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Post by LoveSalads on Jun 2, 2024 17:21:09 GMT -5
It's June and flowers on many plants in the garden hopefully a good sign of things to come. Some peas , just need to fill out.  20240602_123418 Peas  20240602_123357 Peas1 First pepper I found. Has been cool out and again have peppers before any tomatoes
 20240602_123326 Lady Diva Bell Pepper
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Post by LoveSalads on Jun 14, 2024 13:59:26 GMT -5
Current challenge in the Garden. My favorite yearly visitor.  20240612_201629 Common Potato bugs The wonderful potato bug. Every year we fight these for a 6 week stretch or so. You can Vacuum them up with a wet/dry vac and soapy water. You can squish them. (my preferred method). Diatomaceous Earth is supposed to dry them out and kill them also. They will destroy your entire potato patch in less than a month if you don't get after them. Current patch is descent size and so far only have lost 6 or so plants eaten to the stubs. Sometimes you just can't get them all.  20240613_132140 Potato patch Baby Stalk of Sweet Corn. Should be knee high by 4th of July as they say around here.  20240612_201659 Sweet Corn
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Post by scarfguy on Jun 14, 2024 14:52:46 GMT -5
EEWWW BUGS! That's why I have never done any outside gardening. I hate bugs.
I was so so thrilled when I discovered Aerogardens and realized I could farm inside (although with limited options)
"Knee high by the 4th of July" is the old adage here in Northeast Ohio too, LoveSalads |
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Post by swimmom500 on Jun 14, 2024 21:11:21 GMT -5
EEWWW BUGS! That's why I have never done any outside gardening. I hate bugs.
I was so so thrilled when I discovered Aerogardens and realized I could farm inside (although with limited options)
"Knee high by the 4th of July" is the old adage here in Northeast Ohio too, LoveSalads I haven’t heard that expression in years. My father always said that! |
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Post by swimmom500 on Jun 14, 2024 21:13:15 GMT -5
Current challenge in the Garden. My favorite yearly visitor. 20240612_201629 Common Potato bugs The wonderful potato bug. Every year we fight these for a 6 week stretch or so. You can Vacuum them up with a wet/dry vac and soapy water. You can squish them. (my preferred method). Diatomaceous Earth is supposed to dry them out and kill them also. They will destroy your entire potato patch in less than a month if you don't get after them. Current patch is descent size and so far only have lost 6 or so plants eaten to the stubs. Sometimes you just can't get them all. 20240613_132140 Potato patch Baby Stalk of Sweet Corn. Should be knee high by 4th of July as they say around here. 20240612_201659 Sweet Corn
What do you do with all those potatoes? I had 4 or 5 grow bags with them a couple years ago and had enough to last all winter. |
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 849 
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Post by slw on Jun 15, 2024 10:42:11 GMT -5
Everything looks great! My outside garden is over and done; it was rather a disappointment this year. I had an invasion of squash bugs that were horrible; they ruined almost all of my tomato crop.  I have pulled up almost everything except for some random pepper plants and chives. |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jun 15, 2024 20:14:57 GMT -5
Sorry about the squash bugs destroying the tomatoes that stinks. slw So far for me just the normal beetles /bugs and lots of rabbits. The amount of bug squishing is excessive this year. I still have a long way to go to call this year one way or another. |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jun 16, 2024 7:15:33 GMT -5
swimmom500 The neighbor and I spilt the harvest. We both have large families and when we have our family gatherings we love potatoes . So each of our families consume lots of potatoes I guess and, we both love the home grown quality. It is a ton of extra work and as we age it gets harder every year. If some of the younger family members don't take over in these next years the potato patch will be history.
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 9, 2024 23:00:55 GMT -5
Short July update. My camera on my phone was wet and messed up most pics. I will add more later in the month. For the most part I lost my helper so has become more a labor of love and work, not so much pleasure at this point. The corn is way past knee high by the 4th of July.  Corn Onions are doing well have picked several for cucumber salad. Not quite full size but very tasty.  Onion Potato beetles, still fighting these every other day not daily anymore.  Beetle Potato patch is doing good  Potato patch Tomato and Pepper patch. No ripe Toms but many various sweet peppers have been consumed.  Toms N Peppers Cucumber patch is huge but only maybe 6 picked so far. 
