Marigolds and cosmos would look wonderful interspersed with bush beans.

PlainJane wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2023 10:40 am Marigolds and cosmos would look wonderful interspersed with bush beans.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to think about that. I had pretty much decided not to do marigolds this year. The dwarf ones get bigger than I want and constant deadheading is a pain in the back. Do you know if marigold plants take to pruning?

I grow a ton of marigolds and don’t bother dead heading them … just start more when they look spent. Love my strawberry blond marigolds.

Boy, we've had some wind today, 10 mph all day long with some 15-20 gusts now and then. Felt pretty cool too with that. I hate working in wind. Today's project was to get the watermelon area ready. It's an area that didn't get tilled last summer and is now full of nut grass. The plan was to move all the tomato cages from there up to the house. Scalp the area with the weedwhacker. Lay down cardboard over it and pile on wet leaves except for three 3x3' areas where watermelons will be planted. Tomorrow.

There are cauliflower heads forming on four plants so I got out the clothespins and clipped together the large leaves to shade the heads and keep 'em white.



The mower blades needed changing, a task Pickles handles. That girl's a real Molly Mechanic. She dropped the deck but couldn't get the two big nuts holding on the blades to budge, not with hammer on wrench, breaker bar or after applying the stuff that is supposed to loosen up stubborn stuff.

The last time the blades were changed was late last summer when the mower had to go to the Deere place to fix something beyond Pickles' ability. While it was there she told them to also change the blades. Some idiot torqued them down way too good. So we loaded up the deck, took it to the auto mechanic we use and he got them off with the impact wrench. Pickles finished up the job and put the deck back on this afternoon. It cuts fine now.

You should see those old blades with the ends, as they say here, "all toe up! I keep telling her it's a mower, not a bush hog! But she waits until that first spring cutting or two gets done before changing them. Gettin' the "rough stuff" out of the way, don't ya know.... small branches, pine cones, armadillos, etc. JUST kidding about that last one.

Well, it's airish out there but not windy yet. They're talking 20 mph this afternoon gusting to 30. Ridiculous. And again tomorrow. But this morning I got the mower and cart to start toting tomato cages and the mower wouldn't start. It would try but not catch. Of course, Pickles was off to town but yesterday had shown me the throttle linkage and said if the mower doesn't start sometimes that linkage is stuck. So I checked and it was OK. Harumph. Time to let the mower sit until Pickles gets home and just start scalping that future watermelon area.

It was a mess with some tomato cages laying in there getting overgrown with weeds.



But the wild has now been tamed.



That dead bush to the right is one of those pigeon peas I played with last year. After lunch I'll use Pickles' pickup and a tow strap to yank that sucker out and load up those tomato cages for a ride up to the house.

Oh, and when Pickles got home she looked at the mower and noticed a small thin rod with an L-shaped bend at the end just hanging down. It was supposed to be attached to a sliding thing that's part of the carburator. She reattached it and the mower started right up. Ta-daaaaa! So now I can clean up my mess and mow the garden this afternoon. New thing learned. If the mower doesn't start, check that the brake is set, the throttle linkage moves AND that the carburator doodad isn't dangling!

Life has been a whirlwind the past several days. Pickles is out of town for a week and one of the cats (12 years old) is having problems that required a visit to the vet that generated a $489 bill. The turnips were piling up but between putting up some with their greens and giving some away they're out of the reefer. There are more ready in the garden.

Two more early Snowball cauliflowers were cut yesterday and today I'll blanch and freeze them.



As you can see in that photo above, the first few pea pods are ready although most on the vines still need a couple days to finish filling out. Then comes the avalanche and about 2-3 weeks of picking every other day.!





I think these are the prettiest pea vines I've ever grown and I've been holding my breath waiting for some disaster to come. There's a double row on each side of two beds and the vines are so thick that it's going to be a challenge to see pods that need picking from the inside rows. A nice problem to have. Aphids usually invade as does powdery mildew. This year I watched like a hawk and when I found the first few aphids I sprayed all the vines with insecticidal soap. No more aphid problem since then. Henbit weeds always mildew up and it jumps to the peas but this year I tried really hard to pull every henbit weed I could find near the peas. The vines are clean.

This is the bed with the Bodacious corn planted in circles down the middle. Well, almost down the middle. The fall kale is usually gone long before this but it's extra happy this year and still going strong. So I had to plant the last two circles kind of to the side. That reminds me I need to cut more kale today. The hoops with netting will stay in place for a while so that nothing snatches out seedlings like what happened last year. First time that had ever happened. Not this year!



I got four 18' rows of Silver Queen planted. Nothing up yet.

And finally, I got cages on the tomato plants. Someone gave me five of those cone-shaped things and so I've used a few on several of the dwarf tomatoes that will only get a few feet tall. We'll see how that works. A second cage will eventually go over the big tomatoes that need it later. I need to revise my anti-blow over system this year now that there's a double row of pallets and have a few ideas.



This year there are 18 full size tomatoes and six dwarfs. Eight of the regulars I've done before but the rest including all six dwarfs are new to me thanks to the MMMM so it should be an interesting season watching them grow!

