2025 Garden Thread

[burning VC]

I'm growing early girl tomatoes this year too. Never had them before. Are they a usual for you?

No, new for me this year....and specifically, Bush Early Girl.(larger than E,G.)
they were the only starters avail a few weeks ago....so i grabbed them and started the other varieties from seed.


b.E.G. supposed to fruit 50 days.....so was trying them to get something prior to July 4th when i expect the Marglobe's and Rutgers and Roma's.(80-90days)

 

[djlew]

No, new for me this year....and specifically, Bush Early Girl.(larger than E,G.)
they were the only starters avail a few weeks ago....so i grabbed them and started the other varieties from seed.


b.E.G. supposed to fruit 50 days.....so was trying them to get something prior to July 4th when i expect the Marglobe's and Rutgers and Roma's.(80-90days)

Lol, I just went back and saw you said new to you this year! Wife saw the Early Girl maters and was excited to get a quicker growing tomato. Curious to see how yours do too!

 

[EbS-P]

Growing great lots of blossoms. Some indeterminates need support already.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Growing great lots of blossoms. Some indeterminates need support already.

Nice. How do you support the plants?

I put out some tomato transplants recently. I had a few starts from an earlier Aerogarden round that had been potted up, and I started some later ones in soil and just got them in the ground a couple of days ago. Sadly, I've been losing some to cutworms. I put cardboard collars around them but found one hanging down today and upon opening the collar discovered that it had been cut through. I'll probably end up trying to clone replacements if I can.



We had some rain over the weekend and just a tiny bit more last night. The plants have been glad for it. I thought the lettuce and dill looked particularly happy this morning with the moisture on the leaves.


And found outside the garden this evening was a snapping turtle. I've never seen one before that I recall. The cat colony on the property was taking too much of an interest in the turtle, so we moved it out of the yard down to our little stream. It settled happily into the mud down there.

 

[EbS-P]

Nice. How do you support the plants?

I put out some tomato transplants recently. I had a few starts from an earlier Aerogarden round that had been potted up, and I started some later ones in soil and just got them in the ground a couple of days ago. Sadly, I've been losing some to cutworms. I put cardboard collars around them but found one hanging down today and upon opening the collar discovered that it had been cut through. I'll probably end up trying to clone replacements if I can.

View attachment 338703View attachment 338704

We had some rain over the weekend and just a tiny bit more last night. The plants have been glad for it. I thought the lettuce and dill looked particularly happy this morning with the moisture on the leaves.
View attachment 338705

And found outside the garden this evening was a snapping turtle. I've never seen one before that I recall. The cat colony on the property was taking too much of an interest in the turtle, so we moved it out of the yard down to our little stream. It settled happily into the mud down there.View attachment 338706

I use string and clips. If you look close you can see the things from the greenhouse frame and the little white things clamp on to the string and then lock closed around the stems.

 

[begreen]

I just bought 5 lengths of 20 ft. 1/2" rebar and cut them into ~ 6.6" lengths. These will serve as tomato stakes that will outlast me. Our tomatoes went into the ground on May 1st. The peppers and eggplant went in yesterday. So far, all are well. Not much rain here. We have had only 12.5" total since the beginning of the year and only .01? in May so far. Needless to say, I am watering.

 

[djlew]

Some more marigolds planted and trellis up. So far everyone looks happy. Harvested a bunch of lettuce today from the front yard!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I was out yesterday evening at a school concert. On the drive home we began to see signs of a storm having gone through. As soon as I parked, I was greeted by my oldest child holding out a plastic cup full of ice and asking me if I had gotten her texts. [I hadn't as I had my phone on silent during the concert.] She told me that the ice was what she scooped up in one pass off the picnic table half an hour after the hail storm passed and that the hailstones had approached the size of golf balls. I went to sleep last night not expecting to have a happy morning in the garden. Thankfully it ended up being a happy morning as there was definitely less damage that I had been imagining.

Most of my cucumbers are growing in pairs. I think the growing point of the one on the left is broken off, but I have hopes that the one on the right will continue. I think something similar happened to this tomato. The main stem broke, but I hope it will bush out and grow from below.


I was pleased that the centers of the cabbage looked fine even though stalks and outer leaves were broken and torn.


My beets have been getting hit hard but cutworms, and they got pounded by the hail. I'll just have to see if any manage to keep going.



I have three plants of Romanesco, and this is the largest. I had really expected them to be in shreds this morning, so I was quite surprised to see how well they withstood the hail. There were tears and breaks, but all in all, it held up the best of just about anything in the garden [except maybe the stevia which looked hardly bothered at all].

My tender lettuce leaves did not fair so well. I think most can keep growing, but the red one in the center looks to have been practically obliterated.

This was one of my smallest tomatoes. It will be a test to see how much can regenerate with a good root system and a stalk.



