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Exciting times...

My Husky Red cherry tomato plant has its first tomato and two of my red chili pepper plants have multiple peppers growing on them. The third plant has lots of flowers but no peppers yet. Okra seeds are sprouting.

Janice makes fun of me by saying I drink beer and stare at my plants all day.

Anyone harvest anything from their garden?

Flora has cooked eggplant already but that is the only thing so far. My chili peppers are just starting to turn red and I have small green beans starting to grow on the vines. The vines are covered with flowers so the early indication is it will be a bumper green bean harvest.

I've lots of tomatoes on my plants but they all are very green.

Here is a picture of a couple of green beans growing on my vines:

If you a'int bragging, you a'int trying...

So here's my garden, since I am finally starting to harvest a few things. I do everything in containers, which is great for weeding, not so great for maintenance free watering. And, when you are in a literal drought with back to back to back 90+ degree days, it is very high maintenance.
I know our city water is pretty acidic, so I use rain water as much as often. To make that work, I have three rain barrels. Two are fed by gutters, and the third is simply emptied into by one barrel when it is full. I can fill a watering can very easily, and my garden is small enough that it is not too time consuming to soak everything.
When it all runs dry, I have to rely on our hose. Bleah.
Anyway, long story short, I am going to be doing some canning this weekend. I've got lots of cucumbers to pickle, and banana peppers ready to go. There are over 50 green tomatoes staring at me, and I'm looking forward to putting them all in jars. By summer's end, I should have about 3x that yield.
I do have one "patio" cherry tomato plant going, simply because I love to snack on them as I water and feed everything.

That ripening tomato is looking good. Same for the banana peppers and jalapeno peppers. What variety tomatoes are you growing?

Bob Green wrote: ↑

June 1st, 2019, 5:55 am

That ripening tomato is looking good. Same for the banana peppers and jalapeno peppers. What variety tomatoes are you growing?

I've got four kinds. Early girl (the ripening one), beefsteak, beefmaster, and cherry. I think next year I am going to plant a container full of roma tomatoes since they are plentiful and great for canning.

Aside from the banana and jalapeno peppers, I've also got bell peppers growing, and various volunteers from last year that I am not certain what kind they are yet. One of those is a Butch T Scorpion pepper that I was never brave enough to try. It was cool to watch grow, though.

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

June 1st, 2019, 8:19 am

I've got four kinds. Early girl (the ripening one), beefsteak, beefmaster, and cherry. I think next year I am going to plant a container full of roma tomatoes since they are plentiful and great for canning.

I planted six tomato plants. Two in pots: Husky Red Cherry and Sun Sugar Yellow Cherry. Four in the ground: Cherokee Purple, Early Girl, Steak Sandwich and Bonnie Original.

Cherry tomatoes work really well in pots. I grew an Early Girl in a pot last year and it produced like crazy.

My gardens grow all the things that the resident deer, rabbits, raccoons, possums and woodchucks gobble up. No people food, just my huge hosta collection. So.....I think I'll need to come to NC for some fresh veggies. They look so yummy! You guys are all good gardeners!

Heavy winds yesterday afternoon broke my green bean trellis. Both support poles snapped off at the ground. This trellis is about 4 years old so the wood in the ground had started to rot. I was able to get it back vertical, drive a couple of support stakes in the ground and nail the trellis to them so I've rescued my green bean plants.

It will need to be replaced in the off season. I'm thinking I need to go to metal fence posts instead of wood.

We have a small garden at the lake house, probably ,12 x 15. I have 14 tomatoes plants, black krim, big boy and better boy. I use metal fence poles that have hooks, with string for the pole beans. We planted variegated corn, okra, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash and herbs. Years ago, Bud made tomato crates out of fence wire that works great. I'll take a picture when we get the the lake house. We should have some ripe tomatoes when we get to the lake.

I planted six Ichiban eggplants four in the ground and two in pots. Here are a couple of pictures:

CB&B and Bob, your gardens are beautiful. Bob, I have never seen that many tomatoes on a stem.

While I was at the salt mine, Flora took care of the morning harvest. She picked lots of eggplant along with some cucumbers, yellow squash, okra and three cherry tomatoes.

Bob Green wrote: ↑

June 10th, 2019, 4:02 pm

While I was at the salt mine, Flora took care of the morning harvest. She picked lots of eggplant along with some cucumbers, yellow squash, okra and three cherry tomatoes.

Morning Harvest.jpg

Kitchen Window.jpg

Great looking eggplants! I cultivated my one and only fruiting one today, and marinara sauce is simmering in herbs from the garden to go on top. Lots of flowers, but no more fruits...yet.

Thankfully we finally got some rain, and my barrels are filled back up with water. Also, thankfully, the rain came while I was gone to Ocracoke for the weekend. I was way worried about coming back to a very wilted garden.
Instead, I've got literally dozens of new cucumbers in action, and a few ripe ones. Same with everything else, including the squash, peppers, and tomatoes.

A shot for size reference of my Wall of Green. (I'm 6'4"...and that cuke is a little over 18". ps...I did not use the "man's ruler")

Backyard gardening necessitates cooking. This afternoon I made spicy meatball soup. The meatballs are made from venison sausage from a deer shot by my dad. The yellow squash, okra and red chili pepper came from my garden. The onion, garlic and tomatoes came from the grocery store:

My squash finally got hit by borers (took way longer than usual and I got a dinner out of them before their demise), and my lettuce was done, so I cleared out the containers they were in. In each one, I found a small egg. The first was so tiny I thought it was a bit of fertilizer. The second one is twice as big.

I think both are lizards, and at least one is likely to be an anole. I doubt they are snakes, since they were in pots that a small snake would have a tough time climbing up into. Gonna find out; I'm incubating them.

Japanese Beatles are eating the leaves of my green beans. What are y'all using for insect control? Years ago I used dish shppp deterrent with water to spray for bugs. I did that today I hope it works.

Very Duke Blue wrote: ↑

June 17th, 2019, 4:24 pm

Japanese Beatles are eating the leaves of my green beans. What are y'all using for insect control? Years ago I used dish shppp deterrent with water to spray for bugs. I did that today I hope it works.

I had a bad problem last year with aphids on my bean plants and I used soapy water to combat them.

Here are a couple photos of a Philippine squash called Upo that I am growing. The first is the plant on the trellis and the second is one of the squash hanging behind the plant: