Anyone Garden?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Sounds good. So nice when meals start coming out of the garden.
 
Corn is now past knee-high and it's still not the 4th of July. Tomatoes are also going strong with several green tomatoes on the plants.
IMAG1949web.jpg IMAG1950web.jpg
Greenhouse is starting to look like a jungle as the cucumber takes over. We've harvested about 10 cukes already.
IMAG1951web.jpg
 
i ate my first piece of lettuce yesterday...mmmmmmmm
 
Not quite ready for 4th of July, but it won't be long now.

DSC00502web.jpg DSC00505web.jpg
 
I had some space in my plot so I planted cucs. No experience with them. Do they vine like tomatoes? Any tips?
 
I had some space in my plot so I planted cucs. No experience with them. Do they vine like tomatoes? Any tips?
Yeah, even "bush" cucumbers will grow tendrils to latch on with. You just shouldn't end up with 20 foot long vines like a non-bush type can. I tried some of that string cucumber netting from HD last year and it worked OK at least with the pickling cucumbers I grew on it. Made the tiny cucumbers easier to find and pick at least once a day as they balloon and seed quick. I prefer wire ( or wood) with large enough openings to get y0ur hands through and fruit are less likely to get wedged/strangled in. Wire and wood generally needs to be put in place before you plant unless you are real careful. The string nets can be put up strategically afterwards with a bit of support and lashing.

I've grown slicing cucumbers on the ground in a patch with the vines criss-crossing each other and that works OK too, it's just real easy to not find one until it turns into a monster. On the ground you need a second pair of eyes to find the ones the first set of eyes miss. :)
 
Last edited:
I have one running up a pole and over a trellis in the greenhouse. It is somewhere's past 12 ft now. Outdoors I made a 5ft tall, 24" square vertical tower out of 3/4" pvc pipe that gets wrapped with trellis mesh for them to climb up. I have also made simple A frames with mesh (could be chicken wire or deer fencing) and that worked ok.
 
IMG_0628.JPG
one wood trellis made from, iirc, 5/4 cedar ripped to strips and then some concrete reinforcing wire on some A-frames. I have to pound rebar into the ground at the corners and lash the frames to the rebar or the wind tries to take them away when/if they get full of plant. I'm about 6 weeks behind schedule this year in part due to the late Spring cold and seed germination problems.
IMG_0629.JPG
concrete wire cage for determinate tomato (celebrity ). They have to have a pole sunk in the ground to lash the cage to for the wind too.

IMG_0631.JPG
The "tomato cages" in the blue tubs are good for peppers although I''ve had the wind blow those over too in September. Cucumbers in the blue tubs, we'll see how they do. I'll probably have to lash them to the tub somehow. Tomatillo in the black tubs.

IMG_0633.JPG
They're coming along.


IMG_0630.JPG
1/2 runner pinto beans . I may regret using that fence. I have a couple days to consider just using twine. First time growing dry beans. Kind of a waste of garden space considering how cheap they are in the store but your own are supposed to be better. Cut back on winter squash this year so I'm trying dry beans.
 
Nicely done. I like the use of the reinforcement mesh for the cages. Not sure how tall the pinto beans will get, but we need to use 8' tall deer fence for the beans that we've grown and many years that's not tall enough! Fresh beans do taste better!
 
got back from a couple of weeks out of town, and I got to have my first meal of salad from the garden!
20160717_170749.jpg 20160717_184937.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: billb3 and begreen
We have already picked kale, green beans, yellow beans, zucchini, and our first red tomato :)
 

Attachments

  • garden 7.JPG
    garden 7.JPG
    265.9 KB · Views: 193
  • Like
Reactions: billb3
My red potatoe plants are starting to yellow and fall over. Does this mean the potatoes are ready?
 
  • Like
Reactions: billb3
My red potatoe plants are starting to yellow and fall over. Does this mean the potatoes are ready?

I would say so.... when did you put them in?
 
  • Like
Reactions: billb3
Yes they are ready to harvest. Potatoes can have a short season. Some of our potatoes have also yellowed. Will be harvesting them today probably.
 
My red potatoe plants are starting to yellow and fall over. Does this mean the potatoes are ready?
They might get thicker skins if you wait until the plant is completely dead, some potatoes store better anyway. They are probably as big as they are going to get though.
My potatoes have set some seed.
IMG_0637.JPG
which isn't supposedly terribly unusual
first time growing potatoes in tubs and haven't grown potatoes for a long, long time.

Had half of this cucumber for lunch:
IMG_0636.JPG

tomatillo are starting to split husks:
IMG_0638.JPG

I'm 4 to 6 weeks behind this year but have picked a few cherry tomatoes and pickling cucumbers.
 
This is 3 plants. Looks like I got them just in time.

31f273d7f051bd18feba2ca8fc98f282.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: billb3
Nice. As long as the potatoes are covered completely they keep pretty well in the ground.
 
Can I plant the seeds?
 
Speaking of ivy, I'm having the worst time trying to fill a small, 10x15 plot with ivy. It seems to want to climb up, not horizontal. It is spreading, but it's taking a long time. Any tricks to getting it to spread faster?
 
Have you applied any nitrogen fertilizer?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.