Dead beat garden :(

[skysthelimit]

I made a serious effort to grow a variety of vegetables this year. You know the lbs of veggies in a 1/4 acre stuff?

It was a cold start to the year. Still too cold in May to seed completely.
I did everything completely from seed this year, usually it's half and half.
Half of the seeds did not germinate. Got some seedling replacements from a friend. Everything is up now, but It's the first week of August, and there are no veggies. It's not the seed, the seedlings aren't producing either.

A few sad cukes, a tiny bean, but no tomatoes or green beens. Only the collards and arugula made a serious showing, and only half of the arugula sprouted.

The weather has been cool, with only a few days above 75. It's been below 75 all this week. Night time temps are in 55-655 range. it's looking very much like it's gonna be an early fall. I'm considering ripping it all up and planting a fall crop, I don't think the tomatoes or peppers are going to fruit grow and ripen before the temps really drop.

How is everyone else doing?

 

[Dood]

My garden is going gang-busters here in Southern Ontario it's like a little jungle and has been hard to keep up with the weeds. Thankfully most are rabbits friendly and have been going to the buns.

It has been pretty late and the tomatoes are just starting to flower so not sure if they'll be ready before a fall frost but we've been eating lettuces, kale, collards, chard and mustard greens for over a month and have harvested 2 rounds of peas and green beans, our beets are almost to a decent size for picking but still no cucumbers however the prospects look good - the zucchini and squash plants are all thriving as we've had a ton of rain and they "should" be ready before winter hits.

I'm in hardines zone 5 but can grow 6 if I baby them a bit

 

[Zass]

Cold and rainy here in PA. I have a some pumpkins that look OK, and a few red tomatoes, a bunch more that will be harvested green.
Glad I didn't bother with peppers this year.

 

[skysthelimit]

I need to plant my lettuce then.

I forgot to mention the beets for the buns and the carrots. The cold crops are in full force it seems. I'll keep hope alive for the green beans.

Dood, what growing zone are you in?

Oh, I saw the edit

 

[Zass]

Planting fall crops seems like a good idea.

I'm gonna sew another crop of peas!

 

[michaels4gardens]

we had a late , cool spring, was not able to plant frost sensitive crops until the 2nd week of June, as we had frost until June 12 [or so]-- [corn, beans, squash, tomato plants, pepper plants, etc. But the squash is beginning to grow fast now, so i have hope for a harvest before frost [2nd week of Oct is usually our first frost ] but kale, collard, lettuce, beets, etc, are going well. I have flowers on the tomato plants and a few small tomatoes, and the pepper plants are probly a waste of space this year. I will probly get a good showing from Golden Bantam sweet corn.
Everyone here is now working full time - so-- we have lost control of the weeds.

 

[Marinea]

We have harvested our green beans and squash. The tomatoes are starting to come in, and I will likely be making salsa this weekend. Cucumbers are done. Carrots are about ready. Our peppers are slow this year, very slow, probably due to the cooler, wetter weather we have been having. Pumpkins are changing color and getting bigger.

Our fall cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are in pots and will be ready to transplant to the garden soon. Potatoes will be ready in about a month, and the mustard greens are coming up for the fall harvest.

 

[ek.blair]

SO glad to hear that I am not the only one with pathetic peppers and slow growing tomatoes this year!! I was really beginning to wonder if I would get ANYTHING to grow this year. Now I am at least consoled by the fact that I am not the only one with the problem

 

[Homer]

SO glad to hear that I am not the only one with pathetic peppers and slow growing tomatoes this year!! ...

From reading these threads it seems to be a nation wide problem. My peppers are finally loading up pretty good...that is the ones that didn't freeze this spring or the ones that didn't get broke in our storm last week. The sweet corn is starting to stand up a little better after I pulled it back upright. The only thing that stopped it from going flat on the ground was the 6' fence on three sides. :angry:


We've put up about 30 pints of red beets and the green beans are doing well. Got about 200# of garlic curing in the garage with a fan blowing on them to help it along. Tomatoes are a bad joke this year...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

We are swimming in summer squash and zukes. We are still getting lettuce, peas, and beans. Harvested about a dozen cukes yesterday, and the peppers are doing well too. The tomato plants are a good five feet high, but no ripe ones yet. We've harvested some corn too, and of course are enjoying the fresh herbs. Lots of winter squash on the plants, too.

