Spring Gardens 2015 Pt 2

I dont know how much I applied I just tossed them around. I had a 25 lb bag.

Good luck with the storms...it was like that here yesterday evening.

this spring i grew turnips in the wash tub mostly for the greens, just harvested a few days ago, but did get a few golf ball sized turnip roots as a bonus before the real heat started sneaking in. There are 3 cantaloupe seedlings in the big black pot beside of it

This message was edited May 10, 2015 12:07 AM

Great use of the washtub! We use our tub as a water barrel. LOL

Woke to more thunderstorms. God's alarm clock went off around 6AM, earlier than I had planned on waking up. We've picked up another 2.25" of rain. I really enjoy the rain, but I'd like it to space itself out a little bit.

some better shots without that ugly fence wire in the way.

hmm, i have tried twice to post a second set of photos, showing some developing fruits, but it doesnt seem to be working

This message was edited May 10, 2015 3:07 PM

trying again...

So apparently if you don't put any words with your photos, then it wont post, LOL!

This message was edited May 10, 2015 4:25 PM

What is the 2nd picture, calendula? And what's the last picture?

you would be right on guessing that flower as calendula :)

And the last photo is my eggplant working on its very first bloom.

Pretty eggplant! I've never grown it, but I was thinking that's what it was.

It's a great year for strawberries and my blueberry bushes are loaded. My blackberries have been struggling in the dry shade where they live, but look pretty happy this year and the wild ones are loaded with blooms.

We finally got some steady heat and my plants are trying to make up for lost time, it seems. They are really putting on size. Radishes are starting to bolt; today might be the last harvest for the market.

We could sure use some rain. I had to water the other day -- a rarity in May for me. Not too much rain, tho! Garlic is starting to bulb and it looks like a banner year.

Not that everything is doing well. Peas did awful. Can't win them all.

I have tiny, skinny snap beans! Loads of blooms on the Contender and Ky Blue Lake green beans have blooms, and the Strike green beans are coming along nicely, too.

First time for green beans....gonna can them.

no blooms yet on my peas either, im thinking they just dont grow quickly enough for people in zone 7+

They havent started to decline yet, but at this rate with how quickly summer decides that it wants to come rushing in and kick spring out, i may get, maybe one pod.

on the bright side, my beans, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seem to be growing by leaps and bounds overnight.

Nicole, I'll gladly send you some of our rain. I know I shouldn't complain, but we're just so waterlogged that I'm ready for a break. Over the past few weeks, we've had over 10" of rain. We picked up 3.75" yesterday alone. We're dry today, but rain's back in the forecast for the rest of the week.

We have rain today and there is a high chance of it everyday in the forecast. Can't even get in my garden. Not complaining but we haven't had a spring like this in years.

Stephanie grows peas and she is in zone 8 but I wouldn't be surprised if certain microclimates don't make a difference.

I do grow peas! I've learned that the shorter DTM varieties do well here. I grow Alaska and Wando peas and plant them early, though this year, I planted late. However, we've not had a lot of warm days, so they're doing great. They're now about 5' tall and blooming and putting out pods. I've had the best luck with growing them on chicken wire or cattle panels covered with chicken wire. You could use that fencing material to grow them on that you have around your garden as well.

Steph,
How're you gonna process your peas? Canning? freezing? Eating them on the spot?

I usually just toss them in a freezer bag and place in the freezer. I put a few in my salad last night.

sweet potatoes are finally planted in their own special bed, now i hope they go crazy, LOL

Update!

Pic #1 Strike Green beans full of blooms

Pic #2 Contender Green beans

Pic #3 Sioux full of maters

Pic #4 Black Cherries blushing

Pic #5 New Big Dwarf tomato

Linda

Linda, everything is looking so good!

Jo-Ann

Getting about 4 pounds (or nearly a gallon) every day right now, but it won't last.

Those are beautiful.

They certainly ARE beautiful!

Thanks, Jo-Ann!
I uncovered the last empty raised bed this morning, so it would get drenched with free water, er, rain... Supposed to have thunderstorms beginning at noon, and through tomorrow. Lots of free nitrogen in that bed! The green beans and tomatoes have fairly doubled in size since the rains started yesterday. That's a good thing, too!

This weekend I'm gonna dump a trash can full of compost on it, and plant the sweeties (Vardamans and Porto Rico). These are supposed to be short vine types, so, hopefully they won't go too far past the 4x8' bed. If they do, however, I can let them run along the fence line.

