our garden is great this year, its the best start we've ever had. ~50 tomato plants, ~50 squash plants ~50 cucumber plants. 2 rows of golden queen corn about 120 ft. long, 2 rows of forhook Lima beans ~90 ft long, 4 rows of white half runner green beans about 40 ft long, 5 rows of tenderette green beans abot 30 ft long. also planted a 50 lb bag of potatoes, but rain flooded the patch and only about 2/3 of them came up.


sprayed everything for bugs recently and now im just waiting for the ground to dry up so i can get the tractors in the fields.

(obviously I'm from the country and we grow very large gardens)

5/21/2010 1:17:16 AM

I've got my first zucchini! It's about 4 inches long right now we have ~10 blossoms as well.

Very very excited

5/21/2010 1:22:53 PM

4"

5/21/2010 1:39:47 PM

i've never been much on zuchinni, unless sliced and fried like french fries. I prefer the straightneck or crookneck yellow squash myself....mainly all we plant are straightneck. They seem to have the least seeds in them, and some members of my family can't have eat seeds.

5/22/2010 2:52:13 AM

Came back from a week in Florida and the garden is OFF THE HOOK! Just about everything is doing well. We have a total of 16 tomato plants, all growing like weeds! I guess the 6 inches of rain we got while we were gone really helped. I will get some updated pictures soon.

5/23/2010 12:21:09 PM

gtherman, I'm so jealous at the impressive size of your garden! I have a 4'x4' box and an 8'x4' box

I'm having a problem with pollination. I had a mini squash that just died instead of growing. The problem is that the male and female flowers never seem to open! Today I went and tried to hand pollinate so we'll see how that goes.

also my cucumbers seem to have no male flowers at all ... wtf??

5/23/2010 12:51:08 PM

gtherman.....do you have a produce stand or something? That is a shit ton of veggies just for personal consumption.

5/23/2010 1:19:16 PM

Here are some pictures I took this morning.

The Garden:



Romaine Lettuce:


Watermelon (we didn't plant it, it just came back from last year):


One of the Apple Trees:

5/24/2010 8:40:40 AM

did you plant the apple tree yourself? The wife and I are planning to plant 2 apple trees together in our back yard but I don't know how fast they grow/if we will ever get to enjoy them. We bought with the intention of being in this house for awhile, but still you never know.

5/24/2010 8:46:21 AM

anyone know where i can get daylily plants in bulk for cheap?

5/24/2010 8:55:45 AM

^^ nah, we didn't plant the apple trees, they were already here when my GF bought the house about 6 years ago. We have that one (Granny Smith) and another one down in the dog pen. Not sure what type of apple tree is in the pen, but the apples that grow on it are red and pretty sweet tasting.

I am not sure how long it takes apple trees to grow, but we planted 10 trees this year (dogwoods, Washington Hawthorns, and several others I don't remember) from bare-root "treelings" around 12 inches long. The guide we got with them said they take around 10 years to reach maturity. We planted them 2 months ago and they have already doubled in size and have leaves on them.

5/24/2010 9:17:32 AM

cool. I think we are going to plant 1 Fuji and 1 Gala and see what happens. I've read some things online that have said if you don't buy "whips" you can see fruit in 3-5 years, so we'll see.

We are also planning to plant a sycamore, a heritage river birch, and maybe some other smaller stuff. And then a ton of leyland cypress as well. Basically the lady before us did NOTHING to the yard so it has no shade, no bordering privacy, etc. But at least we get to pick the stuff we get to plant

5/24/2010 9:37:17 AM

Well you could always plant trees that are WAY more mature than the ones we planted. I am sure you could find some that are a good 6'-7' tall already. Granted, you will pay more for them, but like you said you will see fruit in a few years

We got our trees free for donating to the Arbor Day Foundation, so they sent them out a lot smaller than what we would have planted given the choice.

