Swiss chard
onions
cilantro
mint (for tea)
parsley
dill
spinach
potatoes
radishes

radishes
spinach
lettuce
onions
peas
potatoes
swiss chard
kolrabi (a first for us this year, yummy!)
summer squash
carrots
herbs(basil,dill,thyme, oregano, rosemary, etc.)
the green beans, cukes and peppers are babies
the tomatoes, still green :-(
the okra, watermelon and winter squash, still quite small

We have had:
onions
garlic
bush beans(lots!)
tomatoes (regular and cherry)
plums
apricots
gooseberries
currants
sweet cherries
Only have a couple more toms turning red, but have 146 green ones! (yep..hubby thinks I was crazy to count them too...didn't count the cherry toms though*lol*)

~Happy Harvesting
~Heidi

It sounds like everyone's gardens are really starting to produce. Isn't it great!

For those of you whose tomatoes are still green, hang in there! I was looking at big green tomatoes just last week, wishing they would hurry up and turn red, and this week they are turning red, and rather quickly. So, you know, yours will do the same thing any time now!

Heidi, you got gooseberries and currants and cherries -- that's wonderful!

And, about counting tomatoes....I did that one year, back when I had maybe 30 or 40 plants. Now that I have a truly excessive number of plants, I don't even try to count the fruit any more.

Happy Harvesting, Cooking and Eating!

Dawn

. Something harvested my tomatoes. Just pecked at them and drooped them to the ground. I think it may have been a turkey. Some at work said a road runner might do that. But I have doubts.

I have been getting a few strawberries though. The turtles did get a share of those too.

My asparagus finally came up. Two of them. They don't look like much.

We got more rain today 2 and a half. Happy days.

Some of the grass hoppers are getting to big for the nolo bait. Some of the lily blooms opened before the hoppers got them this year. I may see a few cannas too.

When I first moved out here I had gobs of garden spiders. I wonder if the hoppers killed them off during the take over.

robolink,

You already have watermelons fruiting? My vines are growing like crazy, but no flower or fruit as of yet.

All of the herbs and I picked my first cucumber today - a long, burpless English cucumber and it is delicious. Grew it in my earthbox. Have several cukes that are not large enough to pick. Have lots of green tomatoes but they are not large and are a long way from turning red. But I have high hopes.

Hi BrandNewGardner,

Your watermelons are probably ahead of mine! I should have said "the okra,watermelon and butternut PLANTS are still small"! Sorry for the confusion. Maybe the rain we had last night and these warmer night temps will give them a boost!

So are you really a brand new gardener? I think I'm passionately obsessed with it.

Yes, I'm young and new at this, but I'm really loving it. My husband rolls his eyes the more he sees me getting obsessed with it. I was out in my watermelon garden today picking blades of grass (I've got black plastic mulch down and wood chips, but some of the bermuda grass sure is persistent.) The watermelon plants are really starting to take off, the runners are about 2 ft long now. I wonder when they start to flower? Is it true that I should get rid of the first fruits on each runner because they are not sizeable?

Hi BrandNewGardener!

In general, watermelon plants will begin blooming 8 to 10 weeks after either (a) direct seeded ones sprout, or (b) transplants are set out. They should set fruit shortly after blooming.

Watermelons produce both male and female flowers. The female flowers will be the ones with the tiny watermelons directly behind the flower. Once you start having both male and female flowers, pollination should occur and then you will have fruit!

If you aren't having bee activity when the flowers are open, you may have to hand-pollinate. Once pollination occurs, you should have ripe fruit within about 45 days, more or less, depending on the variety you are growing.

I only remove watermelons if they are misshapen or gourdy or seem to be developing poorly. The average watermelon vine will only produce a few fruit.

Dawn

got lots of tomatoes, a few squash (yellow and zuchinni), onions, herbs. this is the first year for the herb garden, haven't really figured out what to do with all of it but fun to watch it grow. haven't seen the beans yet, too many natural flowers growing in the same row, having to wait until they set. lol turnip greens, turnips, radishes, two peppers. the cucumbers are just starting to set on, got them started late. haven't looked for potatoes yet, maybe next week i will take a sneak peep for the baby reds.
glad to see all the gardens are doing well. after the hail storms this past week i have been praying the gardens all survived.
Merkey

Zukes, cukes, and chiles here so far. Oh, and herbs and alliums, of course.

Still waiting on those stinkin' tomatoes...

Hi Owie, I was wondering if the new baby was keeping you from harvesting anything.

I know that your tomatoes will start to ripen soon. You have had SO MUCH rain this spring (unlike most of us poor souls), and I find mine are slow to ripen when they get a lot of rain. It's like they just want to grow and grow and grow and grow, and will worry about ripening some time on down the road.

After I wear myself out in the garden this afternoon (I'm taking a 'computer break' right now), I'm going to do a progress report listing tomatoes by name, so other gardeners can get an idea of how various varieties are performing in our climate. It is AMAZING how variable they are.

I've been harvesting zukes and crookneck squash today. Tonight for dinner I'm going to make a tomato and onion pie from a recipe I found in a magazine at the grocery store this morning.

