I have harvested a half dozen tomatoes, but the attention getter in this year's garden is an Italian 'trombetta' climbing squash ('Tromba d'Albenga'). Has long snake like fruits--in the picture you can see one dangling near the crossbar of the trellis. I overlooked it for a few days, and it ended up about 4 feet long and 2" in diameter. I have already cooked another specimen of this; it's slightly firmer and less watery than regular zucchini. Delicate flavor. The reason I tried this variety is that it's resistant to the Squash Vine Borer, and as you can see from the picture it's pretty vigorous. Fun to grow. Seeds available at growitalian.com.

This post was edited by arley on Fri, Jul 11, 14 at 14:07

My tomatoes have mites, something is eating my basil, (perhaps japanese beetles?) and either the deer or groundhogs are also eating my other tomatoes and peppers. Beans are stubs. Rest of herbs thriving though. I just bought "Deer Off" and sprayed it on everything. Also bought neem oil and sprayed that on the tomatoes with mites. Varmints devouring my flowers too, but this is about food . . . ! At least I eat the deer. So far haven't been able to bring myself to eat groundhog stew. I'm sure it would be good but I am just not that much of a pioneer/survival gal to kill, skin and cook one. At least at this point, I'd rather eat the weeds in my garden. I've been chowing down on sorrel, but I need to try that purslane recipe I've been saving!

My gardens are doing ok considering how crazy our weather has been. I've had strawberries and rhubarb... now have snow peas, cherries, herbs (chives, basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, etc), and edible flowers like nasturtium, violas, etc.

I started some Sophie's Choice tomatoes early for growing in pots to see if I could get ripe tomatoes by the end of June. Nights have been WAY too cold (47F last night!), although I do have some ripening now. :)

Fifty varieties of tomatoes, Sleevendog? Oh my, I would give my eye teeth to have a garden like that! I love the lazy armchair reference:)

Arly, that trombetta is a show stealer. A very intriguing plant bordering on the exotic. Half a dozen tomatoes? Sigh, I like Sleevendog have little green ping pong balls.

Ah, lpinkmountain. I can relate. I have deer that just lay at the bottom of my hill and just look at me when I come out. We had one just up and die in our yard right off the deck. Husband and I looked into electric fence -- couldn't justify cost without a "guarantee" groundhog deterrent. I know there really is no guarantee, but this young man just kind of visibly slumped when I said we had groundhogs too:) Oh, and we live in the suburbs. I have to use deer spray on flowers, etc.

Along those lines. We have a very, very small garden completely enclosed in fencing (yep, it's tacky). It is entirely enclosed, with fencing underneath the entire area to exclude groundhogs, and I made "lift/pull up" pvc panels. Felt somewhat confident until I noticed some nibbles one day. It was kind of curious. Couldn't find any holes, tunnels, etc. I'll post the pic to see if you can find the little bugger. Out of all that lettuce, this little guy was snitching ..... Dill!!!!! And here I thought "Wow! Very cool! I may have swallowtails" HA!

Cathy in SWPA

ps -- no animals was harmed during the taking of this picture:) I watched this fluff turn his head sideways, scrunch his shoulders and very nimbly push himself out through one fence square. He's now living happily outside the garden after realizing he can't get through the added chickenwire.

Mine has met a disastrous near-end. Deer, rabbits, birds, and worms. Two pretty harvests of tomatoes, and now. . . nothing. One jalapeno plant has survived. I was only gone for three days. Next year, it's all electric fences all the time. This is war.

I'm more of a winter gardener - everything takes too much water during the summer, and we are in a severe drought. However, I did notice that my cherimoya pollinating has been at least somewhat successful (see photo below). I counted six fruits that are developing, and I have learned a lot about what techniques are best for this fruit. I bought a cherimoya fruit a couple of weeks ago at a Japanese market ($6.00 for one large fruit), and it was fantastic - froze part of it for later. It was from Santa Barbara, and so I am thinking that now is the season, and I might have to wait until next year for my own fruit to mature.

