Cindy - Thanks for the tip on Burpee. I saw my email from them after I saw your post. I totally get being finished with planting one phase of the garden. It feels like you're done even though you know full well that there will be additional plantings in the weeks ahead.

I will be venturing into Sweet Potato planting this weekend. My source had Covington and Beauregard. I ended up getting 6 of each, but then had buyers remorse. I don't think I have the space that they'll need. I offered a couple to my son and daughter-in-law and I was surprised that they responded quickly that they'll take a couple. They have little kiddos, so it will be a good teaching opportunity. Last weekend they planted 5 tomato plants in a little bed. I predict they'll end up with a tomato forest, but hopefully they'll end up with lots to harvest and eat. She, especially, loves tomatoes.

When I picked peas on Wednesday I saw an aphid, so Wednesday night I broke out the Neem oil. I don't know that I'll be successful, but it was my effort to stay ahead of them. This morning when I picked, my finger tips were more green then they've been previously after picking, so I suspect there's more out there than I detected. I got nearly a full gallon paint bucket full of Maestro peas from one 24' row. My row of sugar snap peas (half Sugar Ann, half Sugar Sprint) produces a solid half-bucket full.

We've had so much heat here, but it looks like we get a break now for awhile. A strong cold front blew through this morning, dropping temps down to the lower 60s. Today's high only about 73. It will be chilly in the morning here and the guessers are predicting a high of only 57. Next week highs will mostly be in the 60s. So, looks like we WILL have spring after all...but it comes after a couple weeks of the summer we've already had. Sheesh!

I came out to the garden this morning without any tools. Just wandered around in the morning sun and thought about what comes next.  Having 2 weeks plus out of town and me just really does not make sense. I feel like I'm starting all over  In the planning department.

 Good news is the tomatoes I planted in the hoop house weeks ago are really doing well  In spite of our terrible Spring weather. It is interesting to compare them with the ones I planted yesterday Outside.Garlic and onions are doing well, As are the snap peas. 

 My helper and I planted 93 Dahlias over the last couple of days  Hopefully I can outrun the men with white Coats when they show up!

More pictures did not upload comparison

Dahlia starts at garden entry.

Whew! Another Hot one here again @ 97F, but at least it got a little cloudier today. We'll pick the peas in the morning, just hope this early heatwave doesn't shut them down too soon.

Also picked the first cabbage this morning before it got hot.

One more day in the 90's tomorrow then a predicted cool and sometimes wet week ahead.

Len, Looks like things managed ok in your absence. i have yet to plant my dahlia. i am down to just one variety. I didnt treat them with enough care after i dug them last fall. :-(

vgkg, We’ve had excessive, early heat here and i do think it’s messing with my peas. Yesterday was a wonderfully cool ”spring” day and as I type this it is a downright chilly 49*early morning. I will have to bundle up to pick peas this morning. the coming week is more typical spring, but the damage to the peas may already be done.

Yesterday I blanched and froze a bunch of peas and broccoli. Today i will vacuum seal for long term storage.

vgkg - It was only 95 here yesterday. Right now it's 84 but is supposed to hit the low 90s again later this afternoon. Might rain today, we'll see. Next week is looking great for gardening, though. 70s and low 80s for highs. Perfect.

Lovely day today,  high 65, but nights still in high 40's so covering tomatoes outside with plastic tent. Lots of blossoms and a couple little tomatoes in the hoop house:)

My strawberry patch:

Had some pretty big storms move through here last night. Lots of thunder and lightening. Rain gauge had almost exactly an inch of rain in it. Dulles has 1.4" for their total.

The storms dropped the temperature significantly, thankfully. We topped out at 93 yesterday before the storms came through. With the lower temps I should be able to get some serious gardening done. Temps look good all week but they are calling for more rain.

Cindy - That 'more rain' that's coming your way is about to hit the center of the country, For me it's expected to start later today, and will be steady all day tomorrow. They're calling for likely 2"+ around here. That will certainly mess up my daily picking schedule. Every morning I pick 2 rows of peas (alternating between my 4 rows) and tomorrow will be my 'pick' day for strawberries. I may try to pick tonight those things that would normally be picked tomorrow a.m.

Len - I love your strawberry tower. Looks like you've got bees helping with the pollination. I always love seeing that!

I got thinking of Richard as I was in the garden this morning. I sure hope he's doing ok.

Margi - I heard from Richard yesterday. He "sounded" pretty good. We "talk" every so often. Was glad he sounded better.

