Upper South May garden happenings.

Can you believe it? May is here. Most of us in the Cincy area still have spring crops growing slowly and will most likely not be done producing by Mother's Day. That is the "safe" frost date but some of us use 04/30.

We are expecting rain chances everyday this week.

So how is your gardens coming along? Have some of you in the lower portion got your summer crops in?

Don't forget about May flowers for your avatars.

Stopped by Wally World (walmart if you didn't know) and got another soaker hose. Now to put it in the strawberry bed.

Well Mother's day is upon us tomorrow. Who has there summer crops out? Not I, I'm still waiting on the spring crop to finish growing and harvest it. I'm hoping with the 70 degree weather and the rain, it will come soon.

I'm a little late due to work schedule and kids activities but the tomatoes, cucumbers are in and some of the beans are in the ground. No rain for a week. My city utility company is going to love me.

I harvested the last english peas this week and pulled up the plants. My first time to grow them, and we all enjoyed them - my daughter said "these are so much better than the ones in the store." I harvested my first two broccoli heads this week, and continue to harvest lettuce. Spinach all bolted long ago and I pulled the remains up for the compost pile. Unfortunately, all my leeks bolted this past week, too, so I've got to discard them after waiting a year for them! Beans (lima, green, and blackeyed) are growing well as are carrots and herbs. I need to get more chard seeds - my few leftover seeds have sprouted, but haven't done much else. This is my first year for strawberries, so I'm not expecting much there. My tomatoes are doing great (except for the early blight - see my other post), and they are all about 2-3 feet tall and have lots of fruits growing - can't wait, since I planted about a dozen different varieties. I sowed 3 varieties directly in the garden, and they're behind the others, but are also doing well. I planted kale for the first time this year, and am waiting to see what that is like. The squash and zucchini are doing well, other than the silverleaf whiteflies, which I have not had time yet to treat since I discovered them 2 days ago. I noticed that the first zucchini flower was opening yesterday. And my cukes are about a foot tall.

I came home Monday and there had been a bit of rain and wind. My beans were all blown around, not really damaged, but there were a lot of beans that were ready to pick. I hadn't noticed. Thanks wind!

There was about 3/4" of rain. I noticed a red potato had broken the top of the soil. I dug around a bit in the mel's mix and pulled out 4 bright red new potatoes. Thanks rain!

Forgot to mention my sweet potatoes - I have 10 planted, but have had to replant 4 of them. Something, I presume a rabbit, ate those 4 down to the MM. Of my 4 replants, one has also been eaten. No other varmint problems on other plants, though, so I doubt I'll go to any extremes to eliminate rabbit nibbles for now.

My first time, but am very excited to jump in, thanks for having me!

Squash is doing really well, which makes me especially happy after last year's first time encounter with the svb and squash bug wiped out my entire crop of cucurbits
All of my Tom's are fruiting now and everything else is still just in the growing phase, but looking really great!
I am determined (read-obsessed) with being as informed and prepared as possible with my garden this year, as opposed to last where I just threw some stuff in the ground and let 'er rip. Although I must admit my family is already showing signs of fatigue from all of my garden talk, poor things have a long growing season ahead of them

Oh yea, and I was thinking about doing some sweet potatoes this year but wasn't sure if is too late in the season for me to get them going..?

Sweet potatoes need soil temps above 50F degrees. If you started them before now, they would die (like my first batch did).

Your timing is good. This is the last thing to plant in a summer garden.

I you ever get worried about svb, plant a couple of radish near the plant, they help repel the svb - do not eat the radishes , just let them go to seed.

by the way, glad to have you.

So far in May I have:
Pulled out all the arugula that bolted.
harvested all (7) but a couple broccoli.
transplanted zucchini, watermelon, and tomatoes.
started green beans

by then end of the month I am hoping to transplant some basil, two varieties, to the open spots I have left. I think i started them too late in the greenhouse, but we shall see what happens. it is my first season starting from seed.

I will hopefully have onions and carrots ready to harvest by then end of the month as well. so all in all a great month. Now my gardens just have to survive and extremely hot weekend and a vacation in June

Here in Eastern West Virginia, we've had a really weird Spring. Also this is my first year with SFG and I was waiting on hubby to build my tabletop sfg. So everything was a little late and the season was a little off but I planted anyway just for the opportunity to play in the dirt and do some relearning. Hubby has his garden which is not sfg and we have been harvesting strawberries and he has WV tomatoes doing very nicely.

We have had some nice regular rains and today I noticed that my bush beans have popped up looking very greenbeany. Some little teeny beets have come up. The red and green peppers are still alive after dropping several leaves. There is still a no show of the carrots. I'll give them a few more days and then replant.

i was looking at one of my containers and found some volunteer basil!

Cucumber Beetles are back! I think they wiped out the cucumbers last year, and what they didn't damage on the squash, the squash bugs did!

mijejo wrote:Cucumber Beetles are back! I think they wiped out the cucumbers last year, and what they didn't damage on the squash, the squash bugs did!

*sigh* yep. They so very are. I've been squishing a few every morning for about a week now. *Puts on game face* Let's do this!

Greetings from Arkansas!

After harvesting a few zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers, the squash bugs demolished the rest. I squished, bombarded with water, sprayed with various things, but it was a losing battle.

Now, I would like to replant, but only have room in the beds where bugs were. I hauled away all the murdered plants and added compost to the soil, but can I replant there? That is my only conceren with my SFG. There is only so much rotation I can do.

Any ideas? or previous experience with this? I would appreciated help that anyone might offer.

Thanks!

Try it -- What can you lose?? A few minutes and a few seeds. I'm trying zucchini on Sunday (a wedding to go to tomorrow), and I am in northeastern Pennsylvania.

You may be past the SVB season and can keep a diligent eye out for beetles. GO FOR IT.

Kay