Mid-Atlantic: May 2012 - What's Up?

Last week I put in a few transplants, but I have been absolutely LAZY the last few days. The only "chore" I've completed is putting up the frames for my vertical supports - haven't even put the netting on it yet. God provided the rain to water the garden, so i didn't even have to do that.

A few of my lettuces are big enough to harvest the outer leaves, I've pulled a few radishes and I'm seeing a few flowers on the snap peas. My bare root strawberries seem to be coming to life

A 2 x 2 was planted at a local homeless shelter on Monday (guess that was still April), but I basically just supervised. We put in a cherry tomato transplant then lettuce, bush bean seeds and onion sets - I was teaching how to plant 1, 4, 9 & 16 per square.

Below: The empty square is my square of carrots for carrot week.


Below: Things I transplanted last week covered by the Garden Commander (gardencommander.com).


Below: The salad table was planted a couple weeks ago.



So, what's up in YOUR Mid-Atlantic garden?

Last week I put in a few transplants, but I have been absolutely LAZY the last few days.

I prefer to call that resting You've been busy!
Kim, did you get your carrots planted for carrot week? Are they coming up yet? I still love that salad table and fully intended to build one, but I've been resting
Your gardens look great already

In the top photo, the "empty" square just below the pansies are my carrots. They are just barely peeking through the mix.

The reason the lettuces look so sparse is because of the Beagles (Scout & Sophie). I'll eventually replant something, but I was using it as an example for my class a couple weeks ago. LOL I also make them "weed" (the students not the beagles).

sfg4uKim wrote:The reason the lettuces look so sparse is because of the Beagles (Scout & Sophie). I'll eventually replant something, but I was using it as an example for my class a couple weeks ago. LOL I also make them "weed" (the students not the beagles).

We planted the rest of our veggies this past weekend. Our carrots have been through the surface for a week or so but seem to have stalled in growing...

Renee

We decided to plant the rest of our seeds the last weekend of April. Okra, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon & zucchini. Red potatoes were planted also and all have come to the surface and are doing well! Our radishes we planted around 4/8 finally took off about a week ago and should be ready to pick finally this coming weekend.

Renee

Hi Kim! My spring crops are happily growing in your MM! We've been harvesting lettuces, spinach and arugula (wish I'd planted more than one square of it). 2 cukes and 2 bush beans were planted last week. Today I'm seeding a few more bush beans and finally planting 2 tomatoes and my pepper transplants. I think I may try out some lettuce seeds around the peppers while they're still so small.

Hubby still needs to build my 2nd box for the tomatoes - a 5x1.5 (weird measurements, but it fits the spot) for 4 additional tomatoes. He said he'd have it done by the weekend so I can spend some time on Mother's Day planting!

Still trying to finalize my tomato support structure plans. I think for the two in the 4x4 box I'll use my tomato cages I've been using - they're the green fiberglass-type pole ones with the movable supports, and work well for me. I can lash them together for extra strength too. I'm thinking for the separate tomato box that I might build the metal conduit pole structure, one on either side of the box, strung with netting. Basically like a "cage" containing the vines within.

Just got my last child on the bus, so I'm putting on my work clothes and heading outside right now!

Kim

What isn't up is the better question! My garden is growing like gangbusters at the moment. Here are some pictures (including April pics since I never got around to posting them in the April thread!):

Main (sunny) grid in early April after first plantings:


Backyard (shady) grid in early April with overwintered shallots and garlic (the broccoli I planted there has not flourished - I think it's just too shady back there). The shallots and garlic look great now, but I don't have a picture at the moment:


Main garden as of May 11. The peas are climbing nicely, and all the stuff I got at the Rutgers Gardens sale is planted.


Um, I kind of went overboard on my tomato purchases, so I had to add pots to get them all planted!


Shot from the back of my main garden (with my dog in the background ).


Broccoli growing!


Trust me, there are actual pea pods in that picture somewhere!


The grid, showing what's planted where. I needed this to keep track of the different tomatoes I planted. Yellow indicates a potted plant.


I'm really happy with the progress. A few days out from planting all those tomatoes, and they all seem to be doing quite well, so I'm hoping for no loss. That empty square is driving me nuts, so I might go to my compost pile and pick out the extra onion sets I had and plant them in there.

Hello Kim & in the Mid-A!
I wanted to take some pics of our gardens but with it raining all day so far, I'll have to wait until about Wed. Peas & green beans are doing really good. We pulled up a radish this past weekend to see it's growth but it was still pretty skinny. However, my husband & daughter ate it and it packed a punch. The lettuce is really starting to grow. Okra is one plant per square, right??

Renee

Yep. Okra is 1 per square.

Hey Kim:

I don't know how I possibly missed your post, but I did. The garden's looking fantastic!

In western Pa we had a nice weekend so I planted my tomatoes and peppers and now with the rain I hope they will take off when we get some warm weather.

My brocolli, cabbage, and spinach are doing quite well for the first time doing spring crops. My basil and cukes will go in this or next weekend.

In this bed we have strawberries, onions, okra, peppers & red potatoes. The potatoes are growing like crazy.



In here we have lettuce, spinach, snap peas, pole beans, zucchini & broccoli. The broccoli's heads are starting to show.



And in here carrots, radishes, watermelon, cantaloupe & tomatoes.

Renee

I walked out today to look at the garden and almost panicked when I saw one of my peppers (Hungarian black pepper) had purple veins all over the leaves (that I didn't remember seeing before). Fortunately, I just looked it up and the description mentioned both purple-tinted leaves and purple flowers, so I feel better now.

Hi Everyone in the M.A!

I finished planted the rest of my crops on May 6th since I was away this past weekend visiting with my sons and family in DC. I planted my tomatoes and peppers, pole beans, bush beans, zucchini, butternut squash and watermelon and soybean.

The only plant not showing is my soy bean (ademame) - I was not able to find the soybean innoculant without buying it by the farmer's quantity. I just hope that is why it is not coming up. Any suggestions?

We have had alot of rain but it has helped the garden!

Sorry; I never have grown soy beans so I cannot answer your question.

Perhaps you should start a post regarding this problem in getting soy beans.....