Our tomato plants produced a slew of tomatoes, more this year than ever before. Besides making sauce we still have plenty to barter with. A few items we have traded some of our tomatoes for include eggs, eggplant, summer squash, and hay
Garlic is the first crop we harvest every year, and what a harvest it was. It's always a surprise when unearthing tubers as you never know how this root crop has been doing until it is extracted from the earth. This year we grew both hard and soft-neck garlic, both of which did great.
With as lush as the foliage of the potato plants was, we were hoping that what was hidden below ground grew as well.
No longer wanting to take the risk of climbing a ladder to reach the top of the pole bean vines, sometimes reaching a height of 12 feet, we decided to grow bush beans. We also decided to do two plantings of these legumes rather than just plant them all at once. This has worked out wonderfully. We have been enjoying fresh string beans for more than a month now and still have plenty to put into storage in our deep freezer. While preparing the other half of the bean bed, the number of worms that I found was amazing, so much so that I started a worm box.
The top pic in this collage is of our carrot plants. We have been juicing the foliage, and adding it to our veggie smoothies.
The bottom pic is that of our broccoli plants. They never developed a single head. Sometimes one wonders why a particular crop doesn't do as well as it has in the past, but in this case, I knew what I did wrong. Broccoli is a cold-weather crop and we simply planted them too late. With daytime temperatures in the mid-eighties, the plant simply bolted.
Being a person who likes to look at the glass half full, the flowers that the plant produced drew in bees like crazy. We had never experienced this in past years and just let the plants do their thing.
With everything going up in price including the cost of seeds, we are making a concerted effort to save as many different types of seeds as possible. To our surprise, letting the broccoli plants do their thing, pods developed after the flowers died off, holding those tiny black seeds.
Why spend money on tomato cages or tomato stakes when tree branches work even better and they're FREE.
Candyland, this particular tomato plant couldn't have had a better name.
These tiny, sweet as-candy, mouth-watering tomatoes were the first to ripen. This single plant had to produce several hundred of these little red marbles and it's still going strong. Every morning for the past month this would be my first stop. For most gardeners, there is nothing like going to your garden and munching something right from the vine.
I'd open my mouth a little wider to give you a better look, but if I did, the CANDYLANDS would pour out of my cake hole like a busted penny gumball dispenser.
Despite our vigilance, a few dozen tomatoes succumbed to the slugs. I found that rather than removing the damaged tomatoes from the garden it was best to leave them at the base of the plants.
The damaged tomatoes acted like bait. The slugs would go for the already-marred tomatoes rather than the ones still hanging from the plant. This made it easy to spot them, at which time I would cut them with a pair of scissors.
.
I was hoping to repeat last year's success with the cucumbers. We grew both pickling and salad cucumbers, but the plants just didn't produce the abundant number of cucumbers as last year.
Last year I was able to jar 15 quarts of Garlic Dill Pickles. With only three quarts of pickles so far, I'm hoping to be able to make another few quarts before the cooler weather arrives and kills this warm weather crop.
It looks like we will have plenty of carrots again this year. I planted a variety of different seeds with one package sporting different colors. The carrots will not be harvested for a few more weeks. Leaving them to grow a little longer during the cooler nighttime temps should make them sweeter.
Beets, everyone's favorite, NOT, always seem to thrive in the raised planter boxes. For the first time, a few of the plants grew a long stem that towered above the others. At first, I wasn't sure why. My ignorance had me contemplating removing them, but I was happy I didn't. After a few more weeks of growth, I realized that the stalks that towered over the other plants were producing seeds. The seeds are still very immature and hopefully, with a few more weeks of growth, I'll have plenty of Detroit Dark Red seeds for next year.
Peppers, another cool weather crop, are starting to produce loads of peppers. This year we're growing both Green Bell Peppers and Banana Peppers.
What a year we had growing lettuce, both Romain and Leaf lettuce. We harvested lettuce for six weeks or more before it started to bolt, as can be seen at the top of this picture. The radishes were a disappointment. We only picked a handful of them and they were rather woody tasting. Radishes are another veggie that grows best in cooler temps. About a week ago I cleaned out the two boxes that held both the lettuce and radishes and planted them for a second time. With a little luck, both will have the time to mature before freezing temps return.
The Morning Glories surprised the heck out of us. For the first 4 weeks or so the newly sprouted seeds only stood about three inches tall and the plants looked washed out. Over the past month, they grew like crazy and started to flower. The vines climbed to the top of the newly constructed trellis which stands over 10 feet tall. You talk about short-lived, beautiful flowers that appear in the morning are dead by the next day.
