North & Central Midwest: JULY! 2016

OK, let's face it. We have greens and roots in the spring and fall....but we really want cukes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash!

The time has come! OK, I have had one tiny cuke. But it is a cuke!

Next up outside will be a cuke! And then may be a beet or carrot...late for some reason.

Sad to report I was never able to find the time to start any cukes, squashes, or green beans...

But despite the early June heat we got, we are abundant in tomatoes (so far), peppers, onions, basil, and carrots. Amazingly the kale I have in grow bags continues to go on!

The grow bag kale was starting to fizzle out because of heat and caterpillars. I kept picking away at the 'pillars, and feeding them, and now they seem to have gotten a second wind and are producing some nice tender leaves again.

I can't believe it's July already! I've had nice salads with the lettuces & beet greens. Made my last salad with the asparagus for today's festivities with my family. It was a long season for 'gus this year!  My tomatoes are looking wonderful - one of my plants is called "100s & 1000s" and is nothing but blossoms and tiny little tomatoes. Lots of them! It will be fun to see how they taste! The hot peppers that had been thoroughly traumatized in May have bounced back and are the bushiest plants I've ever had! The broccoli has finally decided to grow, as have the peas. Better late than never! My bean trellis is working perfectly! The fencing I chose to make the arch was too flexible, I was afraid it wouldn't hold the plants up as they produced. I used shock-corded tent poles to give it the support it needed. Someday I'll get some photos up.   Oh.... and I have six cabbages to harvest! 

Scorpio Rising wrote:OK, let's face it.   We have greens and roots in the spring and fall....but we really want  cukes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash!  

The time has come!  OK, I have had one tiny cuke.  But it is a cuke!  

Next up outside will be a cuke!  And then may be a beet or carrot...late for some reason.

EXACTLY! We've had 2 small cukes, with another deformed one on the vine, ready to pick. Our tomatoes are still green, hornworms got most of the peppers, and I can never get more than 3 beans at a time. I have gotten 2 nice zucchini, but no more coming for some reason. By now I expected to be harvesting more veggies than we can eat. It is discouraging, but it looks like the spaghetti squash will be good.

Tonight's haul.  Everything is growing, setting fruit, and I had my first ground cherry ever!  It was lovely, and tasted like pineapple.  And I snuck 2 cherry tomatoes in the garden while watering.  

I think some of my beets are good, but no carrots link ready to me.  I am gonna put in the potatoes tomorrow.  I had to water....really dry.  My tomatoes have lower leaf curl like I have never seen.

I had room for 7 highly chitted Yukon Gold potatoes! Pulled 3 beets. Just looked at everything else. Thought about pulling a couple small Patty pans, still might do that. I can't tell what is going on with the carrots. Big tops. Can't really evaluate the root growth. They are in my original windowboxes.

I have 2 huge squash plants growing on the compost pile. Dilemma. Leave them? Or chop into more compost and turn the pile. One is blooming....

If you don't need to work your pile for some reason I vote to leave them.
I love Patty pans! But can't grow them due to SFG.
CC

Scorpio Rising wrote:

I have 2 huge squash plants growing on the compost pile.  Dilemma.  Leave them?  Or chop into more compost and turn the pile.  One is blooming....

My experience with compost squash was an inedible hybrid... Don't know WHAT the original was supposed to be! I have a beautiful tomato plant in mine - last time I let one fruit there it turned out to be a grocery-store type grape tomato. But I had some very nice heirlooms that went in there at the end of last season, so who knows?

Honestly I didn't say sfg. I said SVB.
Sorry for this crazy tablets typing but at least it's getting used to my lingo like using SFG even if it's not what I said.

I had some grape tomatoes come up out of my compost also, last year. They were delicious! I didn't realize grocery store grape tomatoes were hybrid and I saved seeds. I didn't grow any this year and now I'm glad I didn't. Thanks for that info, Suzy.

Yeah, I am gonna let them ride.  There is also a tomato in there.....que sera, sera!  I am a super lazy gardener, and even worse with composting!

Suz, these are very identifiable as Patty pans. From last year. Cold pile, seeds still viable. Guess lots of give-aways!

