Planting/Growing Your Own 2019

[Roadrunner53]

Our tomatoes have started coming in and we were super disappointed to cut open the first couple only to find some really gross looking black spots in them. We cut open a few more and it seems to be affecting ALL of them. After some initial shock that our entire harvest might go to waste, my wife did some research online and asked a couple growers at our farmers market what it could be. It sounds like early blight or some sort of fungus, and although they said it's likely all our tomatoes are affected, they all reassured us that we can cut out the bad spots and eat the rest of the tomato.

That sucks! I've never had that particular tomato issue, but have had various other yucky things show up on tomatoes and that is exactly what I do. Just cut out the bad part and eat the rest. I don't can those, though, in case there are spores of nasties that you don't want in your home-preserved food. For eating it should be OK though.

Did you use Tomato Tone on your soil? I had that problem several times and found that the soil had a lack of calcium. Also, there is a spray you can spray on the tomatoes and vines you  to prevent the black spots if it is a calcium deficiency. I forget what the name of it is. The tomato tone and the spray did correct the problem for me.

[Trifle]

Our tomatoes have started coming in and we were super disappointed to cut open the first couple only to find some really gross looking black spots in them. We cut open a few more and it seems to be affecting ALL of them. After some initial shock that our entire harvest might go to waste, my wife did some research online and asked a couple growers at our farmers market what it could be. It sounds like early blight or some sort of fungus, and although they said it's likely all our tomatoes are affected, they all reassured us that we can cut out the bad spots and eat the rest of the tomato.

That sucks! I've never had that particular tomato issue, but have had various other yucky things show up on tomatoes and that is exactly what I do. Just cut out the bad part and eat the rest. I don't can those, though, in case there are spores of nasties that you don't want in your home-preserved food. For eating it should be OK though.

Did you use Tomato Tone on your soil? I had that problem several times and found that the soil had a lack of calcium. Also, there is a spray you can spray on the tomatoes and vines you  to prevent the black spots if it is a calcium deficiency. I forget what the name of it is. The tomato tone and the spray did correct the problem for me.

If calcium deficiency is the problem it also helps to make sure you are adding all your egg shells to your compost, and amending your tomato beds with that compost.  FWIW (data point of exactly one, so take it for what it's worth haha), I've never seen any black spots in our tomatoes, and we have loads of egg shells in our compost.  Other potential causes for black spots as others have noted above are blights, bacteria, or even insufficient water. 

[RetiredAt63]

I had blossom end rot the first year I started gardening at my last house.  I started saving egg shells and added my dried and crushed egg shells directly to my tomato beds.  I also added a lot of organic material (I bought compost until I had enough of my own), which holds water.  No more blossom end rot.

[Trifle]

So I have two old pear trees that bear lots of fruit, and a few years ago I added two new pear trees to the orchard.  This spring one of the two youngsters flowered and one did not.  The one that flowered (an Ayers) developed a few fruits, and they sure are pretty.  This is a picture of the very first fruit I picked from this tree.  It feels a bit momentous, kind of like a chicken's first egg.  Plus pears are just beautiful fruit -- curvy and subtly colored.  I can see why they've been a favorite of still life painters over the centuries. 

Live long and prosper, beautiful young pear tree!

     

[Frugal Lizard]

that is one beautiful pear. 

I decided to harvest the garlic and it is a fantastic crop.

[Buntastic]

Beautiful pear! I never even liked pears until I tried the pears from a local orchard. All of their varieties are that pretty typical light green color though.

[Trifle]

Thanks @Frugal Lizard and @Buntastic!  I'm not surprised Buntastic that your local pears taste good; seems like many things are soooo much better right out of the garden.  I wish I could taste my new pear and report back on that aspect, but "fun" trivia fact for the day -- I'm allergic to everything in the Rosacea family of plants.  I can't eat apples, pears, cherries, or any other thin skinned tree fruit. 

Also, I meant to say earlier thanks for the above discussion on garlic y'all!  It's been a long time since I grew any, and now I'm looking forward to doing it again. 

