It is now official - spring is sprung! I got my 'mater and pepper plants in this weekend and planted my cucumber seeds. Can't find the zucchini seeds; will have to buy some tomorrow.

The lettuce is about ready to start eating, the radishes are ready, the spinache is slow. My dumb dog likes the onions.....

Took my shoes off and went barefoot in the garden. I can't tell you how wonderful it felt!

Good on you! I've never tried growing lettuce or spinach. It's supposed to get humid and near 90 by Sun. and Mon.

my dogs eat anything I put in the ground.as long as I touched it,they'll eat it! dumb dogs.





How very Pagan of you sticking your bare feet in the dirt!!!

As cool as it is, those peps and toms are just going to sit there and not do anything. Mine have been in 'bout 2 weeks now and they look the same now as when I planted them. It's definitely been an unusually cool spring.

Yeah, they probably won't do anything yet, but at least they are in the ground and out of the greenhouse! Progress is usually measured in little steps......

Do you really think it's been a cool Spring?
I think that we've finally had a real Spring. You know,normal.
Seems that in the last few years it's been a short Spring and then wham! Summer.
I have two pepper plants and a tomato plant that something ate the crap out of(and I mean down to the nubbins almost) and they're finally starting to come back! I couldn't believe it when I noticed it.

Hey speaking of peppers,have any of you seen a pepper plant called a chocolate pepper? It was at Lowes,so I got one. It turns a choc. brown color when ripe.

Yeah, you're right WVD, a normal Spring, for a change. I think the past years it has gone right from Winter to Summer with little or no "Spring". Definitely a normal Spring.

All my peppers turn a nice brown (well, actually black) color when I leave them on the plant for too long...

Trying to push the season I planted tomatoes and peppers too early and lost several to frost despite forecast that said low of 41 for that entire week. Replanted some about 2 weeks ago and the tomatoes have been really growing the last 2 weeks -- and I only started out with the 4-pack or 6-pack size plants but they are about ready to need cages. Lettuce is huge and already harvested the first crop a couple times, spinach too. First planting of corn is now about 4-6 inches tall, planted the second crop this past weekend. Can't wait...

My garden is going like gangbusters these days! Of course, the weeds are, too. Everything is growing like crazy -- corn planted 5-27 broke out in 8 days. With a little rain each week and normal temps we should have bumper crops.

BTW, I was reading the ag expert in the paper last night -- he was writing on lawn care. Like many of these "experts" he said not to mow shorter than 2.75 inches and never mow more than 1/3 (or was it 1/4?) of the length off at a time. That means if it is roughly 4" long you gotta mow to cut it to ~ 2.75". Does anyone actually DO this? I'd have to mow every 3 days to accomplish that!

No, but with the beginning of real summer weather, I've raised my mowing deck a notch. It doesn't look as nice and I'll have to mow a little more often, but you shouldn't cut it too short in the heat.

Oh well, it will be all brown and crusty by the end of the month if this weather continues.

I thought that was all men's goals in life - mowing the grass whenever it gets 1/8" too long!

And he never remembers anything - every time he mows, he drives thru the rocks in the driveway, then the mower throws a stone that breaks another of my yard decorations, my car, or the almost open bud that I've been watching for over a week. All he'd have to do is have the "thrower" facing the other direction and everything would be fine......

I'll bet you if I was mowing and threw a stone into the side of his truck or one of his fleet of lawnmowers, I'd never hear the end of it!

I hear ya on that toots!!!
I'd probably hear him clear down here!

I'm glad I mulched real heavy.It does keep the weeds down. I actually had to put "cages"made out of chicken wire around the pepper plants. It was like something was laying on them.They're fine,and growing well,it's just that something was trying to flatten them. weird. hubby thinks it's the cats doing it just becase they're like the dogs:if I touch it they have to touch it too.
We've been getting rain every 2-3 days here. so I havn't really had to worry bout that yet,although it's time to feed the vegies and herbs,so I'm gonna have to do that one morning.

which reminds me...what does everyone else prefer:morning or evening watering?
I usually do the vegies and herbs in the morning(don't know why,musta read it some where) and then the flowers I do in the evening(unless they're so droopy that they'd be gonners by evening if I don't get them in the morning)

I've heard you shouldn't water in the evening. The moisture overnight can cause fungus and nasty stuff to grow. I don't know how true that is.