I'll have to get some pics of our vegi jungle and post them.

Better luck to all who are having trouble. :clover:

 

[ek.blair]

We are swimming in summer squash and zukes. We are still getting lettuce, peas, and beans. Harvested about a dozen cukes yesterday, and the peppers are doing well too. The tomato plants are a good five feet high, but no ripe ones yet. We've harvested some corn too, and of course are enjoying the fresh herbs. Lots of winter squash on the plants, too.

Well, you don't have to rub it in!! :razz2: :cry_baby: We are having an abnormally cool and wet summer. While rain is good for the garden, I have discovered that too much rain, and not enough sun don't make for good growing conditions and with the short growing season we get up here in Alaska if the weather doesn't cooperate you better have a greenhouse (which I don't! )

 

[Miss M]

Our garden is a mixed bag... we had a banner year for peppers last year. This year, hardly any. We lost control of the tomatoes and the weeds when we kept having rain. It rained for a week and a half, took off a few days, and rained for another week and a half. We do have a nice number of tomatoes, when we can get into the tangle to get them.

I just pulled out all the old squash plants. They had squash mosaic, so they weren't doing a lot any more. They had produced a lot, though. The new yellow squash are producing now, but I have yet to get a single zucchini. My original zukes I pulled out quickly, when I saw they had mosaic. They weren't going to produce anything, and leaving them endangered the yellow squash anyway. The new zukes were from old seed, and they just aren't producing. Maybe they'll get going soon.

We are drowning in cucumbers. I bought a 3-pack of plants, and I am sorry. We are now trying recipes that involve cooking cucumbers, which is different. I'm going to try the cucumber cake.

The early corn was a bust, but the bicolor is doing well. I need to plant another round.

The onions vanished under the squash plants, and were never seen again. I may try staking the squash next year. The only downside is squash vine borers -- no multiple rooting.

We have a volunteer vine peach in the garden that has a lot of ripening fruits. Vine peaches (a.k.a. ground peaches) are actually a cucurbit, like cucumbers and melons. The small fruits ripen to a golden color, but can be used like cucumbers up until then (and look much like a cucumber inside). When ripe, they are soft and juicy, and have a light flavor that combines cantaloupe, mango, and lemon notes. I'm trying to come up with a jelly recipe.

Out in the burn pile, we have more vine peaches, and then something else that looks like large vine peaches. I wonder if it is a vine peach x cantaloupe hybrid, since we did grow cantaloupes last year.

We have a lot of cleaning up and a lot of planting to do!

BUT...

We had a few volunteer squash plants, apparently having sprouted from seed from some rotten fruit from last year. We relocated them, planting them with our other squash. One of them, planted at the front of the garden, suddenly took off and raced the full length of the row it was on, finally reaching (and going through) the back garden fence. It put branches out that went through and over the tomatoes, through the corn, all over the place. I was sorry I had planted the dratted thing, as it put out male flowers, but no squash.

Today, as I was yanking out the squash plants, I was yanking it, too, bit by bit. About 2/3 of the way down the squash row, I happened to glance to my left. Two rows over, sitting neatly in the tomatoes, was a large pumpkin. :shock:

Nobody planted pumpkins. It was the "unproductive" squash plant. Well, I don't know if this pumpkin is ripe... it looks somewhat like a Jarrahdale, which I like (very meaty)... but I harvested it, because I had already pulled the vine almost all the way to it. I left all the rest of the vine, and we'll see what survives. We found another large pumpkin, not quite as big, and a smaller one, and a baby. So we'll see!

I have discovered that too much rain, and not enough sun don't make for good growing conditions

Very true... all that rain we had, that I mentioned... it almost killed a bunch of our tomatoes and peppers. I wonder if perhaps it's responsible for our lousy pepper harvest. If it hadn't stopped when it did, the tomatoes wouldn't have recovered.

