Coastal & Tropical South: Show me your May progress!!!

I know I'm a couple days early, but two days won't make a huge difference in progress so I wanted to get this started on the weekend...I'd like to see where everyone's gardens stand, so I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

Starting on the east end, here's my first box, all veggies with several empty spots waiting for me to decide what to grow. This box has okra (not sprouted yet), red Malabar spinach, cucumbers, rattlesnake beans (they are starting to grab on to the trellis!), Swiss chard, leaf lettuce, bunching onions (my other onions never sprouted), yellow cayenne peppers, nasturtiums, tendersweet carrots, my younger son's scarlet Nantes carrots, and green bell peppers:


The 2nd box has all pumpkins; left two are the Seminoles (thanks Goosegirl!), right two are the Connecticut fields. The yellowjackets' ground nest that I spoke of is just the other side of the concrete path:


The 3rd box is my not-so-happy-looking herb garden (everything's so puny!) with squash in the back...I discovered that I overplanted the squash squares when I finally looked again at ANSFG, so I'll be offering the extras to friends. I have golden crookneck, table queen acorn (planted later and therefore the smallest of the bunch), gray zucchini and round zucchini. The herbs actually making an effort are the two types of cilantro, two types of chives, marjoram, a sorry looking oregano, some basil, and my older son's scarlet Nantes carrots:


Here's my tomatoes; I have one indeterminate cherry in the back; one Heatmaster that I hope will produce in the hot, HOT summer; and four Romas, two in the largest planter and one each in the small pots that are not happy in their small homes. Behind the tomatoes you can see our newest box which will house the boys' sunflowers for the BIG THINGS contest Josh has going. We have a 10' tall trellis waiting for the box to get filled the rest of the way which you can spy in the corner:


OK, you've seen my first-year efforts, and I'm ready to be wowed and humbled by your gardens!

Well I had a message all typed out and my internet crapped out when I hit send and it lost the post... ugh!
Sooo Bed 1: Cherry tomato has a few small babies on it.. the German queen to it's right has flowers, but no little ones yet. Two peppers yellow and green next to them. The yellow finally had an open flower this week. The front row is a watermelon, bush green beans, a cantaloupe (with it's first open flower this week), and sweet basil:

Bed 2: Corn on the left and then romaine, which is looking great. The two broccoli on the back row are still growing slowly, but otherwise seem good so I've got a small hope that they'll make it. Then another square of bush green beans and rosemary up front:

The zucchini, which has lots of "gonna be flowers" but none have opened yet:

The big bed, which I don't have a full photo of. But you can see the two squares of yellow onions, then a jalapeno pepper behind it that my brother started and gave to me. To the left of that is a square of spinach. You can see the sweet potatoes in the upper portion of the photo and you can just see an eeeking of the yellow squash in the lower left hand corner. There is a two by two topper box in the lower right corner that has two squares of carrots and the right two squares are sugar snaps. There is also more corn up near the sweet potatoes that you can't see in the photo:

That's one great looking garden! Everything looks so wonderfully healthy, and you're getting blossoms too. Isn't it exciting?!

I have blossoms on all my tomatoes and both peppers, plus two cherry tomatoes and one cayenne pepper have started to form, but nothing else is showing signs of fruiting activity. My boys are really watching those little tomatoes. They don't even eat tomatoes, unless it's in a sauce! Maybe I'll actually get them to try some fresh by the end of the summer.

givvmistamps wrote:That's one great looking garden! Everything looks so wonderfully healthy, and you're getting blossoms too. Isn't it exciting?!

I have blossoms on all my tomatoes and both peppers, plus two cherry tomatoes and one cayenne pepper have started to form, but nothing else is showing signs of fruiting activity. My boys are really watching those little tomatoes. They don't even eat tomatoes, unless it's in a sauce! Maybe I'll actually get them to try some fresh by the end of the summer.

Honestly I don't like tomatoes either and I'm really weird because I love tomato soup, salsa, pasta sauce, etc lol. I just don't do raw tomatoes. Luckily hubby does and I may I have to eat one of the cherry tomatoes just because I grew them lol. I can't wait until I can harvest something!!

