Somehow it’s already July! For those fellow Canadians out there, Happy Canada Day! For the rest of you…I hope you’re having a great day. The garden has really grown in the past few weeks, I thought I’d share some photos. I would also really love some advice from you, I’m learning but have had some issues…
The peas are fantastic; about 8 feet tall and producing over a handful every day. I planted both snow peas and snap peas, both of which are doing well.
I planted about 10 onion bulbs…most of them got rather moldy and limp so I pulled them. I have 3 remaining. This is my largest. I have high hopes but honestly I don’t think it’s doing too well. Have you grown onions? Any tips?
Next are the 8 tomato plants which have taken off. As you can see they were quite small when I planted them. 7 of my tomatoes are doing well, still have yet to produce a tomato…soon! Grow babies, grow!
1 of the stems has an issue…so tomato planting friends I need some help!!! What has happened to my delightful tomato plant? It looks like something has eaten it out…suggestions?
The carrots are HUGE, the stems at least. I dug down to see how big the actual vegetable is and it’s about an inch wide(probably less), so they’re tiny still. I’m getting impatient with those carrots! I have a feeling carrots are one of those veggies that’s just not worth growing – a lot of waiting and not a ton of yield. Thoughts on that?
I’ve just planted some more bokchoy since the last batch was so successful and yielded SO many luscious leaves for us to gobble up. We ate bokchoy at every meal for weeks. I also planted a few beet seeds just to see what happens.
I’ve never planted beets, have you had success? How are your vegetables coming along? Have you ever had success/failures with any of these plants? What should I grow next? Happy growing, garden friends!
PS enjoy my calendula plant that FINALLY grew a flower. Bumble bumble bumble, come to my garden, bees!
nannygrannie 
Your garden looks great!
I can’t give you any advice on the onions – I’d been trying for 12 years to grow good onions and I never could do it. This year – FINALLY! – they are growing and bulbing the way they should, and I think it’s because I added a ton of chicken, rabbit and aged cow manure to the gardens. Someone told me they need a whole lot of very rich compost to grow.
As for the tomato, something might have eaten it, or a stem got pulled off. It looks like it scabbed over and it should be fine. I probably wouldn’t worry about it.
And carrots … carrots can be hard. They are hard to germinate and take so long to mature. But I think they are worth it. You might try planting some more, and just making sure to keep the seeds really moist until they sprout. As for the roots, you’ve just gotta wait 😛
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12 years?! Oh my goodness! I’m glad yours are finally growing how they should – sounds like you’ve earned those onions. Manure, good to know! I used some aged horse manure – maybe I’ll need more next year.
Carrots sure seem to be difficult! I hope the carrots get a little larger, and then I’ll be happy. I have a feeling they’ve all rooted together in one big jumble of carrot root. I didn’t thin them out when I should have. Thanks for your advice!!!
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The most common mistake people make when planting onion sets is to bury the entire bulb. Leave a good portion of the bulb sticking out of the soil and pat the soil around it. I’ve had great success with the onions I grow but the first year I buried them up to their little necks and they did not do well at all.
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I didn’t know this. I buried the whole bulb under the soil…Ah-ha! I feel like I’ve learned something great. Thank you so much!
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I learned to leave the tip of the onion set just above the soil surface. The birds sometimes pull them out when you do that, but you just stick them back in the ground again! I had good luck growing onions in the UK – I moved back to the US too late to try them this year.
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You’re quite welcome! We all have to help each other so we all succeed!
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We have scads of cherry tomatoes growing upside down in baskets. They are all starting to ripen. Also my daughter takes the root ends of green onions that we get at the store and just sticks them in the ground. Before long we have new green onions to use!
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Sounds lovely! That’s a great idea, I will have to try that. I do love green onions.
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Oh those little carrots!! Haha… I had the same problem! I waited for what seemed like months and the finally dug everything up and gave it to the rabbits 😂
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LOL that’s too funny. Ugh so silly. All I wanted was one purple carrot! Instead it looks like I’ve made a mess.
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I’m much too impatient with carrots! I’d mound some earth up onto the stem of the tomato, above the scab, and let it sprout new roots up there to stabilize the structure.
Beets, yes! I mostly grow them for their greens.
Squash, tomatoes, and chard going nuts right now here. Looking forward to peppers, sweet potatoes, and hopefully melons and pumpkin later on.
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I shall do that with my little tomato scab! I am looking forward to the beet greens, I’ve heard many things. What do you do with yours? Sure sounds amazing, I’m looking forward to hearing more!
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Looks like your tomatoes have flowers. Tomatoes are self-pollinating, as far as I know, but I gently tap the flowers just to make sure pollination happens.
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Last year my carrots were quite successful, but yes they do tend to take a lot longer than packages indicate. This year my carrots refused to come up and when they did they were sparse. I’m not sure if the new spot for them is too full of clay, but at this rate I’m going to dig them up and plant a second crop of peas.
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Beets are a twofer. You get the lovely beets and you get the greens. The same is true for turnips, but not everyone likes them. I saute the greens like I would spinach–sometimes with onion (which you will have) or mushrooms. If you plant now, depending on where you are in Canada, you could have fall beets!
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Happy Canada Day to you (belated). I enjoyed learning about your garden 🙂 (you visited my garden post) I grow my onions from seeds so can’t comment about bulbs…and I haven’t tried carrots as I’ve heard they like sandy soil and the soil is quite heavy (clay) in my area.
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Everyone else has given you great advice, but I want to encourage you to continue growing carrots. Thin them out next time and just keep trying because I think they are very worth it. We have rocky soil so ours go into a 14″ deep raised bed. We also do grow a lot of beets. Our spring beets are done and we just started more for our fall crop. Mostly we pickle them and our sister and her boyfriend also roast them. The greens usually wind up being given to the chickens because they like them so well. Way to go on your peas and everything else in your garden!
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Wow, 8 ft peas? I wonder what happened to mine. They only got about 3 ft and didn’t produce much. One thing to check if your tomato plants are all green but no tomatoes, I learned it could be a lack of phosphorus. I just bought some bone meal to add to mine.
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We planted several beet seeds that were OLD and not taken care of well. Only 6 sprouted, but they are getting big. 🙂
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