Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022

[RetiredAt63]

@slackmax My peas sprouted 5 out of 8. But my beans only 3 out of first 8 and later another 6 or so. A pretty bad score. Organic seeds and all, bought new this year.
I will plant some more beans next week in the garden at the cabin.

I read a blog from a biologist who says she always starts with 10 seeds, has them on wet paper in a plastic box, and only uses the one that sprouts first. Many more than 10 seeds if she needs more seeds.
For beans and peas I have heard that you should put them in water for 24 hours before planting. But please double check that before doing so. I will try that next time.

This means you will be planting the most vigorous.  Also if the plant is going to be used for next year's seed, that means you are growing plants that like your methods. 

This was an interesting home experiment
https://www.gardenmyths.com/soaking-peas-before-planting/

[slackmax]

@slackmax My peas sprouted 5 out of 8. But my beans only 3 out of first 8 and later another 6 or so. A pretty bad score. Organic seeds and all, bought new this year.
I will plant some more beans next week in the garden at the cabin.

I read a blog from a biologist who says she always starts with 10 seeds, has them on wet paper in a plastic box, and only uses the one that sprouts first. Many more than 10 seeds if she needs more seeds.
For beans and peas I have heard that you should put them in water for 24 hours before planting. But please double check that before doing so. I will try that next time.

Thanks, Linea !

[Linea_Norway]

@slackmax My peas sprouted 5 out of 8. But my beans only 3 out of first 8 and later another 6 or so. A pretty bad score. Organic seeds and all, bought new this year.
I will plant some more beans next week in the garden at the cabin.

I read a blog from a biologist who says she always starts with 10 seeds, has them on wet paper in a plastic box, and only uses the one that sprouts first. Many more than 10 seeds if she needs more seeds.
For beans and peas I have heard that you should put them in water for 24 hours before planting. But please double check that before doing so. I will try that next time.

This means you will be planting the most vigorous.  Also if the plant is going to be used for next year's seed, that means you are growing plants that like your methods. 

This was an interesting home experiment
https://www.gardenmyths.com/soaking-peas-before-planting/

Thanks for the link.

For me it would not be to shorten the season, but to get them to grow a plant at all, especially the beans. To see which ones grow a root would be an advantage.

The article says soaking beans in cold water gives higher mortality. This was probably what I did with my second, small batch of beans. And the first time I would have added cold water to the soil and I put it outside.

About short season... at home we now have night temperatures of 5C and day temp between 15-20C (after an earlier, much warmer period). At the cabin we currently have 2C at night and 4C in the morning. Only later in the day it will be more normal day temperatures. I hope my plants won't get too much of a temperature shock and stop growing at all.

[RetiredAt63]

@slackmax My peas sprouted 5 out of 8. But my beans only 3 out of first 8 and later another 6 or so. A pretty bad score. Organic seeds and all, bought new this year.
I will plant some more beans next week in the garden at the cabin.

I read a blog from a biologist who says she always starts with 10 seeds, has them on wet paper in a plastic box, and only uses the one that sprouts first. Many more than 10 seeds if she needs more seeds.
For beans and peas I have heard that you should put them in water for 24 hours before planting. But please double check that before doing so. I will try that next time.

This means you will be planting the most vigorous.  Also if the plant is going to be used for next year's seed, that means you are growing plants that like your methods. 

This was an interesting home experiment
https://www.gardenmyths.com/soaking-peas-before-planting/

Thanks for the link.

For me it would not be to shorten the season, but to get them to grow a plant at all, especially the beans. To see which ones grow a root would be an advantage.

The article says soaking beans in cold water gives higher mortality. This was probably what I did with my second, small batch of beans. And the first time I would have added cold water to the soil and I put it outside.

About short season... at home we now have night temperatures of 5C and day temp between 15-20C (after an earlier, much warmer period). At the cabin we currently have 2C at night and 4C in the morning. Only later in the day it will be more normal day temperatures. I hope my plants won't get too much of a temperature shock and stop growing at all.

Here those would be spring temperatures, great for peas.  Beans here go in later, they like it warmer.  Mind you here we have gone from highs in the high 20s to a high of 17 yesterday.  June is nearly as erratic as May.

Gardening is a challenge.

[Linea_Norway]

In the past few days I finally planted out my vegetables and herbs in the vegetable væbed at the cabin. They all look fresh now.

I noticed that those celeriacs that I earlier had repotted to some larger pot, had grown pretty big, while the ones in (half a kg) yoghurt pots are much smaller. I had chosen to repot the largest plants to start with, so the difference is now more visible. I have a book that says that you need to pull out the very young celeriac up to 4 times and cut off the thinnest roots, so that 1 root remains. I didn't do that. But now at planting them out, i pulled off a lot of the thin roots that stuck out of the lump of soil around the roots. I was quite rough. I later googled and could not find any similar advice. Apparently I did use a good race of celeriac, called Prinz, which gets a bigger root. I hope they will survive my treatment and thrive. I have already decided to harvest the whole plant as late as possible in the short season.

The beetroot hadn't sprouted as many as I sowed. So I sowed a couple more seeds after soaking them for a couple of hours.

The beans are also only 3 plants plus one very young seedling. I sowed a lot more beans all i ver the place, also soaked for a few hours.

The carrots were grown in milk cartons, in bulk. The plan was to cut off the bottom of the carton and cut open one side corner. And then plant the whole carton. That didn't work, as the carrot plants came loose and were to fall out. Therefore I treated them as the other plants, taking them out of the carton. Very carefully cutting up the side of the carton and trying not to touch them more than necessary. The carrots are also supposed to be thinned out, by pulling out either the thinnest or the thickest carrots. But until now I don't see any carrots yet when I dig my fingers under the greens. So maybe later.

The kale plants are like looking very good and have lots of leaves.

I put the herbs everywhere in between. The mint between the kale, the rosmary, thyme, salvia and dragon all over the place. The chives and leek between the carrots, as Alliums scare away the carrot flies. A few flowers are also planted in the bed.