@CarolinaGirl: Is it a texture thing with fresh tomatoes? I really want to understand why some people eat canned tomatoes in other things, but not the fresh ones... My guys won't touch fresh, and the only one of the three that has even tried a fresh tomato is my husband. My younger son is just following the lead of the others...he'd be quite an adventurous eater if the others weren't so darn picky!

Here's my little baby tomatoes; my iPhone doesn't like to do close-up shots, so they look a bit fuzzy:

givvmistamps wrote:@CarolinaGirl: Is it a texture thing with fresh tomatoes? I really want to understand why some people eat canned tomatoes in other things, but not the fresh ones... My guys won't touch fresh, and the only one of the three that has even tried a fresh tomato is my husband. My younger son is just following the lead of the others...he'd be quite an adventurous eater if the others weren't so darn picky!

Yes it's mostly a texture thing on fresh tomatoes, but I don't recall liking the taste of fresh ones either lol. I've tried eating them several times over the years and just never liked them. Same goes for pears... don't like the gritty texture. Coconut... just like in Zombieland.. it's not the flavor it's the texture lol.

This bed has bush beans (currently flowering), a couple of tomato plants, various peppers in the front, and in the top right corner there, a tromboncino squash, which I hope will run crazy all over the unused side-of-the-house area beyond the picture.



This is one of my double-stacked beds. I'm really liking the additional depth as it gives more of a margin of error as far as things getting dried out, which they do so quickly in 90+ weather (which we are already set in). The big tomato plant is Tycoon, which is supposed to be tolerant of Yellow Leaf Curl Virus, the evil menace depriving me of tomatoes. The big tomato set before the hailstorm, then nothing else for a few weeks as it recovered. Setting fruit again now. Peppers, chard, borage, Malabar spinach, okra, lemon cukes, and a couple more tomato plants.



Loving the eggplants that I picked up from Home Depot after the hailstorm. They are doing great and the purple ones have begun to set fruit. More peppers and tomatoes and the okra plant that's doing the best. Tatume squash just starting up in the upper left corner.



I've gotten all mixed up with my tomato plants this year, so I'm not sure which one has gotten so big in the upper left corner, but it's showing signs of the dreaded virus now. Cuke in there somewhere that recovered remarkably well from the hailstorm. Setting cukes now, which is a delight as I've struggled to grow them in the past. Bush beans in front which are close to flowering. More peppers. Banana peppers about ready to harvest. Peas mostly dead since the storm, but get a few pods a day and the kids love them, so I haven't pulled them yet.



Stupid squash bed. Two plants left from before the hailstorm, but not getting any fruit since then. They are shrivling up before the flower can open. Should probably pull them. Various herbs and such in pots.

Thanks for creating this thread! It caused me to track down my missing camera!

@CarolinaGirl: Thanks for sharing that info; it helps me to know what I should shoot for in enticing my guys to try more things. No fresh tomatoes, only blended, cooked versions to start with this year.

@elliephant: Thanks for putting up pictures. I think your garden is recovering remarkably well from that hailstorm you had a few weeks ago! I realize some of that is replacement plants, but you're doing a great job nursing the rest back.

Speaking of tomatoes; I have a tomato plant that has a few leaves I noticed starting to curl this morning...mostly at the top on newer leaves. Could that be this virus you're talking about? Should I isolate it from my other tomatoes? I'll attach two photos to show...

In this first photo, look at the top, forward leaf, the section just behind the pointed section; it's curling under and looking like it's going dry now.


This photo is of the newest growth, which is VERY droopy, it lacks the firmness I'm accustomed to seeing in a tomato leaf:

I'm afraid it does look like it has some disease of some kind. I can't tell if the leaves have the yellowing that mine have. Definitely isolate it.

Thanks elliephant; I'll have my husband drag it to the other end of the yard just in case. I'm now wondering if it got overwatered a bit, as the newest leaves perked up today and the one leaf that looks crispy hasn't gotten worse. That particular planter doesn't seem to drain as well as the others, but this 90+ degree weather we're having is probably cooking out any excess moisture.

