Wow!! You have made great progress!!

I know that feeling. I gotta stop comparing and celebrate the progress. You've done a great job!

It looks great, Kim, and I agree that it is important to focus on the progress you've made, and not on how much remains to be done. After all, you can only do what you can do in the amount of time you have, and eventually you'll have it all cleaned up and planted. I just focus on one area at a time, get it cleaned up, planted, mulched, etc. and then move on to the next area. You tend a large garden space the same way you eat an elephant....one bite at a time.

Good morning Dawn I was posting at the same time. Its so true when I focus on one or two rows I feel better than when I look at the big picture. I have to start weeding the first beds today and lay mulch if the wind will slow down.

That looks really good! I know it was a lot of work too.

Kim, it really does look good. I have not made near the progress you have. It is still wet and cloudy here.

Thank you. We have done a lot more since this last picture. It has been so hot and windy it seems I spend most of my time watering. We worked Saturday 8 hours and really got close to the halfway mark. I feel better getting seeds planted and checked off the list.

I hope it dries out for y'all. It is frustrating whether its too wet or too dry. Happy medium would be nice huh ?

Kim, Your wind is here today and it isn't the weather I ordered, and I'd like to send it back. Oh, you don't want it either? Hey Larry, can we send some wind to you to dry out all that wet soil?

We're expecting more wind tomorrow and the next day (and on at least one night too) but I think I have virtually all my exposed soil mulched, so the soil shouldn't erode but the plants might get a little windburn.

It is frustrating. I think we get about a week of perfect weather and everything else seems too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc. Oh, and that week of perfect weather isn't 7 consecutive days...it is one day here and one day there scattered around.

Most years, I am watering like a maniac too. We have been very wet (for us, in comparison to recent drought years) so far, but I am all too aware that the rain can stop falling at any moment, so while I may whine about this year's endless rain (it sprinkled this morning, oh joy, oh joy....and that was after having rain on and off yesterday) but I know I'd better appreciate it while we have it because we spend a lot more time here being too dry than too wet.

This is a crazy year---high wind and high fire danger one day, and the threat of rain, hail and severe weather the next. The Spring Roller Coaster Ride is open for business!

Thanks Dawn but if you are sending the wind back you MUST send some moisture with it. And I don't think I like rollercoasters My babies are so thirsty, I have to water 2x a day just to get my seeds up. I stick my finger in the soil all the way and its dry. The wind dries it out in just a few hours. That being said Everything is coming up great so far, except carrots are slow.

I was just telling Al yesterday that this was the only place I have ever lived where I could plant the entire Spring garden and not have to water it in. It seems we are always wet at planting time. I planted more beans today and put in a couple more tomato plants. We covered for hail last night and again today, but it didn't come. It looked like the hail stopped just before the storm cell got to us today, so we just got rain. We still have storm threats for tonight and tomorrow night, then a couple of good days before it starts again. I think I will have the high half of my garden planted by the weekend unless the rain is really heavy.

I am so glad to hear someone else is a little over whelmed with starting at square one. Like Dawn says, one bite at a time. As far as weather goes, hold on its still early we have a lot of time for what may come.

Kim, I tried sending rain to you yesterday, but all that wind blew it right back at me.

I generally water seedlings once a day, most often in the afternoon after the wind has blown them around all day and worn them out. When mine get to the point they need water twice a day, that's normally a sign they are getting root-bound. I do have some at that point now, so I am going to pot them up to larger containers this week. I also have tomato plants getting too large for me to keep them happy until the Spring Fling rolls around. I may have to prune off about the top half of them and let them regrow because they are too big. Those are the ones that I started Super Bowl Sunday. The ones I started two and four weeks later are still a nice reasonable size. This heat has been making everything in flats grow too quickly but I don't mind that it is also making everything in the ground grow quickly. We will get an early harvest from many things, including corn and beans, at the rate they are growing.

Carrots are just that way. They like to germinate when the soil and air temperatures are really warm, and are slow when both are cold....but they need to grow in cooler weather in order to develop the best, sweetest flavor. That makes them a much better candidate for fall gardens than for spring gardens. I sowed half my seed for spring and saved the other half for fall.

