Off to a Very Quick Start

Well it has been a while since I have checked in with garden news, and the season is off to a quick start.  With the warm weather we have had so far, I have been able to get a little jump on planting. Unfortunately, all of the warm weather has given the bugs an advantage as well.  For example I put in some cucumber plants last week, and within about twelve hours the cucumber beetles had turned the leaves to lace.  I sprayed with a pyganic/neem blend (all organic of course) to deal with them and now 10 days later they seem to be recovering. Neem is an amazing product derived from trees in India, it can be used as a fungicide, as well as a pesticide.  It doesn’t kill the pests but disrupts their reproduction and if sprayed throughout the garden once a week, it can be a great asset.  The pyganic is derived from chrysanthemum flowers and does kill pests for a short period after application, therefore I always spray in the evenings, and never on flowers so that I don’t hurt our friends the bees.

            Most of the other plants have also gone into the garden; the first generation of tomatoes went in on the 3^rd, as well as the peppers, eggplant, and the first of the summer squash.  I have the majority of our cucumber and melon plants in an insect-free house, to protect them from those pesky cucumber beetles. They are already close to 3 feet tall, with hundreds of miniscule cucumbers hanging down. The cucumber plants are all parthenocarpic (meaning they don’t need pollination to set fruit) and the melons will be pollinated by bumble bees we bring into the house later in the season.

            So far the season is progressing well, with a few hiccups of course.  The peas have started putting out pods, fava beans are flowering, and the fennel is starting to fatten up.  The carrot and French bean seeds are in the ground and expected to pop up any day now. This week we are harvesting radishes, Japanese turnips, lettuce, frisee, pac choi, swiss chard, baby beets, kale, strawberries, herbs, demi and micro greens.  In the next few days we will plant the second set of tomatoes, parsley and squash, more beets and lettuce. I will check in again soon.

Happy gardening…