Lets see your garden !

[WobblyHand]

SWEET CORN!!!

We are sweet corn addicts and perfectionists. We put in ten plantings, two varieties (Ambrosia and Serendipity) each time. They ripen 4- 5 days days apart.

The first four plantings go on raised beds and have Remay row covers to frost protect and speed growth.

Geotextiles: Row Cover or Reemay Cloth

In the Northeast, row cover is a farmer’s best friend. Read more to find out how you can benefit from using this geotextile in your home garden.

cedarcirclefarm.org

The last planting went in today. Milady is in the background in the pic. She just finished putting on liquid fertilizer on today's planting..

BIG JOB this week was the coon fence. They are terrible little thieves. We laid AL 3" pipe all around the patch and hilled dirt up to it. Then four rows of electric fence, top row is for the deer. We have the hottest Parmak fencer made and turn off everything but this fence for the first week the corn is ripening. Just tested it at 18,000 volts.

We should be eating next week. We only want the very tender early picked corn. Also milady puts the water on to boil BEFORE walking out to the patch. Toss it in for five minutes and serve. I eat it while too hot to hold the ear. When time permits, its even better smoked over a fire of apple wood.

Pics from SE corner and NW corner of 60'x60' patch.

View attachment 496617

View attachment 496618

Nice! I needed that fence. I planted corn one year and the night before the harvest, the coons came and wiped me out. They knew it was time to pick the next day. They knocked down the stalks and messed up all the corn. They had a feast, but I didn't. Thieving destructive critters. Turn it up to 30KV!

 

[Karl_T]

Nice! I needed that fence. I planted corn one year and the night before the harvest, the coons came and wiped me out. They knew it was time to pick the next day. They knocked down the stalks and messed up all the corn. They had a feast, but I didn't. Thieving destructive critters. Turn it up to 30KV!

There is a reason they wear a mask!

 

[savarin]

rub with miso paste thinned with soy sauce and then grill

 

[francist]

Has anyone here ever tried adding a sunroom or something similar to their garden setup? I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it changed your gardening experience.

My first “real” job out of high school was as a residential glazier. Our business had two main efforts: windows and window conversions; and sunrooms / greenhouses. The sunrooms were almost always custom and installed by us, but of the greenhouses we would do custom but also had several kits of various sizes all the way from 6x8 to 12x20.

Regardless of whether we installed or not there were two recurring complaints: for sunrooms it was that they were uncomfortably hot and we would get called back to install solar screens. For greenhouses it was that they were too small and it was not uncommon to get called back in a year or two to add on or even double the size.

So I guess my point is to try to consider your needs wisely and also your location and exposure. Over the 5-years that I worked at that I cut a lot of glass and built a lot of greenhouses. But I can count on one hand the times we were called back to take one away.

 

[Larry$]

I got some nice very early spinach by over wintering it in the garden. I started plants in the basement under LED grow lights. I trade seeds with other gardeners. I suspect that makes for some interesting hybrids. The weather here ranges from -20°F in Jan. to 105° a couple of weeks ago, so it limits what can do well. My garden is very small but I manage to get two plantings a year out of some of it. I tried Tatsoi & Yokatta-Na for some different greens this year. Did OK until the heat hit them. 6 tomato plants in 6,6-10,10 reinforcing wire cages. I prune the plants to limit branching. Starting to get really good tomatoes now. My bell peppers are from seeds saved from grocery store peppers. An assortment of herbs, snow peas, cucumbers grown on salvaged store fixture wire panels. I give away, what I don't need, to the neighbors. Garden is doing really well this year, more rain than usual. I compost leaves and grass clipping and mulch with grass clippings. Gardening is good therapy.

 

[cathead]

The potato bugs have arrived at my garden in full force. I'm up early mixing up some spray made with
Dawn dish soap and 50-50 water/vinegar. Apparently these bugs can smell patches of solanaceous plants
and gravitate there. I did notice that several lone plants away from the planted area were not affected at least
not yet. Yesterday I tried a shaker can with wood ashes which I found to be only somewhat effective.
Generally the garden is looking good but requires constant attention to fight off the weeds, mostly pig weed
and purslane. I plan to take a good look at my tomato plants this morning as well as they may be affected
by potato bugs.

 

[WobblyHand]

My garden this year is pretty low key. Due to constraints on my time I couldn't devote my usual amount of planning and effort. So it's kind of a mess right now. I'm starting to get pickling cucumbers, have picked Chinese eggplant, and am hoping to taste my first cherry tomatoes today.

A year or so ago, a raspberry plant escaped it's pot and has started to establish itself in one of my kitchen garden quadrants. So I've been enjoying the few raspberries as they ripen every day. The plants spread via their roots and there are more plants than last year. I figure in a few years I'll have to pull some out when they start popping up where they don't belong.

The bane of my existence has been the explosion of rabbits in the area. If it isn't fenced, plants are eaten. The critters are currently protected due to the fact that one of the local species is endangered. They eat stuff that "they don't like", but there's tons of other foods in abundance in the area. Fortunately there's no ban on having predator pets, so I'm going to look into that. I'm sure having a dog would at least solve that problem. Of course, having had dogs before, they're great, but they do require a lot of effort. Have been enjoying the break from that responsibility but maybe it's time for another dog.

 

[Karl_T]

The potato bugs have arrived at my garden in full force.

The only effective organic method I know of is a can with a bit of oil or diesel. walk the patch and drop them all in the can. I do this when they first show up, but pull out the insecticide later.

 

[wachuko]

Potato Bug/Jerusalem Cricket... wow, sucker looks big...

 

[Larry$]

I had to fence my garden. Seems like the rabbits will eat most anything. Cats are also pretty effective rabbit hunters. We had a Siamese that loved catching rabbits, and sometimes eating them. The neighbor's cat has been very interested in a pile of branches by the lot line. Rabbit hunting?