How's your garden harvest?

So we are into the summer and, at least around here, veggies and other garden items are coming in.

Been bringing in around 3gallons of cherry tomatoes a week between my garden and my father-in-laws' (he doesn't like the cherry tom's, but my family loves them. My Roma's and Arkansas Pink Travelers are coming in as well.

Canned 10 pints of pickles from the garden, and now the cucumber plants are starting to produce 4-5 good cukes a week, nothing is left week to week.

My Mother-in-law gave me 4 qts of black berries, I made some jam with that. Then she gave me another qt of black berries, 2 qts of strawberries and I had another qt of red raspberries so I can make some more jam.

Green bells are doing good, picked a couple of jalapeños and some sweet peppers.

I dehydrated some tomatoes yesterday, and today I put basil, lemon balm, oregano, and parsley on it.

What's your harvest been like this year?

 

I am so envious of you. My garden is not doing well. I have harvested a radish. Just one! We are having extremely hot weather. My plants are really struggling. My peas turned brown and dried up- there was nothing to do to save them. Actually, someone said I should have covered them during the day. My cilantro also dried up. This is my first garden and it is not looking to promising.

 

peppers are doing well, yellow squash did ok but the zucchini failed to produce a single fruit. They flowered but never made a zucchini and that is strange because last year, we had a bumper crop. Black eyed peas, crowders, and purple hull peas are doing well but lima beans are not. Getting plenty of cukes but all the rain destroyed my tomato crop.

 

Motomom, don't be envious, it's your first garden, expect some trial and error the first couple of years. Did you get your soil tested for nutrients? That's a great place to start.

Sea, send some rain this way!! We are 13" behind for the year. Fortunately for my B-day my wife got me an automatic watering system, I was able to hook up a drip irrigation to it. I usually have a problem with my tomatoes splitting from irregular watering, but not this year.

 

Headed down to the garden this morning to pick beans.

 

I must be a classic example of "beginner's luck"... I got a late start, but watermelon plants are looking good and expanding all over the place, mixed salad greens are growing fast and thick despite the heat, and I have a small green Trinidad pepper that's growing fast, with more on the way - from a plant that I started from seed just a few months ago! Banana peppers not developing as quickly, but looking decent.

Germination tested some seeds but never transplanted them - okra and cucumbers both sprouted at 100%, eggplant and tomato seeds yet to be determined, but they're under a week old. More a germination test of a seed supplier's product, than for actual gardening purposes - I don't really like tomatoes, (and I still don't fully understand what the heck an eggplant is,) I just wanted to know what to expect from that seed supplier.

Rain here has been non-existant for over a month, (not normal for this area,) and we just had 4 consecutive record-heat days. On the plus side, I get to practice using my watering can every day... Been learning quite a bit, thanks in part to the experience shared by other Monkeys. Thanks Monkeys, I never knew I could have this much fun with plants!

 

All the melon plants(seed-started and store bought) have basically gone PFFFFFFFFFFT, dunno why. It's warm weather now. Got 2 ears of corn developing. Baby tomatoes making their presence known. Peas are doing very well(thanks to me eating all the peas as soon as they're ready), as is salad garden. Herbs are happy. Lost first batch of bean plants but I had spares which are starting to produce. Sunflowers are happy too. Probably won't have any cucumbers this year either. Pumpkins are doing good. Was worried about them because the plants weren't dying, but they weren't growing either, then a couple weeks ago, just POOF! they started growing like mad. Strawberries are doing well, gonna have some ready soon. Blueberry plants I bought last year, one is just producing leaves, the other is producing some berries. Just a few, but I know it will survive this climate and produce and that's what matters. Gonna have a handful of raspberries this year too. Got some more from a local plant exchange they've started doing in our town the past couple years. I kept watering the raspberries even though some looked like they were dead, and now leaves are growing near the base where it's in the ground. Have trouble getting blackberries too grow here, but oh well. Gooseberry plant is doing well, transplanted it to different location this year, so no fruit but it's happier than it's been in a long time, so it's all good. Have volunteer onions which is ok by me. Beet patch is doing well. Radishes will need to be harvested soon. Potatoes are doing very well. Amaranth isn't growing like I want it too. Nut trees(walnut and almond) we bought last year are doing well too. Will be a few years til they start producing but that's ok. Grape vine died. All in all, having good luck this year because I'm not repeating previous mistakes, and getting serious with companion planting to minimize space used while maximizing production

 

The heat is kicking in now, going to 100F every day. So far the container stuff is doing ok although I'm having a hard time getting enough nutrients to the plants. Having to water so much is leaching a lot of it away.

Squash, zucchini is in ground and doing great, as those two always do anyway.
Tomatoes are in containers, and are producing like mad BUT, they are small. The Romas are just slightly larger than Porters, vs last year when they were a handful each.
Jalapenos, ghosts, habeneros, cayenne, serano, Chinese 5 color, Anaheims, and Marconis all doing fantastic.
Tomatillos despise being in containers. The plants are basically weeds, that root like a pumpkin plant as they go. They've produced a lot of tomatillos, but they're small, yellowing, and the plants are completely rootbound in the buckets now.
The chicken garden (old hickory corn, milo, and millet) is doing fine. It's in ground.
Grapes, blackberries produced heavily. Raspberries didn't do squat for the third year in a row, and one died.
Of the 6 new fruit trees I planted, all but 2 died. One day they were fine, the next, dead. They're alive below the graft, who knows what that'll produce.
Pumpkins are all down the fence but haven't set a single pumpkin yet. The melons have had a similar problem with setting fruit. Of 4 watermelon plants, I have 2 melons set. Of the 6 cantaloupe vines, 6 cantaloupes.
The apricot tree produced several 5 gallon buckets... too bad neither of us really like apricots. I dried a bucket of them, to grind to powder and use in our habenero apricot pork rub. Made some apricot habenero salsa. Let the chickens eat the rest.

