No beets...

... at least, not in the main garden. Whatever plagued me last spring is still there- beets sprout and then "something" eats the new leaves off. I still have a faint hope for the ones in the large pot on the side.

Raked up the soil where the beets were and a few bald spots in the rows of greens and scattered in more turnip seeds.

Had about a half inch of badly needed rain last night. Fall is officially here but today was the first day of less-than- 95 degree highs we have had in about a month. At 3:30PM it's 81 degrees.

More beets

Having a hot end of summer stretch- dry and temps in the 90's. Planted a few more beets because they came up spotty- also planted them in the big black planter just because I had some left that had been soaked. Did all that on Monday Sept 13.

Watering every day.

Germination!

Amazed that the mustard and turnips germinated in 48 hrs; saw them on Tuesday morning 9/7. - already thinning them. Beets also up as of today. Very fast indeed.

Had a little rain Tuesday and Wednesday, about 1/2 inch. Weather a little warmer, high in the mid 90's. Tropical storm Hermine did not bring us any rain, but flooded Texas.

Labor Day Weekend

Planted a long row of pink-top turnips and a long row of mustard greens on Saturday Sept 4, and planted 2 short rows of beets - after soaking seeds overnight- on Sunday (today) Sept 5.

Still have 3 or 4 eggplant plants and some bell pepper plants left from the summer garden. We'll see if they do anything.

Beautiful fall-like weekend, lows in 50s highs in 80's, clear. We do need some rain.

Finishing up

Not much to say. Beans are about done, as are peppers. Tomatoes and Eggplant still making. Birds are wreaking havoc on the tomatoes, having to pick them kind of green. Haven't harvested any eggplant yet.

Another 100 degree day today, no rain in past week to 10 days.

Tomatoes everywhere!

Tomatoes seem to like the rain we've had in last few weeks - although days are unrelievedly hot -upper 90s to triple digits- and humid. Cukes finished, a few peppers and green beens left and there are finally a few - maybe 4 or 5- eggplant setting. Picture was taken yesterday about 6:30PM

Winding down

Looks like all the squash and cukes plants are done, leaving tomatoes, green beans and eggplant.

We are in the middle of about a week of 100 degree days - miserable.

Garden showing signs

... of decline. Some green beans, tomatoes and now 2 (count em) egg plant fruiting. Otherwise, heat has overcome pretty much everything else. Might get some peppers still.

Two good days of rain, maybe 2-3 in all told.

Guy at Shell Ross nursery said I can wait until 1st September to plant turnip from seed if I want greens; mid-August for beets.

Garden looking a bit tired..

... the squash has about had it; one plant is gone, one going and one still producing a few fruit. All in all the squash have been disappointing.

Cucumbers still producing but slowing down; seeing some yellowing of the leaves.

Peppers may produce a few more before it's over. Note: a green pepper turned red after sitting in the kitchen a few days!

String beens and tomatoes still going strong, and eggplant looking better- may get some fruit yet.

I need to research when and what to plant for the fall.

Hot as hades today - 100 deg. Watering every other day.

Eggplant

Finally looks like one - one!- eggplant fruit has set.

I sprayed everything with bloom set a few days ago.

Harvested cukes and tomatoes. Made Gazpacho that Laura tasted and says is great. I was with grandson fishing all afternoon, had pizza instead!

Rain!

Finally got a good, hard soaking rain this morning... the first decent precip in about 6 weeks- maybe 2 inches.

Picked 2 nice cukes 2 ripe tomatoes and a huge squash that went undetected- probably only good as a doorstop or paperweight!

Had a nice meal

..today with squash and green beans that were picked over the last few days, cooked in foil on the grill outside - and the turkey burgers made with curry and lots of other good stuff had a diced tomato from the garden too. The garden looks great, crowded but coming along. The eggplants are full of flowers and beginning to show signs of developing fruit. Had a little rain yesterday and today, maybe a half inch all told. Still watering every other day.

Pictures show 2 views of the garden taken July 9, and a proto-eggplant!

Harvested...

... five tomatoes and a big cuke. Got home from NY yesterday and the tomatoes were nice and red, ready to pick. I had tomato and cucumber with my fish sandwich for dinner.

Also (drum roll) I now see flowers on the eggplants!

Got a little rain yesterday and today, maybe half an inch in all.

First tomato

Picked the first tomato today - small but nice and firm and red. It has been 75 days since I planted them.

Also picked a nice big cuke yesterday that was "hiding'. The picture shows two volunteer cukes I got from a couple of extra plants I stuck in the ground behind the shed and forgot about!

Hot and dry. Leaving for NY in 30 minutes, will be back Tuesday evening July 6.

Been gone a few days..

..and not much has changed. No rain. Watering every other day. Couple of cukes about ready to pick. Squash is flowering and failing, mostly. Not sure what the problem is.

Watered..

..everything thoroughly by hand. Harvested some squash and peppers (prematurely- still green). Staked tomatoes some more- they are really growing and covering other plants.

