This has been a good year for the garden. Here is the progress to date

Yeah they are small – but it’s still cool to have ripe tomatos by the 4th.



Lettuce always does well here.



Looks like another banner year for blueberries






Walla Walla Sweets



Knee High by the Fourth of July



Yum





Jack and the beanstalk




Beets



Zuchinni


Sunflower

[URL=http://s235.photobucket.com/user/Surecatch22/media/Garden%202013%20July/P1050139_zpsbdf2486c.jpg.html][/URL

I'm comin' over.

No really. He is!

He's the only guy I've seen literally back his truck up to Stam's garden and start HARVESTING!

Looks good Vedder - wish I had the land and patience to grow a veggie garden.

Yeah, you really don't want me loose around your garden..........unless you're trying to make it go away.

I'm with Dan, I was not able to put in my tomato plants this year so will be on the lookout for "surplus" tomato's.


Fishy

I'm afraid you might regret filling me in on your travel plans.

I will send you my plans too Dan. you may as well make a circuit!

I planted my first corn crop during that early warm stretch in mid April. The corn in the photo is the second planting. The first is tasseled out and should be ripe in early August. If so it will be my earliest ever. I usually plant corn three time about three weeks apart. I often have corn ripe clear up until August.

I usually wait until June 1 to plant corn. Knee high now. Ive planted it earlier and it seems to always be the same height by July. Maybe I should re think that. Never did it as early as April. Raspberries are peaking now, but my patch is 25 years old and past its prime. Root gall means i need to pull it all out and wait a few years to replant. Going to miss that. Artichokes are about done. Peaches coming along nicely. Blueberries are half assed as usual. Some good, some wilted and diseased. Plums looking good, pears having a good year so far. Vegies are the wifes job, looking good. Oysters and steamer clams ready at the beach place. Just need some fresh king salmon and Im ready for some good summer chow for a few months.

Pig roast again in August, looking forward to that...

Dave,

I'm doing a smaller hobby garden for the first time. Really nothing more than a 4 x 8 box made of 2 x 12's. I got a question for you about your onions, Walla Walla sweets in particular.

I planted mine, along with green onions and chives May 5 and though sprouted, they aren't more than about 4" tall at this point.....yours in the pic look a foot or more and way more mature. I planted seeds in rows and recently thinned em' a bit per the directions.

Any tips you or Stam could offer? Am I going about anything wrong?

My carrots and Romaine lettuce are doing great...all planted May 5th.

Everything has been watered regularly and even a bit of plant food added here and there.

I have never had much luck growing onions from seeds. If you want to go with seeds I believe you should be thinking of planting in Feb. indoods

I buy onion plants from Dixondale farms in Texas. Onion sets are okay but I never had much luck with them either.

Good luck.

Thanks. Kinda what I suspected.

What is the difference between an onion set and the "plants" you use?

Isn't a set a small bulb?

Yes you are right a set is a small bulb. As I understand it they grow sets from seeds and hope that they are about the size of a marble come frost time.Then the next spring you plant the small bulb and hope it will continue growing into a full sized onion.

Stam has nailed it. All I would add is the Ailsa Craig is also a very poor keeper. But it is sweet and every bit as good as the Walla Walla Sweets. When buying onion seeds or plants you need to know which varieties work best here. There are long day varieties, medium day varieties and short day varieties. Go here to see which ones work best in our area - http://www.dixondalefarms.com/ Hint we need long day varieties.

This is an Ailsa I grew a few years back.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Grow-Onions-from-Discarded-Onion-Bottoms/

This works fantastically well, and you only need a couple onions to start out...I've got a couple dozen growing like crazy around my garden right now, and when I harvest them I'll cut the bottom 1/4" off and plant them right back where they came from.

Our blueberries are on their first season and have done surprisingly well for little plants.

The peas are five feet tall and covered with both peas and blossoms right now...the beans sucked, they're only a foot tall and are blooming already.

Mixed success with the squashes and zuchinnis...we'll see how they do.

Carrots and kale are also looking great, chard is mixed.

Lettuces, both grown from seeds and volunteers nabbed from Vedder's garden, are kicking ass...we've got at least five different varieties and they are going to keep us busy this summer and fall.

