***What's growing? The official garden thread***

oftenreading

Got back from two weeks away to find my blueberry patch swimming in blueberries, about half of which are ripe, so I had a blueberry feast yesterday and more for breakfast. Yum.

RKCNDY

So far so good...2 watermelons, at least 6 butternut squash, some peppers, LOTS of cucumbers, and I don't know about the tomatoes...

Anywho, it was 'night out' last night where people gather in the streets to get to know neighbors, like a crime watch party. Kinda funny,they never had a good turn out in previous years, but this year they posted flyers at everybody's house, and we had 30-40 people...we all recognized everybody not by house color, but by our gardens. "I'm the one growing sunflowers and corn" "oh yeah! I'm the guy growing that big pumpkin!"

deadendp

Neighboring by gardening. I love it!

Leezestarr313

I harvested my first Bari cucumber and lemon cucumber yesterday. The watermelons are all way under way, which I love! and I think I spotted finally a baby fruit on my Moon and stars heirloom watermelon. Cannot wait to see how that one turns out! Our harvest is still kind of small, but we are getting there. The other yellow things are heirloom tomatoes. They are pretty delicious.


The Bari is a melon type cucumber. It has a soft fuzz around that rubs off. It is a very mild and crispy cucumber, I like it a lot! The lemon cuke has spikes on it which come off as well. I think I got them just in the right time, there were not too many seeds in there and it also tasted fabulous.
Here's what they look like on the inside. Bari on the left, lemon cuke on the right.

RKCNDY

I would take a pic of my watermelon, but they are wearing pantyhose at the moment...

Leezestarr313

Haha! I saw that people do this. Is it necessary?

Mine are this size now, minus the heirloom, which is still teensy.

RKCNDY

The stockings help keep the bugs away, keeps the fruit off the ground so it doesn't get soft spots, and ripen evenly.

I've never grown watermelon, so it's just to see what happens. My melons are trelised to keep them under control and of course the first one is on the top, if I didn't support it, the melon would break off.

RKCNDY

My corn has tassled and silked...

tasseling



the tassels appear, after about 3 days, the silks will appear then the tassels open and pollen falls to pollenate the silks, each strand of 'silk' is what produces each kernel of corn.

silks



the corn is grows within the stalk...the bulge under the silks is where you can feel the cob forming.

so 2 about 2 weeks from silking, the cobs will be fully formed, but since I'm growing flint corn, I have to wait another 4 weeks to pick it.

My tomato plants are going crazy, they are 7' tall. Sunflowers are taller than me now. Squash and watermelon doing great as well.

RKCNDY

we had a huge windstorm while I was on vacation-47 MPH winds...so I came back to most of my corn being blown over and the sunflowers were leaning over as well. Doesn't help that both are shallow root plants.

I staked them all and most seem to have survived, the sunflowers still bloomed and the corn seems to be still alive. My squash plant died, and I came away with 7 nice butternuts that we will be using throughout the winter, maybe I will try my hand at making soup.

I only got 2 watermelons, they are kind of small, but I will save the seeds and see what happens next year.

Lots of cucumbers and peppers though. More tomatoes than I know what to do with...I already froze 5 pounds of them for sauce in the winter. Do I let the plants die off? Will they come back next year? do I have to replant seeds?

northerndragon

With all of the plants you mentioned above you will have to save some seed and replant next year. I don't even think the greenhouse will save them, my sister lives in Nanaimo and she never has tomatoes survive the winter.

Leezestarr313

They do not come back, pull them out and put them away from the beds. If there was blight or something on them it can survive in the soil and come back next year.

We found out why our garden wasn't doing so well this year. We watered with softened water. Must have been too salty after a while. Now we have a second spout, but it is kind of too late. However, we still get beans, soy beans, tomatoes and herbs. Our potato yield was pretty good too.

Three of my melons have split open after heavy sudden rain. Now I have two big ones left, a medium one still growing and some baby ones here and there. I hope at least one of them makes it into our stomachs. We also harvested the pumpkin. It's not a giant, but a good child head size.

And we still got carrots, kohlrabi, savoy cabbage and kale coming. And a butternut squash.

The only thing that did and still does really well is the wildflower patch. Even the hummingbirds go in there and check the blooms out. Such an amazing sight.

