New England, May 2016

Sometimes it's raining or snowing out my front door but not out my back door.  I agree, Rock, it IS weird!

First harvest for the salad bowl!  Marvel of the Four Seasons, mustard spinach, Grand Rapids, (hidden under the mound) baby chard:
So happy!

If you guys get what we just got, you are gonna get wet! Finally drying out and warming up a bit here. I also keep the little dried beef jars....same deal. Freebie!

Nice narrative Rock, sounded cozy. You are a poet!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Rock

bigdogrock wrote:Hey Lyndeeloo, when you find the holy grail of rain gauges let me know, I want one too!

I saw one at a true value hardware store yesterday and I may have to give in and buy it. It's a Jumbo ez read rain guage. It's readable from 50 feet away with a red float in it. It's cheap plastic but I'm fasinated with it. LOL I wasn't even looking for it and there it was right when I walked in the store. Sigh... found it cheaper online but with shipping and all. It's calling to me. MUST....HAVE....IT!   

Sorry CC, the jars are a great idea, but apparently I can't be practical when it comes to rain guages.

Noticed this morning my direct sown beets, and a few romaine have sprouted. I haven't seen any carrots yet, hopefully all this rain hasn't caused the seeds to rot. The sun poked out for a minute but now its cloudy again. More rain showers in the forecast. 

I found a bunch of little dill plants started where the plants were last year, will have to move those since there is garlic and lettuce there now. 

My tomato plants under the lights are just starting their first true leaves, so darn cute! 

Most of the flowers have dropped off the pear trees and I see some little pears forming. I would love to get some pears this year, but the 2 trees are only in their second year. Fingers crossed!

I got so many pears my 2 trees the 2nd year - 18 I think it was.  Only thing is they get those little hard stones on the skin.  It's some kind of bug bite so I'll be soaping them up as soon as they start forming. Hope it works.

Don't say the 'r' word.  Sanderson's rain dance work REALLY well and it's been r'ing here since last Sunday!  I'm almost at 3"!  Not complaining, mind you, but I like this sunshine we're having right now...until this evening anyway when the r starts up again.  
CC

The new UMass Extension newsletter is in:

https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/newsletters

I particularly enjoyed the part about transplants.  Not so much the part about leaf miners but appreciate the heads up.

CapeCoddess wrote:The new UMass Extension newsletter is in:

https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/newsletters

I particularly enjoyed the part about transplants.  Not so much the part about leaf miners but appreciate the heads up.

Another cloudy, drizzly, cool if not chilly Saturday. I am worried about all the beets and lettuce seeds I have planted, a few things have popped up, but I am not sure they are not weeds. Three weeks now, but nothing that I planted from seeds are making any great appearances . 
     To many variables, but, it is probably me just planting to early. I think I am going to wait till next week just to be sure, by then if they are not up and showing I can can be confident enough to assume they rotted in the ground.
     This will give me some more time to build a chicken barrier on another garden, and I might get tricky with my compost pile. But, for now, I will clean the kitchen, cook breakfast for the family, and start to quietly do  inside weekend chores while I let everybody else sleep in.
Rock

Rock, I have to cover my planted seeds with pine needles or window screening. If I don't then when I go out to the sfg there is a family of mourning doves that think it's a buffet out there. And this year I've noticed the chickadees have joined them. For years I wondered why I never got any carrots.


Yeah, this is a pretty dull foggy cold day. I was hoping to get my lawn mowed this weekend but it doesn't look like that's going to happen since everything is wet now and the rain will be starting up soon...again.

By soil temp.

http://theselfsufficientliving.com/plant-vegetable-seeds-temperature/

Thanks Camprn, by looking at those charts, I might still have a chance, if they don't rot. The temps here have been lower than what is optimum for starting seeds. I will let things ride for awhile and if nothing happens soon I will redo.

