Left everything covered up / inside

Mostly overcast and cool day, so left all the blankets/pots in place.

And left all the indoor-brought things indoors for the day.

D'oh -- the Scotia tomatoes are determinate

Not sure why I didn't research them before choosing this variety!

I wonder what height they'll max out at, and if they will produce before the rambling squash leaves become enormous and overtake them.

"Determinate tomato plants will reach a predetermined height and not grow beyond that height. They are relatively compact and produce a full bushy plant. The plants flower, set fruit and ripen in a short time so that the main harvest is concentrated into a few weeks. Examples of determinate varieties are Scotia, Celebrity and Tiny Tim. These are great varieties to grow in containers on the patio."

It dropped to 4 degrees last night

Confirmed by the weather website, went to 4 degrees last night, and was sub 10 degrees from 9pm through to ___am.  (placeholder...  at 7:30 as I write this it's still only 6 degrees)

Tonight is supposed to be similar, a low of 4.

4 degrees predicted for tonight -- most tenders under cover -- containers brought inside

Used old sheets, pillowcases, dog bed cover, cloches, and upside down pots to cover most of the tenders.  Sheets/pillowcases over top of upside down pots in some cases.

Containers brought inside:  big potted ground cherry (the most sunburnt one which now looks like the best one), big potted Sweetie tomato, big potted basil, all the not-yet-transplanted zinnias and squashes/cucumbers, the nasturtiums, and the potted ageratum.

Tenders not protected:
- Sweetie in central bed -- has a few tiny tomatoes on the way, will be interesting to see if the plant will be affected
- Ground cherry in north bed east of compost bin
- Most beans:  Kentucky Wax along north wall, Great Northern along west wall, and Tendergreen Everlasting at south end of west wall

Broccolis are looking good! Might produce?

Wow, the ~four broccoli plants that made it into the garden are looking good!  Healthy and vibrant.  No sign of actual broccoli yet.

Replaced the killed sunflower

Used one of the last remaining, skimpy/leggy sunflowers to replace the one that was killed yesterday.

Heat wave comes to an end this weekend, nights to go down to 4-5-6 range Sat night, Sun night, and Mon night

Nice and HOT this week, temperatures in the high 20s / low 30s plus humidity, and warm nights.

This is about to come to an end... weekend on the cool side, especially at night.

I plan to try covering most of the tender things with a mix of sheets, upside down pots, and floating row cover.

Insect report: May 28th

I will use this as a running "tally" of the various insects I've seen in my garden, mostly ones who eat the plants but a few other interesting ones as well.  For future updates I'll copy this list and build on it.

The dates indicate the first day I saw them

Lupin aphids:  May 23rd (first time I've seen these in person)
Flea beetles:  May 24th (actually I think I saw them a few days prior)
Three lined potato beetles:  May 24th
Slugs:  May 26th
Yellow wooly bear moth:  May 26th (first time I've seen one of these in person)
Clavate tortoise beetle:  May 27th (first time I've seen one of these in person)

One of the fence-front sunflowers killed!!!

Was fine this morning, then when I checked later on the east-most one in front of the fence was taken down about an inch above the ground.  Maybe cutworm?  I didn't check in the soil.

Potatoes generally growing well, but some dead growth. No insects seen.

Will have to keep an eye on this.

Many flea beetles, mostly on zinnias and tomatoes

The occasional one also on ground cherries and basil.

Ground cherries in central patch still looking sad

Funny enough, the ground cherry in the pot, for which I deliberately chose the worst looking, most sunburnt ground cherry, is looking pretty darn great (it was transplanted May 18th), whereas the ones in the central patch, not so much (they were transplanted May 23rd).

I wonder if those five extra days in their too-small pots are a factor. 

Transplanted two zinnias, and one sunflower, into front bed as test

To see if they survive (1) the lupin aphids (which are almost all gone but finding a few more each day) and (2) the groundhogs (the three sunflowers transplanted a few days ago still look fine).

Peas rotting/wilting/dying at the tops of some plants?

