New England, May 2020

mollyhespra 5/8/2020, 2:42 pm

Yikes! Already a week into May!!!

My nightshades that I started about a month ago are starting to get leggy, need to up-pot them soon. The peas and onions are in the garden and the weeds are a sproutin'.

The weather's been a bit iffy up by me...alternating between wonderful, sunny, crisp and cool and dreary cloudy rainy and snowy.

Typical New England spring, I suppose.

How's everyone else's garden at this point?

mollyhespra 5/9/2020, 10:29 am

A picture's worth a thousand words, right?

‍�

OldCrow 5/9/2020, 3:48 pm

I just started my garden experience this year. Started collecting the doodads in Dec. Was hoping to transplant some Lettuce and Kale, but 5 inches of that white fluffy stuff put a damper on that project for a few days Smile

**AtlantaMarie** 5/10/2020, 6:55 am

Hi Old Crow. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you've joined us.

At least you hadn't gotten them planted yet! :-)

mollyhespra 5/10/2020, 9:58 am

Welcome Old Crow! $glad you\'re here$

How does it go? Something about snow being cheap fertilizer? We can't complain, then. rofl

What else do you have planned after your lettuce and kale?

Again, welcome!

**Scorpio Rising** 5/10/2020, 10:38 am

Welcome to the forum, Old Crow! Can’t wait to hear about your plans! What do you like to eat?

OldCrow 5/10/2020, 1:43 pm

Hello everyone and thank you for the kind welcome.

Since this is my first season of real gardening, I’m trying not to go overboard. I’m pretty much sticking with plants a uTube guy MIgardener suggested as “Beginner” plants. That is, not difficult to succeed with being the key. And so far I’ve had pretty good success.

Right now I have growing Kale Nero di Toscana, Lettuce Freckles, Tomato Geranium Kiss, Spinach Giant Noble, Radish French Breakfast, Basil Lemon, Mint Spearmint and Marrigold.

Hope to transfer the Kale and some lettuce this week if I can get the fence built. Bambi and her friends drop by too often as well as the smaller mammals.

Also picked up locally at Aubuchon HW Broccoli De Rapa, and Cabbage Copenhagen Market. And on a spur of the moment I picked up some Strawberry, 15 little plants bundled to gather, basically roots that looked almost dead but they have perked. All with new green.

Once the weather warms enough, after May 22nd, Carrot Parisian and Peas Lincoln sow direct to my 4x8 raised bed. Also planning to transplant 1 Tomato, but I don’t know if Tomato, Cucumber, Peppers can handle open air here in Zone 5 Maine? Any ideas welcome.

My biggest learning curve was getting a soil mix. I started with Compost(cow,fist,etc) and soil with a bit of vermiculite. No good for pots. I tried to grow Basil in a coffee can and no luck, I think that mix was too dense.

My mixes evolved and I was near Mel’s Mix but using perlite instead of vermiculite. Can really tell the difference in plant growth .

I picked up Mel’s SFG last week and oh how I wish I’d found a few months ago Smile

OldCrow 5/10/2020, 1:46 pm

Plants learning to cope with cool weather on the porch.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/10/2020, 2:04 pm

Sounds like a good start, OC! Also, nice sunny place to get your plants into some sun, despite the cold.

You’re right to start slow, there will be many things learned especially this year. Keep copious notes, no year is the same!

Here in the Midwest, we had a hard freeze early Saturday AM, still cold but not freezing.

I planted 18 or so bare root strawberries a few years ago, they are so wonderfully different, more flavorful than anything at the store. You will love them!

OldCrow 5/10/2020, 2:19 pm

Here are our thin blooded plants in Virtual Florida Smile

Well some are just starting to knuckle, so I shouldn't be too hard on them Evil or Very Mad

OldCrow 5/10/2020, 2:21 pm

Scorpio Rising wrote:
I planted 18 or so bare root strawberries a few years ago, they are so wonderfully different, more flavorful than anything at the store. You will love them!

I was told two years before good fruit. Can't Wait!

**Scorpio Rising** 5/10/2020, 2:23 pm

OldCrow wrote:
Scorpio Rising wrote:
I planted 18 or so bare root strawberries a few years ago, they are so wonderfully different, more flavorful than anything at the store. You will love them!
I was told two years before good fruit. Can't Wait!

Yes, the hardest thing was to pinch off the blooms the first year! To direct the energies to the roots.

