Garden Diaries, 2020

[Ontario Chick]

My tomato plants are in the bed I aded compost from my "digester" last fall, and it's a bit scary plants are giant, dark green jungle am afraid to fight my way in lest I get lost, guessing way too much nitrogen, hope they will produce at least some tomatoes. :)

Potatoes also happy, at least the tops, but garlic looks like it should get harvested soon, it's probably going to be a bit of a bust this year accept for the bed that got watered.

[labradors]

Oh dear! It sounds as if your tomatoes have gone bananas! Dark green foliage is great though :).

Have you trimmed the lower leaves up to the first truss on these guys? I hate to remove healthy leaves, but I force myself to do it whenever I can because it stops splashback and saves me having to do it later when disease strikes the lower leaves. It also provides aeration to the plants AND allows me to see any tomatoes that are growing low down.

I only had four fingerlings from a packet of store-bought potatoes that sprouted, so I planted them in a container and the foliage died a few days ago. For the very tiny potatoes gained I decided that it was a waste of effort .

Garlic will also be harvested soon and I didn't bother to water it. The mice/chippies ate ALL the strawberries .

[Killerbunny]

Looked at thhe potatoos and it doesn't look like anything is even developing. #87 found her way into the strawberries and educated the babies on how yummy they are. We hadn't figured out where they ere going until we caught her at it LOL! DH thought I was sneaking them and vice versa.

[Farrier1987]

Sure, blame the turkeys. And the dog under the table for the bad smell.

[Happy]

Day 1

The "lure" in these traps smells very potent. Its not really unpleasant but I can definitely smell it from the edge of the garden.
I have 4 of these traps out. Two in main garden and two in this little side of the yard garden. My plants are all still looking great but the fruit is hit or miss. A lot of the fruit died on the vine long before maturity but there's still lots coming. I will update in a couple days.

[Ontario Chick]

Oh dear! It sounds as if your tomatoes have gone bananas! Dark green foliage is great though :).

Have you trimmed the lower leaves up to the first truss on these guys? I hate to remove healthy leaves, but I force myself to do it whenever I can because it stops splashback and saves me having to do it later when disease strikes the lower leaves. It also provides aeration to the plants AND allows me to see any tomatoes that are growing low down.

I know I should trim the tomato plants, but I am afraid to open the cage, they are pushing and shoving to get out and I am afraid to let them out, they might be past human control, I don't believe I grew these from the seed and worried that they were too small.
I have 3 more plants in pots and they are behaving much better then these thugs

Every day starts the same, I should fill the bird bath, water the hosta garden, spray the poison Ivy, take the dog for a walk and deal with the tomato plants..............and then something happens.......

@Happy that looks like a great success

[WLLady]

My tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes. Usually when this happens they're spindly on the growth and maybe get to 3 feet. I use 6 foot tomato spirals to grow them up. this year they are easily a foot taller than the spirals. AND green and lush and i'm going to have to clip the growing ends, because they're HUGE! we've had 3 tomatoes now off the one cherry tomato. There's a pile just starting to blush....i cannot wait. I make my own ketchup and salsa and tomato sauce so they'll be used for sure! the cucumbers are going crazy! i grew them up trellises this year, and the cucumbers hang beautifully easy to pick. i need to make some relish. but for that i need to buy a pepper because my peppers aren't ready yet. There's many coming. my onions are going to seed? never had that happen before. guess i'll clip off the seed heads, because the onions are bulbing out yet.
Harvested the garlic already. it's curing/drying in the shed. the shed smells like garlic. yellow jackets don't like it. so they're all building nests under the picnic table now. buggers. i'll need to get the garlic into the cold storage room so the yellow jackets move back into the shed. so we can have dinner outside again. it's a but-first project really. LOL

broccoli is finally ready for freezing-picked most over the last week, a couple more heads out there that i'll probably just put into salads. Crops 2 and 3 are doing great (cauliflower and broccoli and cabbage and lettuce). Planted some new peas. The beans are just ready to start picking. the chickens figured out a way into the garden but are staying mostly in the asparagus eating asparagus beetles. go girls! the raspberries all died from no water. Another baking hot day here today, as was yesterday. hopefully some rain tomorrow.....

i thought i'd lost my black eyed susans and shasta daisies, but there are a few volunteers coming up! yay! the poppies are doing amazing as are the california poppies....and the marigolds are 2 feet tall this year. must be the horse manure we used.
been drying herbs down like crazy....the basil is 5 feet tall. japanese beetles this year (gah!), put down a 1 liter mason jar of dried parsley already and didn't even make a dent in the plants. the chamomile flowers are going for tea, and right now the dehydrator is full of chamomile and basil. Dill went to seed already, collected a ton of seed, and there's still more. Lots of mint to dry and the catnip is also 4 feet tall and loaded in honey bees!

[KimChick]

I still have to get some fine screening to cut some circles for herb drying in our dehydrator.
Right now, I only have a couple of stacking screened trays that DH made for me about 15 yrs ago.
Today is blanching and freezing some Swiss chard day.

[labradors]

Ontario Chick, that's too funny about the tomato cage that you are afraid to open! I would be too! I'm guessing that you have big critter problems there that force you to cage those wild 'maters. Good luck with the harvest!

Linda

[Killerbunny]

Here are some pics of our garlic. @Kbr42 suggested a raised ned and it's better than it's ever been. 5 varieties. Loads of green beans, lettuce is done. @Farrier1987 s strawbs are layering well and the turkeys have now found the raspberries!