Oh no!  Some of the further-advanced (ie indoor-sprouted) peas have what looks like rotting/wilting/dying at the tops of the shoots of some of the plants.  The plants are about 1.5-2 feet tall.

Will try giving them a good watering in the morning in case they're just thirsty... but it looks like something else might be going on...

Clavate tortoise beetle found on tomato plant

So cute!  Looks like a miniature turtle.  I left him/her there on the plant.  (Sweetie cherry tomato in the central bed)

Yellow wooly bear moth (snow white, fuzzy) on ground cherry plant

Cool!  I might have never seen one of these before.  Google seems to say the moth isn't much to worry about. 

Slugs eating Great Northern beans as they emerge -- struggling

Baby slugs all over those Great Northern beans (along the west wall), which I didn't notice until today.  Relocating the slugs, hope the beans will recover.

Lupin aphid update: none found this morning

^^^

Reference: Video on using upside-down tomato cages to contain zucchini

Ooooh, I want to try this!!


https://youtu.be/JlRdxLTawo4

Used floating row cover to shade tomatoes and ground cherries that were transplanted yesterday

Really easy to use clothespins to attach the cover to the tomato cages.

Ground cherries in central patch look sad; tomatoes look happy

Geez, they went in only yesterday and today already the ground cherries are looking sad.  The leaves are downward, in toward the plant.  Possibly they're thirsty (I didn't water them since transplanting yesterday), and/or, they're suffering more than the tomatoes because these ground cherries were in smaller pots than the tomatoes.

Tomatoes looking good so far.

Three lined potato beetle has arrived

Found two today.  Removed.

Lupin aphid removal - day 1

For fear of this infestation spreading to the vegetables, I removed as many as possible today.  Dish soap and water, several applications.  Rinsed off later with hose.  Horrible.  Will monitor in future days.

If this happens again next year, I will remove all lupins.

The original lupin plant up against the house looks awful, but I think it will come back.

The next biggest one looks healthy and alive (though less so after today's treatment).

The other smaller ones look fine.

Flea beetle has arrived -- not much damage yet

Seen on:
- zinnias
- tomatoes (including central patch)
- ground cherries

Started removing them.  Really detesting this part of gardening.  Need to research options.

Transplanted all squashes and cucumbers

- 4 x cucumber (all on the north frame)
- 4 x butternut (2 in central patch, 2 in west bed on south frame)
- 4 x cushaw (2 in central patch, 2 in west bed on north frame)
- 3 x ronde de nice (1 in west bed, 1 south of air conditioner, 1 in meter bed though technically I haven't actually transplanted this one since it's so young, no real leaves yet)
- 5 x yellow zucchini (1 in west bed, 2 north of air conditioner (one of which I'll try to train up a tomato cage), 2 in meter bed)

Some squashes are droopy/wilty first thing this morning

Uh oh -- some of the squashes have droopy/wilty leaves this morning as I check on them at 8am.  (They're still in pots, which I placed yesterday afternoon in their individual future locations)

Their soil is damp, so it's not a matter of being dry.

I wonder if it was the temperature last night?  The past 24 hour conditions says it went down to 9 degrees (forecast had been a low of ~12), though the 9 was only for an hour.

Salad harvests! (lettuce, chard, onion)

The lettuce I started March 25th is doing very well, now at the stage for picking nice baby greens (individual leaves).  The chard are also at the nice young stage for picking leaves for salad.

Lupin plant smothered in green aphids!! Another lupin dried out, dying?

Noticed today while watering, that the nice-looking lupin along the front edge of the front bed is infested with aphids! Oh no!!!

I was watering because the grandmother lupin up against the house looks like it's dying.  Not sure if because of lack of water (hopefully, and hopefully it can be saved), or, if maybe the aphids started there and then moved on?

Sunflowers x 3 transplanted in small bed outside fence

These are three of the smaller ones.  Just to see if they do anything.

Flop: Poppies sowed March 28th (from collected seed in 2018) never appeared

Too bad...  I will buy new poppy seeds for next year.  I really like those poppies, such a nice meadow feel.

