What's Up for April in 5a?

Since I'm a 5b SFGer I guess I'm not allowed to post here . However, I want to get this topic started for you and I hope you will all chime in and be specific. Such as, planted peas; last year's lettuce made a comeback; peas froze!! Temp irradic.

Mine would looks something like this:
"Bought wood for new box today. Turned compost. Cleaned old growth out of last year's pots and replenished soil with a handful of Mel's Mix. Tossed old growth into compost bin to start new pile."

You get the idea. Let's help the local newcomers know where we are with our gardens.

Have fun. Post updates regularly. Thanks.

Started my tomato seeds in vermiculite today along with eggplant, parsley, and some lettuce. I'm quickly running out of room under my growing lights. I'm going to try to plant peas and spinach this weekend. Also I might plant some radishes under my cold tunnel. I'm also thinking about hardening off my swiss chard, lettuce, and broccoli rapini and get them planted sometime in the next week in the cold tunnel so I can free up some room under the lights. I'm lost on when to start my potatoes too. Some people around here claim to plant them now or within the next 2 weeks but we are just about 6 weeks away from the frost date and most of what I've read says 2-3 weeks before frost.

Tony, you look so lonely here . I'm so surprised there aren't more folks from Zone 5a. Hellooo. Where are you 5a-ers? We're waiting for you...

Bonnie and Erica should be checking in here soon with their April doins.

Keep us posted, Tony.

Hi, This will be my first year gardening. I am new to everything! I have spent the last 2 months pouring over books and decided to give SqFG a try. So this last week Hubby and I have started getting everything in order. Hubby built our first boxes out of some wood we had, 8 - 4x8. We filled them with Mel's mix on 4/5, it has rained every day since. It snowing tonight 4/7, but will be nice this weekend.
Plans for this weekend:
Built supports for veg tables, and make grids for boxes.
Built a compost box
Start seeds
plant some cold crops

Hi titans01,

titans01 wrote: I'm lost on when to start my potatoes too. Some people around here claim to plant them now or within the next 2 weeks but we are just about 6 weeks away from the frost date and most of what I've read says 2-3 weeks before frost.

Have you decided when your planting your potatoes?

Welcome Dietryn to the Northern and Central Midwest Regional Forum

I think you have made a good choice to go with SFG. The Forums on this site offer a wealth of information, pictures and help. We have some pretty knowledgeable contributors and the local forums include lots of climate-specific help. Ask questions. Post pictures.

I wish I had discovered SFG years ago, but alas... I sure am glad I'm doing it now though. It's never too late to learn new tricks!

Happy gardening!

Dietryin,

I think I'm going to plant my potatoes around the 15th of this month if the 10 day forecast at that time looks decent.

I managed to plant spinach, beets, peas, radishes, and carrots last weekend. I also transplanted some lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, kale, parsley and kohlrabi. Most of these are under my cold tunnel. We had frost last night but I'm hoping the cold tunnel protected the transplants.

I still need to get my broccoli rapini and lettuce hardened off and moved out to the beds sometime in the next week or so. I'd also like to get some cauliflower planted as well.

So if I'm reading it right you made 8 boxes that are 4x8? Sounds like you are a little like me and instead of just starting slow you jump right in full bore. That should grow a lot of veggies. Do you have a large family or are you planning on canning/freezing a bunch?

Let me know how the planting goes this weekend too.

titans01 wrote:Dietryin,


So if I'm reading it right you made 8 boxes that are 4x8? Sounds like you are a little like me and instead of just starting slow you jump right in full bore. That should grow a lot of veggies. Do you have a large family or are you planning on canning/freezing a bunch?

I have a large family, 8 children. 7 still live at home. We also try to eat 50% of our diet in raw fruit & vegetables. We spend about $50.00 a week in produce. The total would be even higher if I bought organic. I have even bigger plans for next year. My plan is to spend the summer getting more beds ready for next spring to plant berries,and some fruit trees.

Wow that's great. I would love to see some pictures if you have them too.

mckr3441 wrote:Tony, you look so lonely here . I'm so surprised there aren't more folks from Zone 5a. Hellooo. Where are you 5a-ers? We're waiting for you...

Bonnie and Erica should be checking in here soon with their April doins.

Keep us posted, Tony.

My problem is I don't know which thread to post on, I don't know if I'm 5a, 5b, or even 6. (6 is wishful thinking, probably.) None of the zone maps I can find will let me zoom in enough to see exactly where I am on the map. There is a little pocket of warmer near Chicago, but I can't tell if I'm in it. The sites where you put your zip to find your zone just tell me I'm zone 5-6! It doesn't help that I'm new here and lived my whole life in zone 10! Big change.

Here is the site I used to determine my zone: http://www.garden.org/zipzone/ It actually spits out which zone you are rather than just a map.

SFG in Chicago wrote:

mckr3441 wrote:Tony, you look so lonely here . I'm so surprised there aren't more folks from Zone 5a. Hellooo. Where are you 5a-ers? We're waiting for you...

Bonnie and Erica should be checking in here soon with their April doins.

Keep us posted, Tony.

My problem is I don't know which thread to post on, I don't know if I'm 5a, 5b, or even 6. (6 is wishful thinking, probably.) None of the zone maps I can find will let me zoom in enough to see exactly where I am on the map. There is a little pocket of warmer near Chicago, but I can't tell if I'm in it. The sites where you put your zip to find your zone just tell me I'm zone 5-6! It doesn't help that I'm new here and lived my whole life in zone 10! Big change.

