OMG!!! A hailstorm!!! So glad my deck lettuce box has wheels. As soon as the hail started, I ran outside and wheeled it into the covered breezeway. Phew… those lettuces are very delicate. Now have to go assess the damage to my flower containers.
I just discovered this thread! Gardening is dear to my heart. We had to resow the front lawn, so installed a sprinkler system, then decided to just plant it all in veg thus year. Well, it is lush. Much prettier than our backyard garden. And all sorts of neighbors stop and chat about it.
But we have a bunny problem. As in, found two of the cutest little guys venturing out yesterday. Maybe four weeks old? Thought we had rabbit proofed the yard, but apparently not. Oh boy.
Here’s a lovely ecard for all you gardeners. I think you can just click “preview card” to watch.
https://www.jacquielawson.com/sendcard/preview?cont=1&hdn=0&fldCard=3510199&path=105741&pmode=init
I use Jacquie Lawson to send e-cards. They are the nicest, imo.
Very cute @greenwitch! Many years ago I had a subscription to Jacquie Lawson e-cards too. Didn’t know it was still around!
Need to cut my garlic scapes this weekend. I feel like everything has a LONG way to go before producing outside of a few peppers that are visible.
I picked my first lunchbox pepper today because it had turned red. It is ridiculously small! About half the size of my thumb, lol.
OTOH - I picked up a prepaid bag of veggies from a farmer and she had the option of adding more peppers or cherry tomatoes. The peppers might have been Marconi or something similar. They are huge! I’ve never seen such long peppers - too long for my cast iron pan so I’ll have to trim them. A bag of 6 was pretty heavy. I wish I could grow some like that.
I left at the end of May for a two-week getaway at our beach house. It’s been a strange spring here with unseasonably cool temps. Before I left, I had four hanging baskets in full bloom, had planted a few barrels with annuals, and most of my perennials had yet to bloom. My son was under strict orders to water the hanging plants in my absence. My husband, who takes care of the vegetable garden, had traveled home a couple of times so I hoped he’d water the yard as well.
I was pleasantly surprised when I returned to find all of my hydrangeas in full bloom in various shades of pink, purple and blue. My barrels were exploding with flowers and growth spilling over the sides. My hanging plants were healthy and vibrant. Nothing was wilting.
I’ve been home for a week and just noticed that a coleus I planted in my barrel in early May, which died due to unseasonably cold temps, has made a reappearance. Our vegetable garden is thriving! Due to a terrible storm on Halloween that downed several 60 foot trees in our neighbors’ and our yard, we have more sun this year. I have never successfully grown zucchini (I’ve had exactly one zucchini in about 6-7 years) so this year dh added an additional raised bed and planted the zucchini there. Fingers crossed they will survive and continue growing, but we have at least 8-9 zucchini and a few smaller ones starting. Really everything looks great so far.
Meanwhile, we have had little rain recently despite daily predictions of thunderstorms. I joke that my neighborhood is in a bubble. I often will be 2 miles from home in a downpour and the minute I turn onto our peninsula, it’s dry as a bone. Been listening to rumbles of thunder all day, with pop up storms all around us, flash flood warnings in the area, and not a drop of rain yet at our house! Ive been looking at the radar and sure enough, severe storms of yellow/orange and a big circle of nothing with my neighborhood right in the middle!
My deck tomatoes aren’t doing so well this year. The sweet 100s stalks seem spindly, and all my tomatoes (I have 3 varieties) start to develop yellow flowers, but then they shrivel up and die 
Any tips?
We went to HD today and bought several different flowers for the yard, and replaced a dead gardenia, bought (ok you gardeners, tell me what I bought- I just tried for motly perennials) 
a Curcuma, Rio plant, Ecinacea, Dipladenia, Daylily, and something else I have no idea what it was (its showing as a planter on the receipt) for $16.98. No clue what it was. Should have been some plant, not a planter Oh well.
Also got topsoil and garden soil, but might go to Lowes for some additional flowering perennials. Suggestions (if they have it in stock)?
Someone gave me some kitten ears (succulent) cuttings and said to just stick them in the dirt. Is that right? At the moment they’re in a jar of water. But if I don’t have to wait, or shouldn’t leave them in water, I won’t.
@Marilyn - stick those in dirt. Succulents are usually propagated that way from cuttings.
(Reminds me I need to repot the cactus that grew too large for its pot… not looking forward to THAT adventure ?)
We had a ton of rain this spring but not a drop in weeks. I finally made H schlep the hoses out so I can water the lawn and my beds. It’s gotten hot here, too - in the very high 80’s 90’s - which is usual for June in upstate NY.
I planted lunchbox peppers for the first time this year too. I’m curious how they will turn out. The plants were SO small when I got them they are taking some time to mature.
We started watering the lawn this weekend too. Dry as a bone and my flower beds have large cracks.
@BunsenBurner - thanks, I stuck them in a pot of dirt then told my husband I did the gardening ;).
My most hopeful real gardening is a bunch of rooted sage that I bought in the refrigerated herbs section of the grocery. I know it’s not supposed to be for planting, but when I had mostly used it up, I stuck what was left in a pot of dirt LOL. New leaves are starting so I guess it settled in.
My zucchini were not doing great in the garden dirt which we hauled from the topsoil place. I had to rescue them with some nitrogen fertilizer. Hope they will perk up. I suspect the soil had too much woody stuff mixed in… that us a real nitrogen sink! Everything else that was planted in Miracle Gro dirt is doing great. The tomatoes are blooming.
We have tomatoes (some big boy, some sweet 100), peppers (habanero, hot peppers), cucumber and cilantro in our veggie patch. Everything was doing well before we left on our road trip. Came back to find that something has eaten our cucumber and cilantro plants. Completely! Ugh.
^^ @arisamp what do you do with your habanero peppers??? I’ll never forget early in my gardening career I planted a habanero plant by mistake - had no idea what I was cooking with when I cut it up - whoa! Learned fast!
I have a boxwood basil plant that I buy every year. Its a very small leafed basil plant. I like it because it packs flavor but you can just easily tear off a few leaves and plop it in whatever (as opposed to chiffonade to bigger basil leaves).
It was literally full and healthy one day and two days later shriveled up and lost most of the leaves! What the heck? I noticed some little fly/ants/teeny creepy crawly things on it. I put together a concoction of water and a little dishsoap and have been spraying it and keeping it in the sun (it was partially shaded). Wonder if I should just try and pull it and replace the soil. I don’t know if I can find another one at this stage of the game.
@abasket - H loves spicy food. And cooks with habanero peppers all the time! Someone gave us a ghost pepper last year (supposedly one of the hottest peppers) and warned us not to hold it with our bare hands etc etc. H did no such thing - just cut it up and added it to something he was cooking (but not a lot!). I cannot handle that level of spice, but he loves it.
Not a veggie garden question, but has anyone here seen or had the Tree of Heaven in their yard? We have one big tree in our back yard (kind of woody) and small ones are sprouting everywhere. Neighbor tells me this is very invasive - any ideas on how to deal with this?
Oh, they are a terribly invasive tree! I haven’t had to deal with one but I’ve heard that they will sprout from the entire root system when they are cut down. Still, I would start by cutting it down. Here’s some info- you have to scroll all the way down for suggestions of how to control it.
I would cut it down and treat the stump with a tree killer.
https://wric.ucdavis.edu/information/natural%20areas/wr_A/Ailanthus.pdf
Paint concentrated Roundup on the stump with a brush. Treat all cut seedlings, too.