Well, just when we thought that good weather was truly here, we had a dip in the temps down to the 40's. Not good for the melons or tomatoes.
I got a lot of the beds prepared. Potatoes planted, peanuts planted, corn planted, watermelon planted, peppers planted, and rosemary.
Melons didn't flourish. So I'll try again with the extras. Tomatoes I went ahead and just brought them back indoors in the 3 inch pots.
Lettuce and spincah is growing like crazy. High winds Monday broke one of our young apple trees in half. So thankful we avoided the tornadoes-they passed north and south of us. Hope you are all well and not unduly put out by the stormy weather too.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Greeneyes your weekly thread here is golden—or would that be green instead? (’
Frost warnings tonight in Northern Ohio. Glad I haven’t planted anything yet!
Pinging the list.
We dropped to 32 this a.m. It was not as bad as forecast, thankfully, as the fruit trees are in full bloom. The next couple of days will be lucky to see 60F but the nights won’t go below 40. The chickens are finally heading out to the chicken tractor on Sunday...4 more weeks and they’ll be in the freezer. Late springs focus a lot growing into a short period resulting in more color. The Lilacs are having a banner year all across the northern midwest.
Anyone up there in the northern climes using cold frames to harden off the seedlings before planting to the garden?
Everything is doing pretty good. I got some damage from the storms to my sunflowers and the tobacco got a little beat up, but everything is growing well.
The tobacco finally started growing UP instead of out. I harvested the bottom leaves and they are hanging in the kitchen to cure.
And we got another 1/3" of rain today. The drought is officially over as far as I'm concerned.
/johnny
My daughter-in-law and I skirted that Oklahoma mess on Monday when we were coming home from that area. Stopped in Nevada MO and St Jo Mo and spent some time- many large trees twisted and down. One huge tree we saw barely missed the house it was near. Another one missed most of the house but not the large porch. Sad to see. Sad for the homeowners too.
Roses were in full blown in northwestern Arkansas. Of course- it is just that being in south central Nebraska the roses are still to come. We have been having trouble in the day time getting very much into the 60s; That will change soon enough and we will be melting.
In other news, we had a horrible storm with hail and strong winds earlier this week. My neighbor lost his porch roof and we were without power most of the night ... I got to try out my new lil generator from Harbor Freight. It worked! The next morning I discovered a lot of my corn plants lying on their sides. I tried lifting them up ... waiting to see what happens.
Here in the southern reaches of Puget Sound we had a teaser of hot weather, then back to rain, wind and 60s temps. We’ve had good asparagus yields plus the beans, tomatoes, strawberries, peas, and cukes are all starting well in spite of the cool conditions. Our 92 rhododendrons are blooming beautifully. Compost is king.
I thought I had been banned from the thread...
All the planting is done; we're mostly in the gathering and weeding stage now. Mrs. fidelis has lots of tomatoes green on the vine, but it seems to me they're taking their time ripening up, except for the cherry tomatoes: they've been producing steadily, if not meagerly. We got lots of squash too, mostly zucchini which is great because it keeps me fixed for zucchini bread. Mrs. fidelis has a low carb recipe for Z bread that she's been slowly perfecting.
Sorry to hear about everyone's horrid weather. Our stormy season comes in July or so with the summer "monsoons". It can get nasty, but it's extremely rare to get tornadoes, etc.
Greetings from Tennessee. Best wishes and prayers to those in Oklahoma. Lived there many years ago -in Ok city-your heart just goes out to them.
Finally got the garden tilled. Good grief what a mess. Planted rye grass as a ground cover last fall. We normally plant a “green manure mix” from the Territorial Seed co but ran out of time. Then with such a wet spring, the grass was hip high by the time I could get it tilled. Lots of initial weed eating and digging by hand before I could get the tiller in there.
Am curious-those who till their own gardens-what type tiller do you have/use? Years ago I had a huge Troy bilt that my father had given us. It worked wonderful. I foolishly got rid of it because it was so large. I opted for a smaller sized Troy-bilt -it works ok but it isn’t as well made and sturdy as the older one we had.
Hoping to get everything planted this weekend-boy I think this is the latest we’ve planted in many many years. It will be interesting to see how this late planting affects production.
Sure enjoy hearing about everyone’s gardening adventures..
Lots of rain, bringing our drought down to “moderate”—YIPPEE! from “severe”, which is what it dropped to after the record April snows, from “exceptional”.
Still have to put in the 2 Nan-King bush cherries; corn, cowpeas, black oilseed sunflowers, and cukes & zukes. May plant some cowpeas & okra, too.