Oh my god @thebigsweed, what a bumper harvest! I mean, aside from the cucumbers, you've done brilliantly! Wowsers! Great to see you producing so much this year. So happy to see this post - especially as people have been putting up with storms and all sorts of wierd weather influencing their crops. You guys seem to be immune! Bonkers. Love your work, beet brother!
Beet brother, I like that.
We've had a great growing season this year and things are still going strong.
The weather has been a little strange around here also, but nothing like so many are dealing with from all over the globe.
We'll be harvesting the carrots and beets in the near future and are excited to start squirreling things away for the approaching winter.
Have a wonderful weekend!
So good to see you again big guy, and you certainly had a bumper crop.
My favorite out of this lot would be the beets and the broccoli, but I think that you will know that !LOLZ
We hope that you and our Lady Robin are okay and thanks for showing up.
!PIZZA and !LUV
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What's up, my friend? We had a better year than we expected with the crazy weather we've had.
Beets, a lot of folks don't care for them, but I love them, especially pickled.
Yeah, it has been a while since I've posted. We've been super busy and things are only getting busier, which is not a bad thing.
Lady Robin is doing well as am I. I hope you and Marion are also doing well!
Sorry for the late reply as we are still struggling with the powercuts. The weather is also mad over here as two weeks before it was due, our spring season started. I saw the rewards of all of your hard work and it's very impressive.
Now I remember that you also love beets.
Always good to be busy, as it keeps one healthy and I think that you guys will soon have to start preparing for winter ?
Great to see that you guys are well and I hope that you have now fully recovered from the insertion of all of your bionic parts.
Please also give our Lady Robin our greetings.
!PIZZA !LOL !LUV
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Power outages still, I wonder if this situation will ever change for the better?
We were totally surprised by how well the garden did this season and many of the veggie plants are still kicking out lots of produce, go figure. Loads of beets that are still growing.
Winter is just around the corner. Yes, we are already getting prepared for winter. I've got a good jump on the firewood and have been going at it for a week already.
The new tractor sure does make things a lot easier!
I could not be happier with how all of the new parts are working. I feel like I'm 60 again. When you're 70 that's a good thing.
I'll let Lady Robin know you send her greetings. I always smile when you refer to the love of my life as LADY ROBIN. Lady Robin has been on cloud nine the past several weeks as have I. Our daughter Erica told us a few weeks ago that she is pregnant and just yesterday she learned that they will be having a baby girl. Life is good and seems to be getting better.
Thanks for the gifts, always greatly appreciated.
Never believe a politician my friend, as they will say anything to get your vote, but the doing of it remains in dreamland. We were told that the power cuts will be over at the end of this year. The real energy experts reckon that it will be another 5 years. So all kind of tunes are being sung to appease the nation.
I can see that the new tractor makes things so much easier. Those are big logs and it will be a struggle to carry or drag them home by hand. So this winter will be a nice warm one inside the house.
Real good news that you are feeling so well and it is an inspiration for me, as we hope that by next year my critical iron level will be sorted out. If it is, then I will have a knee replacement. Oh, and I will be 70 next year.
It is a matter of respect my friend and I was raised old school by my gran. So yes, I respect the love of your life.
Such heartwarming news and the family are growing. How many grandkids are there now? 6 or 7?
Marian is also delighted and like all women full of questions, so I promised to ask.
Our Father's blessings are indeed abundant in your lives and we thank Him for it.
!PIZZA !LOLZ !LUV
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! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoPoliticians from every corner of the earth are all the same, say one thing and another and always at the cost of the people.
If the doctors can get your iron level under control and you can finally have your knee done you're going to feel like a different person, I wish you luck with it all.
Old school, where have those principles gone? Just a generation ago folks our age were respected and a source of knowledge. These days we are looked at as just old folks.
We have been blessed with eight grandchildren, 7 girls and 1 boy. robin always tells Owen that he is her favorite grandson. LOL
We are living the dream!
The sad thing is that they forgot that they are supposed to be servants of the people and not royalty.
Thank you and we are praying for the same things.
Yep, so bad here that school pupils even physically attack the teachers. Imagine what would have happened in our days if one had to stab a teacher with a knife?
Nowadays old people are dumped into homes and forgotten.
Ah! The clan is growing and we are glad for you guys. Another few and you guys can form your own sports team !LOLZ
The Owen name is well known to us, but as a surname, as Richard Owen an ex-fire chief was the guy that transported all of the Papillon goods donations to the poor areas. A real hero and may he RIP.
