Gardening in the apocalypse

[Jeff V]

Our first year here we had issues with Japanese beetles consuming basil faster than I could. But the basil was growing better. Maybe it's this interminable heatwave...been 90+ for over a week and the 15 day forecast is 90+ every day. Didn't see any Japanese beetles though...our subdivision is surrounded by cornfields and they rather thrive here.

[Kraken]

For reference or scale, the first pic is my garden as a whole. (It looks the same every year, but I haven't posted an updated pic in years, so here's one.) The herb planters are front left corner. (Squash is out-of-frame to the right.)



Then two closeups of the herb planters. The one in front is basil I grew from seed; that's parsley in the middle; then nursery plant basil in the rear.

[Jeff V]

My wife is saying the constant hot dry sun isn't conducive to basil. Yours looks really nice, that is exactly the volume I need but regardless of the number of plants I buy, the leaves stay small and thin. I only ever see foliage like that in cut basil at the store, which, as you know, is ridiculously high.

[Kraken]

I wish I had a secret to impart, but my process is really just (1) buy seeds, and (2) put them in dirt. I add a little granulated fertilizer when I transplant, and there's a bit of compost in the pots. She might be right about too much direct sun; mine's in partial sun.

[Jeff V]

Two of our tomato plants have reached the top of their cages, both appear to be a roma variety. Another, which still hasn't gotten going on it's growth spurt, seems to be a beefsteak and has one massive soft-ball sized fruit that is apparently still growing.

We harvested another forearm-sized zucchini. Debating whether to grill it with steaks tonight or use it in a breakfast stir-fry like I did the other one.

[Jeff V]

So I was at a produce store the other day, and zucchini was 29 cents a pound. A forearm sized zucchini cost me 33 cents. At that price, I'll never recoup the $2 I paid for a six-pack of seedlings!

I think I'm having a problem with lazy bees now too. Lots of tomato blossoms, few fruits. Same with the squash, both zucchini and pumpkin. Cucumbers haven't produced any fruits either. There were a couple of honey bees gorging themselves on my lavender plants...which are no where near the vegetable garden. I wanted to capture them and move them to the other side of the house!

[Daehawk]

My late FIL used to grow lots of zucchini . He made some great zucchini preserves with them too.

[Kraken]

Zukes are always feast or famine for me. Some years I have more than I can use, other years few-to-none. It's too soon to say which way this year's going, although I do have a few embryonic yellow squash coming along. (Reminds me that I need to get some Sevin before the borers show up.)

Those humongous zucchini are OK for shredding and making zucchini pancakes, but they're much better picked small, before they get too seedy.

I'm finally starting to get a lot of tiny green tomatoes. It won't be my heaviest harvest and it won't be a bust. Probably the latest I can remember, though. We had odd spring weather -- it kind of went directly from March to June -- and lots of plants are running late.

[Jeff V]

The zukes are producing at almost precisely the consumption rate. The breakfast hash I make with diced zucchini (garden), potatoes, onion, banana peppers (garden) and thyme (garden) with some fried eggs on top is a favorite of ours, and with no job I have time to make it 2-3 times per week.

This has been the year of the pepper, though. Last week, I made one jar of pickled jalapenos, and two jars of a mix of banana pepper slices, bell pepper strips, and a halved habanero (so the bell pepper has some interesting heat). I discarded the habanero when putting in jars. I used some of those peppers on a Greek salad tonight and it was really good. I have a bunch (maybe 3 dozen) red chilies that I've been after my wife to string up to dry. They are really beautiful. Finally, today I cut up 4 large peaches, added an equal weight of sugar (don't tell my doc), juice and zest from a lemon, and two habaneros finely chopped. After macerating for an hour, I cooked for 30 minutes, mashing the peaches. That yielded (12) small jars of peach habanero jam...the spice level is just perfect...serve it on a water cracker with cream cheese. I need to give some of them away though, no way will I finish it all myself.

