Veg Finally Got Summer 2020 Garden Planted

Txkstew

Veteran Member
I wasn't going to plant a summer garden this year, due to me working out of town, but my job got shut down in mid March. Around here, you have to get planted as early in the Spring as possible, or the heat gets too bad in June/July. After sitting around with nothing to do for a month, I decided to get moving on growing something. First thing was to buy the tiller I posted about in another thread. We got the old garden site tilled, plus an additional 20 foot add on. The new dirt is unimproved, and is going to need lots of compost added as I go. First there was a "Rain Event" two weeks ago, so that set thing back again. I had started a bunch of seedlings on the front porch in Dixie Cups. This worked fine. The last few days, after tilling the garden up for the third time, I got the rows made, and a bunch of the seedlings planted. So far, Corn and Pole Beans are in the ground. Okra and Purple Hull Peas are next. Rains are supposed to start again today and tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a non "Event".IMG_20200514_175709-1.jpg
Two weeks ago

IMG_20200523_180004-1.jpg
 

TerriHaute

Hoosier Gardener
Looks great! We are struggling with multiple "rain events" here as well as a very late hard freeze. This weekend we are finally getting a break from the rain but the temperature is shooting up into the mid 80's and so is the humidity. The garden is still ankle deep mud, but should dry out fairly quickly. I'm planning to catch up on all the planting over the next few days. The seedlings I started this spring are outgrowing their containers and need to go into the ground ASAP.

Just a side note. It's normal to have a hot and humid Memorial Day weekend in Indiana, but it is really weird not to have all the Indy 500 hoopla going on. It doesn't feel like Memorial Day. Local TV is doing its best by replaying an old Indy500 race and some of the race car driver interviews and carb day coverage but it's just not the same.
 

Bps1691

Veteran Member
Good looking effort Txkstew.

Now you get look forward to fighting the bugs and critters for your share, hoping the rain stops or hoping the rain comes, and getting the pleasure of watching the work of your hands and sweat of your brow grow.

My early garden went in before the rains and survived the late frost we got (Lettuce, spinach peas, green onions) but the frost did nip some early green beans (planted them knowing the risk). Pulled out the beans that got nipped to hard and replanted and their up and look to be catching up with their earlier siblings.

Between rains last week, got early sweet corn and more beans planted in the small garden and my re-potted plant sets are raring to get into the main garden (probably next week). Also have several rubber maid tubs that I planted early as raised beds and finally was able to move them away from their "nursery" (garage- out in the morning on good days, back in at night) to their intended spots scattered around our ground. Still have to plant my real raised beds, but that can wait until next week.

My daughter got her entire garden planted on Thursday. Her and her boys did a great job planting after her husband had to till for the second time to expand it by double. She and her boys grew their sets like me and hers look better than mine do :-).

May God bless and prosper your garden. Make it grow true to its nature and produce a bounty
for you.
 

mudlogger

Veteran Member
We haven't gardened in about 7 years...went back to grass, a few trees, brambles, and a
12 x 40 patch of yucca.

We're 62 and 61, and I'm thinking we should have been filming this so we could get
on the youtube showing that even oldsters can do something...actually we've done a lot.

Anyway, just a few more tomatoes to get in, then have to work on some more places for winter squash, etc.

It's been an awesome time for us, and we harvested our first red jalapeno this morning. Started seed at Christmas, spent 2 mos in green house, we are stoked!
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
It's supposed to rain the entire week here, I've yet to get my cucumbers, beans, zucchini, squash, etc., in the ground. I do have my herbs, tomatoes, bell peppers, and some greens planted. It's going to be a rough gardening year and raised tunnel covers are starting to look better and better!
 

Txkstew

Veteran Member
Good looking effort Txkstew.

Now you get look forward to fighting the bugs and critters for your share, hoping the rain stops or hoping the rain comes, and getting the pleasure of watching the work of your hands and sweat of your brow grow.

My early garden went in before the rains and survived the late frost we got (Lettuce, spinach peas, green onions) but the frost did nip some early green beans (planted them knowing the risk). Pulled out the beans that got nipped to hard and replanted and their up and look to be catching up with their earlier siblings.

