2014 SFG in Brooks, GA

Wow yolos, very nice! Hopefully I will see something like that from my garden soon.

yolos wrote:HARVEST TIME AGAIN -

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

OMG!  So nice, yolos! wonder if I'll ever have anything like that in my future...

CC

So beautiful,  congratulations!
 

yolos wrote:

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.

I wouldn't hesitate. But I chop my gazpacho much finer than you do, so I would be less affected by any loss in texture that could come with freezing.

Yolos,

I am thrilled by your bountiful harvest!  Your results are beautiful.  I am just now harvesting tomatoes and anaheim chilies.  Oh, and also some eggplants.

Please keep posting photos.  Your harvests are very encouraging.

TOMATO HARVEST 07/18/14

Just harvested some tomatoes from the garden.  Many of this years tomatoes are diseased as in past years.  But some are struggling on and this was a pretty good harvest for my garden today.  I had to pick tomatoes before fully ripe because we had a big rain last night and many of mine tend to crack after a good rain if not picked early.




This is my favorite tomato.  A pink branywine.  Just look at the red meat in this thing.  Yum yum yum.  But it is also not a very productive plant but I don't care they taste so good.

Yolos, you tomato shot is making me hungry (and I just ate dinner).  Well, disease or not... we're going to get some tomatoes, dog gone it!!

 

Those are gorgeous!

drooling

Looks yummy, Yolos....

Wow does that look delicious! I love brandywines too, but don't know the difference in taste between the different varieties. I can't wait till our tomatoes start ripening!

Congratulations! !! Love it !!

Okay, I admit it.  I am getting old and the heat and humidity are getting to me.  The humidity is 67% and heat in the shade is a mild 84 (that is about 10 degrees below normal).  But in the sun it is debilitating.  It is 12:30 pm, the sun is out and brightly shining, but there is still dew on the ground and leaves of the tomato plants.  No wonder we get all kinds of diseases here.  I used to work outside in the summer for an hour and then come inside for 10 minutes to cool off.  I can barely stay outside for 30 minutes before I am ready to come in.  So I might just let the bugs and diseases take over and I will harvest until everything is gone.  Then put in a fall crop in early Sept when the temps and humidity are more suitable.  My garden has produced very well and I am satisfied to give myself a well deserved rest.

Hear ya!!!  It's the same here.  And I HAD to mow the grass in the garden before it took over...  But it's done, praise the Lord.

I got up at 6 AM this morning and I'm finished gardening for the day until late evening/night.  Ah, youth.  It's wasted on the young.  I used to inspect swimming pools in the heat, getting into the HOT car to drove to the next spot.

Those of you in the humid Zones, I feel for you and your plants.  

The heat has just been beastly!  The temp gauge may say one thing but my little weather station tells me the heat index as well and today I saw briefly that it had hit 108!  Stayed around 104 like the last couple of days. I, too, had to mow my grass. I did the front and one side yesterday and most of the back tonight. Still have a little bit to go but when it is so hot you have to be careful.
My garden is limping along, planning the fall one now. New to SFG, just read the book, so gearing up to locate the components of the mix. Excited about that too.

Ladies (and gentlemen), I empathize with you all so much!  I watered early this morning (before 9), and I was blazing hot and drenched afterward.  

Fall is my most favorite season.  I am thinking about fall crops.

Yolos, I feel a little like you.  My 'maters are sad (except for the hybrids... sort of).  I'll give them maybe three weeks or so to continue producing.

I was little late with summer crops, so I am thinking about getting a jump on this next season.

So...  all my southern neighbors...  What are YOU thinking about growing?  How are you preparing?

Also, Svanahgirl, I was happy to hear that you were able to finish the book.  I'm excited for you because I remember how I felt when I started.  Heck, I still am and I am really looking forward to fall.

Windmere wrote:I was little late with summer crops, so I am thinking about getting a jump on this next season.

So...  all my southern neighbors...  What are YOU thinking about growing?  How are you preparing?

I hope Pike's has transplants again this fall.  I can't remember whether Swints carries fall transplants.  I am too busy harvesting, blanching, freezing, watering etc to try to start any fall seedlings.  I may start lettuce seeds and I will do radishes and carrots.

