2024 gardens

Glad to get my garden in last week and this past weekend before the latest round of rain. Ended up with Black Cherry, Japanese Trifle Black, San Marzano, Tiny Tim and Beefsteak tomatoes along with pickling and Straight 8 cukes, yellow zuchini mostly in the raised gardens. Then some larger planters my wife had, I did tomatillo’s, habanero’s, jalapenos, and serranos. Hopefully the planters work out and I get a better pepper harvest than I typically do as they get overgrown by the tomatoes and cukes in the raised garden usually.

I’m still relatively new to this gardening thing. Last season I way over planted on cucumbers and had more than enough to eat and share. So this year I planted less of those and spaced them out more.

I also put down some carrots, pumpkin, and tomato about a month ago.

I looked at them on Saturday afternoon and they are all growing. There’s life!

gimruis wrote:

Last season I way over planted on cucumbers and had more than enough to eat and share.

I always plant the 3-4 seeds per hill on zucchini and other squash and never thin them. Give plenty to my neighbors and my skin takes on a green tinge by August.

I ate a cucumber every single day for like 2 months last summer, gave some to neighbors, family, and co-workers, and still had more than enough. They just exploded around July lol

As long as it don’t get hailed off tonight should get a good broccoli crop. Heads are about the size of a golf ball and after today the weather looks perfect for letting it grow without flowering.

Just cant win this year so far. Garden is finally drying out but the wind snapped off a few of my broccoli and cauliflowers and 6 cucumber plants yesterday.

That sucks Jeremy. I had to take all my pots out of the cedar planters out and remove the bottom plastic piece and drill some holes in the bottom of the planters because there was standing water in them. They have finally dried out now.

Was able to get to my sweetcorn patch yesterday. Looks to have survived being water logged but definitely lagging behind in growth.

My garden is finally drying out such that the weeds are starting to grow. Will plant this weekend.

I pulled my radishes today. Happy with the results. I’ll plant them again towards fall.

The rest of the garden really moved along with the sun out and ground drying up

Went to Canada for a week and left all the peppers for my wife to transplant. One of my customers stopped by and picked up a bunch of tomatoes I didn’t have room for. She only had to water once all week since it rained almost every day. I sowed cucumbers, yellow squash, yard long beans, and zucchini a few days before I left and everything but the yellow squash was up before I got back. Those seeds are at least 3-4years old, so I sowed three per hole in three places in a 25gal barrel. Only one of them came up.

Adding some pictures. Lettuces in the left hand bed were started inside. They’re quite a bit larger than the ones seeded outside.

The rest is coming along nicely.

A family of rabbits decided to take residence in my garden and make a open buffet on my Peas and beans. Took care of 2 of the 4 or 5 of them.

Long-eared rats did that to my cucumbers last year. Got through a small hole I didn’t know was there for a few years. I fixed the hole and there’s a lot less of them around here this year for some reason.

I shot 2 a few weeks ago. Looked like they were playing leap frog but the top one just stayed on top. Figured I got 6 for the price of 2.

My garden has been safe from rabbits with fencing + chicken wire but they completely destroyed all our hostas. Should have sprayed them like we do at the cabin. That stuff works pretty well if we keep up on it. I wouldn’t use it on vegetables though.

My mom sprayed her hostas with deer repellant and a few hours later she said she could hear something chewing outside her bedroom window and it was deer eating the freshly sprayed hastas

Rabbits have destroyed my hostas the last 2 years. Right down to the stems. I thought they were toast each time but sure enough this spring, they grew back. Now they are chewed down again by the savage rabbits. My garden would be gone in one night if I didn’t have 4 foot high fencing around it to keep the deer and rabbits out.

I don’t know why the deer or rabbits don’t eat my hostas. I have 4-5 types out there. Maybe because I leave them so many dandelions? I learned early this year that hostas are edible if you pick them while they’re young, like fiddleheads. Not sure if that’s right, but I saw it on the internet, so it must be true.

So the deer chewed the tops off my tomatoes and some jalapenos.Just the top buds nothing more. These are in containers and close to the house. They have never bothered them for three years so this is kind of odd. Question is will the plants continue to grow or do I need to replant?

Some people purposely “top” their pepper plants. It makes them bush out. If they were a couple feet tall already, you’ll probably be OK, but you won’t get as many as before.
For tomatoes, it depends on if they are determinate or indeterminate. Do you know what variety they are? Indeterminates are vines and if the growing tip is cut, you’re only going to have flowers on the production stems that are already there. Determinates are bushy, so it depends on how much of the top got eaten.

Rabbits down = 2, rabbits left I seen running around 3. I sit on my deck about 7-8pm when they like to show them self’s. .22 short puts them to sleep real quick.

I have all raised gardens and never really had a problem previously. But I lost one jalapeno plant, and the squirrels have taken over the bird feeder, so hassenpfeffer and squirrel stew maybe on the menu soon. Need to check out some old air rifle threads first…

Rabbits are running wild this year, eatin all my beans. Usually the cat gets them but she’s getting old and only gotn so far this year.
But my garden needs SUN!!!

I know its wet when 3 snakes met the lawnmower yesterday.

picklerick wrote:

Some people purposely “top” their pepper plants. It makes them bush out. If they were a couple feet tall already, you’ll probably be OK, but you won’t get as many as before.
For tomatoes, it depends on if they are determinate or indeterminate. Do you know what variety they are? Indeterminates are vines and if the growing tip is cut, you’re only going to have flowers on the production stems that are already there. Determinates are bushy, so it depends on how much of the top got eaten.

picklerick wrote:

Some people purposely “top” their pepper plants. It makes them bush out. If they were a couple feet tall already, you’ll probably be OK, but you won’t get as many as before.
For tomatoes, it depends on if they are determinate or indeterminate. Do you know what variety they are? Indeterminates are vines and if the growing tip is cut, you’re only going to have flowers on the production stems that are already there. Determinates are bushy, so it depends on how much of the top got eaten.

She nipped both cherry tomatoes an early girl and three roma’s. She got the habaneros, jalpeno’s and poblano peppers. Never touched the potaoto’s though the tracks go right up to them. Or the sweet corn which is only about two inches tall right now. Wasn’t interested in the garlic either.I read wolf urine is the absolute deer repellent. But we have wolves in the area and I’m worried if I start spreading wolf urine around I might attract them wondering who the newcomer is.

Can gardens drown?!? Serious question

Yes they can. Standing water prevents oxygen from being available to the roots and they’ll die off and rot. Do the plants look stressed?

3″ in my gauge this morning from Saturday til now. Lost a few more cucumber plants from all the dirt splashed on them they broke off.