re: The 2021 Garden Thread

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The deer found everything in mine

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First you make a roux…

Man that sucks. If for some reason you can’t choot em, you might benefit from some motion activated sprinklers.

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Dang broccoli already?

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I had this one plant that was way ahead of all of the others for some reason. The rest are at least a couple of weeks away.

Looks like this thread will soon be obsolete. But since we are still in 2021 I’ll share some updates. I’m still picking tomatoes. No frost yet to kill them and it’s been a warm winter so far.


Strawberries are really starting to take off. Making lots of flowers, and I saw this big one this evening.



This is my last head of Snow White cauliflower. I’ve harvested all of the rest, and all of the broccoli.


I haven’t really been taking a lot of pictures, so that’s all I have for now. But I’m about to be overloaded with cabbage. I harvested one head already, and all the rest won’t be long. Carrots and onions are doing well. Mustard greens are getting eaten up by bugs. Having a hard time getting anything useable. Collards are looking great. Brussel sprouts are still growing. And the blackberries are doing ok.

Got my fence up, finally. So a garden expansion will be coming in 2022. If nobody starts the 2022 Garden Thread, I’ll do it in a few weeks. As always this thread was full of awesome pictures and tons of useful information.

Thanks to all who participated.

I’ve still got jalapeños flowering

My garlic I planted started popping up. I’ve slacked on planting all my other winter seeds but may throw them in the ground at this point just to see what happens. Some carrots, lettuce, beets, and few others. No point in not trying now.

I’ll have to cut grass soon too

Way to on killing some mites! I hate those damn things.

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I actually picked a couple of tomatoes that came back up on their own.

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This is the best I’ve ever done with Cherokee Purples. And I unfortunately could’ve done a lot better if I’d be able to actually tend to the garden like I should. During the week the only way I can check on the garden is with a flashlight. I hate these short days.

I just took advantage of the sunlight before the front comes through and took some more pictures.

Carrots (bottom) and onions (top).


Tomatoes. I’ve pretty much just let them grow wild. Haven’t really done any pruning or pesticide treatments.


Brussel sprouts. They’re about 18” tall and I’ve been giving them calcium nitrate once a month. Didn’t have any luck with them last year. They’re looking about the same this year.


Broccoli and cauliflower. Harvested all of the big heads of broccoli, but still getting some florets. I had the leaves of the cauliflower tied up for blanching, but looks like my rubber band popped. It’s ready to harvest anyway. That’s my last one.



Cabbage. So much for staggering my seed starts. It looks like they all synced up their growth.


Here’s the bug damage on my mustards. After the rain I’m going to spray them and hopefully the colder weather will help them out.


So, now that my fence is up, I plan on boxing in the entire area behind the garden all the way to the fence with some landscape timbers. Going to build a few large raised boxes and fill in all around them with rock. Cause don’t want to have to try to weed eat around all that crap.


I’m also going to move the beehive further back against the back corner (right side of the garden). Also going to rearrange and expand the berry area. Will finally make room for blueberries. My wife has been begging for us to grow some. And after winter I’m going plant all of my citrus trees and my olive tree in the ground (left side of the garden).

Speaking of berry’s. My blackberries could be doing better. I need to do some pruning. And the strawberries are about to explode. I’m noticing more flowers every day.



And here’s a cool gif of the bees. They appear to be finally kicking out the drones. I’ve read that they chew off their wings and kick them over the edge leaving them to die in the elements. Can’t have those useless males eating all of their food stores during the winter.

Pretty similar to spinach, IMO.