earliest I've ever started

[mr_yan]

This is the earliest I've ever really started things.

Thursday i got peas in the ground. I dug one up and found it had an inch long root already.

Yesterday I broadcast seeded what will be my bean bed with salad mix, greens, and radishes. This bed also has three rows of peas in it running east to west. Over all the bed is four feet east to west and seven feet north to south.

I have a trellis along the norht end of this 4x7 bed which had tomatoes on it the last two years. This year it will support cantaloupes. These three vines will be planted in the first foot of the bed. The rest will be 16 inch wide rows running north south of green beans, edamame (soy), and fordhook lima beans - all bush types.

Any thoughts on layout? Thanks Yan

 

[Crabbergirl]

Wow! You have been really busy! Sounds like a great spring garden to me.
I just planted my edamame and it has come up already! I am getting ready to plant the second planting in a couple weeks. I like to space them out so I have a continuing crop.
Do you make second plantings of anything?

 

[mr_yan]

I have tried spring and fall gardens but with little to no success.

My plans this year:

Bed A
Greens and peas until mid to late May / leave the peas going as the beans and 3 melon vines get started in the second half of May / fall greens after bean harvest

Beds B, C, D
Garlic was planted in early November and is going strong to be harvested in July sometime / fall planting of broccoli, brussles sprouts, and southern type greens (mustard, collard, turnip).

Any ideas, thoughts, interstellar observations? As I said I have yet to really have a successful spring or fall garden. Summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, basil, squash, and melons have been my concentration.

 

[Crabbergirl]

I am betting this year will be the year for your spring and fall gardens. What you have out lined sounds great. I plant the greens spring and again in fall if they died off in summer. They like the cooler temps and can even withstand light freezes,you just have to protect young plants from frost, they are good all year crops here in the south as they can do well in summer too with some care. If you harvest only the leaves and not the entire plant , you can continue to harvest from the same plant spring through summer and maybe even in to fall Peas have a very short life as do beans. Melons will not be a bother to the greens unless they are turnips in which case harvesting the turnips will disrupt the melon vines.
You will have to post some pictures when you get everything growing. I love to see what others are doing in their gardens

 

[Kokabel]

My peas are in pots inside, and are doing amazing so far xD.

I really want to see pictures! It sounds like you have a really nice plan laid out. I wish I could be that organized o_o. What zone do you plant in? Because I desperately want to get things outside, but I live in such a cold climate I have to wait.

 

[Randy]

I have to wait too although we aren't as cold as SD. I saw a couple of plants starting to peek out of the little pots in the greenhouse yesterday though. So progress is slow, but there is progress.

 

[mr_yan]

Until the feds tweaked the map this year I was in 4b - about a hour south of Madison WI. Since I moved here 5.5 years ago we have been at least -22F every year but 2011/12.

We've had a few days over 80, and several in the 70's, with night time temps dropping into the mid fifties. All in all we're over a month ahead for typical seasons.

Usually fracynthias are blooming around April 15'th but they're bright yellow now. My peach tree has blossomed for the first time ever; it's 4 years old. Jane Magnolias are fully open too.

Traditional tomato planting date is Mother's day.
Average last frost is April 15.

Tallest pea is 5". A lot of the other stuff I broad cast in the garden (salad mix and greens) has germinated too. I even have a rogue pumpkin germinated in the bed which hitchhiked in with compost from jack-o-lanterns.

 

[RonsGarden]

I'm not tempted to push it this year!
I still ave to wait until mid-May for toms, squash and cucs!
I won't be swing them inside until at least last April!
Cooler temps starting tomorrow, but temps wil still be a bit above the norm!
I will be sowing lettuce soon once we start getting rain!

 

[mr_yan]

I will be starting my tomatoes, basil, and peppers this weekend. It is about a week later than when I typically have started things. These won't go in the ground until May

 

[Randy]

Memorial Day is our target date here. Last year it stayed pretty cool though even after that. Tomatoes are always a gamble. Most years we get some though. We can at least count on the cherry tomatoes.

 

[mr_yan]

Mothers day is the typical target for tomato transplants here. Last year I did the weekend before and, while it stayed warm enough, about a third of them were taken out in a hail storm. That storm also required a new roof and siding for the house.

 

[RonsGarden]

Here it's the may 24th weekend for tender plants!

 

[Randy]

That's a pretty severe storm then.

 

[mr_yan]

The storm spawned 2 or 3 small tornadoes, peeled back the roof of a middle school about 10 miles NE of here, several large trees down. My neighborhood is mostly bungalows from the 1920's and almost all of them now have new roofs and over half have new siding on at least one wall. My neighbor measured hail stones up to an inch and a half - his house is about 40 feet west of mine. It was an impressive storm but thankfully no one really hurt and no lives really up ended.

 

[Crabbergirl]

You guys can keep the hail storms and tornadoes. At least hurricanes are hit or miss and we can go several years without so much as a brush. But when they get a bead on you, evacuate

I have had torrential rains, and after that the sun comes out and boils the plants in the ground So I do feel your pain