Looking forward to another growing season

Tonight I slipped out to the garden to plant Golden Jubilee tomatoes, California wonder bell peppers and a couple of zucchini. I forgot to bring the cherry tomatoes as they had gotten lost among the ground cover in the flower bed. I hopeful for cucumbers to do well and thinking about some canteloupe and maybe a few honeydew. And of course peas. But it is still too cool with the temps staying in the 60s so unusual for the middle of May. Perhaps it will warm up thus weekend. 

And now, we plant

Today starts my fifth season planting at the Shelby Farms Community Garden, forever more known as SFCG because that is way easier. 

A cool wet busy Spring is my excuse for a delayed start to gardening this year. Just thinking about it made me tired. After the three hours I was there today, I decided I was glad to be back in my Hhappy Place. 

One row was planted:

2 hybrid yellow/purple cherry tomatoes that Caroline gave me

2 tomatillo also starts from Caroline

2 big beef

2 something else and

1 sweet 100 cherry tomato

There are plans for purple hull and lady peas, cucumbers, butterbeans, maybe zucchini, possibly cantaloupe, definitely zinnias. 

Hint from Mimi

Shred Irish Spring into nylon bags and hang on tomato stakes to keep deer away. 

PeaPickin'

Even with neglect, a plant knows what to do. I'm only getting to the garden maybe once a week and it shows. Last week I sprayed herbicide on the weeds because they were so thick I knew I was beyond pulling or tilling them up. It looks pitiful with all that deadness, but I can at least get to most of the plants now. Started picking a few tomatoes, though I'm pretty convinced a whole bunch will ripen while we're at RMSP next week, if the 99 degree temps don't do them in first. The deer are enjoying the purple hull peas, though they left me enough to gather a big handful. Lady peas are just starting to flower. Butter beans are showing some buds. Cucumbers are flowering.

 I remain hopeful. 

Catch up

This is my fourth year at the SFCG and has to be the latest for getting started. Plots were just plowed and marked in the past two weeks which is putting me behind before I even get started. The volunteers work really hard and the weather has just not cooperated for the county to get the field plowed. I sprayed the weeds last week and started tilling. Yesterday and today I plant. 

We have roughly ten rows. Facing from the front, the far right two longest rows have lady peas. The first row on the left has about 5-6 ft of butter beans with the remainder left fallow to act as a barrier to all the weeds. The second row is another 5-6 feet of butter beans then 10 feet of purple hull peas. Row three is a purple hull " pink-eyes." I'm leaving a little extra space then rows four and five are for tomatoes, except the start of row five has three pepper plants. There are currently 21 tomato plants in the ground. Row six is extra wide which will be nice for cucumbers and squash. Row 7 & 8 are down with lady peas. Those are the longest rows at about30 feet each. 

Beautiful flowers

I'm glad I planted the mixed flower seed mix. The giant zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos are especially pretty right now. They bring the butterflies. Today a black and blue one fluttered around. 

The plot is just a mess! It's been nearly two weeks since I went out there and over three since I really worked it.  The weeds and grasses have nearly taken over, but the peas and tomatoes are fighting hard to maintain their spots. 

Today I picked two baskets of tomatoes and peas plus several ears of corn, two delicata squash and a mess of butter beans. 

And tonight, I froze a bag of corn and shelled peas for two hours. It'll be worth it this fall. 

You Can Tell It's Been Cool

The polar vortex after massive rainfall is very noticeable in the garden. The plants are lush and green. The lady peas are so thick, you can't even see the rows. But, they are missing the heat because there has been little flower production so far. The corn taste good, but looks a little weird. Instead of tassels up top, some of the plants have skinny corn cobs instead. Some of the cobs have a few tough purplish kernels. The tomatoes are coming along. I picked two shirttails full of cherry tomatoes and a couple of the smaller slicers that were starting to turn. Had to get a couple of green ones for broiled green tomatoes for dinner. We also had cornonthecob, stewed San Marzano tomatoes, broiled yellow squash and sliced cucumbers.