Gardening

[Growit1]

Just picked my first tomato. A Cherokee Purple weighing in at 1 lb. The Principe Borghese tomatoes are just a couple of days away.

[Delbert]

Is the tomato purple inside and out?     I picked a couple today but not the best looking.   Picked cucumbers today.   Getting my electric fence ready  for the coons as the corn is a few days from being ready.   I've used solar powered before but doesn't seem to bother longer haired varmits.   Getting swamped by squash.   

[Growit1]

It's a deep red color inside however the gel around the seeds tends more toward green rather than yellow. Taste is really, really good. So far this is the only purple/black tomato I've grown before. Also growing Cherokee Chocolate which is a sport of Cherokee Purple. Hoping that with the drop in the temperatures starting Sunday more tomatoes will set on. The other stuff in my garden is way behind yours. Probably pick the first beans this weekend and maybe cukes in about a week. Other than butternut I'm not growing squash in my garden this year. One of my boys is so will be getting them from him hopefully. I'm looking to saving seeds for next year and didn't want anything to cross. Lost all the sweet corn due to a cow jumping a fence. She left five stalks standing. The dogs have always taken care of the coon problem here.

[jarhead]

YAHOO !!! Finally got done with my beets. Ended up with 41 quarts and 69 pints of pickled beets. My finger nails look like I washed them in ink. So far, have canned 27 quarts of green beans but it's just the beginning. Pulled my onions a week ago and they are the biggest & sweetest I've ever grown. Got a big kettle of them peeled, ready for the food processor and then into the pressure cookers. Have them ready to dump in when I make salsa. The rest of the onions will be put in panty hose and hung in the cellar in a couple weeks. Dug a few of my spuds. They did good too. Watermelons, cantaloupes and cukes---I don't want to talk about them. So much for planting them in the shade !!!

[Sarge]

Jarhead, are you saying that you won't have me a watermelon?

[Delbert]

Picked all of my apricots.    I think eight but were really good.   Hope to double the crop next year.

[indygal]

I got a late start getting things planted, so there aren't any ripe peppers or tomatoes yet. But lots of green ones, and lots of blooms. And the flowers are doing great!

If anyone has a surefire way to kill bindweed, I'd be very interested to know it.

[Diane Amberg]

Bindweed is a real pain isn't it? I've been at it for years and have finally gotten down to just a couple of plants each year. I dig up the roots as much as possible and bag them because every tiny rootlet will try to grow.For the ones I can't dig, I keep pulling off the new growth at the soil level and eventually it will weaken and die. I try not to use Round Up or one of those unless I'm really desperate. Others may have better ideas.

[Delbert]

I noticed tomato worms doing their thing.   I found  almost a dozen and then I looked again in the evening and found 6 more.  They had eaten all the leaves off of a couple pepper plant. They were pretty big but only a few plants had a lot of eating done on them.  Haven't hardly seen any cucumber beetle.   So far the electric fence is keeping out the coons  but it could be a couple days before it is ready.

[Delbert]

I read on the computer that using biodegradable detergent dish soap is effective against squash bugs.  I was wondering if that information about being biodegradable is on the container.  Any certain brand?