May be the problem with the swiss chard is its below the ground or around the base. If the leaves are not chewed by bugs and still wilting, it may be soil isn't quite right. Or the weather is too hot and too dry.
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May be the problem with the swiss chard is its below the ground or around the base. If the leaves are not chewed by bugs and still wilting, it may be soil isn't quite right. Or the weather is too hot and too dry.
Swiss chard will grow all summer and all winter, in my experience. I've found it hard to damage--it just keeps on coming. You could try planting some in another bed; maybe there is a soil issue in the current bed.
I've been accepted to be on a city Kitchen Garden tour in July! Hopefully things won't be too wilted by then!
I've been having a good year in the veggie garden!
Earlier this week i made 15 quarts of dill pickles, and yesterday I made some great red cabbage cole slaw and picked the first tender green beans... :D
Tomatoes and onions are looking good, with lots more beans and cukes on the way!
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F...s-july2011.jpg
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Wow, green beans already!
Admittedly I got a late start due to the wet spring (and other stuff), but mine are only getting their first buds.
I've already had my first failure-to-pick-zucchini accident, though. :cool: Ate half of it sliced and grilled (yum), will probably shred the rest and turn it into fritters.
... and my chard is just about ready for picking, no thanks to the rabbits who ate it all to the ground last year, and have already torn through the netting that I've got over it this year. :mad:
Last year I waited way too long to pick my green beans, and they were too big and tough. This year I'm on top of it! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
(but am sadly neglecting my swiss chard!) oh well! Getting some good stuff anyway from the garden anyway, you do what you can!
I got green beans today in my CSA box. We also got them a couple weeks ago.
I went away for 3 weeks, and when I came back, I noticed that my chard bolted. Is there any way to salvage them, or are they done once they've boted and are flowering?
and I also found that all my worms in my compost bin died :( Not sure what happened to them, but the bin is just soup now. Very sad.
Nothing you can do once the greens bolt. They're terribly bitter after that. Just enjoy your flowers and then get the seeds for the fall!Quote:
Originally Posted by badger
Bleeker, I love your kitchen! It looks so cheery. And is that a six-burner stove I see? *jealous*
I made salsa yesterday, today the rest of the red tomatoes are going to be sauce, and sometime this weekend I'll make green salsa - I have 2 plants that produce an heirloom green tomato with excellent flavor (green when ripe). I'll mix it with the yellow and white varieties, some jalapenos (I will wear gloves this time, I have learned!) and a heavy dose of cilantro. Should be yummy!
Sadly, each time my tomatoes start to ripen, critters help themselves. I think squirrels are the culprits. I had three amazing heirloom Mr. Stripey and four Bradley tomatoes that were nearly ready to pick...just one more day...but in the morning, one was across the yard half eaten, two were hanging on the vine half eaten, and the rest had disappeared completely.
My kale, however, is still going strong. But with the 100+ temps, I suspect they will soon bolt.
The *$&% birds keep pecking our tomatoes. We're losing about 50% of them right now. Grrrrr....
Every time we tried to grow tomatoes (or strawberries, or cukes, or pretty much anything edible) the wildlife would help itself, and we'd get maybe one fruit out of it. Same goes for...pretty much anything currently in the yard (none of which are veggies). I think we may have some kind of neon sign reading "SALAD BAR" somewhere...
Electric fence doesn't keep the rabbits out. :confused: Netting has kept them out of my beans enough to let the beans grow, but they've broken right through the netting to get at my chard. :mad: :mad:
It's hit and miss this year ... tonight's dinner was pasta with broccoli, zucchini and arugula. :)
I picked the zucchini tonight just after a rain, fairly small, knowing it would be a ball-bat if I waited until morning. The blossom had closed for the night. I held the squash in my hand and felt this ... vibration ... like it was an appliance that it resembles physically. :p I opened the blossom and SEVEN honeybees flew out. :) :)
Last year I saw not one honeybee on my property. Not one, all year. I am soooooo happy they are back - at least for now.
I have to pick mine early and let them ripen in windowsills - if I wait for them to turn red or even a good orange, some critter will take one little bite and waste the rest of it. :mad: I grow a lot of heirlooms (including Mr Stripey!) some seem to attract the critters more than others - so I grab them soon as I start to see orange developing. Have to check vines twice a day in this weather. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by tulip
[QUOTE-OakLeaf]tonight's dinner was pasta with broccoli, zucchini and arugula.[/QUOTE]
Oh YUM! Can I come over?
My Mr. Stripeys were beautiful! Do they taste good? They do to critters. I will take your advice next year. I might still get some this year, too. We usually have tomatoes into September, even October.
Our front yard gets the most hours of sunlight in a day, so we decided to incorporate some of the veggies there.
The front yard went from this:
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To this:
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The herbs, carrots and radishes are grown right along with flowers in a raised bed:
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Tomatoes:
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The carrots we harvested today:
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There's a couple of pumpkin vines and a strawberry bed too. I think planting them among accepted landscaping plants helps camouflage them a bit. At least the neighbors haven't complained yet...
