Do you not raise watermelons @Ed Marsh ? I know you and others have claimed you can't garden in the summer, but When I lived in South Georgia, I had some of my best gardens in July and August. There are some things that don't do well, like potatoes (white) but sweet potatoes did well, summer squash did well except for vine borer problems. Watermelons and some other melons did great but had to be protected from gopher tortoises. (I know watermelons aren't really melons) My best bush bean crop ever was in the heat of summer with drip irrigation and lots of mulch to keep the soil cool. Okra also did well. Having gardened in both regions, I can tell you that gardening in the hot, deep South is easier than gardening here. Our summers are a bit like your winters.
Well, I guess it was just too hot for cucumbers. The vines really flourished and put out lots of blooms, but when the little cukes formed they'd just dry up and fall off. So yesterday I pulled up the vines. No sense in wasting water on them I guess. I still have 4 volunteer tomato plants in another bed but I don't know if they will do anything or not; they are still fairly small. The dang squirrels are driving me crazy (short trip); they are digging in every bed and flower pot in the yard. They make such a mess of things scattering potting soil and mulch everywhere, plus I get a bumper crop of peanut vines and oak tree seedlings to pull up.
Mr. Alaska- You'd think summer would be a good time for gardens down here, but on the Gulf Coast where I live, any kind of crop that grows on a vine- melons, squash, cukes, even sweet potatoes- get infested with borers and the vines just die. there's no good spray for the borers, and once they get in a vine, that vine dies. Tomatoes are extremely difficult to raise here. The heat and humidity take them out, and usually, when the tomatoes do start to get ripe, they just swell up and explode with the heavy rains we get about that time. Gardening here is not easy, and I do much better in the cooler months with potatoes, snap peas, salad greens, spinach, brocolli, collards and so on. The one thing I have learned from gardening in a lot of different places is that each garden has its own specific schedule and production possibilities. You'd think south Georgia and Gulf Coast Alabama would be the same- They are not. But I do have my baby brocolli coming up along with collards, and I have some later in the fall spinach and green bean seed ready to plant- in a month or two from now. you all be safe and keep well- Ed
We are beginning to harvest the winter squash and pie pumpkins. Rounding up only the mature fruits at this stage and piling them in the kitchen to cure for now. We are getting about ready to shut down the greenhouses for winter as it is becoming counterproductive to keep them heated. It hasn't frosted yet, but we fear the first clear night will bring the frost. Sorting supplies and putting them in order to prepare for next spring is a major chore as well, and one I very much dread. It has been too wet to till, but there is too much stuff still out there to till yet anyway. I think I will clear out the peppers tomorrow and perhaps the rest of the tomatoes as well. The carrots, beets and rutabagas will stay out along with storage cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts.
I am a bit jealous because I could not get the winter squash in this spring because of the flooded garden for so long. But the vines are climbing the fences and will have plenty for pies etc. Hubby likes them just baked too. This was a terrible garden year and I am partly at fault for not doing things or doing them at the wrong time. Bless me Father for I have sinned
We had a pretty bad year as well. Thankfully we don't have the six children at home to feed. We had a cold, wet year. We have enough winter squash, pumpkins and zucchini to get us through though, and enough cucumbers (greenhouse) to pickle a few jars. Peppers didn't do well, but the tomatoes were okay but not great. Early blight or Alternaria hit us hard, probably because we haven't properly rotated things in the greenhouses. I will have to make sure I plant resistant varieties next year if I am still around.
W Well, I definitely hope you and I are still around. Things are just starting to get interesting. I have been brought to the realization that I might not be self sufficient in some years although it will take a few to get there. Last year we had cherries falling making a carpet on the lawn and I thought I should have put down sheets to harvest them. These are the kind of cherry trees they make lumber from. They taste good to me and are good for the eyes. This year there are none. There are not a lot of walnuts or mushrooms from my lazy man's garden. Not even a lot of nettle. I got a first corn crop!!!! and then the raccoons found it. Fence did not help against those and whatever ate my beans. We did get potatoes and beets but not carrots???? Apples coming out of our ears. I actually did find a green buttercup squash to try tonite.More to come. But tomatoes are weird and now there is a drought. We have a family of hawks menacing the chickens and even my cat! And you can't shoot them!
@Mary Stetler on of the jokes here is my Virginia cherry. It is supposed to be a lumber tree. I planted it 30 years ago, and it has survived all these years but is only 4 feet tall
Uh Oh, I was bagging some seeds that were drying and I was just about to label some but I could not remember the name of them. I know WHAT they are, just can't remember the name. And now I will probably have to wait till tomorrow to have it surface. Probably when I am in the shower.
Mary you sound like Jake here. They ate all kinds of wildlife, being a city slicker part time country girl who mother was from the city, I was afraid to eat at Jakes mothers house, Her squirrel meal was called Squirrel Perlow best I can think of spelling it, Now he saves and recues them but if times got bad here,. A deer broke its neck on the fence, we tried to save it but neck was broken, so Jake shot it cleaned and he and the dogs ate on it off and on for a few weeks.,
My little mustard greens plot has a bunch of greens ready to harvest, so I will be gathering a "mess" of those pretty soon. The squirrels have managed to ruin all the volunteer tomatoes; each time a green tomato gets to be about golf-ball size the squirrels pull them off the vine. I still have some cucumbers that are about 3" long but I don't know if they'll mature or not. This is winding up the 2024 outside garden.