It's hibernation time here. Seeds are mostly ordered. I have some apples left in the fridge.

Day Dream time. I'm eating squash from last year, and the last of the frozen beans, and the last of the frozen chard.

We've had a very mild Nov, then a horrendous Dec/ Jan, still a foot of snow, and not much above freezing for a while here. Thats been rare these last years, but we're enjoying it by XC skiing a lot closer, and hopefully it will get rid of some of the critters that have been showing up.

So not much going on out there except keeping the deer away from the fruit trees, they will eat the bark off of them when they can't find anything else. The deer are currently crawling under a fence strung across the swamp below the pond, then up though 50 feet of junk, pruned branches, cat tails, and other intentional encumbrance, then up the slope and onto the rose bushes and what not.

Its too cold for them, and I've blasted a few 12 gauge #7's in the general direction,they spook and they run closer, too confused. I don't mind the roses, and I don't mind the leaves, but I do mind the fruit tree budding tips, that will so mess up the tree. So far so good. Hopefully they'll move along.

My neighbor just planted his "Frosty" peas over the weekend. I told him that I usually wait until March 15th so we will compare notes come harvest time.

My 2 plum trees are showing pink bud colors already. I'm hoping that last nite's 18F shut them down till March. Still working on pruning all the fruit trees, laying down anti-Bermuda grass barriers, and turning compost. Have bought all the season's seeds, now waiting till the 3rd week in March to start tomatoes inside and 2nd week in April to start melons inside. Lowes and other outlets here now have their seed displays up.

Planting onion bulb sets yesterday, prepped the pea bed for planting soon. The plum tree is now in bloom thanks to the 70s yesterday and today. A good rain is expected tonite to tuck my onions in place. Wrapping up the pruning of other fruit trees which are still dormant. Daffodils are in bloom.

Well this past weekend I planted peas, lettuce, a few carrots, more onions, and broc & cabbage transplants. I also weeded my fall planted spinach and mulched with compost for a first harvest by week's end. Also picked the first few asparagus. Plan to start tomatoes indoors by this coming weekend. The 2 plum trees are now at the post bloom stage with tiny fruits starting to form, just hope the temps behave. All other asst fruit trees budding up, pears to soon follow. A first mow of the lawn is on the menu this week too, glad I gassed up the containers early this year.

vgkg, when is your average last frost day? Here, its May 25 or something. I'll try to get peas and fava planted on Good Friday, as per local folklore - but the garden has to demudify a bit.

Hi David, April 10th is our local average last frost date. My neighbor planted his peas on Feb 15th and they are up now about 4" tall and looking good (thanks to a mild period). Mine will hopefully break ground in a few days. I told him that I'd plant mine on Mar 15th and we'd compare the results when harvest time arrives. We'll see if mine catch up to his.

Other than the planting date we both planted "Frosty" variety but he planted one thin line down each of his rows while I planted mine in a double line (within a wide row) with 3' chicken wire down the middle in-between the double lines. His have no support nor did he use innoculant as I did. I planted mine March 15th last year also and we're still eating on the frozen packs. My pea plot consists of 3 wide rows, each ~15' long. No mud problems here, thankfully a long dry fall/winter has become a fairly moist spring.

I do mine along vertical cattle panels, held up with t-posts 2 X 16' for a 'bed'. I piled up, all along the length, a foot thick layer of grass clippings and chopped leaves last fall, and was supposed to turn it in and mix it yesterday and prepare the bed for planting. Ground is frozen solid under the leaves, so I raked them off and hopefully it will thaw and I can mix it all in and plant. Heard this morning on the radio that is is an exceptionally early Good Friday / Easter, so I still have plenty of time. We're down in the teens still at night. I do "Case Load" peas from Johnny's.

I've got a couple dozen annual artichokes going well in pots, they should go out in April, and a couple packets of shallot seed have given me a couple hundred shallot starts. I'll spray dormant oil on the fruit trees today, if the wind doesn't start up.

