What does your garden look like ... Today?

[gary350]

Wow several hours of very hard rain. Where do birds go in 70 mph wind? 4 hours of tornado warnings is too much. We had no hail but other people did.

 

[DiggersJo]

Hail like that can rip apart entire crops, unfortunately I've seen it! I wondered for a while why there were a lot of camouflage cars around until I realised the damage hail can cause to the paint work. One thing I don't miss about the old place.

 

[gary350]

Hot sun dried up garden soil so I tilled it too kill weeds & grass. I put 46-0-0 fertilizer in a weed sprayer full of water and sprayed my corn before storms arrived a few days ago. Corn plants are 2 ft tall now. We are eating onions every day 1 month before harvest time. Roma bean plants are larger and potatoes will soon be ready to harvest. Celery is 1 ft tall now. Melon vines are 2 ft long. No flowers on Zinnia plants yet. Tomato plants have a few 2" green tomatoes. 1 ft tall pepper plants have tiny peppers the size of peas.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

 

[gary350]

Every day rain is finally slowing down, corn is 45" tall now. Hilling soil up on corn plants made all 5 rows of roots grow plants are growing very fast. According to FFA online information it is time to give plants more nitrogen. Now that all the corn roots are attached to the soil I hope our 60 mph storms can not blow corn plants over. Roma beans have 100s of blossoms and plants are very large it appears this years crop will be very good. Many of the onion bulbs are the size of tennis balls and we are 3 weeks away from harvest time June 20. It is hard to tell about garlic bulbs without digging 1 up to see how it is doing harvest day is usually June 20 also. Red Norland potato plants are dying it is almost time to dig up 8 seed potatoes to see what is down there. Kennebec potatoes are not showing signs of being time to harvest yet. Celery plants keep growing taller they love rain 6 days every week. Our weather can't decide to be summer or winter 50° in the morning then 87° in the evening melon seeds finally all germinated. Pepper plants are doing good expect none of the Jalapeno seeds germinated even after planting seeds again several times. I have 6 variety of pepper plants, I planted Jalapeno seeds 1 more time. Melons vines are 24" to 30" long, now it is time to make sure all the blossoms can be found by the honey bees so they get pollinated. First crop of melons will be tiger strip Kajari 60 day crop small 7" diameter melons sweet as candy with the most amazing flavor. We have 4 different melons. 60. 75. 80, 90, day crops. Mud finally dried up enough for me to be able to tie up tomato plants. 6 kinds of peppers plants are all too small to tie up yet. Garden is easy work at the stage 5 to 10 minutes per week. When our weather changes from swamp to desert I will need to water plants, walk area between rows will have no weeds or grass with no water. The only other work will be 300 corn ears in 1 day, 600 potato plants, 300 onion, 100 garlic. Tomatoes, peppers, melons, will be daily harvest until first frost Nov 1st. I will between rows about 6pm today. Zinnia plants are staying short with no nitrogen & loaded with 100s of soon to be flowers.

 

[gary350]

6/7/2025

3 days of hot dry desert then 3 days of rain corn grew 2' taller its 6' tall now. Corn does not need irrigation yet, I hope it keeps raining irrigation is too much extra work. Bean plants are starting to grow 100s of beans. About 2 more weeks garlic & onions might be ready to harvest. Red potatoes are almost ready to harvest but white potatoes need a few more weeks. Melon plants are growing faster and plants have lots of small melons. Zinnia flowers are starting to look nice soon we will have lots of, butterflies, birds, bees, on the flowers. Tomatoes & peppers need a few more weeks to grow larger. Soon it will be harvest time we will be busy. Next Friday is my good luck day, Friday 13.

 

[Meadowlark]

Black-eyed Susan's in container finally blooming as part of new pollinator garden.... many many more blooms to come. I'm hoping these will be perineal here.



The Dahlias continue to impress with their beautiful blooms. I'm also expecting these to be perineal...please.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

 

[Meadowlark]

Some things to eat and some things to admire...

 

[gary350]

Some things to eat and some things to admire...

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I like those purple flowers, what is that?

 

[gary350]

This evening I pruned my melon plants, same way you prune grape vines. Also prune off the suckers same as you remove suckers from tomato plants. If vine have several blossoms cut the vine short so each vine will grow 3 melons. 1 set of roots will grow 3 melons very large and fast. Plant melons plants in a row 1' apart. Don't crowd root you don't want plants trying to steal moisture from each other. The nice thing about removing lots of leaves bees have a much easier time finding blossoms to pollinate. If bees can't find the blossoms then plants have fewer melons. Mulch the soil to hold moisture for the roots. Set melons on mulch the melons won't rot. When watering plants only water the root not the vines. If vines get too wet they rot and die. Poke a pin hole in a plastic milk jug full of water set 1 next to each plants so water goes only on the roots. Roots like water but plants don't. Plants love hot dry soil and 115°f temperatures. Best melons I ever grew was when I lived in Phoenix AZ. TN is too humid for melons mulch or sand works great. Melons were 1" diameter a few days ago, not melons are tennis ball size.

 

[Meadowlark]

Thanks. Those are garden phlox. They are perineal here and great butterfly attractors.

 

[Meadowlark]

Some first blooms showing up today in the new pollinator garden.

The first coneflower in the pollinator garden bloomed today. Long time coming but the promise of many more to come...



The first blooms of Gomphrena. Small blooms but nice...



The first red phlox showed today with backdrop of purple phlox long blooming...



The milkweed is exploding onto dahlias, cosmos, and lavender...

 

[gary350]

This morning I dug up the last 8 ft of a 10 ft row of new potatoes. I am getting an average of 5 lbs. of new potatoes every 2 feet.
Photo shows 19 lbs. 14.6 oz Total in all 4 baskets.
Kennebec on the right is 10 lbs. 6 oz of new potatoes.
French Fingerling is 9 lbs. 9 oz.
Next year if I plant double rows, 6" between rows, 6" between seed potatoes, I should get 5 lbs. of new potatoes per foot. A 30 ft row should produce, 5x30= 150 lbs. new potatoes.
This will save garden space.

I have 90 more feet to dig up that should = 45x5= another 225 lbs. of new potatoes.

Wife loves these French fingerlings toss several in a pot of stew it is NO work at all.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

It's incredible what a week of hot, humid weather can do to sweet corn.
Hopefully, we can keep the hot weather but ease up on all the rain.
I took this picture right at dark only seconds before heavy rains set in.