July 20, 2019

Summer Garden: July 2019

Speaking of summer, here are some shots of my summer garden.

Cucumber plants using the hoop house as a trellis. If you recall, I had to
replant most of the row. It won't be a bumper crop, but it will be enough.

Cucumbers ready to eat.

Sweet potatoes. As you can see, I'm still mulching aisles.

Winter squash. These are North Georgia Candy Roaster

Young growing candy roaster squash.

In the hoop house.

A small bed of Tennessee red peanuts for a seed crop. They aren't
 really neon green! That's how my camera picked them up in full sun.

Peanut flowers. Leaf color is more true in this shot.

My survivor strawberries

Rooting strawberry runners for another bed. 

Upland rice beds with volunteer cushaw.

Rice flowers

The volunteer cushaw has spread into the tomato trellis

I had two gardening fails this summer. One is my corn.

Of four rows planted, I only got five corn plants.

This is the same bed I replanted because of poor germination the first planting. The second planting didn't do well either, so I tried to sprout the seed. I got nothing. All the seed came from the same ear, so at least one ear had very few viable seeds. I planned to use the corn for pole beans, but they never got planted because the corn didn't grow.

The other fail was okra. I had zero germination even with two plantings. Disappointing, because we love our oven fried okra.

But back to successes.

Peppers are coming along. Not sure which variety.

Tomatoes are doing well.

Black turtle beans with flowers and bean pods

Cowpeas are flowering too. 

Plus, I'm still harvesting last fall's sugar beets for
the goats.They eat both roots and greens (chopped).

So, there's my garden so far this year. Anybody else?

Summer Garden © July 2019 by Leigh

21 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

I envy you your garden, but it just seems like too much trouble anymore for me, between being in such lousy physical shape and needing a 10 foot fence to keep the deer out.

Helberg Farm Stories said...

I'm jealous! Our corn is about the only thing that did do well this year. We will be lucky if we get enough other goodies for a simple single meal - boohoo. Our weather this year has just been all wrong. Oh well. The good news for us is that we invested in several new fruit trees earlier this spring and after very careful tending, we have new growth on all of them-woohoo. Keep up the great work and congrats!

Rain said...

Awesome garden Leigh, I also have taken to mulching, pretty much everything now in the containers because I have discovered that it helps with the slugs and also with weeds. Yeah, weeds still grow in containers lol! There is no stopping them!!! I loved seeing the rice flower, I've never seen anything like that before! Too bad about the okra and the corn...I want to try growing corn when we settle down...don't know if my season is long enough though, but I want to try!

Mama Pea said...

Your garden looks wonderful for the hot heat of your summer time! Never seen peanuts growing nor rice flowers. You must be watering enough because it all looks green and healthy. Was your corn seed over two years old? That's the one seed I have trouble keeping. (No corn this year because we've got to figure out how to provide a windbreak for it as our high winds have flattened it too many years in a row.) Looks as though your mulching between the rows is doing a good job of keeping those persistent, ugly-bugly weeds under control. Yay for that, eh? Thanks for the tour!

Leigh said...

Gorges, yes it is some work. We are very thankful to have the health to do it. And this year, at least, no deer! We haven't been that fortunate in years past, but this year they seem to be wandering different territory. That is likely because we've had more coyotes around, though, so I'm not sure it's a great trade-off.

HFS, tough gardening years are discouraging. Really, no one can truly predict the weather. At least you have corn! And upcoming fruit.

Rain, yes, I've taken to mulching my containers too! You are so right that they grow weeds. And they dry out more quickly than plants in the ground. For corn, you need something like 100 - 110 growing days if I'm remembering correctly.

Mama Pea, yes, I have been watering. This year we finally have enough catchment tanks to keep things alive and well.

The corn seed was from last year, which is why I'm so puzzled. I guess I'll have to start all over again next year with new seed.

Ed said...

Sweet corn is non-existent up here due to the really wet and cold spring. What is out there now is getting hammered with the heat and dry weather now so I'm not holding out for much. Fortunately I still have a good supply of frozen sweet corn we put up two years ago.

M.K. said...

It's been horrible here -- very little rain (severe drought this summer) and temps in the high 90s. I was gone over 3 weeks, and my hubby was gone 13 days, so our garden right now is a shambles! But our Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes survived and I picked a big bowl this morning. Okra looking good. Zucchini and cukes are fine too. I thought everything would be toast! Adam dug the potatoes before he left. Not a failed garden this year, but not our best.

Leigh said...