Sounds like you're on top of things David!
My peas are up about 2-3" now while my neighbors are 5-6". Picking asparagus daily, picking spinach every 3 days.
Plums are almost pea size now and most other fruits are in bloom (peaches, pears, asian pears, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, and a few apples. Grape vines still asleep.
Been very cool and damp for 5 days now, a bit worried about the fruit tree blooms getting too soggy. The good news is that we've gotten 3" of rain over the past week, evenly distributed and a slow soaker. But I so for desire warmer temps which are predicted in 2 days, near 80F.

Also up are the onions, lettuces, & carrots, while the cabbage & broc transplants look happy and larger.
Indoor tomato seedlings are now in 1st true leaf stage.
Now prepping for this weekend's first planting of summer squashes and 1st corn (Bodacious). With indoor seeding of melons, loupes, cukes, and some various flowers.
Even the fig trees are pushing out tiny figs now.
Still no frost or 30s in sight for 15 days assuming one can believe the forecast. Looking like a good start here.

Here, its snowing.

Did you plant snowpeas David? Sorry, couldn't resist :)
Your day will come. Here we expect nite temps to dip into the upper 30's in a couple of days but after that the long range looks good for the corn, squash, snaps, & cukes to be seeded outside.
Apple trees now in full bloom.

We've had a cold and wet March here so things are slower to flower. Daffidils are in full bloom, but the plums are not quite open yet.
I planted onion plants on the 7th along with sugar snap peas and a double row of glads. This was the first day it was dry enough to plant....lots of rain too.

The other day I set out the broccoli, cabbage, salad spinach, and pok choy that I raised Tomato seedlings look good.

Today I planted 2/3rd of the potatoes, carrots, and a patch of hulless oats with summer alfalfa. Tomorrow I plan to start 10 watermelons and 2 cantaloupes with more to be started later.

Lawn mowing is nearly here now.

We have our irrigation water now, and I've planted shallots, leeks, onions, peas, and fava. It's also 30 mph winds, 7% humidity, and red flag fire danger for the next few days here. Apricot bloomed, but its still down in the mid-20's at night. Nothing else blooming, but everything else getting swollen and ready.

Have gotten 5.5" of rain over the past 2 days here. That hit right after I planted the first 20 tomatoes plants but they seem to have taken it in stride.
Peas are about a week from blooming.
First corn should be up now.
Snaps & Squash seed planted, hopefully not drowned.
Broc & cabbages look good.
Picking asparagus daily.
Picking spinach every 3rd day.
Plums & peaches shaping up ok, apples blooming still.
Grapes & figs waking up.
Indoor melons/cukes popping up now.
Tulips/Daffodils gone now, Irises starting to bloom early.
Mowed lawn for 3rd time before the rain hit.
Weeding heavy....

Broccoli and cabbage looking good.
Corn planted but not up.
Potatoes peeking through some.
Snap peas growing and onions taking off.
Plums finished blooming
Apples, peaches, cherries, and pears blooming.
Melons started with some late ones to plant soon.
Tomatoes really growing in quart containers.
Daffidils done nearly but some tulips blooming.

Have a good gardening season.

Had a Close call last nite as temps here dipped to 39F. With 20 tomato plants already in ground as well as squash, beans, and corn popping up it was too close for me but everything appeared ok in the dim dawn light before departing for work.

Hope to plant early melons, loaupes & cukes outside by the weekend along with the remaining tomaotes. This has been the 5th wettest April on record here so the drought has been stopped in it's tracks. Almost 7" at my home in just the past 10 daze.
Good gardening back at ya Wayne and everyone else as well.

Whoa, it's been a while......

