I started hardening off my tomatoes and peppers today. It started as a cloudy, thunderstormy morning, but ended up with glorious sunshine and 78 degrees. I put the plants under the deck in total shade, after an hour in mixed clouds. Hopefully they will tolerate being under the deck for the night and through tomorrow. Some of my peppers have blossoms already!

My son came to visit for an early Mother's Day, and my gift was that he helped me put 10 ft T-posts into the ground for my deer fencing. The new garden space measures 50ft x 18 ft, and has all day sun, from sunrise to sunset. Hopefully, the tomatoes and peppers will be happy. If I get some dried beans out of the deal, that would be a bonus.

Martha

We ended up getting some rain yesterday, just about a quarter inch. We needed it.

I also have my tomato and peppers on the screened porch. Looks like I will have to bring them back indoors for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Low Tuesday around 45 degrees and Wednesday night around 48 degrees. Hopefully, that will be it for this spring (hauling everything out and back indoors).

Escaped more rain last night and today...great...kinda wet here.

We ended up getting a little rain overnight. 15/100 of an inch. Still pretty cool out there. Things start to warm up tomorrow.

It keeps raining about 1/2 inch a day here for about 10 days. Cindy, how long should it be before I start to see growth from the asparagus? One has a small growth on top of the main stem

Turns out that there are different opinions about this, RD. This site says two to six weeks.

https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/how-to-grow-asparagus#:~:text=Cover%20the%20crowns%20with%20just,2%2D6%20weeks%20to%20emerge.

Been nice out, been doing stuff :)

Out back got the smokehouse apple planted in by the other apples and a couple lilacs over at the new berm. Spring cut all the trails on the south acres, cut open the gardenyard and spring mow of the field. Main north tail mowed open and the new side trail driven and mowed depending on where I was. Mid-field down to the barn has it's new trail cut open outside the garden fence. Mulch areas got mowed, and the sancutary. Got a fine round of dandelions growing in a few chunks of the yard that still need a few days to go to seed before I can mow there, and the wild strawberry patch in another spot is growing like crazy. The bugleweed in the front orchard is too plush to cut for a while yet too.

All the caps are off the bins are beds and stowed away. Potato bins are topped off for the season. Kennel L has it's greens borders planted in, tomatoes and butterfly peas in their side, green beans and firecracker vine in their side. Alliums got weeded again. Still not entirely positive what I want to do with the other leg of the L so havent' cleaned it out yet. If I don't plant anything in the red buckwheat and calendula will come back in soon enough, ha. Lasagna bed one got weeded, planted in with peppers and flowers, and mulched. Lasagna bed two got weeded and mulched. The celery, sea kale, and bulb fennel in it came through the winter great and are growing well. Bronze fennel is taking off and last years brussels sprouts will give me a nice little seed crop soon enough. I think the lasagna beds are 12x16 or so.

Busted the gate on the wagon yesterday. Was hauling deadfall back to the berm and had a hella big branch. Turned out to be too much for the old slot stile gate and bent right off. Poor thing. I need to hammer it back into shape and also cut a wood gate for when I need it. Strung hardware cloth across the back of it today for raking and hauling the grass mulch over to the lasagna beds. Fixed my favorite telescoping loppers today- they are now welded to the extension position. Bit of a bummer that the one handle lock snapped, but worth the fix since I tend to use them extended most often anyway.

Thanks Cindy, I've got three little asparagus branches growing up about 2-4 inches in the ones in containers, still waiting on the ones in the ground

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

Been harvesting a couple squash every day along with Cherry tomatoes. Cindy, 4 of the Asparagus plants have a foot to foot and a half growth that looks like super thin spears

They are now predicting that Wednesday night's low temperature will be 43 degrees for us. And Thursday night might be 46 degrees. Looks like two more nights of hauling all of my plants indoors again. May just leave them indoors for the two days as well.

It'll be 70's all week here with low 50's at nite, perfect. Sorry for you plant toating Cindy, hope it's the last time! Tomorrow morning I'll harvest most of the broccoli to blanch and freeze. Had a good year for broc, and the cabbages are plumping up too. Here's one broc head with a quarter for reference...

