2024 Spring Garden Observations

Weather

  • 1/16-21/2024 – Deep freezes down to the low 20s to high teens.
  • 3/20/2024 – Temp 34° with a light frost. The Last Frost this year.
  • 3/26-4/8 – No rain. 12 days
  • 4/10-4/27 – No rain. 17 days
  • 5/13-5/31 – No rain. 18 days

Yard

  • 2/28/2024 – Sprayed WFZ on the yard. Three weeks later on 3/20/2024, the Spider Wort is very sick and the Florida Betony is spotted and pale. Other weeds are dying. The application timing this year was good.
  • 3/4 & 12/2024 – Had 18 CY mulch spread 2″ deep on all beds and added a connecting bed where the Magnolia Frescati had lived.

Garden

  • General Observations
    • Soil test showed pH was 4.6 so broadcast pelletized fast-acting lime and potash per the soil test. We had a heavy rain that night and did not disk in for about 3 weeks.
    • 3/27/2024 – Noted some Pecan trees are budding out.
  • Beans
    • Bush Snap Beans
      • Sowed with HOSS seeder. Maybe 25% came up.
    • Kentucky Wonder Beans
      • Sowed with HOSS seeder. Maybe 25% came up.
      • Sowed again in gaps by hand and more came up.
  • Corn
    • Learned lessons about the seeder the hard way and ended up with gaps in the rows and maybe a 50% stand. See this post about that and what to do differently next time.
    • The first side dressing was when the tallest was maybe 15″ high. That day was the first cultivation with Fergie and the HOSS single-wheel hoe that arrived that day.
    • Temptress (an experiment of one row) came up about 50% and tasseled in the third week of May when only 3 feet high.
  • Cucumbers
    • Poinsett 76
      • Again performed well like past years.
      • Liked its traditional cucumber taste and thin skin
      • Plant Again.
    • Generally Cuke Slicing Cucumber,  F-1 hybrid.
      • Came up fine and produced as well as Poinsett.
      • Fruit is slimmer than Poinsett. Tough skin and not the tranditional cucumber taste and smell.
      • No disease issues.
      • Do Not Plant Again.
  • PEPH Peas
    • See this post for issues with the seeder and/or operator that led to very bad stand.
    • Sowed by hand (3rd sowing) in the wide gaps. See that post for potential causes.
  • Peppers
    • Iberia Hybrid Cayenne Pepper F1
      • Transplants grown in the greenhouse grew well in the garden and had multiple peppers by mid May. Not hot when green.
    • Charleston Bell Peppers (N) did well in 2020.
  • Squash, Yellow
    • Gold Star – First year to try them and they produced well (as of 6/1/24)
    • Grand Prize – 6/7/24 – Has a compact strong plant that is not blown around like the others that are taller leaves. Lots of blooms and some fruit. Produced many flowers that the bees loved. As of 6/29/2024, squash production has been limited.
  • Betternut 401 Hybrid Winter Squash – First sowing did not come up well. Second sowing ok but they all seem sickly and slow as of 6/6/24.
  • Grape Tomatoes in Earth Boxes
    • 3/27/2024 – Mary bought three Grape Tomato plants at G&D. Unknown variety. Planted in Earth Boxes beside the fire pit on the back patio.
    • By first week of June, harvesting 5+ per day and the second week 10+ per day.
  • Tomatoes
    • 3/30/2024 – Moved tomato seedlings to the garden. They seemed too tall and leggy. The leggy condition led to planting deep with post-hole diggers such that up to 6 inches of the stalk was buried in the raised bed. Mary trimmed the lower limbs that were near to or touching the dirt. In some cases, she cut off the lower half of the leaf. With the root ball deep it was less susceptible to drought and grew more roots.
    • 4/16/2024 – Tall leggy tomatoes after a light side dressing (as they are blooming) have already a few quarter-size tomatoes and are a great dark green. I have been tapping the stakes to help with the pollination.
    • Side dressed lightly with 33-0-0 at flowering and later sprayed with Epsom Salts at 1T per gallon.
    • 5/16/2024 – Plants are dark green and growing well with large green tomatoes and many smaller ones. Continually trimming lower leaves to have none between the soil and 6 inches to allow airflow. Most plants have the main vine and 2-3 suckers left to flower and bear as long as they are flowering.
    • 6/6/2024
      1. Like the last week’s the tomato harvest is larger today than yesterday. Today about 3 gallons. Now have over 75 tomatoes inside.
      2. After harvest, sprayed for stink bugs the second time as 8 days since the first. Applied the last of the discontinued Bug-no-More with the active ingredient Zeta-Cypermethrin. Have seen very few bugs but still have some damage on older fruit. Next application will be with Bug Buster II bought from HOSS.
  • Zucchini
    • Zucchini, Desert – A new one for us – Desert zucchini plants are compact and very productive, producing very uniform, straight, dark green (almost black) zucchini with faint light speckling. They were sowed on the south end of the row at the center aisle. Good flowers and bees but many did not become fruit.
    • Pascola – Sowed between the Desert and the Gold Star Yellow. Poor germination and others blew around too much and were damaged.