May So Cal What to Plant and Report and What About Jicama?

It is getting to be the busiest months in the veggie garden. Love it. It has been interesting working with only a 4x4 garden this year. A whole new perspective.

May is the ideal time to plant the following:
Beans, Bush
Beans, Pole
Beets
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Herbs
Jicama
Lima Beans
Melons
Parsley
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Squash, summer
Squash, Winter
Sunflowers
Tomato plants
Watermelon

And if anyone has grown jicama I would love to know where you got it and how it did.

I pulled out the peas. Could have gotten more from them but needed the room. Along the last four squares where they were are now: Sungold cherry tomato - per special request from my landlady, butternut squash and cukes.

Also planted in some now empty squares (pulled out broccoli, harvested beets before their optimum time (made borscht), and emptied a lettuce square): Bell peppers, eggplant, more beets (diff square than before), parsley (added to cilantro/basil square)

Added new twine to trellis. Would love the nylon netting but on zero spending right now, very Yankee of me - Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. That is the Boston in me. LOL. But Boston can keep its endless gray days and I will practice my thrift in the sun.


Cabbage starting to head up



Nice bushy dill - Sungold tomatoes to the left - wonder if they will end up tasting like dill?



All planted and ready for the next round. Still harvesting carrots, cabbage (waiting - though used some outer leaves in the borscht)), dill, cilantro, romaine lettuce and spinach.



And added a few more potato starts. Got one teeny one for the soup yesterday.

I am short about 5 boxes! But this is fun nonetheless. Show me yours.

And has anyone had problems with bolting yet? The cool nights and mornings seem to be making up for the hot middays?

Wow Chopper, love the pics. It's amazing that your May list is our late june list, lol.

Chopper wrote:And has anyone had problems with bolting yet? The cool nights and mornings seem to be making up for the hot middays?

my herbs have been trying to bolt (Riverside) I have pinched back the basil twice and looks like it is in growth cycle again
I had to harvest Parsley today, put in some new parsley starts
besides that everything is going fine

Oh I have tomatillos already and my tomatoes started to flower like mad this weekend
Peppers started to take off with growth, finally
oh, I have romaine going good, inch high, trying to squeeze in a nother 8 heads before the heat
I am late with the corn, maybe this weekend
besides that Suash, Zuchinni and all that stuff is looking good

My carrot bed is empty but my fridge is full
and I need to put something in the cabbage bed

Chopper wrote:And has anyone had problems with bolting yet? The cool nights and mornings seem to be making up for the hot middays?

My Romaine bolted but I had been harvesting from it for a couple of months and even tasted fine when bolting. That 100 degree day we had did a number on my potatoes. Last year I blamed it on the metal trashcans they were planted it but this time they are in a bed with a top hat that is white on the outside. And since that day the ones in the old wheelbarrow are not looking good either. Both batches had been looking realy good before then.

Most everything else is going really well.

I'm down in the Orange area. All my lettuces bolted a while back. My radishes bolted. I've even had the red onions bolt, but they were volunteers that had sprouted from the FIL's garden, a very sweet and non-pungent red onion.

June gloom and mist is here already in my hood.

The carrots are still looking good, in a container, getting a bit more shade and not the full bake. Been poking a bit looking little bigger than pinkie finger diameter. I see an orange, a purple and a white. I planted the multi-color mix.

The Potatoes are similar and just about done getting 'hilled'. Probably going to lose the straggler in container as it's slowly getting buried by the dominant plant.

The cucumbers are looking good that are in the container. Now if only I could remember if I planted the Long Anglais or the Improved Telegraph. The transplants in the raised bed are behind, those are Straight 8s.

The American Ananas Melons are also slow in the raised bed. They got a weak start, my seed starting area is a little too shady making spindly sproutlets. I've adapted by sprouting and moving the patio table with the shade removed for full sun.

The Collective Farm Woman Melons are still in their seed starting 2" pots, waiting on good solid 2nd leaves. Any day now. They'll be going into a two new redwood boxes and a wine barrel.

