The 2019 Gardens

[BakerAunt]

Our weather (and home renovations that are seemingly taking forever) has not been conducive to starting a garden, but last week, my husband cleared out the old one. We could not get to the seed we wanted, as it is stored in a mini-refrigerator in the garage and has too much in front of it (stuff to move back into the house, as well as my husband's wooden row boat). My husband found some old tomato seed and planted it. He decided it was not going to germinate and told me to buy a plant at the farmers market. I chose one named "Carbon" that is not supposed to have giant tomatoes. He planted it. This morning, he announced that the others do appear to be germinating. He also planted broccoli. He has ordered some snow peas and bell pepper. Beans will be planted later.

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[S_Wirth]

My husband rolled out in his wheelchair and planted three tubs with cucumbers and summer squash a few weeks ago. There are small squash and the cukes look great. I have planted twelve tomato plants and have one more to go. I have some pepper plants to get in yet.

He went to our high school FFA greenhouse and got the plants. It was the next to last day of sales so selection was not that great. I looked up the peppers that had two tags and I think they are hot ones. I will give them to a local boy that loves them. That will just leave me with three sweet banana peppers this year.

He bought a pack of five little things that I have no idea what they are. It will be fun to see what develops with them.

The FFA has such nice sturdy plants and we look forward each year to getting them. We got them on 4/26 so I have had to move them outside during warm days a lot and keep them watered.

[chocomouse]

It's been so wet here that we've delayed planting. I have 6 Celebrity seedlings, 2 cherrys, and a patio tomato to plant this afternoon, before I leave for the week tomorrow. I do also have a planter on the deck with herbs. But I'm cutting way back on gardening this year. My hat is off to your husband for continuing to garden from a wheelchair.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by chocomouse.

[Mike Nolan]

We've got nearly a dozen flats of plants, flowers as well as vegetables, waiting to be planted if the weather ever cooperates. In the last week we've seen temperatures drop into the low 40's with wind chills in the mid 30's twice and we've had about 4 inches of rain, 1.75 inches of it in the last 15 hours.

[S_Wirth]

We are at 30" of rain for the year with 42" the normal yearly rainfall. Many days of rain are in the forecast for the next seven days.

[skeptic7]

Most of my Rosemary survived the winter. I had three small plants indoors as insurance. I gave the youngest away and planted the others in the ground. They were fine living in a pot over the previous summer but weren't thriving over the winter, I think they were root bound.
The Chinese chives were doing great March-April but now many of them are dying. This looks root rot due to the rain and bad drainage. I had a similiar problem two years ago and hope that these will recover eventually. Also the chives are covered with small black insects.
The Amaryllis went outside about three weeks ago and are doing fine so far.

[S_Wirth]

Yesterday, I picked two cucumbers from our tubs.

[Mike Nolan]

I didn't think it was possible to kill chives. My mother poured the foundation for her rebuilt garage over her chives garden, and they came up at the edge of the garage 2 years later!

[BakerAunt]

We've added a bell pepper plant, beans, and snow peas.

The lime tree, which bloomed while inside because it was warm, only had one lime to show for it. However, there was just enough cold after it was moved outside for the summer that it was stimulated to bloom again, so I'm hoping more limes will develop with the pollinators around.

We have some black raspberries coming on our terraces. Once again, the north side has set fruit, and the south side has not. My husband plans to pull those up and put in other berries--maybe strawberries? Our several little blueberry bushes also are looking good.

[Mike Nolan]

We got our first tomato of the season today, a Fourth of July tomato about the size of a ping pong ball, but there are a number of green tomatoes on other plants, some Early Girl and some Romas. With the hot weather, I don't think we'll see many more fruit set the next few weeks, but if we get a cool spell later on like we did two weeks ago I expect we'll get a bunch more to set then. The plants are ready to set fruit, just need the cooler weather to do it.

[chocomouse]

That sounds wonderful, Mike, I hope your weather turns soon. My cherry and patio tomatoes are loaded with fruit, but green. The Celebrity tomatoes and peppers have lots of flower buds. We ate all the lettuce I had in a planter on the deck, and the second planter of lettuce isn't quite ready to eat. Nothing else will produce for at least a month. But everything is looking green now, instead of yellow -- the sun has finally risen here in the east and the rain has stopped. We have received about 5 inches more water than is average for the year. I've had some mobility issues, so I never did get the whole garden planted, and what I did get done was late. Next year, I'll be growing most all the vegetables in raised beds, planters, and pots on the deck.

[Mike Nolan]

We had tacos tonight using that tomato, just enough for the two of us.

Some places in central Nebraska, 150 or so miles west of us, got 6-9 inches of rain in a single day earlier this week, lots of flooding, even I-80 was closed for a while. It's just been a really tough season for farmers, it wouldn't surprise me if we get a long hot dry spell now.

[BakerAunt]

I used our snow peas in a stir-fry for dinner tonight. We have harvested a few beans as well--not yet enough to use. The Carbon tomato has green tomatoes--in spite of a deer eating off the top of the plant! I have put some coffee grounds out to deter them. The other tomato plants have flowers. There is a little bell pepper on the pepper plant. No flowering from the broccoli yet.

[RiversideLen]

Mike, I've grown 4th of July tomato and it was always my first one to be ready. They would usually start to come in around this time for me. It was always a good producer.

This year I decided to go with slicing tomatoes and didn't do any 4th of July size (another good one in that size is Mountain Magic although it comes in a little later). This year I got a late start due to the cold wet weather. I don't have anything to pick yet (except for herbs) but things are looking good so far.

There is my Early Girl Bush hybrid, they claim it gets 18 inches high but mine is a lot higher. You can also see my overcrowded herb garden. I need to thin it out a little.

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[RiversideLen]

And here are my other 3 tomatoes. They are getting nice and tall. They have flowers and some small fruit forming. They are Summer Girl, which is my earliest variety, Damsel and Oh Happy Day.

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