Between rains last week, got early sweet corn and more beans planted in the small garden and my re-potted plant sets are raring to get into the main garden (probably next week). Also have several rubber maid tubs that I planted early as raised beds and finally was able to move them away from their "nursery" (garage- out in the morning on good days, back in at night) to their intended spots scattered around our ground. Still have to plant my real raised beds, but that can wait until next week.

My daughter got her entire garden planted on Thursday. Her and her boys did a great job planting after her husband had to till for the second time to expand it by double. She and her boys grew their sets like me and hers look better than mine do :-).

May God bless and prosper your garden. Make it grow true to its nature and produce a bounty
for you.

When I saw the second pic above, I knew someone was pleased!
 

Jackpine Savage

Veteran Member
Looks good!

We need some of that rain that others have too much of. I just looked at the US drought map and we show up as abnormally dry. The farmers have had probably their easiest spring ever, most fields are planted.

Our garlic, onions, and potatoes are up and looking good. Our cold weather in April didn't do any harm. A few small plantings of greens and radishes are up. Our next priority is to put new plastic on the cattle panel greenhouse and get tomatoes and peppers planted.
 

mudlogger

Veteran Member
I tell you what, hoeing up those rows kicked my ass! I took my time and sat down after each row. Still had to go inside and take a nap afterwards :p
You need a chair in the shade. Work a little, rest a little. Take water.

I'm wanting a reclining lawn chair so I can have a little nap...in the shade, feeling the breeze.
 

mudlogger

Veteran Member
I found Charles Dowding this spring, thank you Roots and Refuge farm...

It has changed my life. Start everything in cells except corn, beans, carrots and parsnips.

Multi-sow many things...4 beet seeds, don't thin, plant them out, harvest the biggest one then so-on. So much easier transplanting plants vs dropping seed.

Y'all have NO idea how excited I am about this.

Now, if I'd just cut down that black walnut 10 years ago when I first realized that's what it is...but now it's been ringed, so it's on it's way out.
 

Txkstew

Veteran Member
You need a chair in the shade. Work a little, rest a little. Take water.

I'm wanting a reclining lawn chair so I can have a little nap...in the shade, feeling the breeze.

Hard to see, but in the pic above, I do have a nice lawn chair. I use it a lot. But now, the mosquitos are coming out after the flood the other day. The county sprayed one evening with a crop duster, and the next day they were almost all gone. Now, the bigger Marsh mosquitos have hatched out. Mean little buggers. That's alright, I have a big can of Cutters Spray out there now.
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
I'm still grinding on getting my summer garden in, and it's been going frustratingly slowly. The problem there is that the garden is mostly in raised beds, and said raised beds have been invaded by redwood roots, to the point of being jam-packed with roots sucking the moisture away from anything planted. So far we've de-rooted 3 beds (and put in new gopher mesh underneath) with 2 more to go.

The first and smallest/shadiest bed got planted with lettuce, arugula, and mint. The arugula is flowering and making seed pods (I will save some seed), and the lettuce looks like it is thinking about bolting (I have seedlings under lights in the house that I can fill in). The second bed got planted with two tomatoes, way too much radish (some harvested/used, some about to get torn out as now it is beginning to flower too), a 6-pack of Speckled Trout's Back lettuce, one rosemary, and Dark Norland Red and Yukon Gold potatoes. Later today I hope to plant out 5 cucumber seedlings in that bed.

The past couple of days I have been slowly working on planting the third bed. I back transplanted some chives and garlic chives rescued from near extinction, plus also put in 2 tomatoes (still in their original 3.5" pots as I got them, sigh), some parsley, basil, and one yellow scallop squash plant. There is still space in there for a zucchini (recently sowed inside), and if I can figure out how to protect them from the rabbits, more basil. (The parsley and basil already in the bed are protected under a netted tent.)

The next bed (digging underway) will get two tomatoes, eight peppers, and whatever number of bunching onion seedlings I can manage to grow.

I'm not really hopeful about getting bed number 5 done in any timely manner. If it does happen, then there will be more peppers to go in there, and later in the season maybe more lettuce. I'd love to grow a canteloupe, but I don't know if there will be time to harvest ripe fruit by the time we get that large (partly ornamental) bed done.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I got off to a late start on our raised bed gardens this year due to cold and wet conditions. Now, it's turned off hot, and my little squash plants are struggling. I had to put shade cloth over them this morning. I may have to do the cucumbers the same way. Everything else is thriving in the heat and humidity.
 

