RD I'm curious why you choose growing that many plants in pots apposed to in-ground and/or raised beds. I ask because I find feeding and watering pots require more time and attention to detail to avoid over/under doing it.

Klem, I grow mostly tomato, potato and pepper plants (although I have most everything in containers this year-except squash which doesn't grow well in pots) in containers because I can control exactly how much water and fertilizer each plant receives. I usually get more tomatoes growing in pots versus in the ground. There is more watering involved, but not much more and you don't waste water on things you don't want to grow. I started growing in containers in about 1980 and have used both methods over the years. Growing too many tomato plants for a good rotation system, also has steered me towards containers.

Never thought of it like that,thanks.

It's raining! And we really need it. Have had over an inch already. It's perfect timing as yesterday I planted sweet corn and Roma bean seeds.

It is chilly out there though. Only 54 degrees.

Lovely day. Got the first chunk of the front yard cleared and mown. Garden bed borders weed whacked. Planted in cukes, melons, and some flowers. Gotta work tomorrow, but will get the other chunk of the yard cleared and mowed up on Monday. With all the sun I think we got in about as much for the first mow out that we could. Got a fine crop of dandelions at seed in the lawn that got scattered, I think we might have a good spread year :)

We needed this rain here too Cindy and last night hit the jackpot with 2 inches. More to come over the week ahead too. I planted corn plot #2 yesterday and will plant out the watermelon transplants once the wet soil becomes workable. The watermelons will be the last piece of the garden jigsaw puzzle to put into place other than more late corn and a few late tomato plants to extend the fall harvest.

So, I'm slowly getting things planted. This week and next will be the major push. But I've already accomplished one annual event: Falling off my garden stool (a milk crate). The usual "I can reach just a little bit more to the side ..." :)

Lost 18 tomatoes to fruit worms so far. Applied neem oil, but will likely have to still harvest tomatoes at first blush.

Purple bell peppers in the middle

Thai peppers

Temp will hit 91F & very humid today so staying inside for the most part. It was reported that April was the hottest worldwide April on record. A cooling trend back to the 70's will take place here starting tomorrow for several days so the lettuces will like that. My broccoli plants have passed their peak production so I composted them yesterday, meanwhile the cabbages are heading up and should be ready in about 2 weeks. The Peas will be pickable by this weekend too. Started thinning out the pears, many are malformed so they had to go but there's plenty of good ones left. More rain/storms expected before dawn tomorrow and later in the afternoon too.

I was quite an angry person this morning, and needed some constructive destruction. Two garden beds completely stripped of all weeds and clean. After that I felt much better as I planted in a bunch of borage and peppers. I thinned out the bulb fennel and culled down the bronze fennel. Celery needs it's first cutting, but I wanted to wait till after the rain tomorrow so it's nicely juiced up. The sea kale is in beautiful bloom, and a few other brassicas are almost done blooming and some starting to seed. Snapdragons and dianthus self-sowns are looking plush and starting to bud up for blooms.

I seriously need to weed the kennel beds. The garlic should get fed, the empty greens slots filled... waiting on a container of miners lettuce to finish going to seed for that. Beans are almost ready to get transplanted in.

I also need to get the last wall up on the potato bins so I can put the last leaf pack in. Dang things are growing like crazy in the good weather we have been having. Most of the greenhouse caps are now stored away, got one more to take down and stow. Been leaving the mini-greenhouses up because of all the rain, wanted to keep the little pots from drowning. Now a couple of them are empty, and on to one more before I can finish the summer setup for the container garden.

Busy day for me. I planted the second planting of green beans and the third planting of sweet corn. I moved the dirt around the potatoes and just made a sweet potato ridge...hope to get it set out today.

Oh man RD, you making me sad. My tomato is still just a little plant, sigh. I'll have to make do with some greens :)

Been making mulch while the sun shines. Almost didn't catch it in time because of the rain timings. But three beds full mulched down. They didn't get any love last rounds last season, so got the first one this year. Now it's time to weed whack in the shade, enough sun for one morning.

The most brutal hailstorm with wind gusts up to 70 mph and 2.5 inches of rain slammed into my backyard. Lost 26 big tomatoes and about 45 cherry tomatoes. A few of them I can still use for fried green tomatoes-some are just shattered-3 plants got beat into the ground- 25-30 have broken tops or limbs. The squash plants are demolished. Still fighting fruit worms which manage to hide from me until a tomato starts to blush. I am going to have some kind of greenhouse next year-even if it is a cheap one

So sorry for your hail & wind storm damage RD, we got hit by a brutal hail about 5 years ago but it's amazing just how quickly most plants can recover and re-grow. I just now came in from the garden and overnight we also got 2.5" of rain but thankfully no wind or hail damage. Hope that you see robust plant improvement over the next few days and that your home didn't suffer any damage.

So far I have gotten about ¾ inch of rain. I am glad I didn't get 2½ inches.

Oh no RD... that's a good chunk of your garden down. I was sad with envy because your tomatoes looked so yummy. Now I'm sad for your storm damage.

Thanks for your sympathy vgkg and beesneeds. I actually feel lucky because the hail was about the size of 2 or 3 golf balls each and some of them just shattered the tomatoes not to mention pounding the house-sounded like someone was on the roof with a jackhammer

I was able to get my first three tomato plants in the ground yesterday. I planted my favorite sauce/canning tomato - Wessel's Purple Pride. Hope to put in another 21 other varieties for a total of 24 this season.