Love the harvest time and having fresh everything!

Dawn

What's everybody waiting for the tomatoes to ripen for? Ever tried 'em green and fried? Can't say as I find them appealing, but that seemed to be like a delicacy in the neighborhood when I was a kid.

Then again, we never had to worry about dandelions either because the neighbor to the east of us always came over with her paring knive and scoured our yard for them so she could have dandelion greens.

And green onion sandwiches were eaten frequently, also.

What gooseberries the birds didn't get, the neighbor kids behind us usually got. We might get enough for a couple of pies, but that was it.

I suppose it was all sounds odd now, but that's just the way it was. Dang, that sounded old--really it's not been that long ago...

Report from Kingston, OK

Onions: Pulled them yesterday

Carrots: Pulled them last week

Tomatoes: Got 25 plants. So far have only pulled four ripe ones. All plants are loaded

Cucumbers: Growing like wild fire

Squash: Also growing like wild fire

Blue Lake Pole Beans: Just now starting to produce

Top Crop Bush Beans: Been picking them for about a week now

Pinto Beans: Doing great. About to wear my back out pickin them

Okra: About 2ft high and producing

Sweet Corn: About 5 1/2 ft high

Jalepeno Peppers: Doing great. They are mild, thought they were going to be hot

Bell Peppers: Been picking them for about two weeks now

Sweet and Hot Bananna Peppers: Been picking them for about two or three weeks

Cayenne Peppers: Not long enough yet to pick

Watermelon (Jubilee and Black Diamond): Largest about softball size

Cantaloupe: Looks like we will have a real nice crop

New Zealand Spinach: Planted last week. Don't know how it will turn out. First time to plant the stuff

Hi Trooper 180! We aren't too far apart geographically. I'm near the I-35 corridor between Marietta and Thackerville.

All my cool-season stuff is over, over, over and done. So are all the fruit trees.

Tomatoes: Have harvested about 120 large ones and too many cherry, grape, and small cluster types to count. Been eating and preserving like crazy. Give plenty away too.

Sweet corn: Early corn is harvested and either eaten or frozen. Mid-season corn will be ready to pick in about a week. Late-season corn will start to tassle any day now.

Cucumbers, summer squash & zucchini--harvesting pretty much daily. Surprisingly few cucumber beetles and squash bugs too. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that!)

Bush Beans: have been picking for a couple of weeks. Need to pull out the plants this week and plant a succession crop for later.

Peppers: getting lots of hot peppers of various kinds, but the sweet peppers are a little slower. I suspect its the drought. I water enough to keep 'em going, but probably not as much as they'd like.

Watermelons, cantaloupes and muskmelons all have lots of flowers and a few small fruit. I have about 20 different varieties. Looking forward to eating their fruit beginning sometime in July.

Winter Squash and Pumpkins: These have really taken off since we got a little rain about 2 weeks ago. I already have baseball-sized fruit on some of them, including orange-striped cushaw, black futsu, red kuri, sweet mama and lakota. Most of the others have smaller fruit. Too many varieties to keep track of, and I am happy to say they are doing very well although nothing will be harvested anytime soon, since most of them take 90 to 120 days or more to produce.

Herbs: All doing pretty well. I harvest the ones like mint and basil as needed for cooking or tea.

Flowers are harvested weekly, and sometimes more often, for bouquets--to bring the outdoors inside.

Dawn

Hello Dawn from Love County,

I am guessing that you are in Love County. We are near the eastern edge of Marshall County.

Sounds like you have a real nice garden going. I am really kind of new at the garden game. We have had gardens before but nothing like now. I never really knew what I was doing.

Got any ideas for something good to plant this month and the next. All the onions are pulled. I need to plant something in their place.

Bruce in Kingston

My first really veggie garden I ever made and it has
rhubarb
cucumbers
maters
green peppers
jalepeno peppers
broccoli
watermelon
onions
I am big into houseplants so I never really made a garden. By the way does anyone know how to cook rhubarb?lol...Either to make rhubarb jam or strawberry/rhubarb pie.You can send me a email if ya got something good to make with rhubarb.

Hi Bruce!

You're right. I am in Love County. You can't actually see our place from I-35, but we are in the general vicinity of mile marker 9 or 10. So, geographically, you and I are just over a hop, skip and a jump away from one another's gardens.

You can plant heat-lovers like more okra or black-eyed peas right now, or another crop of bush beans that would probably begin producing in early to mid-August. If you want to put in new pepper or tomato plants to produce in the fall, any time from now until late July is good for that. You could plant some of the pumpkins, like Jack Be Little or Lumina, that have relatively short maturity dates and have pumpkins in time for Halloween. It isn't too late for some of the bush-type watermelons like Sugar Baby. Or you can fill in that space with any kind of herb transplants that they still have in the garden center stores. I have herbs scattered around my garden to help lure in the beneficial insects.

Do you want to have a full-fledged fall garden? If so, here's a link to planting dates. You'll notice that many fall crops have planting dates in mid-July. You have to baby them along sometimes, but you can grow lots of stuff for fall/early winter harvest. On some crops, like cabbage and broccoli, you will not have nearly as many insect problems on the fall crop as you might have on the spring crop.

