Kansas Hillbilly Backyard Garden 2013

Not sure if I've put this information in here yet for this year or not...so here it is.

2014 CHANGES:
- added five 8'x4' vegetable raised garden beds (almost doubled vegi garden in size)
- added seventeen 8'x4' flower raised garden beds around perimeter of backyard
- added two 16'x5' strawberry beds
- added one 24'x5' herb bed with walking path

VEGETABLE GARDEN: This year we are planting or have planted more carrots, onions, sugar snap peas, bush beans, peppers, tomatoes, okra, broccoli, spinach, and spinach. Not doing sweet corn anymore -- requires too much water and is cheaper to buy at the local farmer market.

FLOWER GARDEN: Along the east and west side of the perimeter of the yard, in the raised beds, will be host plants for butterfly caterpillars (see list below), and the north and south sides of the perimeter of the yard, in the raised beds, are generally nectar plants for bees and butterflies.


BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR HOST PLANTS:
ANTIRRHINUM MAJUS - Snapdragon
ASTER SP.
BAPTISIA AUSTRALIS - Blue Wild Indigo
CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA - Partridge Pea
CILANTRO, DILL, FENNEL, MINT, PARSLEY, & SAGE
ASCLEPIAS INCARNATA - Marsh Milkweed
ASCLEPIAS PURPURESCENS - Purple Milkweed
ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA - Butterfly Milkweed
VIOLA TRICOLOR PANSY
HEUCHERA SP. - Running Violet

Frost advisory for tonight -- May 15th!! (a month later than avg frost date) -- so I've got some covering to do.  With the size of my garden, I have to prioritize.  I still have "backups" for my tomatoes, but that's it.  Obviously, I'll be doing my best to cover my peppers, but not sure what else I'm going to have time and materials to cover. 

Hopefully the peppers make it, because they are by far my largest investment as far as vegetables go...very expensive to replace 84 pepper plants -- especially when these are heirlooms and can't be purchased as seedlings anywhere around here.

I think the strawberries will be okay?

Peas and green beans should be okay -- but if not, are easily replaced.

Okra will probably suffer, but again, easy and cheap to replace by seed.

My flowers will probably suffer, especially the zinnias, but most of the others are either colder climate types or perennials, so should be okay there.  Bad thing is that I planted over 200 zinnias, started from seed, so I'd hate to lose that investment.

Dang it Kansas weather!  Go away!  It's almost summer for crying out loud!!

Oh no.  Do the best your can and use what ever you have to help.  Sheets, lightweight towels, old curtains.  


Kay

Few comments:

1. Wow, what a huge increase in beds for you this year! That is a stunning addition of square footage. Thank goodness it's SFG (it is, isn't it?) or you would have much more work weeding etc. Best wishes to you on enjoying all that great new space!

2. Ouch re frost! A lot of plants that you wouldn't think could take a frost can do it, so I hope you have good luck. Almost any kind of cloth can make a difference by restricting cold winds and keeping temps at least a couple of degrees higher. Hope you can work it out.

3. Re planting flowers to attract pollinators, speedwell/Veronicas have beautiful blue flowers that bees go absolutely nuts over. I got some because I saw even more bees swarming veronicas than were on the bee balm plant right next to them. And the bee balm was bigger. They might be worth trying if you have space. Also, have you considered borage? I'm sure what you've got will be great; I suppose I'm just putting in a vote for a couple bee-friendly plants I'm excited to be including this year.

good luck tonight!  you always see citrus farmers watering with sprinklers in Florida when freezes strike, would a firing up a sprinkler before sunrise help?

I think we've got everything covered.  Used everything from storage containers to black plastic sheeting.
I think the only things that I'm REALLY concerned about are the peppers and strawberries.

Thanks Marc for the compliments.  I've been looking for a spot to put borage -- that's out of the way.  Maybe on an easement on the other side of the fence.  Need to add some bee balm, might go shopping after this freeze. 

jmsieglaff - I'm not sure if that's as applicable in this situation, because they are typically protecting fruit and/or blooms, if I'm not mistaken.  I'm more concerned with the actual plant, and roots, getting too cold.  I really need to get some hoops built and have plastic sheeting ready to go -- that's a fall/winter project.  A guy back home uses the old, large christmas lights in his hoops to keep them warm at night, so I may try that.

It's already down to 42*F, and it's only midnight.  A lot will depend on if we can get some cloud cover and some breeze to blow away some of this moisture in the air.  At this point, it ain't looking too hot.

Strawberries can tolerate cold down to 28 degrees F.  It's frost that gets them and that's hard to predict.

I see it's 32 in Manhattan, KS; not sure how close that is to you and a lot of 34 and 35 in northeast KS this morning.  Hope your covering marathon worked!

35*F right now.  Lots of reports of frost, and some on the car, but so far the garden looks to be frost free.  Low temps is a big concern as well.

This is a photo of the peppers covered up.


---


This is a photo of this morning -- I think we dodged the frost, but not the cold.

I'm a newb to sfg and to the forum,  also in Kansas.    I covered last night too and am glad I did. We had heavy frost on the ground this morning. I'm pretty much over the cold weather and can't believe we're worrying about frost in the middle of May. Glad you got the peppers covered and safe. Looks like another cold one tonight here but maybe after that we'll warm up. Best wishes!

Carol

I think we're in good shape...no frost on the ground this morning -- just a little on the car. Looks like the covers helped.

54*F under the pepper covers, about 2" down in the soil. When I took the cover off (storage container), it was pretty warm in there.


-------------

46.5*F in the squash / cucumber bed, which I did not cover. This is 2" in the ground.

Slim,  Very nice, large garden.  5 long beds.   

sanderson wrote:Slim,  Very nice, large garden.  5 long beds.   

Thanks.  Six, actually, for vegies. 

They just revised their prediction for tonight -- was 45*F low, now 38*F low.  Back outside I go.

Finally seeing some good butterfly action in the backyard butterfly garden this week.  These are the three species I've been able to photograph so far -- but have seen several other species.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Papilio glaucus



-----------

Monarch
Danaus plexippus



-----------

Spring Azure
Celastrina ladon

Very nice photos!

How pretty!  Haven't seen many butterflies here, but bees are buzzing along with mahogany wasps and spiders.  LOTS of spiders...!

Found a really neat looking bug on one of my milkweed plants...one that I have never seen before.  Apparently, it is Red-banded Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea), which, according to what I've read, is a garden "pest".  Which makes sense, because it has KU Jayhawk colors. 

Hehehe!  I've found a couple of those as well.  RIP...

The colors are amazing! Glad you caught a shot of them. Then RIP. I lost many seedlings to curly leaf transmitted by leaf hoppers.

That is a gorgeous bug! Too bad he's a bad guy.

Finally getting some decent flowers in the garden.  We've had almost 5 inches of rain in the last 10 days, so everything is growing, but need some heat to get some others going good.

Milkweed Flowering



Snapdragon



Yarrow



Another variety of Milkweed



Onion going to Seed



Orange Zinnia

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.   

Played around with the zoom and manual focus on the DSLR yesterday evening in the garden.

nice color...my scarlet and butterfly milkweed is also in full bloom...marsh milkweed not yet full bloom.

I've seeded a couple flats of several milkweed varieties...hopefully they have time to develop seed pods this fall.