I give you zone-two folks a lot of credit for living that far north and putting up with such long winters and short summers, let alone the diehards who attempt to garden up there. Don't know how you do it.

This is another goofy growing season in my area - third one in a row now. This year it was a very early spring that slowed down with a cold wet April and a warm but very wet May (my precipitation logs for May totaled 9-7/10s inches for the month - way too much). Now in June we have had little to no rain so far (even with all the May precip, rains are still needed for the seedlings), and very strong (up to 60 mph gusts) hot, dry, dessicating winds. Tough growing on the prairie this year...

Good luck up there. Stay committed to your gardening and you will be rewarded (sooner or later).

It's not just you.

Sounds rough!!! Lettuce is almost done here in zone 5. The heat and lack of rain is killing my garden :( Also, a few surrounding cities are putting a ban/regulations on water usage, so that really stinks!!

I have peas that have only been flowering a week or so while lettuce has been bolting for weeks - as would spinach if I had planted it. So I don't know that it's strictly a zone2 thing. Long days and fluctuating temps are all over many zones.

My over-wintered spinach is bolting but so far so good with my April planting ... although it is a sparse row due to inadequate watering/rain in April and early May.

Is Agribon or similar row cover any help in zone 2? My husband is almost finished building a plastic high tunnel to extend our growing season. I also have a small, portable low tunnel to protect a small bed ... not sure if it would be enough for peppers and tomatoes if it got down to 39.

I am actually feeling pretty good about how things are looking here. My peas are also just flowering, but as long as it doesnt get wicked hot they should be fine. My broccoli has heads about the size of a silver dollar and look healthy, bush beans are just starting to flower. Lettuce, parsely, arugula are looking healthy and tasting delish. Tiny tomatoes and peppers are forming up, eggplant is flowering too.

This is only my 3rd year growing vegetables, so maybe I dont have the same expectations some of you do, but so far I am ahead of last year. Traditionally gardens are planted at the end of May here, so having this much going on June 11th seems great to me.

Yeah, like Pat said, those fluctuating temperatures are a pain! At least ours are fluctuating between reasonable and hot now. The plants that seem to like it the least are my hot peppers. I'm past the peas, they've done their thing and been pulled, still have a few heads of romaine under a shade cloth that are holding. I am wondering when the temps are going to even out, though I won't complain about late May and June, they've been less hot overall than recent years.

Much as I envy being able to grow a greater variety of things, I'm sure there are challenges to growing in those much warmer zones. That being said, I will insert a mini rant here...it rained ALL weekend and as soon as Monday came: sunny skies!!!

My peas are only 6-7 inches high right now, but they germinated well and look healthy.

I'm in SK as well and dealing with the same issues, though it sounds like you got your crops in earlier than I did. I'm not sure exactly where you are, but we've been getting wicked winds here on top of the widely fluctuating temps. My pole beans had their first couple sets of true leaves whipped to a crisp and they're struggling still to recover. The tomatoes don't know what to do with themselves; they just sit there and mope.

I can't even imagine gardening in z2!

I would think a greenhouse would be essential!

Hi Macky, I live in Saskatoon. We got whipped by those same winds, but luckily my garden is somewhat sheltered by the neighbour's fence and some tall trees. Nevertheless, I did lose a couple of eggplants and a pepper.
I sowed my peas in late April and the spinach in early April. I'm so sick of dealing with the spinach leaf miners that I thought I could beat them by planting early. Well I did beat them for the first couple of pickings but I planted way too much spinach to harvest all at once, and the miners found the rest.

slimy - maybe next time freeze the extra than let it go to those buggers!

I went out to pull the pea vines and discovered they're trying for a second crop, so I let them go. The winter squash won't need the space for a while yet.

Amazingly, I planted my peas late and they managed to get out quite a bit. One row is burned up and I have planted some okra transplants in the row but three other rows continue to bloom and produce. We had our last frost in mid-March, 20-30 days before normal. I have tons of green tomatoes and have eaten several ripe cherry tomatoes. I've harvested about 15lbs of curly mustard with maybe about 10 more lbs to harvest. It looks like it is starting to bolt. Some of it has bolted in other parts of the garden. Late planted potatoes are growing well and the peppers are starting to fruit. Beans are blooming and setting pods.

I grew up in Saskatoon. :) Am currently rural, about an hour directly to the east of you, but we're regularly in the city to get shopping done.

You're certainly getting into your garden much earlier than I this year. Nothing went in until mid May and and the last of the veg garden was in June 2.

I've never encountered a spinach leaf miner before, but I don't grow a whole lot of spinach either. I'm always trying to beat the peak of cabbage worm season as our kids are crazy for broccoli. We should be seeing a lot more of them by now, by my recollection. I haven't seen any significant damage yet and it's practically mid-June already.

We're getting a downpour right now and the radar looks like it's over you, too. Stay dry!