Comments

73 Responses | RSS feed for comments on this post

1. 7-26
   2:43
   am

   I figure that even a garden that is struggling is better than no garden. Mine is very slow this year, due to a very wet, cold spring. But what I am picking still tastes great, and I got enough green beans to can 7 pints last week, and there is a basketful of zucchini on the counter. I can count my blessings.

   Vicki
   Flag this comment
2. 7-26
   3:02
   am

   I have a mint farm too. Its growing in the cement cracks besides all over the place! I bought some succulents. I am going to do a cactus garden, less work.

   Shelly
   Flag this comment
3. 7-26
   3:04
   am

   Your depressing garden is much better than my no garden apt home!!!

   Nancy in Iowa
   Flag this comment
4. 7-26
   4:53
   am

   And how is the scarecrow? Ours is either practicing the limbo or cloud gazing. My garden was doing really well until 2 weeks ago. Now it’s looking a little sickle-y. I blame the heat.

   Heidi
   Flag this comment
5. 7-26
   5:16
   am

   I’m definitely not bragging. Yours looks brilliant to me. I have one mini tomato plant. It lost two branches when it got really windy. I’m no gardener.

   winifred
   Flag this comment
6. 7-26
   5:45
   am

   I’m tempted to make up some brags just to see if you mail me a chicken!

   BuckeyeGirl
   Flag this comment
7. 7-26
   6:35
   am

   Commiserations from over here in England!
   My runner beans look puny, but managed to produce a few flowers – which the hot, dry weather stripped from them before they could set a single bean!
   My tomatoes have battled against the strong winds a couple of weeks ago and are now very bedraggled and mis-shapen specimens.
   Even my “butterfly bush” budleia looks about to keel over from lack of rain, and they usually even manage to grow in the cracks between bricks on old buildings!
   The lawn looks like a hayfield after the harvester has finished.
   

   Sue
   Flag this comment
8. 7-26
   6:47
   am

   Good morning. Sorry to hear the garden is hen pecked and droopy in places this time round. Sometimes the weather just wont cooperate,and u can mail me a chicken if it would make u feel better and I’ll mail u a kitten.

   Leah
   Flag this comment
9. 7-26
   6:49
   am

   I feel your pain. Too much spring rain, when the floods finally subsided it was about 90 degrees and the soil got a terrible crust on it. Mostly I’ve been growing weeds this year! http://www.busysolitudefarm.com/2010/07/garden-cement.html

   Johanna
   Flag this comment
10. 7-26
    6:54
    am

    Oh, No! Don’t tell me you planted mint into the ground! If it’s in the ground there is no stopping it. You may still get something out of the garden yet, or… maybe it’s time to visit the good, dear farmers at the market and see what they are tossing. Probably something very good that the chickens would love, then maybe they would leave yours alone… maybe.

    Barbee'
    Flag this comment
11. 7-26
    6:58
    am

    No garden here. We talked about it. Hubby did not get it tilled in time. Then it was muddy. I planted a few plants in between my flowers. Which are not all that pretty looking this year either. Its been hot and dry. I do have mint like you. lol. And lots of weeds. That is about it. Got to visit the farmers market and see what I can come up with.

    Diane
    Flag this comment
12. 7-26
    7:04
    am

    I feel your pain. Got only one good batch of mustard greens… a dozen tomatoes off of half a dozen plants before it got too hot. Three, yes three! cucumbers before the leaf-footed bugs killed the vine. About a half dozen squash before they got that vine. Oh, and twenty miles of pumpkin vine, and ONE pumpkin that the raccoons haven’t taken. It’s been a hard spring/summer in gardens everywhere this year.

    ~jackie
    Flag this comment
13. 7-26
    7:24
    am

    I’m not bragging but it’s truly been a super year for growing things here in North-central PA. We’ve not had an unusual amount of rain but the humidity makes it a perfect hothouse outside. My garden consists of tomato plants and potato plants with a side order of basil and parsley. The potatoes are doing super and the tomatoes are doing well but not as well as they did last year before that blight got them and I lost half the crop. So, even though it appears to be perfect growing weather, I can’t really say it’s been the best for crops. Now weeds, grass, bushes, and trees…stunning! It’s so green here it’s amazing! Let’s hope the tomatoes and potatoes do as well.