If you water at 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening and there's enough daylight and wind to dry the plants, you'll be OK, but not just before dark. Like Yoss says, it'll make them grow fungus. Especially roses.

We haven't had much rain at all here, but the one we had on Monday made a difference in the 'maters. Zucchini is slow coming out, I don't think my cucumber seeds are any good, will have to get a new pack (they were last year's seeds).

The bunny is leaving the yellow petunias (last year's favorite bunny plant) alone in favor of my newly sprouted beans and daylily seedlings. Time for the cayenne pepper/garlic mixture!

How can I keep chipmunks out of my flower beds? Their little holes everywhere are annoying.

Sorry,can't help ya SMAN.
Between the cats and dogs at my place we're lucky if we even see "wild life"
Theres gotta be something out there to scare them off.

I used to put moth balls out for the squirrels when I lived where I had problems with them. They also kept one persistent robin from building a nest between the porch light and the house. Might work for chipmunks. Cats work very well for chipmunks if you can get them interested in them.

My dog is very interested in the little buggers. He just isn't fleet enough to catch one and probably wouldn't know what the heck to do with it if he did.

How are everyone's tomatos doing?

My plants are only about a foot high -- a looonnnnnggggg way from producing fruit.

Mine are about a foot high too, and they have blossoms on them (I bought them from the Amish back in March in a pack of 12 for $1.80 and transplanted them into progressively larger pots). I've been picking the suckers off of them and I KNOW I should be picking the blossoms off of them, but I just can't bring myself to do it!

Wow, I musta got lucky because several of mine are already straining the cages -- over 2 feet tall - maybe 3 -- and lotsa blossoms. Celebrity, Big Boy, and a few low acid dudes are really goin' nuts, the romas are thankfully slower as I don't wanna be totally overwhelmed all at once.

Mine are about 2 ft high with blooms I just finished making my mata cages.... 32 of them.. my strawberrys are going crazy I'm picking about 15 quarts every other day... I just took my spinach off... I'm on my second planting of radishes... and my Hearts of gold haven't broke ground yet.. Damn rabbits keep eating my cabbage off but I finally fixed that problem.. Thats about all...

Well, I think my 'maters have probably grown 4 - 6" this week, but I'm still nowhere near where you guys in Hagerstown are. Maybe 15" total height.

But my daylilies have scapes all over the place. By July 4th, this place should be gorgeous - I can't wait! IF I can figure out how to do it (Yoss, I'll need your help), I'll post pix of the beds when I get them. I've got more than 600 different varieties of daylilies now.....

Hey people!
I was just wondering what everyone feeds their gardens? Right now I'm using Peter's plant food.It's what I had handy.It's almost gone and I wanted some ideas.

This year I did a soil test with a home test kit of questionable accuracy, but I also had other reasons to think I was N low. So I tilled-in a prescribed amount of 13-13-13 (farmer-type bag fertilizer) and limestone pellets weeks before planting, and now am side-dressing mature plants 1 T per plant with the same stuff. And my stuff is getting huge -- or was while it was raining -- slower growth over the last week.

I've used Miracle Grow in the past.
I used Preen this year, it's supposed to feed as well as keep weed seeds from germinating.

My tomatoe plants, although relatively small, are loaded with flowers. The peppers, small also, are also developing a number of blossoms.

The cannibis sativa is really taking off though. Drip irrigation with "Pots 'O Fun" fertilizer I ordered from one of the advertisers in High Times. Mixed in with the 'maters, it's really hard to see. Of course when they get to six or eight feet high it's gonna be harder to hide 'em.

My maters are bigger. Wanna rent space? (Government Agents Monitoring Me Under The Patriot Act: I'm only kidding! Only kidding! )

Did you use a special Preen for veggies?

Nope just the regular run of the mill Preen. in the big yellow cardboard coated rectangular can. You only need to apply it about once a month. I just started using it so I can't really attest to it's usefulness.

It works in our flower bed, but aren't there warnings about using it in gardens,or minimum times after use before harvest?

I haveta go thru my garden weekly and hand-weed or till and hand-weed. Damn lambsear and redroot and who knows what else.