 

[LoraAnnIN]

I am next door to you in Indiana, and it has been a very cool summer here also. I started paperwork in feb/mar to get pre-approved this year for home loan. So I never started any seeds with hopes and dreams of moving. Sadly it was determined that I would not be able to get the approval I was hoping for. Back to the drawing board on that project. So I bought a few plants, tomato, peppers, and zucchini. I went through my seed box and selected a few seeds to toss out. Just like you my tomato and peppers are struggling. Beans, peas, sunflowers, zucchini all doing well. My second year asparagus bed however is loving this cool summer! I have potatoes in containers and in the ground they appear to be doing great I will be harvesting some containers soon. I was thinking of doing some fall stuff, but honestly I think I will toss in the towel.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

My tomatoes did fairly well and gave a decent harvest until the kids and I left town for almost two weeks. Hubby harvested some but left a lot on the vine and most have dried up. Having an awful cucumber and squash year, except for volunteer pumpkin plant that took over a third of the garden. It popped out one medium and three small ripe pumpkins on its first growth, and is shooting for a second batch come fall. My corn was embarrassing..I eventually pulled it up & fed it to the buns. Beans...ah, my poor beans. I have had...issues...with a bun or two escaping from their cage here & there this summer (and it would be all my fault--something is just not right with me this summer) but their first order of business was to eat as many bean leaves and plants as was bunnilly possible before being caught. I still had some beans doggedly trying to flourish and making headway...and then turned my back while putting hay in Jack's cage. Turned around just in time to see a bunny butt hopping out of the cage and slipping under the row of cages next to him. Don't know what I was thinking. Couldn't catch him and didn't have my fish net to scoop him, so I think my brave beans will have fought their last battle before I catch him early in the morning. Great year for blueberries, non-existent year for cherries and plums. My herbs are a sad lot, but I've neglected them. Fingers crossed on pears and some apples, and time to start fall plantings...

 

[TwoAcreDream]

We didn't put in a garden this year. Too many things going on.
We do have some volunteer plants though. Out back there is
some squash or pumpkin plants doing well. So far, the chickens
have been ignoring them when they get to free range in the
afternoons.

On the side of the driveway where our property line is, we have a
nice grouping of sunflowers happening. Thanks to some chipmunks
this spring, moving seed around. Way too many chipmunks though.

My hubby bought 5 VERY nice blueberries plants from Walmart.
Got them for $ 10 each. We put them on the bank near the chicken
coop, again near the property line and the garage. This way I can
water them with water I would have dumped from the chickens or
the rabbits. We have gotten a lot of rain this year though. I used
bunny manure in the holes when we planted them. I think it has
helped

I did buy 6 roma tomato plants. Tail end of the season. I potted them
in big pots and used a LOT of bunny manure. Topped them off with
some mulch. This group is next to my 4 outside hutches that I have
been using for growout pens. I use the water I would have dumped
from the water dishes to water these pots. It took them awhile to
respond it seemed like, but now they are doing great.

I bought some $ 1 flowers at the dollar store this spring. I have
5 of them on the deck in single pots. I gave them each big handfull size
amounts of bunny poop. These plants grew huge. Flowering like wow.
Hubby bought some cheap hanging plants on clearance. Same flowers.
They did okay but nothing like my flowers did. I didn't tell him I put the
bunny poo on mine. There is a BIG difference.

Our rhubard did very good this year. Again I was generous with the
bunny poo. I am very happy to have good manure again. Makes a
big difference in how the crops grow

 

[jaywest1980]

Our tomatoes are large but all still green, as far as peppers and carrots we have seen next to nothing. The onions did well and we are getting a few cucs but not doing very well up here either.

 

[JessicaR]

my garden grew ok. I got quite a bit of zukes, green beans did good, my banana peppers did ok , I have tomatoes but they wont turn red? My bell peppers didn't grow and my brussel sprouts got ate by worms. This weather has been crazy, not that I am complaining too much I am loving these cooler temps! Just hope we don't have a bad winter again