The Modern Victory Garden

Okay it is now officially summer (at least according to the calendar!), I would love to hear how all of your gardens are doing so far.   

• Are you growing new (to you)  items this year?
• What's your biggest success so far?
• What's been the biggest dissappointment?
• What you currently harvesting and eating from your garden?

Inquiring minds want to know! 

First time gardener learning lots! We've been constructing since early March - lots of 4 X 8 boxes and filling them with bought dirt/compost/peat, then always running a few weeks behind the curve, it seems :tongue:, so we missed several planned crops altogether, such as peas, spinach, and probably beans, and The Great Pacific Northwest Melon Lottery. Still, it's all such fun.

Harvested gigantic broccoli - "Early Dividend" did super well for us. Planted 9 heads of that, then followed about a month later with 9 heads of "Belstar", which is just now getting bigger, not with any actual broccoli yet. About to pull the Early Dividend plants to re-plant with . . . I've forgotten what. Learned: plant way more broccoli. Our family of 10 loves it, and we could have used more fresh, never mind having any to preserve!

Lettuce: lesson learned - even a salad-loving family of 10 AND their neighbors on both sides can't be persuaded to eat as much lettuce as I planted, and not something I can preserve, obviously. Oh well, this was the year for wild experimentation. We had many varieties of lettuce (13, if I remember) (blush) and I will have tremendous trouble next year deciding which of them will go. Except arugula and french sorrel, which will be the first to be kicked off the island :wink:. Winning in the Miss Gorgeous category is "Continuity". Both romaines we planted, "Bullet" and "Valmaine" were also stunning, although we couldn't tell all that much difference between the two varieties.

Tomatoes: Uhmmm, did I mention the "wild experimentation of varieties" and the "big family" part yet? I've got (whispering) 68 tomato plants in 15 varieties out there. They have, many many many of them, green tomatoes on them. The recent hailstorm actually cut holes in the leaves of many of them (I know this was hail and not pests because I was working in the tomato bed just prior to it and went out afterward terrified that I'd find destroyed tomatoes). You had suggested trenching when I transplanted, and that's what I did, and it worked like a charm. I'll make a big effort to never do it again, though, because with the trenched plants, that means watering and fertilizing needs to be done along the entire row, challenging under the red plastic! Still, for this year, it saved all of my plants, so I'm very grateful for your advice. Hoping to have a large amount to preserve in various forms for the winter! I've got two tomatoes that are starting to turn color. One is a "Taxi" and the other a "Scotia".

Carrots: I'm not sure what mistake I'm making here. I planted, then thinned, watering, etc, but months later the green above-ground part is maybe 2 inches big. We've got "Mokum" and "Nelson" out there. Guess I'm growing trendy mini-micro carrots this year :roll:.

Zucchini: Trying to grow "Sungreen" and "Blackhawk", and in their cases I'm wondering if I have a pollination problem. Had lots of bumblebees earlier this year to pollinate the tomatoes, but I've just not seen them around for about a month now, when the zucchini have their flowers. As a mother of 8, you'd think I'd have this reproduction thing down by now, but I can't seem to find any female flowers (what I've seen online as females) to use the Qtip trick and pollinate by hand. I had a great-aunt who had 9 boys before having 2 girls; I think about her a lot looking at my zucchini bed :wink:.

Strawberries: Planted "Ozark Beauty" and "Tristar" in some "Ben's Towers" and "Rainier", a June berry, along what will one day be the blueberry bed. One is supposed to pinch off all of the flowers of June berries the first year, but we must have missed quite a few despite our diligence and have green berries out there. The Ozark Beauties have given us a few small berries; I'm sure they'll do better their second year.

Potatoes: My second son has 6 different varieties in hills out there. Hard to tell how they're doing, isn't it? They don't seem as far along as yours, but they are growing slowly, so guess we'll see as time goes by. I was very surprised to see that you're harvesting some already!

And there is a mixed herb bed with parsley and basils and oregano and 2 sorts of thyme and one lemongrass and some very pretty sage. Plus random edible flowers which we are enjoying immensely. We added some spicy red nasturtiums to my husband's salmon and veggie work lunch container recently, and for Father's Day my elder girls made vanilla cupcakes with lemon icing and a blue pansy atop each :). Oh, and I also have a few experimental Japanese "ingredients" growing for my daughter who is into bento: shiso, edible chrysanthenums, "Osaka Purple Mustard", and "Joi Choi".  The "Joi Choi" was incredibly delicious but is over now. I'll try it again in the fall, and plant way more. We only had 6 plants, and I think it would do really well as a succession crop. It really adds some wonderfullness to both the obvious, like stir-fry, but also to pasta dishes. Mmmm, making myself hungry here :wink:.

