My first harvest this year...

[Vince]

This year has been slow for me so far especially my long bean vines. Also, I have a groundhog problem that's digging under the fence once a week and eating my squash, cucumber and okra. Time for a BB gun I guess.

 

[WTM]

looks good. you gonna have fried green tomatoes?

 

[DaveB]

I wonder how Roma's taste if fried green? Never had them that way.

Growing your own is always fun.

 

[catman529]

Looks great, your peppers are nice, mine are still small and growing on the plants. But I got a bunch of green tomatoes waiting to ripen

 

[MickThompson]

Any pepper growing tips? That's the one I struggle with. Seems my jalepenos do great but bells always underperform.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Nice

 

[Vince]

Thanks everyone. This is my first year trying peppers, so I don't have many tips. I use the cow manure from Lowes mostly, my peppers are planted on the ground on a bed, have fence around it. I heard one should use cages (like for tomato) for peppers to support the weight of the peppers. I bought wood stakes from Lowes and created cage like structure around the plant by tying jute twines all round the stakes. (The smaller tomato cages were cheaper though). I bought the pepper plants from Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart.

I had to remove squash and cucumber from my bed to stop the groundhog. (It had already eaten my eggplants, so this year don't have any). Even then, this critter got in and ate all my okra plants, so I started another set of okra plants in planters and I think I am late already. Ground hog doesn't want any of the tomato and bell peppers, so they are doing good.

Some of my tomatoes have started turning red. First time success with tomatoes. Tried last two years in planters and didn't work out..I am also surprisingly having good yield in bitter gourd - very bitter taste but tons of iron in them. It's one of my fav veggies.

I don't know what was done to the tomatoes and peppers harvested in my original picture. I got pieces of pepper from a chicken curry and that's it. Mom or wife - one of them tried something with it that I don't know of. :D :D

Since I have full fence now, I am thinking of putting some corn to attract Deer now, stop 2 weeks prior to opening day, and shoot one from my deck with a crossbow in season if it shows up. I see many deer and fawns around the neighborhood now. I live in a neighborhood with woods in the back but is in a subdivision in Brentwood, not sure what the laws are. Hope to get my first deer at least this year..last three years, me -0, deer -3...

 

[catman529]

Thanks everyone. This is my first year trying peppers, so I don't have many tips. I use the cow manure from Lowes mostly, my peppers are planted on the ground on a bed, have fence around it. I heard one should use cages (like for tomato) for peppers to support the weight of the peppers. I bought wood stakes from Lowes and created cage like structure around the plant by tying jute twines all round the stakes. (The smaller tomato cages were cheaper though). I bought the pepper plants from Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart.

I had to remove squash and cucumber from my bed to stop the groundhog. (It had already eaten my eggplants, so this year don't have any). Even then, this critter got in and ate all my okra plants, so I started another set of okra plants in planters and I think I am late already. Ground hog doesn't want any of the tomato and bell peppers, so they are doing good.

Some of my tomatoes have started turning red. First time success with tomatoes. Tried last two years in planters and didn't work out..I am also surprisingly having good yield in bitter gourd - very bitter taste but tons of iron in them. It's one of my fav veggies.

I don't know what was done to the tomatoes and peppers harvested in my original picture. I got pieces of pepper from a chicken curry and that's it. Mom or wife - one of them tried something with it that I don't know of. :D :D

Since I have full fence now, I am thinking of putting some corn to attract Deer now, stop 2 weeks prior to opening day, and shoot one from my deck with a crossbow in season if it shows up. I see many deer and fawns around the neighborhood now. I live in a neighborhood with woods in the back but is in a subdivision in Brentwood, not sure what the laws are. Hope to get my first deer at least this year..last three years, me -0, deer -3...

First off you need a .22 for that groundhog. If something ate my only eggplants I'd be P.O'd. I'm already planning to sit in my corn patch every evening when the ears are getting good, just to shoot the coons that come in to eat it.

As for the deer, you aren't breaking any rules long as you aren't trespassing or causing reckless endangerment (shooting toward a house or something). I've shot deer with my bow out of the backyard in my parent's subdivision, done it multiple times. Just make sure you can go retrieve it wherever it may run, and make a good shot on it. The deer in my backyard were heart/lung shots and they did not make it far.

If you really want to attract deer with a planting of some crop, just plant soybeans or something, which they will eat the whole plant rather than having to wait for corn to grow ears and ripen.

Edit: I thought you mean to plant corn for deer. Just realized you meant to pour out deer corn. If you're gonna do that and remove it 10 days before season, I think you'd have better results just planting a cover crop on your garden once you pull out the plants that are done producing. Clover, winter wheat, whitetail oats, etc will keep the weeds down in your garden bed and will also attract deer.