Garden update:
Weeds are flourishing.
Tomatoes are delicious, beefsteak tomatoes and Brandywines.
Zucchinis are not producing as much as I expected, don't know why.
Peppers (all varieties) are going crazy.
Squirrels are eating the sweet corn.
Melons have set fruit, we will see.

Next year I might just plant tomatoes and a few peppers, maybe some zucchinis.
The rest of it wasn't worth the effort.

Tomatoes are being harvested as they ripen, probably 3 dozen so far and another 4 or 5 dozen on the vine.
Corn will be ready this coming weekend.
Cukes have done great, and I put up a dozen pints and a half dozen quarts of dill relish this year.
Peppers are doing OK. Not too many Bell peppers, but the chilis are going shiznat. Only one chili has gone red so far.
Watermelons did nothing. Again. I can take a hint.
Pumpkins have invaded and decided to take over. I will have a bumper crop this year if the few I can see are any indication.
Acorn and butternut squash plants look healthy, but it's too early to harvest those, so I don't know what I have yet amongst all the huge leaves.

I kept the weeds at bay this year with RoundUp. Worked a lot better than trying to keep them down with mulch (which was a complete and utter failure the past two years) If this had been like those years, I was prepared to give up and pave the garden.

gwp wrote:Tomatoes are being harvested as they ripen, probably 3 dozen so far and another 4 or 5 dozen on the vine.
Corn will be ready this coming weekend.
Cukes have done great, and I put up a dozen pints and a half dozen quarts of dill relish this year.
Peppers are doing OK. Not too many Bell peppers, but the chilis are going shiznat. Only one chili has gone red so far.
Watermelons did nothing. Again. I can take a hint.
Pumpkins have invaded and decided to take over. I will have a bumper crop this year if the few I can see are any indication.
Acorn and butternut squash plants look healthy, but it's too early to harvest those, so I don't know what I have yet amongst all the huge leaves.

I kept the weeds at bay this year with RoundUp. Worked a lot better than trying to keep them down with mulch (which was a complete and utter failure the past two years) If this had been like those years, I was prepared to give up and pave the garden.

Congratulations, sounds like you're having a bumper crop this year. Husband only planted tomatoes and they're fantastic this year. Perfectly round, big, no blemishes, juicy, great taste. No blossom rot and no tomato worms. I think this has been our best year. Canned 14 quarts, but have been giving a lot away to family and friends.

And while I'm bumping old threads, this is one of my favorites.
I will plant a much smaller garden this year, probably just tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.

Hey GWP, we have little tomatoes!!! How's your garden doing?

also http://www.flickr.com/photos/46390032@N06/4754836929/sizes/l/in/photostream/

very nice

my garden of weeds is doing well.
BUT, today i slaughtered them and cut back my rose bushes to almost nothing. this year for some reason all my roses have black spot and tons of aphids

and tomorrow i will plant the tomato plants in the yard.. my first time.. wish me luck

FenStar wrote:
also http://www.flickr.com/photos/46390032@N06/4754836929/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Looks good, Fen. I think our tomatoes are a little bigger than that now. Oneupmanship not intended. Nothing starting to turn yet.

coffeenogrumpy wrote:very nice

my garden of weeds is doing well.
BUT, today i slaughtered them and cut back my rose bushes to almost nothing. this year for some reason all my roses have black spot and tons of aphids

and tomorrow i will plant the tomato plants in the yard.. my first time.. wish me luck

Aren't you a little late on your tomatoes?

pooflady wrote:Looks good, Fen. I think our tomatoes are a little bigger than that now. Oneupmanship not intended. Nothing starting to turn yet.

Well, we have bigger ones than that, but that was the biggest bundle. :P

pooflady wrote:Hey GWP, we have little tomatoes!!! How's your garden doing?

This year's success story was habanero's, jalapeno's and bell peppers.

I made three big batches of hot sauce and bottled it -- a habanero vinegar sauce, a habanero-jalapeno sauce with garlic, onion and carrot (big hit, very hot but not fatal), and a habanero-jalapeno-pumpkin hot sauce with garlic and onion. Just finished that batch and distributed a couple of jars, and am waiting for feedback.

The watermelons produced only three small fruits, two of which were mostly rind.

The tomatoes did really well this year, and besides being used all season for sauce and soups and salads, gallons and gallons got canned or frozen. (I discovered the skinning and crushing to freeze in plastic freezer bag method after a couple of rounds of canning. Much easier )

Corn did well this year too. Squash produced nothing at all. Nada. Maybe the few remaining bees in the world are getting picky about what they want to pollinate...

