With the weather being what it has been, mostly on the cooler side, I was not paying attention to the tomato calendar. I usually order my tomato and herb plants from Burpee. I went to their web site Friday and saw almost all the tomato and herb plants are gone. I placed an order for 1 tomato and 2 peppers and a few herbs. I'm disappointed that I waited so long. I was talking to a neighbor and he told me about someone local who grows tomato plants for sale, $6 a plant and $2 for delivery. I took a look at what he offers and sent him an email to place an order. I'm hoping I'm not too late with him, either.

Here's an article about the Quarantine Garden:

https://www.grubstreet.com/2020/05/the-quarantine-garden.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WYM-05082020-DYNAMIC&utm_term=what_you_missed

Furnaces have a diabolical understanding that ceasing to function is ALWAYS on the weekend.

It's not gardening, but on Friday, we had an influx of sparrows, who are still here on Monday. There are a lot of little bugs outside, and the sparrows are going after them in an amazing aerial ballet. Some have even perched on our screens to eat the bugs there. Swallows do show up around this time, but we've not seen this kind of show in the three years that we've lived here permanently.

My husband is going to wait another week or so before moving our tomato plants outside. We also have red bull peppers that are taking a long time to germinate.

Our radishes are starting to come up, as are the green beans, snow peas, and carrots.

We didn't get many red bell peppers off of last year's plant. It had a late start, and other plants blocked its sunshine. It still had a couple little green peppers developing last year before the freeze, so my husband dug it up and put it in a pot on the sun porch--which you may recall allows in light but not heat. It sat there looking droopy all winter, being watered as needed by my husband. He transplanted it back outside last week. We weren't expecting much but not only are new leaves developing but the small peppers, which we had thought would fall off, are now growing.

We harvested radishes from our garden this week--our first produce. Other plants are growing, but it will be a while before we harvest anything else.

Despite the h 90* temps and lack of rain, our in-ground garden and the plants on the deck are doing great. The garden is small, 18' x 18', only 6 tomatoes, 6 bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cukes, zukes, summer squash and winter squash. We water deeply a couple times a week now that they are beyond the 2-leaf stage. On the deck are 2 waist-high planters that are 4 ft by 15 inches, 2 planters on the railing that are 3 ft by 15 inches, and some large, 15 inch diameter pots. I'm trying a mix of garden dirt, composted horse manure, and compost from our bins; that seems to be a good combination, but I'll supplement by side-dressing with more compost if things start lagging. We have all the lettuce and spinach we can eat; I cut it off about an inch above the roots, and it regrows. The beans that I planted almost 4 weeks ago have flowered. Beets are slow, but coming along. I have 2 huge zucchini plants in one pot and 2 cucumbers plants in another. I also have a variety of herbs, in the rock garden and in 2 planters. I have planted a 2nd planter with another crop of lettuce, and will start another crop of beans in the other railing planter. Of course, I also have several barrels and planters of flowers on the deck too. I water everything once a day, early morning, when it is hot and no rain. I'm adapting nicely to this new style of gardening, after 35 years of maintaining a 50 x 100 foot garden. And it looks like we'll have plenty to eat with a little left over for the freezer.

Len, I'm wondering what you are doing for gardening this summer. I remember some interesting photos you posted last year?