The garden!

[jeep]

This has been a strange year for the garden. First off, it was planted 6-8 weeks later than I usually plant. This delayed my tomatoes from ripening until the end of July. I bought a variety of tomato plants, including Purple Cherokee's, Black Krim, Black Brandywine, several regular reds and a couple of Black Cherry and a yellow cherry. I had room for 6 more plants, so a friend gave me different types. Then, as everything matured and began to ripen, it turned out all my plants are the same purple heirlooms, and the 6 additional plants were all cherries. THEN, I had about a dozen volunteers sprout up that were all cherries as well. So I'm good to go on cherry tomatoes, lol...

Unfortunately, we had a couple of horrible heatwaves with extreme humidity. Purple heirlooms don't take high heat and humidity well and most of them developed cracks. They taste great but look like crap, and the cracked parts tend to spoil quickly if not refrigerated immediately.

Now to the beans and snow peas. I didn't get a single one due to a rabbit infestation.

Sweet Banana peppers have gone crazy! I've picked about 30 peppers with plenty still on the plants. I'll be pickling them this weekend.

I bought 3 watermelon plants and one of them turned out to be a cucumber. Before I realized that, I had planted 2 hills of cucumber seeds, and I've had a bumper crop of some of the finest cucumbers I've ever grown.

I've never had any luck growing melons, but the 2 water melons took off nicely. Then, I discovered several other volunteer melons that popped up from seeds from years past. They're going crazy! There are several Black Diamonds, some other watermelon I don't recognize, honeydews and some other melon I bought from Baker Creek two years ago that I never harvested. My melons are usually tasteless and about the size of a softball, but this year they are looking great! I just hope they taste as good as they look...

[brewmaster15]

Brian, Those melons look great. I planted Minnesota melon this year and have a bunch of baseball size ones that I hope will get a bit bigger. My tomatoes grew like crazy with some plants over 7 feet but between periods of drought and massive rains,many look like Gran canyons with splits and a few have bottom end rot. I also planted a bunch of varieties and luckily my black cherry tomatoes are doing great.. They never make it in the house as I munch on them outside.

Squash and beans did well growing but I a patch to the dang woodchuck before he was dealt with. I also lost some of my Japanese Kuri squash to stem borers .Bummer as the plants trellised close to 15 feet up my house. only got 1 squash. My delicata are doing well and I replanted my woodchuck demolision zone .

My peppers are a mixed bag.. some are doing awesome..others not. I have a ton of cubanelle peppers,jalapeno and serrano. I lost habaneros. And thai chili. my reapers and ghosts are doing really well.

My Malabar spinach and culantro are doing great also... Vines have grown like crazy.

[jeep]

My tomato plants themselves did very good. They were just delayed producing ripe tomatoes because they were planted so late. Ditto on the Black Cherries. I'm picking seeds out of my teeth as I type, lol...

My peppers usually ripen in late Summer or early Fall, but I've been picking bananas and some other sweet pepper for about a month. My hot Thai's are still growing and the jalapenos have disappeared.

The zucchini is doing ok but those things sure can hide. I look every day, then all the sudden there's a two footer in there. I also planted some spaghetti squash. They're all tangled up with the melons, so I'm not sure but I think there's about 6 of those.

The melons are quite amazing and I'm really excited about them. Just as excited as picking my very first peaches last year before the deer killed my trees. They've grown about 30 feet out of the garden borders. That's something to consider if I can manage to relocate the garden. I think I have 7 melons of varying sizes, the water melons aren't very big but still growing, and the honeydews, cantaloupes and whatever else is in there are looking awesome. I want to pick one but the stems are still very secure. I think I'll pick one anyway because judging by the color, they have to be ripe. I didn't know there was a second wave with melons. The vines are still growing and flowering and today I saw more than 30 golf ball size baby melons. I don't know if it's too late in the season but I'll keep watering them.. The outlined area is the garden border and where they've grown, lol...

[brewmaster15]

I've got a mixed bag here. My peppers and tomatoes are dying off from that blight I posted on...It even attack the fruit. I'm getting some peppers and tomatoes but it's so few.My squash took a huge hit as well. they had a trifecta.. Stem borers first.. woodchuck next and the blight now.To top it off I tried replanting some squash. And had a few that survived the woodchuck and were doing good... Until another woodchuck came to take over the former ones land. I have now dealt with two and though they are not an issue anymore .. the squash patches are dead. except for one patch of butternut squash that took over my porch stairs.