We’ve put in 2 grapes; 5 black raspberries; 18 more asparagus plants...and found & transplanted 4 volunteers from seeds of one my “male” Jersey Knights that flowers & fruits every year. That brings us to 40 asparagus plants.
The grey-stripe sunflowers are sprouting, and will need thinned; I used the Earthway seeder, with the corn plate, which planted about 450 seeds in a space allotted to about 200-250; I had planned on using the Lima bean plate, because of the wider spacing, but it wouldn’t pick up the seeds.
The Carmine Jewel sweet bush cherry is full of blossoms, the first time it’s flowered since we planted it. I don’t really expect fruit this year, but it is a promise of things to come.
The big planting of Sugar Snap Peas is coming along nicely, and the produce manager at one of the local markets is interested in buying some of them when ready, if they are decent.
Current project is getting a chicken yard enclosed, so they can be outside during the day.
I dug out 2 small rhubarbs today that I had transplanted into a “temporary” bed 6 or 8 years ago, and discovered they had divided into 14 or 15 separated plants. “Worse” I have 6 or 8 more of them to dig & move.
Two days ago it was 90, today it was 42. And rain. My “from seed” plants (not many) that I started indoors are still waiting till June 1 to be planted. I have snow peas and strawberries up and doing. Carrots and peas planted seed to soil last week, and a lot of garden prep left to do.
Lots of action on the peach tree. Raspberry plant looks lovely so far. Almond tree is on it’s second full year and I have no idea what to expect-but it is alive. Apple trees look better this year, but I don’t expect apples yet for at least two more years. Damn apples.
The very worst thing is that my neighbors garden is perfect.
I am not doing a garden this year. Chemo has me so wiped out I don’t have the energy for it.
Do they give an award for an exceptional crop of weeds?
Been busy. I join in and appreciate the prayers for the folks in Moore, Shawnee, and Oklahoma.
I have family living in Granbury, TX which was also hit recently. She is fine, but reports that there were twisters all around her property, but she and animals and property were spared. One of the hardest hit areas was about a mile down the road from her. She knows a number of the people who lost loved ones.
On Tuesday I learned that one of the members of my Tuesday Meeting has a sister in Moore who she had not heard from. I have not heard yet if the sister has been found. I have talked with several people in our area who have friends or family directly or 2nd removed who have been affected. Folks, this will hit our state big for some time to come.
Several days ago, we went to a town just north of us, and as we arrived, the sirens were blowing. We were going to go to the grocery store there. When we arrived, it was raining and crazy windy. Darlin’ let me out at the door and all the employees met me and opened the door to me and said that since the siren had blown, we were invited to come in and shelter, but there would be no shopping. Since the weather had been calm on our way to the town we opted to turn around and go home, and we did so. Fortunately, all our immediate area was spared, including the town where the sirens had blown.
But it was a pretty heart racing time for sure!
~~~
On a little happier note, this has been a busy week! I’m learning so much! I have elected to do most of my gardening in pots this year, with a small patch containing my sunflowers and okra (which are doing well btw.) Marcella, I can appreciate your comment about “seed murder!” I am finding that I get attached to my seedlings as well! It is the darndest thing!
We were delighted to see that the cana bulb which we planted last year is coming up again!
I planted one of the packages of asparagus by digging the trenches recommended and then covering over slightly and watering. (We also had rain that night as well.) I’m wondering if they are viable. They are really dried up little root thingys. Will they really take hold? Or did I wait too long, you think? I still have another package of a different variety that I plan to put in if the consensus here is that they are viable.
My tomato seedlings are interesting to me. I set them into pots several days ago. One of them is doing pretty well. I’ve been having to cover my little guys with pots when the danger of hail is reported. So far I don’t think we’ve gotten any. In the other pot the seedlings have not been thriving. I asked Darlin’ to help me access the extra pots which are in a difficult place for me to manage by myself. So yesterday we obtained them.
Darlin’ set me up with a work table and a couple of big bags of soil. I had a wonderful time using the soil to condition the beautiful black but very clay-y soil in our yard. I repotted the one that has not been thriving, and when I emptied out the pot, Darlin’ (who did a lot of gardening as a kid) pointed out that there were no drainage holes in the pot!
I recalled what several of you have commented on, which is that tomatoes just do not do well with too much water! That made a lot of sense to see the results of that sage advice. So I got their little toes into a larger pot with holes in it and we’ll see how it all turns out.
Darlin’ is having such a good time watching me learn and get all excited. Yesterday I was all gloriously sweaty and dirty and just having a grand time!
