Hello from the Mini Farm

I am growing in zone 8a!

Redd Tornado said:

I am growing in zone 8a!

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welcome to TEG! whereabouts are you located? how are your gardens doing this year and of course we like pictures.

My garden is done - sort of - until August. It's just too hot for plants to set fruit. I expect the temps to be between 90 and 100 through July and into August. So I will not want to be out there either.

I have been canning roma tomatoes with garlic, basil and oregano, in small batches.

I planted 3 blocks of 6 plants at 2 week intervals (for a total of 18) starting the beginning of March. I have been harvesting each 'block' over the last 4 weeks. It seems to have worked well. Below is a pic of the first 'block'. I have cucumber, dill and sunflowers in a old tree planter on the left. Around the blocks are onions. The second pic is the other end, where the last block was planted.

Under the tomatoes I planted squash, mostly because I ran out of beds before I ran out of seedlings. I got some squash But the squash vine borers (SVB) discovered them (my nemesis). So I let my chickens discover the squash vine borers. Ultimate revenge.

My plan is to start the squash again - direct sow - and hopefully by the time the plants get big enough to produce, the SVB and the heat will be gone.

As an experiment I chopped back the romas. I left tall stumps. I want to see if the plants will grow back. I am going to plant carrots between the 'stumps' in August. we will see what happens.

The Green beans are slowing down, but I will let them ride out the heat. My field peas are very happy with the heat.

I planted watermelon under the field peas because i ran out of room, but it's happy because of the shade the peas provide. So far the SVB has not found it!

Gardening. The real great experiment.

from Central IL!!
Wow! You get to garden 12 months/year!!
Just a suggestion--save your pictures to your computer, then when you want to post them, you click on the the middle link, "Upload a File," find it on your saved pictures in the the file you created, click on that, and it will upload to your post. We are REALLY big on pictures, here!!

wow you are way ahead of us! Welcome from Eastern IOWA where the Mississippi runs east to west. You have nice looking garden. Do I see hot wire above the lattice portion?

Welcome from Louisiana, glad you joined.

Hi Red Tornado! Welcome !

Carol Dee said:

wow you are way ahead of us! Welcome from Eastern IOWA where the Mississippi runs east to west. You have nice looking garden. Do I see hot wire above the lattice portion?

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No, that is my many attempts to build a fence that would keep the dogs out, but let the chickens in when I wanted them in. It is wire rabbit fence, tighter on the bottom than the top. Not really planned, just inexpensive and I could manage it. I zip tied the wire fence to pvc piping and fit that over short metal poles (from old green house shelves) I pounded into the ground. It works but it tends to get wobbly.

The DH (aka Muscles) built me a real fence after several epic failures (invasion of the chickens, Am Staff blowing through the wire like it's not even there. There are squirrels everywhere). Apparently 'structurally sound' is an important factor and maybe nails...o, and high enough for chickens NOT to fly over.

Hi I am in zone 8a in northeast Texas. We used to be 160 mile south, in Zone 8b. Amazing what a difference 160 miles makes! Glad to have you here, growing with us!

Welcome! Looking forward to getting to know you and your garden.

Mary