It's May! What's up in your garden?

happyfrog wrote:ooh, PRETTY!

question for you. what do you 'do' with your arugula?

i was putting it in salads but i've now decided i don't particularly like it - too strong a flavor for my salads. . .

and i have 2 squares FULL of the stuff. ...

Could you make chimichurri with it? I often make it with cilantro instead of parsley, never thought about trying arugula but it just might work!

In other news... my corn is up!

Sounds like it's going to get down to 33 tomorrow night with it feeling like 26 with the wind factored in. Which number do I need to be concerned with? I mainly have brassica type plants going. Can they take a light frost or should I be covering everything? I just took off my hoops earlier this week because originally they was calling for 40s being the lows.

I was on vacation last week and am catching up here! My radishes are ready to harvest and everything is growing well. I am going to plant a couple more varieties of lettuces this weekend. Nothing else ready to harvest.

Tony, I bet they'll be fine. My brassicas have gone through a frost or two and are okee dokee, if you are worried just use a bedsheet to over em.

Today I spend much of the day potting up, tending to my mater and peppers plants, starting new seeds, the standard fun stuff. Since our spare bedroom is now the "green house" according to the hubby, maybe I can get him to just help me build a REAL one!!!

Well I had to go out of town so I didn't cover them and everything looks fine today. I'm also starting to pick some radishes and I should have some kohlrabi ready in a week or so.

It's May and it snowed! I don't remember the last time we got snow in May. Or maybe I just conveniently forgot.

I've got my SFG and my tomato covered up for a few days as we're expecting frost. I hope everything comes through ok.

I have really enjoyed reading all your posts! Tony, the greatness of your video is only surpassed by the greatness of your garden, or is that gardens! I take it you have at least 15 kids, yes? That's a lot of radishes! Oh, but they are small. That is just a fantastic garden! I am soooo jealous! And you are in Nebraska Zone 5a. I'm glad you said you started early with a cover over everything. I was just about to throw in the towel because I need a magnifying glass to see anything I've planted except the onions!

BettyAnn, you continue to awe me. Your peas are so big. I'm not sure what's going on with mine. One of nine is growing as I would have expected. Two are just sitting there and the rest failed. I replanted and am waiting. I really think I might have too much peat in this box. I'm going to mix in more compost -- as soon as I break the icecycles off my nose and it quits raining up here. Ugh! I planted arugula, too. I have no idea what it is or if we'll like it. I just figured if it's another leaf it must be for salads. We'll see.

Blackrose, I love the pictures of your little sprouts. You have encouraged me as we must be at about the same stage. Although you posted those pics last week. I hope I catch up with you soon!

Lookin' Good, Shocks. Those little guys can go out as soon as you're past your last frost date. Or, if you put them in the garden earlier, but be ready to cover them when it gets cold. We had a freeze alert a couple of nights ago. I feel like I live in the arctic!

Oh, AFLfan, to live in California and grow artichokes. Is that heaven, or what?

Blackrose and I might hop the next wagon train to CA and move in next door to you! I think BettyAnn lives in her own little micro-CA-climate! How else could her garden look like that?

Claire

Okay. So what's up in my garden? Well, not much! I have 15 out of 16 yellow onions going great guns. I replanted the one and haven't seen anything yet. Oh, these are sets, not seeds.

I think those are carrots I see sprouting in my big double-drawer box (picture later). Also in that box may be mesculin coming up. BettyAnn, have you planted any of that? More leaves! We're big salad eaters so I went for lots of leaves! Most of my radishes and spinach are doing ok. I have four little calendula (marigolds) from seed in the corner of my 2x6. I've really been a flower gardener up till now, so one of the other squares in the 2x6 has Dianthus blooming. There's also a silver mound artemesia in that box and a little dwarf evergreen. They'll get moved to my perennial space once I get that ready.

What else have I been doing? Well, we built a carrot box out of the two drawers we took out of the desk that was the base for our neighbors TT. We took the bottom off one drawer and attached it to the top of the other. Voila! A carrot box!

We built a 4x4 but don't have the soil in it yet as we have to dig out the garlic and grass in that area and get the landscape cloth down. I lined the box with landscape cloth and put hardware cloth on the bottom of the box.