I've now dug/prepared the bed for other things, so, definitely won't be seeing any poppies come up now.

Aha! Button flower is ageratum

Came across the labels from last year's store-bought plants.  Aha!  Button flower is ageratum, specifically Blue Hawaii 5.0, or at least that was what the seed came from.  (hybrid)

The three plants look great so far.  Amazingly bushy yet compact, I would have sworn each one consisted of a clump of seeds, but no; all that growth from one seed.  Really cute foliage/plant.  One is already flowering.

Yellow-orange perennial transplanted

The yellow-orange perennial from the seeds I collected last year was transplanted today, in the small bed outside the fence.  It hasn't grown much in the past month or two.  Its companion outside is substantially larger.

Tomatoes and ground cherries all transplanted, and another sunflower

Transplanted the central patch tomatoes and ground cherries:
- 4 x ground cherries
- 1 x Sweetie tomato (cherry tomato)
- 2 x tofubrick tomato
- 2 x medium tomato
- 2 x Scotia tomato

And, in the centre of the central patch:
- 1 sunflower (the nicest one) -- supported with a stake on either side and string loosely securing it to each stake

The soil in the central patch is very, very sandy.  Not much organic matter in there, but nice and loose, easy to work with.

I made a mixture of the following ingredients.  Put some at the very bottom of the ~1-foot deep holes, then wet that.  Then placed the plant.  Filled up the whole with alternating layers of the mixture, and the soil that was there to begin with.

Mixture:
- compost from my compost bin (see previous post a few days ago)
- aged horse manure picked up last year (it's several years old)
- mushroom compost left over from last year
- leaves ground up finely
- vermiculite

EVERYTHING is living outside 24-hours a day now, fully hardened off (thought not everything has been transplanted yet)

As of last night, everything is now living outside 24 hours a day, and in full sun.  (Though once transplanted into the garden I'm trying to provide shade for a day or two using floating row cover.)

Last night was the first night with a forecast of double digit temperatures.  Went down to a low of 14.

One thing that has me a bit worried is the weather network is showing mid next week overnight lows in the 6 degree range for a few nights!  I'm hoping that will change for the better between now and then, because most everything will likely have been transplanted by then.

Potato growth appearing

All 5 kinds of potatoes are showing sprouts popping up through the soil now.

Zinnia pollinating and seed-saving references

Cool, learning stuff about zinnias here!  This year I will net some of the flowers, and those are the ones I'll take seeds from, to avoid random/cross-pollination.


- Net flowers
- Floret must be newly opened that morning

A stigma will remain yelllow and receptive for a week to 10 days, so you have multiple opportunities to get it pollinated. When the Stigmas you have pollinated shrivel and die, they are no longer receptive, but that could mean that your pollination was successful and a seed is developing an embryo inside the seed at the base of the petal.

Remember which zinnias you have pollinated and save seeds from them. I don't depend on my memory, so I attach a label to the stem of the blooms that I pollinate.

it is actually preferable to gather zinnia seeds in the green state. It takes only about three weeks for a zinnia embryo to develop to a matured stage, and the seeds are still green, with the attached petals fully alive and with color at that time. The quicker you gather the seed, the less chance seed-eating birds, like finches, have to eat them. And brown mature seeds in a brown seedhead are susceptible to pre-germination in the head if you have a rainy spell. 

I do my pollination in the morning as the pollen florets open and I use tweezers or forceps to pick the pollen florets and use them as "brushes" to apply the pollen to the stigmas. So there is nothing left for the bees on my breeders. Bees are only interested in pollen florets, and are not the least bit interested in a zinnia bloom that doesn't have any pollen florets remaining.



Excellent detail in these posts, with photos:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4576083/how-to-hybridize-zinnias-it-s-easy

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3272916/are-zinnias-self-pollinating-how-to-produce-more-of-a-new-strain


The same fellow leads this discussion:

https://garden.org/thread/view/34248/It-can-be-fun-to-breed-your-own-zinnias/

https://www.google.ca/search?as_q=+&as_epq=It+can+be+fun+to+breed+your+own+zinnias&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=houzz.com&as_occt=any&safe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=

Zinnias (tall, not short) are flowering; NOT coming in true to colour! --> explanation below

I like the timing of when I sowed this year's zinnia seeds, because a good number of them are now opening into flowers, so I can decide what colour will go where.  (Well, for the tall ones, anyway.  The short ones are behind, have not started opening flowers yet.)

