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| From In the Garden |
The cabbages did have a bit of worm damage so I pulled about six heads out of the garden and left three. Those three are coming along nicely. I will pick them as soon as they get a bit bigger. They are hanging tough in the garden this year because June in Tennessee is quite hot, yet the cabbages are fine. Not so the lettuces. They have all bolted but not to worry, new seedlings direct seeded into the garden are growing nicely. It is still my intent to pick fresh lettuce from the garden the same time I pick tomatoes. I will do this by seeding lettuce every two weeks and by providing a bit of shade for them in the from of vining crops growing on the A frame.
Speaking of the A frame, I had planned to grow bushel gourds on the frame. To date only about three out of 20 seeds have sprouted. I am very disappointed by this because I made it a point to special order the seeds and I have tried two different ways to get the seeds to sprout, to no avail. I think I will toss some regular gourd seeds in amongst the bushel gourds and see what happens.
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| From In the Garden |
The two peppers and eggplants growing in the hay bales are not doing well. They are rather puny and small and I'm not sure why but I'll stick with them for now. Cucumbers, kuri squash, tomatoes, dill, and cantaloupe are all doing well and off to a good start. I actually have tomatoes growing on the plants now and they are about three feet tall. Can't wait for the first tomato!
I still have to plant pole beans along the central arbor where the bananas used to grow (bananas are still coming up and I am still removing them!), Peas were removed quite a while ago and cucumbers now grow in their spot. One note, even though I did not plant garlic last year I have been fortunate enough to have some plants return from the previous year and this fact is ever so good! You know to harvest garlic when the leaves start to fall over and turn yellow. At this time I carefully dig the bulbs and lay them on the ground for a few days so the bulb and foliage will cure. I can then clean off the dirt and cut the foliage or braid it and bring the bulbs into the house for use as needed. I would've missed the garlic had it not returned so I have garlic on my fall planting list this year.
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| From In the Garden |
Lastly, the two blueberry bushes I grow are doing awesome this year. If I can just make it to the ripe berries before the robins and thrushes get them I'd be doing great. As it is there seems to be enough for all of to go around this year. I enjoy getting my antioxidants while walking around the garden. The two blueberry bushes do not grow in the vegetable garden. They are stuck into the Northside Shrub border where they do surprisingly well considering they are crowded by privet on one side and daylilies on the other and grow in a soil that is heavily infested with tulip poplar roots (hate those things!). Fortunately these two blueberries tend to be drought resistant and shade tolerant. Noting that my blueberries are ripening up I am reminded it might be time to head out to the Tin Barn in Guthrie to pick blackberries and highbush blueberries and look for new daylilies for the garden.
How are your vegetables and edibles doing....
in the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,
In the Garden
Tina,
ReplyDeleteThe cvabbage looks great! Sorry about the gourds, we have tried to grow gourds and getting ten male flowers to every female flower. never got one gourd for all our trouble but the flowers at night we nice just the same.
Ummmm--Tina, I loved this stroll through the veggie garden and beyond. I took my cup of morning coffee and looked at everything you talked about! :) I think I'll go with you to pick blackberries too! Time for a good cobbler!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day! :)
Tina, I have 'maters! and a few peppers, got to love the compost...I see why they call it gold! My gourds aren't doing well either and I think I'll give up on them, grrr!
ReplyDeleteGood Morning All.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple gourd plants climbing the fence & they have started to bloom. We'll see how many I get.
I'm getting 'maters' now. Both red & yellow. I like the yellow as they are lower in acid. My blueberries are gone. The birds got most of them. For some odd reason my peppers are falling off half rotten. Bush Beans did great. Still picking those.
I have 1 pumpkin from all those volunteer plants that came up. It's beginning to turn orange.
My 1 peach is still hanging on & has turned the reddish color. I'm anxious to see how it taste.
I hope all Tina, Nina, Anonymous, Skeeter, Jean & Dawn have a wonderful day.
Those blueberries look yummy! And they're so good for you. At our MG classes we were told that growing blueberries here is quite a challenge because our soil just isn't acidic enough, so I'll probably never try them. But I'd love to try planting raspberries, another one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteMy vegetable garden is doing pretty well, but far behind yours. The tomatoes are loving the heat and all the rain we've been having...but so are the weeds:)
Everything looks great, Tina. What variety lettuce do you grow? I've been looking for one that doesn't bolt or turn bitter when the weather warms up. The blueberries here are late this year, probably because of the extended cold weather we had in winter and into spring. I am so looking forward to picking some! Our bushes are still too young to provide much, but there are a couple of local farms that help me satisfy my craving.
ReplyDeleteTina your cabbage is such a beautiful color. I've wanted to try gourds too - they are so interesting looking but if all of you are having problems getting them then guess I'll stick to enjoying everyone elses. ;-) Your Blueberries do look like they are coming right along. I can't wait to see if I get to taste any of the blue huckleberries on the bush I bought last summer. I love our wild red ones that grow in each of our 3 old growth stumps but I only get a small taste because the birds beat me to them.
