# 2013 Vegetable Garden Pics



## a'ightthen

Well a'ight then, I'll start it ...

Garlic is kicking ...










Taters are in ...










Onions are kicking ...








\

The shallots are popping










Cover crops are taking off and the deer are wondering what has been planted for them ...










More going on in the greenhouses but what do you have going on? Peaches are blooming but going down into the 20's tonight so we'll see.


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## Steve in PA

Had 3 inches of fresh snow monday and they're calling for more over the next few days. No spring here


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## Danaus29

Too cold outside to even attempt to harden off the little cabbage, celery and spinach plants. Good maple syrup weather but that's about all.

I'm quickly running out of room in my seed starting area. Stuff that should have been in the garden last week is still stuck indoors under the lights. Too cold even to work out in the garden much. I worked one of the raised beds today and planted carrot, radish and calendula seeds in it but after 10 minutes my hands were shaking so much that my "scattered" seeds ended up in messy clumps.


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## ChristieAcres

Asparagus is coming up, Garlic happily growing, most Herbs are growing, Blood Veined Sorrel looking happy, Pineapple Crush Alpine Strawberries setting blooms, about to harvest Swiss Chard out of my little greenhouse, trees budding, Comfrey coming up, Blueberries budding, and also the Kale is happily growing. I'll be working out in the garden tomorrow.


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## Centralilrookie

A'ightthen- your pictures of last years garden are the very reason that I got hooked on this site. All the other subjects and conversations have been informative and entertaining. Thank goodness spring is in the air. Garden on!


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## farmerDale

4 feet of snow on my garden still. No high above freezing for a week. Thanks for making me jealous. lol


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## RomeGrower

We're mostly indoors still until next week probably.


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## Callieslamb




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## BlackWillowFarm

Callieslamb said:


>



LOL! 

Looks like that here. :hair

Come on Spring!


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## mamagoose

I like celery. There are a 6 germination trays hiding under one shelf and will need a sunny spot soon! I still have flower seeds and parsely to sow in pots and lots of transplanting. The high shelf where the large Oregon Spring tomatoes holds small ones that are struggling in their small pots.


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## Callieslamb

Wow!!! I'm impressed, Mommagoose


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## LittleRedHen




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## mamagoose

RomeGrower said:


> We're mostly indoors still until next week probably.


:clap:

I want to garden in GA in the spring!


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## BobbyB

a'ightthen said:


> Well a'ight then, I'll start it ...
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> Cover crops are taking off and the deer are wondering what has been planted for them ...
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> More going on in the greenhouses but what do you have going on? Peaches are blooming but going down into the 20's tonight so we'll see.


Are you feeding a big family or truck farming? I thought my garden was big. But yours sure looks good.


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## mamagoose

Callieslamb said:


> Wow!!! I'm impressed, Mommagoose


I just got in from transplanting those 12 Oregon Springs into 4" pots. (I realized the photo was more telling than they look in person.) Most of them should go outside in April. (I can't have too many!)

Those big plants in the next to last photo are Longkeeper tomatoes that I started late last summer. The plants were getting very tall and fell over into the neighboring pot, so I let them root then snipped them apart and they grew up short and sprawling. They are really showing a lack of moisture now and need to be soaked overnight in a bucket of water, but I don't know if it's worth the room to keep them alive any longer. I don't prefer them over other varieties, but they sure were good in December!

You can't see it, but there is a wanna' be squash on one of the vines on the floor. The variety is Mandan, which I find intriguing. Growing squash this early and in the greenhouse is basically new to me. I did try a regular zucchini a few years back, but it took so much room. The soil temp in the squash pots has been holding between 56 and 60 F on that north wall, but no less than the Salt and Pepper cucumber pot on the floor on the southeast corner. 

The green beans in the middle of the radishes are Fasold and need some twine to climb. I've done that 2 years before and it works out well to give some shade in April-May. 

I use a lot of manure/hay with weed seeds in the tubs and 4" pots. Fresher in the bottom and rotted toward the top. I think it helps keep the soil temp up. The worms love it and the next year the bottom of the tub will have nice compost that I remove and use for another project. The tubs have drainage holes toward the bottom on the side. I'll be taking away those two lettuce trays soon from the far tubs in the pics and putting in a few of the early tomatoes. 

The Golden celery turned quite yellow, so I must have overdone it on the goat manure tea earlier in the week. The Celebration celery and two celeriac varieties got the same dose and are fine. I've already "harvested" mini celery (stalk and leaf) from a few of the plants for salad. 

Another new to me veggie growing in there is tatsoi. I haven't stir-fried any of the baby leaves yet, but plan to. They are good in salad along with the baby red beet leaves and orange swiss chard.

The garlic plants in the treepots here and there were bulbs I threw away last fall. I found them growing in a pile out back of the shed after Thanksgiving. How could I resist with a then practically empty greenhouse? The roots took over the 4" pots they were in, so I moved them to the treepots (manure in the bottom) a couple weeks ago.


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## unregistered41671

@mamagoose, sure would like to see some outside pics of your greenhouse if possible. It looks neat.


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## motdaugrnds

Ummmm I'm so far behind all of you, I'm embarrassed! Just got my strawberries and boysenberries in the ground a week ago. The Elderberry trees are "budding", the Methley plum tree is covered in blooms, the Goji bushes are greening and I'm noticing buds showing up on other fruiting plants.

Have not even started a vegetable garden as we're still eating on what we grew two years ago; so only thing I'm doing thus far is building a raised bed for a fall's root crop.


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## a'ightthen

Centralilrookie said:


> A'ightthen- your pictures of last years garden are the very reason that I got hooked on this site. All the other subjects and conversations have been informative and entertaining. Thank goodness spring is in the air. Garden on!


 I remember this - seems that the pics eased a bit of trouble for you as I was worse off 

Some folks keep diaries ... I keep photos. 

March 22nd last year, I was setting drip tape and plastic .... notice the cover crop on the right.










It is a lot smaller this year ( this evening) .. but has just started growing










Last year I was cutting asparagus on 3/23 ... ain't seen none yet this year.

We had another 1.7 inches of rain over the weekend.

BobbyB - No sir, just do it for family and friends. The wife and I have been married for 28 yrs this June ... had 4 kids. The 2 eldest daughters are married making it 8. The youngest daughter weds in Aug making it 9. The youngest, a son, is all but wed ( awaiting college graduation I reckon) making it 10 in the immediate family ... add their outlaws and our other kin and there is no shortage of hands extended.

I have stewed on going bigger and selling some but it truly seems that the more that I plant, the more that I have to spend time away ... it is like I grow work elsewhere as well?

One thing that I can tell by these pics ....momagoose does not plan on going hungry 

If it make the others feel better ... we had snow flurries today ( ok, it was not like all of that compared to your pics but ....)

And in keeping it going, there is another 450' of garlic popping up next to the onions


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## Danaus29

2 inches of fresh snow on my garden this morning. 

I guess I'll end up starting lettuce indoors after all.


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## bowdonkey

farmerDale said:


> 4 feet of snow on my garden still. No high above freezing for a week. Thanks for making me jealous. lol


Here's something more to make you jealous.  I only got 2 feet.


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## our5acredream

Winter is still hitting us pretty hard - :run: I miss my FLIP-FLOPS and am searching for some good groundhog recipes just for Mr. Punxsutawney Phil - the little lier!!! gre:


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## davehoward

still below freezing overnights and hovering on the +/- mark during the days. haven`t got anything new in the ground here. got about 2 dozen leeks left to harvest, and that is the last of last year`s crops.gre:


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## Christine81

We have 6 days coming up with highs in the 50s and some lows above freezing. I think the last frost is still a good month away, but I can't wait! I have a good 100 starts of tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos getting ready for the garden, and a pile of direct sow seeds waiting.


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## mamagoose

Christine81 said:


> We have 6 days coming up with highs in the 50s and some lows above freezing. I think the last frost is still a good month away, but I can't wait! I have a good 100 starts of tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos getting ready for the garden, and a pile of direct sow seeds waiting.


You must not too far from our zone. We got some sun today and more is on the way!


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## mamagoose

Possum Belly said:


> @mamagoose, sure would like to see some outside pics of your greenhouse if possible. It looks neat.


This was during an hour of no sunshine today.










The coldframes are in the background against the shed.


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## unregistered41671

Mamagoose, you certainly have your greenhouse organized and full. It looks great. Thank you.


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## Elizabeth

Picture of our garden today. 

Our toddler and my husband are in the foreground. Just behind hubby is a mound of snow which is over 5' high. Under that mound is my kitchen garden:Bawling:


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## Gritty

Phew! I am so impressed with you folks that have so many plants popping up already and with you folks that garden on the east coast. I am looking at a move in the next three or so years back east. I think we might be hungry for a few years  

But here, in Oregon, I have finally planted: potatoes, lettuce, carrots, beets, chard, kale, Kai lan (Chinese broccoli), orach, spinach, broccoli, broccolini, and peas. The only plants that have sprouted are the purple mustard seeds that volunteered from last year. 

And for complete disclosure: when I say "I", I mean my kids did the actual planting and most of the pitch-forking while I told them where and what. (Back has even acting up super bad since shoveling manure last week).


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## SueMc

We are having a major mud season this year. The pond is finally full for the first time from all the rain we've recently had plus the recent 13in snowfall has melted. Much of my garden is a swamp but I see some garlic pushing though thin areas of the straw mulch.
I am considering standing at the garden gate and throwing the potatoes towards where I want them planted!

It's great to see everyone's photos.


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## Elizabeth

mamagoose- I thought your greenhouse would be much bigger as I was looking at all of the plants you've got crammed in there. Looks like a very productive space!


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## a'ightthen

I spent the past 2 days catching up ... kind of 

I was supposed to pot up maters and peppers but realized that I had a $50 off of $100 purchase coupon that was to expire yesterday. Plus rain cometh again tonight.

Well, I've had a tractor sitting for 3 yrs now because of a busted radiator hose ( a PITA to change). I was using it to run the 6' tiller when it started spewing ( alternator belt rubs it ... bad design) ... rain was coming and I wanted to finish so I dropped the tiller from it and hooked up to the 30 hp ( other is 45 hp) to see if it would tote it. It did and the other sat ... 3 yrs passed because I dreaded the hose change 

So I got a new $132 battery for $82 ( coupon), changed it out ( battled 2 wasp nests in there), changed the hose, replaced a rotten line on the brake system, drained 6 gallons of diesel, cleaned the bowl, .... on and on but I did get it started back up! Still have to change the fluids ( no hydraulic lift as rain has diluted the fluid ... another bad design) but I am a lot closer.

Got everything weeded/fertilized, threw out some lime, picked up some potting mix for the rainy days.

Turned under the turnip patch ( collected a nice batch there) ...











As this is where the 100 Purple Passion asparagus plants will go in 2 weeks.

One of 2 strawberry beds almost cleaned up and ready ...










One of 4 asparagus beds we are still waiting on ...










And one of the 6-7 beds being used for garlic this year ...










I did get another 2.5 lbs of shallots planted yesterday too. I was kind of disappointed in what I got around to until I typed it out ... now I am tired!

Just love seeing the pics of the future farmers!!!


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## DryHeat

As usual, I'm doing container growing, pots set up on tables or planks run between sawhorses outdoors. It's desert climate, still below average rainfall again this year so I have to be cautious of the expense and waste of doing hose watering. A drip timer valve and various tubing lengths worked pretty well late last year, so once I can see which plants are doing best I plan to shift things around and try to conserve water and time with the drip system. Things can get pretty productive for a month or two but then there'll be two months of every day 100-105+F and watering/rain or not, tomatoes and such just shut down and stop fruiting. Looking over the temp records, the last three weeks have been running mostly 5-10F above normal on the highs especially with just a couple days in the last month below normal. Next week to ten days all looks to be running 50-80F+ range so I'm glad I started some planting a few weeks back. Several types of summer squash are sprouting as are "provider' bush beans and I just see even a couple of okra. Those last were very stubborn about not growing, certainly not early on, the last couple of years so for sure the temps are running very warm very early. (I do recall a several-inch snowfall here one early April Easter morning maybe ten years ago.) I've put out a few "Bonnie Plants" tomatoes and hot pepper varieties, too, and they seem to be doing well. Nobody seems to be carrying oriental eggplants yet but I'll get a half-dozen of those in as soon as they're available.


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## olivehill

DryHeat said:


> As usual, I'm doing container growing, pots set up on tables or planks run between sawhorses outdoors. It's desert climate, still below average rainfall again this year so I have to be cautious of the expense and waste of doing hose watering.


