New England ~ May 2014

camprn wrote:(snip)

...the summer tender veggies got covered up for tonight, calling for 35F.

Here are the beds all bundled up for the night.

Hey, Camp, what are those orange covering-things of yours made of?  They almost look purpose-made.

mollyhespra wrote:

camprn wrote:(snip)

...the summer tender veggies got covered up for tonight, calling for 35F.

Here are the beds all bundled up for the night.

Hey, Camp, what are those orange covering-things of yours made of?  They almost look purpose-made.

Those are the plastic bags that cover a ton of wood pellet bags. and the size is perfect for this use!   

Brr. It's not going to be toasty again until the weekend, I don't think.

I indoor seeded more vines today - butternut squash, squash, zukes, cukes, pumpkin, watermelon. I had seeded outside but nothing happened, probably not warm enough yet, and maybe not drenched enough either.

Saw another vole hole in the sparse strawberry bed. Hmm. 

Garlic is getting tall, potato onions are beautiful, transplanted lettuce is looking nice (6 squares, but it's not a head lettuce, so you need a lot), spinach is iffy and may have been something's lunch. Tomato plants I've had out there are looking fine, peppers look weak. Next winter I'm seeding peppers WAY early, and lopping them. Asparagus is beautiful but it's year two so I'm mostly leaving that there. I had to buy more celery and cucumber seeds today.

Grass is getting very lush, and dandelions, which I like to keep unaltered for the bees. It's getting to that June time of year when everything is bright green - love that. It doesn't last long.

Have been dreaming of strawberries. ....won't be long now!       

lyndeeloo wrote:Have been dreaming of strawberries. ....won't be long now!       

Beautiful!  Mine look mostly like yours  with a few turning very light pink.  Gotta love Spring..

Can't wait to see a little pink on them.      LM do you net yours from the birds and squirrels?  I wasn't sure whether to bird net or not. Want to be prepared because I don't want to share them with the critters.  

Ooh. Some of mine have blossoms now, but I haven't seen any fruits. Last year I didn't net and had no problem, but that could've been a fluke. I'm not netting this year, we'll see. I do have my garden fenced tho.

lyndeeloo wrote:Can't wait to see a little pink on them.      LM do you net yours from the birds and squirrels?  I wasn't sure whether to bird net or not. Want to be prepared because I don't want to share them with the critters.  

Love how well critter covers prevent damage from all furry/hairy animals the past 4 years. Always have to lift them off and on but I won't garden without them.  Then I can concentrate on bugs and diseases.

Looks like I'll be rigging up something to cover up the strawberries in case I need it. Yesterday was beautiful and today looks like another outdoor/gardening sort of day. Watered everything already this morning. I wanted to try to hold off for the rain they are forecasting for the next few days,  but everything was so dry. Looks like mowing the lawn and a bit of weeding is in my future. Planted all the tomato plants I bought in the 5 gal frosting buckets yesterday. Not much left in the little greenhouse other than my own little tomato seedlings and some sunflowers. It will become a plant stand soon for all my potted herbs.

My strawberries are rounding up nicely too. Once they start blushing I'll just throw bird netting over the top of them. That's what I've done in the past and it seems to work except I still have to share with pill bugs...they eat half, I eat half.  

For the past week I've been harvesting greens, radishes and onions. YUM!

I'm planting out the rest of my tomatoes and a couple of experimental sprouted cucumbers today and also planting pole beans and bush beans. Once the buckets have warmed up it'll be time to water again. There's been no measurable rain for weeks in my area.

Has anyone read the book, How to Grow Record Tomatoes? The guy is a hoot and totally organic! Apparently he is in the Guinness World Book of Records for the tallest tomato plant at 28 plus feet. Crazy, right?

OK, better get while the gettins good! Beautiful day today! So I took the day off...  

Where did these bonus days come from? My forecast told me it was nothing but yuck from yesterday onward. Oh well, I'm not complaining. It's beautiful!

My beans are coming up! Those things are popping up like daisies. They'll be surpassing the lazy peas pretty soon.

My one vine transplant per category (I only had one vine seedling of each type survive, but I have more on the heat mat as we speak, because direct seeding has not yet amounted to anything) are looking good in the beds. Everything is looking really good out there this year so far. YAY! I mean, I've lost some transplants, the kohlrabi looks like it disappeared and the celery didn't make it and a couple of things here & there, but by and large, everything looks good.

I'm trying to chip all the aisles between the beds. Like I said, our property came with this pile of old pine logs that were an eyesore, but I discovered that after several years now, you can crumble a lot of them with your hands, so those are my woodchip source. Very slow, so there are a lot of dandelions in my garden right now between the beds, but the bees like them anyway. Black fly season has interrupted the chipping project, I got another nice huge bite on my neck yesterday. Vampires!

Yay for summer. Yay for heat. Yay for the rain that's supposed to be coming this week. Yay for beds that have a few years to "settle" and become more productive.