Sorry about your kitty. Been there several times.
Nice that you’re getting cauliflower; our Feb deep freeze really disrupted mine.
Have you put in pole beans yet?

I haven't gotten around to pole beans yet. Watermelon and sweet potatoes go in tomorrow now that temps are moving into the 980's starting today. Squash needs to go in too. Then I'll play with pole beans.

You know, the freeze set back some of my cauli too. The three I've picked so far are from the second four I planted which was ten days later than the first four. Those first four got hit a bit hard. They're making now, maybe about 3-4" across and have a little way to go. The ones I've picked are about 6" across, smaller than 'Amazing' but tasty.

Yesterday afternoon I ended up moving the row of pallets that had tomato buckets sitting on them last year. The tomatoes are now located on another pallet row up at the house so the old one will be used for experiments, etc. Pickles suggested moving it so she can plant her sunflowers on the bare spot under the old pallets. So I did. I still have to fool with a bit of leveling (or not) and haul off the cardboard box scraps.



Today I got planting holes for watermelon plants prepped and they'll be set out this evening. Two Charleston Grays in the ground and one Orangeglo (one that's new to me) in a big bucket on a pallet. There's still a white-fleshed one called Silver Yamata that makes small 6-10 lb melons but that plant's not ready to go out yet. I think I'll try to grow that one up a trellis and cradle the fruits in slings.

This morning I got the sweet potatoes planted. I had grown the slips in a window box and that made a lot more slips than I need. They were put in the pitcher of water until I got what I needed.



I just made holes with my homemade dibble, filled those with water, let that soak in, put in the slips and watered them in again. There will be ten hills this year, same as last year. Since sweet potato vines don't climb so I'll be manually weaving them through the trellis. It works well and saves space.



The plastic collars are something I came up with a few years ago to keep water from running off when the plants are watered. The collars are just the 3-4" wide tops of 1 gallon nursery pots that I cut off. They work really well for that job.



This morning I picked another head of cauliflower and the last four Green Magic broccolis should be ready not long from now. I want to see how they'll hold up in the coming heat. I've never had any before that had to get ready this late. An experiment.



And finally I got the front half of the property mowed before rain came in. It's too wet to finish so I'm off to blanch and freeze cauliflower! Pickles has been out of town a few days and comes back tomorrow. Maybe I'll leave the cardboard for her to haul off!

I’ll have to remember your trick with the watering corral. Easier than a soil moat.

PlainJane wrote: ↑Mon May 08, 2023 3:56 pm I’ll have to remember your trick with the watering corral. Easier than a soil moat.

The photo shows that they were cut as a strip. When I place them, I coil them so the two edges overlap and hold them together like that so that when I snug that ring down into the soil the edges stay overlapped. No leaking.

Well, May weather has arrived. It was 90 out there by 4:30 but it's headed back down. Fortunately we've had a nice breeze with that so it didn't feel that hot.

The Silver Queen corn is poking up! Five day germination. That warm soil makes all the difference. I'm glad I waited a week to plant it.

Usually I plant one variety of something but sometimes (if I remember) I like to plant different varieties next to each other just to see the differences. This spring I've got one Champion collard (left) and one Vates (right) going. The Vates has a lot more open habit. Taste difference? To me, collards are collards so I'm just looking for the most productive and most hardy.



Two kales. I've been growing Premier a long time. It's more of a flat leaf variety which I prefer. Those frilly kales have way too many hidey holes for aphids to be fruitful and multiply in. This year I saw something new called Dazzling Blue so I ordered seed. It looks like a blue version of the lacinato or "dinosaur" kale. Pretty but I don't think it will outproduce the Premier.



I've let those bolting daikon radishes flower. They're pretty and little pollinators like them. That is the second of three plantings. The third planting, the line of small plants in front of the flowering ones, isn't going to make large radishes. The weather has turned and I'm betting the small ones that have grown will be way to hot for me. They'll get pulled tomorrow.



And finally, I spied some henbit among the broccoli plants. They're a mildew magnet and are now covered with it. That's one weed I really try to pull as soon as I see it, especially around the peas.



Speaking of peas, we'll do the first picking tomorrow morning as soon as the dew dries up. Oh boy!

Two days ago I picked the first peas and got one and a half pounds of shelled peas. This morning it was pea picking time again and we got half a peach basket full. I spied the start of powdery mildew but will have to hold off spraying due to incoming rain. It will be a race to see if the rate of pea picking keeps ahead of the upward creeping mildew. Happens every year. After getting the peas I pulled the last remaining Golden Ball turnips. Some are way overgrown. LOL!



The next task was to pound in stakes and run baling twine along the outside and inside of the four rows of beans. It keeps them from eventually flopping towards the middle of the beds or towards the walkway as they get taller.



That twine makes picking a LOT easier later on. It's trying to reach over the plants and stretching to get beans off branches laying in the middle of the bed that is NO fun for the back. I usually have to run a second higher line as they mature, for sure with those Jumbo snap beans. Those are the tall ones in the left half of the first bed, taller than the Blue Lakes that fill out the right half of the bed. The bed in the back is all Provider beans.