However, they are NOT coming in true to colour!

How interesting.

I'm going to post the following question and see if I can gain some insight.

Zinnia seed-saving question:   Is it normal for zinnia seeds collected from one colour of zinnia, to produce flowers of a different colour?  I'm getting a variety of unexpected colours. For example, some of the seeds I collected from last year's orange zinnias are producing pink flowers; some of last year's orange zinnias are producing red flowers; etc.  There seems to be a strong leaning towards pink.  All of these seeds were collected last year, from plants I started from seed by collecting the previous year (2018).  The original 2018 seeds were hybrids from a packet, so I wasn't surprised in 2019 when the colours weren't as expected.  But I thought moving forward, starting this year, the colours would be true to the colour of the flower from which the seed came.  (I carefully labelled last year's collected seeds and this year's seedlings, so it shouldn't be a case of mis-labelling)  Does it take several generations to get zinnia seeds that are true to the parent colour?  Or since the original seeds were hybrids there are no guarantees, even several generations later?  I appreciate any insight!

Edit!  Before I had a chance to post that question, I came across the following info, which explains it all.  Mystery solved!  Therefore, in future years, I will keep carefully keeping track of the colours (for interest's sake), but will also buy yellow seeds to be SURE to have YELLOW flowers each year.

"...even if the original zinnias were not hybrids, a certain amount of natural cross-pollination surely occurred in your garden as the birds and butterflies carried pollen from flower to flower. This means that almost all flower seeds you collect from a home garden will result in a mixture of colors the following year. In other words, if you save seeds from pink impatiens or petunias, the flowers won’t necessarily be pink the next year. You’re likely to get a random mixture of colors instead. Same goes for most other flowering annuals, though some cross-pollinate at higher rates than others." -- https://archive.triblive.com/lifestyles/home-garden/its-a-fun-gamble-to-collect-and-save-seeds-from-flowering-annual-hybrids/

Nasturtiums germinated in vermiculite! Transplanted into continainers

Two containers, each with two germinated nasturtiums (with great bushy roots, wow) and each with one ungerminated nasturtium.

Transplanted basils, some sunflowers, another ground cherry

^^^

Also dug preliminary holes for where the central patch tomatoes and ground cherries will go.

Great warm weather and forecast!

Days have been fabulous the last week or so, highs in the 20s.

Nights have still been going under 10, including tonight.

After tonight, though, looks like even nights will be double digits.

So, tomorrow will be a big planting day!

Beans: Started more Great Northern (white) in paper towel

To replace the ones from the jar (then moved into paper towel) that never sprouted.

Beans that I moved from sprout jar into paper towel went soft and rank -- discarded.

Stinky!!!  None of them germinated.

Will start their replacements, in paper towel from the get-go this time.

Sorrel recipes

Seeing someone mention sorrel soup in the Edible Gardens fb group made me suddenly realize I could be harvesting a lot more sorrel.  Usually I just eat some of the newest, smallest leaves first thing in the spring, so tasty.  But oooh, here's a collection of vegetarian sorrel recipes:

https://tastespace.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/41-vegetarian-sorrel-recipes/

Promix soil good, no issues (so far!)

Phew, the big compressed bag of Promix soil from Home Hardware seems to be good.  Used it for all of the squashes/cucumbers, and everything is growing like gang busters.

Of course now I'm jinxed...

Next year: Don't prune basil's main stem too early

This year (several weeks ago), I pruned the main stem of most basils at the first junction.  I don't like how this resulted.  Next year, start basil a smidge later to avoid running out of height room too early, then can prune after there are at least two junctions.

Peas: Indoor-sprouted are much more advanced than the outdoor-sprouted.

