May Garden updates

[CathyA]

Someone mentioned in the April thread that maybe we should start a May one..........so here it is.

Took my 15 year old van with failing transmission to my favorite nursery about 35 miles from here..........and made it back to tell the tale! haha
Bought 6 Rutgers, 6 Romas, 3 San Marzanos (all tomatoes), various peppers and some Pacman broccoli. I'll be hardening them off for about 10 days......and hope that the garden is dried out by then.
All the snow peas I planted are gone.........those waskely wabbit mice. We're going to get about 4 dry days here this week, so I'll presprout some more snow peas and try again. For some reason, the mice don't like the presprouted ones.

I'm controlling myself to not buy any perennials anymore. I buy too many of them and then I'm overwhelmed when I have to keep everything weeded. I have plenty of them already.

I couldn't believe how busy the gardening center was this morning. Mostly older people. I sure hope the younger generation is interested in gardening.
Can't wait for marinated cucumber and tomato salads!!

Heard a tree frog outside my window last night. My heart soared. :cool:

[iris lilies]

Height of iris season began yesterday. Will try to post some photos.

[cdttmm]

We're still several weeks away from our last freeze date. But did get to cut some greens for a nice salad the other night. Also got a chance to tend to the bee hives on a few nice days. Bee stings included, free of charge. :0!

Looking forward to my mom visiting. She always does such a nice job improving the gardens around here. Not sure what I'd do without her gardening help and expertise!

[lessisbest]

I harvested kale and parsley and filled 10 trays on the dehydrator. I add both of these to so many things I make, and dry as much as possible. It's a great way to sneak vegetables into the diet. I was down to my last jar of dried kale, so timing is everything....;)

[Chicken lady]

wow. My kale is 3/4" tall. I am really late getting everything in though. I m,eant to work on the garden after work yesterday but I was exhausted. today I will do better.

[CathyA]

Have you ever made kale chips? I haven't yet, but they sound good. I used to grow kale in a container right outside my chicken coop, so I could easily give them some.

[lessisbest]

Have you ever made kale chips? I haven't yet, but they sound good. I used to grow kale in a container right outside my chicken coop, so I could easily give them some.

Yep, I've made kale chips. I made several versions, even some with powered vinegar and salt... (you can get powdered vinegar from Nuts.com). We eat a lot more dehydrated zucchini chips than kale. I mix dehydrated kale in some of my "crackers" I make with nut meal leftover from making nut milk. If you need some ideas of how to use kale, there are a lot to be found on-line, incuding:

Amazing Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Kale Chips - http://healthyblenderrecipes.com/recipes/raw_vegan_sun_dried_tomato_pesto_kale_chips

Kale Chips with Lemon and Ginger from 'Salty Snacks' - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/10/kale-chips-with-lemon-and-ginger-from-salty-s.html

And some "serious" kale snacks from Nuts.com - https://nuts.com/search?q=kale

[Gardenarian]

My peas haven't come up :(
They are pretty well protected from birds; I don't know what's going on with them.
Planted sunflowers and radishes today. I'm really excited about having sunflowers! And radishes are always fun to grow; they mature so quickly...even if I don't have many recipes for them.
Arugula and lettuces are still babies, but looking good.

[Gregg]

We had a storm Wednesday night that produced 8" of rain. What a mess. The only real casualty in our garden was a corner of a parsley/cilantro patch at the very bottom that probably either drowned or got washed out and the wood chips I spread everywhere so I wouldn't have to walk in mud. The chips are just in a pile at the low end so all I have to do is rake them back to where they belong. Other than that everything is planted and growing well. I'm waiting patiently for harvest to begin!

[CathyA]

Gardenarian........I don't know if this would be the same for you, but when I plant snow peas, unless I presprout them, the mice/voles eat them, every one. Because of my tiny window of opportunity for planting this spring, I just planted the peas un-sprouted. Well, nothing came up and when I dug it up again, no sign of pea seeds......but I did see a mouse hole close by. Then once more, I pre-sprouted them for a couple days, and also added some crushed red pepper flakes. I hope I get peas now.....we'll see. Those mice are my big problem in the garden......especially when they chew the bottoms of my pole beans and cucumbers. :(

[Gardenarian]

Thanks CathyA - I'll look for signs of rodents. I may just have planted them too deep...

[catherine]

My DD bought me a shiitake mushroom log for Mother's Day--I'm excited to grow my own 'shrooms!

[Tussiemussies]

That sounds so interesting Catherine...you'll have to keep us informed, I'd like to hear about your adventure...when I started my last raised bed, the people we bought dirt from upgraded us to mushroom soil, it was fantastic...

[CathyA]

Yes, keep us updated catherine. I've always thought it would be interesting to grow our own mushrooms. We have tons of mushrooms around us, but they would probably cause seizures/death if we ate them. :0!

I ordered another Behlen food-grade stock tank. This one was at a discount because of it having "minor cosmetic" problems. I hope it's okay. It will go out in the big garden on some cement blocks and I'll grow the peppers in it. The other one out there has Roma tomatoes in it.
It finally got dry enough to plant 2 varieties of pole beans. But it poured and poured last night, so I hope the seeds aren't floating.

Also bought a couple pak choi plants and put them in the small space left in one of the back yard stock tanks.

Found a huge area by the drive growing a different plant. I believe it's Boneset. It's a relative of Joe Pye Weed and I'm excited to have it. It will attract all sorts of instects, butterflies. (Except for the "invasive weeds",) it's fun seeing cool things just show up on our property. The Dame's Rocket and poppies are blooming. Still have the cucumbers, squash and zuchinni to plant in the big garden, but it's just too wet. I still have time for that.

[Gardenarian]

My peas showed up - I guess I just planted the seeds too deep. Live and learn.

I've put in some melons (local heritage) and zucchini, and I've got my tomatoes going and a few basil plants too. I went out to sing to them last night and didn't notice a couple of kids walking down our back alley - guess I'll be the crazy lady now!

[kib]

Don't hate me, I'll be singing the blues in July, but came home from my road trip to find that my Early Girls that I planted late fall were loaded with ripening tomatoes, I've been eating a couple every day since. I've decided I don't really need anything else in my garden, if I can pick a tomato every day and occasionally grab some oregano and tarragon when I need them, I'm fine. ;-)