The 3 potatoes that I had left are planted in a pile of very sandy soil that we dug up to make our terrace. Some of it was sifted and used in the vegetable bed, combined with other stuff. The rest is now a bed for 3 potatoes, a couple of sunflowers, a couple of other flowers that I regretted buying, and some more dragon plants that didn't fit in the vegetable bed anymore. Some sunflowers are already knacked, possibly cut off by one of the red squirrels. They don't seem to understand that sunflower seeds that they love to eat grow on sunflowers. Next time, I will grow sunflowers much bligger and thicker in a milk carton before planting out.

DH planted 3 of his red currant bushes, the ones with fewest or no berries yet. The ones with most berries are staying at home. The strawberries that were planted at the cabin last year are looking decent. They have grow their leaves in the days we have been here.

Today is a good day with lots of sun and 16C. Today we sat in the sun on our newly built terrace without musquitoes yet. I watered my veggies a last time with water from the rain barrel, as we will leave tomorrow. Next visit will probable at the end of June. I hope we will have something to eat then, maybe some leaves of kale (that we need to freeze for a while) and some herbs. After that, we have planned vacations elsewhere in the beginning of July.

[Linea_Norway]

At home the potatoes are growing. The first batch is already quite big, the second batch has just sprouted.

I think my rubarb is about to sprout.

I thinned put my basil plants, so that I now have only 1 per pot, except for the bigger pots. They are getting more bushy, after cutting away the tops.

I purchased new seeds for microbush tomatoes. But somehow I don't really feel like starting tomatoes from seed again this year. I did however hear that you can grow an early tomato still, but let it finish it's fruits indoors in autumn.

[Frugal Lizard]

Coming down the final stretch for planting out all the starts.  Still have squash, melons, cukes, two more flats of onions, eggplants and sheppard peppers to plant out.

The strawberries that I have been nurturing along - including 9 plants I grew from seed this spring are setting berries.  I have the chipmunk fence up around them.

Almost all the tomatoes are planted out. 

I need to sow lots of beans, carrots and more beets and more peas and spinach.

We are eating out of the garden every day. Gotta love it!

[Linea_Norway]

Today we ate our own lettuce with our own basil and self-picked sorrel. And a potato salad with selfgrown sage and chili pepper, as well as spring onion that I bought in the shop, but put in a pot of soil where it continues to grow. We have been eating basil for a while, but now the leaves start smelling strong (in a good way).

My bell peppers have tiny fruits that I presume will grow bigger. One of my microbush tomatoes has a few tiny tomatoes.

I recently ate my first young zuchinnies, sliced and raw.

And I cut down the biggest stilks of my lovage several times to freeze it. It is standing in a pot and I am trying to control it a little bit.

We also consumed some of the sage of thyme from the cabin that I harvested before we left.

I also love to eat our own stuff, whether we grow it, find it or catch it.

[slackmax]

The single pea that sprouted, out of eight seeds, is slowly growing. I stuck a pole into the soil next to it, for it to climb up.

I just put 4 pea seeds in a glass of water 12 hours ago, and will plant them one inch down, after I get off the computer. 

My 3 tomato plants are doing OK. I just put some 'vegetable tonic' powder on the ground near them. Two of them have tiny yellow spots on some leaves, but the leaves aren't dying, so I'm letting it go for now.  I had been cutting them off.

I have four scallions doing well, that I got from the store.  Ate the tops, then planted the roots in the garden. 

I hope the soaking of the pea seeds does the trick. We'll see.

[Linea_Norway]

I have been harvesting my own lettuce for a while. I just take the outer leaves and the plants grow more. Having 4 lettuce plants actually gives quite a few leaves. And now I am growing another type of lettuce as well, which has now only just sprouted.

The chili pepers have quite a big harvest of chilies. So far still a few green ones and a few almost red. The clone that I made of a cut off is doing well, also growing a flower.

The microbush cherry tomatoes are very compact with leaves. They are growing a few tiny tomatoes. I am considering to repot the one in a 3 liter pot to an 8? liter pot.

The bell peppers are growing tiny peppers. I guess it will take a while before they are eatable size. But we might need to pick them early before going on a summer vacation.

The Brazilian starfish chili has not had flowers yet. Next time, don't top them so late in the season. It really set them back.

I have sown flower seed to plant at another little bed at the cabin. I just hope they manage to sprout before I go there. I don't know what to do otherwise. Wait for another couple of weeks in the seeding box? Maybe I should better have direct sown them.

Vacation plan is to be away for a week or so this month, amongst others to check and work the garden at the cabin before leaving it alone for several weeks. Then back home to pack for the next two trips. Then 12 days away hiking, half a day home, and another 4 days away to a wedding. That half day at home should be enough to harvest and water the plants at home and to get properly clean from previous trip. After that we can visit the cabin again before driving further north.

I ordered new seeds from a shop that had end of season sale. But the prices are quite high even with 30% off. I checked for every ithem if not my prefered seed shop had the same item. And I only ordered what they didn't sell. Then I hope the seeds will still be good next year. I tend to store them in the fridge.

[tygertygertyger]

I've been growing peas for years and they've always been easy. Some years I soaked the seeds, and some I just stuck them in dirt, but they always grew! This year I did both methods and not a single one has grown. I'm starting to wonder if there is animal interference... but I haven't seen any evidence of digging.

At least I've got other stuff coming in. I just ate my first serviceberries! I'd never had one before, but our house has two trees. They are tasty and I'm glad there's a whole tree so I can eat more, or at least whatever the birds haven't gotten yet.

[YttriumNitrate]

So after five years of waiting, my pawpaw trees are finally producing fruit this year. Hurray! Come September, I'll hopefully be feasting on Hoosier Bananas.

[Roots&Wings]

Epic update @YttriumNitrate!! Hope the fruit sets well and you have a fantastic first harvest.

