Good Morning!

gldno1 - sorry you are feeling poorly!

Like you, we had tons of rain this holiday weekend...and lucky me, I was camping! It was still a relaxing time. Although after we got home we had to set up the big canvas tent in the back yard to dry and it may be there several days if we don't have enough time between showers to get the darn thing dry.

I was shocked at the sight of my little garden when I got home. The plants went insane in the three days I was gone! I had to lop a branch off a tomato that was trying to take over the bed entirely. The spinach was huge as was the leaf lettuce. I just wish I had ripe tomatoes to add to the salad, which was yummy by the way! There is absolutely NO doubt that next year the tomatoes are being planted farther away from the pole beans as they are about to become one tangled mess.

In addition to the lettuce and spinach and a couple of green onions I liberated from the onion bed for the salads, I harvested a pile of basil that I'm attempting to dry now. Again, an experiment at work as I've never done that before. Funny how much they shrink as they dry...but I still have more to pick!

My tomatoes are a solid mass going from one cage to another! Only the bush champion has tomatoes on it right now, but the roma and yellow are covered with blooms. But I'm holding my breath hoping I don't get a hornworm (knock wood!) as they little buggers would be able to walk gaily from plant to plant and be well hidden until they ate enough to defoliate the tomato forest I've grown. My tiny tim continues to put out the cherry tomatoes and I can't wait for them to turn red!

The turnips have me amazed! If I liked turnip greens they'd be great - they're HUGE! But all I want is the bulbs...so I hope they develop as good as the tops. I got the planter built last week for the cucumbers, but never got it filled and planted. I think I'll go ahead and do it now anyway, although it's getting late in the season. Better late than never and maybe I'll still get some cukes in late summer.

All in all, a good gardening start to the week!

Well, May is almost over, dosent seem possible.
I picked a few peas this morning, I have lots of pods and blooms, but they arent filling out from lack of rain. Yes, LACK of rain. Our lil corner of Howell County has not had ANY of the rain! We got about half inch 2 weeks ago, and the rest has all missed us. cloudy out now--how do I do a rain dance?
Grubbed a few potatoes (isnt that a lovely old-fashioned word?) to go with the peas, and picked more spinach. I thought when I cut it all off, and froze 12 quarts, the spinach would give up--but it's back. since I thought spinach was done, I planted limas, they arent up yet.
My bush beans are about 2" high, as are my cucumbers. cabbage is heading, the late cabbage is growing in its flats.
put fish emulsion on my peppers, they , too, need rain badly.tomatoes are a lovely deep green, I couldnt get by anymore without tomatoes alive, from gardens alive. I put a handful of it, crushed eggshells, and epsom salts in the hole before I put the tomatoes in.
Every thing is just about mulched heavy, I could probably cover the rest with 5 or 6 square bales, but I've got a horse dry-lotted that gets it.
Isnt it expensive to keep your lawns looking nice? my lawn tractor uses diesel, but its higher than gas. think I'll keep the back yard mowed for my sick dog, and let the neighbors frown at the rest when they drive by--LOL.
Here's hoping we all get either rain or sun--as we need it.

Wow, it's been a slow gardening week, huh? Must be all the rain, except in Howell County. ;-) I FINALLY built my 4'x18" planter box and planted my cucumbers on the 30th...in the rain. We'll see how well they do. Now if I can only get weeding done, maybe this weekend it'll dry up a tad.

My veggies, if possible, are going even more crazy! We invited our neighbor lady over and gave her cuttings from the turnips as they like turnip greens. I'm pruning them in self-defense! They are trying to shade out everything else in the garden!

a lot to do here but i am behind as usual. losing my enthusiasm. some plants in the raised beds are just languishing especially the sweetpeas. greenbean plants have turned yellow, just got the squash, bell peppers and a coupla cantaloupes planted. haven't planted the seeds for okra and have 4 watermelon plants to set out but have to finish the raised beds first. 2 to go and what a journey it has been!

william

William - I decided to TRY to stay behind this year. That way I'll still have stuff to plant in July. lol I'm sure I'd be behind even if I didn't try, so it might as well be intentional. No it's not working, I still get stressed.
Gld - Hope you're feeling back to normal. It's not fair to catch a cold this time of year. Bad enough we have to put up with that during the winter. Watch out - there's a stomach bug going around too. You got more rain than we did here. We've been getting more this evening though. Glad we're not getting as much as Polk County. They've had some water rescues there.
Alys - You need a bigger garden next year. That's the best solution. lol What kind of soil mix did you use in your raised beds? Sounds like your plants like it.

