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

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:
Derald wrote:

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.

Oh, it is; it's just that, when they're planted later, the risk of
losing them to the sun or to something like powdery mildew just as
they're hitting their stride increases a whole bunch and they don't have
the sweetness one expects from fresh garden peas. Gonna find something
with which to shade these and see whether that helps. Of course, I've
probably tried doing so in years past but who remembers? Shading helps
with the herbs so why not peas?

as long as you aren't cutting down on air
flow it seems like it should help some.

i don't think the plants are daylight
sensitive in terms of shutting down as i can
plant peas any time here during the summer
and they will grow.


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?

Yes; one of two new (to me) varieties. The other is "slenderette".
They're three weeks behind the "contender" beans. Time and space
permitting, will add some "provider" and some "tenderette" beans later,
although, they may have to wait until fall.

good luck!


Spent some time yesterday evening transplanting okra into a
singular bed from a community bed....

i wouldn't expect it to do much until it gets
warmer anyways.

Yes; I habitually plant them early in the vain hope of having okra
by the time the first cowpeas come in. Boy, talk about repeating the
same action in hopes of a different result.... Cowpeas cooked in
combination with okra is/are a traditional "po' folks'" favorite in
parts of the US South.

hehehe...


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.

By the end of the season, most years, I harvest from a stepladder.
Hadn't noticed any particular aphid affinity for okra.

i'm only basing it upon a very small sample
as the one time we did plant okra they had some
black aphids all over the pods. nothing else in
our yard had those aphids that season. we have
tons of lady bugs all over so i'm not sure
what happened with those particular plants.


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

Are those white with black stripes?

yes, i'd call them a medium sized butterfly.
the next butterfly that comes out is a small
pale blue one which i'm not sure comes from
what larva. some time when i'm more ambitious
i'll look it up.


Except for the coldest
periods, we have butterflies and moths (grasshoppers, too) year 'round.
I don't know enough about them to know whether they're full time
residents or migrant stragglers.

i don't think they migrate. we have several
flights of them during the warmer weather.


When the crawlies become pestiferous,
I hit the host plants, except for parsley, with Bt. When the parsley is
at risk, enough gets covered to supply the kitchen and the animals have
the balance. I will admit to relocating "caterpillars" that I know
(hell, or even suspect) to be those of "pretty" leps. Some sort of
orange thing, along withs a zebra swallowtail, was fluttering around in
the garden this morning. They came to the party for the Spanish needles
flowering just outside the garden.

we pick up crawlies a lot too and move
them to safe areas.


Have flowers on peas, beans, and mustard greens. Leaving the
mustard greens "just because". Nothing is eating them save a handful of
honeybees and a couple of familiar carpenter bees. Daytime temps are
approaching 90 (89 yesterday) so the honeybees are showing more interest
in water than in flower juice.

finally have been seeing more of the larger
bumblebees with the many thousand tulips and
daffodils out along with the hyacynths and
now the dandylions. not seeing too many
honey bees.

i'm not sure what you are calling a carpenter
bee? here they would be what i am calling the
large bumblebees as they can dig rather sizeable
holes into wood if they find the right site. a
few times i've had to caulk holes they've put in
the sides/eves of the house. they aren't singular
either as they do have rather large hives in the
ground.

looks like turnip flowers are yellow - so they
get to stay. the diakon radish seedlings are
rather cute (about three times the size of a
turnip sprout). think i may be approaching the
too late for planting on the pak choi but i'll
put a few seeds in and see how they do now and
hold some back for the fall/cooler weather and
perhaps those plants will over-winter like the
turnips.

also hope to get some of the beans and more
peas planted this week. never hurts to be an
optimist on the beans as i have plenty of extra
seeds to plant. like to have plenty to harvest
all at once when i want to put some up.

strawberries starting to bloom. that's two
years in a row they've started to bloom around
May 11. the wild strawberries started a few
weeks ago.

plenty to keep me busy if the weather
cooperates.


songbird