Ah -- nice to visit with others who had frost last week! Enough of all these gardens that already have fully formed zucchini!!

All jealously aside, we are enjoying the overwintered lettuce, arugula, kale, turnip greens, spinach and swiss chard. Cole crops, onions and peas, put in in mid April, are growing well (and one row of early potatoes that spent the month under fleece).

A few days ago it finally got above the 40's in the day and 30's at night, and has actually warmed into the 70's, so my leggy tomatoes and basil finally went into the ground.

Zucchini and winter squash seeds went into the ground yesterday. I read on the Johnny's seed packet that if you cover them with fleece for a few weeks (before flowering) they produce earlier, so I may try that

I am in 5B, last couple weeks we have jumps from 40F at night to 90F during the day and back. With absolutely no rain. Everything wilts during the day, even perennials and weeds. And I just watered whole garden yesterday for 2 hours with wide sprinkle. It is either difference between soil and air temperature they don't like, or something wrong with this sun - like it is too much of UV for the plants. Garden this year is very challenging.

Elisa, I am going to try that squash tip you mentioned, can't hurt. We haven't done too badly with squash here with the two past horrible growing seasons, but I know it could do better.

Galinas - We too have had jumping all over for temps. I've had the rain at least though. I planted quinoa and didn't have any come up which should have germinated by now. I did of course have goats run right through the garden so they likely did compact some of it, but it wasn't the entire planting bed. (Garden now fenced so no more trampling goats). I was disappointed with that one. I tried it two years ago and got nothing that time either, planted it later. It was Cherry Quinoa.

So glad there are other zone 5ers here! We had a hard frost on friday. Fortunately, I've learned not to start planting out until Memorial Day weekend. So this past weekend broccoli (yeah, I know its actually a little late even for zone 5), peppers, tomatoes, and summer squashes were all planted in the ground. Eggplants were potted up into 5 gallon buckets (They've never done well in the ground for me). Lettuce has been in containers since the beginning of May (I have to do containers on a table on the deck, otherwise the rabbits get it).

I still have to plant cucumbers, melons and beans. I have to pot up sweet potatoes (I grow these in pots too because otherwise the critters get them.) I usually don't have the whole garden in after the first full week in June.

Happy gardening everyone!

I had a great weeding day yesterday. We've been having rain the last few nights so perfect for getting those weeds out. I still have a lot of garden to put in. We extended it a lot this year. It all needs amending because our soil is basically a big sandy gravel pit. If I had the money I just would have built raised beds, luckily I have compost on hand, but I do envy those with fantastic soil. My mother lives an hour away and her natural soil is a beautiful loamy black.

Hi I'm new. Is there anything special you need to do Booberry85 with the colder weather coming this weekend? I too got most of my garden planted this past week, with temps in the 80's yesterday and today then expected 40's this weekend I'm nervous. This is my first veggie garden bed.

we have been OK, some overwintered veggies, plus lettuce and mustard (just coming into production), arugula and asparagus (almost done). The May 20 frost was a light one, I tarped eggplant, zucchini, tromboncino, beans, tomatoes and peppers, no plant was lost. We are getting one inch tonight, then it should really take off.

I'm still so far behind still. I think I'm going to have to spend some money on plants this weekend. I might do some in pots though since we have an indoor pool that doesn't get used. In the fall if it's late I can bring them in to finish growing. I am hoping to get more done this weekend though. Most beans/peas should still be fine and the summer squashes. I think winter squash will be out this year.

I stick by survival of the fittest. I don't coddle. We had cold cold nights last week and my little troopers are doing well. (Thank goodness)

always a battle at night for me, but our weather is thankfully sticking above 0 Celsius, everything is tiny still, kale and Swiss chard are starting to grow big now, but things I planted by seed are just getting there true leaves. peas are about 7 inches tall, just rain in the forecast so hopefully no snow.... we will see, Calgary has known to have had snow every month of the year! Elevation of 1,045 m (3,428 ft)

Phil - you definitely have it tough. I suppose though you get an extended growing season for the greens though and cool weather crops.