A very noticeable difference.   The outdoor-sprouted / direct-sowed ones are ~2" tall, whereas the inside starts are ~6-7" and look amazing.

Still happy that the direct sowed ones didn't get eaten.

Transplanted a few ground cherries, a tomato, and some basil

Not going all out with transplanting just yet, as night temperatures are going to 6-9 range tonight and a few more nights, but, decided to get a few things into the ground.  Daytime is gorgeous now, forecast calling for well into the 20s for the next couple of weeks, and sunny.

Ground cherries
- 2 into the west bed
- 1into a container -- I chose the worst-looking one, which is the one with the most sun burn.  If this one can "make it", then maybe containers could be an option in future.  (Last year's container ground cherry did hardly anything)  Made a nice mix for the soil, consisting of:  some of today's self-harvested compost; vermiculite; condo's free soil; dumpings from last year's containers.  Then I topped with ground leaves, with cedar mulch over top of that.

Tomato
- 1 into a container -- again I chose the worst-looking one, which is one of the sweeties (cherry tomato).  Same soil mix as above, but I don't think I put leaves before the cedar mulch.

Basil
- 3 into a container.  Chose three nice compact-looking plants.  Same soil mix as above, but I don't think I put leaves before the cedar mulch.

Compost from the compost bin!

My first decent "harvest" from the compost bin, which I bought/started in August 2016... 3.5 years ago!  (I've taken a bit from the front of the bin here and there in previous years but never really got in there as I did today)

Looks so amazing!  Full of little critters in there, doing they're thing.  Dug as far back as I could without the upper part falling down.  Too bad they didn't put a door two adjacent sides, would be so much easier to access the back.

Ended up with two containers full.  (the plastic "terracotta" round ones)

Used ~half for today's transplantings (two ground cherries in ground; one ground cherry in container; one tomato in container; 3 basils in container).  Put a lid on the left over to use later this week.

Gave 4 tomato plants to Ray + 1 ground cherry

He decided not to buy any tomato plants this year at all.  I sure hope some of these will work for him!

- 1 Sweetie (cherry tomato)
- 1 tofubrick
- 1 medium
- 1 Scotia (a late start, way smaller than the others)
- 1 ground cherry

Sun burn!

Wow, several plants are showing sunburn as part of this year's hardening off.  I don't remember ever noticing this before.

I wasn't overly careful with being super duper gradual, but maybe should next year.

The ground cherries are by far the worst affected.  A few look totally fine, one has several bleached leaves, and the others are somewhere in between.

Several of the tomatoes have a few sunburn spots, but doesn't look bad at all.  Pretty minor.

Some of the zinnias have been affected too, particularly the smaller ones.  Most look fine though.

Reference: Perennials

If I ever decide to add perennials to front garden, see info below.

https://ottawacitizen.com/life/homes/gardening/grow-like-a-pro-with-pollinator-plants

"Keep in mind that a succession of blooming times will maximize the population of pollinators. If you just plant Purple Cone Flower you will have masses of colour from mid-July through late August, but little else to show for your efforts over the balance of the season. I choreograph my pollinator garden with crocus, daffodils and narcissus (late April through early May), Lungwort (pulmonaria), Foamflower, cilantro, oregano, Columbine and sweet woodruff takes over mid-May through early June. Come early summer, I feature cardinal flower (a hummingbird magnet!), catmint, coral bells and many hosta varieties.

As the season progresses, there are many plants that provide opportunities for foraging butterflies and feeding hummingbirds, including Echinacea, rudbeckia, late flowering hostas and one of my favourites: Borage. Come September and October, butterflies and bees love sedum spectabile, asters and monarda (bee balm).

Annual flowers that are pollinator magnets right into the fall months include sunflowers, zinnias, sweet alyssum and cosmos (one of my favourite “cutting” flowers)."

 

Beans into ground (direct from sprouting indoors), with inoculant, and floating row cover to protect from birds

The beans that have sprouted so far (see other post today) went directly into the garden today.  Coated them with inoculant first.

Covering them with row cover (directly on ground) just to keep out birds until they're coming up.

