I’ve attached pic of one of my raised beds. Tomatoes (Sun Gold, Costoluto, Paul Robeson, Black Cherry), peppers (anaheim, poblano) and eggplant (unnamed japanese variety) all in a 4×6 block. I got behind in planting this year, so they’re a couple weeks smaller than they should be, but we were refinishing the deck so I had a good excuse.
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Oh, and also some lilies that just bloomed, in case you want flowers.
Who could not want such gorgeous flowers?
I’ve been making an effort not to overwater my tomato planters this year — greatly assisted by an unusual number of overcast days, and temperatures “only” in the high 80s. So far the fruit set on the full-sized heirlooms seems a little better than usual (which may just be the early warm temps) but it’s too soon to tell whether it’ll help with cracking/crazing, much less improve the taste. On the other hand, none of my cherry varieties have ripened at all, and the suspense is killing me…
What’s going on in your gardens, assuming you and your plants have the strength to deal with the heat?
Raven
The boss took our friend around and showed him what to water while we are in Maui. Some kind of fungus attacked a bunch of her plants and something is eating her sweet potato plants.
JPL
@Raven: There is a sixty percent chance of rain starting on Wed. and running for a week. Your friend might get off easy but the pups won’t enjoy their walks.
Raven
@JPL: They are waterproof! Actually Lil Bit is pretty prissy, she jumps over puddles and generally avoids water. The Bohdi, on the other hand, likes to find big puddles and motor boat with his mouth in the water!
JPL
If you have time, type in my address on google map and I’ll explain why I am looking for a tiller…
135 Oak Knoll Way..
It’s an ordinary 80’s house on 3/4 of an acre
JPL
I have four jobs. The first is just a bed near the house that I removed 3 old azaleas. Most of the section was empty.
The second is a garden on the right hand side of the upper area. I already had a few pines and a scrub tree taken down to open it up. The largest job is removing some of the flagstone and creating a sitting area with it behind the little pond. Then putting down sod where I removed the flagstone. Since the jobs are going to be done at different times, renting becomes expensive. I’m left with hiring someone or spending more money to get a workable machine.
The flagstone area is 600 to 700 sq. ft and is overkill. The section of grass will give it a softer effect.
also, not sure what I was thinking when I bought the house.. condo living sounds so much easier.
Maude
I went and checked my computer for the malware due to start tomorrow. I am clean.
The site is dcwg.org. You go there and click on detect and you find out if the malware is on the puter. If so, they have a link to a site that removes it. I’m on dial up and it loaded very quickly.
On Bloomberg radio, they said the FBI said everyone should check for this.
JPL
The NYTimes has an obit about Joyce D. Miller who broke the glass ceiling at the labor union. One of the reasons, I still read the NYTimes is because of articles like this one. Joyce recognized that unions could fight for women’s rights in the work place. I had never heard of her but I’m sure a lot of folks appreciated her efforts.
link
danielx
Heat is killing a lot of things, including my neighbor’s hemlock trees – burnt to a crisp. I’m watering my hemlocks and river birch trees; they’re suffering but surviving so far. Tomato plants…take lots of water. It was an every other day watering schedule until this past week, then every evening. Even the rosemary, which ordinarily thrives in very dry soil, is getting stressed and needing a little water every other day or so…
But I went outside this morning and there is actually a breeze which doesn’t feel like it came from an open door to hell. Supposed to be a high of 92 today, which is bad but bearable. Repeating to myself what I always say to da purists who maintain that Obama is the very same and just as bad as Romney or GW Bush:
The difference between bad and worse is a whole lot bigger than the difference between good and better.
gelfling545
My garden is looking terrible. Everything has a crisp, shriveled look despite constant watering. Blooming is done on plants that usually start now. So much of summer still ahead (the usually hotter part) that I’m hoping it won’t kill off too many plants. I’m going to cut back a lot of the perennials by a lot hoping for maybe a fall bloom from some.