Cucumber patch Some Sweet Peppers finally going to color up  Peppers Zucchini starting to develop 
Zucchini General middle section. Planted 4 more rows of corn a few weeks back that are growing nicely now but, so are the weeds.  Middle That is all for now, need to clean my camera lens off and will post more when time permits. |
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Post by lynnee on Jul 11, 2024 22:44:29 GMT -5
What an amazing garden, LoveSalads! You are going to need an army to harvest all those wonderful taters, squash, peppers, and other veggies. That sweet corn will be so delicious!  |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 13, 2024 9:58:30 GMT -5
First set of mostly ripe Tomatoes. All my labels have washed clean off. I guess it is time to put the planting paper up on the wall and toss darts at it, as I have planted many different varieties this year. Going to take a wild guess and call these the 42 day Tomato as they are the first. About the size of golf balls so, large cherry toms.  20240710_211828  20240413_192831 |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 13, 2024 12:08:03 GMT -5
I grabbed an Onion for a different kind of Cucumber salad. I noticed some orange/red color in the tomato patch and, on my way back I noticed a Zucchini that was maybe 7 inches yesterday. Well now that Zucchini is a foot long, my they grow fast.  20240713_122020 I think the other Cherry Tomatoes are Bumble Bee that's where the dart landed anyway.  I shall see when the plant matures more fruit. |
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Post by scarfguy on Jul 13, 2024 12:46:06 GMT -5
Wow, LoveSalads, all of your veggies look so clean and healthy!
Do you not have a job?... cause you must be spending 24 hours a day tending to your crops!  |
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Post by Clovis Sangrail on Jul 13, 2024 12:48:15 GMT -5
Reference those potato bugs -- When I did some outdoor gardening, mostly raised boxes, I would always buy a container of ladybugs, mostly because I like lady bugs (holdover from kid days).
But then I found out that those cure little orange and black bugs are carnivorous as hell, so I doubled up on lady bug application.
And I just did some checking -- Ladybugs love potato beetle eggs and larva.
You can get them from Amazon if your garden supply center doesn't have them. They are great fun to set free.
The garden center I went to had a big shelf of lady bugs at each register, and with them some praying mantises. I frequently saw people buying both, which I kind of thought was poorly thought through because praying mantises eat lady bugs.
(And yes, praying mantises also eat potato bugs.)
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 13, 2024 15:50:56 GMT -5
Reference those potato bugs -- When I did some outdoor gardening, mostly raised boxes, I would always buy a container of ladybugs, mostly because I like lady bugs (holdover from kid days). But then I found out that those cure little orange and black bugs are carnivorous as hell, so I doubled up on lady bug application. And I just did some checking -- Ladybugs love potato beetle eggs and larva. You can get them from Amazon if your garden supply center doesn't have them. They are great fun to set free. The garden center I went to had a big shelf of lady bugs at each register, and with them some praying mantises. I frequently saw people buying both, which I kind of thought was poorly thought through because praying mantises eat lady bugs. (And yes, praying mantises also eat potato bugs.) It is mostly all mature beetles now and not hundreds, more like 20-40 mostly daily. This is manageable now. I think in a few more weeks I will only have to check intermittently as their season is about over. I will keep that in my quiver for next year as I also love ladybugs. I haven't seen a real lady bug in many years here between Michigan and Illinois . Every since they released the Asian beetle in the 70's it didn't take long for the native ladybugs to all but disappear round here. The Asian ones bite and even draw blood. When I was a kid I used to come home with frogs in my pocket and, ladybugs on my arm/s. Good memories............ |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 15, 2024 16:30:47 GMT -5
A few nice Cucumbers for a pasta salad. Some tasty Sweet peppers for snacking and another new guess Cherry Tomato. When I tossed the dart it landed on White Currant . The sweetest Cherry Tomato I think I have tasted. I will grow these in an AG this winter to see if they are just as tasty. The 42 day Tomato(my guess) is the other in the box. Not impressed with these but were free with the order if I remember correctly. They are fine in salads but require removing the core to be more palatable.  20240715_123144 Yummy |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 21, 2024 7:58:10 GMT -5
Some full size AG transplants. After a few weeks the tomato cages have almost disappeared.  20240720_151725 Transplants Another new Cherry Tomato to guess. The dart landed on Rosella, A delicious tasting tom. Guess the Red Pepper ?  20240718_1141091 The cucumber patch is a monster that is only 3 plants. I can only find them on the trellis above or hanging below. This will have to be redesigned as it is difficult to get underneath and impossible to find on the ground/plastic covering.
 20240720_151921 Vines General view of the size differences between a 1/2 pound Cherokee Purple tomato, 42 day Tomato and the various other Cherry Tomatoes. Lots of 42 day Toms they have worked well in the Cucumber salads maturing at the same time.  20240719_183958 Toms
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Post by scarfguy on Jul 21, 2024 13:56:07 GMT -5
Hehe, looks like you find the cucumbers on the ground by stepping on them and smashing them.  |
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Post by LoveSalads on Jul 21, 2024 14:11:47 GMT -5
Hehe, looks like you find the cucumbers on the ground by stepping on them and smashing them. As the saying goes tread lightly my friend. There are marigolds in that patch so every now and then I am wading through that mess ripping vines apart wondering when I will step on them. |
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Post by lynnee on Jul 21, 2024 18:11:56 GMT -5
Your outdoor garden continues to amaze, LoveSalads! |
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I have pulled up almost everything except for some random pepper plants and chives. 
