Got the day off so I decided to post some update pics:

Corn:


Tomatoes Row 1:


Tomatoes Row 2:


More Tomatoes, Spaghetti Squash in the background, Peppers to the right:


Squash, Cucumbers, Watermelon, Cantaloupe:


Beans, Spaghetti Squash in the background:


Onions and Garlic:


Basil and Cilantro:


Dill. We didn't plant dill this year, this is a volunteer from last year. There are 3 more smaller ones in the same area:


Sunflowers:

6/1/2011 3:16:43 PM

just picked my first batch of cucumbers day before yesterday!! and picked another 5 today!!! check it out. Pickles galore!!

6/1/2011 4:58:20 PM

Oh dag, you are already picking?

I am WAAAAAAAAY behind.

color me jealous

[Edited on June 1, 2011 at 5:02 PM. Reason : those look great btw!]

6/1/2011 5:01:17 PM

I gave up on my seeds and bought a bunch of 10" plants from the farmer's market. Put them in the ground on May 2. I credit my awesome compost! the plants are much farther along than they were last year. I now have marble-sized tomatoes on my cherry and Cherokee Purples.

Here's the garden box! the Brandywines are about 4ft tall. You can see the cucumber in the front. (it gets wiltie in the heat )

6/1/2011 5:36:44 PM

Your garden looks great!

I just looked at pics from last year and mine is definitely behind. But we did get much smaller seedlings this year, and we got them in the ground a little later. Either way, everything in my garden looks healthy and thriving. So it may be later when we get some veggies, but we will definitely have TONS.

6/1/2011 6:41:15 PM

I am a complete garden noob, but decided to get some seeds at the store (peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes) and planted them in non-drained recycled containers (ie cut off plastic bottles). I put them all next to a glass door, but I think it only gets direct sunlight during the evening.

The packages say to keep moist. Do I need to water them every day or just judge it by how it feels? I don't want to drown the things.

6/1/2011 11:00:03 PM

you can probably still poke or snip a hole in the bottom somehow so they can drain. they like high humidity so if you can keep them inside a makeshift greenhouse that's good too (I used one of those plastic boxes that fancy salad greens come in)

6/2/2011 7:06:47 AM

Some good advice, thanks! I'm going to start running out of plates for the drain pan though

Nvm, just googled

[Edited on June 2, 2011 at 8:27 AM. Reason : lkj]

6/2/2011 8:20:32 AM

That, my friends, is a champion head of garlic

6/2/2011 8:19:22 PM

I love this thread. if I thought I would be living here long enough to make better use of it I'd totally plant a bunch of stuff. maybe I'll still try some herbs

6/3/2011 9:25:28 PM

How tall do my pepper plants need to be before I should look at sticking a cage around them?

6/3/2011 10:21:33 PM

I try to cage/stake plants early, when it's still small. later the roots spread and you can disturb them by sticking a big metal pole through the middle. if it's there to begin with, the roots will grow around the stake.

But I almost always put it off until the last minute, when the plant starts to fall down And they turn out okay, even though I'm not the best mom

also, ThePeter, do you live in Raleigh? If so it's a bit late to be starting seeds. I'd recommend just buying some plants from the farmer's market. you can get a pack of 4 tomato plants for under $2. seeds are such a hassle.

6/4/2011 9:14:06 AM

potatoes! i saw them sticking out of the ground basically while watering the garden yesterday. these were just left over potatoes from the grocery store that has started to sprout in the cabinet.

6/4/2011 9:25:57 AM

Quote :

"also, ThePeter, do you live in Raleigh? If so it's a bit late to be starting seeds. I'd recommend just buying some plants from the farmer's market. you can get a pack of 4 tomato plants for under $2. seeds are such a hassle. "

I live in a tiny little town and haven't seen anything where I could, except maybe Walmart? I just wanted to try planting seeds anyway

6/4/2011 9:49:51 AM

I finally got my tomatoes in the ground and caged yesterday--a bit behind, I know. Got the seedlings way back in early May and hadn't done anything to the soil yet, so I stuck them in ~2 gallon pots as a interim measure. 3 weeks later...finally turned over the soil and dug the holes, and in they went. A couple had gotten a little root-bound but they all look healthy. I just hope they grow okay, as I was too cheap/lazy to rent a tiller this year, so I just turned over what I could with a shovel and worked in some garden soil directly around the plants. All of them are blooming, and the sungold and the jaune flaumme both have little fruits on them. So far, so good.

