New England, May 2015

CC, I'm thinking don't soak your bean seeds. Looking for info on growing dried beans this morning, I ran across this from Mother Earth News:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/vegetables/growing-dry-beans-and-peas-zm0z14amzsto.aspx?PageId=4

"Never soak bean seeds in water to speed germination, as this can seriously damage the growing bean embryo by depriving it of needed oxygen."

Its going to be a lovely day for transplanting out my tomatoes.  I'm not feeling too well today but I'm going to get out as many as I can.  We're expecting rain this evening so its a good time to get them out and our temps are finally going up at nite.

I wish everyone a wonderful Memorial Day.  Take time to think about all our brave young men and young women who risked their lives to keep us safe and free.  Thank you!

NHGardener wrote:CC, I'm thinking don't soak your bean seeds. Looking for info on growing dried beans this morning, I ran across this from Mother Earth News:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/vegetables/growing-dry-beans-and-peas-zm0z14amzsto.aspx?PageId=4

"Never soak bean seeds in water to speed germination, as this can seriously damage the growing bean embryo by depriving it of needed oxygen."

I have always germinated my beans (regular, not dried beans, by putting them in a damp paper towel, then putting that inside a baggie taped to the window.  Germinates quickly and avoids the issue of planting seeds that don't germinate.  I'm planning to do it this week.

QB, I do hope you feel better.

Hi Cindy! Haven't seen you in a while.

Too late with the beans advice, ladies. I soaked them for about an hour and then planted them last week. If nothing comes up I'll know why. I planted them both as if they were pole beans and then later read the package of the Tigers Eye and they are bush. Oh well ...que sera.

The heavy pollen is falling now and everything is turning yellow, including my tablet screen when I take it outside.

Gave away half my ground cherries to a neighbor who really really appreciated them. Did a lot of transplanting, composting, mulching, more watering, etc. Dog tired now and not much left to do except get my lunches for the work week ready. Course the inside of the house is a wreck but that doesn't count when we're working outside all day. At least I'll be able to clear off the dining room table and put away all my seed starting and gardening equipment...when I get a Round Tuit. Maybe I'll even clean out the bay window put some orchids and pretty flowers in it.

Once I get 5 more trellis's built and/or put up all that's left is watering and eating... oh, and planting out the peppers.

For now I think I'll just eat beans and a salad and watch The Theory of Everything. So tired...

How are you feeling now, QB? Were you able to get out today?

I actually felt better by the time I got everything ready to get out and transplant.  Got 7 indeterminates in the Back 40 and 7 in the flower bed.  That took me about 5 hours because I take rest periods in between doing a couple at a time.  Works for me.  I still have 3 to go in the Back 40 but they haven't hardened off yet.
In the flower bed I still have 7 Determinates that have to go in and I need to pot a few mini-toms to keep by the door.
The rest are promised to the Community Garden's Director.

The peppers can get done next week some time.  No hurry there.
It feels so good to have most of the planting done.  Now I just have to seed some new flower beds and I'll be done.
No eggplant for me this year.  They need warmer temps than I can give them at nite.  I usually get a few, but the production is low on eggplants for me.  I don't care for them anyway.

It sounds like several of us took the Holiday to get some gardening done.  Its great that the weekend turned out so fine, isn't it.

Yes, it was a good weekend to be outside. Today was overcast and kept threatening rain, but so far only a few drops.

Just as well because DH and I put in two new 2x8s for the extra asparagus I bought this year (found 'em at the local farm supply, the woman sounded almost apologetic that they were so late in getting them in, which was lucky for me, because I was late in figuring out that we needed more!)

We also got three more blueberry bushes to add to the 9 that made it through the winter (one didn't), but it will be a looooooong time before we're feasting on those! Also picked up some parsley & misc other starts to round off the varieties I started indoors. For some reason, my pepper germination was awful this year. I think I packed the soil cubes a little too much and then I roasted the seeds when I left them in the sun too long. Ah, well.

Now I'm trying to finish cataloging my herbs & other seeds so I can figure out what else needs planting now. I've still got 2 more weeks before last frost, but I'm feeling lucky!

Have a good what's-left-of-the-long-weekend, everyone!

Progress.

Well, count me in as almost dead. I got everything finished transplanting outside, and planted the bush and pole beans. A packet of Johnny's fortex pole beans only has 50 beans - for $3.95 - and how far does 50 beans go? I got so tired of running out of their Fortex beans that I took advantage of their free shipping today and ordered ONE THOUSAND FORTEX BEANS. haha. That ought to last a while. The free shipping was only on orders $50+ so of course I had to meet the quota there. Along with the 1,000 beans I ordered daikon radishes (I think it was 1/4 lb.) because I'm going to try to use those (not at this moment) to break up and build up soil. 

Right now I have the sprinkler running. It is so. dry. Ants have been attacking my sour cherry bush, leaving black eggs on the backs of the leaves that I keep rubbing off. 

Aha! I just read that the black eggs on the undersides of my tart cherry bush are black cherry aphid eggs. That's why the ants are there - they love to eat the honeydew-like excretions of the aphid. I read the other day that ants are so attracted to aphids that they will protect the aphid against predators on the tree. The ants will actually fight off aphid predators, and even "milk" the aphids for the excretion. How's that for weird? Anyway, if you see ants on the leaves of your fruit trees, they could well be there protecting and enjoying the aphids. 

My new oscillating sprinkler gets stuck every few oscillations. Bleh. One of the reviews for the other worse brand of sprinklers said: "I figured no one could screw up something as simple as a sprinkler" - haha. If you have a good, old-fashioned sprinkler that oscillates faithfully, treasure it. Half my garden is going to be too wet now, and half too dry...