Potatos are just breaking the surface now.

Chives and strawberries are growing like crazy, but the damned birds keep eating our strawberries...just put netting over them yesterday so hopefully that's the end of that problem.

Dave, the dahlia bulbs are now foot tall plants that grow about an inch a day in this weather...looking great!

Fish on...

Todd

This is a great thread. Lot's of useful info.




Stam,

This interests me. What month would be the time to plant the seeds indoor for the following year? Just in a flower pot near a window?

Todd,

Great link about the onion bottoms! Thanks.

Whooooo Hooooooo Crab Louies for All!!

Just for fun we let a bucket of Volunteers from our compost grow. We suspect these are mostly Sun Gold, but who knows.

it's fun to let volunteers grow. I usually have tons of volunteer lettuce every year as well as volunteer gourds.

Nothing really picture worthy as of yet, but the 'mater plants were sure happy we brought them home some shad.




Tyler

<---wishes he was so lucky... just mowed the dandelions, and now they are blooming again...

Yak

I tried some fish under my plants once. Worked great till the dig dug them all up!!!

Dig dug...


Freudian Slip there Dave? Is Ty a digger?

Naw just old fat fingers. Thank God Tye is NOT a digger, but his predecessor sure as heck was.

Blueberries and peas are doing great. My little brother has jalapenos in greenhouse and they are loaded. Folks went lighter than normal on the tomatoes this year. Fresh salsa is my favorite reward too from gardening.

I thought I would grow some good 'maters that will ripen before fall this year. Planted the starter plants on the sunny south side of the house and built a visqueen covered frame to heat 'em up Yakima valley style. As it turns out they've grown only a little, and a bell pepper plant I put in there with them is becoming less green. So I gave them all a shot of fertilizer this weekend, hoping this will make them happy.

No green thumb here.

Sg

Damn good year for our garden. We're in the midst of harvesting more peas than we can eat (lincoln peas are BY FAR our favorite but we're also havesting Tell Telephone, Sugar Snaps, and one other type). Raspberries are the same where we are simply trying to harvest fast enough. Strawberries were INCREDIBLE this year both in size and flavor. They're mainly done but we do have some ever-bearing that will go all summer.

Brocolli has been good this year along with the regular and easy-growing lettuce, spinich, kale, and arugula (favored by me and the liberal elite).

Carrots did really well and looked like grocery store quality. Beets are strong.

Potatoes are flowering right now and looking really strong. Probably time to mound them... again.

We are pulling our storage onions (from transplants) now and the ones we started from seeds (Walla Walla and Red Globe) are doing great. Garlic just got harvested and is drying. It looks amazing and is a huge improvement over last year where the wet June rotted most of it.

Squash, pumpkin, and zucchini look like Jurassic Park vegetables that might just try to eat you if you walk too close.

Tomatoes are there but not ripe yet. Lots of Sungolds along with some some heirloom varieties, including my favorite-named tomato, "Mr. Stripey". All of the plants themselves look amazingly strong this year.

Blueberries are the one disappointment. I'm not sure what is wrong. The plants are find but actual fruit production is down from last year. I'm thinking that the birds already got to them? On the other hand, my young currants have been WAY better than last year.

My one remaining kiwi is growing like mad now. I had 3 and they all looked good at one point. Last fall, as it was starting to get cold, I had two of them turn almost black overnight. This spring, those 2 were dead. The one remaining one looked strong but then did the same thing. Recovered, then did it again on a cold night. Finally, that one has fully recoverd and is doing very well. The downside is that it is a lonely female and my male died. I figure if it survives another year, I'll get another male for it. No one has been able to explain the problems I experienced with the Kiwis as they are hardy to temps well below anything we'd ever see here.

Early season:

More recently:

Currants:

Pumpkins and zucchini leaves:


I can't explain this one. These are radishes all grown from the same seed packet. The larger, darker one was especially spicy:


One of our typical "Big Daddy" storage onions. Not particularly large but the quality looks good:

Dogs and gardens. Boris loves strawberries and peas.

Sunflowers are 2-4feet tall. Bodacious corn is lagging. Hit them with some fertilizer last night and have started a more disciplined watering process. Somebody else was hit or miss.