ReplyDeleteYou cabbages look great! I sure hope we can salvage ours from the loopers. I found one of our zucchini plants yesterday completely wilted. I'm hoping it's not disease related but it's very likely it is. The blueberries look great too. We just planted two this year and their doing OK but it will be a couple years before they are production ready.
ReplyDeleteHi all! I had a scare this morning as in my browser was not working. Come to find out it was the internet connection. Just wanted to pop in and say hi. I'm on my way out of town but will be around as soon as I am able.
ReplyDeleteW2W, I usually do looseleaf lettuce but bibb lettuce works well too. Mesclun as well. The trick is to seed every few weeks because once it gets mature it is going to bolt-heat or not.
Love the squash growing in with your ornamentals. I like surprises in the garden too and tend to leave these things that come up randomly.
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in your blueberries. I'd love to grow some but haven't been willing to take on the job of changing my soil ph. We are sitting on a great limestone shelf here and it would be a huge struggle to keep the soil acidic.
Marnie
I hope your wild gourd does well. Sorry the special ones didn't sprout. I hate when that happens too. The blueberries look good! Good luck on the lettuce. I'm going to try to keep some going too.
ReplyDeleteTina, I'm amazed by the size of your cabbages. Northern gardeners, like me, don't have cabbages that size until Autumn. Everything in my garden is still tiny, nothing is big enough to eat yet.
ReplyDeleteTina, I'm amazed by the size of your cabbages. Northern gardeners, like me, don't have cabbages that size until Autumn. Everything in my garden is still tiny, nothing is big enough to eat yet.
ReplyDeleteOh those blueberries and cabbage look so darn good. I just planted cabbage on Sunday. I have peas galore but not quite ready to pick. I did pick one , just 1 yesterday to eat outta the pod. Should have enough for cooking by next week.
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering how the things in your hay bales were doing and keep forgetting to ask. I have 8 hay bales, 4 with cukes and 4 with zucchini and they are also slow coming.
I really like that cabbage picture, it looks like it's huge. What a great surprise from the birds. That squash vine looks much better than my zucchini plants. Blueberries, figs and strawberries are all close to picking here. The tomatoes are inching along waiting for some warmer weather.
ReplyDeleteThe robins already stripped my blueberry bushes clean and they weren't even close to being ripe yet. Silly birds. I guess I'll need to protect them a bit better next year.
ReplyDeleteWow, your stuff looks great. I have planted some blueberry bushes this year. I can't wait for some berries. I also had to take up my cabbage a little early. The heat and worms were causing problems. I am waiting for tomatoes right now. Carla
ReplyDeleteWe are kindred spirits! I love blueberries!!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the volunteer veggies. I haven't been veggie gardening long enough to know that happened. I would be inclined to leave it alone and see what happened too. I hope it's exactly what you wish for!
ReplyDeleteFinally there are peas on my pathetic little plants (seed sown on St. Patricks Day) but the tomatoes and squash are growing much better than last summer so here's hoping for a harvest!
Wow that cabbage looks great. Good luck with the lettuce, I'll be curious to see if your plan works, picking maters & lettuce at the same time would be fabulous. :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't garlic fun? I grew it for the first time this year (hardneck) and have already harvested scapes and a few small cloves. I wish my cabbage and lettuce were doing as well as yours are. I need to post an update soon. Fingers crossed that you'll get some cool stuff from those volunteers....
ReplyDeleteHi Tina, your garden veggies are coming along great! And, I have to tell you we have eaten radish and lettuce from our garden -yeah! The cucumbers are just about ready for picking -the tomato plants are full of little green tomatoes and my pepper plants have little bitty peppers on them -this rain and humidity is really helping the garden thrive. Now, on a sad note my carrots look SAD -they just don't seem to be growing as well as everything else.
ReplyDeleteOff to chase some kiddos -have a great day everyone!
Hi Lola, Jean, Nina, Skeeter and Dawn -hope you gals are having a super summer. Ciao
Your red Cabbage is looking good - mine never look as pristine. I would like to grow Blueberries but my soil is not acidic enough so the plants gradually fade away and die. Hope you get good results from your Gourds (once they decide to germinate)!
ReplyDeleteJoy oh joy. I picked {it literally fell off into my hand} my first peach today. I found it while Jean & I were walking around my backyard when they so graciously stopped by to meet me. Remember Jean?
ReplyDeleteThere was only 1 peach, but oh have I babied that little tree & it's cargo. Now I can put mama into the ground & hope for more next yr.
I will share it with Young'un.
Yes, I sure do remember that peach and am so glad you got it to grow into a picker. Enjoy!!!
ReplyDeleteEverything looks so scrumptious Tina, especially the Blueberry's. Hope you are able to get them before the birds...
ReplyDeleteWe are picking tomatoes and enjoying them but I am sure to be easy with them this year due to my (maybe) being allergic to them when fresh and too many eat at once...
Also have gourds coming up. Some planted, some not just as your squash. Finding sprouts you did not plant are wonderful indeed....
The berries are beautiful even when the colour hasn't turned blue..
ReplyDelete~bangchik
That cabbage looks amazing! So does the blueberry!
ReplyDelete