Hey, May! I pretty much lost track of April, heh. The miners lettuce has fed us well, and is now in blossom. I'm keeping an eye on for when it goes to seed, I need to collect this year. The caps are off most of the kitchen containers- taters, spring garlic, and greens are doing well. Still got caps over some bins and stuff in the mini greenhouse. We were pretty warm, but now we have been hitting some light frost to fridge temps overnight. I've held off on cleaning up the ground beds, and I'm glad I did.

Wild chive harvest went well. Got a couple half gallon jars full of dehydrated chives :)

Lots of rain helping to refill aquifers that need it. And making a lot of the lawn too soggy to cut. Grass is high and the dandelions have finally spread their seed all over so starting some cutting today.

Finally took some pics, it's gonna be a Hot 4 daze ahead, still dry as a bone and need a soaker rain.

Blueberries almost there...

Cabbages and Broccoli ....

Close up of Broccoli...

Picking Peas now....

Carrots, should be ready soon...

...more....

Short row of Bush Beans...

Young Cukes to shade the late Lettuces....

Tomatoes hiding in there....

Lastly the Pears....

You're too kind Kevin, I recall seeing past pics of your garden and you're the real farmer here. I admire your research into various scientific plant/growing studies and the good info you have gained and used. As for my garden, it has shrunk by 70% over the years and a bit gets whittled off with passing each year, it shrinks like me, but I haven't hit 70% yet, nyuk.

I have to admit the broccoli is going gangbusters this season after a rocky start. I was worried about buttoning up issues with the earlier crazy swings in temps here but all went well. Tomorrow morning I'll harvest all 8 heads to blanch and freeze, which should give me & VgQn about 20 meals of side dishes until I plant broccoli again in late Aug for a Nov harvest.

I've not had hollow stem issues but have had buttoning up which may have more to do with buying old transplants. This year I did plant the cabbages and broccoli in a new area which probably made a difference, the cabbages are looking good too. I use Espoma brand "Gardentone" with a little wood ashes mixed in as fert, plus my homemade compost is also mixed into the soil, all worked in about 3 weeks prior to planting the transplants.

Once I pick the broccoli heads tomorrow I'll try to remember to post a pic before blanching. After their harvest I'll yank out the plants to make room for the soon to expand watermelon vines, they'll like the heat that's coming up this week, Too Hot for me! There's a another promise of rain on Thurs/Fri...we'll see? If it weren't for our deep well the broccoli would look pathetic. Hope you have a good growing season Kevin.

Just now wrapped up blanching the broccoli, 8 heads =18 servings for 2.

Raining here. A large storm went through this area. No wind damage and am thankful that I did not get flooding rain. I picked some nice Galletta strawberries today. In about 30 years of raising strawberries I have never had a bad attack on them until this year. Had to put up an electric fence...probably raccoon.

Early corn is about a foot tall and have had difficulty getting the next planting in and up. Things are doing well. I had to mix some red pepper in water and spray broccoli/cauliflower, lettuce, and glad plants as pesky rabbit likes them...needs relearned yearly. It also likes clover leaves and I have some volunteers around.

Planting late tomato seed tomorrow and need to set out watermelon and cantaloupe plants as soon as it's dry enough. I didn't set them out before the rain as they do not like being soggy. After they get their roots established, they can handle things better. Been picking Colorado potato Beetles off the early potatoes. Sweet potatoes are set and looking good...3 varieties.

Havent had time for the garden for days, and on the days I got time for, the weather has been against me. Ain't spring grand, lol.

But I did get the kitchen garden bins reset. A trio that were the spring lettuce now has cucumber plants in it. And the arch is set up for them to grow up on. I'm trying some Roma bush beans this year, and got those into their bins. Spring garlic is about a week or two from starting to pull, which is good. I went a little overboard on the sweet peppers at the garden center and need a couple extra spots for them.

I seriously need to get some stuff in the ground in the open garden beds. Keeping my fingers crossed for good weather this week, sigh.

We did get the first mow on the yard proper done. I got the back meadow knocked down too- it needed it since we didn't do it last year. The couple miles of trails out back got their first mow. The big wild blackberry patch we went through and did some adventure gardening and cleanup- and now it has it's path cut back open again. The open section of highbush blueberries got their cleanup too and all the scrubby weedy tree bits were removed from around them.

Ok, got something done out there. The kennel beds have been cleaned up. Beans seeded, some pretty flowers planted. Got the bunching onions in the ground- and they took up less space than I anticipated. So I got a wee spot to do something with. The four big tomatoes got put in. I'm trying the bottomless bucket this year to help with moisture and feeding control. Got some dill and basil seed scattered, the first dill starts planted. And then we had a little overnight rain.

Harvesting lettuce daily. And though I thought the spring garlic was a couple weeks out... I pulled a couple clumps and they were fat enough to chop up and add to a stir fry :)

I met the 4 beetles today, cuke, bean, flea, and potato, not exactly the Fab 4, nyuk. These little buggers were munching on asst veggie plants so I'm glad that I caught them early before much damage was done. Picked the last of the Peas today and have a well-stocked freezer now, will yank out the old peas and plant late Corn behind them later this week. We did get a good 1" of rain over the past 3 days and more to come over the next 3 days, maybe another 2" if we're lucky. It's a good dent in the drought and it saved many local farmers from disaster, but more is needed since we're about 7" behind. The Squash and Bush Beans are now in bloom. Will be harvesting our first Cabbages and Carrots this week, along with more Beets and Lettuces. Tomatoes looking good, maybe pick the first one in 2 weeks.

We got hit with 4 inches of rain yesterday so that's 5" total so far, the ground soaked it up ok. More is expected over the next 2 days. Feast or famine when it comes to rain.