Ed, that's why it's always a good idea to put up a plentiful harvest when it happens. Who knows what the following years will bring! Your weather hasn't been conducive for growing this year.

M.K., it sounds like your garden is doing well in spite of less than favorable conditions. Here's hoping we get some relief from the dryness and heat soon.

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Looks great Leigh! My okra overall had poor sprouting, but I have two plants (which, frankly, is enough). Sweet potatoes are doing well. Beans and black eyed peas are still producing on and off.

Given the stupid heat and humidity here, I honestly think I am better off trying Autumn, Winter, and Spring gardens and just doing the minimum for summer.

Leigh said...

TB, I've thought the same thing about the time of year to garden. Even supposedly heat loving tomatoes don't like our heat! Plus it's no fun to work in that kind of heat and humidity. Still, it sounds like our garden is going rather well.

Lady Locust said...

It's looking great! I'm rather envious- volunteer cushaw! Mine did not germinate:-(. I do have some spaghetti squash but no cushaw this year. My pole beans were slow to start, but have taken hold and are beginning to go crazy.

Kristin said...

My garden is hanging in there considering how late it got planted coupled with the scorching heat we’ve had lately. Although the garden has seemed to love the heat! Except the squashes now have powdery mildew. I might lose all my butternuts but am hopeful the rest will survive. I’ll just be happy to get anything from the garden this year!!

Leigh said...

Lady Locust, it's both puzzling and dismaying when seeds don't germinate. I often wait quite a while on them, in hopes it was just the weather. Then I wonder if it's too late. Twice on the corn, well, I probably had enough time to try again, but by that time I was busy with other things. I hope your spaghetti squash does well! Is there a way to preserve it for winter use?

Kristin, scorching heat is always a challenge! Even with decent rainfall I find that the heat evaporates the moisture right out of the ground. I agree about being happy with anything from the garden this year!

Chris said...

Your garden looks so good for late summer. That extra water catchment is paying off. Making all the planning and budgeting for such things, worthwhile. This is food in your health. Good food! So happy the garden is doing well for you.

The hoophouse looks great. So do the sweet potatoes. We still have stuff coming out of the garden. My container garden, mostly. But not a lot. Herbs are most productive. Which is always good, thrown into a frittata, scrambled eggs or casserole.

Leigh said...

Chris, if it wasn't for our supply of rainwater, the garden would be toast! I'm glad to hear you've got things growing too, since this is your winter.

Watchman said...

My dad swore by soaking okra seed overnight in buttermilk before planting it. It always worked for us (though in mid-state Tennessee so don't know how your growing conditions compare) year after year. Might be worth a shot.

Leigh said...

Watchman, thank you for visiting and taking time to comment! I'd not heard of soaking okra seed in buttermilk, but I'd certainly give it a try. Especially after having trouble for the first time with it. Thanks!

Ann said...

Hi Leigh - Gorgeous garden as always. I want to ask you about mulching the aisles. We've had some serious earwig problems. I think we had ignored minor damage not knowing what it was. And then last year they just went to town. We caught thousands in olive oil traps. This year we put the traps out earlier and are catching fewer but we're still seeing earwig damage. My question: do you find that mulching the aisles gives them a happy home? We have to mulch our beds because it's so dry here. But I feel like we'd be asking for it if we did the aisles too. Maybe you have a good anti-earwig strategy?

Leigh said...

Thanks Ann! I have to say that we haven't had much trouble with earwigs in the garden, so I can't answer your question about the mulch, and I'm not sure how well this spray would deter them. I know that doesn't help you, and I'm sorry I can't since you have such a terrible problem with them. :(

Retired Knitter said...

I know very little about gardening - but I do know your garden is the most beautifully maintained garden I have ever seen - and I suspect there is a fair amount of work involved in keeping it that way.

What I do hope you will show is the progress and final harvesting of the rice. I know NOTHING about a rice plant - never even seen one. would love to see what rice looks like on the plant. Is each little flower going to produce one piece of rice? No idea.

Leigh said...

RT, thanks! Gardening is work, but it's probably some of the most rewarding work I've ever done. The choice is between mulching and weeding, and I have to say weeding is my least favorite of those options! I think this is the first year I've been able to get it mulched so well. That's a huge relief, because anywhere there isn't mulch there's out of control "weeds!"

Rice is a first for me and a very exciting one at that! Yes, I believe each grain of rice starts as a flower. Still to learn is exactly when it's ready to harvest. Then I have to come up with a dehuller! So stay tuned. :)