May 2013 New England

40*F and falling, I just moved my tomato plants onto the 3 season porch for the night.

Good move
I had to move my seedlings back into the house last night.
Went down to 30, and it was a cold 30..
Covered tomatos and cukes, all the rest were ok
Good luck tonight Camprn

Ugh...

S N O W ! ! !

Wet, Heavy and Plentiful:



DH helping with the last minute rush to cover the beds. Under the plastic are some peas, broc, bs, and garlic.

After that pic was taken we had a second mad rush when we realized the weight of the snow was collapsing the plastic between the hoops. SO...it was out in the dark to take the plastic off & place boxes over the squares & re-tarp the bed so that even if the snow collapses the plastic, the boxes should take the weight of the snow.

Ugh. My seedlings were just starting to recover from the frost we had a couple of weeks back and now this.

Molly, I can't believe it's snowing. What a great photo. Here in middle California, we have it so easy weather-wise. Okay, maybe 3 weeks of triple digits in the summer. And a handful or two of below freezing. A snowy morning every decade or so. Opps, that reminds me that we do have some nasty hail now and then. Otherwise, good weather. No floods, tornadoes, earthquakes (those are basically along the coast line), or the 7 plagues. I have great respect for those of you who persist in gardening under confounding weather conditions.

We got some snow too.

How did you protect your plants, Camp? Did they make it thru the white stuff ok?

mollyhespra wrote:How did you protect your plants, Camp? Did they make it thru the white stuff ok?

The snow didn't stick here and I didn't worry about the garlic, peas, spinach, bok choy, broccoli rab or the radishes, which is all that there is planted out. They are quite cold tolerant. The eggplants, leeks, basil and flowers are still under the lights in the house. The tomatoes are still in flats and have been living outside but have yet to be planted in the garden, because the soil temp is not up to where it needs to be for these plants... So I brought them into the porch. All plants are fine this morning.

I just checked the weather forecast which is calling for high temp around 50F with real feel of 33F. I relit the woodstove. I am starting to get a wee bit irritated as I am tired of doing things in the house.......... 7 months of that is enough.

camprn wrote:
{snip}
I just checked the weather forecast which is calling for high temp around 50F with real feel of 33F. I relit the woodstove. I am starting to get a wee bit irritated as I am tired of doing things in the house.......... 7 months of that is enough.

LOL! I hear you!

I just went out to survey the damage & two of my garlics that were on the side of the hoops have snapped at about 3" off the ground. They must have gotten buried by the snow when the hoops started collapsing.

The weather is still iffy, so I might just leave the covers in place in case we get more snow.

And guess what else? Forecast is for 80-90 degrees on Thursday. I think Mother Nature needs some bipolar meds.

[quote="mollyhespra"]

camprn wrote:
I think Mother Nature needs some bipolar meds.

Good one!

CC

But I'm not surprised.

Sun's comin out...FINALLY! I gotta get outta this chair! There's lettuce to transplant, carrot seeds to sow, and a new experiment to set up - I'm putting an unused window box behind one of the trellis', filling it with MM and starting some melon or squash and cucs in it.

CC

CC, your garden is beautiful. It surprises me you're so far along because a lot of times it seems your temps are even cooler than ours.....

This weekend I used the agribon over most of my transplants, and over the squash I had milk jugs. I kept them covered last night also, but today all covers are coming off for expected heat! At least we had no snow here - sorry about those who got hit.

I was given some walking/jumping/Egyptian onion plants this weekend. Can they live in a box, or do they need room to roam and multiply?

The Square Foot Gardening thing really works! For the first time we've harvested radishes and ate them. I've gotten 2 radishes before but they were really fibrous and not appealing. No one wanted to eat them. Tomatoes and basil are the only things I've ever been successful with but things are looking a lot different now.

I did have to buy tomatoes, peppers, and curly parsley. I started my seeds way too late.

So the garden is all planted.



And the radishes are harvested. There are a bunch of immature volunteers that I'm hoping will end up growing to maturity. Meanwhile, I added a little compost and more radish seeds.


I've also been picking the flowers off the tomatoes. My father and grandfather used to do that when they flowered too early. They said it made for stronger plants and bigger tomatoes later in the season.

CC does have a beautiful garden. All of you have beautiful gardens already. Watching you here on the forum is giving me hope and I'm already making lots of plans for next year.

Nice radishes, Deborah! I did great with radishes last year but this year my newest & lowest box (8") doesn't seem to be doing as well as the more established boxes, so my radishes are small as well as getting lacy leaves. I guess I need to pull them now before they get woody. I'll leave a few to get the seed pods as I hear they make real good eatin'.

