About to go out an work in the garden. The temp has been in the upper 60s-low 70s.
What’s planted so far–garlic, onions, lettuce, lacinto kale, carrots, potatoes (fingerling and purple), eggplant (Asian and Italian), cucumbers (slicers and pickling), bell peppers, and 6 of the 12 tomato plants I received from Burpee yesterday. Am trying out a new heat tolerant hybrid this year. (Also planting plum, cherry and heirloom varieties)
Today’s plan is to plant the rest of the tomatoes and wax pole beans and lay out irrigation lines for them. Still deciding on whether or not to plant summer squash/zucchini. Have had terrible issues with squash bugs despite a daily war against them with Sevin and cutting off the leave with eggs on them. Other than putting the plants under a row cover (which means I’ll need to pollinate by hand) , does anyone have any other ideas to control squash bugs?
Once all the plants/seeds are in, I have to put up the deer fencing around my raised beds for the summer. I live in the suburban area but the deer walk down the middle of the street at dusk, jump my side yard fence and dine on everything from my rose bushes to my green tomatoes. About the only thing they won’t touch are onions and zucchini. (I suspect they don’t like the fuzzy/prickly leaves.)
Last summer I had a terrible spider mite infestation. I’ll be using neems oil this year if there’s a repeat. My gardening friend is going to use kaolin (clay) spray for the same purpose. We’ll compare results in August.
@WayOutWestMom my community garden dusted our gardens with some organic dust application the last two years after a bad squash bug infestation 3 years ago. Last year no bugs were had - I’m not sure what they used though - if I see one of the garden crew I will ask them.
@abasket
Thanks! I’m at wit’s end.
@abasket , that is exactly what we have planned for the walkway! Just have to decide what to plant in each area. We did not expect to come off of the waiting list for a plot this year and have not done a ton of research. The in-laws are in the weekend and great gardeners. May have them take a look.
Finally we have a nice pattern of spring temperatures (nice but not hot), sun and rain a couple times a week. Radish and argula seed is up and will need to be thinned out soon. Beet seed VERY SLOWLY starting to show. Hoping to get my chicken wire up this week and NEED to get my seed potatoes so I can cure them and plant!
Thanks, @abasket . I have diatomaceous earth and have used it in the garden but without much success. I just bought some Hot Pepper Wax (http://www.hotpepperwax.com) and am going to try it to see if it will discourage squash bugs, leafhoppers and whatever is eating my lettuce and cucumber plants. (I suspect mice. The lettuce is under a mesh row cover so I know it isn’t deer. Cukes are behind deer fencing.)
Thrilled to report that tomatoes (6 different varieties), bell peppers, chiles, and eggplants (3 varieties) are all blooming and starting to set fruit. Potatoes are thriving in grow bags. Summer & winter squash got a beaten up by the hail storm earlier this week, but look like they’ll recover. Lettuce, lacinto kale, carrots, onions & garlic are all doing well. Young cuke plants–something keeps eating them. I’ve planted, then replanted once and may have to replant again. Whole hills of young plants disappear overnight. The Monte Gusto wax pole beans did not germinate well this year. Number of plants is rather sparse. Trying to decide if I want to plant more seed or just go with what’s there.
It’s been a really hot & dry spring here. No precipitation for the last 3 months except for the hail storm earlier this week. It’s going to be really bad fire season.
^^That’s some great success!
MOST flowers planted at home - just windowboxes on the garage left - well, H has to hang them first since I repainted them.
Finally got to my raised bed to weed spring stuff I planted - radishes almost ready, arugula has been slow but doing decent now. Beets, eh…the seed never works good for me!
Planted tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers and pickling cukes - which is what I prefer to eat raw. And got the potatoes in the grow bag. When the spring crops come out in a couple of weeks I’ll plan some other stuff!
I’ll join the gardening thread, though this year is different for us. Normally we have a traditional garden (at home, on our farm) surrounded by groundhog and rabbit proof fence (sunk into the ground). We’re in South Central PA not far from the MD border.
This year we still have the fenced part and planted peas (snap and plain green), broccoli (which bolted - bummer), beets, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, spinach, kale, and three varieties of tomatoes, BUT with youngest son just having graduated this past Sunday and coming home to do Permaculture Farming on our farm, we’ve morphed a bit in what we did to his desires (no tilling, etc) and added carrots. The good thing is we no longer need to do any of the work (though will probably help pick things). The interesting thing will be seeing if his plan works or not. He’s already adding more fruit trees & bushes, herbs, and more plants - spread all around rather than in rows, etc.