[ender]

Guess next year we are going to preemptively stake tomatoes after trying to stake massive bushes into rock solid ground :(

[Buntastic]

Guess next year we are going to preemptively stake tomatoes after trying to stake massive bushes into rock solid ground :(

Or consider building some form of top-bar trellis and prune them to a single leader. I am going to buy some lower-and-lean spools from Johnny’s for next year because I’m increasingly convinced watching and reading various resources that tomatoes really, really benefit from being pruned especially in a humid climate.

[Roadrunner53]

I live in CT and my beefsteak tomatoes have been planted for about 69 days now. I have loads of tomatoes on my 6 plants but nothing is orange or red yet! These were supposedly early tomatoes. What is the normal timing to get red tomatoes on the vine? What is early? I have spoken to others in my area and they say the same thing, lots of green tomatoes but nothing red yet.

[ender]

Guess next year we are going to preemptively stake tomatoes after trying to stake massive bushes into rock solid ground :(

Or consider building some form of top-bar trellis and prune them to a single leader. I am going to buy some lower-and-lean spools from Johnny’s for next year because I’m increasingly convinced watching and reading various resources that tomatoes really, really benefit from being pruned especially in a humid climate.

Yeah, they do, if we were around more in July we would have heavily pruned them. We've had great success doing that, you open up airflow significantly and help avoid blight/rot.

I think I'm going to think about our options for next year. Even the heavier duty 4-prong cages (which are generally pretty good) aren't heavy duty enough for these! We have ~15 plants or so this year which is a lot to prune regularly though.

Unrelated, I'm going to explore some local restaurants to see if they have any 5-gallon buckets. I have a few pepper plants in them and they are doing considerably better than my ground-in plants -- I think next year I might try to do all of them in containers. Apparently some restaurants have a lot of extra 5-gallon buckets.

[Trifle]

Do any of you have experience with digging up and transplanting raspberries?

I have to either cut or move about 2/3 of my raspberries to accommodate for a new fence. If I opt to try to save them, I'd have to dig them up and pot them for about a week during the construction before planting them up again. If I keep the roots wet, what do you think the chances are that they'd survive?

Yeah, I've dug up and moved lots of raspberries.  They are darn tough.  I've rarely lost one.  I have a few right now that I dug up in the spring and haven't gotten around to planting yet.  They're still sitting there in their buckets, doing well. 

I would say go for it.  Even if they act shocked, or drop their leaves, they may still be alive.  I would plant them assuming they are.

[Buntastic]

Raspberries - It’s definitely worth doing. I’ve moved suckers in bad places to new spots to fill in my expansion and all of them took. If the canes are really long I’d cut them back to a level where maybe a few leaf nodes are left. Generally, even if the cane above ground dies back, the roots will regrow new canes as long as you get a good amount of root ball when you dig it up.

Ripening tomatoes - my cherry tomatoes have only been ripe for about a week. This year has been slow because of how cool June was.

[RetiredAt63]

Some plants are amazingly tough.  I dug out my Lady's mantle plants last November for construction, and then we had snow before they got replanted.  They were all alive this spring, after a super cold winter.  Raspberries are almost unkillable, I would have no problems putting them in a bucket with soil around the roots and keeping them damp for a week.

Re staking tomatoes, both rebar and rough wood stakes (I used spruce, it's cheap) make good stakes.  Anything that is strong enough to support a lot of weight, and has a texture so your ties don't slip, will work.  I put the stakes in when I plant out the plants, so the stakes don't damage roots.  I usually prune to 2 main stems.  If a sucker gets away from me I just pinch out the growing tip.

[Trifle]

Re: staking tomatoes, my dad uses t-bar fence posts in between the plants.  He then takes long strips of old bed sheets to tie them up.  The posts have nubs on them, so it works great.  He prunes to just one main stem and takes off all suckers.

I haven't staked (or pruned) mine the last few years, just let them grow along the ground.  So it's the polar opposite approach, but I have really good results.  You need quite a bit of space to do it though.  And aesthetically it probably doesn't look as good, to most people.

[RetiredAt63]

Re: staking tomatoes, my dad uses t-bar fence posts in between the plants.  He then takes long strips of old bed sheets to tie them up.  The posts have nubs on them, so it works great.  He prunes to just one main stem and takes off all suckers.

