2026 Garden Thread

[djlew]

Wow! Amazing looking plants! Thanks for sharing, you have quite the setup there @burning VC .

As the zones go, you are quite ahead of me. I have a good amount of tomatoes forming, cucumbers are just getting pollinated, peppers and eggplants are starting to flower as well. Bush beans are also growing nicely. Looks like beetles are getting to my eggplants, similar to @DuaeGuttae. I am spraying neem and some Arber organic insecticide but I'm not sure if it's going to take care of the beetles. I might try some of the clay. So far only one eggplant is getting destroyed.

Possibly the most exciting thing about the garden/orchard so far... we finally have some asparagus coming up! I thought we waited too long to get the crowns in and they were going to be too dry. No harvest this year of course, but according to these specific crowns, they said a light second year harvest is acceptable. Not sure if I will, consensus seems to be wait the full 3 years.

 

[djlew]

Well folks, I have been introduced to the potential wonders of kaolin clay as a crop protectant. There are a few options, but the most common and seemingly effective is Surround WP. I did order a fine, but not as fine as Surround, kaolin clay that I am going to try. I am hoping it will save my eggplants, something is decimating them. Almost full de-foliage on a couple. We have a good handful of plants so I am hoping to save some.

Anybody try this stuff?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I am using the Surround WP as that's what's available locally. I bought it at the end of last season but tried it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. This season is definitely going better for me with regard to flea beetle damage and cucumber damage.

It will wash off with rain or overhead watering. We've been in drought with long dry stretches, but we just had about four tenths of an inch of rain over the course of two days, and that did wash off a good bit of the clay on the tops of the leaves on Monday and Tuesday. When I checked on the garden yesterday the uptick in flea beetles, striped cucumber beetles, and squash bugs was noticeable. As soon as I had time after the morning dew dried, I mixed up two cups of kaolin in a gallon of water and reapplied.

In order to be effective it's necessary to coat the underside of the leaves. I don't manage a perfect job, and I also manage to splatter onto some neighboring plants, but it doesn't hurt them. One nice thing, though, is that when I checked the eggplant yesterday the undersides that had been previously coated were still well covered after the light rain.

I'm convinced of its merits for eggplant and cucumbers. I'm not growing any true squash this year because last year was so bad with squash bugs. I'm growing some replacement eggplants for my mom, and I think that when the starts are large enough to go out in the garden, I'm actually going to mix up the kaolin solution in a bucket and dip them in it to get the best coverage.

 

[djlew]

I am using the Surround WP as that's what's available locally. I bought it at the end of last season but tried it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. This season is definitely going better for me with regard to flea beetle damage and cucumber damage.

It will wash off with rain or overhead watering. We've been in drought with long dry stretches, but we just had about four tenths of an inch of rain over the course of two days, and that did wash off a good bit of the clay on the tops of the leaves on Monday and Tuesday. When I checked on the garden yesterday the uptick in flea beetles, striped cucumber beetles, and squash bugs was noticeable. As soon as I had time after the morning dew dried, I mixed up two cups of kaolin in a gallon of water and reapplied.

In order to be effective it's necessary to coat the underside of the leaves. I don't manage a perfect job, and I also manage to splatter onto some neighboring plants, but it doesn't hurt them. One nice thing, though, is that when I checked the eggplant yesterday the undersides that had been previously coated were still well covered after the light rain.

I'm convinced of its merits for eggplant and cucumbers. I'm not growing any true squash this year because last year was so bad with squash bugs. I'm growing some replacement eggplants for my mom, and I think that when the starts are large enough to go out in the garden, I'm actually going to mix up the kaolin solution in a bucket and dip them in it to get the best coverage.

Really happy to hear of your success with it. I am very hopeful. It is also an attractive proposition because apparently you can mix it with other organic sprays and the clay helps it stick better, like copper or sulfur. That, and the benefit of a bit of sun protection. Seems like a great product!

 

[djlew]

Got some of that clay and applied it via my Harbor Freight 2 gallon sprayer with great success. True test will be how everything withstands this brutal heat wave starting today. I did apply a light second coat after the first in the attached photos.

