Still on the chilly side here for the past few days but warmer temps (70s) are on the way for next week. Here's few pics from yesterday....

Peas....

Broccoli...

Assorted Lettuces.....

Cabbages....

....continued...

My 2 cheatin' tomato plants....protected while outside warming up a bit. The soil temp is 50F so it's still too cold to plant them outside yet....

Sweet Cherry tree in bloom....

Blueberries also in full bloom....

Figs are waking up and forming tiny fruits....

Will be planting more lettuce seed today......

My blueberries are probably a week, maybe two weeks behind yours, vgkg.

However, my blackberry plants are leafing out and my figs have little buds.

It's cold here! Only 53 degrees.

Edited: And the temperature dropped again. Down to 51 right now.

Cindy, it barely warmed up enough here today to bring out the bumblebees that were all over the Blueberry flowers, got up to about 62F.

vgkg - I still haven't planted my potatoes. March was just too wet. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday.

Yeah Carol the soil here was barely diggable too and still is. The nice thing about potatoes is that they grow well even when planted later on. Mid-60s and sunny here today, put the seedlings outside to acclimate with a little protection from the breeze. I'll be starting up my sweet potato slips in their cell packs this week, they'll be planted outside around mid-May along with the cukes, squashes, and melons.

Too bad that eclipse wasn't today, with Cobalt Blue Skies like this the stars would Pop Out. Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow at 3:18pm, no stars with only 85% covered but it'll be a good show anyways....if it's not cloudy, nyuk.

Carol : really?

^^^ oops, sorry Cindy.....hey, I got one letter right ;-)

I was finally able to get some potatoes planted today. And will hopefully get more of them in tomorrow. Varieties: Mountain Rose and Satina. My favorite is Mountain Rose though it isn't the most productive.

Anyone have any ideas to make potato plants more productive?

I planted the first planting of sweet corn and ser out the broccoli and cauliflower today...held off on potatoes because of forecast.

Cindy , I don't know how to make potatoes more productive.

I just amend the ground some and go ahead and plant when they are chitted ,cut or planted whole.

Your varieties are different from mine.

I planted Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold.

Wayne :I planted out both field corn ( Truckers Favorite Yellow ) and sweet corn (Bodacious).

Got broccoli , cauliflower and cabbage put on out. Also all the cool season greens , spinach , lettuce , mustard , collards , kale , chard , carrots, beets , radishes and green peas.

Have also put out tomatoes. ( don't think it'll frost now in my locale).

Getting ready to plant out beans when the ground gets a little warmer.

Okie HU

Yesterday I planted my 2 cheating tomato plants, long range night time temps look to be 50F or above so it looked like a good time to get them outside. Both have their first bud clusters shaping up and close to blooming. Expecting day temp in the 80's next week so planting the corn, squash, and snap bean seeds may soon follow. The plums and pears are setting fruits nicely and will require thinning in a few weeks, the apple trees are now in full bloom. I hope to get my first harvest of sweet cherries this year if the birds and squirrels don't get them first. Hopefully any freezing cold waves are in the past now.

Thanks, Okie.

We did end up getting the rest of the potatoes in the ground.

And, I harvested my first picking of asparagus. Love gus!!

Hope to pot up my tomato plants today.

Cindy , when planting potatoes , I like to hill up the dirt over the potatoes after putting them down in the furrow.

Okie HU

That's a big garden, Okie. Nice potato plants.

Hu, Do you fertilize potatoes?

I amend the ground with manure ( either "Black Cow" or cow manure from local barn/feed lots) over the winter , then till it in before planting potatoes and onions.

Okie HU

I just read that chicken manure pellets are good for potatoes. Has anyone here tried them?

Chicken manure will work too. The only manure I try to stay away from is horse manure , especially if it's fresh . Too much ammonia , could burn the ground.

Okie HU

Okie HU & Wayne you inspired me to plant my corn seed today (Ambrosia), was also inspired by the 80F outside with rain on the way. I also went ahead and planted the Strike Beans and yellow & zuke squash seeds. If a late April freeze hits I have extra seed on hand to replant if needed.

Cindy wish I could help you on the potato production, back when I use to grow potatoes (Yukons) I'd fert the rows a month ahead with "Gardentone" and they did fine. I did try planting them further apart to produce larger spuds and that seems to work. I like Yukon Golds large enough to bake.

It's supposed to be in the 40s Friday and Saturday. The following weekend is looking similar at this point.

I was able to pot up my tomato plants as well as direct seed beets, Swiss chard, carrots and threw in a few leek seeds. We will see if the leeks make it.

Today was a beautiful day here!!

Wet here...about 3½ inches and got some more today....hitting Central Indiana kinda heavily

Wayne , Good thing that you haven't planted your potatoes yet. They can sure rot with heavy rains like that.

Okie HU

Cantare, Rattlesnake, Lillian’s Caseload

I have over 100 tomatoes on the vine and loads of blossoms

The Banana tree is looking better

Tomatoes are mostly Amelia, Tycoon, BHN-589, and Honeycomb

Been nice out. Doing the regular shuffle in, shuffle out on a bunch of stuff. Some things are now staying out in the mini greenhouses. Potatoes are popping in their bins, just did the first mounding today. Put in some beets, radish, carrot, and greens in some bins. Still closing up the mini greenhouses and the caps over the bins at night.

