I am finally getting tiny green tomatoes on my 2 huge plants..must be all the rain (every 2nd day for about a month). I am seeing the beginning of buds on my peppers, and my saskatoons are almost ripe 🙂 My cilantro has now bolted, likely due to the heat.

Helicopilot, I have only ever seen the DE in 1 or 2L size canisters, usually in Can Tire or Home Depot - but never in a big bag. You could try a nursery...

Well, it's sad to say but you're all doing better than I am. Season 2 in my hay bails is not going well.
About 300 plants went out at the end of may. 2 weeks later I had 6 tomato plants left.
Everything else was simply gone. Stems, roots and all.
We had a moose calf maybe 300 yards from the house, could have been her. Deer are all over this year as are turkey. No idea what got to them but I had to replant and even bought some plants to fill the garden back in.

I set up a trail camera, after a week I have seen barn cats, my wife and a coyote.

Right now I have to hope that frost holds off until late September or I won't have much of a crop this year.

Nagol, so sorry to hear. Seems like fencing is going to be required if you want to garden in your area.

(Yes, I know... "thanks Captain Obvious")

Lol, the thought had crossed my mind.

A good portion of our gardens got shredded by wind and hail on Monday night by a nasty storm that went through our area. One of the gardens got crushed by a big tree that fell down over it. Most of it should come back okay. The tomatoes and peppers will take a bit longer though. This heat that we're getting should help though.

Keep in mind I'm an absolute rookie at this... First time trying to replicate what the last owners did. Those are my beets, onions, lettuce, chards, carrots, parsnips, turnips, pumpkins, pickling cukes, corn, spinach and a bed of wild flowers for fun (and the bees!)

Part of the orchard, looks like we should have a nice apple crop!

Strawberries are over, have a nice bunch frozen and made some amazing jam.

Saskatoon and raspberries are starting to come out, picking a few at a time.

Lol-I will go out after my night shifts and take pics to include!
Hey helicopilot... Is this your first go at gardening? Amazingly well done!

I would 2nd that, looks good to me. Those apples plus a 50 gallon barrel, +45 kg of brown sugar+ yeast, add a month to ferment ( faster if augmented by regulated heating to 27-28 C tops) , and you might ( if processed correctly) have roughly 20 to 27 liters ( depends on volume of apples, sugar content) of 60-65 % apple wine, and a couple liters of very strong cleaning fluid, Just a wild guess on my part...just saying lots of ways to use apples..Drinking them is good too 😀

Lol-I will go out after my night shifts and take pics to include!
Hey helicopilot... Is this your first go at gardening? Amazingly well done!

Thanks Dakota! I've done a couple of small "square foot" raised beds over the years, but this is my first time getting a garden that size. It was pretty much all setup so it was more a matter of giving it a try. I'll diversify the crops a bit more next year.

A few lessons learned:

1) We don't eat nearly as much spinach as we have growing. Good things the chickens like them!
2) Pumpkins are ridiculously big plants!!!
3) I've planted the tomatoes and cucumbers on the wrong sides of the lean-to greenhouse. The cucumbers would have done better on the trellis against the wall.
4) I should have grown zucchinis, we love them!
5) corn isn't growing well on the north side of the garden due to the shaded trees.
6) I could have grown more onions.
7) I should have planted more potatoes to enjoy the tiny-sized "new" potatoes through the summer.
8) I have to figure out what went wrong with my radishes... or lack of radishes.
9) We've planted wildflowers to bring in bees. The wildflowers turned out to be ugly weeds and the bees were already coming in for the raspberries and other flowers in the area.
10) Marigolds started from seeds are flowering in mid-August apparently...
11) we could have planted more broccoli and cauliflower.

I'm also not sure the straw thing worked out well as weed control. I may have to find a load or 2 of wood chips to make my paths between the beds next year... or the year after.

I would 2nd that, looks good to me. Those apples plus a 50 gallon barrel, +45 kg of brown sugar+ yeast, add a month to ferment ( faster if augmented by regulated heating to 27-28 C tops) , and you might ( if processed correctly) have roughly 20 to 27 liters ( depends on volume of apples, sugar content) of 60-65 % apple wine, and a couple liters of strong cleaning fluid, Just a wild guess on my part...just saying lots of ways to use apples..Drinking them is good too 😀

Cheers! 😉

All I'm thinking is Bubba Gump's Shrimps... "there is apple sauce, apple crisp, apple pies, candied apples, apple slices, dehydrated apples, freeze dried apples, apple juice, apple cider, apples and brie cheese sandwiches......."

ummm, apple cider... Now I "need" one last one before going to bed!

I would 2nd that, looks good to me. Those apples plus a 50 gallon barrel, +45 kg of brown sugar+ yeast, add a month to ferment ( faster if augmented by regulated heating to 27-28 C tops) , and you might ( if processed correctly) have roughly 20 to 27 liters ( depends on volume of apples, sugar content) of 60-65 % apple wine, and a couple liters of strong cleaning fluid, Just a wild guess on my part...just saying lots of ways to use apples..Drinking them is good too 😀

Cheers! 😉

All I'm thinking is Bubba Gump's Shrimps... "there is apple sauce, apple crisp, apple pies, candied apples, apple slices, dehydrated apples, freeze dried apples, apple juice, apple cider, apples and brie cheese sandwiches......."

ummm, apple cider... Now I "need" one last one before going to bed!

I see a flaw in your way, though well diverse, my way can claim indefinite storage.

First snow fell a couple days ago...I had dug up my potatoes the day before. Average yield was 3 to 3.5 pounds per plant, we had a bad spring start, crazy winds that knocked my plants flat, and I planted them too close in the raised beds.....so 150 plants x 3.2 pounds= 480 pounds. Hope for better yields next year.

The winner of the crazy potato award goes to this monster one

weighing in at 1.2 pounds

I was in town last weekend and one grocery store had 10 pound bags of Russet potatoes on sale for 1.99

So for 80 dollars I could have bought 400 pounds of potatoes.