Started from plants, bought at nursery or perennial from last year-
Celery. Walla Walla sweet onions. Shallots (bulb) strawberries. Cucumbers. Tomatoes. Globe artichoke. little banana pepper. Cilantro. Parsley. Thyme. Garlic chives.
Seed that has come up so far-
red sails lettuce. radishes. Little marvel peas. sweet pea vines. nasturtiums. lemon gem marigolds.
Fruits that have leafed out-
Blueberries. Strawberries. Red Currant. Concord Grape. Nectarine tree. Rhubarb. Raspberries, red and yellow.

Still watching for signs of life from my asparagus starts and both the little finger carrots and purple (just planted that seed yesterday).

Nothing! Well nothing but perennials so far. : )

I do have three wall o waters up and in them two peppers (Karma) two eggplants and two tomatoes. My lettuce and swiss chard are still cowering under the soil and I don't dare bring the rest of the tender veggies out yet. I will have to live vicariously thru you southern ladies for a couple of more weeks.

Plants I set out that are really growing:
Broccoli - Green sprouting
Cabbage - Early Dutch
Onion sets
Tomatoes - Beefsteak & Better Boy
Big Bertha bell peppers

Seeds I planted that are up:
Marigolds - Mr. Majestic & Romeo
Zinnia - Mexican zinnia
Bush Beans - Contender
Basil - Sweet, Lemon, Spicey Globe & Genovese
Mesclun salad mix
Zuchinni Squash
Calendulas
Chamomile
Radishes - Red Devil & White Icicle
Spinache
Hollyhocks - old-fashioned singles and some doubles
Mammoth dill
Zinnia - tall Dahlia mixed colors
Cosmos - Pink Picotee
Salvia - Coral Nymph
Petunias - assorted pinks to white, ruffled
Bread Poppies (planted in January)

Plants I planted last fall that are thriving:
Parsley - Italian Flat
Hollyhocks
Chives (blooming)
Leeks
Garlic

Waiting to see if the other seeds sprout.

I envy you guys with so much stuff up! I'm just starting now as we've still had some pretty chilly mornings here in Minnesota! I do have rhubarb, asparagus, chives, and mint up. Also have Perrenial flowers up in my flower bed. I do have tomatoes, thyme, rosemary and lavendar growing in my window sill patiently waiting for the danger og frost to pass!!

So far:

Plants:
Tomatoes (4-5 varieties)
pole beans
yellow squash
zuchinni squash
celery
melon
lettuce (many varieties)
onion
peppers
pumpkins
strawberries

seeds to go in:
carrots
sweet peas
others (undecided)

Herbs up and growing:
dill
parsley
thyme
basil
chives

Others in potager
nasturtiums
daisies
geraniums
salvia

Still awaiting better weather to get out there and finish planting!

Janna

Direct sown:
Onions, red and white
Garlic (planted last fall)
scallions interplanted with spinach
shallots
turnips
mesclun mix
lettuce
beets
3 types of carrots
peas
fava beans
radishes

In flats in the coldframe:
lots of tomatoes
peppers
eggplant
broccoli
chinese broccoli
kohlrabi
swiss chard
tah tsai
bok choi
flowers
herbs
collards
Italian dandelions
radicchio
cabbage

-Diggity

Rhubarb and chives. Raspberries are blooming, will be okay if soil drains soon. Everything else drowned. Oh, the mint's fine, I forgot, because I am trying to get rid of it. Glad I didn't get around to planting seeds-- would have been waste of good seeds and time. Hoping next week warms up and it stops raining.

Most of my flowers are ok, they're on higher ground, just late coming out.

Wish rain would rot out rank old daylilies, my other nemesis. I'm making headway.

Dayle Ann

I just planted some tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and a few seeds last night. I'm still working on the hardscaping so I'm a little behind this year. We've been eating asparagus for weeks.

Michelle

My 3 newly planted Roma Tomatoes are going gangbusters---I've never seen such big leaves on this variety, lots of buds too! Also, I planted a Pasilla chili pepper (for making Chile Rellenos--love 'em). 1 Roma plant plus 3 Bell pepper plants lived over from last year---this has never happened in the 5 years we've been here.

