Fresh Veggies

Oh, man yer gonna hate me. About 3/4s of my sweet corn is well over 2' tall. All Illini Super Sweet. Planted a couple rows early and a couple rows late to spread out the harvest time.

It's not in your head. Even produce market produce is not nearly as good as fresh-picked-when-ripe from the garden. This is especially true of tomatoes, sweet corn and potatoes though we've not grown potatoes for a number of years now.
I eat my entire year's ration of really good apple-smoked thick-sliced bacon in BLT's when the garden tomatoes are ripe. I have tomato slices on my lunch sandwiches every day from first ripe until frost. Probably don't buy half a dozen tomatoes a year. The store-bought tomatoes just aren't worth bothering with.

cool. you suck. :-) i'm in southeast ny state, my peas are only *just* coming up (2 inches tall) (peas, an early season crop) (and they've been harassed by birds picking the seed out of the ground) and my spinach (another early season crop) is about 2 inches tall right now (! compared to your fully mature plants). i can't believe anyone anywhere is actually *harvesting* vegetables. me too, when i can get (if disease doesn't kill 'em first) zucchinis and yellow squash they DO seem to taste better than store bought, there's a rich nutty undertone that's wonderful. congrats. my tomato plants are still on the porch, on a heat mat, and they're about an inch tall. can't believe you've got actual tomatoes. congratulations to you! i've been growing vegetable gardens for at least 20 years, some years with more success than others. what.. metal content... i strung flattened aluminum cans above my pea rows hoping that'll discourage whatever it is that's digging up the sprouted seeds. (it's VERY discouraging, heartbreaking)
b.w.

Julie and I live for fresh grown produce. Right now we're eating asparagus every day. My winter project was building a 20' x 50' high tunnel greenhouse. Julie has about 150 warm season plants growing in there. We got sweet corn started under milk jugs, first of eight plantings. Same with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower. The peas and potatoes are just coming up. Of course, the big job is four acres of strawberries. Here in central MN, the apple trees are just beginning to bloom.
Karl

Me too , I haven't had a garden in way too long . But since I'm not working right now it seemed like the thing to do . My carrots are about an inch high , lettuce got beat pretty bad by heavy rain over the weekend . 'Maters , peppers , cants and onions are doing well though and the corn and beans (planted together) are coming up . When did you plant , Bob ? I'm ahead of most people here in Memphis , but nowhere near ready to start pickin' .

The corn seed went in the ground in 2nd week of February. The rest went in the first week of March mostly as plants. Been thinking about one of those little HF greenhouses to start my own plants in the future. One of my serious farmer buddies said we had two hard freezes this winter, but I never saw one that I recall up here on the mesa. He would know though. I figured I was gambling with the corn. It looks good. Since then he has brought me over fertilizer and other things to help out. Even gave me a good idea for adding an attachment to my rototiller for bed shaping.

Heh , I was planting in plastic starter trays at the same time you were putting yours in the ground . Planted lettuce and carrot seeds in the rose beds (we don't have a lot of room ...) almost 3 weeks ago , just in time for it to cool back off after a warm spell . Have you ever used marigolds for insect control ? Supposed to exude a substance bugs don't like , or so I've been told .

As a kid I planted marigolds around my garden, but I never had a lot of them survive. I don't think they like the desert much. I was going to try them around this garden, but my wife informed me she is allergic to them.

What's that Lassie? You say that Bob La Londe fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:56:22 -0700:
It's not all in your head. Many vegetables are picked before ripe to ensure they survive shipping. Especially tomatoes. I buy my tomatoes at local farm stands, or use canned.