2018 garden thread

pkovo said:
The biggest surprise in our garden this year was a rabbit made a nest right in one of the boxes.....in the Arugala, so we had baby bunnies in there for a couple weeks, and the mama every night. I think Arugala is too bitter for them because they didn't eat it. They nibbled on some green beans and beat leaves, but overall did very little damage. We just let them chill until they left the nest.

After they left my wife managed to mow over one of them that was nestled in the grass. Luckily he was mostly fine, she just clipped the very tippy top of his ear, so if you look close you can see he has a slightly squared ear. He seemed rather unphased and we still see him around, mostly in the neighbors yard now

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Lucky rabbit, also your wife mows? How'd you manage that.... Haha

Your plants are really lush, do you have a watering system or just hand water? I'm a one man show except I don't pick unless something has fallen. I'd love to put in a drip system, but that's just another project on the list. I prefer hand watering vs sprinklers as it's much less water waste.
 
My "garden" consists of 2 potted pepper plants this year after taking a few years off (used to be about 20 pepper plants).

Harvested some early season scotch bonnets and ghost peppers. Not yet ripe, but taking them now will let the plants focus on producing more.
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jmanic said:
My "garden" consists of 2 potted pepper plants this year after taking a few years off (used to be about 20 pepper plants).

Harvested some early season scotch bonnets and ghost peppers. Not yet ripe, but taking them now will let the plants focus on producing more.
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Every other year I grow a scotch B plant and each year I eat only about 4-5. I love hot peppers, but they are above my comfort zone. I don't have anything super hot this year.
 
qclabrat said:
Every other year I grow a scotch B plant and each year I eat only about 4-5. I love hot peppers, but they are above my comfort zone. I don't have anything super hot this year.
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Yeah, these were a gift, and wouldn't have been my first choice.
Typically I would do habaneros, jalapeños, paper lanterns and a ton of Thai dragons (basically cayennes). Those dry so well I never worried about too many.

I would pickle or make sauce to share.
No one needs 20 pepper plants.
 
qclabrat said:
Lucky rabbit, also your wife mows? How'd you manage that.... Haha

Your plants are really lush, do you have a watering system or just hand water? I'm a one man show except I don't pick unless something has fallen. I'd love to put in a drip system, but that's just another project on the list. I prefer hand watering vs sprinklers as it's much less water waste.
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As for the wife mowing....not sure how I got so lucky. She's a teacher, so she's home in the summer so that's part of it. This week she mowed, weedwacked, and trimmed the shrubs. WINNING!

For the garden, she hand waters it. No chemicals, everything but the tomato plants start from organic seeds planted directly in the garden.... Her dad starts the tomato plants from seeds in paper cups in his basement, and then we plant when they are 6-8"

Our garden always does really well and I think the soil is a big part of the reason. I get the soil from the Mendham Garden Center (the Annandale location). It's top soil, but it has a specific name which I forget, but this stuff is amazing. I get it in a pickup truck, and when I unload I back into the lawn. Some always spills out through the gap between the bed and the tailgate. A couple days afterwards, that strip in the lawn where the dirt spilled is always dark green and the grass there is a few inches higher than the rest of the lawn. It's like some kind of crazy soil! We don't cut it with anything, besides some occasional composted kitchen scraps. I top all the beds with some fresh soil each year.
 
High clay content and non-stop rain left my garden plot a mess. Standing water surrounding my plot and others. Ugh. My squash plants rotted and my tomatoes were on their way out.

Ripped everything out. Sad but not sad. Going back to work next week and my time will be limited.

Brainstorming for next year.

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Our tomatoes haven't as plentiful, or as good as usual this year. Many had splits in them. I assume due to all the rain?
 
pkovo said:
Our tomatoes haven't as plentiful, or as good as usual this year. Many had splits in them. I assume due to all the rain?
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Yeah. Shitty season for tomatoes this year. They're all weird looking and tons of cracking from too much water.
 
Robin said:
High clay content and non-stop rain left my garden plot a mess. Standing water surrounding my plot and others. Ugh. My squash plants rotted and my tomatoes were on their way out.

Ripped everything out. Sad but not sad. Going back to work next week and my time will be limited.

Brainstorming for next year.

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Same for us, was away for a month and vegetables didn't take off, though the weeds are unrelenting. Why not try kale and some late fall/winter crops? I'm going to change it all out in the next two weeks
 
Robin said:
High clay content and non-stop rain left my garden plot a mess. Standing water surrounding my plot and others. Ugh. My squash plants rotted and my tomatoes were on their way out.

Ripped everything out. Sad but not sad. Going back to work next week and my time will be limited.

Brainstorming for next year.

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plant radishes, and arugula - maybe some other leaves. Get a nice fall crop that is easy to deal. giant red mustard seems rabbit proof too.
 
pkovo said:
Our tomatoes haven't as plentiful, or as good as usual this year. Many had splits in them. I assume due to all the rain?
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Magic said:
Yeah. Shitty season for tomatoes this year. They're all weird looking and tons of cracking from too much water.
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Tomatoes cracking are always a lack of water issue. Summers like this is likely from the hot/dry/wet fluctuations. Water your tomatoes religiously in the summer every other day even if rain is forecasted for the following day. Every day won't harm them either.
 
qclabrat said:
Tomatoes cracking are always a lack of water issue. Summers like this is likely from the hot/dry/wet fluctuations. Water your tomatoes religiously in the summer every other day even if rain is forecasted for the following day. Every day won't harm them either.
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The tomatoes are watered every day, same as prior years. This year has been strange compared to previous ones with less crop, ugly tomaters, and cracking. Same reports at grandparents place, fiance's parents, and some family friends.
 
Magic said:
The tomatoes are watered every day, same as prior years. This year has been strange compared to previous ones with less crop, ugly tomaters, and cracking. Same reports at grandparents place, fiance's parents, and some family friends.
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Definitely poor mato crops this year, but splitting is always an issue with enough water. Something about the skin and flesh not growing evenly which causes the problem.
 
Glad we're not the only ones. My wife stews them and freezes for making tomato sauce throughout the year, so at least some of the ugly ones were put to use that way, but the freezer is definitely not as full as it should be.

In contrast, the zuchini crop has been powerful this year. I've eaten enough of those to last me until next season.
 
pkovo said:
In contrast, the zuchini crop has been powerful this year. I've eaten enough of those to last me until next season.
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Funny, my grandparents also had a ton of monster zucchini this year. Made a tons of zucchini lasagna and zoodles.
 
I don't know what c'all doing but tomatoes been bumping this year....

That being said, my raised beds have soil that is only in the second season of planting so did really need to do much in terms of fertilizing or soil conditioning and they are fairly well drained.

It is hard to make a watering recommendation for tomatoes (or anything) because it largely depends on the amount of direct sun, soil composition and obviously rain fall. I have watered my garden less than 10 times this year, and 6-7 of those were when we had the 100 degree temps. Tomatoes like it dry and watering them too often, they will get wet feet. With all the rain we have been having, every other day is likely too much and I have not watered since that really hot streak at the end of June/early July.

On the tomatoes splitting, it is a combination of the tomatoes sucking up water and exploding and the skin getting wet. This is why you time your picking to before heavy rain, especially for the thin skinned ones like many of the heirloom variety. I will even pick a bit early to avoid the split if rain is in the forecast. Aside from the splitting, the meat of the tomato can get kinda gummy from too much water.

This season was slow to start but once it got going, it exploded quick. I went from picking one here or there to picking 20-30 every 4-5 days.
 
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