*~July 2010 Food Growing Mamas Thread~*

[FarmerCathy]

Wow, July is already here. My birthday is in 6 more days! Chocolate chocolate cake here I come.

Well, seems like this year I'm not doing so much food growing, but I am getting all the info I can on the area including zones and frost dates. So far, it seems like we have a pretty good length growing season here. I'm really excited about starting winter sowing again in late Dec., but that is quite a ways off. I need to get some worms for my can-o-worms so I can use the juice for my MIL's maters. They seem to like to keep water on them at all times. I'm just going with it. I guess I can't control how things are grown until I have my own. Oh well, they are taking good care of us so I can't complain too much. I'm still going to try to go to some u-picks, esp. for apples, to do some canning.

Would love to hear what you all are growing so I can live vicariously through you for now.

[CherryBomb]

Garden is chugging along. We replanted the green beans and corn, they're doing pretty well. We've got teeny cucumbers and peppers and the tomato plants have flowered so we'll have little tomatoes soon. I'm dying for some friend green tomatoes, I can't wait!!!

Happy early birthday Dd2 will be 5 on the 14th!

[Sienna-forever]

Hi thought I'd join in this thread, its my first attempt at gardening and growing fruits/veg this year!
We're doing really well, we have a cherry tree in our garden in memory of our little girl, and that had a bumper crop of cherries this year.
We have put in a raised veg bed, and we're having a go at growing french beans, radishes, pak choi/oriental salad, courgettes, carrots, oh and pumpkins! And we have some strawberry plants.
The only problem so far is, we had some maggots in our radishes, but have read that putting wood shavings down should help.
We also have a walk in greenhouse, where we are growing tomatoes, so far loads of tomatoes but still green. We are also growing in there chillies, spring onions, basil.

My 3 year old planted some sunflowers, which are now 8-10ft tall and beautiful!! He is so proud, me too

And my fav thing of all, we are going to have a go at growing some French Lilac trees from seed, I love, love, love them!

So for our first year we're doing pretty well so far, I never thought I'd love gardening.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by Sienna-forever

Hi thought I'd join in this thread, its my first attempt at gardening and growing fruits/veg this year!
We're doing really well, we have a cherry tree in our garden in memory of our little girl, and that had a bumper crop of cherries this year.
We have put in a raised veg bed, and we're having a go at growing french beans, radishes, pak choi/oriental salad, courgettes, carrots, oh and pumpkins! And we have some strawberry plants.
The only problem so far is, we had some maggots in our radishes, but have read that putting wood shavings down should help.
We also have a walk in greenhouse, where we are growing tomatoes, so far loads of tomatoes but still green. We are also growing in there chillies, spring onions, basil.

My 3 year old planted some sunflowers, which are now 8-10ft tall and beautiful!! He is so proud, me too

And my fav thing of all, we are going to have a go at growing some French Lilac trees from seed, I love, love, love them!

So for our first year we're doing pretty well so far, I never thought I'd love gardening.

Sounds like your garden is doing wonderfully. Wow, those are tall sunflowers already. That is awesome! I can't wait until next year. I have lots of plans. Muahahahahaha!

[kriket]

I'd like to join We are getting ready to put the fall garden in. I'm thinking more green beans, lettuce and spinach.

So far we have a ton of green tomatoes and a bunch of green beans. The peas didn't do like I imagined. I already pulled them to make room for the fall veggies.

Sounds like everyones gardens are doing good!

[ms.shell]

Hi, ya'll.

i am confused about fall planting. Last year I did it like middle October, which I thought was right, and that did not go well. I thought it was a compost mistake, because we dumped out our first real big load of crumbly stuff just before planting seeds...and then almost nothing came up! But my onions and garlic, which did make it, did not do nearly as well as expected, so I am wondering if my dates were all wrong. Kriket says she is about to fall plant already, Cathy says she is waiting until December; I need to find out when and what to plant next and then later.

I have some space, now. I had to pull the zucchinis and so my back bed has some big brown spots (well, actually they are mostly green right now) I was thinking I could try to plant bush beans; I have a lot of those. I skipped the bush types this year (except for baby limas), planning to have plenty of pole types on the trellis. Well. I guess asparagus beans are bush types after all.....because they didn't grow tall and seem just about done. My trellis is mostly bare in the middle section now, and I have not seen much abundance in beans from the pole types on either end. Think I could still get bush beans in? zone 8b. or else i have some peppers to transplant (which should have been already done).

