New Season, New Strategies!

New strawberry plants have their first bloom.

 I tend to be a creature of habit with a lot of things and stick with what works. But I also love learning new things, so every spring becomes an opportunity to try something new and see what happens.

I got a late start on my vegetable garden last year, which never gives me great results. I got a lot of peas, cucumbers, zinnias, and the little yellow tomatoes that grow like weeds (literally and figuratively) in my garden, but not much else. Some of the older raised beds fell apart, and the weed trees proliferated a little more among the herbs.

Thankfully gardens are always willing to give second chances.

I started by giving two of my beds new borders. I found a source of discarded bricks, and made a quick and dirty stacked border. I didn’t put all the effort I put into last year’s project of giving the bricks a sand foundation and making sure the walls were even, I just put them in place. I think they call this look “rustic.”

After cleaning out the weeds and seeing what space I had left, I decided on what I wanted to grow this year. First, the old favorites: dwarf peas, Yukon Gold potatoes, ‘Jedi’ & Shishito peppers, ‘Muncher’ cucumbers, Bush beans, and assorted tomatoes. Then, I decided to retackle two vegetables I loved but always had difficulty with: bell peppers and zucchini. This year I’m subbing out bell peppers for ‘Lunchbox’ peppers. I also planted some new strawberries after my few-years-old plants didn't come back this spring.

Another experiment this year: mulch. I've thought about mulching for many years, but never quite got around to deciding how I wanted to do it. This year I decided to try wheat straw. In the course of researching growing tips for asparagus, strawberries, peppers and zucchini, I thought they would all benefit from the moisture retention and weed suppression of mulch. Since my peas got a late start, I hoped some mulch would cool the soil down and keep them happier. I also once got a tip in the hardware store from a fellow customer that beans love being mulched with wheat straw. The Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew also recommends preparing the soil with compost and fertilizer each fall and covering up the soil with mulch. I'm a little late for fall soil prep, but I went ahead and prepped and mulched everything a few weeks before planting.

After starting zucchinis indoors from seed I read that they prefer to be directly seeded outside. I carefully transplanted one outside this week, and I thought I would plant a second beside it next week. Hopefully one of them will be happy and take off. If they both die in the next few weeks, I have some extra seeds to plant.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying watching everything sprout up!

Potato sprouts

Asparagus in the garden

What a pest!

 As I was inspecting my garden this week, I noticed my pea plants were looking a little stressed. I wondered whether I had been watering them enough in the 96-degree weather we had been having.

My peas snuck up on me! They were just flowers a few days ago.

The plants look pretty good all told, but they could be better.

All in all, they were doing better than I imagined after getting a late start planting them. Peas love the cool, wet weather of early spring. A hot, dry week is not their thing. But something else was off.

After picking my first harvest of peas, I took a closer look. The mottled look of some of the green leaves told me leaf-sucking insects were around.

I flipped a few leaves over, and sure enough I had red spider mites. A quick Google told me that plants are more susceptible to damage from spider mites when they don’t get enough water, so in a sense I was right about the dry weather making them unhappy.

Pea leaf with several spider mites--some of the yellowed leaves had twice that many!

Now some people reach for the insecticide at this point, but instead I went to the Internet to see what one of the cooperative extension service publications said about managing red spider mites. One of the first suggestions was washing the leaves, which is an old trick that I remember my grandfather used (he was a Master Gardener). It doesn’t kill them, but it temporarily removes them, makes it harder to stick around, and puts them where ground predators can reach them. At least it made me feel better.

The same leaf after spraying the mites off with a hose.

Overall, though, my garden has been doing fairly well this week. The zinnias sprouted, my cucumbers are getting huge, my potatoes are looking healthy, and I have my first baby tomato.

Zinnia seedlings

Little baby cherry tomato

I think my cucumber vines doubled in height in the past week.

