The recent rain we’ve had has our garden growing by leaps and bounds! We had our first mess of bush beans for supper the other night and they were so good!
I expect to harvest the first cucumbers and squash in the next few days. We have tons of tomatoes, but none ripe just yet.
In the video I’m sharing today you can see how green and lush everything is.
I hope you enjoyed the garden tour! What did you think about the Litchi Tomato? Sort of crazy uh 🙂
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your garden is so clean and beautiful. with all the things climbing on the fence panels it looks so healthy and green and free of weeds
and yes it is the first thing l do in the mornings—to check and see what has grown overnight sure enjoyed your video
Thank you for posting this video. Watching it has been the most relaxing thing I have done all day.
I used to plant a garden; seeing yours has made me decide to plant one again.
Thanks for the garden tour. I am no longer able to grow one, so I can only have one vicariously through yours.
Keep up the important things you do.
I do so enjoy watching you garden walks. The best we can do up here in the north woods is to grow some herbs in pots on our deck. I also plant lots of flowers (especially those that draw hummingbirds). I do have lots of native flowering things (even though I have no idea what they’re called). I do somehow have a knack for poinsettias. I bring them in every year as soon as the weather starts to turn. I have one that’s 17 years old and flowers like crazy. I keep telling myself if we ever get to move back south, I’m gonna have at least a big enough garden to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.
Mr. Rick Shepherd already answered about the lychee tomatoes. I think I’d grow them just to keep the critters out, but I have read that they are like a sour cherry. I’ll bet you come up with a great way to use them, though. Maybe lychee tomato jam? Maybe an interesting salsa? Knowing you, you’ll have all kinds of ideas.
Oh, how I loved your tour! I can’t garden anymore so I was just so thrilled to take the tour. I wish I could try some of the unusual vegetables you are growing. Can’t wait to hear your report on what you think of them! Thank you so much for the work you are doing in documenting Appalachian ways.
Enjoyed the garden tour! Since GOD watered it you can see how much more green and healthier everything looks. Blue berries are coming on to since the rain. Hope those Litchi Maters turn out good for y’all.
While I was whining about my health and the lack of rain on my garden in my comment on the video I neglected to mention my strawberries. I think I told you about the one strawberry plant a neighbor gave me last year. I kept it inside all winter and it sent out two runners which I planted in pots. This spring I set out all three in a five foot diameter round raised bed. I faithfully pinched out the blooms and the plants sent out runners in every direction. I then had about thirty new plants just starting to take root. Well, I made a big mistake. Oh dear!
Yes, Deer! Deer eat strawberry plants. I had forgotten about that! A couple of days ago I went out to check on my strawberries and it looked like a swarm of locusts had laid waste to them. Every green leaf of any size was gone. Only tiny green buds remain.
I’m not giving up though! I think the strawberries will recover with time. Dusty went to Tractor Supply yesterday and got me some fencing to encircle the bed. It’s only four feet tall and a deer can easily jump it, but if it jumps in can it jump out? I might just have to give up on eating strawberries and start eating deer.
You all amaze me with how many things you grow. I know you don’t have a lot of room but you do so much better it seems that I do with my space limits. By the way, maybe you can use one or more of your garden videos in your class?
I think your Lichee tomato is a member of the Solanum family, also called I believe the Nightshade family. My memory does not recall whether tomato is also in that family. There is a low-growing example that is native and grows wild in pastures. It has yellow balls on it and the whole plant is spiny. One common name for it is Carolina Bull Nettle.
I hope you tell us how the Turkey Craw turns out. As I have posted before, it is reportedly a cornfield bean, meaning that its runners are short and it will produce in light/moderate shade. About that, I had the idea the other day that it might be possible to mix beans and sunflowers in the same row and let the beans climb the sunflowers as the “sticks”. Not sure though how the timing would work.
As for my garden, I have cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peppers now producing. Corn (Peaches & Cream) tasseling & has silks. Also have Honey Rock cantaloupe formed. I have been picking tame thornless blackberry for at least two weeks. They are nice & plump this year. One oddity this year is that the bell pepper and the basil is just sitting, not growing and the pepper scarcely blooming. Never had that before.
Have you grown any Pink Tip beans? As the name describes, they are a creamy pale yellow bean that gets a beautiful pink tip when mature. My family grew them in Shady Valley, part of Johnson County, Tennessee, the most northeastern county that borders North Carolina and Virginia. From what I have read, they only grow in a small area of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. They are unavailable to buy, so you have to save your own seed to plant the next season.
