Season Long Garden Log For 2008! (With Pictures)

[SONNY]

We are about ready to start caning the green beans, (got enough production now to make the 7 quart s needed for a canner load and will hit some of the beets too!!---beets this year are very tender, so I want to can several quarts of them!
just finished up 15 more bags of peas!---makes35 bags so far this year! thanks; sonny

[KETCHAM]

EEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!mY BEANS ARE JUST STARTING !!! Peas dead cucumbers ,zuccini and squash starting to go.Kevin not a good garden the first year here oh well I expected it. Kevin

[DanR]

Don't be disappointed. This has been an unusual year. I have not heard of anyone having a good garden in this area. My garden is 2 months behind where it should be. I have never had to replant so much. It's just going to be a late harvest and not as much. I think it is an alien plot of some kind.

[KETCHAM]

Now I can get in the garden but wait its CUB TUG WEEKEND!!!! gee i think I'll stay home NOT!!!!!! Kevin

[SONNY]

We did 7 quarts of beans, they turned out good!--had 17 quarts total from this picking! I picked enough peas for another 2 bags, plus still have some for "saved seed bin" . The beets are in progress and have 5 quarts so far and will do a few more!
had 1 more bag of fava beans plus some for seed!
Taters are fist-sized,(had to "steal" a few for fresh cooking!!---GOOD STUFF MANARD!!! lol! Especially the Yukon Gold's) maters are getting a lighter green, so they are starting to turn, Virginia found a few ripe cherry maters and a couple Juliet's, so since we have several different kinds it will be interesting to see how long the mater season go here!
Been so busy weedin, that I got behind on the pic postin',---will get some new ones up soon! thanks; sonny

[KETCHAM]

Ripping out the corn and dead peas not a good first year in my garden Oh well!!! There is always next year RATS!!! Never got in to fertilze or cultivate.Corn is tassling at 2ft this stinks Kevin

[SONNY]

Put up another canner load ( 7 quarts) of green beans today. Taters now large fist sized!---Had to start onion harvest early this year because of all the rain, and have some baseball sized onions, so they seem to do well at new acres gardens!
The chicken corn is about 6 feet tall and should be about ready to tassel!---The sweet corn has just tasseled and has 2 ears per stalk set, hope to get at least enough to fill the alloted freezer space!
Maters loaded with big green ones,--no red ones yet---a few cherry maters ripe, but no great numbers yet!
Late melons looking good, but don't know if they will make it or not,---have wilt in the garden this year because of so much rain and humidity all the time!
zuckes and cukes are doing fair, we got our fill and gave a lot of them away!--The vines are getting the wilt and won't last much longer!
Looks like a little over a dozen cabbages survived, and are starting to form heads(started with over 100 plants)!
Sweet taters are getting good length to the vines now and might make a few!
Eggplants starting to bloom and will be a while before they are even close to being ready! thanks; sonny

[SONNY]

Here are some updated pics of our gardens!
Pole Limas headed for the 5 foot chain link fence!

Sweet corn tasseling!

Shade attachment on the creeper

Cucumber plot

Muskmelons

Mater acre!!

Green bean row

squash eggplants and peanuts

8 great rows of spuds!

2 rows of sweet taters

Cabbage row

Some Big Boy maters in cages


I have a few more pics to take of the gardens, (camera got hot today and quit), so will do them in another post!!
We just started a batch of dill pickles today and these take 4 weeks to ferment out before you can them!--We only need about 4 quarts, so this one batch should do us!
Will do another 7 quarts of green beans before the season ends, and that will make 21 quarts, should do with the freezer beans! Enjoy the update pics!!!! thanks; sonny

[Billy Fussell]

Looks like you are doing all right in your garden. Mine burned up. We did o.k., but not like we should have. My pintos and butterbeans did poorly. Just a few bags of each. Purple hull peas did pretty good but the cream peas didn't. Sweet corn was fair. But we got enough put up to last all year, so I can't really complain. After the flood early in the year, it quit raining and basiclly hasn't rained since. We didn't get a drop from the latest hurricane.

Billy

[SONNY]

We had another .9 inch of rain and just got the maters and sweet corn cultivated before it hai!--also had 60 mph strait line wind with ithe rain, so may have been more than .9 actual rain!--I am sure that some of it missed the guage!
We just finished the last cooker full of green beans, and are looking at making a different tater digger for this year's crop, as they are spread out wider in the ridges and the little cub unit isn't going to reach them without chopping a lot of them up!---Think I will see if I can make a flat-bottom model to reach about 30 inches wide and will have to pull it with the 404, but need the extra width and depth to get the spuds this year!

Cabbage doing good and dill pickles in the fermenter smell and look like dills!!! thanks; sonny

[SONNY]

First maters are just starting to ripen and are quite tasty!!----saw 1 long white eggplant hanging on a plant, (have several different kinds) ----cabbage is making great heads, so far, (still have 16 or so that the birds didn't destroy when they were small)----Guess its a good thing that we started out with over a hundred plants or we wouldn't have had any!!
have had lots more rain in the last few days, too!---The late planted "chicken corn is about 8 feet tall and still not tasseled out!!(don't know what this stuff thinks it is,--ole cub NOT gonna be choppin these stalks down after harvest!!LOL!! thanks; sonny

[KETCHAM]

Done with most of my garden disced it down first year stunk but I knew that before I started OH WELL next year will be better I know.Had fun trying and that important!!!! At least to me fustrating though!!! KEVIN

[SONNY]

Here are some pics.of the "new model" tater digger that I just finished making! ----Hope it will work!
















I first made it as a 3-point model, but the cub couldn't handle it! ----too much slack in my 3-pt arms and not able to regulate the depth!----I re-built it to make a pull type unit and have not got to try it yet, so don't know if cubby will do the job this time or not!---I think it will if I can hold the depth steady enough!

Have some crop update pics to follow! thanks; sonny

[SONNY]

Here are some current pics of some of the gardens!
This is called a garden peach,---looks like melon plant but supposed to have small sweet fruit on it!

Spud patch 1 just about ready to dig,--plants are maturing fast now!

Sweet tato rows, checked today and found some good sized ones set!

Sweet corn is about ready to start harvesting!-----a couple more days or so!!!!

peanuts and eggplants in garden 5

close-up of peanut plants

maters and melons in garden 2

limas in garden 2 on the fence!---they have a long way to go yet before making a crop!


The gardens at New Acres have been good to us this year with PLENTY of produce!----We have gotten our quota for our use and gave/still giving away goodies!
We also canned 17 quarts of peach sauce and might have 1 other tree that has some peaches on it!--they are just turning ripe, so we will see what they are! thanks; sonny

[Hengy]

Sonny,

This has been and continues to be a GREAT thread that you have started. Thank you for doing it!

Very ingenious!

Mike in La Crosse, WI