In the Garden

[JimFoxvog]

We didn't use all our leeks last fall so we dumped leaves on them. Early this spring they looked a little ragged, but then started growing well. Several were more than two pounds apiece. After our hot spell, many have started to have flower heads, but are still reasonably tender.

Meanwhile, rabbits are eating up our beet greens.

[Somebody]

Replanted green beans & yellow beans and lima beans this evening.

Planted sweet potatoes, celery, parsley, cabbages that we started.

Found 2 packets of old sweet corn seed. We'll see if it comes up. If not we'll plant something else there.

Also planted a summer squash mix.

[QuietlyListening]

Picking snap peas and asparagus. blueberries on one shrub are turning purple and rest are following slowly behind. Looks like a nice crop this year. Raspberries forming on some plants and flowering on others. Have some early red thornless and some everbearing red thornless. Sweet potatoes in so all planted til fall veggies. Now to keep up with everything.

[Somebody]

Checked the garden today.... looks like the beans will be ready to pick next week! Had the first zucchinis this week. The sweet corn will be ready soon.

And its raining this evening.

[justme]

we started eating zucchini this week, also.
and tonight, we had green beans and potatoes from the garden.
and refrigerator pickles. love em.

summer time w veggies is the best.

[JimFoxvog]

A few weeks ago we quit harvesting overwintered leeks because they were getting tough and saved the rest for seed. Today we harvested the first few leeks from this year's planting.

[Somebody]

Today I picked a 5 gallon bucket of green beans from 2 rows.

Tomorrow I'll pick the yellow beans.

[QuietlyListening]

Eating tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers- even making some pickles, and blueberries, raspberries and blackberries tho blueberries are just about done. Waiting on cantaloupe.

[Jess77]

My garden has been the worst this year. We have had rain almost every day, sometimes 5-6" at a time. My yellow pear and jelly bean cherry tomatoes are hanging on, but anything bigger than that is splitting. My zucchini fizzled as did my scallop squash. My straightneck did well for a time until powdery mildew took it out. My bush beans produced marginally. I had better luck with pole beans until some critter came and bit off the bottoms. My winter squash have done nothing. My peppers never got beyond the sprout stage. Ugh! How do y'all do it?

[temporal1]

My garden has been the worst this year.
We have had rain almost every day, sometimes 5-6" at a time.
My yellow pear and jelly bean cherry tomatoes are hanging on, but anything bigger than that is splitting.
My zucchini fizzled as did my scallop squash.
My straightneck did well for a time until powdery mildew took it out.
My bush beans produced marginally.
I had better luck with pole beans until some critter came and bit off the bottoms.
My winter squash have done nothing.
My peppers never got beyond the sprout stage.

Ugh! How do y'all do it?

o.my.
i’ve never lived in Florida or Texas, but even in locations with more moderate summers, all these can be problems.
i’m strictly amatuer, not a farmer of any description. i’ve enjoyed some lovely success. and sad failures.
it’s fun to try. maybe especially because, “there’s always next year.”

first thoughts.
1. think of each year gardening as part of a longer plan. don’t expect too much with any new crop or garden.
lush gardens represent years of investment, getting and keeping soil right, learning which plants, which location, etc.
learning about pests, insects and animal invaders. birds. weeds. drainage.
being willing to throw unhappy plants out, to replace with ones with happier dispositions.

2. Florida. Texas. i would be intimidated to try! esp in hot summers.
i would look for a local nursery, get advise for plants, planting, care. local nurseries pretty much stock varieties for local planting.
i think i would consider concentrating growing “off season” and avoid high summer.

3. raised beds. esp if there’s a lot of rain: drainage! for droughts, drip hoses are great. raised beds or not.
raised beds help with weed control, too. some type of fencing might still be needed. moles don’t care about fences.
they devoured an entire bed of tulip bulbs i planted one year. they did not leave 1 bulb!

4. shade. you can now buy temporary shade structures, like tents, used for camping, that might help protect from the sun.

5. wheels. i read about an idea to use planters on wheels so that plants could be moved around for optimum shade/sun.
i like this idea, esp for lettuce. lettuce does well here in spring and fall. summers are too hot. i have an old garden cart that gave out. i’m thinking of lining it with landscape cloth, filling with soil, planting Romaine. this would repurpose the cart, AND i could move it around to protect the plants from the harsh sun.

my 2 cents.