    Northcountrygirl
    Flag this comment
14. 7-26
    7:47
    am

    Could be the chickens, could be the lack of bees, of any kind. Until this weekend, I had only seen one bumblebee. Yesterday, I saw lots of bumblebees and something along the like of a yellow jacket (not honeybees though). Your friend who posted about self pollinating should come out to your farm next year and work her finger pollinating magic. Our garden in NC has been so so. Beautiful eggplant leaves, no sign of an eggplant.

    I learned some interesting info. preparing my post on OKRA. Have a look if you have time.

    greensborodailyphoto
    Flag this comment
15. 7-26
    7:50
    am

    We’re like you got planted late because of too much rain (sounds good anyway)! Only thing I can brag about is the cucumber, it it keeps going like it is, it will be the cucumber plant that ate Poca!

    Renee
    Flag this comment
16. 7-26
    8:03
    am

    And I thought it was just my new raised beds and a lack of fertilizer that was causing my problems! I got two zucchini, a dozen squash and now the plants look like they are about dead. My beans didn’t grow early and now I have lots of vines started but they aren’t going to do anything. Cabbage, onions, kohlrabi did fine. Cucumbers are sad. Watermelon didn’t grow, but it is in the same type of dirt that the beans are, I am going to heat that dirt up here in a few weeks – get some stuff composting in there for the winter and maybe next year will be better.

    Sandy
    Flag this comment
17. 7-26
    8:09
    am

    Just saw the comment about bees, I think that might be the problem here too. Normally we are over run with bees. This year not so much. OH and I forgot, a mouse or some mice, have decided that my Celebrity tomato is tasty. They climbed to the top and are eating all the leaves. I would think it is deer, but the droppings are tiny. The tree tomatoes and the yellow tomato don’t seem to be their favorite flavor, just the Celebrity. I am going to give them some indigestion this evening though.

    Sandy
    Flag this comment
18. 7-26
    8:20
    am

    Feel your pain. What’s with all the bugs this year??? And some kind of moldy grossness caused by the high humidity – higher than normal but geez. Trade you rabbits for a chicken.

    Rhonda
    Flag this comment
19. 7-26
    8:21
    am

    Your problem is chickens. Mine is rabbits. They have eaten every leaf off the green beans and every new leaf that tries to grow. And absolutely no rain. The temps here have been extremely hot this year. And my garden is burning up.

    Becky
    Flag this comment
20. 7-26
    8:22
    am

    We don’t have a veggie garden, but we did plant a flower garden (for the birds). The zinnias and the sunflowers came up (but not our coneflowers). The sunflowers are blooming, but they’re only 2 to 4 feet tall. We had the same too much rain/no rain issue here.

    Stacy
    Flag this comment
21. 7-26
    8:25
    am

    My garden this year is only so-so…I planted everything by seed April 20th. We are getting okra and some green beans, but only enough to eat as we pick. The tomatoes put on blossoms but then the 90* weather hit and they all fell off… I have 1 tomato. Will know better next year.

    Julia
    Flag this comment
22. 7-26
    8:26
    am

    My garden is a small tall fenced area about 30′ by 30′ it is inside the large chicken yard which is fenced. when I want the chicken to clean the garden I open the gate and give them free range to it. When it is in production I keep the gate closed and the chickens out. This seems to solve the chicken problem, the rain/dry situation I can’t solve. We are on city water and it is too expensive to water all the time. Lettin the guineas into the garden will help solve the bug/worm problem, they don’t eat vegetaion up and don’t do much scratching. That’s how I do it.

    Glenie
    Flag this comment
23. 7-26
    8:34
    am

    So far this year I’ve gotten 4 peppers, a ton of beans, and 2 zucchini. I have bunches and bunches of tomatoes that have been on the plant for two weeks now, but they just wont turn color. I’m going to can tomatoes for the first time this year, but only after I can really pick them. My squash plants are HUGE and they are full of blossoms that are constantly being pollinated by the wasps nest that lives in my back yard, but no squash yet. I found two baby cucs yesterday that were smaller than my thumb, so it will be a while yet. I would, however, love to come join you for a mint julep!

    LisaAJB
    Flag this comment
24. 7-26
    8:36
    am

    Did one 4×4 raised bed and bunches of container plants. Got about 10 onions, 10 yellow grape tomatoes and 3 cucumbers. Pretty pathetic. Out front in the perennial flowerbed, the weeds are growing through 1 month old typar and mulch. I’m thinkin that until weeds become harvestable, I should continue to support my local farm market.