Locations:

- Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown beans):  Poles behind the cucumbers. (north wall)

- Great Northern (white beans):  Poles along west bed (south of compost bin / asparagus)

- Tendergreen Impoved (mottled brown beans):  Southmost "corner" against neighbour's house at the south of the west bed (ie south "corner" of the winter squash's vertical structure) --> edit a few minutes later to say oh!  Looks like these are bush beans (google).  Oh well, we'll see what they do.

Bean seeds sprout best in paper towels (compared to sprouting jar) -- keep paper towel moist!

The results are in:

- Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown beans):  100% sprouted as of today, in both the paper towel and the sprouting jar.  The difference is the paper towel ones were more advanced, so must have germinated a bit sooner than the jar ones (or just preferred the conditions of the paper towel).

- Great Northern (white beans):  80% of paper towel ones sprouted as of today; 0% of the jar ones have sprouted yet.  Interesting difference compared to the yellow beans.

- Tendergreen Improved (mottled brown beans):  100% (3 of 3) of paper towel ones sprouted as of today.  (There were none in jars)

One thing to remember is to check the moisture of the paper towel daily, especially the second day because it dried out very quickly.

Ronde de Nice had relatively poor germination rate

Only ~50% germinated (can't remember how many I started, 3 ungerminated as of today).

Whereas, the butternut, zucchini, and cushaw had near 100% (only one cushaw seems to have not done anything).

Started 3 more Ronde de Nice a few days ago.

Tuberous begonias: Only one of the two sprouted

One is looking good, took a while in getting started but has several nice big leaves now.

The other one -- no sign of.  Will leave it a while longer.

Nasturtiums in paper towels haven't yet germinated; put them and others into vermiculite tub

The nasturtiums started May 3rd in paper towels haven't done anything yet.

So, I moved them, and the rest of the seeds in the packet, into a vermiculite tub to try that.

Hardening off is SO much easier when working from home!

There's no way I could have hardened off like this normally.  Working from home this spring (covid-19) has made it so easy.  So easy to use a break to hop downstairs to set things out once it's warm enough in the morning... move things into/out of the sun/shade...

I could definitely get used to this!

Zinnia flower buds -- some of them look weird

Some of them have what looks like kind of hollow dry emptiness as they start to open at the centre.  And some dark-tinged edges to "leaves" at the flower head.  Will have to wait and see if this is normal and if gorgeous zinnias will emerge or not...

Up-potted the two bigger Scotia tomatoes and the sunflower in the smaller pot

^^^

Beans started: Some in paper towel, some in sprouting jars

40 x Great Northern (white bean) -- 20 in paper towel + 20 in sprouting jar (new seeds bought this year)

40 x Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown bean) -- 20 in paper towel + 20 in sprouting jar (from last year's collected seed)

3 x Tendergreen Improved (mottled brown) -- 3 in paper towel (that was all that was left from the foil collection)

For the ones in jars, they'll soak overnight, then tomorrow will drain and will keep moist as if growing edible sprouts.

Planted potatoes in pots

Four to a pot, except bellanita because one was rotten -- so instead for that one I cut one in two.  Pots are 6 gallons, ___ liters.  Placed them over 4 inches of soil, covered with another ~2-3 inches.  Will cover with more soil as they grow.  This worked last year with a grocery store potato, hope it works this year too.

- 4 x ruby gold
- 4 x cherry red
- 4 x eramosa
- 4 x bintje
- 3* x bellanita (one of the three I cut in half, so total 4 "parts")

The chard, parsley, and celery I have NOT covered during cold weather looks the SAME as the covered ones

The covered (with plastic, loosely) and uncovered sections were right next to each other.  Everything looks fine, and, everything looks the same.  Some nights went down to -4, -5.  So, it would appear there's no need to cover chard, parsley, and celery at those temperatures, provided the plants are healthy to start with.

All tomatoes (except Scotia) and ground cherries moved downstairs for hardening off -- bunch of other things too

Time to get hardening!  Weather looks super for hardening off during the day now, and nights after tonight should be seasonal so plants should be able to get out fairly early in the morning.