Do you not have space for an in-the-ground garden? Containers and raised beds are the worst on water. You could conserve further by planting in the ground.


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## willow_girl

My 'maters:








DBF let me use his plug trays to start seeds this year ... I think I may have gotten carried away. I've already transplanted about 50 seedlings and still have a-ways to go ... ound:

BTW, this isn't my usual set-up ... the lights usually are much closer to the plants.


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## CFarmerLady

Don't have any way to post pics, but I've got pie pumpkins coming up in the tire in front of the house (Thanksgiving's pumpkin guts), five seedling Pink Lady apple trees in a two gallon pot, and tomato seeds in the ground. Expecting cold weather around here, so I'm going to have to figure out how to protect those pumpkins.


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## mamagoose

Elizabeth said:


> Picture of our garden today.
> 
> Our toddler and my husband are in the foreground. Just behind hubby is a mound of snow which is over 5' high. Under that mound is my kitchen garden:Bawling:


Sounds like a job for a snow cat! A pair of snow goggles and that little one is ready for some skiing!


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## mamagoose

Elizabeth said:


> mamagoose- I thought your greenhouse would be much bigger as I was looking at all of the plants you've got crammed in there. Looks like a very productive space!


And they are only going to get BIGGER! Actually, they have!!! There are a lot of the out-of-the-ordinary plants for me in there this year - asparagus and potatoes from seed for example. I probably went overboard on the celeriac, but never the dark green celery. I've sown 300 canning/drying tomatoes since those photos and they are taking off. I'll try and post updated pics soon for inspriation.


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## a'ightthen

I am so far behind - I can not imagine having snow on the ground.

I can not remember having so few plants ready to go.

I finally took off a few hrs and separated some plants and that made me feel a bit better but still, it just looks so empty ( especially compared to momagoose and romegrower) ...

There are 174 mater plants and 180 pepper plants on the left ... more to split on the right but time draws nigh 










Still waiting on asparagus and strawberries ... and azaleas and cherries and apples.

But the peach trees and forsythias are blooming


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## a'ightthen

I'm thinking that the Spring/Summer switch has been flipped down here ... hitting 80's and no frost in the forecast ( typical last frost 4/15 ... I got spanked last year on 4/16).

Broke ground this evening on another patch ... for Contender green beans ( have already run out of those canned last year so must do better) ...










In the distance is the tater/shallot/onion/(more)garlic patch.

The asparagus ( 2 weeks later than last year) has begun ...










Strawberries have started blooming ...










The garlic continues. This is a 25x70 ft patch and the biggest is Elephant that is knee high ...










The winter wheat and Austrian Winter Peas are taking off ... would love to give then another 2 weeks or so ... ( 1 of 2 patches like this)










I usually pot up from 1-7 plants in a 72 cell ( 1206) to 2.5" pots but cheated this year and went to 606's .... they seem to like the new space and this may be the way I ride from here on out ...










The next few weeks will be busy around here.

Wishing all an abundant growing season!


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## ChristieAcres

Remember, matters far more what we have done, than what we haven't, and just strive to keep at it until you are happy with your results!

The Tomato Seed Giveaway has now benefited over 100 people!!!


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## a'ightthen

A little update ...

I did add the 100 Purple Passion asparagus crowns Wednesday before getting 1.2" of rain Thursday night - 2 40' rows.



















This should give me many more years of something else to weed 

Spent most of today doing yard work but did plant 75 more cloves of garlic ... long story but this is when they arrived. Still have one more variety "out there".

Picked up a lb of Golden Shallots today at the PO and have to find a place for them.

A 2 year project with Walking onions from bulbils is showing promise ...










The Bloodgood Japanese Maple is showing color with cherry trees blooming ...










The shade of the Leylands ( a most popular spot during the summer) is already being appreciated ,,,










Finished up a little hogging left over from the Fall ...












And checked on the beaver dams that I never got around to tearing out .... decided to use these for water this summer ..










Over this ridge is the bigger field that will be coming into play soon ..










The grapes are budding, some apple trees are blooming, thornless blackberry patch is coming alive ... it is busy!

How are you folks progressing?


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## Tarheel

I feel your pain on the asparagus, we have planted 375 crowns this year. Purple passion & Jersey Knight. It's already starting to sprout. 


Sorry for the bad picture......wife's camera phone.

Part of the tomatoes are in and the second planting will go in a couple of weeks.



Peppers, potatoes, 4 kinds of squash, 2 kinds of peas, 2 kinds of okra, cucumbers, cantaloupe, corn, lots of onions, potatoes and I know I'm missing some things. Plowed up another spot today to add another dozen or so elderberry bushes.

Orchard is in full bloom on somethings and somethings are running about 2 weeks behind but that's alright, It means it all want come in at the same time.

Even the red-buds are taking off.



That's the Carolina report, got another couple of real busy weeks ahead.


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## Elizabeth

sigh.

We are expecting up to 5 inches of snow today (in Minnesota).

Keep those garden pictures coming- it is the only hope I have that Spring will eventually spring up here.


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## a'ightthen

Tarheel, ye are way ahead of me! Still watching a couple of forecasts that predict 37 next week ... = frost here in the holler  

Ye have just set out twice as many asparagus plants as I now have total. There is a person here that grows like 3 acres of it .... They probably have a grasp of it and hopefully we can glean some info from them 




Elizabeth said:


> sigh.
> 
> We are expecting up to 5 inches of snow today (in Minnesota).
> 
> Keep those garden pictures coming- it is the only hope I have that Spring will eventually spring up here.


 I can not stand being stuck indoors this time of the year and snuck out  Have a 12 day run that must happen so I figured that the present is what I have. It is going to be rough getting stuff done.

I believe that a bit of color is good for one's soul - this may take a couple of posts 

The Contender patch 2 days ago ... before more rain









Labels are starting to disappear and 180 mater plants have been separated on the right ( still have some peppers to divide)










The apples are opening up ..




























The peach trees are finishing up ..


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## a'ightthen

The taters are popping ...










Dogwoods showing ... both white ...










and red ..










The secret garden is coming alive ( will be a fine place for a hammock) ..



















The red azaleas are coming ...










As the forsythia start to fade ...


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## a'ightthen

The Nikko Blue hydrangeas are coming alive ..










as are the crepe myrtles ...










The gladiolas are fixing to go off ... could really use some help here as these are some of the last things that I got from Mom afore she passed away ...










The blackberries are going ( need to trellis but .... it is on the list) ..










Even the container tulips are starting to speak 










Please do not forget to take the time to enjoy the colors of the season!

BobbyB .... you have to be kicking by now?


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## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Tarheel, ye are way ahead of me! Still watching a couple of forecasts that predict 37 next week ... = frost here in the holler
> 
> Ye have just set out twice as many asparagus plants as I now have total. There is a person here that grows like 3 acres of it .... They probably have a grasp of it and hopefully we can glean some info from them


Yea I have watched the weather for the last 2 weeks and thought I was out of the woods. Just saw we have 2 nights......Saturday & Sunday Nights that are going to be tricky. Like you we are normally 5* colder than most forecast. 

Got bite hard last year......should of know better but you know when you got dirt in the blood. 

Worked outside all morning long weeding and cultivating. Like you everything is coming up, taters today & more peas. Looks like I get to drag the row covers out this week, an item that I bought after last years late frost. Hopefully I bought enough to get all these gardens covered.

On a side note, I plowed up another area on Saturday to add another dozen elderberry plants.

Life is good this time of year......enjoy!


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## Tarheel

Blue Berries are on the way ! What about frost for the weekend ??? Watching the weather like a hawk.


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## LittleRedHen

Sweet Cherry tree



Bartlett Pear Tree. (this will be the third year since planting)



My onions and taters... recently planted. Plus three new fruit trees. In the next few weeks the nearby pine trees will be cut down and the garden expanded for next year.
(my taters are only covered cause the chickens were robbing it... i have to uncover them here whenever i get around to it lol)



And my Garlic... I think its Elephant Garlic. Either way- it was cloves I bought in the produce aisle at walmart in the fall


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## LittleRedHen

within the next 10 days my trees should have leaves! But that is really about the only things going on at the moment  I have approx 55-58 fruit trees, 30 or so blueberries, multiple small gardens, raspberries and grapes. So, i am just at that brink of when it goes from dormant to life!


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## bassmaster17327

I just got the garden tilled today and two pounds of onion sets put in, potatoes will go in on Saturday


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## bowdonkey

Well, yesterday and last night we had another foot of snow fall. FWIW


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## a'ightthen

Looks like there is some progress taking place! I'd love to have one of those Graveleys 

Here, I'm getting my butt kicked. Was 37 this morning. Looks like the rain sets in again tonight/morn and holds for the week


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## bassmaster17327

a'ightthen said:


> Looks like there is some progress taking place! I'd love to have one of those Graveleys
> 
> Here, I'm getting my butt kicked. Was 37 this morning. Looks like the rain sets in again tonight/morn and holds for the week


 
The Gravelys are nice because they make so many different attachments for them, that rotary plow attachment in the pic is the best thing hav ever used to till a garden. I am making a meat grinder attachment for the front of it as my next project


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## ItchingDuck

We had a productive weekend finally. The temps hit the 70's here so we spent almost 12 hours raking and cleaning up our yard. I was injured and physically incapable of it last year when we bought the place. So this year we paid the price as it took 3 times as long. But it is what it is. We were able to put up a "Bean Tee-pee" and since we lack any rototiller we use a "garden weasel" type hand tiller to get the ground ready around it for the beans. We moved the majority of the tomatoes outside today along with many types of squash, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes I am growing in reusable shopping bags, blueberry bushes, purple grapes and green grapes and some other things I can't quite remember right now. 

I know it will get cold this week but I'll just cover the tomatoes. I am running out of room in my bedroom which has now become a comlete "grow room". I need the sace to start other things and I had 6 13 foot shelves in my room all full of seedlings. Here is a pic of the kids chillin in the tee-pee they helped to build. I'll post more pics tomorrow of the rest of the plants and stuff. I wish I was more organized like many of you but truth is, I forgot to label some (ok many) of my plants. Eh, it is one of the lingering effects of a bad head injury I had about a year and a half ago. I figure I will just be surprised when I see what some of those plants turn out to be.


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## DryHeat

Here are a few shots from a couple days ago of the farthest along parts of my (hobbyist-level) container veggie efforts.This season got warm rather early; I had very good germination on summer squash and bush beans, plus "bonnie-plants" peat pots for a few tomatoes and hot peppers have set well. My general system for squash has been to plant seeds in several more pots every week for maybe six weeks; for those and the bush beans, I leave them rather crowded figuring I can water and fertilize for decent production until the heat stops them dead maybe mid-late June even with shade draping. (It gets typically into a couple of months of solid 100F highs every day by early June here. Everything stops pollinating and setting. I've *already* done a few hours a day of shade draping with the squash shown when they were a bit smaller. Have gotten baby zucchini with blossoms harvested already and just did hand-pollinating this AM with the first male blossoms that appeared. Bush beans have a few tiny pods 1" or so showing and bunches of blossoms so I'm hopeful the early season will give a decent harvest for a few weeks now even with them really crowded (maybe six plants to each of those three pots shown). I'm experimenting first time this year with polyacrylamide gel crystals mixed very modestly in with the potting media of some of the pots but not all, idea being to absorb and retain water. Jury's out on it; all the tomatoes have it and they look great. Squash and beans planted earliest and therefore the obvious large ones are in normal soil; later seed plantings of squash, beans, and okra have sprouted BUT seem to be slower getting going, possibly too moist? Anyway:


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## LittleRedHen

Same fruit tree as before- FINALLY getting ready to show forth its leaves!


Same Garlic as before 



Rhubarb a couple of days ago



And here is my m ain strawberry bed. yesterday i was working on mulching it and hopefully today I will finish it  I will figure out a different color tree for mulching the walking areas so it will contrast each other  This bed breeds weeds like nothing else! So time to mulch, mulch, mulch!


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## RomeGrower

Here is some of what's happening in our Georgia yard.


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## a'ightthen

sheesh, thinking about calling it here 

Last weekend looked like this with the end total being 3.1" of rain ...










Rained off and on all week and, so far, this weekend looks like this ...










Under a Flash Flood Watch with the heavy stuff settling in this evening. 52 degrees, May 4th .... I'm usually planted out and hauling water ...this ain't right is it?

It has been a wet Spring thus far.


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## a'ightthen

But on the flip side, the asparagus has been booming ...










