It’s almost July. Crazy ain’t it?!?! Around the country most of you should be at least a month deep into your growing seasons. You should have already thinned out some seedlings after their true leaves shown and done succession plantings.
You’ve already shared your spring garden ideas with me and last month you told me how your May gardening was coming along.
Ginger Renne Doxie had a raised bed built from cinder blocks that had some tomatoes, peppers and radish. She also planned to grow some tomatoes upside down.
Juanita pretty much wrote an entire post about all she had going on from spinach and lettuces that she was harvesting to the onions she was eating daily. It was great to read the excitement in her comment.
Melissa Willis asked if it was a loaded question and said how she went out of control with her plantings, but had not rain in New Mexico. Hopefully she’s had some since.
Well on my balcony garden, I had that issue with the twigs in the soil, but all is not lost. My mint container is doing well. There are two swiss chard containers that I’m harvesting from regularly and using in my smoothies. Also, my Jack Be Little Pumpkin is looking decent so far.
Now on to the important questions and part of the post, what’s growing in your garden this time of the year?
I had to invest in fencing this year. I am under seige by animals, mostly bunnies who ate much of my hard work in the department of starting seedlings. They wiped out my broccoli and ate most of the pepper plants. I replanted, they started to get to them, I put up a fence. We’ve had one raccoon try to scale it, but it appears it was too bendy to hang on to and it gave up.
I just pulled up spinach which was bolting. I have paste and sandwich tomatoes, swiss chard, carrots, onions, eggplant and one zucchini plant with a ton of blossoms on it right now! Also, a variety of herbs.
Nothing. 🙁 I gave up because everything died and I didn’t want to spend more money on potting mix and transplants. 🙁
I’ve eaten plenty of peppers this year, a few strawberries, summer squash, zucchini, lettuce and spinach. This weekend I picked two beautiful cucumbers and snacked on those, the kids loved them. There is much more that will be ready soon. Only had 2 ripe tomatoes so far, but there are so many I won’t know what to do with them all in a few weeks.
I had wimpy broccoli last year, so I planted in aged goat manure this year and broccoli is overflowing the dinner pot! Lettuce, watercress,arugula is ready for salads, but everything else is growing slow because of the weather. It’s unseasonable cold this year.
Those vicious white bunnies!
Ugh that sucks. Sorry to hear.
I’m sure you’ll figure out what to do with all them tomatoes.
That is awesome. Nothing like some good goat poop.
Hello! I just have a handful of different tomato plants, some peppers, two squash that I got from my friend who’s a great gardener – they’re doing very well. I didn’t plant any of my own seeds until late, and I’m really bad at seedlings..they’re all weird now and I may plant them just to see as some are pickling cukes and I LOVE making pickles.
Hey Mike – we have two Pekin ducks – and their poopy swimming pool is great for watering the garden!
lots of pizzas, they make great sauce, and lots of canning.
On my roof I have 10 types of tomatoes, three types of eggplants, three types of cukes, 3 or 4 types of peppers, beets, carrots, patty-pans, snap peas and pole beans. It has been very cool here in the NW, but everything is growing well. tomato plants are all about 3′ high and some have set fruit, snap peas and beans are quickly climbing their trellises (and will provide shade for the sunroom) Japanese eggplant have begun to flower and the cucumber vines are finally starting to grow after a month of near dormancy. Sunny and 70= for the week so I guess I will have to start watering – I’ve only had to water three times in the last month! Lots of rain…
This is my inaugural crop, I’ve never done it before. A total of 35 5 gallon buckets, and so far no catastrophic failures!
Living In Vancouver,BC… we’ve had only ONE day of full sun.. most days are overcast or rainy…. so the plants are all very confused.. my 50+ tomato plants are all short – 12 – 18 inches.. but thick.. and they’re flowering. so we’re going to have cherry size beef, roma, rocket, taxi, green zebra… tiny heirlooms this year! lol
Lettuce and greens are ridiculous here..lots of it pops up and bolts right away… grows super tall looking for sun.. but no edible leaves
My”giant” sunflowers.. usually 10-14 feet tall are 18 inches and forming heads!
had to plant beet seeds three times, before I could get some to sprout
peas and beans are growing.. but.. not abundantly..
potatoes, carrots, onions…are the only thing that seems normal (even my garlic is being crazy… scaping.. but not done!)
argh! thank goodness farm markets will be able to supplement my teeny crop. I’ll be grateful for every scrap of food we get.. this year prices will be sick for produce… scary for a lot of people.
