I covet your fresh spinach :) I am dealing with some serious drainage issues in my veg garden this year, and with all the recent rain construction of the raised beds has fallen seriously behind schedule. I planted the tomatoes I started inside in the first of the raised beds a couple of weeks ago. The Stupice already has some small fruits. (yay!) I just managed to get my cucumber seed planted before the rain started on Thursday, so hopefully those little guys will be sprouting soon. I also planted a hill of Blue Hubbard squash today, even though it is late. I'm hoping for a nice warm fall. Coming up in the garden from seed: radish and sunflowers. The broccoli, kale, and chard I started inside and planted out way too late is loving this cool wet weather. I'm really hoping next year with the drainage problems resolved I will actually be planting some spinach and peas and all of the other spring things.

I picked a handful of sugar snap peas today and have it for luch. YUM! That about it, everything else seem to stall.

Hello Fellow garderners

Indy, you are doing great!
My lettuce is doing well and keeping me in salads greens. My swiss chard is doing well. I harvested the last of my spring spinach and plan on planting fall spinach next week.
MY peas never grew. Tomatoes are growing no blossoms yet. My garlic is bigger than ever and I have already harvested the snapes.
Blake

I planted 24 apple tree's I potted up last year because I had not made up my mind where to put them. The deer went to work on them the next day. I caged each one and it looks like they are safe for a while. I also planted 100 blue hubbard plants I had the local greenhouse start for me. They looked pretty good the last time I was up there.(only head up to Maine once a week) If the deer havn't found them yet I'll fence them in too. Hope we get some sun soon.

Holy crap sailfish that is a LOT of Blue Hubbard. Last year I harvested one 55 pounder and several 20-25 pound squash from just two hills. But I had no trouble consuming it/giving it away. It's the tastiest of all the winter squash in my opinion. Hope you have lots of hungry friends!

I am to gardening what Martha Stewart is to professional wrestling - the kind of mismatch people would pay to watch. But I am learning. Important lessons I have learned so far are:

- If you neglect to nurture and feed your plants they will die.
- If you take the time to properly nurture and feed your plants they will die.
- Tomato seedlings planted outside in March are oddly prone to metabolic stroke
- "Companion Planting" works best for weeds. Weeds thrive nearest garden vegetables
- Watering your plants between torrential downpours really isnÂt necessary
- Pepper seedlings, if properly shaded, reach an astonishing 8 inches in only 7 weeks.
- Cats digging & pooping in the garden provide very poor fertilizer
- People unfamiliar with the difference between a vegetable garden and grass should never be allowed to mow the lawn.

Successes: (even a broken clock is right twice a day)

-Radishes (all eaten)
-Spinach (starting to pick)
-Lettuce (starting to pick)
-Swiss chard (starting to pick)
-Peas (starting to pick)
-Serrano Pepper (setting fruit  still tiny)
-Hungarian Hot Banana Pepper (setting fruit  still tiny)
-Tomatoes (15 of 36 plants flowering  1 is setting tiny fruit)
-Peter Pan squash. (setting fruit)
-Black Beauty Zucchini (soon to start flowering)
-Millionaire Eggplant (has one flower)
-Purple Trionfo Beans (still small, no flowers, but very healthy)

Failures:

-Cucumbers just wonÂt grow. I have 7 varieties in extremely rich, composted, well-draining soil, 10 hours of sun and they have all been stuck at about 2-4 inches for weeks.
-Cantaloupe. They havenÂt grown at all since transplanted 4 weeks ago in superb soil
-All bush beans. They just sit there, looking pretty much as they did weeks ago
-All other eggplants
-All sweet peppers

Tomato plants are still very small but healthy

{{gwi:1042072}}

Fred in Maine (Portland)

Wow Fred;
I would not consider anyone eating their own produce a "failure". I do not have anything to eat yet but I am hoping this rain helps and does not hurt. My veggies really could have used a bit more sun but the rain did let up yesterday afternoon so I could at least look at the garden. Tomatoes seemed okay, a few small ones and lots of flowers. Beans are four to six inches, peas are about a foot tall, the first crop did not even germinate. My red potatoes are doing very well but the white might be dead. I am having cucumber issues as well which is unusual and hopefully temporary. My onions have stalks but not sure on those either. Broccili is tall but no flowers, eggplant is not dead, peppers seem rather stagnant also.
Pray for sunshine.
diene

Ask me once all the rains stop :)

John

lol Fred!