I haven't staked (or pruned) mine the last few years, just let them grow along the ground.  So it's the polar opposite approach, but I have really good results.  You need quite a bit of space to do it though.  And aesthetically it probably doesn't look as good, to most people.

I think a lot depends on the humidity.  I notice my tomatoes do a lot better if they are well pruned in a humid summer.  In a dry summer the foliage is much less vulnerable to fungal diseases.  After all, the wild plants mostly sprawled along the ground.

The other advantage to staking is you can try out a bunch of different varieties, since each plant needs less space. Carol Deppe talks about this in one of her books, where she really crowded tomatoes since all she wanted were a few seeds, not productive plants.  Of course if you want nice tomatoes you do have to give them a reasonable amount of space,  ;-)

[Buntastic]

Almost all of my tomatoes get eaten by various invertebrates if I let them sprawl like that. (Didn’t try it intentionally, but had a trellis design collapse on me at my former big garden.) Even if it had worked, can’t try it here for aesthetic reasons.

[Roadrunner53]

I have two galvanized water trough's meant for watering cattle as my tomato planters. In each trough I have 3 tomato plants. They have bushed out very nicely and only about 48 inches tall. I ordered these from QVC as plants. They are from Roberta'a Garden and I also bought the Roberta's fertilizer from QVC. What I really like about these plants is that they were supposed to grow between 36" and 48". They were sold as 3 plants that would grow 36 inches and the other 3 would grow 48 inches. I am really pleased with these 6 plants but was fearful that a few would die and I'd only have a few plants. They are loaded with green tomatoes! Just LOVE tomatoes! Uless something changes, I am going to buy them again thru QVC. They were mailed at the right time too. The 'baby' plants were nice sized, healthy and took right off. The packaging was great so nothing got damaged.

Anyone know about keeping tomatoes at room temperature for long term storage? My Mother had the greenest thumb ever and one time I remember she wrapped green tomatoes in newspaper and that Thanksgiving we had ripe tomatoes from her garden! I think we ate the last of them but that was pretty long term storage. Not sure if she learned that from someone and I have never tried it myself but am a bit interested if that there is a rhyme or reason to preserve them that way.

[Buntastic]

@Roadrunner53 not sure about standard varieties but there’s an old variety called Burpee Long Keeper that’s specifically intended for shelf ripening of green tomatoes after the season is over. My parents grew it, haven’t tried it myself.

[ender]

I bought a few of these today from our farm supply store - https://www.amazon.com/Gallagher-G64219-Pigtail-Single-Orange/dp/B00GGBD7H0

I think that'll work well to put into the group and then tie the cages too. if not, I'm out $15 I guess.

[CalBal]

Anyone know about keeping tomatoes at room temperature for long term storage? My Mother had the greenest thumb ever and one time I remember she wrapped green tomatoes in newspaper and that Thanksgiving we had ripe tomatoes from her garden! I think we ate the last of them but that was pretty long term storage. Not sure if she learned that from someone and I have never tried it myself but am a bit interested if that there is a rhyme or reason to preserve them that way.

I tried storing tomatoes last year for the first time. All varieties. I layered them in totes or box lids (but only 2 or 3 layers deep, 2 is better, easier to check and manage) with newspaper between the layers - wrapping individual tomatoes seemed like too much trouble to me. Kept in a cool location (for me this was the basement at ~55 degrees). Check every week, rotate ones getting some color to the top, bring those getting close up into the kitchen and store on the counter. I had tomatoes into December, so they lasted a good 2 extra months (killing frost mid-Oct).

[WhiteTrashCash]

I'm excited because my cucumber plant is finally flowering and there are quite a few flowers. Only one plant survived chipmunk attack, but it seems that one plant may be all we need. It grew massively gigantic. It's a Straight Eight varietal. I had no idea how much this plant was going to climb because it's my first time planting it. It grew up the support ropes, plus up and over the pest netting. Just huge.