Tomatoes aren't quite keeping up with demand, but lots of green fruits. Finally getting some cukes, the largest on the vine is kind of a mutant, but most of it should be fine. It'll get picked and eaten within a few days. Two months of pumpkin blossoms, still no pumpkins. Chinese long beans produced a decent amount then died. Okra is producing regularly. I cut all of the lettuce stalks to the stump hoping to get a new batch of tender, edible leaves (they never did coalesce into a defined "head") but they resprouted flowering stalks right away. Didn't even try the leaves, which don't appear to be tender anyway. While we have flat leaf parsley everywhere, all of the plants put their energy into flowering production and there is actually very little leaves...unlike last year when before the freeze I hauled in about a bushel full of parsley leaves. Kangkong, sweet potato leaves, lemongrass, and malangay leaves are all producing enough to keep up with my wife's demands. For whatever reason, malangay has been scarce the last 4 months or so, not only does she have plants thriving in the garden, but also 4 of them potted to bring in for the winter. Since it's a form of horse radish, I'll dig up the garden ones in the fall and see if something can be done with the roots. Wife and kids like the leaves, which I find bitter. They put it in fish head soup.

[Daehawk]

My father in law grew zucchini as part of his garden. He must have known a thousand ways to fix them to eat. His best was zucchini preserves. Was a wonderful sweet jelly.

[Jeff V]

I made zucchini cake and zucchini bread. After the last loaf of bread, wife informed me she was fed up with it, so half of it went into the trash yesterday. The cake is lighter than the bread, so maybe I will make that again soon.

[Kraken]

My garden's still sputtering along anemically. This was just not a good year, weather-wise.

I have ample slicing tomatoes and basil, which are the two things I use most, so that's nice. I lost nearly all of my San Marzanos to blossom-end rot, probably because I fertilized just as they were beginning to set fruit, and the plants put their calcium into foliage. I'm eating up my Celebrities and beefsteaks about as fast as they ripen. I haven't unboxed my tomato mill because I just don't have a surplus to process.

Dinner tonight was caprese salads with corn on the cob and garlic toast. That, friends, is what summer tastes like.

[Carpet_pissr]

My garden's still sputtering along anemically. This was just not a good year, weather-wise.

Same. I'm also resigned to the fact that I need to either COMPLETELY replace the top 1' (at least) of soil in my little rectangle (maybe 6'x12'), or just convert it into a raised bed. I've been guilty this summer of letting it go for the past month, and you really can't do that. Weeds, of course, everywhere.

So for mostly my future self, things I've learned, will do differently for next year:
1. Start any seeds I do much earlier (though I may switch completely to buying small plants to cut down on the time sink of babying seeds)
2. Replace sprinklers in garden with drip line types. I think the previous owner must have had a flower bed in what is now my garden. Overhead spraying is pretty much death for tomatoes in my climate at least
3. DON'T. STOP. WEEDING.
4. water more often (esp for cukes)
5. Install more permanent netting system so I can walk in and out.
6. Don't mix and match fertilizer types. I do all organic, but I made the mistake of using some slow release on some plants, and the weekly water-in kind on others. It got confusing very quickly, and I know I underfed some and over-fed others.
7. Replace strawberry plants every year instead of re-using ones that have overwintered in garden. I read somewhere that strawberries will fruit in subsequent years, but never as well (maybe second year, but really drops off after that).

Things that worked this year:
1. FINALLY, if VERY lazily, draped some netting over some of my berry bushes. My God what a difference that made. My strawberries immediately started "surviving" to a ripe, full size. My blueberries...existed! Same for raspberries. I will set up a better, more permanent netting system now that I've seen great results from such little effort.
2. I think I have realized that in past years, I just have not fed my plants enough during the hot, humid growing season. I was so worried about over fertilizing and preventing fruit growth, that I erred the other way and under-nourished them (which I think has the same result). I used a weekly liquid fertilizer for one of my thornless blackberry bushes, and it absolutely cranked the berries out when I started that. My sandy/loamy soil probably contributes to the fertilizer problem, as I guess it just passes through and out of reach of roots pretty quickly.


