Harvested and ate the first cucumber today. Tomorrow we go on vacation; I've hired a local teenager to come and hand water the veggies and herbs - I sure hope she remembers to come every day!!
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
OR, Where you are at, you need watering everyday this year!
And Leeze, when we moved in here, the soil was horrible. It was like digging into concrete with a plastic spoon and about as fertile as drywall. It has taken years of amending with compost, coffee grounds and the like to get it rolling to a decent state. We've lived here for almost 16 years. It took us a good while to turn it around. It's good now!
That is good to hear! I think we are on a good way. We basically reclaimed the garden from what used to be a lawn that had not been tended for a couple of years. We have parts sandy, parts loamy and parts good dark soil. We added soil from a nursery to the beds and also added coffee grounds, ashes and leaves. So far, it looks good. It just needs time. And we have yet to make a compost. We shredded trees that we took down and made our own mulch. That stuff seems to be good. I am jealous of a cucumber! Ours are still in their infancy. But I love checking the garden every day to see what changed. I am most excited about the melon and pumpkin patch. Hopefully, at least one thing will grow there
Please, Pearl Jam, consider a Benaroya Hall vinyl reissue!
Basil in a large pot near our deck. Made pizza on the grill last night and topped it with fresh basil right after it came off the BBQ. Tasted like (but not exactly) pizza from Bologna we got on the way home from the PJ show in 2006! Ummmm. Nice with a Chianti Classico Riserva!
So much squash! Lots of cucumbers, 2 watermelons, a few peppers. Corn is doing good. My one tomato plant is about 7 feet tall right now, I'm having a hard time keeping it under control.
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
So much squash! Lots of cucumbers, 2 watermelons, a few peppers. Corn is doing good. My one tomato plant is about 7 feet tall right now, I'm having a hard time keeping it under control.
So no watercumbers? Glad it worked!
My tomatoes are the same and I'm swimming in green beans right now.
We finally got some rain last night, which was awesome for the garden. This morning, everything seems larger and more fit. We got about five watermelons coming, which I am thrilled about because I never grw them before. All the cucumbers are starting to get bigger and bigger. I got two weird varieties this time around, one is a fuzzy Italian kind and the other one is a lemon ball cucumber. Tomatoes are all carrying fruit, but the yield was not too overwhelming so far. Zucchini and squash, and also the beans are doing good.And we have a pumpkin! It gets visibly bigger everyday, this is awesome. I would say, we have a D-cup by now
Please, Pearl Jam, consider a Benaroya Hall vinyl reissue!
I can't post pics of my cucumbers...I might get banned.
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
Nice beans, Deadend! I have edamame coming. I hope the Japanese beetles will leave some stuff. I put a bucket next to the plants that has water and dead Japanese beetles in them to deter them. They already pretty much destroyed my pretty elderberry and did some good damage to cherry trees as well. Fuckers. We tried Neem oil, but somehow we gert no results. We don't really want to use chemicals. We might for the cherries though. The trees are still small and in the front, so nowehere close by the garden...
Please, Pearl Jam, consider a Benaroya Hall vinyl reissue!
Nice beans, Deadend! I have edamame coming. I hope the Japanese beetles will leave some stuff. I put a bucket next to the plants that has water and dead Japanese beetles in them to deter them. They already pretty much destroyed my pretty elderberry and did some good damage to cherry trees as well. Fuckers. We tried Neem oil, but somehow we gert no results. We don't really want to use chemicals. We might for the cherries though. The trees are still small and in the front, so nowehere close by the garden...
Just don't use beetle traps. Those draw them in and make the problem 10x worse. We had that one year. We would spray our tree down a few times a day with water and they would fly out in swarms!
I'm with you with chemicals. We are chemical free here. Have to be. We're a designated Monarch Waystation, so we can't use chemicals on anything here. That's fine. We're good with it.
Just don't use beetle traps. Those draw them in and make the problem 10x worse. We had that one year. We would spray our tree down a few times a day with water and they would fly out in swarms!
I'm with you with chemicals. We are chemical free here. Have to be. We're a designated Monarch Waystation, so we can't use chemicals on anything here. That's fine. We're good with it.
Hm, we set one trap out yesterday, now I am reading your advice. We will see. The bag hangs on the opposite site of the garden. The bucket seems to work well with the beans. The cherries and the elderberry and the roses have gotten sprayed. I wish the birds would like them more.
Next year, we will interplant some deterring plants between the vegetables. There is some good stuff that you can do.
What I am most excited about right now is my watermelons. I have never grown them before and I am so stoked about seeing the fruits pop up. They grow so fast! I can almost see a difference from morning to evening. We will soon drown in them haha
Please, Pearl Jam, consider a Benaroya Hall vinyl reissue!
We had a monarch fluttering through the milkweed yesterday LAYING EGGS! We're going to have caterpillar babies soon!
That is awesome! I had to put my milkweed seeds in twice, the first time the squirrels or something ate the fresh buds. Now they are about a handwidth tall, no blooms yet. But I hope they come in time
Please, Pearl Jam, consider a Benaroya Hall vinyl reissue!
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.
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
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!"
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
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.
Please, Pearl Jam, consider a Benaroya Hall vinyl reissue!
I would take a pic of my watermelon, but they are wearing pantyhose at the moment...
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
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.
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
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.
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
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?
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
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.
Anything you lose from being honest You never really had to begin with.
Sometimes it's not the song that makes you emotional it's the people and things that come to your mind when you hear it.
Comments
And Leeze, when we moved in here, the soil was horrible. It was like digging into concrete with a plastic spoon and about as fertile as drywall. It has taken years of amending with compost, coffee grounds and the like to get it rolling to a decent state. We've lived here for almost 16 years. It took us a good while to turn it around. It's good now!
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
Wish I could eat our strawberries. Damn birds keep stealing them
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
Made pizza on the grill last night and topped it with fresh basil right after it came off the BBQ.
Tasted like (but not exactly) pizza from Bologna we got on the way home from the PJ show in 2006! Ummmm.
Nice with a Chianti Classico Riserva!
You never really had to begin with.
Sometimes it's not the song that makes you emotional it's the people and things that come to your mind when you hear it.
- Christopher McCandless
My tomatoes are the same and I'm swimming in green beans right now.
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
- Christopher McCandless
Nice beans, Deadend! I have edamame coming. I hope the Japanese beetles will leave some stuff. I put a bucket next to the plants that has water and dead Japanese beetles in them to deter them. They already pretty much destroyed my pretty elderberry and did some good damage to cherry trees as well. Fuckers. We tried Neem oil, but somehow we gert no results. We don't really want to use chemicals. We might for the cherries though. The trees are still small and in the front, so nowehere close by the garden...
I'm with you with chemicals. We are chemical free here. Have to be. We're a designated Monarch Waystation, so we can't use chemicals on anything here. That's fine. We're good with it.
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
Next year, we will interplant some deterring plants between the vegetables. There is some good stuff that you can do.
What I am most excited about right now is my watermelons. I have never grown them before and I am so stoked about seeing the fruits pop up. They grow so fast! I can almost see a difference from morning to evening. We will soon drown in them haha
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
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!"
- Christopher McCandless
2016: Lexington and Wrigley 1
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.
- Christopher McCandless
Mine are this size now, minus the heirloom, which is still teensy.
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.
- Christopher McCandless
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.
- Christopher McCandless
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?
- Christopher McCandless
You never really had to begin with.
Sometimes it's not the song that makes you emotional it's the people and things that come to your mind when you hear it.