What's in your garden?

[Cometmom]

It will probably kill em dead

Doubtful, I have been composting around my veggies for years. I just hate buying it.

Picked a few minutes ago. It is a little small, but I only let them get a little bit bigger. Small is best for stir fry, spaghetti sauce and some other uses. I'm not selling them by the pound, so I can pick when I want.

Nice garden Clete. I'm jealous. How do you keep it so weed free? The cuke plants you gave me are doing great. Something is eating my pepper plants and they aren't growing at all. Suggestions?

[siskiyou]

It will probably kill em dead

Doubtful, I have been composting around my veggies for years. I just hate buying it.

Picked a few minutes ago. It is a little small, but I only let them get a little bit bigger. Small is best for stir fry, spaghetti sauce and some other uses. I'm not selling them by the pound, so I can pick when I want.

Nice. It amazes me you can get fruit from such dinky plants. My squash plants are 4x the size of yours and I am just starting to get some tiny squash on them.

[cletus1]

Yeah my plants are still small. They will take up too much room later. I also picked one Jalapeno and a Serrano pepper, but they are freaks. I have noticed that occasionally a pepper plant will produce an early pepper or two. I am no where near harvesting anything but the squash, but I will be very soon.

I don't know what kind of fertilizer you use, but phosphorus is what makes the plants bloom and fruit. Nitrogen will make them big and green. Like I told CM I used a 10/10/10.

[cletus1]

Nice garden Clete. I'm jealous. How do you keep it so weed free? The cuke plants you gave me are doing great. Something is eating my pepper plants and they aren't growing at all. Suggestions?

I pull weeds when they are small and I do it often. Also, this is a new garden spot and the weeds dont grow here like in they do in my other spot where I have been adding compost for years.

Peppers are usually the last thing insects bother in my garden. They prefer the green beans, eggplants and cukes. The people at the Grange Co Op are sometimes good at helping you ID insects. What you do to control them depends on whether you want to use chemicals or not. They can also recommend a fertilizer. I recommend a 10/10/10 or similar all purpose fertilizer that you can sprinkle around the plants after you scratch up the ground near each plant. I have used organic fertilizer too, but I tilled it into the soil before I planted. You can also use it as a side dressing.

Here is the Basic Organic Fertilizer Mix: ~~For use as at planting time or side dressing for all types of plants~~ 3 parts blood or fishmeal 3 parts steamed bone meal 1 part kelp meal 1 and 1/2 parts Sul-Po-Mag (a brand name for a sulfur, potassium, and magnesium source, but you can substitute any such mixture.)

[Cometmom]

Nice garden Clete. I'm jealous. How do you keep it so weed free? The cuke plants you gave me are doing great. Something is eating my pepper plants and they aren't growing at all. Suggestions?

I pull weeds when they are small and I do it often. Also, this is a new garden spot and the weeds dont grow here like in they do in my other spot where I have been adding compost for years.

Peppers are usually the last thing insects bother in my garden. They prefer the green beans, eggplants and cukes. The people at the Grange Co Op are sometimes good at helping you ID insects. What you do to control them depends on whether you want to use chemicals or not. They can also recommend a fertilizer. I recommend a 10/10/10 or similar all purpose fertilizer that you can sprinkle around the plants after you scratch up the ground near each plant. I have used organic fertilizer too, but I tilled it into the soil before I planted. You can also use it as a side dressing.

Here is the Basic Organic Fertilizer Mix: ~~For use as at planting time or side dressing for all types of plants~~ 3 parts blood or fishmeal 3 parts steamed bone meal 1 part kelp meal 1 and 1/2 parts Sul-Po-Mag (a brand name for a sulfur, potassium, and magnesium source, but you can substitute any such mixture.)

Thanks. What is really strange is I have all this planted in a 10 x 4 raised bed. The tomatoes are taking off like crazy and the cukes you gave me are doing great. The peppers leaves are all eaten and the plants are not thriving at all. I will try the fertilizer thing and go to the Grange for some insect advice.

[elliemae]

We put up a deer fence for the first time this year. Expanded the garden space to about 20' X 50'. Tilled, worked some compost in, fertilized and covered everything but the raised beds with heavy duty weed mat. Seems to be working so far. The bugs are loving my pole beans and basil but are leaving the tomatoes and peppers alone. All kierkabits (sp?0 are going off. This year we made a teepee frame out of 10' bamboo poles and planted the pole beans at the base. Can't wait until it's a true living teepee.