[tygertygertyger]

So after five years of waiting, my pawpaw trees are finally producing fruit this year. Hurray! Come September, I'll hopefully be feasting on Hoosier Bananas.

This is awesome!! We foraged some from a wild patch a year or two back, and now we're debating planting some in our already crowded yard. But I know they take several years before they fruit. Please report back with how they are!

[Linea_Norway]

Here are some pictures from our garden at home. Everything in pots.

1. I love the Tagetes flowers that I planted with each chili, pepper and tomato. This one blossoms and has so many flowers. The chili in the same pot is the brazilian starfish that I topped. I think this one just snapped unintentionally. This chili has not flowered yet.

2. The potato plants, 3 per pot, as by the instructions on the pot. But next time I will stick to 1 potato plant per pot. The grow very fast. Not so surpricing as they have such a large fruit. They stand far out from the wall as we have an overhanging roof that can block for rain falling vertically.

3. The garlic plants in front of the potatoes. They had to move from their place in front of a fence to make place for currants that needed netting over them.

4. My cayenne chili plants. I recently harvested all the red chilies. Now they both have a couple of green ones.

[Linea_Norway]

Continuing with the plants at home.

1. DH's grapes. This is the grate where so many sunflowers sprouted from.

2. Lettuce and some herbs. We have decided that Russion esdragon does not taste strong enough for being a herb. But it is edible. So we now used it as lettuce. This was the "herb" that sprouted best from seed and that grows best.

3. The herb crate with a lovage that I cut down really often. Adjoined by thyme, sage and rosemary.

4. The currants, with quite a few berries, still green. We think the birds already eat them, so they are now covered by netting.

[Linea_Norway]

Continuing pictures of plants at home.

1. Beef tomato with a microbush tomato in the same pot. The smallest tomato has tiny flowers. The beef tomato not yet.

2. Beside the large tomato pot 4 sweet peppers. They have already small green peppers and are still flowering. Also another small tomato micro bush with a few green tomatoes. Also in the front some flowers. And in the background a summer squash.

3. More summer squash that are flowering a lot and producing zuccinies. I have done some manual pollination, but I heard also insects today. Also another 4 bell pepper plants with small green peppers and more flowers.

4. Another picture of the Russian microbush Snegirjok. So far I am not super impressed by microbush tomatoes yet. But it has some tomatoes and still flowers. Maybe I should have used a larger pot. It stands together with basil and a Tagetes in the same pot, like the other tomato pot.

[slackmax]

About  a week ago I soaked 4 pea seeds for 16 hours, then planted them. 2  of them have sprouted. That's a 50% success rate. Better than the first 8 seeds I planted, unsoaked, where only 1 seed sprouted. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Here's where our garden is at these days:
-Basil is huge, & needs to be cut back
-Cilantro - didn't use it/cut it, and it's bolted, or whatever the herb version of bolting is
-Zucchini - I'm in the giving away portion of the garden, because it's so prolific
-Spaghetti squash - huge, almost ready to pick
-Strawberries - we have our first 10 or so
-Tomatoes, have picked about 30 or so, and they are amazing. Love early season tomatoes
-Green peppers - have picked a bunch, and been using them in fajitas & salads
-Jalapenos/chiles - we have so many other types of peppers. Must start making pico de gallo, and pickling them
-Lettuce - we're picking a huge amount of lettuce daily
-Meyer lemons - really need to pick & juice the 40+ lemons on the tree. It's on the to do list for the week
-Pomegranate - the bush has filled out beautifully, and looks like we'll have another great season of pomegranate this fall.

[Frugal Lizard]

Last night I went out to the farm to plant out leeks and onion starts.  The farm garden is now full.  Some of the plants are getting heavily nibbled.  But most everything is coming along well. 

Tomatoes are flowering or setting fruit - I way over planted them. 
The popcorn is looking really good.  I have four rows @7m length. Germination of the collected seed was 100%. I planted it much closer together this year to solve the pollination issue from last year. Hopefully I have a really good harvest - last year's harvest was too small by a factor of 10.  We love popcorn.
Beans are starting to pop up. 
Squash are looking OK - maybe a little yellow.  Need to keep them watered through this heat wave.  I gave them a good drink last night.  Hopefully I get a few hours this weekend to give them a dose of compost.
Potatoes are up about 15cm.  I have started to hill them and keep them weeded.  I would like to mulch the space between them to maintain moisture levels.  It is very windy and the soil surface is drying up.
Peas, turnips have germinated.
The raspberry crop is going to be phenomenal this year.
The garlic planted last year is setting scapes.  I need to them harvested.  The garlic suffered frost damage - hopefully that doesn't effect bulb. I had some extra garlic that I planted late spring.  It will be interesting to see how that experiment turns out.
I am going to put carrots in when I pull the garlic.  So far no carrots growing. 

The in-town kitchen garden is lush and fully producing.  I am getting small peppers already.  Sunday night I made a salad with four types of lettuce, radish, orange pepper, scallion, basil and cilantro.  The greenhouse is fully planted with tomatoes and cukes.  The greens are getting really leggy.  We are now eating the fifth planting of arugula.  This season's asparagus, basil, early greens and rhubarb harvests have been really good.

I did an insecticidal soap treatment to asparagus because the asparagus beetles were overwhelming the plants with larvae.  I try not to "spray" anything but it was getting out of control.  I mixed up my highly biodegradable dish washing liquid with water and gave them a 10 minute dose of spray before washing them well with the sprinkler.  They look to be completely wiped out.  I will keep an eye out to make sure they don't get out of hand again.

The strawberry plants I grew from seed have the prettiest pink flowers.  They are setting fruit.  Working on trying to thwart the chipmunks from eating them all.

The huge pile of compost from the chicken house is mostly spread among the plants.  A few pots full are waiting for use at a later date.  I am storing them under cover. 

I would like to get the garden looking a little tidier - right now I have a bunch of screens and materials kicking around.  I need to have a cool morning to do some tidying. 

 

[RetiredAt63]

My garden is coming along. 

