How does your garden grow?

highsteaks

@offtoneverland mosquitoes drive me nuts too! where i grew up we had so many nearby sources of water. the city would come spray neighborhoods weekly and still, TONS of mosquitoes. where we’re at now, we seldom see any; it’s strange but really nice.

highsteaks

saw this on buzzfeed, and hoping it brings a smile to everyone else, too:

cassieko / via reddit.com

jessielynn1

Finally have some things coming up, these squirrels just destroy everything! We have tomatoes, parsley, mint and hot peppers. I also have a pot of basil on the deck. I’m not very fancy with my gardening and just use what I have as you can see lol. But it usual works out and we get some nice veggies. I will be planting cabbage and callaloo shortly and that’s it for me. 

highsteaks

@jessielynn1 i had to google callaloo because i had never heard of it. the recipes that came back look so so good. where are you at?

jessielynn1

@highsteaks yea it’s delicious! Best way to describe it is Caribbean spinach I guess. I’m in Ontario callaloo is not very common here. We have family friends that work as migrant farmers in the summer. We get the sucker plants from them and plant them instead of planting the seeds. 

runwmusic

1. What all do you have currently planted and how are they growing?
 2 zucchini, 3 cucumber, 4 peppers (red yellow and green bell and a banana), celery, 3 pole beans, and a 20' row each of candy cane beets, pink radish, red radish, purple beans, green beans, pole beans, broccoli, cauliflower, red onion. Also asparagus on the side of the house, two potted strawberries, and our woods are lines in black raspberries.

2. Questions? Concerns? Raves?
 Our radishes are huge but the beets aren't doing as well. So bummed about our beets!

3. Recent accomplishments?
Picked a ton of radishes for my parents to take home!

4. What do you need to do next?
Our garden is 20x30 and needs to be weeded! One of these days I'll get the energy to tackle it all. I've done all of the flower beds but never made it to the garden...

highsteaks

@jessielynn1 my next question was where you find the seeds, but you answered it! that’s so cool. there’s a huge plant sale not too far from me that happens every year one weekend in may, but we missed it this year because of my morning sickness. there’s a booth there that sells a huge selection of more uncommon seeds/seedlings— i’ll have to keep an eye out for callaloo seeds next year.

@ftm_jen whoa! you keep such a huge garden! that’s awesome! we used to have a few asparagus plants, but we regrettably ripped them out when we downsized the garden a couple years ago. they are so weird/cool to watch when you get the first stalks poking up through the ground. are your black raspberries wild? do they do better in the shade of the woods?

runwmusic

@highsteaks the black raspberries line about 35 feet of our woods. The berries are typically on the outside where the sun hits but there are a few stragglers that go into the tree lining. Those can be so hard to pick without getting stuck! We just moved last April and the blackberry plants were already there. Bonus as we had to till our grass into a garden area. Definitely added a lot of nitrogen before we planted. Last fall we took all of our leaves and added it to the garden for composting over winter. 

highsteaks

@ftm_jen umm, 35ft of black raspberry plants would definitely be a huge selling feature to me  

lurvleybunchococonuts

Updated garden photos! Weeds/grass are out of control but we did a bunch to try and make it better this AM.
Warning lots of photos in spoiler!

Carrots!

Beets! Hopefully will come back a damned rabbit has been getting in.

Onions!

Beans!

Muskmelon & pumpkins!

Tomatoes! We have 13 total plants

Cucumbers!

Peas, also hopefully will come back

Cabbage (stupid bunnies!!!)

Bell peppers!

Hot peppers!

highsteaks

i meant to update this thread on friday, but i’ve been randomly busy this week! thanks lurvleybunchofcoconuts for getting it going.

@lurvleybunchococonuts looks so awesome! i’m so in awe of all the plants you have coming in. i can’t wait to see pics when you start harvesting all your goodies! bunnies infiltrating your garden—so frustrating!

update with pics of my small neglected garden:

^ sunflower sprouts, about 3ish feet tall now, another 7ft to go.

^ tomato plant, we’ve got probably a dozen and a half tomatoes growing on one plant—i’ve never had so many come all at once. it’s been raining a ton, so i hope they’ll be juicy when they ripen.

^ ugh, that’s 4 kale plants. still going obnoxiously strong. thinking of making some chicken, potato, and kale soup for dinner tonight. i’m going to cut a bunch to give to dh’s co-workers this week before they toughen. 

^cucumber vine, i still haven’t decided how to trellis this year, but that needs to be done today.

^some random ornamental spilling vine dh picked out, starting to produce flowers which was a delightful surprise.