Yep it's very soggy out there. My roses are having their first flush and I can't enjoy them with all this rain. Many of them are flopped all over the place from the weight of the rain.

We have loads of lettuce, more than we and the whole neighborhood can eat. This year I am remembering to consecutively plant more seed so I have a continous supply when the greens slow down once it gets hot (if it ever does this year). Nothing else is ready to eat, we really need some heat to kick start things.

I have had a few strawberries, but am realizing what a mistake it was for me to replace the June-bearing 'Earliglow' with a day-neutral (everbearing) variety. Yes they produce strawberries all summer long, but never enough at any one time to do anything with. Just a handful here and there, so no pies, shortcake, etc. I am going back to Earliglow.

Fred in Maine your post cracked me up! I just harvested one large broccoli head today. Cukes have recovered from the beetle attack but don't seem to be growing but the pumpkins next to them are but slowly. I'm sure at this point I can forget about having watermelons this summer, they have remained an inch tall for a month now. My spinach has bolted but at least the flowers on them are pretty. I guess I should have planned a little better and planted some a few weeks after the first so I could have been eating spinach this whole time. Beans took awhile to come up but do seem to be growing. I think Im starting to mold with all this rain. I'm surprised the plants havent started to develop mold or fungus due to being wet for so long. How come weeds grow no matter how much sun or water but veggies are finicky?

Despite the 'summer that wasn't' my microclimate hot zones (blacktop near south-facing foundation, very little yard with blacktop all around) were a boon this year.
Against all odds, here were my surprise "hits" -- all of which were started from seed indoors:

Black Beauty Heirloom eggplant (harvested 2 shiny purple fist-sized ones last week because they were splitting, and plants are doing great in pots)

Ho chi minh vietnamese peppers
Czech Black chili peppers

Amish paste and Julietta grape tomatoes

Had I a crystal ball, I would have kept starting lettuce and peas right through the summer because this was the summer for peas and lettuce.

Jericho Lettuce was great, and never bolted (it's supposed to be hardy for heat, but this year wasn't much of a test) and peas did really well of course.

Borage started from seed turned into a 6 foot wide, 5 foot high leggy monstrosity. It makes good on its promise to attract bees, but is so big I fear I don't have the space in my small potager.

Parsley started from seed did extremely well, both flat italian, and frilly. Good perennials.

Dill and cilantro took over. I will probably never again need to actually plant seeds of either, but rather will weed out the forest of volunteers that cover my whole potager, leaving only the ones I want.

Zucchini and yellow squash are disappointing this year. What can you do when the weather didn't favor them?
If they do eventually produce, I plan on some exquisite homemade ratatouille with all homegrown organic eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.

The taste of homegrown eggplant is so vastly superior to storebought that I will be growing it every year from here on out. Not a trace of bitterness or toughness: just creamy, nutty goodness. Incredible!
After all, if it produced in my yard this year, think what it would do in a normal summer!

My biggest miss: Lovage! I am going to follow the instructions on the packet this time and plant it "late summer or early fall" because the tiny seedlings that came up earlier this year did not survive.
Another disappointment: sefir cutting celery. Bitter, bitter, bitter, right from the start.

Oh yes, and this year I got a book about how to attract beneficial insects, and got great results.

Slugs never took over despite perfect conditions for them, and I have had no disease or pest problems. I do not use any pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc... totally organic gardening, yet for whatever reason this year, nothing bad seemed to happen.

No aphid infestations, slug problems, powdery mildew or anything. I credit it to fantastically healthy soil (I compost and disturb soil as little as possible) plus leaving things in place to attract and shelter beneficial insects.

Apparently the white clover I used to weed out of my garden doesn't compete appreciably for water or nutrients with my garden, but what it does is puts nitrogen in the soil, shelters ground beetles that prey upon slugs, keeps crabgrass from taking over, etc.

Letting the cilantro go to flower (coriander) attracts a host of beneficials, and letting a few leeks and green onion bloom attracts beneficial parasitic wasps, which keep cabbage worms from becoming a problem.
Borage and purple coneflower, calendula and nasturtiums, are all either edible or medicinal, and attract beneficials.

Lastly, keeping some sort of shallow water source (my kids have a sand/water table outside) attracts damselflies and other beneficials and gives them a place to drink. No, we haven't had mosquitoes breeding because I change the water frequently.

