Summer garden updates?

[dutchgirl678]

Our tomatoes are finally ripening. We already had little sun gold tomatoes a few weeks ago and now I pick them daily. I have a new variety this year called a midnight roma but I don't think it is doing great. The tomatoes are much smaller than they are supposed to be and they are deep purple but very hard. If I leave them on too long they start rotting at the bottom. My huge black krim tomatoes are starting to ripen now. So far I have picked three of them and they are divine. I also have Isis candy tomatoes which are slow to ripen. This year was the first year we grew delicata squash. Only two squashes grew despite lots of leaves and flowers which disappeared. One is almost ripe and the other is a little bit behind. Our marionberry plant grew prolifically but didn't produce any berries this year. And I had a bell pepper plant which was totally overshadowed by the tomatoes and I saw some tiny peppers on them at some point but they never developed.

And I have so many weeds. We have all the veggies in planter boxes but the path in front of it was bark chips and is now covered in waist-high weeds. But it's been so hot most of August that we haven't had time to do much and the soil is very rocky so hard to dig things out.

[mrsukyankee]

dutchgirl678, my romas are having blossom end rot. It's supposedly typical of them. Won't be trying them next year, for sure.

[dutchgirl678]

Aug 25, 2022 13:18:07 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

dutchgirl678 , my romas are having blossom end rot. It's supposedly typical of them. Won't be trying them next year, for sure.

Last year I had regular romas and they did great. This midnight roma is a new variety developed locally by Oregon State University last year.

[moreace01]

This was my first year having a garden at my house - I used to do community gardening when I lived in a condo in the city. There are a heck of a lot more pests to contend with out here in the burbs. Lol.

Cabbage moths ate my kale. I used neem oil for awhile and that helped - so did flicking them into a bag and disposing of them (sorry dudes - get off my kale). Anyway, it was mostly a lost cause and I was grossed out to eat it.

Tomatoes started to finally come in - and I had some gigantic cherokee purples that I was so excited about - and then some critter went and ate them all before they were ripe. Jerks. The only ones I was able to salvage were some green zebras and yellow ones (no idea the variety).

Critters ate my strawberries.

And my green and purples beans were all tough and awful. I think I waited too long to harvest.

Arugula I wasn't paying attention and it started to flower so was super bitter and peppery. Something was eating it anyway.

So overall, it was a total shit show learning experience this year. I got almost nothing out of it. Sigh. Maybe next year. And if that doesn't work, I'm ripping the whole thing up and putting in flowers.

Also - the woman who used to own the house had all of the veggie gardens covered with straw. I sort of feel like that enabled tons of insects to wreak havoc on my garden cause they didn't die over winter. Would be interested to know if this is a thing I should continue doing or if I should get rid of all of it. 

[mrsukyankee]

moreace01, the straw is great to use as mulch because it keeps in water during the summer. That's why I use it. I'm going to have to add a lot more soil/compost so I'll probably just mix the straw in so it breaks down during the autumn/winter.

[moreace01]

Thanks mrsukyankee, I assumed as much which is why I left most of it intact. But I've noticed so many problems with insects this year that I'm sort of wondering if clearing it out over winter would help kill some of them. I've never had this much trouble with bugs eating my plants but this year they've just destroyed my kale and my salvia also.

[heygrey]

Our tomatoes are doing great, but we lost a lot to blossom rot this year. I thought it was just bad luck our first year gardening and not knowing much, but H's friend is a farmer and he said everyone locally had poor crops because our weather was so weird. Too much rain, too cold early on, then super hot hot and dry. The plants need a more moderate watering and we couldn't control the rain in June!

H really loves the garden and is already planning what he wants to change up next year. I'm very happy to let him take the lead and just be there to help with the work.

[wildrice]

I think my veggies were a flop again. I've gotten 2 peppers from my pepper plant and don't see any others started. One of my tomato plants (the one that is in a pot on my deck) was giving a lot of cherry tomatoes, but I lost a lot of branches to blight so it's still producing but much less than it was. The other 4 tomato plants have given me basically nothing so far. I also have a cucumber plant that has grown and flowered like crazy, but has only created 2 smallish cucumbers. I did plant my veggies in mid-June so they are behind a normal schedule, but given that it's now Sept 1 I think they really should have done more - mid-June was only 2-3 weeks later than the recommendation, and I did that mostly because we went on vacation right after I normally would have planted so I didn't want everything to die.

I have gotten a lot of basil and sage but my basil plant is starting to look like it's nearing the end of its useful life. A lot of yellowing leaves and bare spots.

I think I might mostly stick with flowers and herbs next year. I just don't get a lot of sun in my backyard so the veggies were kind of an experiment, and I would say it has mostly failed. We have a fantastic farm stand 5 minutes from home and I've been buying delicious fresh stuff there, so I might just rely on that for "garden fresh" flavored food since my ROI on my own plants has been negative.

[tacokick]

I think all of my pawpaws fell off the tree during a storm. They were getting big and now I don’t see any on the trees. My figs are doing well though. I might make some fig ice cream.

[treedimensional]

This is the first time in over five years that I haven't been crippled (2 major orthopedic surgeries) and haven't been working full time, and my garden was an untended, unkempt mess. It took me a couple days to get it under control, and LORD has everything gotten big. Just finished pruning and mulching. Very late to be pruning and mulching, but it realllly needed attention.