2021 Garden Thread

Beautiful! Nothing like homegrown tomatoes!

I’m picking my garlic tonight while the garden is dry and before the rain hits this weekend. Best to pick it when the ground is dry. It’s early this year - normally I pick it after the 4th.

4 Likes

My zucchini produced first crop a week ago! Enough to make a side of grilled zucchini for a dinner and leftovers for lunch. Mr. thought these were the best grilled zucchini he has ever had. Lol, he will be eating zucchini this and that for quite a while this summer, I’m afraid.

3 Likes

My son was braiding several bunches of garlic to dry this morning. No tomatoes yet here. We’re just finishing up the broccoli, peas, and asparagus. Strawberries are done, cherries are almost done, but black raspberries are in and extremely tasty. Mulberries too. We should have zucchini within a week.

3 Likes

Bit by bit I’ve planted a few veggies around the yard. Zuc/squash plants and some greek oregano in one area. In another area I have tomatoes, peppers, leeks, cucumber, chives. Also a bit of kale planted before our May vacation, doing poorly but ot yet a lost cause. Last year the pesky rabbits resisted the kale, but now that I have the more appetizing lettuce up in a planter out of their reach I think they keep trying the kale.

This week I finally found a basil plant. For now I put it in a bigger pot, but maybe I should plant it in the ground… thoughts?

I have found that basil (assuming it’s a larger leaf variety) will grow heartier in the ground than in a pot - unless your pot is quite big!

Basil can sometimes be finicky. I actually prefer to grow the spicy globe variety - a small leaf that is easy to pick and doesn’t have to be cut/torn/snipped to throw in a recipe or topping a salad.

2 Likes

I forgot! I also harvested some of the giant daikon radishes I planted in a watering bed on the deck. Have some tomato, eggplant, cukes, and pepper plants growing in pots, too. We don’t have a big enough spot for a garden, so I do most of my planting on the deck which works quite well.

I just hope our deck garden survives the heat we are supposed to get! 102 degrees projected for the weekend. Ugh.

2 Likes

@BunsenBurner I also use egg cartons to start plants. I eggs in paper cartons for this purpose, the nesting seedling then goes in the ground in its paper nest. This method keeps the seedling more stable and the paper nest decomposes into the soil.

1 Like

I know everyone does this but I always worry the paper nest won’t decompose fast enough to let the roots grow!

If you keep it damp, it will.

1 Like

My husband likes Costco eggs that are sold in very thin plastic cartons. So I use those - the plant rootballs are easy to pop out for repotting.

2 Likes

Ahhh - I also choose those egg cartons at Costco!

1 Like

Finally had productive zucchini after trying for three years! We had a lot of rain in May plus my husband has been using compost tea to irrigate.

Also planted pickling cucumbers and put my first batch of pickles up last Saturday. No tomatoes yet.

3 Likes

I just had a lovely dinner of homegrown Swiss chard with calamari. Tomorrow, we get to enjoy the first Japanese eggplant!!!

4 Likes

My zucchini finally recovered from the heat dome and exploded! And the picking cukes are not too far behind. :slight_smile: Only a handful of cherry tomatoes though.

2 Likes

My first pineapple

6 Likes

Do plantings count in this thread.

I planted two hydrangea…a strawberry sundae, and a vanilla strawberry.

The strawberry sundae is covered with flowers. The vanilla strawberry has none plus something is eating holes in the leaves (although this seems to have stopped).

Each of the six other hydrangea plants I have has one flower each. This includes two endless summer ones.

Any ideas what I can do?

2 Likes

Hydrangeas often take a couple of years to establish themselves enough to flower. Are you feeding them at all?

We have had SO much rain - really all summer - that garden growth is not a problem!

Right now I’m picking kale, garlic is all picked, summer squash (yellow), onions and the tomatoes are just starting here and there. Also peppers! Lots of peppers! Jalapeno, banana, poblano, green peppers.

1 Like

Six of my plants are at least five years old☹️. Really none of them has ever really flowered well. But in years past, I wasn’t concerned because it seemed everyones hydrangea were meh. But this year most of my neighbors have fabulous flowers. The only new ones this year are the strawberry sundae which is doing great…and the vanilla strawberry which isn’t.

How much sun do your hydrangeas get? Is the amount of sun equal for all of them? If there is too much sun, perhaps that is having an effect. (Just a wild guess, though.)

Same sun. They are practically next to each other.