Cukes were so-so. Produced enough of them, but since I already have enough pickles and relish to last for years, I didn't do anything special with them this year. Many were given away to appreciative neighbors.

gwp wrote:This year's success story was habanero's, jalapeno's and bell peppers.

I made three big batches of hot sauce and bottled it -- a habanero vinegar sauce, a habanero-jalapeno sauce with garlic, onion and carrot (big hit, very hot but not fatal), and a habanero-jalapeno-pumpkin hot sauce with garlic and onion. Just finished that batch and distributed a couple of jars, and am waiting for feedback.

The watermelons produced only three small fruits, two of which were mostly rind.

The tomatoes did really well this year, and besides being used all season for sauce and soups and salads, gallons and gallons got canned or frozen. (I discovered the skinning and crushing to freeze in plastic freezer bag method after a couple of rounds of canning. Much easier )

Corn did well this year too. Squash produced nothing at all. Nada. Maybe the few remaining bees in the world are getting picky about what they want to pollinate...

Cukes were so-so. Produced enough of them, but since I already have enough pickles and relish to last for years, I didn't do anything special with them this year. Many were given away to appreciative neighbors.

Sounds like mostly a successful year. The mostly rind watermelons would be the best for watermelon pickles. Love em.

We're eating the very last of the tomatoes this week. //sniff//

This year's garden included several different varieties of tomatoes and sweet peppers, jalapenos, hot cherry peppers and as an experiment, one bhut jalokia (ghost chili) plant. Also planted cukes, two varieties of corn, watermelon and acorn and butternut squash.

Went to North Carolina for two weeks and came home to weeds 2-3 feet tall across the entire garden. It looks like some sort of grass, but HUGE.

All plants are stunted, but I was able to get the weeds cut back around the peppers and tomatoes, so we'll see if they produce anything worth mentioning (Picked two very small tomatoes so far)

Slim pickin's. I think the garden will lie dormant next year and stay covered in black plastic to try to kill off all the weeds.

gwp wrote:This year's garden included several different varieties of tomatoes and sweet peppers, jalapenos, hot cherry peppers and as an experiment, one bhut jalokia (ghost chili) plant. Also planted cukes, two varieties of corn, watermelon and acorn and butternut squash.

Went to North Carolina for two weeks and came home to weeds 2-3 feet tall across the entire garden. It looks like some sort of grass, but HUGE.

All plants are stunted, but I was able to get the weeds cut back around the peppers and tomatoes, so we'll see if they produce anything worth mentioning (Picked two very small tomatoes so far)

Slim pickin's. I think the garden will lie dormant next year and stay covered in black plastic to try to kill off all the weeds.

That's too bad. We started getting tomatoes last week and they're coming on like gangbusters. That's all husband plants now.

I have black raspberries in my yard--but the deer can't be kept out, so they're nommed before I can get to them.

Have tomatoes! and peppers! Cherry, cayenne, jalepeno, and...umm...drat, something else. Not bad, considering all the plants are in pots on the deck.

4 more days til Spring, and almost time for ... nothing. Nada.

There will be no garden this year. I would lay down Napalm and Agent Orange to kill the demon weeds (see tales of woe above) where they hide if I could.

So, because thick clouds of smoke and neurological damage are frowned upon by my neighbors, I'll resort to less satisfying, and probably less effective countermeasures.

I am covering all 1,250 square feet of garden with thick black plastic. The sun can beat down on it all summer, and we'll see if anything Earthly survives.

My fear however, is that something will survive; thrive perhaps, in such conditions, and will become a scourge upon the Earth.

I hope they don't name it after me.

gwp wrote:4 more days til Spring, and almost time for ... nothing. Nada.

There will be no garden this year. I would lay down Napalm and Agent Orange to kill the demon weeds (see tales of woe above) where they hide if I could.

So, because thick clouds of smoke and neurological damage are frowned upon by my neighbors, I'll resort to less satisfying, and probably less effective countermeasures.

I am covering all 1,250 square feet of garden with thick black plastic. The sun can beat down on it all summer, and we'll see if anything Earthly survives.

My fear however, is that something will survive; thrive perhaps, in such conditions, and will become a scourge upon the Earth.

I hope they don't name it after me.

ROFL
Sounds like perfect conditions for the start of a tropical rain forest with possibly small ugly creatures mutating.

