Yup. Have to wait on the veggies. Hate waiting but what can you do.

I'm still playing catch-up... can I still plant beans? (should have planted them 2.5 weeks ago)

Memorial Day may be an unofficial kickoff for summer for the rest of you, but here it was pretty much just kicking off spring!! Everything except my onion plants, potatoes, and some dill that came up volunteer from last year, is still in the greenhouse... but at least most of the trees have (small) leaves now! We are a good month behind our normal seasonal progression, which is late by most standards to begin with.

Terri, I'm sure you can still plant beans, they can be "succession planted" throughout the summer.

Our high temps for the next week are supposed to be in the mid to high 50s. So, in another week or so I will plant my beans (started in the greenhouse), my tomatoes and peppers, and protect them with "floating row cover" or, in the case of the tomatoes, by wrapping plastic around the cages. Somehow, everything seems to manage to produce for us before the end of the growing season!

(I AM picking more than a meal's worth of asparagus every day...)

I am still planning to plant some beans, as I have for the past week. I had visitors this evening, just as I had prepared the groove in the soil for my bunching onions. The beans were supposed to be next. And then supper. But I didn't get anything planted and didn't have supper until after 2100. Long after I was famished. Itty Bitty didn't get her walk either.

I did get around to checking all my tomato plants. I've been having flowers for weeks, but not one tomato has set. The plants are becoming more like bushes. I can only assume and wish for the tomatoes to produce a lot of fruit very soon.

I think all the plants seem to be rejuvenated after the rains we had last week, so my optimism hasn't been severed. The squash have especially taken on a vigorous growth spurt. Surprisingly, the peas look the same size as they did a couple days ago. The broccoli is growing big leaves, but I don't know that they will survive the June heat. The row of radish in between my squash plants have healthy looking leaves. I planted white radishes to motivate me to try eating a few. But I think most will be given away. I only grew them because they are supposedly good companion plants for the squash.

I saw a lot of bees and hundreds of ladybugs in March and April. Today, I saw one ladybug that I tried to follow with my camera, but it never landed on anything and I nearly became cross-eyed in the endeavor. I haven't seen many bees in the past two weeks or so. The grasshoppers are plentiful still. On my walks, I have seen many robins capturing them. But, as there are few mature trees around my home, I have not seen any robins here. The birds I have seen are too small to eat the grasshoppers, except maybe the smallest ones.

It looks like my chamomile, feverfew and echinacea are all making an appearance in the herb bed. I'm looking forward to chamomile tea and the chamomile is a lot like basil as companion plants for nearly everything.

Oh, I've been watching the melon patch closely because my rows of watermelon and cantaloupe seem to have a bunch of different plants in them that I don't think are melons. I started the melons from seed in pots. Whatever is growing alongside them don't look like arugula, amaranth, sunflowers, or weeds. So I am very curious what they are. At the end of the melon rows/hills, I planted borage. I didn't think they made it and were choked out by sunflowers. I decided to let the sunflowers grow. Now that they are a good size, I can tell that they are not sunflowers. These plants look like a darker green than I remember from growing borage in Denver. But I have to wait and see. I tried planting quite a bit in the melon patch to attract pollinators. And then I planted even more along one edge of the patch with some white clover. I haven't planted borage and clover together, but my plan was to let the clover spread through the melon patch after the melons were done harvesting to have something to turn over into the soil to replenish it a little. The clover seemed to fit the bill, as well as being attractive to pollinators. I could let the borage reseed, but I prefer to collect some seeds for next year because I might re-configure? the melon patch. That means that all but the one small bit of borage and clover will be tilled in with the very thick layers of straw.

I think the melon bed might be where I rotate my tomatoes and peppers to next year. Which is why I wanted to plant herbs that would nourish the soil and be beneficial if any reseeded.

Terri, I agree with Sandy. We have a longer planting window for beans than we do for many other crops, and especially after last winter, our soil is probably just now getting warm enough for healthy, rapid growth anyway. I'd say it's a perfect time to plant your beans.

Found baby tomatoes on a couple of my plants, these were started by me indoors from seeds under lights. So rewarding! So far snow peas are just about finished, sugar snap peas still going strong, harvested lettuce, swiss chard, carrots (only a few), beets (very small crop), 3 cavili zucchini and tons of basil. And oregano had to be cut back so it didnt take over. I joked that we could give an oregano bundle to every single person we know and take to the strreets "free oregano!" At least I'll bring some to work and maybe give to everyone who comes to daughter's graduation party. They can be like party favors, lol, people expect that from me. Already having good output from my veggie and herb garden. It suddenly took off over the past two weeks. Oh, and sunflowers are flowering. Have a mix of different kinds, looks like at least two mammoth. Not sure if I will be able to save the seeds before squirrels find them but I'm hoping to harvest seeds to save, swap and maybe have a taste.