Oh man! I had a big garden last year and haven't done a thing yet this year. Do you think I could still find some 'mater plants at Wal-Mart or somewhere and get 'em planted and have any luck? I'm guessing it's too late. Last year about the only thing I really enjoyed were the tomatos - I had gobs of them and loved it! Garden 'maters are SOOOOOO much better than store-bought!

I have to weed alot too snoop.I even put down a heavy mulch.And that does help and also makes the weeding easier too.they just pop right out.

Well,since I do have such a heavy mulch I guess it would be easier to use the powdered stuff and mix it in the water.
And I suppose that they're all pretty much the same.So I guess which ever one is on sale...

I was at the WalMart in Chambersburg this evening, and they've got a BUNCH of tomato plants about 3 feet tall with 'maters growing.

We use grass clippings for mulch in the veggie garden. Has worked pretty well for us over the years.

I've used Preen in my flower beds for years, but I'm not sure I'd use it in the veggie garden. Hubby puts down lime and 10-10-10 before he tills it the first time, then we put a handful of top soil in each hole before we plant. I need to fertilize, but I believe I'm just going to use the Miracle Grow now. Funny thing - my eating 'maters are about 2 feet tall, but my Romas are only about a foot tall, and they've got 'maters on them already. I'm going to fertilize this weekend, and if they don't soon start getting taller, I'll pull all the Romas off and see what happens. The Cherry 'mater plant has a 1" trunk and flowers on it now.

I had a plant pop up out of the ground 10 feet from where i had tomatoes planted last year... I guess rain must have carried seeds from a fallen tomato to its current location. lol Gotta love that.

Do you think the plant will produce good fruit this year? Its a 'better boy'.

I have been such a slug about getting things into the garden this year. Home Depot had a few mater plants, but none of 'em were cherries. Hubby eats only cherries, and the rest of us don't eat any at all, so it's not a big item in our garden.
Just disappointing to have missed out.

Try Sunny Meadows on Sharpsburg Pike. It's a Mennonite run business and they have awesome plants. My grandmother just got some cherry tomato plants there on Monday.

Hey CommuterMike,we had a wild one growing one year and we named him George.Anywho,it did great.Got real big and had lots of fruit on it.

My Romas have tomatoes on it too.And the pepper plants have flower buds on them. Can't wait to see and taste the one called a chocolate pepper.(*sigh* if only).

Be careful sheash about pulling the Romas off. Unless I'm mistaken, Romas are a determinate variety of tomato (versus indeterminate).

Which means, determinate produce all their fruit at once. Indeterminate will continue producing fruit for the rest of the growing season.

If you pull them off now, in the hopes of producing more fruit later, you may be disappointed.

Yes, but if they grow to full size and break the plants down, I still won't have any Roma 'maters. Six of one, half dozen of the other....

I've always used miracle grow every 2-3 weeks depending on how often I have to water. I dilute it by twice what they say on the box though. A couple weeks ago my tomatos were not very tall but very full and healthy looking. I broke off the bottom branches and all the suckers and M-growed. Good thing I put the cages on them then because they're over 2 ft now. I think by using M-grow if you don't sucker them they tend to produce more vine that tomato.

So far the only bugs I've had are on the eggplant. I dust them with Seven.

You can top the CS at 6 feet as long as there's plenty of room between plants. As soon as it blooms you might want to cut the male plants. If you need help identifying them let me know. I saw it in a book once.

They had plenty of plants at Ivy Hill Farm out near Ringold the other day. She planted a second batch because of the cool spring. Her plants are always good and I think 80 cents a set. I got big boy, celebrity, roma, supersonic, and better boy. I think she had sweet 100 cherry tomatos. I grew them last year, it was more like 1000. They're great in salads.

They're in the H-town phone book. I don't want to send you out there for nothing. It's not too late to plant them.

Thanks for the tips AB and Idiot. I was wandering around north of the border today and found some Sweet 100's at the Drying Shed in Chambersburg. 4pk for $1.25, already producing. They are a little gangly, but hopefully they will perk up when they get in the ground. Bought some sevin for the squash bugs, but so far I've only seen a couple. Good thing since I haven't had time to use the sevin yet. Last year the little boogers wiped out all my squash, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, cantaloupe, and watermelons before I figured out what was wrong with 'em. (***Novice gardener***)

Hey folks - I just got Jerry Baker's newsletter, and here's some "tips" he gives for some of the problems we/ve all have been having:

~~~Sneaky Squirrels & Chatterin' Chipmunks~~~ Keep 'em from stealing your birdseed by smearing ground cayenne pepper mixed with petroleum jelly on the feeder poles.

Scatter dog or cat hair around areas they frequent.