The Elephant garlic draws nigh ... ( despite the weeds)










The taters are loving it ...










The walking onions are happy ...










And the strawberries ( though weeks late) cometh soon ...










It's a mixed bag of concerns .... but 52 for a high still ain't right!


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## oneokie

You could send some of that rain back west. Or have it linger in the west longer before it moves east.


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## a'ightthen

Well, I ain't sure where it comes from, but it sure does come ... I'd be glad to share


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## Tarheel

Same song and dance here to a'ightthen. 3.5" last week and more on the way. Everything's up but because of all the rain and cold weather it's stunted ! Hearing the same thing from Texas to the Carolina's. Looks like low tunnels will be the norm for next year. :shrug:


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## Terrabus

Here in Wisconsin we finally got 70's and sunny. We've been waiting for an awful long time. 

I sprouted some seeds but I'm not as well organized as you folks. And I jumped the gun. So everything is small, weak, stringy and sickly-looking. I have them outside right now and I'm hoping the direct sunlight will save them. I'll bring them in at night. 

Also, I made newspaper plant cup things, and I have a few in there. 

Once I get my car fixed (starter went out) I'll pick up some pallets and make some benches to sit in front of my apartment. I have a southern-facing exposure and it's perfect for summers. 

The landlord's rhubarb is just coming up. I love the stuff and he lets me cut it, but for some reason he wants me to wait until it's thick and woody. I don't get it. If I want rhubarb, I want the good stuff and not woody goat food.


----------



## ItchingDuck

I jumped the gun here too with my plants and now they got frost bit when we had a day and night of freezing rain. We'll see how many can be saved. Otherwise I do have more started but I'd hate to waste all that work and money. 

Today my daughter and I got two hugelkulture beds in and 12 tomatoes plants freshly planted. It's my first time doing this so hopefully it works. Our well is about 35 yrs old and I don't feel like replacing it yet so I am trying whatever I can to conserve water. 

All that digging and shoveling is rough on a body! I think I will sleep well tonight!Now I'm tired just thinking of how many more beds I need to dig


----------



## LittleRedHen

couple pictures from around the yard- this week!


----------



## a'ightthen

Tarheel ... it has dropped to only 50% chance of rain tomorrow!!! Following 3.1" and then 3.2" the past two weekends, this is promising eh? But there does linger the lower 40's for Monday????

Things are looking up a bit here and next week appears to be game on.

Sweet Chorus , a super sweet bicolor corn with good cold soil emergence, seems to have handled the season again ( it did well for us last year) ... took 15 days but 4 distinct rows have emerged ..










The Contender green beans have faired well too ...










Surely there exists, somewhere in this country, some pics of stuff booming? I'm getting awfully antsy.


----------



## anette

found a butterfly on my onions this week


----------



## hippygirl

Here's mine so far...2nd pic shows my "emergency" garden addition for pole beans and cukes (ran out of space!). The empty space behind the potatoes is for okra (just planted yesterday). Can't see it, but my onions are on the left.


----------



## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Surely there exists, somewhere in this country, some pics of stuff booming? I'm getting awfully antsy.


Does asparagus count ? 



Finally got in yesterday and cultivated everything. It was actually to wet but it had to be done. Showers in the forecast for tonight so I will be out of commission for another few days.


----------



## hippygirl

Oh, I want an asparagus bed SO bad!!!!

Maybe next year...sigh.


----------



## a'ightthen

Tarheel, the new asparagus is kicking for you! I have a bit of weeding to do ... or a I should say a chunk of weeding to do but it is all still wet - Ye win 

LittleRedHen has some fine looking garlic and ItchingDuck has some mighty fine help to be proud of!

HippyGirl, the first thing I thought of when seeing your pics was ...











That pic is from a 1943 Burpee catalog ( I like me some old seed catalogs) ..










That is a mighty fine garden that you have going on!

Here, we got close to putting seed into the ground yesterday ( just running a month behind) ...










Real close.










Then the showers came back. Next week appears to be the window of opportunity.


----------



## Wolfy-hound

Yukon gold potatoes (haha... obviously NOT a potato... wrong picture! This is one of the flowers coming up, sorry)









My love, the bananas



























They might be useless and common, but I really like snapdragons and they grow well here.









And something I've never grown before! Horseradish! I planted 3 stringy root bits and have 3 plants! 









I've got a few other things, but I'm waiting for the potatoes to finish, then I'm planting glass gem corn in the trinity, with squash and beans. I don't have a lot of space to plant here, but large raised beds. The bananas take up a lot of the space though. Once I get the back yard ready, I'll have loads more space though. Unfortunately, it's sand here, so growing takes some effort.


----------



## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Then the showers came back. Next week appears to be the window of opportunity.


Purty ground you got there my friend. Looks like I can see N.C. in the far distance. :grin:

I hope to get another 100' section plowed up next week......done run out of space for this year so I may cheat and plant some virgin ground with a few things. If nothing else it will be ready for a fall crop.

Happy planting next week!


----------



## sdnapier

mamagoose said:


> I like celery. There are a 6 germination trays hiding under one shelf and will need a sunny spot soon! I still have flower seeds and parsely to sow in pots and lots of transplanting. The high shelf where the large Oregon Spring tomatoes holds small ones that are struggling in their small pots.


So jealous of your greenhouse!!! It looks so wonderful!


----------



## sdnapier

RomeGrower said:


> Here is some of what's happening in our Georgia yard.


Very nice stone work and I love the terraced beds. Such a lovely garden!


----------



## Tarheel

hippygirl said:


> Oh, I want an asparagus bed SO bad!!!!
> 
> Maybe next year...sigh.


375 crowns in this spot this year and plans to expand it to 900 next year.

As neat of garden as you keep you will have no problem with asparagus.


----------



## oneokie

Someone asked to see blooms?
Marglobe








Cherokee Purple








Random pics




































My water supply


----------



## oneokie

More pics


















There is a bloom on this pepper


----------



## anette

nice pics, oneokie. is that rebar you are using for tomato stakes? if so, how does that work for you? dh picked up some at a scrapyard, but im hesitant to use metal, worrying it would get too hot for the tomato plants 

anette


----------



## oneokie

Yes, it is re-bar. It works well for me if I drive it deep enough into the ground. (15"-18") The tomato plant will shade the metal, keeping it from getting very hot.


----------



## hippygirl

a'ightthen said:


> HippyGirl, the first thing I thought of when seeing your pics was ...


Ahhhh, rows...lovely rows!


----------



## Kristinemomof3

We live in a county subdivision, so we still get deer. Dh doubled our garden this year. Our neighbor has the worst house in the neighborhood. He does not take care of it.


----------



## a'ightthen

Tarheel said:


> Purty ground you got there my friend. Looks like I can see N.C. in the far distance. :grin:
> 
> I hope to get another 100' section plowed up next week......done run out of space for this year so I may cheat and plant some virgin ground with a few things. If nothing else it will be ready for a fall crop.
> 
> Happy planting next week!


 NC is not that far off 
The Contender patch is in it's first year under the plow. 4 days ago ... haven't made it back there since










More rain cometh this weekend. Combined with 50-60 hr work weeks away, it has been a battle for sure .... but those two terraces have been seeded and so I say, let it rain 

Hit upper 30's here Monday .... 90 by Wednesday?

Oneokie has it going on ( dang fine job!), BobbyB had some mighty fine onions and taters to share ... but I'm still fighting here.

The mudbog turned into cracks ...










Finally got to do a bit of recovery tilling this evening ..

New asparagus that something has been chomping on the left row










Golden Shallots and Multi-Pik squash ..










Corn, peppers and the smallest number of maters that I have ever had planted by this date in 10 yrs ( another patch this size sits waiting on maters).










Though garlic and strawberries beds look strong



















A chunk of my time/space involves trialing stuff. I seem to be unable to grow a pumpkin outside of Jack-Be-Little ...... yet I find myself fixing to put another large terrace under the plow to try more.

I have 7 different gourds to put in that patch as well.... it takes space, most likely will provide nothing but an experience. And, as I have found with tomatoes, growing it may very well leave you with a "Cool. I grew it ... but I do not like it so that was a wasted effort"

Plus Arnie describe it here ... "the idea behind planting way to much if things don't do well there still may be enough"

The years have been strange ... but if you do not plant it, ye can not reap it.

I'm tired, need a shower, grub and a nap afore going back to work.

Best wishes to all!


----------



## a'ightthen

Kristinemomof3 said:


> We live in a county subdivision, so we still get deer. Dh doubled our garden this year. Our neighbor has the worst house in the neighborhood. He does not take care of it.


 But he has a ladder .... you have a fence ... I'd watch thy neighbor closely


----------



## a'ightthen

Wolfy-hound said:


> They might be useless and common, but I really like snapdragons and they grow well here.


 That is what it is all about .... plant/tend that which you enjoy


----------



## Kristinemomof3

a'ightthen said:


> But he has a ladder .... you have a fence ... I'd watch thy neighbor closely


He should use that ladder to paint his house. Actually the back isn't as bad as the side. They mow the back yard every other time, if that compared to the front (which isn't mowed often either). And he does have money, or at least a brand new Ford and a newer Harley).


----------



## Tarheel

One heck of a week around here, finally got some things accomplished. Started Monday breaking new ground.

It looked like this on Monday morning-



And after a lot of work-



And adding some sand topsoil & compost-



We were finally able to get our sweet potatoes in the ground today-





And we are expecting another 1 to 2" of rain thru Monday......Life is good!


----------



## a'ightthen

Dang it Boy ... ye surely put forth the effort on that patch! Looks mighty fine!!! Makes me hungry!

Funny thing about sweet taters here. It seems that if I plant fewer than 100, the deer eat most every one of them - so one year I set out some 300 .... they did not touch a single one?

Well, about the 3rd haul, I learned the boundaries of sweet taters that sets off the laser beams in the wife's eyes ...the kind that lets you know that you had better not bring in any more.

That was 3 years ago. Still, when we pass by them in a store, she sees that glow in my eyes ... and I get that look. Even if I'm looking at peanuts next to them and thinking about boiling some ... I see it and know what she means.

Not sure if I'll ever get to plant another ... some lines ye just do not cross


----------



## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Well, about the 3rd haul, I learned the boundaries of sweet taters that sets off the laser beams in the wife's eyes ...the kind that lets you know that you had better not bring in any more.


:shocked: Yep there's some lines we don't cross.


----------



## surf

waiting for things to grow is almost hard as planting......lol


----------



## a'ightthen

There is going to be strawberry jam again this year 










The colors that came out in this pic are a bit strange but I reckon that it shows how this crazy, wet weather has been a help in some ways ... good size berries.


----------



## oneokie

Yummy


----------



## Homesteader

Our garden this year concentrated way more on flowers but we do have a few eaties! The asparagus for us (desert southwest) begins harvest in Feb., and is now about finished. Cannot say how many lbs. but we have 200 linear feet of it, and the beds are now 12 years old. Many many lbs.

Ok I sure hope you all enjoy and those who have had trouble, keep up the faith!

First, to share a real joy, our first fruit ever in all the years we've been here. This year the bad winds came late and the late frost did not do in our fruit buds. We actually have apricots, peaches, a few nectarines, almonds and pears. It is a big big deal to us as you can imagine, after years and years.




Some Peppers, we have lots of those:



The four 5x10 foot raised beds, peppers, a couple maters, peas, onions, tendergreen.



A new to me flower called mountain garland. It's a winner!

Some Juliet tomatoes

Potato flowers (some asked about flowers right?)

The Mater Tater garden, about half and half:


----------



## Homesteader

Some more:

The finished trellis nursery that DH built. It faces west. We need protection at this certain point in the seedling season, but by then a greenhouse is too hot for us. This is the mid stage from bringing seedlings in from inside to outside.



Some pomegranates forming!


Tiny Tim tomatoes in a pot (three plants in here)

Tiny Tims up close:


----------



## a'ightthen

Indeed, it has been a battle ... but satisfaction cometh


----------



## ChristieAcres

Everything looks wonderful, think we are at least 3 weeks behind...

Homesteader, that mater tater garden... Great that you are watering at ground level. With them close to each other, potatoes and tomatoes both can get early/late blight. That is why they aren't planted next to each other, usually. I would imagine any type of barrier that separates them from each other would help prevent any risk. Others may have some thoughts.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Been a wet week!


----------



## a'ightthen

Shah dang, this may be the year that causes me to back off and just buy the stuff!

The battles are often, significant and taking a heavy toll on me.