[totoro]

Our permaculture project worked~ 12 squash seeds and the yard last year vs. this year - same view.  And almost no weeding required but a lot of work at the outset - the greenhouse was another project with recycled windows.

[Roadrunner53]

Anyone know about keeping tomatoes at room temperature for long term storage? My Mother had the greenest thumb ever and one time I remember she wrapped green tomatoes in newspaper and that Thanksgiving we had ripe tomatoes from her garden! I think we ate the last of them but that was pretty long term storage. Not sure if she learned that from someone and I have never tried it myself but am a bit interested if that there is a rhyme or reason to preserve them that way.

I tried storing tomatoes last year for the first time. All varieties. I layered them in totes or box lids (but only 2 or 3 layers deep, 2 is better, easier to check and manage) with newspaper between the layers - wrapping individual tomatoes seemed like too much trouble to me. Kept in a cool location (for me this was the basement at ~55 degrees). Check every week, rotate ones getting some color to the top, bring those getting close up into the kitchen and store on the counter. I had tomatoes into December, so they lasted a good 2 extra months (killing frost mid-Oct).

CalBal thank you for this information!  My Mom had the greenest thumb on earth. She could plant things in the worst dirt and grow the best things. I don't understand how she did it because she never bought anything special that I remember. I am impressed on your tomatoes in December! WOW!

[Trifle]

Anyone know about keeping tomatoes at room temperature for long term storage? My Mother had the greenest thumb ever and one time I remember she wrapped green tomatoes in newspaper and that Thanksgiving we had ripe tomatoes from her garden! I think we ate the last of them but that was pretty long term storage. Not sure if she learned that from someone and I have never tried it myself but am a bit interested if that there is a rhyme or reason to preserve them that way.

I tried storing tomatoes last year for the first time. All varieties. I layered them in totes or box lids (but only 2 or 3 layers deep, 2 is better, easier to check and manage) with newspaper between the layers - wrapping individual tomatoes seemed like too much trouble to me. Kept in a cool location (for me this was the basement at ~55 degrees). Check every week, rotate ones getting some color to the top, bring those getting close up into the kitchen and store on the counter. I had tomatoes into December, so they lasted a good 2 extra months (killing frost mid-Oct).

CalBal thank you for this information!  My Mom had the greenest thumb on earth. She could plant things in the worst dirt and grow the best things. I don't understand how she did it because she never bought anything special that I remember. I am impressed on your tomatoes in December! WOW!

+1 -- Thanks @CalBal!  Very interesting.  I've never heard of storing tomatoes that way.  Cool!

[horsepoor]

@totoro  Wow, that is impressive!  Both the squash and the greenhouse.  At least from that pic, I wouldn't have guessed that it's made from recycled windows.

Chugging along here - my zucchini plants both died.  Buying zucchini in August just seems so wrong.  I think I might sow some beets and lettuces this weekend.

My first Rosa Bianca eggplants are getting close to harvest size.  Usually I only get 1-2 each year, but this year I put in 3 plants, and they're all being quite prolific.  I think they like the new metal-sided raised beds.

[Trifle]

Nice results on your project @totoro!  I love seeing ground covered with food plants.

I got stung by one of these this morning on the leg walking through some tall grass -- Ouch!  Where it touched me it burned like a yellow jacket sting, turned red and swelled up.  I didn't know that a caterpillar could pack a punch like that.  I looked it up and it is a saddleback caterpillar, which turns into a slug moth.  I guess they are pretty common, but it's the first time I've seen one.

 

[WhiteTrashCash]

I can't believe how many squash I am getting this year. It's incredible. Only five plants survived the chipmunkopalypse but they are producing like crazy because the compost fertilized the soil so well. We are going to have squash all winter long at this rate.

[jengod]

Ate apples, blackberries, goji berries and tomatoes from the backyard today. Not enough to feed the whole family but good for a snack!

[Jon_Snow]

Chugging along here - my zucchini plants both died.  Buying zucchini in August just seems so wrong.  I think I might sow some beets and lettuces this weekend.

Sorry about your zucchini horsepoor. :(  But your post inspired me to plant some beets in some space opened up recently when I harvested a few cabbages.