Next year is gonna be better.

RKCNDY

northerndragon said:

With all of the plants you mentioned above you will have to save some seed and replant next year. I don't even think the greenhouse will save them, my sister lives in Nanaimo and she never has tomatoes survive the winter.

you just reminded me I need to go visit Nanaimo...some bakery out there makes the original Nanaimo bars.

northerndragon

You can go on a nanaimo bar tour there. There's like 27 stops or something like that. I don't know if you do bbq but if you do hit up a place called Smokin' George's BBQ, it is fantastic eating.

deadendp

RKCNDY said:

we had a huge windstorm while I was on vacation-47 MPH winds...so I came back to most of my corn being blown over and the sunflowers were leaning over as well. Doesn't help that both are shallow root plants.

I staked them all and most seem to have survived, the sunflowers still bloomed and the corn seems to be still alive. My squash plant died, and I came away with 7 nice butternuts that we will be using throughout the winter, maybe I will try my hand at making soup.

I only got 2 watermelons, they are kind of small, but I will save the seeds and see what happens next year.

Lots of cucumbers and peppers though. More tomatoes than I know what to do with...I already froze 5 pounds of them for sauce in the winter. Do I let the plants die off? Will they come back next year? do I have to replant seeds?

You can paper wrap the tomatoes to put up for winter. Paper wrap them and line them in a box with holes, but one that can be closed to shut light out. You have to check them every week or so. If you don't and one ripens, it will ripen the entire bunch. I did it once with Brandywine tomatoes. I had tomatoes through January that year.

RKCNDY

deadendp said:

RKCNDY said:

we had a huge windstorm while I was on vacation-47 MPH winds...so I came back to most of my corn being blown over and the sunflowers were leaning over as well. Doesn't help that both are shallow root plants.

I staked them all and most seem to have survived, the sunflowers still bloomed and the corn seems to be still alive. My squash plant died, and I came away with 7 nice butternuts that we will be using throughout the winter, maybe I will try my hand at making soup.

I only got 2 watermelons, they are kind of small, but I will save the seeds and see what happens next year.

Lots of cucumbers and peppers though. More tomatoes than I know what to do with...I already froze 5 pounds of them for sauce in the winter. Do I let the plants die off? Will they come back next year? do I have to replant seeds?

You can paper wrap the tomatoes to put up for winter. Paper wrap them and line them in a box with holes, but one that can be closed to shut light out. You have to check them every week or so. If you don't and one ripens, it will ripen the entire bunch. I did it once with Brandywine tomatoes. I had tomatoes through January that year.

wait, like green tomatoes? they don't go mushy?

deadendp

Nope. They don't go mushy. Wrap each tomato separately in newspaper. Place them in a bottom of a box (no more than 2 layers of tomatoes) and make sure the box has holes. Check tomatoes once a week or so for ripening. Pull those that are ripening out and eat. I swear that it works.

RKCNDY

deadendp said:

Nope. They don't go mushy. Wrap each tomato separately in newspaper. Place them in a bottom of a box (no more than 2 layers of tomatoes) and make sure the box has holes. Check tomatoes once a week or so for ripening. Pull those that are ripening out and eat. I swear that it works.

wow, that's awesome...I have a bunch of cherry tomatoes...wrapping those little guys is gonna suck.

deadendp

I did cherry tomatoes in paper egg cartons and just went ahead and placed those in a bigger holey box to make sure that it was dark, but that they still got air. Worked just fine!

RKCNDY

I will try the egg carton trick!

My sunflowers are somewhat recovering from the windstorm...they have wonky, bent stalks. I see lots of bees around them when I go out to water.

Can't wait for the corn to dry out so I can bring them in.

Leezestarr313

I checked on my watermelons today. They have not considerably grown more in a while, but thankfully also didn't rot. The tendrils closes to the fruit were dry and it sounded hollowish, so I cut them off the vine now. I still have baby heirlooms and one more regular watermelon happily sitting in the patch, but I don't have much hope for them, it is just getting too cold. Now I am super excited, but also hesitant to cut them open I never grew them before, I want them to be good! Ah! Maybe tomorrow for breakfast... Manwhile, the kale is coming back, finally recovering from the caterpillar madness earlier in summer, and the carrots and beans are still doing great.