Don't know if I qualify as an expert, but here's my 2 cents. Onions, and carrots are more of a cool weather vege. I don't really know how to tell you that the carrots are "done" other than pull one up and see how big it is. I don't think that the tops grow indefinitly (I want to say mine only ever got about a foot or two tall). I planted some one year and tried to pull them up and the tops came off. Well, I left them alone and when we tilled the garden in the spring, there were bunches of great carrots that had made it through the winter. I find that with my onions, I loosen the soil around them as they grow and they get bigger. I plant them pretty shallow--basically just the roots. I think that they are not good like you mentioned if they get a flower on it and I'm not sure if that is a heat thing or what. Someone else will have to tell you about that (many of mine have the flower stalk on them too at this point) I usually pull mine about now and eat what I can. I've been told not to plant garlic in the spring. In my area (west of fort worth, but even when I lived north of denton), they should be planted in fall for spring harvest. I've had luck doing that the one year I planted them.
As far as squash goes, they are ready when they are as big as you want them. I see a small one one morning, and the next it is huge. It sounds like you are doing ok with the bug control. Okra can get too big. The bigger it gets, the more tough and stringy--I left those to go to seed. Tomatoes are fairly easy. I usually pinch out the growth in the "V" of the stem and shake them a little (I read that helps with pollination). I pinch the extra growth so that they don't put all the energy into leaf production and will force the flowers.
Don't really know about basil here. I think it might be an annual though.

Basil will flower, but it usually doesn't hurt it. I just pick the flowers off and put them in my pocket. I sniff them for the rest of the day. It will get big, but that is just that many more leaves for you.

Things under the ground.....The top greens don't have much to say about how big the carrot or the radish or the beet is underground. The thing about them is that they are mature and ready to eat at any size, really. So, you can have tiny carrots, radishes, and beets, or large ones. They are all going to taste good. You will just have to pull some soil away from them to judge the size. My MIL has grown some of the most HUUU-MONG-ous radishes and carrots, and I don't know how she did it, except that she used a whole bag of triple 13 on the garden that year.

Corn and tomatoes have maturation issues; that is, they must ripen to reach your high standards for tomatoes and corn. Corn is not really my forte, but I know that when the tassel is dark brown, you can pull an ear and check it. Peel the husk back on the corn, it should be filled out nicely. Pierce a kernel of corn with your thumbnail, and you should see 'milk' of the corn. The corn is right then.
Tomatoes should be red, and soft enough to eat. I like to sit in the garden with a bowl of salt and eat my tomatoes. Also, I love to graze at the trellis that the peas or green beans are growing on. Nothing better.

I pick those flower buds off my onions. They will go to seed, but probably won't be good seed. You wouldn't believe what they have to do to get good onion seed. (You wouldn't want to know, either.) DH pulls the soil away from the bulb of the onion when they start to bulb, to just leave the roots in the ground. It frees the bulb up, so they can get big. He has grown some BIG onions, too. When the tops of the onions fall over, the onions are supposed to be done.

Garlic is one we let go to seed, but it doesn't grow from seed, as far as I know. The bulbs multiply, like lilies. Chives do the same thing, as do the multiplying onions.

You can eat squash, cucumber, zuchinni and peppers at any size. Too big is usually not nearly as good as little.

Pumpkins I am not so familiar with. The coyotes always got ours before we did.

I don't find what zone you are in, and that is an important thing for us to know.

Best of luck to you!

Janie

I'm in zone 8a.

How do you loosen the soil around your onions, with a spade or just your fingers? I dug the one with a flower bud on it tonight and it was really small, about the size of a golf ball. I can see the tops of other bulbs that are at least twice that size. I can see the top of one garlic bulb and it's big too, bigger than any clove I have bought at the store. They show no signs of yellowing at this point.

I'll dig up a carrot tomorrow and see what they look like. I got a late start with them but figured I'd plant them anyway.

I usually pick okra when it's about 3-4" long. Okra is so easy, but I get really tired of picking it about mid-July. Last year I fought the mockingbirds for the tomatoes and finally ended up picking them when they first started turning orange. It didn't seem to affect the flavor and kept the mockingbirds from pecking them. I've just about decided peppers will grow anywhere under almost any conditions. I never did get any that turned the beautiful red like in grocery stores, but I'm ok with greenish red bell peppers. The only ones that turned red on me were the Serranos and I wanted them to stay green. lol

oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you that.

If your tomato has started to turn pink, it is ripe inside. Go ahead and pick it, and let it turn red in the house, where the birds can't get them. The flavor will be fine when you eat it. That is because tomatoes ripen from the inside out.

