Show Your Garden Pics

[PineSong]

On 7/12/2022 at 3:19 PM, JettsPapa said:

About an hour's drive northwest of Houston, TX.

Too darn hot! 

[JettsPapa]

On 7/12/2022 at 8:55 PM, PineSong said:

Too darn hot! 

You're right about that, but the good news is we go years without the temperature ever getting below 28° F in winter.  I'm 61 years old and I've only seen it below 10° three times; Dec 1983, Dec 1989, and Feb 2021.

[Katherine]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:29 PM, Katherine said:

This is my first year with our own house, so I'm very very new to gardening. I've mostly just been trying to weed the beds that are already there. But today we made a new bed!

I've got 12 different native plants that are beneficial for pollinators. The white tube on the left is for an attempt at in ground worm composting. We'll see how it goes.

Here's a 2 month update on my tiny native pollinator garden. One of my varieties of milkweed is flowering a little bit. I'm amazed at how much some of the plants have grown since this first photo. And the prairie phlox is already attempting to spread itself.

[PineSong]

This isn’t my garden but thought others might enjoy it as I did: a bog near Lake Michigan where we vacationed. I saw redwing blackbirds having song battles, heard herons and bullfrogs, and there were tons of flowers…plus almost as much duckweed as I have here at home.

Edited July 19, 2022 by PineSong

[JettsPapa]

On 7/18/2022 at 9:49 PM, PineSong said:

This isn’t my garden but thought others might enjoy it as I did: a bog near Lake Michigan where we vacationed. I saw redwing blackbirds having song battles, heard herons and bullfrogs, and there were tons of flowers…plus almost as much duckweed as I have here at home.

It's a good thing I didn't have a mouthful of Dr. Pepper when I read that.  I don't think it makes a good keyboard lubricant.

[PineSong]

My garden is heading into the dog days. Powdery mildew has set in and everything overgrown has flopped. Today was clean-up day trying to make headway against the chaos created by extreme heat, days of heavy rain, and vacation neglect.

[Minanora]

It's been really hot this season so I'm fighting to get my tomatoes to set fruit. But I put up shade last weekend and it's helping.

My summer garden this year (except the kale, that is year round)

 

I'm missing some angles and even one other bed... But I have 25 tomatoes, my heirloom bush beans, summer squashes, one butternut squash, watermelon, cucumbers, eggplant, Walla Walla onions, 16 various peppers, lots of herbs, Galia melon, hops.

I can/process all of my food and we eat from the garden year round.

 

Eventually I'll actually buy a huge shade cloth... But my current situation is working well.

[PineSong]

On 7/24/2022 at 12:49 PM, Minanora said:

I'm missing some angles and even one other bed... But I have 25 tomatoes, my heirloom bush beans, summer squashes, one butternut squash, watermelon, cucumbers, eggplant, Walla Walla onions, 16 various peppers, lots of herbs, Galia melon, hops.

I can/process all of my food and we eat from the garden year round.

That's a lot of garden. I love seeing how people maximize the use of space. When I lived in a big city on the east coast years ago, neighbors from the Caribbean would grow what looked like a lifetime supply of veggies in our postage stamp backyards and have flowers, too. I struggle with growing even simple veggies so stick to hot peppers which appear totally foolproof.

[Minanora]

On 7/24/2022 at 2:01 PM, PineSong said:

That's a lot of garden. I love seeing how people maximize the use of space. When I lived in a big city on the east coast years ago, neighbors from the Caribbean would grow what looked like a lifetime supply of veggies in our postage stamp backyards and have flowers, too. I struggle with growing even simple veggies so stick to hot peppers which appear totally foolproof.

That's amazing. My hot peppers always thrive. My tomatoes usually do very well but this year I didn't put my shade up soon enough and we've had many 98+days. I thought they'd tough it out but I was mistaken. I have 6 striped Roman plants and there is literally only a single tomato on only one of them. I'm annoyed... My cucumbers got owned by gophers. I had 10 plants now I have 4. 😂 Gophers are gone. Gopher hawk traps changed my life.

My vegetable garden is about 240sq ft. Then all my herbs are in pots.

Oh except my chamomile, which grows where my watermelon is. Planted it once, I've had it come back every year.

[PineSong]

On 7/25/2022 at 12:47 AM, Minanora said:

That's amazing. My hot peppers always thrive. My tomatoes usually do very well but this year I didn't put my shade up soon enough and we've had many 98+days. I thought they'd tough it out but I was mistaken. I have 6 striped Roman plants and there is literally only a single tomato on only one of them. I'm annoyed... My cucumbers got owned by gophers. I had 10 plants now I have 4. 😂 Gophers are gone. Gopher hawk traps changed my life.

My vegetable garden is about 240sq ft. Then all my herbs are in pots.

Oh except my chamomile, which grows where my watermelon is. Planted it once, I've had it come back every year.

I have a groundhog who is larger than my dogs. I can imagine what he would do to nice juicy cucumbers on a 90 degree day!

Edited July 25, 2022 by PineSong

[Ken Burke]

@JettsPapa we had those temps a couple weeks ago, and one of my a/c units was out for the week.  Pretty bad when it gets so hot you don’t wanna eat.  

