So it looks like no Juliets this year.

What will the Romeo tomatoes do

I can't wait to get home! This weekend, I expect to see peas starting to climb, and flowers on my peppers!

So it looks like no Juliets this year.

They may be down but they're not out. You don't know these tomatoes like I do.

But lesson learned from this point on. I potted them and I was just going to let them run on the ground. Apparently that's not an option (or I was really unlucky). They need to be staked or given some sort of support. Now I'm babying my Cherokee Purple tomato plant as it has two lovely tomatoes coming on. I do NOT want it snapping off as well.

Meanwhile, in my own backyard, my cucumbers are blooming!! *squeee* And Ara's sweet potato plants look sooo good as well. The only thing I'm kind of hoping will start growing soon are my new pepper plants. I had Ara pull the peppers off of them a few days ago so they could start concentrating on growing instead of producing fruit. So we shall see.

We got some rain last night so that makes me happy!

I can't wait to get home!

Me too! Well, get out to the farm anyways. Though I'm pretty nervous about what I'm going to find as it was soooo hot this week. Hopefully nothing has fried. But I'm hoping to maybe plant my okra? We'll see what my mother-in-law says. She's the okra growing queen.

I successfully forgot to bring my camera YET AGAIN this weekend, but to be honest, it stormed so much at the end of the weekend, I'm not sure I would have had a chance to take pictures even if I had remembered it.

My weekend was full of weeding. I got all of the green beans weeded and that was no easy feat. It didn't help that several of them had had the tops nipped off by rabbits and I couldn't even see them. Thankfully I didn't pull too many along with the weeds.

I also weeded the celery, brussel sprouts, and a little bit around the swiss chard.

I'm so excited about the celery and it's the one thing I really wish I had remembered my camera for. It's only about 4-6" tall, but they look like little mini-celerys. They're so cute.

I also found the first three ripe Honeybunch cherry tomatoes. A fourth Sun Gold Cherry was almost ripe, but not quite. I was rather disappointed because I've never tried those before and I want to know whether or not they're any good.

I have a haircut appointment up there with my sister-in-law tomorrow so I hope to remember a camera to take pictures of everything. And get that Sun Gold tomato before the rabbits do!

So the next few things to do on my list...
~Get the okra planted.
~Pick all of the radishes, turnips, and beets that are ready to be picked. The turnips need to be frozen and the beets pickled and canned.
~Prune the tomatoes.
~The ongoing task of weeding.

In the meantime, my backyard garden is doing ok. The cucumbers and sweet potatoes are still recovering from the hail storm last week.

Fantasia, you're such the ideal gardener! The pictures and descriptions of your gardens are making me drool. 'specially the okra!

Well... I haven't really done much in gardening. I tried planting the perennials but with no potting soil, just the soil in the backyard which is more clay-like than ever. (It seriously dries into clay! >.< ) BUT! We got a giant blueberry plant from Aldi, and now I'm trying to wonder how to plant it. The instructions are there, but a little generic. (It's the kind that is dry at the bottom and with branches at the top.) Tips on planting it would be wonderful, wonderful!

I'm pretty sure that blueberry plants need moist well drained soils. If you have clay rich soils, then I would go to your local gardening store, and buy a bag of potting soil (or peat moss). Dig your hole in the ground, and water the snot out of it so that the hard clay soils are workable. Then dump in your potting soil, and mix it in. You'll have to let the soil dry up a bit so that it's workable, but after it's dry, you should be able to plant that blueberry bush.

That's my advice.

At any rate, I went out and did some major hoeing today. Got half of the garden hoed by hand before developing a major blister (which subsequently popped ). Either way, the beans are still being nibbled by bugs, but not as much as they were before. Some of the bean replants are starting to come up. The onions are being taken over by weeds, but I obviously can't take a hoe to them, so I'm going to have to do them by hand (maybe tomorrow, it depends on how I'm feeling). The peppers aren't looking the best, but are starting to get flowers (I'm thinking it's all the rain we've had). The peas are climbing, and are about 5 inches tall right now. One of my cucumber hills is doing great, the other isn't. I'm going to replant the one hill this evening. Tomorrow I want to get the other two hills started. The tomatoes are doing well! My romas have a few tomatoes on them (about the size of two quarters), and my early girls have flowers on them (and they're growing really well!)