The garden is all planted now with the exception of the later corn, later cukes, and later squash.
The watermelons survived the temp drop last week and high winds but I did lose about 1/3 of the cantaloupes (probably to damping off).
The tomatoes are beginning to bloom.
The spinach has now phased out.
The asparagus are winding down.
The lettuce is still non-bitter thanks to the cool snap.
The broccoli is on it's last side shoots (it's more productive in the fall here).
The peas will be ready to pick by this weekend.
The Strawberries were plentiful and plump thanks to the rains.
The bush beans are close to budding up.
The onions are onioning.
The squash is showing some bud.

The plums, peaches, and apples look good but the Asian pears look a little rough, no regular pears this year, ugh. Figs are ok. Blueberries loaded!

Also planted the late melon & loaupe seeds direct in the ground and expect them to pop up soon.
So Whew! the hard part is over other then the weeding, watering, harvesting, canning, freezing, etc, etc, ;o)

Still having wild weather here, broke the local heat record wednesday at 88ºF and frost tonight, strong winds drying things up quickly. My leeks are doing very well, as are the onion and shallot from seed. Big plant out from the green house starts next week, then two weeks of finger crossing for hail and frost.

Eh, forecast down to 38ºF tonight and tomorrow, so still holding off on the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cukes, melons, and squash - who all in all represent 20 full flats of 2 and 4" cells filling up the greenhouse. Note to self - do not start squash seed first week May - picture 3 flats of 4 x 4 x 6" deep pots, 18 plants each, all with 6" dia leaves and 2 foot runners.

$%***&&! deer in the orchard, climbing through a hole in the fence in the swamp. Sprayed them all (ref-trees) with egg / chicken bouillon. planted 32 foot of golden beets, 12 feet of carrots, and started 72 chard plants indoors - they'll go where the garlic is, when I pull that in a month.

David, for deer repellent I use my own personal formula. You may have heard me mention it before but I can give you the low down if you like. On occasion I find deer tracks in my garden but no damage. It seems to work well for all critters.

Vgkg, what do you use? The egg / chicken bouillon thing is recommended here by the Division of Wildlife - it does work, but needs to be repeated after each rain. Here, that isn't too often. I just forget to do it when the trees are leafing out.

It's a very simple cost free recipee David that gets better with age. Most gardeners would refuse to use it due to the repulsive gross factor but it's completely harmless when sprinkled around the garden/yard borders (not on the plants of course). If you haven't guessed yet - human urine. Yes the mark-your-territory method does work for me and my neighbor sometimes pays the price since the critters turn away from my direction and head for his. A simple set up of a funnel, gallon containers, and a private outdoor collection area is all you need. It does get used up fast since like you say apply after each rainfall or weekly if dry. Collecting year round helps keeps the supply up and the aged winter gallons become much more potent as the critters don't know what animal lurks about that could have left that "mark". Probably scare off Bigfoot. Works for me, it's free and easy to make.
BTW - if deer have already tasted your garden veggies then future deterance may be harder. I start in very early spring before any visible sign of attack and try to apply on schedule thereafter.

But won't my compost pile suffer the heart break of Nitrogenosis ?

I encourage drinking extra fluids to keep both projects going full steam ;o)........but as for me I don't waste it on compost as I have plenty of other N sources available here.

Ach! We had a frost last night, which did a number on the winter squash and peppers - the tomatoes I can cut back and they'll come up from the roots. Bizarre, same varieties a few feet apart, some had no damage at all, and their next door neighbor is some wilted mess.

Enjoy them hot temps in Virginia.

David, I thought that I had lost 2 store bought tomato plants to frost in mid April (just bought 2 plants that were way more mature than my home started ones for a few early tomatoes). It looked like both plants were gonners but instead of yanking them out I left them in and to my surprise they both re-generated and now support a good crop of grape sized fruits. The frost killed parts just died away (~70% of foliage) but a couple of untouched suckers later took over. Not sure if peppers and squash are are that robust? Hope so.
Yes, HOT here, earliest 100F stretch heatwave on record but after todays's 99-100 we expect lower 90s/upper 80s the rest of the week.