[Patrick_G]

I managed to round up a few flowers from around the garden. We’re still recovering from the cold spring but some plants made it through.  Most years the white Hydrangea barley blooms, but the conditions that stunted other plants seems to really invigorated it. The star jasmine, just keeps producing summer fireworks regardless of the weather. 

Old faithful 

 

[PineSong]

Lovely arrangement, @Patrick_G! Very artistic lines! That star jasmine is really in glory, wow.

 

[PineSong]

End of season colors have arrived seemingly overnight; my oak leaf hydrangea is turning red and the sea oats are drying out, but we should still have another six weeks of flowers.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

This is what 5 and a half feet of Spider plant looks like people (the babies have babies which have babies who are having babies...): 

 

[Anjum]

This year's garden is largely a bust. I keep underestimating how difficult it is to garden on clay soil. Oh well, hopefully next year will be better. I'll continue to build soil & hopefully do some raised beds. 

But! I have a successful patch of "Driveway Kale". I had a huge kale plant pop up last year in a flower bed next to the house, nowhere near where I was growing any. This year after it had set seed, I chopped it down & tossed the top on the other side of the driveway. It was summer & dry, didn't figure much would come of it. Now this 😅 

[PineSong]

On 8/25/2022 at 6:40 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

This is what 5 and a half feet of Spider plant looks like people (the babies have babies which have babies who are having babies...): 

 

Wowsa! That is one happy spider plant!

On 8/26/2022 at 4:20 PM, Anjum said:

This year's garden is largely a bust. I keep underestimating how difficult it is to garden on clay soil. Oh well, hopefully next year will be better. I'll continue to build soil & hopefully do some raised beds. 

But! I have a successful patch of "Driveway Kale". I had a huge kale plant pop up last year in a flower bed next to the house, nowhere near where I was growing any. This year after it had set seed, I chopped it down & tossed the top on the other side of the driveway. It was summer & dry, didn't figure much would come of it. Now this 😅 

Clay soil is a huge pain but does improve over time when you add organics. Your driveway kale looks great!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Anjum now I know why kale has the texture of leather! It's the tough old homesteading cowboy.

@PineSong I dunno if the spider plant is happy or wants to take over the planet- either way I'm good with it. 🙃

Edited August 26, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[JettsPapa]

On 8/26/2022 at 4:41 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Anjum now I know why kale has the texture of leather! It's the tough old homesteading cowboy.

I saw a tip for cooking kale online a while ago.  "Always add a little oil to the pan when cooking kale.  That makes it easier to scrape it out of the pan and into the trash can."

[Minanora]

Just an update on my summer garden. I had a BAD case of root knot nematodes this year. I got a bunk harvest of tomatoes. I wasn't even able to can tomatoes this year. 😞 So, I'm working on the issue right now... but the next few years may be rough since I garden year round... I can't just solarize or sterilize my soil. So, I'm rotating, neem drenching, dropping the soil pH, adding crab shells/meal... all the things. Battle royal. I'm so annoyed. I yanked the first infected plant.... and said some bad words. It was not my proudest moment. As plants started dying off I ripped each out. Finally just ripped them all out except the San Marzano's which, appear to be resistant... so there's that, but I only have four plants and one did succumb to nematodes. I put in so many hours in my garden.... and a decent amount of $$..... to do everything right, and then have bad nematodes! UGH! Every year is a new challenge. I learn something new every year at least!

[Anjum]

On 9/23/2022 at 11:12 PM, Minanora said:

Just an update on my summer garden. I had a BAD case of root knot nematodes this year. I got a bunk harvest of tomatoes. I wasn't even able to can tomatoes this year. 😞 So, I'm working on the issue right now... but the next few years may be rough since I garden year round... I can't just solarize or sterilize my soil. So, I'm rotating, neem drenching, dropping the soil pH, adding crab shells/meal... all the things. Battle royal. I'm so annoyed. I yanked the first infected plant.... and said some bad words. It was not my proudest moment. As plants started dying off I ripped each out. Finally just ripped them all out except the San Marzano's which, appear to be resistant... so there's that, but I only have four plants and one did succumb to nematodes. I put in so many hours in my garden.... and a decent amount of $$..... to do everything right, and then have bad nematodes! UGH! Every year is a new challenge. I learn something new every year at least!

Man seems like it was something no matter where you live. Gardens were tough this year! I got ZERO zucchini! That's unheard of. 

[Minanora]

On 9/24/2022 at 9:50 AM, Anjum said:

Man seems like it was something no matter where you live. Gardens were tough this year! I got ZERO zucchini! That's unheard of. 

I only got like, 6 zucchini. I planted 10 plants. 😔

[Minanora]

On 9/24/2022 at 11:30 AM, Minanora said:

I only got like, 6 zucchini. I planted 10 plants. 😔

@AnjumI usually get so much that I have to give it away and feed missed over ripened to the chickens.

[Tanked]

Just thought I would share my neighbor's garden, and my neighbor!

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

It has been several years since my 16 year old Pomegranate Bonsai has produced actual pomegranates. It often blooms but the flowers fall off. Little one is kind of like the fruit version of the Charlie Brown tree, but it tries. I've repotted it in the last couple of years and fertilized it more often than I used to (sometimes unless they are asking for something I neglect them, my bad)- and this year I've got 4 fruits going along with some other blooms. Of course it also has a little to do with how wonky the weather is as well.....