Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Nice broccoli!
Picture looks funny over your sig quote though. Crack broccoli...not as healthy as you might think.

 

We already harvested 2 heads of broccoli. These were the second 2. The first went into broccoli chicken mac and cheese. These were blanched and frozen for later. I'm going to have a crap ton of stuff coming in the next month. Green beans, carrots, cucumbers, zuchini, and lettuce.

 

Bah. My garden's so far behind this year because we had such a cold rainy spring. I'm just now getting blossoms on my sugar snap peas, and my spinach and lettuce have just started to bolt. The heads on my broccoli are marble-sized right now.
By this time last year I'd already frozen two batches of peas and the lettuce and spinach had been pulled for three weeks.

 

Finally the tomatos are starting to ripen...



Now if only I can keep these buggers off my veggies! Plucked 3 in the last week!

 

Those Bastards will destroy Tomato plants very quickly. I haven't had any on my plants for a while. :crossfingers:

 

Tell me about it... I had a tomato plant last year that I managed to nurse back to health from the blight only to go to work and come home that afternoon to see nothing but a stalk and a single hornworm. This year they seem to be after my bell peppers? Coworker said to dust it with some Sevin... really didn't want to use any insecticides though.

 

We've got a predatory wasp around here that handles our hornworm problem for us. They sting the caterpillar (paralyzing it), plant their eggs on it, and the larvae eat the caterpillar until they hatch.

I've got some photos on my computer at home from last year's garden that I'll post tonight if I remember.


Another method is to sprinkle some Bacillus Thuringiensis around/on your plants. It's a naturally occurring bacteria, so it's a better pesticide option than Sevin would be.

This fall after you pull your plants, till up the soil and you'll probably find a bunch of hornworm pupae. They're pretty easy to see because they're so large.


Pick out as many as you can find and kill them (stepping on them works; chickens go nuts for them, kill them with fire if it makes you feel better)

Next year plant Basil in with your tomatoes; hornworms don't like it, and it's said that it can improve the flavor of your tomatoes. Borage is another plant that discourages hornworms, plus it's a big hit with bees (who pollinate your tomato blossoms- a win/win!). Marigolds work to repel hornworms too, because the Sphinx Moth that lays the eggs that become hornworms doesn't like the way marigolds smell.

You can also plant a "trap" plant. Flowering Tobacco works great for hornworms; they love it. Plant it as far away from your tomatoes as you can, and the moths will lay their eggs on that plant instead. After it's first bloom, cut it back and it'll keep flowering all summer. Pick off and kill any hornworms you find on the plant, obviously, otherwise they might expand to your tomato plants before the end of the summer!

 

Wasp v Hornworm pics:
Wasp stings the Hornworm and paralyzes it. Then she lays her eggs all over its back.


The eggs hatch and the larvae eat the Hornworm, who's still paralyzed for the entire process. Eventually the larvae emerge and start the whole process over again. By the time all of the larvae have hatched, the hornworm is just a shriveled husk that eventually drops off.






These pictures are all from my garden last year. Any hornworm that I found with the egg pods on it I left alone to let the wasps hatch, rather than plucking the worm and feeding it to the chickens. Hopefully I have more of them this year.

 

have never had home grown brocolli

I need a yard the size of yours, so I can have a nice garden

I HATE those buggers!!! I pull'em off with pliers and step on them

I don't like using chemicals either. Usually just check the plant two or three times a day.

We have the wasps here, too. Thanks for the tips to get rid of the horn worms.

 

If ya can find some canned peaches, blackberries or rasberries. My cuz in Virginia wont give up blackberries since he wins wine contests in North Carolina with his. pm me so I know. I can lose track of posts.

 

Yup. Something that paralyzes you so that its young can eat you while you're still alive is like something out of a horror movie.

When you get down to it, nothing gives you the willies like mother nature.

No problem. I've had a garden ever since I moved out of my parent's house (who have around an acre that they garden; I hope I'm still that ambitious at 60+!), and I've been battling these damn hornworms at every house/apartment I've had. The one we're in now makes Seven.

 

Wow, thanks for the info... Bacillus Thuringiensis, Borage, I've got a lot of homework to do. I need to import some of those wasps. Plucked 2 more hornworms yesterday after work.

 

Another 20 pts of green tomatoes. No shine.

 

Well evidently there are some of those wasps around here...

 

Damn. I had one horn worm that I found. Tomatoes about done in this heat. Thats why I planted early.
The tigress one is supposed to be heat tolerant. Its doing good at 5' tall.

 

Just finished this rolling shelf for my container garden and some coconut pots for some of my orchids and bromeliads

 

Those are good looking and delicate plants.

 

I bought a Black Mission Fig tree and a Zutano Avocado tree. The Zutano is primarily for cross pollinating the Hass trees.

 

I collect orchids and bromeliads mainly.

The last two are desert roses

 

Only recent garden shot that I've got.
I added 18 inches of trellis to my peas this year, and the damn things have still overshot it. This picture is from last weekend, too. Right now they're probably another 18 inches over the extra trellis.
For a sense of scale, I'm 5'7