All my tomatoes are planted out now. Hope they make it. So far so good. I pulled out last year's carrots and now have  three empty beds to transplant lettuce into. I'll have to get to that this weekend. All the veggies have been watered, including the asparagus bed of which there are now about 15 sprouted plants. Yea! But I'm finding that I'm short on buckets. The bigger my garden gets the more water I need. I actually had to use city water for the last half of the watering. It's so obvious to me that plants don't do as well with the city water. But I'm hoping it's better than nothing, it was so dry out there.

I'm feeling unsure about the cucumbers and beans that I just planted. We haven't even hit  70 yet.
The  cucumber seeds are under the 2 lettuce containers on the left and the cucumber transplants are under the two pots on the right. All are held down by rocks against the wind.
Do you think I'm being overprotective? the covers come off during the day.

OH!  You know those disgusting green worms that hang from down from the trees, blowing back and forth in the breeze? Well, they are demolishing my two pear trees. Apparently I was supposed to spray the pear trees with some kind of oil. I guess it must be to prevent the damage that's going on now?  But on the excellent side, I have a baby peach. It's so tiny and cute and looks like a little ball of fuzz.

Looks like nice weather coming up for the weekend, kids!  We are so lucky!
CC

A baby peach?! Wow! I had several peach blossoms on my brand new Lowes peach tree (one of them, not the other) and I'm wondering if that means it will actually produce peaches this year. Surely not!

My 2 new pear trees are starting to leaf and my 2 new asian plum trees (or do I have that backwards). One type (whether it's pear or plum, I can never remember) I have to check several times a day because I noticed ants and some kind of flying black bug and the leaves are getting curled and eaten.

Anyway, if it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'm going to have to break down and water again. I hate watering tiny new plants. Mother nature does it so much better than I do.

I emptied my rain barrel of water yesterday. I hope we get a good rain tonight.

this is that book I was talking about in a previous post:

How to grow world record tomatoes : a Guinness champion reveals his all-organic secrets / by Charles H. Wilber

I got it out of the library. Or maybe it's posted online now somewhere.

CC congrats on the baby fuzz ball, I know you'll be watching it like a hawk. I know I do! Hope there are more fuzz balls soon, they are so cute.

NHGardener, if it has flowers there's a chance for fruit, hope you get some peaches this year!

I have  2 or 3 dozen little peaches started on my tree. Not as many as last year. I pruned all my fruit trees and I must have pruned back too hard. I'm noticing less fruit on all the trees this spring. Even the crabapple only had a few flowers on it. Looks like I need a refresher course in pruning before fall. I am not happy with myself for making such a big mistake.

Pruning is such an art. Now that I have several fruit trees, I'm going to have to learn how to prune. I know you have to really prune well, but there are some cuts that are hazardous to the tree. Good thing we have the internet.

We're finally getting our rain! I even had the heat on today. Grr. Tomorrow's high 56. Double grr. But at least the plants are getting watered.

the extension service usually offers pruning workshops.

camprn, you rock!  

The first video here includes info on pruning.

http://extension.unh.edu/Videos-Home-Gardener

I was hoping for overcast today to divide and transplant lettuce babies but it's beautiful sunny & gorgeous. Supposed to rain tomorrow...
  

The garlic looks like it's picked up a bit and moved on from it's yellowing stage:


The potato onions are fabulous! Some have 6 plants on them!


Here's a photo of some of my sad little toms across the front of this box, shivering in the cold:

Romaine, butt crunch, cut chives, endive, radicchio & cabbage under cover from you know who:

Boss just said we can leave now!     Outta here!

CC

Beautiful CC! Who's the you-know-who? 

I really need to get a camera.

Today is ultra gloom here, but we had some great rain, only in the 50s tho.

I just looked at my tomatoes and they're doing really well out there. The peppers I'll probably have to buy transplants for tho, and the eggplants are looking weak and nibbled on. What keeps nibbling on my veggies???? Something also chewed the leaves off a section of my new pea sprouts. GRR.

My garden is still very much under construction tho. I have to get more cardboard boxes from the grocery store to put between the rows and then cover them with woodchips to keep the grass and weeds out. I figure this year I'm STILL growing soil, beds, and rows. But one of these days, one of these days, it's going to be glorious, simply glorious. (cue heavens opening and sun shining down)

Found a beautiful potato plant! Right in the middle of the bed which is all planted potatoes, so the rest can't be far behind. Lettuce is doing so well, it's starting to get bitter! (what's that all about?) Garlic is knee high.

Potato onions spread? You got 6 plants out of one onion, CC? Mine are still the 1 per square, but looking nice.

If the lettuce is getting bitter, it's probly getting ready to bolt...

Looks wonderful, CC.

AtlantaMarie wrote:If the lettuce is getting bitter, it's probly getting ready to bolt...

Would it bolt this early? It hasn't been out there all that long, and it hasn't been all that hot. Maybe too sunny tho.

Next year I'm planting lettuce under the pepper plants. I read about that today.

NHGardener wrote:

AtlantaMarie wrote:If the lettuce is getting bitter, it's probly getting ready to bolt...

Would it bolt this early? It hasn't been out there all that long, and it hasn't been all that hot. Maybe too sunny tho.

Next year I'm planting lettuce under the pepper plants. I read about that today.

NHG, you can still do that this year.


My plans this weekend include mucking about in the garden and playing video games.