I probably won't do another video blog this weekend, because nothing's really changed since last weekend, but next weekend, I should have another video for y'all.

So I did make it to the Farm Garden today like I had hoped. But I forgot my camera YET AGAIN!!! *grumblegrumblegrumble*

Anyways, today was a harvesting day. I picked pretty much all of the remaining turnips and watermelon radishes (it's a radish that's white on the outside and red on the inside). In addition to that, I picked my sun gold tomato which was tasty, and a couple more tomatoes that had ripened.
And last but not least, I picked a whole lotta beets. I had planted them in abundance this year with canning in mind. I'm wondering if I might have overdone it a bit? Particularly since the only two people that like them are my husband and my mother-in-law. Ah well. Canning is on the to-do list for this week. I also picked the first of the summer squash and zucchini today.

Phat lootz from the farm.... (everything under the non-beet items are, um, beets. )

One of the highlights of my day though was finding a garder snake hiding under the radishes. A fantastic garden protector. I moved him to the potatoes though since I had destroyed his shelter.

Oh, and I also pruned the living daylights out of my tomatoes. Every year I don't bother to trim the sucker branches and I always regret it because the tomato turns into a massive bush with not as many tomatoes as it could have had. So I took a pruners to the tomato plants and really knocked them back. Hopefully that will mean bigger, better, and more prolific fruit.

I forgot about this thread in the past few weeks. But I can at least claim the excuse of bad weather and being really, really busy. A few items of note...

~This year's potato crop was insane. Even though we're in a really bad drought with incredible heat, the potatoes were happy. We had a bumper crop. Including the biggest red potatoes I've ever seen.
~The "fall/autumn" gourds apparently decided to produce during the summer? I have a lot of butternut squash and small sugar pumpkins I need to find something to do with.
~Tomatoes and peppers are just now kicking into gear.
~My huge gigantic watermelons of doom are also looking remarkably good.

Today we started our fall garden. I've never done a fall garden, but we planted three rows of corn to start with, and my mother-in-law will probably be planting a lot more in the next week or two.

My mom planted some vegetables and is very excited now that some of them have grown. I have to say, the cherry tomatoes she grew were delicious. We also grew chilies, squash and a few other vegetables. Its very exciting to eat food that was grown in my own backyard.

*drools over the photo of fk's harvest*

I planted a few rows of corn the last couple of years (I call it my 'corn field' at the back of our yard, even though that particular planting area is only 20' x 20' or so ), but before we could nab a cob, the squirrels found it, and you know what that means. In fact, we got to the point where it was so entertaining watching them work at getting the cob off the stalk, then, usually ending up with a bunch of silk trailing behind them, they'd run along the fences with their prize. So cute!!! So, I wish you better: good success with your fall corn, fk. Keep us posted!

You are fortunate you have cherry tomatoes, Valiant. I've had wonderful plants over the years, but tried one kind—a new one to me—in a container this year (because our garden are is under construction), and whilst it began looking very healthy, with many tiny tomatoes growing on it, one morning I woke up to them rotting from the bottom up. So disappointing. I'm thinking with the very humid, dry long heat spell we had throughout July, I compensated by over-watering. Grrrr! Lesson learned, I hope!

More gardening updates. I've gotten loads of pumpkin puree and two pies thus far off of our sugar pumpkins this year. Those plants are done now but boy did they produce. I'm definitely planting them again next year.

The watermelon I plan to enter in the state fair in a couple weeks is up to approximately 50lbs.

Earlier today, I finished up planting my fall garden. I planted Turnips, Radishes, and Beets. Anything else someone wants to try to plant can do it themselves.

Since we're getting "cooler" weather (As in, not a solid streak of 100F+ days) I'm thinking my peppers and tomatoes will finally kick it into gear. Salsa time!

