The Barn and Fields > Gardening
2016 Gardening
Cheryl:
My garden is keeping me busy. I have spent the morning making squash pickles, refrigerator claussen clones (we love these!), and now I'm making sweet pickle relish.
Our yellow squash is doing well in spite of the squash bugs. I'm picking about a 5 gallon bucket full every other day. I have so much of it in the freezer already and we eat it a couple times a week. I have been giving it away when I can because we've been blessed with so much of it.
The first planting of cucumbers is starting to show signs of dying back, so we planted more yesterday. Our corn finally came up but I don't know if we'll get any from it because it's so puny. Tomato plants are loaded and I've been eating a few cherry tomatoes every time I go to the garden. Our pepper plants look good and I've already picked some peppers. The jalapenos are the hottest ones we've ever had but I don't know what variety they are because I thought I was buying cow horn pepper but these were mislabeled.
The rabbit finally left the beans alone, but the damage was done. We replanted but a lot didn't come up. Maybe it's not too late to get some more in the ground. I gave up on my cabbage. The worms won that round. I have a few decent size heads that I'll cut sometime soon.
The okra is only about knee high, but is blooming and has little pods on it. Maybe we'll pick at the end of the week. Our cantaloupes are loaded and doing great. Can't wait till they are ripe. The watermelons are just sitting there, not really growing at all.
Cheryl:
In the week or so since I last posted in here my garden has changed.
The squash is gone now. I picked the last of it yesterday and added 10 more bags to the freezer. I left one zucchini plant because it had a couple of little ones on it.
I have only picked a handful of beans (thanks, rabbits! >:() and my cukes are turning bitter from the heat. It hasn't rained here in a while and even though we are trying to keep it watered, the garden is looking fried.
The worms got more of the cabbage than I did. Maybe we'll plant more in the fall. The tomatoes are hanging in there and I'm picking a few here and there. We have a couple of cherry tomato plants that are over 7 feet tall and producing like crazy. They are called Super Sweet 100 and are so good! I highly recommend these if you like cherry tomatoes.
Our peppers are doing ok, just not producing very much compared to other years. Of course the okra is doing great since it's my least favorite vegetable we are growing. :)
greyhoundgirl:
Mmm, Cheryl. I LOVE Super Sweet 100's. They are the only hybrid tomato I make an exception for. :) Super delicious!
Cheryl:
--- Quote from: greyhoundgirl on June 30, 2016, 12:19:04 PM ---Mmm, Cheryl. I LOVE Super Sweet 100's. They are the only hybrid tomato I make an exception for. :) Super delicious!
--- End quote ---
I wish I'd known about them sooner. They are delicious! We bought 3 plants from a greenhouse we'd been to only a couple of times, just to try something different. I'm very pleased with these.
greyhoundgirl:
Last weekend, I spent some time pulling up some plants that weren't doing so well, probably from getting so much rain in a short time in May and June. Some of the tomato plants and green bean plants were yellowing and I spotted squash bugs on some squash plants. So those came out. Harvested green beans one last time before pulling them and got enough to can 5 quarts. Also, the chard had gone to seed and I was waiting to collect seed, which I did, then pulled those.
After that, or rather during that, Earl was expanding one of our 4' x 8' beds into a 4' x 12' bed. We used a large cattle panel to make a sideways arch in it with about 6-9 inches on either end. I planted spaghetti squash on one end and sweet meat squash on the other end. Just inside the arch next to the panel, I planted Chinese red noodle beans to grow up the arch. On the south long side of the bed, I planted basil and okra. Behind the basil, I tried direct sowing a couple of tomato plants. Beyond that, some lettuce in hopes that the shading from the other plants and those growing up arch will shade them and allow them to mature despite the heat (this is an experiment!). And on the far other side, north side of the bed, more zinnias.
In a few other empty spots, I tucked in sunflowers, patty pan squash, more yellow squash (our favorite), jicama, and more Chinese red noodle beans, as well as more zinnias. Oh, and lemon cucumbers!
I bought some large faint-gridded poster boards last week and drew my garden beds on them to scale in order to start planning out the fall/winter garden and what I need to be starting inside. This is a new thing for me, but being a visual learner and loving seeing garden plans in books, I thought it might be fun and helpful. Really wanting to take advantage of the cooler growing seasons even more this year.
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