May 2013 New England

It looks like I'm starting this month's thread again. I love seeing what's happening in our area gardens on a monthly basis. Gives us all hope, I think.
My asparagus are growing like weeds. In one day they grew about 2-3" taller.

These are the tallest but others are popping up.

In the coldframe the lettuces and Chinese cabbage are growing well.

I have a few other seedlings out there waiting space. I close this up every nite.
Last nite they said low of 34F but it dropped down to 30. That's why I cover all the more sensitive things.
I'll be working in my flower beds today. Its sunny here and just lovely and the flower beds stay shady til after noontime so its a good place to work til it warms up.
I hope everyone else is seeing progress. We deserve it. We've waited much too long to enjoy our spring.
Let's see more pictures this month fellow gardeners.

Look at your asparagus, QB! That's fantastic! I meant to put some in this year but the bursitis made me forget all about it. And your greens are so thick and healthy looking.

Speaking of greens, I picked lunch today! All this years veggies except the spinach (ignore the grapefruit, that's my breakfast).

collards, scallions, pak choi, thinned daikon leaves, spinach, buttercrunch, romaine:

(I promise not to send photos every time I harvest, but this is the first time I have enuff of this years for lunch:)

CC

I didn't cover my plants this week... I've planted lettuce, onions, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli and all are living so far.. I'll post a picture later today!! Good to see everyone gearing up for another year, I'm off to build another box today!!

QB, you have a green thumb!!! My lettuce sure doesn't look like that. And what asparagus stalks did spring up are disappearing for some reason. The head was snapped right off of one. I don't think it's the chickens, but maybe, but they just disappear, I've seen about 5 different ones. Hmm.

Okay, so I started May off today by watering! Everything is getting dry and dusty outside! I love these close to 70* temps, but I didn't realize how much I need to water right now.

Here's my garden so far... Spring vege's have taken, carrots and onions have broke ground, and my broccoli and cauliflower look pretty good..



My second box is ready to be dug in as well... That one will hold my summer vege's.

I'm having trouble figuring out posting so forgive me if my post ends up in the wrong place.

I thinned the radishes. It was tough, but I did it. Meanwhile, the peas are coming up and the beans are starting to peek out. The tomatoes in the greenhouse aren't doing anything, but the basil is doing well.

Deborah.....Is that the greenhouse in the photo, where you have your tomato seedlings? If so, its still outdoors and tomatoes need warmth to grow. They won't do much in the cold.
I'm surprised your basil is doing well outdoors. They like it to be above 60 before they bounce ahead.
Did you eat the tops of your radish thinnings? You know they are edible like the root and tasty in salads. Its a good way not to waste those.

QB,

I didn't think about eating the radish sprouts. Duh! They probably would have been great on a sandwich.

Thanks for the tip on the tomato plants. Maybe they'll still sprout. The greenhouse gets pretty hot. It runs about 10 degrees hotter than outside. But in the meantime, I'll start another batch inside since I still have plenty of Mel's Mix and plenty of seeds.

I'm freezing my tushi off here, folks. Had to don my winter coat to go water the SFG, which has to be done in the every other day in the crispy dry spell we're having. It was hi 40's but close to 30mph winds. By the time I was done my hands were numb and I couldn't feel the clicker on the camera to push it.

Here's my poor garlic trying to jump out of the box and seek shelter from the cold wind:


OH, and I have pea grabage! I think they're holding on for dear life:



The swiss chard from seed looks happy:

Had to remove the cross grids as stray seedlings were coming up under them, but seemed well spaced enuff to leave there.

And just coz they're pretty, Forget-Me-Nots:


I'd give my spinach for some rain this weekend...

CC

Wow CC - It was warm here today, low 60s. Breezy but not windy.

I threw lettuce and spinach seed in the raised beds today, just to taunt the transplants that look on their way to the afterlife.

CC.....We had that big drop from 66 to 49 in a hour yesterday and cold winds. I hope we don't get them again but tomoorw is supposed to be a cold evening, down to about freezing.
Today is really nice. I got some brassicas transplanted in my flower garden today and more peas and broccoli in the SFG. I hope your babies fare well in this wind today.

NHG, good luck with your seeds. Bet they'll be fine. But why is your stuff dying? What's in your compost? How'd you do last year?

QB, my babies were raised in these winds. The Cape is like that, especially my property on the SW side of a lake. The NE wind is just about constant...and we stay colder longer in spring than off Cape. Doesn't mean I like it tho. BUT we have a longer warmer fall than off Cape, too, so there's a trade off.

Hope you're still here, QB...I saw your excellent asparagus photo and it's made my mouth water. They are beautiful! Also, I wanted to ask...can these toms can make it til May 20th or do I need to pot them up. One has a root peaking out of it's air slit...


CC

CC:.......I think your toms need a larger pot. Have you got any 2-liter soda bottles around or 3-liters? Mine in the 2-liters are still doing well in that size. I plan to transplant them next week.