Cuke and beans

OK, so it's not the cornucopia yet, but the summer is young (yesterday was the solstice) and things are looking up. There are a few more squash almost ready, some little cukes, peppers look good, and the tomatoes seem to be setting more fruit. No sign of flowers on the eggplants yet.

It's hot as hades though and still no rain. It was 102 yesterday and probably at least 100 today. I'm watering every third day for an hour, but wetting the potted plants and straw bales daily.

Basil

Forgot to mention Laura harvested some beautiful basil from the pot on the front porch and made a great pesto for Father's day today. Yum!

Washed..

... the garden with dish detergent using the hose sprayer early yesterday, watered from 7 to 8 PM. Sprinkler is set for every 3 days but I'm watering the straw garden and potted plants daily. Temp was officially 100 today!

Sprayed bloom-set...

..on tomatoes and other flowers in hopes of getting more fruit, 2 days ago. It's really hot and miserable right through here, no significant rain in 3 weeks or more.

Picked one squash and one (LOL) green bean today. Squash seem to be doing poorly; lots of flowers but the fruit wrinkles and falls off or rots early.

All in all I'm not real happy or impressed with results so far.

Cleaned up..

...literally with a good hose spray with soap solution to deter insects. Did that on Sunday 6/13. Also took the accompanying pictures. Laura thinks I'm watering too much so I compromised by hand watering the straw-garden and potted plants, and will hold off on the sprinkler for another day (let it go to every third day). Man it's hot and humid- haven't had rain in weeks.

Vigorous Growth...

... but disappointing fruit, especially in tomatoes. The plants are strong and vigorous, and seem to be producing flowers, but I only have 3 or 4 tomatoes among the 4 plants!

Also yanked the last two cauliflower today and discarded them. Caterpillars all over them. See some tine cukes, string beans and squash, but again not as many as I'd like. The plants look healthy, plenty of flowers, just not much fruit. Maybe too much nitrogen?

The pepper plants are coming along fine. No sign of any flowers or fruit on the eggplant.

Had a lot of rain all around us yesterday - just not here. I'm going to water this evening (hadn't watered in two days since it's been cloudy and damp.)

Coming along...

We need some rain. It's been hot, humid but no precip for over a week. I've been watering with the sprinkler daily.

Here's a status:

Lettuce - about had it; kind of wilted in this heat

Tomatoes: growing vigorously, had to re-stake. Lots of growth but not many flowers and even fewer seem to be setting to fruit. I only see about 4 small green tomatoes in all that growth.

Beans: growing well, rigged a string support for them

Squash: looking good, lots of flowers and small squash beginning to appear.

Peppers: look good, see small fruit forming

Cukes: growing and flowering vigorously

Eggplant: Plants growing well, some wvidence of insect activity but not too bad. No sign of flowers yet

Cauliflower: kept 2 in the ground; look better than before and forming new heads, but still see catipiller damage. We'll see.

beets: fuggedaboudit.

Hot Holiday Weekend

Saturday, I had the first "fruits" of my labor - red tipped lettuce leaves in a salad. Had some rain Saturday night. Sunday (yesterday) thinned eggplant and beans, weeded and fertilized all with a balance 10-20-10 or something close. Also soaked the plants in the big side pot with solution of NH3NO3 to see if they perk up (they're lagging the big box and hay gardens). Also built a small wire support for the cukes, tied a few tomato branches and and gave everything a spray of dilute soap to deter insects. Pictures below taken today of cukes and whole garden.

Failures and successes - so far.

First - failures:
Beets a bust. Something eats the leaves as soon as they emerge. I may try and re-plant
Cauliflower - fail. Terrible caterpiller infestation that sevin dust nor soap solution helped. Gonna yank 'em. See photo and you'll agree
Upside-down Tomato - fail. This was a surprise. I just returned from 5 days in Austin and it looked fine when I left. Seems moist, maybe too much water? Dunno. See photo.

OK the things that look OK so far:

Tomatoes - look healthy, some flowers but wish there were more.

Beans look good, will thin this week

Eggplant is oK, just going slow - need to thin.

Lettuce- oK, need to pick before it goes to seed

The above are all in the normal box garden

The hay plants all look pretty good. Flowers on squash and cukes (I think), peppers too. Note: Hay bales down to less than half original size. Really like mulch piles now.

The "side garden" in the big black pot has peppers and cuke plant which don't look as healthy as those in the hay.

Need to weed and fertilize this week.

After 4 days...

...of being away the garden has grown a lot - but the beets may be a lost cause after the insect damage done (see earlier post) and caterpillars are snacking on the leaves of the cauliflower. I picked a few off by hand and asked Robin Willis for her advice. Let's see what she says.

I don't think it rained while we were away - the rain gauge has only 3/4 inch of water in it and I have an automatic sprinkler set to go for a hour each morning. Soil seems nice and moist though.