Everybody,

holity said:I'm still playing catch-up... can I still plant beans? (should have planted them 2.5 weeks ago)

Yes, plant them now. Mine are still not planted. In fact I planned on planting the bean seeds out today. Beans do not like cold weather so actually slightly late is better than too early. Not to worry, they grow fast.

I would love the recipe for the curry zuke, chickpea if you would care to share. Beans are a warm weather crop so while I have put them out they are still rather wimpy and yellowish now. Should start growing actively (sprouting new leaves) in the next few weeks. Got lots of string beans from them last year. All else is simply growing. Broc and cauliflower being cold weather are going strong. Have succession planted more for late harvest.

Newyorkrita said:

Yes, plant them now. Mine are still not planted. In fact I planned on planting the bean seeds out today. Beans do not like cold weather so actually slightly late is better than too early. Not to worry, they grow fast.

In fact I went and planted bean seeds already today. I planted Red Seeded Asparagus Beans (Long Beans), French Gold and Cosse Violetto pole beans and Maxibel Bush Beans. So I should have a lot of beans and a nice crop.

Lettuce is done here; it's just too hot already. I harvested the good leaves and buried the rest, then I planted squash in its place. My radishes and turnips are going to seed already, too. Crazy weather! Straight from frost to too hot to think. I'm not sure if I'll get beans in yet this week, or not...I need a cloudy day! I'm missing my shade trees something fierce, but the roses and others are loving the additional sun exposure.

I never ever planted lettuce this year and no turnips this spring either. It seems that no matter my great intentions each year something just never gets done. I try but it just never all gets done.

Newyorkrita said:It seems that no matter my great intentions each year something just never gets done. I try but it just never all gets done.

I have SO MANY PLANS in my head and I just can't physically keep up!! Part mentally too, because when I MAKE the plans they seem reasonable, then I get started and they don't anymore, timewise.....

Newyorkrita said:I never ever planted lettuce this year and no turnips this spring either. It seems that no matter my great intentions each year something just never gets done. I try but it just never all gets done.

Here, too, Rita.

I did get pole bean seeds this year though (some of those filets you've been raving about ), so even if I don't get their space ready this week I'm still going to try to get some seeds started and maybe plant them out in two weeks. I've gotta try something...we all love fresh beans so very much!

I dreamed up garden plans for years. Loved dreaming up the plans but then you have to actually go out and do the work!

chelle said:

Here, too, Rita.

I did get pole bean seeds this year though (some of those filets you've been raving about ), so even if I don't get their space ready this week I'm still going to try to get some seeds started and maybe plant them out in two weeks. I've gotta try something...we all love fresh beans so very much!

Its not too late. Even in two weeks its not too late to start beans. But I wanted to get mine in.

I have those pole beans I grew last year that I loved so much planted again this year. And I am trying a bush bean that should be really good also. It is just that I would rather plant pole beans than bush. But beans is beans!

I weeded my beans today. They are starting to blossom. I didn't get finished weeding though so I'll work on it tomorrow.

I did get both the cukes and the melon rows weeded and put preen down as well as some weed barrier. I also put up hoops and the shade cover on my new root row where I am experimenting with lettuce. I didn't plant a lot because I didn't want to waste the seed.

David pulled the old lettuce and put in the compost heap. I will plant rattlesnake beans there. I already have a few planted that I received in the seed swap. Also have plantedFfrench Gold, Fortex and another long bean from the swap but I never got labeled so I don't remember the name. I had good intentions.

At home we have had rain for a couple of days but it has gone around the farm except for enough to wet the top of the ground. I'll probably have to water again tomorrow. But my black beans and butter beans have germinated.

I still need to get more flowers planted soon!

I don't even mind doing the work - It just takes at least twice as long as I thought it would!!!
And that's only going to get worse y'know!

Yep, twice as long.

Takes me much longer than it used to to get things done also. Plus now with the dog I take long walls most every afternoon so that takes up time and energy. But the dog needs to take walks, she has too much energy and I am supposed to keep up my exercise. So we walk and garden and do the best we can.

Arlene, you always impress me with how much you get done. Your going to have lots of cukes and beans. Me too eventually but I have to wait. Not as many as you will have though.