Txkstew

Veteran Member
Another big rain this morning... What ever, I'm going to keep planting until this garden makes. Here are a bunch of my starts on the porch that are doing good. As soon as the garden drys out some, and I can fluff up the rows, I'll plants these starts. Mean time, the ones in Dixie Cups will spread their roots.

Okra Starts.jpgPurple Hull Peas 2.jpgPurple Hull Peas.jpg
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Those raised rows are going to save you a ton of aggravation if it keeps raining... unless you get a monsoon, that manages to wash away the raised soil. I guess in that case, you'd have the consolation that you did the best you could!

But they should allow you to get a nice crop. I'd suggest thinking about some cattle panel trellises (is that a word? Spell check doesn't think so, but what is the plural of "trellis"? "Trelli"? LOL!) for your vine crops. Cukes, melons and most of the smaller squashes will do very well climbing on a trellis. It can help with the larger fruits if you make little "hammocks" out of fabric to help support them... old pantyhose works well, or some cheap nylon mesh from the fabric store. You want something that breathes and dries out quickly, to prevent rot and also not encourage insectsto get comfortable.

If you let your vines run, they're going to set fruit down in your furrows, and if the rain continues, they'll rot.

It looks great, though! I've got to get ours in this week... we blew the weekend with our annual family Memorial day camping trip, but the memories we made were priceless. The 9 year old learned to shoot skeet with the 20 gauge, and also got to try the AR. The three year old shot the BB gun for her first time. We caught toads, fished, cooked and ate, and were endlessly entertained by the toddlers... well worth getting the garden in late!

Summerthyme
 

Txkstew

Veteran Member
I just walked out to the garden a minute ago. Everything seems to be doing good. The corn is taking off. However, rain is in the forecast for the rest of the week. I need some big time drying out. Like I said, it's almost too late for a Spring Garden here. You watch, the rain will stop, and the heat will become brutal. I hate mosquito spray, but they are swarming the last few days. Maybe the County will aerial spray again. West Nile Disease has gotten to where it breaks out yearly, so spraying is a regular thing nowadays.

Anyhow, Fall Gardening is where I have fun. Cool, no bugs and the Veggies love it. I plan to start seeds like I'm doing now, for my Fall crop. Probably start them in late August.

Corn 1.jpg
 

cyberiot

Rimtas žmogus
I am so envious!

Our gardening calendar in Phoenix (Zone 9b) is bassackwards from everyone else's. We basically have two growing seasons--Before June-July, and After June-July. I container garden (mostly EarthBoxes) to conserve water and upgrade the soil from our standard-issue caliche*.

I have a few herbs, zucchini, and potatoes that might make it through the coming inferno. Am starting Armenian cucumbers inside, as they are billed as fireproof. Might also try a little red Malabar spinach to see what happens. Wish we liked okra more.

But . . . yeah. Very little dirt play here until August. Time to close the blinds, haul out the crochet basket, and binge-watch Ancient Aliens.
____________
* Caliche: Klingon word for "concrete."
 

Grouchy Granny

Deceased
Finally got the last of mine in this morning in CO. All I had left to do was the root crops (beets, radishes and carrots) and the pickling cucumbers.

Once we get the rest of the sprinkler issues resolved in the raised beds I'll be good to go (called my sprinkler repair person this morning with the latest issues). Some plants are looking rather peaked, but we got an inch of rain on Sunday so that might have helped and yesterday was really cool so the peppers are the ones looking peaked. Potatoes are finally doing their thing and we will need to add more topping to them here soon.

Today's job is getting the frames built for the bed covers/hoops. We're using my neighbors idea and getting the shade cloth (debris tolerant) from him as he has excess which he's willing to sell. He has a green thumb which makes me jealous.

Will post pictures as soon as we get them done.
 

lonestar09

Veteran Member
I am so envious!