Still in our "unheated greenhouse": Peppers. Have mini-bells, "Early Jalapeno", "Yum-Yum Gold", and "Italian Pepperoncini". We have been harvesting peppers from each of these plants from their little pots, poor things. Also in "greenhouse" are two eggplants, one each "Ping Tung" and "Millionaire". "Millionaire" has an eggplant ready for harvest, not even baby sized, but regular size :). "Ping Tung" has 3 flowers that I've hand-pollinated - worked with the Millionaire, so hopefully will work with Ping Tung as well. Also languishing out there are a couple each of seaberries and honeyberries - need to clear that area of the yard.

So that's the loonnnnng story of our shady little suburban backyard! Sorry so long - looks like I should get my own blog, eh (blush again)?

Wow VFD!!!  You are doing wonderfully and I am totally excited for you!

I never seem to have enough broccoli to do much preserving - because we eat so much of it when available.  One of my favorite veggies and there never is enough of it.

Good work on the lettuces.   We have been swimming in it this year too which is a refreshing change from having it all bolt too early in the year. 

On the carrots, you are likely not making a mistake at all.  Carrots go through a very very slow start process.   They have weak little seedlings that emerge after germination which can barely push their way through the soil surface.   Then they spend a huge amount of time sending out a long skinny tap root and some initial top growth.   Once both of those are firmly established then the top growth fills out more robustly and FINALLY if all has gone well up to that point... the carrots put on a burst of development in the root - sizing  and coloring up.   This last more rewarding phase takes a long time to get to, but then moves fast to edible sized roots.   So don't despair just yet!

Glad the tomatoes are doing well... but HOLY SMOKES you have a HUGE patch!  LOL!   Most impressed. 

As regards to the zuchinni, it is really common for the first flush of flower production to be either all male or all female.  Happens with cucumbers often too.   Mine happen to be producing almost all female.   The good news is, the female (or male in my case) flowers will soon follow and you should be in business.   It's also common initially to get poor or no pollination for the first flush of flowering fruit and the small female ovary (fruit) just withers and dies.   Again, it will resolve itself shortly and there is no cause for alarm.

Good work VFD and thanks for the update.  

First I'd like to say *THANK YOU* for your marvelous blog. I stumbled upon it a week or so ago (looking for answers to aphid problems) and its become a favorite of mine because I love reading about the day to day tasks a real gardener faces to keep a plot healthy and productive - so many sites just focus on problems, you never learn about basic maintenance. So, Thanks!

I'm not a first time gardener, but I am using self-irrigating planters for the first time this year and, I have to say, the plants love 'em.

I planted what seemed to be a huge amount (to me) but as I learn more about how and when to harvest, I see that I've got too much of a few things (er... I feel you on the lettuce thing!) and not enough of others (broccoli!!)

I also find myself frequently frustrated because I live in a colder clime than most backyard gardeners. Our last frost date is May 15 here, so I'm always a month behind the rest of y'all and get *jealous* when you start eating fresh 'maters while I'm stuck sighing over blossoms. ah well....

Here's whats in my patch:

Box 1: Collards (YUM!! been eating on these for awhile and will harvest and freeze the last bit today i think), Lettuce - 3 varieties.

Box 2: Broccoli (3 - strong stalks, no head yet) and 1 lone eggplant (the other seedlings didn't survive)

Box 3:  bell pepper (4) looking good and seeing first signs of budding

Boxes 4, 5 & 6 - 3 'mater plants each. I've got stupice, avalanche, Texas Wild, Cherokee Purple. Lots of blossoms and a few tiny fruit.

Box 7: Sugar Pumpkin (3) My fave plant this year - love watching it grow! Had a brief bout with aphids, but they've fled from a combo of dish soap/hot sauce spray and a hungry lady bug. All plants are showing signs of both male and female flowers.

And finally one pot of carrots - glad to hear that these are slow showers. I, too, only have about 2" of greens. I may go ahead and sow a few more seeds to see how late into the season I can take them.

From Garden

Glad you found the site ChicagoAsh!   Your garden sounds like it is doing very well.   I love the small sugar pie pumpkins too.   Only kind I grow now.   They ARE fun to watch - because I swear you can actually see them grow before your very eyes! LOL!   I came to the conclusion this evening after tucking the ever growing vines back carefully into the bed area - that I am doomed to have them take over the walk ways.   It's only the last of June and they are completely filling up the available bed area.     Oh well, it's a happy problem to deal with.

so we have been having 100+ degree days for close to a month.  The only items growing in my garden are some tomatos, 1 jalapeno bush, and two okra plants.        THE GARDEN IS LOOKING VERY BARE!!

The funny thing is, I plantted some potatoes last weekend, and keep them well watered, but in the end, they ended up baking in the sun and soil.....

ericmcc -   If I recall correctly, a lot of folks in the hot southern areas of the US end up with a bit of a required break mid season and/or using a lot of shade tools.    I have never gardened in that area so I am not going to be much help to you on this.   Are there things you can be planting now (with lots of watering!) that will be ready to launch when the weather moderates just a bit?