A different shot of the beets, carrots, cabbages, and snap beans...

My 2 Cheatin' tomato plants...

A close up of the first cluster, surprisingly no catfacing so far...

I was able to harvest enough asparagus to make asparagus soup. Added some creme fraiche and the texture of the soup is really smooth. Delicious.

We got a good soaking in rainy waves last night for a total of 2.1 inches which we really needed. Some lightning and thunder here too but the bulk of the storms were just a few miles away where some folks got 4-5 inches and flash flooding conditions. That should help plump up the blueberries, cabbages, peas, and tomatoes. We'll start picking the peas and blueberries in just a few days from now.

Everything is now planted other than more late corn and some later tomato plants. The various melons are just getting going outdoors so it's off to a slow start there. So far there no real insect pest problems other than some early flea beetles chewing on the sweet potato leaves, hope they drowned last nite ;-) .... I have relocated 7 squirrels to give the blueberries some breathing room before they ripen up.

No rain here this week. I didn't want any as planting conditions are getting closer to ideal sans the rain. I saw a little whirlwind from the northeast this morning...a sign of dry for a few days...ok with me until next week.

I planted some buckwheat for the bees today and worked the ground up for decorative pumpkins. The watermelons are ready to set out...waiting on tonight's chilly temps to set them out tomorrow. Second planting of sweet corn is up and first planting is about 8-10 inches high. I made ridges for the sweetpotatoes the other day and set out about 46 plants...O'Henry yellow, Yellow Jewel, and Diane.

vgkg - You got rain last night?? We did not get a drop. My rain gauge is bone dry. It doesn't look like we will be getting any significant rain for the next ten days. However, the strawberries are very flavorful with these dry conditions.

Yep Cindy the rain seemed to stream over us from the west and extended north of me to Fredericksburg down thru North Carolina and eastward. That 2" was nice and it'll be good not having to water things for a while. Picked more broccoli and lettuces today, still nipping away at Fire Blight on 2 pears trees when it pops up. I'll need to start hanging up my scary stuffed animals and rubber snakes in the blueberry bushes soon.

Strawberries!

It finally rained here last evening! We ended up getting 4/10" of badly needed rain. It was perfect timing as I am now planting some of my tomato plants. Even now, we could have some lows down into the upper 40s this coming week.

You got a little more than us here with 1/4", but I'll take it with a dry week ahead. 70's/50's for the week and partly cloudy. Glad the Heat isn't being poured on us so far. The early lettuces are remaining good tasting while the late lettuces are shaping up. Picked the first peas today, not many, just a few dozen, in two days it'll be major shelling time. Will harvest the first cabbage as soon as VgQn needs one, all main broccoli heads are also in the freezer with side shoots coming in almost daily. The carrots and beets are almost there...First corn is 6" tall and the 2nd corn seed was just planted.


Meanwhile the watermelons and cantaloupes are doing poorly, several plants have wilt problems and it's not due to lack of watering. Having to plant some late back-ups and more seed to ensure a decent melon season even if it's a little late. Cukes are close to climbing their trellis but no blooms yet. Squashes are budding up, keeping a close eye out squash bugs & eggs, it's too early for SVBs yet. The sweet potatoes are almost at their vining stage, still dealing with a few flea beetles. All tomato plants are blooming now and my 2 cheatin' early ones have set some nice golf ball sizers with many pea siae coming along. Peppers are close to blooming and the 1 young eggplant (only need 1) is healthy but slow as usual.
I'll need to thin the pears soon, no plums this year as first thought. Between the curculios and squirrels they're toast. Some apples are out there but no figs yet but it's early. Blue berries will start to turn blueish this week.

My watermelons are set out. Something bit a leaf off 3 of them...normally that doesn't happen. I planted the 3rd planting of sweet corn. Squash just coming up. I put cages around the tomatoes. A few blooms are beginning soon.

I ate the first strawberry fresh off the plant. It was excellent...Earlyglow. I have a large patch...8 varieties.