That was my great new discovery this year: leave the white clover in the vegetable and herb garden, grow certain flowers, and let a few of each thing actually bloom, esp. alliums. Attract beneficial insects and keep soil well fed, and 'luck' will follow.

Now that we have had some nice days things are starting to grow again. I have tons of tomatoes that are small and green but its still exciting. I'm growing Moskvich Tomatoes and can't wait to see how they turn out because nobody I have talked to knows anything about them. Been eating lettuce for awhile now and picked a few peas yesterday. My beans are flowering and starting to set fruit and atracting lots of bumble bees. Cukes are kinda small and sad looking but they are trying their best to put fruit out. A few of the Boston Picklers have small fruit on them. My pumpkins are blooming like crazy. I have one turnip that is almost ready to pull up. My blackberries have fruit on them and I've been learning more about pruning them and growing them. This is my first year with them. I have am starting to gather recipes for canning so I will be ready when everything is harvested.

Do you mind a NH gardener joining this discussion? Megmaine, very impressive successes in your garden. I don't usually use eggplant but your description makes me want to try one from the farmers market to see if I should include next year. I love growing nasturtiums and calendula just for pretty even though I know they are good plants in the garden. Also like marigolds esp lemon gems which have such nice foliage and lemon scent.

Is anyone having trouble with plants bolting? Daikon radish is bolting on me. Some pretty young bok choy is also going to seed. Lettuce seems to be doing nicely. Second crop of sugar snap peas (tall variety this time) are coming in but they aren't as tall as I expected. Beans starting. No trouble with zucchini and summer squashes. Last year we also had a lot of rain and a neighbor was shocked that my zukes did well. It was first year in a lasagna style garden. Had first zuke last night. The sneaky curcubit almost got too large. My husband was waiting for me when I got home because he doesn't dare touch anything without my ok. He said it was time to pick squash and he needed more lettuce for his lunches. Cherry tomatos are planted around our kitchen porch but without the extra organic matter that the lasagna beds have. Soil looks too compacted. The peppers are lined up along south wall of our white house. Last year peppers seemed to come in early and turn red early. Right now have some about 2" long - a variety of heirlooms. I can see where black top driveway heat would be a help.

Had to re-seed pots of basil. Looked like some damping off problems. Some varieties are doing super but not all. Also, they are already putting up flower stems (holy basil and thai basil). Golden beets planted a month ago looked good. April planting of beets was dismal, maybe one or two plants germinated. Same with chard. (short rows) I think this was the year of re-planting. Confection winter squash looks like it is doing well. Some small squash started. We were very happy with this variety last year once we let it sit a month or so after harvest. It was extremely dry at first but then became the perfect squash. We had a few mold but basically they did well in a box under a basement workbench and we had squash in April. I think I save one for May first just to say it lasted that long.

Surprisingly well! This is the first year for our larger veggie garden and we ended up putting it in the traditionally driest part of the yard, so we weren't bothered by the rain. It wasn't esp on our part, we put it there since it was the best place sun wise and was the most open part of our yard where the resident groundhogs, skunks, and other animal friends tend not to venture. So far, they seem pretty happy with their side of the yard and have stayed out of the garden. I did end up fencing the garden in with chicken wire though - to keep out the neighborhood cats who seem to think I made the garden for their own personal litter box.

I'm excited about the tip about leaving the clover in. THanks megmaine. We have plenty of it. I did plant nasturtiums with my cukes and they look very happy. We had cucumber beetles show up a couple of weeks ago, but I've just been collecting them and dumping them in a cup of soapy water. THeir numbers seem to be diminishing and although many of the cuke plants were infected, they seem to be mostly recovering now. THe beans are climbing, the potatoes look very happy, and the swiss chard has been producing for a while now. My yard tends to be overridden with slugs, but we started early trying to control them and it hasn't been too bad in the garden. I keep the grass around the garden mowed very short - this has been the biggest help. I also go out every morning and evening with my new slug scissors (kitchen scissors from the dollar store) and "snippy snippy" they are defeated.

We also have some of those lovely imported cabbage worms on the broccoli, but I keep washing the eggs off and collecting them in the soapy water cup as well. The broccoli still looks happy and has good sized heads, although one variety did perform better than the other. My "green magic" broccoli is tall and producing, while the "acadia" is a little sad looking. Onions and peas are doing nicely as well as the hubbards and pumpkins. I gave canteloupe a try, but it has succumb to some sort of disease. We are putting in some more broccoli and cabbages for storage in a shaded section for fall harvest.