The garlic is looking good, I am watching for scapes. 

The potatoes are flowering, which means I can start harvesting baby potatoes soon. 

The peas are full of flowers and tiny pods, so snap peas and snow peas soon.

The zucchini plants are up - I will be lucky to get any harvest from them, they are growing slowly because we have had a lot of cool weather (but cool weather makes the peas happy!). 

The beans are fine.  I planted early varieties so hope to get some harvest.

The rhubarb did very well this year, lots of flower stems (which I have pulled).  I've had 2 harvests and may get a third before the hot weather really sets in.  The golden garden snails seem to like its leaves. 

The asparagus is all feathery and pretty.  No asparagus beetles.

[the_hobbitish]

Frugal Lizard what is home grown popcorn like? Does it make a big difference from store bought kernels? I usually pop mine in a paper lunch sack then add whatever topping...

[Frugal Lizard]

@the_hobbitish - the varieties I grew last year popped up delicate white puffs - the starting kernels were really small and they popped into tiny miniature delicious popcorn.  I am trying Pennsylvania Dutch butter popcorn and the saved seeds from last year.  I had white popcorn from the seed library and pink popcorn from West Coast Seeds last year.  We shall see what happens this year!

[Linea_Norway]

Disaster has hit me, veggy garden wise. I am back at our cabin. My kale only has bare stems left. The peas are gone. No beetroot and bean plants are seen. No potato has sprouted, or it has been eaten like all the rest. I suspect the squirrel(s). Only the celeriac, the herbs and the carrots are still there.

I was stupid to not cover the garden. We thought the area might not contain cabbage flies. I had even purchased see through curtains for the purpose. At least now I made bows from branches and put the curtains over them. Next time the squirrels has no chance, if it doesn't eat it's way through it, that is.

The kale had some tiny new leaves. I hope it will create a portion of leaves we can still harvest.
This was such a disappointment. I had hoped to harvest med first kale leaves and suger peas.

[FLBiker]

We're going to be away most of July, so no annuals this year.  We're relative n00bs to Nova Scotia gardening, having moved here from Florida in 2020.

Rhubarb has been great and is still going strong.  Blueberries and raspberries are coming.  Asparagus is probably a couple of years away -- we planted 10 crowns last year, and it seems like most if not all of them have taken, but my understanding is that we can't harvest them for a while.  Garlic is looking good and our scapes are curling.  Next year, I'm going to plant even more. :)

Oh, and most interestingly (with us being in Nova Scotia) our fig is all leafed out!  We bought a small one last year, and (per the seller's instruction) wintered it over in our unheated garage, without watering it.  I moved it out when things warmed up, and it didn't do anything.  I think I was too early, because it had a couple of chilly nights and didn't leaf out for another month.  Next year, I'll wait longer.

And, after last year's very minimal production, we abandoned our inherited strawberry patch.  It was too much work for too little fruit (but maybe our plants are old).

[GardenBaker]

Gardening is zone 9A and this heat wave is really stressing the plants. The only things thriving are okra, watermelons, pumpkins and black eye peas. I'm really glad to have the watermelons this year! It's not cheaper to grow my own, but they're over $7 in the grocery stores so I feel like it's a decent return on investment.

The tomatoes are done as well as the squash and herbs. The peppers are getting sunscald. I have more squash, cucumbers and tomatoes started in seed trays to set out in the garden in hopes they'll produce a fall crop for me.

[RetiredAt63]

We're going to be away most of July, so no annuals this year.  We're relative n00bs to Nova Scotia gardening, having moved here from Florida in 2020.

Rhubarb has been great and is still going strong.  Blueberries and raspberries are coming.  Asparagus is probably a couple of years away -- we planted 10 crowns last year, and it seems like most if not all of them have taken, but my understanding is that we can't harvest them for a while.  Garlic is looking good and our scapes are curling.  Next year, I'm going to plant even more. :)

Oh, and most interestingly (with us being in Nova Scotia) our fig is all leafed out!  We bought a small one last year, and (per the seller's instruction) wintered it over in our unheated garage, without watering it.  I moved it out when things warmed up, and it didn't do anything.  I think I was too early, because it had a couple of chilly nights and didn't leaf out for another month.  Next year, I'll wait longer.

And, after last year's very minimal production, we abandoned our inherited strawberry patch.  It was too much work for too little fruit (but maybe our plants are old).

If your asparagus does well this summer you can have a small harvest next spring.  Only take fat spears.  Make sure each plant still has at least 3 spears when you stop harvesting.  This was the third year for my asparagus, planted summer of 2020, and I had a small but delicious harvest.

You know to take the scapes off your garlic, eh?  Otherwise the plant puts too much energy into making bulbils and not enough into making bulbs.  The scapes are edible.

Strawberry beds usually are renewed every few years.  Take last year's babies and plant them in a new bed, or this year's babies if you can't tell which plants are last year's babies.  You have to cover the beds when the fruit is ripening or the chipmunks and robins will eat all the berries before you have a chance.  Really anchor the netting or both will sneak in at the sides.  I stopped growing strawberries years ago, and just go to the farmers market for them these days.

Ooh a fig tree!  I bought a hardy one once but my unheated garage was truly unheated, it didn't survive the first winter.  You are sooo lucky.

[FLBiker]

We're going to be away most of July, so no annuals this year.  We're relative n00bs to Nova Scotia gardening, having moved here from Florida in 2020.

Rhubarb has been great and is still going strong.  Blueberries and raspberries are coming.  Asparagus is probably a couple of years away -- we planted 10 crowns last year, and it seems like most if not all of them have taken, but my understanding is that we can't harvest them for a while.  Garlic is looking good and our scapes are curling.  Next year, I'm going to plant even more. :)

Oh, and most interestingly (with us being in Nova Scotia) our fig is all leafed out!  We bought a small one last year, and (per the seller's instruction) wintered it over in our unheated garage, without watering it.  I moved it out when things warmed up, and it didn't do anything.  I think I was too early, because it had a couple of chilly nights and didn't leaf out for another month.  Next year, I'll wait longer.