Looks like I'll be breaking my early tomato record by 3 weeks.

From this heating box set up back in mid April....

To Today...

....but in all fairness I cheated by starting with a store bought plant back in late March (Park's Whopper). They didn't have any heirlooms available so this Whopper may not be as good.

Wow Cindy you got a good soaking, the storm dried up before reaching me. But the good news is much more rain is expected tonite and tomorrow. Also glad the temps have gone back to normal this week!

Everyone's invited over to vgkg's house for BLTs!

I'll bring the bacon but it'll have to wait until sometime next week when we get the whole hog we bought back from the processor.

It's been raining lightly since sunrise. The heavy rain is just to our west now but it will move in to our area later this afternoon, overnight, and tomorrow. Nothing severe is expected but we are forecast for 2-3" all told by Thursday.

Our lake cabin is supposed to get the same amount. The lake level has come down from 15' above normal early last week to 8' above normal but I'm afraid that it will go back up several more feet before we go down on Thursday. If the level is over 7' above normal then we can't get to our dock without swimming and it makes launching the boats tricky. In 2019 the lake level was 25' above normal most of the summer and launching boats was impossible.

The weather has been like that here today, too, Jack. And the ground is squishy. Too wet to do much out there.

It's awfully cool here, too. High today was 63 and the low was 57. It may not rain again until Friday so I should be able to get a lot done outside tomorrow and Thursday.

A glorious day outside, if ya don't mind getting wet ;-) At this point we've gotten 1.75" over the last 18 hours, a light rain which soaked in 100%. I picked more peas in the drizzle today and everything outside in Gardenville looks happy. The cantaloupes and sweet potatoes are starting to spread out and the cukes and squash are showing young buds.

Watermelons are still a little slow yet but I'll take the short term cool temps if they don't mind. Jack that tomato would have to be sliced razor thin, nyuk. My normal tomato plants are setting young maters like mad now, one particular tomato (all by itself, no cluster) looks like it has a 2-3 lb potential, will keep a close eye on that one. My best was a 3 pounder over 20 years ago.

I set out two more tomato seedlings today. Also pulled a patch of the healthiest dandelions under the Honeycrisp apple tree. I mulched that last year with mushroom compost; the reason for the succulent growth.

Don't feed the dandelions!

Downright nippy today. Supposed to start raining later this morning and turn to storms and rain for a couple days.

Yesterday I fussed a bit with getting the rest of cleanup and reset of the kitchen garden for the summer. I still have a couple of trays and containers that don't drain that still have to go under caps if we get a good rain coming in. Got a couple shady gardens weeded up a bit and set up a few ferment buckets with the weeds. Refilled all the empty garden jugs too, so around 150 gallons pulled. Makes room in the tanks for the incoming rain.

It's still cool out there and overcast. Just checked my rain gauge and the past two days combined amounted to 1.6" total. The next significant chance of rain is Friday.

Jack - do you not have internet at the lake?

Cindy - yes we have Hughesnet at the lake but it is not great. If I need to work from the lake I bring my mobile hot spot.

Once again the grocery stores here are sold out of cream cheese. Even Trader Joe's.

So my question is, why now? Other than graduations, what else could cause consumers to buy all of the cream cheese? The stores do have the light version, but it's not the same.

I know a little about the cream cheese thing. Part is folks stocking up from Easter carrying over. Part is due to dairy to processors and transportation issue- in some cases, milk has had to be dumped at the farm because it couldn't get picked up before it went bad. Some of it is at the processors and staff shortages. Also, there was a hiccup late last year of a cyber attack on a Wisconsin creamery and that caused ripples a bit across other manufacturers. A wee bit of materials issues with the aluminum foil used to package a lot of cream cheese. And more transportation issues sometimes getting the fresh cheese to the stores. Some places may see or have seen other disruptions on milk, cream, half and half, and some other fresh like cottage cheese, marscapone, and prepared dips.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up next weekend, the wedding season is starting up with all it's parties and lunches and showers before the big day. A lot of caterers and bakers are gearing up for summer events. And a lot of graduations :)

So it's kind of a stack of issues that kind of started last year that cream cheese can't seem to catch a break and catch up yet.

I got frustrated with all the weeds, a result of skipping most of last years garden maintenance. I ran thru a lot of the gardens with a 52" zero turn mower today. Looks a bit better.

Had planned to direct seed chive and garlic chive seeds today but didn't get to it. Soil was 64° F which is prime chive seeding range.