!PIZZA and !LUV
I'm love the abundance of your harvest and how much different things you are growing. I have a few tomato plants and quite a lot of fruit but only two has turned red all the rest are still green. Not sure if they will make it in time before it turns cold
Despite the crazy weather, our garden surely has produced a bounty of veggies, especially the tomato plants. Although the growing season is a short one for us we are still able to grow a lot of different veggies, just as long as we get started early.
With a little luck, the weather will cooperate and your tomatoes will have enough time to ripen. We are already getting nighttime temps in the high 40s, but during the day the temp gets between 70 and 80.
I've missed you & @farm-mom! Even though I've been mostly absent myself, I always look forward to reading both of your posts.
A bumper crop for sure, I just love how you played with the tomatoes for the cover pic ;)
Have a wonderful Sunday @thebigsweed
It's great to hear from you @lizelle we hope you are doing well. We've not been posting so much lately, but only because we've been so busy with all that we do on the farm. It has also been a busy summer with us seeing the children so often this summer. Robin also had her best friend come in from Florida and stay for a few weeks, she just loved that visit.
We just got some big news. Our daughter Erica is having her first child, she is expecting a little girl right around the end of February. Robin has been on cloud nine since we found out.
What's a guy supposed to do when he has more tomatoes than can possibly be eaten, make a tomato cover pick.
God bless.
That's awesome news @thebigsweed, you must all be over the moon🤩
I'm so glad Robin spent some quality time with her best friend!
My family and friends have kept me sane, I'm truly blessed to have them. It's quite unreal just how devastating the loss of one's life partner is, but I have to carry on. I'm still going to my son in the Netherlands in less than 3 weeks' time. The change will do me good.
Enjoy what's left of the weekend🤗
Robin is on cloud nine with the wonderful news that our little girl is having a little girl of her own. The new addition will be our 8th grandchild and we feel so blessed.
Family and friends are so needed during such hard times and those of us who have both are the lucky ones, some folks have neither. Robin and I have talked many times about how our relationship seems to be a mirror image of our own relationship. Meeting at a young age and growing as a couple who's love for each other gets stronger with every passing day has been a precious gift.
Enjoy your visit to the Netherlands. Spending time with your son and daughter-in-law will be medicine for the soul!
Stay strong my friend, you know that your hubby is watching you from the heavens and he would want nothing else but to see a smiling face.
Much love to you and your family.
Hi there @lizelle, I have missed you also. I am so glad you are making the trip to your son's place. You will have the time to gather yourself in the arms of the family.
I am trying to get myself together after a very busy summer and then try to get back into blogging again. Sometimes a break is the best thing for me.
Be well my friend, go easy on yourself, it's a huge adjustment for you.
All the best, Robin.
Hi Robin, I really appreciate your very kind message. You are so right, it is a huge adjustment losing my darling man!
I will start focusing on the trip now as time is running out. My son's been sending me photos of the beautiful old buildings and the canals, they are loving it over there!
Thank you Robin, and you also take it easy, it's been a difficult year for many of us🤗
It all looks so good!!! Love your thumb image for this. Great post!!!
I love beets.
Thanks, Loads of tomatoes, so many we've been giving them away to friends and family. We've yet to harvest the beets, but from the looks of that one I picked, we should get a boat load. Pickled beets are the best especially made with lots of Vidalia onions.
Wow! I absolutely love that tomato "Hive Garden". So lovely. I love it very much!
Thank you, I had a little fun playing with the tomatoes.
You're welcome.
I do little gardening, I can try this too one day. I love your creativity, creating a Hive logo with tomatoes. 🍅
The #hive logo did come out pretty cool. Funny thing. when I made the logo I had picked exactly the number of the Candyland tomatoes needed to spell out the two words.
Some success some not so much, the gardener is ever patient watching and waiting for things to grow.
Quite a bumper season congratulations, plenty to store for the cold months and wait one some yet to materialize. Great tips and tricks packed into your content!
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Good morning Joan, its been a while since we've talked. I've been busy as ever and that's just how I like it.
With the crazy weather we've had I didn't expect to have such a good year gardening, one never knows. The weather for this week has clear skies and temps in the mid eighties. Sunny skies should keep everything growing.
We appear to have more to do in a day than before going on 'pension', good you are keeping out of mischief with plenty around the homestead.
Our weather changing seasons is a roller coaster ride between warm then chilly, hopefully sunny in a day or two once again I planted my seeds ten days ago with summer approaching. Never know with our soil what will grow, always hit and miss.
!LUV to the family and take care.
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! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoThe wonderful thing about being busy now is that we can be busy at the things we want to do.
