The 2014 Get Dirt Under Your Fingernails Thread

[88GT]

Watering in the morning helps too as it dries during the day and doesn't sit on the plant at night.

 

[bwframe]

I fight blight of one sort or another every year. I cannot readily move the tomato location to get away from last year's microorganisms (or whatever they are called.) I've been semi-successful at holding off the blight with bottom pruning, mounded rows, mulching and separating the plants more, but always get it sooner or later.

This year, I've put a calendar reminder to Daconil weekly (along with the feed and wash rotation.) Hopefully this routine will prove successful.

I started saving egg shells tonight. They normally go in the compost, but I'll work them into the tomato roots from above by sneaking them under the mulch.

Thanks for the tips folks!

 

[CindyE]

Still enjoying asparagus and lettuce. Some lettuce is bolting, i'm going to pull them, keep planting a little at a time and try to keep it going. Finally starting to get some sugar snap peas. Corn and beans coming up, as well as zucchini and cucumbers. Tomatoes and peppers a little small but doing ok. Onions doing good.
I didn't plant any this year, but I never seem to have good luck with cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I try to stay organic, sometimes we get lots of worms, the broccoli is always small and/or bolts. Don't know what it is I do wrong! I don't have much luck with melon or winter squashes either. Any tips?

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

When I first started to garden, I was most interested in learning how to grow the vegetables that I had a taste for. After many years, that slowly changed until I hit the point where I decided it might be easier to work on developing a taste for the vegetables that are easy to grow.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

I didn't plant any this year, but I never seem to have good luck with cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I try to stay organic, sometimes we get lots of worms, the broccoli is always small and/or bolts. Don't know what it is I do wrong! I don't have much luck with melon or winter squashes either. Any tips?

Those are pretty sensitive to heat, sun and moisture swings. I think it all boils down to length-of-day more than anything, get that right and the rest takes care of itself. It always amazes me that after I've cut the last of 50-60 heads of broccoli & cauliflower, I'll swing by the store and see people buying starts. Another important thing about broccoli is knowing when to cut it. If you intend to preserve it, blanching & freezing is my preference. Blanching must be done with FIRM heads, not the slightest bit loose in the process of bolting. It's not uncommon for us to cut 6-10 heads a day, skip a day, cut 5 more, skip a day and then cut 20. It's kind of the opposite of how we pick other things that usually ripen heavily at first and then trickle off, broccoli seems to trickle into perfection.

When you're growing broccoli in bulk, you've got to factor in the logistics of trucking it from the garden to the kitchen!

 

[horsehaulin]

I drive an International 9400i with an ISX, I always have dirt under my nails, lol!

As for the garden, the wife planted it, I just till it for her.

 

[mom45]

Those are pretty sensitive to heat, sun and moisture swings. I think it all boils down to length-of-day more than anything, get that right and the rest takes care of itself. It always amazes me that after I've cut the last of 50-60 heads of broccoli & cauliflower, I'll swing by the store and see people buying starts. Another important thing about broccoli is knowing when to cut it. If you intend to preserve it, blanching & freezing is my preference. Blanching must be done with FIRM heads, not the slightest bit loose in the process of bolting. It's not uncommon for us to cut 6-10 heads a day, skip a day, cut 5 more, skip a day and then cut 20. It's kind of the opposite of how we pick other things that usually ripen heavily at first and then trickle off, broccoli seems to trickle into perfection.

When you're growing broccoli in bulk, you've got to factor in the logistics of trucking it from the garden to the kitchen!

I need a cute little driver like that to help in my garden! That is great!

 

[silentvoice71]

I don't have a big yard and I live in the city so urban gardening is my friend. I try and use any and every space I can. Plant high yield plants and 1 experiment plant. I've had bad luck with cucumbers lol

 

[88GT]

Ah! Another satisfying "day" in the garden. Just hilled some potatoes. Sadly, only had about 75% of the potatoes break ground. This is the first year I haven't had close to 100% of what I planted come up. Not a huge problem, I planted more this year so total numbers probably aren't going to be that different. It's just disappointing.

Everything is looking just mah-velous, especially after the rain event(s). They were in desperate need of water and I was getting to the point of having to "truck" it in from the kitchen faucet. Thankfully, Mother Nature came to the rescue.

One of the cauliflower's had a small head. The other is larger, but has no head. But this is an experimental year for cauliflower. Broccoli are large but nothing forming yet. I did try to swat down and exterminate a cabbage moth that I saw flitting near it. No luck. That's okay, the cabbage worms make good eats for the chickens. Peas are flowering. I just hope they can produce before the weather gets too hot. I hated having to put them in late this year. Peppers are in various states of success. They are small though. Some were budding and I had to pinch those buds off. I'll probably fertilize over the weekend or next week to give them a little extra something-something. Brussel sprouts are doing well....I think. It's my first year for the sprouts. I have no idea what I'm doing with them.

Corn, zucchini, acorn squash, and sweet potatoes are just a-growing. Tomatoes are flowering. This is my first year with determinate varieties so it's a little odd to see flowers on plants that small. Eggplants look great. The green beans that made it past the critical stage with the roly poly bugs are doing great. But I'm going to have to re-plant a few areas. Who knew roly polys could be so disastrous to a garden? Time for another round of diatomaceous earth, I guess.

