Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 24, June 15, 2012

Free Republic | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Weekly Gardening Thread

Good morning gardeners. JustaDumbBlonde has been very busy lately and asked me to post this weeks thread for her. She felt bad about not being able to respond to posts on last weeks thread.

I hope all of your gardens are doing well. My little 6 x 6 raised bed tomato patch is coming along fine. It has benefited from a couple of good rain showers in the last couple of weeks.

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This picture was taken at about 3:30 pm yesterday. The shade starts moving on to the tomato patch at about 3 pm and it gets full sun, 8 hours, up until then. I think the shade will be beneficial as the summer heats up.

Come on over and visit me at Beer Thirty (5:30 CDT) on the Homebrewing thread.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

Weekly Gardening Thread

Good morning gardeners. JustaDumbBlonde has been very busy lately and asked me to post this weeks thread for her. She felt bad about not being able to respond to posts on last weeks thread.

I hope all of your gardens are doing well. My little 6 x 6 raised bed tomato patch is coming along fine. It has benefited from a couple of good rain showers in the last couple of weeks.

">

This picture was taken at about 3:30 pm yesterday. The shade starts moving on to the tomato patch at about 3 pm and it gets full sun, 8 hours, up until then. I think the shade will be beneficial as the summer heats up.

Come on over and visit me at Beer Thirty (5:30 CDT) on the Homebrewing thread.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

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[rightly_dividing]

The last time that I made pears perserves I wound up with a couple of pints of just syrup. That worked out just fine for pancakes.

[Red_Devil 232]

T-storm dropped the temperature from 90° to 70° nice since I am cooking supper.

[Racehorse]

I’ve never planted any garlic, but plan on it. Why do you say you won’t grow it again?

Mosrly due to frustration with this Spring's garden.

I planted my garlic last September in a small patch of my backyard garden. Watched it grow and thrive through our mild Winter, then watched the stalks simply disappear. Space could be better used for other stuff.

How much garlic does a two person household need? Just dug up some really good cloves to cure. Too much trouble.

Maybe I'll plant again, but not in my garden. Maybe in pots.

Last Spring and Fall I planted Waltham Squash, following a successful planting and harvest the season before, only to see vine borers destroy the plants. This year the vines are spreading and taking over the garden and already I have a dozen eight inch fruit. Go figure.

Point is, plant your garlic, and if your crop thrives, brag about it.

 

[tubebender]

Those plants look really healthy RD. How long have they been in the ground?

[tillacum]

Nice.

[Red_Devil 232]

A couple of months. I don’t remember the date I actually transplanted the starts.

[Ellendra]

My strawberry patch has slowed down some. It never got to the “avalanche” stage like it did last year, I wore myself out picking some days but I was still able to keep it picked. Last year I couldn't. Now I'll get a steady trickle of berries until a good hard freeze stops them.

And, just in time for the strawberries to slow down, our raspberries are picking up! I picked about a cupfull yesterday. The main patch is red raspberries, but in the spot where my cherry bush died there's a black raspberry growing that's just covered in berries! Also some thicker, upright canes that I think might be blackberries but they don't have any fruit yet, and one mulberry sapling. I must have some very generous birds, because those are 3 of my favorite berries!

I got all the planting done on my land, and even managed to weed the “absentee garden” I have there. That's actually a pretty big step, because for years my shoulders have been too messed up to pull weeds, it would feel like I was ripping my own arm out of it's socket. But this year I could!! I haven't been able to talk for almost 10 months, and my stomach refuses to behave itself long enough for me to work at my old job, but the rest of me is getting stronger!

[SupplySider]

I have a garden this year for the first time in my life. There are twenty tomato plants, in raised beds, all doing great.

Because of this I find your photo deeply fascinating!

[Red_Devil 232]

Where are you gardening?

[txhurl]

I just had to post this - looks like Van Gogh has taken over the storm forecast models. 'Bout halfway between Starry, Starry Night and Sunflowers.

[basil]

Nice—but am I going to get any rain at my house? Is Lake Travis going to fill back up?

These are the burning questions of the hour............

[Arrowhead1952]

Nice. Looks like a paint by the numbers.

[greeneyes]

How strange that so much garlic just disappeared! I have planted it in the fall for two years now with great results.

Just plant in Sept. or Oct. and cover with a row cover when the first frost hits. Take the row cover off in the spring. harvest May or June. Didn't have to add fertilizer, pull weeds or anything.

I just used leftover garlic I had laying around the house, because it was going to go to waste, and was surprised it grew at all.LOL.

[tubebender]

I pulled my Inchellium and Susanville Garlic yesterday and today and they are Primo with perfect wrappers and nice sized bulbs. Both are soft necked varieties that are a little earlier than the stiff necked types. My corn transplanted well and have really taken off under the row covers tripling in size in 3 weeks or less. My wife picked 3 gallons of Strawberries today and will pick Raspberries tomorrow while I continue to tinker with the drip irrigation here and there.

[Red_Devil 232]

I may try some garlic in my raised bed after the tomaroes are done. What variety would you suggest I try?

[tubebender]

You garden on another planet compared to Benderville Red as we are in the lower reaches of the Pacific North West where this vendor is located Territorial Seed As them for a print catalog...

[this_ol_patriot]

That looks like tomato anthracnose a soil-borne fungus disease, not severe in your pic, rainy areas are not good for it but good cultural practice such as not watering from above, not much help in rainy areas, and also mulching, looks like you have that covered. I had it once and it never got much beyond what you have and only on a few ‘maters. Still good eating though, just cut the bad part out.

Google or whatever it.

[tubebender]

Here is some reading for you Southern gardeners considering growing Garlic... Garlic Guide

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks. We had two rain storms totaling 11in. We do water through a drip irrigaton system that is under the landscape fabric. We had a lot of this in Mobile where it rains every afternoon in the summer.

[rightly_dividing]

I searched tomato anthracnose and learned a lot. I believe this is what the problem is. Our little garden is on a slope that drains so we are are in good shape there. I had thought about leveling it out by making it a raised bed but it is good that I didn't.

Thanks again for your help.