One way to get better and quicker germination is to pre-warm the soil by covering it with plastic for a few days. Remove the plastic, sow your seeds, and cover the seeded area with cardboard (held down by bricks or two-by-four lumber) or boards. Lift the cardboard or boards daily and check for green sprouts. Mist the soil lightly if needed to keep it moist so the top layer of soil doesn't crust over. Remove the cardboard or boards as soon as you see the first sprout. By covering the seeds, you are keeping them from washing away or blowing away and also maintaining the moisture by preventing the soil from drying out as quickly. If your soil is the type that tends to form a hard crust at the surface as it dries, it can help to sow a radish seed every couple of inches right along with the carrots. The radishes sprout more easily and help the carrots by breaking through the crusty top layer of soil. Or, make little shallow furrows, fill them with finished compost that won't crust over, and sow the carrot seeds in those furrows.

Carrots never do well for me in spring, but I get the best ones from carelessly flinging seeds by hand on the soil surface beneath the tomato plants. I mix them with lettuce seed and fling, fling, fling.....broadcast sowing with wild abandon. When I do that, every darn seed sprouts and I have to do a lot of thinning. When I carefully prepare soil for them and plant them in it, they may or may not sprout at all. I love carrots, but they are a pain in the neck to get started.

Carol, This is the first year, probably ever, that I have planted almost the entire front garden without using any sort of irrigation system at all to water anything. I will water in transplants with a little water from a watering can and will do the same with newly sown seed, but other than that, the garden is doing great only on rainfall. This is exceedingly rare in my garden, but I'm not complaining. If I finish planting the front garden this week, with some chance of rain in the forecast every day, I'll be able to say it is true of the entire front garden. That never has happened before and likely never will happen again. One day the rain will just stop falling 3 or 4 times a week and I'll miss it. We are not necessarily getting a lot at any one time, but it is enough.

I covered up the one tomato bed that didn't have a low tunnel yet with row cover yesterday for fear hail would come, but no hail came and precious little rain fell. Most of our rain fell on me as I was covering the bed in early afternoon, and everything missed us, unless it rained while I was sleeping. There is a chance of hail in the forecast tonight, but I might just take that row cover off and put up cages around those plants. I hope to plant the last tomato plants in the front garden today if life (or the strong wind) doesn't prevent it. We got dark, windy and had sprinkles early yesterday which messed up all my plans for the day, but then we didn't get the severe weather that caused trouble (that hail!) in so many other places. With the way the wind was blowing and rain was threatening to fall, I thought we'd take a hard hit, but most everything stayed far to our west.

Now, the back garden is completely untouched since last fall and it looks scary in there, but I will tackle it as soon as the front garden is done and will work away at it until I get it done.

Stockergal, I always feel overwhelmed with the new back garden. It is just a couple of years old, hasn't had the same soil improvement as the front garden, which has been in existence since 1999, and has a major vole problem on top of that. I put a ton of work into getting it planted every spring, and then beginning around the start of July, I have to fight the voles for every plants. The back garden probably always will be less wonderful than the front garden as I used up most of my compost and mulch on the front garden, and then the back garden gets the leftovers. I normally use it for summer veggies that prefer sandy loam soil, so grow mostly southern peas, melons, squash, cukes, pumpkins and gourds back there. Sometimes it gets the leftover pepper and tomato plants.

With the front garden being well established and having mulched pathways and raised beds covering much of it, even when it is out of control and weedy in late winter and early spring, it still looks sort of civilized, and I bring each area under control as I plant, weed, and mulch. The back garden, though, looks like a total disaster area most of the time. However, it gives me a place to plant more things after the front garden fills up and since it is behind the barn, no one can see it if it gets messy, weedy and out of control for much of the summer. I can keep the weeds down half decently after it is planted until I get busy canning, and then the weeds just win. I just do what I can with the time I have available, but I'm beginning to think the back garden never will be as nice as the front garden unless I am given 48 hours a day to get all the work done.

Dawn

Bon I try not to compare my garden to others either cuz I pick mine apart and wonder what was I thinking?

I have got much of what I have planted up weeded and watered waiting on the rain. today view with the sunflower circle THANK you Bon for this idea. We planted sunflowers 7' 5' 3' and zinnias alyssum at the opening. All the green is not food I took these before I weeded.

Front left is not planted yet, front right is Mandan bride flour corn and yay it is coming up. would this be a sturdy corn to let pole beans climb?

Dawn carrots are up everywhere I planted with other stuff I did not weed the one patch where they haven't come up all alone.

Not my horse but it is great entertainment!

Forgot to say thanks for all the encouragement. its what I need because everyone here thinks I am nuts...Well I might be but I will have beets and carrots to with it!!!

You are not crazy you are a GARDENER!!! Enjoy every minute!