Lots of greens for harvesting already out in the open beds. I'm about to make a cress pesto I got so much of it going on. More tender greens are thriving under the caps.

Garlic is popping, and the wild chives are plush for harvesting. The dandilions are starting their blooms in parts of the yard. And yellow trout lillies :)

Man RD your tomato plants are way ahead of mine, and they cheated! Temp hit 89F here (right now) and storms are on the way as a line of TSs head south thru Fredericksburg. My brocs, cabbages, lettuces, peas, and spinach wouldn't mind a good soaking after this heat. Expecting the corn, snaps, and squash seed to pop up any time now. The apple trees (3) have more blooms than ever before, maybe the squirrels will leave me a few this year if they get sick of them, nyuk.

Today I prepped the wide row for the cantaloupes and tomorrow I'll prep the same for the watermelons. That will complete the row prepping other than more prepping for later corn and a few late tomato plants. Will start the melon seeds indoors next week. We got 1/4 inch rain from last evening storms, nearby areas got hit hard with high winds and hail so we lucked out. Our average last frost date is behind us now so I think the fruit trees are ok.

Wow, vgkg. Our last frost isn't until around Mother's Day. I probably won't plant any tomato plants until after Mother's day.

It's gonna be a bit on the chilly side for the next few days and nights with lower 40's at night. Here's some pics from this morning....

Assorted lettuces.....Maturing plants in the rear, new seed in the front....

Row of Snaps beans popping up........

Cabbages are coming along, hand picked some loopers off of them today...

Broccoli will be picked, blanched, and frozen tomorrow, one of 9....

...more pics to follow....

One of 5 squash hills breaking ground...

My 2 Cheatin' tomato plants....

On the fruit side, Pears shaping up....

A few Cherries this season....

more to follow....

Plums are Loaded....

Blueberries taking shape.....

Tossing in the Red Dogwood before it fades away....

vgkg - What variety of cherry tree is that?

Ugh, I wish that I could recall the variety Cindy, but it's a sweet one. I know it's not a "Bing" type because that failed to set any fruit for me years ago before it died. I planted a tart cherry tree at the same time as this sweet one (about 6 years ago) but it died at age 4 before setting any fruit. I was hoping that it would help pollinate the sweet one, last year it set just one cherry and a squirrel got it, grrr. This year it looks like it has set a few dozen cherries but not enough to escape the critters and leave me some leftovers. On the bright side, the apple trees look to have bumper crops setting so I hope it's more than the critters can steal.

Thanks, vgkg. I have two Montmorency trees and they are very prolific. Wish I had a sweet variety.

Oh man, now I'm impatient. I got about a dozen Stanley plums last year, my first harvest. I have two Montmorency cherry trees that bear a prodigious amount of cherries, but they have been here for 20 years or so. I planted a Ebony Pearl and an Emperor Francis in 2020 and last year the Emperor bloomed but not the Ebony, so no pollination and no fruit. This year we are just now getting leaves, but I'm hopeful. I have two Delicious apple trees and a Wolf River that are prolific most years and two peach trees of unknown variety that my Dad planted. They took 17 years to bear, but the last two years they've done well. An odd variety, though, they are clingstones and don't ripen until late September. They bloom late, which is good here, because they sometimes excape the late frost that can get in early May. Temperatures here today are a high of 39F and a low of 31F, so I'm happy nothing is in bloom!

Annie

42 Day tomato

Nice, RD.

It was warm enough today that I could put all of my seedlings on the screened porch. Unfortunately, I will need to bring them back inside for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights as the lows will be in the low 40s.

After that, the temps are looking good. Maybe even good enough to plant in the ground.

Whew, yes that was a close call on frost here too. Glad I covered my tender crops with buckets and blankets otherwise there would have been some damage. Had frost on the auto windshields at 38F so brought the seedling trays inside from the porch too.

Amelia wins

Hopefully, tonight will be the last night that I will need to keep my plants indoors. Low predicted to be 46 tonight.

I hoping with you too Cindy, tomorrow I plan to plant out the tomato plants, sweet potatoes & cantaloupe plants (Ambrosia my Fav). Have started the watermelon seeds indoors which aren't up yet. The cuke, corn, and squash seeds have popped up and I covered them with buckets, all came out a-ok. Also covered my 2 "cheatin'" tomato plants which survived and are now blooming. It looks like a dry spell coming up and it'll be warm in the 80's next week. I am glad that we have deep soil moisture here to start off the Spring.

It's raining and we need it! Not a lot of rain but at least it's steady.

How about where you are, vgkg?

Just a few sprinkles here today Cindy, so little that I could finish off planting my tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and cantaloupe transplants without really getting wet. Only thing to plant now are the watermelons to finish off the garden jigsaw puzzle. More corn and late tomatoes will be down the road a bit. Mid-80s are predicted for all next week with scant rain in the forecast.

Picked, blanched, and froze the first broccoli heads. Also had a nice multi-variety of lettuce in our shrimp salad last night, hope the coming heat doesn't bitter it up, got more late lettuces coming along too. Saw the first pea blooms today and the 2 cheatin' tomato plants are also in bloom. Will need to thin out the pear trees soon, no sign of fire blight so far...

vgkg - Are you going to start the thread for May?

That's a good idea Cindy, I just popped in to post some pics from today but I'll post them in the new May thread....