I'm a bit late on the tomato end rot discussion. This has been something that has plagued me most years, especially on my Roma type varieties.. This year I made a concerted effort to lay off on my watering volume in my tomato patch.  And, so far (fingers crossed) I haven't had a single instance of end rot. So, for me, it looks like over watering on my part was the problem. I have actually made an effort to cut down on irrigating in my garden as a whole...and not only has this years garden been my best so far, but my 3000 gallon cistern is still over half full. :)

On another note, I harvested this beauty yesterday....

[Frugal Lizard]

On another note, I harvested this beauty yesterday....

what a beauty it is

[Trifle]

That's a gorgeous cauliflower @Jon_Snow ! 

The news at our place is that our peppers are having some kind of problem.  Plants look healthy and set lots of fruit, but just as the peppers are turning red, about half of them develop a tiny little hole at the top, and then they go bad.  I did some reading and I think this is the work of the little pepper weevil (?)   It's my first time dealing with this particular pest.  They aren't getting ALL the fruit -- we have enough peppers to eat -- but it's still annoying.

[nessness]

Does anyone have any tips for breaking a broody hen? One of mine has been broody for over 3 weeks, and she's lost a ton of weight. I locked all my chickens out of the coop for several hours the other day, and she did okay - clearly agitated but eating and drinking and not trying to get back in - but as soon as I opened the coop she was right back at it.

ETA: eggs are not fertile. I take her eggs away daily and she still sits in the spot where they were.

[Trifle]

@nessness -- Breaking a broody hen can be hard . . . they are running a very serious biological program.  The most important one of all, really.  We've had a bunch of broodies over the years, and here's what has worked for us:

- As SOON as she starts acting broody, put her in a bare crate somewhere away from the nest boxes with no straw/bedding materials at all.  Give her food and water, but don't let her out until she stops setting.  This works for most hens, if you catch it early in the first day or two.

- If you don't catch it early and they get into the full swing of brooding, then your chances of success go down dramatically.  You can still try the bare-crate-away-from-the-nest thing, but you'll need to be patient.  And also emotionally able to deal with how upset she will be.  Because she feels like her babies (the eggs) are dying out there without her.

- Or just ride it out -- let her brood until she is done.  She will lose a LOT of weight but she won't die, and she will break eventually when she realizes those eggs aren't going to hatch.  We just had a broody snap out of it on her own.  She brooded for over two months.

- Or, if you have room for more chickens you can give the broody fertile eggs or young chicks.  If you don't know anyone with a rooster, fertile eggs are available either through the mail or on Craigslist.  If you go the chick route, you have to do it in the dead of night, when she's asleep.  Sneak in there and slip them under her 'wingpits', then sneak back out.  The chicks will burrow in instinctively.  The hen will feel them moving a little, and hear their little cheeps but she won't wake up all the way.  The movement and the vocal cues from the chicks switch her from "egg sitting" mode to "mom" mode.  You'll know it worked if you check at dawn the next morning and she is sitting contentedly on them and/or broody clucking (low frequency short clucks).    NOTE -- the chicks have to be young for this to work -- about 5 days old or younger.  The younger the better.

We've done this slip-the-chicks-under thing 7 times over the years, and it has worked 5 times out of 7.  When it doesn't work you need to step in quickly to save the chicks, otherwise the broody may hurt them/kill them.   She feels they are not hers, and how she responds to that will depend on her personality.   In our two failed attempts, once the broody just tried to frantically get away from the chicks, and once she went for them trying to kill them.   

We used to live in the city where we were limited to 4 chickens.  We actually let one of our broodies raise several batches of chicks there, and then when they were older we gave them to a friend of ours in the country who wanted more chickens.  That was a win-win-win. 

Good luck! 

 

[nessness]

Thanks @Buntastic and @Trifele !  I'm not really prepared to get any chicks now, so I'll probably try the chicken jail - I have a spare dog crate I could use.

And wow, I had no idea I chicken could brood for 2 months! She is so thin already. I'm worried about heat/dehydration too - it was 106 degrees here today.

