July 2013 New England

Well, we finally made it to July and I have to say I have not been this far behind on my garden this late into the growing season in about 5 +/- years. I am feeling rather inadequate.
In my neck of the woods we had over 10 inches of rainfall in the past 30 days, which is quite a lot.

Here is my sad garden, though I am pleased at how well it is coming along considering the very cool, wet spring we had.


'nother view.The garlic in the background should be ready for harvest quite soon.


San Marzanos, are way ahead by about a week...


of the sad but improving Gilberties.


Peppers are much improved, losing all the leaf curl and putting on some height and bloom.


The aubergine are absolutely LOVING the heat and the water!!!


Some of the chard is starting to bolt, I guess I should sow more. I eat a lot of it.


The beans are finally coming along. need to put up the trellis tomorrow.


Shallots are putting on some final girth.


Borage and leeks allowed to bloom to bring pollinators.


Good golly. I totally neglect my strawberries. But they are giving me a few.


Peas putting on more bloom.


Calendula, bachelor buttons and johnny jump-ups.


Daisy and bee balm.

July Garden Chores for the North East USA, by Margaret Roach.
http://awaytogarden.com/the-july-garden-chores-2013

camprn wrote:Well, we finally made it to July and I have to say I have not been this far behind on my garden this late into the growing season in about 5 +/- years. I am feeling rather inadequate.
In my neck of the woods we had over 10 inches of rainfall in the past 30 days, which is quite a lot.
Here is my sad garden, though I am pleased at how well it is coming along considering the very cool, wet spring we had.

'nother view.The garlic in the background should be ready for harvest quite soon.

I read that and had to check what it was like here. Took a few minutes, but I found the NWS figures:
CLIMATE REPORT  NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
141 AM EDT MON JUL 1 2013
...THE HARTFORD CT CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR JUNE 30 2013...
PRECIPITATION (IN):  MONTH TO DATE   10.79
I knew it had been a lot, but it was as much here, as you reported in your neck of the woods.
I don't think your garden is sad. Your detail pictures of your garden (which I snipped, to not take up too much space repeating) look beautiful!

Aw! Thanks Nicola! Once I plant a few more seeds and fix the weed wacker things will look a bit less like a jungle.

Sad garden I think Not.  I was surprised and expected the pics to show far less growth. They look really good despite too much rain.  30 days from now all those beds will probably be bursting at the seams with all kinds of lush growth.

Nothing wrong with those gardens camprn, they are lookin' GREAT!

bnoles wrote:Nothing wrong with those gardens camprn, they are lookin' GREAT!

 +1!  Everything looks green and happy, despite the lagging spring. Weather rarely seems to cooperate, but your garden is standing in defiance!

GG

We've had rain, rain, rain making this June the 7th highest rain on record in 140 years.  And its still coming.
The peas are loving it.  When I get out between rains, I get a colander full of sugar snaps. The 2nd sowing are beginning tko fruit now.
The tomatoes are lookin' good and the peppers are blossoming.  The eggplants are enjoying the warmer evenings we had for awhile and now its dropped in temps so they'll stop for a bit.
And the weeds love it, too.  I must get out with my clippers and get at those weeds in the pathways before they take over my garden.  At least I got the alder lopped off and tossed.  Too bad my son's weedwacker is on the fritz.

My wet garden on 6-29

I hope y'all are ready for a laugh!

So as I said in another thread, I finally found a community garden plot that was open (even though it was halfway through the season ><). Real close by and laid back! It's 25' x 50', but unfortunately, this is what it looked like when I drove by on Saturday to check it out:


Yup. 1250 square feet of chest height weeds (on a 6' guy). Good thing they don't care if you bring a few beers to drink while you work! 

I was able to gather some things Sunday morning to bring over. Namely, some fencing (as it borders on some woods where some bunnies have a city) as well as some of the pound-in black bordering and conduit to make myself a 2'x15' box with a trellis to grow some vine-y things.

This is the spot I cleared out and put the fence down in:



And the strip I started down the "long" side where I'll put my first box:



Now I get to make the big kid decision of whether or not I want to go there before work or after work every day in order to play around. Who knows, maybe by the end of July I'll even half more than half of the spot cleared out!

tbergeron....I don't think I welcomed you earlier.  Welcome to the NE group.
That sure is a big, weedy garden.
I'd opt to get out there in the mornings before the bugs are out in force and while its cooler so its easier to do manual labor.
Please keep us informed of your progress.  Its lucky you are a big guy and obviously in good health.  Good luck.

Actually QB, you did welcome me before (in a way). I was living in Virginia when I started my first SFG in about March and you gave me some helpful advice.

And yup, these weeds are going to be fun. The two neighbors are excited though. I guess the guy who had that spot rented and just never showed up, so they are eager to be rid of the eyesore of giant weeds. I told them to feel free to go over and pull some whenever they wanted =).

Flash floods over night. You can't get there from here this morning; many, many roads are closed.

camprn wrote:You can't get there from here

*chuckle* Haven't heard that in a while...

Again, I'm envious of your rain, everyone  You photos are so green.  I thought about mowing my lawn this morning but under all the clover is brown grass that hasn't budged since the last mowing 3 wks ago.  That little bit of rain we had last weekend didn't cut it apparently.   The bees are very happy with things they way they are.

I'll tell ya one thing it IS raining here on the Cape tho...TRAFFIC!  Definitely can't get there from here... in any timely fashion anyway. On to my garden update...

Beans, SuperSonic toms (F2), peas (what's left of them) parsnips, cucs in bucket.


