Garden Update for 4/28/13

Nice warm day today, in the lower 80s.  We got back from a camping trip this weekend, at Cedar Hill State Park, with some families from church that homeschool. (we also homeschool). Got home around 2PM, so this afternoon, and was interesting in seeing what my garden looked like after being away a few days. I worked a little on expanding my fenced in area to accommodate the growth of the Hubbard squashes.  

Here is a pic of the 2 Hubbard Squash plants.  The main vines are probably about 3 feet long, and there are a couple side shoots on each that are getting pretty long themselves.  So those side shoots that showed up real early ended up developing well.  One strange thing is that I am getting female flowers even before male flowers.  I have 2 large female flowers that will probably open up tomorrow morning, but unfortunately without any make flowers, nothing will come of them.    I have mulched the vines with grass clippings.   No signs of SVBs yet. I have checked and found no eggs on any of my cucurbits yet.

Below is a pic of my Rouge Vif D'Etampes (cindarella) pumpkin plants. They are starting to really pick up some steam now, and this one is about to start running.  Its growing among some spinach and collards/broccoli plants, that will probably be harvested the next few weeks, just in time for these plants to start taking over.

Here are the California poppies my son is growing.  They have a really bright orange yellow color and are pretty stunning.  The plants are beautiful too, with the frizzy leaves.  And next to them on the upper right are some of the mustard plants.  Right above them is a sugar pie pumpkin growing among them.

I still have cabbages going strong.  This head is getting really big.  Its the biggest one I've had so far.  Not sure if I should pick it soon, or see if it gets bigger.  It will be in the mid 80s this week, so I am concerned it might start splitting.  We'll see...

Here is a look at the most of the garden. The snow peas are huge, but the bottom of the plants are starting to yellow off. I wonder if this is natural, or maybe the warm weather is affecting them?  But in any case there are plenty of nice pods to pick from them.  Should have enough for a number of good meals.

Mid April Update

April's a roller-coaster month in terms of weather.  Last week it was in the 50s and 60s for highs, and now its warmed up pretty good again.  The past few days, its been in the mid 80s and pretty muggy.
So at this point, my garden is in a transition state from cool weather plants to warm weather plants.  I still have many cabbages growing at various stages, and we've eaten lots of them so far.  Here is a picture of some of the remaining ones, with the snow peas in the background.

The snow peas are huge. They are just about as tall as I am now.  We picked a few yesterday and ate them with a salad... all from my garden, including lettuce, spinach, radishes, and even a carrot.  I have a few carrots growing, but the funny thing was that when I pulled it, it was very fat but short.  I think maybe since I transplanted it, it didn't grow well afterwards, and grew fat instead of long.  

My older spinach is starting to bolt unfortunately.  Hopefully some of the younger batches I planted of the spinach will still have a few more weeks before they bolt too.   I also have a few bolted collards and cabbage plants that I might keep until I can get some seeds from them to save.

The squash is loving the warmer weather.  The Hubbard squash are really starting to take off now.

The vines are starting to run now, and there are tiny flowers starting to form.  I was really suprised to even see a couple of tiny female flowers forming already! I marked them in the picture below.  

Their vines are really thick too, and the leaves are starting to shade the small lettuce plants underneath them pretty good.  I have been mulching them really well.  I have also begun looking for squash vine borer (SVB) eggs, since I am expecting them to arrive any time now.  I am still trying to decide if I will cover these soon, wait, or just spray the neem on them and see what happens first.  So far I have not seen any eggs or moths.  

The Table Queen Acorn  squash next to them is also starting to vine now.  They look small next to the Hubbards. I also see tiny male flowers on the vine forming.  I will need to start encouraging them to grow the other direction, so they don't grow the same direction as the Hubbards

Besides my main bed, I have couple other areas in the yard with things growing.  I have some ball zucchini seedlings growing in 2 hills.  Here is one of the mounds.

And along the back of the yard, here are some sunflowers that seeded themselves from last year.  Next to them are the Sugar Pie pumpkins that I mentioned last post.  This are growing pretty well too.
I expect a battle with the squirrels with the sunflowers. Last year, a squirrel chopped all my sunflower plants down when they were beginning to flower. I found that spraying hot pepper on the plants repels them, so I will probably have to do that to these plants as soon as I see the flower heads forming.

April 6th, Beautiful Day

Very nice day today, with highs in the upper 70s, and sunny skies.  Spent the most of the day at church,    (Watermark Community Church) attending a Training Day event.  We had a great afternoon session listening to Frank Turek, from CrossExamined.org , presenting his lesson titled I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. 

Got home in the late afternoon, and worked on planting some more seedlings that I had started in pots. Planted some more spinach seedlings and mustard.  We'll see how the spinach does, it being rather late, and not long until we start getting pretty warm around here.  

That's probably the last of the cool weather plants I put in, until late summer.  I planted some beans, both pole and bush beans, and the seedlings are starting to come out ( in the back behind the small fence section.)   The Cinderella pumpkins (below) are growing a bit more.  

Here is the Table Queen Acorn.  Its doing nicely,   I have mulched it pretty well with glass clippings.

 The  2 following pictures are of the Hubbard Squash.  They are getting pretty big, as as you can see in the pics, they are even developing side-shoots.  I even saw a tiny flower starting to develop on once of them.

I intend to cover most of my squash, but am waiting until probably the end of the month, as I heard the SVB should not come out until maybe early May.  I have checked for SVB eggs, but have not seen any yet.  So as of yet, the battle has not begun.


The peas are doing awesome. The plants  have gotten huge, and have beautiful white blossoms.  They are about to outgrow their tomato cages I am using as a trellis.  Here is a picture of them, along with some of the cabbage and collards.  The cabbage has been a huge success, especially for being the first time planting them this winter. We've harvested at least 10 heads, and have enjoyed making cole slaw, boiled cabbage, stuffed cabbage, and even egg rolls. Will definitely plant them again this fall.  

I also planted some Sugar Pie Pumpkin seedlings at various places around the yard.  My daughters were playing with a bunch of seeds from last year's crop, and put a bunch of seeds in a bowl with some mud (I think they were play-cooking).  Well the seeds sprouted, and I felt bad for the seedlings. so I planted a bunch of them.  So that side of my back yard may be totally overrun with squash vines if these make it.  We'll see!  :)