Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:
Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

some people like the greens. (wonder how
Derald is doing down there in FL with all the
recent rains...?)

He's getting very little of the rain. None of it that caused the
recent flooding in the panhandle A whopping 0.4" overnight.

hope things have improved? we're doing ok
on some rain, but light rain and very scattered.
frosts still here or there. not much warmth but
perhaps that will change this week as we might
break into the 70sF.

Two or three cloudy, drizzly, "wintry" days gifted us with slightly
more than one inch; none since. Nighttime temps are mid-60's and
daytime in mid-high 80's. As I've mentioned in the past, "spring" down
here is about ten days in February or March.

sometimes ours seem that ways too.

i should not have spoken about scattered and
light rain as pretty much then things changed
and we've had plenty of rain. woken up again
from thunder/lightning.

for some reason i keep thinking the weather
forecasts are going to be reasonably right
several days in advance and then foolishly
make plans around that... good thing nothing
really depends upon me getting stuff done on
certain days.


The English peas are having a time of it: They indubitably do not
prefer these hot, sunny days. This year's late planting rotated into a
bed that gets early-day sun early in the year so they are adhering more
closely to their normal "dwarf" stature than is usual and are covered
with blossoms. Most years, the late peas are approaching the end of
productivity by mid-May but this year's weren't planted until
mid-March—almost a month later than in most springs.

two months seems like it should be enough
time.


Have blossoms on the transplanted "volunteer" tomato of unknown
lineage and noticed for the first time this morning a smattering of
blossoms on the snap beans ("Contender").

are these the new beans (i can't remember )
that you are testing out?


Spent some time yesterday evening transplanting okra into a
singular bed from a community bed (a "community" bed, not the
reactionary utopian misnomer). I always forget that okra is a slow
starter, especially when planted early, and often is outgrown
(overgrown) by its interplanted bedmates. Boy, does it compensate later
in the year when the heat turns up.

i wouldn't expect it to do much until it gets
warmer anyways. here the one time i planted it
it grew quickly enough in rock hard poor soil
that i'd hate to see what it does in fertile
soil. seemed to be an aphid magnet plant.


... those turnips....

the ones that survived the winter have surprised
me the past few days, it looks like they are going
to flower. i thought it would be sometime this
summer or even in the fall before they would flower.
learn something new all the time.

you ever eat the flowers or seed heads from
turnips?

Nah; ours never stay in the garden long enough to flower. Turnips
are biennials that do not thrive in warm weather so fall-planted turnips
are pretty punched out by March or April and any planted after about
Valentine's Day are basically just flea beetle fodder. Besides which,
turnip roots are best eaten young; the longer they remain, especially as
weather warms, the more likely the roots are to become fibrous or
"pithy". I don't know what triggers flowering.

i decided i wanted flowers/seeds and most of
them are in locations which isn't in the way of
anything else so they get to stay at least
until they get seeds.

the cabbage worm butterflies have been out
the past few days -- first butterflies of the
season.


i was also surprised by how the daikon radish
seeds were reasonable edible.

Those are untreated seeds of known origin, I assume.

oh yes, nothing on them, there were some other
daikon seeds that did have a pink coating which
i did not get. figured it was added filler to
get the seed up to size to be planted by a
soybean drill.


good luck with the carrots. i seem to recall
that like some other veggies that they seem to
get better after a bit of frost hits them.

I was surprised these even germinated. They were planted on 14
April. Two other varieties planted during the first half of April are
no-shows, although, fall and winter plantings all did well. If the
Nantes taste like anything, then they definitely are late-season
candidates for future gardens.


songbird