Gardeners: How have your crops done this year?

[sparks]

What a year! Apples, plums, grapes, and pear blossoms all froze. It is dry here. Watering the veg. Getting smaller amounts but learning to can smaller amounts at a time. Did 4 quarts of tomatoes yesterday. I think it is the earliest yet. The trees are looking like fall with the leaves dropping. Putting everything I can up.

 

[BarredBuff]

My tomatoes are now going under chicken attack

 

[so lucky]

Well, my garden WOULD have done VERY well this year, except for the birds. I can NOT keep them out of the garden. They tear the fence down, dig under it, fly over it, etc. My tomato plants look like something out of a fairy tale, but they get eaten right before they start to turn orange. I'm seriously ready to just kill every last bird and be done with them. The pepper plants look like sticks sticking out of the ground. Every last bean plant looks the same. The bean plants had been doing really, really well, until the birds got to them and destroyed them. The lettuces barely poke up before they're devoured. I think I've pretty much given up on getting any kind of produce out of my garden, because I don't have the money for more fencing, more posts, etc.

Bettacreek, what kind of birds are you dealing with? Is it your chickens? Or wild birds? Surely with the help of all the smart folks on this forum, we can come up with a way for you to win the battle! What kind of fence did you have up? Are you sure it is birds digging under? It doesn't normally take a very strong fence to keep chickens out. Do they need their wings clipped to keep them from flying over the fence? If it's chickens you are referring to.....

 

[BarredBuff]

Its my roosters that is doing mine, my layers have not bothered them....

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, my garden WOULD have done VERY well this year, except for the birds. I can NOT keep them out of the garden. They tear the fence down, dig under it, fly over it, etc. My tomato plants look like something out of a fairy tale, but they get eaten right before they start to turn orange. I'm seriously ready to just kill every last bird and be done with them. The pepper plants look like sticks sticking out of the ground. Every last bean plant looks the same. The bean plants had been doing really, really well, until the birds got to them and destroyed them. The lettuces barely poke up before they're devoured. I think I've pretty much given up on getting any kind of produce out of my garden, because I don't have the money for more fencing, more posts, etc.

Bettacreek, what kind of birds are you dealing with? Is it your chickens? Or wild birds? Surely with the help of all the smart folks on this forum, we can come up with a way for you to win the battle! What kind of fence did you have up? Are you sure it is birds digging under? It doesn't normally take a very strong fence to keep chickens out. Do they need their wings clipped to keep them from flying over the fence? If it's chickens you are referring to.....

It's definitely my birds digging under. I've watched the brats doing it. :/ I have chickens, turkeys and ducks. The turkeys very rarely get caught in there. It's 2" poultry fence, but it's only 2' tall. Mostly, they tromple the fencing, since we have mostly sticks to support it. The boys were put on a job to find sticks, and I've put a lot more up. The fence seems to be standing for now (it's been three hours, which is actually really awesome). As for flying over it, part of the problem there is that it's a 2' fence and the one trailer is parked RIGHT BESIDE the stupid thing, so they only have to climb onto the trailer and hop right in, then waste twenty minutes of my time trying to get them out without trompling what's left of the stupid garden. :/

 

[Maschil]

mine has come along ok... alot of the things i planted never germinated, but its my first time around.... im have a chart of planting times during the feb to nov, but we will see was the fall holds for me... all my watermelon/melon crops are doing well, lima beans are growing real tall but havent seen a bean yet, corn is growing strange looking... need to post a pic for you all, pumpkin is growing to its hearts desire....., but not fruit on it yet, the potatoes are a great mystery to me and have yet to had any successful harvest from them... i think thats about it... il add pics soon.

 

[moolie]

It hurts to read about all the garden troubles out there--you plan and dream, carefully choose seed varieties, baby your plants along, and then get hit hard by mother nature

As I'm typing one heck of a doozy of a thunderstorm is sending pounding rain and hail onto my gardens, hoping nothing get shredded too badly.

 

[Hinotori]

I stuck some thin flimsy 6 foot steel stakes in the ground and attached deer netting to it. The chickens apparently have a hard time seeing sometimes as they have ran into it a few times. They haven't gotten in though. The deer have stayed out, but I should have put it around my cherry trees as well since the deer trimmed them.

 

[Liz Demag]

This year has been absolutely amazing for cucumbers Zucchini, summer squash and tomatoes, our corn is gigantic, the only things that didn't do well were our onions and our brocolli got attacked by insects but i think we have fixed that and it is on the mend.

 

[Wannabefree]

My whole garden was a complete failure of epic proportions this year. If it wasn't the deer, it was the drought, and if not the drought, it was the soil not being right. I killed my peas by planting them where the soil was TOO good Anyway, mine crapped out long ago, and i immediately started planning the Fall garden. I have it under way with tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage, with hopes of getting in turnips, broccoli, brussel sprouts, more peas, more beans, more squashes, oats, wheat, and quinoa. We shall see