2023 WH2's garden

[wiperhunter2]

Finally getting stuff from the garden:

[wiperhunter2]

Third picking of 2023, garden is now producing at a great pace. Just picked the produce above two days ago and below is what I got today, pretty amazing. I'll get the green beans tomorrow and see how they are doing.

[wiperhunter2]

Green beans and a few snow peas picked today, this hot weather really has the garden cranking.

[jjannie]

It's really producing nicely!

Do you plant bush or pole beans?

[wiperhunter2]

It's really producing nicely!

Do you plant bush or pole beans?

Thanks. Pole beans, I use an old dog run fence, for the beans to run up on and it seems to produce pretty well, I'm getting about 125 beans every other day. This heat and the squash bugs are slowing down the growth of my yellow squash and Zucchini

[wiperhunter2]

It's really producing nicely!

Do you plant bush or pole beans?

Thanks. Pole beans, I use an old dog run fence, for the beans to run up on and it seems to produce pretty well, I'm getting about 125 beans every other day. This heat and the squash bugs are slowing down the growth of my yellow squash and Zucchini

My green beans totals went from 125 every other day to only 35 during that hot spell we had last month and that was picking every 4 days. Finally the GB's started producing again and I got 92 yesterday, so hopefully things will improve now that it has cooled off a little. Ended up losing two yellow squash plants because of those squash bugs and I'm just about ready to pull one Zucchini plant.

[wiperhunter2]

Wow, 3 days later my Green beans went from 92 to 386, a new record, I guess they are making up for what they didn't produce last month.

[wiperhunter2]

Wow, two days later and I got another record haul 424 Green beans today. Can't believe they are growing so fast after the slow down last month.

[jjannie]

Guess they do like slightly cooler temps - or maybe the bees/bugs that pollinate them have just been more active - whatever the reasoning - Congrats!!

[wiperhunter2]

Guess they do like slightly cooler temps - or maybe the bees/bugs that pollinate them have just been more active - whatever the reasoning - Congrats!!

I think you are right about the bees, could be the hot temps had them in their hive trying to keep the queen cool by fanning her with their wings. Our daughter in law and son are raising bees in Idaho, I'll ask her if her bees stayed home more during that heat wave. Another record picking today, only two days since the last picking, got 455 today but it took me over two hours to pick them.

[jjannie]

Guess they do like slightly cooler temps - or maybe the bees/bugs that pollinate them have just been more active - whatever the reasoning - Congrats!!

I think you are right about the bees, could be the hot temps had them in their hive trying to keep the queen cool by fanning her with their wings. Our daughter in law and son are raising bees in Idaho, I'll ask her if her bees stayed home more during that heat wave. Another record picking today, only two days since the last picking, got 455 today but it took me over two hours to pick them.

Yikes that's a lot of beans - do you can or just blanch and freeze them? How many seeds do you plant? in the past our pole beans in GH took over and we're too crazy to even reach most of them, so I switched over to bush beans and start themn at about 3 week intervals instead.

[wiperhunter2]

Guess they do like slightly cooler temps - or maybe the bees/bugs that pollinate them have just been more active - whatever the reasoning - Congrats!!

I think you are right about the bees, could be the hot temps had them in their hive trying to keep the queen cool by fanning her with their wings. Our daughter in law and son are raising bees in Idaho, I'll ask her if her bees stayed home more during that heat wave. Another record picking today, only two days since the last picking, got 455 today but it took me over two hours to pick them.

Yikes that's a lot of beans - do you can or just blanch and freeze them? How many seeds do you plant? in the past our pole beans in GH took over and we're too crazy to even reach most of them, so I switched over to bush beans and start themn at about 3 week intervals instead.

Yes we blanch and freeze. I plant around a dozen or so GB seeds but I got around nine plants that grew. Yes you are correct about their crazy growth, they grew more this year than normal but in most years they just grow to the top of our dog run fence, this year they grew about 8" higher than the fence. Too bad those bush beans don't keep growing throughout the Summer, instead of having to plant more.