And, after last year's very minimal production, we abandoned our inherited strawberry patch.  It was too much work for too little fruit (but maybe our plants are old).

If your asparagus does well this summer you can have a small harvest next spring.  Only take fat spears.  Make sure each plant still has at least 3 spears when you stop harvesting.  This was the third year for my asparagus, planted summer of 2020, and I had a small but delicious harvest.

You know to take the scapes off your garlic, eh?  Otherwise the plant puts too much energy into making bulbils and not enough into making bulbs.  The scapes are edible.

Strawberry beds usually are renewed every few years.  Take last year's babies and plant them in a new bed, or this year's babies if you can't tell which plants are last year's babies.  You have to cover the beds when the fruit is ripening or the chipmunks and robins will eat all the berries before you have a chance.  Really anchor the netting or both will sneak in at the sides.  I stopped growing strawberries years ago, and just go to the farmers market for them these days.

Ooh a fig tree!  I bought a hardy one once but my unheated garage was truly unheated, it didn't survive the first winter.  You are sooo lucky.

Thanks!  Yep, I know about the scapes (and look forward to making pesto with them).  And we'll see if I'm lucky with the fig -- no fruit yet. :)  And I'm totally with you on getting strawberries from the farmer's market -- I just find them so much more work than raspberries and blueberries.  I've seen videos on building strawberries "towers" out of old pallets -- maybe once I've retired!

[YttriumNitrate]

Here in Northwest Indiana, it's been hot and dry for the past week or so, but so far most things seem to be doing well. Rain isn't expected for another week which means I'll be watering the annuals and recently planted perennials.

-As usual, the collard greens are doing wonderfully in my area.
-The pumpkins are growing, but still just producing male flowers.
-The pears are growing well, and a family of birds has taken up residence in the pear tree. Unfortunately, they appear to be robins rather than partridges.
-The recently grafted persimmon trees have put on a foot or more of growth. I'll probably be staking them soon so the weight doesn't tear off the graft union.
-The successful pawpaw grafts have a few inches of growth.
-My oldest persimmon and pawpaw trees have small fruits on them that appear to be doing well.

[YttriumNitrate]

Also, the blackberries are still quite green. I believe they usually start getting ripe around late July.

[tygertygertyger]

Yum, I love hearing about everyone's fruit trees and plants. Though, I was sorry @Linea_Norway to hear about your sad news!

This morning I ate the first five blueberries off one of my bushes - so good. The strawberries seem to be getting sad, and the berries they produce are odd looking. Probably I should have fertilized a second time or something, but strawberries aren't my favorite anyway.

Our serviceberries are all ripening! I had never had one before two weeks ago, and I've eaten a LOT since then. I've learned there's several large serviceberry trees near the back of the library, and I doubt anyone else eats them (besides the birds...) so if I need more, I know where to find them.

The cheap soil I bought has lots of weeds growing around all my plants. It's fine - just a minor nuisance - but I'll probably buy something else next time.

Something keeps climbing onto our patio table and knocking over my small cups where I'm growing butterfly weed. Something also is eating the strawberry plants themselves, and since they're in a raised wooden box, it can't be bunnies. (There is a truly dumb bunny that hangs out in our yard. He is not concerned about us humans. He has decided to become concerned about our large dog, but they actually run in circles around the pine trees like a silly comedy skit. Our dog likes running and chasing more than he likes grabbing and eating - so far).

Maybe it's chipmunks? I don't know.

It's been so hot here that we're hauling watering cans to my container garden on repeat (like 10-15 trips a day), but we're buying a new hose today to make that task easier.

Everything is going well at my partner's mom's garden. Although, the seedlings that I planted there were so small she couldn't tell where some of them were, and so she planted other things in those same spots. Totally fine with me - I'm not over there all the time, anyway, and her plants are more likely to survive than my tiny guys.

[Rosy]

This has been one of our best veggie and herb garden years ever. I've been harvesting non-stop for months. I keep thinking this will be the last and before I know it there is another batch of something to harvest.

PEPPERS - TOMATOES
Since we really like the peppers and tomatoes I grew this year I will try to save my own seeds for the first time.
Do you have any tips for how to save tomato seeds?

Even though I am in zone 10 my tomatoes and peppers are still hanging in there. Probably due to the fact that they are getting just a bit of shade from the passion flower vine. I may move them to a shadier spot and fertilize them...
But the rainy season has started so we'll see - the peppers may live a while longer but the tomatoes are on the way out.
I had a bumper crop this year - so I am not complaining at all.

HERBS
Everything but the basil grew fat and happy. Not one single basil variety survived in my garden this year. Odd.
OREGANO
The Oregano was epic this year and oh so good - so I am trying my best to grow some from cuttings and save some seed.
It tasted awesome - both fresh and dried.
TEA - Tropical fruity pineapple sage - the variegated one made oustanding tea and I managed to get and give away some cuttings.

PERENNIAL HERB and VEGGIES - SUCCESS!
I finally have enough garlic chives, onions and celery to use fresh all year long.
The plan for next year is to grow sweet potatoes, Red Russian Kale and try once more to grow Dinosaur Kale.

SPICES - PEPPERCORN
The newest addition to my garden is homegrown Peppercorns - black, red and white. They all come from the same plant, it just depends on when you harvest. Who knew it is a vine that likes it hot and humid?:)
It is going to town and I can't wait to fill my own pepper shaker with homegrown (sounds surreal) peppercorns.

PERENNIAL - CHAYA - SPINACH TREE
It looks like a pretty landscape plant. I'm still looking for more recipes and information and I'm hoping Mr. R. will like it.
Too small to eat yet, but they are growing fast.
Didn't realize there are two varieties - one has larger leaves than the other.
One of them should be ready to harvest in another two weeks - so far I found a couple of Asian recipes that sound quite tasty.