Peppers are all staying in pots this year as I had luck that way last year (2 orange bell, jalapeno, ancho, red cayenne), plus chard in the ground (survived the winter, looks a little sad but I think it will turn the corner) and arugula assuming it sprouts. More pots with herbs (thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, mint) and lettuce.

6/4/2011 9:32:02 PM

Quote :

"I try to cage/stake plants early, when it's still small. later the roots spread and you can disturb them by sticking a big metal pole through the middle. if it's there to begin with, the roots will grow around the stake."

Same here, but I only cage my tomatoes. I cage them early because it is a lot easier to get the cages around them. Although this year I accidentally drove a prong from one of the cages straight through one of my soaker hoses. So I had to pull the whole hose out and replace it.

I didn't cage my bell peppers last year and they did fine. If they get taller this year I might consider it.

6/7/2011 11:10:25 AM

Well shit. I thought I was being smart by planting the beans near the back fence so they could grow up it. Just went out and checked the garden, and damn deer ate all my beans.

Now I get to go build a fence around my fence in that area in the hopes I can at least get a few beans this year.

6/14/2011 5:41:52 PM

yo dawg, I built a fence around your fence...

So. Two questions. Bugs and Wilt.
Bugs: Probably a simple one. I have ants on my cayenne pepper, and on the underside of some of the leaves, little white things. Ant eggs? Aphids? Something else entirely? And more importantly, how to get rid of them?

Wilt: The tougher one. My brandywine obviously has spotted wilt. I don't think it's going to make it, so I'm probably going to just pull it out. It's in a pot, rather than in the ground. But I'm worried my sungold (in the ground bed, maybe 10 feet away) also has it, as some of the bottom leaves have turned a vivid yellow. Is there any way to keep it from spreading to the rest of the plant? Would removing any stems with yellow leaves do any good? Or is it just a matter of wait and hope? I lost two plants to spotted wilt last year (a new cross called big lucky red, and the replacement for the first one of the same variety, not so lucky I guess) but they were in the ground with the others and did not infect the other plants. I know a small insect called the thrips is a main infection vector, but those guys are small enough that there's really not any effective way to deal with them that I'm familiar with.

6/18/2011 11:32:14 PM

I made this over the weekend. Still haven't decided what I'm going to put in it. I've got a few small gardens around the yard. This was just a project I saw and thought it was cool.

http://www.slate.com/id/2291834/?from=rss

Basically a earthbox on steroids.

6/19/2011 7:17:16 PM

Anybody know what creature made these turds? and what should I do? the plants aren't eaten badly, but these worry me! they're pretty big to have been made by an insect

I've been spraying intermittently with insecticidal soap, and sprayed everything after finding the turds. they're all over the place

6/20/2011 8:19:27 AM

OK so after doing some research, I've found out that those poops belong to the dastardly tomato hornworm!! (took me a while cause I didn't know what to search for ... tiny poops? poop on leaves?)

anybody had success getting rid of these? I found a few today and they're tiny right now, but they'll eat an entire plant if they're full size. I had them last year and just killed the adults but I'm going out of town and I don't think I can trust my roommate to do the same! What can I do to prevent this??

6/20/2011 9:56:44 AM

Lady bugs will eat their eggs. Tilling the soil after harvest will help prevent them next year. There's also a wasp you can mail order that eats them.

6/20/2011 10:12:06 AM

Good ol' biological warfare.

I had a hell of a time with my seedling project. The cucumbers sprouted beautifully, but I freaked and transplanted too fast and they all died. The tomato seeds might have sprouted, but the dog kept playing with the container (and ONLY the tomato one ) and anything that did sprout ended up being killed because of the damn dog. The peppers didn't do shit.

I've been too busy to fuck
around with more, but I'll give it another shot just for fun

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 10:25 AM. Reason : That earthbox looks cool, might be something I need to do]

6/20/2011 10:22:02 AM

Check out this cool fucker I found on one of my tomato plants yesterday.