Also, as for bordering privacy, we planted bamboo along the 1 section of fence that backs up to another person's property (well, it's actually a trailer park that it backs up to). It grows SUPER fast, and within a few months you can go from wide-open to almost totally private.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 9:43 AM. Reason : a]

5/24/2010 9:40:56 AM

Yea, be both like bamboo...but in a neighborhood I'm just worried about its growth/spread rate since I know it can be kind of invasive. We have 0.4 acres so it is not as bad as a lot of newer neighborhoods but I'm still not sure how much maintenance would be involved to keep it off of neighbors' properties.

5/24/2010 10:02:37 AM

^^^ make sure you plant the river birch far away from the house. Their roots spread really really far, and planting close to a house will either damage a patio, driveway, or foundation, or its growth will be limited by whatever's in the way.

If you have to plant something fairly close to a house, there is a dwarf variety that's more suited for closer proximity to a structure, but I can't remember what it was called.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:03 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2010 10:02:50 AM

thanks, I will definitely keep that in mind. Luckily, I am planning to plant it in the very back corner of our lot (and we have one of those trapezoidal end of the cul-de-sac lots so the corner is a decent distance from our house). So hopefully we will be ok. I'll get some measurements and pictures once the retaining wall is done. And yes it should be a decent distance from the retaining wall too...closer to it than the house but I'm definitely not planning on planting anything with big traveling roots too close to the wall.

My guess is that the area I was eying would at least like 75ft (probably longer, just guessing conservatively) from the corner of my house and maybe 40ft from the closest part of the retaining wall. Now it is on the corner of my neighbor's property and my property but his yard is a foot feet up above me and it is the back corner of his yard as well.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:18 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 10:05:52 AM

yeah, you should be fine with that. The two I planted are similar distances away from my house. It's only been a year, but I'm confident i'm a safe distance away.

5/24/2010 10:59:39 AM

cool

and for daylilys, have you tried http://www.cyberlily.com/ from Chapel Hill? nevermind looks like the actual garden isn't even around anymore, sorry!

Here are links to a bunch of other NC places:

http://www.bearwdaylilyfarm.com/
http://www.hollyhilldaylilies.com/Wholesale/
http://www.gardeneureka.com/CRITT/

Don't know anything about prices but it is worth a shot right?

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 11:29 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 11:20:46 AM

^ a lot


we do sell to some produce stands, mainly stuff like squash that are very easy to grow, and dont take long to pick...

yes it is rather large, but we dont tend to it everyday like many of yall prolly do....we plant more and just let it do its thing with cultivation, fertilizer, and spraying pesticide.

pic to come if i can remember a camera when i go over there, it on a 50 acre tract of land about 15 minutes from my house

5/24/2010 11:45:44 AM

can anyone help me with this cucumber problem?? no male flowers == no cucumbers!!

several females have already fallen off and died

5/25/2010 3:49:39 PM

I am way too late on this but I plan to do raised beds next year. This thread is EXCELLENT!!!! I have quite a few things bookmarked from this thread.

5/26/2010 1:50:21 PM

^^how many plant do you have and how close to each other are they?

5/26/2010 6:34:16 PM

I only have one cucumber. next to it I have 2 yellow squash about 2 feet apart, they're getting males and females. Would it be a bad idea to use the yellow squash pollen on the cucumber? they seem too different for it to work.

5/26/2010 9:38:45 PM

um...i wouldnt do that.....but i'll be interested on how this goes....i think that the male flowers are open at night or something.....we always just plant them and let them do their thing....lol

5/27/2010 7:02:04 AM

I pulled my first cucumber, squash, and bell pepper last night.

My tomato plants are going berzerk. I've got a few that are heading towards 7' tall.

some of them are doing something new to me. The fruiting spar (dunno the word, the bit on the plant where the tomato fruits grow) on some plants is growing a new vine off of the end of it, almost like a sucker. I pulled one off just past the fruits, and stuck it in the ground, and now it's growing on it's own. They all seem to be really aggressive plants. It's odd.

I'll get pics tonight if I can.