I got the chive and garlic chive seeds in the ground. And some of the Emerite bean seeds. Was pulling weeds and dragged out a long vine,. Poison Oak; with my bare hands. Seems as though the gasoline wipe down got it all off.

Great, John. Just in time for the rain.

We are under a tornado watch until 2pm so I image vgkg is too.

John - I'm glad you noticed the poison oak and used some new-fangled trick to clean it from your hands. I imagine having poison oak/ivy on hands would be quite painful.

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were RAINY here. In the end, I dumped about 4.6" of rain from my gauge. Add that to the rains that fell about 3 weeks ago and there's been a solid 9" of rain on my yard/garden in May. It sure would have been nice if that would have been spread out over 2 or 3 months.

I am still picking peas and strawberries. Side shoots from the broccoli will keep us in fresh broccoli for another week or so, I think. I've frozen a bunch of peas - something like ten 12 ounce packages - and a few packages of broccoli.

This weekend I need to tackle some landscaped beds maintenance. There are bushes to trim and mulch to add. There's always something, right?

You are correct Cindy, a major storm front passed thru here about an hour ago and knocked over one of our peach trees. That gust must have been at least 50mph do to that. Luckily we didn't lose power, the rain (so far) has been heavy but gentle after that initial blow, maybe 1/2" tops. I never liked that peach tree anyways, bought it as a "Reliant" peach but it turned out to be one of those worthless "Saturn" peach trees which never produced one good peach after 10 years, good riddance, just more fire wood for a friend next winter. Otherwise the garden survived ok, just glad that I tied up the tomato plants yesterday.

vgkg - Speaking of peaches...I'm actually going to have a harvest this year. One of my trees is loaded, so I am now fighting the plum curculio fight. I have yet to find the best attack. Do you have any info to pass along for my battle?

Margi - I will have very few peaches this year due to late frost/freezes we had. My grandson will be crushed. It just might be his favorite fruit.

Just picked asparagus and strawberries. My asparagus crop has been great this year!!

For all of the thunder and lightening we had today, we only ended up with 4/10" of rain. But the humidity out there is sky high. 84%. Will be tuning on the AC just to pull the humidity down indoors.

Itsmce, sorry to say that that the peskie PC is tough to beat. I've heard that placing a white bed sheet under the tree and shaking the limbs can trap some to kill. I don't use sprays other than 1 shot of Dormant Oil at winter's end but that's all. Another fix (for next year) is to pick up all of the fallen infected fruits daily to dispose before the critters exit them and dwell in the soil for next Spring's attack.

Brown rot is another major problem here too, no solution for that other than maybe applying some baking soda spray to the fruits after each rain? (It's been too long since I gave up on peaches, ugh). Pitted fruits are the toughest to maintain without multiple sprays over the season, too many pests and diseases to deal with.. Pears and Persimmons are the easiest here. Hope you get a good crop!

I was afraid the soil was too wet to work so I spent some time today weeding. Lots of poison oak is 3 different spots.

Margi - Was just watching a youtube video and they said spraying kaolin clay on your peach trees would help with plum curculio and it's organic. Worth a shot (pun intended).

Cindy - I’ve read that too but have never tried it. Maybe i need to go shopping for some kaolin clay.

I have seen that kaolin spray (Surround is one brand) used in one of the big apple orchards out here.

Here it's just lettuce and sugar snap peas. April set a record for latest snowfall and most rain, May continues with rain. It was big news here when we had three days of 70 degree weather, back to cool and rainy now. I have tomato plants beyond ready to go in the ground.

The remaining trunk of the sweet cherry tree was taken down a couple of weeks ago. We are lucky to have a neighbor who didn't mind the crew using her backyard/driveway. Otherwise it's a long way from the front of our place to the back.

I amended some of the soil in my small garden and direct seeded Straight Eight cucumbers and Fordhook zucchini. I'm also going to plant Costata Romanesco zucchini and more S8's in the big garden about 250 feet away.

My lettuce is producing very well. It should; there's 36 row feet of lettuce. I'm taking a big bowl to a Memorial day picnic tomorrow. There's 18 feet of Black Seeded Simpson; which I usually plant, And then there's two 9 foot rows divided into 4 equal amounts of

Rouge D'Hiver with lots of red and a little green in the leaves

Bronze Beauty Ruffled green oak leaf shaped leaves with bronze edges.

Merveille Des Quatre Red blushed leaves.

Landis Winter Almost round dark green leaves.

