Well, it's July, the peas were wonderful, cucumbers and squash are doing great if I can keep ahead of the squash bugs. Tomatoes are coming along, beans are growing beans. Just cut the best cabbage we've ever eaten. The only thing not doing very well is corn(and this is Indiana). Hopefully the later plantings will do better. So how is your garden doing? Did you try anything new or interesting? Any major failures.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 12, 2000

Answers

Up here in Wisconsin we had such a cool & rainy spring, things got a late start. Had to replant the peas and green beans. Cucumbers look pathetic but the tomatos are doing pretty good. Planted a smaller garden than usual. The corn did not make it knee high by the 4th of July this year for the farmers but we're getting some warmer weather now and it seems to be thriving again.

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), July 12, 2000.

Tomatoes are growing like weeds. Have had a fair share of rain, so need a little sun to help them ripen. Am on my third planting of beans. Rabbits have gone to town on the young leaves as they arejust coming up. Maybe third time will be a charm! Picked green peppers and froze them, they're producing great this year. Got cucumbers in late, but so far they're doing good. Planted a couple egg plants for a few meals. So far so good with them. Peaches produced first time this year and had 9 beautiful ones just ripening, next day they were all gone. Squirrels I guess. Been planning on what I'm putting in the fall garden, next. (And am thinking about putting up rabbit and squirrel meat!)

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), July 12, 2000.

Strange year...
Drowning in beans of every imaginable kind, I planted a lot of those this year. Pumpkins and winter squash are running rampant. Every beet seed must have germinated and this year, it looks like Im going to get twice as much as usual from my standard planting. Never saw such thick necked garlic. Decided to test some of that "late season" pea called Tall Telephone and it not only germinated well from a hot dry late June planting but I already have little vines zooming around.

Parsnips failed to germinate, 2 different kinds from 2 different companies purchased at 2 different times and planted at 2 different times, not 1 sprout. Melons of various types are doing poorly, stunted.

Questionables: Corn and tomatoes were all stunted until we had a week of constant rain. They all doubled in size during that time and look like they will be a good crop afterall.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), July 12, 2000.

Hi Cindy, It was a beautiful day when I planted the cucumber and squash. 70 degrees and the birds singing. I just kept poking a hole and dropping in a seed. Well, I got a bit carried away and now we have the stuff coming out of our ears! It's taken three years to get our sandy "soil" into shape. We put in lots of rotted rabbit and goat manure and this year's garden is doing great. No chemicals at all, and no bugs to speak of!

Usually we plant everything in one weekend in the spring. But this year my hubby was away on a military exercise so I just had to plant whenever I had a few minutes to spare. It's worked out better. Not trying to harvest everything all at once.

The new thing this year, just for fun, was gourds. I love them! Such weird and wonderful shapes. Can't wait to see what colour they will be. Next year I want to have them climbing the pillars on the porch.

Our major failure was a blueberry bush. It turned brown and died. (on another post I noticed someone els had the same problem).

The pole beans have a little way to grow yet but so far we are very happy with the garden this year. Going to try a winter garden too this time.

Hope yours contiues to do well,

Pauline in NC

-- Pauline Adderley (tworoosters_farm@AltaVista.com), July 12, 2000.

all right Cindy, don't rub it in!!! You know I didn't have a garden this year except for a few tomato plants but due to the drought we are having again this year in this part of Ky. (Not the whole state, thank goodness) I guess it is just as well. I noticed a tomato starting to turn on one of my vines today.

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), July 12, 2000.

I love where we live but sometimes I feel a tinge of jealousy when people talk of ripe cukes and nice big melons. We have too short a season for good melons and the cukes are just vining. The tomatoes that I started from seed are spectacular this year. No ripe ones yet but tons of blossoms and big healthy plants. I picked potato beetles off the potatoes early on and that seemed to have stopped that problem, at least for the time being. Sunflowers are 2 feet tall; I spilled cauliflower seed in the garden and am overrun with plants. Rabbits got most of our beans, too. They just take off the growing tip of young plants and leave the seed leaves. The resulting plant doesn't die and it doesn't grow- just sits there. Maddening. We added a piece of chicken wire at the bottom of the garden fence and extended it out about 16" on the ground.Seems to be working so far. New stuff is/are parsnips ( a few germinated, enough for a test) and turnips. This is good country for root crops so I thought I'd try some new ones.