I bought the conduit for the trellis and the rebar, and ordered netting from SFGF. The netting is here but so is the rain! GRRR. Between the raindrops (and with my coat on) I've been mixing more blended compost and Mel's Mix for the new box.

We have a 4x6 where the pea is growing in one of the back squares. Notice I said pea singular! I sure hope the others come up soon. This is the box that will have the trellis. I'm waiting till I get that up before I put anything else in the back row of that box. Right now the front row is abloom with johnny-jump-ups (violas) in all the squares . Did I say I love flowers? I will put flowers in the back of the violas in all the squares. These will all be in front of the plants vining on the trellis. The violas will bloom again in the fall.

My brocolli from seed is doing fine in a temporary pot waiting to go into the 4x4.

Other than that, we've been raising a very busy Gson who lives with his father 45 minutes from us, and traveling a little bit. Why does it rain when I'm home?

Claire

Oh, I did one more thing. I build a 1x1x6" box. Just one little square. I did it all by myself. Drilled the holes and screwed in the screws with the power drill and used the power stapler to attach the landscape cloth and hardware cloth. I'm so proud of me!

I'm going to put little drawer pulls on it for handles. Why did I build this? Well, originally it was going to be stacked on one square in one of the boxes for a deep box for carrots. But then I decided it might be a good miniature that I could use for teaching.

Also, up until now I have not been able to visualize what a square's worth of Mel's Mix looks like. I just mix and pour until a box is filled. That won't do when I'm teaching. I know what it looks like in the box, but what does it look like in a pile? I will want better info for myself. So, I filled up the little box and poured it into an empty plastic bag from other mulch. I did that twice. Now I have one cubic foot of Mel's Mix in the bag and I now know what one cubic foot of Mel's Mix looks like! Have I mentioned that I am a very analytical person???

Claire

Happy Frog: When are you moving? Soon? In Austin you ought to have a longer growing season than Ohio. So that part is good. Good luck with the move.

My garden is coming along. Late start so people in the northern US are ahead of me! But, have some great looking beets, potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes and herbs. The beans were eaten as fast as I could plant them, but after some serious snail hunting that is solved but I am now JUST starting my beans.

LOL! I didn't realizr this was a regional forum! Help! I am lost!

Great update on your garden Claire! I'm hoping to post some updated pics today sometime. I've thinned the broccoli down to one per square. I also thinned the carrots, lettuce and spinach. It's been quite chilly and wet here too. I've had my SFG and my tomato covered for the last few days. The Lawn and Garden forecast tells me that frost is not expected for a few days, so I think it's probably safe to take the cover off now. I might still cover the tomato at night for a little while though.

That was a good idea to build the 1x1x6" box and then use to see how much a cubic foot of Mel's Mix is. My husband is just as analytical, if not more so. He actually built a 1x1x1 box to use as a giant measuring cup when he was making the Mel's Mix for me.

LOL Chopper! That's ok. We love to see your garden. Even if we are a little jealous of the beautiful sun shining in the background of your picture.

Blackrose, tell you DH it's nice to know there are other analytical gardeners! I might have done the 1x1x1 box too, except it would be a bit heavy and awkward for an old lady like me ! I'm using a 2 quart pitcher to measure out one square. It takes about 7 scoops!

It's still cold here this morning and the sun isn't shining. But -- it's not raining!

Claire

Hi Chopper! You're welcome to visit us here in the north anytime you have a hankering for cold, wet, gloomy weather where you have to turn the furnace on in MAY! It feels like February!

Claire

Chopper - you can join our neighborhood anytime!

Claire - thanks for the updates. I completely understand how exciting and satisfying it is to build your own boxes. It's such a great feeling.

The guys here at work have some spare wood that I am going to puruse today and see if I can't get some good stuff out of it. They are so good to me here and have even offered help to trim it to the right sizes. I'm hoping to add a strawberry bed this year for strawberries next year. I bought some at a farmer's market yesterday and they are the BEST STRAWBERRIES I EVER ATE!!! So now I have to try my own! I also bought some new basil to replace the ones I froze. And a cilantro. I'm hoping to get them in the ground on Saturday.

The frog eggs have hatched. We have over 100 tadpoles!! Oy! But I'm glad we brought them home because another barrel that had tadpoles in it was emptied and all of those babies are gone.

