Hows your garden doing?

[Kathy in WV]

Tweakette,

Since you grow bok-choi, I was wondering if you would tell me if its easy to grow? I read in Mother Earth that its a good green to grow over winter. This is the first year I'm going to try growing hardy greens all winter in a hoop house. I'm planning to try mache' , book choi, kale and if theres room maybe a couple more. We get so hungry for fresh foods in the winter so I'm hoping this will be a solution for us. You can buy things at the grocery store but they never really taste like they were just picked. I'm really enjoying reading everyones input on this thread. Keep posting!! Kat

 

[Tweakette]

Its pretty easy to grow but I've never tried doing it during the winter or overwintering it.

One odd problem I've had with it is that some years it seems to bolt (go to seed) as soon as the stuff is about 4 inches high. Other years I get nice big heads of it. I would expect it to be temperature- or moisture-related (too hot or too dry making it do it) but there doesn't seem to be a clear pattern.

I've grown Chinese cabbage before, too - now THAT stuff is indestructible. I didn't like it - the leaves seemed to have fur on them, very hairy - so yanked it out. I yanked one head and it left the core in the ground but I figured it was dead. The leftover core grew another head around it!!!

I've had leeks overwinter right in the garden. I had put some in last fall, they didn't do much, so I forgot about them. This spring I had some big gorgeous leeks out there by April.

Tweak

 

[squeeksmom]

missed me, missed me, na, na, na, na, na

Well, the second night of frost missed! I lost a large chunk of beans - I'm experimenting this year with about 15 different kinds of beans for drying and storage. That was the only garden it hit very hard, the other, bigger one is on a little higher ground, so maybe that saved it.
Tweakette, I keep trying to grow grapes - like you, with peaches. I know I'm fighting a losing battle, but I keep on.
I planted 3 blueberry bushes in mid-May - super, dooper, extreme cold hardy, withstand any weather variety. All three died. Leaves turned brown and fell off - now they're alive again. Maybe the frost helped revive them.
I overwintered some onions and garlic (I musta missed them) and some parsnips that I didn't get to before the ground froze too hard to dig. I'll have onion seeds, parsnip seeds, and the garlic are beeeeeyoooootiful - never had garlic so big. I plan to leave some of them every year now.
Kathy in WV: I grow leaf lettuce in butter tubs in a southfacing window every winter. But that's the only thing I've had any luck with. Someday, when I'm rich, I'll be able to heat the greenhouse and grow stuff ALL YEAR!!!

 

[juco]

I can relate with Deena...if I had posted to this thread when I first read it, I would have responded, "Great! Wonderful! Best dang garden I've had in 8 years! We just need a little rain"

Well, we got the rain, lots and lots and high winds to go with it.
Now, everything is laying over flat as a pancake, caked in mud.

On the bright side, it's still not too late to replant the beans and corn, we'll just get a late crop. Yes, I'm an optimist

 

[Kathy in WV]

mijuco,

By all means you should replant!! We had only been able to plant in raised beds this yr because the tiller was broken. Got it fixed and tilled the yard so we could plant enuf beans to have for canning. Whats funny is we just came inside from planting 60 tomato plants that a man at the farmers market gave to my mother this A.M. We don't know if we'll get lucky or not but all we're out is time and effort and we figure we can afford to spend those!! I'm really hoping the weather favors us this summer so we can get those tomatoes to produce before Fall comes. With that many plants if they just ripen for a couple of weeks worth we should have plenty for canning. If not then I'll have to buy boxes of canning tomatoes again..... either way I'm having my 'maters!! Just go for it! Kat

 

[juco]

Kat, that's my plan for today! If the ground has dried out enough to get into the garden, that is.

My DD's grandpa always had an amazing garden, and never payed much attention to the "when to plant" charts. If he decided he wanted more of a certian crop, he just planted it and more times than not was very successful. I really miss that old man, he was a wealth of information.

 

[Deena in GA]

Well, I've been picking corn for the past week - 243 ears so far put up. Problem is, all that corn that got knocked over must have been at a critical point. Those ears only filled up halfway. They are beautiful half ears though. Of course, we still lost about a quarter of the crop to deer, squirrels, worms, beetles and mold. I pretty much expect that now. I swear there's nothing better than Silver Queen corn straight from the garden. Yum!! Hubby says we're going to plant a second crop of it this week. Hopefully not as big a crop.

We're also beginning to get some ripe tomatoes although there's a major problem around here with a fungus on the tomatoes and most of mine look to be affected. I don't expect them to continue producing like usual. Right now, they are loaded down. Been picking squash and need to can it today.

The kidney beans did great. It's the first year I've tried them. I'm leaving them on the vine to dry. Although since we're still getting rain every day it's kinda hard for them to dry. Deer got into the sweet potatoes so don't know if they'll do anything or not. Watermelons and cantaloupes are doing good. Butter peas and green peppers are finally starting to come along.

The blueberries are producing better than I expected and I'm picking them every day too. Squirrels and deer are getting to the apples and pears but I hope to still harvest some of them.

All in all, it looks like it's going to be a pretty good year. Thank you, Lord!!

 

[marsh]

Harvested the last of the peas - too hot now, in the 90s. Harvested green onions and I am now dehydrating them after chopping them up. Good flavor for soups and stews.

Put a side dressing of aged chicken manure on the punkins and squash. It seems like I cant water enough. Everything seems to evaporate and the soil is dry by early afternoon. Have some straw so maybe I'll mulch this weekend.

Had thunderstorms. Several fire starts in the wilderness, but they are in areas where the USFS will let them burn a while to clean out brush and create a natural fire break. The rain was good for the garden.