Question: Do you sift your homemade compost? I'm having to because of the little sticks and branches that get dumped in when I'm collecting leaves from other folks. Not a problem, just a bit time consuming, cause I'm kinda anal when it comes to a consistent grade for the compost. But, I'm getting better, and not stressing much if a few sticks fall through, LOL! Hopefully, that trash can is gonna sift out about a 3-4" of primo coffee grinds, and a ton of worms!

Hugs!

we had quite the storm last night as well. There was only just enough rain to get things moist though, the rest of it was heavy wind. Today i go down into my garden to find everything dusted in fine clay soil particles from where things have dried out around here. My tomatoes have been powdered in clay from top to bottom, although i think my eggplant got the worst dose of it. Any suggestions for cleaning them off? perhaps an epsom salt spray this evening?

I would just spray them off with plain water.

i would normally go that route, but all of the "do not get the leaves wet" mantras that you see throughout all of the gardening world, and considering how sensitive tomatoes are about getting blight is why i was asking about the epsom salt mix

Long as you do it early enough in the morning so the leaves will have time to dry during the daytime, you should be fine...

The "Fungaluglies" formula has components of wet leaves & nighttime humidity. I've been hand watering my green beans early in the morning. The sun comes up and they're dry by the evening. No fungaluglies to date...no going to bed wet...

Same with my tomatoes....

Linda, everything looks great! We have grown Contender beans in the past. The only thing I didn't like about them was that they curled and I like my beans straight. lol

We picked up another 1/4" of rain today. We have a 100% chance of rain tomorrow and then some percentage every day for the rest of the week. They've opened the spillway on Lake Ray Roberts which flows into Lake Lewisville, just north of Dallas. Lake Lewisville was only 5' below capacity. If they have to open the Lewisville spillway, it'll flow into the Trinity River and affect Dallas. We've had soooo much rain this year! I'm thankful for it, but would like it spread out a bit.

no trouble with blights so far, just was a bit skeptical about the advice about getting the leaves wet. I had the impression that the leaves were not to be gotten wet, not ever, unless foliar feeding, or it rained on it.

Didnt know that it only applied to evening watering.

This message was edited May 13, 2015 12:14 AM

I am back and it seems like I never left Ireland or England.
What did happen while I was away ??
It looks so green and everything grew so much !
After being on the air for more than one day it was very refreshing to run in the garden and find "dinner". Here what we had last night (picture #1).
Then today I harvest so many squashes, peppers and more tomatoes (picture #2) ...

Tomato plants are loaded and some tomatoes are super large !
I think it was cooler while I was gone ... so they are not ripening as fast = they waited for me ...
A lot of work to do ... tons of suckers.
By the way GLACIER tomatoes are really fast to ripen (55 days) and GOLD NUGGETS as usual.

I have a few melons getting bigger. Some of the onions are leaning down ... maybe because of the rain ...
Everything is good !

JMC1987,

I used to water very regularly in the late evenings, but, as I learned more, I made the decision to change my watering schedule to the early morning so the leaves had all day to dry out.

Even when I did water late, I tried to aim for the roots, being careful as I could to not splash up too much water and soil on the leaves. I also adopted the practice of pruning all the tomato leaves that were touching or hanging too far down to the soil.

Now my vines look more like Bernie's (thanks, Bernie!!!) -- I call 'em "Bare Naked Ladies," LOL!

All garden advice is local; this sounds like it's just not as hard and fast of a rule for you as it is in some places. I'd use good sanitation and practices -- like keeping the leaves mostly dry and trimming up the leaves from the bottom 12" of stem -- so you keep NOT having problems with blight. But not stress about it.

We've got huge blight problems here because the humidity gets high and stays high all summer, which is perfect for blight whether you get the leaves wet or not. And pop-up thunderstorms all summer will be sure they get wet anyway. I'm going to have blight on my tomatoes no matter what I do. I just have to manage it so it does the least harm.

I use drip irrigation, so I don't worry about needing to let the leaves dry out. It's been well worth the effort and expense to install and it lets me water in the evening when it conserves the most moisture.

went ahead and spritzed off the leaves this morning that had the dried clay powder blown onto it.

I do have to admit that these are the best looking tomato plants that i probably have EVER grown. (may need to do another round of bottom leaf snipping though on the first two)

I think its made a huge difference that i started adding a good layer of mulch made out of leaves and grass on all of my rows.

This message was edited May 13, 2015 4:32 PM

The AWS is coming, Jo-Ann, right after I fire up the AAPC, LOL!!!!!

Thanks, girlie!

We're having a beautiful day here today! Not a cloud in sight. And, my raised beds have been rain-watered DEEP, DEEP, DEEP!!!