Veggie Gardens new pictures added

[Freddie Peepers]

With the weird summer so far, our garden hasn't been producing like in the past.
We are just starting to get some color in our large heirloom tomatoes (my favorite)
Our peppers are way behind last year, BUT
we have processed 31 bags of green beans for winter storage
and had, due to the cool weather earlier this year, great production from our spinach
and peas. The cucumbers are starting to really take off and of course the zucchini and summer squash
have been good.
 I also notice less bug problems too.
very few cucumber beetles and so far no vine borer's in the squash.

 What's it like in your garden?
and what are your favorite varieties?   

[Mikey]

I gave my small veggie garden a rest this year in order to irradicate a sedge called nut grass. 

[Indiana Karen]

Our veggie garden is doing well this year except for our tomatoes.   :'(  They have a fungus and are a real mess.  We sprayed them and are hoping they do better.  It's been a poor year around here for tomatoes and onions but everything else is doing great.
I wanted a lot of cucumbers because I like to can relish.  Well, I got my wish, I've been picking a bucketful everyday, got 25 today!  So far I have kept up with them making pickles, relish and giving them away.  Our squash (zucchini, yellow crookedneck and spaghetti) are doing good, but have slowed down now.  Put 22 bags of broccoli in freezer, canned 50 quarts of green beans.  Will soon be freezing the cauliflower, corn, peppers and brussells sprouts.

We are now having a battle with the raccoons for our corn.  We have an electric fence, live trap (got a cat the first night  :'() and play a radio every night, the last three nights we have been successful, got the first corn to eat today.  Not too many problems with bugs either.

We have never been able to grow spinach.  Ours comes up so thin, it takes the whole patch to make a salad.  Got any secrets?

[Freddie Peepers]

Wow Karen
Nice production
We use tons of compost and keep the spinach well watered and that helps. The cool weather is a blessing for that and the peas
We used to grow broccoli but after my wife saw all the cabbage moth caterpillars that came out in the salt water bath she didn't want to eat any of it.
I didn't bother telling her about the ones that were in the bottom of the steamer after blanching it for the freezer, and three months later I had forgotten about it too.
 Our tomatoes are suffering from some kind of bacterial spot and or blight too. I think that next year we are going to grow some more resistant varieties
as I'm getting tired of fighting the fungus problems,but there isn't anything that can beat an orange oxheart or any potato leaved variety in my world so I will continue to grow heirloom tomatoes alongside.
 Which variety green beans do you like? pole or bush? We grow Blue lake bush and Kentucky wonder wax pole beans.
Trying a new (for us) cucumber this year.
Its called Boothbys Blonde and it's a heirloom variety from Maine

[Jerry]

I decided to plant less and give them a lot more space between. It worked.
Mostly Tomatoes and a variety of Squash. Bell peppers are now turning red.
My japanes Egg Plant failed. Not enough sun!

[Freddie Peepers]

We usually plant one eggplant. Last year we got 30 eggplants from a single plant
Definitely giving the plants more space helps, we been down that road and there's lees problems when everything has room to grow

[Holldoll]

My tomato production has been slow to ripen. I have TONS of green tomatoes, but probably have only harvested about 2 cups of cherry tomatoes and about 5 heirloom.  

My zucchinis, cantelopes, and watermelons are doing well.  Peppers and eggplants have not produced anything. I don't even have any babies on them.  Basil and mint is doing well.

[Freddie Peepers]

Our peppers are behind last year but we have gotten a few so far
but nothing like last year when we had more than we knew what to do with
 Does anyone use the plastic mulch for their tomatoes and peppers?
We started doing that 2 years ago and it has really helped with the production of those 2 veggies

[Joyce]

Tomatoes, Peppers, Japanese Eggplant, White Eggplant, Strawberries, Blueberries, 4 kinds of basil including varigated, oregano, thyme, bay leaf,
onions, and potatoes.
 

[Freddie Peepers]

First time this year with onions
Got about 2 dozen beauties that are sitting in the shade and "skinning up"
 The white eggplant is wonderful, have grown that in the past.
We grow a zucchini named Costata Romanesco
It is by far the best one we have ever grown
The plant gets HUGE and the fruits are mottled in color and have distinctive ribs growing lengthwise
they have the best nutty kinda flavor and are just as productive as any of the hybrids
highly recommend that one

[ponderer]

It is very wet here, not a great year veggie wise for us .

[Jerry]

The popular Globe Egg Plant  I gave up on years ago.  30 from one plant is mind boggling to me

[Freddie Peepers]

30 is a record for us..
.in fact a woman moved into the house behind ours and we got to talking
 she was saying how much of an avid gardener she is and so forth.
big time composter and could grow the heck out of veggies.
 When I told her about the production on our eggplant she didn't want to believe me
We shared our harvest with her as it was late in the season and she didn't have any
garden yet.
 Now it is 2 years later and she still doesn't have a garden, in fact I rarely even see her out in her yard.
Last year she got one of those huge compost tumblers, but I never see her use it

[jw]

