The Garden

[wuapinmon]

We ate the first wave of cherry tomatoes in our salad on Sunday. Grapes and peaches should be ripe within the next two weeks or so. It has been a pretty mild May, so all the plants are looking strong. The most difficult thing with our garden this year has been keeping our toddler from picking stuff.

What variety of peach do you run in that heat that doesn't need _______ hours of below freezing weather in the Winter?

[Donuthole]

What variety of peach do you run in that heat that doesn't need _______ hours of below freezing weather in the Winter?

Early Elberta. Delicious, but they aren't cling-free, so canning is pretty much impossible. We make some jam, eat a bunch fresh, and share the rest with neighbors and friends.

[mtnbiker]

Early Elberta. Delicious, but they aren't cling-free, so canning is pretty much impossible. We make some jam, eat a bunch fresh, and share the rest with neighbors and friends.

Elbertas being ripe within the next couple of weeks? That's crazy talk around here. Mine aren't ripe until mid-September. We love them fresh, of course, but also dehydrate a lot of them. My wife has also started processing some of them into pie filling. The other day my granddaughter asked my wife if she could have some dried oranges. She was looking at the jar of dried peaches on the counter.

I also have 6 big old Bing cherry trees that ripen up the end of June. Unfortunately, canker or blight has been going through the area for the past few years, and I've already lost a tree to it and another is almost gone. The trees are about 65 years old, though, and are nearing the end of their useful fruit-bearing lives. An old orchardist in my ward told me he planted them when he was 18. Bummed about losing them.

[Donuthole]

Elbertas being ripe within the next couple of weeks? That's crazy talk around here. Mine aren't ripe until mid-September. We love them fresh, of course, but also dehydrate a lot of them. My wife has also started processing some of them into pie filling. The other day my granddaughter asked my wife if she could have some dried oranges. She was looking at the jar of dried peaches on the counter.

I also have 6 big old Bing cherry trees that ripen up the end of June. Unfortunately, canker or blight has been going through the area for the past few years, and I've already lost a tree to it and another is almost gone. The trees are about 65 years old, though, and are nearing the end of their useful fruit-bearing lives. An old orchardist in my ward told me he planted them when he was 18. Bummed about losing them.

Early Elbertas ripen a couple months sooner than a regular Elberta, as I understand it. And it's a lot warmer here than in Utah, so I'm guessing that further expedites the process. Our tree blossomed in February.

[wuapinmon]

Early Elberta. Delicious, but they aren't cling-free, so canning is pretty much impossible. We make some jam, eat a bunch fresh, and share the rest with neighbors and friends.

Neat. I remember being shocked when I learned that California is the #1 peach producer in the country, producing more cling and cling-free each than all others combined, or some crazy number like that. Being from the Peach State, I was incredulous when someone told me that, but it's no lie. Peaches in Vegas seriously blow my mind.

[mtnbiker]

Early Elbertas ripen a couple months sooner than a regular Elberta, as I understand it. And it's a lot warmer here than in Utah, so I'm guessing that further expedites the process. Our tree blossomed in February.

When I bought my peach trees, I could have sworn they said Early Elbertas on the label, but these have been anything but early. They seem to dislike the summer heat, too. The fruit seems to slow down and hardly grow at all through July and August, then put on a surge in September. Once they're ripe, though, they're very tasty.

[Blueintheface]

For the second time in as many seasons our cherry trees lost all of their fruit in a wind storm.

[dabrockster]

Here is some photo of my garden for this year. Pretty small but meets our needs

[bluegoose]

We have 6 raised beds this year. 4 are planted so far, with 2 yet to come. We did some romaine lettuce this winter that produced a ton over over the past couple of months. Much more than we could eat. Its done now, as we just pulled it out last week and replaced it with some other variety.

We also have a bunch of onions that are about baseball size right now. Having never grown this many onions before I'm not exactly sure what we are going to do with them.

We also have about 8 tomato plants that are looking really healthy this year. My wife loves to make salsa, so we rarely have too many tomato plants.

I think we also have some cucumbers and squash plants in the ground. We tried a number of melons last year, but still haven't had any luck with them, so we bagged it this year. We had several cantaloupe that we ate, but they were never any bigger than a softball.

We had a tree in our side yard that we didn't know what exactly it was, as it didn't bear any fruit last year. This year it has gone bonkers for some reason, as we have several hundred nectarines on the limbs. I've got to figure out how to properly prune it, as I'm afraid its going to start dropping limbs pretty soon if the fruit gets much bigger. We also planted a peach tree this year. The leaves look very healthy, but no fruit yet.

We also have an ongoing strawberry patch in our side yard with probably 30-40 plants. They are producing much better this year than last, as we pull 10-20 small, ripe berries off each time we go out there.

We've had a very mild spring this year with very little rain. I've had my sprinklers on for almost 2 months now and just bumped them up to daily watering this week.

[Blueintheface]

Nice, BG. If you don't mind me asking, in what state do you reside?

[bluegoose]

Nice, BG. If you don't mind me asking, in what state do you reside?

I'm in far northern california. We have good weather for growing gardens, but have lousy soil this far north. Its all rock and red clay. The guy that built our house moved a ton of dirt and brought in some really good sandy loam for much of the back yard and put some good garden soil in the raised beds. I want to say that they are about 18 inches tall. My drip system is similar to donuthole's that he put in a year or two ago. Having good, even water seems to make a big difference.

[dabrockster]

So here is a list of some of the tomatoes we got. I have never had any of these. If any of you have had tried these, please let me know your thoughts on them..

Lemon Boy
Mortgage Lifter
Jubilee
Hillbilly
Oxheart
Endless Summer

[Blueintheface]

So here is a list of some of the tomatoes we got. I have never had any of these. If any of you have had tried these, please let me know your thoughts on them..

Lemon Boy
Mortgage Lifter
Jubilee
Hillbilly
Oxheart
Endless Summer

Awesome names! We did Golden Jubilees once. The yield is unbelievable (as with most tomatoes).

[Donuthole]

Here's a shot of our humble plot. Grapes on the wall, tomatoes and cucumbers in the box and peaches on the tree. Also, awesome homemade garden bear we received as a gift from FIL a few years ago.
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Tomato plants

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Grapes, a few weeks away from perfection. We'll probably staple brown paper bags around the bunches this weekend to protect them from bugs, mice, and lizards while they ripen.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1369969885.618374.jpg

Peaches are ready! The next two weeks will be peach heaven around here.

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ImageUploadedByTapatalk1369969954.868222.jpg

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Do you have to harvest everything by mid-June or just water multiple times a day?