2025 Garden Thread

[Whitenuckler]

First cucumbers and zucchini are coming in! Really want to snap a pic while the pollinators are at work... makes the tomato troubles a little easier to swallow. Bell peppers are struggling like the tomatoes. Saw some people mention with leaf curl and no discoloration to try and plant deeper. I thought I planted pretty deep but who knows. Picked a few blueberries off of the bush as well. Super small, probably should have thinned a bit more but didn't expect anything this year! Topped out at 102F here this week so hoping for the best! Sidenote... not a fun week to have broken AC and a full system replacement needed!!

Good luck on your garden. I have not yet tried to grow anything, but I do have lots of weeds. Do you have a forced air system with outside compressor and evap coil above your furnace? And you have to change both? That sucks. I am running two heat pumps here on my main floor so hopefully one will keep working. One did blow and need to be replaced about a year ago, but that was more of a heating issue at the time. That might be one of the advantages to more than one heat pump.

 

[djlew]

Good luck on your garden. I have not yet tried to grow anything, but I do have lots of weeds. Do you have a forced air system with outside compressor and evap coil above your furnace? And you have to change both? That sucks. I am running two heat pumps here on my main floor so hopefully one will keep working. One did blow and need to be replaced about a year ago, but that was more of a heating issue at the time. That might be one of the advantages to more than one heat pump.

Thank you for the positivity! Heat pump here, and since natural gas is new to my area have to rip out everything to install exactly as you mentioned. Good timing in the sense that we would need to replace the air handler anyway, bad timing that the motor blew in the middle of one of the worst heat waves here! Although, going out in the garden and coming back in the house even with no AC feels like an icebox! 😂

 

[djlew]

Just a funny anecdote... my dad is a gardener and used to force me to go to Home Depot with him to pick up mulch when I was a kid. I begrudgingly would go but definitely wouldn't help him spread it. Now in my adulthood, owning my own property, trying to start my own backyard orchard he likes to send me photos of his progress... his one year old peach tree attached already fruiting. I sent him my photos of my bare roots just growing their leaves. I found it funny, I wonder if the 20 years of waiting for me to get into it is paying off for him getting to troll me...

Sidenote - I did tell him it's best practice to thin out for the first couple years and maybe beyond and he didn't listen! 😂

 

[begreen]

Just a funny anecdote... my dad is a gardener and used to force me to go to Home Depot with him to pick up mulch when I was a kid. I begrudgingly would go but definitely wouldn't help him spread it. Now in my adulthood, owning my own property, trying to start my own backyard orchard he likes to send me photos of his progress... his one year old peach tree attached already fruiting. I sent him my photos of my bare roots just growing their leaves. I found it funny, I wonder if the 20 years of waiting for me to get into it is paying off for him getting to troll me...

Sidenote - I did tell him it's best practice to thin out for the first couple years and maybe beyond and he didn't listen! 😂

That peach looks older than one year. My guess is that it was ~3yrs old when sold. That said, it is good to reduce fruit load, especially at first. Peaches can be overachievers. I had to pull off about 50% of the fruit from our trees this year. It looks like he may have done this too.

 

[djlew]

That peach looks older than one year. My guess is that it was ~3yrs old when sold. That said, it is good to reduce fruit load, especially at first. Peaches can be overachievers. I had to pull off about 50% of the fruit from our trees this year. It looks like he may have done this too.

Good chance. I wonder if some dropped and he didn't notice. I think it was a big box store buy. My bare roots are young so he gets a kick out of the comparison!

 

[djlew]

Picked the first cuke of the season and it was delicious. Everything seems to be correcting that was having a hard time in the garden but the rain is continuous. I think the rest of the week is supposed to be dry.

Going back to pests completely decimating my plants by the roots, I decided to try and dig (no pun intended) into what could be causing it. I have a battery camera that I plan on pointing towards the garden to see what I'm dealing with. I'm wondering if I snag a few pics of the mounds if anyone who has had similar pests can identifying what it could be. I was thinking moles, but I thought they didn't go for roots or plants at all. Voles seem to fit the bill but not sure their climbing ability into raised beds since I thought the cardboard and logs would deter enough from below at least for this year until they decompose. Maybe I have moles separate and squirrels are actually going for the roots? Hoping to find out. So far they have just gone for the tomatoes and peppers, nothing else.

I sprinkled some coffee grounds down as a deterrent, which seems to have worked until the rain comes in. Once I hopefully figure out what we are dealing with, I am hoping maybe a combo of some peppermint from my plant, coffee, red pepper, etc. will be enough of a deterrent for the future. Never had an issue with pests like this before, but the raised beds moved from against the fence to now much closer to a tree. Lots of variables. I am also concerned for the fruit trees, and there are holes/mounds around them but so far the roots are intact and I have protectors on the trunk, which is what makes me think maybe I am dealing with two things.