Quarantine Vegetable Gardens

[LadyL]

My peas have pods!
Harvested another bucketful of potatoes earlier this week. I am curious about something. I’ve planted several types of potato - Yukon Gold, Cornish Earlies, new potatoes - yet everything I dig up is the same, smallish new potato-sized. Not complaining, just wondering how that happens.
Anyway. Toodling around the garden a few days ago, I thought ‘ooh that branch is black’ followed by ‘gah! Aphids’. Many, many aphids. I am determined not to use chemicals or pesticides, so ran to a gardening forum for advice. Turns out my most favourite insect in the world, the ladybird, is the answer. So I have ladybird food, a ladybird house and 25 ladybirds being delivered next week. Hopefully they’ll make themselves at home. When I was a child, ladybirds were everywhere - now, I don’t remember the last time I saw one. I hope they’ll be happy in my little safe haven...

I had to google
otherwise known as blackflies and ladybugs lol

 

[CeeCeeCat]

I had to google
otherwise known as blackflies and ladybugs lol

Sometimes it’s like a different language

 

[LadyL]

my zucchini has sprouted!
I'm excited!

 

[Midwestmom2019]

Soapy water spray is great.

 

[watergirl62]

Soapy water spray is great.

Probably fine to use that around bees also. I ended up returning the neem oil I was so excited about! because it had a bee caution in the fine print. My hives are right next to my garden. My new mellow hive has an empty box to build in and a brand new queen. My old hive got taken over by grouchy swarm bees but has two honey supers on it. Huge hive. Hoping to harvest that soon.

We have cucumbers and summer squash and jalapenos and ghost peppers coming in and lots of green tomatoes that are finally turning red. The okra is coming along, as is the climbing spinach (malabar). Malabar can go straight into a salad and thrives in a 100-plus degree days. Amazing! I am pretty sure I have one eggplant plant. My herbs have gone crazy.

Found two humongous green catapillars munching on my tomatoes, they are easy to find because they are always near their path of destruction. Interesting, they also love my perennial datura (angel's trumpet) plant also. If you watched or read Outlander, it was what Claire called thorn apple. The blooms are huge and white and quite lovely.

 

[Kavya01]

did not know that about neem oil and bees, thank you!!

 

[mickey2942]

This is becoming an addiction. More plants, more dirt, more containers. Hoping that I get something that is edible.

 

[CeeCeeCat]

My ladybirds (ladybugs) arrived this morning. I popped them out into the tomato plants and mixed up some of their food - hopefully they’ll stick around. Cute little things.
It’s so, so humid here today. Unbearable. Even the cats didn’t want to hang about in the garden today - everyone trooped back inside with me, grumbling about the heat before plonking themselves in front of various fans.

 

[Eleven_11]

This is becoming an addiction. More plants, more dirt, more containers. Hoping that I get something that is edible.

Same here. I’ve always had a brown thumb and this time I read through the thread, watched several videos and I’m slowly planting. I have several sprouts right now, if I can just keep something alive and eat it, I’ll be super happy.

 

[oviedo]

This is becoming an addiction. More plants, more dirt, more containers. Hoping that I get something that is edible.

me too - I've gotten very creative with my containers - I really can't plant in the ground here - the rains just pummel the plants and they are destroyed too easily. I'm about to cut open a very large cardboard box and make a 'container" to transplant the squash and beans which have grown tremendously - and my tomato plant is being supported by an old crutch. I can't find my cages...

 

[CeeCeeCat]

The strawberries are starting to ripen and I have two flowers on the tomato plants. I love seeing little signs of progress every day.

 

[oviedo]

kale is on the bottom - and the lettuce, arugula and spinach are in the cart - green beans and squash are in old refrigerator drawers and the tomato plant is in a 5 gallon bucket from Lowe’s that I used to catch rainwater in herbs are in a large round terra cotta planter - thyme, sage, cilantro, rosemary and basil plus I have a very large herb planter with more - we love homemade pesto !

 

[oviedo]

The strawberries are starting to ripen and I have two flowers on the tomato plants. I love seeing little signs of progress every day.

Did you use seeds or starts? That’s next for me

 

[CeeCeeCat]

Did you use seeds or starts? That’s next for me

Seeds for the tomatoes and starts for the strawberries. I planted the tomato seeds on February 20th and the plants are now really tall and dense.

 

[Gardener1850]

My first tomato has started to develop and it's already the size of a ping pong ball. The variety is called Black Prince and this is the first year I've grown these. All my tomato plants are growing like weeds. Today it's in the low 90's and very humid. Great weather for growing tomatoes.

 

[LadyL]

Same here. I’ve always had a brown thumb and this time I read through the thread, watched several videos and I’m slowly planting. I have several sprouts right now, if I can just keep something alive and eat it, I’ll be super happy.

me 3!

 

[LadyL]

my carrots are sprouting
except I found it very hard to separate the tiny seeds so my husband thinks I'm gonna end up with a couple huge carrots instead of several smaller ones\
planting more stuff on the weekend

 

[Gardener1850]

my carrots are sprouting
except I found it very hard to separate the tiny seeds so my husband thinks I'm gonna end up with a couple huge carrots instead of several smaller ones\
planting more stuff on the weekend

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but you'll want to thin out the carrot seedlings or they won't develop into full size carrots.

Here's a good video on how to thin carrots:

 

[mickey2942]

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but you'll want to thin out the carrot seedlings or they won't develop into full size carrots.

Here's a good video on how to thin carrots:

I am waiting for some small baby carrots.

Gardening is super fun. But I want immediate gratification. Sigh.

 

[sassyblue]

My first tomato has started to develop and it's already the size of a ping pong ball. The variety is called Black Prince and this is the first year I've grown these. All my tomato plants are growing like weeds. Today it's in the low 90's and very humid. Great weather for growing tomatoes.

I grew my first Black Prince 14 years ago and it was so wonderful I had to have every heirloom black tomato variety available. It's a staple in my garden. Hope you love it as much as I do!