Edit: You don't think clear plastic might create more heat?

gwp wrote:
Went to North Carolina for two weeks and came home to weeds 2-3 feet tall across the entire garden. It looks like some sort of grass, but HUGE.

Does your huge grass have a reddish tint on some of the leaves? Does it look a little like corn when it's young? Then you have Johnsongrass - the scourge of the planet.
Plastic will not kill it. Glyphosphate (Roundup)will, especially when young. Sethoxydim (Vantage) also works well, and doesn't kill everything else.
Johnsongrass puts out long rhizomes deep under the soil. It will spread everywhere, including your neighbors'. Tilling it up is a no-no. The cut up rhizomes just become thousands of individual plants.
If you keep spraying it while young and fight it religiously, you can get control. Wait, and you'll have the equivalent of a bamboo patch.
I've been fighting a 1 acre infestation for 3 years. There are only Pyrrhic victories...

cptgone wrote:

that is one awesome shirt.

BTW, I'm a big fan of Preen. It helps. Cucurbits do not do well around it, though, until they're well established.
I have over 2,000 sq ft of flower gardens, and the Preen really helps there.
That and hiring a kid to pull weeds regularly.

ArtWorksMetal wrote:Does your huge grass have a reddish tint on some of the leaves? Does it look a little like corn when it's young? Then you have Johnsongrass - the scourge of the planet.

Bingo! I just Googled Johnsongrass, and that sure looks like it. Good call.

ArtWorksMetal wrote:Plastic will not kill it. Glyphosphate (Roundup)will

Roundup is a favorite of mine. I'll spend all season nuking the young plants I guess.

ArtWorksMetal wrote:Tilling it up is a no-no. The cut up rhizomes just become thousands of individual plants.

Well, a little late for that advice. I ran the tiller quite deep in the fall when I finally cleaned the garden for the year.

ArtWorksMetal wrote:If you keep spraying it while young and fight it religiously, you can get control.

Finger's crossed. Wiki says there is a Glyphosphate resistant strain across the US.

Thanks for the ID on it though!

GWP, did you plant tomatoes this year? Our plants look great but we're not getting a lot of tomatoes. Several friends havn't got any yet. Too hot, I guess. Doesn't look like I'll have enough to can this year.

pooflady wrote:GWP, did you plant tomatoes this year? Our plants look great but we're not getting a lot of tomatoes. Several friends havn't got any yet. Too hot, I guess. Doesn't look like I'll have enough to can this year.

No, I didn't plant anything at all this year. Good thing too. We were in a drought for most of the summer, and it was the hottest on record to boot.

Neighbors planted container tomatoes and apparently had some luck. They dropped off a small bag with us. They all seemed to be well formed, but very small.

I will probably try again next year.

gwp wrote:No, I didn't plant anything at all this year. Good thing too. We were in a drought for most of the summer, and it was the hottest on record to boot.

Neighbors planted container tomatoes and apparently had some luck. They dropped off a small bag with us. They all seemed to be well formed, but very small.

I will probably try again next year.

Also have had to throw away a lot with blossom rot for some reason this year. Husband waters religiously, but it's not like rain.

And I still don't understand why you're supposed to water the bottom of the plants, not from the top, yet rain falls from the top.

dontwantaname wrote:My neighbors fig tree is taking over my side yard.
I think it is trying to kill my red maple tree.
I will be cutting it back after the figs ripen.

Do you steal the figs?

superspryte wrote:Our tomatoes are doing great. And our soil is clay too. But now it's raining too much and everything is drowning.

We have what they call "impervious clay," but husband's worked this section for so many years, it's much better.

Something else that's weird this year, husband has a gazillion cactus plants and there hasn't been one flower.

killingtime wrote:Favorite Annual = Blue Lobelia
Favorite Perennial = Purple Salvia
Favorite Thick Vine = Honeysuckle
Favorite Thin Vine = Clematis
Favorite Ground Plant = Silver Mound
Favorite Tall Plant = Cleome
Favorite Cutting Plant = Dahlia

What zone does Silver Mound work in? I live in 8b

jawsuser wrote:What zone does Silver Mound work in? I live in 8b

You won't find out from Killingtime, she hasn't been around in years.

pooflady wrote:You won't find out from Killingtime, she hasn't been around in years.

Thanks. I just saw there were dates on the posts after you said that.

jawsuser wrote:Thanks. I just saw there were dates on the posts after you said that.

In 2007 her point of reference was New England, so I'd presume that general range.

gwp wrote:In 2007 her point of reference was New England, so I'd presume that general range.

Thanks