What did you do in the garden today?

[flowerbug]

Geesh...you TX people have huge tomatoes and are 2nd cropping already. I'm still watering fledging plants. BUT will catch up. I'll try not to make you Northers feel badly when I do. Cause I'm SURE gonna share pic.

@baymule get BJ a chair or stool to sit on while he works!

i sit on a ground pillow for the low stuff and then scoot the pillow along as i need to move. saves a lot of up and down bending of the knees and lower back. i have a spot in the middle of my back that will let me know when i've had enough. then it is time for a break and some water and perhaps a siesta when it starts to get too hot outside. i'm not doing any of this to risk a heat stroke.

 

[flowerbug]

Have you ever roasted them? They are good with a splash of raspberry vinegarette salad dressing on them. Do you can them with clove and cinnamon?

i like them plain roasted the best and then after they're done either plain or with butter on them. i do also like them pickled, but simple style with some sugar and apple cider vinegar cut with water just a bit (the water they are steamed with is often enough). onions are steamed with them. i guess that is the spice or flavoring used there. we really can't ever eat enough onions.

 

[baymule]

@CrealCritter my tomato trellis is t-posts and cow panels. I never take them down, I don’t tie theplants, they just grow and the cow panels support them. They are spaced 18”-20” apart.

 

[BarredBuff]

We worked in the garden yesterday. I mulched, fertilized and replanted a few cucumbers. Re-planted spots in the beans, and corn as well.

However, my beautiful fluffy soil is basically concrete right now. It is baked hard. My plants have germinated and grown fairly well, but this might hurt them. Of all the years to have trouble like this...

 

[Lazy Gardener]

FORTEX????? I've been saving my own seed for decades. Last year's seed crop was scanty, b/c we had such a short growing season, and I canned almost all of them. If I get skunked this year, I just might take you up on that. What's your experience with Scarlet Runner beans? I bought some to try just for the novelty. Wondering if they cut it as a green bean, or are better as a dry bean?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

@CrealCritter my tomato trellis is t-posts and cow panels. I never take them down, I don’t tie theplants, they just grow and the cow panels support them. They are spaced 18”-20” apart.

Do you worry about crop rotation? I did the same this year, but... boy did I feel guilty planting those tomatoes in the same spot!

We worked in the garden yesterday. I mulched, fertilized and replanted a few cucumbers. Re-planted spots in the beans, and corn as well.

However, my beautiful fluffy soil is basically concrete right now. It is baked hard. My plants have germinated and grown fairly well, but this might hurt them. Of all the years to have trouble like this...

Do you have your soil covered with mulch? My old garden spot was heavy clay, and would turn into concrete when it dried out. Deep permanent mulch went a very long way towards preventing that problem.

 

[BarredBuff]

Do you have your soil covered with mulch? My old garden spot was heavy clay, and would turn into concrete when it dried out. Deep permanent mulch went a very long way towards preventing that problem.

I only mulch when necessary. I mulch cucumbers, squash, and potatoes usually. The garden needs about 8 inches of rotted manure applied to it in the fall then tilled in during the Spring. However, getting that done with everything else I have to do is hard.

I am just hoping the rain will soften it back up in a few days and we can have some to can and put up.

 

[baymule]

@Lazy Gardener I have planted tomatoes in the same spot in this garden for 5 years and many, many years at our previous home. When they are done, I work in chicken and Sheep manure. I work it again in the spring, cover with feed sacks and mulch. Then I plant the plants. After that I just water them.

 

[baymule]

I pulled more weeds, 5 wagon loads and most of it was crabgrass. That stuff is as bad as Bermuda to pull out. Husband pulled beets, trimmed the tops and washed them. I’ll put them up tomorrow .

 

[BarredBuff]

Continued work in the garden today. Today, for some reason, it was much easier. It may have just been that upper corner in the corn patch. I had plenty of fluffy soil to hill my potatoes with. Tomatoes tilled up well too. I got all of my squash hills fixed and mulched. Tomatoes, peppers, okra, potatoes, and summer squash are fertilized and weeded.

Tomorrow, I will finish planting winter squash plants and sweet potatoes. I plan on planting a double row of bush beans too in my last open garden spot.