MORINGA
Our Moringa tree has proven to be a prolific self-seeder. I will let one of them stay and I'll try to move the others into pots with the thought that I may share and or possibly sell some along with the drumsticks (seed pods).
I think I like the flower clusters best, they smell lovely, look so pretty and make a lovely tea. I can't say that I like the taste of the fresh leaves, but I do use them in salads and soups and sauces when I think of it.
So far I just haven't found the time or energy to make my own Moringa powder but it is on my agenda for this summer. We'll see - if nothing else, I'm fine with the tea:). I am happy to have an extremely fast-growing, light shade tree - it helps in keeping the garden alive in the heat of summer.
It grew near 25 feet in three years - it is a columnar tree with rather fragile branches that break easy and sort of lacy, feathery small leaves - airy looking.
I know it is perfect for chop and drop but I just can't get myself to cut it ...

ROSEMARY
I really need to take some cuttings of the different varieties. The foxtail creeping Rosemary has the best aroma/taste of all.
A successful garden year for all my rosemary - I will try my best to keep it all alive and grow even more from cuttings.
I'm so glad to finally have several plants in the ground doing well instead of just in pots.

GINGER
The Shampoo ginger made a surprise comeback - so I am hoping to make my own lotion and shampoo - maybe this year.
The Butterfly ginger got top votes for scent in my FB regional garden group - so of course, I promptly got some of my own. Still small but doing well.

My edible ginger is in its third year and finally seems to be getting a bit stronger. It is nowhere near big fat and happy like some of the bushes I've seen on youtube. Maybe I should move it to a different spot?

WILD ELDERBERRIES in the habitat area
Producing like crazy - planning on making some elixir and liquor next week. There is plenty for both me and the birds:).

JIAOGULAN - also called Southern Ginseng although it is not a Ginseng at all and appears to have even better properties than Ginseng - is the one plant in my garden that I'm most excited about at the moment.
Medicinal tea and extract.

GARLIC VINE - How can something with such pretty lilac blooms be called garlic vine?
I stumbled across this one on Etsy. The leaves when crushed smell like garlic and the entire plant is both edible and also medicinal.
My kind of plant - fingers crossed it will like my garden. It is a perennial that makes a nice bushy border plant, just what I need.

Anyway, this is the latest plant edition, we'll see if it survives the summer.
I keep checking on it and it looks like it might need a slightly shadier spot.

Looks like everyone's garden is thriving:). Enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Here in zone ten, it is all about keeping the garden alive in summer, no more projects and very little planting.

I'm trying to finish up a mosaic project and one quickie painting project ... we'll see.
Even the hardiest of Zinnias appreciate some shade in this intense summer heat. I planted a new to me kind that turned out to be tall and beautiful. I may have to bring some blooms inside so I can enjoy their beauty.
The exotic Lobster Claw is in full bloom too, it certainly makes for an impressive tropical display.

[E.T.]

This was my first year attempting basil, peppers, cilantro, chives, and a few different native flowers from seeds. The few plants that actually germinated are still super tiny, so I don't think we'll get a good harvest from the edible ones. I need more practice with seeds I guess. I haven't figured out where things went wrong.

My hops are growing like crazy, we should get a good yield on those this year. Two of the four varieties are already producing a ton of cones, so harvest may come a bit early for some of them.

The native garden is doing well too, lots of new flowers blooming for the hot summer months. Haven't seen any monarchs on the milkweed yet but we have seen a few big tiger swallowtails.

[the_hobbitish]

I didn't realize yellow crooked neck squash produce like zucchinis. I only planted two and I'm giving bunches away. Does anyone know any good yellow squash recipes or sauces that freeze well or should I freeze them cubed for adding to soup or sauce?

[Captain Pierogi]

I didn't realize yellow crooked neck squash produce like zucchinis. I only planted two and I'm giving bunches away. Does anyone know any good yellow squash recipes or sauces that freeze well or should I freeze them cubed for adding to soup or sauce?

I had yellow crooked neck squash last year and just often used it alongside the zucchini in recipes.  I rely on this recipe to help me make a dent in my squash surplus, and it works well with yellow squash too.  I prefer it with the manchengo cheese option: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/simplest-zucchini-parmesan-pasta/

Spring plantings are winding up here in southern New England and summer is kicking into gear.  It's been a great growing season so far, partially due to weather and partially because I've just learned so much over the past few years that not only make for a better yield, but also more fun!  My teen rolls his eyes at me on the mornings I see open flowers on my zucchini and declare I need to go have "squash sex" to make sure pollination happens.

Snow peas - large harvest.  Just cut back vines.  Will turn under remaining into the soil this weekend to help build back nitrogen into the soil.
Garlic - soft neck has been harvested.  Small heads, but they seem to be curing fine.  Hardnecks should be ready within the week, maybe two.
Kale - was doing really well, and then the bunnies decided to relentlessly snack on them.  I'm leaving them in in hopes the bunnies will stay with the kale and not move on to other things.
Romaine - the most delicious heads of romaine lettuce.  Probably winding up this week.
Baby broccoli - my whim planting this spring went really well, although next time I need to plant more per square foot.  A small yield overall, but what I planted did well.
Regular broccoli - another bust year for a spring planting, as it bolted from the heat before getting a full head.  If I don't get a few good heads in the fall, I'm *dun* with broccoli.

Speaking of fall, I just started seeds indoors - more kale, romaine, broccoli, baby broccoli, and adding swiss chard.  I'll direct sew arugula and leaf lettuce.

Summer stuff is in high gear - cherry and plum tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, shallots, peppers, fairy tale eggplant, and a bunch of herbs.  I also have a fabric pot of potatoes going, another one of my whims when I had an organic potato from my local farm sprout eyes and thought, "I wonder if it will grow?"

This has been fun writing this all out.  And I love reading what you all are up to all over the globe!

[Linea_Norway]

@Rosy From what I have heard, tomato seeds need to be fermented. Put the tomato in a jar with a lid and put it on the window sil. Leave it for a week or so. Then put it trough a sieve and flush with water.  Dry the seeds.

