Young Watermelon seedlings...

5 Squash plants, a mix of Yellow SN and Zukes....

Sweet Potatoes Slips taking hold.....the random tall plants are bolted spinach left to bloom and attract pollinators. They will also act as a trap crop for cuke bettles that love the spinach pollen.

Here's early and late asst Lettuces....with Cuke plants on the other side of the trellis...

...more to follow....

Extra early corn (Ambrosia), will thin out later today....

My 2 cheatin' Tomato plants..........

Some younger Tomato Plants..........

A couple of young Pepper plants (sweet banana)

...one more time.........

Peas now in bloom........late Corn will follow these....

Pears, which need thinning.......

...and lastly the Blueberries....might start picking them in a week or so...

Getting wiped out by caterpillars this year-have lost about 20 tomatoes so far-will have to start picking them at first blush from now on. Kaolin clay works pretty good but it constantly clogs up my sprayer no matter how I try to mix it.

Caterpillar damage? No excuse. Bt rocks.

May 1st my Asparagus started coming up and our first fresh meal of the year, grilled of course. Since then I picked a total of 11 lbs giving away 7 lbs of it, with 2 lbs sitting in the frig. I Didn't pick any last year and let the patch go even tilling under 3 of my 8 rows, It was just to much and because of a family crisis I just couldn't maintain it.

The population of the asparagus beetles exploded last year and then came the Japanese beetles both doing some serious damage to the foliage and the health of my plants, then the weeds took over. Now I'm in damage control attacking the beetles before they can hatch another generation and fighting the creeping charlie. I worked hard keeping it out of the 40' x 40' patch but in one year to took over fast. But for us it's just another day in the garden, one issue after another.

I know how you feel Kevin, its bad enough fighting the critters off the crop but the insects are a nightmare. My squash has already stopped producing, the rattlesnake pole beans got ravaged, and some of my pepper plants look pretty rough. Should have reapplied the neem oil and Kaolin clay after the rains, but it was every day for a while there.

My #1 pest so far this season are the cabbage loopers. My neighbors probably get a good chuckle as I chase the white butterfies/moths around the garden with a spray bottle. I hand pick the loopers off of the cabbages and broccoli plants at least twice a day before they do real damage. Harvested 4 large broccoli crowns this morning, wll add another 4 tomorrow to blanch and freeze. There have also been a few bean beetles pestering the row of bush beans but very little damage thus far. The rest of the assorted buggers are just now waking up here, waiting for the cuke & flea beetles to show up for the party.

HAHA! Did that with a long minnow net and spray bottles too, and I'm sure anyone who saw me got a good chuckle.

I took care of the white butterflies and loopers this year with a hoop tunnel and insect mesh. $24 got me enough hoops to cover a 25' row and $11 for a 10'x33' mesh off Amazon and very really happy with it. Should of done it many years ago.

We picked, blanched, and froze a batch of Broccoli this morning. This pile amounts to 22 servings...

I've been busy lately planting butternut squash, zucchini, decorative pumpkins and gourds, zinnias, cockscomb, making a ridge and setting sweet potato plants, hilling the spring potatoes, setting out tomatoes and peppers, and thinning shirley poppies and peaches...lots more of peach thinning...thicker than hops. I got the two remaining 242 lima beans rows tilled ever so nice and got one of the two planted, but got rained out, aww....strawberries need the rain though.

Wonder Peppers

Ghost peppers

Poblano peppers

Rattlesnake beans

Richard, I'm way behind you. All my plants except the onions and leeks are still in my little greenhouse. Today's weather is high of 58F and low of 38F. It's going to be that way all week, so I'll put up the bean towers, run the sprinkler hoses, probably put the cabbages and such in the ground. No tomatoes/peppers/eggplant/okra will go out until at least next week when it's finally supposed to hit the high 60s and low 70s. Spring is slow in coming this year.

I already have buds on a couple of the pepper plants, so it had better warm up pretty soon!

Annie

Annie,

Try to start as early as possible around here as the 100 degree days make it very hard to grow in July-September. It has already hit 99-100 several days in May. My squash has completely stopped producing and my watermelons are about 1/3 of the size of a lemon. Need to set up a sprinkler system like you describe. I bought a little greenhouse (Canvas-tent like)-need to assemble it to see if it will provide enough protection from the sun. The Kaolin clay does provide very good protection for the tomatoes and peppers but it is almost impossible to get it mixed and flowable through the sprayers I have-need to find one that won’t clog up constantly.

