Your 2015 Garden, what are you doing?

I have been harvesting lots of strawberries, kale, spinach and lettuce. I let an onion go and cut the blossom off this morning. Hoping to get some seeds from it.

PS- elk do not like onions. I have found another item that I can plant without putting up protection.

 

Happiness is dinner that you grew.

 

Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day.
Those zinnas are volunteers from last year, behind them is the tomatillo beast. And tomatoes. Oh and a huge patch of Johnson grass at the rear in the chicken yard. Not sure where that came from but the hens like to hide in it during the heat of the day.

Making my morning rounds before the heat is on. Another butternut squash climbing by the gate. It was supposed to be cantaloupe, got my seeds mixed up. That's cotton beside it, zucchini to the rear left. Cucumbers on the fence and a tomato who's name I don't remember but wish I do. It produces like a cherry tomato, lots and lots in clusters, but they're a little bigger than golf balls. Spied my first cantaloupe among the leaves.


Satan's minions are alive and well in the grapevines. These little $*@! wiped me out last year but I've been checking leaves twice a day for weeks and crushing all I find. So far they've only killed a few leaves. Some black winged thing with an orange ass lays the eggs, little clusters of cream colored destruction in waiting they are. Some escaped my notice and survived to this size... perfect for stomping on.

Not much longer now....

The Cherry Monster... this is after I trimmed it back a lot. I pull a pint a day off it and the chicks running around get inside and eat everything within their reach.



CORN! And pumpkins. That fence is 6 ft, for reference. That's 2 pumpkin vines and the pic only gets about half of them. The galvanized tub is where I wash rabbit pans out. I dump the crap into a cement mixing tub and when it's full I drag it to wherever I want to dump it... right now am making a new bed for hopefully this fall but probably be ready for next spring. Then the pans go into the galvanized stock tank and I spray them off. The "enhanced" water drains over to the corn and pumpkins like a compost tea. I was going to sell that 3 cage rack but the Mr. stuck it over there in the right hand corner and now it's buried under a sea of vines where I can't get to it until fall. :/ Got growouts and sale bunnies in a movable pen there to the left. I've got pens like that all over now, taking advantage of our overgrown grass and weeds.



They're sort of behind the cherry monster. They're begging for cherry tomatoes, their favorite treat. Got them sold, gone this weekend, so they better enjoy them while they can. Or maybe not, going to pet homes so they'll probably be wearing sweaters and fed cupcakes.

 

Here is our garden update. From July 2nd to today. Lots of growth and the green beans are almost ready to start picking. I have small beans on every plant. Green tomatoes already as well. Corn has doubled in size. The weed mats are working great. Just roll up the sides and roto till then roll them back down. I love it.

 

@Kingfish amazing garden and a beautiful lush green setting you have. You should have a great harvest if things continue.

@BTPost never had fireweed jelly but looks good and quite the batch.

 

It's been an interesting garden season here. After years learning how to garden in searing heat, blistering winds, and 3-4 months without a drop of rain, and saving seed from plants that could handle that, I've found myself gardening in an unseasonably cool monsoon summer. It's been a mix of irritating failures and staggering successes, not to mention a never ending source of muddy paw prints across the kitchen floor.

Among the surprise successes have been the butternut squash. They are _everywhere_, including growing inside the pallet fences. This is an Italian variety that's usually quite small but very sweet, but there's some whoppers out there and the vines are covered.



The Howden pumpkins are also going mad, with the vines going over the fence and dropping pumpkins on the other side of the fence as well as everywhere inside. I can see a beast buried further in but can't get close enough to really see how big it is.


A patch about 4'x4' of okra is keeping us in fried okra every night, and the cantaloupes are everywhere and still putting on more.


This is what happens when your dogs pee on your beans every chance they get.

And this is the last of the zucchini plants. Lost one to drowning, rest to a dog ripping up the fence they were tied to. This is my first year to grow these vertical and I didn't stay on it so it's kinda loopy but next year I'll give each one a t-post and keep it tied as it goes. Squash bugs did a bit of damage before I got them killed off so there's some ick leaves on there, but producing well.


That's all tomatoes and cucumbers growing on a fence.

The sunflowers are done for the year so I pulled them all out and moved a rabbit rack to that spot so they can poop on it for the rest of the year. Next year I think I'm going to put okra there. Or maybe corn. Still thinking on that one. I also moved some rabbits over a future raised bed next to an existing one with the peppers. Less pans to clean, yay for me.

My bermuda cleanup crew. Guinea pigs don't dig, scratch, or destroy plants like rabbits and chickens do so we have them on the grape rows right now to clear out the bermuda grass in leu of spraying. Left to right that's Max, Banana, Monkey, and Romeo.

These are red bell peppers from seed I got out of a red bell pepper at the Asian market. They were under the sunflowers and never got any sun, but once I cleared the sunflowers out they really started to come on. Curious to see how they do. That pepper was a monster.


There's my Indian corn. Letting it go dry for popcorn. Mostly grew it for grins. The pumpkins drug a bunch of them down.

 

@ditch witch we are awarding you the green thumb goddess award for the year. Lovely garden!

 

LOL thanks. My gardens are always mass chaos, everything mixed up and nary a straight line or neat row in sight, but I like it that way.

I missed a few pics.
This was sort of an experiment that didn't quite take. I packed and stacked to see how close I could cram them and get away with it. Beds are made from the top quarters off some IBC totes. Rear to front is Indian corn, Kandy Corn, Emerald Velvet Okra, assorted French marigolds, and watermelon bottom right corner. The watermelon hated the bed and never did anything. Half the okra is stunted although it's producing. The slope of the original ground was pretty fierce and despite the flooding those two little beds tended to stay really dry.

These little $(@! are always out eating my tomatoes. I see one that has a date with the grill in his future....

 

Yeah that's wild woman gardening at its best

 

@ditch witch amazing garden. It is beautiful and lush. Envy!

 

I know others have already said it, but well done @ditch witch!!

 

I got a good deal on organic Garlic. I am planning on planting it, letting it over winter for next summers crop. It is starting to have shoots. I am worried that it is too soon to plant but this garlic will not wait. Anyone think it won't winter over properly if I plant it now?

 

It will be fine. Garlic is like a weed and you can always plant one for the house if your worried. You will need to put straw over it and let it seed out if it has time

 

Picking pumpkins today. Still a lot on the vines but these were all ready to pull today. Will let the pumpkins cure in the sun for a week, then off to a dark cool corner. I planted these for fall decorations, but may try one to see if it's worth eating. Usually the jack style ones are watery and tasteless but this is an older variety so it might still be good.


These Rogosa Violina Gioia butternuts look suspiciously like Walthams. They look nothing like Gioias. Mixup at Baker Creek? 2014 seed. That one's a bit green but I accidentally knocked it off the vine. Probably twice this many still on the vines. Still got a month and a half, two months to freeze so should be able to get them all in. I've had these keep for as long as 8 months though 5-6 is optimal... or it is if these are the Walthams they're not supposed to be.


Got these drying now for popcorn, but I had to open one up and take a peek. This is a small one. Am about to put a pic over on pic of the day (as soon as I can find the thread) of how big these monsters are.


Dug up one bed that had the Indian corn in it and loaded it up with rabbit sludge. Will be seeding it later this afternoon with lettuces, beets, sugar peas, and sunflowers... too late for sunflowers but the rabbits love the seedlings.

 

@ditch witch They look more like velociraptors than chooks.

 

Fresh salad before tomatoes were ready. Garlic and onion harvest last month.

 

Harvest 8-14-15