Posted on 06/24/2016 2:33:36 PM PDT by greeneyes
Thanks for the links. We have some of those cone shaped wire cages, Hubby used them last year in the 5 gallon buckets he had tomatoes planted in. Likely won’t need them this year.
I transplanted 2 cherry tomatoes is all, and his tomatoes aren’t turning out. I have a folding cage that makes a triangular tower, but I can also unfold it and use it as a back drop for cukes to climb.
I bought a Boston cuke at Walmart, and will figure out where to plant it this weekend. I have netting that I use attached to metal frame work at the back of 2 of my beds, except this year, they are not in the rotation for plants that climb.
Several of the other beds have a fence behind them. I always thought that I would grow peas there, but peas always die before producing anything. I don’t like peas anyway, but just a handful in soup, and I can eat them that way without gagging.
My peas (3 varieties) all produced lots of pea pods - beginner’s luck, I think. I shelled about 4 cups worth & froze, but the rest are frozen in the pods in vacuum sealed bags. I held out a large bowl full of the pods and used them as a dipper for hummus. Eating them with hummus worked so well that I bought myself a cheapie food processor Thursday so I can make my own. I used my blender for the 1st batch & it didn’t work all that well.
My experience has been that cone cages get top heavy & fall over & I always have to stake the cages up for additional support. I have some heavier wire cones that someone gave me & I’m using them on my determinate plants this year, but I still think I’m eventually going to have to put in a couple of stakes. The cylinders are for the indeterminates, and are working so well that all the tomatoes will be in them next year. I might also make some smaller cylinders to support other plants (eggplants, peppers, etc.).
I hope you like the Boston pickling cukes - some folks (from the comments at the link) had them go yellow or orange - mine are all green and look like pickles before they’re pickled. I’m even calling them pickles - got to go check the pickle patch! :-)
Your tomatoes are beautiful! We’ve had such a horrible drought here in Texas for the past few years, I decided not to plant a garden this year. Then low and behold we flood all spring. I’ve heard from several friends that this was their best gardens ever. Go figure.....lol.
You are encouraging me by your pictures to attempt planting something before it gets too hot here.
Thanks for posting them!
Maybe you can post some pics of your cylinders when the maters get going good. That would be interesting to see.
My zucchini plants (why did I plant 8?) all have beautiful yellow blossoms. I forced myself not to buy a single zucchini since last year so I’d enjoy them, before the invasion of zucchini all over my counters, filling up the vegetable bins, neighbors avoiding me begins.
Potato plants had a horrible potato beetle infestation and it took a month to get rid of them. The plants still haven’t recovered, and i’m not sure they will now.
Beets, cabbage, onions, radishes, cucumbers, beans, and corn all growing well. I must be farther north than many here because I’m not close to getting anything harvestable - other than zucchini. And Swiss chard. I love the stuff (chard) so I way overplanted and already have frozen a batch. Luckily it shrinks down to nothing...
Dehydrate your zucchini and use the powder to make zucchini bread this winter.
http://homegrownandhealthy.com/what-to-do-with-overgrown-zucchini/
The dehydrating seed bit probably won’t work out if the temp was over 105F or so on the dehydrating tray. Rest of the ideas are great though.
Heck, I have a hard enough time getting seedlings started, I’d pay for someone to start them for me, even when I’m providing the seeds!
I find it hard to handle more than 2 zukes. Hubby always plants too many, but the cucurbits haven’t been doing to well last few years.
We are totally out of the zuke spears, and dill pickles, so I hope he gets a batch this year. Still have plenty of relish though. When I first made it, Hubby was eating a pint a week, so I wound up canning 60 pints.
Then I did pickles and stuff, so he slowed down on the relish. If he doesn’t get zukes and cukes this year, he might go back to some serious relish eating.
My potato plants were doing real good. Then we had 10 days straight of rain and storms, that laid them over on the ground, and they never became up right again. Then the weather turned hot and dry, so I put some wood chips on them for mulch (I usually use straw).
They have the most disgusting sickly leaves now. So I’m not sure what that is. I dug enough up for just this week, and picked the worst looking ones to dig up. Hoping the others will keep on keeping on.
Well I’m on the Eastern Side of Missouri, at about the midpoint about 75 miles south of St. Louis, so there’s lots of place North and South of me. LOL
LOL. Now that’s an honest assessment of just how I feel about seed starting. I’d much rather just stick them in the ground, which is what I often do.
I also dread transplanting. So it’s the double dreads for me.
However Running out and stick a seed in the ground, in the Spring is fine. We get so much rain, don’t even need to pay that much attention to it. I guess that’s why I like to plant potatoes, garlic, and beans.
I actually like starting seeds. It helps me cope with that restless feeling in the spring, when the weather is warm but I know there will be freezes so I can’t plant outdoors yet.
The problem is, my house is much too dark. Even with supplemental light, I end up with seedlings so leggy they don’t even survive the trip to the garden.
That makes me sad.
Well, I have enough sun. However, when I start seeds it never fails that something gets in the way of transplanting them. So all that effort, and fizzle. That makes me sad too.
It just takes practice...and every seed seems to have a different need!
Did ya’ll get some rain yesterday? Along about dusk, we got a nice little shower. Not sure how many inches. Rain barrel under the roof got about 1/4 full.
I was enough that I didn’t need to water the plants in pots this AM. Still working on cleaning up the patio areas. We have 4 patio areas of about 200 square ft. each.
It’s a constant battle to keep the two in back cleared, as the gardening stuff has tendency to be “parked” there for just a minute - that turns into days or weeks. LOL
Springfield got 4 inches of rain last week but we got not a drop.
Supposed to be something coming this afternoon. We’ll see...
And every single one of them needs more light than what my house can provide. I’m not beating my head against that wall anymore.
Yep. If you don’t have a light rack set up, you’re not going to be very successful.
I bought one (4 shelves, compact, fits in a closet if need be) on my way out of Jung’s at a deep discount. I love having it, especially for growing salad greens all winter, indoors.
Rain at 3:15 !
Thunder, lightning and a foolish family parked out on the water in their boat...
Yikes. The yard in Springfield is likely overgrown again, if they got that rain! We are getting a small amount here today. That means I don’t have to water the container plants again tomorrow AM. Yipee skipee!
.80 so far.
Bring it on...
Hubby built me some light racks out of old pallets and the long plant lights. We added on over the course of a couple 2 or 3 years so now I have a shelving system that’s 96” long X 5 shelves high along one wall of my garage. Love love love it.
The bought ones are really nice, if a bit too spendy for my budget. I will trade for them though if we win the lottery.
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