[siskiyou]

Yeah my plants are still small. They will take up too much room later. I also picked one Jalapeno and a Serrano pepper, but they are freaks. I have noticed that occasionally a pepper plant will produce an early pepper or two. I am no where near harvesting anything but the squash, but I will be very soon.

I don't know what kind of fertilizer you use, but phosphorus is what makes the plants bloom and fruit. Nitrogen will make them big and green. Like I told CM I used a 10/10/10.

The only fertilizer I have used is dairy cow shit and lots of it, tilled in with the soil. I am sure it's very high in nitrogen which explains my giant plants that are just beginning to fruit.

[cletus1]

Yeah my plants are still small. They will take up too much room later. I also picked one Jalapeno and a Serrano pepper, but they are freaks. I have noticed that occasionally a pepper plant will produce an early pepper or two. I am no where near harvesting anything but the squash, but I will be very soon.

I don't know what kind of fertilizer you use, but phosphorus is what makes the plants bloom and fruit. Nitrogen will make them big and green. Like I told CM I used a 10/10/10.

The only fertilizer I have used is dairy cow shit and lots of it, tilled in with the soil. I am sure it's very high in nitrogen which explains my giant plants that are just beginning to fruit.

Well then, you have an abundance of Nitrogen and not enough Phosphorus. Get a couple pounds of powdered Rock Phosphate or another fertilizer with low N an 10/10 on the phosphorus and potash and sprinkle a little around the plants. It will make a big difference.

[Tia]

We put up a deer fence for the first time this year. Expanded the garden space to about 20' X 50'. Tilled, worked some compost in, fertilized and covered everything but the raised beds with heavy duty weed mat. Seems to be working so far. The bugs are loving my pole beans and basil but are leaving the tomatoes and peppers alone. All kierkabits (sp?0 are going off. This year we made a teepee frame out of 10' bamboo poles and planted the pole beans at the base. Can't wait until it's a true living teepee.

Good lord, Ellie, what took you so long to post, dammit!

[tvguy]

We put up a deer fence for the first time this year. Expanded the garden space to about 20' X 50'. Tilled, worked some compost in, fertilized and covered everything but the raised beds with heavy duty weed mat. Seems to be working so far. The bugs are loving my pole beans and basil but are leaving the tomatoes and peppers alone. All kierkabits (sp?0 are going off. This year we made a teepee frame out of 10' bamboo poles and planted the pole beans at the base. Can't wait until it's a true living teepee.

Hi Ellie, I'm going for the green bean teepee also





http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22 ... nbeans.jpg

[Tia]

What function does the coffee can serve, TV?

[tvguy]

What function does the coffee can serve, TV?

We buy coffee that comes in those and plus it has some nails in it.

[Steve_Pickering]

[Cometmom]

So now SP is posting pictures from the Home & Garden channel.

[Tia]

Anyone looking at dealing at 200 pounds of zucchini squash this summer?

[WKYonc]

We put up a deer fence for the first time this year. Expanded the garden space to about 20' X 50'. Tilled, worked some compost in, fertilized and covered everything but the raised beds with heavy duty weed mat. Seems to be working so far. The bugs are loving my pole beans and basil but are leaving the tomatoes and peppers alone. All kierkabits (sp?0 are going off. This year we made a teepee frame out of 10' bamboo poles and planted the pole beans at the base. Can't wait until it's a true living teepee.

Good lord, Ellie, what took you so long to post, dammit!

Well damn, Clete, reading about all she has accomplished it's a wonder she had had time to enter this.
That, and the fact that she is required to rush in the house around 4:00 to shower, do her hair, slip into a fresh dress and high heels so she will be presentable when she is serving her man his 1st Martini of the evening while he reads the paper. Our very own Dona Reed, right on this very forum.

[Tia]

Busy she might be, but I miss her, and I do see her on facebook, and feel we deserve her charms also!

[cletus1]

So now SP is posting pictures from the Home & Garden channel.

Last years veggies, but they look good.

Maybe he will play nice on this thread. I certainly hope so, since I come here often. Lets not turn this thread into another SP circus.

[Steve_Pickering]

So now SP is posting pictures from the Home & Garden channel.

Nope.


Yep. They are mine. That is my Mom's house in the background. These are posted at Mikeâ??s Garden Page as some of the Beefmasters weighed in at almost one pound. The one Lemon Cucumber plant produced three bushels.

[RobinBird]

I picked and ate my first yellow summer squash last night! I've got a bunch of tiny green sungold tomatoes too .... just a few more weeks.