And, if you want to grow garlic, it is best when planted in the fall for a late spring or early summer harvest.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: fall planting dates

Hello again Dawn,

Been up and down I-35 a jillion times. I pretty well know the area that you all live in. I was raised in Bryan County, which is on the other side of the lake.

Today I constructed another trellis to hold the cukes I'll soon be planting. DW loves those cukes. Yesterday I planted two more rows of okra in the old onion bed. I'll soon be following your suggestions and will be planting black eyed peas and another row of bush beans. Noticed today that my New Zealand spinach finally broke thru, planted the seed almost two weeks ago. As of now everything is doing real good, especially the squash and bush beans. Been supplying all the neighbors with squash and beans. Someday I may work my way over to Love County and take a look at your gardens. When I was a trooper I traveled into Love County quite often. Don't get away from home much anymore.

What a difference a few miles makes- I planted fairly early, and am finished with my greens and oriental veggies (except the Chinese Cabbage), but am still only harvesting a few cherry tomatoes. My green ones are huge- I have four on a Lucious Hybrid that must weigh over a pound each, and one on a Burpee Delicious that should go 1-1/2 pounds. Even my Rutgers and Abe Lincolns are the largest I have ever seen, but still, not a sign of yellow or red. Patience!!
Dawn- I appreciate the Salsa recipes, but, as noted above, will not be able to try them out for a while. I have harvested my garlic and onions, my cilantro is past its' prime (but I have planted more), and my peppers are just now moving from flower buds to baby peppers. It's hard to get everything timed to mature at the same time, but it is SO satisfying to make something (like salsa) with all your own veggies.

Hi Bruce! Y'all come see us anytime. You and my DH would have a lot to talk about. He works in law enforcement down in Texas (yes, it makes for a long commute, but usually only 4 days a week). Your succession planting sounds wonderful. I planted too many tomatoes (in order to try as many different varieties as possible) and am having to squeeze everything else in around them!

Rod, If you can ever figure out how to make everything mature at exactly the time you want it to, let me know! This year my onions were done early, so I was able to make salse from homegrown tomatoes, onions, peppers and garlic, but my cilantro had already bolted. Some years it seems like nothing matures when it ought to! We've had so little rain in Love County that nothing is growing 'normally'. I water some, but can't afford to water as much as I'd like to.

I bet your green tomatoes will ripen any time now.

Dawn

Hi, Ya'll, just thought I would mention this, don't plant watermelons close to cukes. They cross and the watermelons taste really bad, did that one year. I am a very laid back(lazy) gardener, I don't pull the onions. Even up here in my part of Okla, they overwinter and just keep getting bigger. If I need some, I just go out and pull what I need. I have green tomatos and hot peppers just not ready to pick. I planted really late so will have to wait. Also didn't plant a varity of things this year, more broken than usual. My asparagus did not do well, too dry and then too much cool wet weather.

Got the black eyed peas planted today. Also built another trellis to hold the fall cukes. Picked about 2 1/2 gallons of bush beans after the sun set. The blue lake pole beans are real slow for some reason. Seems like I read where the pole beans are late starters.

Dawn: I would like to see what all you have done with your gardens. Not many gardens to look at around Kingston. There are a few but mostly just tomatoes and okra. Someday I'll drove over to Love County and pay you all a visit. I'll let you know when we decide to head on over your way.

So far I have harvested:
Thyme
Red giant Indian Mustard
Tyfon Holland Greens
Green Tomatoes
Soft Neck Garlic
Blackberries

Waiting on:
Hard Neck Garlic
Eggplant
Jalapeno Peppers
Acorn Squash
Tomatillos
Purple Tomatillos
Basil
Small Yellow Melon with white inside(got them from a
Korean lady who lived next door about 24 years ago)

I have chocolate mint, but have never done anything with it. Any suggestions? Last night had fried green tomatoes, greens and chicken with a wine sauce, in which I used my first garlic of this year. Very good. The internet is a great place to find recipes.

I would (and do) chop up the chocolate mint in fruit salad made with melon and grapes or blueberries, maybe, or whatever you have. Might be good in a strawberry smoothie, too. Very refreshing. I love to put mint in my smoothies.

I've been harvesting big fistfuls of mint (actually uprooting it as I use it, since I stupidly planted it without barriers), smashing it up and brewing it with green tea.

We just harvested our mid-season corn. I am getting about 10 gallons of tomatoes a week, so they are keeping me busy!
Green beans are about done, but I am planting more now for harvest later in the summer. I'm still getting summer squash, zukes and cukes. My largest cantaloupes and muskmelons are slightly larger than a really large grapefruit. My watermelons are small and have a long way to go. I have my first winter squash almost ready to pick--it is a Black Futsu and it is about its mature size and color, but seems really, really early, so I won't pick it for a while unless it seems like it is starting to get overly ripe. I have lots of pumpkins in various sizes, but none ready to pick. I harvest herbs as needed for cooking or for tea.