WOW sgtiger! WOW! I love it! I've wanted to do something like that myself, integrating ornamentals with produce in my front yard since it gets more sun than my backyard, but DH pooh-poohs me (and we're moving at some point anyway, might as well keep the easy-care perennials out front). Maybe if I show him your incredible pics he'll be ok with it for our next house. :-)
here in the PNW, I've not had a good season. My beans and snow peas did really well, but none of the tomato flowers managed to bear any fruit. They've also very short, too.
My banana and acorn squash that came out of my compost have borne some fruit, but they soon turned yellow and dropped off. My basil's still only about 2" tall and my cilantro only managed to be about 6" before they started blooming. Never quite got the big leaves, just went straight to flowers. It's been rather disappointing.
That is way cool!Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
I'm using part of my front yard to grow herbs and eggplant, as well. I've also grown beans, peppers and tomatoes because it's our sunniest spot. There's a great book called Edible Landscaping if you want more ideas.Quote:
Originally Posted by sgtiger
Google "edible landscaping" and you'd be amazed at how beautiful your front yard can be with some vegetables/fruits thrown in! I'm a huge fan of growing veggies/herbs/fruits in available space. When it comes to landscaping, if I can't eat it, I'm not real motivated to take care of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by grey
Grey, we've been gradually replacing ornamentals with vegetables. As my DH says, it takes just as much work to look after the ornamentals as the vegetables so why not have the fresh veggies. Last fall we added two raised beds to our front yard and planted carrots, beets, onions, swiss chard, peas, and random dill in the beds. That's my DH picking swiss chard in the rain!Quote:
Originally Posted by grey
So far, the neighbours have been intrigued more than anything else by the gardens in the front yard. My goal eventually is to replace all of the lawn with a mix of vegetables & ornamentals - but one year at a time!
I haven't had any complaints from my neighbors when I turned my front yard into a veggie garden. But that was California.
We now live in very progressive area of Oregon. So I don't expect to have any complaints from my neighbors when I turn the ugly lawn into a veggie garden mixed with native berry plants and evergreen.
In retrospect, maybe having an ugly lawn to start off was the key. Anything else was better than a ugly burnt, weed infested lawn. Lesser of two evils to some :p
We have 7 (was 8) heirloom tomato plants growing in what used to be our backyard. Most of the tomatoes are finally ripening, here's our first large haul from a few days ago.
We'll be canning crushed tomatoes and making lots of ketchup & tomato jam soon. :cool:
from L to R: Brandywine Black, Aunt Ginny's Orange, Texas Star (that's the single tomato), Amazon Chocolate, Hawaiian Pineapple. Still to come: Hugh's, Love Apple.
RIP: Black from Tula (it suddenly started to shrivel up badly so we cut our losses and dug it out; we'll figure out what to do with the dozen or so green tomatoes we salvaged).
A nasty groundhog has been destroying my garden this summer. Any ideas on how to get rid of him? I think he's living in my neighbor's shed.... I've tried scattering some used kitty litter along the fence, but it's not working. In the past, my dog kept the back yard well marked, but he's retired these days, as he can't manage the stairs from the back door.
Luckily, my squash/pumpkin patch is in the side yard, and the @#$%@# groundhog hasn't found it yet. There's also a single, volunteer tomato plant there...
Lots of folk have vegetable gardens in their front yards in my neighborhood-- but then I live on the edge of a really poor neighborhood. On some streets, the yards are really small, and the best light may be in front. There's even one family that's planted okra in the strip between sidewalk and street!
Well, doesn't look like anyone has posted this year re their garden. I will have to send out a picture. I was a bit worried yesterday since we had a big thunderstorm and some parts of Flag got about 1/2 foot of hail. We were lucky, looks like it rained well, but not too hard and not too much hail. I lost my garden to hail damage completely last year.
So, I'm all happy that there is no hail damage this morning when my cat goes racing out the back door (before being fed, really weird) all slunk down low and moving fast. I thought that my husband left the gate open and that the neighbor's dog might be in the year which happens some times. Well, then the cat goes around the house and comes racing right back in his cat door and back to the back door. He is real low slung and I think wow, there really is something back there.
So, I go back there and two big havelinas are running around in my back yard! It is completely fenced.
I go down to my garden and thankfully, they only ate two squash plants in a pot that I have down there; the rest they have left alone! Thank goodness.
I chase them slowly out the gate and close it. They were pretty cool!
It wasn't too long ago that havelinas did not come up this high, 7,000 feet, but in the last 10 years they have been coming up higher and higher.
Electric fence is the only thing that keeps out groundhogs and raccoons. Probably would work on javelinas. A 4 volt solar charger is enough for most gardens and not too expensive.
I planted a small garden this year, after doing nothing for a couple of years. I tried a couple of Earth Boxes for some tomatoes and tomatillos; they didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I think my tomatoes in the regular raised beds are doing much better. I'll use the Earth Boxes for flowers or herbs next year.
