2012 Vegetable Garden Thread

[inactive]

My maters bloomed two weeks ago. I pinched them off as it was still a bit early for my wanting any fruit from them; I want them to put down roots for a while longer. Well, they budded out again and 2 plants set fruit before I could get the blossoms off. I have 5 fruits that are growing and surprisingly they look good. I'm just going to water them and let them do what they want at this point. They've already given up listening to me.

I also have jalepenos and 1 bell pepper already. Again, surprised these have fruited this early, but that warm March seems to have really confused them.

 

[dennishoddy]

Kind of forgot I put in some of the giant jalepenos. I love slicing them in half lenthwise, and making up a pork sausage stuffing mixture to put on them.

 

[MLR]

Kind of forgot I put in some of the giant jalepenos. I love slicing them in half lenthwise, and making up a pork sausage stuffing mixture to put on them.

If ya like the stuffed peppers get yourself some of them 'big Jim' peppers. With luck and plenty of water and fertilizer you can get bushels of 7-10 inch long peppers. My friends all love them for stuffed hot peppers. At the worst you will get 5-7 inch peppers with little care.

Michael

 

[Porter]

A few recent harvest pics.....

 

[woolworh]

Looks good.

 

[Dale00]

Early girl tomatoes are the best performers as usual. Cherry tomatoes are great as well.

I'm experimenting with giant sunflowers as heat protection for tomatoes and cucumbers. July should be a great test to see if it works or not.

 

[Stan Upchurch]

To BadgeBunny - for a purple tomato try purple paint..

 

[rickm]

ok i see alot of people are going the raisd bed gardening one way to cut down on spending so much on potting soil and other soil is to build the raised bed one year and collect my grass clippings and keep filling up the bed with it then add the soil to the top of it after a few years of rotating ur beds u will have a good amount of composed soil in the beds and i always put some kind of weed gaurd in the bottom of bed before adding anything and to stimulate deep root growth bury some perferated pipe in the beds with a 90 coming to surface and fill with water it will keep most of the moisture in the lower part of the bed making the plants grow deeper roots to get to the water it needs.
If u dont have a way to collect ur grass clipping check with some of the lawn care people they might just let u have it for free for the asking i know i give all of mine away for free just to be hauled away.

 

[perfor8]

Some peppers and salsa canned over the last week:

 

[orangeRcode]

I went to raised beds about 3 years ago and haven't looked back. I have 4 raised beds 4'x8'. I made these with 8' landscape timbers stacked 4 high. It vastly cuts down on time needed to maintain the beds. I mulch each bed after planting. I have beds with: 4 varieties of peppers in one, 3 varieties of tomatoes in another, okra, and 2 types of squash. I had all my tomatoes burn last year but this year has been much better. The peppers and okra are doing great. The squash is still holding on but the heat has taken its toil. I'm gonna try a rig up a shade for the tomatoes to get them through this heat. I'm gonna try a fall garden as some have spoken of. I would love some tips on what and when to plant these crops.