Things are slow in NW Indiana. The sweet corn is only knee high; not sure if there will be any ears, but there’s still time. Yellow squash and cucumbers are blooming and setting a few fruit. Tomatoes have a few blooms, the volunteer potatoes are doing well, but the sunflowers aren’t very tall. Too much rain and not enough heat for the peppers and watermelon, but I’m keeping my hopes up. 🙂 My plot is small, too small for all the winter squash I planted, but I just call it intensive planting and it makes me happy. 😉
Memories: Cucumbers bring back memories of Maine for me. Short on space in SoCal, we stretched an arch over our carrots and coaxed the cukes over the trellis.
Patience: Loofah sponges grow like vines (we used to think they came from the sea) and these gourds will finally be ready in late fall along with some bottlenecks and snake gourds that we’ll have fun painting.
Surprises: Along the edge of our trampoline we planted beans and acorn squash and watermelon are popping up everywhere our compost was used.
Kid Pleasers: Starflower/borage has entertained the neighborhood kids all season. They navigate around the bees to munch on the flowers and the leaves make tasty tea. I’m superstitiouss that they’re keeping tomato hornworms away – hope I didn’t just jinx it. Cut off jeans made neat potato growing sacks. Don’t know if we’ll really get potatoes but the plant is 5 inches tall already.
Duds: One grape plant has loads of fruit but the other I may have hacked too much and boo hoo might not get any grapes this season. Can’t get sunflowers to sprout in the soil no matter what we do but transplants have worked. Zucchini in whiskey barrels – won’t do that again.
sounds like my plot. Vancouver weather has been terrible. I’m still waiting for the summer to start.
only thing growing is kale, shard and beans/peas.
I have 1 squash plant that is rapidly outgrowing it’s bucket. Waiting to get the last few materials for a 4×4 raised garden and get it together so my squash can spread its roots a bit more. I’ve seen several flowers, just gotta get them pollinated so I can get some produce. Can’t wait! I think a pumpkin might be fun too…we’ll see how the garden building goes.
I have 1 squash plant that is rapidly outgrowing it’s bucket. Waiting to get the last few materials for a 4×4 raised garden and get it together so my squash can spread its roots a bit more. I’ve seen several flowers, just gotta get them pollinated so I can get some produce. Can’t wait! I think a pumpkin might be fun too…we’ll see how the garden building goes.
Hello! I’ve got 4 kinds of peppers, 3 kinds of tomatoes, Swiss Chard, 2 kinds of eggplant, cantaloup melons, and some herbs! All doing well-hope to be harvesting some soon! 🙂
N-in-N: sorry-I’m in Norfolk, VA! Heat and Humidity–our SPECIALTY! 🙂 Lol!
N-in-N: sorry-I’m in Norfolk, VA! Heat and Humidity–our SPECIALTY! 🙂 Lol!
N-in-N: sorry-I’m in Norfolk, VA! Heat and Humidity–our SPECIALTY! 🙂 Lol!
This is my first year gardening (except the one basil plant I killed last year), and I’m happy to say that it’s going extraordinarily well!
I got 12 free tomato plants from the bank earlier this year ( I don’t know the variety). Two of the plants got over-watered, but I have at least 20 actual tomatoes on the rest of the vines!
I also overwatered 2 jalapeno plants and 1 bell pepper plant, but I have at least 10 jalapenos and 15 bell peppers growing.
My herbs are growing well, too. I have already done some harvesting and freezing.
I can’t wait until next year to plant more! I didn’t want to go overboard this year since I just started, but I’m planning on more variety next year.
We haven’t had much rain in the Philly area since about mid-May. Despite that, the mulching that I did this spring while it was raining has helped the plants enormously.
