Friday, July 22, 2016

Vegetable Garden Update-July 2016


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Good morning! Summer is in high gear and we are under a heat advisory this week. The above rudbeckia and butterflyweed don't mind the heat but for the most part you'll find me in the air conditioning. Stay cool you all!
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The vegetable garden has exceeded my dreams. It is doing SO well this year. Mr. Fix-it and I harvested hundreds of new potatoes and onions. Yum! The onions did so well! It was almost like a miracle to me as I've never had luck getting onions to bulb up. The garlic was over done and we did not get any of that. Now we are picking tons of tomatoes and cucumbers. I have to spend time indoors every other day putting up tomatoes. That is a good thing. Above is a long shot of the garden looking west. Let's look at each bed now.
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The southeast bed is loaded down with mainly cherry tomatoes, vining crops, and pepper plants.
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The northeast bed has some early corn in the mid part of this picture and later corn in the foreground. I also stuck in some vining crops where I could. The other end of this bed has some newly planted bush beans. I don't care for beans but Mr. Fix-it does so I planted some for him.
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The strawberry bed doesn't change much.
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The herb garden is really doing well. The rosemary, thyme, and sage attract all sorts of pollinators. I also seeded some borage and am hoping it comes up soon.
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The southwest bed is full of predominately cucumbers. The early cukes have been producing prolifically. The newly planted cukes in the foreground will pick up once the older cukes have gone by. I also seeded vining crops around this bed too. So far they are small plants. I was late seeding them but I think the lateness will be a benefit in that there won't be as many pests around (I hope!)
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The northwest bed is full of tomatoes. They are doing really well!
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Some of the tomatoes have split. This is okay and is due to too much water at one time. We had about ten inches of rain in one week. I love it! You'll never hear me complain about split tomatoes. Lots of rain means green gardens and no watering for me.
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Some of the cucumber leaves are spotting and turning yellow. This is most likely a fungal problem but I have not had time to investigate the cause. Since I am mostly organic the problem is not really a problem as long as the cucumbers are still producing. I'll keep an eye on the situation and take action if need be.
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Around the outer edge of the garden where irises are planted I have cleaned up the irises and allowed self seeded zinnias to come back from last year's plants. They are slowly growing and blooming but I do wish they'd grow faster.
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The iris/zinnia beds are hard to keep weeded since you should not mulch irises.
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Lastly, all vegetable gardens (really all gardens) deserve a special cat. This is Smoke. He is on pest patrol and does a great job....

in the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

7 comments:

  1. Love seeing your gardens, Tina. I'm in TN now and can't wait to get my garden started. Probably next spring as we haven't started to build yet. The lane in will be coming along soon. By the way, Thank You. Through your blog I met up with Dave Townsend and he has worked with us and continue to do so getting us going, In our Garden. Donna

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    1. Hi Donna! I have to ask which Donna this is? The one from New York that I met in Asheville or another one? I know a few from blogging. I'm so glad you met Dave. He's a great guy! He will for sure take care of you with gardening in Tennessee. Good luck to you! Please let me know your blog because your Google profile did not link to it.

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  2. My tomatoes are balking. They are making green ones but are not yet turning red for some reason. Bah humbug. You mentioned the swamp milkweed in my garden. I planted 3 plants this spring and two of them lived and produced blooms. I haven't seen any butterflies there as yet. Maybe next year.

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  3. Your vegetable garden looks great! I have to ask--what do you do with all your cherry tomatoes? One year I started cherry tomatoes from seed and planted all the seedlings--I just couldn't pitch the extras. We had so many little tomatoes we couldn't eat them all fresh. I used some up when I made tomato juice and sauce for the freezer, but it takes a lot of cherry tomatoes to make much juice:) I've cut back on the vegetable garden this year; my tomatoes are still green, but I should have fresh green beans any day now.

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  4. Good job Smoke. Always good to have a guard cat. Your garden is doing so well. I'm sure it is nice to just enjoy the garden without needing to water. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Wow, your garden is really coming along. My husband grows borage too. He uses the edible flower as a garnish for Pimm's cocktails, a summer drink in the UK. Smoke is gorgeous!

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