Our tomatoes are still okay; we are bringing in lots and lots of yellow pears right now. Had to pull up a grape tomato that yielded heavily first and made it to well over 7 feet. He seemed infected and I didn't want it to spread down the row. And my lemon boy who was attacked by a hornworm will be next. I am not sure if it has given me any more fruit since it was eaten. I have jubilees I grew from seed in large pots to replace any in the rows who come out. The large heirlooms haven't fruited yet but the Romas are ripening. We need to get some longer stakes; the tomatoes look floppy and messy right now! Peppers our our biggest producers. We are growing lots of bells and lots of hot varieties.

I need to weed badly. but it is so hot! and watering well takes an hour. And I am busy inside. lol The heat of the summer is when my garden suffers the most. It is still happy tho and the herb garden looks pretty, at least. And we are definitely growing our produce....I don't have to shop for veggies at all now.

I think I am going to try more green bush beans to fill that empty space.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by ms.shell

Hi, ya'll.

i am confused about fall planting. Last year I did it like middle October, which I thought was right, and that did not go well. I thought it was a compost mistake, because we dumped out our first real big load of crumbly stuff just before planting seeds...and then almost nothing came up! But my onions and garlic, which did make it, did not do nearly as well as expected, so I am wondering if my dates were all wrong. Kriket says she is about to fall plant already, Cathy says she is waiting until December; I need to find out when and what to plant next and then later.

I have some space, now. I had to pull the zucchinis and so my back bed has some big brown spots (well, actually they are mostly green right now) I was thinking I could try to plant bush beans; I have a lot of those. I skipped the bush types this year (except for baby limas), planning to have plenty of pole types on the trellis. Well. I guess asparagus beans are bush types after all.....because they didn't grow tall and seem just about done. My trellis is mostly bare in the middle section now, and I have not seen much abundance in beans from the pole types on either end. Think I could still get bush beans in? zone 8b. or else i have some peppers to transplant (which should have been already done).

Our tomatoes are still okay; we are bringing in lots and lots of yellow pears right now. Had to pull up a grape tomato that yielded heavily first and made it to well over 7 feet. He seemed infected and I didn't want it to spread down the row. And my lemon boy who was attacked by a hornworm will be next. I am not sure if it has given me any more fruit since it was eaten. I have jubilees I grew from seed in large pots to replace any in the rows who come out. The large heirlooms haven't fruited yet but the Romas are ripening. We need to get some longer stakes; the tomatoes look floppy and messy right now! Peppers our our biggest producers. We are growing lots of bells and lots of hot varieties.

I need to weed badly. but it is so hot! and watering well takes an hour. And I am busy inside. lol The heat of the summer is when my garden suffers the most. It is still happy tho and the herb garden looks pretty, at least. And we are definitely growing our produce....I don't have to shop for veggies at all now.

I think I am going to try more green bush beans to fill that empty space.

Usually Fall garden planting is in July and August. I was just talking about WSing which would be planting for next Spring. WSing needs cool weather to start. October is definitely too late because you need the warm weather to germinate the seeds and get the plants growing. Sorry for the confusion. I really won't be able to plant anything this year, no space for anymore plants in MIL's garden. I'm just tending to her plants as much as I can.

[LaughingHyena]

This year is the first year I;ve had space to plant things in the ground. Previous years we've had a couple of grow bags of tomato plants and that is it.

This year we've planted
runner beans - just starting to flower
french beans - just starting to flower
courgettes - several small fruits but not quite ready to pick
aubergines - flowers but no sign of fruits yet
peppers - lots of flowers and a couple of small fruits
cucumbers - just starting to fruit
and finally lots of tomatoes - flowering and just starting to set fruits.

I'm really enjoying watching it all grow. Next year we are hoping to get a bit more garden landscaped and then we should have space for some raspberry canes and possibly fruit trees. We'll see what happens.

I also want to get some herbs started in pots, which we can then move into the ground once we know where the beds will go. At our previous house we had a huge bay tree and rosemary bush and I miss them a lot. The dried versions are just not the same.

[Alyantavid]

My garden's finally picking up. All my cucumbers, squash and zucchini are flowering and I've got a few little squash. I noticed some tiny green tomatoes this morning too. Everything else is just growing like crazy so hopefully soon I'll be harvesting alot.

I did cut my whole row of spinach the other day and it needs it again.

[KristyDi]

I'm bringing in tomatoes and peppers everyday now. I'll be canning my first batch of tomatoes today

Strawberries surprised me yesterday. I thought they were done, but I found 4 tiny ripe berries! DD loved them.

I'm a bit concerned about my pumpkin vines. They're small and don't look all that healthy and have no fruit yet. I hope I get at least a few small pumpkins.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by KristyDi

I'm bringing in tomatoes and peppers everyday now. I'll be canning my first batch of tomatoes today

Strawberries surprised me yesterday. I thought they were done, but I found 4 tiny ripe berries! DD loved them.