[wiperhunter2]

454 GB's today, 15 yellow squash and 7 zucchini.

[jjannie]

454 GB's today, 15 yellow squash and 7 zucchini.

The squash bugs really did a number on our plants again this year, so our harvests have been pitiful once again even though we got on the bugs quicker they are still struggling. We'll get enough but we'll do heavier treatment after the full harvest to see if we can't get rid of all those bugs. I wonder if we imported them in some purchased plants and didn't realize they were there. I read treating with Sevin can be helpful, so we'll try that.  

Our Mexican sour gherkins have really gone crazy in our greenhouse. We cut them half to add to our salads or just for snacking while harvesting other things. only 4 Armenian cuke plants but they too have gone crazy in the GH and are producing well. We shared some with the neighbor and made up 3 jars of refrigerated dill pickle spears just this morning. (easy recipe if you'd like to try them is attached)

The pumpkins I started and planted 3 plants, but the stupid magpie birds pulled one out that we lost. But we've only set one pumpkin thus far and too late for setting many more - we grow them for their seeds mostly, maybe a little carving for Halloween as well.

[wiperhunter2]

Sorry to hear those bugs have gotten so bad. Other than the ones I got earlier in the season I haven't had any more issue with them, they are likely still there but other than a few leaves dying the plants are still hanging in there. I'm not sure how those squash bugs could even get to a garden, if they were not brought in from store bought plants, so I think you are right. I need to call the nursery to find out what they do about them but I hate to use chemicals like Sevin but I'm not having the problem as you are. 
Sounds like the different cukes, you are growing, are doing good. We too are getting more than we can use. so I've been using that recipe you attached to save them until later. You gave me that recipe last year I believe. Are your pumpkins getting any size to them yet?

[wiperhunter2]

Haven't posted any pics of my garden in a while, so here are some new ones. Oh yea, I had another record green bean haul today, 552, hard to believe the numbers keep going up, I pick they every other day and that is an amazing number because in the past the most I have picked is around 300 with an average around 250.

yellow squash


zucchini

Front side of Green beans



Back side of Green beans


overloaded peach tree

[SkunkedAgain]

Wow Curt I can't believe you count your beans.... I can't even count fish I catch... I was going to post some pictures but since I have so many weeds didn't want to embarrass myself too bad... Plus I watered last night and between the water and wind everything tipped over this morning... I was hoping for the big corn crop this weekend, however the coons got in the patch night before last and ruined about 25% of the patch.. Put up the electric fence last night but I can't tell if it's working and I'm too chicken to touch it after the last time I did that... Anyone want to volunteer to try it out? Not sure if water running over night or the fence, but the coons didn't do further damage last night... I love August for everything being on in the garden at the same time, we have a pretty good selection of items for the farmers market now, if I had more time to harvest this week, we'd have a great variety, but I'm still trying to get the sides on the greenhouse so may not get a full harvest ready for the market again this week... Fun times, and congrats on the increasing harvest... Later J

[jjannie]

Wow Curt I can't believe you count your beans.... I can't even count fish I catch... I was going to post some pictures but since I have so many weeds didn't want to embarrass myself too bad...  Plus I watered last night and between the water and wind everything tipped over this morning... I was hoping for the big corn crop this weekend, however the coons got in the patch night before last and ruined about 25% of the patch.. Put up the electric fence last night but I can't tell if it's working and I'm too chicken to touch it after the last time I did that... Anyone want to volunteer to try it out?  Not sure if water running over night or the fence, but the coons didn't do further damage last night... I love August for everything being on in the garden at the same time, we have a pretty good selection of items for the farmers market now, if I had more time to harvest this week, we'd have a great variety, but I'm still trying to get the sides on the greenhouse so may not get a full harvest ready for the market again this week...  Fun times, and congrats on the increasing harvest...  Later J

Jeff - we always used long blade of grass laid on elec fencing to be sure it was still working properly. You'll get a little tingle but not shocked if it is working.