Yeah that one says 5a but others tell me different. Oh well I might be on the borderline.

Had 5 beds built and filled, BUT; then decided to move them because we felt they were getting to much shade on them. We end up moving the beds closer to the house and added 4 more beds. The plan now is to start planting this week. Since it to late for seeds I guess I'll have to go to the nursery and buy some plants

SFG in Chicago wrote:Yeah that one says 5a but others tell me different. Oh well I might be on the borderline.

Hi SFG in Chicago

Sounds like your "close enough" to just make a decision on what you are experiencing in your own yard. If you plant a couple of seeds and things don't work out there's still plenty of time to plant more.

You might try to find a garden store near you and ask them about your specific location. I'm not sure HD or WalMart would know but a professional garden store might.

I'm in 5b surrounded by 5a but nowhere near 6anything . Also you could put a "tent" over your boxes or floating row covers.

Keep us posted.

Claire

Dietryin wrote:Had 5 beds built and filled, BUT; then decided to move them because we felt they were getting to much shade on them. We end up moving the beds closer to the house and added 4 more beds. The plan now is to start planting this week. Since it to late for seeds I guess I'll have to go to the nursery and buy some plants

I had to go to the nursery for most of my broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower as well. I also picked up some lettuce there and it's getting close to being ready to start harvesting. Let us know what you plant and how it goes.

I went to the nursery and bought - broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, brussels sprouts, onions, and strawberries (June Berry). Planted half today and plan on planting the other half Wed.

I wanted to do more today but the neighbor was tilling his garden and the smell (gas fumes) were making me sick. My garden is at least an acre away from his garden.

Was on vacation last week and spent a lot of time in the garden and away form the computer... So far I've planted lettuces, spinach, sugar snap peas, radishes, carrots, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts. We also put a 3 X 3 tiered bed for strawberries and I got those planted last week.

Just added a few more broccoli plants, snap pea starts from when I placed some seed in paper towels last Wednesday to test germination (then forgot them promptly until today), a cabbage plant, some more lettuce and another grid of snap peas.

So far, about 75% of the boxes I planted back on the 14th of April are germinating and they were all trimmed (thinned out) today. Everything looks good.

Can't wait to take the day off Monday and build/mix my third 4x4. I'll also put up my metal conduit frames and nylon mesh. Sweet Corn will be going into one of my "legacy" raised beds and the third 4x4 will be filled with summer crops soon. I'll be putting my zucchini around the back of my house in the ground.

After that, most of the "heavy-lifting" will be done for me. I'll then set up my compost bin and start that project.

Some of my broccoli plants have little tiny "broccolis" on them! It's really been warm here. The weatherman said we've had 5 days of 80 or above this year (Indianapolis).

I feel like I'm a little behind.
Seeds started 3 weeks ago. Nothing transplanted yet.

37 degrees on Tuesday for a low is a bit of a concern.

But I'm tempted to get the broccoli, swiss chard, carrots, arugula and spinach outside.

hmmm.....

L&K-IL wrote:I feel like I'm a little behind.
Seeds started 3 weeks ago. Nothing transplanted yet.

37 degrees on Tuesday for a low is a bit of a concern.

But I'm tempted to get the broccoli, swiss chard, carrots, arugula and spinach outside.

hmmm.....

I was afraid I was behind too, and you beat me!

I didn't get a single seed in until April 14, and most of my beds weren't filled out until the 20th.

I bet we'll all be fine and be eating like kings in a month or two.

Red, Butter-crunch, and Red Romain lettuces
Onions - Red, yellow, white and a sq of green onions.
Spinach, Radish, Sweet Peas flowers.
Started seeds: Columbine, Geranium, Peppers, Black-Eye Susan.
Set out potato sets for sprouting.

I feel like all my planning this winter is coming together. If I have planed right. The next few weeks should be easy. I'll start a few seeds and wait for our last frost date of the May 16th.

Well, I had my first victim of friendly fire tonight when trimming out the seedling sprouts.

I thought I'd check on things after soccer practice and noticed a few sprouts that had come up since yesterday when I went to work with the scissors. With no scissors and not wanting to tear up roots, I got down to "pinching."

Apparently I'm not as nimble as I thought, as I ended up taking out one of my "keepers" in my trimming chores. It is kind of funny how bummed you can get over losing a 2" plant. I guess I just think about that bare spot as the garden comes in, and all the good lettuce it would have produced.

I think I'll replant a seed there tomorrow.

I had the same problem with my Pak Choy last night Judge and I was using scissors. I must of nicked it. I'm sure it's not the last one I will accidentally kill before I'm done.

I went out this morning to check on the garden and my strawberries plants are moldy! I did an web search for photos and I believe they have white powder mold growing on them. Some sites said to spray the plants with a baking soda mixture.
What do you all think? Any suggestions?


Baking Soda Mixture:

To make: Mix 1 tablespoon baking soda, 2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil with one gallon of water. Shake this up very thoroughly. To this mix add 1/2 teaspoon of pure Castile soap and spray. Be sure to agitate your sprayer while you work to keep the ingredients from separating. Cover upper and lower leaf surfaces and
spray some on the soil. Repeat every 5-7 days as needed.



The above recipe calls for pure Castile soap, which I do not have.....can I just use liq dish soap?