It froze Friday and Saturday - we lost the Tiger Eye sunflowers but the Autumn Beauty and other sunflowers appear okay. The flowers Eliana got froze as the blanket blew off - nothing like freezing AND bad wind - you would think one wouldn't come with the other. Strawberries were blooming like crazy so we covered those and the beans and zucchini with row cover. I left the tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse and they are fine except for where the openings in the black plastic covered them and fried them. . . It appears I lost a few big dipper, 3 pepperonicci (SOB as there was NOT good germination), and some flavorburst. I have some extra sweet sunset hybrids (banana peppers for pickling) so I'll pop those in there. A couple of tomatoes are having problems (blackening on the main tip of the stems as though they froze or burned or something) and I believe it is due to low calcium already. So I'll look for a water based product to put in my fertilizer or on top. I have organic fertilizer if need be that I sprinkle on top, but I think if I just put an inch of compost on there should be enough food in there. The celery and squash look okay, I seeded all the winter squash on Friday but have not actually figured out where to put them. . . everything needs something else to be done - fencing to keep the critters out of the orchard so I could seed them in the fine fine soil between trees (they are so immature they would not shade anything), or fencing to put them in north of the garden (where we need to til and plant grass over the septic etc).
We got the pool up on Saturday. We made the hoop house 19 feet wide instead of 20 which means we should have had 4 feet left. Then the pool was 16 and we have just enough to put a skinny child on either side. Now I have to figure out how to hook up the sand filter and the saltwater generator and then put under cover to make work appropriately so it can be filled a bit more. But the wind is blowing 30mph and that just isn't nice to work in. . of course it is also supposed to rain the rest of the week so I should figure it out today along with everything else.
It looks like the peas (which need a trellis . . ) and 45 feet of assorted radish, roots, lettuce, mustards and greens are okay even with the 6 inches of rain in one day and snow on top. The soil was shifted around so the rows are growing in odd places, but they ARE growing. I seeded the melons and cucumbers in black plastic in front last week and while the soil by the peas (where it is nasty and the worst soil in the garden), is hard as a rock, the soil under the plastic 3 feet away is dark and black and warm and lovely. So we put holes in the plastic and planted 4 hills of 3-6 seeds each all the way across. And a few vining flowers we started from seed are in between. Thumbelina, morning glory etc. I checked yesterday and the soil had dried out horribly, so watered for a few hours, did the strawberries and watered the rest thoroughly (til the raised portion was soaked and path was full of water - oops). Right now I am rewatering peppers and need to take scissors out to cut the proper sized holes. I have about 90 lettuce, flowers, and herbs that need to be planted still so I really should head out to do that in the greenhouse and elsewhere. Beans came up nicely and I see a few carrots - the first ones we planted before the snowstorm so I am surprised they did not rot. The girls planted the corn the weekend of the 16 - the first 2 varieties and then weekend of the 23rd they planted the last 2 varieties which are OP corn. I might regret that one, but one always hopes you can actually save seed from something some day. Of course, I have field corn surrounding me on every side this year and I wonder if it will cross pollinate with my supers in such a way that it will taste nasty. I can't remember which corn does that so should put that on my list of "things to research to depress ones self."
HAd a long long conversation with a friend and lost 3 hours but what a nice surprise :)
I realized very quickly that I posted a May post to June 1st - don't suppose I can go back and change that one . .:)