very HOT.

Edited July 29, 2011 by sparrowgrass (log)