[Trifle]

Thanks @Buntastic and @Trifele !  I'm not really prepared to get any chicks now, so I'll probably try the chicken jail - I have a spare dog crate I could use.

And wow, I had no idea I chicken could brood for 2 months! She is so thin already. I'm worried about heat/dehydration too - it was 106 degrees here today.

DANG @nessness.  That is some serious heat!  Especially for chickens because they wear permanent down coats.  :(

[nessness]

Thanks @Buntastic and @Trifele !  I'm not really prepared to get any chicks now, so I'll probably try the chicken jail - I have a spare dog crate I could use.

And wow, I had no idea I chicken could brood for 2 months! She is so thin already. I'm worried about heat/dehydration too - it was 106 degrees here today.

DANG @nessness.  That is some serious heat!  Especially for chickens because they wear permanent down coats.  :(

Yeah it's been pretty miserable, but I'm hopeful this is the last heat wave of the year. The chickens seem to handle it pretty well - they like to dig a depression in the dirt and lay in it.

And apparently the quickest way to break a broody hen is to post about it on a message board - she was back to her normal self this morning!

[Trifle]

Dammit, the deer ate my persimmon trees.  :(    I have four young trees, and the deer hadn't been showing any interest, so I took the cages off some time ago.  All was well for a couple months, and I thought -- how awesome, deer don't eat persimmon trees.  Then suddenly they munched them.  $#&%!  I put the cages back on and the trees will survive, but there won't be fruit this year and they'll need time to grow their leaves and branches back. 

We are absolutely overrun with deer here.  Seems like nearly all plants need fencing or will get eaten.  I'm grateful for our 8 foot deer fence around the vegetable garden every single day.  It's a wonderful oasis.

[horsepoor]

This week I dug up fingerling potatoes, and got a pretty nice harvest.  Last night I sliced the larger ones and air fried them.  We also had a nice Pierce's Pride tomato and Shishito peppers from the garden, along with our steaks.

My Rosa Bianca eggplants are so loaded they are falling over.  Usually I plant one, and get 1-2 eggplants.  This year I planted 3, so of course they are going nuts.  They are the tastiest eggplants ever though, so I'm not complaining.

My fall seedlings are not looking good at all.  Other than one regular cabbage and the Chinese cabbage, the seedlings are not even at the 2-leaf stage and looking shriveled.  I think the LED light is too much for them even though I have it as high as possible.

[Trifle]

I harvested some elderberries yesterday and made elderberry syrup for the first time!  It's very tasty, in a 'medicinal' sort of way.  With the next harvest I'll try the tincture.

Tomato plants continue to go nuts.  I can't keep up with them.  We're eating as many as we can, and I canned another 8 quarts yesterday.  (Tomorrow I'll give some away to the neighbors.)   Due to the tomato glut, I have used up almost all our jars.   I don't know what I'm going to do about our pears, which are almost ripe.  We can't eat them all.  Last year our solution was to can about 30 quarts of pear sauce.  But no jars to do that this year!  I either have to come up with another plan for the pears, or get some more jars.  I guess that's my "GPP" -- Gardening Person Problem -- for the day haha.

[Jon_Snow]

Harvest upon wonderful harvest. It is a true joy to create meals for family and friends out of this bounty and I think my cooking skills may have taken a leap this year because, well...it has been a damn challenge to keep up with the garden productivity. I have had simply no choice but to up my culinary game. For the first time I have make some jams and jellies. Blackberry and salal, and a hybrid of the two. I found this to be a very satisfying (if messy) process. And with delicious results. I might actually submit the salal jelly into a local fair.

The squash situation has finally began to calm....the spaghetti squash plants are especially running out of steam. As much as I love this squash, there is considerable relief....no only on my part but the people I have been foisting these things on for the past few months. The mashed potato squash and butternut still are producing though. And the zucchini, yellow and green. There is a similar avalanche of cucumbers now, but because there are so many amazing summer salad dishes you can make with cukes, I've been keeping on top of it ok. Last night I made a wonderfully refreshing and tangy cucumber/black bean dish....and though the recipe didn't call for it I threw in a bunch of other garden stuff (spiralized beets, cauliflower, carrots). Tonight it will be a Cucumber Lemon Couscous salad. *mouth waters*

Tomatoes are really coming on line and I have a bed of truly monstrous onions that are almost ready. Sadly, I only have 3 cabbages left, 2 green, 1 red. Leafy greens kale and chard have started to bolt, but I should still be havesting these into late September. I wish I had actually been documenting my potato haul this year as it's been a record haul and the quality and taste off the charts.