We can already eat spinach and beets are close - and we ate what we got from the bolted broccoli - just nothing for the freezer this year (sigh).
I procrastinated too late to plant spring veggies this year. Just kept putting off & putting off laying out all the drip irrigation lines until almost mid-April. Spring veggies go in around mid- late February. I’ll plant sugar peas, leaf lettuce and arugula in mid-late September once I pull cukes and pole beans. I usually have tomatoes up until first frost around Halloween.
This is my 3rd year growing in raised beds. I’m really enjoying it. I spent a good deal of time and effort rehabbing the beds last fall–the soil the landscaper put in the raised beds was terrible–typical southwestern dirt-- high mineral/low organic matter soil, a combination of sand, hardpan clay and caliche. (To be fair, that’s mostly the same soil I have in my yard.) I added 3 bales of peat moss & coconut coir, plus perlite, biochar, bone & blood meals, all purpose organic vegetable fertilizer and (sadly not enough) bagged compost.
But the soil still needs more organic matter and probably some sulfur. I bought a compost screen which, if I feel ambitious in the fall I’ll use to start screening our some of the rocks in the soil. I already keep a bucket at hand whenever I plant to pick out by hand the biggest stones, but there’s lots of bean-sized gravel I’d like to get rid off.
I’m just gardening in very large pots in my driveway, with a few other spots. I have tomatoes, peppers, basil, and sunchokes in large pots.
The sunchokes are on their 2nd year. I will tip the pot on it’s side in the fall and see how the clumpy rhizome is doing, and maybe harvest some. They are flowering now, lots of little sunflower-like flowers. I started them from a piece I bought at the supermarket. I planted it in the fall, but it didn’t grow until spring since they are winter dormant.
I also started ginger from a root purchased from the grocery store. I planted it in February in a pot and it’s about 3’ tall now. My turmeric and galangal just barely survived winter. It’s fun growing these little roots! Not much yield but it should be lots of flavor.
I have 4 pots of “lipstick” peppers. Lipstick is a wonderful and prolific variety of sweet pepper. They are sweet and very fleshy, with each pepper about the size of a lipstick. I grew one a few years ago and loved it but coudn’t find it again until this year. I tried seeds once but they didin’t thrive. Can’t wait! They are flowering now. I’m going to see if I can get them to survive the winter.
I need to pull the rest of my second crop of arugula. It’s been the most versatile thing to grow. It’s in a pretty shady spot, and one crop or another has been growing since before Xmas.
^^ I wanted to plant a lipstick pepper plant but didn’t find one. They add a great color punch to the garden!
My arugula just miserably failed. I think it was a bad seed packet.
I love the sunchokes idea - even if just for the sprouting flower!
I pulled my radishes this week - omg so spicy this year! Good but really strong flavoring.
Thanks abasket! Great thread, don’t know how I missed it before.
It looks like I’ll have a bumper crop of tomatoes. (That sentence surely will jinx it, lol. Here comes hale!)
Question: My sweet pea beans are doing well – can I let them stay in the vine until I have enough for a serving for two? Or should I pick them as they mature?
Are you talking about shelling peas? Please pick them as they mature or they may get tough and chalk-like if they over mature.
The label says green peas (Sugar Ann snap pea)
Sugar Snap peas I have less experience with. Maybe they stay tender for a while, since you eat the whole thing.
I never realized celery grew vertically. Not a gardener, obviously! 
Here’s a cool article that told me more about celery than I ever thought to wonder.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/13/481617408/celery-why
You know, when I buy snap peas they all seem to be roughly the same size - which makes me wonder if they are best NOT overgrown.
Just added some radish greens to a veggie/sausage stir fry - good add in!
Who of you, allow your gardens to grow wild? For the last couple of years, I havent’ re-planted much - my tomatoes come back year after year, as does the kale, lettuce, fennel (reseeds itself) etc… I love the wilderness veggie garden 
I wonder if ^^this is more common in warmer parts of the country? I’ve had a few select things produce “volunteer” plants - tomatoes, sometimes herbs.
Do you still weed the garden, stake when needed - that kind of thing?