The SE section of Pennsylvania has been inundated with rain for the last two weeks making it hard to get things done but I managed to get all my eggplants, peppers and tomatoes in the ground. I faced an issue of having two many tomato seedlings so I found myself planting some straight in the ground in out of the way places to give them a chance to fend for themselves. I gave them a little compost and organic fertilizer and a tomato cage and said Good Luck! The rest found homes in my raised beds as planned and a few Early Girls went in pots, as the seed packets indicated they would do well. I was tempted to plant my peppers two to a hole based on some recent youtube videos I've watched on the subject but ultimately went with one per square foot. The bed looks crowded, but the peppers are all westward facing so while they may be in the shade of their tomato neighbors in the morning they will get plenty of sun. The leftover plants I had went into some planters on my patio.
In other news my spring garden bed (kales, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, radish, carrot, chard, arugula, bibb) is doing well. It kind of looks like I randomly through things in this bed, but I sware there was a plan when I started :-). The radishes interspersed between the kale did horribly. I harvested them a few days ago and had teeny tiny radishes. I don't give up easily so I planted three new radish plots elsewhere to see if I can do better before the summer heat gets here and makes growing radish hard for other reasons. I placed one group directly in the ground in an area that probably has very infertile soil, one in a large pot, and one in the raised bed. I made sure to work the soil in all three locations better than I had previously done. The arugula is already growing back and I'll get a second harvest soon. Next year I need to grow more than one square foot! The kale is looking healthy and will be harvested in a week. I believe it's cut and come again so I'll try that method and see if it regenerates as I've heard. Brussels and Cauliflower both seem to be developing well and I look forward to those harvests in a few more weeks (supposedly). The carrots seem randomly interspersed, but I used seed tape and it claims they are properly spaced so I won't be thinning them. I fear that they are going to have a similar fate to the radishes because I didn't loosen up the soil enough for proper root formation. Time will tell.
My lettuce raised bed has now been harvested three times! It has mesclun, gourmet blend, black seeded simpson and bibb. I never thought I'd get excited about lettuce but they are beautiful to look at and taste pretty good as well. After my next mesclun green harvest (next week) I'm going to pull those and seed in some Heatwave blend I purchased in advance of hotter summer days. As I harvest the heads of bibb lettuce (about eight of them) I'm going to seed some heat resistant varieties of romaine. My goal is to see if I can keep greens on our table from May through October. So far I've done it, but I know July and August will be challenging. The bed I use for lettuce gets the least amount of direct sun each day and I figure that may help my cause. I'm considering investing in a shade cloth as well once we reach the 90s. I'm really enjoying growing the variety of greens and can't wait to try some more varieties in the fall.
In other news, all my direct seeded plants have sprouted! Zucchini, Squash, Cucumbers (three varieties), Early Acorn SQuash, Spaghetti Squash, Pole Beans, Bush Beans, Early Bush Scallop Squash, Peas, Patio Corn, Pumpkin, Watermelon, Cantaloupe. I've gotten some t-posts installed by my zucchini and squash and I will attempt to grow them vertically up the posts. I seeded some Okra the other day, and was considering growing a little plot of Soybeans but I'm having trouble finding seeds and don't want to pay S&H for one seed packet.
My potatoes are growing like gang busters in their 20 gallon grow tubs. Excited to see what they do.
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