OldCrow 5/10/2020, 2:39 pm

Scorpio Rising wrote:
OldCrow wrote:
Scorpio Rising wrote:
I planted 18 or so bare root strawberries a few years ago, they are so wonderfully different, more flavorful than anything at the store. You will love them!
I was told two years before good fruit. Can't Wait!
Yes, the hardest thing was to pinch off the blooms the first year! To direct the energies to the roots.

Yeah not looking forward to that. It was bad enough when I had to thin my Kale and Lettuce Sad

But I see the need.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/11/2020, 8:40 pm

I just put in an asparagus bed this year...same thing! Have to wait....anticipation!

mollyhespra 5/12/2020, 3:03 am

Made a new grow-light setup from a 4' wide shelving unit and 8 LED light kits I found for an amazing price ($15 ea) at our local Job Lots. Total cost sbout $200. I'm justifying it with reminding myself that we'll get at least that much and then some from what's growing underneath. The lights are 5500K. You can see my very leggy seedlings in the foreground. Those have now been up-potted and are on the shelves. I have *just* enough space for all the seeds I started.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/12/2020, 10:09 pm

Nice score, Molly! I have aging T 12s...

OldCrow 5/13/2020, 7:14 am

I've picked up 9 or 10 of those Job Lot LED lights over past year, but to light up my dark basement/garage. Great idea for the plants. I believe I even have an extra light or two that I haven't installed. Be really interest how your plants respond to these lights.

Dan in Ct 5/13/2020, 7:38 am

Thought I would share some pictures of my set-up

as it is about to get very busy after seeing the 10 day weather forecast. Here in southern New England, tomorrow is Grow Time. Plants begin to get moved from The Grow Room to the back deck and temporary greenhouse.

mollyhespra 5/13/2020, 8:32 am

Lookit all that GREEN! Your setup looks great, Dan!

The JobLots lights are supposed to be 5500K, so in theory the plants will do well. (Fingers crossed.) ;-)

**Scorpio Rising** 5/13/2020, 12:29 pm

Your plants look great, Dan! Have you grown celery before? I am growing it for the first time this year. Tango is the variety.

Dan in Ct 5/13/2020, 5:30 pm

Scorpio Rising, I use celery to replace the garlic when it is harvested in July along with a few late tomato and pepper plants. The celery comes out just about the time the garlic goes back in. The 3 raised beds I have grow something in them year round without me having to trudge through the snow. I don't know if I posted a picture of the garlic beds but they are doing well. I took a few years off from serious gardening and bucketeering and forgot how much I enjoyed the process and the alone time.

Dan in Ct 5/13/2020, 5:46 pm

mollyhespra, the plants are somewhat leggy, usually by now they have been out in the real light getting the energy producing rays they need. Not this year, they will have to definitely go through a hardening off period before transplanting. Artificial light lacks the intensity. The next step up would be a greenhouse, side by side you would see the difference. Usually they go out on the back deck during the day starting in mid-April on days it goes above 60F but they were few and far between and closer to none. Every year is different but usually I can tell it is time to plant when the whirly seeds from the Silver Maples that surround The Crazy Acre start fluttering down. Not this year the seeds have been coming down in bunches/clumps. It is not a good sign when I am not the craziest thing happening in my neighborhood this time of year.

mollyhespra 5/14/2020, 12:47 pm

Yea, we had a mild winter up by us, but now a very cold Spring. (The ticks are awful this year!)

LF for me is usually June 8th, and FF Sept 8th, so not much time to mess around. Even if I can get the nightshades in by mid-June, there's a lot of coddling and covering to keep them going because the nights still get pretty cold. Sounds lile you've got a couple extra months of growing than I do.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/16/2020, 5:37 pm

It has been a cold and wet spring here, too. This weekend is the first warmish weather. None of my seedlings are really hardened off...

Dan in Ct 5/19/2020, 8:24 am

We are suppose to get a dip into the high 30s but there isn't any room at the inn, so everything that is outside will be camping out in the temporary greenhouse on the back deck with holes in the plastic. Okay, maybe up early and 2 liter bottles of warm water to add some warmth. I have ground cherries in solo cups that have blossomed and have fruits growing. The Physalis Improvement Project isn't being improved by me much. I will know more in October after a gardening season with them but Arnold is already saying, " if they die, they die". I was going to call 2020, The Year of Hindsight but I have changed my mind, I just want to see it in my rear view mirror.

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