I have 4 pounds of tomatillos waiting to be made into salsa verde :cool: The tomatoes in the raised beds are about to burst forth - I will be overloaded. I'm sure Chloe will begin stealing 'maters off the vine very soon. I grew eggplant for the first time - Rosa Bianca. They are delish! Another first time for me was baby bok choy, a new favorite.
I don't think they can get in the back yard as long as my lovely husband remembers to close the gates! Maybe I need an electric prodder for him to remind him!Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
Very nice Snap! I did not plant a lot of different stuff this year as I started the garden late due to being out of town a lot earlier this year. I have had eggplant, yellow crook neck squash, acorn squash (a lot more on the vine) this is the first year I have been successful with winter type squash, a few tomatoes so far, green beans are just about ready.Quote:
Originally Posted by snapdragen
I thought it might be fun to bump this thread.
I was rooting through this thread to find the name of a tree that I've since forgotten. There were some awesome gardens here a couple of years ago - how are they doing now??
I really wanted a real garden, so last year I painstakingly turned a neglected part of the back area of my workplace into a garden. It was full of ivy, blackberry bushes, and rocks. It was also contaminated with oil (it's in the maintenance shop area where fire trucks are repaired). The soil donated by the parks board was completely sterile and I doubt there was even bad bacteria in there. My beets and radishes just grew leaves and that was it. Zucchini just grew long and nothing fruited. Runner beans and herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano, chives) were the only things that grew much.
So I over-wintered the garden with hairy vetch and decided to limit this year's crop to potatoes and beans. So far they are both thriving and am hopeful that by next year the soil will have more nutrients in it to support more vegetables. Still probably isn't the healthiest with so much exhaust nearby...
We have chard and kale, chives, sage, oregano. Tomatoes and strawberries are starting to fruit. We planted a persimmon tree and it's leafing out. But that may take years.
Peas, beans, tomatoes (early and cherry) peppers, broccoli, chard, lettuce, parsley, basil and cilantro in here. The peas are going gangbusters - in fact I need to go out and pick some right now. I had bok choy and radishes, but they bolted for some reason.
Green beans, lima beans, cannellini.
Two varieties of bell peppers, an Italian roasting pepper, a poblano, and jalapeños - although all the peppers have some kind of a disease :( about half of them seem to be recovering. Zucchini, butternut squash, small Hubbard-type squash, cucumbers, Charentais melons.
Chioggia beets, three varieties of carrots, parsnips (although the first row of parsnips I planted drowned; the second row I marked as parsnips turned out to be carrots :rolleyes: and the third one, only three came up ... so I'll be planting another row probably tomorrow.
Red Russian and lacinato kale.
Romanesco cauliflower (if it heads ...) and broccoli.
Five varieties of tomatoes.
Genovese basil, lime basil, Italian parsley.
And my little strawberry patch, which didn't produce much this year - needs some attention.
I lost most of my perennial herbs to the polar vortex this winter. Oregano survived in spades, bee balm either survived or reseeded itself or both, thyme I thought was gone but when I went to pull it out there was a tiny little sprig of green. Peppermint and spearmint and lemon balm survived, no big surprise there - I actually tore all the peppermint and lemon balm out of my herb bed, figuring it'll come back when I least expect it. :rolleyes: Spearmint I was smart enough to plant originally in a couple of remote locations in the lawn. Everything else was kaput. So I replanted lavender, winter savory, tarragon, sage, and another thyme plant I bought before I realized I had a survivor.
Couldn't do much this year, I got two small beds prepped and planted tomatoes and eggplant.
Our weekly grocery bill at TJ is down in the high 20's to low 30's. Mostly milk, avocado, yogurt, tofu and some junk food. And our visit to farmers market is to buy occasional meat, cherries in season and apricot in season. This weeks total grocery bill was bit high at just over $50 maybe $60. Growing lots of loose leaf lettuce, bok choi, rappinni, zucchini... peas and beans... freezing excess strawberries and soon blue berries along with logan and marion berries. Our fall/winter veggies are growing nicely, broccoli, kale, cabbage. We'll start seeds for cauliflower, napa cabbage, carrots, parsnips, delicata squash, acorn. We also raise our own chicken for egg and meat.
We are's on about 1/3 of an acre and we do intensive ag. on a very small scale. This is a run-up or practice to when I buy myself a small farm around 2-5 acres. Style of farming is called market gardening or micro-farm.Once I get a farm, I'll have a heated greenhouse to grow meyer lemon, bearss lime, ginger. And we will also be growing year round. This style of farming has very low $$ entry point and reasonable return on investment. Net income from my envisioned farm would give us reasonable lifestyle and we would NOT be enslaved to our farm.
Right now, we are starting new seeds every two weeks. rappini, bok choi, lettuce of all sorts. I lost track of all the things we are growing :D :confused: ;)