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), July 12, 2000.

Barbara, it's nice to have you back. Speaking of which, how's yours? You come and visit and I'll save you an ear of corn and a zucchini.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 12, 2000.

My garden is weedy, I fear. After the birth of our daughter, we just didn't get everyting started on time, and after catching up on planting, it's been hard to get all the weeds out. Our spegetti squash is now recovering from a terrible squash bettle infestation. Took much plesure in squashing those beetles, I must say. My cantaloupe is having it's best year. Every vine is loaded, and I've had to dish out extra rabbit manure. :-) Had several more watermelons come up than I planted, and can only guess my hubbie, Randy, wanted a few extras. :-) Only hot peppers going (habanaro) are doing well, but the tomatoes all failed. :-( Pear tree doing great, but it looks like I'll be hitting the farmers mar

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@excite.com), July 12, 2000.

We have a lot of cherries to pick today! And we had a good strawberry and raspberry crop, plus blueberries are ready. Here's what's doing well: beets, chard, spinach, lettuce, collards, potatoes. Here's what's languishing: corn, beans, cucumbers (a big joke). You can tell that we have had cool weather! I am going on vacation tomorrow (hiking in the Rockies in Colorado!!! Yipppeeee!!!) and what that usually means is that we will have the best weather all summer at home while I am gone (always happens!!!) Hopefully the corn, etc will be thriving when I get back.

Good luck to all the gardens and gardeners this year!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), July 12, 2000.

One wonderful thing about gardening - there is always next year!!!! Isn't that what keeps us going. Always hoping for the perfect garden?

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), July 12, 2000.

My weeds grew great this year. I had too many projects that I was trying to do at once and the garden suffered.

Soil test said I needed potash. Can anyone tell me what that is? I think it is wood ashes.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 12, 2000.

Dee, that'll do it. Pot ash is where potassium comes from.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 12, 2000.

Well, our garden looks wonderful! Tomatoes have filled their cages and starting to ripen;Cucumbers, we have enough for an army;Corn is about 4' tall and starting to tassel;watermelons and cantoloupes are the size of soccer balls:peas-the deer have mowed them ALL down;We are sharing our squash with the bugs.And the cockalburs(sp)are everywhere!!!!!!I have pulled up a truck load of them and they are still popping up!Any suggestions? Debbie T in NC PS Pauline what part of NC are you from? We live in the Sandhills!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), July 12, 2000.

Best year I can ever remember. We had 4 foot corn on the 4th of July. Lost all our carrots--don't know why. Everything else is exceptional. After 4 years of drought in Virginia, we are all giving thanks !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), July 13, 2000.

I didn't try anything new this year--just tomatoes, squash, zucchini, onions, salad greens, peppers, sunflowers-I knew we wouldn't have a lot of time this year so I just put out what we could use--without a lot of extra this year. It is hot & dry here in Ks. & we are haveing to water or we would not have anything left. I needed a divider between us & another property so I planted 2 rows of sunflowers--& I planted them thick & I didn't thin them! It made the best thick fence- -& they are all starting to bloom now--heads aren't as big because they are so thick but there will be plenty of seed to feed my wildlife this winter. I'm going to do it again next year! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), July 13, 2000.

Debbie, We are in the Sandhills too!!! Just south of Fayetteville. Hubby's in the Army at Ft. Bragg. He's from Rocky Mount originaly so it's home to him. I love this long growing season but the heat down here wipes me out!

It's nice to find a neighbor! May be we can get together sometime. Pauline

-- Pauline Adderley (tworoosters_farm@altavista.com), July 13, 2000.

The garden has certainly been blessed this year and is growing almost too well! Between the garden, the kitchen, and working on the house I haven't had much time for anything else lately.