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Yeah we're not having fun so we area hoping once we eradicate them after harvesting that next year, they will not be too bad. Must have done in over 50 of them yesterday with the soapy water sure beats smashing them like Jeff will do. Luckily they didn't get into pumpkin area yet. they are about a whole yard away from the zucchini that has them bad. The yellow squash doesn't even have them yet and its only 4ft away. Only going to have one pumpkin which is . We'd pollinate if there were ever any male and female flowers at the same time. Oh well. Won't say where we got those zucchini plants but they were from a nursery so you'd think maybe they came in that dirt? all our plants have mixture of the same growing medium in them, but that zucchini is in poor shape.

[wiperhunter2]

Wow Curt I can't believe you count your beans.... I can't even count fish I catch... I was going to post some pictures but since I have so many weeds didn't want to embarrass myself too bad...  Plus I watered last night and between the water and wind everything tipped over this morning... I was hoping for the big corn crop this weekend, however the coons got in the patch night before last and ruined about 25% of the patch.. Put up the electric fence last night but I can't tell if it's working and I'm too chicken to touch it after the last time I did that... Anyone want to volunteer to try it out?  Not sure if water running over night or the fence, but the coons didn't do further damage last night... I love August for everything being on in the garden at the same time, we have a pretty good selection of items for the farmers market now, if I had more time to harvest this week, we'd have a great variety, but I'm still trying to get the sides on the greenhouse so may not get a full harvest ready for the market again this week...  Fun times, and congrats on the increasing harvest...  Later J

To each their own I guess, we all do things different but it helps me keep track of how my garden is doing. Weeds, been there done that too. Years ago before I went to a drip irrigation system, I had a big problem with weeds. When the plants were small I'd till between the plant rows but as they got bigger that did not work, so I just let them go, for the most part the vine plants covered the ground pretty good, so it wasn't a big issue. We would still love to see your garden, weeds or not, especially that green house.
As far as the increased bean harvest, that slowed way down with the rain we got, I think the bees weren't getting out and pollinating as much, so my harvest was cut in have on my last two pickings. How often do you pick your garden Jeff?

[wiperhunter2]

Wow Curt I can't believe you count your beans.... I can't even count fish I catch... I was going to post some pictures but since I have so many weeds didn't want to embarrass myself too bad...  Plus I watered last night and between the water and wind everything tipped over this morning... I was hoping for the big corn crop this weekend, however the coons got in the patch night before last and ruined about 25% of the patch.. Put up the electric fence last night but I can't tell if it's working and I'm too chicken to touch it after the last time I did that... Anyone want to volunteer to try it out?  Not sure if water running over night or the fence, but the coons didn't do further damage last night... I love August for everything being on in the garden at the same time, we have a pretty good selection of items for the farmers market now, if I had more time to harvest this week, we'd have a great variety, but I'm still trying to get the sides on the greenhouse so may not get a full harvest ready for the market again this week...  Fun times, and congrats on the increasing harvest...  Later J

Jeff - we always used long blade of grass laid on elec fencing to be sure it was still working properly. You'll get a little tingle but not shocked if it is working.

---

Yeah we're not having fun so we area hoping once we eradicate them after harvesting that next year, they will not be too bad. Must have done in over 50 of them yesterday with the soapy water sure beats smashing them like Jeff will do. Luckily they didn't get into pumpkin area yet. they are about a whole yard away from the zucchini that has them bad. The yellow squash doesn't even have them yet and its only 4ft away. Only going to have one pumpkin which is . We'd pollinate if there were ever any male and female flowers at the same time. Oh well. Won't say where we got those zucchini plants but they were from a nursery so you'd think maybe they came in that dirt? all our plants have mixture of the same growing medium in them, but that zucchini is in poor shape.

Wow, that's crazy numbers, I think I'd tell those folks at the nursey about those bugs. If you are having those problems others likely are as well.