2014 SFG in Brooks, GA

Beautiful!   

Secret to good corn - please share your trick - yolos.

Of course it might help to live in the south.   

Sweet Potato Update - 06/06/14

On April 26 I planted 11 Beauregard Sweet Potato transplants in a 3 x 8 bed.  I left many empty squares because these sweet potatoes have many long vines that grow and can root to grow more sweet potatoes.


I call this next picture my Sweet Potato Corral.  On the north side I have a 7 foot trellis and on all the other sides I finagled 4 - 5 foot trellises.  The vines keep growing and growing and growing. They filled the bed and now they are growing up all sides on the trellises. This picture is as of 06/06/14.  What will it look like in 3 months.

Rattlesnake Bean update - 06/06/14

This is a 2 x 8 bed.  I started planting my Rattlesnake Beans on 4/21/14.  I planted 4 squares each week for 4 weeks.  I planted approx 9 beans per square.  My intention was to thin them to 6 beans per square.  But they were just growing so nice I could not bring myself to cut any of them down.  Here is the bed on 5/4/14 after planting 8 squares.

So I figured I better add an additional trellis on the outside of both sides of the bed.  They are growing fantastic and have reached the top of the 7 foot trellises and are all tangled up at the top of the trellises.  The next two pictures were taken on 06/06/14.




I guess I will need a tall ladder to harvest the top and a younger more stable person to help with the harvest (my daughter).

Wow that is fantastic! Boy is it going to be hard to see the beans themselves, come time to pick 'em. And never let it be said that you trellis inadequately!

Sweet potatoes look great too. Sometimes I'm envious of the hot weather down there. Not often; in fact only when I think of gardening. But you southerners sure get a nice long hot growing season for summer veggies.

WOW!!!  Looking good.

Kay

RATTLESNAKE BEAN QUESTION !!!
I gave the first two pickings away to co-workers.  I finally had time to pick some for me and wash and break the beans.  I thought rattlesnake beans were supposed to be stringless.  I had strings on some of mine.  Is this because I let them get too mature before I picked them.  The smaller ones had no strings but the bigger ones had a fairly tough string.  Here is a picture of my bean harvest last night.  I plan to steam them tonight and make a cold 3 bean salad with garden cucumbers and squash and Italian dressing.  (Green = rattlesnake beans, Yellow = Dragon Tongue beans, Purple = royal burgundy bean).


Well, I may have to freeze some because there are only two of us in the household that would eat this salad.

Wow, Yolos!  NICE harvest!  I've just got flowers right now...

Yolos, Great looking beans! I'm still struggling with learning how to have healthy beans. Spider mites this round. My fav is DT!

Garden update with pictures taken 6/27/14

Corn just about ready to harvest.  My grandson and myself and our corn.


Rattlesnake beans growing thicker and taller than I can harvest.


Watermelon on a trellis.  Behind the watermelon is cantaloupe.  This bed gets morning sun and the watermelon is shading the afternoon sun from the cantaloupe so I don't think we will get any cantaloupe.  Behind the cantaloupe is pumpkin.  It is going wild and growing 8' up each side of the aisle.  All four pumpkin plants have been attacked by SVB.  I purchased some syringes this past week so I am going to try to kill those buggers and then dump some soil over the vines that are still in the bed.  At least the SVB is going after the pumpkins (which I put in as a test) and leaving the watermelon and cantaloupe alone.

Looks great, Yolos!

Great photos. The corn reminds me of 'Oklahoma,' as high as an elephant's eye.

HARVEST TIME

Silver King Sweet Corn planted 4/26/14 harvested 7/4/14.  That is 69 days but DTM per internet said 82 days.  21 ears in a 4 x 4 area.  There are a few ears still left in the bed.



Burpees Stringless Green Pod bush bean.  Planted 5/18/14 harvested 7/4/14.


Cucumbers - Muncher, Saladmore Bush and Persian Baby.  Planted 4/28/14.  I have been harvesting these for a few weeks. The pickleworm struck today so I had to pick everything edible so I can start a spraying campaign tomorrow.

Wow!  That's great, Yolos!

Great looking harvest.   

Your garden looks beautiful!! My plants don't look nearly as green. My pumpkins are pretty small still waiting for them to take off too. Keep up the great work and pictures.

HARVEST TIME AGAIN -

Edamame (Butterbean variety)  planted 4/26/14 harvested 7/6/14.  This is 2 square feet.  I think that is pretty good use of space.  10 cups of beans before shelling. 


Also, couldn't help inserting this picture.  Whole kernel corn (Early Sunglow and Silver King) just shaved off the cob.



Wow, I am learning a lot this season with all my experimenting.  Notice there are no pictures of my tomatoes.  Always have major problems with those.    Someday I will get it right.  Tried 11 different varieties.  Will have to see which one is the last tomato plant standing.

All those edamame from 2 squares? I'll have to reconsider them.

sanderson wrote:All those edamame from 2 squares?  I'll have to reconsider them.

Sanderson - I just finished harvesting the rest of my Edamame.  I planted 6 per square (which was probably too many) in four squares or 24 plants total.  The last plant I cut down had 41 pods on the plant.  This was a plant on the outside of the bed.  The plants on the inside of the bed did not have as many pods as the outside plants. But say they averaged 30 pods per plant, that would mean 720 pods. Each pod had 2 to three beans in the pods.


No insects bothered the plants except the Japanese Beetles.  They liked all my bean plants but not enough to hurt the plants.  I tried a second planting of the Edamame but for some reason I had lousy germination and only 2 germinated out of about 24 seeds.     I don't know what I did differently on the second planting. 

Here is a picture of part of one plant.  Note the massive amounts of pods on the lower half of the plant.  Mine were planted so close together, I never suspected that I had that many pods.


Now I just have to find the energy and time to blanch them and put in freezer bags.

I wonder if it's too late to plant them. I tried them last year but they were planted in a pot in "beginner" MM. Maybe 5 plants per square? Hmmm

HARVEST TIME AGAIN -

Just harvested these this morning and had a great meal tonight.



And some Silver Queen Corn.  Planted 4/26/14 and harvested 7/11/14.


And my favorite meal in the whole world - Cold Gazpacho

  Unbelievable! Beautiful!

Wow, that looks great, yolos!

Like you, I'm also a huge fan of gazpacho. I could have some every day, which means it's all but impossible for me to ever grow enough tomatoes. I'd be happy to fill most of a freezer with gazpacho.

Marc Iverson wrote:Wow, that looks great, yolos!  

Like you, I'm also a huge fan of gazpacho.  I could have some every day, which means it's all but impossible for me to ever grow enough tomatoes.  I'd be happy to fill most of a freezer with gazpacho.

Marc - can the Gazpacho be frozen.  It's main ingredients are tomato, cucumber and shallots (I usually use green onions but didn't want to make a trip to the store).  The tomato is fresh and not processed in any way.

Everything looks great, Yolos!  You're doing a lot better than I am...