Still, I have seemed to win a few skirmishes ( yet the season ain't no where near over!). From 5/28 ...
The first patch of Contender weeded ( a little 10-10-10 applied this evening)











The taters finally got hilled ..










The onions are bulbing ( and in need of weeding) ...










But we have enjoyed the ones that jumped out into the path of the tiller  










Finally got to turn under the cover crops in this patch that had been mowed once and grown back to 2' height. Starting to question planting it in anything ... but I'm still hardened to plant a row of 21 Peas here so at least that will be done.


----------



## a'ightthen

The battles of today ...

Spent 1.5 hrs this morn getting the PC to run .... ya know that you have problems when disk defrag crashes and then chkdsk will not run 

Started tilling still damp ground around 8 ... had to go help Pa-Out-Law change 2 tires on his tractor.

I have never planted maters or peppers in June .... until this year. 230 plants finally got set out.










They are not happy about being 6 weeks late but they are in, 2 days of rain sets in tonight and spares are in the greenhouse.

The rest of this patch got weeded and dressed with 10-10-10 ahead of the rain.










Yellow squash is getting close ...










Hope you folks are fairing a bit better.


----------



## RacerX

We are just starting up here in Zone 4. I've had stuff in the ground for a week or two, but have been gambling with the frost the whole time. Today I was bored, and the 'tiller had gas in it, so I ripped up another patch for more cucumbers. You can never have enough.


----------



## ChristieAcres

a'ightthen said:


> The battles of today ...
> 
> Spent 1.5 hrs this morn getting the PC to run .... ya know that you have problems when disk defrag crashes and then chkdsk will not run
> 
> Started tilling still damp ground around 8 ... had to go help Pa-Out-Law change 2 tires on his tractor.
> 
> I have never planted maters or peppers in June .... until this year. 230 plants finally got set out.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> They are not happy about being 6 weeks late but they are in, 2 days of rain sets in tonight and spares are in the greenhouse.
> 
> The rest of this patch got weeded and dressed with 10-10-10 ahead of the rain.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yellow squash is getting close ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hope you folks are fairing a bit better.


Sorry to hear about your PC issues, been there, ugh! Everything looks great there.

Hal, this is a picture of a really sweet HTer who I have gotten to know over the past two years. When I goofed with the heirloom tomato seeds (underestimating germination), I thought of her! She picked up all the extra tomato seedlings today (Hal's Heirloom Tomato Seed Collection...). There were 32 varieties in her trunk. A big thank you from her and from all her friends & family!


----------



## a'ightthen

RacerX said:


> Today I was bored, and the 'tiller had gas in it, so I ripped up another patch for more cucumbers. You can never have enough.


 LOL, yup .... it is an itch that simply must be scratched eh?


----------



## a'ightthen

lorichristie said:


> Hal, this is a picture of a really sweet HTer who I have gotten to know over the past two years. When I goofed with the heirloom tomato seeds (underestimating germination), I thought of her! She picked up all the extra tomato seedlings today (Hal's Heirloom Tomato Seed Collection...). There were 32 varieties in her trunk. A big thank you from her and from all her friends & family!


 Excellent! Thanks for sharing that ... I hope they serve her ( and the others) well!!


----------



## JustRandy

The neighbors tell me, the man who lived where I now live, was the man to ask if you had a farming question (I guess 50yrs ago, they didn't have the internet). He said to plant your peas the first full moon in June. The guy down the road said to plant them in May, so my cousin said, "Guy said to plant peas in May...". The reply was, "You can, but you'll get more bugs."

I planted some in April, May, and I will plant more in June. We'll see which does best. What I planted in May seems to be catching up to what I planted in April. Bugs are a non-issue anymore.


----------



## ChristieAcres

a'ightthen said:


> Excellent! Thanks for sharing that ... I hope they serve her ( and the others) well!!


This HTer brought most of her family and friends to my Gardening via a Homesteader's Perspective Class. Every one who came to my class was given your tomato seeds, too. Many told me they were sharing their seeds with others, too. I have set aside (2) 4' x 20' raised beds for Tomatoes & Peppers. Yes, determined to do some canning...

Did some propagating today, have one more flat to plant before I retire for the evening.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Took pics a few minutes ago, so here they are:


----------



## ChristieAcres

A few other pics, easy to see what is currently growing well here in our climate. It is warming up, so our Pole Beans will be growing much faster now.


----------



## a'ightthen

JustRandy said:


> The neighbors tell me, the man who lived where I now live, was the man to ask if you had a farming question (I guess 50yrs ago, they didn't have the internet). He said to plant your peas the first full moon in June. The guy down the road said to plant them in May, so my cousin said, "Guy said to plant peas in May...". The reply was, "You can, but you'll get more bugs."
> 
> I planted some in April, May, and I will plant more in June. We'll see which does best. What I planted in May seems to be catching up to what I planted in April. Bugs are a non-issue anymore.


 Sounds like ye have some big shoes to fill as they know WHERE to go for questions ... and you are now there! Could be the start of some mighty fine friendships.


----------



## a'ightthen

lorichristie said:


> A few other pics, easy to see what is currently growing well here in our climate. It is warming up, so our Pole Beans will be growing much faster now.


 It is a fine thing watching the earth come alive eh?


----------



## JustRandy

a'ightthen said:


> Sounds like ye have some big shoes to fill as they know WHERE to go for questions ... and you are now there! Could be the start of some mighty fine friendships.


Everyone is dying and the info is getting lost. I googled "peas full moon in june" and came up with nothing.


----------



## RacerX

The "full moon" thing is a weather related thing that relates to cool/frost nights. My father and grand father do almost all of their planting based on lunar cycles (combined with weather reports). 

Of course this is also one of those things that there is no scientific data to support this, so use at your own risk. More of an old farmers thing.


----------



## JustRandy

I've read studies about vegetable crops planted by the moon. The studies support the lore significantly. Next week will be the New Moon Phase

_NEW MOON PHASE - 12 hours after Dark Moon to First Quarter
Every living thing feels an upsurge of energy - the sap is rising. A great time to plant or to start any projects, although some believe that it is better to wait until you can actually see the crescent of the New Moon.
Plant, graft and transplant annuals that produce above ground, especially those of a leafy kind that produce seeds outside the fruit, also cereals and grains.
Don't pick anything as it rots too easily at this time. Mow lawns to increase growth. Plants need more oxygen at this time.
The Moon rises and sets with the Sun at this time, and for the first one or two days is invisible. Every night she sets approximately one hour later; and can first been seen as a waxing crescent (increasing in light) close to the Sun, at sunset.

FIRST QUARTER PHASE - First Quarter to 12 hours before Full Moon
The energy (and the sap) is still fresh rising - this is a good phase for starting anything. Plant, graft and transplant annuals that produce above ground, especially of a vine-type with seeds produced inside (like beans, peas, peppers, squash and tomatoes).
Plant cereals and grains. All activities listed for the New Moon phase are just as successful if done now. The last two days of this phase, just before the Full Moon are considered optimum for planting, and grafts take best if done at this time.
By the First quarter phase the Moon is rising at noon, setting at midnight. She slowly grows in light, illuminating the first half of the night sky.

FULL MOON PHASE - 12 hours after Full Moon to Last quarter.
There is a peaking of the electromagnetic energy of all living things at the exact time of the Full Moon, and then a slow withdrawal of energy for the next two weeks, as the Moon wanes.
Plant perennials, biennials, bulb and root crops and anything that produces below ground. The sap flow is downwards into the roots. Pruning is most successful now, and it is an excellent time to harvest all crops. Medicinal herbs and plants are most potent when picked now. This is a great time for sprouting seeds to eat, but not so good for sprouting seeds for planting, as there is a good initial growth spurt with only spindly follow through.
The Full Moon rises brilliant and full at sunset illuminating the sky for the whole night. It will rise later and later in the evening as it moves through its waning phase.

LAST QUARTER PHASE - Last Quarter to 12 hours before Dark Moon
This is a barren phase, where it is most appropriate to rest or to prepare for the next New Moon. It is great for cultivation - pulling weeds, turning the earth, pruning, spraying. Apply organic fertilizers any time during the Waning Moon, from Full Moon onward. Mow lawns to decrease growth.
This is the best phase for harvesting crops that you want to store for a period of time without rotting or losing flavour. Transplant close to the end of this period for an easy recovery with little trauma.
Set fence posts, spread manure. Weeds pulled now have no strength to sprout again.
The Last Quarter Moon rises at midnight in the beginning of the phase, showing us her slowly vanishing crescent in the early morning eastern sky. She then moves closer to the Sun until she becomes visible for the last day or two of the phase. The cycle is complete._

And here is moon wood http://www.tonewood.ch/moonwood.html


----------



## ChristieAcres

a'ightthen said:


> It is a fine thing watching the earth come alive eh?


You said it! The weather here has been a bit too cool for the heat lovers, so I was chomping at the bit to finally be able to get them out. Most of mine will go out in the next two weeks. Time has been at a premium this year, so I am trying to work smarter, not harder! 

This is the 4th year of using The North American Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar (based on moon cycles and Astronomy in general). It has worked out very well for us here.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Was out switching watering valves today, took a few pics with my smart phone. That sure makes it easier/faster for pics. The Victoria Rhubarb seeds shown, Heirloom Sage starting to bloom (Red Bee Balm behind it), Horseradish, and a very big happy Lemon Balm. Also, a pic of some of my Heirloom Tomatoes (Hal's seeds) in my little greenhouse.


----------



## Tarheel

Here's the Carolina Report......RAIN........RAIN.......RAIN. We caught the brunt of Andrea with all the rain and wind. I think we got more than the coastal section did.

Today's total is over 3" and still raining.


Water and wind blown corn. We will have to let it dry out a little before standing it back up.


Wet potatoes, peas, and onions.


Tomatoes are on the way if they don't rot.


Beans & peppers waiting for sunshine.


Already had one mess of squash with more on the way.


cont.


----------



## Tarheel

Late tomatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, swiss chard & butter peas


Looks like we got 3 more days of off and on rain ! So how's the weather treating your garden ?


----------



## JustRandy

My blueberries, which until now seemed to be loving this rain, decided to put on some yellow new leaves, which I countered with some ammonium sulfate, ferrous sulfate, an epsom salts. Way too much rain this year!

Other than that, my garden is doing great. Beans are 6ft up the pole and heading back down and some are producing beans already. Corn is about 4ft. Tomatoes are full of flowers, as well as cucumbers. Grapes are almost full size. Sunflowers are outrunning the corn.


----------



## Tarheel

JustRandy said:


> My blueberries, which until now seemed to be loving this rain, decided to put on some yellow new leaves, which I countered with some ammonium sulfate, ferrous sulfate, an epsom salts. Way too much rain this year!
> 
> Other than that, my garden is doing great. Beans are 6ft up the pole and heading back down and some are producing beans already. Corn is about 4ft. Tomatoes are full of flowers, as well as cucumbers. Grapes are almost full size. Sunflowers are outrunning the corn.


Nothing like that warm Georgia weather ! My brides folks are from S. Georgia and it has always amazed me how much farther along their gardens are then ours.


----------



## TnAndy

MAN Tarheel......that is one huge rain gauge ! Looks like a foot or so in diameter. You get help emptying it ?


----------



## a'ightthen

I'm trying but you guys are kicking my tail!










Tarheel, there is more behind Andrea 

Next Thursday is the first ( and only) day not showing rain .... Nope, I ain't going to say how tired I am of it.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Sorry to hear it is so wet there for some of you, sure understand how that feels. My tomatoes are still in my greenhouse, will be patient...


----------



## JustRandy

Tarheel said:


> Nothing like that warm Georgia weather ! My brides folks are from S. Georgia and it has always amazed me how much farther along their gardens are then ours.


It has always amazed me how many places in Miami sell firewood. One would have to be living pretty high on the hog to have a fire with the AC on full blast for xmas lol

Yup, somewhere down below the gnat line it stays warm nearly all year. I'm not that far from TN though, so I'm about as North Ga as possible.


----------



## JustRandy

a'ightthen said:


> I'm trying but you guys are kicking my tail!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tarheel, there is more behind Andrea
> 
> Next Thursday is the first ( and only) day not showing rain .... Nope, I ain't going to say how tired I am of it.



Everything looks pretty yellow your way too.

I know we've had a drought the past few years, but everyone can STOP praying for rain now!


----------



## Tarheel

TnAndy said:


> MAN Tarheel......that is one huge rain gauge ! Looks like a foot or so in diameter. You get help emptying it ?