If Pike's has the transplants, I will do broccoli and maybe try another Brussel sprout. But so far they have not been successful.  If I get them I will try to overwinter them because I have never gotten them to set before I close down my garden for the winter.  This year I will try to plant garlic in Oct.  Seed onions in Sept to be transplanted to the garden in Dec ???  And maybe a few shallots in the fall to see how they overwinter.

yolos wrote:

Windmere wrote:I was little late with summer crops, so I am thinking about getting a jump on this next season.

So...  all my southern neighbors...  What are YOU thinking about growing?  How are you preparing?

I hope Pike's has transplants again this fall.  I can't remember whether Swints carries fall transplants.  I am too busy harvesting, blanching, freezing, watering etc to try to start any fall seedlings.  I may start lettuce seeds and I will do radishes and carrots.

If Pike's has the transplants, I will do broccoli and maybe try another Brussel sprout. But so far they have not been successful.  If I get them I will try to overwinter them because I have never gotten them to set before I close down my garden for the winter.  This year I will try to plant garlic in Oct.  Seed onions in Sept to be transplanted to the garden in Dec ???  And maybe a few shallots in the fall to see how they overwinter.

I did not know that Pike sometimes has fall crop transplants.  I will look for that at Pike and Swint's.

Yolos, I bought my garlic from Southern Exposure.  They're sending it at planting time.  I was searching for Early Italian and they had it...  most importantly, they can ship garlic to GA.

I tried potatoes this year and was moderately successful, they actually gave me enough for about five meals.  Since I did not dig a trench first,  I had a heck of a time keeping them covered with the sandy soil I have here. That and clay, what a combo!  Did not know about SFG and amended the soil and checked the Ph as well. Will know better this year, it was exciting though, watching them grow and actually eating them too!
Tried two new heirloom tomatoes, one called Black Elephant and one that is Violet something or other and a cherry tomato. Will have to look in my seed saver to know which ones for sure. Also grew one with purple shoulders. They were all small, but the cherry tomato tasted amazing, and the violet one is good too. Only got one Black Elephant, the other rotted on the vine. The other in the window trying to ripen him so at least I get a taste, lol! violet one is about Campari size with green stripes down it. Very good.  I do have some blossoms out there so got out the trusty paintbrush to try and pollinate them, since it is so humid and hot.  Hoping for success, they might not set with the heat.

Anyone else have some good varieties to try?  How hard are onions and garlic?  Ready to try my hand at those as well.

Ach - I forgot to mention peas.  Sugar snap and English shell peas.  Most literature says not to plant in fall in Ga but I did last fall and they worked out okay.  Apparently, the plants themselves can withstand frost/freeze but the actual peas cannot??? Not sure about that.  Last year I covered them with plastic after the pods formed when it went down to freezing.

Yolos, My snow peas survived the cold snap (hard freeze) last winter with a plastic drape for those nights. No more peas until spring but the plants survived.

Our first frost date here in Pooler is somewhere between the end of October or November.  Think they are ok unless you get a really hard freeze. That is what got mine one year, way down in teens a couple of nights in a row. But it is worth the try, love peas!

FALL PLANTING STARTING NOW  -  09/06/14

It finally cooled off enough to try to start my fall garden.  High 93 yesterday and 90* today, then going down under 90* for most of this coming week.

I put the tulle on the Broccoli bed, put in soaker hoses, small bamboo stakes where the broccoli will be planted and then planted the broccoli (Premium Crop), mulched with shredded wheat straw and put a shade cloth on the south side of the bed.

For those of you who have never used tulle, here are the steps.  Kay (Walshevka sp) showed this method a number of years ago.  I have used it and it makes it easy to get in and out of the bed when necessary.  Put tulle on each end of the bed.  Then cover the bed with one bigger piece of tulle.  I weight that down with wood strips on the sides and then you only have to remove the wood pieces and two clips to get into the inside of the bed.  And because it is Broccoli, the only time I will need to get in the bed is to put a side dressing of compost if needed and to harvest.  You can water directly thru the tulle and you can easily see the plants so you can keep an eagle eye out for their progress.






The last picture shows the shade cloth on the southside of the bed.  So it will get morning sunlight and shaded in the heat of the afternoon.  The rest of the fall veggies will have to wait until next weekend when it is expected to cool to below 90* and stay there hopefully.  My soil temp in some of my beds that were not watered is 85*.  In this bed that was heavily watered and mulched it is 80*.

Are those little stakes in there? You stake your broccoli?