The plan is to get in a huge batch of seeds today. I have to finish added composted manure first though. Our soil is very gravely so when we extended earlier this spring I knew I'd have to amend it. The plan is for the husband to help today to just get it done, but we do have fencing to do. I really hate this time of year. There is always too much to do.

It's supposed to go down to 1 celcius tonight so I'll be covering again with straw and tarps.

blueby5, welcome. Hopefully your plants did fine during the cold snap -- 40's doesn't normally hurt anything, except maybe insult the tomatoes. (they get over it.)

littlemonkeys, I know the feeling of too much to do! This year I decided to just enjoy everything I do in the garden, and stay relaxed, because I've gotten stressed every spring and there always turns out to be enough food. So this year I refused to get stressed. I think the garden is happier when I'm happy while working in it. Works better than fertilizer for garden health :) (and personal health!) Don't worry. Be happy.

I found myself apologizing for my flower garden this weekend to visitors who came. I did get some mulch for that on Saturday so I'll do a little bit of that every day. I also have a bunch of seeds germinating for crops that don't have as long of a growing period so once the compost is worked into the garden it can be planted. Onions, broccoli, kale, celery and lettuce are all doing great since we've had cooler weather in the last two weeks. Some tomatoes are doing fine, but others were very badly damaged. I think one is for sure done and about 3 or four I had pinched back after the zero degree weather we had. I saw new leaves forming from the stalk on those so that's a good sign. I think over winter this year I need to have a cold frame project. Maybe some day I'll have a green house.

It's 4 celcius (39 f) right now so it's a good thing I left the garden covered all weekend. Supposed to get down to 5 c tonight and then should be decent for the rest of the week. So hopefully on Tuesday I can get my cucumbers planted out.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner Blueby5. I think the night time temps in my area are suppose to be around 43 tonight. I might bring the basil in. The rest of the plants will stay out. They'll be fine. They may sulk for a few days, but then they'll get back to growing. Definitely, under 40 degrees F. Basil will need protecting.

No worries, i ended up leaving every thing outside tomatoes have some yellow spots and some onions tips are yellowing not sure if it's a result of the transplanting i did last week or this unpredictable weather. Should I pull leaves/stems that are yellow?

I'm in zone 2, right near the US Canadian boarder in Manitoba. Tomatoes here are only on average between 1'-1.5' tall and not pushing out fruit yet. Harvest time for summer veggies is August. My Squash were started indoors in March and the second I put them in the ground, they hurried up and grew and started pushing out flowers even though the plants are still very small. Sunflowers are only about 18 inches. We too got a frost last week, low was 32*F, down to 23*F with the wind chill. I covered all my tomatoes and squash, I didn't take any chances with plastic and just buckled down. Here, cold fronts blast in very windy so I was a little worried but they all made it thank goodness. They're all from seed so I'd hate to lose any.

It's also noteworthy that this year unlike last year my plants are also wilting in the sun, even in zone 2 right after I water them. They're not a "northern" variety or anything, so a nice warm sun bath shouldn't be an issue but boy do they just weep to the ground in the afternoon, then crisp right back up in the evening and morning and cool afternoons.

It was -4 degrees C here a few days ago. Lost some tender crops but I always hold off on planting the majority until June 1st. For good reason.

Blueby5, yes, I'd pluck off the yellow leaves. This way the plant can concentrate on the healthy leaves.

The end of the rain this afternoon as well as the end of the cold temps. We went from 80's F to 50's F. Things should start to moderate today and I can get back to planting. In the meantime, I bought some bark mulch (for the flower beds), some potting soil (for those things that won't make it into the garden), and some petunias and 1 daylily (I showed great restraint on not buying more plants)!

This week I should be able to get in the cucumbers, melons & beans.

Hopefully my peppers did ok last night. I forgot to cover them. There is a few small jalapenos on them. There wasn't frost, but it was on the chilly side. I'm hoping the cucumbers can go in this week. I can't wait for fermented pickles.

I planted beans, cukes basil, zucchini and tomatoes Memorial weekend. It had been so hot,(but no rain) I figured it was ok. Now we are having the rain, which is good but its cold, went down into the high 40's last night and supposed to tonight as well. Not sure how my heat loving veggies are going to handle it. I have to check on them tonight. No frost coming, just cold and damp. The lettuce, kale and broccoli are loving it, but the heat lovers may suffer. This has been a spring of extremes, on Sat it was 87 degrees, Mon 57, so hard to garden in such big swings of temp.