No I just put my back brace on. 

How's your garden coming in them there hills ?


----------



## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> I'm trying but you guys are kicking my tail!
> 
> Tarheel, there is more behind Andrea
> 
> Next Thursday is the first ( and only) day not showing rain .... Nope, I ain't going to say how tired I am of it.


Yea I know but on about the middle of July we will be wanting some of it back. Good thing about it though I got all my water tanks full and the pond is past full.

We've already started talking about what to plant for our fall garden this year. Man I love dirt.


----------



## Tarheel

JustRandy said:


> It has always amazed me how many places in Miami sell firewood. One would have to be living pretty high on the hog to have a fire with the AC on full blast for xmas lol
> 
> Yup, somewhere down below the gnat line it stays warm nearly all year. I'm not that far from TN though, so I'm about as North Ga as possible.


My blueberries are loaded again this year. Last year was the first time we ever had a problem with birds though. This year I invested in bird netting and have already covered them. I think it's going to be a pain in the rear taking it on and off though. I may have to make some changes. We are probably 3 weeks out on getting berries but no yellowing yet of the leaves.

Yep South Georgia is way to hot & humid for me. If I were to do it over again I might consider being a little more west between you & TnAndy. The summers here are getting almost as bad as Georgia at times.


----------



## a'ightthen

JustRandy said:


> Everything looks pretty yellow your way too.
> 
> I know we've had a drought the past few years, but everyone can STOP praying for rain now!



Yup, it is wet with no end in sight.

Been here, done it afore .... I'll be gone for a bit ..... It goes manual now and there is a chunk to deal with










Best to all


----------



## bja105

No pics, but I have a video.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SHKc6K4x3g[/ame]


----------



## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Yup, it is wet with no end in sight.
> 
> Been here, done it afore .... I'll be gone for a bit ..... It goes manual now and there is a chunk to deal with
> 
> 
> Best to all



Yep ended up with 5-1/4" of rain in less than 36 hours with 3 more days of it predicted. Like you it's going to be muck boots and packing mud around corn. Some of my peppers are not looking good.......drowned.

Good luck !


----------



## a'ightthen

Passing through with a bit of success ...

Had the first, fresh fried squash Sunday ( along with carrots and green beans from last year - and a crock-pot roast) ... starting to 'member why the battles are worth it 



















Many more days to catch up and reclaim.


----------



## a'ightthen

Early Italian garlic has landed ...



















Chesnok Red test pull on the right.

No, I do not know what I am doing ... but I did order a couple of books yesterday 

I grew maybe two dozen plants last year ... ended up planting 38 varieties this year - gonna blame Martin


----------



## Homesteader

Breakfast from the garden!

The potatoes are our first time growing any other than what came from the grocery store. These are Purple Majesty from Irish Eyes. 

Then onion, peppers. The peppers are: cayenne, the yellow is a Gypsy Hybrid (sweet), red one is a Jingle Bells (sweet).



The Tiny Tim tomatoes continue to amaze me. There are three to a pot. The pot is 9" deep, 10" across. I used Miracle Gro Potting Soil. I have fed a couple times, one with MGro spray and then Osmocote (time-released fertilizer). Nice size on them too.


----------



## a'ightthen

After months of what seems like perpetual rain, I'm in reclaim/scavenge mode.

40% chance of rain begins again tomorrow night and does not go below 30% until next Sat. Weeds are loving it.

Pulled some Elephant garlic this morning. It is brilliant white because the fool ( that would be me) running the pitch fork punctured several and I needed to find the ones damaged. 










Just pulling as I go. Got half of the yellow onions from sets ... learned quite a bit about that this year.










Then got through almost half of the onions set out as plants ... the other two rows look better but so it is.










The wife mentioned the crock pot so I had to indulge her by digging a few taters 










Picked another 5 gallon bucket of squash and she dispersed it along with onions and garlic to the family. I'm so ready to put the weeds under and begin anew


----------



## ChristieAcres

Heirloom Tomatoes still in the greenhouse... Along with them are Peppers, Squash, Luffa's, and Artichokes.

Also, there are other assorted pics taken around the garden. That last pic has a grassy isle we are converting this week. DH has only a few more isles left to work on.

I am prepping two beds for the Heirloom Tomato plants & peppers.


----------



## Tarheel

It's all trying to come together here in Carolina but it's been a long wet........wait. We are way behind with production but it's coming along.

Tomatoes are full of water and cracking.



Peppers are loaded



Squash are plentiful





Peas & potatoes are blooming!



And the blueberries are turning blue



What more could a man ask for...........Maybe a succession garden........which is doing good also.


----------



## ChristieAcres

A few pics I took today:

1. Seedless eating grapes
2. Liberty Apples
3. Pie Cherries
4. Italian Prunes
5. Asian Pears


----------



## a'ightthen

Still fighting rain and mud.


----------



## ChristieAcres

a'ightthen said:


> Still fighting rain and mud.


Sorry to hear that, really hard on a Homesteader into growing food :flame: 

It is raining here, but I am fine with it (need to make up for the 11"s we are shy for our annual precipitation average). Did put a bit of a damper on my plans today. So, had to switch horses and take inventory of what else I needed to get started.

Your Heirloom Tomato varieties are growing very fast in the greenhouse! I am hoping to get their beds set up soon so they can be planted outdoors.


----------



## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Still fighting rain and mud.


Understand completely. System off the coast may drift in-land with more rain.

Had to replace a couple of tomatoes yesterday and when we dug into them it was just a sloppy mess. I've got some good looking vines but the tomatoes are still puny.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Our temps were in the 50s and more rain, but it came down lightly, not torrentially. 

Hal, those Heirloom Tomatoes are growing very fast (Comfrey Fertilizer)! They have grown a few inches since I last took the pic on the 16th...

Notice it is raining on my little greenhouse?! I am giving away another dozen tomato plants this weekend.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Here are my Spaghetti, Butternut, and Delicata Squash plants. They are living in my Greenhouse until tomorrow!

The only feed they have received is my *Comfrey Fertilizer*!


----------



## Homesteader

Yum, from this morning. Potatoes are Red LaSoda, Purple Majesty and a couple fingerlings. Juliet paste tomatoes, ?? other tomato and Tiny Tim cherries.

Hope you are all drying out enough - I will wave some of our dry hot air your way......


----------



## Homesteader

Apricots! We had peaches too, and there are a few pears on a young tree. This is such a joy for us as we have never been lucky enough before to get the fruits! Late spring frosts and severe cold winds usually kill the little buds.




Shows a portion of the 4 raised bed gardens, mostly done to peppers, now almost gone peas, onions, basil and few tomatoes:




It's hard to get them all in one photo:


----------



## ChristieAcres

Here are a few more pics (had to include Bella who loves the Cat Nip I grow for her...)


----------



## Homesteader

lorichristie! What plant is that in the last pic and also what are the pink berries? Love your gardens as always!

I thought I would invite anyone into our garden this morning to harvest some potatoes! I remember how much I loved any pictures I could find of homesteading activities in the first years. I hope it inspires someone!

That handsome man there digging them up is DH.



Now after digging gently all around, he's pulling up the plant:



Shaking off the soil (or sand as is the case with us!)



Getting closer!



If memory serves, this was from two plants. These are called Red LaSoda:



We also dug up some golds:


This was from about 5 plants total. One of them, unfortunately only had two tiny spuds, but the rest sure made up for it!



Heart shaped and reddish pink! I wish with my heart the best ever harvest for everyone!



Katie


----------



## ChristieAcres

Nice pics, including your fit DH, got one of them, too. He must be a hard worker! Lovely potatoes!



> lorichristie! What plant is that in the last pic and also what are the pink berries?


That is Red Bee Balm (Monarda). The berries are ripening Currants.


----------



## Huntmo1

I have Bella's twin at my house...our Lulu looks just like Bella.


----------



## ChristieAcres

lanewilliam21 said:


> I have Bella's twin at my house...our Lulu looks just like Bella.


Got a pic to post? Bella is an incredibly sweet cat and a vicious hunter, too!

It is a torrential downpour out there with more rain predicted. Everything should be fine. We really needed the rain, but it does effect what I am planting this week...

I will be delaying planting my Tomatoes until DH and I build the hoop house for them. They are happy in the little greenhouse and now have to move some to give them more head space...


----------



## a'ightthen

Tarheel said:


> Yea I know but on about the middle of July we will be wanting some of it back.


 I'm about ready to run that gamut ... at least ye can put water where ya want/need it.

These durn marathon days of "almost dry enough" are taking a toll on me. The smallest chance of rain for the next 7 days is next Monday when it drops to 30%.

This last marathon luckily landed on a weekend that I was off and I got to spend 12+ hrs Sat/Sunday on it ( was still wet when started) .... did have a couple of light showers yesterday to boost the humidity levels. What a Blessing eh? 

Picked another 5 gallons of squash, couple gallons of green beans, few more strawberries to snack on and a chunk of garlic pulled from the weeds Sat. Also found a row of peppers and the first patch of corn ...










Fixed and planted 2 more rows of Contender, 2 rows of Hercules peas and ... yes, I did it .... a row of 21 Peas










The patch to the left of the peppers/corn .... 










Became yesterdays project. Was the first chance I have had to get in there since planting it 3 weeks ago. I almost got it back ... like 1.75 rows of maters.










Might have been able to finish this evening but had to do some shade-tree mechanic work for Pa-In-Law.

It's working out .... but shah dang. The benefit? During the Winter I usually put on a bit of "insulation" and will dance between 215-220 lbs. End of Sat found me at 203.2 lbs .... and end of Sunday found me at a lean 196 lbs - Summer usually finds me in the 200 lb range.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Here is my Heirloom Tomato bed. DH is building a hoop house over it. I have 45 tomatoes planted:


----------



## romysbaskets

Wow! I am very impressed! I have a bakers dozen of those tomato plants from you, they made it back here fine plus the other things you traded me...just getting ready to plant them too! I like how you did yours...gave me an idea. I got some free pvc pipe and I think I can figure out something....


----------



## ChristieAcres

romysbaskets said:


> Wow! I am very impressed! I have a bakers dozen of those tomato plants from you, they made it back here fine plus the other things you traded me...just getting ready to plant them too! I like how you did yours...gave me an idea. I got some free pvc pipe and I think I can figure out something....


Good to hear! Yes, we in the PNW have to use our tricks, at least where we each are :whistlin:


----------



## ChristieAcres

Here is the progress on my hoop house. I'll be planting Basil varieties, Pepper varieties, Cucumbers, and a few leafy varieties. The sides can be rolled up and the ends are going to be left open for now, due to the time of the year.


----------



## oneokie

Most recent pics









































the 2 peanuts that the mice did not get;








the area where I had my onions, which can be found in these threads:
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/6587411-post78.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/6587415-post79.html
















Kentucky Wonder bush beans in foreground, PH & BE peas beyond, and Pintos in the distance








Speckled limas


----------



## ChristieAcres

Early morning at sunrise...fog...other pics today.


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## ChristieAcres

Hoop House done, won't be closing in the ends until Fall. The sides are made to roll up, so if we get a scorcher, we will open one side completely. The cover can be removed easily with two people, too. We are going to get another soaker hose for this bed, as watering would be challenging otherwise.

DH is filling up my last redone raised bed with soil. I have 4 kinds of squash to plant there, likely it will be Monday.


----------



## ChristieAcres

Rhubarb seed progress:


----------



## 7thswan

Did you make special soil for your tomato bed, vs the soil in your area?
Are you going to let your rhubarb seed it's self onto the ground?
Is your season too short to grow tomatoes without the hoophouse.


----------



## ChristieAcres

7thswan said:


> Did you make special soil for your tomato bed, vs the soil in your area?
> Are you going to let your rhubarb seed it's self onto the ground?
> Is your season too short to grow tomatoes without the hoophouse.


That is a mixture of 50% compost/soil. We added more to the bed. There is a local place that sells garden soil. We opted for that due to our native soil being more acidic. 

That is Victoria Rhubarb and I gather the seed every year. It doesn't self-seed.

Our season isn't short at all, but we don't always get the heat needed for tomatoes to ripen. In addition, long periods of rain can cause early or late blight. The hoop house is an extender for any/all heat lovers. I can garden all year around with it, too.


----------



## Tarheel

I wish I had pictures of my garden to post but we can't get the ark out to get to it.

Only thing I can say is it's drowned ! 13" + and it's still raining and calling for rain for the rest of the week .  

Keep our hopes up with the rest of you posting dry weather gardens........please.


