On 5/7/2014 1:21 PM, 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.
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.
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").
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.


... 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 was also surprised by how the daikon radish
seeds were reasonable edible.
Those are untreated seeds of known origin, I assume.

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.

Wife likes turnips but she's of German descent, I'm Native American and
English and I don't eat turnips. In my youth they were grown as animal
fodder. Wife planted spring carrots again, I know for a fact they will
not mature. Our temps here in Harris Cty, TX are already in the low to
mid eighties. We are getting a light rain drizzle right now and we badly
need it.

Last week I installed all new soaker hoses in the raised beds and they
seem to be working better than the rain we don't get.

Crowder peas are climbing the fence, Hopi red lima beans are climbing
their netting as are the cukes. We actually have little tomatoes and
cukes making and an eggplant is about ready to pick, the fruit is bigger
than the plant. Leeks need pulling and will most likely given away to
neighbors, they're way to strong for my taste.

The fig tree has baby figs and the blueberries have very few berries
coming on due to a late frost. Looks like we will go to a pick-your-own
farm this year for blueberries and blackberries, the native dewberries
and blackberries didn't get enough rain this year and are small and very
seedy. I am happy for the rain we are currently getting.