    Tammy/psmflowerlady
    Flag this comment
25. 7-26
    8:37
    am

    Your garden looks like mine. To much rain, no rain, very hot, and now to much rain! All we can do it move forward!

    Rose C.
    Flag this comment
26. 7-26
    8:39
    am

    Our problems and results were the same, except for the chickens. We have ours pinned up, although we did let the younger ones out occasionally,after the garden was established good. They didn’t bother it for several days, but we finally had to stop letting them roam.Overall, this has been a really bad year for our garden.One of the worst we’ve had in awhile.I suspect the things you’ve mentioned were our problems,also,since we do not live that far apart.

    Sue Nugent
    Flag this comment
27. 7-26
    8:47
    am

    Your garden looks better than mine, except for the cabbages. Mine are like basketballs.I haven’t even planted carrots, beans or potatoes yet because of the rain.I plan on planting them this week, if it stays dry. My potatoes have 3 foot long sprouts on them, so even if they won’t mature I’m planting them anyway. I also never got any sweet corn in either.I think there’s a lot of people in the same boat with us.

    Cheryl LeMay
    Flag this comment
28. 7-26
    8:55
    am

    My four raised beds are doing really great here in Indiana! Tomaotes coming outta my ears, starting to dig some potatoes,(first time I planted them!), and bunnies got one bed of beans,but I covered them in chicken wire and they have come back profusely! The 2 zucchini plants provided just enuf to grill or use for bread,and the too many plants of yellow squash are providing me with a dilemma of abundance,so I am learning to freeze slices! I have also planted apple tress,peach,raspberry,blueberry,and blackberry plants this year for future harvesting, oh! And asparagus.and 2 grape vines. Wow. Looking at it all written down it looks like a LOT! Hmmm…I may a lot of work to do if my ” someday crop” comes to fruition!…and in this heat the impatience are enjoying the tropicalness of the weather too! So far it’s a fabulous year! Sorry about your garden Suzanna, some years are like that I guess. This is only our second year with the raised beds and I LOVE them! I would not go back to big gardens ever again.these are SO much easier to manage!

    joy
    Flag this comment
29. 7-26
    9:00
    am

    They are telling us in Western North Carolina that the produce is smaller because of all the rain, but will have a more condensed flavor. Peaches are tiny but delicious.

    I planted my tomatoes by seed (Cherokee Purple) and I am only getting the flowers now. So delayed.

    The melons are at the farmers market and they are good…so good. But my melons are just a vine right now.

    PossumManor
    Flag this comment
30. 7-26
    9:10
    am

    commiserate! Hot summer, no rain, piddly few tomatoes and a few paltry peppers, though my herbs are okay where the critters have left them alone. As you said, mint is doing well. Who can kill mint? No chickens please!

    Kim Gibson
    Flag this comment
31. 7-26
    9:19
    am

    How much do I have to brag before you send me a chicken??? At least then I could tell my hubby “it just showed up, it’s not my fault”…
    We have been getting quite a few cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and okra, but other things did not do well at all. The asparagus (3rd year) didn’t produce at all, the berry bushes are under white fly attack, the kohlrabi, didn’t produce… Oh well, there is always next year…

    Anke
    Flag this comment
32. 7-26
    9:39
    am

    My garden looks great with all of the green plants growing in it….oh wait…those green plants are the weeds. :(

    We fence it to keep the chickens out so they don’t scratch out the seeds. Squash bugs have destroyed any hopes of a zucchini crop this year. The Bloody Butcher field corn (I’m hoping to have my own cornmeal.) looks great. Tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale are hiding. I know I planted them but the weeds have just taken over. ARRGGHHH!

    julie
    Flag this comment
33. 7-26
    9:46
    am

    Here in west Michigan, I’m having a very good garden year. We had a beautiful spring and it’s been raining every week–I’ve not had to water the garden once this year and that’s unheard of!! I have a raised beds this year, well except for the melons and pumpkins. Everything is producing a ton, the corn is easily 10 feet tall, the green beans are coming out of my ears, the tomatoes are under attack (horn worms) but still have lots of fruit hanging, the delicata squash is HUGE this year…then I figure out that it crossed with the spaghetti squash last year (I saved the seeds), so I’m not sure what I’ll be harvesting there. The peppers are coming along, and the broccoi is going to seed now. However, I must confess that the cauiflower was an utter failure, not one single head appeared. What’s with that?? Anyhow, I think I’ve met my bragging quota. Sorry to hear about your garden. Some years are just like that. Atleast you have fresh eggs and fresh milk. I don’t.