[Linea_Norway]

This was my first year attempting basil, peppers, cilantro, chives, and a few different native flowers from seeds. The few plants that actually germinated are still super tiny, so I don't think we'll get a good harvest from the edible ones. I need more practice with seeds I guess. I haven't figured out where things went wrong.

My hops are growing like crazy, we should get a good yield on those this year. Two of the four varieties are already producing a ton of cones, so harvest may come a bit early for some of them.

The native garden is doing well too, lots of new flowers blooming for the hot summer months. Haven't seen any monarchs on the milkweed yet but we have seen a few big tiger swallowtails.

@E.T.
Peppers are best seded in January. Mine have grown nicely.
Basil gets best if you cut out the 2 biggest leaves only. Then the rest of the plant will split.
From chives I think you can cut them down to 5 cm/2 inch. But haven't tried myself yet.

[Rosy]

@Rosy From what I have heard, tomato seeds need to be fermented. Put the tomato in a jar with a lid and put it on the window sil. Leave it for a week or so. Then put it trough a sieve and flush with water.  Dry the seeds.

@Linea_Norway thanks:).

[E.T.]

This was my first year attempting basil, peppers, cilantro, chives, and a few different native flowers from seeds. The few plants that actually germinated are still super tiny, so I don't think we'll get a good harvest from the edible ones. I need more practice with seeds I guess. I haven't figured out where things went wrong.

My hops are growing like crazy, we should get a good yield on those this year. Two of the four varieties are already producing a ton of cones, so harvest may come a bit early for some of them.

The native garden is doing well too, lots of new flowers blooming for the hot summer months. Haven't seen any monarchs on the milkweed yet but we have seen a few big tiger swallowtails.

@E.T.
Peppers are best seded in January. Mine have grown nicely.
Basil gets best if you cut out the 2 biggest leaves only. Then the rest of the plant will split.
From chives I think you can cut them down to 5 cm/2 inch. But haven't tried myself yet.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!

[slackmax]

My oldest sugar snap pea plant  now has  three pods. The two other younger plants are growing nicely, no pods yet.   

Just planted some seeds from a store-bought green Bell pepper. Hoping for the best. 

[Frugal Lizard]

My trick for saving tomatoes seeds is to put some of the seeds when I am slicing a great tomato on the top of a yogurt lid. I write the type of tomato and then put it to cure in a safe place (safe from a tidy husband who gets grossed out by tomato goo on a plastic lid and cannot be bothered to contemplate why there is writing beside the drying tomato goo and chunks the whole lid or lid collection). After they are all dry, I peel off the seeds and wrap in a paper envelope with all the details transcribed from the lid.

My grandmother would put the first big tomato in the drive shed window. It would shrivel up to a little blob by the following spring.  She would rub it between her hands over a dish of potting soil.  Water. Cover with plastic and put on the fridge. Then she would pot up all the seeds that germinate and put them under grow lights. Fast and cheap.

[Weisass]

Posted a few photos from my garden elsewhere, so I thought I would share here, too.

Gardening in the midatlantic is going pretty nicely so far, aside from a bit of a planning error regarding spraying our fruit trees, which has resulted in most of our fruit failing to thrive. But as you can see, our Pear is coming along nicely, and the apple has some more fruit on it this year.  Our Fig tree in the back is positively BUSTING with a bumper crop.

Right now we are harvesting:
tail end of the blueberries (with wineberries, when I think to forage)
green beans upon green beans
the last week I think of snow peas, which are hanging on steady
herbs--parsley. basil
Chard under our cover
Garlic was pulled last week and is drying in the garage.

Looking ahead, the tomatoes are utterly decadent and covered in small fruits and blooms, and the peppers and eggplant are healthy. Potatoes are nearly done, and the cukes are climbing climbing climbing. I've started some fall plant starts, as well, and hope they will be ready for end of august transplant.

[E.T.]

Posted a few photos from my garden elsewhere, so I thought I would share here, too.

Gardening in the midatlantic is going pretty nicely so far, aside from a bit of a planning error regarding spraying our fruit trees, which has resulted in most of our fruit failing to thrive. But as you can see, our Pear is coming along nicely, and the apple has some more fruit on it this year.  Our Fig tree in the back is positively BUSTING with a bumper crop.

Right now we are harvesting:
tail end of the blueberries (with wineberries, when I think to forage)
green beans upon green beans
the last week I think of snow peas, which are hanging on steady
herbs--parsley. basil
Chard under our cover
Garlic was pulled last week and is drying in the garage.

Looking ahead, the tomatoes are utterly decadent and covered in small fruits and blooms, and the peppers and eggplant are healthy. Potatoes are nearly done, and the cukes are climbing climbing climbing. I've started some fall plant starts, as well, and hope they will be ready for end of august transplant.

Love the photos, your plants look great!

[Weisass]

Thanks, @E.T.
This year is doing pretty alright, if I do say so.
 

Posted a few photos from my garden elsewhere, so I thought I would share here, too.

Gardening in the midatlantic is going pretty nicely so far, aside from a bit of a planning error regarding spraying our fruit trees, which has resulted in most of our fruit failing to thrive. But as you can see, our Pear is coming along nicely, and the apple has some more fruit on it this year.  Our Fig tree in the back is positively BUSTING with a bumper crop.

Right now we are harvesting:
tail end of the blueberries (with wineberries, when I think to forage)
green beans upon green beans
the last week I think of snow peas, which are hanging on steady
herbs--parsley. basil
Chard under our cover
Garlic was pulled last week and is drying in the garage.

Looking ahead, the tomatoes are utterly decadent and covered in small fruits and blooms, and the peppers and eggplant are healthy. Potatoes are nearly done, and the cukes are climbing climbing climbing. I've started some fall plant starts, as well, and hope they will be ready for end of august transplant.

Love the photos, your plants look great!