You can just take a hand tool and start to move the soil from around the onion. Do it with your fingers, if your soil is not compacted.

You must have elephant garlic. Lucky you! It is delicious roasted. Scoop it out with a spoon when it is done, and put it on mashed potatoes. Elephant garlic has a much milder flavor than other garlics.

When you harvest your garlic, you will almost always miss a couple. They will come up next year.

Janie

May I ask a question too?

I have some lovely tomatoes growing in my front flower bed. Unfortunately everyone is competing. I've trimmed off some upper growth so som son will hit the fruit...is that necessary or is sunlight on the leaves enough? I see one down there starting to turn pink but I really don't want to blow it.

Also, I decided to grow some basil seeds in a 5 gallon planter. Up high enough so visisting dogs won't be tempted. In the past, I've just tossed around seeds when it was warm and rainy. I've never planted in potting soil. In this case about 1/3 new soft peat mixture like MG with timed release fertilizer in it. Anyway, is there something special I need to do?

Why would I be so neurotic about Basil? I put a pinapple sage that had a lovely scent in a pot with a Thai basil and now the pineapple has no scent! I have globe, sweet and genovese basil seeds. I'm willing to do two large pots but if there is some secret to basil abundance and taste, Jani, or someone, would you enlighten me???

Thank you for all the great tips on this thread

c

I think tomatoes taste best when they are fully ripened on the vine. I use the plastic bird netting (comes in a roll) to fend off the mockingbirds and jays. When it gets really hot tomatoes cannot set fruit. We stretch an old piece of shade cloth over the garden and it seems to help everything. For some reason my peppers don't seem to go into full production until fall. I grew snow peas and sugar snap peas very early this year and they were delicious!! Cucumbers are easy too and don't take much room if you let them grow up a fence or trellis. It is not too late to plant black-eyed peas, since they really like hot weather. My husband who grew up in Iowa initially told me black-eyed peas were cow food only. Now he loves them. He still calls squash "gourds", but he eats them quite happily--especially when I slice them, dip them in buttermilk then in a seasoned corn meal/parm.cheese mix and bake them. He still can't do okra though. But that is OK. I can't take the Iowa version of the dressing they make with turkey in the fall. It has no corn bread, thus giving it the texture of extra slimey oatmeal with sage seasoning. YUCK! You also can grow spinach and lettuce throughout the winter here which is nice. I grow basil and dill--both reseed and are nice to have fresh for cooking. This year I scattered dill seed in the flowerbeds after seeing photos of it mixed in with flowers. It looked great. I haven't trid to grow corn in years; no matter what I did every ear had worms in it. When you water remember to try to put the water at the base of the plant, not on the leaves. Good luck with gardening. Texas A&M has some good gardening information on their web site. Debby

I don't know if I will get any corn this year either. I had heard about rubbing some kind of oil on the silk to prevent worms, but I can't remember what kind it was. Olive oil?

A drop or two of mineral oil on the silks.

The onion bolting issue has to do with maturity of plant. If the plant you plant in the spring is too mature and the temps drop below 40 long enough, then it thinks it's in it's second year and does what any good biennial will do, make seed. I always buy bunches with the smallest diameter onions I can. Then I plant them shallow and fertilize well. Now onions grow in the ground but I wouldn't call them root crops. The rings of the onion are the bottom of the leaves. More leaves, bigger onions....if they are well cared for. Sometimes I get flowers but less than most.

Now for shallots and garlic, you want the big bulbs. Bigger bulbs usually make bigger bulbs if cared for correctly.

Corn is daylength sensitive. It took lots of breeding to get Peruvian corn to grow in Indiana. It's pollen also looses potency in too much heat so timing is important. I haven't grown it in years. TA&M will have answers.

Old basil leaves are more bitter than young leaves so in order to get the plant to grow new leaves, whack it back. Ours gets so big I use a hedge clipper on it. It loves it and grows back in no time.

Thank you Janie
I had a bad feeling about the potting soil. I know I've grown other herbs that really prefered a simple diet. I'll just dig up some garden soil and use that with some vermiculite sprinkled on top.

Glad to hear about tomatoes prefering to remain shaded under the plant. That seemed "normal" too, but someone told me I should cut back the foliage on the plant and someone else said just leave them as they are. Great to know that tomatoes are doing it just fine on their own.

big smiles of appreciation
c

Cynthia, I plant my basil like they do in Italian gardens ... in a long planter. I started it very thick a few years back, and it just reseeds itself each year. You cut and use the largest plants, giving the smaller ones a chance to get larger. I use a lot of basil, and this system gives me younger basil leaves for a longer period of time. If it gets too thick, I simply make pesto.