Our gardening calendar in Phoenix (Zone 9b) is bassackwards from everyone else's. We basically have two growing seasons--Before June-July, and After June-July. I container garden (mostly EarthBoxes) to conserve water and upgrade the soil from our standard-issue caliche*.

I have a few herbs, zucchini, and potatoes that might make it through the coming inferno. Am starting Armenian cucumbers inside, as they are billed as fireproof. Might also try a little red Malabar spinach to see what happens. Wish we liked okra more.

But . . . yeah. Very little dirt play here until August. Time to close the blinds, haul out the crochet basket, and binge-watch Ancient Aliens.
____________
* Caliche: Klingon word for "concrete."
Caliche, very familiar with that. Have the same growing season almost as you.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Because of our wet and cold weather, we decided late in the game to have a small garden this year. We haven't had one in the past, but I wanted something to mess around with this summer. I've been so proud of how things are going, and every time I talked to my DIL, I would brag on it a bit. She started her little garden early, and has been telling me how hers was doing. She made out like everything was struggling. This is her first year to grow a garden on her own, and has had no real experience so, I didn't expect much.

Well, I got a chance to go for a visit this morning. She has been wanting me to come see her garden. Boy, was I impressed. Her little garden makes mine look sick! Everything was so lush and beautiful, and some veggies and herbs were ready to harvest already. Here I am, the experienced gardener, and she has put me to shame! LOL.
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
I finally got my first 5 cucumber seedlings in... :rolleyes: These are 'Straight Eight'. I have another round of seedlings (one of the 'Marketmore' types) sprouting now.

It looks like another 2-3 weeks minimum of work (de-rooting, new gopher mesh, irrigation upgrade) before my next veggie bed will be ready, so I am potting up the tomatoes and peppers that would go into those beds, into 1 gallon pots. (The incoming cukes will go into the same bed that I just planted the 'Straight Eight' in.)

Elsewhere in the garden, the first of the 'Yukon Gold' potatoes in the raised bed have started blooming. The 'Colorado Rose' potatoes I put into fabric bags are starting to break the surface of the dirt. My arugula has been blooming and is forming seed pods; I may yank it after I harvest the seeds, ditto I may yank the oakleaf lettuce. (I decided that I just don't like the lobed/indented leaf shape for sandwiches or washing for salads.) It will be replaced with an heirloom butterhead lettuce which is waiting for garden space.
 

BenIan

Veteran Member
which variety?

These are Beefsteak...got seeds from MIGardiner this year. My tomatoes are all doing well, growing all heirlooms (Beefsteak, Creole, Dad's Sunset, Barry's Crazy Cherry, Mr. Stripey, Black from Tula, Chocolate Sprinkles, Carolina Gold, Quadro, Silvery Fir Tree, Azoychka, & Box Car Willie)...hot peppers are also doing awesome (Cayenne, Jalapeno, Poblano).

My main issue is pests. Lost all but 1 squash plant to vine borers. Lost all broccoli and cauliflower to cabbage worms, and I've lost several tomatoes to these little worms that eat out the inside of the fruit.
 

BenIan

Veteran Member
Does anyone know what these little black eggs are...the look like pepper seeds but are all black and have a little white strand attached to them. They are all over cucumbers, squash, melons, etc.

D9893251-CE43-43D3-9985-7427094F5698.jpeg431E770D-860B-4D4C-A93D-27E167FA4ECF.jpeg
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
I have no clue! Look somewhat like lace bug eggs, but those are usually laid on the leaf underside. I'd ask your local Cooperative Extension people, if they aren't all on furlough due to COVID. Or bring in a couple of leaves, put them in a jar with fabric over the top and see what hatches out...

Also... are you sure they are eggs? Are they stuck/glued to the leaf. It actually looks like grass (caterpillar poop), although a caterpillar large enough to produce it should be easy enough to spot.

Summerthyme
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Yeah, they likely are eggs of some sort. Frass (caterpillar poop) just rolls off..
Like I said... either try to hatch some out, or contact cooperative extension. They may be from something harmless or even beneficial... but if not, it's better to know what to expect, so you can deal with them before they cause much damage. It's a bit curious that they are on the topside if the leaves... most things lay their eggs on the underside, where birds and other things thst eat them can't see.

Summerthyme
 
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