CapeCoddess wrote:If you don't need to work your pile for some reason I vote to leave them.
I love Patty pans! But can't grow them due to SFG.
CC

Have you tried foil? I am talking to my teacher now......but I eked out a few with foil wrapped base stalks. Then went to SFG.

Honestly, CC, if you want me to send you some, I am sure I will have plenty!

Salad greens still going well; 2 varieties about done but the others still look good.  Carrots beginning to be ready, radishes almost done.  Tomatoes all have fruit and loads of blooms, but still green.  Cucumbers just beginning to set fruit.  Kale and chard doing well, not so dure about the garlic.  I dug up one bulb because they are yellowing, but it looked like a large green onion; no distinguishable cloves.  Letting the rest go longer.

Nice, herblover!

Took a quick perimeter look at the veggies and melons....mosquitoes are terrible! I got nailed on my arms and back of my neck, and I was moving! ICK.

Dry, dry, dry. Need to water in the AM. Will douse myself in Deep Woods OFF! And go out for a deep drink...at least the South Annex and SFGs. Then shower the DEET off me so I am not toxic nor smell like, well, DEET.

No terrible spurges of pests today....some aphids on the milkweeds, which the peppermint soap concoction actually kills them, so will get them in the AM.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Honestly, CC, if you want me to send you some, I am sure I will have plenty!  

Haha, you're a funny gal! I can buy them at the farmers market easy enough. The farmers use BT I think. No, I've never tried wrapping the stems in foil. My summer squashes are only about two inches high right now with about 1/4 inch of stem then leaves, then another 1/4 inch stem then leaves, etc. How do you wrap the foil around such a small stem with leaves. Use strips?
Right now one is covered in a mesh bag that had oranges in it and the other one is out in the open.
CC

Foil, yes, I cut it into about 3/4 inch wide 3-4" long strips and started wrapping it around the stems, shoving about 1/2 inch below surface. And watched. And re-wrapped...that was my downfall, not ongoingly diligent enough....

Picked the first banana peppers, Italian frying peppers, and yellow gypsy peppers.  Pulled up all the garlic today, last years were mostly rough looking and I was afraid to replant those. But I planted those anyway, and this year very pleased.  The first spaghetti squash has set fruit.  Several dill heads were getting ready to open the flowers so I took those too.  First swiss chard harvested and two more pickling cucumbers.  Here I expected to go out and just take a look, very surprised there was so much harvesting to do.

Nice, LM ! Sounds like a good summer salad to me! I have had one banana pepper....it was good! And my garlic is gone. I had it in containers, and I think it just gets too cold here. In the dirt it goes this year.

Scorpio Rising

Sorry about your garlic.  I'm not certain garlic likes containers either. Think you'll be very happy with it in the ground.  Camprn usually has nice info on growing garlic, maybe she'll have some good advice.

LM, can it be grown in the SFG boxes? And not rot/freeze, etc.?

Scorpio R. -

All my garlic is in Mels Mix in the sfg boxes on the ground. It very well survives the deep snow and below freezing temps, covered for the winter in a layer of leaves.  Hard neck garlic does well in that environment. 

I'd be leery putting them in table tops as I did with strawberries and lost  the whole thing, 64 plants.  My theory is no matter how cold the ground gets, it still protects the plant roots which a table can't.  I'm thinking the severe cold air surrounds the roots below and killed everything in the box. That's my best half baked theory anyway.

LM, Not such a half baked theory. Here in CA, the TTs work great in the winter. But I think the MM could freeze solid in colder, Northern areas to the point things would die. Maybe TD will let us know if he plants anything in his new TT over winter.

Sanderson, appreciate  your input.

Thanks, LM and Sanderson. I don't have any TTs. But I did put the best cloves in a large plastic container (round, cheapo for flowers) last November. None of them were ever seen after the winter. They actually came up, and then it got kinda warm, and everyone around here got worried like the garlic would freeze, and die....so I piled on leaves for mulch. And never saw it again. I think the potting soil just froze and thawed so many times the cloves died.

I have space reserved in my deep original window boxes for garlic for this fall. I love garlic. It is a staple!

Never give up! Never surrender! (Galaxy Quest).