Tomatoes in the green house have green toms (Early girl and Pik Red) on them. Smaller cherry types are getting red ones now. Have to grow them in there or they get rained on and get blight. Onions doing well. Corn got off to a late start but it's getting there. Beans (Pole) too got off to a late start but they will be ready in September I presume. Cukes are producing like crazy and I've given some to all the neighbors. Asparagus is done for the season. Growing a third crop of radishes. Lettuce did good and I just planted a crop for the fall harvest. Carrots are growing good. My spinach seeds were old and I tried to plant them and only one came up. I just planted some cauliflower for fall and it's fine. Found out that planting it in the fall vs the spring cuts way down on bugs eating it and it loves the cool weather. This is the 3rd year I've tried to grow tiny watermelons supposedly for our area and they are so puny it's not funny  . I give up on those  . We have 3 peaches on our Frost Peach tree this year and that is 2 more than last year (It's just a baby tree yet) but my DH said it was delicious last year. Green Gage plum tree has lots of fruit. Two cherry trees too young to do anything yet. I'm happy with everything except the watermelons I would love to have sunk my teeth into  . Anybody got any to send me for postage  .

[Indiana Karen]

Blue Lake Bush beans for us too. 

Ooops, we forgot the eggplant this year.  As I type this I can hear my cucumber relish jars "pinging", I love that sound.

The cucumbers we grew this year are called "straight eight" and for the first time, we grew them on a fence.  We will always do that from now on, they are so much easier to pick and you don't "miss" them, only to find them a foot long the next day. 

We also had early crops of lettuce, radishes, snow peas and asparagus.  Also have red, white and sweet potatoes and pumpkins. 

We really need to plant some fruit trees and berries.  Years ago we had fruit trees at another house, but they seemed like they took so much spraying to have any decent fruit.

[Freddie Peepers]

Karen;
How big is your garden?
Our is all in raised beds. We have 5 beds, each one is 4x8
Have you ever grown runner beans?
We grew them for the flowers to attract the hummingbirds but I have discovered that I prefer
the flavor of those beans to any other that I've grown in the past
In regards to cucumbers:
also on a fence or trellis, easier picking and straighter, cleaner cukes
 I hate "finding" those monsters that elude you on the ground, both cukes and zucchini.
We also grow a yellow patty pan squash whose name escapes me now, but it's a good one too

[Indiana Karen]

Not sure how big it is, would have to ask hubby.  I'm going to it shortly and will try and take a picture.  I'll warn ya, its a little weeeeedy.

No, never grown runner beans.  Mother-in-law always did, but we thought it was too much work putting up the poles.  I have one of those little kneeling/sitting benches that works perfectly for picking beans.  I can "straddle" it over the row.

We have two grown sons, ages 26 and 28.  For Christmas last year, we bought them tillers, along with garden gloves, Osmocoat, cookbook titled "Too Many Zucchini, Peppers and Tomatoes".      Hubby even wrote a little "story" about the two little boys growing up helping in the garden.  I'll always remember it as one of our best Christmases ever.  Kinda the gift that keeps on giving.  They both have really nice gardens this year.  We've had some friendly competition with our crops.   Our youngest is a high school science teacher and has access to the school greenhouse, so he grew a lot of our plants.

[Freddie Peepers]

I'll take pictures of our veggie patch also.
Before we got into ponding and water gardening, Vegetable gardening was my #1 passion in the yard
I love trying new varieties and discussing the merits of heirloom vs. hybrids
 We try new tomato varieties every year, this year we are growing:
Brandywine
Orange Oxheart
Big Mama
Mary Robinson's German bi-color
Yellow Star
Yellow Oxheart
Hillbilly

[Indiana Karen]

I don't know the names of the tomatoes we grew.    I bought a "rainbow package" from an heirloom company and gave the seeds to our son to plant, didn't keep track of the names.   :'(  But its been such a lousy year for tomatoes anyway, I guess it doesn't matter.  As you can see in the pics, the fungus has really done some damage.

Here's a pic of the garden and one of the pumpkin patch.  Would like to see a pic of yours and others too. 

[Freddie Peepers]

here is our veggie garden

[Freddie Peepers]

another one

[miguynmkoi]

Thanks for showing pics of your fantastic vege gardens!  The only problem I see with them is that they are either too neat or so cute!   
                                I grow lots of green onions, 7 heirloom tomatoes,
               lots of hot peppers, 6 orange trees (both navel and valencia types),
                                                                          fuji apple tree, dying 24 yr old white nectarine tree,
all kinds of herbs including many rosemary shrubs and the weeping/hanging variety,
                                                                                 and small but delicious strawberries.   
                           In  pots I have a Myer's lemon tree, mandarin orange tree,
           Italian and Thai basil (which have been growing from seeds collected the previous year for the past 10 plus years - all started from cuttings    purchased from the market),      and a bayleaf shrub.
                         
                             I have all these plants all over the place in the front and back yard wherever I can catch the most sun.

Did I leave anything out?  Hope to get photos up too.

[Freddie Peepers]

I gotta say that i took me quite a while to realize that veggies don't "have " to be in a special garden and it's "ok" to plant them as ornamentals
I love the look of a container with a eggplant surrounded by portulaca. I found out that it also camouflages the plants from pests like flea beetles. While the eggplant in the vegetable garden is getting eaten by the flea beetles the one in the perennial border or a container on the patio doesn't get touched