~~~Rascally Rabbits~~~
Circle your garden with fine mesh netting that starts below ground and extends 3-4" above the soil's surface.

Mix 1 tbsp. of pureed cayenne pepper and 1 tbsp. of dishwashing liquid in a quart of water, and spray liberally around your flowers.

~~~Hungry, Hungry Woodchucks~~~
Protect your plants by sprinkling ground cayenne or black pepper, dried blood, blood meal, or talcum powder around them.

Use my Woodchuck Repellent Tonic around your garden. Purée 2 tbsp. of cayenne pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, and 2 tbsp. of dishwashing liquid in 1 gallon of water, and liberally spray away.

*** To really give your vegetable garden something to grow on, overspray it with a mix of 4 tbsp. of fish emulsion, 1/2 cup of regular cola (not diet), and 1 tbsp. of dishwashing liquid per 5 gallons of water every couple of weeks.

Thanks. The dog hair won't be a problem to get.

Wonder if human hair would work?It works for deer.

Man! Just had the best all day off again,on again rain today! It was great.

The TV news said NE Frederick County (MD) had had 4 inches of rain already at 10:00 last night - they got too much to do any good.

That little bit of rain we had last week really brought out the weeds in my veggie garden. I couldn't find the beans for the weeds the night before last.

When I left the house this morning, the rain gauge said we've had about 1" of rain, and it was never REAL heavy. Just the kind of rain we need. I suppose that means that by this weekend the weeds will be taller than the tomatoes.

Hopefully, I won't have to take a proposal home to work on this weekend, and can get out there and do some weeding!

We got about 4.8 inches but it must not have rained too hard as my driveway did not wash out. Wind from the Wed. night storm blew my 4 rows of young corn over, so last night I tried tying the rows up to support the ones not broken off. Now many of them are leaning the opposite way this morning. Can't win. I fear my young corn is mostly lost. Hopefully my older stuff will make it.

Could you maybe squeeze in another planting of the corn Snoop?

I've got mushrooms growing all around and under the tomatoes. Have no idea where they came from unless it's from the mulch.I just pulled them up.
My Romas are about 3ft tall and just LOADED with fruit.mmmm.Can't wait for home grown tomato sandwiches!The Romas I use for fajitas and salalds and tacos.

Anybody grow their own strawberries?I'm considering putting in another raised bed to plant strawberries.I know that it takes a season or two for fruit to grow for harvesting. Still,as many as I've buy every year,I'm thinking it might be worth it plant some.

I need to get rain gauge.I never really know how much rain we get.All i know is that the pool was so full that the skimmer couldn't skim so we had to actually drain some of the water this morning.

I had a nice strawberry plot for a few years -- about 15 x 25 feet -- and got probably 10-12 quarts from it, but eventually the weeds just won over and I had to wipe it out and start over, and then made the patch only half that size. So this year no strawberries.

My raspberries are lookin pretty poor -- had lotsa dead canes this year I had to cut out and I think the dry weather, and the poor soil where they are, and the d@mn birds really limited my crop.

Rain gage is good to have -- I see where H-town got less than 2" and I'm only about 6-8 air miles from the city center and got over double that.

We started another raised bed of strawberries this spring. 12' x 12'. So far, they're doing good, but the test will be what they look like next spring. I've never been able to get them to grow up here in PA.

the road raspberries dried up, but there are some coming on in the bed in my yard. We've got a good many dead canes, too. The blackberries aren't doing much yet - still tiny and green. We'll have a good many pears and Macintosh apples this fall.

The rain softened things up a bit. I got 7 yard carts of weeds out of my newest daylily bed this weekend - can actually find the daylilies again! He worked on the vegetable garden and filled up the bucket on his tractor 5 times. 2 miles down the road everybody's got green grass. We've got green weeds and grass the color of a wheatfield.

OH! And we're infested with japanese beetles. I put up 2 traps, and have been emptying them both at least twice a day. I've been putting them in the hayfield, and the dog just thinks they smell wonderful - I'm having a heck of a time keeping her from rolling in the dead japanese beetles. YUCK!