In the garden :
Picked first summer squashes yesterday.
Picked first blueberries too.
Early corn beginning to tassle.
2nd corn knee high.
3rd corn braking ground.
Sweet potatoes starting to lay over.
Bush beans blooming and setting beans, may harvest in 2-3 days.
Peas all gone, 3rd corn planted in their spot.
Onions fattening up.
Peaches & Plums too.
Grapes are tiny but there.
Lettuce & spinach shot but late cantloupes ready to take over their space.
Carrots almost ready.
Cukes blooming.
Tomatoes did set well before the present heatwave hit.
Early melons are spreading out rapidly and ready to bloom (they like this heat).
Lookng forward to 80s again!!! (I don't like this heat!!)

Picking Plums & Blueberries now.
Corn ears are forming.
Cabbages all harvested.
Picking Snaps.
Picking Squash
Picking first cukes.
Watermelons taking shape, biggest = baseball.
Cantaloupes = thumb size
Sweet potatoes spreading out.
Tomatoes looking good, large crop expected.
Hot peppers shaping up, few reg peppers so far.
Peaches still smallish and green.
Figs showing.
Onions bulbing.
Planted late squashes
Temps have cooled nicely now, lower 80s.
Need some rain though.....
Only pests - cuke beetles and first Japanese Beetles, ugh!

Most of the peppers survived the frost, just lost all their leaves for the first 14" of stem, and then started up again. Look like a Dr. Seus pepper plant or something. Peas are starting to fill the pods, garlic is soon ready to pull. Finally warming up into the 50's at night, high 80's - low 90's during the day, now things can grow. I do my part - make a 1/2 gallon of iced tea and sit in the shade, and give the plants their instructions.

vgkg, In another week my garden should read like your June 18 post except for figs and my melon are about tennis ball size now on the larger ones....had some rain I would have liked to send your way.

Hi Wayne, sounds like you're ~6 weeks behind me there in Z-5. My biggest watermelon is a Raspa now and it's about 2x football size. I have lost 3 melon plants to a "wilt" problem, not sure what but could be bacterial wilt from the hord of cuke beetles earlier in the season.

Will be picking early corn this week, cukes coming in strong now as well as the squashes. First tomatoes expected by this weekend. Yes, we need rain badly here, local farmer's corn are looking very thursty and right at tassle time too. We got 1/4" last nite but that's little help as deep moisture is lacking. If it weren't for my new deep well my gardens would be near toast. On a whim yesterday when turning 2 compost piles into one I planted some pumpkin seed where one pile sat. Maybe with some luck I'll get that Halloween pumpkin I've always shot for but never produced (all rot long brfore HW).

vgkg,
Raspa is more wilt susceptible than some other varieties according to Purdue testing....aw.
My first corn is silking so it's not 6 weeks behind. It ought to be ready in 2 weeks now. Things are a few days behind average here due to cold and wetness.

Fruits are especially good this year.

Thanks for the tip on Raspa Wayne, the vines are so mixed up now it's hard to tell which vines are dying of wilt. It seems to have stopped for now but a little thinning was probably good for the patch.

Over the past 3 days we have gotten 3.25" of rain from 3 separate storms here. The tomatoes are now ripening up so I hope that's the end of the rain for a while otherwise spliting is close at hand, melons are holding up ok so far as the ground was very dry deep down. One more storm and the melons will be cracking too as they are nearing ripe. Busy times....

Well the raqins held off and the melons are plumping up, tomatoes too. Picking loads of tomatoes now and the firstr couple of melons. Oddly the cantaloupes aren't turning yet so the melons are ahead.

Wayne, I planted chrewshaw this year, do they turn orange like the typical cantaloupes or is there another sign of ripeness. There are 3 huge crenshaws out there but they seem to be taking their time like the rest of the loupes.

