Low carb garden UPDATE

[not2late]

Okay,

I planted the tomatoes in the ground last weekend.

The sugar snap peas plants are about a foot long. Lemme tell ya....those are the dumbest plants I've ever had to deal with. I have a wire trellis for them to climb and do they climb? Of course not, those homicidal maniacs use their tendrils to strangle each other. Every morning I destrangle them, and every evening they're re-strangled....stupid stupid stupid. I hope those cucumbers aren't like the peas.

Speaking of the cucumbers, they're growing too. I figure by the end of the week, they should put out their first real leaves.

The leaf lettuces are about 4 inches tall. Next weekend I'll have to thin them out (so baby lettuce salads for me!).

Arugula is doing okay too as are the spinach.

My Swiss chard and broccoli rabe are about 2 inches tall.

The June-bearing strawberries are flowering (keeping my fingers crossed they'll give me at least a pint of berries).

I still have to plant my zucchini, peppers and okra....

So what's happening in your garden?

[CherTLC4u]

The "dirt" here in Florida is mostly sand. Not condusive to gardens without extra special tending too.

So...

I live vicariously thru you!!!

I love fresh vegetables!!

Keep up the good work

[Kent]

Glad to see your garden growing so well, Megs.

My deck garden is growing well. Strawberries are being pounced upon regularly by predators of the two legged small mammal variety, called homo sapien childrenis. The blueberries are budding and should start bearing fruit once it heats up a little.

[not2late]

The "dirt" here in Florida is mostly sand. Not condusive to gardens without extra special tending too.

So...

I live vicariously thru you!!!

I love fresh vegetables!!

Keep up the good work

Cheryl, I plant my lettuces, spinach and radishes in containers. I have alot of clay in my soil here. So those types of plants seem to do better in containers for me.

The tomatoes, pepper, squashes and okra get alot of additives (top soil, sand, compost, manure, etc.) because I plant them into the ground.

Give containers a chance. Veggies right out of the garden and onto your plate taste so much better than the poor veggies that have been sitting in the supermarket for days...

Bowulf, let those children pounce. When I was little my Daddy had raspberries--red and golden---I still have memories of picking those berries in the evenings and gobbling them up! I also have memories of watering alot of bean plants too..... ensive

[MotherOfGizmo]

O.K., we have a small space but so far....

The tomatos are doing wonderfully! We already have 2 blossoms on one of the plants!

The radishes are just popping up.

The zuccini is doing awesome.

Our cucumber plants look like they need a little help but hopefully they will pull thru.

Yellow crocked neck squash looks good.

Jalapeno Peppers and Bell Peppers and coming along nicely.

Herbs, sage, oregano, cilantro are all doing great. Basil is having a little problem with something taking nice big bites out of it!

Mammoth Sunflowers are about 6-7 inches tall so far.

[Heidi3]

wooo hoo my garden is insane right now ..and today I am going to cut and dry some herbs to send to my friend and have it tested ...you see I am on an old millitary dump sight I believe and was told to add lime to the soil to keep the heavy metals from chellating into my plants in part of my garden that I happen to have planted some edible stuff ...so I am going to take a big stalk of chard and some of each herb dry it grind it up and send it to the lab to see if the lime worked..wish me luck!....

[2big4mysize]

I've go flowers on the tomatoes okra peppers and eggplants and am really happy everything survived the return to indoors cause of the frost in April. I'm harversting beet tops radishes and leaf lettuce already. the squash ran wild last yr so I didn't want to fight with it something like your peas Megs. the winter greens are saying the 80s are too hot and bolting so I'm about done for the season with the collards and the spinach. I has some indian mustard plants that they say tolerate the heat and I'll let y'all know if they make it through summer or not. The chard is colorful and the rhubard is geting tall I didn't realize it was green andthen turned red so I will have to watch for that redding up.
My garlic plants are 4 feet tall and the spring onions are going wild. The herbs look great and in another week the basil should be large enough to make pesto from. The Rosemary is bushing from the pinching back. last yr I had a tree LOL but not much green needles for the eating part.

SO far the deer haven't climbed the fence yet like last yr but there are lots of spring wildflowers for them to eat right now. Anybody used something called deer off and had success?

I have raised beds and can make any soil type I want in them. they are real easy to construct just make sure you don't use pressure treated lumber as it leachs deadly toxins into the soil for your veggies to suck up and feed you :yikes

[not2late]

Those peas are idiots. I had to destrangle them this morning---again.

Anyway, it's been unseasonably cool here the last few weeks so I think that's why some of my plants are slowly growing. However, this week, it's going to be unseasonably warm.

Good luck to you nursey. Hopefully, your plants will be okay.

I don't have any deer problems---partly due to the fence I have, but last year I had a pesky mole and a rabbit family.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Wow you guys have all kinds of veggies growing! I want to try some garlic and onions, those have to be planted in cool weather don't they? What about lettuces? Can you plant them in the summer? Give me some ideas for things that don't take a lot of space please! I would like some variety!