    Wendy
    Flag this comment
34. 7-26
    10:06
    am

    Not bragging here either. I had all of your problems except the chickens who have their own large pen to devour.

    I am very late with my garden for the reasons you listed.

    I won’t know how well things have really been until frost.

    The sweet corn is nearing ready so the raccoons are probably already on the road to the farm.

    glenda
    Flag this comment
35. 7-26
    10:16
    am

    Our garden here in Southern Oregon looks terrible. We had a very wet, very late spring and we didn’t even get to plant until mid-June. Our beans and peas grew, but didn’t flower and now it’s too hot. Our tomatoes looked excellent until we had a hot spell and now they just look sad and wilty, even after they get watered. It has been so unseasonably cold and wet foloowed by such bouts of heat! I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m glad our lives don’t depend on our garden this year because that outlook would be very grim….

    KLabmom
    Flag this comment
36. 7-26
    10:17
    am

    Our garden is AWFUL. The tomatoes are disdaining to flourish and the bell peppers are nonexistant. :( I do so want big, juicy bells! And the bush pickles– OMG THE BUSH PICKLES. They are everywhere, popping up too fast and too fat for me to can. If I actually liked pickles and/or relish, maybe I’d be happier. As it is, I just want to make some dang tomato sauce.

    Gini
    Flag this comment
37. 7-26
    10:24
    am

    Tomatoes are puny, the ants have attached my potatoes so there won’t be any, but the spearmint and kale have taken over. Green beans are about the only thing coping with the weather. It’s been hot, then cold, then torrential downpours, back to hot, followed by more torrential downpours. Can’t even get into the garden to pull weeds (which have become my major crop) because of the mosquitos.

    Cate
    Flag this comment
38. 7-26
    10:37
    am

    My garden is lousy, too. My tomatoes all died, the beets didn’t come up, the lettuce didn’t come up, the beans didn’t come up… plus, I’ve been too sick to work out there much, and it’s been so darn hot, that things are just not great out there! I have some herbs and parsnips and that’s about it. I got peas earlier in the season, and radishes, and I’m planning on putting in more beans (I bought new seed – hopefully that will help!) and cucumbers, but I’ve essentially given up.

    Kristen E
    Flag this comment
39. 7-26
    10:43
    am

    Suzanne, Your garden is still 110% better than mine. I have to admit I didn’t even try yet. Maybe next year. That’s my Mantra. Some day…sigh…

    claudia w
    Flag this comment
40. 7-26
    10:49
    am

    No bragging here. The dang blasted squirrel got all the spinach right down to nubbins. There are two yellow Hungarian peppers, a tomato, the squash are flowering. The carrots are making fine tops. The basil and mint are thriving in pots and the cilantro was well, don’t ask. The success (sorta) is the Snow Peas I have eaten 36 fine snow peas. This is California fer Pity Sake, we are supposed to grown anything. Bah!

    Jackie C
    Flag this comment
41. 7-26
    10:51
    am

    Our garden is not nearly as good as last year. The only thing doing good are the cucumbers. With all the rain we’ve had I thought my garden would be thriving but half of what I planted was destroyed by either the wind or the intense heat in the spring. I still have no tomatoes, I can’t seem to grow them here. I don’t have mint that grows here but we do have horehound that grows wild all over my property. I was thinking of making cough syrup and hard candies with it.

    Brenda In AZ
    Flag this comment
42. 7-26
    11:48
    am

    I have 2 raised garden beds on automatic watering systems(a necessity in the desert). The herb garden is doing GREAT. I’ll take my chicken now, thanks! But the veggie garden looks pathetic. Guess you can keep the chicken, sigh… I’m blaming mine on the week of temps all over 110. Tomatoes are always pretty scraggly looking by now, but my beans died in the ground and I’m barely getting ANY squash or eggplant. Maybe next year…

    Gena
    Flag this comment
43. 7-26
    11:50
    am

    The weeds are taller that the Corn this year at my house. I have been going to market to buy veggies this year. And how in the world are their plants out producing my plants??????????

    Senta Sandberg
    Flag this comment
44. 7-26
    11:58
    am

    Our garden is doing better than yours and I could use another chicken IF IT LAYS EGGS. (I have eight hens and it’s a banner day if I get FOUR EGGS!)