5/27/2010 10:00:42 AM

the zucchini squash hasn't gotten any larger even w/ all this rain. I'm wondering if I should go ahead and pull it so the plant an concentrate on producing more.

jalapeno plants are starting to blossom

got a number of tomatoes now, but still not ready to pull any just yet

Quote :

"I've got a few that are heading towards 7' tall."

yeah our one is HUGE!

amazing, my marigold seeds are now plants and considerably larger than the grown ones I bought at the nursery

also, the pot that contained numerous flowering seeds the squirrels knocked over a month ago are now growing in the pathway behind our house, hahaha as well as many other various plants growing from the bird seed it's gonna be a jungle back there!

[Edited on May 27, 2010 at 1:25 PM. Reason : ]

5/27/2010 1:24:15 PM

just notice this thread...don't know how i missed it

we have basil, cilantro, kale, tomatoes, and cucumbers all in containers out back.

we sowed all of them on March 13. We have harvested the kale, cilantro, and basil many times so far since then...

i noticed today that the cucumber (sweet burpless hybrid) has about 3-4 cucumbers beginning to grow. however, we have never grown cucumbers before so we don't know when to harvest them. i read online that anywhere from 6-10" is fine and that diameter is quarter size or larger... does that sound correct?

my better boy hybrid tomato plants are really tall as well but i don't see any tomatoes yet...plenty of flowers though

5/28/2010 10:19:40 PM

I have baby tomatoes!!

5/31/2010 9:55:52 PM

Nerdchick:what do your strawberry bags look like? I was telling Ken about them and wanted to try them if you had some success.

5/31/2010 10:02:24 PM

Pics I just took. It is AMAZING what a week and a little rain will do!

6/1/2010 3:34:31 PM

apparently the knockout roses I planted in front of my front porch and yellow flowering vine (can't remember what it was called) that I planted to climb my mailbox are growing and blooming a TON...but I'm sure they'll be dormant again by the time I get home.

6/1/2010 3:41:08 PM

Quote :

"Nerdchick:what do your strawberry bags look like? I was telling Ken about them and wanted to try them if you had some success."

well they have lots and lots of pretty foliage Not sure how to make them berry up

I had some small but very tasty berries, a bit tart but some were sweet. The biggest drawback is that the bag has to be watered every day, or even twice on hot days. Also I think I'm having problems w/ drainage because the plants on the bottom are turning yellow and dying. I cut a bigger hole in the bottom so hopefully that will help.

6/1/2010 4:06:34 PM

look at my bountiful basil! I made 2 batches of pesto yesterday.

6/4/2010 1:58:02 PM

I have tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers starting to come out. WOOOOHOOOOO!

6/4/2010 2:23:12 PM

That's a cool cutting board Nerdchick

6/4/2010 3:26:05 PM

^ thanks! TheBullDoza made it. It's end grain

6/4/2010 4:33:13 PM

baby squash citing! still waiting on the tomatoes, but the plants look really healthy.

6/4/2010 8:05:15 PM

A few I took this morning:

Zucchini (all of them have fruit on them now)


Spaghetti Squash HUGE! (Grown from seeds taken from a store bought Spaghetti Squash)


Tomatoes (shitty picture, but they all have fruit on them)


Row of tomatoes and squash:

6/7/2010 10:31:58 AM

nice!

and why the hell did i spell "sighting" as "citing"? gd I couldn't have been that tired at 8pm

6/7/2010 10:43:19 AM

you can also see all the onions sprouting in the background of the first picture.

6/7/2010 10:44:59 AM

I'm kind of worried about some of my tomatoes. All the plants are growing vigorously (the biggest, is probably better than 5' tall and really bushy), and the sungolds are setting fruit (the first few should be ready to pick today or tomorrow), but my heirloom varieties aren't producing any fruit yet. Between my cherokee chocolate, orange strawberry, brandywine, and big lucky red, there is a grand total of one racquetball-sized tomato right now, on the cherokee. They're all flowering profusely and have been for a couple of weeks at least, but I just haven't seen any fruit yet--the flowers seem to be falling off after they bloom without starting a tomato before they go.

HALP?

