Garden thread

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I always do really well with cherry tomatoes but all my bigger tomato plants don't ever work out that well. This year I have two roma tomato plants and they are both crap. One of them I think the main stem broke off in a storm. I was hoping it would just grow another stem and keep on going but it hasn't. It's just.. not growing at all anymore. The other plant is doing better but still not that great. My cherry tomato plants are all really tall and growing really nicely, I even got my very first tomato off one of them. I'm not very good at gardening lol. I also lost a couple of my sunflower plants too, but I still have 3 or 4 and they've gotten pretty tall. I'm excited about those.

    This is why I buy a few grafted ones as well as seed my own. Sometimes the season is great and they grow well, other seasons are rubbish and only the grafted do well. The season just past we had a cold and very wet late spring. This meant the veg garden was delayed in growth and some things just didn't germinate in time (corn, watermelon, etc). Where I live we need the warm late spring to get corn, watermelon, cucubits... Etc.

    I've had really weird weather so far. It is usually sunny and hot by this time of the year, but we've had a lot of overcast/rainy days and the temps are not very high

    Yes, I'm in Massachusetts and we've had an unusual amount of overcast/rainy days with cooler temps than normal. It's not looking to be a great strawberry season and the pole beans haven't started climbing yet.

    However, I've had bumper crops of Swiss chard and bok choy, and the kale is keeping up with my demand.

    My snow peas are starting to pop and I should have shell peas in a week or so.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    This month has been like May 2.0 so i got a late start on my garden. it's cold. and blustery and dark
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    Unseasonally cold and wet here too.
  • meganpettigrew86
    meganpettigrew86 Posts: 349 Member
    Will have to get round to building a glasshouse this year to counter this strange weather.
  • Butterchop
    Butterchop Posts: 203 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I always do really well with cherry tomatoes but all my bigger tomato plants don't ever work out that well. This year I have two roma tomato plants and they are both crap. One of them I think the main stem broke off in a storm. I was hoping it would just grow another stem and keep on going but it hasn't. It's just.. not growing at all anymore. The other plant is doing better but still not that great. My cherry tomato plants are all really tall and growing really nicely, I even got my very first tomato off one of them. I'm not very good at gardening lol. I also lost a couple of my sunflower plants too, but I still have 3 or 4 and they've gotten pretty tall. I'm excited about those.

    I have terrible luck with romas as well. But if it helps most Roma plants are determinate and generally won't get as big/bushy as cherry tomato plants. Mine always get blossom end rot even though no other plant has problems so I just quit planting them and replaced it with a small globe type tomato variety and have no more issues.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    interesting. i had good luck with the romas last year
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,482 Member
    OK, I know you all will get this. I went out to check on my small garden. Herbs look great. Cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen, yay! Dwarf tomato plants look good. First container of radishes looks great, they're about ready. Strawberry plants have flowers, and a couple strawberries! Next box with radishes....they are ALL GONE! Thirty plants have disappeared! It could've been the raccoons but all of them? I noticed the container next to it has less weeds than it used to, so I think the guy that mowed the lawn did it as he's cut branches before if there's not much to do. But for crying out loud, pulling that many plants ready to be harvested?! And it was green waste week so I can't save them!
  • meganpettigrew86
    meganpettigrew86 Posts: 349 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    OK, I know you all will get this. I went out to check on my small garden. Herbs look great. Cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen, yay! Dwarf tomato plants look good. First container of radishes looks great, they're about ready. Strawberry plants have flowers, and a couple strawberries! Next box with radishes....they are ALL GONE! Thirty plants have disappeared! It could've been the raccoons but all of them? I noticed the container next to it has less weeds than it used to, so I think the guy that mowed the lawn did it as he's cut branches before if there's not much to do. But for crying out loud, pulling that many plants ready to be harvested?! And it was green waste week so I can't save them!

    That reminds me of the time dad sprayed all the ranunculus I'd planted in their garden as he thought they were weeds. Mum was rather upset.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,482 Member
    OK, composting question! I used to use a deck composter a neighbor gave me but every time I spin it the door falls off so it's not very useable as everything falls on the ground. I use self-watering containers for tomatoes, strawberries, radishes, then have a bunch of herbs in pots and a few herbs in the ground. In other words, not much use for compost but I can use some. I have raccoons and possums, my yard goes into a greenbelt and doesn't have a fence. I ordered a kitchen composter so I'm not wasting produce scraps.

