Gardening

[ruthcatrin]

I envy your growing climate, though its nice to not have to worry much about watering here. The only things come out of my garden so far are some sugar snap peas and the cucumbers! But everything is growing well, and I just pulled up the pea vines and planted lettuce!

 

[Robtouw]

I have a lot of empty space since the lettuce, onions, radishes, green beans and cucumbers are done. I planted more watermelon, hopefully it will produce. Usually we get more rain, this year has been scary! I'll take a few photos of the pumpkins. They aren't gigantic, but are very pretty!

 

[alejandro]

Nice looking flowers Rob, this year been very dry down here too, summer will be hard.

 

[ruthcatrin]

I don't think I'm going to get any pumpkins this year, the pumpkin plants aren't happy. I've been babying a warm climate variety for a couple years and the cold spring just did bad things for it I think. Time to find a different variety I guess!

 

[ruthcatrin]

 

[Robtouw]

Beautiful Ruth! My pumpkins are happy this year! Some of my cantaloupes are large, others are about the size of a softball.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Garlic has been picked. Didn't think to get pictures. A little disappointed, the heads were very small. And not because I picked to soon, many of of the cloves had started to burst through the wrappers, so if anything I'd waited a bit to long to pick. Not sure if the head size is due to the very cold winter/spring, or the fact that I grew them in containers, or the fact that (as I discovered digging it out) that there were grubs in the container, or what. Garlic has been washed and peeled and is now drying on the lowest temp my dehydrator can manage in place of hanging to cure as I don't have a good place for that. I'd have to dry most of it anyway as I don't have a good storage place for garlic longterm. I'll be trying garlic again this winter/next spring though! On one amusing note though, one very small head of garlic was actually one giant clove!

 

[Robtouw]

I wasn't successful growing garlic, I'm not sure what happened! Yesterday I found what we call stink bugs on my pumpkins and corn plants. They were not there before! It is really aggravating! My hubby & I have been enjoying the cantaloupes, they make a great breakfast addition! The smaller ones taste best!

 

[alejandro]

Smaller ones are always the best. So jealous of all your crops.

 

[Robtouw]

We are really pleased that our first real garden is doing so well! We picked our first ear of corn yesterday. The Crinum lilies are blooming too!

 

[alejandro]

That's a nice color on those lilies.

 

[Robtouw]

Thanks! The bulbs were given to me by a friend. Her great-great grandmother planted the original ones, these are offspring from them. I found last night that something has shredded the tips of all of my corn. Makes me angry! It was almost ready to harvest.

 

[ruthcatrin]

You know, when I planted out the jalapenos they were the smallest of the pepper plants and I was concerned that we weren't going to get much of a crop this year.

I am no longer concerned:


If you look really close you can just see the tops of the carrot greens from the carrots that are sharing that tub.......

Rob, it may be to late for you this year, but see if you can find Plantskydd deer and rabbit repellent, it works on many other small garden pest critters too. Smells NASTY till it dries, but it does work!

 

[Robtouw]

Beautiful Ruth! And thanks for the tip!

 

[ruthcatrin]

Last year I lost all my sweet peppers and half my hots to the deer. This year I don,t think I lost a leaf to them. The stuff does work!

 

[ruthcatrin]

So, if a watermelon is ripe when "the tendril dies back", what do you do when there are TWO tendrils at the joint and only one has died back??

 

[Robtouw]

My melons literally pop off of the connecting part of the stem. I haven't figured out when to harvest the pumpkins.

 

[ruthcatrin]

The cantaloupes/muskmelons do, watermelons don't usually is my understanding.

Pumpkins: when its either close to the right color or when the killing frost hits. If you want to store them for the fall you're actually better off picking them when there's still some green showing as they'll ripen just fine in storage.

 

[Robtouw]

Most are already a brilliant orange and the stems are dark green. Ruth, here is a photo of the little bugger that has been nibbling on my corn. She came right up to the back patio French doors and peeked into the kitchen! Totally unafraid until my cat chased her away!

 

[ruthcatrin]

Then go ahead and pick one and have yourself a pie! If the one is ripe inside (and it sounds like it will be) pick the others and either store them in a cool place or freeze puree for future use.

Apollo says he'll come bark at her for you