How Does Your Garden Grow? 2010

[Dark Cloud]

It it SO rewarding to eat vege's lovingly grown from your own garden! Mr. NoAm and I each had our first homegrown strawberry tonight, straight off the plant. Delicious! All the tomatos have a TON of bloom buds on them. Hopefully we will have some in a few weeks!

Say true! H6 just bought a pint of strawberries. I picked one from one of our plants and fed her first the storebought, then the homegrown. She was amazed at the difference. the store-bought was a lot more tart. I figured it was from being picked either still green and allowed to ripen on the shelf, or something like that, whereas the homegrown was living on the vine in the sun not two minutes before she ate it.

There's no down side to gardening at all.

[Silent Kube]

I come from an area that produces a lot of strawberries. Another reason store bought ones aren't always as good is because they take several harvests from each plant every year. The first harvest is awesome. The rest are pretty good too but the first harvest is incredible.

[BigDaddyTX]

There's no down side to gardening at all.

Except when the damn birds get into your tomatoes. Time for netting I guess, I've never lost so many in one day before, usually just 1 or 2 here and there through the season. I had to toss out 5 or 6 today.. stupid birds couldn't just eat on the same one I guess.

Also, the soil I have my squash in is crap, so I've gotta try to replant them all, and buy new soil for them.

My strawberries are kicking ass and taking names though. It's rewarding to go out in the garden and pick a few and just wash and eat them without having to do any prep.

[offcamber]

Finally! Got the 8 foot deer fence up and got the garden plowed in. Should be tilling it this weekend. The old folks around town keep saying we may get a late frost, so I'm holding planting until June 1st.. we have had a couple nights in the 30's the last few weeks so I'm inclined to believe them.. gotta love the Farmer's Almanac and old timer knowledge, I wish I had it!

Here is a pic:



edit** looking at the pic, you can't really see the fencing just the posts.. For those interested it's an "invisible" fence I picked up from deerfence.com..

http://www.deerfence.com/fence_types.html

[somberbear]

gotta love the Farmer's Almanac and old timer knowledge, I wish I had it!

hehe you will in time ..... but by then none of these young folks will listen worth a darn.... lol

nice set up did

I picked up a few more plants for my garden today i gotta do some repotting and planting a few more things.... might grab some pics soon.

[NoAm]

Looking great everyone! When is the best time to pick your strawberries? I see them getting beautiful & red and then all of a sudden, they start going bad!

[keeper]

I'm lagging behind the rest of you, but we definitely have plants growing. It looks like we'll have to do some replanting, though.

[NoAm]

The topsy turvy's (@3 weeks) and upsy downsy (@ 1 week) are doing great!


Seeds waiting patiently to be planted, hopefully the garden will be fully tilled this week


Even starting to see some action out of the pepper and tomato seeds!

[somberbear]

[JojoZS]

I love your bag planters

[somberbear]

thank ya there cheap enough .... now lets see if they work out .... im going to have to put in a few more of em.

[RealZombiesAreSlow]

How's the drainage on those bags?

[somberbear]

should be pretty good i poked holes under em and they already had holes on the sides .....

[NoAm]

Starting to get Sugar Snap Peas, we will see how long they last, with the heat coming. Potato plants coming up, added a bit more hay and will add more potato seeds this weekend. Several tomato blooms starting to blosson on the Topsy Turvy and the top level of the upsy downsy. Exciting to see things starting to come to life and prosper! I was really skeptical about the Topsy Turvy's and Upsy Downsy, but so far I am impressed! Still need to figure out the best time to pick the strawberries and how long does it take for the potatos to be ready for harvesting?

[BigDaddyTX]

Just bought a papaya plant?tree? today. Good ol' Houston Garden Centers just started on their 1/2 off sale again. I also finally swapped my zuc's into good dirt, they hated the sandy stuff I put them in, so hopefully they'll finally start growing. I'll take some pics and post them soon, I just need to re-organize everything and make it purdy to look at, it's sorta scattered right now.

[mbaz73]

We did some planting last weekend...

Here are my tomato plants. One Beefsteak and one Grape.


Organic soil. Wally World had 3 pallets and sold out in under an hour the w/e went went shopping.


We are using 14" clay/terra cotta? pots, half filled and then added 1/4 cup of organic plant food (manure).




Transplant complete!






Now on the herbs...

We love lots of Sweet Basil, summer pesto is the best




Lots of Cilantro for my wife's famous (well around here anyway) salsa


Rounding out the deck with Parsley and Rosemary

[NoAm]

mbaz, looking good! I planted some herbs this year in the strawberry topsy turvy, but am embarrassed to say, I really don't know what all i can do with them. We have Basil, oregano, Thyme, Apple Mint, I would love to learn to cook with them and I made really great fresh salsa last year, but I know there is SO much more I can do! Maybe as the gardens proceed we can post some recipes and cooking ideas!

[grand94jeep]

I'm getting a late start in all this. I got 4 uppsie downsies (sp?) Got 2 tomato and 2 strawberry.


I haven't got much of a green thumb.

[NoAm]

That's the beautiful thing grand94jeep, you don't have to have a green thumb! Just make sure to keep them watered well.
I can really see a big difference in the last 3-4 weeks as our have progressed.

[midgetyaz]

mbaz, I need that salsa recipe. I would say half our budget goes to buying salsa for my husband's insatiable salsa appetite!

And I have bell peppers coming in! They are so cute! But I have a question about my tomatoes... None seem to be coming in. Everyone else in the area has beautiful tomatoes on their vines, but I get some flowers and then nothing! Any advice?

[JojoZS]

Hey I just harvested the last of my potatoes. is this plant done? Do I need to dig it up and plant another, or can I leave it and it will grow more?

I've never done potatoes before!

[NoAm]

We have just started getting the flowers on our tomatos, depending on what area you live, some tomatos are earlier than others. If you have added some fertilizer, like Mircale Gro, you may try that. Flowers are good, they will turn into tomatos, it just might take some time.

I am seeing plants in our potato barrel and I am adding hay and thought I would do one more layer of potato seeds, but I have no idea when they can be harvested.

[BigDaddyTX]

mbaz, I need that salsa recipe. I would say half our budget goes to buying salsa for my husband's insatiable salsa appetite!

And I have bell peppers coming in! They are so cute! But I have a question about my tomatoes... None seem to be coming in. Everyone else in the area has beautiful tomatoes on their vines, but I get some flowers and then nothing! Any advice?

Do you have multiple plants with this problem, or just one? I had a sterile jalapeno plant last season. It grew massive, flowered all season long but never produced a thing.

[ZombieGranny]

Does this sound like your problem? [more on the link.]
-------
What Causes Tomato Blossom Drop and How to Control It
Blossom drop is a common tomato growing problem that can be extremely frustrating to the home gardener. Otherwise healthy looking tomato plants set flower blossoms, only to have them dry up and fall off the plant before a fruit is formed.
http://gardening.about.com/od/problemsp ... omDrop.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;