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How many grow gardens?

Mike Zierath

Family, football and fishing.....
Jun 3, 2002
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Flower Mound, TX
I’ve got a small one:

garlic: previous owners herb garden.
Radishes. 3 really good harvests so far this year. Too hot to plant any more. Will do more this fall when it starts to cool off.

Green onions. Took too long for them to come up this year. Now, while I live to have them on the table with dinner, they are sooooo freaking hot it’s almost not worth it! Our heat is really Playong hell with the garden crop!

Tomato’s: cherry and regular. I will be eating BLT’s all summer!

Asparagus. Again, good early, but the early 100 degree days slowed the pickings on that early. Got a lot of good pickings early though.

jalapeños: slowly coming around

watermelon: came up, mother in law thought it was a weed, pulled it. I banned her from weeding the garden. Replanted, going well now.

cantaloupe: had some very small grasshoppers early, ate it as it came up. Replanted, sprayed, doing well now.

sometimes I plant a couple rows of green beans, but what I’ve found is that the heat makes those tough if you don’t get to them early!

What you got?
 
7 mango trees. A couple are grafted so produce multiple varieties. A Barbados cherry tree. Several papaya trees. A lime tree. An avocado tree that I’m nursing back to health after the neighbor poisoned it. Allegedly. And a couple of other fruit trees of which I only know their names in Haitian Creole. This is all in addition to the herb garden and several varieties of peppers.
 
First year I started messing with it. Small plot. Tomatoes, peppers, basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, sunflowers. I have a million garlic chives going anyway. (technically the mint came with the place too)

Deer promptly came in and attacked tomatoes and took a chomp out of a few sunflowers and peppers. Just put up a makeshift fence that seemingly does the trick.

Peppers and tomatoes limping along after the attack, everything else pretty good though.

Also trying to get wildflowers going in front yard, but no success yet. Probably going to have to actually till and do it right.

I think it's a good hobby. Gets you outside and away from a damned glowing screen.
 
We had a great crop of peas a couplethree weeks ago, but that is over now. Same goes for our rhubarb. Green beans just coming on now. Radishes are over. Potatoes are starting to bloom -too early to tell. Onions have headed already and getting ready to turn. Tomatoes are growing great but no viable blooms yet. Hops are a bit ragged. Grapes are an open question at this point.

My biggest concern now is that three big very nice ash trees are showing some very ugly signs of the borer's work - probabaly will have to take down, cut, split and stack for next years firewood.

We don't need this 100 degree heat!
 
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We had a great crop of peas a couplethree weeks ago, but that is over now. Same goes for our rhubarb. Green beans just coming on now. Radishes are over. Potatoes are starting to bloom -too early to tell. Onions have headed already and getting ready to turn. Tomatoes are growing great but no viable blooms yet. Hops are a bit ragged. Grapes are an open question at this point.

My biggest concern now is that three big very nice ash trees are showing some very ugly signs of the borer's work - probabaly will have to take down, cut, split and stack for next years firewood.

We don't need this 100 degree heat!
Ever thought about treating the trees?
 
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20 hills of spuds (Kennebec/Pontiac). Fighting Colorado potato bugs. Beans, peas, bell peppers, celery, onions (yellow/white), kohlrabi, radishes (done now) Asparagus (gone to ferns for the season and will start the battle with Japanese beetles there soon). And a 3 short rows of beets.
A few hills of decorative gourds that take over the garden in late summer. And one lonely petunia plant in the onion patch. (for old times sake)
 
Nope but my grandpa and dad still do. I should because I love garden tomatoes. I'll need to pick the old man's brain on any tips.
 
I've cut back because as I get older, I get lazier, but I planted 12 regular tomato plants for eating and canning, 2 rows of green beans for eating but mostly canning and some zucchini and butternut squash. I cannot grow radishes and not very good with green peppers or brussels sprout for some reason.
 
20 hills of spuds (Kennebec/Pontiac). Fighting Colorado potato bugs. Beans, peas, bell peppers, celery, onions (yellow/white), kohlrabi, radishes (done now) Asparagus (gone to ferns for the season and will start the battle with Japanese beetles there soon). And a 3 short rows of beets.
A few hills of decorative gourds that take over the garden in late summer. And one lonely petunia plant in the onion patch. (for old times sake)
bluestar - I'm in Poweshiek County, Iowa. I have grown very fond of the Red Norland potato over the years and I have considered the Pontiac, but never grown it. Is it easy to grow?
 