    Michelle
    Flag this comment
45. 7-26
    12:30
    pm

    I have mint and lemon balm coming up everywhere. No flowers. But lemon balm? The bush is now 3 feet high and 4 feet around. My tomato plant is a lonely, straggly soul but have I mentioned lemon balm?

    (Now where can I put the chicken…. oh, I have just the spot)

    MousE
    Flag this comment
46. 7-26
    12:46
    pm

    Pathetic here too….In So Cal Mountains we had snow at the end of May. The plants came back but I should have replanted, everything is struggling along. I have picked 2 peppers and two cherry tomatoes. If the growing season was longer they might do something but…probably wont. My Corn and beans are small. I’ve also had to construct chicken barricades….now I have to climb over my fences to get to my garden!! Crazy Chickens…

    MintaMichelle
    Flag this comment
47. 7-26
    1:25
    pm

    I would love to brag so you would mail me a chicken! But, the 100’s temps here in Texas make it hard for anything to really flourish, hose water just doesn’t do as well as a good rain!

    Laura Balzekas
    Flag this comment
48. 7-26
    1:28
    pm

    My garden is doing better this year than last. BUT! I can TOTALLY feel your pain on the garden. Last year, my chickens ate EVERYTHING. They ate the green tomatoes, they ate the squash, they ate the grapes… ARG!!! I didn’t get to freeze anything. THey even uncovered most of the potatoes I planted and the potatoes all turned green and were inedible! It was horrible. This year, we added more chicken wire to the pasture fences, and most of the chickens that are getting out, haven’t figured out there is a garden to eat yet!

    Sarah
    Flag this comment
49. 7-26
    1:38
    pm

    I must have a raised garden so last year I got (free) tires and planted tomatoes. I did the same this year. All I can say is Tomatoes LOVE growing in tires. They are growing so big the deer can now get to them over the fence. I’ll give you twenty deer for one chicken!

    Darlene in Ks
    Flag this comment
50. 7-26
    3:25
    pm

    With 2 10×20 parcels at the community garden and a deck heavy with potted veggies/herbs, hubby and I are doing pretty well. So far we’ve harvested over 50 lbs. of pattypan, zucchini, eggplant, artichoke, cucumber, kohlrabi, onions and pole beans. Some tomatoes are just ripening – 9 varieties, 2 plants each. Hale’s Best and some French melon are still golf ball sized. We’ve kept almost everything in cages (with tops – not just fenced) since the Great Ground Squirrel Invasion. They took out 30 corn seedlings times two (we did a second planting). Two 7 ft. rows of beets are history, as well as all the radishes and carrots. We’ll plant those again and CAGE THEM this time. The little devils are attempting to burrow under our raised beds! I found recipe for a nasty pepper spray that keeps ground squirrels at bay. Repeated applications are necessary. So… some bragging, and some problems too. I’d LOVE chicken, but even if I qualified, I couldn’t have one where I live. Sigh. I’m sorry to hear about the problems with your garden, but I envy those chickens, goats and all the eggs and CHEESE!

    Vicki in So. CA
    Flag this comment
51. 7-26
    4:28
    pm

    I only plant tomatoes, this year heirlooms, and they are hugh, but no flowers and only one San Marzano on a 6 foot plant. Something ate my Black Cherries and nothing else is producing. My neighbor’s watermelon crept through the fence to my yard, and even that is not producting. Lousey year in the Panhandle. Please send my chicken.

    Phyllis
    Flag this comment
52. 7-26
    5:08
    pm

    My harvest so far this year:

    ~12 strawberries
    2 blueberries
    5 raspberries

    They’re all first year plants, so it’s about what I expected. Can’t wait for next year!

    I’m also hoping for some purple string beans, they’re flowering now. I planted about a million seeds and four of them grew into plants. But they’re also *covered* in bugs, so I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

    Oh yeah, and bucketloads of parsley around the compost heap, and a single volunteer tomato plant that I just noticed yesterday. I moved my mint back into a pot in the spring, and I think I may have finally gotten rid of all the sprouts from the leftover roots.

    Hrist
    Flag this comment
53. 7-26
    5:40
    pm

    We got our garden in so late, we don’t even have a good crop of weeds yet!