If you have some, make them into air pots as well. I use a phillips head screwdriver to punch the holes with a hammer, and scissors to cut up the slits.

No, don't drink soda so no bottles. But I have pots saved over the years that are about the same size, I was just hoping not to have to do that. Our nite time temps won't get above 50 until closer to the end of May and I really don't want to go out and cover/uncover with this crazy hip acting up...so I guess I'd better get to work. Dang.

Thanks for letting me know. Sounds like
"If it's taller than the cup, it's time to pot it up".

Would that be about right?

CC

CC, I have a feeling my lettuce and spinach transplants needed to be watered and I didn't clue in till it was too late. That's what I'm thinking. Either that or there's too much straw/leaves in the mix that hasn't decomposed. But I'm thinking they got too dry, and the roots are shallow to begin with. Now I'm watering daily.

CC....Cute with the poetry. That's about right when you use solo cups. But if the pots are three times as wide as a solo, I'd say "when they are 2 x the pot's size, into the next pot would be wise."

quiltbea, when you recommend up-potting tomatoes, is that because the roots outgrow the pots and become root-bound? Because this leads me to think - carefully slide your tomato plant out of its container (mine slide easily, they might have to be well watered) and check for root-boundedness. Would that work?

(I don't want to up-pot if I don't have to.) (For one thing, I don't have enough space under the grow lights for the bigger containers - too many plants, and I already have four 4' fluorescents going.) (Unless I can just put them outside every day now and bring them in at night.)

NHGardener.......You can always wait a little longer as long as your plants are looking healthy. It they are lookin' good and not rootbound, no problem.
Mine are still robust so I'm waiting another week and by then I plan to put them in their permanent homes.
Mine don't ever girdle since they are air-pots with slits up their sides. Anytime I transplant, my seedlings slide right out of their old pots into my hand.

"when they are 2 x the pot's size, into the next pot would be wise."
I like it!

Unfortunately the pots I wanted to use for my toms were too big, but this morning I found a bunch of other good things in the recycle bags that I can use:


I only needed to pot up about half of them, but they all got a good inspection. Nothing was root bound yet. AND the Romas and Sungolds have flower buds! I didn't pot THEM up as I'd like them to hold off, so I topped them off with more MM.

BUT...grrrrrr...ALL the Brandywines, pink & red, had aphids! I almost threw up. Thanks for sharing that link about aphids, Camp. I thought they were gnats flying around. Weird how they only hit the Brandys and nothing else.

So off to the sink they all went and got a good shower and inspected until they were completely clean (I hope).

Then all the summer veggies went outside into windy 49 degree sun so I can clean out & sanitize the window. ugh! I also gave them all a drink of Neptune Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer so they don't hate me too much for putting them out in the cold.

Supposed to go up to 55 today but I don't see that happening at my house. At least it's sunny.

OK...gotta go clean and check the house plants for aphids, finish the laundry, make up the bed, unload the dishes, blah blah blah.

Later,
CC

Hi there from Vermont Our garden is sorta started. . .peas, onions, radishes, broccoli, cabbage and beets so far; they are all growing just fine although small - it's only been a couple weeks.

My tomatoes (Roma) suck this year - they look small even though I started them indoors in mid Feb as always under lights. Somebody told me that Miracle Gro is the problem, admittedly I wondered about that myself since there are mushrooms growing in my pepper pots and I noticed lots of sticks and stuff in the potting soil. My hot peppers are doing wonderful, some are making blossoms already (cayenne) - and I start those at about the same time as the tomatoes. Hopefully once it warms up the romas will take off when I put them out.

Nice to see what everyone else in this crazy climate is doing

Welcome to the SFG Forum. Some of my tomatoes are puny too. Time to put them in bigger pots with a good soiless mix like Mel's mix. We have to wait a few more weeks to put the out in the garden and the tomato plant roots will need some more room before then...

H Camprn - you're not far from me, I'm in Ascutney

Hi, i'm new to this type of gardening and forum. Also this will be the first year I can gardening in this backyard(we moved and I couldn't the past two summers). the hardest part is getting hubby on board, so right now I just have the gardens with generally soil stuff and the plotting lines on top(hoping next year I can switch the soil out for mix since we won't be spending all the upstart money on wood). I only have 8 planted right now... lettuce, peas and spinach. Hoping with hubby's help tomorrow we can get the other 10x2 section lined and filled(trying to line with some newspaper to keep the grass growing back up. Not positive what will be going there since anything I try to prestart just ups and dies inside. Oh well, that's what the farmers market is for

So back to lurking but thought I would just say hi.

judyj wrote:H Camprn - you're not far from me, I'm in Ascutney

I'm waving.... can you see me? I love Vermont. If my roots weren't quite so deep here I would be there.
My son drives by you each day, he's manager in seafood at the Price Chopper in W. Leb.
Welcome to the SFG Forum, neighbor!

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Hi Sdugas! Welcome to yhr forum! Post some photos for us when you can!

Tim Kelly just predicted frost for tonight.

Hi new people!

CC