All veggies seem to at least be attempting to fruit this year, really nervous how everything will handle the heat but besides some precaution, nothing we can do about it. I need to get more mulch down for sure.

I am also starting to get my summer harvest of my everbearing raspberries. Really delicious but not as large as I thought they would be. Maybe next year. Thinking the primocane fruits may be larger, the canes are huge! The suckers I dug up and am growing are looking good, so maybe I will prune those for just a primocane harvest.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Looking good, @djlew . I sure hope it helps with the heat and pests. I, too, reapplied my clay this morning to get new growth covered and to thicken what had washed off a bit with twelve hundredths of an inch of rain last week. I definitely noticed an uptick in flea beetles when the plants were less covered, but I'm excited to have two baby eggplant fruits showing.

I've been picking off one or two Rattlesnake beans this week, but this morning I got a whole handful. I also picked cucumbers to relieve the burden on the plants prior to the heat wave moving in. I had a chance to make my first jar of pickles for the season.



The heat index has been over one hundred degrees for an hour already this morning, so I'm inside for the rest of the morning and afternoon. I gave the garden beds a good long run with the soaker hose this morning to help the plants through the next couple of days.

 

[qwee]

Gophers keep taking out my tomato plants (peppers and eggplants, too, only 1 pepper left). I keep replacing the plants. I've resorted to poisoning the gophers and using 'stink' granules. I still need to build a trellis. Drip system is working good. My new tomato lineup - 12 plants left.

Big Beef - started with 2, one left
Early Girl - started with 6, four left
Red Brandywine - had 4, two left
Marglobe - started with 2, one left

replacements,
Better Boy - 2 plants, 1 left
Pineapple - 2 plants, gophers haven't got them yet
Raspberry - 1 plant
I had one cherry tomato plant but the gophers got it, too.

 

[djlew]

Sorry to hear that. I had to move my entire setup because something was digging up my plants. Glad you are getting some replacements in.

Day 1 of the extreme heat went fine for the garden - clay really seemed to help. What a game changer. Time will tell as we move into day 2 out of 4 or 5 of this heat wave. My AC could barely keep up - second stage was running forever! Looks like today and tomorrow will be the worst of it before it breaks.

I wanted to get some opinions on something... to address poor pollination on some plants - in my case, the back of my property seems to not get a lot of pollinator activity where my raspberries are. Also where my apples and peaches are, so I want to address this for the future when they start blooming. Maybe 50 feet or so away I have my perennial herb garden that has my catnip that has flowered and the bees are obsessed. At any given time I'll see 4-6 bees working on those flowers. I figured that's maybe distracting them and keeping them away from the back end of the property. Anybody have any experience addressing essentially getting the pollinators to share the work between different ends of a property? Is it as easy as planting more native plants near the problem area? I figured maybe 50 or so feet wasn't too far. I've considered propagating the catnip, potting it, and using that as an attractive plant for pollinators that can be portable.

I'm figuring the issue for my rasps in particular is pollination. Plant looks very healthy otherwise, but the berries are small and sometimes crumbly. I may also attempt hand pollination.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@qwee , I'm sorry to hear about your gopher troubles. That sounds very hard.

@djlew , I'm surprised that bees aren't visiting your raspberries, but I can understand your concern. One thing to consider is differences between your front and back in terms of sunshine and water in addition to blooms as all those factors can affect pollinators.

I like your idea of propagating your catnip and keeping it in a pot. Two other plants to consider for a short-term attractant might be buckwheat or lacy phacelia. The buckwheat can be grown from seed, and it goes from seed to flower very quickly. Pollinators seem to like them. Lacy phacelia probably would take longer as mine hasn't bloomed yet, but I haven't been watering it, and we're in extreme drought. I'm not sure whether you could find potted plants of it, though. I think it's also called "Bees' Friend" or something like that. Neither one of those crops is native. Both are sold as cover crop seeds.