Here was a harvest from just over a week ago. I'd say The colours make me happy. But not as much as the eating does. :)

We are absolutely overrun with deer here.  Seems like nearly all plants need fencing or will get eaten.  I'm grateful for our 8 foot deer fence around the vegetable garden every single day.  It's a wonderful oasis.

Amen to all of that.

[FireAnt]

Harvest upon wonderful harvest. It is a true joy to create meals for family and friends out of this bounty and I think my cooking skills may have taken a leap this year because, well...it has been a damn challenge to keep up with the garden productivity. I have had simply no choice but to up my culinary game. For the first time I have make some jams and jellies. Blackberry and salal, and a hybrid of the two. I found this to be a very satisfying (if messy) process. And with delicious results. I might actually submit the salal jelly into a local fair.

The squash situation has finally began to calm....the spaghetti squash plants are especially running out of steam. As much as I love this squash, there is considerable relief....no only on my part but the people I have been foisting these things on for the past few months. The mashed potato squash and butternut still are producing though. And the zucchini, yellow and green. There is a similar avalanche of cucumbers now, but because there are so many amazing summer salad dishes you can make with cukes, I've been keeping on top of it ok. Last night I made a wonderfully refreshing and tangy cucumber/black bean dish....and though the recipe didn't call for it I threw in a bunch of other garden stuff (spiralized beets, cauliflower, carrots). Tonight it will be a Cucumber Lemon Couscous salad. *mouth waters*

Tomatoes are really coming on line and I have a bed of truly monstrous onions that are almost ready. Sadly, I only have 3 cabbages left, 2 green, 1 red. Leafy greens kale and chard have started to bolt, but I should still be havesting these into late September. I wish I had actually been documenting my potato haul this year as it's been a record haul and the quality and taste off the charts.

Here was a harvest from just over a week ago. I'd say The colours make me happy. But not as much as the eating does. :)

We are absolutely overrun with deer here.  Seems like nearly all plants need fencing or will get eaten.  I'm grateful for our 8 foot deer fence around the vegetable garden every single day.  It's a wonderful oasis.

Amen to all of that.

What a beautiful haul!

[Jon_Snow]

What a beautiful haul!

Well, except for the parsnips perhaps. They are a rather ugly, gnarled thing to behold. There is always considerable suspense when the time comes to wrench one out of the ground (no small feat, they do not give up their soil home easily) to see just how monstrous the newest parsnip is going to be. I've only got 3 left, and one I suspect is going to be particularly gruesome looking. :D

Thanks for the harvest kudos @FireAnt! I certainly never get tired of arranging my haul out on the grass and taking pictures. It's fascinating to back and look at my photos from 5 years ago and see the progression.

[horsepoor]

Really nice, Jon, you must be eating well this summer!

Tomatoes are starting to come in pretty well here.

I bought a sour gherkin plant on impulse this spring, and it is finally starting to produce.  Curious plant - very thing, fragile-looking vine, but now that it is going, it has started to climb all over the ranch panel arbor it's planted next to.  The fruits only get about small grape size, and don't taste much different than cucumbers, so I probably won't bother again, but a fun thing to try.

Now I'm waiting impatiently for my okra to produce enough to make a pot of gumbo.  Right now it's just a pod or two at a time, but on the balance, we haven't had to suffer through an atrociously hot summer, so there's that.  Will put in more than 3 plants next year...

Tonight I went out to harvest my last cabbage, and found that it was split/bolting, but brought it in to see if part of it could be salvaged.  Once I started peeling back the leaves, I realized that almost each leaf was housing a little "cabbage-ette" so most of it was still good!  Not something I've seen before, so it was a neat surprise.