Really needed to get those tomatoes and ground cherries out of the lights, just too tall and need the room for all the squashes coming in.

Many of the zinnias too are joining in the hardening, as well a few random things.

Last frost tonight? Looks like nice spring weather sets in day and night starting tomorrow

Long term weather forecast (14 days) looks like tonight will be the last night of unseasonal temperatures (-2 the low tonight).  And, day and night look nice and seasonal from here on in.

Fingers crossed, because... next post...

Article on powdery mildew -- vinegar + water

https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/dealing-powdery-mildew/

Article on staking zucchinis and pruning them

https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/youve-been-growing-your-zucchini-all-wrong/?fbclid=IwAR2whwcvPmhdes2Dh27V4_xl9gXdlxwwCzWio3yvfamcXFwkeeeO0njr2lY

Try making these cages using concrete re-inforcing wire

This looks pretty neat.  Maybe I'll try this next year.

https://www.growjourney.com/april-2016-gardening-tip-of-the-month-how-to-make-strong-tomato-cages/#.XrtP1c17lVc

Tomatoes and ground cherries definitely started TOO EARLY

They are so tall, growing in leaps and bounds every day.  Fortunately they can be planted deep...  (The Scotias are much smaller since they had a much later start)

But yes next year start them at least 1-2 weeks later than this year!!

This year, I started the ground cherries and tomatoes (except Scotia) on April 2nd/3rd respectively, which according to the blog is almost 2 weeks later than last year.  Wow, thank goodness for that!

So, next year start them April ~9th/16th range.

The Scotias were started April 15th and 25th.  Not sure which ones are from which sowing.

Yes, pre-soak the beets again next year -- works great

I like this method a lot better.  You know the seeds are viable, so there are a lot fewer holes to fill in after.

Sowed the touchon carrots from the indoors sprout-jar soaking

Ah yes, this method worked much better than leaving the seeds in full soak (which had very little germination rate) -- this time I sprouted them with the usual sprouting method (jar with fine mesh lid; soak overnight; then drain, and rinse/drain several times daily).

Then used the cornstarch gel method to set them out.  It works really well!  However, be sure to use a deep/long baggie, because otherwise when you squeeze, half will come out the top in a big mess (don't ask me how I know this).

I need to remember to use this method again next year!

Snow! And almost every night has been cold, around 0 to -3 or so

Definitely a cold spring.  Snow today, several blizzard flurries throughout the day.  It melted when it landed, but, still.

Last spring, I posted on June 1st that it had been such a cold and damp spring.  This year not too damp (so far), and we have had some nice days, but definitely cold as well.

Makes me want to continue not planting out tenders too early.

I've been covering most of the lettuces and peas with floating row cover, and some of the chard/parsley with plastic.  Though the un-covered chard/parsley right next to it looks perfectly fine.

Most of the outdoor in-ground peas sprouted!

Wow!  That's exciting.  In past years I had issues with outdoor in-ground peas disappearing before they sprouted.  Not this year, yay!

Knock on wood, but everything inside looks GOOD!! Really good!

Surely I'm jinxing myself by putting this in writing, but wow everything inside looks so strong and healthy.

- tomatoes
- ground cherries
- zinnias -- some have started a flower shoot or whatever!  (not bloomed yet, just emerging)
- basil

So it would appear (knock, knock) that the possible thrip/whatever issue I was worried about in weeks past, didn't materialize.  This may be because I removed the worrisome ones early on, I have no idea.

Great, simple post/video on how to prune tomatoes

Going to try this method this year, and maybe just maybe avoid a huge tomato jungle.  Never had much luck with pruning tomatoes before, because I didn't know what I was doing.

https://www.creativevegetablegardener.com/pruning-indeterminate-tomatoes/

Cushaws the last ones to sprout; ronde de nice second last

Of the big batch of squashes and cucumbers, the cushaws are definitely the late comers.  Only today do I see that some of them are starting, just starting to open up to sprout.

Meanwhile, all of the cucumbers, zucchinis, and butternuts have sprouted.