    Estella
    Flag this comment
54. 7-26
    6:12
    pm

    I’m comisserating….too much ran and bummed up appendages when we needed to be tilling…planted too late. too hot,dry when rains quit. then there were coons, armadillos, and possum and we,ve had a bumper crop of giant grasshoppers…There were enough tomatoes for 1 batch of salsa and for a couple of bags in the freezer. bad garden year for us. Patchkat >^,,^<

    patchkat
    Flag this comment
55. 7-26
    9:06
    pm

    I can share your disappointment. A very large oak tree means I can’t even grow mint! This year I put two upside down planters in the only sunny spot and planted a couple of Celebrety tomatoes. I had one last year with no luck, so decided to try two this year–hopes springs eternal in a gardener’s heart! So far the results are twice as abysmal–learned too late that you shouldn’t plant moon vine close to the tomatoes. I was told that it attracts the moth that results from the tomatoe hornworm. Yep, ate those poor plants to nubs. But remember what I said about hope?
    The plants have put on suckers and are trying to re-grow. I’ll keep fertilizing–and remember my garden motto—There’s always next year!

    judydee
    Flag this comment
56. 7-26
    9:07
    pm

    I’m comisserating as well. We had all good intentions of planting things needed to make salsa and pickles. Then DH came down with Lyme disease and was laid up pretty badly for a month. So we have potatoes that we didn’t hill, and cucumbers planted very late that are now showing yellow flowers. I think I’ll be driving to the Twin Cities Farmer’s Markets this year….BUT my rhubarb was the best ever!

    Valerie
    Flag this comment
57. 7-26
    11:11
    pm

    Here is a good blog about gardening… using things in your kitchen to help your lawn & garden.
    http://jerrybaker-amg.blogspot.com/

    I decided NOT to plant this year- I am supporting my local farmers.
    Good Luck. There is still time for a fall harvest.

    Smiledarlin
    Flag this comment
58. 7-27
    1:22
    am

    I don’t have rabbits or ground squirrels or chickens to pester my garden … but I do have one large 85lb puppy that thinks ALL things in his backyard is HIS. He will eat cucumber, squash and ripe tomatoes. If he wasn’t so danged adorable in his less mischievous moments, I swear …..!

    This year is doing a little better despite a late planting thanks to a very strange cool, wet spring for central CA. Followed by recent 100+ heat that brought all blossom set to a complete halt. Now that we’re in an newly strange stretch of unseasonably cool weather of mid80’s, I’m hoping to see pole beans finally, lemon and slicing cukes, more of the summer squash (huge success THIS year!), and maybe, just maybe, the Brandywine tomato will follow her varied sisters of heirloom and cherry heritage to setting fruit. I’ve managed to pick only a few sweet peppers as the heat keeps trying to fry them back to the ground. Now if I can just keep the darn dog from filching the half-ripe tomatoes despite the large cages, it might be a decent year!

    In the end, no bragging, just grateful for what’s making it … besides, I’m afraid the dog would adopt the hapless bird and heaven only knows what might happen ….. !

    Ruthmarie
    Flag this comment
59. 7-27
    7:20
    am

    Can I pick which chicken?

    WKF
    Flag this comment
60. 7-27
    7:29
    am

    I know what you mean about the chickens! ARG! I finally got some tomatoes growing and was looking forward to a heritage tomato sandwich and I was SO MAD when I found them all pecked to bleep…..sigh….well at least I have eggs.

    Cathy the Hobby Farmer
    Flag this comment
61. 7-27
    10:27
    am

    Our garden is doing pretty well. I didn’t know radishes and turnips were so easy to grow so now I’m not sure what to do with all of them. A couple of old timers around here say there is going to be a tomato/potato blight but I haven’t seen it yet.

    Melissa
    Flag this comment
62. 7-27
    10:53
    am

    Our garden is doing fairly well. Green beans are producing much better now. Tomatoes are doing really well, but we’re having to pick them just before they’re ripe to keep ahead of the bugs or whatever is attacking them. Okra is giving off 2-3 pods per day. Only have 4 plants. But we now have enough for some fried okra for dinner! Bell peppers have done great and the bushes are loaded right now. Leaving some to ripen to reds. Made several stuffed peppers and froze them last week. Jalapeno and cayenne peppers are doing good. Also made and froze some poppers a couple weeks ago. Squash borer got to the zuke plant. Had to trash the plant!! Yukon gold potatoes are about read to dig up and store. Haven’t harvested any of the brussel sprouts yet. Anxious to see how they’ll do. After we had a cool, wet spring, it turned really hot and the lettuce, spinach and arugula all bolted. We’ve had to water the garden 2 or 3 times inbetween what few rain showers we’ve got the past 6 weeks or so.
    So…this is a brag, I suppose. If you want to send a chicken I’ll give you my youngest son’s address..he has several laying hens and would welcome one more.

