Deb's Garden 2020 - Central North Carolina

[friedgreen51]

Hi Everyone,
Hope you are having a great gardening year. We have been blessed this year with plenty of rain and just had our first 90 degree day last week. Very unusual for central North Carolina. I have been procrastinating with garden photos as there was so much to do in the garden. The garden is fully planted out now. There will be maintenance and of course the best part harvesting. I tried to capture a good sampling of what I am growing. I could have made a lot more tomato photo's, but I think there are plenty here to get an idea. I grow open pollinated and hybrids tomatoes. I will break these up in several posts.

I made lots of photo's this morning. Here we go no specific order:

Big Beef Parks Whopper.jpg

These are my go to tomatoes for reliability and production. Both have a good taste to me.

Black Diamond and Congo Watermelon.jpg

I am growing these for my husband. He loves watermelon rind pickle and these are 2 good varieties for these. They have a very thick rinds, unlike the new super sweets and ice box watermelons.

Calypso Pickling Cucumber.jpg

I like to make School Girl Sweet Pickles and these are a super productive variety developed at North Carolina State University.

Candy Cane Sweet Pepper.jpg

My sister gave me this plant. This is a new to me variety. Both the peppers and the leaves are variegated.

Choppee Clemson Spineless Jambalaya Okra.jpg

I posted in the Disease, Pests, and Cures about my problems with rabbits. They ate almost all of my first planting of okra. I went to plan b. I started some more Choppee Okra and ordered seed of a new to my variety called Jambalaya which is supposed to be very productive and early. I also purchased some plants. All the plants that I could find were Clemson Spineless. This is my second round so my okra will be late this year.

[friedgreen51]

Here are more pictures from this morning.

Cherokee Purple Tomato.jpg

Cherokee Purple.jpg

Here are some pictures of my Cherokee Purple tomato. It continues to set fruit even in the heat and humidity. We love this tomato.

Florida 7514 a.jpg

Florida 7514 b.jpg

This is a good variety for climates with hot, humid summers. It is also one of the very few tomatoes that is resistant to Bacterial Wilt.
It tastes decent and is always very productive for me. I used it mainly in sauces and can it.

German Johnson Benton Strain.jpg

Here is a late German Johnson Benton Strain. We are fortunate here in central North Carolina and can plant tomatoes until around July 15th.

Louisiana Oval Green Eggplant.jpg

Here is my LA Oval Green Eggplant. Love this variety. The seed came from Rajun Gardener over on Tomatoville.

[friedgreen51]

More photos from this morning:

Maglia Rosa In a Straw Bale.jpg

My first year growing Maglia Rosa. Can't wait to taste this one. It is doing great in a straw bale. Also have on in a 7 gallon growbag/pot this doing well too.

Mexican Sunflower.jpg

I always like a few pollinator flowers in the garden. The Mexican sunflower is a good one.

Mississippi Purplehull Peas.jpg

These are ready to have the netting removed. We love southern field peas.

Nu Mex 6-4 Peppers Green Oval Eggplant.jpg

Nu Mex 6-4 Peppers Hatch type chiles sharing a raised box with the LA Green Oval Eggplant.

Orange Habanero.jpg

I grow this primarily to make pepper jelly. It makes a great pepper jelly using the recipe called Habanero Gold Pepper Jelly.

[friedgreen51]

More photo's from this morning.

Parks Whopper Sweet Pepper.jpg

My sweet peppers. Parks Whopper does well for me.

Pinkeye Purple Hull Peas.jpg

Our all time favorite southern field peas.

Ring of Fire Cayenne.jpg

A new cayenne pepper I am trying.

September Peas.jpg

A vining southern field peas that I grow every year. My father grew these every year. The seed have been in our family over 50 years.

Triple Crown Blackberry.jpg

Look forward every year to the thorn less blackberries. They alway ripen around 4th of July. This variety is a monster. It is also called 'godzilla'.

[friedgreen51]

Final Photo from today:

Zapotec Jalapeno.jpg

We really like this jalapeno pepper. Discovered by the late Chile Queen, Beth Boyd in the Oaxaca Region of Mexico. Her favorite jalapeno and the only one she grew in her garden. She passed away at age 50. Her website was Peppermania.

[eyegrotom]

That's a good looking garden. It's easy to see you have been busy.

[friedgreen51]

Thanks! Busy but fun too.

[Tracydr]

Love your pictures. I’m surprised you just had your first 90 degree days. I think we had some back in May, then it cooled off for June but I’m further south and east of you.

[arnorrian]

Beautiful garden.

[MsCowpea]

Love vegetable garden photos and yours are great. Pretty soon you will be picking lots of wonderful veggies.

[Ginger2778]

Gorgeous garden. (If you turn your camera horizontally you wont have sideways pictures anymore.)

[bower]

Beautiful big garden with lots of food! Love how you use the netting over your pea seedlings.
If the straw mulch is for weeds, it sure seems to be working!
Everything looks very lush... happy harvest on the way.

[GoDawgs]

Wonderful! So nice and lush. The weather is treating you well this year.

[friedgreen51]

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. It is fun to share pictures with others who love gardening.

Beautiful big garden with lots of food! Love how you use the netting over your pea seedlings.
If the straw mulch is for weeds, it sure seems to be working!
Everything looks very lush... happy harvest on the way.

The netting idea is actually an idea posted by GoDawgs over in the Diseases, Pest & Cures section of the Forum. The topic is "Those Wascally Wabbits". I had asked for ideas and pictures for my rabbit problem. GoDawgs posted a picture and the following description:
"I use 1/2" black irrigation pipe for the hoops and it fits right into lengths of 3/4" pvc that act as anchors. You can just stick the ends of the hoops into the ground but I found it's more stable when they're slipped into the 3/4" pipe pounded into the ground. There's netting covering these hoops but I use row cover too."
This idea works really well.

Wheat straw is readily available here for $4-$6 per bale. I have used about 6 bales to keep the weeds down. I do "No Till" in the areas of the garden that are not in garden boxes. The wheat straw breaks down over the winter and really helps the soil.

I also have a couple of straw bales with tomato plants growing in them. They work pretty well.

Maglia Rosa In a Straw Bale.jpg

[jillian]

Deborah everything looks so lush and green, those are definitely happy plants! I also love the Mexican Sunflowers. It's great to have a NC gardening friend!