PeakVT
Garden hose manufacturers are rejoicing over this map.
The Fat Kate Middleton
We picked our first ripe tomato two days ago – that’s nearly a month ahead of the usual ripening. And yes, it was the product of nearly daily watering. Fortunately for our one and a half acres, we have our own, very deep well, which allows for nonstop watering.
satby
The heat wave broke here in western MI last night but with temps in the high 70s several nights and no rain at all for almost 3 weeks a lot of the blossoms never set fruit on the tomatos. I’ve noticed that daily watering can keep things alive but they aren’t thriving like they would have been if we had gotten rain. Overcast now and blessedly cool, but no rain predicted for the next 4 days or more, and a lot of the local farmers don’t have irrigation. Unless something changes very soon, a lot of the crops here will be lost.
geg6
Our veggie plots are going gangbusters despite the heat. We’ve watered them some but the humidity is thick enough that the soil stays somewhat damp so we have only done it for short periods every evening. Looks like rain today, thank the Great Pasta.
The potted plants (herbs, two beefsteak tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes) are suffering a bit more, but lots of watering has everything looking lush this morning. The beefsteaks are starting to fruit and the cherry tomato looks like a weird Christmas tree with so many little green balls that I can’t count them any more. It’s supposed to cool off to the mid-80s this week and I will be thrilled.
tybee
i am overrun with tomatoes. anyone need any?
Munira
We seem to be in our own little universe here in the Eastern Townships of Quebec – plenty of rain, plenty of sun, a nice breeze whenever it’s hot out – the garden’s loving it and so am I.
Mino
Found the first spider mites on the tomato plant that”s in the ground. The semi-cherry tomatoes (grown in hog troughs) are still setting fruit in 95+++ heat and the vines are taking over my neighbor’s driveway.
My phlox were late to set blooms so the 99+ heat fried half the buds. I water every day in central Texas.
Mino
@JPL: Don’t know if you saw my reply in yesterday’s thread.
Gardening in red clay is a real challenge. Roots rot from the lack of drainage. I’d seriously look into raised beds.
Schlemizel
Back home from a week on the road visiting my baby in Winter Park, CO and wife’s cousins near Colorado Springs. Gearing up to go back to work. Mrs. Schlemizel fell while we were climbing a mountain & put a small fracture right at the end of her radius – good thing school is out she will get a cast on it tomorrow.
We had enough rain & heat was not bad while away, our lilies are fabulous! Cats were a tiny bit pissed & scolded us pretty good when we arrived but all was well & the snuggled tight all night long.
Heard good news despite some ugly signs about our President in CO, think KS is a wingnut hellhole and Iowa was nothing but positive for Obama. I am try to remain positive about this fall.
RoonieRoo
Our tomatoes are mostly done in zone 8b. I have been harvesting between 3 and 5 lbs a day for the past month. This weekend we started pulling them out to get ready for the fall garden. The late summer/fall batch of sweet corn gets seeded this week as well as starting the fall Cole crops.
scav
Let us give thanks for the first a.m. hot coffee in a week or longer. Thanks be also to the person who found me the recipe for cold-brew coffee that got me over the complete absence of caffeine in the interim, but regular stuff is what I needed from soul to toes.
It’s very disorientating to be Chilly at 79 degF.
OzarkHillbilly
Two weeks ago I went to work with a forecast of 108 degrees (union carpenter) It was hot that day but it just didn’t seem as bad as all that. When I got home I checked the thermometer and it said 109 degrees with 11% humidity. No wonder it had felt desert like. Today, for the first time in 2 weeks we will have a high under 102… Forecast is 92. Rained last night, 2nd time in 4 weeks, more rain today, tonight and tomorrow. High temps in the 80’s all week. Relief.