Right now, I have broccoli, snap peas, bush beans, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, plum tomatoes, pumpkins, acorn squash, raspberries, lettuce, pole beans, kale, cucumbers, onions, peaches, plums, and apples growing in my different gardens and beds.
Glad your chard and pumpkins are happy 🙂 And dude what’s up w/the city officals and the balcony violations?
Well, the tomatoes seems to be doing mostly great. There are ripe tomatoes on two, green ones on all the rest. Basil and chard are happy, the one cuc, squash and gourd plant all seem to have established themselves well. The malabar spinach is really starting to vine…and I need to check some online botany sites to make sure it’s malabar spinach before I eat it…
Regular spinach and lettuce are doing awefully. It just got to damned hot this past weekend and it’s almost all bolted and the next round of seedlings are too young yet. And radish and carrots and new onions are taking forever… On the up side the latest batch of compost in use sent up volunteer bok choy in the front yard and a couple of pots and went in the green smoothie today 🙂
And I utterly failed at not getting new plants. A couple from my bike group moved and I inherited all of their pots, soil, succulents, two rosemary Christmas trees and a zucchini. Oh and one bell pepper plant but I harvested that already. The 8″ pots all went to John for his balcony expansion project. At least I didn’t buy anything…
9 kinds of tomatoes, at least a dozen varieties of peppers, 4 or 5 kinds of courgettes, 4 kinds of cucumber, sweet corn, pole beans, 3 varieties of potatoes, all sorts of lettuce/kale/arugula, onions, garlic, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, a variety of citrus trees, a few first year stonefruits (with no fruit on them this year), and more assorted sweet and savory herbs than I know what to do with! Phew.
Nursing along tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans, and tomatillos. The drought is making things dodgey this year though. Basil is doing well. Already made about 3 cups of pesto.
I’ll take some pickles please 😉
That is awesome. Good stuff!
Makes you appreciate food that much more…don’t it?
Nice. Way to be persistent and keep with it. Always an inspiration Leah.
Small?!?! Don’t talk to me about small plots 😉
Thanks for sharing. I’ve been hearing lots about borage lately. Now I’m intrigued.
Keep me updated. Good stuff.
Hoep you’ll be sharing with me too 😉
That’s what’s up. Way to stick with it and keep growin (crappy pun). Keep up the great work.
I miss the Illadelph. I went to Drexel and lived there for a while.
That is mighty green of you. Repurposing and reusing. Nice.
Love the variety. Sweet.
Pesto. Yes. I’ll take some.
no kidding. and regular weather.
Here in Brooklyn I have no outdoor space (and my fire escape faces a main road, so I would get busted pretty quickly if I put anything on it) so my “garden” is entirely inside in containers. I have italian and thai peppers going along with several containers of heirloom tomatoes. All my herbs are doing well – rosemary, thai and italian basil, sage, mint, and chives. I also have a hops plant going that will hopefully supply me with some tasty cascade hops next year for some home brewing.
I hope to get a container or two of greens, carrots, and turnips going in the fall once I get some open space. This is my first attempt and urban gardening and overall I’m pretty happy with the resutls thus far…
Nice bro. Way to hold it down in the Brook and make the use of your space. Good stuff.
I just love this website.
Here in Portugal the weather is really hot and my Cherry tomatoes and zucchini love it 🙂
Rosário ( Lisbon)
I just love this website.
Here in Portugal the weather is really hot and my Cherry tomatoes and zucchini love it 🙂
Rosário ( Lisbon)
I live in southwest Missouri. I have tomatoes and cucumbers and lots of herbs. My cucumbers are freaking me out because they are doing so well. I have four plants. Dozens and dozens and dozens of flowers on them!!! What if the cucumbers are ready for picking all at the same time? Your website really inspired me to start container gardening. Hope you have some good pickle receipes. (:
Two types of tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow and green bell peppers, chocolate sweet peppers, radishes, asparagus beans and runner beans. About 5 weeks into the garden, but I have some of the peppers growing. No tomatoes yet.