----------



## a'ightthen

Tarheel said:


> I wish I had pictures of my garden to post but we can't get the ark out to get to it.
> 
> Only thing I can say is it's drowned ! 13" + and it's still raining and calling for rain for the rest of the week .
> 
> Keep our hopes up with the rest of you posting dry weather gardens........please.


 It has been interesting thus far eh? Do yourself a favor and do not look at the month of July as forecast by Accuweather ... shows just 2 days here without rain 

Smallest chance of rain here comes next Sunday night when it drops below 50% to 40%!

Pulled 7 days at work this week ( might as well have been somewhere else) but only had drizzles here today.

Actually had a dry deck for a bit 

Pulled the rest of the Chesnok Red










And got it hung up 










Still have some CA Pink to hang ( and a chunk more of others to find)










The first of the peaches are coming in soon










Apples look good










Also got the carrot beds planted










I have to wade out into it tomorrow as there are a few unique maters that need to picked for seed .... might even get in some fishing while I'm at it! LOL

Just doing that which I can ... and staying busy!

Best to all!


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## Tarheel

Hmm a'ightthen.........no apple cedar rust, I'm impressed. Either no cedar trees or you found some good spray.


----------



## Tarheel

Braved the mud & water to look things over. Found out that it don't stop squirrels from trying the first corn. So I decided to see my self how it is.  This is a different heirloom I'm trying this year. Will report back later.


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## a'ightthen

Around 5:15 PM I poured out just over 2" of rain. Trudged out and got the maters mentioned.

At 6 ....










Another inch.

Thinking now that all of this is my fault and that I have a rogue rain gauge that must be satisfied ( perhaps this years PID sensor for HARP?). 

Going to start topping it off instead of emptying it and see what happens 

LOL, it's all that I can come up with 

But it does present some mighty fine sleeping weather ..... and as I am tired .... C-Ya!


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## 7thswan

I am putting raised beds into my fenced veggie garden. Dh is/has to help me because they are made of 2 inch ash from a neighbors sawmill-very heavy 16 footers. I'll finish the rest in the fall or next spring.
The gate/entrance to the garden.


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## 7thswan

new beds,potatoes ,asparagus


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## 7thswan

View from my seat in the veggie garden.Kally and a bed I just made, filled with rabbit manure then topped with garden soil.Those tall things just outside the garden are sunchokes. Beyond the regular garden are the raserrys,golden and red and herbs.


----------



## Homesteader

Oh so much rain. I am so sorry you're getting soaked. Many prayers it will let up. Here it's the opposite, dry and hot. Ok, some pics from this morning.


----------



## Homesteader

Monster potatoes this morning, could not believe it:


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## Homesteader

7thswan so so pretty! Love the roses! Nice beds and the dog is a cutie!


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## 7thswan

This bean trellis has been here for years ,but we built a bed around it. in the back is peas,onions,beans. This will be beds next year as will the asparagus and potato/corn area. We have another garden that is just vineing crops and corn.


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## 7thswan

Lower part of outside beds, herbs and flowers,near the greenhouse( I made this of old windows and salvaged materials).Northern Kiwi.


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## 7thswan

Herb garden to the left of greenhouse, the fenced garden is behind this. Grapes in center( 2 kinds of white) horseradish,rasberrys to the far left, many Herbs and blueberry bushes on right unseen...


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## Annie

7thswan, beautiful gardens! Love the herb garden.


----------



## a'ightthen

7thswan said:


> I am putting raised beds into my fenced veggie garden. Dh is/has to help me because they are made of 2 inch ash from a neighbors sawmill-very heavy 16 footers. I'll finish the rest in the fall or next spring.
> The gate/entrance to the garden.












Indeed, a vision splendid 7thswan!

There are *many* fine pics here representing a chunk of well deserved pride ... and my hat is off to *all*.

Few will realize the amount of effort that ye have put forth .... I see it in each pic and sit in awe and appreciation.

Many Thanks for sharing 

Here, I'm typically approaching burnout from harvesting by now .... this year, I'm just burnt out.

I yield.

This year would be the reason for planting too much and putting it by when ya can.

This year would be the reason for saving seeds for an extra year ( or 10 LOL).

It's all good, the water table was in desperate need ... but I've never seen anything like the prolonged rains of this year.

There is still much to tend to and dig out but the fighting of "it" has been subdued.

Another 3-5" predicted by tomorrow night.





































Oh well, ready for a break anyways 

Best to all


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## Homesteader

Wow a'itthen that is something. I sure hope you get some crops out of it. Here our plants are struggling the opposite problem, hot and dry. It's 110 F right now in the shade. If it's not one thing it's another huh?

I agree, such fabulous pictures and so representative of the hard work and passion that goes into the gardens!


----------



## Tarheel

I agree a'ightthen, most people just don't get it. I ALWAYS shoot to keep 2-3 years worth put back. It's years like this that make you appreciate the hard work from prior years. I also agree that I don't ever remember seeing rain like this in June & July. By this time of year I am usually having to irrigate regularly because we are in our drought time.

And one more important thing as you say....save.....save those seeds. We never know when we might not be able to get our hands on some. I know for a fact that I am working off of 50 year seeds. A good friend (RIP) passed them down to me several years ago and they had been in his family for years. I love the old heirloom stuff.......can't ya tell. 

Going to dig into the potatoes tomorrow and see if they are starting to rot. If that's the case I'm digging em early.

Went for another 7 dozen ears of corn yesterday. Sure is good!


Stowell's Evergreen


----------



## Tarheel

After all the rain we are having I decided last night that we needed to dig into the potatoes and make sure they were not rotting. Good thing we did, in another few days we would of had a mess on our hands.



Lost maybe 10-12 potatoes in a 75' row, so in my book with all the rain that's not bad.



And getting ready to wash them up. Normally we will leave a film of dirt on them but they were just to muddy. Wife washed em up and we spread them out in the shop and put the fan on them for a few days. We will then grade them and put them in the cool canning room.



Ought to make a good bowl of potato soup this winter.


----------



## a'ightthen

Darn nice haul TarHeel!

Mine are probably rotting ..... but I ain't going out there to see ...


----------



## Annie

I think we all need to learn how to grow rice! 

a'ightthen, hoping you all are getting a break from the rain....we got some reprieve with most of the heavy rain going west of here....just mostly drizzly and overcast today. Most of my veggies are in raised beds so they're holding their own, but our driveway has taken a major hit this season. Might have to get a pack mule to get down it by the time the season is over!


----------



## ChristieAcres

Here are a few pics, heading off to a wedding shortly...


----------



## Annie

They say make lemonade when life hands you lemons....around here today it's make pesto when it rains!


----------



## Annie

few pics of the kitchen and herb gardens...


----------



## a'ightthen

Nice 

No reprieve here ....










But all is well


----------



## Homesteader

This morning's picking! The one in my hand is 8.3 oz!!!!!!!!! The colander is full and it's a big sized colander!


----------



## Homesteader

Today's pickings! I am rapidly approaching the moment where I may have to say we grew more than we can use! (not that they will go to waste, have lots of families here who could use the extras).




If ya'll are tired of seeing my tomatoes, I'll stop posting, I'm just so excited and delighted at a good harvest, especially since we grew them all from seed!


----------



## stanb999

The garden is doing real well this year. 

#1 Zucchini and Purple green beans. 
#2 Mini pie pumpkins.
#3 Spinach and leaf lettuce 
#4 Cabbages, carrots, leeks, and beets.


----------



## Homesteader

Nice garden stanb999!


----------



## ChristieAcres

Time to harvest Victoria Rhubarb seeds, more Rhubarb, picking Cascade Raspberries still, Alpines of both kinds (red/white), Kale, Pole Beans are now producing, Peas are done & let to produce my seeds for next year, squash varieties all planted, and the tomatoes are blooming/setting fruit:


----------



## ChristieAcres

Oh yes, the Purple Cabbage...


----------



## strawberrygirl

Here are a few of our 2500 sq. ft. garden (we have a few outer gardens as well):


----------



## stanb999

First picking of green beans... Purple beans. Heaping 1/2 bushel.


----------



## a'ightthen

Been busy at work here ... just as well for there is little to do here.

We have already surpassed the total rainfall for last year. Good for mud bogging ... if that was one's desire 

Funny thing happened here Sunday. The preface being that I saw a deer munching on the blackberries a few days before and coaxed a pup to chase it off.










Around lunch Sunday, I went into the mater patch. I found the first 4 ripe maters of the year and though they are rare, the desire of a fresh ripe mater voided the reality of needing to save seed ( I was a craving me a ripe mater!).

Checking the first patch of corn, I noticed fresh deer tracks and a cob bitten ... milk was still wet. So I looked around and saw nothing.

Went in the back door as #2 daughter was saying that there was a deer in the front yard. Went to look and the pup that had chased it out of the yard previously was running it around in circles not 15' from the front door.

They would then stop and stare at each other ... then the deer would chase the pup around for a bit  This lasted for perhaps 4 minutes before I stepped out and stopped the pup .... deer wandered off and the pup had to chase it off with a last hoo-rah. 

Wish that I had caught it on film but was kind of dumbfounded.

Anyways, you folks are doing GREAT .... and Thanks for sharing


----------



## ChristieAcres

Just got a cravin', stopped my garden work, cut some of my fresh taters into fries, and made French fries with coconut oil, had to make up dipping sauce! I am gearing up to go harvest, been harvesting garlic, have to hang it...


----------



## 7thswan

We might get some severly bad weather today,so I took some pictures.these are of the garden I posted in my last group. Plums tree, I have 30 something different fruit trees, but everyone has seen fruit.Peaches in one photo, as one can see my greens are about done,but they are still in the bed because I feed them to the rabbits a bit at a time.


----------



## stanb999

7thswan said:


> We might get some severly bad weather today,so I took some pictures.these are of the garden I posted in my last group. Plums tree, I have 30 something different fruit trees, but everyone has seen fruit.Peaches in one photo, as one can see my greens are about done,but they are still in the bed because I feed them to the rabbits a bit at a time.


Hope your spared the worst. Everything looks great.


----------



## 7thswan

Thanks. It is 93 degrees and a cold front is moving in,so we might even have some tornadoes. I'm working on our 1968 avion trailer,we have out of town company comeing in. No air(until tomorrow) and hundreds of flys want to sit on me. The awning we just put up wants to blow away. Hope everyone elses weather is being nice for them.


----------



## a'ightthen

7thswan said:


> Thanks. It is 93 degrees and a cold front is moving in,so we might even have some tornadoes. I'm working on our 1968 avion trailer,we have out of town company comeing in. No air(until tomorrow) and hundreds of flys want to sit on me. The awning we just put up wants to blow away. Hope everyone elses weather is being nice for them.


 No 'naders allowed in that garden. Hope all stays calm!


----------



## Tarheel

Got Blue Berries ? 





This is an every other day deal right now. We start out at 6:30 a.m. picking gardens and it takes about 4 hours to make the round. Monday, Wed. & Friday we pick and Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday we freeze and can. All that rain we had has set things on fire here. Everything has done great except the tomatoes and we have a late crop coming on.

Peas have really turned out good also. 32 pints +

Blue Berries- 40+ bags put up to date. Not even sure how many black berries.....gotta count them.

I'm tired and got to go to work tonight. :'( Later folks.


----------



## Homesteader

Oooo Tarheel that's wonderful. Oh I have to admit I have blueberry envy. They are one thing that will not survive our heat here, I've tried about 8 times now, they just die off. Cherries too, that would be the other envy, and apples never survive either come to think of it.

Great haul! Wow 32 pints of peas? How many foot row did you do I forgot...


----------



## Tarheel

Homesteader said:


> Oooo Tarheel that's wonderful. Oh I have to admit I have blueberry envy. They are one thing that will not survive our heat here, I've tried about 8 times now, they just die off. Cherries too, that would be the other envy, and apples never survive either come to think of it.
> 
> Great haul! Wow 32 pints of peas? How many foot row did you do I forgot...


2-75' rows of peas. They seem to enjoy all this rain.

And I feel your pain on the Cherries too. Planted 2 last year and they did great........this year they are toast.....RIP. Got to take the front end loader and pull em up. They just do not like this clay soil either. I hauled in a load of sand topsoil just for those 2 trees, mixed it in with good compost etc., etc. and they did great until the roots got down to the clay. O well with all the other stuff we've got we should be fine.

Next project is going to be a blackberry kick. We've got some now that seems to like this soil and they pick much easier than blueberries.