ETA 24 hours later:
I discovered I do have a picture of my watermelon patch, though it is a few weeks old.

The white arrow is pointing to the melon I've picked out for the fair. However, it is about four times that now and a whole lot easier to see. I'll try to get an updated picture soon.

No love in this thread. I'm not surprised. It's been a rather horrid summer for gardeners I think. Either that or everyone is sick to death of it by now and with the arrival of cooler weather (yay!!) everyone is thinking snow instead of growing things. Except me of course.

Well, as an update to the previous thread, the watermelon that has the white arrow pointing to it grew big and strong and weighed in at 68.5lbs at the fair. Here's a picture with its third place ribbon.
Giant Watermelon of Doom

The first place watermelon weighed in at 121lbs so I have my work cut out for me for next year.

I also entered a pair of sugar pumpkins that took second place.
Pumpkins

And finally, a much smaller watermelon (only 34lbs if I remember right) that took first place in the long green striped category.
Blue Ribbon Watermelon

Other updates... my sister and I dug our first sweet potato plant a few weeks ago cause neither of us have ever grown sweet potatoes before and didn't know when it would be ready. We got some sweet potatoes off of it and they were DELICIOUS!! Definitely a keeper for future years! But they weren't quite ready yet (they were small) so we left the other three plants alone. Perhaps when it freezes? We're not sure.

My husband and I decided to invest in a small vineyard for the farm so we planted 29 grape plants last weekend. (It was supposed to be 30 but one plant was dead on arrival.) 9 Concords, 10 Mars, and 10 Reliance. I've no idea what to expect from this, but if they do well, we have plans to expand.

And finally, my garlic arrived today so that gives me something to plant. It's officially the most expensive thing I've ever ordered, and when I opened it, I found out why. They sent full garlic bulbs, like the kind you grow in a store. I figured they'd just be garlic seeds. But even getting these is a learning experience. I thought you were supposed to pull these after a year or two or they'd start to go bad. I guess not. So now I don't know when you're supposed to pull them and use them. Anyways, looking forward to some tasty garlic next year! (I don't know about you all, but I am a garlic addict. )

Yep, this summer was, overall, a drag for gardens here as well. Even the one cherry tomato plant I planted in the spring gave up the ghost early on. And it looked so healthy for awhile. *sniff* It might have been the excessive heat, yes, but to compensate, I may have over-watered it. Ah well, there's always next summer, except there's nothing quite like a fresh-tasting tomato that you have grown yourself, and we really missed that this year.

fantastia, how wonderful about your produce, CONGRATS! *loves the look of a healthy harvest* With all the work and love you put into your gardens, I'm not surprised you came away with some valued ribbons.

Cool about the sweet potatoes (are they the same as "yams"?) and the new vineyard, wow! I've mentioned this elsewhere, but we live fairly near 'Vineyard Central' (Niagara), so have had wonderful access to delicious grapes over the years. When our kids were young, I'd juice dozens of cans of concord grape juice. Soooo good in the middle of winter, and great to give away as gifts also. Say, will they send you a replacement for that one dead plant?

Garlic? Yuppers, the more garlic, the better, in my opinion. Love that stuff! All the best with your ventures, fk, and keep us posted (as I'm sure you will ).

fk, your photos remind me of Toronto's 89 year old Royal Winter Fair (each November), and its huge produce competition, probably my favourite part of the Fair. (Well, it might be tied with food-tasting, lol. And the animals are pretty cool too.)

Now that fall is here, I find our flowers do even better. They look more vibrant against any grey skies and thrive in these cooler temperatures. I planted a lot from seeds this year: the ones that have done best are the zinnias ... gorgeous and prolific, and tall! (Those are not my photos, but almost could be. ) I also planted some morning glory seeds along part of our pool fence, never dreaming they'd take over that entire space, blocking out view of pool and anything beyond. They're really beautiful, but quite in the way there. Not sure where else to plant them next year, and may have to save these lovely vine-like flowering plants until we have more property, and fence space.