It’s summer, but we’ve only had a few weeks of sun, and we’re in SoCal!! I’ve got a few tomatoes, a few strawberries, and some cantaloupe seedlings that have just started. My lettuce is still going strong but my kale and cabbage are just about finished. My broccoli was done a few weeks ago. I’m about to start some pumpkins with the kids.
Well, some of my tomatoes have started to bloom, (yay!), looks like a couple sweet peppers want to bloom, still getting onions and lettuce as I successive plant those. Am really loving my salads this year. I have planted green beans in cinder blocks and they are doing great! Yeah, who woulda thought? Pumpkins are blooming and starting to make little pumps, zucchinis took off really well and what we thought were zucchini that came up in the compost pile in the spring, may possibly be watermelons as we did not have any round squash last year. Lavender, sage, oregano, chives and basil are doing great. I love basil on fresh sliced tomatoes and lots of other dishes, but I just don’t like pesto. How can that happen? Just ain’t right, is it? lol My disappointment so far is that something is eating every cucumber I plant or seed, even in the Earth boxes. Gotta be rabbits, but I have to outsmart them, somehow, as I have to have cucumbers, no ifs, ands or buts!. I am experimenting with growing ginger indoors. We’ll see. So far, its a great growing season for me, all in all.
Thanks for the shout out, Mike! We still have had no rain here in NM (lots of fires, though) but my garden is well mulched and I am watering often. The highlights in the garden right now are tomatoes, squash (summer and winter), zucchini, carrots, pie pumpkins, blue & sweet corn, potatoes, onions and beets! We just harvested our first crop of garlic and are now planning our fall plantings 🙂
Thanks bro. Glad you likes. Hope you enjoy the fruits of you labor.
Freaking you out in a good way. Hmm, I don’t have any pickle recipes off-hand, but I’ll see if I can dig some up for you.
All sounds good in Cabbagetown.
I hear that on the SoCal sun…
Sounds great. Good stuff!
My pleasure. Thanks for sharing again.
I am fortunate to live in Northern CA, but we have been having unseasonably cool and rainy weather mixed with hot, hot spells. My peas are doing very well, my beans are a little behind. I was hoping for tomatoes in July, but it looks like August will be more likely. Cucumbers are well established and I have been enjoying fresh cilantro, basil and chives regularly. I experimented with watermelons this year – fingers crossed, the vines are doing well. Keep up the good work – urban (or even suburban) gardening I have found to be the best way to keep myself positive and grounded in these crazy times.
I’d like it to be no other way than crazy 😉
I also have mint, chocolate mint and apple mint, jalapeños, and cucumbers that are producing like crazy right now. Some parsley, my lettuce just bolted, and waiting on carrots.
I too have gone all CRAZEE!! I have 3 different heirloom tomatoes (including Black Prince), 3 different types of summer squash, 4 different beans (pole & bush), eggplants, cucumber (lemon & Persian), Peppers (banana, bell & cherry), I have my old faithful Chard/Collard box that is year round, chives, cilantro, parsley, Thai basil and chocolate mint. My dog is mad that he has no place left to sun himself on our balcony:)
Well, okay. Not really small, then. 😉
Chocolate mint is sooo good.
Hopefully he won’t be squatting on your garden…
Have two types of cucumbers (asian and chicago pickling) 6 types of peppers ranging from Thai Chili (love spicy!!), Banana Peppers to Bell Pepper (red, yellow and green) and Serano Peppers. Herbs (Rosemary, Dill, Basil, Parsely, Oragono, and Chocolate Mint), Fruit (Blackberries and Strawberries) Green Onions, Swiss Chard and Kale, and 3 types of Tomatoes (Ace, Sweet 100 Cherry, and Better Boys). Though the Better boy has been trying to shape like a *Y* and grow outwardly, I really want it to grow upwards! So I took some twine and tied the two main branches together to help it grow more upwards and strengthen. Kinda hope I didnt shock and kill the poor thing, it has been starting to flower!