All in all I'm not happy with this year's gardening. I gave up our usual in ground spot when we installed our underground shelter, and the tires on the tiller were (still are) rotted so I went with containers for 90% of the stuff just so I'd have something, but I won't do it again next year. Soon as I get back on a payroll, first purchase will be tires for the tiller, and then I'm going to work on a new spot for next year's garden.

 

I gotta be nutz trying to garden here in the desert.

It started getting up to 110 in late May. By June, we'd had over 30 straight days of 100+ degrees. It's cooled off now so it's only getting up to 98 during the day. So what do I do? I plant carrots, onions, mustard, cabbage, lettuce of all kinds, snap beans, watermelon, cantalope, cucumbers for eating and for pickling, peppers of all kinds, and about 7 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes. Last year, I put in a plum tree to go with my 4 fig trees, peach tree, grape vines and this year an apricot tree. Geesh! Optimism springs forth.....until about this time of the year. Lettuce is going to seed, carrots didn't do anything, beans are barely hanging on, cucumbers are wilting during the day, grapes fell off, cantalope got eaten by our turtle (don't ask! LOL). I got a single apricot, figs are still green, and grass is starting to grow seriously. On the good side, we got about 3 dozen peaches this year that were awesome, peppers are starting to produce and I noticed first 2 tomatoes today, so maybe there is hope. The plum tree is loaded down and managing to hang on to the plums.....hopefully another week or 2 and they'll be ready to pick. We got a small bowl of blackberries this year from my 3 year old plants. I managed to get 4 tobacco plants started and one is growing well, the other 3 are about a month behind it.

It's still hot.....and we'll have these temps through September. We got a little rain 3 days in June and so far this month, we've gotten 4 days of showers. Yep, the water company here likes me a bunch! LOL

Kajun

 

kckndrgn is right Motomom, gardening takes a while to get the desired results. Been trying for 3 or 4 years to get spinach and this is the first year we've had it not bolt right away. Which is because I was frickin' stupid thinking spinach was a hot weather crop because in the store the bunches of spinach always said "from Mexico" so my braindead self figured since Mexico is a hot climate, spinach must want lots of sun/heat. It also helps to learn what native plants in your area are edible, because they won't need as much care as non-natives to produce enough to feed you.

And I ate the first strawberry of the season today, and harvested half a pound of peas, but only 6ounces made it to the fridge(having chicken stir fry for dinner tomorrow). Getting more ears of corn developing and saw a baby pumpkin(blossom hasn't even opened yet but I saw it!)

 

VHestin, I did the same thing with cilantro. It's used in so much Mexican food I figured it'd be cool in hot weather. Well, it ain't! Go figure. At least I have tons and tons of corriander as a result of all my cilantro going to seed by mid June.

I wish I liked nopals, much as they grow wild here, but I think they taste like boiled snot.

 

Michigan has been hot and dry. Last year where our garden flooded and we barely saved half of it it is flourishing this year. Our plot is down by the lake just over lake level so it has lots of deep moisture 5 inches down. I have not had to water it yet but am thinking my green beans are starting to show signs of needing some water. This season we only grew Sweet corn, Beans and Potatoes. Last season we canned 40 quarts of tomatoes and froze a bunch of squash. We will be canning lots of those three this fall. So far nothing is ready to pick yet. Looks like the beans will be first. KF

 

Sigh. I might get some spuds, maybe. Been a cold and very wet year - it even snowed last week. The one bright spot is the onions - at least those seem to be cold tolerant, or maybe the location helps.

Glad to see others are going better. I guess there is always next year.....

 

Well I got a late start so I will have more come this fall but, for now a few tomatoes.

 

$900 to build raised beds...
$300 in plants and seedlings...
2 weeks of back breaking labor....
ALL Gone!
Heat killed everything this year!
Then I get a call,... my trailer was invaded by rats ( never happened in 2 years prior) They ate thru the plastic bucket all my heirloom seeds were in, an dpacked in diatomaceous earth, sealed in mylar bags....
All $600 in seeds wiped out....
It just keeps gettin' better doesn't it?

 

This by far the worst gardening year we have had!!! We still have lots of dried veges from last year so the little that we do get this year and last years left overs should get us thru till next fall. You can't expect alot when you go 5 1/2 months with out any real rain fall

OGM

 

What planetary area is this ?
Before the downgrade of this site, I could read and know where most folks posted / hung there belt.
It was read the content of the post and see where the poster was seeing this from , now it's MSM blanket.

Corn sucks , water table is one foot off hard pan of 28% depth of saturation's.
This is on the third rock from the sun , Stardate 2day , 49"11'43 N 2" 06' 47 W

Time to repair the downgrade of the forum.
"book Reviews " ??

 

I know, I feel so useless now, seeing that big zero under my name... Time to start reading more?

Corn sucks here too. Like OGM said, 5 1/2 months without rain... Container gardening and a large watering can have been the key for me.

 

Man sorry to hear that you guys. I am picking green beans every three days half a 5 gallon bucket. My corn is almost ripe however its all getting ripe at the same time. Im going to have a short window and will have to Can a lot of it as our new freezer is topped off. I really don't know where the Deer are going to go this fall. We are in Michigan Lower pen. Its raining right now. Lots of squalls coming across Lake Michigan from Wisconsin right now. My Garden is feast or famine. Last year we had too much water and half of it (closest to the lake) drowned out. This year that end has been just on fire as in producing lots of food.

 

I swear...you have the worst luck i have ever seen.....