Signs of life

 May and June are definitely the fun part of having a vegetable garden for me. The weather isn’t too hot yet, and every day I see new growth. In a few weeks I’ll start harvesting. At the moment I’m just enjoying how lovely my garden looks and getting excited about baby veggies. In addition to being tasty, the pea vines in particular have such pretty flowers.

'Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea Pod' bloom

Baby 'Burpless' cucumber with flower

Chives have such pretty flowers, too.

I’m pretty much done planting, but it’s not so hot yet that I can’t plant more if I want to. Once a week or so I’ll find an empty pot or some room in the dirt and plant something. I used to map out my garden plan and planting schedule ahead of time, but in the last few years I've found joy in letting my vegetable garden develop more "organically," so to speak. There are always leftover seeds around my house, or plants calling my name at my favorite local garden centers. I don't know whether I'll end up being busy one weekend, so I plant whatever I think will grow in the time I have.

Left to right: Peas, carrots, strawberries, and cucumbers (plus a mystery plant, probably pumpkin, that volunteered itself in the middle of the cucumbers)

Left to right: tomatoes (which you can barely see under the potatoes), potatoes, asparagus

This past week I planted some old zinnia seeds between the cucumbers and the strawberries. The week before I planted more scarlet runner bean seeds to accompany the one that survived from last year. The beans are loving this heat, and the last one emerged yesterday. The jalapeño likes the heat as well—I planted seeds a month ago, and the one that germinated finally has true leaves. I should plant more in another pot.

'NuMex Lemon Spice' jalapeno seedling

Scarlet runner bean seedling

It's planting time!

 The warm weather is finally here! It took right up until April 20 for temperatures to stay consistently over 55 (which many warm-season veggies prefer), but it happened. Highs are in the mid 80s now, and things are starting to grow like crazy! The irises and roses started blooming this week, the potatoes have grown a foot, the strawberries are covered in fruit, and even the carrots are starting to show signs of life.

Iris on Easter

All the potatoes had emerged by last weekend, and they have at least doubled in size since then. I'm experimenting with a slightly new growing technique this year. Potatoes prefer to be covered up with soil, a couple inches at a time, as they grow. You start when they're 6 inches tall, give or take, so you never cover more than half the stem at a time. With the potatoes in my grow bag, it's easy--I just add a little potting soil every week. With potatoes in the ground, it can be a little more complicated. The last couple of years I dug a trench and then just slowly filled the trench back in as the potatoes grew. The problem is all of that dirt has to go somewhere for a month (or more), so before I left it just beside the potatoes. It ends up taking a row all by itself, so then I couldn't plant anything there until I was done moving the dirt. It seemed like an inefficient use of space in my little 4' x 4' raised beds. This year I made a very shallow trench, so the leftover dirt got pushed into the trench last week after they all sprouted. From here on out, I plan on just mounding up compost from my compost bin. It has some nutrients, but it's not super high in nitrogen, and it drains well. It sounds like a good idea in theory!

I took this last weekend. The potatoes are at least twice as large now. Tomatoes on the left.

Last weekend I planted two tomato plants: a 'Celebrity' and a 'Husky Cherry.' The guy at the local hardware store recommended them. I have another two tomato plants a friend gave me, but they looked a little too small to stick in the ground just yet. This weekend I planted four 'Burpless' cucumber plants that I found at my favorite garden center. I had so much luck with cucumbers last year, I can't wait to grow them again. This is a slightly different variety, but I have high hopes.

Left to right: peas, teeny tiny carrot seedlings, strawberries, cucumbers.

The carrots are struggling, but the peas are thriving in spite of the four-legged invaders. You'll notice all my beds have short fencing around them this year. That's to keep my dog out. Last weekend one side had string trellis netting tied to a frame instead of fencing. Well, a cat decided to relieve himself in the row I planted my carrots, so he dug up at least 1 or 2 seedlings. THEN my dog decided he just HAD to go in there, too. He barged right through my trellis netting, walked all over my peas and carrots, and walked out completely tangled up in my netting. Pretty sure he ate my almost-perfect strawberry while he was in there, too. Now there is fencing on all four sides. It doesn't keep the cat out, but it discourages the dog. I think I have 4 carrot seedlings now.

