# garden



## dialout (Feb 5, 2011)

No rain today...finally got to check the plants.


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## Paymaster (Jan 22, 2009)

Wet here too!!!!!!!!!!


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## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

I dug about a 1/3 of my potatoes. It started raining and has not quit. Maybe they will float to the top. I am sure the hogs will be eating fine on some super sized squash when I can get back in the garden without sinking up to my knees.

I am not complaining. A couple of weeks ago it so super dry. We needed rain bad.


Darin


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## Peixaria (Dec 31, 2008)

Finger_Mullet said:


> I dug about a 1/3 of my potatoes. It started raining and has not quit. Maybe they will float to the top. I am sure the hogs will be eating fine on some super sized squash when I can get back in the garden without sinking up to my knees.
> 
> I am not complaining. A couple of weeks ago it so super dry. We needed rain bad.
> 
> ...


You are lucky, We are still relatively dry at the beach. spoke to a fellow early this morning complaining about how bad the mosquitos are in Avon. I ve not been bothered by them in Buxton as of yet.That should tell you how dry it is in the woods by the lighthouse. 
I am through the first set of cukes and will replant a second group. Tomatoes are coming off now have a table full of romas [that were supposed to be Red Beefsteak], Early girls, and Celebrity. The Celebrity and Early girls are going to do me right this season, all plants are loaded, Celebrity with softball size green fruit. German Johnsons are folding under the weight of big green Brains. My only regret is that I think all of my choices this season, are Determinate. So when they are gone they are gone. Not sure on Romas however.
Egg plant should be pickable soon. lots of peppers as well, Marconi, sweet banana, Mexibell
and some mammoth sweet red bells . Planted additional hot peppers last week. Been burning the peppers up in chicken Fajitas
I got a plug of a neighbors French Tarragon that has taken over a corner of one of my boxes. Got an itching for a rice and beef tips thing with a bernaise with the tarragon.


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## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

I dug the last of the potatoes this evening. It was the first year I ever planted them. I had about a 30 foot row and got around a bushel of Kennebecs. I have to say freshly dug potatoes no matter how you cook them are delicious. Especially the small ones about the size of a golf ball down to the size of a grape. 

I pulled the first tomatoes today as well. Well, I picked one on Monday but stepped on it. I laid it down to pick squash and stepped on it carrying an arm load of squash back to the 4 wheeler. Looking forward to the first tomato sandwich with a tomato out of my garden. I have been eating home grown ones for about a week now but they were not grown by me. 

Okra should be coming on good soon. I have cooked what little has been coming off for the past couple of weeks. I should be picking corn in about another week. The corn stalks are short this year due to the dry weather. I have watered it but it is not the same. 
My cucumbers have sucked this year. I planted them too thick in my raised bed and am not getting complete pollination. THe cucumbers are fat on one end and skinny on the other. I may plant a few more where the potatoes were at.

Darin


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Some causes Darin.

http://extendyourroots.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-is-my-cucumber-fat-on-one-end-and.html


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## dialout (Feb 5, 2011)

Man it was so cold so long that just about everything is still in flowers here. I have a few tomatos but nothing near ripe yet. 


On a good note wild blackberries and raspberries are thick...I've been putting up jelly every couple days. I could probably do a batch a day if I really wanted to pick that much.


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## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

wdbrand said:


> Some causes Darin.
> 
> http://extendyourroots.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-is-my-cucumber-fat-on-one-end-and.html


I did not fertilize the cucumbers because they are growing in a raised bed with composted chicken manure mixed in the dirt and covered in black plastic. I have not fertilized the raised bed because it doesn't need it. It could be the hot temperatures due to the black plastic. I know it is not from lack of water. I keep the raised bed watered well. 

I am guessing it is from incomplete pollination.

Thanks WD!

Darin


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Darin, chicken po doody is the highest and hottest manure you can use due to the nitrogen. Add black plastic and watch out. A soil sample might be a good idea.


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## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

I probably do need to do a soil sample. Everything else in the raised bed is doing amazing. My squash plants was 6 feet wide and waist tall. I actually had to pull half of them up so I could pick squash.

The chicken manure was composted for over a year and I just put a bobcat scoop in the raised bed and tilled it in.

Darin


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Don't let anybody ever tell you deer won't eat peppers. They cleaned every leaf, bloom, pepper and even some the stalks last night. And we ain't dry here. Over an inch of rain 2 days ago. This was all in container pots with a 4' plastic netting around them. I'm talking about 50 sweet pickling peppers, 12 sweet banana 6" long peppers, half a dozen bell peppers and several giant Chinese red peppers. Next years seed. They is slowly pissin me off now.


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## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

I don't generally have deer in my garden unless I plant peas. If I plant peas I can kiss pretty much everything good bye. They eat the peas first and then the okra. They will even eat tomatoes. Not just the tomatoes but pretty much any tender part of the plant. 

I tried Irish Spring soap spread around the garden, cut hair, moth balls and I even tied my dog close to the garden. Nothing worked. They would eat in the middle of the night and the dog would just stand and bark at them. They paid her no attention.

Good luck!!

Darin


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## dialout (Feb 5, 2011)

This year's garden was a huge bust. Super rain early swamped everything for weeks...then so hot and dry whatever didn't drown grew all misshapen ...and tons of blossom end rot from the wild swings in moisture. 


Last year I had a big deer problem, they ate okra, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes..both the fruit and or plants. And apparently love beans. They ate the plants and I replanted them over and over...all summer just a pride thing I guess. 

I got some of that deer away spray ...because deer are cute and I'm not allowed to sit on top of my garage and shoot them in the backyard ...it smelled horrible but did a fair job of keeping my plants UN-munched 


This year I giggle because judging from the location of the piles of poop in the yard I can tell they are also just standing at the edge of the garden, looking at where the plants should be and sighing.


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## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

dialout said:


> This year's garden was a huge bust. Super rain early swamped everything for weeks...then so hot and dry whatever didn't drown grew all misshapen ...and tons of blossom end rot from the wild swings in moisture.
> 
> 
> Last year I had a big deer problem, they ate okra, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes..both the fruit and or plants. And apparently love beans. They ate the plants and I replanted them over and over...all summer just a pride thing I guess.
> ...


I feel your pain. My cucumbers sucked bad. One small end and the rest was regular size. i just quit picking them. The plants died and I have a pile of white oddly shapen cucumbers laying all over. 

My corn did fairly well. I watered it during the dry spell we had. The ears were not as big as in some years past but overall I am happy with what I got. My potatoes did really well. It was the first year ever growing them so I don't have anything to compare it to. I have sweet potatoes growing now and I am ready to see how they do.

My tomatoes did better than I expected. I delt with early end rot but that went away after the first few off each plant. I just picked the last of them this week. The only thing I have left in the garden is okra. It has just really started to bare like it should. I picked a walmart bag last weekend. It needs picking again but I have not had the time so I will lose a bunch because they are too big. They will be good until the first hard frost.

I plowed the rest of the garden this week. Got to get it ready for greens and beets. I have a few ounces of purple top turnips and an ounce of radishes mixed in. The radishes keep the mites off the greens. I will plant the other half of the garden in mixed greens. I just have to find the seeds. 

I am trying beets as well. 

Darin


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