----------



## a'ightthen

Finally got to spend a bit of time here today ... still raining. Power has flickered off twice already while trying to post.

Cherry trees. I dug some starts from the wife's grandfather in 1985. Thought that they were indestructible and always had a time of keeping them from building a solid hedge ( as he had).

This pic is from 2010 .... one of two.










These past few years of drought have finally taken a toll on them and I am trying my best to preserve them via sprouts from the roots ... the main trees are basically dead.

I have never had any luck with blueberries here ... but blackberries love it.

It took me 3 years to kill off some Black Satin thornless blackberries ... I just never was able to keep them contained. Now, they are a hard one to find  But dang I sure liked them!

The Triple Crowns are doing well but ... I have to find the time to set them up properly and train them or the same thing is going to happen there.

Spent most of the day playing with garlic but did dig a few peppers out of the mess ..










That is a mix of New Ace, Sweet Banana and Cubanelle. 

The apple trees are simply loaded and this is where much of my time will be spent for a bit ... ( and no, they have not been sprayed ... not because I am against it but it all seems useless with the rains.)





































Best to all.


----------



## Tarheel

Same story.......different day here.



After the rain last night we slept in this morning until around 6 a.m. (usually up at 4:30) had a good breakfast and out the door to get everything picked. Started at 7 and finished up at 11:30. We then stopped for lunch for about 30 minutes and then got back at it. We canned up another 12 pints of peas and 1 caner (7 quarts) of green beans.



We pulled another 2 gallons of black berries, 5 gallons of tomatoes, squash and okra. Tomorrow we hope to make blue berry syrup for pancakes. (Any one got a good recipe ??) Wednesday we get to can tomatoes.

Busy time of year around here, good luck with your gardens!


----------



## Dented Fenders

I don't have a lot to speak of this year, (a LOT going on. New job, baby on the way, ect.) but I bought a self-polinating grape plant from Home Depot on a whim this spring. I thought it was going to die, but now it has exploded. Also, I just started some seeds from store bought apples, after sprouting them in the fridge. Planted them in an egg carton today, just to see what they'd do. The one in the bottom left has already poked his head out!


----------



## ChristieAcres

This warmer dry weather has been great for the garden...


----------



## a'ightthen

lorichristie said:


> This warmer dry weather has been great for the garden...


 I can't tell here LOL.

You may have to send me some seeds this yr 

Shoot, I tried this evening to cut some of this mess down. I know that it is wet but figured that I could at least ride through it and cut some of it down .... all but got stuck trying.










Going to have to keep living with it.

Carrots have popped up nicely though ...










Tried to work some of the Chesnok Red that has been hanging for a month. Looks good but needs more curing ...










It's a year that I will not forget ... and it ain't over yet.


----------



## ChristieAcres

> Tried to work some of the Chesnok Red that has been hanging for a month. Looks good but needs more curing ...


Nice looking garlic you got there! I harvested most of my garlic (German Purple Striped Hardneck). and also Elephant Garlic two days ago. Still need to hang it up to cure.

I'll tell you, although the warmer weather is nice, I don't remember the last summer I have watered this frequently...


----------



## Osiris

I am Soooo jealous of you folks. Great gardens! Us smaller garden people are tryin'. I harvested some potatoes couple days ago. 4 plants yielded quite a crop for me anyway. My first try at potatoes this year. Not a bad haul. And I've still got another 10 plants left. I'll definitely be growing more next year.


----------



## ChristieAcres

I had a good friend over and we were walking through my garden when she grinned and said, "You have zucchini!" Earlier we had spoken about my squash varieties and I shared with her that the first ones I had planted had died (put them out earlier, but we got a cold snap...). I thought I had planted all the zucchini, but didn't :clap:

The squash bed I established and planted with my patient squash (who had waited almost too long to be planted). I was going to start more for a Fall harvest... All the squash is very happy and growing rapidly. That Comfrey Fertilizer is great stuff!


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## ChristieAcres

The other pics wouldn't post, so will try again tomorrow...


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## ChristieAcres

Here are two more... Brussel Sprouts and Seedless Grapes


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## ChristieAcres

Was a great year here for apples, and still have a lot to preserve despite giving away alot of Yellow Transparents. They are okay, but I much prefer our other varieties (Liberty, King, Braeburn, and Gravensteins). All of our varieties are laden this year. Here is a pic of our Liberty Apples, Thornless Blackberries now ripening, Wild Blackberries just ripening, and Borage being a bee magnet.​


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## 7thswan

Rained buckets yesterday,so took pictures this morning.As you can see Shaddy doesn't understand the whole photo thing. First pic. mixed heirlooms . 2nd pic, San Maraznos


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## 7thswan

hyssops, watermelon in hammock, pattypans takeing over isle, jalapinos,corn,hazelnuts,peaches.


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## smallbore

I no longer have a big garden. Even when I did it was nothing close to what I have been viewing here! Now that it is down to just husband and I, I have a few things in Earthboxes on my deck and some cucumbers growing on a trellis (old box spring) by my tool shed. I will try to get photos,


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## Homesteader

Here's my DH, after hanging the onions to dry a bit. Isn't he cute?


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## Homesteader

The tomatoes keep coming - I can't keep up. This is one picking of just round ones. Didn't even touch the pastes or cherries. Then, thought I'd show off my canned potatoes, cubed, whole small ones and french fry stick shape. The final ones are out of the ground now and DH planted a few that had sprouted for fresh fall eating.


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## ChristieAcres

Great job Homesteader & also cool pic of hubby!

I am sure looking forward to ripe tomatoes...patience, patience, must employ!

Right now, canning apples (Yellow Transparent) and crab. I'll be canning green beans by next week, have the rest of my Garlic hung by tonight, and then just waiting for everything else to ripen.

I have a LOT of berries in the freezer, so will be canning those soon (Marionberries, Raspberries, and Thornless Blackberries). The Wild Blackberries are ripening...


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## Homesteader

Oh you berry people I do get envious.........I think we could do blackberries. But the others, it's so darn hot here, just don't think they'd survive.

And crab, oh my you are so blessed with that! Closest thing around here is if I look at a good 5 inch long scorpion, squinch up my eyes, he sort of looks like a crab, hee hee!


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## ChristieAcres

Homesteader said:


> Oh you berry people I do get envious.........I think we could do blackberries. But the others, it's so darn hot here, just don't think they'd survive.
> 
> And crab, oh my you are so blessed with that! Closest thing around here is if I look at a good* 5 inch long scorpion, squinch up my eyes, he sort of looks like a crab, hee hee![/*QUOTE]
> 
> Hmmm, from Scorpion to Dungeness Crab, now that is a stretch for sure:bouncy:
> 
> With me it is peaches, sure wish we could grow juicy Cling peaches, but our summer weather isn't hot enough. The variety locally grown is a Frost Peach and our tree should be bearing next year (an okay peach, but prefer Cling...)
> 
> Growing fruits & veggies who are heat lovers, takes some extra measures here.


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## ChristieAcres

Some of my recent canning (crab in the center pint jars)


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## happyhenfarm




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## happyhenfarm

Here's what we got today


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## ChristieAcres

Took a few pics today...

By this next week, we should be swimming in squash! Within probably two weeks, I better be ready to start canning tomatoes... In our neck of the woods, we have to be patient, but I am chomping at the bit to taste that first tomato!


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## SquonkHunter

Lori, I am always impressed (and envious!) with your garden photos. Must be nice to live somewhere (normal) where it actually rains now and then. Central Texas is mostly years of heat and drought occasionally interrupted by a few months of flash flooding and the rare hard cold spell. And let's not forget fire ants and killer bees. But other than that, it's wonderful!  Maybe that hot sun has affected my thinking after all. Oh well, just like in baseball, "There's always next year!"


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## ChristieAcres

SquonkHunter said:


> Lori, I am always impressed (and envious!) with your garden photos. Must be nice to live somewhere (normal) where it actually rains now and then. Central Texas is mostly years of heat and drought occasionally interrupted by a few months of flash flooding and the rare hard cold spell. And let's not forget fire ants and killer bees. But other than that, it's wonderful!  Maybe that hot sun has affected my thinking after all. Oh well, just like in baseball, "There's always next year!"


Sorry about your pest and weather woes  I have moved 46 times in my lifetime, covering 6 states, 7 years in snow states. Since, I had no sense of "home," I settled in the climate I preferred. This has become my home and I cannot imagine living anywhere else. Folks who live here, tire of the rain, but I don't even after living here for 20 years... I did live in AZ, so I do know what the heat is like...also CO, also CA, also WY, and OR.

Others will find this humorous, but here is my first tomato, picked today!


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## a'ightthen

lorichristie said:


> Others will find this humorous, but here is my first tomato, picked today!


 Ain't nothing funny about the first ripe mater!


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## ChristieAcres

a'ightthen said:


> Ain't nothing funny about the first ripe mater!


Well, tomatoes ripen a bit late here, but happily looking forward to the bountiful harvest of all those Heirloom Tomatoes, thanks to YOUR Heirloom Seeds :banana:

That first tomato has got to be the best tasting thing out my garden! The anticipation certainly exacerbates the flavor, like that old song, "Anticipation..."

I am watching two tomatoes ripening, many other just changing a tinge... 

Yesterday, I had to go tie up a whole bunch of tomato plants due to the wind/rain/thunder & lightening we got the night previous.


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## ChristieAcres

Some pics taken today; the garden has sure taken off! Some of the Dill is about ready, debating when to harvest my giant purple cabbage, was surprised to see how fast the other cabbages started forming heads, and our Gravenstein Apples are ripening fast. The Wild and Thornless Blackberries are in full swing. There are two more tomatoes, just about ripe, with a third behind them. I've been checking and there will be many ripening at the same time. Looks like I will be very busy for the next month or so...


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## ChristieAcres

I went out to harvest today, saw the squash had put out the stops in blooming! As I stood there, I watched one of the Bumblebees buzz from one blossom to the next, doing an excellent job pollinating. The Gravensteins have begun to fall off the tree (not quite ready to pick). I wanted to check the flavor this year, so cooked up the yummy apples...


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## LettucePatch

@LoriChristie Post 225
How wide is your bed with the PVC and is that ordinary sched 40 PVC? 
I would like to make some hoop beds like that this fall for spring planting.


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## ChristieAcres

I'll inquire for that PVC info from DH & post again tomorrow. As for the width, would recommend 6 feet if you want the height similar (5'4" I believe). The bend was the max for the PVC, so our beds were a bit narrow for the size.

Today, harvested Dill, Delicata Squash, Heirloom or "original" Sage, and Thornless Blackberries; here are some pics...


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## 7thswan

Those look like my blackberrys, they just don't have much flavor. So I'm freezing them,maybe they will make good wine when I get time.


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## ChristieAcres

7thswan said:


> Those look like my blackberrys, they just don't have much flavor. So I'm freezing them,maybe they will make good wine when I get time.


The weather has quite the impact on them. Our summer has been dry until these past few days, but I regularly watered my Thornless Blackberries. They are delicious! In other years, when there was too much rain, not much flavor. Wine sounds like a good idea...


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## Homesteader

We got our corn in finally, on the 11th. Some creature ate up our first planting, so DH put up some fencing. It's not fenced on the tomato side, he is hoping rabbits won't be going thru that maze of tomatoes. So far so good. Usually once it gets to this height we don't have any trouble.

This is where our potatoes had been!


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## Werforpsu

Beautiful roma's to can and more potatoes then ever before!


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## ChristieAcres

My squash plants have just about doubled in size, over both sides of the bed, some are climbing the fence, while others are crossing the isle on top of the other bed. This is a squash bed gone wild!!!:runforhills:

While out there doing a visual inventory of squash, I realized I had a LOT of Butternut Squash plants, consequently, resulting squashes in excess. Good thing as I am bartering some of them for extra veggies to can :happy: I'll try to post pics tomorrow.


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## ChristieAcres

Will upload pics soon and post them. It is raining pretty hard right now and more in the forecast, so I put the cover back on my hoop house, will be closing up the ends, too, as we are getting cool night temps. I have a lot of tomatoes set, so would really like ripe tomatoes (!!!). I am considering covering the squash bed with a bamboo supported tent of sorts.


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## ChristieAcres

Up late canning crab... Here are the most recent pics:


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## Homesteader

This morning's picking: all sweet pepper, Jingle bells, Giant Aconcongua, Sweet Pickle, I think Giant Szegedi, Pimento.


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## ChristieAcres

Homesteader, that looks delicious!