"Who me?"

The strawberries look happy this year.

One of last year's experiments has turned out better than I hoped. I planted scarlet runner bean seeds. Scarlet runner beans are actually a perennial, but they don't like the frost. One of the 5 I planted survived the neglect of late summer and fall, died back in the winter, but re-emerged this spring looking better than ever!

Speaking of tropical plants, one of last year's planters got a little makeover. The pineapple sage from last year survived, so I bought a new COLD HARDY banana plant to go with it ('Busjoo')! I added a lime balm plant that's been living in a tiny pot since a friend gave it to me a couple of years ago, and a new spearmint plant. I feel like it's a whole tropical island or fruit salad in a pot.

Also, because I've gotten really into impulse purchases for my vegetable garden the past couple of years, I bought some new experimental jalapeno seeds called 'NuMex Lemon Spice.' They look cheerful, and I love anything citrus. I think they would be really good pickled. Since I didn't get any peppers started early this year, I just planted them in a pot outside. *Fingers crossed*

Thanks for reading along this far! I'll have more pretty photos for you next time.

Waiting for growth

 Some years we’re planting tomatoes right now, but we got a cool snap this weekend with lows in the 30s and 40s. It didn’t get much above 60 yesterday! I don’t mind it, since my late-planted cool-season veggies need it to get established.

Peas two weeks after planting

I planted everything about 2 weeks ago. The peas are off to a quick start and look quite happy. The carrots look like maybe 3 have germinated, but the seedlings are so tiny, it’s hard to tell if they’re carrots or just weeds. There are a could of odd impressions in the soil, perhaps the shape of a cat butt, right in my carrot row. I hope they don’t ruin the seeds I planted there. Carrots take forever to germinate (the seed packet says up to 25 days), so I’ll find out in another week or so whether my seeds are going to make it.

Out of the 21 chunks of potato I planted, 6 have sprouted so far. I hope to see the rest emerge this week. Before I plant my potatoes I always cut the chunks up and leave them sitting out a day or so. It’s supposed to reduce rotting by letting the cut sides form a callous before planting. Well, this time I didn’t get around to planting them right away, and they were sitting out around a week waiting to be planted. It's not ideal, but I think most of them should still make it.

Potato sprout

My asparagus started coming up a week ago! I cut enough for maybe one serving and gave it to my mother for her enjoyment while I was visiting. It's so cute when it starts emerging, I always aspire to take beautiful pictures of asparagus coming out of the dirt, but I can't ever seem to get a picture of it in focus. That's a photography skill I can work on. Last year it seemed like the asparagus only came up one or two two stalks at a time, never enough to eat. Hopefully I'll get plenty of asparagus this year--and plenty of practice photographing it. 

Some books say you should actually wait until April 20 to plant heat-loving veggies like tomatoes and peppers in our area. The forecast right now shows another cool snap possibly coming through April 17, so I'll probably follow that advice this year. Besides, I'm happy to have a little extra spring to enjoy my garden before we jump into summer.

Better late then never

 After two stellar years of vegetable gardening, I’ve gotten off to a late start this year. Between work and family I barely thought about planting anything until last week. I got my husband to pick up seed potatoes while he was at the hardware store a couple of weeks ago, so at least they would be here if I found time. It’s a couple weeks later than I normally plant (and a few weeks later than I always mean to plant), but they should do okay. I cut up the potatoes around a week ago and planted some in the grow bag a few days ago. The rest went in the ground today with a little compost from my compost bin and some fertilizer.

