July ☼ Garden chat thread ☼

[chloecat]

question for you garden guru's----can i do a late potato crop?? i'm in Southern Pa and we dont' get frost till about mid/end october. i just dug all my potatoes today and was wondering if i can plant another crop of them right now?

[sarahannecloud9]

Meagan, I'm trying it for the first time. They are really takeing off! Hope they do well. I figured this year I would try all sorts of new things, lol. My gardens are all big experiments, lol! They really do look great though. I just did a small batch.

[kocho]

Our garden is doing great!!

My husband has already made several batches of pickels from our pickeling cucumbers. We've picked a couple bell peppers and have a bunch more coming along and we've gotten the first few tomatoes.

We planted Cauliflower this year and that is coming along nicely.

And we accidentally planted pumpkins!! lol We used the dirt from my composter and we had tossed one of those little pie pumpkins in there after Halloween last year. So we used that dirt in my flower beds and got about a dozen pumpkin plants!! I'm a little sad about the asparagus we had transplanted to there, but oh well.

Speaking of asparagus, does anyone grow it? This is our third year and it doesn't look any closer to asparagus. More like a fern.

[sarahannecloud9]

Mine is a first year. It looks like fern as well, but if you peak in there you see thread thin little asparagus, lol. I hear it takes a good 3 years for harvesting. Perhaps look up what it needs fertiliser wise. Could be lacking something? You could always take the soil to your city agg cnte (whatever it's called) and see what it needs.

Congrats on how well it's all doing! My cauli just now started makeing nice head slast week. The broc started and planted at the same time is at it's end of life. Just putting off the tiney pieces. About picked out, lol. I just can't wait for the cauli! I bet your excited!

[Marianna1988]

Eep!! A few of my tomato plants are finally stating to bear fruit so excited, so far all I've gotten from the garden is basil. I have an early girl, a big beef, a health kick, and a black cherry. They look like little green marbles or bouncy balls, lol. Will they grow bigger, then turn red, or change color while still growing? How long does or take for tomatoes to grow and ripen once te flower has made a fruit? I <3 tomatoes, I can't wait!!!

Some of the lower leaves are turning yellow and/or dying though. I'm pretty sure I'm watering enough, the soil is moist when I stick my finger in. I have given them a little plant food (miracle gro organic all purpose plant food). But maybe i'm not giving enough? I give each plant about a cups worth once a week. Or should I be giving them something else instead of/in addition to the plant food? They are in containers, if that matters.

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[sarahannecloud9]

Not sure for the time question? It will be diff for every variety and weather is a huge factor.

Could you be over fertilizeing?

[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by sarahannecloud9 Not sure for the time question? It will be diff for every variety and weather is a huge factor. Could you be over fertilizeing?

I've never fertilized. It's just potting soil that says it nourishes for 2 months. I'm about 6.5 weeks in, so I bought plant food and started feeding last week. I've only fed twice, the day I bought the feed and then a couple days ago. Walmart had 3 in the organic miracle gro section. One was "bone" one was "blood" and one was "all purpose" so I went with all purpose (do the others really contain bone and blood?!).

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[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by sarahannecloud9 Not sure for the time question? It will be diff for every variety and weather is a huge factor. Could you be over fertilizeing?

I've never fertilized. It's just potting soil that says it nourishes for 2 months. I'm about 6.5 weeks in, so I bought plant food and started feeding last week. I've only fed twice, the day I bought the feed and then a couple days ago. Walmart had 3 in the organic miracle gro section. One was "bone" one was "blood" and one was "all purpose" so I went with all purpose (do the others really contain bone and blood?!).

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[sarahannecloud9]

Lol! Yep. They sure do. The blood one is awsome for sprinkeling around the garden to keep animals out. I go with the bone for my tomatoes because of the high calcium. I had one of my gardens down back that's mostly tomatoes all get blossom end rot. It's caused by inproper absorption of calcium. A deficiency basically. I just dosed them again and they are all much better! I bought some other brand though? It also has great other nutrients. Twice doesn't sound like too much?

Liz is great with some of these issues, perhaps she knows more. Not sure where she is, but I'm sure she'll be back around soon. Or, another moma may know?

I know the lower leaves yellow and die on most of my plants. I just remove them. I always thought it was just because they were older foilage? I have a rule of removeing excess and lower laves anyhow. It helps them get better ventilation, so less chance of any mildew. It also provides the rest of the plant with more nutrients that was being wasted on those leaves. I think I have only met 2 momas that do that though. It's not widely practiced.

[sarahannecloud9]

Here are the links to my albums with all the new pics. I have some great ones! The squash borers up really close, the fungi, ect...

chickens:
http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ens/?start=all

garden:
http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f256/sarahannecloud9/garden%20spring%202012/?start=all