Kim, It looks great and you're not nuts. Well, you might be, but if you nuts then all the rest of us are on the crazy train riding right along with you. You'll love your sunflower circle. I have grown sunflower houses for years and they are just the most fun ever, especially when you have a small child around to enjoy them.

The carrots.....lol....that happens here every time. Just sow them as under-plantings (a living groundcover, so to speak) beneath everything else and every single seed will germinate. I do not know why it works so well, but it does.

I hope you have rain in your forecast and I hope the rain actually falls. We are supposed to get heavy rain tonight and thunderstorms tomorrow and Tim and I worked all afternoon and evening, until the sun had set and we couldn't see anything any more, trying to get all the mowing, weeding, mulching, caging, staking, and rototilling done. I didn't finish rototilling the back garden but did as much as I could with the time that I had.

If we do get rain, an assuming we aren't flooding, we may go plant shopping tomorrow. I've been trying to spend as much time as possible outdoors working but that means I haven't been plant shopping, and I need to buy some plants.

Dawn

We have rain !!! Just in the nick of time. I just ran out of snow water I had saved for my potted plants tomatoes etc last night had to use city water on them, yes they are sad, and just when I got done bam thunder lightening rain. thank y'all for sharing. barrels buckets and bins are in place!

Hooray for the rain. We have 1.4" so far for today, but parts of TX and southern OK to our south and east have had more than that and have experienced some flooding. I wish rain in this part of the country would come in the right amounts at the right times instead of it usually being too much or too little or at exactly the wrong time.

My dad caught rainwater in a barrel way back in the 1960s and 1970s and then would use a watering can or bucket to scoop it out and water his tomato plants. He believed rainwater was better for the plants than city water, and I kind of agree with him.

I definitely believe it too. I noticed a huge difference last year when I had to water with city water and finally we got rain, it was almost like they had a fertilizer boost. I also try to let my tap water warm up before I use it. Our water is so cold here it seems to shock the plants.
It rained all night a nice gentle rain and its still raining. The garden is good, not flooded yay. Will rain help get rid of flea beetles or at least slow them down, they have been munching my cabbage etc. I have some DE but didn't know I had beetles till last night. I sat down in the path to weed and thin and they swarmed me. I jumped up flailing and flapping like a mad woman. Hopefully the horse was the only witness to that incident.

I'm glad you have been having a nice, gentle rain that will soak in. That's just perfect.

The horse will keep his mouth shut if he knows what is good for him.

I doubt rain will hurt the flea beetles. They are the worst in my garden during cool, rainy spring weather so I imagine they thrive in it.

The best long-term flea beetles management techniques include rototilling the soil in fall and winter to expose overwintering beetles or eggs, removing all weeds from the area before planting, avoiding planting tiny seedlings early that can die more easily after incurring heavy flea beetle damage (larger seedlings are strongly and bounce back more strongly from damage), and covering newly emerged seedlings from direct-sown seed with floating row cover to exclude the flea beetles. You also can plant trap crops (radishes and eggplants work well as trap crops) to lure the beetles away from your crops. Also, if you include companion plants with tiny flowers (sweet alyssum, yarrow, dill, catnip, catmint, etc.), those flowers will attract tiny beneficial insects that will help control the flea beetles. Heavy mulch can sometimes prevent the flea beetles emerging from the ground and fighting their way up through the mulch to your crops. Spraying the flea beetle-infested plants with either a soap spray or neem oil may help control them.

I have dill and chamomile coming up and just transplanted some of my herbs i started indoors. I read that DE can help and I have the food grade type but I wil have to wait for it to dry up. Will it kill off my ladybugs?

DE is non-selective and will kill lady bugs and other beneficial insects. I almost never use it because of that. It also can be harmful to the earthworms in your soil. I have a garden shed full of natural, organic remedies that I seldom use because they almost all have a down side to them. The perception that products that are organic or synthetic in nature are safe is not a truly accurate perception. The reality is that many of them also are dangerous to some living creatures, including human beings. The older I get, the less willing I am to use them. Healthy seedlings and plants generally outgrow flea beetle damage unless they were planted when the transplants were too small or when the soil/air temperatures are too cool and that results in the plant growth stunting or stalling. In order to overcome flea beetle damage, the plants need to be large enough and the temperatures need to be warm enough for the plants to grow fast enough to overcome the damage. I find it easier, and less toxic, to just put a floating row cover like Agribon-15 over young, newly-emerged seedlings to protect them from flea beetles. However, I rarely see flea beetles at all so my garden is not a good example to use in this instance.

