What's everyone planting?

Hi All,

I noticed nothing new here since last August, thought I'd try to get the posts going!

I'm back from a long hiatus from SFG - didn't have the heart to do anything after my dad fell ill and passed away in Spring 2018.  He loved our veg garden growing up and when I was gardening, he loved the fruits (and veggies) of my labors!  That being said, the best way to keep him close is to do things I enjoyed doing with him when he was here - so re-starting my garden!  I'm going to have to re-build my 2 larger plots as they have rotted away and are unusable due to neglect.  So I probably won't be planting too much this year, but will do more planning.  I have a small 'strawberry bed' that DH built me out of cedar a few years back - going to plant Blue Lake Bush Beans around the perimeter and even though the spaces are too small, going to plant plum tomatoes where the strawberries were (in 2x2 beds) - I know the book calls for more space, but giving it a whirl as it's the only space I have right now.  Will try companion planting with basil and parsley there too.  I have ordered my bean seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - along with sugar snap peas and radishes and will buy the herbs and tomatoes.  I am hopeful I can get some sort of bed going to plant the sugar snap peas in for fall.  The radishes are going into an oblong container this year - always had good luck with these.   My neighbor usually gifts me leftover tomato plants such as Sun Golds - which I will continue to plant in a pot this year.  

So, what are everyone else's plans this year?  I have missed this site and all of you and always gained so much inspiration from all your projects!  I should have come back sooner!

Everything was already planted here in central California, except the pole Blue Lake bean bed. Daughter sowed seeds 8/sq ft per the book and they are already up.

Hi Kristen!

Welcome back. I also have not been on as often as I would like but here I am today....  Gardening is a wonderful way to be close to your Dad and remember your memories with him. Gardening is great therapy. 

I first planted my peas, lettuces, radishes and beets a while ago and just planted more radishes and beets.
I recently planted all 6 of my tomato plants, 2 pepper plants (sweet red), pole beans, cucumbers, and marigolds. 

I also planted in a 2x6 box cosmos, 2 types of zinnias and nasturtiums.

I am waiting until June 1 to plant my pumpkins.

My garlic looks as though it is almost ready to be picked but does seem to be early.

Best of Kristen.

Pansies planted April 3rd. Kale & lettuce plants in early May, frying peppers, tomatoes & cukes in mid May (it's been so warm in CT so far this year!), dill, parsley & basil plants in, too. Fall garlic & 4th year asparagus bed coming up strong. Plants for this week: my short sunflowers & cleomes & marigolds

Greetings from great Northwest, where it is still cold and dreary, but does not freeze hard very often in winter. We kept greens growing all winter both in hoop house and outside. When it started to warm up the spinach and tatsoi took off and now they are cropped and beds have been repurposed. Tomatoes and peppers are doing well in hoophouse but shivering and cursing me outside...hopefully it warms up soon. Garlic from fall planting looks huge and I'm hoping for a great crop. Will have fall vegetables ready to go in when the garlic comes out in July. Leeks, peas, runner beans, artichokes, squash. We are almost planted out thank goodness!

I am closing my eyes and thanking the Lord for the love your father gave so freely, and also the hard work he did through his time here. As well, he parented a lovely gentle spirited lady such as yourself. Amen. 
My garden is slow here in a valley surrounded by mountains at the edge of the Fraser Valley in BC. I planted peas several weeks ago, but it really is too cold, windy and rainy, and those old peas just hid in the ground! Tomato seedlings are about 5 inches high, and waiting for warmer soil beds before they are plunked down into the earth. Herbs are happy, and the only one that is sleepy in its bed is the tarragon. 8 tater plants popped up voluntarily! Leeks, scallions and Walla onions are planted kinda squishy, but they will survive. Haha. Lots of lettuce. A handful of bush bean plants are starting to stretch out. And a friend is driving through our town tomorrow, bringing 2 zucchini starts, some irises, a clematis start, not sure what else. 
Like our gardens: we require feeding, watering, weeding, pruning, building and resting. May we do all that with the help from friends. 
Bye for now!

New to Square Foot gardening but like many decided to try something new this past year.

Built (YouTube video instructions) 6 raised beds 4x8 abs 32 inches tall.  Trying abs never used Hugul Kulture last fall to get ready for spring and of course Mel’s mix for top 16 inches.