The Bodacious corn is really shooting up and almost ready for the second fertilizing. I think I'll take the netting off as they're probably too big now to be snacks for birds or squirrels.



These are two Charleston Gray watermelons. I failed to till under all the grass at the end of last year. Last week I scalped the weeds to the ground. Two days ago I used the last of the cardboard I had left from the pallet project and laid it around one of the melons and covered it all with leaves. As soon as I get more cardboard, the rest of that whole area will get the same treatment after another scalping. Dang, those weeds sure grow back fast!



And finally, this is an Orangeglo watermelon, one I've never done before and courtesy of the MMMM swap. Thanks to whoever sent in the seed! The bucket is sitting on a pallet between a trellis and Pickles' soon-to-be sunflower patch. The Orangeglo can run all over the ground between the two. I just need to get a pool noodle, slit it and set it over the lip of the bucket. That will help keep vines from getting bent as they run over the edge of the bucket.

Looks fantastic @GoDawgs!

Orangeglo is the best orange watermelon if grown right.
Haven't had one in many years.

worth1 wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2023 6:52 pm Orangeglo is the best orange watermelon if grown right.
Haven't had one in many years.

Thanks for that. Someone here, maybe @karstopography, mentioned somewhere in the MMMM spoiler alerts that it was the best melon they ever ate. Sooooo, inquiring minds want to know!

Tomorrow is a big planting day after which it will just be flowers going in when they're ready. If Sunday is needed to finish it up, so be it. Both days are classified in the almanac as good for vine crops, transplanting and late root vegetables. Bingo on all counts!

Pole beans - Crawford, Jeminez (MMMM), Super Marconi (MMMM), all on trellises.

Cukes - The main crop National Pickling cukes are already up in their own bed. I'm experimenting further with some short vined cukes Bushy and Homemade Pickles. Bushy will be on a bed end trellis and Homemade Pickles will be in a bucket on a pallet with a tomato cage around it as I've now run out of nematode-free space..

Scallions - These will go along the edge of the sweet potato bed. I'm determined to have scallions available year round. Last year I planted some to see if they'd go through summer heat and they did fine so onward we go.

Squash - Spaghetti (sharing 1/2 of one of the big 18' trellises with the Crawford pole beans), Cucuzza (bed end trellis), Smooth Criminal and yellow straightneck going into a purely squash bed (transplants and direct seeding for both).

Southern Peas - a whole big trellis of Big Red Rippers.

Time has a habit of slipping away when one is busy. Monday was a day of small chores around the house and I didn't really feel like doing anything in the garden. I walked by Pickles' recliner and out of the corner of my eye it seemed like Herman was curled up there. It was just Pickles' new black chair pad.

Yesterday I weedwhacked the walkways between beds and other areas. I was shocked when I got to the first bean bed. I had just run the first level of support string down the sides a couple days ago and already the Jumbos were above that so I ran the second string. The other bed with the Providers won't need a second for a while. In the pic, Blue Lake on the left and Jumbo on the right.



The Bodacious corn is tall enough that nothing will bother it so I removed the netting today and it got its first post-emergence fertilizing of ammonium sulfate. There are two fall-planted kale plants at the far and and they are really kicking out some kale! I cut them hard right after I took the shot. I'm amazed they're still going. Meanwhile the Silver Queen in rows is up 6".



I set out a Cucuzza squash at the bottom of a bed end trellis. Last year it took a while to produce.



This morning I also removed all broccoli plants from the two brassica beds. They're officially done as side shoot production has slowed way down.



Yesterday I noticed that the Big Red Ripper field peas were popping up three days after planting. They were collected in 2020.



Yesterday was also pea pickin' day again and this afternoon I shelled them. Another 3 lb 12 oz shelled! Of the four pickings so far (every other day) today's was the biggest. We're now at a total of 10 lb 7 oz in the freezer and there's maybe two more pickings to go. We'll see how much is left after tomorrow's picking.

Things are roaring along!

We're in that changeover slot. Early spring stuff is about gone, late spring/summer stuff is going in. One of the last early spring things to leave are the peas. Yesterday the vines were pulled and the last peas picked off them. We ended up with 15 lb 11 oz of shelled peas, which is the most from two beds going back to 2015. I think cooler May weather helped a lot.



Down came the trellises and out came the poles. Both sides of the open bed on the left will be planted with zinnias tomorrow. The right side will be planted with the tepary beans I'm experimenting with. Trying to find a "green bean" that will take the summer heat. Supposedly these from the desert southwest will maybe fill that slot. The only thing I'm worried about is the humidity here which is absent in the low desert areas where these came from. Oh well, that's why it's called an experiment!



The Crawford pole beans are coming up. This one is new to me, one that you can eat fresh, as a shellie or let dry for storage. The other half of that trellis will have spaghetti squash trained up it.



The Orangeglo watermelon is about to go running.



And finally, Sunday Gloves daylily, about 6" across. It's whiter than in the photo as the late afternoon sun is casting a bit of yellow. I've had these for years and Pickles finally divided and transplanted them to new ground. Happy, happy daylily!

I love shelly beans but never remember to plant them. I’ll follow to see how Crawford does for you.
Gorgeous daylily!