Picked the first Raspa, est 30#. It bled red from the stem end. Everything else doing well, harvested all onions, late squash ready to bloom, lost 1/3 of early squashes. Heavy cuke beetle infest here.

Burpee Crenshaw turns yellowish with green streaks when ripe. You cut them off. Lilly crenshaw turns yellow and you cut it off.

Thanks Wayne, I already picked 3 crenshaws (Burpee) from the early plot because they were getting a bit of sunburn and to my surprise they were ripe and good (the one I've eaten so far). I googled up a pic on ripe ones and it was a match too. The late plot has several large deep green ones growing now and I expect harvest in a week or so. I was surprised about having to cut the stems on the first 3 and didn't expect them to be ripe but the first one was quite sweet, smooth, and delicious.

Meanwhile back at the ranch everything is doing well, we've had some good regular rains here lately so all is growing good. Havested all of my early Ambrosia corn last week and yum!! Another 2 plots of Silver King and Ambrosia on the way. Have eaten raspa, yellow doll, and M&S melons - Whoa! Late squash are kicking in as early squash is checking out. Tomatoes coming out of my ears and VgQn is busy on the canning front. Too much to list........too little time.....

Cantaloupes are coming in now. It's a very good crop in one patch but the ones in the home area all got some kind of foliar disease early and that has hurt those.

Watermelons have had more disease pressure this year it seems from so much rain in May,June, and early July. Still I have gotten some good ones....the Orangeglo today was super and the Dixie Lee last week was very sweet.

Other crops and fruits are excellent.

Hi Wayne, yesterday I picked 3 Orangeglos hoping they are ripe, was going to pick them last week but decided to wait a bit. Loaupes here are doing good but the early patch is heading south. The early melons surprised me this year and sprung back to make even more melons. I may have to sacrafice a few of them as those vines will have to be ripped out for fall crops next weekend.
It's been a pretty good year overall even though we've had some dry spells. Got about 20 asst Wmelons under the leantoo now with 12 more in the fridge. Got that many even though I've been giving them away fairly constant. Same with the tomatoes of course, VgQn has passed her canning limits so everything goes.
Late cukes ready to kick in for pickling, and my late pumpkins (planted on a whim July 1st) are setting now so I may actually have some on Halloween for a change. Sweet potatoes are all over, looking forward to the late harvest. Even got some grapes this year, figured I'd have to retire first...

Vgkg,

The gardens and fruits are just tremendous this year. With 8 plantings of corn, 5 of green beans, limas to pick every 2 days, tomatoes, potatoes, now fall broccoli, carrots, and of course melons. Some watermelons didn't finish well, but I still got many great ones too....Orangeglo, Royalty, Sangria, SF420, Raspa, and a 25 pound Sweet Slice Plus [Willhite] seedless.

The dog dug a spot in the sweetpotatoes and exposed a huge O'Henry so it looks good for them too!
The peaches were overloaded....probably thinned 600 off one tree and it was still too many on there. The plums have beared like crazy. The pears are ripening and the apples are just...overloaded!

We're hitting the 3 -4 weeks of garden absurdity, when everything gets ripe at once - peppers, tomatoes, squash, onions, leeks, shallots, plums, peaches. Then we've the temps getting back down to mid-40's at night here next week, 70's daytime, so everything sorta stops getting ripe. Today picked 100 odd winter squash because the vines were going to be toast from P. mildew in a few days anyway, and we've large hail in the forecast, as well as a few bushels of tomatoes and peppers and stuff. Should, if things haven't changed too much, get the first frost in 10 - 15 days.

Then its apple time.

And now, apple time is over as well. 24 quarts of sauce, 24 pints of apple butter, and enough apples sliced, peeled, cored and frozen for lotza pies. Today, as I was mowing up the leaves for compost, I bonked into the Spitzenberg apple tree, and had a Newton Moment, as it were, with one last one. Sweet and tangy.

