Green thumb is itching, anyone else? - Page 57

Have the worse case of spring fever I have ever had this year! Have been working the gardens every day since February (I lve in Fl) Yesterday we harvested 3 huge spagetti squash and some green peppers and cucumbers. Have 50+ tomato plants will be canning all summer I am sure. I did the back to Eden gardens this year (aka-Lasagna,sheet mulch) and I am very happy with my results, added 2 more compost bins to my yard (can't make it fast enough) and 2 more rain barrels. I have been "scratching" that itchin green thumb for 3 months and its still itchy! Good luck with your garden endevors!

Hopefully we have had our last frost for the season.

 

Earlier this week I had to cover my 12 tomato plants up.

 

I had some heavy number 10 brace wire, used on corner and brace post in fencing and made hoops out of it to place over the top of the plants.

 

I had a 50 ' roll of 3' landscaping fabric, which I then roll out of the top of the plants and use the staples to secure it to the hills.

 

The next morning, I just removed the staples and rolled the fabric back up.

 

Plants survived the frost with no problems.

Up in the raised beds:  White and red beets, rainbow carrots, leeks (lots of them), radish, cukes, peas, beans, corriander, dill, kolhrabi, and some other things I forgot to mark and forgot what I planted, lol!!
 

 

 

Over the years I have learned  that waiting until at least four weeks after the last (expected) frost to plant warm weather veggies cuts down on pests and disease. And that most squash as well as peppers, tomatoes and eggplant won't grow until the soil is at least 60 degrees anyway.  Peas,lettuce and other greens can be planted in late winter, though I find that I lose lots of that first letuce crop to bugs and slugs.

 

Peas add nitrogen to the soil and tomatoes need plent of nitrogen. My peas are setting flowers now. I usually plant the tomatoes at the end of May into  the snow pea patch when I am about done getting peas.

 

 

Edited by aggiemae - 4/29/12 at 6:15pm

I started my own tomatoes for the first time this year. It was so unseasonably warm this spring that I put some out and they promptly got frostbite. So, I put the rest out a couple weeks later (right on our typical last frost date of April 15). Five days later THEY got frostbite and are barely hanging on now lol. The rest of the garden is doing great though!

Spent yesterday planting 2 types of bush beans ,arugula, radishs and shiso ( a Japanese green) never planted it before .I went out last night to lock up my girls and my little rumpless black NN  and her sister were still out. It was very unusual. Beaky, the black one was staring into my vegetable garden and making very strange noises. couldn't get her to budge I finally realized it was a little bunny she was trying to scare off.Even the bunny wasn't afraid of her. She is the runt of the group. No wonder I named her after the buzzard in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.She's my new little garden watchdog.

I remember last year one day I was checking on the garden, but we had just came back from church & I hadn't changed in to my shorts yet. i was still in a long pinky skirt that I loved. So I was checking the carrots & I hear russling. All of a sodden a little brown rabbit shot out & ran under my skirt! It sat on my feet!!!!!!! It was so cute! I had to pick it up & put him in the bushes. Cutest thing eva!!!!!!!!!! 

I have voles in one row of my strawberries.

 

I first thought that it was rabbits, but I found a burrow in the hill.

 

The war is on.

I am in Ohio-I picked (and ATE! ) my first strawberry yesterday! They are usually ready at the end of May!

I picked a handful last week and they were just wonderful.