No wonder my beans struggled and my peppers and onions never sprouted at all.   Time to start over on those babies.  Thx for the heads-up, Camprn.

bigdogrock wrote:Thanks Camprn, by looking at those charts, I might still have a chance, if they don't rot. The temps here have been lower than what is optimum for starting seeds. I will let things ride for awhile and if nothing happens soon I will redo.

I'm totally waiting. I've successfully sown bok choy, rapini, and peas so far this year. I put in my shallots, gotta get some lettuce, chard, beets sowed. I'm waiting on the weather.

You can print those charts. I have them in my gardening kit, probably from the last time Camp posted them, and refer to them often.

I put some just sprouted  indoor cabbage and lettuce  outside this morning .  They can both handle this weather. Heading out to plant more carrots right now.

I have those charts, too! They are great! Thanks, Camp.

Today is supposed to be our last cloudy day. The weatherman is threatening three days of sunshine. Yea! Anyway, it motivated me to transplant about a dozen volunteer lettuces and plant out 4 six packs of starts this morning.  That gives them 24 hours  to get acclimated  before the sun comes up. Feels good to get that behind me.  I even took advantage of the squirrel holes by sticking a start in each one.

I also spread some accidental compost tea around. Back when I dug the potatoes trench I put all the MM into a bucket and covered the bucket with plastic. Apparently the wind and rain of the past 9 days got in anyway. Ended up pouring compost tea onto all the plants and then dumped the soggy compost into the empty tomato, pepper and cucumber squares.

Whoops, I just now realized I was supposed to delete that tea before watering the plants with it.

CapeCoddess wrote:

Whoops, I just now realized I was supposed to delete that tea before watering the plants with it.

Dilute!
Geez, this tablet... It's always something ain't it?

I wondered...lol!

CapeCoddess wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:

Whoops, I just now realized I was supposed to delete that tea before watering the plants with it.

Dilute!
Geez, this tablet... It's always something ain't it?

Oh yeah!

Well, another weekend to cold and wet to work in the yard. Saturday started out drizzly and cold, even had to turn the heater on to warm up the house. I did get a bunch of inside things done. There is something to be said for resting too.
     I heeded Sanderson's advice and put the weather thingy on my posts, but like all the other weather sites online, I ALWAYS seem to be about 5 degrees cooler in the Spring and Fall seasons. It has to do with the places where they get their information, it certainly isn't here. About 10 years ago I made a point of getting temps from the close by neighbors and came to the conclusion that, with a few other differences, we are just a tad bit higher than the surrounding areas, where they gather the data and it gave about a 5 degree difference in Spring and Fall. Since I put this on here is seems to be about 5 degrees warmer than it is here. It has held true this weekend.
     This morning was rainy, cool to cold, and very thick dark clouds made it dark here. We left about mid morning to spend time with relatives on Mother's Day and the sun and WIND came out in the afternoon. We are experiencing 35-40 mph gusts, I brought in our flag because it was straight out in the wind at times. It is coming out of the west, and it is cold.
     The sun did seem to make things a little nicer, just wish I could be out there enjoying it more. But, that is New England for you, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes and it will change.
Rock

I had the same weather you did rock. This afternoon I did manage to transplant the bok choy, rapini, and the sorrel I planted in the fall. Sowed radish, spinach, and chard. I didn't even do bee hive inspections and I hope for some warmer, calmer weather in the next few days.

This mornings smoothie greens, baby Georgia collards, in front of tonight's salad!



Heads up, New England...frost advisory for tonight and Wed night.

Yup, thanks CC, I have two things. 
     First, yes, I did empty my rain gauge out, so another day it will last. The guy at the hardware store called and said he is getting in some new gauges, just in case I was interested. The guy must really care about me.

     Second, I have pictures of little tiny plants, and I want to share them with everybody and see if somebody can tell what they are at this early, just sprouting, barely above ground time in plant life.

I am not interested in the green plant in the first pic, but the purple one in pic one and two.  I have a good idea what they are but it doesn't seem possible. Rock