Stupid dog pulled an herb pot off the ledge and destroyed it. "It" being the pot and the plant. Grrrrr. So I moved the other ones into the fenced area of the garden to keep them safe.

So now I impatiently wait for the ripening.

I love gardening.

 

[silentvoice71]

80gr I am jealous of your garden lol. Wish I had the space for a bigger one!

 

[teddy12b]

Last night we had a salad from the garden. Later my wife made some chips from kale and they were awesome.

 

[88GT]

80gr I am jealous of your garden lol. Wish I had the space for a bigger one!

Thanks. But I'm blessed with having a double lot. The property line is about where the garden fence is. I would have no backyard at all if we didn't. And I have to control the urge to plant more.

 

[GLOCKMAN23C]

Here's what I've got going this year, so far its really looking good!

 

[teddy12b]

Our garden took off way beyond our expectations. We've never done a good job of getting a garden going and this year after all the work building the beds and filling them with dirt we probably planted way too many plants in that space expecting that not all of the plants would make it. Well..... the veggies are alive and well. At this point I'm just going to be mowing around wherever the garden spills over into the yard until after harvest time. I apologize for the terrible quality of the photos.

 

[88GT]

Our garden took off way beyond our expectations. We've never done a good job of getting a garden going and this year after all the work building the beds and filling them with dirt we probably planted way too many plants in that space expecting that not all of the plants would make it. Well..... the veggies are alive and well. At this point I'm just going to be mowing around wherever the garden spills over into the yard until after harvest time. I apologize for the terrible quality of the photos.

I'm excited for you. IIRC, you were fighting a big wet drainage issue last year and had, if I may, horrible results. It feels good to see it going like gang-busters, doesn't it?

I found a pic I took of this year's garden on May 27. I am waiting for some sun to snap another one ASAP. The 30-day (and then some) comparison is, well, ridiculous. I swear the corn has grown a foot in just the last week.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

I gave my mother a VINE RIPENED softball sized tomato for her birthday yesterday, surprised I met that goal this year but I retained the title of "Favorite Son" for another year.

We canned 49 quarts of green beans last week, should be due for the next batch by Monday. Wife froze 8 loaves of zucchini bread so far. We put up a couple 5 gallon buckets of sweet onions last week and started test-digging potatoes, should be 350# by the time it's all in. Dehydrated 40 trays of home grown veggies & store-bought fruits over the weekend. With any luck, 400 ears of sweet corn will come off Saturday along with over 100 bell peppers & half-bushel of jalepenos. I've taken 5 days off work to make sure we can get it all put up at it's peak.

It looks like we'll have a ridiculous amount of watermelons, cantaloupes & pumpkins this year. I planted 4 times what we needed (had the space & the seed) and it's all producing twice as heavy as I'm used too. I've been growing them for many years and I've never seen growth and blooms quite like this. I don't know what we're going to do with all that fruit but it's a lot of fun watching the vines grow 12-18" a day! They like the water!

 

[teddy12b]

Yeah last year we planted the garden in a low area that we didn't know collected water. We hadn't lived there long enough to have known that's where a lot of water ran off to and would just set. We also did a half hearted attempt at putting the garden in to begin with. It was really quick and dirty using those seed tapes on a night when my wife was mad that I was trying to get the garden done anyway. Oddly enough I had also tilled a strip along a path walking out to the back of the property where I planted strawberries and once I'd given up on my main garden attempt I just put all my leftover seeds in a bucket and mixed them together and sprinkled them along this strip and I was eating carrots out of it until late last fall. I got more food out of that strip than I did my whole proper garden.

This year we took a completely different approach and built the beds and put in all this great new soil and the results speak for themselves. We aren't saving a dime on our grocery bills, but we're having fun and the kids are enjoying seeing things grow. The biggest thing is that I wanted the kids to watch a garden grow and get an idea of where food comes from. I also wanted them to see and participate in pulling weeds and some of the work. My wife and I were already talking about how when we started we thought (4) beds at 4'x12' might be too much and now it doesn't look anywhere near big enough. Next year I'm going to have the dirt guys dump a load off in the field, and I'll stuff it full of watermelons, cantaloupe's, and pumpkins then sprinkler a bunch of lettuce, carrots, and onions all around them and just let it got wild. I think it'd be fun to have a real melon patch going.

 

[indyjohn]

Can one of you smart gardeners tell me why my Asparagus looks like miniature trees? This is year two, they are very thin and grow tall with lots of shoots off the main stalk. I don't know what I'm missing.

Suggestions appreciated.

 

[mom45]

Can one of you smart gardeners tell me why my Asparagus looks like miniature trees? This is year two, they are very thin and grow tall with lots of shoots off the main stalk. I don't know what I'm missing.

Suggestions appreciated.

That is completely normal. You want to let them go to seed after they are done producing. Mine always look like that after I stop harvesting.

 

[indyjohn]

That is completely normal. You want to let them go to seed after they are done producing. Mine always look like that after I stop harvesting.

Gosh, I am really dumb on this topic. They are not nearly big enough to cut for eating. Do they require large amounts of water? Tell more please.