Garden Grows Contrary As Always
Jul. 21st, 2011 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamhouseInspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quadrivium, I thought it was time for a Garden Post.
The good news is that the tomato variety I tried this year (Beefheart, a locally recommended Southern heirloom) is being VERY successful, though a little slow to red up. We're going to have quite a few if all the blossoms end up fruiting out over time. Meanwhile I am having great difficulty avoiding the temptation to pluck those big delicious-looking green tomatoes for frying.
The Sweet Million cherry tomatoes are also doing well - not quite as good as the Sugar Snacks we usually get, but a worthwhile replacement.
The Kentucky Wonder green beans are coming in solidly, though in quantities frustratingly too low as yet to make a single fresh mess of beans. Next year, I think I'll thin them to 2-3 plants per hill instead of 1.
My father grew cucumbers for years even though he didn't like to eat them just because he liked to watch them grow. I'm starting to feel the same way about jalapeno peppers - my "pop a pepper slug down a beer" days are way behind me but it is gratifying to have SOMETHING in the garden that never fails to be abundant - even overly so. We have in the past strung them and dried them and hung them around the kitchen, but this year's crop would pull down the curtain rod. Some creativity may follow.
This year the banana peppers are being good as well, which pleases me because I LIKE those. We might have enough to do a jar or two of pickled ones.
The bell peppers are coming along - at least the green and red ones are, the yellows are a bit behind. They are a bit on the small side but I'll keep being patient.
The eggplants have set fruit and I'm waiting for them to finish filling out.
On the bad news side, much of the rest of the garden suffers from various forms of fungus. The strawberries pretty much were eaten up by red scorch, while the cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash are losing a battle against powdery mildew. I've hit them hard with copper soap and even some sulfur but it doesn't seem to be helping. We're getting cucumbers (a few), but we only got a berry or two and won't likely get any zucs or squash. Bah. This fall I need to completely clean out those areas of the garden and hit them hard with the sulfur and copper, both before winter and before planting next spring. I have one more year I need to keep crops in these places before I rotate things around, so I hope I can get it cleared up.
quadrivium, I thought it was time for a Garden Post.The good news is that the tomato variety I tried this year (Beefheart, a locally recommended Southern heirloom) is being VERY successful, though a little slow to red up. We're going to have quite a few if all the blossoms end up fruiting out over time. Meanwhile I am having great difficulty avoiding the temptation to pluck those big delicious-looking green tomatoes for frying.
The Sweet Million cherry tomatoes are also doing well - not quite as good as the Sugar Snacks we usually get, but a worthwhile replacement.
The Kentucky Wonder green beans are coming in solidly, though in quantities frustratingly too low as yet to make a single fresh mess of beans. Next year, I think I'll thin them to 2-3 plants per hill instead of 1.
My father grew cucumbers for years even though he didn't like to eat them just because he liked to watch them grow. I'm starting to feel the same way about jalapeno peppers - my "pop a pepper slug down a beer" days are way behind me but it is gratifying to have SOMETHING in the garden that never fails to be abundant - even overly so. We have in the past strung them and dried them and hung them around the kitchen, but this year's crop would pull down the curtain rod. Some creativity may follow.
This year the banana peppers are being good as well, which pleases me because I LIKE those. We might have enough to do a jar or two of pickled ones.
The bell peppers are coming along - at least the green and red ones are, the yellows are a bit behind. They are a bit on the small side but I'll keep being patient.
The eggplants have set fruit and I'm waiting for them to finish filling out.
On the bad news side, much of the rest of the garden suffers from various forms of fungus. The strawberries pretty much were eaten up by red scorch, while the cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash are losing a battle against powdery mildew. I've hit them hard with copper soap and even some sulfur but it doesn't seem to be helping. We're getting cucumbers (a few), but we only got a berry or two and won't likely get any zucs or squash. Bah. This fall I need to completely clean out those areas of the garden and hit them hard with the sulfur and copper, both before winter and before planting next spring. I have one more year I need to keep crops in these places before I rotate things around, so I hope I can get it cleared up.
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Date: 2011-07-21 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-21 07:29 pm (UTC)Any chance on to-mah-toes making it to GaFilk (http://www.gafilk.org)?
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Date: 2011-07-21 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-21 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 09:07 am (UTC)