What type of greenhouse do you have?

Actually, July-September here are perfect for peppers, squash, and melons, and Armenian cukes as well. Do have to water properly, but they love heat. Tomatoes are DONE producing in June. Shade in high temps is good for my chard and collards.

Richard, I just have a little homemade greenhouse made of a 2x4 frame with two cattle panels curved over, covered with greenhouse grade plastic. Window in one end and door on the other for ventilation, I'm still trying to figure out how to fasten it to the ground. Maybe those auger/anchor things...

Right now I do have carrots growing in an old horse watering trough that was rusting full of holes, some peas/green onions/spinach/lettuce in a small covered raised bed, and tomatoes/eggplant/peppers/sweet potatoes/flowers still in 3 inch pots. The potatoes have not yet sprouted and the onions and leeks seem happy in the garden but our high temperature tomorrow is 47F and Friday night the lows are in the mid to low 30s.

Maybe next week....

Annie

We're getting a good rain here this morning so a good time to post some pics from yesterday....

Bush Beans...

Carrots...

Squashes....

Extra early Corn (Ambrosia) I gambled on......it's getting close to tassling....

2nd Corn planting....

more to follow.....

Cucumbers....

Watermelon vines starting to spread....

Sweet Potatoes also starting to vine out....

Some young tomatoes...

Blueberries getting close....

Pears shaping up...had to deal with some fire blight and cedar rust but plenty are ok.

....one more time....

Lastly.......Here's a before pic (young Cantloupes next to Cabbages).....

Same as above after Cabbages were harvested, Cantaloupes will take over that space...

Fresh picked Peas ready to cook......

Rattlesnake beans and Chocolate Stripes

Yesterday we picked the last of the Peas so I composted their remains and I planted my 3rd batch of Corn along half of that trellis, will plant the 4th batch along the other half of that trellis in 3 weeks to give us a steady source of fresh corn-on-the cob through the summer. The extra early corn I planted is all showing tassels now so the ears should be popping out soon. We will be picking the first cukes and squash in the next day or two. The Bush beans are now blooming too. Had to pull up all the lettuces now that they have turned bitter, also in the compost pile.

I have two batches of corn in so far jumping the gun planting the first one early but they're growing.

Vgkg, you said the broccoli picked will be blanched and frozen. I should get a good harvest of broccoli this year so a question. When you thaw out the broccoli is it mushy? What can it be used for?

Hi Kevin, our blanched and frozen broccoli has never been mushy. We do like it soft so we'll cook it long enough so that it loses it's crunchiness, but not to the point of becoming mushy. Our freezer storage process goes like this :

- Cut up heads into servable sizes

- Heat up a huge pan of boiling water

- Dump the broccoli into the pan, blanch for only 5 minutes tops.

- Immediately transfer to a large colander with a cold water rinse.

- Dump broccoli into another large pan of ice water (we freeze extra ice for this process)

- Pack broccoli into Qt size ziploc baggies

- Place in the deep freezer (one with no defrost cycle)

- Use when needed, broccoli stays "fresh" for about 9+ months.
One time I tried a short cut and just cut it up and bagged it to freeze, not a good idea. The unblanched broccoli was a bit tough and had a grassy flavor.

Been usually consistently cool the last two weeks. Cloudy 62F-48F yesterday, up to 65F today. Still nights 48-55F. Many transplants are sulking, supposed to warm up next week. Pepper plants are growing well though, they don't seem to know about the dreaded "stunting" we are always warned about here. I will try to plant corn on Sunday, I thought it was too cool, hopefully will have time.

Pulled some Red Norland new potatoes from a grow bag this week, two months after planting. Purple Viking will be ready soon.

Chocolate Stripes-world’s best tasting tomato

I made a couple of the biggest wide mouth mason jars of hot sauce. Used some grano onions, bell peppers and jalapenos because my ghost peppers were not ripe yet. Also had lots of dried pepper powder (Thai and Serrano) that I used to spice it up. Will take a picture for the June thread.

I planted tomatoes, pepper and eggplant seedlings two days ago. Tonight I covered them all because we have a frost advisory. By Tuesday it will be in the high 80s. Sheesh.

I also planted the rest of my garden but nothing is up except potatoes and onions, so that's good.

Annie

I don’t know why I can’t see the June thread