Ok what I think I will do is leave one area alone so they will stay there and not get into my other beds. I have brassicas spread out so if they completely destroy a few plants it would be better than me messing up my lady bugs and worms.

on a better note we got somewhere between 1.1 " and 1.75" of rain. Sunflowers are starting to come up and so are beans. I feel so behind already but oh well. it'll get done when it gets done, right. I have to regroup and get all my seeds out to see what is going where.

Rain has stalled planting but its great, I needed a slow down. Finally potted up some peppers and tomatoes are OUT! They are 2/3 sun and rest dappled shade so this week I move them 3 feet a day until by Wednesday full sun. Its a process isn't it, but really enjoy it. I gave some away the other day and 5 days later the girl said I went ahead and watered them they looked tired :0

I wish I could have some garden person on speed dial when I get to the barn with my seed bucket I am not sure where to [put stuff so many questions. So this AM I am trying to think of all the questions get answers and set a plan. This is only my 4th year gardening and the jump from 800 sq' to 7000 + is uh frightening sometimes. We try to set up a produce stand in town since we have 64 potatoes up. and I am putting in 50 tomatoes shhh don't tell Benji.

Kim, for what it's worth I always doubt, wonder and second-guess. I have the 5,000 square feet and several micro climates within, different soil conditions and am absolutely clueless half the time when it comes to seeding and growing.

I think I jumped up too big. But that's okay. I have it all covered in mulch. Even if it doesn't get weeded or planted for the garden, the soil is being conditioned and ripening. It'll all work out, I keep telling myself. Just one step at a time.

Hand grading is my big time consumer. I must grade several areas while working the garden. Right now, the only thing well defined in my mind is the border of the garden. I don't even have foot paths established.

Me too Bon, raking grading is boring time sucker I would rather plant or water or even weed. I told my son this AM we have to get it all raked and smoothed out. I can not do it very fast and I need your muscles. So now over 2/3 is done and we got drip line! it came with the place and we planted squash and watermelon at every emitter and I am so thrilled. I actually ran out of light before I ran out of energy.

It is just one step at a time. I make sure I have time to take care of what I have and then add another block or row. I enjoy it so much I am glad we jumped in.

I'm glad you got irrigation. I sure wish I had that resolution this year. No regrets on the utilization of space, but I am hard pressed, sometimes, because I live in a residential area. I feel I absolutely must get the back end looking somewhat like a garden lest the neighbors complain. It all looks really bad, but know the soil is loving it right now as well as the worm snakes and wildlife. But these are the things cities don't like. lol

Bon, Don't forget. You can sow a pretty cover crop in the areas you don't get around to planting. Of course, maybe city folks think cover crops are weeds. Cities tend to not like anything that deviates from the norm, with the norm being a green carpet of lawn. They can just get over it. : )

Dawn

Living on school property I have had to keep everything weird like compost! hidden behind flowers and veggie plants. At the barn anything I do will be an improvement so the neighbors are Happy. I am getting a camper this week to move over there so I can stay there on the weekends! Half my dirt is blowing to Okla today so I am inside.

I promise that Oklahoma will send your dirt back to you the next time we have a really strong wind out of the east....not that we get strong east winds very often. The only time I get strong east winds is when someone to my east is spraying a herbicide.....so that they can kill their weeds and my garden plants all at the same time.

It blew so hard last night and this morning some of my beans were uncovered. They were at least 1/2" deep, now they are 1". I watered well and will go back in a little bit to water again to keep more from blowing off. Corn is good size the wind didnt bother it. I regret planting my tomatoes yesterday but the cans should help.

I hope we did the squash and melons right. Benji set up drip lines in rows like a W approx 2 1/2 -3 feet apart and I planted seeds under every dripper which are 16 -24 inches apart. I decided if that was too close I would rip one out.

Mandan bride flour corn.

That looks great, Kim!

Benji is mad that it isn't sweet corn. He did get some sweet corn planted but it is only 2" tall.

I am really excited about it even tho I cant eat it. I cant wait to make cornmeal and cornbread for littleman. The popcorn is up about 6". I grew it from seed from 2012 and it all came up. I need to thin those but when would you do it.

I thin the corn when it it about 6" tall though sometimes I have waited until it is 8-10" tall if the ground was too muddy to walk on.

If the corn is planted densely and you are worried the roots are all interwoven together, just take scissors or pruners and cut off the plants you want to thin right at ground level. Usually they will not regrow because you have cut off the plant's growing point.

I really did not think the popcorn would come up so I sowed thick. I will snip it when I can see its not going to rain for a couple days.