Proud Gardeners!!! Our Best July Garden Ever

[@Johnlewissawmill]

Wow great garden Joe . Looks great

[@theemmanuelswife]

Wonderful on your best July garden ever! We're coming to the end of gardening season here in East TN. We have 7 outdoor garden plots, totaling 10,000 SF of organic veggie gardens for our yearly food supply; we're pescetarians. We get so many nice comments from the locals on how beautiful our homestead gardens look. It's a LOT of work daily, but we love it. We had a bumper crop of brassica's, with virtually NO bugs on any of them for a change. The onions were 4" in size and about 1 lb. each; yummy! The potato plot was loaded and not too many bug issues that couldn't be remedied by hand-picking off the potato beetles. The remainder of the growing season was the roughest one that I've encountered in 60 years. I've never seen so many bugs, and they are resistant to MOST of the organic bug control products on the market; BT, DE Neem Oil, Lemon, and others. The Flee Beetles seem to be resistant to all forms of organic concoctions, devouring a 35' long row of eggplants; 1000's of the little buggers eating the poor plants alive. I spent countless hours daily, hand smashing Mexican Beetle larva and the adult beetles from our 1000 SF bean plot. We're hopeful for a 75% dry bean harvest that is undamaged. Then it was a losing battle with Squash bugs and Green June bugs that devastated the fruit trees and cucurbits. It literally looked like plague; swarms of them everywhere. The heirloom paste tomato plot has been a challenge as well. They've needed bi-weekly calcium added to the drip tape and we should have done a weekly foliage spray of Copper Fungicide to discourage the dreaded early and late blight that is common with our wet dewy mornings here in the hallow. All being said, growing extra plants each year has paid off to assure a yearly food supply. We're probably going to grow more things in the greenhouses next year and less in the 7 large outdoor plots. Best wishes to all the gardeners out there that love their craft.

[@thelongbranchhomestead1397]

Wow on your garden! Sorry to hear you are experiencing such a beetle infestation it can be demoralizing after all that preparation and work. We've been very fortunate this year so far that we haven't had any pest issues. We had a late spring hard frost and I'm wondering if that's why we've been bug free 🤔 Best wishes from northern PA

[@simplewoodslife]

Garden looks amazing Joe, really flourishing there! Woodshed seems to be coming along nicely as well. I was worried about our corn as the farmers around here have much larger and thicker crops and we planted around the same time.. but looking at yours, we're in the same boat - so I'm going to chalk it up to home-grown, non GMO goodness and stop worrying about it.😀 Can't wait to see your canning videos!

[@scientificexplorergirl3374]

I am not absolutely sure but the plant at 12:20 looks like it might be calendula. Lovely garden!!

[@thelongbranchhomestead1397]

I will try to show the flowers in question when they bloom. Thanks for the comment always like hearing from everyone.

[@thelongbranchhomestead1397]

Everything is growing crazy right now. We've been getting a lot of rain and lately its been getting hot so the canner is out and it's full steam ahead

[@sandratalbert9578]

Beautiful garden. Kudos Do you help with the canning process?

[@thelongbranchhomestead1397]

I do what I can but mostly I'm the bean snapper, potato peeler and cheerleader when it comes to canning lol 😆

[@sandratalbert9578]

@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 Kudos …..That surely is being involved! You both sound like a good team. Love that you add flowers and colorful beauty to your diversified garden ( I like pickled beets too)

[@thelongbranchhomestead1397]

Thanks for the kudos. I'll try to give an August garden update when everything is blooming.