24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening


And Pea varieties


I have to wonder how you prepared the garden in the first place. If you just mowed the weeds down or scraped them off the surface, they'll shoot right back up. The roots are still there. Of course, when you dug the bed up, all the meadow seeds laying on the surface got planted. The long term answer is puling weeds out by the roots and mulching. It may take a couple of seasons to get them under control, but eventually you should get there.

I know exactly what you mean by corn exceeding your expectations. This is my first year planting corn, growing Indian glass corn, and I also heard knee high by the 4th of July. Well at the fourth, my stalks were over 7 foot tall. I guess all that compost and May rains really helped!
I've also tried the three sisters method with pole beans and squash and I'll never do it again. It's just too much of a jumbled mess. I guess I prefer a tidier garden.

Jimmy56 -- Definitely NO hard feelings! I didn't take it that way at all. Gardeners and fishermen have reputations for exaggeration so I thought a photo or two would help. As for my husband helping in the garden... he likes to call it OUR garden, but I do all the prep work in spring, all the planting, all the weeding, all the harvesting, all the preserving. (I feel like the Little Red Hen.) Once in awhile, he walks through and says something along the lines of "We're going to need to do something about [fill in the blank.]" then strolls out again. Really, it's better that he doesn't help much because we never agree on how anything should be done anyway, and this way, I can just do what I like. ;-)

We used to have a feral cat in the neighborhood. It was great. Then some overly zealous neighbor turned it in to animal control. Now our yards are over run with bunnies and most things we plant turn into a fresh salad bowl for the damn bunnies. And I keep finding mice in the basement.
I would gladly put up with cat poop and some dead half eaten bunnies at this point...

Never been a fan of pets but cats do have their perks.
Just to add, we've been eating the garlic greens and mint leaves direct from my own cat poop-amended backyard garden. I know because I started the garden last month, and tilling though I discovered at least one smelly clump down several inches. I just clean my herbs with a bit of ammonia and water, scrubbing and rinsing and no one's gotten sick yet.
Long live the feline species!

Purslane is the reason why it was discovered that pastured eggs have 30X the Omega-3 content of factory eggs, the tested eggs were harvested in Greece where purslane dominates as a weed. I think it is the best vegetable to mix in summer salads with tomatoes, but even a straight purslane salad is good.
But there is no justice. I am getting nearly none after the garden has grown in cool rainy weather. And I would eat it all.


rgreen -- that was great info about when to harvest. I've always heard harvest early, but then I think it'll be fresher if I harvest late. Now I know why to harvest early! It's usually so dew soaked in the a.m. I try not to touch the plants, but this year it is always wet, so I might as well get in there in the morning.
prairiemoon, most things travel very well with priority mail. I even mailed a carton of blackberries. My daughter sent me pictures of all the stuff she cooked with the produce, and my veggies even joined her in-law's home made sausage in one dish :)
Great thread -- learned more about the chemistry behind blanching than ever before. Though I tried freezing non-blanched bush beans one year and had to throw them all out. (probably because the freezer wasn't the greatest.)

Carrots, Mizuna, beets, and shelling peas (they are an experiment in a fall crop.) Ordering some scallion seeds for GH, and watching the storage cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower starts size up while cover crop breaks down. About to dig up first peas in GH they are done, and I will need space for scallions.

You could always grow some vegetables indoors if you want. I've recently been growing a pineapple indoors, here's a guide on how to do this if your interested: http://vegetableparadise.com/2015/06/17/how-to-grow-a-pineapple-from-top/

Jake, your comment is too funny.....
Here's mine. It is outside for now but it will be brought inside in the fall and into a climate controlled room. I am also trying to do the same with avocado, too. I'm on the east end of Long Island and not too many local pineapples or avocados here.


Thrips is one possibility for sure. Look up pics of them on the web to compare to be sure. Aphids can also be yellow and very tiny but the insecticidal soap should help with both. Just use it with care. You can also hand squish them or use sticky tape wrapped around your hand.
Dave

looks like bacteria/fungus/moldor even bugs than nutrient related. i recommend spraying them with Neem Oil or some baking soda with a drop of dish soap. removing the bad ones before sprayign and see if they continue appearing after spraying. if you spot any bugs then i would use Neem oil instead of the baking soda/soap. the Neem oil will treat both insects and fungus/mold problems.. one stone two birds.



For the first time ever growing tomatoes, I had blossom end rot. I was growing these in pots -- three Roma tomato plants, a variety I've never grown before. And I was using a fresh bag of Miracle Gro potting mix. I didn't think it would need anything extra added to it, so I just transplanted the tomatoes and waited. I don't think I'll ever grow tomatoes in pots again. They looked horrible until I sprinkled a little 13-13-13 on the surface, figuring I'd just let them dissolve and seep down into the water. That made the plants take off like a rocket and turn a beautiful green color and they no longer have a rot problem. The same thing happened with a friend's tomato plants that I planted using the same potting mix. That wasn't the "Miracle" I had in mind when picking that potting mix.
But I also planted some cowbell cayenne peppers and jalapenos in four clay pots (also in Miracle Gro potting mix -- freshly purchased bag). Little peppers would form and then fall off, and leaves were falling off, too! I didn't think to check to see if the little peppers were rotting, but a couple of cayennes have formed now and I'll be watching those closely.






Did you have your soil tested? You might have a mineral deficiency. Also, have you checked for bugs? Pics might be helpful in order to see what's going on with your corn.