Thanks, I'll pull them tonight. It's been crazy needing to use both the heat and AC within a 3 day span. I'm sure the plants are confused. Temps are gradually increasing this week and should reach highs in the 70's this week. Hopefully the low 40's are behind us. I guess my first garden couldn't be easy :-)

Two tomato plants have tomatoes on them, yay. Something got into the garden and ate the top off one of the broccoli and I have several peppers that didn't recover when the goats got into the garden before we had finished fencing it. There is 1 little jalapeno pepper growing though. I also have loads of seedlings that I'll be planting out this weekend. I didn't end up getting as much in this year as I would have liked but still have done better than the last two years.

I noticed two heads on the broccoli plants this morning. The red leaf lettuce and kale are doing really well. I think I'm going to have that with dinner tonight. So cool crops have done well with the cooler spring and wet weather.

How is everyone else doing now? It's been a few weeks.

one inch saturday, one yesterday, one today. The weeds are unbelievable, the tomatoes and potatoes, clearly sick. All greens and roots look very good.

I was able to get about 75% of the garden planted during a dry spell. The remaining 25% have been waiting for a week now (mostly transplants), but the rain has kept the garden too muddy to plant. Lots of rain today, and more forecast for the week ahead, so those transplants will need to wait awhile. My home garden dried out just enough today for me to walk in it without getting muddy feet, so I was able to pull out about 1/2 of the hundreds of maple seedlings... before the rains moved in again.

Fortunately, the rains we've had here have been soakers not flash floods... the plants already growing (both at home & in my rural plot) are looking healthy. They'd be healthier if we could get a few days of sunlight. I'm counting my blessings, though, last year the rain was non-stop until July, and only about 1/4 of my garden was planted.

I have been fortunate in my area to get plenty of rain but not the flooding but within 10 miles it is a different story. heavier rain forecast for the rest of week. early crops are done and trying to succession plant the next crops. did put in pepper and tomato transplants yesterday by weedeating off a lettuce bed and planting in the wet soil. got an inch of rain 2 hours later. early toms, cukes and peppers are starting to produce sellable product. I need to get green beans and squash in the ground.

I think I chose the wrong year to venture into gardening. The rain won't stop. Having raised beds is helping some but not enough. All 4 of my pepper plants have some sort of fungal issue. The leaves are yellow. I'm contemplating pulling them but can't bring myself to do it. Each plants has tons of peppers already. On the plus side the Kale and Collards look great and are enjoying the cool nights. Tomato plants look sad and haven't grown much. Oddly the onions look good so far. Also I have an insane amount of weeds that I have to pull every other day. I'm assuming they came from my soil/compost delivery service. This is my "experimental" year so I'll continue to hope for the best!

I've been having rain issues here to Blueby. We haven't had two dry days in a row in over a week (going on two). The ground squishes when you step on it. It's the whole yard too. Try feeding your veggies a little fertilizer / plant food. It may help with the yellowing leaves.

Don't get discouraged, Every year you learn something new.

We got down to freezing again the other night.

I went out Saturday...and bought a tomato plant with a small tomato on it (LOL) so maybe it will ripen, before fall frost :)

Blueby, it's never the wrong year to venture in! Each year has its ups and downs. At least you don't have to water so far this year :)

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with happy, healthy weeds.

Peas! Earliest variety just ready. Peas for lunch, peas for dinner -- steamed with the shell on, and pull them out with our teeth. No shelling required :)

Hahaha thanks for the encouragement. I gave them some fertilizer, pulled a few weeds and am thankful that my water bill will be lower than anticipated. I should get a rain barrel and save some of the water for later this summer.

Enjoy your peas Elisa!

The weather was great here yesterday and I spent the whole day in the garden. The cucumbers I transplanted are awful, don't think they'll bounce back. I'll have to get more seeds started just incase. It sounds like most of us are in the same boat with the cool season crops AND weeds flourishing and warmer weather crops getting a little sick.

Yes, in the same boat, floating away . . .