The little Green Machine Melons are reminding me of a '74 Ford Pinto. Last year's seeds that I didn't get to plant, had a high failure rate on the germination. The survivors are slow going. Hoping a little heat and sun will kick it in turbo.

Did I mention I like melons?

My containered tomato from last year is trimmed up and moved out of the green house. Some tomatoes on it already. A little spindly looking but so compost addition, full sun and water and it'll bounce back.

The nursery bought transplants are looking good. The peppers have transitioned nicely. Flowered and set the first of fruit in the first week. Should I pinch them off to let the plant focus on growth? They're still small, maybe 8" high.

My toddler is losing the war against the Yellow Wax Beans I've planted in the wine barrel we've told him is his. He still digs and moves dirt around, but they're rocking.

The green beans in the raised bed border are coming up nicely, just planted them last week, so they're in sprout mode.

The garlic in the raised bed is doing nicely. Not sure how I'll withhold water to get them ready to harvest. Not sure I'll get a crop as they're the set of 'failure' survivors.

Finally, the onion set in the container is doing okay. Not sure why they're not bushier, looking a little anemic to me.

Next to plant is the removal of the radishes and replacement with beets. I've got a Bull's Blood Beat courtesy of Baker Creek with my seed order earlier or I've got an Early Wonder (I think), I snagged it at Armstrong when I was picking up plants. The beets will be an experimental. We're not fans but trying different things.

The revitalized Mel's Mix is wonderful! Seriously, bad, bad, me. Properly mixed and soaked it works so much better than the previous stuff. Even with the heat have, only the very top did the crust over but not even a 1/4 inch down still nice and moist. I'm keeping a careful eye on it now.

And my first of the season Black Gold harvest is done! I got one 5 gallon bucket out of my composter of the most beautiful dark rich smelling compost. I'm reloading and hoping with Spring/Summer heat, it'll cook faster.

My worm bin is also bouncing back, with the warmer overnight temps, the little guys are starting to chug along.

My Okinawain Sweet potato refuses to sprout and provide slips. I'm holding out as I figure June on with the heat will be better for sweet potatoes.

Wow! Great report. At some point this summer you will have to do pics!

Chopper, I love your garden. It's still amazing to me how much, and the variety that can be grown in such a small space

Whatever happened to the potatoes??

The potatoes are still in their box. Ready to move with me should my landlady sell her house. LOL. They look good and I got one small one out of them the other day but it is way to early to harvest. I planted a few more eyes in a couple of places that are bare. I read about that on this forum; to continue planting as you mound up the dirt. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

And isn't it funny how the eyes do not grow at the same speed. There is always one dominant and one teeny one and it make it tricky to mound evenly.

Love fresh potatoes. Who knew?

Just bumping this, it's May and we can plant just about anything for the warm season.  
My beds are a bit of a struggle this year.  Some plants do well, others struggle. 

I currently have about six squares of monster radishes and onion that bolted and I left in place while I started new seeds, but I've been a bit distracted and it seems if I don't have the starters standing in water, I can blink this year and they'll be bone dry.  I lost an entire set planned for three squares of bush beans, literally checked them in the morning, emerging in their paper pots, thoroughly moist but not standing water and came home at dinner to find them all crispy dry.  

So restarting beans and cukes.

I've got pole beans in with potatoes in a new bed I stood up by arbor, I had intended to try a potato tower with the German butterballs I picked up at OSH, but decided not too.  Didn't use MM, just straight raised bed mix, we'll see how it does.  And what I do with the extra two bags I had picked up to do the top offs.

On other notes, I have a joke potato growing in a bin.  Actually several.  I cleared the gutters back in March, put all the leaves in a converted trash can to continue composting on the overly shady side of the house. Jokingly I threw some sprouted spuds in from the grocery.  Anybody want to guess which potatoes are growing best?

My grapes in the corner have taken over the corner.  I regularly need to fight them back off the dwarf apple.