Got some cuc seedlings transplanted into a 5 gal bucket the other day to take up some unused space on the pea trellis. The bottom of the bucket is unfinished compost and the top 6" is MM. I haven't been able to grow cucs well yet so we'll see what happens:


I also started some seeds for the mother for when her Earth boxes are ready - lots of different annual flowers, cucs, toms, lettuces and pak choi, the latter 2 will be grown in heavy shade as an experiment:

AND, tadaaaa...I have pea flowers! Not many yet, just a few here and there, but it's good to see them:

Today I'm in the process of building a new box, approximately 6'x 3'x 10". The boards are cut, I have a pocket full of screws, the pre holes are drilled and the cardboard is down. But then sun came into my shady work space and I thought I would die of heat stroke :drunken: , so I may have to call it quits til tonight or tomorrow morning and head for the MM fixin's in the cool underground garage instead. So hot out...but nothing like what off Cape is experiencing. At least I don't need the a/c yet.

OH, and my second (or maybe it's third) attempt at carrots, this time covered, was futile. It can't be a rabbit, but what then???:


What are ya'll up to this weekend?

CC

CC, why are those carrots futile? They look okay to me.

My carrots didn't come up either. I saw some birds near my trellises, and I'm thinking they may be snatching my carrot seeds, but I don't know because I sprinkled some peat/vermiculite over the bed after I planted them. I was thinking of re-planting and covering this time with agrabon. It's annoying because we can never have too many carrots....

My strawberry beds are like a forest right now, and tons of blossoms. The garlic is large, the onions are taking root (slowly), some potatoes are coming up, the tomato plants are still alive and the peppers, tho they have to get bigger. Actually I saw a cherry tomato blossom yesterday. Lettuce and spinach are small but they're there for the most part. Peas are looking healthy. My beans didn't come up, and now I can't find my packet(s) of fortex beans! Grr. I'm pretty sure I ended up with a couple of those packets but my memory is unreliable. There's a supplier of Johnny's seeds about half an hour away (everything is about half an hour away here) just have to make the trek over there to get more. I would have liked to have them in the heat, but at least the soil is warming up.

Squashes and squash family are in the field, I took the milk jugs off so they don't overheat. They're a little yellowed, but I'm hoping they get more robust in the next few days.

I'll have to take photos.

Deborah.....Lovely harvest of rads. Have you tried the French Breakfast variety? I harvested some last week and they are divine. Milder than the Cherry Belles and Cherriette which I also grew and I love the look of them, elongated with white points and red base.

I learned a trick from an organic farmer nearby. Plant some radishes around your squashes and melons to keep damaging pests away from the good crops. They'll head for the rads instead. By fall those rads will be monstrous and ugly, but they seem to work their magic.

Cape.....I hope your cukes do better for you this year. I had to re-sow my cuke beds yesterday. Nothing was coming up. I hope with warmer weather they'll germinate.

Everything was looking good yesterday even with temps hitting 84. Today it was 84 already in the morning. I'll transplant more peppers after four when the sun isn't as bright. I am going to put straw mulch around the tomatoes and dig out my cheesecloth to cover the tomatoes against the heat of 90 or more expected for Sat and Sun. I'd hate to lose those pretty blossoms to intense sun.

I hope everyone on the east coast manages to get thru the heat of the weekend without much damage. Get those plants watered.

NHGardener wrote:CC, why are those carrots futile? They look okay to me.

Those aren't leaves, NHG, they are nubbin's. The leaves have been eaten off down to the stems. I'm giving up on carrots til fall.

Speaking of roots, my daikon bolted today and is blooming purple flowers. I almost pulled them out as another failure but I think I'll let them flower for the bees since they are right in front of the pea/bean trellis.

OH, hey, I DID it! The latest addition to me SFG family:

I'll fill the bottom with leaves, then unfinished compost, then MM. But I'm melting now and eyeballing the a/c on the floor over in the corner. 'Cept I'm too sweaty to put it in the window at the moment.
Heading down to the basement to get a fan...

NHG, please please please post pics? You too, Camp? You ladies have been waiting so long to get the gardens up and running I can't wait to see what's happening.

CC

Okay CC, tomorrow I'll take photos. I know I love to see everyone's gardens, and I'm appreciative of those who post photos!

Yup, broke down and stuck the a/c in the window today! Even tho 3 days ago I had the heat on...

The new box looks beautiful! So do the hoops and cover.

Watered today.

I'm noticing several volunteers. When things bolt, you might just want to leave them as is, they'll probably end up sprouting next spring.