Becky

My tiny plot is growing crazy! We are eating home grown salad for the first time (our neighbors as well!), my tomatoes are starting to turn from green to red, squash and zuccini are being harvested every 3-4 days, tons of herbs that I still have no idea what to do with!

Next year I think I might take out some grass and have a "real" potager!

Oh Goodie! I get to add what is up im my new beds!!!!!

Lettuce, radish, beans, turnip, beets--those were all seeds. The tomatoes, peppers and broc. were plants they are all still alive!!!!

I put some egg plants in a pot, parsley and basil in windowbox type planters and a nice bed of squash that the cats like. None of these have appeared yet.

Leasa

In my garden:

Green beans, bush
Onions, Candy and Super Star
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Early Thickset Bell Pepper
Yellow Crook-Neck Squash
Zuchini
cucumbers
Lettuce
Pole Beans
Strawberries (are done)
Sweet Corn
Raspberries
Rhubarb(newly planted this spring)
Cherry tree (loaded - need to pick)
Fruit trees, plum, apple, peach and pear
Flowers:Achillea, Gaillardia, hollyhocks, salvias, rudbeckia, Garden heliotrope, sunflowers, dayliles (just buds so far) except for a row of divided last fall
Hyperions, anthemis, self-seeded Laurens Grape poppy,
Ornamental bean on fence: Scarlet Runner (for HB's)
Clary Sage, garden sage, tarragon, parsley, lavender and basil.

Think that about covers it.

I love your "salad bowl", Soggy!
What a cute idea!

The cardinals ate all the cherries off my little tree, gldno1! It was loaded, too. No preserves this year unless I buy some! You are so lucky to have lots of cherries. How do you keep the birds out of them? Netting? Only a few peaches and apples, and just about half the normal crop of Bartlet pears. Darned drought! I need another water faucet down in the orchard so I can flood-irrigate.

Happy me! My new guineas are eating all the squash bugs on the zuchinni plants! I won't have to worry with them ruining the pumpkins & cantelopes either.

I haven't seen a bug one since I let them run in there and so far, they are keeping the grass & weeds grazed down in the paths and all around in the Potager.

We are still suffering from a severe drought here in Okie. The grasses have withered and dried up this past week. The only juicy grass is where I am watering daily, so the guineas are staying close to home where the grass is greener on this side of the fence. :)

I've been too sick to garden, so am behind a bit in getting things in the ground, but there is still time to plant corn, cantelope, okra, pumpkins and the various kinds of gourds I will use for my winter Native gourd crafting. They love the heat! The corn & gourds will be ready to harvest in Aug-September if I plant now. We have a long growing season here.

Planting some Turban squash & other winter squash. The squash and the okra will grow fast in this sweltering heat if I can keep them all irrigated. They should start to put on pods within 5-6 weeks if not sooner.

Just planted bright orange Cosmos in the big Potager on the hill and Roma bush beans in the little one by the house. Transplanting Salvias out in various spots, too. I need to move four sages to a better place - it is too hot & dry where they are at now in this drought. It is like a furnace out there! Man oh, man! Will put them in the little potager and pray they survive the move. I'll set a shade over them for a week or so until they acclimate.

Keep it coming, folks! I like to hear what you guys are doing and growing.
TTFN
~ SweetAnnie4u

I'm still getting enough lettuce to feed 6 plus guinnea pigs and rabbit each day, enough squash and zukes for a good saute a couple times a week, and still awaiting all else. My tomatoes are green but getting bigger, my celery is not quite sturdy enough, and the bean stalk is growing like crazy but no beans yet!

sweetannie,

What is eating your bugs? new guinneas, as in guinnea pigs? Please explain!

