Strange Year for gardening

We had one of the coldest, wettest Springs that I can ever remember. The weather has continued to be erratic ever since. Beets wouldn't germinate, zucchini is just now beginning to produce, flowers, but no fruit set on my butternut squash plants and a very few tomatoes are just now beginning to ripen. Our temp. has been at 38 degrees two mornings last week...hey, it's supposed to be Summer! I have never seen a climate change like this year. Hope it's just an abberation because it is just a little scary!

Hi LM, Where is Dayton. Is it near the mountains?

It has been a sucky year. My allergies almost killed me when the warm weather hit; everything bloomed at once. We needed the rain this week, but I am ready for the warm weather to come back.

Yes, not a good produce year, but a great year for grass and for the shade plants. My SIL has 5 bears breech blooming in her front yard!!

Raspberries also did well this year.

I chose this year to start growing vegetables again. Poor choice on my part. My zucchini are just now starting to bud out. The tomatoes are really tall and have flowers and some small tomatoes, but nothing close to ripe. The corn will never do anything but look pretty this year, and forget anything that resembles a small melon. Also forget peas. The green beans are just now starting to climb so I doubt I'm going to get much out of them. Of course, many people get more sun than I do so that has something to do with it, too. I was a bit glad to have a couple of days of rain, but it did beat my lilies to hell and back. Also, I've had two blooms on one of my water lilies, but nothing else, and I have about 8 varieties of water lilies. The pond has been absolute crap this year. Even my water never cleared up, which is really wierd because I generally have really clear water.
I noticed that the spider mites attacked much earlier than usual and with great force. I wonder if that had anything to do with the weather in the spring.
The roses have been especially beautiful this year, and the hostas and other shade plants have done really great.

What a brillant cataloguing Pix - perhaps the abberant weather has made all of us look closer at our gardens.

We on the other hand have had my idea of a perfect summer. A mix of gorgeous clear skies, spells of hot, and just had 3 days of persistent light rain. I think my one complaint would have to be that we have had strong winds - but the rest has been great - vegetables continue to feed most of southern England, and we are definately on our way towards the great tomato glut.

LOL! 'The great tomato glut'. I know people who have had those! We've had just beautiful summer weather for the most part, and we got some rain which was nice. It was just a bit too late for things that need more than a 60 day growing season. Forgot to say that the hydrangeas are lovely this year!

Willowwind2, Dayton is 30 miles N.E. of Walla Walla on the edge of the Palouse farm country. The Blue Mountain range is about 20 miles to the south.

My hydrangeas are doing wonderful as well.

No kidding. I started vege gardening this year, too. Pod Peas Oregon 2- MIA, Stringbeans, one vine out of 12 seedlings, Pumpkins 1 french, 1 giant vine, both underdeveloped. It is endless.

I got about 10 canna tubers. I have about 7 plants coming up but are stalled about 1 foot long.

I am trying tomatoes from seed, and have about 5 plants that took off about 3 weeks ago, they are now in 2-3 gallon black pots, with 2-3 unripe tomatoes between them.

I think last weeks cold put everything off for some more time. I am hoping for more of the standard 80-85F temperatures of August will move everything along.

Its also been frustrating for my cacti and succulents, I have one plant that has been trying to bloom all summer, and it has been, a little, I think it just needs to heat up a little more and that flower will open fully. Other plants, haworthias, aloes, adromischus are all blooming unaffected, but nothing has been as showy as my Pleiosplios nellii

The raspberries certainly were spectacular. Went berry picking last weekend in Sequim, and picking 12 lbs only took an hour for me, a 5 yr old, and a 7 yr old.

Tried to pick blueberries this weekend, and found 2 ripe. I'm hoping these warm days will ripen a bunch of those up!

It's still a little early for blackberries. We'll see in a couple week.

Ditto to all on the veggies! Blecch! I come from tomato and pepper country and boy, am I learning a thing or two! I have some very brave, very small tomato plants which are just now beginning to bud. Zucchini and crookneck have flowers but no fruit yet and butternut is still struggling. Salsa bed is a disaster. Ornamental peppers are trying but have not even attempted to flower yet, let alone show any color. Onions, leeks? HAH! But like everyone else, easy to grow ornamentals are doing great. I've been told by several natives to not let this year influence my judgment regarding veggie gardening, but *sheesh,* all I want is a poblano!

outtamygourd - My MIL lives up by you. My garlic did well this year, I'm not sure why it would and not leeks and onions.

my green bean plants are flowering, but not my tomatoes, peppers or cukes just yet. I had heard of using fishtank water from the aquarium, so I did, and that really seemed to have helped in the growth of my veggie plants. Or you can substitute the "Alaskan fish emoltion" . It is sold at Rite Aid, and Fred Meyer, that I know of. Melodie