6/20/2011 10:40:38 AM

^ not cool at all

6/20/2011 1:06:05 PM

Good grief morning glories need a lot of water! I watered those turkeys just two days ago and this morning they were already looking droopy again. Thankfully, once watered they spring back up in about 20 mins.

6/20/2011 1:08:52 PM

what size pot do i need for a Gardenia? it was a gift/funeral arrangement from one of my gf's aunts. We don't have a yard and want to keep it indoors.

6/20/2011 2:05:46 PM

y'all have some ridiculous solutions to bugs in your gardens

what's wrong with good ol sevin dust?

6/20/2011 3:06:21 PM

i too, would die if you played their music near me. jkjk

6/20/2011 3:21:05 PM

Went to the farmers market yesterday and got a super bush tomato, roma tomato, and a banana pepper plant. Gonna be growing in 5 gallon buckets.

6/20/2011 4:08:26 PM

Wax beans are yielding well so far. Probably harvesting 20 pods a week from my 10 plants

my cubanelle is fruiting now and I should start picking in 2 weeks

tomatoes are a little slow. Best Boy has two, ping pong sized fruits but the German Johnson isn't doing much at all.

6/20/2011 6:06:24 PM

I'm happy with my tomatoes' progress (other than the worrisome signs of spotted wilt, anyhow...) Have two small fruits on the red brandywine, 3 little guys on the cherokee purple, 2 clusters (about 9 total) on the Jaunne Flaumme, and a whole bunch on the sungold. One of which has ripened ahead of the others and shall be devoured tonight.

6/20/2011 6:26:46 PM

We are doing 100% organic this year. No fertilizer other than manure, no pesticides. We have lost a couple plants, but for the most part everything is healthy as hell. Slower growing and smaller fruits, but healthy. I will keep you posted.

Quote :

"the German Johnson isn't doing much at all."

They traditionally fruit really late. We do them every year and I swear they are about to die. Then all of a sudden.......BAM!

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 9:25 PM. Reason : a]

6/20/2011 9:24:04 PM

So we dug all our potatoes this weekend. We got a pretty good harvest.


There are pictures in my gallery if someone could post them for me...I don't want to noob it up and make them take up the whole screen.

[Edited on July 5, 2011 at 5:05 PM. Reason : .]

7/5/2011 5:04:47 PM

Fuck spider mites!

7/18/2011 1:35:24 PM

I can't wait until I have a yard again.

7/18/2011 1:56:05 PM

Damn squash bugs destroyed all but 1 of my squash/zuch plants. Damn thousands of the motherfuckers. I noticed they moved on to the cucumbers so I decided to ditch my efforts to go organic and nailed them with Sevin.

Other than that, the garden is doing fantastic. All the varieties of tomatoes are doing well, and we are getting bell peppers almost every day. I have 2 jars of pickles in the fridge that should be ready this weekend. Even though deer got to the first round of beans, we are starting to get more now. I have about 15 cantaloupes and 4 watermelons. A couple of the cantaloupes may be ready this weekend. Also having great success with the okra and the corn. I grilled 4 ears of corn last night and they were quite possibly the best I have ever had.

The only thing that hasn't done very well is the onions. They looked like they were going to be awesome, but when we dig them up they are tiny. I think it's because we planted them too close together and in too small a space. We will probably just leave them alone until September and see what we end up with.

If I ever get some time I will take some updated pictures

If I can ever find some time, I will take some updated pics.

[Edited on July 20, 2011 at 10:05 AM. Reason : a]

7/20/2011 10:03:53 AM

This is an all natural pesticide. It attaches to the bug and dehydrates it, killing it.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/motherearth-diatomaceous-earth-p-410.html

7/20/2011 10:08:54 AM

too late, i already went hardcore. i will definitely keep that in mind for next year though

7/20/2011 10:15:38 AM

My god, I never expected my tomato plants to get as large as they have.. they're almost 6 feet tall... and the cages I bought for them are doing absolutely NO good as they continue to sprout tomatoes... (I bought the 36 inch ones I think)

I haven't even gotten my first tomato off them yet! Though, one is ready to be picked tomorrow me thinks.

7/20/2011 6:37:48 PM

go some reading about inderteminate varieties of tomatoes. if that is what you have you need to keep them pruned and in check for maximum production. I don't know of any varieties of tomatoes that SHOULD be over 6' tall.