I do recall chive and allium flowers being very attractive to bees, and this spring my second-year sage was a great early food sources for the pollinators in my garden. I can see that herb bed might be providing so much for them that they are concentrating on it. I would think adding more herbs by the fruit plants could help as well, though I also believe that it's pretty much always a good idea to add native plants to an area, especially if you can have a variety that bloom in different seasons. I know that's much more of a long-term project, though.

You were once working on a native meadow, weren't you? Any chance you could sketch a layout of your property and mark the location of all these different places? I have to admit I have a pretty hard time picturing it even though I've seen pictures of your various plants.

 

[begreen]

Softneck garlic harvested a couple of days ago. Some cukes and zuchs are getting harvested, lots more coming. Green tomatoes on the plants. Third planting of carrots went in yesterday. The onions are fattening up nicely. Corn will definitely be knee high by the 4th of July (and then some).

 

[qwee]

It is fun when everything starts producing - I'm at least a month out. My tomatoes are just getting their footing - the next 2 weeks of 95F should get them growing. The drip system jugs are working well - both top and buried. No gopher action visible for 3 days. But, I have a kitten in the orchard. The kitten is just big enough to eat dry food. So I put out some food and water (some has already been eaten). Mom cat is feral. Maybe I can semi-tame the kitten. I'm guessing coyotes, owls/raptors, or male cats, have gotten the kitten's siblings.

 

[qwee]

Oh no the gray kitty now has put on a whitish coat. Huh? Wait a minute - there must be more than one kitten. How many? The cat food disappeared so something is eating it. I moved the food bowl to a place where I could see it. Yep, there are 3 little amigos (+mom). Check that - there is another little girl so that makes 4.

 

[djlew]

@qwee , I'm sorry to hear about your gopher troubles. That sounds very hard.

@djlew , I'm surprised that bees aren't visiting your raspberries, but I can understand your concern. One thing to consider is differences between your front and back in terms of sunshine and water in addition to blooms as all those factors can affect pollinators.

I like your idea of propagating your catnip and keeping it in a pot. Two other plants to consider for a short-term attractant might be buckwheat or lacy phacelia. The buckwheat can be grown from seed, and it goes from seed to flower very quickly. Pollinators seem to like them. Lacy phacelia probably would take longer as mine hasn't bloomed yet, but I haven't been watering it, and we're in extreme drought. I'm not sure whether you could find potted plants of it, though. I think it's also called "Bees' Friend" or something like that. Neither one of those crops is native. Both are sold as cover crop seeds.

I do recall chive and allium flowers being very attractive to bees, and this spring my second-year sage was a great early food sources for the pollinators in my garden. I can see that herb bed might be providing so much for them that they are concentrating on it. I would think adding more herbs by the fruit plants could help as well, though I also believe that it's pretty much always a good idea to add native plants to an area, especially if you can have a variety that bloom in different seasons. I know that's much more of a long-term project, though.

You were once working on a native meadow, weren't you? Any chance you could sketch a layout of your property and mark the location of all these different places? I have to admit I have a pretty hard time picturing it even though I've seen pictures of your various plants.

Thanks for your advice DG. I'll definitely get a sketch together just to give a bit more of an idea. We did end up seeding the meadow! Lots of growth but we seeded pretty late in my opinion so not sure how much to expect this year as far as blooming. The mix had a combo of annuals and perennial seeds. This is mainly contained to the "front yard" - I am on an acre of land and it seems like the front of the property has much less of a pollination issue.

The back is fenced in, pretty equal land wise in terms of splitting the acre although we are tucked back into the woods so lots of trees. I have my fruit trees, berries, and herbs all back there in different areas of backyard, so pretty spread out. I don't think the layout is ideal for the berries especially. The peaches and apples put on a ton of growth, but I'm wondering if next year is the year where I see whether or not I also have a pollination issue there. I threw some chive seeds down in between the fruit trees, not much growth yet but we'll see.

Granted, comparing the front and back yard may be moot. I do a lot of hand pollinating in the veggie garden in the front.

