PNW: July Updates

aww theginepalace & nonna thank you so much for being so kind

theginpalace......my children also have corn in those wine barrels as well......and in my son's he also has one scarlet runner bean growing up a pole they are trying to grow like the indians use to grow called *the three sisters*......the pumpkins are going wild.....they so far love being in those wine barrels....today hubby and i had to stake the vines so that we could direct them into the direction we want them to grow......both pumpkin plants have several male and female flowers that havent opened just yet....but they are covered in them......we are hoping they will taste yummy and we plan on saving seeds from them if we like the taste

hugs
rose

our family gardens survived the thunder & lightning with hail storm over the weekend....

took a few pic's today and was happy to see flowering

our first cantalope



our first artichoke



acorn squash



cucumber



a tiny rose plant we found when we planted our artichokes in the ground....this rose plant was given to me 17 years ago when we first bought our home from our neighbor as a house warming gift....it grew so pretty over the years....but...it kept shrinking for some reason....i dont even think i seen it last year.....i thought it was gone.....im so happy that its doing so well after we dug it up.....im going to baby it until it gets bigger.....then it will go back into the garden



does this onion look like its time to save the seeds?....never saved seeds from an onion before......



i noticed that our brossel sprouts are getting a flower on top....does that mean its not going to make any sprouts??



this is what the under part of the brossel sprouts look like....i thought it was going to make some sprouts ....this is our first time growing them...



started our fall crops today....broc, cauli, brossel sprouts, red cabbage, green cabbage, bok choi and collard greens



what has everyone else been up to over this crazy weather weekend?

hugs
rose

I just love yellow roses. Looks like you have a good start on the fall veggies.

Kay

The garden is doing well. I actually have more zucchini growing this year than last year and I am grateful. I have picked one so far. I built a 2'x8' this spring just for squash and it looks like it has paid off.


I should have some green beans soon and have eaten my first cucumber (picked small of course). The grandson and I thought it was great, I learned last year that he will only eat home grown cucumbers, he doesn't like the taste of store bought.
I cleared out a 4'x4' and I will be planting a second crop of bush beans and some fall peas soon. The parsnips have finally produced seed but as I stands now I will have to check to see if there is still time to plant them for a fall crop.
Outside the sfg has produced 14 1/2 pints and 6 12 oz jars of Raspberry jam and the daughter and I have picked 17 1/2 pounds of Blueberries so far (made a pie and a cobbler). A few Blackberries are starting to turn and they are all I need to start canning the triple berry pie filling. I am very happy with how the 2012 garden is progressing this year.

Wow, and congratulations, HappyCamper, y'all done good! PapaVino loves parsnips, but I think they taste like the north end of mole heading south; and he thinks okra slimes like a salted slug. Fortunately, we BOTH love just about every other veggie that shows up from the garden. Mmmm, the idea of a very-berry pie makes me drool. Nonna

triple berry pie ..... yummmy!

congrats happycamper on a great harvest of berries so far!!

what a cute zucchini ....our squash is just now showing some flowers......

glad to hear your garden is doing so well!

hugs
rose

TheGinPalace, your comment about getting out when the weather is nice made me laugh. Yes - we PNW'ers know better than to waste sunny days inside on the 'puter! Tell me more about your garlic - how they had no papery skins left. How can you tell what to do differently next time? I read once that each leaf that dies off above ground represents one layer of skin over the bulb...?

FamilyGardening, have you got your onion seeds yet? My 1 y.o. got ahold of my one onion that had bolted and had a flower stalk - it was too much to resist, so big and tall like that. So no homegrown seeds for us.

happycamper, always love to see your updates. 17 1/2lbs of blueberries? That's so great. Tell me, you're in a lot of shade where you are - do your berry bushes have full sun? I finally caved and bought three bushes for my daughters who wanted some so badly. But I knew I would regret it, as the only place I have full sun is against the foundation (alkaline). So I've not planted them yet. I'm wondering if they would do okay with partial sun along the fence line instead? My experience with other plants is that less sun equals less flowers, even if the plant itself will grow well. Wondering if blueberries are more tolerant.
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I had a rather miraculous occurance the other night, managing to get all three kids to bed before dark and had time to myself to work in the SFG. I pulled my two squares of peas out. Took quite a bit of time to get the roots dug out of their squares, and the six squares of broccoli I'd cut down but hadn't dug out yet. Still need to get fresh compost mixed in. Thankful that for the storm last night that brought lots of much needed moisture - mother nature always does a better job watering things than I do. Not thankful to see these guys when I opened the blinds this morning:
(LavendarDebs, was it you that said how you put the slugs in the bird feeder? That was a great tip - I hated having to squish slugs, they make such a disgusting mess.)

I took the family on the "Coop du Jour Tour" of downtown/uptown urban chicken coops last weekend. Only made it to six stops of the twelve before my kiddos had enough of the walking on such a hot muggy day. I was disappointed to miss out on the next stop especially, since the owners also kept bees. I can post pictures of a few coops if anyone is interested. Wish I'd seen them all.

An unexpected bonus of the tour was walking through a part of town I'd never been to before. Spotted lots of front/side yard and parking strip gardens. Such an enjoyable atmosphere.

Hope all is well with my fellow PNW'ers!