Onions, lettuces, peppers, cherry toms, radish pods/flowers

Grand Rapids & Bijou lettuce, beets, chard, heirloom toms

New box of fall babies: collards, kale, cabbage, chives, Bijou lettuce, beets, mustard spinach, Fordhook chard

Kale box re-growing for a 6th harvest, cabbages were planted early spring

This box has garlic, patty pan, lettuce, basil, coriander, daikon pods, watermelon & cucs.  The rest of the garlic will probably be harvested tomorrow.


The sun is supposed to be shining for the next week at least, so this morning before work I planted all my Walking Onion bulblets, compost topped the toms & peps, spritzed for PM and planted some broccoli seeds in cell packs with high hopes.  I'll water the SFG's tomorrow morning if not tonite.

Stay safe, everyone...it's a zoo out there!

CC

Is it too late for me to plant some corn when I pull the garlic tomorrow?

CC

Today I took down the rest of the peas and saved all the tender leaves & stems for salads per my Chinese co-worker.  I tried some while out there and they are delish!  I also watered the SFG from buckets, thinned & transplanted collards, harvested the rest of the lettuce from the pepper squares, as well as more kale, collards & rainbow chard.  And I went ahead and planted some corn in the squash beds - Silver Queen, 92 days.  We'll see what happens.

Oh, and I actually have cuc & pole bean trellis grabbage!  And lots of flowers on the bush beans.  They sure are crowded in there at 9/sq but not seeming to mind it, and it looks so pretty.

While I was out planting corn I noticed some 1 inch long wasp-y looking orange bugs flying and poking around my squash.  I just spend the better part of 2 hours trying to identify them and decided to post them here:  
Head on:

Any ideas?  Good or bad?

CC

Squash borer moth. Search and destroy mission must commence STAT!

OH CRAP...
 
On it!

CC

CC double check photos on the web.

OK...saw the photos - great suggestion even if they are disgusting.  I then donned my glasses  , headed out to the squash beds, got down on hands and knees and searched every leaf and stem on about 20 plants for black/brown specks, which is only everything.  All specks, regardless of what they were, got squooshed.  While squooshing I was also letting the hose run on the beds.  Then I spritzed with the PM mix and covered them with tulle.  Probably like closing the barn door after the cows got out but it's the best I can do without resorting to chemicals.



So what with the PM, SVB, slugs, rolly-pollies (eating the strawberries), rabbits, cutworms, earwigs, the heat, ants, caterpillar butterfly & worms, cats, beetles and heaven knows what else, it's like a freakin' war zone out there.  I spritzed for PM; I have tulle on the brassicas, seedlings, strawberry & squash beds; toothpicks on new seedlings; I pulled out the cabbage worm infested collards and replanted the bed covering them with burlap; and I sprinkled DE on just about everything else.

In spite of it all I'm harvesting up a storm and eating tons of fresh veggies & strawberries! And a yummy Sungold tomato, taboot!

Did I miss anything?

CC

If tomatoes by the Fourth of July is a benchmark, I squeaked by with a few Sungolds picked this morning. Actually, I picked a few on the third but they didn't make it home to photograph.



With all the ran we had two weeks ago my peppers contracted some kind of (bacterial?) disease that spread down 15 feet of row in one day. I sprayed them with copper and removed and destroyed the affected leaves. That did the trick and the peppers have bounced right back.



The Jimmy Nardello peppers (an Italian heirloom from Connecticut) are loaded with peppers.



If the Jimmy Nardellos look like that, then what is this mystery pepper in the same block? Maybe a red cherry or a Lipstick, two other peppers I started from seed at the same time?

It's wicked hot out but I'm making progress. Got the trellis' up for the rattlesnake beans.


When it cools down to the mid 80s I'll get going on the tomato trellis'.

camprn wrote:It's wicked hot out but I'm making progress.

Same here...it's actually 110 in the sun on the front porch thermometer.    And 88 in the shade under the cypress hedge.  I watered the SFG again this morning along with alot of perennials.  Then turned my compost pile a minimal amount coz a couple of my coworkers gave me a big bag of steamer & lobster shells and a med bag of juiced veggie pulp, and the critters had stirred them up for me last nite.  

dvelten, your peppers are amazing!  Mine are kinda spindly & the flowers haven't even opened yet.  

I do have a little zucchini growing under all that tulle, and have to keep an eye on the other flowers in order to get them pollinated.  

No female flowers on my cucs yet.  Do cucs need male/female pollination?  Or are they more like tomatoes where you don't have to worry about it.  OH, and does the SVB like cucs?  If so I'll cover them...

CC

I have another mystery plant, a tomato, that needs identifying by the Gilbertie experts. Back in March I started four Black Cherry tomatoes, picked the two best for my own use and gave the rest away. The two plants had different growth patterns in the garden, one more vigorous than the other and already loaded with clusters of cherry tomatoes. The second plant now has now set some fruit and they are anything but a cherry tomato. I am thinking this may be a Gilbertie, which I also started but had germination problems so only planted one. If it is, then the good news is I have my 2 Gilberties, but regardless, the bad news is I only have one Black Cherry. The other paste tomato I started is Striped Roman, which doesn't produce fruit as long as Gilbertie, and these look like they are going to be huge fruits. Here is as photo of the fruit. I don't have good photos of the foliage.

That certainly looks like a Gilbertie to me, with a big ole' honkin' sucker in the foreground.

Oooo...I see it...plant that sucker!  It's my downfall....

 

Also, there's what looks like a little tag under that tom...does it give you a clue?

CC