I lost my squash plants, but not before I froze a bunch. The beets, cabbage, turnips, onions, lettuce, peppers, and the potatoes all are doing wonderfully! The tomatoes and cukes are abundent, the watermelons are volleyball sized, and the canteloupe are growing. And my late corn is up and coming. And I want to get replant some lettuce and spinach soon too.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 13, 2000.

The garden has certainly been blessed this year and is growing almost too well! Between the garden, the kitchen, and working on the house I haven't had much time for anything else lately.

I lost my squash plants to borers, but not before I was able to freeze a bunch. The beets, cabbage, turnips, onions, lettuce, peppers, eggplant, and the potatoes all are doing wonderfully! The tomatoes and cukes are abundently abundent, the watermelons are volleyball sized, and the canteloupe are growing. And my late corn is up and coming. And I want to plant some more lettuce and add spinach soon too.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 13, 2000.

The garden started out great, then came the grasshopper plague. They ate everything except 4 tomato plants and okra. Que sera. I did get some pole beans and a few black beans early and some volunteer watermelons. In Texas, July means it's pretty well over until the fall garden, too hot and too dry to get anything started right now.

Right now I am seriously envying Sheepish with the berries. I love berries more than anything, but I don't seem to have any luck getting them started here.....There is always next year.

I did a potentially questionable thing and basically buried my garden in peanut hulls and am trying to do the "lasagna" or Ruth Stout method as I can't begin to keep up with the weeds. I will let you know how it works out.

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), July 15, 2000.

Strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, peas, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets and blackberries are done. Not enough raspberries to put up, so we have been having them for dessert - right off the briar! Cabbage is ready - should I get energetic enough to make freezer slaw. Tomatoes are slowly coming on - enough to eat, but not enough to start working up, plenty of cukes, zukes, onions and peppers though. Freezing corn, canning beans and pickling banana peppers this week. I planted exactly as many green beans as wax beans (square foot gardening), but my yield of wax beans has been triple or quadruple the greens!???! We like them canned together, but I guess we'll be eating mostly wax beans this year. My buddy that plants for the farmer's market has about had his beans wiped out by Japanese beetles - so far, they've decimated three plum trees here - about 1/2 mile from him. Planted a bunch of sunflowers - 50 or so rows - haven't had one finch at the birdfeeders in the yard since they started blooming!! Wonder if I'll have any to harvest?! Didn't get our pumpkins or melons in - too much rain - but found some volunteers down at the end of the corn field. Unc has lost most of his 'maters to a little black fly - haven't had a chance to look it up in the bug book yet. Saw some on mine - hate spray, but hit them with Sevin anyway. Corn has earworms, but I just cut off the bad parts - too darn much to spray! No other major problems.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), July 15, 2000.

Cindy, we had trouble with our corn too and also last year. My seed started tomatoes got frosted, so I replaced 48 and the frosted ones that I left in the ground ressurected and all the plants are doing beautifully, (except that when my little sisters were weeding the tomatoes they came inside to borrow some glue :o) The beets are spectacular. After a rough start our pumpkins, squashes and cucumbers are growing nicely. Our potatoes are starting to flower. Carrots are the best they've been in years, can't wait to taste one! Peas are climbing up their fences and nimbly as ever. The lettuce and cauliflower turned(ing) out nicely, but our brocolli wasn't so good. Friends have had some trouble with their too. Our beans are the worst, though. Many skips, even after we replanted some of them. There weren't many blossoms in the apple orchard this year, so I don't expect a great crop, but the raspberries and currents look good and the rhubarb was wonderful. I ,too, wish we were able to grow melons, but we must be satisfied with an occasional supermarket one.

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), July 17, 2000.

I feel strange, restless -- as we essentially have no garden this year, for the first time in many years. My husband, the rototilling man, works seven days a week, and is bushed when he gets home, so the garden never got tilled, and never got planted. Well, we were hoping to have the place up for sale months ago, and are still working on that, but it is slow going. So I have a few tomatoes and greens in the flower beds out front, and the perennials (chives, oregano, asparagus, rhubarb, etc.). I hardly know what to do with myself! And will be so thankful next spring if we are able to plant even a small garden. (I almost forgot the volunteer potatoes at the edge of the compost pile!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), July 17, 2000.