    Ms. Donnie
    Flag this comment
63. 7-27
    4:26
    pm

    I would love one, thanks!!!

    JeannieB
    Flag this comment
64. 7-29
    9:04
    am

    Some things here are not so good either. My prime paste tomatoes, best-in-the-world from Italy, ALL have blossom end rot. My good large beef-heart tomatoes have some blossom end rot too. Not enough lime in the soil. I guess I’ll add lime this fall where I will be putting the tomatoes next spring and magnesium too. Its too late this year.

    Grass over took the cabbage and broccoli. I gave up on those long ago. The cabbage is all eaten by worms and the broccoli is just a few tiny heads. Enough for one quiche so far and that’s about it.

    I had a good crop of celery growing from several cut ends. I accidentally tilled them all up. (Having a tiller is not necessarily a good thing…) My lasagna garden was not done with a tiller and its my best garden. I just keep adding all the fall leaves and grass clippings and manure on top and it never needs tilled.

    On the good side, the corn is looking great! We are going to have way more than our freezer will hold. I’ll be giving lots of that to the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen.

    Also doing well is the squash. It always does really well. We’ll be over run with Ambercup and turban. I’ll also have several spaghetti squash, acorn, sweet mama and maybe a few pink banana and hopefully at least one “upper ground sweet potato” squash, maybe. Possibly some Hopi gray and black, time will tell.

    I’m drowning in zucchini!

    My ground cherries and garden huckleberries are really, really big and full! Not ready yet.

    The cantaloupe barely came up and I had such hopes for 5 gallons of cantaloupe wine. No going to happen. The watermelon might be ok, not great, certainly not enough for watermelon wine. The cucumbers are looking ok but not producing much. The beans grew but I didn’t plant nearly enough. We just eat them as they come in, none for the freezer. The peas were not too good either. I don’t know about the sweet potatoes. Waiting till fall for that.

    The few tobacco plants that managed to sprout are looking great! Not nearly enough for the year but a good start. I might even get some seed for next year. I will start them a lot earlier and in a good seed mix next spring.

    My raspberries produced and produced and produced! I had so much lettuce that most of it went into the compost. The spinach was a dissappointment, eaten by slugs. The rhubarb was good and I just got 14 more good sized root pieces from cleaning out my MIL’s! Next year we’ll be drowning in it! The green onions are all we could have ever hoped for! We’ll have all the onion we need for months to come.

    A few carrots actually came up and seem to be growing, imagine that. Never had any luck with carrots. I keep trying though.

    Spanish onions seem to be growing. Time will tell about those. Never grew them before.

    The bell peppers are doing well and producing a lot of peppers! I desperately need to feed them this week but I just can’t seem to get out there. I have some good chicken manure to put on them, when I get a chance.

    Herbs are doing well. I also have lots of mint, everywhere! I have a post on my blog about what to do with all that mint.

    All in all its going fairly well. The garden is always full of joy and dissappointment. I can’t focus on nuturing everything, I guess. I learn more each year about growing specific things. This year I learned that the tomatoes need lime and magnesium to use the calcium from the egg shells I mulched them with this year. I had such hopes of putting up dozens of jars of tomatoes and making sauce and paste and ketchup…

    I knew you’d have no garden if the chickens got into it. Been there! Sometimes you just want to put them all into the stew pot!! Maybe you should fence the whole garden area in? They sure do love small tender pumpkins and squash growing on the vine and ripe tomatoes, asparagus, cukes, peppers, peas …

    I had to barrier my lasagna garden last year to keep the groundhogs out. Now I have Buck for that! No groundhogs!

    Sheryl at Providence Acres Farm
    Flag this comment
65. 7-29
    2:04
    pm

    This year has been pathetic… It was a cold, gray, rainy spring so everything was behind to begin with… Sprouts fiiiinally appear only to be decimated by an onslaught of snails. Had to plant and replant and eventually replace several things with starts bought from the veggie market down the road. Tomato leaves are curled but finally they’re fruiting… It’ll be interesting to see if they ripen. I haven’t even gotten a single zucchini yet! This time last year I couldn’t even give them away! So SO frustrating! The only thing producing anything are the chickens so I’m thankful for them at least!

