Whatcha been growin'?

[_Jersey Girl]

So. We haven't had a gardening thread all summer. What've you guys been growing this year?

My own gardening experience this year could best be described as mortal combat with the deer that inhabit my property. I did purchase and use a deer deterrent called Feather Meal. https://www.amazon.com/Down-Earth-Organ ... NFJGH6KC9T

When it rains it takes on the scent of a combination dead chickens and c.r.a.p. but it works! That is until the deer got used to it and kept eating the blossoms off my flowers.

Years ago I saw an EarthBox in use in an early childhood program. This year I bought one because I was bound and determined to grow fresh tomatoes. I got the whole set up. EarthBox, organic soil, fertilizers, and trellis.

https://earthbox.com/?msclkid=a696a9335 ... t=Earthbox

I bought hail netting from a local place because we need it here. Rigged it up with office supply clips. Very expensive netting but works like a charm!

I bought two tomato plants, a (Big) boy and a (Early) girl. :-) and the EarthBox did NOT disappoint! They've been growing a good 6 inches every single week and I have tomatoes getting ready to ripen!

I had to extend the trellis last week using DIY scrounged stuff.

I also learned how to pollinate tomato plants... Mad me feel a little dirty but all in all, not an unpleasant experience and they started to set fruit like 4 days later each time ever since! That's right. I'm a pollinator!

I have a large container of basil I've been cutting from all summer long. I'm a huge fan of Margherita pizza so I'm hoping to have enough basil and tomatoes coming to make several of those!

So. If all my tomatoes ripen they'll be worth about 140$ investment. The contents of the EarthBox can be used two more years before you empty out and start over with new soil and fertilizers.

That's really it.

Plans next summer: More EarthBoxes! I've got it in my head that I could grow pumpkins on the one deck that the deer can't get to because it's off the ground with no ground access!

So. Whatcha been growin' guys?

[_honorentheos]

Your experience reminded me of my grape vine I've been growing for 5 years. I've eaten exactly one grape off of it in all that time even though it's fruited the four years after the first. The reason I never get to eat the grapes is because birds always figure out how to get to them. The first year I didn't try anything and was happily watching them get bigger and then one day they were all gone. After that I put bird netting up a couple of years but they figure out how to get in somehow. I've come to terms with it and just accept that my grape vine is for aesthetics to cover a quarter of our back patio now. i didn't like the netting because it looked stupid and I have too much of an artist's feel for how a back yard should be rather than a pragmatic one.

That said, we keep small raised beds that rotate year round. We can grow something all year here in Phoenix, ending right now with melons. Homegrown cantaloupe is awesome. That's another plant that sends off vines everywhere and will not be contained. I stopped planting other things at the same time because it more or less overwhelms the beds and runs out into the landscape around it for yards. I've found a vine with fruit over 20 feet away from the roots one year.

We usually get tomatoes in earlier than you must as we are done with them by early summer as the melons are growing out. Tomatoes and lettuce are our winter/spring plants. I've never had too much trouble with birds and insects eating all of the tomatoes though I have to watch out for those horned green caterpillars. I've had them kill a plant once or twice before I knew they were there.

ETA: One year my wife convinced me to plant an artichoke in one of the two planters. It turned into a small shrub that covered half of the raised bed it was in and shaded out what I had planted near it! And it gave us exactly three artichokes. I was not happy about the limited production for the real estate it took up out of the garden (plus I don't really care for artichokes) so after that we've planted one in a landscape bed and get a couple of fruit out of it. I don't get that one as I think you end up throwing almost everything away including most of the artichoke heart. I can't see how people produce those and make money, actually.