2022 Garden Plans

This topic has 141 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.

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July 14, 2022 at 6:43 am #34637
BakerAunt
Participant
Of course, we have plenty of bread and no tomatoes yet:

https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2022/07/14
July 14, 2022 at 10:15 am #34638
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I have ONE tomato (a First Lady) that is starting to show some color, but the vines are still a lot shorter than I would expect for mid-July and while I see that some fruit that has set, mostly on the 4th of July plants, I don't really expect to see many ripe tomatoes until mid-August, at best, and that assumes that the weather gets cool enough at some point for fruit to set.

The two-week weather forecast shows just one day in the next two weeks (this Saturday) with a high below 90, followed by 11 consecutive days with highs above 95.
July 14, 2022 at 4:29 pm #34639
BakerAunt
Participant
We have a nice green bean crop coming in, for which I am thankful since the farmers' market charges $5 per pound. Snow peas are not as prolific. Blackberries are ripening on our terrace, and today, I went to one of our woodlands with my husband and picked two scant quarts of blackberries. I am hoping to be able to make jam this weekend. I need a lot of blackberries, since I seed them.

Yesterday we went to our favorite blueberry U-Pick, along with my older stepson. We picked around 20 pounds. However, it turns out that inflation has hit there as well, and the total came to $72. (Gasp.) I have ten 4-cup bags of washed, dried, and ready to freeze blueberries. I have washed some more, which are now drying, with plans for a blueberry pie. In spite of the cost, my husband and I will go back and pick some more, so that we are set for the year.

We have two blueberry plants, but only one flowered. It had a bunch of 4-5 berries, and that was it. I did not bother trying to protect them, and the birds have eaten them. My husband thinks they did not get enough sun, but we got half a cup of blueberries last year, so I'm not sure that is the problem.
July 19, 2022 at 9:52 pm #34679
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
The tomato that was getting close to ripe was eaten by some critter, probably a squirrel.

There are some others getting big enough that they should start ripening soon, maybe we'll get the next one.

I'm starting to see some blooms on the eggplants and cantaloupe, but haven't seen any fruit set yet.

My latest set of lettuce in the Aerogarden is 3 weeks old and growing like crazy, I picked a big bowl of it today.
July 23, 2022 at 7:14 am #34714
BakerAunt
Participant
We have green tomatoes on the plant I bought from the farmers' market, but the other two (from Gurney's and initially stunted by the grow lights) have only just flowered. My husband is thinking ahead about how we might protect them in September and October if cold weather occurs then.

We are eating red bell peppers from the plant that was started in a pot a year before it was planted outside. The green bell peppers that were on it when it was dormant on the enclosed porch turned red in the garden, but they also had what looked like green bell pepper inside. One was almost completely full of a green bell pepper, so I cut it up and used it along with the red.

My husband bought some honey nut squash from Gurney's. These are the small butternut squash. He planted those seeds. He then found some seed he had saved from some honey nuts we bought at the farmers' market and planted it. We have squash forming, but one of the Gurney's plants has produced two squashes with long necks that are definitely not honey nuts, and that vine is more aggressive. The other Gurney's seed and that from the farmers' market is producing fruit as expected.
July 23, 2022 at 3:04 pm #34715
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
Seed companies don't appear to be as reliable as they were in the past. I got some lettuce seeds (rouge d'hiver and black seeded simpson) from a mail order house, they're doing fine in my Aerogarden, but some samples they sent of another lettuce variety hasn't even sprouted in two tries, and neither did the iceberg lettuce seeds I bought at a local store. (Yes, they were labeled for 2022 use.)

When I was talking to the UNL professor who teaches the hydroponics course, he said the tomato seeds he uses for his hydroponics plants cost $1 PER SEED! But he had one that was like 20 feet long. It ran along the floor and then up a tall rack. Apparently as the plant matures, the newer tomatoes are at the far end of the vine, so the earlier sections are trimmed down and lowered to the floor and the plant is essentially moved further down the row.
July 25, 2022 at 3:49 pm #34734
chocomouse
Participant
The .58" of rain last night is really going to help the garden to grow! although we are still in a drought. And we've ended the 5 days of temps in the 90s. We cannot keep up with everything. We're picking a couple quarts of blueberries every day, and a handful of raspberries, and the blackberries are ready to pick tomorrow. We're eating zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, green and yellow beans, along with the every present lettuce. Purple beans will be ready tomorrow, and there are a couple of cabbages ready to eat. The planters of herbs are lush, so I need to figure out how to dry them in my countertop oven, instead of using the big dehydrator.
July 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm #34736
chocomouse
Participant
Blackberries in our back yard. The stick is to hold up that branch, trying to prevent it from breaking off. This is one bush in 50 foot row. We'll start picking tomorrow (photo taken July 16). We freeze them on a tray, then bag when frozen; my husband eats them on his Frosted Flakes every morning after all the fresh berries are gone and until he runs out of them next spring.

Well, I can't upload the photo; I'll try to reduce it to less than 512 KB. Now trying again, with reduced photo.

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July 25, 2022 at 9:36 pm #34743
Joan Simpson
Participant
Those Blackberries are big and the bush is loaded!Nice.
July 27, 2022 at 4:21 pm #34761
BakerAunt
Participant
I mentioned my husband's cranberry plant in a tub "bog" last year. We harvested about a half cup of cranberries in the late fall, and I used them to bake muffins. The plants had lots of green berries on them this summer, and I was anticipating baking with them again. Note the past tense. The chipmunks, which are all over our yard apparently decided to eat many of the green berries. I hope they had the tummy aches to end all tummy aches. My husband is protecting what is left, but it will not be the harvest of our dreams.
July 29, 2022 at 4:06 pm #34780
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I've got a nice crop of Burpee's White Knight eggplants, I will have to start picking them soon. The Long Purple ones (Reimer seeds) should have visible fruit on them soon, they're a bit slower to mature. I don't see any cantaloupe yet, but I've got plenty of blooms. I've got multiple tomato plants with small fruit on them, the cool spell we've had in the last week should mean even more fruit setting. Nothing showing signs of ripening yet, other than the one some critter got.
July 29, 2022 at 7:27 pm #34786
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
Well, I see at least one of the purple eggplants, still very small, and we found around a half-dozen melons, the largest of them about the size of a baseball. I also spotted one tomato that was starting to show some pink color, unfortunately on the same plant that had the first fruit ripen for some critter.

The squirrels have been raiding Diane's flower pots like they were the salad bar at Golden Corral.
July 31, 2022 at 10:20 am #34799
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I got 3 small tomatoes this morning, from the 4th of July plants. They're a little smaller than a ping pong ball, but its a start.
July 31, 2022 at 5:27 pm #34807
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I bought a small zucchini at the farmer's market today, I'll use it plus some of the white eggplants to make a small batch of ratatouille this week.
August 1, 2022 at 12:23 pm #34823
RiversideLen
Participant
I have one beefsteak tomato plant. It has been growing well with lots of flowers but I haven't seen any tomatoes on it. The other day when I was watering it I thought I saw a patch of red in the middle of it, near the bottom. I peered in and to my delight saw a nice big red tomato!

It weighs in at nearly a pound, 15.5 ounces.

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