The Black Seeded Simpson has a very bright green ruffled leaf.

I picked these varieties because they are all said to have excellent taste. They do! Some of them were listed as head lettuce, but it's working out well as a replaceable leaf lettuce. I might have planted the 4 new varieties thicker had I known they grew well as a leaf lettuce. All were planted around St Patrick's day. Had to do some reseeding for non-germination. Hoping to also replant as a fall crop.

We had t-storms overnight and I slept right through them. Ended up with half an inch of rain.

I was able to get three new fruit trees planted today. Two more peach trees and another Paw-Paw. I have yet to taste a Paw-Paw. Hope I like them as I now have a total of three trees.

I was able to finish planting my tomato plants and the remaining variety of peppers.

Done!

Now it's just odds and ends that will include second plantings of various veggies for a staggered harvest.

Noticed today that my hardneck garlics are just now putting up scapes even though many of the plants have already fallen over. Strange but wonder if it's because it's been so much wetter than normal. It was at this time five years ago that I had dug my garlic already.

Some of my garlic is 'scaping' too! Yummy. I've already used some with new potatoes. Cook the new potatoes (I've discovered that I can cook them in the microwave with a little water), then toss the spuds in some butter and thinly sliced garlic scape. So good!

Been warm and sunny. Supposed to be getting some more rain in tonight- don't have to water the garden :)

Got some more yard debris picked up- and dropped along the yardline between me and the neighbors that like to wander my backyard on occasion. Got a lot of cleanup behind the barn to drop out that way too. At least golf carts of giggling twits can't drive through my backyard proper very easily now. A round of adventure mowing done- spotted an american woodcock bobbing along when I went out back by the horse grotto to trim out some branches overhanging the trail too much. Funny little bird, first time I've spotted one they usually hide so well.

Yesterday got a purple, a white, and a red grape, two red raspberries, two gold raspberries, a red currant, a black currant, and the big ole bucket of hops all planted out in the gardenyard, My love offered to come out to help me dig and mulch in the sun- he is feeling it today, lol.

Gave the veggie beds a bit of a drink feed yesterday... and weeded out the garlic bed- a whole 10 minutes and clean! Still need to harvest the narrow leaf plantain out of the pepper bed.

I amended, dug up, and directed seeded five Costata Romanesco zucchini plants. Went out earlier than my usual gardening time and got back in before the heat got unbearable.

Planted corn plot # 4 today, the first plot (from April's light bulb tent) is at it's peak tasseling and silking now so should be ready in 10-14 days. Picked the last of the peas and the early lettuces, the late lettuces are mature now but may bolt in this heat soon. Will compost the peas and lettuce and plant corn #5 & later #6 to replace the peas. Each corn plot is just 16 - 20 plants each for a steady supply up to Labor Day or so. The Blueberries are showing a hint of "blue" now, some may be ready in 10 days. Picked tomato #3 today, still from the boxed plant, all others (later plants) are still small and green. Had to take an inside break from noon-4pm, too hot this week & too old this year, nyuk.

I am hoping to plant another section of sweet corn tomorrow.

Just about all of the tomato plants I put in the ground this past Sunday have some sunscald. These plants have been on the screened porch for about a month. The screened porch faces south, too, and they are in direct sunlight most of the day. They should have been fine but this extreme heat is not being very friendly to them.

I admire a bit you folks doing corn. I just don't have the patience for it. Maybe once I get the old riding ring fully done with junkpoles to deer proof it I'll try it again. I usually only want a couple dozen ears in a season, but the deer is like CANDY!!!!. Grrr.

Yesterday I overdid it a bit moving soil and planting 33 peppers in pots on the deck. Then things turned south. Pam and I both have corvid and feel like it. Kaiser got anti-viral out for both of us so hopefully this won't be a disaster. i'm going to try to tie up and label the peppers today; not very good at pity parties. However if someone tells you this is a hoax have them check in with me!

Oh. Len. I am so sorry that you are suffering with Covid. Wishing you all a quick recovery.

Len - Both of us had the covid 3 weeks ago. My pulmonary doctor told me I wouldn't survive it, but that was in 2020. I had a very mild case, not as bad as DW. My PCP wouldn't give me the horse pill because he'd have had to take me off the diuretic and one of my heart meds. I went thru it in better health than last years heart scares. More than half the family has had it very recently.

Len - Sorry you picked up the 'rona. I hope you're able to put it down quickly!

June thread:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6271543/veggie-tales-june-2022#n=0