Janna

Janna,

I bought some yearling guinea fowl back in April - 4 females and 2 males. I had to keep them penned up for a month or so until they calmed down and felt like this was their 'home' - they are wild birds (not domesticated) and tend to wander off. They guy I bought them from was rather gruff and mean to them and it took them awhile to calm down and no go ape on me every time I walked out there to feed them. Poor things. They now come when I call them and are getting where they will walk near me without fear. They stay around within calling distance, coming back to the house from time to time to get a cool drink.

They graze on weeds & grasses and seeds and eat hords of bug-type insects, like ticks, fleas, beetles, stink bugs and etc. They also will chase after flying insects of all kinds and cabbage moths.

I let them in my garden every day and they gobble up all the bugs they can find and graze on grass and weeds. They are able to see the tiniest insects on blades of grass or under leaves and carefully pick them off, doing no harm to my garden plants. They don't scratch around and stomp on your plants like chickens do. They each eat an amazing amount of grass every day, which I found out while I had them penned up for 5 weeks. I had to cut tubs of grass all day long to give to them. Ugh!

At night, I put them up in the henhouse with "Half-Pint", my short-legged rooster and the two hens, "Honk and Bonk", my "girls". I call them all to come into the henhouse, saying, "Come on Babies! Time to make a Nikie Nike", and here they all come running. If the guineas are far off, they fly in squawking all the way like geese do.

They are ready to roost every evening around 7 p.m. A few times I was late getting out there to open the gate and they flew up in a big tree next to the henhouse to roost for the night. I had to use a long cane pole to "encourage" to get them down. If you get the females down, they will run into the henhouse and the males will follow. I use the long cane pole to herd them when I need to do so, too.

At first, having guineas turned out to be a lot more work then I had been told. But now things are becoming routine and they are beginning to trust me, so it is a lot easier.

I have seen a drastic reduction in ticks and every kind of bug that plagued my gardens, and crawling bugs, even pill bugs and I don't have to mow the grass so often as they keep it grazed down.

Guineas sound an alarm, making a lot of racket if there is a potential predator or something out of the normal happens. Almost anything can set them off. Last week they started in, so I went to investigate. They had found something in the Dill bed, all standing around it peering into the dill plants and squawking their heads off. One of the males, "Helmet" kept looking up at me and then back into the dill, so I hurried, thinking they must had 'treed' a snake. I got my sword and ran into the garden. By this time, they were really making a lot of noise, stomping their feet in place and completely hysterical. I cautiously parted the dill and there inside was...a little box turtle. All that fuss over a little turtle! My goodness! As soon as picked him up, they quieted down and went back to grazing and pecking at bugs and snapping at flying insects. I moved him over by the cabbages and he got a drink of water off a cabbage leaf. I watched him for a little bit, then went back to my chair on the patio. Suddenly, the guineas sounded the alarm again...they had found the turtle again and as before, they all stood around it, high-stepping their feet and hysterically squawking, "Teck-teck-teck-teck-teck-teck-teck! Te-cluck! Te-cluck! Te-cluck!". What a racket! :)
I had to remove the turtle to the safety of a nearby flowerbed because they were pecking on his shell, poor little guy. But I laughed until my sides ached at those silly guineas. Guineas are so comical, but they are very noisy birds.

I'll try to get some good pictures of them and post so you guys can see them in action. (heeheehee)
~ Annie

BTW, Janna

I used to have a guinea pig. His name was "Fatty". He was just so adorable and smart. He was very particular about his food - how it was cut up and placed on his special plate. Every time he heard the sound of a plastic bag, he would start barking, "Wheat! Wheat! Wheat!", knowing that his food often appeared when he heard that sound. What a cutie.
Fatty died of old age last year. He was 5 yrs old, which is very old for a guinea pig. I buried him in the pet cemetery next to my dog, Mr. Magoo, my little Hammy Hoggy-doggy. The piggy and the hoggy, side by side.

Annie, that story of your guineas fretting over the box turtle is hilarious! lol.

Gldno, so that's what you are growing-just saw the pic of your humongous garden on the other thread. wow!