Deborah, considering the elevation and the latitude of Shady Valley, I can see why Pink Tips might be limited to that area. You may already know that in Shady Valley is the southernmost location of cranberry. That is, Pink Tips are probably a bean variety that do much better than most beans in cool weather. They may not thrive at lower elevation and/or further south.
I’m glad you shared that about the Pink Tips.
Deborah-I’ve never grown pink tips but I have heard other folks talk about them 🙂
I’m glad you got rain when your garden needed it most. Everything looks so pretty and healthy. It’s been such a long time since we have had any rain in this area. The heat will soon take it’s toll on my beautiful garden and the water hose will not reach unless I attach three or four. I got my first cucumber yesterday and the green beans are almost ready. I have 48 tomato plants that look like small trees. My friends are in charge of the greenhouse at the high school where they teach and fixed me up at their spring sale with more tomatoes plants than I really needed. One variety I’m growing is called tie-dye. They are very low acid, which means I probably will not like them. Tater bugs ate my vines a month ago as well as all the tater vines in the neighborhood. The guy at the farm supply house said the bugs are immune to most commercial sprays, so I picked them by hand several times only to find twice as many the next day. I finally gave up!
I use a little battery powered vacuum to pick bugs. I have two filters for it. One for bugs and the other for everything else because I get stink bugs with it. One stink bug don’t bother me too much but when I get a few dozen in it, it starts too reek. I sometimes suck up 3 or 4 Japanese beetles at a time with it. Lots of times bugs escape if I try to hand pick them but that little sucking machine gets most of them.
The Litchi tomato plant has some serious thorns. In some areas of South America, it’s planted around the perimeter of vegetable gardens to keep unwanted animals out. The fruit’s distinctive flavor is similar to that of sour cherries. The Litchi tomato’s attractive blooms resemble those of the potato or eggplant.
I REALLY enjoy your garden tours!!! I think the new tomato plant is weird but if the bees love it, it may be worth it just for them. I’m thinking a sour tomato would be a great addition to spaghetti salad (made with Italian dressing.) I did not know purselane is edible but I can’t wait to try some. I know it’s considered a weed. The bee balm is something I’m going to get to attract pollinators. I did get a butterfly Bush. Hollyhocks are also a favorite from my childhood and I planted some that are coming along. They’re simply beautiful!!! The best blueberries I ever ate were growing wild on the beach in Oregon. There were blackberries in the mix too. I ate and ate them like candy. Everything you have looks great in the garden. My tomatoes are coming on. Cucumbers are about a week away from my first harvest. If it wasn’t for miracle gro my stuff would be lack luster at best. I’m going to enjoy this halcion breeze and cool of the morning as I speak to the Lord there. God bless you all.
Your garden in growing beautifully and I so enjoyed the tour this morning!! Our youngest son planted my planter boxes and I already have a cucumber to take off today for my salad and have been eating tommy toes off one plant. I also have been eating yellow squash and my other tomato plants are producing just not ripe yet. It is wonderful to walk out on the patio and pick my fresh salad for the day.
Loved your garden! I didn’t get ours planted until the middle of June, so I don’t know how it will do this year. Usually I have everything planted by the end of May. My tomatoes are doing well so far, we planted Cherokee Purple, Black Cherry, Marzipan, Roma’s, and a couple of others as well. We’re growing Rattlesnake and Cherokee Greasy pole beans this year, which is a first for us and we have our Blue Lake bush beans growing. I plan to plant another row of the bush beans just to make sure we have plenty. We also have a variety of peppers, eggplant, onions, potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and herbs such as oregano, rosemary, sage, chives and thyme. Thank you for the tour of your garden!
Good Morning, Tipper!…..I’m enjoying your garden video…..I’m also a little hard of hearing…..In the first part after the blackberries, you talk about a flower whose oil is good for burns, etc…..I can’t make out the name but it sounded like you said Coangela oil…..Would you please spell the name of the flowers for me?…..Thanks!
I’m not Tipper but the flower is spelled calendula.
Rick-it’s calendula flowers 🙂
Really liked this tour, got a Lot of ideas. Think next year I’ll build a raised bed after seeing yours. Our blackberries will,be ready to pick later this week, the early rains made them larger and more numerous this year. Looks like jar lids are going be hard to find again, looks like more for the freezer.
Loved this garden tour! Everything looks so good. I can’t wait to see how those Litchi tomatoes turn out.
Tip, you and the Deer Hunter are absolutely amazing with all that you grow in the limited space available to you on the side of the mountain you live on. I have also never seen two peole who love their garden like you two! It is heart warming just to be around you two!
With your wide variety of green beans how in the world are you going to keep them separated for canning so that you can tell which you like the best and please let us know which you think are the best!
You all are amazing ! Thank you for sharing your garden!