Ceresone - Hope the rain is not missing you this time. It's discouraging to go into summer already short on rain. Don't forget the rain makes the grass grow though. If your neighbors frown at your lawn, you can send them by our house. Our lawnmower decided to mow its own belt over the weekend and is out of commission. With the rain we've had here, it looks like we haven't mowed for a month already.

My Burgundy Gaillardia and Rose Campion started blooming this week. LOTS of Rose Campion. I should take a photo of it. Those bright magenta flowers would show up great.
My painted ferns are sooo pretty right now. Wish they would stay that way all summer. I have to water them a lot when it gets hot and I usually let them get too crispy.

I still have winter sown seedlings that I haven't planted out. I've been trying to take advantage of the clouds and get them in the ground. The ones I have planted are growing much better than the ones still in their containers. Foxglove has disappointed me the most. They came up way back in March but are still the size of a pinhead. I think they'd get lost in my shade garden and I don't know what to do with them.

I have a couple kinds of weeds, both with yellow flowers, that are trying to take over. One is harder to pull than the other and has little ball-shaped flowers. I've had to pull up lots of Walnut tree sprouts this year and Poke. I usually only see a few of those. Wild Bermuda grass has successfully crept into a couple flower beds. I ripped everything out of one and started over a few days ago. I was sure I got out all the Bermuda but found more today. grrrr The other bed just had annuals last year except for some dianthus so I sprayed it with Round up yesterday when it was sunny. I tried to miss the dianthus but with my luck, it will die and the Bermuda will be fine.

It's been too rainy to do anything here too.Since it's supposed to clear up this weekend. I bought somemore pots and potting soil and will transplant some more of my daylilies into the pots. i have a few roses blooming,orange daylilies are blooming big time.

I'm glad i live at the end of our road as i can't mow,and things look pretty ratty.

gld,hope you're over the cold,and feel like getting out in the garden again.

alys, WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING YOUR TOMATOES? LOL!!
If i see any tomato plants coming down the road I'll know their yours.

William, hope your veggies will start doing better. I think most of us have had off years. When nothing went right but went great later on.

christie,I had to battle bermuda grass in E.TX and it ended up out and out war.I'm glad we don't have it up here.

ceresone, hope your sick dog is better.Hope you get some rain too. Our 3 years of drought sure hurt my flowers.

I wish you all could take all your extra greens to town to sell.
vickie

My phoebes have three babies. I can see their heads stick up from the nest now and the house wren did build a nest on my backporch so i've got birds out both doors now.
vickie

Didn't get much done yesterday. We did go to Dorothy's Digs and I got some pumpkin, zuchini, okra seeds and another pair of gloves.
We came home and I decided to mow the grass in the chicken yard/orchard (just 3 trees) that had not been mowed all year. DH wanted me to let it grow to shelter the chickens.....didn't like that so got the mower out. Now that was a job; had to make several passes to get it all down.

By then, the showers started. It didn't do much at first but then really let loose and rained most of the night. We had 3 inches in the rain gage this morning. That means the garden seed will be waiting for a dry out.

I have another pink poppy in bloom and it is a very frilly double. I surely must have broadcast the seeds last fall.

BTW, it is raining hard right now after the sun was just shining.

Bird update: Seems some of the hummers are gone; still have the wrens and bluebirds nesting nearby. Orioles are gone.

Regarding mowing and trimming and what neighbors think...we live in the country and I have a neighbor or two that mow, and trim and spray their road frontages of hay fields...now sure looks good but I am not getting into that little contest. It is enough for me to attempt to keep the yard in good shape.

Blooming now: several varieties of salvia, the poppies, three clematis, one or two daylilies, some roses, gaillardia,heliopsis Loraine Sunshine, another heliopsis, my dug-out-of-the-ditch tradescantia and that seems to be it. I am going to have a few blueberries on my newly set bushes, very excited about that.

Christie, I would like to see your rose campion in bloom. The ones I set out don't look too good right now. They don't seem to be growing much. Re the Bermuda Grass, I bought something called over the top (I think) for bermuda, supposed to just kill grasses and not hurt perennials or other broad leaves. I plan to use it once the rain stops. I have Bermuda in many, many places! I will keep check on when the Lauren's Grape stops blooming. The rains are hurting them; many are rotting at the base. Of course, I left them wherever they came up and really should have thinned them ruthlessly.