7/20/2011 6:55:32 PM

^^ do like I did and make your own tomato cages. Buy a spool of 5' field fencing (they will know what it is if you go to Tractor Supply) and just roll them yourself. It takes like 2 minutes to do, and is way cheaper than buying cages that are already made. You can see mine in my pictures at the top of this page. And don't freak out that you haven't gotten any maters yet, we just started getting them about a week ago. Now we are getting 6-10 a day.

Anyway, it is WAY too hot out there to post pictures of my whole garden, but I wanted to share this one. This is my first eggplant EVER! I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it. Help me name my eggplant baby!



[Edited on July 20, 2011 at 8:06 PM. Reason : a]

7/20/2011 8:04:55 PM

Anyone need any Roma Tomatoes? We also have tons of corn, but we leave it out there and just pick it as we need it. We have about 6 cantaloupes that will be ready this weekend as well.

7/27/2011 6:26:04 PM

Damn, those veggies look amazing! I am hella jealous of your green peppers. Mine are still kinda small but hope they just need more time.

7/27/2011 6:47:27 PM

The okras look a little big, I think they are prime under 4". I sure wish I could grow some this far north. It's zone 5a so it's technically possible, but this was the coldest most miserable spring on record and I planted in June along with all the other farmers. Maybe next year I can start plants inside super early...

I've only picked 3 cherry tomatoes and one green pepper of my fruit plants, although I've gotten plenty of green onions, basil, cilantro and arugula. I'm addicted to arugula now. I'm going to try to sow some more for fall harvest.


[Edited on July 27, 2011 at 6:59 PM. Reason : looks like your tomatoes are kinda cracked, try to keep the soil a little moister to prevent that]

7/27/2011 6:56:58 PM

^^^ I would just like to say that I hate you. I FINALLY got my first tomato off this morning and I think I may end up with some red peppers later this week. So far every tomato that was close to ripe was knocked off or eaten. Something has taken over my peppers the last week or so too but I can't find anything on them. They picked the ones that were the most red too unfortunately. Next year I'm going to have to find SOMEWHERE in my yard to put a garden so I can handle everything better. Right now I'm doing containers because my deck is the only spot in the back yard that gets a lot of sun.

7/27/2011 7:20:06 PM

you can bring those knocked off ones in and they will ripen!

7/27/2011 8:00:06 PM

My Jaune Flaumme tomato up and died. Not sure why--it was doing fine, if a little wilty in spots, and then BAM. All the leaves turned brown over the course of about 3 days. Left a bunch of too-small-to-use green tomatoes on the branches too. And my yellow brandywine has a grand total of one tomato on it despite being the largest tomato plant in size. Curses.

On the bright side, the cherokee purple, red brandywine, and sungold are doing beautifully. My peppers are doing OK but I need to put them in bigger pots next year. Arugula, chard, herbs all present and producing.

7/27/2011 8:15:43 PM

I'm soooooooo jealous of djeternal!!!

my tomatoes are doing so bad, I tore up 4 plants that were looking ratty. My Brandywines grew so tall and majestic, but never produced! (the tops seemed to wilt/turn brown for no reason). Also I was on vacation for almost 2 weeks and trusted my garden to my roommate, who didn't do a good job. Even my Cherokee Purples, the star of the show, have only given me 3 or so tomatoes per plant. Maybe I need to fertilize more???? I don't know why things are going so bad!!!

I need a garden mentor!!! My garden always stars out GREAT and starts to wilt/fail. Not enough watering? Did my roommates neglect kill them? Disease?? I don't know

But on a good note, the cherry tomatoes are doing great, and so are my cucumbers. Making TONS of pickles this year!!!

So now my best hope ... fall planting!!!

7/27/2011 9:37:20 PM

Quote :

"Damn squash bugs destroyed all but 1 of my squash/zuch plants. Damn thousands of the motherfuckers. I noticed they moved on to the cucumbers so I decided to ditch my efforts to go organic and nailed them with Sevin"

are you talking about the squash vine borer? They don't bother my cucumbers, but I've given up trying to grow summer squash because of them. You can also grow butternut squash or other varieties with solid stems so the borer can't get them.

7/27/2011 9:39:18 PM