I also planted some ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea Pod’ peas and a row of 'Carnival Blend' carrots. It’s waay later than when I planted peas last year (mid-February), but they were one of my favorite things in my garden last year. I decided it was worth the risk. I think we’re at the tail end of when they can be planted here in Middle Georgia. The carrots, too, are pretty much at the end of when they can be planted in spring. I didn't have much luck with carrots when I tried growing them in the fall years ago, but my mother-in-law had some success last year, which gives me confidence to try again. The 'Carnival Blend' seeds were actually a serendipitous birthday gift from my godmother last summer, so I was eager to plant them. I was so afraid the tiny seeds would wash away, I watered them carefully with a tiny spray bottle instead of drowning them with the hose. According to my blog, my mistake last time was not watering them one week, so I think I'll work on hooking them up with some drip irrigation in a couple of weeks.

I have a new garden companion this year! His name is Buddy. We adopted him in August, so this is our first spring together. He’s still learning how to be a garden dog. I’m hoping he’ll make our yard less inviting to voles. He loves to “hunt,” but he’s not very good at it.

Goodbye frost, hello veggies!

If you look up when to when plant summer vegetables like beans, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, it will usually say something like "after all danger of frost has passed" or "2 weeks past your last frost date." Many gardeners eagerly start planting as soon as the plants start showing up at their local garden center, and are simply willing to cover them if temperatures dip below 40 again. Others point out that heat-loving plants like peppers and cucumbers do best when nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees, so it would be best to plant 2 weeks after your average last frost date. as a rule of thumb.

I fall somewhere between those two camps.

Here in Middle Georgia, heat can be as much of an enemy of plants as cold, even for tomatoes. Last weekend was our first weekend after our "last frost date," and the forecast said we would have a couple of mild rainy days before temperatures jumped into the 80s. (Also, I sort of had the itch to plant things.) So I went ahead and planted transplanted a few of my healthiest-looking seedlings.

It turned out to be a mix. Some of the seedlings I pulled had enough roots for transplanting, but some didn't. I already pulled them out of the soil, though, so into the ground they went. At least I planted extras of everything, so if one dies, I'll just replace it. Ideally, though, you want your seedlings to have lots of roots, which usually comes after it's gotten a few leaves.

I planted tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The tomatoes and peppers went into the brick bed I built last month. I had built it nice and tall, so I filled it in with a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost before planting the tomatoes and peppers. The compost will provide nutrients for my new plants for now. The cucumbers went into an older bed, so I mixed in some organic fertilizer before planting and mulched with a little Black Kow composted manure for good measure.

Potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and my one 5-year-old strawberry plant

Tomato seedling

Cucumbers and fertilizer

This is my first time trying to grow cucumbers, but from everything I read, it seemed like they're easiest to grow vertically. I spaced them a foot apart, and then tried to figure out what to use for a trellis. I looked at several different things online before I decided I would just use some extra trellises I had at home. I don't know if they're tall enough, but at least they're free. As an added bonus, my trellis would also help me contain my asparagus shoots that were flopping everywhere. Now I feel fancy!

Peas, cucumbers, and asparagus

In the excitement of trying to figure out what to use for a trellis, I think I forgot to water in my cucumber seedlings after planting. Even though the soil was damp from recent rain, and scattered showers were forecasted that day, it wasn't enough. By the next day, my cucumbers looked just about dead.

I gave them a good soaking, and then babied them with water twice a day when temperatures jumped into the high 80s a couple of days later. They don't look like the healthiest specimens, but they're still alive at least. I'm thinking once they get established they'll grow new leaves and look just fine.

I also planted zinnia seeds this past week! Last year I planted some zinnia seedlings a friend gave me outside my window, and I was pleasantly surprised to see hummingbirds feeding on them. I'm planting even more this year just for the hummingbirds.

Of course, the only thing you can count on in Middle Georgia is that the weather will change... After a couple of hot days, the weather turned a little cooler again. The lows even threaten to jump down to 39 this week! At least my peas and potatoes are happy. I'll just bring my seedlings back inside for a couple of days if it turns out to get that cold.

Enjoy this weather while you can!

My roses certainly like this weather.