And the thing that made me the most excited - we were walking around last night checking out all the other gardner's plots and we found one little milkweed growing all by itself. We checked it out and found one little monarch egg! Oh joy! My daughter really wanted to bring it home, but with the tadpoles and the fact that my caterpillar equipment isn't quite ready yet, I had to say no. We'll keep an eye on it and we will have plenty to raise in the hosue this summer. But yea! The monarchs are here!!!

I read (and enjoyed) everyone "whats in your May garden" but I noticed the pictures. Yours don't look like mine! lol

Seriously though!

I am in zon 7 NC so I realise I am a little ahead of the game here - but Tony has some raddishes that have little raddishes on them, like almost ready to pick - but very small leaves. I have to dig under my leaves to see if I even have a raddish worth picking.

My broccolis as well - while I picked some perfect heads of broccoli the last couple of days, I have been shocked by the leaf mass - is this just because I am warmer, or perhaps my compost is more has more of the leaf growing nutrient (I can never remember if that is the nitrogen or potassium or phosphoros) or if it is just the variety that I am growing.

Of course, I coudln't tell you which variety I am growing right now - I am at work and my seed packets are not (and broccoli came from the garden center).

anyway, if you are interested, right now I have bush beans about to flower, snap peas about to flower, cauli limping along, broccolis harvesting, raddish, lettuce, spinach and arugala all harvesting, seedlings of tomatoe sweet pepper and herbs (basil, orageno, sage, cilantro and parsley) tiny newly emerged wax beans, and still waiting to germinate (planted on mothers day) cucumber, summer squash, more wax beans, new mexico green chili (hubby is from NM) and pumpkin seeds will be planted next weekend. I just don't seem to have enough garden space for all I want to do lol

Happy Frog: I live just outside of Austin. I can give you info on a great place to buy pre-mixed Mel's mix if you do end up moving here. As for the long growing season...my garden is doing great, since I was able to plant early--but, we start hitting triple digits next month, so I don't know my plants will do then.

This is my first SFG and I planted (lots of) tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, sugar snap peas, basil, and cantaloupe. My zucchini is encroaching on the cantaloupe next door, but I've noticed that the cantaloupe vines are growing under the zucchini leaves. I hope to eventually have the vines growing out onto some rubber mulch pads next to the box.

Here are some updated pics of some of my seedlings as requested by Claire.

Here is my spinach getting bigger every day:


My bush beans are finally starting to sprout. They took a long time.


The carrot seedlings are finally big enough to take a picture of them:


And of course, the broccoli. I just thinned these the other day. They're getting pretty big.

Blackrose - your babies are darling!

The afore-mentioned wood is now in my car. Well, only a small part of it. I got abour 20-some pieces that range from 3' to 5'. I can't wait to get it to the garden & match it all up! It's only 1" thick. Should I double it? Or will lining it with a weed fabric add enough "help". I may consider painting to help protect it, too. I'm so excited about free boxes!!

I'm envious of your free wood, nancy!

I wish I knew more about the chemistry of gardening so I could help you out with your question about greens vs. radishes, kiwirose.

nancy- i wouldn't worry about the width. just means it might rot thru in 5 years in stead of 7. . .it's the stuff in the box that's valuable. and thinner wood would mean more space for more boxes. . .every inch adds up.

stjapp/blackrose - nice gardens!

i'm not moving til august 2013. .. yeah, i know i plan ahead. LOL so i have lots of time to plant here. . .

we have lots in ground now. no pics camera is broken.

Well, I *did* live in Hamilton and Cincinnati when I was a kid - uncle in Columbus and ex-in-laws in MI - so it's not like I am not familiar. Came here from Boston due to inability to cope with 232 days of overcast weather in a row and having summer be a hot or miss proposition. A mental health move if you will.

April spoiled me with above average temps and consistantly decent weather so May is trying to make up for it. Saturday night it froze and then last night it hailed. Most everything seems to have made it through both with just some burnt leaves and holes in a lot of plants. I've been harvesting radishes and lettuce pretty consistantly. I'm just in limbo waiting for the weather to straighten out so I can get started on the warmer weather crops.

Everyone's gardens are looking great and keep posting pictures!

Still harvesting radishes and the spinach and first planting of lettuce will be ready soon. Planted the final lettuces until late summer yesterday and plan to get herbs, peppers and tomatoes going in the next week or so.