Great strawberries AP. Good looking dawg too.

That looks awesome, Aaron!

Fish on...

Todd

AP

Be careful what you wish for. These kiwis are more than 25 years old but they never stop growing. I swear I have to spend about one full day a year cutting them back.


I admit the fruit is delicious and everyone loves them. .

These are going to be great in some home made tomotillo salsa.
Those are 16oz. cans, not bad for the first couple of the year.







Most of our Radishes are pretty small this year so far, garlic is doing ok but still a little small, same with most of everything else but as long as they eat well I don't mind.

If my wife was in charge of keeping a cactus alive in the desert.....It would die...just sayin.....I get no help to grow and keep plants,flowers or anything else alive up on the Mt. except my nice green 1 acre lawn.Maybe some day she will be game and I'll give up some fishing time to actually grow our own chit...........I'm jonsin for some fresh friuts & veggis from all the pics.Good luck,
SZ

PM me an address and I will ship out some fresh apples to you.





Tyler

Nice garden AP.
When my golden was still around, I used to find her eating my tomatoes. Maybe that explains some of my lack of success growing them.

Growing up we had a black lab that liked to eat the italian prunes that would drop from the tree. Not a pretty site after he'd eat to many.

tomater plants are getting bigger everyday thanks to the shad and clam/oyster shells i have been feeding them this year.
we picked about 5 or 6 last night to go with our pasta and salad.
here's a pic of me next to our two, im 6' for reference.
they are quite delicious!

If I remember correctly, they are "champion" strain.
I'm late to the party on pruning for sure, plan on catching up this weekend though, thanks!

This was 10 days ago

For dinner last night we had tomatos, cucumbers, beans, peas and lettuce from the garden...and I used sage, basil, and rosemary from our garden with the chicken I baked. Blueberries from the garden with homemade ice cream...tonight will be a lot like that, only with fish that I caught instead of chicken on the menu.

Summer and fall in the PNW is pretty hard to beat for harvesting your own food!

Fish on...

Todd

Thats frame worthy for the kitchen Mr. Vedder. Wish the folks grew garlic. Next year!

I would have left the basil out todd. Just sayin.

My favorite thing to do with sage is stuff it in a whole trout and cooke over a fire. Pick it clean with a beer. The way the cowboys ate fish.

Infuse some olive oils with those herbs too Todd if you already haven't.

If anyone in the sw washington/ nw orygun area is intersted, there are some young girls and boys at the bottom of the lewis and clark bridge on the oregon side working their butts off selling organic blueberries. If you don't grow you should check them out.

Who?...the boys?

Pineapple sage is an awesome herb too.

Whatever you're into. Just buy some damn blueberries.

And serve a top a biscuit.

I like the aroma of sage and rosemary so much I keep some in the house. Kind of a manly potpourri.

Same, and I put some in just about everything I cook this time of year, too...that, and the chives we're growing, too (garlic and onion chives).

Fish on...

Todd

After a late start, my tomatoes finally took off a couple weeks ago and are about 6' high now. If the little green orbs would just start turning red - except the ones that are supposed to be yellow - that would be just great. I also bought a bell pepper plant just for kicks when I got the tomato plants. It had one budd for one bell pepper, and that's still all it has, altho the one pepper is coming along pretty good. However, $3.00 is a bit much for one home-grown bell pepper.

The rodent deer tore down a section of fencing on the north side the other day. Off to buy more fence posts and deer fencing today. Eventually I think my yard is going to be a "gated community" in order to keep vermin deer eating just the wild things. One of them is a young spike in velvet, and I been wishing I still had my old bow. Every now and again I look at Ebay and am tempted. Come October, would it be OK to pop him with a 9mm handgun? Since I paid for just about everything that lil' bastard has been eating, along with the two does and three new fawns from this last spring.

My fifteen year old would gladly come help you thin your deer herd SG. He is experienced and responsible. He wants to bowhunt again this year and it is probable I won't have much time to invest this season.

He has pictures posted from year before last in the hunting forum.

Few picks of the P's humble little garden. The ripe tomatoes have been picked and eaten. And a few pics of their pond my dad busted out a few years ago. Pretty cool I think.

Everything built by family.

Sunflowers are doing well.