I’ve got a small one:

garlic: previous owners herb garden.
Radishes. 3 really good harvests so far this year. Too hot to plant any more. Will do more this fall when it starts to cool off.

Green onions. Took too long for them to come up this year. Now, while I live to have them on the table with dinner, they are sooooo freaking hot it’s almost not worth it! Our heat is really Playong hell with the garden crop!

Tomato’s: cherry and regular. I will be eating BLT’s all summer!

Asparagus. Again, good early, but the early 100 degree days slowed the pickings on that early. Got a lot of good pickings early though.

jalapeños: slowly coming around

watermelon: came up, mother in law thought it was a weed, pulled it. I banned her from weeding the garden. Replanted, going well now.

cantaloupe: had some very small grasshoppers early, ate it as it came up. Replanted, sprayed, doing well now.

sometimes I plant a couple rows of green beans, but what I’ve found is that the heat makes those tough if you don’t get to them early!

What you got?
I have a tiny hydroponic herb garden. Mainly to grow basil for my outdoor pizza oven. Otherwise, I simply don't have the time. I'm talking about one of those aerogarden like things.
 
I had one for several years when I had a house. Now that I'm in a townhouse, I just have a couple tomato plants and some herbs in pots. We'll see how that goes this year, last year not well.
 
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watermelon: came up, mother in law thought it was a weed, pulled it. I banned her from weeding the garden. Replanted, going well now.
This is how I imagine that confrontation:
200.gif
 
We had a great crop of peas a couplethree weeks ago, but that is over now. Same goes for our rhubarb. Green beans just coming on now. Radishes are over. Potatoes are starting to bloom -too early to tell. Onions have headed already and getting ready to turn. Tomatoes are growing great but no viable blooms yet. Hops are a bit ragged. Grapes are an open question at this point.

My biggest concern now is that three big very nice ash trees are showing some very ugly signs of the borer's work - probabaly will have to take down, cut, split and stack for next years firewood.

We don't need this 100 degree heat!
The ash borer is hitting us hard also.
 
bluestar - I'm in Poweshiek County, Iowa. I have grown very fond of the Red Norland potato over the years and I have considered the Pontiac, but never grown it. Is it easy to grow?
I'm in Dubuque county and our family has grown Pontiac variety for as long as I can remember. (back then we had a huge garden and I hated digging the bastards after school - swore I'd never grow potatoes, but here I am). We always had good luck with them. Stick em in the ground and forget (until bugs show up). Though I must admit, 2 years ago mine had some sort of scab on the skins and were small. They tasted ok but did not store well and looked crappy.
 
Started genovese basil and thai basil in a aerogarden last fall, and transplanted outside this spring. Both are flourishing.
Started a bunch of veggies from seed in spring. But other than a few turnips, and a mediocrely productive zucchini plant, the rest are showing well but no farking yield. Right now about 6 big ass eggplant plants with exactly one eggplant produced. bunch of green pepper and chili pepper pkants with no yield.
also bought a satsuma dwarf in spring and hoping it survices into fall. It produced probably a 100 small orange buds, all but one fell off in the heat, and there's the one slighly fat green orange remaining -- i've named that orange kate upton expecting it will get fat by year end.
 
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7 mango trees. A couple are grafted so produce multiple varieties. A Barbados cherry tree. Several papaya trees. A lime tree. An avocado tree that I’m nursing back to health after the neighbor poisoned it. Allegedly. And a couple of other fruit trees of which I only know their names in Haitian Creole. This is all in addition to the herb garden and several varieties of peppers.
that's some kickass work.
 
7 mango trees. A couple are grafted so produce multiple varieties. A Barbados cherry tree. Several papaya trees. A lime tree. An avocado tree that I’m nursing back to health after the neighbor poisoned it. Allegedly. And a couple of other fruit trees of which I only know their names in Haitian Creole. This is all in addition to the herb garden and several varieties of peppers.
Solid work. Pics?
 
Tomatoes - Paul Robeson, Amish Paste, Hungarian Heart, Italian Heirloom, Sun Gold. The sun gold is doing good and got some Paul Robeson growing but nothing on the others. All this heat isn't helping.

Cucumber - Summer Dance are looking really good, too soon for fruit yet.

Beans - Dragon Tongue are starting to flower, should be getting beans soon.

Peppers - Shishito, Giant Marconi, Jimmy Nardello, Chervena Chushka. Jimmy Nardello is starting to fruit, nothing on the others quite yet.

