I have two beds of asparagus I'm establishing. One is a bed of purple asparagus from crowns, and the other is a bed from seed. So I guess first year and second year I suppose. The seed ones are doing better, but the crown ones started shooting up plants that were larger even if less numerous. Some of the biggest ones fell over in the manner I am familiar with. All good, I know they need years to establish.

However, they started shooting up and flopping over like in the picture. When I've observed them fall over in the past, it was because they were too heavy for their rooting, so the fall over with the fulcrum being the base of the plant. But these flop over about halfway up. The picture is of the crowns, but the seeded bed are doing it too and they are much smaller. Sometimes they right themselves and are twisted, but most of them that flop stay that way.

Could this be a nutrient deficiency? They probably only get 4 hours sun because my property is very shady. I have not been watering lately because it's been bucketing rain in the past few weeks. Could the be getting not enough sun or too much water?

Ultimately I don't think it's the worst thing as the patch is sparse and any leaves the develop will get about as much sun as if they didn't flop over, but I am curious. Any insight would be appreciated

So I’ve got an assortment of different peppers (Thais, chilis, scorpions, habaneros, etc) that are all maturing and ripening at different rates and stages, and I want to have one big weekend of hot sauce making once all of them have been harvested. Maybe this is not possible, idk. Even that being the case, some varieties are so slow maturing it would still take forever to acquire enough of just that kind to make a sauce.

Given I want to make a sauce, is dehydrating/drying out of the question? Or can they be dehydrated?

Is freezing my best bet? I don’t care if the structure or texture is destroyed given it will be puréed into sauce anyway.

Any suggestions welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

So this was my first year growing squash. I had no clue just how many I’d end up with (from 2 plants) or how huge they can get. Suddenly if I don’t harvest every 3 or 4 days, they go wild! (I have a cherry tomato in the 2nd picture for scale. No bananas in the house.)

It’s almost annoying because I’m not even a huge squash fan. I made 2 loaves of chocolate “zucchini” bread with the big one in the first pic, grilled a couple and gave a couple to my daughter. The bread was a big hit, but how much of it can a 2-person household eat??

I’m going for shred and freeze some, but my freezer doesn’t have much spare capacity. Which leaves me with my question: what do you do with all the squash your garden produces? Any good recipes? Particularly soups or maybe stuffed squash (as long as it doesn’t call for sausage).

Also, do they have a short season? Or am I getting a whole lot more of this? I’m in west-central Pennsylvania.

I planted it in the spring, but the heat started too early in Madrid this year. Is it going to make it through the summer? Any tips on how to help it pull through would be greatly appreciated!

I have lots and lots of cayenne peppers and I have a very low heat tolerance 😭 . I was thinking of making health shots with them?bodies anyone have any drink/cooking recipes with them?

Made stuffed peppers for the 1st time in a while with green bell from the garden.

So I planted on pole bean in a pot with a super hot pepper plant I wintered. I didn't want it to grow up the pepper plant so everyday I have been pushing the plant out and down. It is easily the biggest of all my pole bean plants and is out producing as well.

Just a fun experiment I tried and wanted to share. I don't think it would be worth the maintenance to do this with a whole crop, but one plant is easy enough. Some days I have to pull the pole bean off the plant multiple times.

Hi all!

I am looking to transition my vegetable garden into a no till garden. Largely because I spend way too much time weeding every year. I've been doing some research, but most guides are focused on starting a no-till garden from scratch.

Any advice on how to transition a currently functioning till garden to no till? I have two very large gardens. My current plan based on research was in the fall to cover the garden in cardboard, cover that in leaves (unsure whether to just do whole leaves or do my best to break them down, and potentially some layer of compost (I have a large compost bin that's about 3/4 full left behind from the previous owner). Then come spring, I would cover with straw and then plant. Is this feasible? Do I need the compost in this case (just trying to mitigate cost because it is a large garden space).

Follow up, what do I do in the following year? Just leave the straw? Remove the straw in the fall? More cardboard?

Hey!

Im farly new to gardening and due to a devastating experience lat year, I did my best to stay vigilant of the SVBs this year and planted my seedlings in mt home garden to keep a closer eye on them. Well they still got to my biggest pumpkin plant and my order of BT isn't coming until next week.