Here is my first bed:

Some empty spots because I didn't get things in fast enough. I've got cukes, cantaloupe, pole beans, acorn squash in the front, collards, eggplants, beans, tomatoes (can't see those) and a tiny watermelon plant. Notice the pole beans on the right have no leaves until about halfway up. Here's the reason for that:

Another view of the first bed:

See the baby cantaloupe? I'm so excited!

Second bed has tomatoes (not sure what they are because I forgot to label them again after I potted up!), beans, okra, herbs, some hot peppers that a u-pick farmer gave us because they were dying, and marigolds:

This is the first year we've actually been able to grow things to harvest!

Looks GREAT kbsmom! I had to laugh at your photo of the ducks attacking your bean leaves. It just looks so funny. How do you keep them away from the rest of the garden? Or are bean leaves just that tasty they don't care about the rest? My beans currently look almost the opposite, the tops are suddenly starting to grab hold and wind up the trellis, but they have these tiny leaves you barely notice above the large lower leaves. At least they're growing.

When I was potting up some excess plants (mostly squash) that I over planted, to give to a friend, I noticed that most of my squash plants have buds on them! Wahoo! Now the boys will have more than some little tomatoes and a cayenne pepper to watch growing. They absolutely love watching everything to see how big they're getting, and since those tomatoes won't get very big (the first to set fruit was a cherry tomato) this will add to the excitement. It's so great to see my boys going straight to the garden every day after school to see what's new there.

Givvmistamps - That's the problem! I can't keep those geese out of anything! They are the goats of the bird world. They love the eggplant and collards especially. They are technically still goslings and they'll get quite a bit bigger (i.e. they can reach further into my SFG!) My husband bought some fencing to put around the gardens to try and keep them out - we'll see how it works. They also love to try to eat our flip-flops and tennis shoes.

I have been thinking my cukes weren't going to do well since many of the babies are turning yellow and falling off. Then this morning I happened to look down along the side of the box and saw a 5 inch long cucumber! Guess I don't have to worry!

Oh man, those are geese! I guess I thought they were ducks because they're not full grown. I hope your fencing will help. Did you get some bird netting to put over the top? I'd hate for you to put up fencing only to have the geese fly over it.

for the baby cuke!!! I can't wait to see more growing in my garden. It's so exciting to find something new, isn't it?

Excited to report that the big tomato plant that is going crazy in the corner with the cukes appears to be Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (my starts got all mixed up). Will pick the first one tomorrow. The plant isn't doing too well now (same old virus), but has already set quite a few tomatoes, so I'm really excited about that. I got about 5-6 OFPS tomatoes last year and found them to be wonderfully creamy.

Here are the 2 eggplants I picked today (going to be my first time trying them), along with 2 cukes that totally got away from me. I've never had that happen before as I'm usually anxiously watching each flower to see if it will make it. But that one corner has really turned into a jungle.

I decided to pull my 2 squash plants that survived the hailstorm. They had PM and the baby squash were shriveling before the flower could open. I tested the soil were they had been and it was good (although alkaline) in all areas except nitrogen and that pretty much didn't register at all. Testing was done on a whim as I'd already decided to put in some bush beans for a quick nitrogen boost. Was happy to see my instincts were right and will test again after I harvest the beans to see if the amount registers. Then I will add more compost as well, but I didn't add compost before planting the beans (which are already coming up, btw).

ksbmom wrote:Givvmistamps - That's the problem! I can't keep those geese out of anything! They are the goats of the bird world. ......... They also love to try to eat our flip-flops and tennis shoes.

That is the TRUTH! Don't leave anything out that you want to find again, because they will try to eat it.

GG

Wow, Elliephant, those are some beautiful eggplants and large cucumbers! Is this your first harvest of the season?

It's my first eggplant harvest of the season. I got 2 cucumbers before these monsters. The giant ones surprised me by not being bitter at all. I peeled them and made a cuke/tom salad that is marinating right now. Leaning toward this Eggplant Marinara recipe as it will allow me to try eggplant in a familiar dish.