If you kill it, I’m reporting you. Keep me update 😉
I went a bit overboard: I have 13 tomato plants (3 varieties), 3 hot peppers, 2 cucumbers, 1 zucchini, 2 eggplant, a pumpkin, 5, or so, bush beans, about a dozen pole beans, 2 basil, 2 oregano, 2 parsley, a thyme, a rosemary, a sage, a stevia, a mint, a lemon balm, chives, green onions, about 8 strawberry plants, countless marigolds, and some flowers that my hubby planted. I was, also, growing, 2 varieties of lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, kale, and chinese kale, but pulled those out because they were starting to bolt. I’m getting ready to start an indoor crop of the greens and will plant a fall crop as well.
lol, thats mean! Will do.
Up here in Berkeley, I have 1 cherry and 2 volunteer tomatos showing blossoms, 2 summer squashes and 3 more volunteers, dill, basil (just starting to be able to pick), 4 kinds of lettuce and spinach, which we’ve been eating salads from for a few weeks, 6-8 broccoli plants in different stages, 3 kinds of chile peppers (some in my kitchen which we picked from for almost a year now)’ mint, chocolate mint, oregano and rosemary. I haven’t had to re-plant broccoli for two years, as I get it to re-seed itself by using the seed pod branches as mulch! Also, as we cold compost, I get squash and tomato volunteers–the trick is to put compost in your beds at the right time of year! I am experimenting with African Blue Basil for the second year, as some local gardeners tell me it will come back in the spring if the winter isn’t too cold. I will be able to pick from it through December at least!
Nice. How do you start your seeds indoors?
Basil in December. That’d be awesome!
I have tomatoes, beans, cucumber, squash and herbs growing in containers on my 3rd floor balcony in Chicago. Everything was doing really well until they all got pelted by golf ball size hail last Thurday. It was so sad. Any advice on getting them healthy again would be appreciated. Luckily we have had great weather since then.
Hm, not sure on how to recover from hail….
I have a metal shelving unit with 2 grow lights hanging from the top shelf. I attached a picture, though it’s kinda hard to see. The grow lights are adjustable and so are the shelves so I have a lot of flexibility with the setup. I was able to start all of my plant from seed this year. I’m hoping to use these lights to have fresh greens all winter long. I live in Ohio, so I don’t have the year round growing that you do.
Nice!
My balcony garden unfortunately bit the dust as the angle of the sun deprived the entire area of direct sunlight. This has led to the decline and outright death of just about everything. Even the Peppermint is dying from 107 degree days and no sunlight. But, the angle will change in winter, just in time for the air to be cool enough for shallow rooted veggies to thrive in my gutter planters. Hope exists!
Keep hope alive girl!
This is my second year gardening- Really jacked it up last time… (Tomatoes and cukes growing up into my climbing roses, haha) I’m in NW Arkansas and we’re having a great year for tomatoes. My Supersweet 100’s are going crazy, as are the Better Boys. Also trying a NC Weeks giant that is doing well, but not fruiting yet.
Trying out a few heirloom plants and edible flowers for some variations: nasturtium, bee balm, malabar spinach, a different kind of romaine than I’ve had in the past. Also finally got into herb gardening with some success- basil, lemon basil, chamomile, oregano, dill, lemon thyme, cilantro, chives… Plus all of my mint. Just realized I was missing pineapple mint when I read you gum alternative piece. Darnit!
We’re harvesting Cow Horn and Clemson Okra daily, as well as the 2 tomatoes and 2 different kinds of cucumbers. I didn’t have much room for the cukes this year, so I painted an old wooden ladder and placed it in a corner. The cukes are climbing it really well and winding up a few sunflowers that grow there.
Here’s an easy recipe for refrigerator pickles. Just got a jar, with recipe from a friend the other day.
3 quarts sliced cucumbers
3-1/2 cups sugar
3 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp dry mustard
Mix sugar, vinegar, salt and spices.
DO NOT COOK.
Pour over sliced cucumbers and refrigerate.
Shake once a day.
Ready in a week.
Nice. I like it. When can I come over for dinner?
Hahaha… Whenever you’re up for a drive. Hubby’d love to see me boring somebody else with plant talk. 😉
Nice!