My results this year: a few cherry tomatoes (with TWO plants! ), 2-3 small regular sized tomatoes (delicious, but very undersized), couple handfuls of blueberries and blackberries. Quart or more of both raspberries and strawberries. 3 cukes maybe (with tons of plants). So not a banner year, to say the least. But....NEXT YEAR!!!

[Daehawk]

I cant get potato chips or bacon strips to grow at all.

[Kraken]

Weeds, of course, everywhere.

I've nearly eliminated weeding with landscape cloth. I keep my tomato rows 3' apart and lay that stuff down between them like a plastic sidewalk, with mulch between each plant in the rows. The cloth can be reused a couple of times before it gets too ratty. I also run a soaker hose along the base of my plants, beneath the cloth and mulch.

Using this setup takes me a lot longer when I'm putting the garden in, but I barely need to weed at all. Investing the time up front saves a lot later on.

I hate weeding.

[Carpet_pissr]

Weeds, of course, everywhere.

I've nearly eliminated weeding with landscape cloth. I keep my tomato rows 3' apart and lay that stuff down between them like a plastic sidewalk, with mulch between each plant in the rows. The cloth can be reused a couple of times before it gets too ratty. I also run a soaker hose along the base of my plants, beneath the cloth and mulch.

Using this setup takes me a lot longer when I'm putting the garden in, but I barely need to weed at all. Investing the time up front saves a lot later on.

I hate weeding.

Yeah, I may do that or I've also heard wet newspaper (LOTS) works wonders. Definitely need a weed "system" in place for next year.

To date my only system has been "hand pull weeds in garden when they get bad. Enjoy sore back for 2 days." It's not a great system.

[Kraken]

Weeds, of course, everywhere.

I've nearly eliminated weeding with landscape cloth. I keep my tomato rows 3' apart and lay that stuff down between them like a plastic sidewalk, with mulch between each plant in the rows. The cloth can be reused a couple of times before it gets too ratty. I also run a soaker hose along the base of my plants, beneath the cloth and mulch.

Using this setup takes me a lot longer when I'm putting the garden in, but I barely need to weed at all. Investing the time up front saves a lot later on.

I hate weeding.

Yeah, I may do that or I've also heard wet newspaper (LOTS) works wonders. Definitely need a weed "system" in place for next year.

To date my only system has been "hand pull weeds in garden when they get bad. Enjoy sore back for 2 days." It's not a great system.

When I said I use mulch between my plants, I meant newspapers spread to their full width and laid flat. In fact, one year before I discovered landscape cloth, I covered the whole garden in newspaper, which worked but looked unacceptably trashy. The plastic sidewalks between rows, the soaker hose down the middle of each row, and newspapers between the plants (anchored under the "sidewalks") make everything satisfyingly geometrical and even...and weeds don't have a chance.

The newspaper will be mostly gone by the end of the growing season and what's left can go into your compost bin.

[Kraken]

I'm not convinced the apocalypse is over so let's stick with this thread for another year.

I finally bought all of my veggie plants for this year, a little behind schedule. Ordinarily I spend Memday weekend putting them in. This year, we're looking at cold rain through Monday. I spent a few hours today planting herbs and squash seeds, mapped out the tomato patch, and planted my first cherry tomato plant before calling it a weekend.

After losing this weekend I'll have to devote my regularly scheduled walking time to gardening next week. I shouldn't gripe about the weather since we're in a long-term drought. But I'm running a week behind, so I hope those zuke seeds will take advantage of a good soaking. Don't make me plant you again.

[Jeff V]

I need to plant something. Seedlings didn't take...well, peas and beans did, but they succumbed to not being put in the ground sooner. Right now we're harvesting strawberries, and herbs are doing well (mint, oregano, thyme and flat parsley). Also, lots of lettuce came up already, so I've been enjoying fresh salad for the past week.