All in all, though, I'm very pleased with as little damage as I got from what seemed to be a pretty powerful storm judging by all the debris in the area. I was very thankful that my tiny fig looked to have been sheltered by our porch.

 

[begreen]

Oh no, that looks as bad as when the deer get into the garden. That was a strong storm. Looks like another wave is coming today. Hope it passes you by this time.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Here’s hoping for the best, sometimes the plants will surprise you! They try their best to come back!

I once got a ton of trays of brassicas for free because I happened to walk into the garden store just after a woodchuck mowed down their plantlets, lol.

We got a small garden planted today.

I think we’re going to be way to busy to do our old size garden.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Not big but things seem to be doing well.

 

[Montanalocal]

In central Montana next to the Continental divide, 5,000 ft. elevation.

Onions and Garlic


Cabbages, Broccoli and Cauliflower.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How do you keep herbivores out of your brassicas?

 

[Montanalocal]

So by “herbivores” I assume you mean anything that eats plants. My big one is deer, which I keep out by a big deer fence. For smaller ones like rabbits I keep feral cats around by feeding them.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Yeah, I didn’t see any fencing. Luckily I don’t have many deer in my immediate neighborhood, but woodchucks and rabbits are everywhere.

 

[begreen]

View attachment 338807
Not big but things seem to be doing well.

A little heat and sunshine sure makes a difference. This is a month ahead of our garden right now. We are having a coolish spring so far.

 

[begreen]

In central Montana next to the Continental divide, 5,000 ft. elevation.

Onions and Garlic


Cabbages, Broccoli and Cauliflower.

You're off to a nice start there! It's amazingly weed free.

 

[Montanalocal]

You're off to a nice start there! It's amazingly weed free.

Yea, I am a big weed free guy. If you look at the edges of the garden, you will see the tops of my perimeter circumference of a vertical 2 X 6 sunk into the ground. It keeps the grass and all other creeping weeds from creeping into the garden.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Not sure what these are. Really look like little hanging hearts !

Bleeding Hearts !

 

[begreen]

Not sure what these are. Really look like little hanging hearts !

Bleeding heart.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Not sure what these are. Really look like little hanging hearts !

Bleeding Hearts !

Beautiful. My mom always had bleeding heart in her front flower bed when I was growing up. That's a lovely specimen.

We continue to work on the garden and landscaping here. I planted a container of herbs yesterday: mint, thyme, rosemary, oregano, and lavender. I also potted up some rooted olive cuttings.


Last week my husband and I built some protection cages out of some old fencer wire that we had. Yesterday we got the plantings underneath them done. We're planting some Carolina Allspice [sweetshrub] in some areas of our yard that have some bad erosion. Carolina Allspice is a beautiful plant native to this area that can withstand periodic flooding, so we have hopes that it will help with the washout. The plants are "deer resistant," so I don't plan to fence them when they're older. I just don't trust the deer not to pull up new transplants when they're young and vulnerable.

This was one of the tomatoes defoliated by the recent hailstorm. I was pleased that the one remaining leaf allowed it to photosynthesize enough to put out new growth. When it's a bit bigger, I hope to clone another plant off it off it give me a second for the one that was killed by a cutworm.


I did all the pruning of hail-damaged foliage yesterday. I was delighted to see some green tomatoes on my Maglia Rosa and Taste Patio bushes.


I've got some okra coming up as well as some buckwheat to act as a cover/smother crop on the soil underneath. Despite all my cardboard and mulch, I've got some tenacious grass invading my garden beds. I'm working on more mulch.

Some of my cucumbers succumbed to the hail, but the surviving ones are putting on new growth. My Beaver Dam peppers are beginning to flower.


This is garlic from my mom's garden. It's perhaps a little overmature, but all the rain we had recently meant that it was hard to get out there to work in the garden. She has lots more that's still growing.




All in all I'm very pleased with how little lasting damage there was from the hail.

 

[begreen]

Our outdoor cuke and melons are just starting to flower. The indoor Poniente otoh is going gangbusters. It's about 5 ft tall now and will soon be providing a lot of cucumbers. They are growing quickly. The foreground cuke has added 1.5" just today. It won't be long now, won't be short either. These grow to 12-15" long.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

None of our plants from seeds have even sprouted yet. That includes grass, lol. It’s been too cold. The tomatoes are out and in the ground, but I bet they’re not happy.

 

[begreen]

The northeast is getting a spring like we had last year. That was the first time I have ever had to deal with early tomato blight. My bad, they went out too early. I put our tomatoes out 2 weeks later this year on May 1st. They are thriving so far. Corn is up too, already 4" tall.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I’m in a well drained mound with lots of air between plants. We’ll see how it turns out. I’m hoping the mound is easier to keep watered than the raised beds were.