Are your gardens producing?

[findingZzero]

Are you seriously growing mangoes?

Now that's funny. And, no.

 

[jblomenberg16]

Ever thought about seasoning and grilling instead? One of my favorite summer grill vegetables is zucchini...


My garden is doing great!

Zucchini: I had some seed issues with my zucchini and didn't realize it until it was too late, by the time I got replacement seeds and got them going I was on the back end; my zucchini is just now blooming
Tomatoes: I've been eating tomatoes for a little over a week now, they are delicious... My early-girl plants are about 6 feet tall now, my roma's have put on most of their crop and are now bulking/ripening (I may try for a 2nd crop of roma's this year).
Potatoes look great, the ground is bulging up pretty good over the top so I know they are bulking up well under-ground.
Lettuce is about at it's end due to the heat but we'll enjoy it while we can.
Onions are doing great, some baseball size and needing covered up already.
Garlic: never know until you dig it, plants are looking great.
Peppers: anemic but putting on peppers. I think I'm going to change my pepper strategy for next year. I'm going to seed them in 6" pots indoors MUCH sooner so that when I transplant outdoors they are much larger and have a better head-start. I would love to make some home-made salsa, I have the tomatoes and onions, but no peppers ready yet...
2nd crop carrots are just popping up now
Sweet-peas: had some rabbit problems that got my early planting of peas so I'm just now getting peas
Green-beans: early planting is almost to the point of harvest, 2nd planting is blooming, and 3rd planting isn't too far behind 2nd.
Basil: forgot to plant it until a few weeks ago, oops. It's coming on though, and I have no shortage of frozen basil from previous years.
Walking onions: This is my first year with walking onions, I don't know how they will work out but we'll see. When I got them last fall it was too late to plant them and they got misplaced over winter so they got planted late...

We prepare it many different ways...boiled, grilled, steamed on the grill, and even a parmesan pan fried recipe which is really yummy. We have so much zucchini that we try to do it different ways so as not to become bored with it.

 

[CountryBoy19]

We prepare it many different ways...boiled, grilled, steamed on the grill, and even a parmesan pan fried recipe which is really yummy. We have so much zucchini that we try to do it different ways so as not to become bored with it.

Ah, ok... so what do you do to it when you boil it? I was just thinking it sounds so bland and unappetizing but it can't be that bad if you've done it all those other ways and still find boiling it palatable.

 

[mom45]

Saute it with butter, onion, green pepper, etc. Cook for just two to three minutes and then add some wedged tomatoes and cover...cook another minute. Use whatever seasonings you like. This is a favorite here. Some bacon crumbles would be good in it as well.

I also do zucchini patties with sausage added to them....yummy!

 

[jblomenberg16]

Ah, ok... so what do you do to it when you boil it? I was just thinking it sounds so bland and unappetizing but it can't be that bad if you've done it all those other ways and still find boiling it palatable.

We basically boil it up like you would green beans, or broccoli or cauliflower...just boil with some butter. It is a little bland, but the kids love it!

Saute it with butter, onion, green pepper, etc. Cook for just two to three minutes and then add some wedged tomatoes and cover...cook another minute. Use whatever seasonings you like. This is a favorite here. Some bacon crumbles would be good in it as well.


I also do zucchini patties with sausage added to them....yummy!

That is similar to what we do on the grill...butter over it with some potatoes added in and a little olive oil. Will have to try the sausage and bacon idea!

 

[djl02]

Canned 5 quarts of hot peppers and picked atleast 5 red tomatos

 

[jblomenberg16]

Snapped a photo tonight after I was done weeding. The Squash and Zucchini plants are over waist high right now.

 

[djl02]

Got some big canelopes already, so much water, hope they don't pop, tators are doing good too

 

[DarkRose]

The kid wanted to do a garden again this year... Got started (indoors) early, but put out late, so that hurt a lot of the seedlings... Just have a little 4x8 raised bed.

Peppers are doing decent, putting on blooms (Thai Hot, Serrano Chili, and Dwarf Bell)

Onions are sprouting (from seed, the ones from indoors didn't make it)

Carrots are sprouting as well (multi-colored, from seed, indoor plants didn't make it for those either)


Rabbits are ridiculous, about to get a good pellet gun and go to war. Jumped a groundhog in my backyard a couple weeks ago, me and him both had a surprised WTF? moment...

 

[woodwalker]

My garden is producing lots of weeds

 

[sugarcreekbrass]

My wife has gotten a lot of lettuce, asparagus, strawberries, beets, jalapeños already. Has some jalapeño poppers on the grill this evening. She canned 13 quarts of green beans too. Red and yellow peppers aren't looking good. Tomatoes and cucumbers are coming along.

 

[jblomenberg16]

Dug about 1/3 of our potatoes today, and filled a 5 gallon bucket with several nice spuds of all sizes. The ground was so soft from the recent rains it made it easy. Picked about 2 dozen zucchini and squash. Found a few that I must have missed last week that had grown to over 2' long and were getting close to 4" in diameter.

Also picked a bunch of green beans. After 3 plants I had filled the large 1 gallon bowl my wife had given me. Some of the beans were already over ripe and soft, and some well over 6" long. Still have 20+ more plants to pick this week. My wife doesn't can, so we might give freezing a try.