 

[begreen]

July 2026 garden pictures. It's doing the best it can with our yo-yo weather. (52º this morning) Cool nights are making it challenging for some plants. The soil can't warm up enough. Hopefully we kick into more summerly nighttime temps soon.
The squash are happy so far. Butternut and Delicata have several baby squash showing. Corn in the bacground is just starting to tassle.

Looking across the upper beds there are strawberries, potatoes, onions, raspberries


Tomatoes would like it to be 5-10º warmer at night. Some people are seeing early blight. So far we are ok.
I have to put temporary covers over the carrot beds until they get established. It keeps the birds out and also the cats which like to use the exposed beds as a litterbox.


Peppers are forming as are the eggplants, but would like warmer feet too.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@begreen, I know that your plants would like the higher temperatures, but your garden sure is looking great to me. Wow! Thanks for all the photos.

@qwee , you should check to see if your area has any sort of TNR (trap, neuter, and release) programs. We have six cats that live on our property, two sets of siblings from a wild mother who disappeared. We had never been able to get her spayed, but she disappeared when her younger four kittens were only four weeks old. We took them in and fostered them, and they tamed down a lot and taught their older siblings to trust us a bit more. I had taken one of the older ones to the vet for an injury, and they put us in touch with a local non-profit that paid for the older two to get neutered and spayed and vaccinated and then helped us locate a free clinic day at a different vet to have the same done for the younger set a bit later.

They all now hang out in my mother's barn or shed, but they get food and water outside our back door. We do have a heated shelter for them they can use in the winter, or we'll even bring them into our garage. They can't live in our house due to allergies. The non-profit encouraged us to keep them as "barn cats" since our property is suited to them. I have no idea what resources are in your area, but it's worth investigating. If you can't manage to get them neutered and spayed, you'll have exponentially more cute kittens soon.

 

[djlew]

A little orchard update. With all the stuff I have, it would probably take me forever to get to it all but I will post some highlights. Some stuff might look kind of sad, they are still recovering after the brutal heat wave and it's been REALLY humid.

I tried to get a decent angle of the Red Haven peaches that show a decent open center! Definitely some water sprouting but overall happy with the growth these put on. Last year's thread has some pics of what they looked like early last season I'm pretty sure. Hoping to get to try a peach next year!

New to the orchard this year is a Carmine Jewel cherry bush. Local nursery had a ton of cool stuff and this was one of them. I'm really excited to try some of these cherries. People seem to like these "romance" series bushes.

Heritage Raspberry is continuing to size up especially with the primocanes. I didn't get many floricane fruit as stated above, but hopefully the fall primocane fruit will be better!

Lastly the Meyer Lemon! Don't mind the powdery looking stuff, that's just leftover kaolin clay. Look at the size of those lemons the tree kept on this year! Hoping to get some of those to full ripeness.

I'll get some pics of the annual veggies. We are starting to get cucumbers, tomatoes, and Japanese eggplants. The eggplants were a pleasant surprise, so far they seem to be on the way to being a staple in our garden. Really prolific and taste awesome!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I haven't been writing much as I've been keeping busy in the garden and elsewhere. Cucumbers and green beans have been coming in well, but I'm also just beginning to get the smaller tomatoes and some eggplant. I dug potatoes this week. It was a small harvest, due in part, I think, to high temperatures and little rain. Nevertheless the quality seems good, and I have a dozen seed potatoes of each type set aside for next year.



Two fun things that I harvested recently were flowers from Blue Butterfly Pea. People use them to make a blue "tea" or a pink lemonade since the acid changes the color. It doesn't have a lot of flavor on its own, but it's pretty. I also harvested my first cluster of piennolo tomatoes. These are supposed to hang in bunches through the fall and winter for use as fresh tomatoes. I have this little cluster hanging in my basement. Theoretically I'll add to it once more bunches on the plants reach the ripening stage.


Smoke from wildfires is reaching our area today, so I stayed inside and processed a batch of my mom's tomatoes into pizza sauce. We had homemade pizza for lunch with sides of roasted eggplant and shishito peppers.