    Long story short, should I get red wiggler worms or figure out something else like getting my composter fixed somehow- nothing's worked so far on the composter? I mostly have green waste. It's in 90s and 100s here and would prefer to keep worms outside. What would you recommend for my garden size?
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    My neighborhood is having a garden walk tomorrow. Mostly more about decorative gardening, but should be fun.
  • meganpettigrew86
    meganpettigrew86 Posts: 349 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    OK, composting question! I used to use a deck composter a neighbor gave me but every time I spin it the door falls off so it's not very useable as everything falls on the ground. I use self-watering containers for tomatoes, strawberries, radishes, then have a bunch of herbs in pots and a few herbs in the ground. In other words, not much use for compost but I can use some. I have raccoons and possums, my yard goes into a greenbelt and doesn't have a fence. I ordered a kitchen composter so I'm not wasting produce scraps.

    Long story short, should I get red wiggler worms or figure out something else like getting my composter fixed somehow- nothing's worked so far on the composter? I mostly have green waste. It's in 90s and 100s here and would prefer to keep worms outside. What would you recommend for my garden size?

    Do you have room to make some compost bays? You have three Bays and rotate which one you add to.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    OK, composting question! I used to use a deck composter a neighbor gave me but every time I spin it the door falls off so it's not very useable as everything falls on the ground. I use self-watering containers for tomatoes, strawberries, radishes, then have a bunch of herbs in pots and a few herbs in the ground. In other words, not much use for compost but I can use some. I have raccoons and possums, my yard goes into a greenbelt and doesn't have a fence. I ordered a kitchen composter so I'm not wasting produce scraps.

    Long story short, should I get red wiggler worms or figure out something else like getting my composter fixed somehow- nothing's worked so far on the composter? I mostly have green waste. It's in 90s and 100s here and would prefer to keep worms outside. What would you recommend for my garden size?

    Maybe the neighbor gave it to you because it needed work? Is there someone handy in your life who can fix it?

    I'm very happy with this composter I got in April. It's my first spinnable composter and I can see how much faster stuff is breaking down from the previous style I used. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077972KCR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,482 Member
    I don't have room for compost bays, there's a lot of oak trees hogging up space.

    Someone handy tried to fix the compost door, he said he'd think on it. Your composter looks cool! I like the idea of a spinning composter, it makes turning it easy. I was so excited the first time and saved up everything so it would be perfect, then the door fell off first rotation and everything fell out! The neighbors that gave it to me never used it.
  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    I have red wigglers. They are great! You probably should keep them indoors unless you have the correct setup to keep them outside year round. I keep mine in the basement. If you do it correctly they have no smell. I keep them in bins and feed them all of my scraps. If you do a setup outside year-round, you can't leave them in bins because it will get too hot. Also, they don't like the freezing cold.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    Hey everyone! How have your gardens been doing after a pretty weird year, for those of us in the US, anyway?

    We've had a very wet, cool spring and early summer, and then a lot of drought that just broke with some recent rainfall here in northern Indiana. September has been very warm and sunny.

    Mine is cranking out tomatoes like crazy, since it hasn't really started to get cool at all. I have two dozen quarts of whole tomatoes canned, and then a bunch of bags in the freezer and another good 20 -30 lbs on my back porch, just lurking out there, like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or something. I also found an awesome gazpacho recipe so have been making that a lot. Some of my vines are petering out, but others are still lush, plush and green.

    Unfortunately it's just been a really bad year for eggplants and okra; maybe just not hot enough. The kale and collards are doing great when I can remember to spray them with Bt. We have 24 plants and they were all rowcovered and immaculate till the county fair in late July; when I took off the rowcovers they got cabbage worms & loopers but I mainly just fed the leaves to the bunnies anyways.

    Our pickling and slicing cukes did great this year, but the vines seem to be pretty much spent. I think I got 8 or 10 quarts or so of sun pickles with the pickling cukes. I got a lot of zucchini but not as much as I should have off of 6 plants...but more than I could use effectively, anyway.

    We got a decent amount of peppers, with the orange habaneros especially going crazy this year, which is unfortunate, as we don't really use them, though they sure are pretty!

    Finally, I have a bunch of vines mixed together of assorted beans, hops, birdhouse gourds and butternut squash, and I haven't sorted through that mess yet to find out how things did. They weren't all supposed to be mixed together but they are now all fraternizing, ha ha.