Gwennifer, my Blueberries are in large pots. A few years ago I put them in pots as a temporary home because I didn't know where to plant them. In my experience "more berries=full sun". The plants will tolerate some shade and you will get berries but the plants will not be loaded. Getting some berries is WAY better than getting none when it comes to children. I would plant them where you can.
In my case the pots work well for me because I can move the plants into full sun for flowering and fruit set. Just to give you an idea of the size of the pots/planters they are 24 inches around and about 30 inches tall.
Here is a link to Washington State University about growing small fruit that may help. Happy Growing!
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/cepublications/eb1640/eb1640.html

Lots of wonderful sunny days so far this month and the garden is loving it! My pumpkin plant is ridiculously HUGE. I'm just letting it grow where it wants to at this point since I've got lots of empty space next to the bed. It also has tons of flowers and now that I've started hand pollinating (even taught my step daughter how to do it...she thought it was pretty fun) I've got growing pumpkins! The butternut squash is getting set to do the same spread everywhere thing. Lots of flower buds but none have bloomed yet. The watermelon on the other hand is still pretty darn small. I did notice today that it's starting to send out the little viney shoots (I'm sure they have a name but not a clue what it is). Also in this bed are my cucumbers who are quite happy as well...got myself a nice sized cucumber today. I swear it grew overnight! And my basil which is quite happy with the sun and warm temps.

And then there are the tomatoes...oh my...I'm not sure if I've done something wrong or if they are just ridiculously happy plants. They are quite literally as tall as I am (5'6") and seem to grow several inches every day. I had NO CLUE that tomatoes got that tall!!! I don't have anything tall enough to support them much past where they are so I don't really know what to do if they keep going up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! Lots of flowers and the Juliette's have lots of little green fruit. So far only one green Early Girl but they also have lots of flowers now. Oh and I haven't done any fertilizing...I'm a little afraid of what will happen if I do that!

Here's the whole bed.


Here's my first and biggest pumpkin...she's SO cute!


My cucumber!


The lonely Early Girl


The biggest of the Juliette's I'm hopeful for some color soon.


The second bed has chamomile which I've been plucking flower heads as they bloom. They keep coming so I'm thinking I'll have quite the stash of flowers for tea! My lettuce is finally growing well along with the parsley, catnip and oregano. Amazingly my little rosemary I started from seed is surviving too! The potatoes are actually all gone now...I harvested them right after taking the pics. I got probably 15 pounds of BIG yukon golds. I think I'll sew some fall crops in those squares now.

Bed #2


Then bed three has my peas which are slowing down considerably. I'm thinking I'll pull them and reseed. Beans which are going nuts...I think they are about to start flowering soon. The broccoli are still putting out little shoots but they are also slowing considerably so I'm thinking of pulling them as well. The carrots are looking very happy but when I pulled some a couple weeks ago they were still very tiny so I'm going to just leave them for now. I haven't tried pulling any of the onions...the tops are all still so green and healthy that I'm going to leave them as well. The jalapenos are getting blossoms and looking very healthy. The banana pepper on the other hand was not happy with moving out of the hoop house. She's coming back but pretty slowly. I've also got some huge sunflower plants that were suppose to be dwarf...I guess even dwarf they are pretty darn big. No flowers yet but I'm hopeful. And last but not least the leeks are actually starting to look like leeks instead of chives!

Bed #3


And that's my July update!

gorgeous garden! everything is soooo green and lush! i can't wait!!

Well my garden is finally in high form so thought I would share a few pics
First is my peppers, this one is the bulls horn I finally started getting peppers, a month later than last year. These ones emerge yellow and then turn red

My artichokes are really starting to produce, in the heavily fertilized area, as many as 3 on a plant.

These are a few of my brandy wines...almost ripe.

This is a zapotec (sp) heirloom tomato, really looks interesting, anxious to try them, they have been quite a challenge to prune to one stem


I am trying to grow all my tomatoes up and over something and in this picture it will be up and over the cattle panel.

My beans have just started producing beans, the past few days, so lots to eat today.


HAPPY summer
BY Janet who is going back into garden to pick beans...

i like how you have your peppers growing through the wire for support. What type of wire is that? Nice garden too btw!!

What type of wire is that?

It is a cattle panel bent the opposite way as usual.
AND actually I use it as a bit of a hoop house to keep the peppers warm at night in the spring, and I just put the cattle panel back on a few days ago as a storm was coming in and it seemed it might give them a bit of support in the wind. (it was just a last minute thought, but worked..)
thanks

looks good! if mine ever get tall enough to "stake" I'll think of you! ty for sharing!

Looks really nice. I love the tomato tunnels

I hope everyone saw Corrinaq's post at the bottom of page 4. She's new to our PNW forum. Welcome! So glad you shared pictures. What a lovely garden you have, and such a wonderful setting too. Hope you'll share some harvest photos too.

GWN, just beautiful! I see what you mean about your garden being in "high form". Congrats!

gwen thanks for posting!....i did miss some of page 4 and page 5

i love this time of year....all of our PNW gardens look lush and green!!


welcome to the group Corrinaq!......wowzers at your pumpkin and cucumbers already!!! .....you have a great garden going! congrats!!

GWN you have such a nice set up with the trellising ...your garden looks great!.....jelous of your artichokes ....we have one itty bitty baby growing :drunken: