I saw a dot of blue sky when I came home from work and started weeding one of the front flower beds. My feet squished in the grass. There's so much water the ground won't hold anymore. We're back to big back ugly clouds now and rain expected tonight, tomorrow, thursday and friday. ~sigh~

I heard a saying the other day "I never whine, I just like to explain the things that I'm unhappy about."

Anyway, there definitely aren't going to be any 4th of July tomatoes here, but that's OK. Mine got to go out on the porch for a couple days last week, but now they're back indoors, snuggled under there flourescent lights. We actually had mixed rain and snow yesterday morning. I thought I was seeing things! I am glad to see the reservoirs and rivers full though, and like the fact that we won't have to water anything until June at the earliest. My only regret right now is that I didn't plant peas and lettuce a few weeks ago, because I thought I was too late. Usually the toms and peppers all go out around May 10th. Might be closer to June 1 this year!

The lettuce I planted in mid-April took weeks to germinate and is still very small. I'm still waiting for most of my beets and carrots to come up, and may have to replant. The soil's still a little cold to plant potatoes. Tomatoes won't go out for a few weeks, and I'll probably have to wait beyond that to seed cukes and squash.

I blame myself. I bought an air conditioner as soon as they arrived in stores in April because during last year's heat wave, by this time, they had all sold out!

Last year was the worst ever for me. I had 2 feet of rain between frost out and normal planting time 5-15. Never could properly till my garden, though I tried too early and turned the whole thing into 3" diameter mud balls. Finally started planting 3' tall tomato seedlings about 6-15. Never bothered with any cool season plants, as it was already 100F everyday by 6-15.

This year, I am enjoying the KS drought, except for having to water the lawn too often. Garden "construction" all done (raised rows and tiller plowed furrows ready, drip irrigation system all set up), and onions, cucumbers, melons, some pole beans planted. Tomorrow, I'll try to get radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, the rest of my beans, and the first half of my corn planted.

Then, I will only have to transplant all my tomatoes (about 100) and sweet peppers (about 40), after an expected patch of rough weather later this week, the second half of my corn in a couple of weeks, then about July 1, some pumpkins.

Most of my planting sites drain well and do not have any clay or silt, so a lot of rain isn't much problem, really is an advantage at this time. The worst thing for my ground is a dry spring.

I do have one site that is a heavy silt and even though it drains reasonably well what with the moisture we have had and is coming over the next few days probably will not be workable for a couple weeks. Luckily it is planned for sweet potatoes so there is plenty of time.

The only thing that is keeping me from poking my eyes out is thinking about the tsunami in Japan and all the US that is under water. Then I thank mother earth that I don't have it that bad.
Keski

And it is so dark that I am starting to be worried about everything not getting enough light to grow even outside, because of permanent clouds coating the sky. My mom calls it "global darkening".

Katya,

I'm seeing that in my tomato seedlings I had hoped to sell. Even though they are in a GH where they normally would get plenty of light, it has been so overcast so many days that they are getting very tall - so much so I am going to need a post hole digger to get them buried to their upper leaves!

Mike

The increased cloud-cover and precipitation in the mid to high latitudes is a long-predicted result of global warming. Paradoxically, after centuries this leads back to an ice age because the reduced sunlight hitting the ground in the high latitudes allows snow cover to thicken and move south.

I've already got close 110 gallons of rain water from the last 3 days, my blueberry's will be happy this summer. Last time I tested a few sample of NYC rainwater is was very close to 4.

It's been somewhat wet here this planting season too much of the time.

The early crops are excellent....broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets, lettuce, kale, potatoes, glads, and snap and snow peas. The tomatoes are nice as are the peppers. The early watermelons under cloches are doing well. The first planting of sweet corn is about 5 inches high and the second planting is peeping through. Only the green beans are spotty in germination of healthy plants.

Sure need some sunshine now to darken green some of the things.

Today sucks. You guys out east since your clouds west overnight and ruined my sunshine. Sitting at 57F under thick clouds... This blows. How about a string of 80F days? :) Or even 70F+

I'd take some rain from some of you guys if possible. People living 15 miles in any direction from us have had 2 plus inches rain in the past 30 days. Our neighborhood - just 1/5" rain. Grass has already gone dormant and this isn't supposed to happen until July here. Guess this is what living in densely populated area, close to major interstate highways does for us. The rain clouds just split and go around us. It has been in the 40's for the last few nights with highs in the low 60's. In a couple days, it is supposed to be lows upper 50's-60's and highs in the 90's. That's about ten degrees above normal for us. Weird weird weather.

The increased cloud-cover and precipitation in the mid to high latitudes is a long-predicted result of global warming. Paradoxically, after centuries this leads back to an ice age because the reduced sunlight hitting the ground in the high latitudes allows snow cover to thicken and move south.

Exactly. Albedo has always been the ignored kicker in public discussions of climate change.

Dicot, have you read John Hamaker? Pretty amazing how the interplay of ice, rocks, plants and rain over time control the ice age cycle.

Opal52, Atlanta has known rain shadows. My friend lives in Stone Mountain - she's totally in a rain shadow. Unlike Peachtree City who seems to get rain every time there's a percentage of humidity...we get in between (I'm downtown), it's been a good rain year so far, but I could do with a bit more right now.

Here is a map of high temps yesterday. Look up into Canada. They are stealing our warm air!

The irony of it all...whether the weather is warmer or whether the weather is cooler, it's global change!!

I haven't read any John Hamaker, that's probably something I should fix. I only know his name from his work improving soils with pulverized rock dust.

Wayne, you don't seem to have a strong grasp of what the word "irony" means. If you want to be snarky and imply that others' opinions are silly, you might want to choose words that that don't make you seem verbally-challenged.

Let's see, no measurable moisture in more than two months, it's now a week past the average last frost date and we're establishing why it's called AVERAGE, and now that we can measure the precip, it's SNOW!

I have had my tomatoes in a little make-shift greenhouse on the lawn for three weeks now, with lots of warm Christmas lights strung around them to keep them safe at night. Four of the last five years I had the toms in by late April with no problems.

The peas look good, though. And the lettuce. I can never harvest pretty lettuce, but a long, cool spring is making it look good for once.

Catherine

Christmas lights and tomatoes? I love it, may have a grow a single plant smack in the middle of a lawn, reverse cage it and string up some lights.

The reason it is so nice and beautiful outside. nice warm 80 F and sunny is because of Al Gore and Obama and the Global Warming taxes they are coming to collect for your breathing is causing this Global Warming.

Weather does nothing but change, by definition. Decades and centuries of weather behavior in a given region, averaged, gives climate. Things like the hardiness zones are based on that. When the hardiness zones have to be altered to be more useful it means climate is changing.

Hamaker proposed that absent some massive mineral-releasing phenomenon like glaciers, widespread volcanic activity, etc, planet-wide plant growth runs out of minerals and goes into decline, releasing huge amounts of carbon and raising average global temp. The result of that is that moisture-laden warm air mixes much more vigorously with cold dry air from the polar regions, causing greatly increased precip and cloud-cover in the middle and high latitudes. This eventually results in increased snow-cover in the northern hemisphere and then, after crossing a tipping point, glaciers. The glaciers grind up all kinds of mineral rich rocks, push the dust southward, wind blows the dust all around, plants in the low and middle latitudes respond with greatly increased growth and start sucking the carbon out of the atmosphere which eventually leads to very clear skies, increased solar gain and the melting of the glaciers, the more melt the more minerals and the warmer the average temp, and thus the plant growth.

The maximum plant growth is approximately half-way between glacial maximums - not surprisingly. About 5-6,000 years ago in our case. Interestingly, right at the beginning of organized human civilization. Preserved trees from the time indicate incredibly massive tree growth on average, by today's standards. Since then, the natural cycle and human activity have combined to push the process along faster than it would have gone.

Nice gentlemanly post, Pat.

I have read Hamaker's book and I agree that he is onto some things and questionable in the timing.

I have mineralized my gardens and fruit trees. While some minerals might be absolutely necessary for plant growth, our bodies can be more healthy with a small amount of trace minerals...like cobalt, yttrium, strontium, and a few more. Plants can be healthier too. I am interested in health...body, spirit, and soul.

I am also interested in the environment...if you could check me out, I believe you would see for yourself. What bothers me is two things: One is the trashing by some, and the other is the radical and political moves of the climate issues.

Wayne, I don't really have any idea what the political motives are around the global warming fracas, if any. There are always people who are going to take advantage of any issue for their own gain.

I agree, I think Hamaker probably has it about right, and yes he was obviously quite off on his prediction of when modern agriculture and civilization would be radically altered. I think he was off by a century or two, which is nothing in the scale of the ice ages, after all. The clear trend toward increased storminess and precipitation in north america and europe fits his model, as well as most predictions by other scientists. It is highly likely the gulf-stream heat conveyor will be strongly altered in the next century or so which will kick the impact on humanity into high gear. Virtually the entire population of northern europe will have to go elsewhere.

I'm not familiar with yttrium and strontium. Where did you obtain those? In salt form?

Pat, those are trace minerals from "rock" dusts.

Right. I searched them and they are apparently relatively abundant earth minerals.

This year I fertilized my fruit trees with sul-po-mag and manganese. The blooming was really extraordinary on most of them, I believe as a result. Also I scattered some borax as a source of B, which is supposed to help the fruit mature. Often there is a lot of fruit set but by the fall there is next to nothing, especially with my plum trees.

Not to burst any bubbles, but the ECMWF is forecasting another blocking type pattern for Memorial Day weekend. You people in the OHIO VALLEY/LAKES areas could be in for some chilly/cloudy weather. They are saying frost is possible here in N Wisconsin late next week. Air coming right off of Hudson Bay. Not looking good. The GFS yesterday was showing a summer pattern with highs of 90F here...

Don't know? Only 4th season. But it is worst out of 4 for me.

51F and heavy rain right now... Had a tornado go through the south end of the city on Sunday and over an inch of rain.

Looks warm now Memorial Day and beyond. Averages here are now 75F.

well the weather is still cool and wet so More cole crops and root vegetables for me. I will double the size of my small hoop house ( for the warm weather lovers like tomatoes cukes, melons and peppers and cut back some on them ) ;)
I am feeding fresh river sharp sand to my worms for grit and using their castings for mineralizing the garden. I have no idea If it will work or not but their gut should make the mineral avalible for up take.

Curt

Are you thinking that the worms can free up minerals from the sand with their digestive tracts?

I haven't visited this forum for a while, and just logged in to post the same thing, so thanks for doing it for me.

Here in the Northwest, spring is always wet, but this year it's been just endless. I only got my garden fully planted over this past weekend, but some of what I managed to plant earlier has germinated very poorly and I'm debating whether to reseed or call it a wash.

I have a premonition this year's growing season is going to be even worse than last year, and last year was the worst garden I've ever raised.

Patchy frost forecast for the next two nights, lows in the mid-30s(sigh).

80s and sunny here for last few days, holiday weekend looks great aswell, bye bye spring, hello summer

Slowly inching up/down/up/down here in Sonoma Co CA!
Just had a good batch of rain, the second in as many weeks.
We usually don't get more than a few drops of rain from April- Novish!
Things are looking warmer next week!
Nancy

It got good and windy today, temps dropped, and now it's raining yet again. Tomorrow promises lower temps and thunderstorms. I'd planned on putting the toms and peppers out this weekend, but now I'm not sure. Maybe put the Flower House over the pepper bed and spring for a bunch of Wall o' Waters for the tomatoes, plant out and be done with it. May 10 is my usual plant-out date.

On the plus side, we aren't racking up an electric bill running the A/C.

Other than a certain intensity to the wind, which I think is the new normal here, I have no complaints. If it's any consolation, perfect weather makes for perfect infestations. My insect body count is enough to make me a bug war criminal, even with IPM/organic techniques.

On the plus side, one gets to watch an artichoke race a new Santa Rosa plum tree for the fenceline.

The lettuce I seeded 6 weeks ago is now sporting leaves no more than an inch across. Now the forecast is for a week of temps in the 80s. If I end up with 200 feet of bolting microgreens, I'll be really annoyed.

I think the lesson for me is that direct seeding has its limits if the weather doesn't cooperate. It's been lousy germination weather, but probably would have been fine for lettuce, spinach, and brassica transplants.

Oh well, on to warm-weather crops! Replanting some cool-season beds, just in case. And the soil is finally warm enough to plant potatoes, so in they go.

Torrential rain/hail/wind all night last night. I figured everything would be gone this morning - ripped to shreds or drowned. I was pleasantly surprised to see everything still upright and intact and not standing in several inches of water (thank the Lord for well-draining soil!!) We planted corn Monday before this latest round of storms started. Next week is forecast to be sunny and mid-80's so I am hopeful that it will actually germinate. Our peas that we planted well over a month ago didn't grow much until this last week or so, though, so now that it's going to get very warm they probably won't make. How late can beans be planted? I don't want to give up on the peas too early, but I don't want to wait until it's too late to decide to rip them out and replant.

Thanks!
Edie

How late can beans be planted?

Green beans can be planted around here until July 20th.

i noticed that my third planting of sweet corn that was planted Saturday morning is peeping through.

It depends on the year. Last year I did my last planting on August 15th. I was harvesting around October 5th. It was a warm, sunny fall. Those beans produced until it froze. As a general rule, I would say August 1. I also planted on that day. The August 15th was a Hail Mary Planting, and we scored! I had the seed and an open space, why not?

I am in Zone 5, North Central Kansas.

Jay

Good lord im in ohio also and its almost, no it is, unbearable. We waited this long horrible winter to get outside and now I need waders just to get anywhere. I just had to up-pot some of my tomatoes so they can have some more room. Hopefully they are in by july, and thats not a joke. And unlike the last ohio poster, i dont have nice draining soil, boohoo.

Hey, You guys are killing me ;-), As you know (most of you anyway ;-) , I donate all of my veggies to the FoodBank, and as of today's harvest, I am 100 lbs over my record of last year ,I am one month ahead WOO HOO , I am sooo blessed. Here is my breakdown from last year to this year.

Last years harvest to 6-21-2010 496 lbs
This year by today's date I have donated 498 lbs
WOOO HOOOO ;-)

12 LBS of Early Onions 3-23-2010
25 lbs of Radishes 4-28-2010
125 lbs of Red and Green Lettuce 4-28-2010
29 lbs of Swiss Chard 4-28-2010
8 lbs of Spinach 5-5-2010
14 lbs of White Icicle Radishes 5-12-2010
4 lbs of Spinach 5-12-2010
6 lbs of Red and Green Lettuce 5-12-2010
2 lbs of Mesclun Lettuce 5-12-2010
12 lbs of Rainbow Chard 5-18-2010
42 lbs of Swiss Chard 5-18-2010
5 lbs of Snap Peas 6-5-2010
11 lbs of Swiss Chard 6-5-2010
3 lbs of Red and Green Lettuce 6-5-2010
14 lbs of Broccoli 6-5-2010
15 lbs of Cabbage 6-5 2010
24 lbs of Broccoli 6-14-2010
13 lbs of Green Cabbage 6-14-2010
6 lbs of Carrots 6-14-2010
5 lbs of Radish and Beet Greens 6-14-2010
25 lb Red Cabbage 6-14-2010
3 lbs of Radish and Beet Greens 6-15-2010
5 lbs of Carrots 6-15-2010
20 lbs of Broccoli 6-15-2010
12 lbs of Broccoli 6-21-2010
18 lbs of Cabbage 6-21-2010
8 lbs of Carrots 6-21-2010
6 lbs of Sugar Snap Peas 6-21-2010
24 lbs of Radishes,Turnips,Various greens
Poundage to Date 6-21-2010 496 lbs

This year so far is :

15 lbs of Onions����..� 4-18-2011
46 lbs of Broccoli�����.4-18-2011
70 lbs of Swiss Chard �� 4-18-2011
6 lbs of Spinach�����.�4-27-2011
10 lbs of Broccoli����.�4-27-2011
46 lbs of Onions����.�.4-27-2011 (193 lbs total )
6 lbs of Beets�������..5-9-2011
27 lbs of Onions������.5-9-2011
45 lbs of Red Lettuce���.5-9-2011 (271 lbs total )
5 lbs of Broccoli...

Love your pictures Jon, you are a gentleman and a scholar, keep up the good work, we support the local food bank in our home and as well in the restaurant where I work.

What happens to that stuff at the food-bank? Relatively few people know what to do with fresh produce these days.

I only give stuff to people I know for sure will use it.

Dropped to 42F this morning after a high of 66F yesterday.

FINALLY looks like a summer type pattern may be taking hold in the upper midwest, at least for the next week. Highs should get into the 70Fs starting Saturday and should stay there. Memorial Day looks 80F+.

Still have no idea what summer has in store for us. A lot of the models show a cold summer for the lakes region.

Hi pnbrown,
A lot of the Veggies I donate go directly to the Food Kitchens,and The Gospel Rescue Mission where it is prepared fresh for those in need, as for the portion that goes to "homes", I don't have a clue. I just pray that at least some are blessed by it. At least God is ! !

Jesus said in Matthew 5:16
"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

I am just doing my part ;-)

{{gwi:132555}}

Too much heat! 93F, 89F, 89F the last 3 days...today 92F, tomorrow 97F! and weds low 90Fs... Overnight lows in the mid/upper 70Fs... Have had almost no rain since May 25th.

I think my broccoli and cauliflower are screwed.

We have sun today finally, it's warm but not hot so I'm praying I don't lose everything I planted. My lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and herbs seem to be doing fine but I'm not counting on anything else.

I did dig out one of my sweet onion plants to make sure they didn't rot and they look good, about the size of a golf ball.