We had a hard freeze last week, down to 15º, which did a number on everything except the carrots, which are still in the ground. Beets are up, trimmed, and stored in big tubs with peat moss, everything else is frozen, canned, or in the fridge.

Spawning season for the browns starts soon in here, and the big ones are getting careless.

Hi Guys, been away from here for a while but right now we are harvesting brocolli, collards, turnips, and a few tomatoes still. Hard freeze expected tomorrow nite so I picked all the green tomatoes and we made 16 quarts of Chow-chow (much better than relish). Still waiting on the carrots, beets, kholrabi, and cabbages but it won't be much longer now. Sweet potatoes were dug in mid Sept, enough for the winter. All melons are gone but not forgotten, as per usual the Raspas got the best raves of them all. Freezer full and panty too. Late fall spinach looking good for an early spring harvest. Apples and pears didn't do much, still too young plus some fire blight/ cedar rust lingering. Peaches were looking good but were small due to timing of dry spell, and hit by brown rot too. Plums were good earlier. Blueberries getting better each year. All Slowing down now, time to take seed inventory and re-order.....and rest!

Mid November now and the cabbages are getting ready.
Been picking broccoli for some time and still several main heads are forming up. It's amazing what a 10 day separation will do to delay a broccoli harvest. I planted some broccoli transplants on Aug 23rd and another batch on Labor Day and it really stretched out the harvests over 3-4 weeks.
Beets are just about plump enough now as well as some of the kohlrabi.
Carrots could be picked now too but will wait a bit longer to increase size.
Nite time 20s are expected here by next week so growing should slow a bit now. Shouldn't hurt anything until upper teens arrive.
Collards galore, and Turnips are Big.
Spring spinach looks excellent, having to thin them now.

Time to take seed inventory and look into ordering soon, I feel that there may be some shortages this year if new veggie growers come into the fold, the bad economy may swell our ranks in 2009.

We're hitting record warm days, and its dry as a bone, so I'm out working up the beds that were new this past summer - I tilled into something underground, and the whole new bed turned into a spring most of the plants just had root rot and died. So I'm digging furrows and building berms 6 feet apart, giving about 20 inches of difference. I will plant down the tops of the berms - this is a great way to do things, somehow the plants figure it out themselves so half the roots are constantly in the water, and half are in the drier, oxygenated part, and the plants thrive without me doing much of anything. Beautiful soil, at least for here - a sandy loam with gobs of organic matter in what used to be, long before I moved here, a pasture. Must be 2' thick until it hits the bedrock. I only hit, I dunno, half a dozen rocks with the tiller.

Colder autumn here than usual is slowing down the carrots. The last few years I've given away my "Xmas Carrots" at Thanksgiving but this year it looks like Xmas before they're full size, if even then. Normally they are hotdog size by now but most are pinky size. Some look too frost bitten too.
On the other hand the turnips are huge, way bigger then normal.
Collards looking wimpy from the constant cold too, and they usually can handle it ok.

Brocs are shot now (few side shoots this year, and only 2/3 of the cabbages made it to fully head-up, so far anyways. Late too.

It's been seed ordering time here. Broccoli is frozen out so the season is over.
O'Henry and all the other sweetpotatoes were great. I never seen so many apples as this year on the trees. It was just a vintage fruit year in everything here.

This is the first time I have not tractor plowed any garden area. I am moving more all the time into getting more organic matter into the soil and especially now on top. This presents some new techniques to be mastered.

I have to laugh a bit about the possible request on the Soil and Compost forum for a conversation link. That used to be a hot spot not so long ago. I wonder if many people have kind of gotten some things off their chest already and have moved on. Just look at this thread. It is very slow. Also I noticed that the gals had already taken the thread over......happpens a lot because guys are not often chatterbugs after a short while?

Hi Wayne, you must know this already? but there is a replacement forum here for the old Soil & Compost conversation pit. Called "Hot Topics"

Here is a link that might be useful: HT, lots of old timers still there.