My last post pic #5 is a Luffa. This is my first year growing them from seed, will be digging a few up to grow them in my greenhouse. Next year, I will start them much earlier!


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## ChristieAcres

Took a few in my orchard today... Plums, Asian Pears, and Liberty Apples:


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## Homesteader

Sigh.........lorichristie.........the fruit......we got fruit this year, first time. Apricots, peaches, nectarines and almonds. It was very exciting. It was a fluke, a rare season where we did not get the bad wind and late frosts. It's not just us, no one here gets fruit except pomegranates. Oh well, can't have everything in our gardens I guess!

Your fruit is so luscious.


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## ChristieAcres

Homesteader said:


> Sigh.........lorichristie.........the fruit......we got fruit this year, first time. Apricots, peaches, nectarines and almonds. It was very exciting. It was a fluke, a rare season where we did not get the bad wind and late frosts. It's not just us, no one here gets fruit except pomegranates. Oh well, can't have everything in our gardens I guess!
> 
> Your fruit is so luscious.


Good for you :rock: You are right, can't expect to have everything do well... Every year, I try to add more perennial edibles, diversify what I grow, and that paid off very well this year. We had a drier than normal summer, so DH insured our fruit trees were well watered. This weather was a blessing for our garden, too. This is the first year we have had this much orchard fruit! Our most reliable producers are Liberty Apple & Asian Pear trees. They produced even more than usual. Our Italian Plum produced more plums than ever before. 

Even though our zone doesn't really support Luffa's, I have plant growing out there. I will be potting a few up to put in my greenhouse, otherwise I can't expect to have Luffa's. Without a hoop house, I wouldn't expect to have a lot of tomatoes to can.


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## ChristieAcres

Here are a few more pics, figured my Red Cabbage pic should be on this thread. The Asian Pears are big this year. My Heirloom Tomatoes are ripening, soon will have a lot out there! My Pole Beans are slowing down, so not getting much right now. I rotated beds and didn't plant many this year. Fortunately, I barter with a buddy and have gotten plenty to can.


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## ChristieAcres

Today, I clipped Roses to dry, and also harvested green beans, Kale, and Heirloom tomatoes. I only harvested enough Kale for dinner, not to preserve, yet. Here are a few pics:


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## ChristieAcres

Here was from yesterday, including our first Chanterelle Mushrooms, found on our hike! I harvested Grapes, multiple Basil varieties, and Heirloom Tomatoes, of course.


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## K.B.

Looks gorgeous - just got a call from my wife saying that the chanterelles are popping up at our cabin, too. Wonderful time of year


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## ChristieAcres

K.B. said:


> Looks gorgeous - just got a call from my wife saying that the chanterelles are popping up at our cabin, too. Wonderful time of year


Yes, really enjoy this time of year! Overlapping harvests are sure keeping me busy, though.

When we went on that hike, I hadn't expected to see them out, yet. Those aren't usually out here until end of Sept, into Oct... Also, all my orchard fruit ripened earlier. Since we didn't have a bag with us, my DD put them in her skirt (2 layer skirt, so held it up like an apron in the front & we piled the shrooms in).


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## Tarheel

We are in between seasons here. Cole crops are in and it's another week before we dig sweet potatoes. I planted a quick cover crop of buckwheat over the early tomato field. We have taken soil samples of all fields and hope to get them amended shortly. This field with the buckwheat hopefully will consist of a 20x60 cold frame for early tomatoes next year. We hope to get it built by Thanksgiving this year. After this years rains the only crop that did not do well were tomatoes.



Now it's time for some R&R and then back into the sweet potatoes. 



Y'all have a good week!


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## strawberrygirl

Carrot and kidney bean harvest. We ended up with 48 pints canned plus 42 cups (I believe) shredded carrots in the freezer. The kidney bean yield was almost 2 quarts. 

View attachment 15195


View attachment 15196


As you can see some of the kidney beans weren't completely dry so we had to finish drying them before we stored them.


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## elbowbeach

That is a beautiful carrot harvest. I do not know why,but I have never grown carrots.


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## Tarheel

We have been wide open here at the farm getting our fall crops in and late summer crops pulled. This week we planted our onions for next spring's harvest. With a mixture of white,red & yellow onions we ended up planting just a shade over 600 bulbs.



Today we started digging our sweet potatoes. This year was the wettest on record and I was really worried about them. So far the first 3 rows have turned out pretty good. Hopefully when it's all said and done at the end of the week we should be able to grade out at least 6 bushels of Select potatoes with lots of smaller canning bushels.





Our Cole crops are coming along also with Brussels sprouts, cabbage,collards and kale already up. Turnips, beets and mustard bring up the rear.





Hope you have good luck with your fall gardens!


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## ChristieAcres

Thanks and nice pics! My Fall garden is basically a perpetuation of my regular garden with our sort of overlapping seasons. Not a lot of variety this year, but will enjoy the bounty nonetheless. Our temps dropped so all tomatoes in pots or outside unprotected are dead. However, my hoop house tomatoes are still green and happy! The ends aren't closed, DH made me clips, so I will close up the ends tomorrow.


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## ChristieAcres

Was a very stormy day here in Western WA! Here is how it looked through my window, not the worst of it. We lost power a few times today, but that didn't interrupt my canning (propane cooktop). I took a few pics of one of my Heirloom Tomatoes and Purple Striped German Garlic...


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## ChristieAcres

Today, I picked more Liberty Apples. Here are a few pics:


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## a'ightthen

So I pretty much got washed out here for 2013 ... still, it ain't over yet 

On tap for for 2014, I need to grow out some 250 varieties of maters for seed but of current concern ...

There are some 100 different cultivars of garlic to be planted here ( 66 new ones + those saved from last year)

Can't share pics of what was .... only what is to come 

Garlic patch of 2014 ...










I don't know ... suspect that a fella toting a 1,000 mater varieties should carry a substantial number of garlic to support them? LOL

Along with basil .... seems to be a good fit


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## Tarheel

a'ightthen, Just curious......why so many different tomato variety's ? and I'm sure I will regret asking.


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## a'ightthen

Tarheel said:


> a'ightthen, Just curious......why so many different tomato variety's ? and I'm sure I will regret asking.


 Too long a story 

Basically it began with a dumb hick ( me) leaving my saved seed ( of 20 yrs) on the kitchen counter too long. Come Spring, there was but like 13 left ... wife claimed that perhaps I had left them where they should not have been left and it was my fault. 

She was correct and that was that.

I got to chasing down my preferred variety and found all of these others ... that was the BEST according to the opinion of the poster!

It snowballed from there until I realized that, while it may be cool to grow this or that, they often did not fit into what I wanted/needed.

Then enters the problem of having them .... and not wanting to lose them ... and so it is.


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## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Then enters the problem of having them .... and not wanting to lose them ... and so it is.


I understand completely !

As Tim Allen use to say about his wife......she's good, she's real good.


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## Homesteader

Well it's a day by day with the corn! Nights are getting cold, enough to have lost a few of the tomatoes. Sure hope we get some. We knew it was a gamble but felt it was worth a few seeds. No frost......no frost..........no frost is our mantra right now!


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## Homesteader

Harvesting and juicing for jelly right now! The Poms are ready! DH got right to it! He will do the peeling/extracting and I will do up the jelly!


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## Homesteader

The last harvest. The cold nights have come now. Our corn did not make it but we fed the cobs to the chickens - they loved it. Just the kernels didn't fill out. Kind of a sad day........ but what a garden we had!


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## oneokie

Things are about done here, one more picking I hope.
Marglobe








Rutgers and Mortgage Lifter








Sausage Roma's on the right, Amish Oxheart on the left








Arkansas Traveler


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## crabtree

a'ightthen,
What kind of garlic did you plant & where do you get your garlic from.
I have got my garlic from www.wegrowgarlic.com for three years now.
I only get 300-400 cloves, about 50-60 of Machashi,Italian Loiacono,Chinese Pink,Cherokee,Georgian Fire,Colorado Purple.
I do have a single clove garlic that came out of N.C. mountains. 
I only have 10 bulbs,so I will need to grow it a few years, before eating it.


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## a'ightthen

crabtree said:


> a'ightthen,
> What kind of garlic did you plant & where do you get your garlic from.
> I have got my garlic from www.wegrowgarlic.com for three years now.
> I only get 300-400 cloves, about 50-60 of Machashi,Italian Loiacono,Chinese Pink,Cherokee,Georgian Fire,Colorado Purple.
> I do have a single clove garlic that came out of N.C. mountains.
> I only have 10 bulbs,so I will need to grow it a few years, before eating it.


Well, so far planted = 

Ajo Rojo
Aktyubinsk
Andidzhanski
Assisi
Basque
Blanak
Blossom
Bogatyr
Brown Saxon
Burgundy
Bzenec
Chaparsky
Chinese Pink
Chinese Purple
Chrysalis Purple
Colorado Black
Dubna(Standard)
Ididared
Inchelium Red
Isarael
Killarney Red
Korean Red
Krasnador Red
Metechi
Native Creole
Northe #3
Novo Troitzk
Persian Star
Phillips
PI 493116
Placid Turban
Pskem
Purple Glazer
Red Czar
Red Grain
Red Janice
Red Rezan
Russian Giant
Russian Red
Shan Tung Purple
Shatili
Skuri
Skuri #2
Spanish Roja
Thai Purple
Uzbek
Vekak
Xian

Still have to go back through, check spelling and such ... this is from the directory of pic folders taken as planted and may contain typos ( work in progress but surely over half way now).

I should be down there now but a toothache pretty much owns my attention at the moment 

From where? Sir Martin, a trade here, Filaree, Jung's, Harris, My Dad's Garlic, Red Gate, SSE members, couple from eBay, elephant from WallyWorld etc ... It's scattered all around.

Was looking earlier and there are a chunk of bulbils that I surely won't plant all of .... might see, in a month or so, if someone wants to disperse them like LoriChristie did the mater seeds earlier.


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## a'ightthen

Added to the ground since then ..

Azataza
Carpathian
Creole Red
DX-127
Georgian Crystal
Georgian Fire
German Brown
German Extra Hardy
Giuseppe
Island Rocambole
Krasnador White
LK Mann
Machashi
Martin's
Nootka Rose
Okanogan Blue
Pioneer
Polish Hardneck
Rosewood
Walla Walla

The toothache? Thought that I could tolerate quite a bit of pain but knew that this was getting a bit out of hand. Went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in 20 years ( worked out of town for 15 years, dentists don't want to see ya on weekends and when you are in different towns each week, it's pretty much impossible).

Anyways, the "toothache" turned out to be 9 abscesses and 4 fillings that had come out and gotten into the nerves. This is going to be fun with root canals galore coming 

I used to look forward to Christmas, Thanksgiving and such ... now it is the next dental appointment? LOL ... is what it is I reckon.

I remember jumping over the side of a truck bed shortly after turning 40 and being jarred like never before .. haven't done that since.

Just turned 48 and realize ...

Growing older ain't for whimps eh? ... One apparently needs to be tough for this stuff! Increased appreciation of the elders here.


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## Tarheel

a'ightthen said:


> Just turned 48 and realize ...
> 
> Growing older ain't for whimps eh? ... One apparently needs to be tough for this stuff! *Increased appreciation of the elders here*.


And we thank-you for the recognition ! I can still do what I did at 48 but just add a nap or two to the mix. 

Don't play tuff guy when they offer you pain meds.......a tooth ache can be so much more tolerable with em.

Good luck.


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## Homesteader

a'ightthen you take good care and get those teeth fixed - and yes, do the pain killers that's what they are for. Need you around for inspiration!


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## a'ightthen

Many Thanks! It'll be a'ight .. eventually  

Added a lb of Oregon Blue and some Simoneti to the patch this evening ... brings me to 70 planted, now down to 7 newbies here and then onto those saved from last year 

Seems that rain has set in here through Monday .. there may lie some rest in there


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## eponavet

Let the lacto-fermentation begin! 

These are the last few peppers of the season probably...there are a few stragglers but they look pretty puny so I went ahead and got these going today.


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## Homesteader

eponavet those look yummy!


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## Kasota

I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's pictures! Winter has just started and I'm already itching for spring planting. I do all raised beds here for my veggies. 

Here is a picture of some of my beds. I build them 4 feet wide and 8 feet long because that's the length of wood I can stuff into my hatchback car. I started with just a few and this past fall I expanded so that I now have 18 of these beds.


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## Centralilrookie

Beds and plants look great! You should be proud.


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## Homesteader

The last harvest: Chard, much more there than it looks, tall piles!


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