[Jaymann]

The avocado tree I planted last year is starting to bear fruit:




It is amazing what a little water and patience can accomplish.

[Lassr]

I have a small garden spot that is caged to keep the squirrels out, I always plant tomatoes but this year I went watermelon. There are so many local farmer's market near me I tend to buy more tomatoes than grow. Plus needed to rotate the crop since I've planted tomatoes there for 3 years now. Last year they didn't do well.

The rain 2 days ago has really caused the watermelon to spring to life, plus a lot of weeds apparently, time to break out the hoe. Will be interesting to see how far through the wire the vines grow, may make mowing interesting. Probably manage it by arranging the vines along the outside barrier, and curling some of them inside the enclosure.

[Jeff V]

Stopped at Menards today. With my wife not really being into gardening this year, we didn't spend nearly what we did in the past. I bought 2 six-packs of tomato seedlings (one pack of slicers, one of romas); one pack of cukes, one of zukes, one of jalapenos, and one of banana peppers. I also bought a cheap packet of dill seeds, I'll scatter those in the herb box and see what happens. They wanted $3 for single starter plants, and the ones they had looked sad. I love fresh dill on grilled fish during the summer.

A few weeks ago we bought a Japanese eggplant. Need to get these all into the ground. Maybe...Wednesday? You'd think that after a year of unemployment I'd have time management at home mastered, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[Kraken]

I just wish it would stop raining. Breaking our drought is a Good Thing, but the timing really sucks.

Tomorrow will be "less rainy and not as cool," so Yay, I guess.

[Jeff V]

We've had just enough rain lately to put the grass in hyper-growth mode. Today I have to clear some weeds from the garden and plant. Hopefully I can avoid stepping on the plank with the rusty nail this time, tonight I'll complete my antibiotic course from when it happened a few weeks ago.

[Jeff V]

I harvested about 2 lbs of strawberries today, and we have at least triple that still on the vine maturing. I started with a single strawberry plant and it's been taking over the garden, and moving into the lawn not to mention the spaces between the garden planter boxes. We have lettuce running amok now too, so with dinner I made a salad with garden lettuce and strawberries (and non-garden cherry tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts and poppy seed dressing). Too bad tomato season doesn't correspond with lettuce and strawberry season...the strawberries will be done in 2 weeks, the lettuce will still produce but become increasingly bitter.

I also planted my purchases today. 12 tomato plant (6 slicers, 6 romas). 12 pepper plants (6 banana, 6 jalapeno), 6 cukes and 6 zukes. And a Japanese eggplant. I noticed I have a few tomato seedlings coming up, I believe they are cherry tomatoes. Hopefully they survive the disruption of weed-clearing in the area where they sprouted.

[Kraken]

This year's garden is my worst ever thanks to our extreme summer weather -- the hottest June in history followed by the second-rainiest July. Despite the heat waves (which tomatoes like), it got cold enough to turn on the heat on both Memday and July 4. Banana peppers were my only unqualified success. The tomato harvest is very small and my plants have already given up the ghost. I've got a lot of eggplants coming, but that's small consolation since I don't like it very much. No squash to speak of, no beans yet (vines just started to flower). I will get maybe half a dozen bell peppers. Even the herbs are just phoning it in this year.

[Jeff V]

I thought I was buying slicer and roma seedlings from Menard's this year, instead got cherry and grape. And I have a lot of cherry tomatoes spawning from seeds deposited from last year's rotting fruit. I made pasta the other day, instead of sauce, I roasted a dish full of cherry tomatoes, smashed garlic, banana peppers (from the garden), basil (also from the garden....doing well this year) and olive oil. I liked it, wife did not. Which is a bummer because we're going to have shit ton more of them and can't eat them in salads fast enough.

We are also harvesting cucumbers the size of my forearm. We have some big zucchini too, but have been trying to pick them before they get too ginormous. Jalapenos will be harvested as soon as I make something to use them in. I'm waiting for the dill seed to mature so I can use them to pickle some of the cucumbers.