Trying some new vegetables as well. (New for me anyway)

Romanesque Broccoli, Sure Thing Zuchinni, Regina Viola squash (fall) and several types of cauliflower, never had much success with these so who knows.

Arkansas Traveller, San Marzano type, midnight snack and Costuloto Genevese on trellis’ 

8 types of peppers from Orange Jalapeño to Trinidad Scorpions for a friend as I will most assuredly not be eating them.

This is pretty new so any advice, help, is most appreciated.

Only concern is the density.  Using the book abs following instructions but man the plants sure look big in that space. 

Thanks for the positive feedback

Be Well

North shore Massachusetts, planting bush beans, summer and winter squash, Swiss chard. Hardening off tomatoes this week, been harvesting spinach that I planted in April.

We have eaten a few very nice Mortgage Lifter and Celebrity tomatoes; many Maxim F1, National Pickling, and Silver Slicer cucumbers; many zucchini; and basil. The zucchini have been the biggest surprise as we've been plagued by Squash Vine Borer bugs in the past. This year I wrapped the first 6" or so of the stem with an old pantyhose leg, and that seems to be preventing the SVB egg deposition and their larvae decimating the stem. I'm about to harvest the few garlic that I planted in September in one corner of my 2020 raised bed.

I had to re-plant my Dragon Tongue beans...had them last year for the first time—they are great!  So only 4 made it of the 15 or so that I put in.  More than a square.  I think varmints got em....

Hoping they make it—we are getting rain!

Scorpio I'm having lots of trouble getting bush beans started this year as well. Planted several squares again last weekend. We have been cropping kale, lettuce, and chard. Finally pulled the last batch of chard plants but there were more planted from seed between them so will get another batch soon. Garlic is starting to have scapes yum yum and everything else is growing. What fun!

LenNW, I am getting ready to go out right now and cut scapes—I never knew they even existed until the first year I did garlic!  So delish, mild—make a great pesto.  Lots of recipes on Pinterest for them!

lenNW wrote:Scorpio I'm having lots of trouble getting bush beans started this year as well. Planted several squares again last weekend. We have been cropping kale, lettuce, and chard. Finally pulled the last batch of chard plants but there were more planted from seed between them so will get another batch soon. Garlic is starting to have scapes yum yum and everything else is growing. What fun!

Do you soak your seeds before planting?  I soak mine for about 20 - 30 minutes - seems to jump start germination.  That being said, I just got my seeds in the mail and am hoping to get them in the grounds in the next couple of days.

Yes, Kristinz, I actually soak mine overnight.  Usually works!

I have experimented several times with soaking bean seeds before planting them, using various times from and hour to overnight. I have found that if I soak them, the beans germinate in 5 to 6 days, and if I don't soak them they germinate in 5 to 6 days. I generally don't bother soaking them any more. I did read an article that claimed if they are soaked in a mixture of fish fertilizer and EM-1 it improves the germination rate and growth rate, so I may experiment with that some day.

I mix in with my peas and green beans burpee pea and bean booster which seems to help them germinate along with soaking the seeds for an hour or so.
My sugar snap peas grow great this year.

Last week I picked 2 bags of pole beans and today another bag of pole beans that I gave to my neighbor.

This year my tomatoes and cucumbers are doing great since last year they did not.

For years I have tried fall lettuce. Whether I transplant or plant seed, all the plants disappear. It's not that they fall over. They just disappear. I finally decided it was rabbits and this year I used a mesh hut that keeps rabbits out. 26 seeds germinated and before they set true leaves, they began disappearing. All 26 are now gone. I wondered about slugs but this year I have seen very few slugs in the garden. Does anyone have a theory? Thanks.

WBIowa wrote:For years I have tried fall lettuce. Whether I transplant or plant seed, all the plants disappear. It's not that they fall over. They just disappear. I finally decided it was rabbits and this year I used a mesh hut that keeps rabbits out. 26 seeds germinated and before they set true leaves, they began disappearing. All 26 are now gone. I wondered about slugs but this year I have seen very few slugs in the garden. Does anyone have a theory? Thanks.

Mine tend to disappear because of Sowbugs, also called roly-poly or pill bug, if I don't control them.  I put Sluggo Plus down along the sides of the plants as soon as they start germinating to kill the sowbugs & any slugs in the area.

I also lightly sprinkle Sluggo PLUS around ALL new starts. It's good against slugs, earwigs and sowbugs which can decimate new starts.