Okay... something really important. How's your garden doing?

My tomato plants are taller than my wife, and full of green tomatoes.

We had quite a natural watering this afternoon. As an aside from gardening, I have never seen this many partridge before.

My neighbors garden has not done well at all. They have not been able to harvest a thing out of it so far. Their tomato plants only have flowers on them and several of the plants died. My parents garden has suffered the same fate. Mind you both of these did very well last year.

Mine on the other hand has done very well and has been producing tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, and carrots for the last three weeks and we will be harvesting for the next few weeks at least. We have been watering almost daily and using Miracle Gro once a week.

I started mine a bit late, but it is starting to come around. I've been using a
mixture of liquid kelp and fish emulsion along with a mixture of regular
liquid fertiilizer. The liquid kelp product is made by North American Kelp
in Waldoboro. They have a web site: www.noamkelp.com.
I also keep it mulched with seaweed.

There's nothing like good ol' goat manure to perk up your garden.

Tomoatoes have started to come in and the cucumbers are just about over. The long green beans are doing well and we had a good crop of peas and chard. Fortunately I have a large pond and a pump so watering has never been a problem. I've started picking my high bush blueberries and they are delicious.

The garden is overflowing with veggies, and since the freezers are already filled we're eating what we can and giving the rest away. Raspberries are done, but the blackberries are coming on hard. High bush blueberries are having a great year. I have so many cukes that I'm making pickles again. Our two hives of bees are hard at work so we should have honey.
Unfortunately, the apple and pear trees don't have much fruit this year. The cherry and peach trees aren't mature enough to bear this year, but should be producing next year. I gave up on tomatoes after two years of blight destroyed the crops. A year off might help.

David , usually by this time the blight has hit my tomatoes .This year I sprayed the ground heavily with NEEM before puttin my plants into the ground and then sprayed the plants a couple of times afterwards it seems to have worked ..... I also set my plants extra far apart this year to get more air circulation around them....

I have an "Obama" garden. It's worth less now than when I put the seed (stimulus) in the ground.

Biggest problem here in South Bristol for us has been critters. Trapped the woodchuck and haven't been bothered by another but now we have deer chomping on the beans. Anyone noticed a few more deer around? Garden had a slow start but really coming to the front now.

Funny story about my neighbor's woodchuck damage.

He sat out near the garden with a twelve gauge waiting for the rascal to appear, and when he did, the twelve gauge took out almost a whole row of carrots, and the woodchuck wandered away.

johnw -

Great idea for a thread. Thank you!

Best,
skf

Rather then maintain my own raised bed gardens with minimal results; I’ve gone with a farm share this year. For a period of 14 weeks I get fresh garden varieties weekly from a certified farm and everything has been fantastic. The average price per week is about $16. Compared to a trip to the produce section of the grocery store, it’s not too shabby.

I don’t have the land for a decent sized garden.

my toms. peppers and cukes are awesome...celery, eggplant are pitiful....the herbs are plentiful, especially the oregano and lemon grass.
last nights rain was a blessing.

Cherry tomatoes are booming, other varieties are not. First year without dogs....seems to have opened a salad bar for the critters....3 plantings of lettuce have yet to yield one bite to a human. Cukes, squash, brussel sprouts, beets and onions are great as are the herbs.

I've made 36 quarts of dill pickles......I think I'm done there. And the cucumbers are still blossoming and producing like mad....tomatoes are starting to ripen... ..had tons of green and purple beans,broccoli.. swiss chard zukes, summer squash ...My regular squash have finally started to set fruit looked like it was going be one of those years that there were mostly male blossoms..My corn is about a week away from ripening....... This muggy hot weather with the thunderstorms has been perfect....

This has been a weird year, for many plants. We had such an early start to the warm weather; then drowning with rain, then drought. Some plants, usually 6' tall, are non-existent. Others? Huge, where normally they wouldn't be so large. Less Japanese beetles, but way more grasshoppers and snails. Earlier, tomatoes were yielding like crazy; then they got hit with blight. Got that fixed, now the tomato worms have shown up. lol

With gardening, it's always something.

Good barrier for slug/snail defense --> sawdust. The wee critters won't cross the stuff. You have to replace it with heavy rains, however.

Good tomato booster --> dissolve a couple tablespoons of blackstrap molasses in several gallons of water; liberally douse base of plants every other week. Molasses has lots of essential minerals and iron.