I've finally started putting in the trellis for the sweet potatoes. It's not the straightest trellis, but I think I did a pretty good job seeing as I'm 5'7" and those are 8' 1"x2"s lol. And really the only two wonky ones are the two at the top lol. Anyway eventually it will have a string grid all the way up both sections (I did the bottom two portions that you can see on the back section):

I'm pretty confident I'll be able to take the front portion off pretty easily and then keep the back section next spring for snap peas. OR leave it like it is and do two different trellis things and maybe lettuces down the center?

I did post some update photos in my post in the show us section but here they are again:
Romaine:
Yellow Peppers:
Sweet 100: one of the babies has disappeared as of today... not quite sure what would have eaten it...squirrel? bird?

Well, I have some frustrating news...we got hit by a freak hailstorm yesterday. It has done a lot of leaf damage, particularly to my squash, larger bean leaves, lettuce and Swiss chard...

Here are my beans and cucumbers. You can just see my Malabar spinach in the bottom right corner; it seems to have survived okay, though the leaves look pretty beaten up:


This *was* Swiss chard and lettuce that I had planned on harvesting a few leaves off soon...but I'm practically back to the beginning with them now


My Seminole pumpkins:


Connecticut field pumpkins:


The back of my squash and herb box:


The front of the squash and herb box:


One of my Roma tomatoes fell over (I meant to do a Florida weave, but clearly didn't get around to it soon enough ):


This is my cherry tomato; it seems that most of the babies made it, but I did lose one hand of tiny babies:


The heatmaster tomato came through the best of the tomatoes, I think:


My poor flat of flowers for the front yard were pounded to the ground:


Somehow the carrot photos didn't get loaded yet, but look at what happened to the flowers above and use your imagination; it won't take much effort. One of my sons (older one) now has only one carrot left in the square he planted for Carrot Week. My other son came out much better, as long as the poor leaves can perk up.

Oh, you definitely have my sympathies as you know what a pounding my garden took in our freak hailstorm! Things WILL bounce back! They have good strong root systems that will be putting forth new growth in no time!

Thanks Elliephant, I knew you'd understand. Just seems so strange to have a hailstorm in the near-tropics. I know they warn it could happen, but it never has in 5 years living here...until now! My husband was saying that we need a durable shade cloth that could double as a hailstone deflector. Sounds great to me!

I'm sorry to see that We got the rain last night, but thankfully no hail. Hopefully there's not too much damage and with a little TLC they'll recover.

I went out yesterday evening before another series of big thunderstorms and pruned off the worst looking leaves, gave my bushy Romas a really good thinning (they were so bushy I didn't notice until yesterday that I have several baby tomatoes growing on them!) and generally gave the plants TLC. Today the plants are looking perky and cheerful, so I'm encouraged.

I bought some pots, and I'm going to move what's left of my herbs (several got hammered to death by the hail) into the pots, replant seeds for the herbs that I lost in their own pots, and figure out some veggies I can plant where the herbs were. That gives me 12 squares to play with! Definitely more bunching onions...not sure what else yet, but I'm excited to have more space to grow in.

My husband is building me a raised bed so I can start a cutting flower garden near the back door with my sons. It's quite late to be starting these flowers, but I'm hoping we'll get some pretty flowers anyway.

The problem my husband's running into while building this new bed is that we suddenly have a whole bunch of baby toads hopping around the back yard near the house! We even found a larger toad whom we've been calling Mama Toad:

The babies are hopping around too quickly to catch a photo of. We had already named our veggie garden Toad Alley but my husband said, after chasing away a bunch of baby toads from his work zone before laying down timbers, that the toads are so prolific here that this isn't a Toad Alley, or a Toad Kingdom, but a Toad Dynasty! I'm thinking we should call the flower garden Skink Street since they hung out for a while in the spot where the new flower garden is going.

Well, today is week-1 mark, so not much to report ..

PICS

One of the Sweet 100s set fruit & one pepper showed blossum ... but otherwise a quiet week