Garden time...Oh boy!

BB_TX · Jun 14, 2006

Heck of a good looking garden, Jim. I am being overwhelmed by okra and tomatoes now. Those meaty vine rippened tomatoes are so much better than those store bought ones that are full of juice and seeds.
But everything else is done for. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif All my squash plants just rolled over and died. Still haven't figured out what killed them.
Pulled all my onions. Got plenty of those to last a while.
Got lots of green beans. Plants still look good, but the heat has made them stop producing so I will probably pull those up.
Heat has also got to my lettuce making it go to seed.
But overall had a good year. Think I will start planning my fall garden now. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Bird · Jun 14, 2006

( pull those up )

Nothing wrong with that, but when any of my garden plants quit producing, I found it a lot easier to just mow them down with the rotary cutter, let them dry awhile, and till them in.

dooleysm · Jun 14, 2006

I can't believe you guys are at the end of your growing season. We're still waiting on the first tomato. I always figure you're doing good if you get any tomatoes before July 4.

johnk · Jun 14, 2006

The pics of the vegetables are great. Kind of makes me jealous because the corn up here is about 5" long. I'm talking about the whole plant. must be nice to live in the warmer climate.. The seasons up here are the nice thing though.. Western New Yorker....

jinman · Jun 15, 2006

( But everything else is done for. All my squash plants just rolled over and died. Still haven't figured out what killed them.
Pulled all my onions. Got plenty of those to last a while.
Got lots of green beans. Plants still look good, but the heat has made them stop producing so I will probably pull those up.
)

Bill, I don't understand the squash "goin' south" either. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif All my squash plants are doing great with so many leaves you have to pull them aside and go on a treasure hunt to find squash before it gets huge and tough. We are picking a half-bushel of squash every other day and the spaghetti squash is just starting to mature. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Gsganzer was sure right when he said we were going to have much more squash than we ever need. We sure have lots of smiling friends though. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Our beans are just starting to make. They have lots of blooms, but the hot weather is pretty brutal on them and we just may not get that many.

The okra is just the opposite of the beans. It loves the hot weather and is stating to produce like crazy. Our cantaloupes and watermelons have grapefruit sized melons on them too. It won't be long. Some of our tomatoes are a little sunburned, but that's due to the cages holding the branches in while the fruit hangs out. I have some Celebrity tomatoes the size of both your fists together and they are still green. Most of the ripe Early Girl tomatoes are about the size of a baseball. The Porters are the size of golf balls and cherries and grape varieties the size of their namesakes. I can't believe the difference in taste between varieties.

I have had some sunburns on some of our bell peppers too. If they are at the top of the plant, they seem to always have a small sunburned spot on them by the time they are ready to pick. It takes a huge amount of work to produce "perfect" looking veggies. I've learned to accept slightly imperfect veggies that taste good. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

With any luck, we may get a shower of rain this weekend and some cooler weather. That will put the garden into "hyperdrive" and I may be too busy to even logon to TBN. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BB_TX · Jun 15, 2006

Our beans are just starting to make. 
I had my beans in quite a while before you. Took a chance and planted a little early and got lucky with no late frost. Picked like crazy from mid May to early June. Then the heat just turned them off.
As for the squash, they were doing great for a while. I did not find any of the larger squash bugs I had seen in the past. But I did find some very tiny gray colored bugs (smaller than a mosquito) and a few larger bugs black with red/orange spots that I had never seen before. There did not appear to be enough to harm the plants, but maybe so.
For our northern friends jealous of our early gardens, we have to get them in early. By late June, all but a few heat loving plants like okra stop producing. And by mid July its mostly over. BUT. We get to start again and have a fall garden /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif unless we are so tired of it we don't want any more for another year. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

bloody_peasant · Jun 15, 2006

( It takes a huge amount of work to produce "perfect" looking veggies. I've learned to accept slightly imperfect veggies that taste good. )

A'int that the truth. Those veggies at the supermarket sure do look good, but never taste nearly as good. I think in our push to make perfect looking veggies we've lost taste of the bigger picture.

Nasty135 · Jun 15, 2006

( Have you tried them on the grill, charcoal NOT gas, basted in olive oil ) 

Ohhh Yeah!! We did squash & zuchinni last year and boy if you close your eyes it almost tastes like steak... My maters are still green but coming out of the tops of the cages & corn is starting to tastle... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif , Snowpeas & kale are finished , beans are coming on ,cantalope,watermelon.... Garden doubled in size from last year and I'm think about doubling it again next year /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

jinman · Jun 15, 2006

( ...a few larger bugs black with red/orange spots that I had never seen before... )

Bill, if that bug you saw was one of these borers, you may have had more damage inside your squash vines than you could see from the outside.

Southwestern Squash Borer

Bird: I was thinking of just cutting and plowing everything under, but I've read so many horror stories about insects wintering-over in the soil from the previous season's plants that I think I'll make a compost pile and put all the vines into it. The heat and decomposition should take care of pests. Now that I've been "bitten" by the corn earworm, I guess I'm a little paranoid and I know Kathy doesn't want to put in all that work and take a chance on losing our produce. She's really been a great partner in all this garden effort. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

BB_TX · Jun 15, 2006

That's it, Jim. Never had that one before. One day a plant looked great, next you could see leaves starting to wilt, few more days and it was pretty much dead. I will have to read up on the treatment for next year.