    @lemurcat12 how did your beds do this year?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    edited September 2019
    I was very happy with my purple pole beans: https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/beans/bean-pole-purple-king--prod000595.html

    I thought seven plants should have been more productive, but it was a good amount for the two of us. (I expected I'd need to have to give some away.)

    I love the purple color (they turn green when cooked) and the flavor is better than the regular green pole beans I did last year, which were hard to harvest as the beans were the same color as the leaves.

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    qp6b0i9mdppf.jpeg

    Cage also from Burpees: https://www.burpee.com/gardening-supplies/cages-and-supports/xl-pro-series-cage---green-prod001781.html
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    edited September 2019
    I got these peas a little late, but they still did ok until the summer heat did them in: https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/peas/pea-mammoth-melting-sugar-prod000785.html

    Used another giant tomato cage for them.

    I planted more mid August for a fall crop, but am not optimistic they will produce before the frost does them in.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    @lemurcat12 how did your beds do this year?

    Swiss chard and sorrel and green beans did well, japanese eggplant did okay, peppers did great, tomatoes okay but seem to still be becoming ripe (it's gotten cooler around me in the past week, though, so we will see -- I do have lots of green ones still).

    Herb carts were great -- more than I could keep up with -- except I killed the cilantro. Going to move one of them inside at some point.

    Strawberries and blueberries never produced although the strawberries were on the verge a few times. I'm hoping this is a first year thing and they will kick in next year.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    @lemurcat12 how did your beds do this year?

    Swiss chard and sorrel and green beans did well, japanese eggplant did okay, peppers did great, tomatoes okay but seem to still be becoming ripe (it's gotten cooler around me in the past week, though, so we will see -- I do have lots of green ones still).

    Herb carts were great -- more than I could keep up with -- except I killed the cilantro. Going to move one of them inside at some point.

    Strawberries and blueberries never produced although the strawberries were on the verge a few times. I'm hoping this is a first year thing and they will kick in next year.

    It may not have been you with the cilantro - it's a short lived herb.

    https://thegreenthumb20.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/cilantro-skip-the-plants-and-buy-the-seeds/

    ..But there’s one herb in pots at every garden center that makes me shake my head when I see it – cilantro. If you buy a cilantro plant, I can guarantee that it’ll be dead within a few months. It inevitable demise has nothing to do with the quality of the plant or your gardening skills. Cilantro dies because cilantro is a short-lived annual herb.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    @lemurcat12 how did your beds do this year?

    Swiss chard and sorrel and green beans did well, japanese eggplant did okay, peppers did great, tomatoes okay but seem to still be becoming ripe (it's gotten cooler around me in the past week, though, so we will see -- I do have lots of green ones still).

    Herb carts were great -- more than I could keep up with -- except I killed the cilantro. Going to move one of them inside at some point.

    Strawberries and blueberries never produced although the strawberries were on the verge a few times. I'm hoping this is a first year thing and they will kick in next year.

    As Kshama notes below, don't blame yourself for the cilantro. Once it bolts and sets seed, it's going, going, gone. You can save the seedpods for next year, or just don't cultivate the "cilantro patch" too heavily and they might come back; they always do in my garden. Same scenario with dill. The annoying part with both plants is that, in my garden, they are mostly dead at the point where I really need them--when the other produce like cukes and tomatoes come rolling in. If I were more organized, like my MIL, I would succession plant, and plant a patch 3 weeks or so behind the first patch (or just seed some pots and plant out when ready). It's my goal to be more diligent with this next year.

    You are correct that the strawberries won't really get rolling till next year. Likely the same for the blueberries although I have never grown those successfully.

    If your tomatoes don't all come on before frost, do you know the trick of picking the whole lot and wrapping each in a piece of newspaper individually, then checking them from time to time to see if they've turned? If they even have a blush of color they will turn on your counter. Ones that are too green to turn can be pickled, relished, or turned into green tomato bread. https://www.food.com/recipe/green-tomato-bread-53325

    We grew some beautiful fennel this year, but it has bolted so I don't know if I can still cook with it (the roots). I was so pleasantly surprised, because I got it as a pot of many small seedlings at a nursery; in theory it doesn't like having its roots messed with, and I have tried it in the past with poor results, but not this year!! It was gorgeous.