The rain has been a curse to a lot of people, including many local farmers. But it has blessed me with a bountiful harvest in our garden!

 

[churchmouse]

Cucumbers galore, onions, lettuce.
Potatoes are not ready but the plants are huge. I had to add more cages for the tomato plants.

 

[pudly]

Started my garden moderately late, so I'm only now seeing significant production. Unfortunately, my lettuce has already bolted due to the early hot weather.

Cucumbers have been coming along well. Already packed 5 jars of pickles and more to come. I've found that the pickling cucumbers do very well in salads as well. Not much reason to go with full-sized cucumbers.

My Mexican Midget tomatoes have been the first to ripen and two others (cherry and lemon boy) have fruit that hasn't started ripening yet.

Broccoli heads are coming along nicely and the brussel sprouts plants are looking healthy. I have a single eggplant that is doing well with its first couple of fruit growing now.

I've planted three fruit trees and will be planting more in the fall. Serious fruit production will likely be about three years away.

 

[churchmouse]

Started my garden moderately late, so I'm only now seeing significant production. Unfortunately, my lettuce has already bolted due to the early hot weather.

Cucumbers have been coming along well. Already packed 5 jars of pickles and more to come. I've found that the pickling cucumbers do very well in salads as well. Not much reason to go with full-sized cucumbers.

My Mexican Midget tomatoes have been the first to ripen and two others (cherry and lemon boy) have fruit that hasn't started ripening yet.

Broccoli heads are coming along nicely and the brussel sprouts plants are looking healthy. I have a single eggplant that is doing well with its first couple of fruit growing now.

I've planted three fruit trees and will be planting more in the fall. Serious fruit production will likely be about three years away.

Wishing we had the room for a few fruit trees.

 

[pudly]

Wishing we had the room for a few fruit trees.

You might be able to. I'm only working with a small area of land for food production but am creating a mini-orchard. I'm putting in a total of six fruit/berry trees. They are all semi-dwarf and I'll be pruning them so that they do not grow beyond 8' tall with 10' between them. You can time pruning to stimulate additional branching/growth, which I will do early on or to control growth, which I will do when the trees mature. This will allow me to shape and maintain them so that I can easily reach the fruit and help them grow into more of a "bushy" form. Keeping them at the same height means that none of them will be able to shade out the others. You can use "self-fertile" breeds which allow you to have only single fruit trees or put in complementary breeds which will cross-fertilize and increase production. I intend to start raising chickens next year and they will spend at least part of their time underneath those trees, so the area will have multiple functions.

 

[CountryBoy19]

The rain has been a curse to a lot of people,

I have a love/hate relationship with the rain this year...

Even with daconil I can't seem to keep the early blight away from my Tom's... it's ravaging the plants right now. Good news is the Romas are all starting to ripen so after my main harvest I can lose them and try again with crop #2 if that's what it comes down to...

My Sweet 100 cherry tom's are blight resistant and they seem to be doing quite well (only showing mild signs). Early Girl Tom's have been kicking out some nice slicers...

I'll probably make some salsa this week.

My peppers have also improved a little except for 2 of 12 plants.


That being said, I discovered a "new" to me easy way of tying up my tomato plants that escape my cage. I use a "linear" caging system made up of cattle panels & t-posts but this will work on just about any cage system and possibly on some post/pole systems.

Rather than mess with tying strings or bending wires, just go to Menards/Rural King/etc and buy a pack of T-post clips (pic below). They are pre-bent wire in a "U" shape that can just be stuck around the stem in a few places and hooked over the wires of the cage to support the stem that has escaped the cage and fallen to the ground. Keeping the plants off the ground helps with blight because the fungus that causes it is soil-borne...

 

[starbreather]

Garden

I have been able to can 100 quarts of green beans and I pickled a few quarts, if it dries out I am going to mow them down; I can't do anymore but the neighbors have. I can't even begin to count the blueberries, I have picked a gallon freezer bag about every 3 days for the last month. I have gotten several zuchinni's, yellow squash, green onions. My spaghetti squash are coming on like gang busters, but I have had several rot on the vine. I tried to raise the rest off the ground, but only time will tell. I have been able to make several quarts of dill pickles. My peppers have drowned along with my canteloupe, water melons. I hope the blight is easy on my tomatoes: super sweet 100, romas, black krim, and pear. I have several sunflowers that are 12+ feet tall, plan to feed the chickens with 'em. I did get several heads of broccoli earlier this summer.

 

[jblomenberg16]

Sounds like lots of good progress this year for everyone!


Speaking of fruit trees, our neighbor has an apple tree with lots of fruit. Not sure of the type of apples (green) but they are awesome for making applesauce, apple pie, etc. They aren't sweet enough to eat, but with a little sugar are great for cooking.

 

[Zoub]

View attachment 39920

Say hello to my Lil' friend! Earlier this year while organizing the garage and shop a partial bag of these pop up. I stare at them and then put that bag in a special place. I have been using them in various ways. They are the new thing for my 2015.

Courthouse: For inspiration Google images for espalier fruit trees. How to grow fruit in small places and make summer shade.