I planted a ton of potatoes. .. I got one bowl full. Usually I would have 10x. The number. They died from the blight as well




what's doing great..

malabar. Spinach
herbs like. Basil and parsley ,rosemary
my string beansand Asian asparagus means are doing great..
Horseradish is fine .. beets and radishes are fine.Lettuces were fine
culantro is thriving. peas did okay..I may try another batch for fall crop.Thankfully my hops are unaffected.


I'm going to have to get creative next year with my crops.

[jeep]

So potatoes are ready? I think all my stems died off but I read somewhere you should leave them in the ground for awhile longer. Maybe I'll dig up a small area and see. I think I only planted the purple potatoes and maybe some reds.

My cucumbers are fading out so I'm going to plant a 2nd round, along with my 3rd attempt for beans and snow peas.

If I can manage to relocate my garden, I'd like to fence it off and include some raised bed areas where I can plant lettuce and such. I never have much luck because I'm bad at keeping the weeds in check, and the weeds bring bugs that eat the lettuce. Another failure crop for me is cabbage. I never seem to get any heads, just leaves, lol...

[jwcarlson]

Some of those brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, etc) need to be planted very early. And they take seemingly forever to mature. By the time they can around here, it's been blazing hot for weeks and they don't like that.
Lettuce is similar, it's almost a late winter crop and early spring. The trouble around here is it might be a killing frost in late April and then it's 85 degrees for the first week of May.

[brewmaster15]

So potatoes are ready? I think all my stems died off but I read somewhere you should leave them in the ground for awhile longer. Maybe I'll dig up a small area and see. I think I only planted the purple potatoes and maybe some reds.

My cucumbers are fading out so I'm going to plant a 2nd round, along with my 3rd attempt for beans and snow peas.

If I can manage to relocate my garden, I'd like to fence it off and include some raised bed areas where I can plant lettuce and such. I never have much luck because I'm bad at keeping the weeds in check, and the weeds bring bugs that eat the lettuce. Another failure crop for me is cabbage. I never seem to get any heads, just leaves, lol...

Brian, once the stems die back, you can start harvesting they won't grow bigger as potatoes without the stem but sometimes they will actually start growing lol. Usually theres no rush to harvest, but in my case I don't want that blight attacking them.
al

[brewmaster15]

some pics..
Malabar spinach..


Malabar Spinach trellising up to porch..Beans in the background
Wilty tomatoes


Wilty peppers
More wilty peppers and tomatoes


These were beautiful plants a week ago.

Asparagas beans

As



Peppers dying and wilty.

[Second Hand Pat]

Al, I think you need more containers Everything looks wonderful. When you have some surplus I will be right over lol.
Pat

[brewmaster15]

Moved some of my "healthiest" ghost and Reapers to the front yard where there is more space and airflow... hopefully that will slow the infection.

[brewmaster15]

There's a brewery near me called kinsman that makes an awesome pizza with candied jalapeno. Peppers, globs of cream cheese and cheddar. It's. An incredible combo. Since I had to do something with a huge bowl of hot peppers. I picked from dying plants I candied a bunch.







My jalapenos are a bit mild so I bumped them up with serano..but all in all made some good candied peppers.Even did some ghost peppers

[jeep]

Looks awesome! On the pizza, is there any meat or just what you said? It sounds interesting...

[brewmaster15]

The Pizza uses a light red tomato sauce base I think, and literally has clumps of Cream Cheese, globs of Jellied Jalapeno Peppers and white Cheddar cheese. . no meat but I bet it would be great with additional toppings like sausage or eggplant. I get this pizza at my favorite Brewery here , combined with there hazy IPA, its incredible.


This was my first shot at candied peppers, I have made hot pepper Jelly before but not candied. I may need to experiment to get the right heat . The Pizza at the Brewery isn't spicy hot, just mild, kind of like having Jalapeno Poppers ( which I really love too,)

[jeep]

I got two eggplants this year and forgot about them in the fridge. I was looking forward to trying them. I was about the pull the plant yesterday but I noticed a bloom, so maybe I'll get another one.