[WhiteTrashCash]

My tomatoes finally began to flower today, so it looks like I will have tomatoes for about three months before it becomes too cold for them. That's not too bad. I wish they had come in earlier, but I sowed them from seeds directly into the soil instead of starting them in a greenhouse (25 cents for the seeds at the dollar store) and I had to start them a month late because we had a longer rainy season than anticipated so I couldn't plant on time. Still hopeful that I'll get at least a couple hundred tomatoes.

[Indio]

My garden efforts have been a mixed lot this year. I was inspired to go on vacation in August, which is when the garden is fully producing. That was a mistake, but I knew that when I planned it. The weeds took over, despite the mulch and balanced soil. I'm still trying to eradicate porcelainberry from my flower/herb beds. I know I'm not going to win that battle.

The zucchini plants got hit by vine borer. I didn't plant it far enough away from where I had it last year. Another gardening lesson.

Green beans, basil and cucumbers are the big producers. This makes up for the lackluster zucchini crop. Bought two mini pepper plants from the supermarket in June and they have been shockingly good producers. I'm going to save seed to grow them next year because they are delicious in a tomato salad. Have been eating toms three times a day. Isn't that what the doctor orders? There's nothing like beefsteak, basil, black pepper, lemon infused olive oil, and a shave of feta next to a fried egg for breakfast. For lunch, sliced cucumber with a sesame soy dressing is a tastebud delight.

Chickens have slowed down laying but the three blue Cochin chicks should begin laying in September. They are absolutely the most adorable fluffballs with fluffy, fully feathered feet (alliteration was unintentional) and the sweetest disposition.

Even though we are in the depths of an August dearth, the bees are still finding pollen and nectar. We went to islands on vacation and I didn't see a single honeybee there. In Winter I always miss seeing the bees but it was strange for it to be warm and not see any bees.  There was a Black Mirror episode about drone bees, being introduced after bee die off, and I hope society never gets to that point. Before I left town, I added a honey super to each of the 3 hives to make sure the bees had enough space in the hive. It was a good thing I did that because they filled it up.  Going to pull about 40 honey frames over Labor Day weekend, though I won't have time to extract it until later in the month. Fortunately, friends have been saving used, wide mouth glass jars to bottle it in so I won't have to buy too many storage bottles.

Hope your gardens are all doing well.

[Indio]

Wow... it looks as if you've got your hands full @Buntastic

Have you spoken with any attorneys to get advice about how to challenge the restrictions? Usually they will do a free phone consultation to see if they can help you and they may give some useful tips/ideas in the call. This way you're investing time and not incurring cost.

Have you also checked with your local chicken meet up group? You might be able to galvanize support from them to help get the ordinance changed. Even groups that focus on local farm to table or community gardens might want to get involved to get the ordinance updated since they may want to add or expand their chickens.

I've also found that when there are bigger issues you can tie to them and point out how the regulations are arcane and don't reflect the changing world. For example, water restrictions, drought, local food, etc.

Good luck and keep us updated. 

[Roadrunner53]

My tomatoes are coming in like gangbusters! Every day we have a small basket we are picking and that is just from 6 tomato plants. I also belong to a CSA for the first time this year and am getting more tomatoes from them each week! OMG! They took forever to ripen and now it is overwhelming! I love tomatoes!

[Jon_Snow]

My tomatoes are coming in like gangbusters! Every day we have a small basket we are picking and that is just from 6 tomato plants. I also belong to a CSA for the first time this year and am getting more tomatoes from them each week! OMG! They took forever to ripen and now it is overwhelming! I love tomatoes!

Same here. Cherry tomatoes come earlier, but always takes well into August for the bigger varieties to start ripening in earnest.  I need to figure out how to speed the process up. Since serious heat is sometimes fleeting here in the PNW I think I may need to get at least some of them wrapped in plastic to create a green house effect. Waiting for them to ripen, especially this year, has been a bit maddening.

[Trifle]

Wow @Buntastic -- sounds intense there.  Do keep us posted on how it goes.  It sounds like there are multiple levels of appeal?

Out of curiosity, are there any regulations around meat rabbits within the city limits?