Watermelon - trying as an experiment not sure it is getting enough sun where I planted it
 
My parents still have a large garden.

60 tomato plants and they planted 200lbs of potatoes this year.

I have no idea why they still plant that many tomatoes. They don’t even eat 200lbs of potatoes a year so I’m not sure what dad will do with them all
 
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30 bean plants
8 tomato plants
Several different varieties of Onions
radishes
asparagus- had it 3 years, add more and get very few stalks. I suck at growing them.
1 squash plant
1 zucchini
1 cucumber
2 rows of leafy lettuce mixture stuff my wife likes.

Seems like everything looks healthy, but slow until recently. Tomato plants taking off, beans just starting to grow pretty good (6 inches tall), onions are doing great, radishes just getting going (i usually can replant once during the year and get another batch). Overall, I think things are going pretty well.

One question regarding fruit trees. So, I cleared a large area to plant some fruit trees. I'm thinking Cherrie, peach and apple trees. I have 3 acres in the front of my property that I cleared out maybe 1/5 of that area. It should be really good soil. Anyway, what are the do's and do nots of planting fruit trees? Thanks in advance.
 
What tomatoes do you guys like beat for canning?


I'm thinking like chunks or cubes of tomatoes for pasta/ goulash.
Roma's or Big Boys for me. We make a lot of homemade spaghetti sauce. Puree the tomatoes, add cooked sausage meat (need a pressure cooker), spaghetti sauce canning packets and add tomato paste. Kids take a ton of it to college with them each year.
 
7 mango trees. A couple are grafted so produce multiple varieties. A Barbados cherry tree. Several papaya trees. A lime tree. An avocado tree that I’m nursing back to health after the neighbor poisoned it. Allegedly. And a couple of other fruit trees of which I only know their names in Haitian Creole. This is all in addition to the herb garden and several varieties of peppers.
We watch a lot of "Caribbean Life" and "Hawaii Life" type shows and honestly what makes me most jealous are the people with avocado trees, lime trees, etc. How wonderful it would be to have such a bounty in your backyard you could harvest daily.
 
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Tomatoes are pretty easy. Get them in after the last chance of frost and plenty of water early. You will have more than you want.
Mine are all over 6’ tall now and have a ton of blooms! I’ve learned, since being in Texas, that it’s all about the heat. Many of those blooms will just drop off! But, we will get plenty!

I moved them to a shadier portion of the garden in hopes it would help!
 
My parents still have a large garden.

60 tomato plants and they planted 200lbs of potatoes this year.

I have no idea why they still plant that many tomatoes. They don’t even eat 200lbs of potatoes a year so I’m not sure what dad will do with them all
Give them away……:)
 
I also started a compost bin this year. Mostly because the soil down here is so poor! (Clay). Even when I went to the garden center to buy “top soil”. It ended up being a lot of wood and rocks. Not the stuff we have back home!!!

haven’t gotten anything out of it yet, but we will. There is a local at the farmers market that composts, I’m going to talk to her this weekend and see what, if anything,
I’m coming home for a wedding in August, thinking about driving g the truck just so I can load it up with good dirt to bring back!!

Z
 
7 mango trees. A couple are grafted so produce multiple varieties. A Barbados cherry tree. Several papaya trees. A lime tree. An avocado tree that I’m nursing back to health after the neighbor poisoned it. Allegedly. And a couple of other fruit trees of which I only know their names in Haitian Creole. This is all in addition to the herb garden and several varieties of peppers.
You win. 😂

Just strawberries, black cherries, and plums here. It was a great Spring for strawberries here. Worried about a scorching summer with the cherries though.
 
I just have tomatoes planted in big pots on my back patio. Have a kitchen counter full inside now and eat fresh sliced every day. Yum!
 
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I also started a compost bin this year. Mostly because the soil down here is so poor! (Clay). Even when I went to the garden center to buy “top soil”. It ended up being a lot of wood and rocks. Not the stuff we have back home!!!

haven’t gotten anything out of it yet, but we will. There is a local at the farmers market that composts, I’m going to talk to her this weekend and see what, if anything,
I’m coming home for a wedding in August, thinking about driving g the truck just so I can load it up with good dirt to bring back!!

Z
Add a packet of compost accelerator every 2 weeks. You can get it on amazon.
 
I figured that's not all they eat. But I guess that's why they call them ash boars. What... do they just go after the roots?
They burrow under the bark all throughout the cambium, which is the layer that transports water and nutrients within the plant.
 
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