I had stated previously on this thread that I was going to try to raise my garden this year from seed. Well, I’ve been having a devil of a time getting any parsley seeds to germinate.(I’ve tried from several different packets.)I gave up and purchased a parsley plant because I REALLY want to have it in my kitchen garden area. So I potted it up. I have a few parsley seeds in my sprout tray that I’m hoping will germinate. Ones I’ve put into seedling cups with soil pellets have not come up yet at all. I also have some dill seeds in my sprouting tray, hoping they will germinate as well.
QUESTION!:
Can anyone tell me, I bought a red sweet bell pepper plant. If I want a green pepper, do I pick it before it gets red, or do I need to get a different “green” pepper variety? I know it is a dumb question, but I really don’t know, and even Darlin’ is stumped on that one. (Darlin’ absorbed a lot as a kid, but didn’t absorb that one! LOL!)So anyway, the store bought red pepper plant is ensconced in its pot with a hole!
While purchasing the parsley and the pepper plants, Darlin’ elected to purchase a Big Boy tomato plant that was already well along. So I got that one potted as well.
I’ve been REALLY excited about my White Scallop bush squash! I spread some of the seeds about in a large (hole-y) pot, and have been thrilled to see them ALL come up!! And I’m also THRILLED with the bibb lettuce and spinach I’ve been trying. They are both just going great guns!
The fava beans and Great White Northern beans and my one Cranberry bean plants are all thriving. The fava beans have a LOVELY black and white blossom that I had not expected!
We were tickled to see a volunteer sunflower in our yard near where we were working on harvesting our sunflower seeds last fall. I dug it up and put it in the area near the seedlings. We are up to 6 sunflower plants this year. Last year we started 5 and ended up with 4.
I have some garden bean sprouts and some snow pea sprouts that I am hoping to pot today. I also started some black turtle bean sprouts. I’ve tried several times on that one too.
greeneyes, I’m making another stab at amaranth. I have several sprouted and doing well as sprouts and hoping to get those into dirt as well. I also plan to scatter some in the back yard near the asparagus and see if they take hold. Since I have PLENTY of seed, it seems like a fun experiment to try.
I really appreciate this thread. I learn so much here! Thanks to all of you!
I’m sure I left out some things, but this is getting long enough.
As we slowly drove to the store, we began to count how many driveways were washing into the road..........yeah, we tend to do strange things to avoid the boredom. We got 20 new hatchlings to add the the flock of 14 adults and the 10 Amercuana's we bought last month. It may seem like a lot, but we have problems with predation in our area. If it isn't a raccoon, it's neighbor dogs that get through our fence.
The rains lasted into early afternoon, and then we went outside to see if we had any damage. We found this guy drying out on the phone pole: 
Needless to say, the chickens were all under trees and real quiet!
Now, down to the hoophouse: This Black Krim was planted in March. It was such a cute little plant when we bought it: 
Mrs S is standing beside it. She's 5ft tall.
The "Vintage Wine" Tomatoes are bearing a lot of fruit also. 
I planted my other tomatoes on 2ft centers, but apparently, that isn't enough. These are a variety of determinate and indeterminate plants: 
The Collard Greens and Swiss Chard are left over from last fall's planting. They survived this years mid winter by just being covered with a plastic drop cloth: 
In the greenhouse, various pepper plants are producing nicely:
Jalapeno's 
The Tabasco Tree - I started this plant from seed back in 2008: 
Habenero: 
and Bell Peppers: 
We harvest two cauliflower this past week. One was used as a salad, and the other is waiting for the pot: 
Oh yeah, before I forget.......the little furballs brought this in: 
A Giant Centipede.
The Mrs saw it and screamed like a banshee, cats scattered everywhere (except for the culprit who was sooooo proud of bringing it in the house). The Mrs continued to make various strange squeeling and grunting sounds while dancing around, never taking her eyes away form this poor creature.
For some reason, I'm not allowed to lightly walk my fingers up the Mrs' back for the rest of the day......... :)
Thanks for the ping. Finally got the corn planted today. Crazy weather has been great for the weeds but hardly warm or dry enough to till and plant. (NOT a complaint just reality.) I had no weed problem last year because of the drought and heat, but they are sure making up for it this spring.
The strawberries are finally turning, and I will go over the beds tomorrow to pick the first ripe.
Last year gardening about did me in and this spring seems to have picked up right where last fall’s harvest ended. I know I am getting old and slow because I can hardly move after a few hours of dancing with the garden tiller.