My baby romas are still green---but plentiful! My bell peppers and poblanos are getting bigger by the day---looks like the habanero seeds are coming up too! (the hot spell we had last week helped things along). Back to June gloom this week. Basil is outgrowing the pots and is a heavy drinker. Off to snip some basil for garden spaghetti sauce I've got on the stove for dindin.
-Becky

Well, I got off to a really late start this year due to SOOOOO much rain late! (No CA zone 8-9)
I'm just getting some blooms on the tomatoes and peppers, the beans are starting to climb, I've got basil both in the garden, under the bean teepee and under tomatoes for a little shade so they won't bolt too early.
I found a new bush basil that likes hot weather that I might try in the greenhouse (new, so I'm not sure what to plant in it during the summer.I'll be starting my winter veges in Aug I think.)
We were supposed to get some physical labor when SIL's friend was visiting for the week, but the chain saw wasn't working to cut up the railroad ties to make more beds.
I think we'll have to hire someone!
We will, however, be bringing in gravel for paths.
I'm gonna get this small area DONE if it kills me!
We have 1 1/4 acre and it's so overwhelming, we just tend to not do anything. Now we are just taking care of a small area at a time.
Happy Gardening!

Annie,

Thanks so much for your story, what fun! I would love to see pictures.

We have two guinnea pigs; "Daisy" who is 4 and her baby "Patch" now 3. Daisy had three litters before we had our male "Bo" fixed, she is truly a trooper, and a great Mom. They live with "Cinnamon", our bunny and they all take care of eachother. They have been enjoying our "salad bowl" immensely. Most of my lettuce is finishing up now, "bolting?" I think it's called.

Our squash and zukes are going crazy now, we're eating sauteed veggies 2-3 times a week. Still waiting for tomatoes, celery, peppers and beans.

Janna

We finally have something other than herbs!!!
We ate our first tomatoes today! and was able to make strawberry short cake! last year the berries were few and far between.

The grapes are coming on too!
My onions and garlic have been up and eaten for a while now.

The flowers are making it all really pretty.....I actually planted more of them than anything else this year!

But thanks to the freebie book I got from Harper!
My potager will be more edible next year!

Haziemoon

Becky,

I have of cousin in N. San Diego county. Wouldn't it too weird if you were her?

Her grandmother was the older sister of mine.
They were from Calif pioneer stock and proud of it!

Two of my aunts still live on the rural road named for one of our pioneer ancestors. I was born and reared there. My cousin Becky and I were childhood playmates and lived near the park across the road, but across the canyon from one another.

Any of this sound familiar?

~ Annie

Annie- sounds interesting but it's not me. But I did spend alot of my youth in San Diego (not N. County though) and with cousins (my girl cousin was Debbie). That's neat, your having pioneer ancestry.
Regards,
-Becky

My potager/cottager/pottager has begun:

In my new big "bed" I have:

Hosta
GlobeFlower
Monkshood
Japanese Painted Fern
Delphinium
Miniature Burning Bush
Primula
LUPINS
Pansies
Violas
Impatients
Portulaca
Hens and chicks
Cherry bush/tree
Bugbane "brunette"

In containers I have:
Peppers
Herbs
Cucumbers
Tomatos
Osteopermim [spelling]
Biddens
Mandivilla vine

In my little raised bed:

Cucumbers
Peas [planted but not up yet]
Scarlet Runner beans [ditto]

I'm so excited that it is all coming together

Crook neck squash! And I am so happy! Love grilling or sauteing it with a little butter and garlic salt.

Lots of blueberries, too. And the banana peppers are coming on strong. My son likes to slice them down the middle, fill them with jack cheese, wrap them in bacon, then grill them. Yummy!

Diana

Here is a link that might be useful:

Strawberries, but I don't think I'm going to beat the squirrels! Flowers on the tomatoes and tomatillo and peas.
I need to get a banana pepper, I think - your recipe is making me *really* hungry! :-)

{{gwi:1152819}}

I have grapes ..........tomatoes....garlic......herbs a plenty!.....onions going to seed........and flowers and new shrubs. It's my first year.......next year the natural fence
should really take off.

Haziemoon