The hanging tomato is doing well as are the regular tomato plants. I need to tie them up again. The straw garden plants look good too as do the ones in the black container.

here's a couple of pictures taken today about 6PM.

Uh-oh

I'm behind a few days so this is catch-up.

Had my first serious garden pest problem about 5 days ago. Overnight, some critter ate the tops of all (most anyway) of the beet seedlings. So, we'll see if they recover or I have to re-plant. Gave up on the idea of an organic garden (with regards to pest control) - dusted everything with Sevin dust.

Also news: Beans have germinated, at least 2 or 3- Unlike the beet and eggplant sprouts they are big and robust looking.

Weather: we had 2-3 days of unseasonably cool - 50 degree- weather and some rain, maybe an inch, probably less. It's warm today though, high near 85 predicted.

Going to look for an automatic timed sprinkler before the weekend.

Out with the beets!

..at least 2 rows of them, which I pulled out and replaced with string bean seeds after soaking them overnight in warm water.

We had about an inch of rain overnight on the 2nd so I didn't water until this evening. It's warm - about 88 degrees at the high today

Rain, rain

Finally got some decent rain- maybe an inch in all. Tornaoes and t'storms moved through the state, but no real drama here. Garden looks good, the straw bales have cooled a bit and the plants therein look OK. Eggplant very slow to germinate, only have a few above ground. Beets coming along, havent reassigned any rows to something else yet.

It's been cool this past week - highs around 75- but that's changed today, hot and humid. We turned on the AC. Currently at 11:20 am it's 78 deg.

Eggplant has germinated...

and the grass is beginning to pop up from below. Keeping 'em pulled. Also planted some extra pepper, squash and cukes in a large container off to the side. Just in case!

Laura thinks I overdid the beets and I think she may be right. I'm considering cutting back from 4 rows to 2 and planting something else. Maybe peas or beans? Not sure.

Germination

The beets have germinated (yesterday, 4/25). Unfortunately I'm also starting to see some grass poke through too. No sign of the eggplant yet.

Yesterday, I planted 3 each of bell pepper, squash and cucumber in the hay bales. Ripped out the tomato I had put in prematurely a week ago - it was withering. I have my doubts about this hay bale garden; it's HOT in the bale - hot enough 2 inches in that your finger will feel very uncomfortable. I can't imagine the plant root system will survive that. We'll see!

Nuttin' honey

Just added a quarter cup of NH3NO3 to each bale, and watered. 2 more days of that to go. Those bales are hot inside! The tomato plant I prematurely stuck in a few days ago isn't doing well - I think the bale is too hot.

No birds *sigh*

Another pretty day

Third day of treating the straw bales with ammonium nitrate. Man those things are getting ripe! Smells like a barnyard back there!

Took opportunity to finish cutting the yard, then I drank 2 (2!) beers whilst sitting on the back porch as the sun went down. Nice day.

Not a lot today

Continued preparing hay bales - 1st half cup NH4NO3, have to do that 2 more days. It's not my imagination - there's now a distinct earthy-stable odor in that part of the yard. I think its the hay. Lettuce doesn't look too happy. I watered again, we'll see. Cut the outside yard and west yard today also. So it goes...

By the way, today is the 20th of April- the peak day (most years) for the spring bird migration. I sat outside for half an hour this morning, got nothin'. Where are the orioles? the warblers? the tanagers? Maybe tomorrow.

Plants in the ground

Today, April 19, I put plants in the ground! Tomatoes actually went in yesterday including an "upside down" planting that I'm trying for funsies. Put in 6 tomatoes (4 in box, i1upside-down and one in a straw bale- more about that later). I forget the variety but they're a big tomato, not a cherry. Today I went to Shell-Ross, bought red-tip lettuce, red bell pepper, burpless cucumber, yellow squash and sweet basil plants, and purple beauty eggplant and beet seeds. Planted all that except the squash, pepper and cukes which i intend to put in the straw bales. I have watered the bales down for 3 days and today I put a half-cup of 32-0-0 on each and watered it in well. I'm going by the recipe found here http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march06guide/straw.html for straw gardening, so I have several more days of prep before I can plant the final veggies. The basil went in a pot on the front porch. The picture above was taken after planting today.

First entry - garden set-up

Blogging!

Who would have thunk it.

I'm going to use this in lieu of a paper and pen notebook to record garden data.

First, dug up some turf and weed about 10 x 8 feet with a spade shovel. Harder than it sounds!. Built a box around that with scrap lumber on the west side of the house. It will get morning sun and partial afternoon sun with some shade - might be a good thing in the summer. The first photo shows the rough box, 9' x 7' after about a cubic yard of topsoil and with 3 bales of straw on the sides. I bought the topsoil in bulk from a nursery in White Hall (Amanda's) and the straw from Jones Feed and Garden, also in White Hall. I hauled another half-yard of topsoil and followed that with a half- yard of black "super soil" also from Amanda's. The topsoil cost about $9 a half-yard and the super soil $18 so I spent quite a bit on dirt!