    Jamie
    Flag this comment
66. 7-29
    11:08
    pm

    Yep, I can commiserate with you. And I’ll trade all takers their rabbits, chickens and squirrels for a @#$#%$^% ground hog/pig whistle/wood chuck (call ’em what you want, it’s a pestilence!) I’d take the 12 gauge to him, but…my next door neighbor is a VERY sweet, older Vietnamese lady. Read: she was raised in a war zone and shooting off that 12 gauge (if that’s even LEGAL in the city limits), would just scare the devil outta her. I can be that mean to those thieving groundhogs, but not to her.
    And now…it looks like I’m going to have to move next week, so I now have to re-sack all the compost/vermiculite/manure I used to make up my squares so I can take all that good stuff with me. And it’s time to START the fall garden here. sigh

    Darlene in North Ga
    Flag this comment
67. 7-30
    3:03
    pm

    Hi Suzanne. I have a suggestion for next year’s garden – straw bale gardening. I’m trying it for the first time this year and am very happy with it so far. Next to no weeds and don’t have to worry about little critters. The whole thing is fenced in to keep the deer out. With 4 bales I have 4 tomatoes, 4 sweet potatoes, 1 dill plant, 3 cucumbers, 3 Gold bar melons that are trying to over the whole area, 3 cantaloupes, and 3 watermelons. I’ve only harvested some cukes so far but everything is loaded with blossoms/fruit. It didn’t even get planted until June 20th with seedlings we had started. I also have 3 different varieties of winter squash in a flower bed out front along with 2 pineapple tomatillos. I’d love a hen or 2 as long as they were layers – if they show up in the mail, I’d have a good excuse to keep them (be too hard on them to ship back). I need to get the fall seeds started – going to try broccoli and brussell sprouts for the first time. Hope you can salvage something from this year’s garden. Good luck.

    Kathy R.
    Flag this comment
68. 7-30
    8:30
    pm

    Commiseration here. I gave up after my tomato and basil seedlings refused to grow past the sprout stage. We’ve had so little sustained sunlight here (until the past couple weeks, finally!) that everyone is talking about just planting winter gardens from now on. Very discouraging, although I don’t know why it surprises me. It’s just typical Pacific Northwest weather at it’s “best”!

    Jennifer Robin
    Flag this comment
69. 8-1
    11:20
    am

    Chickens can be wonderful or make you want to put them into the pot! Our garden is doing well even with me still in the hospital in rehab (going home next Saturday after almost 2 months. DH,who is not a gardner has done very well. Cherry tomatoes are ripening, Brandywine tomatoes are loaded and have tinges of red. Raccoons have eaten all the yellow bells. Cucumbers are huge, ready to slice and pickle but the green beans didn’t even sprout.
    Herbs have grown well;dill is 3 feet tall. We were not able to start setting plants out until late May. Spring come late to Coloado Springs.Please send the chicken UPS!!!

    

    mamawolf
    Flag this comment
70. 8-4
    12:30
    am

    My garden struggles too. We should be harvesting tomatoes by now, but they are just starting to put on green ones! The rhubarb is very happy however!
    I love love love your blog, thanks so much for sharing. I have to fence my garden to keep the chickens out too…..who’s idea were they anyway? oh, yeah….mine.

    Mel
    Flag this comment
71. 8-4
    2:01
    pm

    This year is the first year in a long time I’ve been involved in a garden. Actually, my brother has done most of the work. We think the cucumbers and the squash crossed. We’ve gotten almost no squash, and the cucumbers get too big too fast. I’ve made lime pickles out of them.

    The tomaoes haven’t done well. The leaves curled up and the production has been sad. We had an early crop of green beans, and have now replanted in an attempt to get a second crop. We are cutting lots of okra and it looks like it will continue. The purple hullpeas did ok, but a friend had a big patch, so I’ve ended up canning about 40 quarts, and my brother has put enough in his freezer to feed a small army this winter. I also made pea hull jelly.

    The small watermelon patch has about 10 melons, but the one I cut the other night had very little taste. I personally think they got in bed with the cukes and squash.

    Oh well, there’s always next year.

    Shirley
    Flag this comment
72. 8-5
    8:33
    am

    From my garden this year I have gotten: 3 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 1 squash, 2 jalepeno peppers, a meal of kale and a meal of beans. That’s all :(

    becky3086
    Flag this comment
73. 8-5
    11:36
    am

    My tiny garden was looking good, then the SC heat has about killed everything. Don’t send any chickens this way, we have a bumper crop and I need to send them to someone else, takers?? anyone??

    JeannieB
    Flag this comment