The Blog Farm

Friday, July 2, 2010

Knee highs and other garden news

Many gardeners that live in our region know this old saying all too well: "knee high by the 4th of July." For those that don't know however, this is the height that your corn plants should be at in order to mature by the end of our short growing season... I think we made it thanks to sis-in-law, Melanie who doused our plants with fish fertilizer a couple weeks ago. I have said it before but I blame June's cool temps for slowing down our plant growth in the garden....The weather forecast says it's supposed to be like summer now... yay!

The strawberries are slowly starting to ripen....the trick is keeping the sugar ants and the crows away from them....If anyone has some tips on keeping the sugar ants away (no pesticides), I would love to hear from you. Last year they got into some of our potatoes too... : (

The Hill Country Red Okra and the Tango celery are looking to be a success...






Potatoes are going wild and the tomatoes are starting to take off now too....we are installing 7 foot posts with heavy gauge electric fence wire to hold them up this year....last year it was quite a jungle in the tomato patch....which makes harvesting a bit difficult.

The zucchini are coming right along as well...the cold didn't seem to slow them down too much.....

Happy gardening and happy 4th of July everyone!!!

10 comments:

  1. Where I live, corn has to reach maturity before the 4th of July, because the summertime heat makes the plants dry up.

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  2. My maternal grandparents grew up in Iowa and Illinois and they used to always tell me that when we were visiting relatives. I live in California = long growing season. Ours is already taller than I am.

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  3. Your corn looks amazing considering the weather we have been having...nice fat stalks. I love that you are growing okra, we did a few years back and enjoyed it. I am looking forward to hearing more about how yours does, maybe I should try growing it again.

    Did you enjoy yesterdays rain, it's supposed to be really nice out the rest of the week.:)

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  4. All of your edibles look really nice!

    (And nice flip-flops as well!) :)

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  5. EG, that is a problem I would like to have lol! I love the heat....unfortunately, I am the only one in my family that does.

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  6. Mr H: I can't say I enjoyed the rain lol....I could just go for some solid sunshine for a bit....The corn is a little behind schedule but it should catch up if the weather forecast is correct : ) I had poor results with okra last year...this year I started them under lights and gave them extra heat...so far so good.

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  7. The okra is really nice. I was going to try that variety this year but never found a spot for it.

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  8. Dan, I will follow up with a post on the okra later this month...hopefully it does well...if nothing else, the plant is very interesting looking : )

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