On the bright side, all our peppers, our arugula, chard, and herbs are doing fantastically. Chard is almost ready to start harvesting. We've eaten seven of our nine red leaf lettuces too, many tasty salads, and the last two are ready to pull when we need them. Our lone eggplant isn't that big yet, but it's starting to flower too.

[Edited on June 7, 2010 at 1:36 PM. Reason : 3]

6/7/2010 1:35:44 PM

I am having the exact opposite problem. Our tomatoes are doing FANTASTIC, with about 10 of the 15 already fruiting. But our Green Bell Peppers seem stunted. They look healthy, but don't seem to be growing very much. Definitely nowhere near a fruiting stage. Our jalapeno, banana, and red chilis are doing awesome though.

6/7/2010 1:43:38 PM

sungold is a very early tomato, many people report it being first. problems with setting fruit could be several things.

1) temperature: daytime temps above 85°F, nighttime temps above 70°F or below 55°F. I am not in NC, so I am not sure what weather you have been experiencing lately, but this is frequently cited as the most common reason for blossom drop.

2) Water supply- too much? too little? Tomatoes need a constant amount of moisture- watering daily or every other day may be necessary in dry weather, but make sure you are watering very deeply and less frequently if possible. If you let the ground get dry and then soak them, this can cause problems with fruit cracking later on as well.

3) Lack of pollinators: seen any bees around lately? If not, you may need to hand-pollinate. High humidity can also cause pollen to get sticky and fail to leave the stamen. Take a paintbrush and find a flower whose stamens are ripe. it can be from sungold or any other variety, provided you aren't using this particular tomato for seed. brush the pollen onto the pistils of flowers on a different plant.

4)Nutrients: if your plants' leaves are dark green, you probably have adequate nitrogen. Excess nitrogen will encourage the growth of leaves rather than flowers and fruit. look for a fertilizer relatively high in phosphorus to promote fruiting, but make sure not to over-apply. Tomatoes need lots of soil CALCIUM and lack of this will affect fruit quality. Affected tomatoes often get a rot on the blossom end of the tomato. Tomatoes love eggshells and bonemeal.

5. Competition and crowding: hopefully you have your plants adequately spaced (at least a foot or two between main stems). If the plant sets too many blossoms to make fruit, it will drop some. just the way it goes.

One more thing to keep in mind is that there are different varieties of tomatoes. Determinate varieties will set all the fruit they will make in a season at once, and it will all ripen within 1-2 weeks. this is typical of varieties marketed as "bush" tomatoes. Indeterminate varieties are vine types that will keep growing and setting fruit until frost. You can try and encourage Indeterminate types to fruit earlier by pinching off the tips of the branches, but since the growing season is so long in NC, I think it is better to just wait it out.

6/7/2010 2:20:34 PM

my first jalapeno bloomed today!

6/7/2010 3:52:49 PM

i'm more impressed that you got something to grow in the barren red clay....

6/7/2010 3:55:28 PM

my yellow squash is all wilted!!

I watered the garden on Sunday morning and now (Monday afternoon) it's almost dead

Everything else is fine though ... I think it must be especially vulnerable to heat. I've picked 2 squash so far so I guess I should count myself not too unlucky

6/7/2010 5:54:53 PM

Well I found out why my squash was dead. I'd been seeing gooey/grainy yellow stuff on the stem of both plants and today I investigated further ... and I found this fucker living in a giant hole in the stem! I tore up both my squashes and threw them away



On a good note, my tomatoes are doing great! Still no male flowers on the cucumber, I may plant another cuke in the empty squash spots and hope for some cross polination.

6/7/2010 9:37:28 PM

Just got my stuff planted today, tilled up fertalizer down well see how year 1 goes hope for some veggies and our jack-o-lantern. Will get some pics tomorrow, whats best for maters, cages or just stakes tied off?

6/7/2010 10:23:06 PM

a nice wood stake is the best, like in my pics. The cages are too flimsy IMO. I tie the plants on with cut up panty hose, it's gentler on the stems than string.

6/7/2010 10:32:55 PM

I came in here to ask that. Xtine's maters have little grape sized babies on them! So cute!

6/7/2010 11:45:31 PM