Add me to the failed veggie list, too, and it's a little warmer down here than Seattle. What a year to try starting stuff from seed for the first time! I lost all the cukes, cantaloupes, squash, zucchini that I started from seed. Even the basil is not doing well. I valiantly held true to my seed-started peppers and tomatoes and the peppers are a complete joke. This is an even worse pepper year than last year's cool summer. The only pepper that's thinking about blooming is still only about 3" tall. I'm hoping this week will make a difference. However, I do have a good pea crop. I planted them about a month later than anyone said to plant them and they're in part shade and looking really good-in fact, I need to pick a bunch. And, I caved and bought tomato starts because I couldn't imagine a summer without tomatoes. Those cherry tomatoes are starting to produce but so far nothing else.

One bright note-The blueberries are coming in down here and are excellent-this looks to be a good year for them.

I want blueberries!

What's the Latin name for blueberry?

It is one of the vacciniums - but it depends on which blueberry you are growing. Vaccinium covers a number of berries from cranberry thru huckleberries and blueberries.

Al the blueberries I have are Vaccinium corymbosum, and they are doing reasonably well this year, though the birds tend to get as many as I do. I'm not one to cover everything with netting. i am wiling to share with the wildlife so long as they don't take them all.

I'll have to add it to my want list later, I'm having trouble with my preferences.

We are eating small yellow tomatoes off of our vine. They are delicious. About an inch in diameter. My blueberries are really loaded this year and some are almost ripened. I also have strawberries that grow around in my flowerbeds (ever-bearing) and they are bigger than usual this year. Yummy

speaking of vaccinium, I think this will be another bumper crop for huckleberries. Maybe they produce better in cool weather, although today was not a good example of such weather. I wonder if we set another record for temp today?

I'm leaving for our trip tomorrow, so farewell for a couple of weeks. We're so excited to have a vacation it's pathetic. We're sailing up to the San Juan islands and the southern BC gulf islands. I fear the day when I have to come back. Why is there some kind of rule that one cannot simply live 'on vacation'?? I'll miss the final lily bloom, but it's a price I'm willing to pay!

Pix, have a great time - with lots of space for musing. Like you I'm off from work after lunchtime today - and like you, already dreading the fact that 3 weeks is not permanent! I'm not ready to retire yet, but I would like to be in the garden all of the time. Tough to make that work out - I'll work on that.

This is not the best year for some of the tender vegie crops.
I have lots of green toms, zuchinni gone exponential (7 plants - I was not thinking straight), basil is shorter than normal, but I do pinch it a lot, tomatillos doing splendidly, peppers - we'll see & peas, peas, peas - love them!!!
Potatoes - oh they'll grow no matter what.

The failures: cantaloupe - slugs got all the young ones, watermelon - same, cukes - died April 20th (remember that snow day?), and eggplant - doubt it will fruit at all.

OK - no reason to get bummed. Next year apply the lessons learned, and be grateful that you're not dependent on your produce for your income. This would have been a bust year for a farmer here, particularly if you only grew a couple crops.

It would be good to have a thread this fall regarding what vegies did well & how you dealt with the non-friendly spring weather.

Have a great trip, Pixy. I guess this is the weather to be out sailing with a cool breeze blowing off the water.

Zhinu, if you want blueberries, the type I mentioned above, Vaccinium corymbosum (Northern Highbush Blueberry), comes in many cultivars ripening at different times. By planting several bushes you can have fresh blueberries from July through September. 'Earlyblue' ripens in early July for me. It's not the most flavorful, but it sure is nice to have when none of the others are ready yet. I also have 'Olympia' which is a strong growing bush and has good flavor ripening in mid season, 'Toro' which has big delicious berries (my personal favorite, also mid season), 'Darrow', also good flavor which ripens a little later, and 'Legacy' which is evergreen and also good tasting. There are many others.

I also have a couple Southern Lowbush blueberries that are shorter shrubs, 3-4 feet tall. Mine are called 'Sunshine Blue' (pretty,evergreen leaves) and ripen a few fruits at a time from mid August through mid September. They are really tasty, though the berry is not as large as some.

You can get bare root shrubs in late Winter, and they are not too expensive. It takes a few years for them to put out very many berries, but they are very satisfying to grow over time.

Injoy Pix

Katye you're right. We get a CSA with Boistfort Farm. Besides being flooded out in December the late spring and so called summer haven't helped a lot. We are starting to get a lot of great produce from them now but they had to start a month late and will probably go through October instead of September as in the past....they've had a very rough year. You should check out their web site, they talk about the floods and they are good writers as well as good farmers. www.boistfortvalleyfarm.com/

Thanks for the link, re: Boistfort Valley Farms. It's a gutsy business to be in as you're at the mercy of the elements. Perseverance helps, too.