People know I love plants, so tend to kindly gift potted beauties to me on any special occasion. Some, after weeks of thriving in the house, begin to naturally fade, at which point I plant them in one of the gardens, instead of composting them, only to find they perk right up in a while, and flower again before winter. Love that!

One of my favourite flowers of all is the autumn mum, which are so picturesque (and often huge) in the fall, and can then be planted to bloom again each year.

A funny tidbit: I really enjoy Indian corn, so hung an attractive small display out on our mailbox, only to find that the squirrels can reach it, so at this point, one week later, 3/4 of each cob is bitten clean off. Those little imps.

Cool about the sweet potatoes (are they the same as "yams"?)

They're actually not. (Though I admittedly had to look up the difference and here's what I found.) Yams and sweet potatoes are two completely different types of plants, but the tubers are so similar in appearance and taste, that they're pretty much used for the same thing.
More info on the subject here if you're interested.

Garlic? Yuppers, the more garlic, the better, in my opinion.

Well, I got four full bulbs planted out at the farm, donated one to my parents, and have been lazy about planting the last three in my own backyard. Shame on me.

Tonight we're supposed to have our first freeze of the season. Where I live it's only supposed to get to 32F so I have my stuff covered and it should be fine. However, at the farm, it's supposed to get down to 26F We made an emergency trip up there on Sunday to bury our grapes in straw. It's supposed to warm back up again and I don't want them to go dormant yet. The more established their root systems can get, the better. But if they do go dormant, so be it. I did actually manage to get a picture of them this time, but it's on my husband's camera phone and I can't retrieve it cause he has it at work. I'll try to remember to post it later.

One thing though, we have this horseradish plant out there that's supposed to be dug after the first hard freeze..... I'm really rather nervous about doing that, but I suppose if I'm going to plant it, I ought to be brave enough to dig it back up again.

Well, the 2011 gardening season has pretty much come to a close. We've had a couple hard freezes now and for the most part everything has shut down til Spring.

~At the farm the baby vineyard is in full hibernation. I'm praying they got a good root system established and will be back in full force next spring.
~Several of the leafy greens are still going out there. The lettuce that reseeded itself looks good. The swiss chard looks good. The carrots look good. All of the onions that we didn't dig are growing back again (they had been mowed off). And the turnips look good.
~We dug a celery plant yesterday and brought it home. I'm definitely growing celery from this point on. It's 100x more potent than the storebought stuff, and judging by the darker green color, I imagine it's got more nutrients in it too. Got that cleaned and refrigerated.
~We dug our horseradish. I was expecting to get walloped in the face by it, but I couldn't even smell it. It grows kind of weird, sort of like long skinny carrots. We made our own horsey sauce last night (which is what I call it ) and when I started peeling the horseradish tubers, then I could smell it. but it wasn't really strong until we blended it with vinegar, sugar and salt. It wasn't too bad.

Mmk, it's January, which means I can bump this thread up guilt-free even though I started buying seeds last week.... *ahem*

FK'S GARDENING SEASON HAS BEGUN!!!

I've hit up some of the local stores to start buying seeds on my list (yeah, I already have a list) and have a nice pile of seed packets growing on my desk. I also weeded out (no pun intended ) my seeds that are more than two years old.

Somebody I bought seeds from last year sold my name to other seed companies and I've already accrued 13 seeds catalogs. I don't mind, I've gotten some really interesting ones I've highlighted some stuff to buy in.

At any rate, I plan to get my order in to Burpee for the rest of my peppers I know I'm growing this year by tomorrow. I also plan to start some of the really early seedlings within the next week or two. My current list....

Seeds to start this month
~Celery (did surprisingly well last year despite the severe drought. Hoping for even better results this year...and more rain)
~Broccoli
~Cauliflower
~Brussels Sprouts (same as Celery)
~Peppers

New-to-me things I'm going to plant this year
~Parsnips
~Sunflowers
~Peanuts (excited about this one )
~New varieties of peppers and tomatoes
~Pole beans (I've only ever grown bush beans)

So here's to a fantastic 2012 gardening year with lots of rain!! But not too much rain.