I have a bunch of new pepper plants (Serrano, Jalapeno, Habanero, plus some mild ones), and they are the only other non-citrus food plants I am growing now, not counting herbs, and I've cut back on those. I'm planning to skip tomatoes this year, due to the water situation, and they are just too much hassle. I can buy fantastic tomatoes at the farmers' markets, or have Kevin go to the one in Culver City, even though he won't eat the tomatoes. I do feel the need to keep pepper plants in my yard, however, and they are not demanding, do not need excessive water, and supply me with a constant supply of chilies, which I use almost every day, it seems. If I do not use the chilies themselves, then I use the chili sauces that I make from them every day.

Our apple tree is doing fairly well, but it did not lose all its leaves until March or April and then waited until May to put out new leaves, which meant that the orchids and bromeliads that it was supposed to be shading had to be moved temporarily until the tree had more leaves. It has plenty of leaves now and seems to be making a fair amount of fruit, but then the fruit probably won't be ripe until November or so. I feel like I am in some sort of time warp - no wonder that I have trouble remembering what month it is!

Lars

sleevendog, I have 83 tomato plants, but far fewer varieties. I planted Rutgers, Great White, Pineapple, Purple Cherokee, Indigo Blue Berry, Sungold, Mortgage Lifter, Lemon Boy and a single pear shaped yellow tomato that Elery picked up somewhere.

In my own defense, I have three varieties of potato, two varieties of sweet potato and 9 varieties of beans!

Annie

Annie

This has not been a good year....

-I had a terrible time getting started due to weather.

-June was one of the wettest on record, but on the bright side, the rain barrels have all stayed full for watering ;-). One of the best years for greens in a long time.

-Abbreviated the planting list since our neighbor would be taking care of the watering while we were gone a couple times. We return the favor when they are gone and let him use the water in our rain barrels for his trees during drought years.

-Horrible wind and rains took a toll.

-A marauding neighborhood cat destroyed everything in the raised beds and containers in May and June. We put in a rabbit-proof fence in the spring, but not a cat-proof one. Bought a trap and caged the cat and took it to the animal shelter - but too late for anything other than the Brussels Sprouts (which were taken out last weekend due to heat).

-The one GOOD new thing I tried this year was a Garden Tower from the Garden Tower Project in Indiana. My niece lives where they are made and told me about them, so I helped support the project.

-The herb garden is doing great, and my one surviving cucumber plant is a good producer.

Thankfully, we have a good Farmer's Market, and I am looking forward to fall crops, and will add a taller fence to keep the cat out.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Tower Project

Got about 70 tomato plants going. Getting ready to do battle with squirrels.

There are 12 yuzu oranges and 15 Meyer lemons. Hoping for some figs and lot's of persimmons.

dcarch

Well I always feel behind and still manage to get a lot of food. Right now I have to reconsider my temporary fence and weed control. I seem to have created a zone of weediness that cant easily be tilled mowed whacked or weeded. Grrrr...

Lots of salad and greens. Been particularly enjoying Yokatta - asian green that seems slow to bolt and delicious stir fried.

Peas just starting. Tiny tomatos - a piddly 9 plants. Healthy squash plants but sadder looking cukes.

New pest this year - cabbage maggots. Set back my broccoli and cabbage and wreaked havock on my last plantings of radishes. On the other hand no Moose tracks. I had at least one visitation other years. No grazing but the HUGE hooves do some damage. Unfortunately the moose are struggling and are less common now.

My garden is a few years old now and I am starting to get volunteers edible and decorative. Arugula, breadseed poppy, honeywort, chinese forget me nots and chicory are my favorites. Chicory is the only potential problem but the flowers are gorgeous.

All my meyer lemons fell off at the pinto bean size a few weeks ago. I seem to have a knack producing Barbie/Ken sized fruits and veg....but flowered and fruited again and have a dozen holding on now...

Not sure how many varieties of beans i put in. I seed, seed, and re-seed one foot sections over a few weeks for insurance. The first ones destroyed and the leaves looked like lace. The destroyer moved on as usual for the life cycle of such. All others are up and doing well.

First kale and collards took a hit and a later planting looks good and harvesting now.

I just over-plant everything and many varieties not knowing what might do well or suffer having such different growing conditions every year. Peas never do this well and hang on so late into July.

No fruit at all after building that giant 12 tray dehydrator last fall...Not even one cherry on that big tree. Blueberries and raspberries look good so far.

I've had to cage against bunnies and other critters and just hope for the best.

We have a lima bean plant, that my granddaughter started growing at school last month

The deer seem to like it, so I guess I'll have to fence it off before it's gone.