I planted some strawberries on Thursday and they are all showing signs of life-most have 2-4 leaves already. The blackberries are also ripening-had 4 for breakfast. The Sungold and the Honeycomb are fighting it out for dominance of the cherry tomatoes (Honeycomb are winning easily and the tomatoes are also much bigger and sweeter) San Marzanos are also loaded with tomatoes. The Mariana's Peace, Jaune Flamme, Creole, Super Snow White, Big Beef, Super Tasty, Medium Rare, Lucky Cross, and Chocolate Stripes are battling it out to see which can produce more in the regular-Beefsteak varieties. Jaune Flamme, Mariana's Peace, Creole, and Big Beef are probably winning at the moment.

Burpee's has a half off all seeds sale today-this is the only time i buy seeds from Burpee. I got 7 of their most expensive seeds varieties for $21 and that includes shipping. The seed code is Seeds523.

The peas are coming in good now and will pick the first cabbage today. Picked the first dozen beets yesterday. Put the 2nd set of ties on the staked tomato plants, they look good and full of blooms as the high temps remain in the 70's. The melon plants are slowly improving but I started some back-up seeds just in case they fail. Finished off caging up flowers around the main veggie garden so now it's just a matter of weeding, watering, and harvesting while keeping an eye out for any pests and diseases.

While the rest of you were well into planting I was still dreaming of planting while watching the snow come down. I've been at it since the 4th putting the early stuff in but came down with a stomach bug, so today I was finally able to plant a row of 14 Roma's in. I have much more to plant but cut back on my garden size this year.

I also had to repair the fence on a 48' x 65' garden replacing rotted posts and rabbit proofing it again and this took me 4 days to repair the fence, when 20 years ago it only took me 2 days to build the darn thing, this is a good indicator why I'm cutting back on size.

Todays gardening was hostas. Dug up the giant ones and some other clusters. Planted in the ones I divided and potted up last year. Planted in the giant ones after I broke up the cluster. I still need to get the other big ones planted back in and the smaller ones potted up for next years filling. It was nice in the shade under the maples and I was taking breaks in the new hammock swing I hung up there a couple days ago. The bed looks pretty good right now, I hope they grow in enough so I can start harvesting them next year.

Fragaria Eclair Strawberry

I love the strawberry planter. Have you used it before RD?

Beesneeds, I have used the hanging strawberry planter about 4 or 5 times. Had good success with it. One batch of strawberries lasted for 3 years or so. It was darker green for a few years. I think I have another one around here somewhere. If I remember right I got it from Park Seeds.

They have 25 bare root Purple Passion asparagus at Park seed for $13.95-marked down from $35.99

A cool cloudy day here and we may get some more needed rain from a possible Nor'easter heading up the coast over the holiday weekend (sorry for you beach going folks). Here's some garden pics from this morning....The gaps in the row of cabbages are from the 2 that I already picked...

From the opposite direction....

The middle....

Peas....

Pears...

VgKg, those are some giant cabbages-nice pears

Thanks RD. I looked at the Parks site, but the felt one they have now is smaller and not as nice. Might need to see if I can't sew myself one up. Felt often goes on sale in later summer around here, I'll keep my eye out. It will make for a nice garden project during the winter :)

It's going to be dry around here into next month. But the temps are down today so I need to get the last of things into the ground in their full sun spots. Mulch mowed yesterday so I got some mulching to do too.

And vgkg, how do you get all your peas shelled? I love some fresh peas, but was not fond of all the shelling I had to do, lol.

Thanks RD, those remaining 4 cabbages in that row - 2 are red and 2 are purple, but I see no difference in them. They are slower to develope heads than the 2 green ones already picked. I still need to thin those pears, maybe today.

BeesNeeds, I remembered that I bought those hanging felt planters from E-Bay. Type in 7penn36 Pocket Vertical Planter on E-Bay and about 20 different ones will pop up. Price range is $15-$35. They have one with 36 slots for $25

Got out of cardiac at the hospital. Not enough left to do much gardening. My BIL planted a lot of stuff for us. Tomatoes and peppers and some seedlings from another BIL. Weeds are 3 feet high. He had to clear some of that to get the seedlings in the ground.