[Linea_Norway]

Back from a 10 day vacation that turned into a 16 day away because of a pilot strike.
My plants at home survived, with some watering help from the neighbours.

The basil and lime stood indoors. The tiny kaffir lime standing in front of the window looked very good and fresh. The basil plants nearest to the window looked dried out. But the ones further back looked fresh. Today I harvested quite a few basil leaves from various plants.

One little microbush tomato that I sowed some weeks ago, I put one seedling in soil, and one seedling in water with nutritions, trying Kratky hydroponics. Both survived, but the one in soil is now bigger then the one without soil, standing in some leca rocks in a bottle of fluid.

My parsley in a little pot indoors in front of the window dried out. No problem. This was just old seed, sown for fun to see whether it still worked. It did.

My zuccinies have one very big zuccini, and a few minor ones. But relatively many ones that don't grow. I think natural pollination hasn't worked. I hope the flowers will open tomorrow, so that I can pollinate them manually.

My bell peppers and sweet peppers all have several green peppers. Some are even turning dark. I think this happens before they turn red. I harvested a few green peppers to be eaten tomorrow. Hopefully the rest can turn red before eating.

My Russian microbush tomato now has several yellow and orange tomatoes. But not yet red enough to eat. The large  biff tomato has a few beef tomatoes. I hung up some hooks today to support them in the future. It has reached to top of the tomato pot with growing racks. I think I will cut off the top soon to make it stop growing higher.

The lettuces, now 2 types, are growing well. But have been eaten partly by something else. The leaves have many small holes.

My potato plants are having tiny potatoes. Half of them are in a type of pot where I can see it from the side by lifting put the inside pot. But in the other pots where I planted them earlier, I need to feel them with my hands. Maybe I am motivated to try tomorrow.

DH's currants are getting red. They are covered by a netting.

The mint plants are doing well.

The chicories are growing big leaves. It is supposed to only form a solid root this summer. Then I will need to dig them out, put them together in a pot, store somewhere cool but not freezing, and then warm them up in the dark in January or so. Then they will grow white chicory leaves.

The rubarb that I sowed to plant at the cabin is growing well. I hope I can plant it this year and have it survive the cold winter there, covered by snow. The flowers that I plan to plant at the cabin are still small plants in pots at home. I stored them in outside the shadow, because the wouldn't grow so big yet at home.

DH's grapes enjoyed the warm weather and survied the little water.

My garlics are all growing flower bulbs. Not sure that was intented. They are supposed to be harvested at the end of July. But maybe I should test one tomorrow.

[E.T.]

Some of my hops feel just about ready to harvest. It's an early year I guess! One of the bines has a Japanese beetle problem, so I'm hoping the cones will develop ok despite the defoliation. Those cones are still a bit small.

My other edible plants are still tiny! I'll try again next year. I think I might try growing a pepper plant as a perennial, bringing it inside in the winter.

[Linea_Norway]

I am back at our cabin, with the vegetable garden that was partly eaten by mice most likely.
The caleriac has grown into massively big plants. I harvested the first carrots. The last few were tiny and I put them back.
I harvested a lot of herbs: mint, Russian dragon, thyme and sage. And a little rosmary.
The potato plants are still not so big. The potatoes here were planted the last.
I planted 2 rubarb plants that I cultivated at home. I hope they are hardy enough for the very cold climate. (-30C)
In the ruined part of the garden I found a few tiny beetroot plants. And one radish. The beetroots that I precultivated at home our gone. I sawed a lot, but there are now only 2. I didn't see any of the beans that I sawed later. I did see a small bitten off been plant. The kale was still bare, despite that I had covered the garden with a fine mazed curtain.

[tygertygertyger]

I started my squash seeds (winter and summer alike) in small pots, nicely labelled. But as they grew, I didn't keep track of which were which and so I planted the 3 survivors each in their own 10 gallon grow bag.

Now two of them have tendrils, and one doesn't, so I'm going to figure out a trellis for the two vining ones. Anyone know if growing winter squash (acorn or butternut) will need more room than a ten gallon bag? I can keep them fertilized, but I do have space for 1 plant in a raised bed if I need to move it there.

Otherwise, I'm gonna call it an experiment and we'll see how it goes. We bought a bunch of bags because we got so many potato starters, but then I started using them for my extra plants... admittedly this year is kind of a free-for-all.

[the_hobbitish]

Something probably chipmucks have taken a bite out of every bell pepper with a hint of color. I guess I'll be picking them green. I've lost most of the yellow squash to squash vine borers, but it looks like my pumpkins might make it. Its odd because they left the zucchini alone last year.

The sweet potatoes I'm growing on bamboo teepees are loving life. It should be a great crop this fall.

Not a huge harvest of summer things this year other than notes on what to do and not do next year.

[Cranky]

I started my squash seeds (winter and summer alike) in small pots, nicely labelled. But as they grew, I didn't keep track of which were which and so I planted the 3 survivors each in their own 10 gallon grow bag.

Now two of them have tendrils, and one doesn't, so I'm going to figure out a trellis for the two vining ones. Anyone know if growing winter squash (acorn or butternut) will need more room than a ten gallon bag? I can keep them fertilized, but I do have space for 1 plant in a raised bed if I need to move it there.

Otherwise, I'm gonna call it an experiment and we'll see how it goes. We bought a bunch of bags because we got so many potato starters, but then I started using them for my extra plants... admittedly this year is kind of a free-for-all.

I think the squash will be fine in bags because they focus on taking over the world with their vines.

I really did put little labels out when I planted squash, but they’ve been over run by now. LOL

The zucchini and cukes are pretty easy to identify and I think we’ve sorted out which are spaghetti squash and which are delicata. But I’m pretty sure there’s at least one butternut? There’s a couple of pumpkins in the front, and one at community garden #2, but maybe in in the big garden?

Dh has some small blue Hubbards at his community garden and is fretting because they haven’t set yet, but I think they are late.

The tomato avalanche is about a week away.