SUMMER GARDEN UPDATE

growing slow, some seeds never sprouted. peppers and greens good.

Another Monsanto-engineered spring ? My 80 yr. old neighbor said she's never seen anything like it..........

Made my own Topsy-Turveys from 5 gal. buckets and NO MORE WEEDING. They are kicking ass.

Dude, mine's rightchous.

Haaa

Just picked my first little tomatoes today...and 2 zucchini!

I was out of town and my broccoli went to seed...damn...but I guess I'll have more in a bit!

My potatoes are doing better than I imagined and so is the rest of it. Weird thing....NO bugs so far this year. I'm not complaining but I'm really surprised...and thankful.

Have had to water very little due to all the rain around here, but thought I might lose a bunch about 3 weeks ago due to a more than 5 minute hail storm. Looks like most of it came back.

I'm pleased

So far we are eating Swiss Chard, Collards(first time ever growing), Butter Crunch Lettuce, Currants(white and red), Strawberries finished, Green Beans, Wax Beans. Awaiting our non hybrid Tomatoes(8 or 9 varieties)..

Take a 5 gal. bucket and drill 3 evenly-spaced 2 1/4 inch holes 1/3 way up from the bottom. Line the sharp edges of each hole with plastic electr. "snake" from H.D. ($2 for 7 ft.). Drill 1/4" drain holes in the bottom and (3) 1/4" holes evenly spaced around the open top end for the S-hooks and chain. Works great !!!! Use for peppers, esp. tomatoes, & now I'm trying squash and eggplant. Strawberries, too. No weeding & few bugs.

Should have added, still to come are: Carrots. Cukes, Red Beets, Apples and Pears(200 different varieties grafted in espalier form.)

Garden is totally screwed. First the cold snap unexpected in April set everything back. Then the rains came and screwed what was not yet mucked up. Now like Trinity says the heat is killing us.
A real shame because everything was looking so good before all the sheit happened.
Oh well, may the fall garden will produce. Maybe

Take a 4x4x10 P.T. post and cut a piece of 10 ft. 1 1/4" electr. conduit in half. Drill 2 holes in the P.T. so as to criss-cross the metal poles without losing too much wood/strength. Drill 1 hole in all 4 ends for the S-hook. Set each assembly with 1 bag of quickcrete. I rigged mine with an auto-watering system. Awesome........

Just got back from the melon patch. Took a lot of re-planting but every mound now is covered in melon vines. The moon & stars (heirloom) watermelons were esp. hard to get going this year, and the 2 surviving giant pumpkin plants look like they're gonna make it.

My garden had a late start because of all the rain so late into the spring ... actually all of the spring, lol.

My garden is small, but I have crookneck squash which will be ready to eat within a few days; ditto with the zucchini; tomatoes are blossoming, but not setting on yet.

The cucumber plants are only about 2" high (I planted them from seed), but they are doing well; I got them in late because of the aforementioned rain. (Can't till the garden when it is still mud!)

The cilantro is finished, and the parsely never came up. :(

My new Fuji apple tree (semi-dwarf), which I just planted two years ago, has about 25 apples on it! I didn't expect any this year, so that is a happy surprise. They are looking healthy, and getting larger every day. :)

I was surprised to see the stevia growing without even re-planting this year. I did let it go to seed last year.

I made the prototype topsy-turveys with a lg. hole in the bottom and 2 on the sides. Don't drill the lg. bottom hole, just drill 3 on the sides and it grows better, loses less soil and moisture, and is lots easier to load .

One more tip; keep some sweet potatoes in a moist, warm sand-box and they'll keep shooting up vines that you can plant to replace the reg. potatoes with as they die......Just twit 'em off the main sweet potato when they are ~ 10" long. Now my tires are full of sweet potatoes!

I just have a little deck garden in pots, but my tomatoes are about 8' tall now and are bearing fruit.

Wheee!

ok
so anyone wanting tomatoes in the KC area or in Colorado Springs needs to let me know

I have over 50 volunteer plants and I'm just keeping them watered and in containers......

They're about a foot high now.....they need good homes :-)

Harvested summer potatoes two weeks ago. Been getting zucchini out the yang yang, been canning and freezing (canning slices with tomatoes - yum, freezing grated for fall zucchini bread and muffins)

Snap beans are doing very well, reduced to three poles worth, and still have to much. Been freezing the remainder, I will cook and pressure can them later... when it cools off.

Just got me first red tomatoes today, while I have seen the green ones for a few weeks now, I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple red ones. Beefsteaks - went on hamburgers at the BBQ.

Broccoli's are long gone, too hot for the now.

The first path of corn is producing ears, I guesstimate in about 2 more weeks we will start having fresh corn on the cob.

Did I mention the zucchini - LOL

Got an acorn squash and three field pumpkins curing on the patio.

Pea and other cool season crops have had it, got to wait until these 100+F are over before the next batch.

Lots and lots of green to pink blackberries, I already filled a pint freezer bag with them, as this month progresses I expect a couple three gallons of berries. I'm going to reserve about 1/3 of that as frozen (for pancakes, smoothing and baking) and can the rest - I might pull out the pectin and try preserving them for spread on toast... depends how I feel.

Peach season is just around the corner, so we will be going to the orchard to get a few bushels to put up.

My lone eggplant has tiny eggplants growing (I'm the only one who eats it and its only good fresh in my books) Peppers are producing, I already used two in salads - a wee bit smaller than they should be, but sweet and nonetheless.

I'm not sure about my yams/sweet potatoes. Its an experiment for me so I'm uncertain when exactly to harvest. I did accidentally hit one when I was pulling out the taters, it was about 6 inches long but less than 1/5 inch thick.

Put in a couple of raised beds the first week in June. Everything is growing like crazy, even got small tomatos on some of my tomato plants. Broccoli is beginning to flower..., the basil plants make the beds smell wonderful, (basil goes well with tomato plants and apprently makes the tomatos tastier, we shall see).

Raised beds are the best, easy to weed, much higher yeilds and as I said everything is growing in leaps and bounds.

Got off to a late start with the spuds, but they are beginning to grow too, using the stacked tire method.

We've had a lot of rain and everything is lush and green, should be a success.

Squirrels stripped the peach tree of peaches ... oh well they have to eat too.

Buy seeds for your zone...

Just planted more squash and tomatoes in starter pots in the greenhouse. Gonna grow tomatoes outside in X-lg. pots and the topsy-turveys so I can move them into the greenhouse right before the first fall frost. I'm also hoping to get a second squash crop. I have 4 of the hanging planters right next to the greenhouse for easy transfer.

It was slow to take off, rain and cooler then normal April, May and June now I can start to include July. Have had turnips, greens, and chard for meals. Tomatoes, peppers, carrots, squash, cucumbers have small veggies on them and broccoli growing. Damn deer ate my freaking beans, replanted and will see what happens. Have canned some watermelon rind pickles and beets.

Just got done drying heirloom rose and brandywine tomato seeds for the next crop. Was also able to harvest enough kale and collard seeds for next year. Wait until they just dry out and turn brown to harvest the seeds, as timing is important so they don't all pop open.

Made from poultry manure, the best organic fertilizer I've yet found is this: [link to www.organicgrowingsystems.com]