Maybe if I can get my zero turn mower in there I can just mow a lot of it down. I think it might be too much dust as the ground's so soft the roots will get sucked up into mower deck and blown all over. Would like to plant some zucchini and cuke seeds and it's not even too late for them here.

I see some of the pear grafts took. Did the D' Anjou pears about 6 weeks ago. The Bartlett's and the Bosc I grafted in the first week of March. So it took about 5 weeks for them all to bud out.

How are you doing John? Didn’t know you were in the hospital. Hope you are feeling better.

I have a question for anyone with experience growing trees. Got 4 baby trees (Avacado, Sweetheart Cherry, Mini Banana, & Meyer Lemon) and my question concerns hardening them off. What is the process for hardening off these baby trees? It has been really hot here, so they were kept in a shaded area on the edge of the sun for a few hours, then I brought them inside under flourescents (just the mounted ones in the ceiling) and ran a window unit. The avacado tree looks droopy. The tiny Meyers lemon tree looks pretty good with all leaves pointing upward

Richard - I never hardened off a tree before planting. I mainly plant bare root tress right out of the shipping box. Or trees I just grafted a few weeks ago. But those are mostly dormant. Even so some the bareroots are shipped coming out of dormancy and my storage isn't cold enough too keep my grafts fully dormant.

John, 3 of my trees have been locked in the post office over the Memorial Day weekend (arrived early Saturday morning). Worried that they will be all dried up when they arrive today, like the avocado tree (which was basically dead when it arrived). Were scheduled for Saturday delivery (cherry, banana, and another avocado tree). The Meyer lemon tree looks great (still have it in the shade on the edge of the sunlight).

I kind of harden of some of my trees. I guess I don't really think of it as such. Usually I get bare roots really small and tend to pot them up for a while till they get big enough to get put out. Out of the box I'll have them in indirect sun instead of full sun, some wind protection, they get extra drinks and some food. Give them a chance to be out of the box and make sure they are ok before proceeding on. It is getting them used to being here so it might count as hardening them off.

Keeping my fingers crossed for your trees RD.

Meyer lemon sapling

Seeing a little color-Dark Star

We received rain much of yesterday!! Very much needed and appreciated. 85/100"

The long range isn't looking promising as far as rain is concerned. No additional rain predicted until Sunday the 11th.

We got 0.7" rain here over the last 3 days, and like you Cindy the long range looks dry and warming up into the low 80's. The recent cool weather has allowed my lettuces to remain sweet and not bitter. In fact I was able for the first time to get 5 full heads of Great Lakes lettuce to grow here thx to the cool temps of May (it has never been successful here). My melon plants don't like the cool temps though, I've started some new watermelon seeds now as back-ups in case the others don't make it outside, most did not make it.

Jumping outside between the showers it looks like the peas have 1-2 more pickings before they're exhausted. 2 plantings of late corn will replace them along the trellis. The broccoli is also kaput now, and will compost their remains tomorrow. The remaining 4 purple cabbages are very close to harvest so that row will become free for some back-up watermelon plants. Looking a late season for melons this year.

The squash is blooming now and the cukes are just starting to produce both male & female buds. The sweet potatoes are showing the beginnings of vines and the 2nd corn is 3" high now as the 1st corn hits the 18" mark. The bush beans are now blooming so we'll switch from shelling peas to snapping beans soon. The asst cantaloupes (Ambrosia, Sugar Cube, Honeydew, & Crenshaw) are faring better than the watermelons at this point but each are still in the pre-vining stage. The tomatoes are setting nicely and the peppers are starting to bloom as the 1 eggplant gets its act together. All Lettuces are still sweet too....can you tell it's still raining outside? ;-)

Picked the first 2 purple cabbages this morning, they are smaller (extra large softball size) than the green cabbages but are solid as a rock so picked them before any loopers did damage. Later today more beets and hopefully some carrots are ready too. The sun is finally shinning today after a few wet/cloudy/cool days, but the rain was welcome. The bush beans are full of blooms and some squash may be ready by the weekend, cukes to follow.