We got another 3/4" of rain today and there's no threat of drought this Spring. The peas are coming in daily now as we stock up the freezer. The lettuces are still doing well during this wet/cool period, the 80's will return next week. The carrots and beets are ready for their first picking once things dry out a bit. My 2 cheatin' tomato plants have set many marbles size fruits while the later plants are just beginning to bloom. RD I hope that you and any other forum members in Tx were not close to Houston during that major storm.

My sister lives near Katy-right in the path of the storms. Her power is off, so she had been here since Friday. Supposed to be back on by Monday. My niece’s power is also still off. Hopefully it will all get sorted out on Monday

The EVIL

Added 8 more tomatoes-should have some good hot sauce in about 20 more minutes

Whew, almost Hot here today, hope your garden is recovering ok RD. Tomorrow I will pick the first carrots, beets, and cabbages, plus the final picking of the peas before I plant some corn in their place. The early lettuce has peaked out in this heat and the later lettuces are doing ok so far. The squash, cucumbers, and bush beans are close to blooming now.

The cantaloupes and sweet potatoes are starting to spread out while the watermelons are just getting started. Will be starting some late tomato seeds soon to extend the crop. Thinned out some more pears and luckily there is no sign of Fire Blight so far. Got a decent crop of apples going although one tree is hit hard by cedar rust. The blueberries are starting to turn blue a little bit, it's time to hang my scary stuffed animals in those bushes.

My little greenhouse took the worst hits of the recent hailstorm-there are about 20 holes in the roof-will have to buy 3 or 4 new clear panels to repair it. All of the strawberry plants that were in there survived with minimal damage. Getting about 30-50 cherry (mostly honeycomb) tomatoes, 5-10 strawberries (somewhat disappointing) and about 10 blackberries a day now. Got a new owl decoy and mounted it near the main tomato plants-will take a picture the next time I get a good harvest (probably tomatoes as my squash is already just about gone).

Doesn't owl decoys attract crows that have been known to destroy gardens?

No crows around here klem1, maybe some grackles. There is a huge Ferruginous hawk that hangs out near my backyard-so he is my backup. I have seen a few grackles chase after him, but he just dive bombs into and through a tree and loses them.

As I type we're getting one heck of a downpour, about 1.25" in the past 30 minutes. Thankfully no high wind, no intense lightning, and no hail, just heavy rain and some bolts here and there, hopefully mostly there, nyuk. But we needed the rain now, I just planted the first half of the pea trellis with Ambrosia corn and am glad I held off on watering it.

Starting to harvest tomatoes. Have had a couple fresh (uncooked) sauces using the Sun Golds. Another tonight. Tomorrow the first beefsteaks, Cherokee Carbon, will be ripe enough to put on burgers. Looking forward to that.

Growing long beans for the first time this year. I can't believe how fast they grow. Just the other day they were only half this size.

Hooee, had hella flu- or whatever it is making a last round of the schools before it's summer. Took me out of some prime gardening days, heh.

But it's been adventure gardening out back. Got the new blades on the mower, so the yard acres got mowed and nice to test the blades out. Then it was out back for the trails. Hadn't done the spring cut and it was almost hard to tell where the paths get mowed in. This morning we did brush cut backs and mowed in a couple new paths. Found and marked a couple new apples- probably crabapples, but those are good to leave up for the critters. The blackberries were banks of fading white, and starting to form up well. Other wilds are looking plush, and some need harvesting.

In the kitchen garden.. bed needs weeding, and I got a couple more chunks of thyme to move. The potato bins are starting to flower. Parsley is starting to flower, so put in some fresh seed today before the rain comes. Miners lettuce is slowly being harvested of seed. Carrots and corn salad are looking good. Tomato and summer squash are growing well.

Out in the beds. Beans and most of the melons are looking good. I think I lost one of the melons. Garlic is plush. Most of the greens have passed bloom and have fat seed heads forming. I'm extra happy about the sea kale. It's a perennial, and I want to get it to spread. After it rains I will take a celery and bulb fennel harvest. I'm disappointed in the peppers, they are struggling. I'm going to need to feed them this summer. And plan on a deep compost this fall with a feeding fallow year next year. That's ok, I've got another bed coming off fallow this year.

We had some very noisy t-storms last night though not that much rain. At least it cooled things off. This coming week looks very comfortable.

Mariana’s Peace (This one is for John) and Cherokee Purple

The only thing ready to eat here is asparagus and the lettuces/mizuna/spinach in my covered raised beds:

This is a red romaine called Merlot, I think it's pretty enough to be ornamental. I have planted some more but it has just come up.

Annie

Finally got a one pounder

This one hid in the tomato after I picked it-so evil

Some pics from this morning..........

Squash in bloom

Cantaloupes on the crawl...

Carrot & Beets....to be harvested soon to allow the nearby watermelons to sprawl...

Those young watermelon plants...

...more pics....

One cheatin' tomato plant

Bush beans....

Early Corn, close to showing a peek of tassle....

2nd Corn planting...

Blueberries blueing up....

From bottom to top-Cherokee Purple-Dark Star-Large Barred Boar.

and the winner is: a virtual tie between Cherokee Purple and Dark Star-if I had to pick one would have to go with Dark Star ( even though I thought beforehand that CP would be the best-although that was a really small CP).

White potatoes

Thai

Supposed to be Chocolate Stripes

Black Beauty

Only have 2 more squash left

And the winner is: This is a close one between the last 2, but i have to go with Creole

Hey Richard, June has sneaked in on us! As Hank sang: "Move it on over"...to the June thread. Nice tomatoes, and I hope you are feeling ok. Lea

Thanks Lea, I am doing okay, how are you? Do you know where the June thread is located?

Here ya go RD > June : https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6448854/veggie-tales-june-2024#n=7

After sweltering in yesterday's heat & humidity here I wish it was still May ;-)