It's July! How's your garden doing?

Happy Canada Day everyone!

It's time for the 1st of July update. How's your garden doing so far? Have you had any harvests yet?

I'll start us off with an update on my garden.

So far, I have 5 tomatoes growing on my Early Girl! I'm so excited to finally be getting some tomatoes. There is also an eggplant about the size of 2 cherry tomatoes on my eggplant. I just had another bloom on the eggplant. I tried pollinating it manually. We'll see if it worked. Fingers crossed!

My broccoli is not too happy. The cabbage worms that have been eating it are ecstatic though. I'm checking it regularly and getting rid of any I find.

The beets have been decimated. I have a feeling that leafborers got to them. I'm trying to decide if I should replant. Does anyone know if the roots will be ok even though the leaves are pretty much gone?

There are a bunch of baby beans on the bush beans, so I should be harvesting those soon. The onions are doing great. The leeks, not so much. I may pull the one leek that hasn't died in the square and replant that square with something else.

The cucumber is flowering, so I'm hoping to get a few cukes soon. The pepper plant seems to be just sitting there doing nothing. We'll see if it perks up soon. I've been harvesting one or two strawberries a week from the 15 strawberry plants I have in the topsy turvy. I need to figure out if I can leave them in there for the winter. I know! It's only July. I like to plan ahead.

We've been getting a lot of rain here lately. I rarely have to water the garden, which is great, but I wonder if it's contributed to some of the issues that I've been having. Some of the leaves on my plants started to turn yellow. I worry about all the rain washing some of the nutrients out of the soil. I picked up an organic tomato and vegetable fertilizer. I'll see if that helps some things perk up.

What's your update? We'd love to hear how other Canadians are doing with their gardens so far!

Hi! Things are going not too badly and just trying to get away from all this rain... We have been flooded here so many times I just can't keep up and mold is setting in.

So slugs are a HUGE problem and I am out there every morning collecting and destroying. I have neemed, DE'd, picked, beer'd, and now I am going to put some dryer lint and dog hair out there for traps. I am also looking at doing something with pennies... So between the slugs, weather (strong winds) and such... cabbage, broc and cauli are suffering.

Carrots? Just not a good year so far for them. I have found though that planting at the beginning of June this year was WAY better results than following frost date planting. Maybe it is just a funny year but the stuff that I have planted in succession within that time have germinated better and doing quite well. The same for most plants I have including radishes, and beans. I will try again next year though... and some perhaps earlier because I will be ready this time with all my covers.

My corn is one ft high, yeah! (had problems with too much moisture with a couple of squares... had to replant them and they are only little still) The pumpkin is still really small along with the beans. My snap peas are 3 ft and should start showing something here soon.

Tiny tim's are going nuts with flowering and fruit, the Beefsteak and Early Girl are flowering. My strawberries on the ground are being partially eaten but the field strawberry ones in the planter are doing very well.

Only one scallop came up, onions half of them, Egyptian walking onions doing well, same as beets, turnips, and the potatoes... those are MASSIVE!!! I am running out of stuff to hill them with.

So much to learn still and I am already planning for next year. I am attempting to build my own greenhouse this year as I have always wanted one and TT sfg's will be a part of it.

I will post pics when the weather is ok to take em!

Sounds like you've had it worse than we have here in Ontario. I don't remember such a rainy June before this year. Definitely presents a real challenge to any gardener, nevermind all of us just starting out. But it sounds like you are having great success with some of your veggies. Way to go!

I know what you mean about the carrots. I've been a little confused by mine. The seed packet said that they were supposed to be mature in 55-60 days. It's been almost 70 days and they aren't even close.

I think part of my problems may stem from not having 5 different composts. I was only able to find 3. I went out this evening and added some fertilizer. I hope that helps.

Thanks for the update! I look forward to seeing the pictures.

Is this for Canadians only?

I'd love to hear how your garden is doing Dixie. Shoot!

Hello from Sunny California! The weather is starting to become seasonal (ie high 90's). I've pulled up the lettuce and have started to plant short season corn. The first 8 plants have just broken through! I'm gonna plant 8 every week for a total of 32 plants. Tomatoes have all started to fruit. However, the yellow pear tomato plant I think is gonna die. The first fruits on the plant are starting to yellow, but the most of the plant is wilted, including new fruit, but leaves are still green. Been harvesting bush beans for about a week now. The 2 butternut squash have at least a fruit each that have started developing. Hopefully more female flowers will develop soon. I've gotten one cuke so far from 2 plants. Both seem to have a ton of male flowers! The japanese eggplant has started to develop fruit. The globe eggplant and the bell pepper seem to have started to "woken up" since the weather got hot. The jalepeno really picked up sprouting multiple flowers/peppers since the hot weather arrived.

I just found and purchased 3 more 3.5cuft bags of vermiculite and found a source of free certified organic compost (from the city compost facility, which also sells their compost to Napa Valley vineyards), so I can fill 3 more boxes (kinda late in the season I know) Hopefully I can figure out what to plant in there soon!

Hoping for bountiful harvests for everyone in the upcoming months!

It's so interesting to hear how other gardens are doing , how different the weather conditions are and what people are growing when etc! Well we are dealing with the heat here in sunny so cal., it does present a challenge I can relate and sympathize with you Vinny mine are wilting too.

Well it's July 2nd and I think my update has already changed...

One place in Saskatchewan has already been declared a state of emergency and we are just waiting to see if we are also... we (a good chunk of the city) just flooded on Wednesday and are flooding again as I write. Between the wind, hail, and hard heavy rain I am not sure what is going to hold up here garden wise. If anything maybe I start a slug farm...

The weather is just not right around here this year.

Wow,
I'm sorry to hear your garden woe's, sounds extreme, but I got to say at the same time send some of that down here this way ! I's getting stinkin' hot here and I think my plants are wilting ! Is this unusual for your area at this time of year? I mean you must be getting a lot more than you usually do? I think your garden will drain well , and I hope you have it covered from the hail, best of luck to you !

Duh on me. I always wonder what people's names mean & I couldn't figure out what L 7 stood for. Then it just dawned on me! A senior blonde is a dangerous thing.

cansas....I'm so sorry to hear about the flooding rains.
I can tell you that last year in Maine we had lots of rain in June and then in July it rained just about every single day of the month. Most unusual.
Having raised beds helped me a lot. They drain much better than you think.
I lost some of my crops, like the corn and melons, but I had some make it pretty well that others in row gardens lost so I was lucky.
Many home gardeners lost everything they planted.
Hopefully you will manage to harvest some of your crops.
I'm sending Positive Thoughts your way that you do well regardless of the flooding rains.
Good luck!