ot garden report - long

Over all it has been a good year. We got planted late due to cold wet spring. Then the middle of June the rain just shut off and have very dry since then. Sweet corn could have used some rain as the ears were developing but in spite of that we had a lot of ears - just small, but tasted very good. Have had the best ever eggplant crop. Tomatoes are doing great. Due to the cool 1'st half of Aug we had green beans and lettuce longer than usual. Watermelons and cantaloupe are many but need rain to get more size to them. Okra is producing well. Potatoes, peppers, beets, zucchini and carrots not doing well due to lack of rain. We have had fewer pests than normal, but have also seen a big increase in assassins so maybe they're keeping the pests from getting a foothold. Ticks were really bad early and chiggers have been really bad all summer. Have seen more dragon flies this summer and fewer lightning bugs than I can remember. Cicadas (chicken candy) have been more plentiful, grasshoppers a little less than usual.

This year has been the poorest year I have ever had form my garden. Tomato's have all but died out and did poorly. Squash did ok at first but is also gone. Okra very very poorly. Green peppers yet to do any thing and look sick., Hot peppers doing so so and that is it and have yet to get enough to do any thing with. Green beans on the other hand have done well up till now and they are slowing down

Very hot and dry here. I had a good crop of Black Berries. Grass hoppers have been very bad.
I ordered seed on the Internet, didn't get carrots, called them and they said they didn't have the variety that I ordered. I ask them to send whatever variety they had. I got a package later, opened it up and dumped it in my little Planet Jr., planted a row and went on. I got a good stand up, looked at them in a few days and they looked like Tomatoes. I never cleaned up the planter because I was in a hurry. Went back and checked the hopper and it had tomatoes seed in it. I said all that to say I am beginning to get some nice tomatoes, unusual for late August early Sept. I may try that again next year.

Fruit trees here in east central SD going berserk. Boards under all the limbs. Apples, peaches, plumbs, chokecherries, cherries, and apricots off the charts.
Wild plums coming now and they a re crazy. I have picked 6 bushel of Granny Smiths off a 9 year old tree and I think I have half of them. 10 Qts of applesauce in the cooler now. Harrelson's coming in a few weeks.

Started out wet and cold here, planted everything late, rained and cold and cloudy the whole month of June. In July we finally got some heat and then no more rain, had the peas, potatoes and onions in middle of May and they did well. Had yukon gold, kenebec, russet, and red nordland potatoes and 4 kinds of onions, they turned out to be the best I have ever had, and no potato bugs this year, not a one! That's unheard of around here. Green beans are still producing, just made a batch of dilly beans tonight. Watered the sweet corn and it did just all right. Vine stuff was late and made some, watermellon won't make it, cabbage just starting to make decent heads, there really late, I'm usually canning my kraut by now. Watered the tomatoes and they did great, just finished salsa and whole tomatoes and will make juice from the rest, will never use them all. Apples did good but were late, so it started out as a very frustrating year but turned out pretty good. I have over 300 jars and have only about 25 left, so the root celler will be full and the freezer is full also.

Tomatoes were small, but the weeds got to them. Did not get much attention. Long haying season because bromegrass was good.

I would say I've got nothing to complain about, as you sort of get what you put in. Excess June rains washed the soil that is for sure. Tomatoes, one nice round of them, enough that I missed a few, overipe on the vine. My corn patch did fine on one side, I'll make it much better next season. Everything else I grew produced fine, well maybe the bell peppers are the worst off, slow, but then nice growth, seemed to flower ok, just late. I did fertilize correctly/specifically for bell peppers where planted, check PH etc., easy on the nitrogen, plants look very nice, 3' tall at least, just a late crop, they will produce well into October, I've picked them in snow before, took photos to remember etc.

Apples, over 50 wild trees, near the house and my one nice planted tree, produced like crazy, wild ones are falling and all over the ground, pears are decent, trees were loaded with them, deer, 'chucks have an apple smorgasbord all around here.

Kornfused ,
My place in the country has unusual clay. The water is likely to run off faster than soak in. I read where some people used a post hole digger to plant their garden. I tried it this year on my tomatoes and peppers and left about an 8 inch hole so I can add water to just the hole and not water the weeds. I put 2 ft wide chicken around plants to keep critters from eating the young plants. Between plants I had some grass clippings from last year. The grass clippings are about gone, but it works so well going to do it next year. I didn't till this year. Used loader and cleaned off trash from garden. Put trash in the mulch pile. Ground was hard and weeds had a difficult time getting started.

Took loader and put two piles of dirt for pickles. That worked well too. Very little effor gardening this year. Like minimum till, I call it minimum work.

BTW, my 12 inch post hole digger is on a 3 pt hitch. No work there either. Put holes about 3 ft apart.

I've never had luck with mellons or corn. Critters will eat the corn. Would need to put a chain link fence around garden to raise corn. I'm mostly a tomato, pickle and pepper guy.

George

Great garden again this year lots of sweet corn,Okra,green beans,squash of several different types,lima beans,Butternut winter squash,Green Peppers, tomatos are still going stong even though my wife has canned more than she needs she said plus made about 20 gals.of tomato juice and made spaghetti sauce.Still coming in are the tomatos,peppers,squash,sweet potatos look great as do the late lima beans and green beans.No bug problems this year at all.Everything done organically in the garden BTW.

Hey TD, care to share your tomato juice recipe? email open

George, my wife did the hole thing this year too - only I don't have an auger (just my back and a shovel), but she put a mixture of cow manure and sand and epsom salts in the hole. This was afer I tilled - now that not tilling and hard ground preventing the weeds sounds interesting. I tried something different two years ago - planted a cover crop of canola (supposed to be good to draw in the pollinators) and then opened up what I wanted for the plants. What a failure - I had worst case of blister beetles ever.