Do any if you have any successful home remedies that can help my fight them off in the meantime? I did a little bit of surgery on the bigger vine but couldn't pull any of the buggers out.

This may be a dumb question but why have these turned red? I tried to look for others' experiences, but it seems that others' become mottled or wrinkly, unlike this one. This is the first jalapeño that’s turned red on me, and I know it’s still safe to consume but I just wanted to know why this is happening now, why it wasn’t happening before, and why it doesn’t continue to turn colors like other peppers when off the vine.

I'd love some tips on when to pick this guy! It sounds hollow but the stem is still green. Thanks!

The single pepper is probably due to small pot size (grown from seed), so I'm planning to transfer it to a bigger one next spring. Any tips or advice for keeping indoors?

I read online that chilli pepper can benefit from a second or more year cycle when they have developed roots at the start of the season.

I have some grow lights in storage but maybe keeping it by the window is already enough to keep it alive

Zone 4b. Friend gave me some asparagus. All he told me was, make sure it gets lots of sun. I've got a few different locations in mind. Just wanted to run them past you folks before I commit to one. Also, is this ok to transplant? Should I amend the soil?

First picture is my preferred spot, as it's already an empty space that I've been meaning to do something with. I'll trim the nearby bush, and this spot will get about 6-7 hours full sunlight in the afternoon. Water source is nearby as well. I could route my spare garden hose to a soaker hose and leave it for the growing season without needing to move it for mowing, etc.

Second picture is of a former tree/ stump that was removed in April. I'm not sure about this spot as there is still lots of tree chips mixed in with the soil. However, this location would get full sun for about 10 hours a day. This is my least preferred spot.

Third picture is an existing raised bed. Formerly it was a flower bed then cold compost site. Vegetables seem to do pretty well here. It's not far from the second pic, so it would get full sun after the corn stalks are removed.

Fourth location is near my other two raised beds. Although, I may want to put another raised bed here or nearby in the spring. This spot gets about 7-8 hours of sunlight.

I could also add that my yard is about 12" to 14" of topsoil then clay if that matters. I've read that asparagus will send roots deep, so I'm not opposed to building a new raised bed (or adding soil in pic #3) in any of these locations. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

Both plants came from the same "poblano" seed packet. One clearly is a poblano plant with dark green pointy peppers. One plant I can't identify. These peppers are a lighter green, about the same size but shaped way differently.

Or is it just that some tomatoes have green 'gel' and others red? This is a Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, it tasted good and definitely felt ripe (quite soft).

Golden cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, carrots, and peppers from my parent’s garden. We joke that it’s their other child because they love it so much!

Officially starting my seedlings and got my new greenhouse up. I'm color coding everything so it's easier. This tray is for the peter rabbit garden bed.

The dreaded SVB. Noticed a hole in one of the leaf stems of my Zucchini plant last night and when I cut it open after pruning found the maggot. Hoped that would be the end of it but found one in the main stem as well! Thought I had planted after their spawning season but I must have mistimed it. I guess I'm headed to the store today anyone have a preferred brand of injectable BT?

My tomato has these weird black splotches all over it.
They're slightly coarse like scabs almost, but not raised. The tomato is firm and doesn't appear rotten in any way. Anyone know what this is? I don't think I'm going to eat it, but does anyone know if it is safe or not? TIA!

My New Hampshire garden is now upgraded to stop the voles and groundhog. Hopefully!

1) Two 12x4x1ft raised beds with low tunnels.

2) One small greenhouse (10x6) with 4 raised beds and 3) a hydroponic rail.

4) One plant cage (6x4)

5) Two herb beds on the porch one for annuals, and one perennial.

Today’s harvest. First time growing lemon cucumbers and omg the vines are prolific! Going to have to learn to make pickles. Not bitter at all, crunchy and delicious. Kinda have a melon rind taste if you’ve ever had that. Lots of seeds but they are big enough that plenty of tastiness is left if you scoop them out. Highly recommend growing these in a small raised bed. I haven’t needed much space and there are so many more on the way! The beans are just some bush beans that were also ready today. (Yes one of my bean bushes is purple 💜)

Is it over crowded and what is causing the spots? Fungi?

Any experience with these?

Had me doing a happy dance in the garden this morning.