My peppers (sweet and hot), eggplants (Japanese and white), and cauliflower largely survived due to the shade fabric I put up. My squash never even looked stressed so they did not get the same kind of love. The corn, tomatoes and beans did not get cover either and have fared it all fairly well (I lost a couple of bean plants and some of the maters are not as full as normal but otherwise all OK). I have only been watering 2 times/wk, Sundays and Wed. 1/2 hr to an hr for each section and it was enough (I live on a well and it is not the aquifer I worry about, it is the pump).
Summer squash are coming in well (yellow and crooked neck) Zuchs are OK. Butternut are ripening very small. No melons yet. Hot peppers are doing well w/ the exception of the Serrano’s (the fruit has been dropping) Sweet peppers are good. Bananas going great guns and the bells are putting forth plenty but I had a lot of heat damaged fruit that has now been alleviated with the shade covers. LOTS of eggplants. Tomatoes are coming in now, plenty of romas for the canning (they are thriving in the heat) and some heirlooms and grapes and pear and beefsteak. The herb garden is almost a complete loss. Almost everything bolted early, long before it could be harvested. Only the rosemary and thyme did not.
This week I will be planting broccoli and brussel sprouts for the fall.
Seeing as I am laid off again I am going to take a midweek float trip (2 day) on some as yet to be decided crystal clear spring fed Ozark stream with a buddy of mine. We usually do catch and release but I think I will bring home a couple of bass for the wife as a way of saying “Thank you for letting me go and not getting pissy.” She always lets me go but sometimes she gets grouchy about not having me around.
JPL
@Mino: How high do the raised beds have to be? I need to level the area no matter what.
Kristine
One of the deck pot tomatoes dropped some blossoms thanks to the heat, which was murderous. The Black Cherry is way behind, with a scant handful of pea-sized fruit. Plenty of buds, though. All in all, a handful of ping-pong size greenies scattered across half a dozen plants.
The basil look good, and the hydrangea are lovely if I keep up with the watering. Waiting for my pink-and-white lilies to open. The pale yellow ones are already spent.
The southern part of IL is in extreme drought. Up here in the NE, we’re not quite as bad but getting there. No rain predicted through the week, which would mean it will have rained only twice, for a few hours, in three weeks.
Fever broke yesterday, with the temp down to the 70s. Actually felt chilly, which is sad. It will stay decent until next weekend, when 90s are slated to return.
quannlace
Only good thing about the heat and humidity is it put the kibosh on the slugs, who were devouring my basil plants.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
New location so the only “garden” this year is what was already here. Thus far, yesterday has been the highlight. next season, I’ll do better.
Mino
@JPL: Well, a 2-gallon nursery pot is 9″ tall, so that would be a minimum to give root space. And the roots will go on into the ground, but the crowns will be able to get drainage.
JPL
@Mino: Thanks.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Schlemizel:
So true, both those statements. Going to see Obama speak this Tuesday – large, enthusiastic crowd expected here in this part of Iowa.
SP
What would cause zucchini to refuse to have mature fruit? Last year and this year the plants get enormous, take over a 4×4 plot, flower and start to have fruits, but they never mature to full zucchinis. I had maybe 4 all of last year and still nothing this year even though the plants keep growing.
jnfr
I have baby peppers and tomatoes growing. Had to replant the squash and runner beans because the heat killed the sprouts. We had a good long rain last night though so I hope the spell is broken.
Many thanks again to all Balloon Juice denizens for your support when we lost our loving cat Jamey.
Keith
I’ve got 3 chili plants going right now that I planted back in April. These things are out of control right now, about 3 feet tall and 6 feet out in either direction. Think it’s time to prune ’em.
jnfr
@SP:
It’s possible they aren’t getting pollinated. Do you have both male and female fruit? If so you can hand-pollinate and see if that helps.
tybee
@JPL:
it’s been my experience that raised beds require more water.
and clay, once the soil has had orgranic matter added, holds water very nicely.
pile up leaves, compost, whatever you have, till once if you can’t wait. otherwise, keep it watered a bit and next year the critters will have done their job and the clay will get better every year if you keep piling up the organic matter.
i garden on sand so i have the exact opposite issue but i grew up in red clay land on the ‘hooch and have dealt with that, too.
gnomedad
Needs moar cats.
feebog
We are overrun with squash in the SoCal mega-garden. Bell peppers out and growing and the little banana pepper plant I put in late is going crazy. We picked our first tomatos Friday. We are watering every day. Supposed to get up to 100 on Tuesday, first real heat of the summer. Going out right now to pick more squash as we are meeting a bunch of folks for breakfast and we have much more than we can eat.
