Summer Needs To Get Here Already!!!

Tomatoes after the rain...





Corn and Tomatoes...





Nectarines...





The tree that the nectarines are on has peaches and nectarines grafted on to the same tree. In 2011 it got a bad case of peach leaf curl, but I managed to save it.

 

That's very helpful man, I rooted in perlite with some and they looked like hell after the transplant. I hardened them but looks like not long enough. Thanks

 

Corn and Tomatoes...





Giant Pumpkin, the plant is taking up the entire garden.





Giant Pumpkin, they start out yellow and then turn orange about 2/3 through the season. This is about the size of a tennis ball. Notice the stalk in the ground next to the vine. I put it there to make one of the vines go where I wanted it.





Nectarines...





Sunflowers, these are right at nine feet tall...

 

I had the same issue with pumpkin when I grew it one year. It took over the whole garden and surrounding area, that's how I got rats as well. They used all the cover from the huge leaves to get into the chicken coop and started gnawing my melons off the vine. A little late night .22 action and traps along their little rat "highways" nipped it in the bud. You're gardens looking good man, I learn something useful everytime I look in on it.

 

My cats get the rats, one of them caught one the other day as a matter of fact. That pumpkin isn't done growing yet. I think I am going to have to terminate all of the vines except the one with the pumpkin on it. With these you only keep one pumpkin, may be two, on the plant. If you keep anymore than that on them then they will not get as big as they should.


This is the last one I grew...335lbs

 

Awesome looking pumpkin, you're right about trimming down to one vine, that I do know works for giant pumpkins. My pops lab loved to go with me on the rat hunts. All I have to do is point somewhere and say what's that, she'll stick her nose in and sniff around till she finds a nest and lets me know where it is. It's pretty fun.

 

Corn - Tomatoes





Giant Pumpkin - This Is One Plant - Fricking Huge!





Giant Pumpkin





Peaches





Nectarines

 

I want some fruit trees! The damn ground squirrels killed off my Dwarf Peach and Dwarf Nectarine trees a few years back. Just tunneled around in the rootball until they just croaked in the summer heat. Damn Rats keep eating the tips and new gtowth on my cucumbers! NEarly killed my Eggplant and are now working on my herb garden eating all my basil and pineapple sage! Damn it!

 

I have two cats and they take care of the rats. I had birds eating on the nectarines and decided to pick them before they got more than I did. They could have gone another week to ten days and they would have been perfect. I really like the tree I have, it is a peach tree with nectarines grafted to it. In about a month the peaches will be perfect. My cherry tree was a dud this year, I had a grand total of two or three cherries because it rained like hell when they were in bloom.

 

We had the peach leaf curl the last 2 years as well. God we must live very close to each other. Does your tree produce a lot fruit yet? Ours is already about 25 years old so it is nearing the end of its life but it has some of the best looking peaches ever this year, and 100s more than we can ever eat. I will take more pics around July 25, that is when they are perfect (it is ALWAYS July 25th on the dot when they start falling). So cool that those are grafted together like that!


Have also been pulling about 10-15 cherry tomatoes daily and eating them all by myself, sooooo yummy. I love this veggie gardening! Never did it before now. I also had a really good acorn squash with tons of brown sugar, my first one ever.





Tomatoes 2 weeks ago or so, they are even bigger now, maybe a foot on one of them! That good soaking the past few days was awesome, wasn't it!?!

 

Ras-You should post some pics of your vegetable garden. It's insane. Those tomatoes are the biggest I've ever seen.

 

Thanks Ofo. Yes Canna, we live close to each other.

 

Summer is definitely here! It's been like 110 everyday for the last few days! So far though the garden is still kicking ass.

 

I had an early corn harvest. These babies are sweet.

 

Nice Bje! I love corn! I wish I had a little more room to grow a patch of corn. Maybe I'll try some next year.

 

That's a nice setup Ras. I have some old tires laying around, now I know what I can do with them. Bje, my corn looks like shit now. I've got a nutrient issue with the soil. I think the charcoal ashes from the bbq leached into the area and are screwing things up. That corn of yours looks mighty tasty.

 

Hey thanks MG. It's small but we enjoy it. I wish I had more room. I will be adding a few more tire planters next year. The tires work great as planters. I forget where I saw it for the first time but I tried it and we've been using them now for several years. They keep the gophers and ground squirrels from getting to my plants so easily and down here where it's so hot they work good for retaining some moisture in the root-zone cuz of the shape of the tires they hold water well. Each year I add some old soil from my indoor to top off the tires and I amend with some Organic all purpose fertilizer, plus I am feeding this year with my teas and they seem to be adding a lot more fruit set than in previous years and also more heat resistance.

 

My sister in law uses 5 gallon buckets. 1 plant per bucket. She will do 6 plants


at a time. Then a 2nd planting a month later and a 3rd a month after that.


She has fresh corn all summer long.


Peace....

 

Giant pumpkin growing up sunflower








Some pumpkins I culled and the plant





Jutras 1187 - about the size of a laundry basket





Everybody's got to eat