This year garden’s doing good

[Horsefly]

Been picking about 15lb. of squash and zucchini every other day. Tomatoes are loaded with little tomatoes about size of grapes. Okra only knee high and blooming. Watermelons and cantaloupes growing and blooming like crazy. Giant onions I will pull maybe in a week. Probably picking apricots today. 

[Horsefly]

That pic of squash was first picking week and half ago. Way more now outta 20 plants. 

[FC]

I wish I had your soil! Looks great!

I have rhubarb here in SC that's done okay last year, and this year. The soil of my gardens is compost, and needed a lot of ammendments. I bought one of the more expensive soil testing kits. I'm getting the drip irrigation done one area at a time. Two raised gardens added this year to the four, plus the containers. Strawberries are doing okay, but bugs or something often get at them at night. Edamame is new this year, and needs very little attention. Blueberries are doing okay. I can't seem to get blackberries like in Nebraska. I added a lot of sand to the compost. Gardening is a lot of work, and it's not cheap for soil ammendments, but I don't trust that there'll always be food at the stores. Green beans suffer disease a lot here, so I'm throttling back on those this year. 

[Dr.Hess]

I'm trying to grow hops.  I have one plant that is a bit over 2 years old now.  I'm hoping for some flowers, but I don't see any.  Dr.Googlez sez late summer.  Oh well, we'll see.

[FC]

I thought they were annuals.

[Dr.Hess]

Hops vines dry up at the end of the season, but the root structures remain.  They call the roots rhizomes. 

[Horsefly]

I guess hops would never work in Texas heat I’d like to see some growing. Just harvested my onions. Didn’t plant a 1/4th as many this year and super hard freeze got 1/2 of those, but still have plenty. 

[Horsefly]

Better pic I hope

[Dr.Hess]

Wow, that's a nice one.  We go through a good amount of onions.  My wife likes to cook with them, or eat them, I guess. 

[FC]

I guess your soil is acidic? I can't get onions to grow here worth a hoot.

[Horsefly]

Black gumbo loaded with horse political promises 2 years ago. Cantaloupes and watermelons just started to ripen. Picked 35 cantaloupes so far. A few bad ones but man are they sweet. Looks like a Rawhide stampede when I drive to neighbors cow pasture with garden stuff to give his miniature cows. 

[Dr.Hess]

Your stuff always looks so good.  I can't grow a lawn.  I suppose it would help if we had that stuff, "dirt" around here, instead of rocks.

[Horsefly]

Thanks, but of course you know I don’t post pics of failures. The tomatoes are loaded but are no good with a few nice ones going to bumper crop of mockingbirds. I’d like to kick the arse of the cat that made the mockingbird Texas state bird. Okra is good this year. Fireants finally found it. 

[Dr.Hess]

I am not an okra person.  My wife loves it.  Fireants are one thing that I do NOT miss about Texas.

[Horsefly]

I can only eat okra fried or grilled. If it ain’t crunchy I ain’t eatin it. 

[Dr.Hess]

I can't even do that.  I don't mind the taste, but the sliminess of it, even fried, is just too much for me.  I don't do mushrooms either.

[Horsefly]

I would puke trying to eat okra with even a hint of slime. Home fried okra has to be super crunchy almost like eating ice. You can’t get real fried at restaurants or fast food joints. It was hard to get my wife not to put okra in stew. I’m completely with you on the slime and taste if not fried crunchy. 

[Horsefly]

I understand your dislike of okra. I’m same way with cucumbers and celery. Runny eggs and meringue on pies freaks me out. We have a calf get rattlesnake bit and his mouth looked just like it had meringue around it. All it took for me. 

[FC]

Wish I could grow melons. Tomatoes are doing good, but those are easy. The delicata squash are undersized. I'm having a problem with cross-pollination of the squash plants. Believe it or not I'm getting rhubarb to grow in SC!