William, don't get discouraged! That is the life of gardening. Sometimes things go really great and others they don't. I have bug holes in everything, I have Colorado potato beetles on some potato plants, and weeds everywhere. But, the bright side is we have lots of rain. I just treat for the bugs, start one bed at a time weeding, and wait for something else to rear its ugly head......and it will. That is part of it. My dear, departed dad used to say "think how boring life would be if everything went smoothly all the time". He had a point.

All for now.

Glenda, you'll have to use the product at least 3 times to make a dent in Bermuda, least, I did.
Where to start? I feel like grabbing the 2 weather men on the channels we get and shaking them! The rest of you, know where Howell County is? on the weather map its the rectangle county that touched the Ark. line.Did you see all the rain die before it got here?? We could see lightening in the distance. I'm watering my garden right now!!
But, my beans and cucumbers are up, I'm thinking of pulling my lettuce later, and putting in more limas. I hate to--if you've never grown the mixed lettuces, try them, I think they belong in a flower bed as a border!
As if there wasnt enough to contend with this summer, I have a very sore head and neck. I thought at first, the neck being sore was a strain from chores, then my scalp started getting knots, and feeling like there were live coals on my head.started getting blisters down my neck--so went to dr. yesterday--guess what, guys? I have shingles again! been 30 years since I had them. Dr. says bad stress will bring then back everytime--wonder how I'd look with my head shaved?
Oh well, lack of rain making me crazy, I guess--LOL. Take care everyone.

LOL! I'm not feeding my tomatoes or veggies anything at all! I planted in pure compost. It must be REALLY good compost! I know with a square foot garden you are supposed to use peat moss, compost and vermiculite in even proportions, but I just bought compost from a local nusery and mixed in a bit of sand and put half-finished compost on the bottom that I'm made myself from oak leaves and grass clippings with the good stuff on top. It may turn out I get all leaves and no veggies, I know that can happen if the soil is too rich, but we'll see. But for sure the tomatoes like it! I took sissors to them today, pruning a few branches so I can actually see to the middle. We've had so much rain that I am afraid they aren't getting enough air.

I picked most of my leaf lettuce and spinach today. I'd love to plant more spinach, but I think it's probably too late. Wonder if it would do in a pot where I could move it to shade? Might try that. I did do two small pots of a heat-resistant buttercrunch bibb lettuce, so when my other is ready to eat, maybe I'll have more making.

And best of all, my cucumbers I planted on the 30th are already up!

Poor Ceresone! - I thought a person could only get shingles once. That's not fair to get it twice. You must be miserable. Is it usually more or less severe if you get it a second time?
I will seriously say a prayer for you for a quick recovery and a good soaking rain shower so you won't have to water. Are you supposed to stay out of the sun? What kind of lettuce are you growing? Did you have a seed packet with the lettuce seed already mixed or did you buy different kinds?
I want to find a crunchy leaf lettuce. Is there such a thing? I don't like head lettuce as well.
Gld - Did you find Over the Top somewhere locally? I should try it too. With Round-Up, it's much more effective if I let the grass get tall before I spray it but if it's in a bed of perennials it would be scary to do that unless you dig up all the perennials first.
Alys - I bought coffee compost last year from the city recycling facility and love it. I need to get some more. I should've asked for that for Mother's Day. lol

I had my gardening week interrupted by the birth of a new granddaughter on Friday. She is beautiful and healthy. My daughter developed pre-eclampsia and scared us all to death. She spent most of the week on bedrest or in the hospital. So the birth was a relief to all of us. They are doing fine now. They came home today.

I know very well where Howell County is. I was raised in Mtn. View and though I've been in Springfield more than forty years, home is still Mtn View. Sorry you aren't getting the rain. My sister and her family have a cabin on Jacks Fork river and she said floaters were having to carry their boats over the low spots on Memorial day week end.

We've had rain just about every day lately so the garden is doing great. I've got lots of weeds growing but I notice the rabbits eat the weeds instead of the veggies. My DH hasn't gardened much in years except to help me out now and then. This year he has gotten interested in dirt and compost and is working up a huge compost pile. We had a spot where we'd had a brush pile for years and it is now good rotted leaves and other tree material. He had two cubic yards of top soil delivered to mix with it. He is incorporating my relatively small compost pile in it and tilling it all up. I didn't even know he knew how to use the tiller. I'm sure it will be wonderful stuff when he is through and I'm looking forward to using it.

I hope you all have a great gardening week. I always like to hear about what you are doing.
Anise