I wish it would rain

We could use a little rain, I don't see any on the forecast until Thursday.  It's not all bad news.  We did get some rain, there were plenty of weeds growing among my vegetables.  Most of my peppers, eggplant and bok choy look like they are dead.  The tomatillos I planted the second time look better,  I gave them a few days to toughen up before I threw them in the dirt.  I might grab a few more plants to get in the ground this weekend.  Maybe I will read up on improving soil quality to give my new plants a chance to catch up.

Transplant shock

Garden still continues to grow.  We could use a little more rain but we're not too dry.  I have noticed that some transplanted plants are doing better than others.  If I were a better record keeper, I would have a way to tell where I bought which plant.  I have read that plants that come from a greenhouse and have never lived outdoors need to get eased into living outdoors.  It takes a few days to get accustomed to the wind and changes in climate.  I bought 4 tomatillo plants and half of them are awful wilty and sad.  I have read to give them plenty of water to build the roots.  I have four more plants that I'm keeping outside for a while before I take them to the garden, maybe try something new and see how it works.  I suspect that's what happened to some of the zucchini, they look pretty sad too.  I think the birds got the zucchini seeds we planted.  I replanted some of those today. I soaked the seeds in warm water for a day before we planted to try to lure them out of dormancy.

Cheer up zucchini

"About ten days before going outside, let your plant acclimatize to the great and dangerous outdoors by hardening it off. Since so far the plant has led a pampered life – warm, sheltered and moist it will have broader leaves than an outdoor plant to capture more light, and weaker stems from lack of exercise due to wind motion. Many plants take transplanting hard enough, zucchini being one of them, and transplant shock will set them back severely – they may not grow for a week or two, produce less fruit, and succumb to diseases and predators. To harden it off place the plant outside in a shady spot for a couple of hours, and repeat for two or three days, increasing its stay outside each day until it’s outdoors most of the day. Then place it under morning sun for a couple of hours and put it in shade for the afternoon. Repeat increasing time under the sun for three or so days until it’s spending most of day and evening outside. I know it seems like a pain, but it’s far better than having your plant keel over from shock and die."  from here

Peas and Beans

First the good news, peas and beans are growing.  I see a lot of ants around them but they still seem green and healthy so I'm going to consider the ants a friend of legumes.  The carrots are coming up, more sunflowers and cucumbers too.  Most of the tomato, pepper and eggplant look good, I have a wilty one here and there.  No sign of the dreaded beetles either.

On the downside, the zucchini isn't looking great.  I think the birds ate the seeds so I'm going to have to replant.  Some of the plants don't look too good either.  If I had pictures I could match it up with something on the Google machine.  Drat!  I'm going to have to remember to take more pictures.

The dirt looks dry on the surface but is nice and dark about a quarter inch down.  Anny watered anyway because it's fun to pour water on things.

Both welcome and unwelcome arrivals

Today when I went to the garden to hover over my crop, I found that the peas, some of the beans, carrots, a cucumber and sunflowers have started to poke up through the dirt.

Hello Mr. Bean

I also found that something has been feasting on the eggplants. Look at that picture below, there's an eggplant leaf on the ground.  Grrrr pesky something.  I think that something is a Colorado Potato Beetle.  I am going to go back and look closely at the rest of the plants and destroy any beetles and eggs I find.  I have heard that I can use this safely, but before I do anything hasty, I'm going to ask about in my plant biology class.  Yes, I'm going to be that guy.

OK- I asked. The recommended method for controlling the Colorado Potato Beetle is to squash them and scrape off the eggs.  Maybe spray with Bt.

Planting between the rainfall

It's been raining for the last couple days. Today we added a few more mounds for watermelons and squash.  The first ones were a bit close together.  The watermelons are down in the wettest part of the garden.  I've never seen standing water there but it's always wet. I also found a few tomatillo and sweet pepper plants at the farm market.  I'm planting the sweet peppers with the tomatoes. I have heard rumors about peppers cross pollenating so I'm being safe.