The ronde de nice are the second last ones.  Some have sprouted but not a whole lot yet.

Raised shelf AGAIN (2nd time), for tomatoes and ground cherries -- next year start them later

Raised that first shelf even higher... Cold spring lately so indoor space is at a premium since the tenders haven't started hardening yet.

Definitely start tomatoes AND ground cherries one to two weeks later next year.

Carrots: started more inside -- using sprouting jar/lid this time

Started touchon inside in a jar with the fine mesh sprouting lid.  Once sprouting, will use the corn starch gel method to sow them.

Cucumbers all sprouted and are now all in pots

Wow, great germination rate!  Really liking this paper towel thing.

Up-potted tomatoes, ground cherries, and some of the basil

Big day!  All of the tomatoes and ground cherries have now been up-potted.

Looking at their roots, it was definitely time.

Tomatoes went mostly in the big black pots, with a couple in a smaller white pot (1.2L).

Ground cherries went 3 in the big black pots, the rest in the smaller white pots (1.2L).

Also up-potted 4 of the basils.  From their roots, they could have waited longer.

Split apart some clumps of garlic -- but left some of them.

Decided to dig out / separate two of the garlic clumps which I'm not sure how they occurred in the first place.

Moved them into various spots in the garden.  Hopefully they will survive.

Left two or three of the clumps just to see what will happen.

Beets round 3 from paper towels -- planted several into ground

Basically one more square of cylindrical and one more square of Detroit.

More seeds yet to sprout so there will be another planting to come.

Shelf reduction -- LEAVE AS IS FOR NEXT YEAR

Did two things to the shelf unit:

- Completely removed the bottom shelf.  This adds ~2" height.

- Removed one shelf.

So, total of 4 levels:  table, shelf, shelf, top-shelf.

NOTE TO SELF:  LEAVE IT LIKE THIS FOR NEXT YEAR! 

Nasturtiums started in paper towel

Left-over seeds from a packet several years old. 

Haven't grown nasturtiums in a while, but I like them, so why not.  The leaves remind me of lily pads.

First -- and only -- asparagus harvest this year

Harvested two spears.  They were tasty.  Won't harvest any more this year because of the issues the plants are having.  I figure they need all the strength they can get from the other spears.

Pruned most of the other not-yet-pruned basils

And another nice harvest out of that!

Deliciousssssss on noodles with margarine and salt.

Columbine INFESTED with tiny orange insects with black spot

Noticed recently that the self-sowing columbine that has lived in the broken pot for ages isn't doing well this year.

I had noticed it looked rusty-coloured, and was small and wrinkled/eaten-looking, but hadn't really looked closely.

Until today -- a real close look revealed it's covered in tiny orange insects with black dots!

They look the same size as the ones I saw on the asparagus, but I don't recall the asparagus ones having a black dot.

I really need to get a magnifying glass to be able to have a better look at things like this.

Removed as much as I could, leaving just some roots and one piece that looks healthy.

Then moved the pot next to the fence/garbage.  TBD whether keep or not.

Also sprayed remaining with soapy water.

Asparagus problems!!! (1) tiny orange insects (2) leathery (3) dried tips etc.

Noticed earlier this week that some of the asparagus spears didn't look normal.  Indeed some of them are shrivelled and leathery; some have tiny orange insects on them (<1mm), one had a small hole drilled in it near where I found a small black fly, and some have dried tips or a shrunken midsection, etc.

Arghhhhh

So I cut off the wonky ones and sprayed everything with dish soap / water solution.

Don't remember seeing this last spring, but, I did see an asparagus beetle last summer.

I can't figure out what the cause is, though.  Maybe the tiny orange insects are circumstantial because I can't find any info on what they could be in terms a problem for the asparagus.

Started cucumbers, zucchini, ronde de nice, cushaw, and butternut

Goodness help me, I have verrrrry little space left on the shelves once these start germinating!

This is my first time trying ronde de nice and cushaw -- exciting!

Beets, round 3 -- this time in paper towels

In paper towels this time, to see if that results in faster germination/growth.