We didn't get a ton done in the garden this weekend but not a lot to do right now anyway. We were away saturday night and yesterday was the high holy day of racing. Hubby built some trellises and a couple more boxes(6x2) the boxes are marked for corn but i might three sister one of them since i have the seeds. I transplanted my tomatoes. this is the first year i started them from seeds and they are kinda shaky. i have bush ones(a sauce type) some viney cherry ones and then whatever father in law plants.  I'm going to see how they do these week and worse case I'll grab some from a farm. The cukes, squashes, and peas have no signs of anything yet but the lettuce is popping up. And the kids found green berries growing in the strawberry patch. And little farmer asked for sunflowers so the three of them planted some seeds along the fence near my bean tepee. the main box area. I already told hubby he will need to work on the other stumps but right now it's too dry to burn. 

Oooo.... ...everybody was so busy this past weekend!  

Tour time
Lettuce box, also has onions, basil, volunteer collards and some beans planted along the lower right edge:
See all last years self seeded lettuce babies?  They are like a living mulch, which is giving me the idea to try lettuce for mulch elsewhere since they are shallow rooted.

Marvel of the Four Seasons is a knock out!  Surrounded by Sugar Peas, volunteer collards & chard:

Greens under holey tulle:

Snow peas, spinach, kale, beets, chard, lettuce:

Strawberries are getting to where I'll need to cover from birds soon:

Peas, onions, shallots, spinach & kale, all in this little box:

Seven Top turnips, Spinach Mustard, carrots less dove eaten seeds, volunteer collards, potatoes at the top end, sprouting cukes along the right side:

Garlic bed w/ asparagus 'trees' in the background:

Hmm...seems like almost every box has volunteer collards in it.  I must have thought I was spreading fairy dust with the seeds end of last year.

Everything looks so nice.  Congrats on the beginning to the growing season.  You have a lot planted.

Beautiful! I love seeing everyone's photos. I'll take some when I get out there next. It's almost 90F right now, so that will be later.

We got a small shower last night, which was helpful. We're teased with 30-40% chances until Sunday, when it's a whopping 60% chance. Makes me sit on the fence wondering: should I or shouldn't I water today? Hmm. Decisions.

This morning I found 2 tomato transplants on top of a bed that I forgot to plant yesterday! So I stuck them in an empty-ish space in the garlic bed. 

Your gardens are works of arts. If you ask me, you all are environmental artistes. Mine is haphazard and doesn't follow any rules, but then, that's me. LOL.

My garden is ADHD.

CC, Very nice.

CapeC.....Your garden beds are looking so good as usual.  I love seeing your photos.  You're a bit ahead of us here further north so its heartwarming to see what's coming.
I was surprised at how warm it felt today compared to yesterday.  I know it reached the high 80s here today and after transplanting one Black Cherry tomato at the end of the Asparagus bed and 2 Cubanelle peppers in the greenhouse bed, I was too hot to plant anything further.
Instead I did more 'clearing out' of the stuff packed in boxes that I'll probably, at my age, never use again.  They are piling up in the garage and the workshop, in 3 piles;  family and friends to check out, Salvation Army, and trash. 
Another warm one tomorrow but not as hot but rain coming, too.  We only got about a half inch last nite but the plants loved it.  For some reason they seem to thrive and perk up so much better when watered by rain rather than the watering cans.
I hope to take photos in the next few days.  My crops are still very young and very small, but they are looking mighty healthy.

QuiltBee, my saying is: accumulate the first 50 years, decumulate the 2nd 50 yrs. I find I have no more inclination for "stuff", and more and more inclination to get rid of it. It's funny how that goes.

quiltbea wrote:Instead I did more 'clearing out' of the stuff packed in boxes that I'll probably, at my age, never use again.  They are piling up in the garage and the workshop, in 3 piles;  family and friends to check out, Salvation Army, and trash.

A few days ago I cleaned out my shoes and clothes in the closet. Trash and Goodwill piles. Felt sooo good.

I was just thinking about closet cleaning this morning and that the last time I did it was 1991. Hopefully you all will rub off on me.

Harvested gobs of kale and some more lettuce today:


I can truthfully say that my SFG is much better this year than last year.

CC

CC, what are you going to do with all that kale? I know you make greenies, but do you have some way of storing kale?

NHGardener wrote:CC, what are you going to do with all that kale? I know you make greenies, but do you have some way of storing kale?

I brought it to the office so everyone could take some home & try young kale.
But in the future, if I get another bumper crop like that I will blanch and freeze. Got my fingers crossed that I have to do that all summer so I can stock up for winter.

CC

Aha! I didn't realize you could freeze kale. Guess it's just like freezing spinach then. Good to know.

I've bought frozen kale and tossed it in smoothies. I haven't tried growing it. Does it like shade? That's all I have left.

YES! Kale will like shade now that it's warmer.

I didn't know kale liked (or tolerates, I should say) shade! This Mother Earth News has a good way to remember what likes shade (to a degree) and what doesn't: leaves and roots can have shade, fruits (including eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, etc.) need full sun.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/shade-tolerant-vegetables-zm0z11zsto.aspx

Wow is it dry. I have the sometimes-oscillating sprinkler going. Even the lawn is starting to turn brown. Sure hope it rains before too long.

Thanks, i'll have to look for seeds or plants. 

NHG, part of nh looks like a chance of rain. Unless you are to close to the coast like i am. The rain is gonna dry up as it hits the ocean wind we have going. I swear my rain barrel is almost empty. I only have one and wished i had more. I would love two next to the shed we have near the garden so i could run lines over to the garden. Luckily i'm on well so i don't have to follow city water rules, but i don't water my lawn in general.