Oh, it's a bit of a tough spring. I've had something eating everything to the quick so I've been attentive. I have sprinkled diatomaceous earth on the leaves of everything and around on the mulch. At night I hit the garden with a flashlight and spray soap and neem on the stink bugs and the little beetles and squish the eggs on the leaves...things are starting to look good. Mine took time to take off too - now they are zooming. I've had to ammend everything, amend the very large new beds and soil...and there is more to plant!
When did you put in your veggies? Is it possible they need a little fish fertilizer or something?
This year I added dry molassas to the fertilizer mixed with rock dusts - this helps incorporate micro nutrients into the soil a little faster and I've seen much faster growth with this method. So far the squash are really liking that (as well as being kept as bug free as possible).

Lack of water is not helping. I need to fill my rain barrels and have a nice soaking!

I am going fishing tomorrow ;-)

I re-watered today. I have 4 raised beds going in my tiny cultivable yard (yard is big but have slope "advantage").

The one veggie bed has 3 squash and they look ok except for the whiteness (which you said was ok) of leaves. I have small squashed coming up, along with lot of flower action.

I have 2nd bed with tomatoes, okra, marigold. Both tomatoe and okra leaves were eaten up. THis bed had peas but they never grew (for some reason). Then leaves of those disappeared as well.

3rd bed near the pond: has okra, tomatoes, eggplants, pepper( bell and regular) and cukes. THe cukes are flowering but are still very tiny. TOday I put stakes and reinforced the wire mesh. The plants in this bed are doing the best. Eggplants floweres dropped off for some reason. The okra hasn't grown taller.

The 4th bed has tomatoes, okra. The tomatoes are ok but okra has remained baby (I planted them at least 4 weeks ago).

Frustrating.

I added more worm-tea to plants today. WIll get fish emulsions tomorrow.

Don't over fertilize!!! You want the plants to be able to have enough umph to flower and fruit. Too much nitrogen just gets them growing without flowering.
So did you amend the soil before planting? That is what I'm wondering about the peas. Although that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
I amended a bed before planting peas. They grew to 18" looked fried and gave me 2 pods. They were not sugar snaps.
Sugar Snaps at church have been amazing. Lettuce in the same bed bolted before it was edible.
This weather is just wacky.
I would grow better these days by a pond too. A nice, cool pond...

2 veggie beds the soil is ammended but not sure if it is enuf of ammendments :-)

The other 2 raised veggie bed...I moved from another location and trying out new location and not sure if soil was tilled properly and whether properly ammended. Not sure if sun is enuf or not (I will have to observe the sun on it one of these days).

The pond brings in beaver...yikes...and canadian geese that poop ALL over the place (which might be good if they pooped at one location but maybe it is even fertilization everywhere)...good once it breaks down...till then it looks nasty.

I use pond water to water plants and people say that is really-really good as it is full of micro-organisms. But not sure why my plants are still throwing so much tantrum.

Today I coated them with egg-yolk-green-pepper wash to deter whatever is eating the leaves.

I will go out to get fish emultion later in the day. That should help with deers as well (I am thinking). Haven't spotted deer this year, so far.

Beaver! Well, I never thought of that because I live in the inner city!! Sometimes I forget where y'all garden. Your pond must be LARGE!
I am very familiar with Canada Geese poop. I'm Canadian :) Nice green slime, ah, good fertilizer. That's part of what makes your pond water so good for the plants!!

I didn't amend my beds as much this past fall as I should have. I noticed a huge production difference so I immediately ammended more for early spring planting and again for the summer. Spring production and bug tolerance has increased dramatically and now summer is here, bugs galore but I can see a HUGE difference in plant health quality and vigor. Bugs were terrible in the straw I mulched with but a few sprinkles of diamotaceous earth has helped greatly. Cuke beetles are really annoying though and totally going to town on the squash.
My beans are not the greatest at germinating this year. Perhaps birds are getting the seed (they stole every sunflower seed - I've had to germinate them in pots to stop that). I have planted limas twice and I look back where the seed was: no seed. It is going to be an interesting year!

Cannadian geese use a particular spot on the banks as their "latrine" or "loo" or "potty". Yhea. They don't like to poop in the water in which they swim (it seems like). And apart from their toilet, they STILL poop all over the place. YIKES.

What is the difference bet. humus and compost? Are they the same?

I have to add diamotaceous to my shopping list. Would love to see your garden in full veggie production one day :-)

Hi trivedi, your compost and humus question is a very good one. No, they are not quite the same thing - however I have no words to describe the difference. I know it when I see it though. For example, I'm adding a lot of CLM to my new veggie garden side (the soil is horrible there) it is humus as compared to compost. I am also adding tons of compost (and really need to add river sand too. However, if I add molassas to the compost (and other things I dig in) much of the compost will change to humus. I want a balance of both.

A good example of humus is in my garden. We dug down 2' - and found very black, rich stuff that was hard as a rock - still clay based, but you could see the richness in it. This was humus based. So we brought it all up to the top and mixed in the compost and some vermiculite (it's what I had) to lighten it's load and incorporate it into the garden. It is good stuff. Here's a great link:

Here is a link that might be useful: humus vs. compost

Thank you GGG.

Makes lot of sense.

I picked my first cuke (not too small not too large) yesterday.

Plants suddenly are BIG. I think the rain and the sun has done that :-)

I was very impressed to read somewhere that you eat off of your garden ALL year along!!!!

Yes, I put tents over the garden for winter and we eat greens and sprouts plus anything I've canned only in the winter. We buy potato and onions, occasionally some fruit (hubby likes oranges and banana). I am continuously working towards more and more food independence. I can't wait to plant all these fruit trees "some day"!!! HOpefully this winter!!!

Lowe's is selling citrus trees that are compatible in "All zones". Not sure of their claim though.

They will be comparable in "all zones" provided you take them in during the winter...
I will not buy any fruit from a big box store. My fruit comes from the most local nurseries that actually grow their own stock and/or do all their own grafting. This helps me be assured that everything about the fruit is as best as can be for our climate.