I am having a good gardening year. Only real problem is the excessive quantity of mosquitoes! Things are running a little late (bulbs, flowering shrubs, black raspberries, etc.) which I attribute to the huge snowpiles we had until late in the winter, which kept the ground frozen.

But late is okay for me, especially because later black raspberries for me mean that for once I can go to Summerfest as much as I want and not have to pick berries for hours before I go. Also, this is the first year in a while that all the forsythia bushes bloomed vigorously in the spring (late) instead of blooming a little in November, December, and January because it was warm and they got confused.

My vegetables are mostly doing great, and I attribute that to them being mainly in raised lasagna beds. When there are monsoon rains, it dries out quicker. But when there isn't rain, the materials making up the lasagna (leaves, old produce, horse manure, etc.) still have moisture within them, so they do better then as well. I am doing a test case with 3 peppers and 3 eggplants in the lasagna bed, and one of each in my regular garden soil. The raised bed plants are about 5 times bigger than the test cases!

Have only noticed two garden problems this year, one is my fault. I planted things on top of/in place of some alliums and other bulbs, and hence lost the original bulbs. The other problem is some sort of black spots that are appearing on my chocolate mint and oregano. Fortunately those are both plants I have too much of so I just rip off the affected areas, but it is rather pervasive and I don't like it.

Marcia

Most of my perennals and roses are blooming at least 2 wks later than usual. I wonder how my tomato and green pepper plants are going to do if this cool weather keeps up. Our nights have really been cool...mid to upper 50s. I have my veggies in a lasagna bed also, but I'm still concerned about the cool weather.

Kat

After the nasty (and very long) winter we had, I was *so* excited to finally see green. By the middle of June, I was ready to give up the garden for this year. Everything was really slow to take off. I have no 'full sun' so no veggies, and the ground in the shade seemed to stay wetter and colder, than last year...and with all the rain we had, it seems that every maple seed has germinated. I have thousands of tiny maple trees!

Heh, I purchased an "Autumn Blaze" maple a few years ago because I wanted a large, pretty maple, but didn't want the messiness I had experienced with silver maples.

I was told the Autumn Blaze had none of the problems Silvers had. That was true until this year when I spotted those stupid 'helicopters' on the tree. Grrr... Now I have maples everywhere as well.

Still a gorgeous tree though.

The garden, overall, seems a bit delayed, but doing OK. It was a very good year for the cool season stuff like snow peas and lettuce/greens. My snow peas I just pulled yesterday and usually they are dead earlier and produce less. Lettuce stayed tasty longer as well and only recently started bittering. None had gone to seed when I pulled them yesterday.

I am also using raised beds and this has made a huge difference as the in ground plants aren't doing as well and 2 friends with in ground gardens have plants much further behind mine. So far this has definitely been the year for raised beds.

A lot of things in my garden this year were late by two weeks, sometimes more. However things seem to be on track now. The one thing that seemed to take the weather the worst this year were my coneflowers. None of them are as big and thick as they normally get. Part of that was also the rabbits fault too. Marcia I will be enjoying Summerfest today!! Usually we can't go anywhere on the 4th because my dog is so afraid of fireworks. However, he's an old guy now and has gone deaf, so he doesn't even know they are going on any more.
Jen

I didn't mind that everything was late. Simply because I am always late getting things done.
Last year, my daughter planted her garden in mid July. I couldn't believe the harvest they got!
Summer should be a slow and lazy time.
Pondy

Compared to last year's complete lack of rain except for at the end of the season, this year is much better. Last year I lost all my squash to vine borers, my melons were decimated by flea beetles, and deer ate my Honeycrisp apple saplings.

No sign of the vine borers (yet) this year, after a brief battle with the flea beetles (diatomaceous earth is great) I have temporarily emerged victorious. The lone surviving Honeycrisp sapling endured the hungry march of the tent caterpillars. My potatoes are at "new potato" size, my beans are running and my rhubarb is robust.

As for maples, I have thousands of them too...all in my gutters. I should really clean them out.

All in all, I must say that having slow growing plants is a heck of a lot better than dead ones. And my sweet peas are loving the cool.

I agree with aka_margo. Everything is about two weeks behind where it was last year. I planted my tomatoes two weeks later (May 31st) because of frost warnings on Memorial Day and generally crappy weather up until then. But since then they've been real troopers. Because of the very sandy soil I've got here by the Lake I wasn't bothered by all the rain. Also we didn't get it as bad as some areas. Since then we've gotten a soaking rain every week, so I haven't done much watering. It's been pretty cool, so my melons and cukes aren't very big, but I should get something from them. The new perennials we've put in this year seem to be doing good. So it hasn't been the best year, but not a disaster.

Mike

Some of the same here: late start, lack of consistent rain supplemented with soaker hoses, cuke plant really small but flowering, zuke plant huge, tomatoes finding their way, peppers (bell & hot) starting to make some strides, snow pea plants really small but producing, broccoli/cabbage/brussel sprouts starting to get leaves with size. Definitely a different year but we're up to the challenge.

Madisonkathy wrote: "I have thousands of tiny maple trees!"

Oh my gosh, me too, I'll scream if I have to pull another maple! They're everywhere! And with the mosquitos I have to put on deet (yuk) to even try to weed. It's one of the first times I've ever used it in my life, but I'm not going to sit inside all summer.

Some of my plants are doing great, the veggies look pretty good (I have a ton of tomatoes, but smaller plants) and the dahlias have already been blooming for a few weeks. Last year they bloomed at the very end of summer!

The coneflowers and black eyed susans look good. The canna have been really slow and the poor elephant ears are just sitting there. It's been a strange year.

I too have some things earlier and some things later than usual. Like turquoise, I have a dahlia blooming and they never start until late July, my tomatoes are ahead of schedule as well. Must have been the ample rain. The volunteer seedlings are the ones behind schedule like melampodium, verbena and celosia.

tj

My daylilies are blooming way early this year!

Things are growing well for me here. Tomatoes are the size of baseballs already, will probably ripen easily by end of July. Cucumbers and zucchini also coming along. Instead of spading in all the leaves from last year, I decided to plant and use all the leaves as mulch, so I am not weeding at all. What a difference!
Have a note especially for Turquoise, see your Avon Lady. The Bug Guard sprays are much safer than anything with Deet, and you'll never see a mosquito when you use them. I spray before going out the garage door and can work several hours without any problem. Bug guard is safe and doesn't have to be washed off like Deet products.
We won't even mention the Maple seedlings---------
Rachel

My difficulty is that something is eating the leaves on my flowers and the petunias. I think it is an insect since the leaves have little holes and munching off them. They are covered with netting, so it is not deer and I have put slug bait around the base of them. They are especially liking the Japanese lanterns also.

I have a lot of earwigs. Do they eat the leaves?

Yes, earwigs put little holes in nearly everything.

I hate 'em.