^ bee balm plant. a cautionary tale to research what you’re planting before you put it in the ground. my friend gave a couple tiny shoots, and they took over like mint plants. we’ve been trying to keep them at bay for years, lol. the leaves smell amazing during the day, put out awesome looking flowers around early july that coincidentally remind me of fireworks, are super bee friendly, and the leaves make a yummy yummy pesto or tea (which i can’t eat during pregnancy, but have enjoyed other years).

our cauliflower plants did produce cauliflower, but were too quickly overcome with tiny caterpillars, so we didn’t get to eat any. 

last week i turned on the sprinkler for the veggies, and totally forgot to set a timer. i accidentally left the water on for amost 2 hours  i am not looking forward to the water bill next month.

offtoneverland

@lurvleybunchococonuts @highsteaks You guys are making me want vegetables!

@highsteaks I don't even really like kale, but your fresh kale looks delicious.

@lurvleybunchococonuts Sorry about the pesky bunny. Hope you can keep it away. 

lurvleybunchococonuts

@highsteaks your garden looks AWESOME! I'm so jealous of your sunflowers!!! I replanted both rows and they got destroyed again gonna try sprouting them at home and replanting once they're bigger

highsteaks

@lurvleybunchococonuts oh no, that really really stinks that you lost your second group of sunflowers! was that even with bird netting?

lurvleybunchococonuts

@highsteaks No, didn't try bird netting but did a critter deterrent. It worked briefly (like 2 days) so aggravating.

smulrich16

Learned a gardening lesson - if you water your tomatoes too much, they will rot before the ripen. Lesson learned, hopefully we can salvage the rest. Oops!! 

On the plus side, we got our first cucumber (with a few more on the way), our jalapenos are doing well, and we have a few bell peppers coming up! 

highsteaks

bump. checking in for any updates! 

@smulrich16 have you broken ground yet on the new backyard?

we had a big heat wave come through the week we were oot, and a few plants look dead now. i think the only things that might survive are the sunflowers and the tomato plant might be ok. we did get a few really great tasting tomatoes before we left. dh stopped by the local home improvement store, but they’re not selling any interesting veggie plants at the moment to replace with. i might go later this week to look for pumpkin seeds or something. c’est la vie.

runwmusic

Five days away from home and came back to just a few cucumbers... not as many zucchini as I was expecting though!

highsteaks

@ftm_jen O.O whoa! those cucumbers!

lachnessmomster

Haven't contributed here yet, but just wanted to pop in with my own little garden update. All of our radishes have been harvested. We were going to plant another row, but the cucumbers are taking over their plot. Our squash and zucchini is pretty out of control. I've picked a few cucumbers, one giant zucchini, and our tomatoes are coming in nicely. Lots of beans and eggplant on the way, have picked many jalapenos, and we have three green pepper plants that are about to explode. I really enjoy going out and working on weeding and giving everything lots of TLC. We have a bunch of different types of lettuce, too, that have been awesome on sandwiches for lunch. I don't normally have a green thumb, but it turns out when food is involved, I'm a little more motivated.

smulrich16

@highsteaks Not yet! The landscaper is supposed to give us 2 weeks notice before they start so that we have time to tear out the deck. The weather hasn't been the best lately, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're a little behind. Still, I'm ready for work to begin!!!

lurvleybunchococonuts

How's everyone's garden going???

Here's today + yesterday haul guess who's making pickles today

lurvleybunchococonuts

Eta: oh god I can't stop... made 1.5 pints of vanilla peach jam (it was an experiment cause had some peaches that HAD to be used). Offically done for the night

Spent the afternoon canning! Final results:
3 pints pickles, 1.5 pints tomato, 3.5 pints strawberry jam (strawberries we picked and then froze earlier this summer)

highsteaks

@lurvleybunchococonuts how did the vanilla peach jam come out? sounds soooo good! i’m all about some peaches right now, so they don’t last very long when we bring some home 

afm- we got a couple whopper cucumbers when we didn’t check the plant for a couple weeks; about as long as my forearm, yikes. the sunflowers are still growing, but some have flowered on the “short” side. this is the tallest one so far, for visual reference, the red line is the top of our 6ft fence:

lurvleybunchococonuts

@highsteaks I haven't opened any of the peach jam yet but when I tasted it after cooking it was yummy! It looks like it'll be alright the strawberry didnt set quite right. It's not quite liquidy enough to be syrup but not quite firm enough to be jam. Hopefully the other jars are a little better. The one I opened didn't have the best fruit/liquid ration face/palm.

And made another 1.5 pints of pickles last night! The cukes are on a roll!!!

I'm still so jealous of your sunflowers!!! They look beautiful