[not2late]

Wow you guys have all kinds of veggies growing! I want to try some garlic and onions, those have to be planted in cool weather don't they? What about lettuces? Can you plant them in the summer? Give me some ideas for things that don't take a lot of space please! I would like some variety!

Onions are easy to grow. I grow them in containers. I have containers that measure 28 inches x 8 inches x 12 inches. Anyhow, I fill the container with potting soil and space the onions about 2 inches apart (I grow them for the greens only, not the bulb) and toss some dirt over them. It takes about 2-3 weeks and the green onions are ready for harvesting. I plant them successively too. So this weekend, I have to plant a few more bulbs. About the bulbs, you can buy onion sets at the garden center or you can buy "pearl onions" at the grocery store---just make sure they are the pearl onions that still have the brown skins on them. If you want to grow the onions for bulbs, you'll need to space them further apart, keep them in the ground until late summer. The greens will wilt--that's okay--because as the greens wilt the bulbs are developing. When you harvest them, pull them out of the ground, knock off any excess dirt and let them air dry in a shed for a few days, then you can store them.

I plant my lettuces in containers too (plant alot of stuff in containers because my soil is mostly clay and rocky). They're a spring and fall crop. So if you want to plant them, plant them now. They get bitter if they grow during the hotter months. Anyhow, I sow them thickly and let them grow. When the plants are about 5-7 inches tall, I thin them out, by pulling the entire plant up. This thinning will allow the other plants to grow a bit more and I have "gourmet" baby salad greens. You can either keep them "baby" by continuing to thin them when they are about 6 inches tall or you can let a few grow full-size. I just keep them baby-style. Around August to early September, you can plant a fall crop.

I do the same thing with spinach too. Grow in containers, sow thickly, thin them out for "baby spinach", then replant a fall crop in the late summer. There is a type of spinach does well in hot weather. It's called the New Zealand Tetragonia Spinach. I haven't tried growing any of that but, supposedly it's a bushy type spinach that you can cut leaves off the plant and the plant will produce more leaves.

I didn't do it this year, but next year I'll buy some cinder blocks to "terrace" my containers. That way, I'll have more "acreage" and the containers won't sprawl all over the my 4 foot by 10 foot cement "patio". lol. I want some garden gnomes statues too.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Gnomes are cool! So are Gargoyles!

Well, it sounds like it may be too late for most of that stuff here already, except maybe the onions. Its in the 80's now, looks like its here to stay too!

Thanks for the pointers though I gotta copy what you wrote cause I have a memory like a sieve! LOL

What about Garlic? do you plant that in the fall?

[2big4mysize]

in the south we harvest in JUNE garlic so plant it in a container or ground in Sept and it will grow all winter. mine got a little frostbite when we went down in the teens but they came back strong.

You can get tomatoes and peppers already grown at your local nursery along with some other veggies that hsould do well in your area brocoolli does well.

You can regrow all the cool weather crops radishes beets, lettuce, greens types in the fall but because of our summer heat you will need to sprout them inside in Aug to transplant out side in Sept. I use a flat styrofoam togo box lid as my sprounters cause they are cheap and easy to move. just sprinkle about an inch of potting soil in it and wet the soil. then gentle put the seeds on it and cover acorrding to the veggie directions on the packet some are 1/4 inch some are 1/2 inch sprinkle with water cover with saran wrap to keep moist and watch for the little green shots to emerge. when they get about 1 inch tall remove the wrap and set them out side a couple hours a day to get used to your climate. then plant in your planters or ground.

root veggies don't like to be transplaneted so you can use a paper cup and cheat with them. when it is timeto go out side jusr cut off the bottom and bury the cup andthen never knowthey were transplanted. Fresh from the garden greens just tastes so much better then frozen do and the stuff like collards will survive even the early frosts and taste that much better. Your zone isn't much different then mine and covering them on nights with frost warning Ihad lettuce peppers and tomates up till Dec this yr. the colloards lasted all yr long if you just harvest the outer leaves from your plants. it bolts when the tems get over 80 though so summer collards are very bitter and not good just as bolted spinache and other greens do.

Happy gardening.

Oh and watch for end of season clearences on planters and seeds for your next planting season.

[MotherOfGizmo]

So 2big, are you saying to plant broccoli now? We had tomatos thru most of Nov this year too, our peppers didn't do well in the pots, but this year its all in the ground so we're hoping for better yields!

Can't wait to try growing garlic, looks like I have a while to wait on that one!

[2big4mysize]

if you can find already growing plants in your garden center you can get a crop this yr. same for okra and eggplants if you have a shadey area you can get some of the leaf letuce to grow too but you will need to indoor sprout it. head lettuce might grow now too as will cabbage.

Swiss chard loves heat and should be fine plsanted now as will that NE Zealand spinach but ours bolted and was a waste of money

[CHFvictim]

Late start this year due to late frost. Onions dont mind, but we lost cucumbers and cauliflower. We put in tomato, cucumber, cauliflower, and pepper plants yesterday. It's our first year of for strawberries but the plants look good. May not produce much this year. The gaden looks great, now I just have to be patient for the late harvest.
Jim