I'm a bit concerned about my pumpkin vines. They're small and don't look all that healthy and have no fruit yet. I hope I get at least a few small pumpkins.

Yay! I can't wait to can tomatoes. I'm hoping next year I will be canning my first batch of tomatoes. Imagine that, I haven't canned tomatoes yet.

[lmonter]

I'll live vicariously through most of you guys. It's been a sucky year. What is finally planted in the garden doesn't get watered regularly, and with the weather going from two months of solid Seattle/Portland-like rain to a week of 90* to another few weeks of cool rain, poor plants don't know which end is up.

I do however have three batches of strawberry freezer jam already in the freezer. 10bs of strawberries doesn't turn into as much puree as you'd think. Then hubby and I went and picked 30 more pounds of strawberries from a farm the other day. I've run out of the little freezer jars though. Sigh. Need to get a boatload more in the next few days. Darn bottomless pits of kids. I guess at least they have good taste.

[HeatherAtHome]

lmonter- That's great! I picked 10lbs of strawberries at a farm before I threw in the towel. It was so hot! If I go again, I need to get there at 7am when they open!!! I'm planning on making a batch of strawberry jam and another of strawberry rhubarb. Rhubarb is from my backyard.

Besides that, I have an abundance of radishes (should have planted them successively!) with enough to eat and give away. I've been picking a bit of basil to eat also.

I'm eagerly waiting for the wild raspberries to ripen now. Still have a couple weeks to wait.

Everything in the garden is growing pretty well. I have tentative high hopes. I'm begging it to hold on. We don't have a watering hose put in yet and it's too hot to carry water from the house. (I'm so lazy!) We're getting a sprinkling tomorrow and 25-35mm on Friday.

ETA: I set the alarm for 5am with the hopes of getting out in the garden to do some work (weeding!) before it got to hot. I was sweating buckets by 7:30am.

[onthemove]

first harvest from my garden yesterday!!!...I picked cucumber, spinach, garlic, onions, potatoes, thyme, which we had for dinner last night with the fresh coho and crab dh brought home from the ocean...oh and the girls picked a bowl of raspberries for dessert.

Love this time of year!

Unfortunately, my leeks didn't grow this year and first crop of celery was eaten by mice but the second crop is doing very well.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by onthemove

first harvest from my garden yesterday!!!...I picked cucumber, spinach, garlic, onions, potatoes, thyme, which we had for dinner last night with the fresh coho and crab dh brought home from the ocean...oh and the girls picked a bowl of raspberries for dessert.

Love this time of year!

Unfortunately, my leeks didn't grow this year and first crop of celery was eaten by mice but the second crop is doing very well.

Yay! That is so awesome. That reminds me, I need to go check my MIL's tomato plants.

It's a busy harvesting month this month for most. I for one am trying to find out what I can and can't eat now. I just found out I have diabetes, so I'm hoping if I can can some stuff with honey or any other substitute sweetener's maybe I can have a little a few times a week.

[CherryBomb]

We've had a lot of rain recently, the garden is really starting to get going now. Nothing ready to pick yet, but on its way!

[sunnysandiegan]

We have a small garden. We have a sugar baby watermelon (container with a trellis) that has little watermelons all over the vines...so cute!!! DH is so impatient, though. He thought for sure the first watermelon was ready last week and finally talked me into harvesting it tonight. (I was away on a scrapbook getaway weekend.) It looked like a honeydew melon inside. It tasted vaguely like watermelon, but was clearly not ripe. We each ate a very small piece just for fun. Then, it became part of the compost program....

The beets have been in the ground and in a container for longer than the watermelon plants. When do we harvest them? What are the signs or criteria?

Everything we planted is showing signs of producing, except the pole beans. They are as tall as our fence and a few have gone over the fence already (5-6 feet?). No signs of anything except leaves. I believe it has been 8 weeks since we planted the six-pack of starter plants. When should we expect beans to begin growing?

Thanks!

[Alyantavid]

I'm buried in spinach and got my first zucchini and squash the other day. Right now, everything's getting huge, but not producing much.

[gagin37]

right now we've got peppers, tomatoes, and okra doing well, cantaloupe doing soso, and we just replanted beans and i've got more potatoes to go in sometime too. We're drowning in figs right now too, a really good crop this year. our tree is so big, its impossible to get them all. my hens love them though, and gorge on the ones that fall.

[lmonter]

Got a sage/oregano question. I have a plant of each flowering/setting seed. I need to go find my seed to seed book for seed harvesting, but I just need to know if I can still harvest the leaves below the flowers.