My potager in Mid-Atlantic zone 7 gave us lettuce, chard, carrots, beets, leeks and green onions all winter (unusually mild winter.) Now the peas are about three feet high, the spring spinach is delicious, new lettuce, parsley, carrots, celeriac, parsnips, potatoes, chard, leeks and kohlrabi are growing fast. The garlic planted in fall is bigger both in height and diameter than I have ever had. I hope the bulbs will be big and tasty.

I took a chance and planted out half of my tomatoes. They are alive still, but don't look overly thrilled to be out there. I put in some winter sown ice-plant for color. The creeping charlie is also providing lots of subtle blue color, until I cruelly rip it out by the bucket-full. In Denver, people actually try to grow it as ground cover!

Wishing everyone a successful year

Hepatica

Hepatica, I really should try and grow garlic. The only problem is my garden is small. Planting in the fall and waiting till May to harvest means I lose spring-planting space. How much room do you have dedicated to it?

Still harvesting chard from the fall garden. Planted peppers and tomatoes about a month ago.

Still too wet to plant, but at least now we're getting rain, not snow! Hopefully I can transplant some flowers into the sunny, front garden this weekend, but it will be another week or two, before the vegetable area will be dry enough to plant. Tomatoes and other frost-free plants usually go in the end of May/first of June :)

With the low this morning being 26*, I havent planted my tomatoes out in the veggie garden yet! Tomatoes along with my pepper plants are still in the greenhouse. I have planted my onions, leeks, shallots and cabbage. I'll plant my spinach, potatoes, beets and carrots later this week. Like Lavender Lass, I'll also plant my tomatoes and other frost-free plants at the end of May. Last yr. I actually got red tomatoes and short season cantaloupe for the first time since I've moved to no.eastern Nev. 6 yrs. ago! For the past 3yrs. we seem to get a hard freeze around June 17.

Natal, have you thought about growing garlic in with some of your flowers? The garlic may help keep a few bugs away and the garlic plant isnt all that bad looking. I haven't tried to grow garlic because of the depth of frost in our soil in winter. I've been thinking about a spring planting of garlic and seeing what happens this fall.

Macgregor wait till you eat your first potato this fall! The potato has a "crunch" when you cut it and to steam the new potaotes then add a bit of butter on them.....WOW! You are in for a wonderful treat!

valree3,

Thanks for the encouragement on the potatoes. I have sort of extended myself and have planned a jam-packed garden this year, but I'm counting on the potatoes being worth it.

Our friends in the "northernmost territories" - hang in there, planting time is not far off!

Well, the potatoes are up and growing well but those are hubby's experiment this year. I am currently harvesting Asian greens and spinach. I started the spinach last fall but the greens I started in December and transplanted under plastic in February. It looks like for the first time my Napa cabbage may form a head the right way. I transplanted leeks and celery root this week. I started a bed with beans, Belgian endive, cabbage and radishes. I covered that with plastic to get it warming up and hopefully moving quickly. The shelling peas are doing well, my favas were planted too late, and my yellow snap peas look to be doing well.

I have tomatoes in Wall-O-Waters. My last frost date is May 15th but some of the cherry tomatoes have started setting fruit. I may not bother with the WOW for roma tomatoes though, they do not seem to benefit as much. My replacement kohlrabi is growing well. The first batch was attacked by cutworms. Kohlrabi is new to me so I am waiting to see if I actually like it. I am trying to grow corn for the first time this year too. This is the third year for the asparagus and it seems to be taking off well so I am beginning to harvest that too. It should be interesting to see what kind of summer we get.

MacGregor, what varieties of potatoes did you plant? You're going to love growing them. They're fun to dig up, so good to eat, and great to bring out of storage for a January meal!

My peas are about 8" tall. Also growing two beds of onions (this year I gave myself a break and bought transplants), chard, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, kale and beets. I seeded carrots, but none have germinated yet. I also have beautiful, sturdy looking garlic. I'm planting potatoes late in hopes of avoiding potato beetles. I hand pick the eggs off every year, and it's very time consuming!

The owner of a nursery told me something I'm going to try next year. He plants tomatoes, peppers and eggplant indoors in the end of March. April 15 the tomatoes go into a cold frame. The others go in a couple of weeks later. I'm going to make one out of straw bales and old storm windows. It sounds much easier and smarter than trying to keep them indoors all this time.

egganddart49,tishtoshnm,

I didn't realize so many people grew potatoes.

I've planted Desiree red potatoes from Seed Savers Exchange. Hope to dig them when they are "new" size.

What types did you both plant? I am on pins and needles waiting to see a sprout! But we haven't had much sun in the last week, it's been drizzly and raw.

Guess I'll just have to be patient!