The weather gets stranger every year and adapting to it can present some problems, but if the weather is our only problem we're the lucky ones.
Have a great week and thanks for the LUV, this crazy world sure could use a big dose of it.
Some we want to do, others not so much, more like have to. Taking our time about it deciding what is better in the moment is great.
Weather has been taking it's time in changing here as well, it's a shoulder season see which way it goes daily, as you say if that is all we worried about we are the lucky ones.
Here the only brassicas to do well were cabbages. We got so much rain here it leached the nutrients from the soil and the brassicas were hard hit.
And something ate the pea sprouts as they came up, so no peas at all, even though I replanted.
Some perfect some not. But I love to see the crops in your garden. Ah, a bit dissapointed for the cucumber right? Because the cucumber looks fresh and crunchy. Usually I just eat them raw. Here I'm not familiar with pickled cucumber.
Oh, so you Will have sweet carrot by that way? I just can get sweet carrot from baby carrot, not for the bigger one.
What do you do with morning glory? We always remove it from garden because just grow wild
With the sunny weather we've had lately, the cucumber plants seem to have taken on another life. The vines are setting lots of new baby cucumbers that should mature before the really cold weather sets in. Maybe I'll be able to pickle a few more quarts, fingers crossed.
We've yet to harvest the carrots, but when we do we should have a bumper crop. On occasion we will purchase the baby carrots which are very sweet, but there is nothing like growing your own.
I built a few boxes to grow the Morning Glories in so that they don't take over the other gardens. They sure produce a beautiful flower that we simply enjoy watching pop out every morning.
WOW that IS a massive post!!!
what a bumper harvest. Great photos (lol yes as you joke more than 10, but they were AWESOME and actually rather needed) you needed all the photos,
thanks for the great post!
I was so busy that I didn't get the time to do a post for last month's garden journal so I included everything in this one. We have had a wonderful year, with most veggies growing like crazy.
thanks for such an awesome comment!
Great production and healthy tomatoes. I love the design you've created. Thanks so much!
Our tomatoes did really great this year, so much so that we've been giving lots of them to friends and family. I just took a look at your recent post and it seems that you will have a lot of tomatoes also.
Thanks for stopping by.
When the rains become so light, these things grow well. But the biggest advantage is that when a person eats fresh things in this way, they are very good for his health.
There is nothing like going to your own garden and harvesting things that one has grown.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week!
Most welcome dear. Have a nice day
very beautiful garden. I like the plants too @thebigsweed
Thanks, Along with growing lots of veggies, I like to keep the garden looking good. It takes a lot of time to keep up with it all, but the outcome is well worth the effort.
Have a wonderful day!
Wow, what a beautiful sight! Those tomatoes are stunning! We're on the last leg of a few cherry tomatoes here and there, but I can't be too jealous of yours since we did have a smashing year ourselves on that front.
Save some of them spuds for me. ;) That's one crop I still need to try to make a plan for since I love potatoes in any and all forms.
Our cukes didn't do so well this year, either, so hopefully better luck next year for us both!
We just planted some beets, lettuce and a few other veggies for fall. Still clearing out some of the other beds to make room for a few more things, too. Fingers crossed we get the timing right for once, haha!
Good to hear from you, my friend. Despite some of the stuff we both planted, it seems like both of our gardens did pretty well.
Second planting of a few other veggies, let's hope the weather cooperates.
Slow and steady wins the race, especially after surgery, don't overdo it.
This is a beauty of a harvest, my friend. I love it.
Just imagining growing your own food makes me love it. Happy harvesting.
!WEED
!PIZZA 🍕
It was a good year and that means that we will have plenty of homegrown veggies to put into storage for the upcoming winter.
There is nothing like going to the garden every morning and popping a few tomatoes into your mouth, munching on a fresh pepper, or pulling a carrot from the ground and enjoying the fresh taste.
Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a wonderful day!
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Wow! your garden looks amazing with lots of potatoes carrots and other varieties. First time I started to see a capsicum in my garden. It just started to grow. Tomatoes are in stock. Good luck for further gardening. Plz share your ideas if any.
My only suggestions would be to grow organically and keep with it.
Among all the fruits and crops you harvested, the one that caught my fancy is garlic. Honestly, am in love with that crop and can't cook even a meal without it. Please send me some as your friend I am. Will you?
You sound like my wife, garlic, garlic, and more garlic in almost every dish she prepares.
This is just for you, enjoy. 😁
Hahaha, they're locked up. Send me
Send me there unlocking keys
Saludos amigo bello me encanta.
looks like you have a very good harvest of cucumbers and tomatoes. greetings🙏😊