SP
@jnfr- yes, lots of both flowers and I’ve seen bees buzzing around. It does seem like the female flowers don’t really ever open, they just stay as yellow wrinkled balls then fall off. Maybe I need a sluttier variety of squash.
Maude
@SP:
You can try pinching some of the flowers and see if the plant will put the energy into the zukes.
I’d make a joke, but I’ll leave it to you.
jnfr
Sluttier squash! It’s a motto for Our Times.
How’s the heat situation in your area? Lots of plants are sensitive to heat either day or night (for ex. I often have trouble with tomato blossom drop mid-summer for that reason).
TheMightyTrowel
Just thinned my irises. The things are gorgeous but they’re damned hard to separate. Also, it’s been the coldest wettest spring/summer in England since records began – half of them had rotten rhizomes.
Schlemizel
@SP: I can think of two things, if you have too much nitrogen & not enough potassium in the soil (or your addendum) it will encourage huge greenery and little fruit. The other thing is temperature, if it is too hot the plants may not pollinate. I don’t know what the range is but we often get a “dead zone” in August then when it cools off a second set of blooms.
Hope that helps.
Southern Beale
Good news from our garden.
Mino
I think I have high IQ hornworms–I know the damned things are there but they eat and run to another branch. And I think they have a closed litter box.
SP
I think it might be too high nitrogen- it was new soil I had trucked in for raised beds last year and a lot of things were mostly leaves- thinks like carrots, onions had almost no root despite tons of growth. The tomato vines are already over 6 feet. (This is Boston area so hot lately but not heat wave hot.) What can you do to negate the effects of the nitrogen- add potassium?
Joe
@SP: Don’t know what to do immediately, but to fix it for next year, I’d plant some corn or potatoes there.
Julie
I have at least thirty pounds of tomatoes sitting on my countertop that I need to do something with. I don’t think they’re the best types for canning, but I might have to try it anyway.
The plants are looking pretty shabby with all this heat but they’ve still got lots of fruit ripening on them so I keep nursing them along. Mino, do you spray with BT? I have been doing it once a week since the worms made a feast of most of my tomatoes last year, and I haven’t seen any worms or damage at all this year.
JoyChan
Lost everything in the ‘big’ garden to deer, again, third year in a row. I put up some Jr. Earthboxes in the frontyard with grape and cherry varieties, 1 Japanese eggplant, & 2 hot peppers. That’s all I got now; no sunglobes or bigboys; no gherkins or cucumbers, no squash, no corn and no melons. First cool weather and some of that herd is going in the freezer, neighbors be damned!
Yutsano
@SP: Eat the blossoms! They’re delicious!
Anne Laurie
@Julie:
You’ll probably never see this, but still: look up ‘slow roasted tomatoes‘. Cut them in half or quarters, parchment paper on cookie sheets, add garlic & olive oil, put them in a 350degree oven for several hours (anywhere from 3 to 6, depending). Portion the finished products — those you don’t devour instantly — into ziplocks or containers and freeze them, with or without skins/seeds, for a reminder of summer all year long.
I’ve done this with a wide variety of heirlooms, from proper ‘canning’ types to juicy Pineapples & Kelloggs Breakfasts (which make a wonderful lemony pasta sauce, especially when combined with lemon basil). As long as I remember to check the trays every half-hour or so after the first couple-three hours, I can remove the ‘finished’ roasters and put the rest back in to bake some more…