Egganddart, thanks for that tip about the coldframe. My boys are very tired of the plants under lights in their bathroom.

I started to harden off the tomatoes. I took a chance and planted out the giant sunflower, cilantro and calendula. I started them too early and they were floppy.

I've planted out peas(about 1' high now), swiss chard, spinach, beets, lettuce, and radishes. I've been picking radishes, asparagus (finally!), a bit of lettuce and over-wintered leeks.

I put netting over the strawberries and am anxiously watching them starting to blush. The hops are between 3-5' high and I actually attacked them with hedge shears to thin out the bines.

Lots of work but enjoyable and rewarding.

MacG, we have planted Yukon Gold, Kennebec, Red Pontiac and Adirondack Blue. We also have a fingerling and it looks like we missed some purple majesty last year that are coming up now. All of these were available locally (mainly Wal-Mart and Lowe's). We had a nice list of ones we had hoped to order this year but by the time we had the cash, they were sold out. Next year, we really hope to try some special varieties. So far this year, ours are looking much better than years past. I would like to harvest some new size but they are hubby's "baby" and he may pitch a fit.

I have struggled with potatoes and have given up. The one time I planted them in my garden it was as though I had ordered a plague of Colorado potato beetles. They ate the potato plants and then moved on to my tomatoes. So I have tried growing them outside the garden in containers - half wine barrels - and the results have been puny to say the least. Not worth the bother, for sure. I wish I had some other solution because we love potatoes. At least they're not expensive to buy organically at the supermarket.

I just put my tomatoes out on their tripods. They seem to have weathered temps in the forties overnight and are probably relieved to be in the ground. Peppers are doing almost nothing in the flats so I'll probably put them out today, too and see if that inspires more growth.

I've already got peas, favas, limas, beans, chard, leeks, carrots, celeriac, lettuce, onions, garlic and fennel growing. My strawberries are getting big but aren't ripe yet..

I'm so glad to see some activity here again! Sounds like everyone has been busy gardening :) I finally have my new potager more or less in place, but I don't have the arbor or other asthetic details finished yet. My tomatoes are growing well and I have lots of green ones on two of the plants (Early Girl and Black Cherry). I planted 32 potato plants (Yukon Gold) and they are growing like crazy, though the Colorado beetles recently showed up and, like Riverfarm described, they have decimated some of the plants. I need to find something organic that I can use. Anybody have any ideas? I think I will still get a crop because most of the plants are still ok, and even the ones that were wiped out were pretty big when this happened. I LOVE homegrown potatoes, which is why I devoted a third of my potager to them :) The lettuce I transplanted from the old garden, which was planted last fall, went to seed, but my newly planted lettuce is growing and we had salad the other night. Sugar snap peas and beets are not doing so well though, in fact the peas appear to be dying, just as they are starting to produce a few pods. I think it got too warm too early down here in Oklahoma this year. At least we are getting plenty of rain - thank goodness! Last year's drought was terrible.

Canokie, I have heard that row cover fabric is effective against potato beetles. Our biggest problem with potatoes has been that our soil pH is high which encourages scab but we seemed to have better luck last year dusting the seed potatoes with sulfur.

Thanks - that's a good idea. They seem to have moved on or died or whatever it is they do for now, but next year I'm definitely going to try row covers. I've heard that it helps with squash bugs too. I really like gardening in the fall/winter/early spring best - no bugs and I can grow all the cool weather vegetables that I love!

I am in zone 4, so just beginning to plant out. I have decided to mix flowers into every bed this year. So far I have flambe Petunias interspaced with my broccoli, I'll try to train them to spill over the edges of the bed. Double purple petunias and dazzler galardia in with my bush beans and baby romaine lettuce, and a 10x3 ft bed with a long row of 75 sugar peas down the center on a string and bamboo trellis, with cabbage, lettuce leaf basil and small seed dahlias interspersed along the sides.

Those beds look lovely right now - but the rest of the garden is still a mess - lots to do! Should be able to get my cucumbers,tomatoes, peppers and eggplant out after this week, its going to get up to 75-80 most days. I also have zinnia, impatience, cleome, habenero daisies, lobelia and tons more petunia seedlings waiting. (I grew about 40 trays of veg & annuals from seed this year.)

I'm in No CA, zone 8ish and planted everything about April 15-20. Last date of frost is the 15th and the chiropractor expects me to come in in the next week or so! =)
I'm still finding little bits of real estate and run out to find something to fill it!
My herb garden is mostly in pots, so I'm always adding herbs or flowers to that.
The daughters have finally figured out to just take me to a nursery on Mothers day and let me go wild, so I'm still planting out my flowers!
Now I just have to find a working pump for my fountain! Nancy