mary, mary quite contrary...how does your garden grow?

[donna1967]

Tell us about your garden!

We're square foot garden newbies....and are anxiously awaiting our crop.
What did you plant this year? What are your gardening tricks?
What's your favorite tomato?

[luvs2eat]

This year is the year that I WILL foil the deer. I've tried to garden evey summer and spend weeks preparing garden beds and planting stuff... only to have the deer act as tho it's a salad bar! Then they come right up to my door and eat all the blossoms off my potted flowers!!

This year, babe of a DH made me a 2-tiered garden box and put it inside an old dog kennel/run that he took apart and refashioned into a huge cage. Then he ran a soaking hose all thru the roof so we have rain whenever we need it.

I have sugar snap peas, pole beans, 3 kinds of lettuce, yellow and green peppers, heirloom cucumbers, zucchini. In pots I have rosemary, basil, flat parsley, curley parsley, chives, sage, thyme. And in 2 upside down hanging planters... (Maybe I can photobucket them, they're so neat) I have cherry tomatoes and big tomatoes. I can't WAIT for harvest time!!

[MrsMo]

We have 30 tomato plants, 5 pepper plants and 3 cucumber plants. Should have tomatoes by the 4th of July.

Favorite tomato? Cherokee Purple and Black Krim.

[cottun]

My garden is about an acre this year..HUGE! I have 5 types of squash, cucumbers, string beans, butter beans, cantalopes, corn, and 25 tomato plants. Last year I had a problem with the tomatos getting dark spots on the bottoms and rotting, and I read that it was due to a lack of calcuim. So this year I put down a ton of calcium around them and it killed all of the plants about a week after I planted them! So I had to get more, re-work the soil, and replant. Everything is doing fine so far. Had to irrigate once already due to the lack of rain.

[donna1967]

Luvs, I've heard about upsidedown buckets for tomatoes. Do you have much stem breakage? It sounds like fun!

[donna1967]

Mrs. Mo-Oh, heirlooms! I'm not that advanced : )
I plant tomatoes that my father planted, just because that's what I'm used to, and because I'm boring!

[donna1967]

Cottun,
Have you tried regulating the amount of water you're giving your toms?
I know irregular water amounts also cause blossom end rot.
Good luck with yours this year, you've got a lot to garden!

[Maddison]

So far we have 22 pepper plants--eight sweet banana, four green, four red, four yellow. I still have to plant the tomatoes--i can't remember the name but they are SO good. I'm also wanting to plant grape tomatoes. I am hooked on those things!
I also have strawberries and raspberries.

[cottun]

Thanks for the advice Donna. I am pretty much new to growing tomatos on my own. Hubby always knew the solution to any problem, and now I have to rely on books and advice from other gardeners to get me thru. It was dry last year but I watered them regularly. Will see what happens this year.

[donna1967]

Hi Maddison,
My dad was from Erie, and I grew up a little south of there.
I'd love to hear what kind of tomatoes you grow. Grape toms would work great in the buckets like luvs2eat plants. Do your raspberries produce well?

[fatkat]

This year is a tad bit different for me. The gardens are taking forever to grow but they are finally getting there and about a month behind schedule. I only decided to grow tomatoes, garlic, horseradish, parsley, dill, sage and oregano. Basil and chives did not grow.

I also have perennials galore. They are doing much better now that the rain stopped and the sun has been out.

New arrivals:

Purple Mallow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/fatkat/000_0544.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/fatkat/000_0543.jpg

Japanese Iris that should have been out last month
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/fatkat/000_0542.jpg

Lupines ALMOST in full bloom
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/fatkat/000_0541.jpg

[luv2bake]

fatkat, the lupines....how do you pronounce that? They are beautiful.

[fatkat]

Donna, I live south of Maddison. Where did you live?

Luv, they are pronounced LU-PEEN, thank you. There are white ones too.

[luv2bake]

Did your Angel Trumpet ever come up?

[bennet]

Fatkat, I have 3 gigantic pots of chives on my deck that come back year after year. bigger and better. I don't do anything special for them, but they are gorgeous. They are one of my favorite perennials when they are in bloom. I also have a large horseradish patch that comes back every year. I grow all of my herbs in pots on my deck. My DH built several steps to accomodate all of the pots. The only thing I don't have luck with is basil. My family and friends grow so much of it they pull it out like weeds.