what's going on in your garden?

A few tomatoes , and green vegies going,other's only sprouting.how about you.

I have brocolli growing from last fall, I had the first harvest in March, and have had three more crops of side shoots. I have lettuce that volunteered in February that has survived snow and a few frosts, but is starting to look good, radishes, peas just sprouting, and sweet pea flower shoots, and self sown chamomile. Nothing but dandelions in bloom, I haven't planted bulbs or early bloomers yet.

I have some Brussel sprouts gone to seed from last year ,that is not all that far away from that. presently lettuce as leaf ,green onions, several tomato plants, a couple of watermelon and muskmelon plants.Lots of returning jerusalem artichokes and spearmint.

Genevieve, I have tried broccoli several times and never got it to where it looked like broccoli. Maybe the trick is to plant in fall and let it grow a season and a half, then??

Genevieve - do you protect any of your edibles over the winter? DD moved to Holland, MI last year, leaving her TN vegetable garden behind so she's new to "northern" growing.
Here, the weeds are growing as fast as the desirables. My first planting of peas ever is about 6 inches high and trying to get them trained on a trellis. Cucurbitas got planted last weekend from seeds I started indoors. I do have to keep an eye on the nighttime temps but cover them with plastic pots if the temps get below 40. After watching the weather for the next week, I may get brave and plant out my tomatoes this week.
Roses are blooming here along with perennial bachelor buttons, Weigela and my big Deutzia 'Magician'. Funny thing - because all of the bulbs were up early, the foliage has been left on longer (I usually cut it down at the end of May when planting annuals) so a couple of surprise Alliums have shown up. Don't even remember planting them among the daffodils and it's been years. Will have to remember that for future reference.

With the weather having been like it is I usually seem to be watching plants recovering from a tyrannical spring.(mostly my natives?) Have lost a small tomato plant and watching another recovering however it will probably only be another three weeks before I start seeing blooms on one of the yellow tomato plants.
One of the watermelon vines is a foot or so and growing well enough to look for something to vine on. Seems some the plants in the garden are growing really well while others just cannot tolerate the extremes of warm days and cold nights.
Those 40 to 50 degree differences between day and night really get to some of plants(sometimes me too!)
Cindy: My B. Buttons grow as biennials most of the time,and it seems waiting to set out the tomato plants gets to be one of the most anticipated to do's with the garden.

Re: tomato planting anticipation - I've been saving egg shells all winter, specifically for the tomatoes but the rest will go into the worm bin or compost pile. Good thing I started saving them early as I'm trying out a vegetarian/vegan diet.

Here's the only early tomato plant I got correct along with a watermelon plant. Watermelon plant's kinda spindly and the tomato plant's looking like next week for green tomatoes. The tomato plant's a little over three feet tall;Ester Hess

Got my tomato plants in the ground yesterday. Wanted to get them settled in before we see the 90's. Also got some seed-started sun-lovers planted - cosmos, cleome, ornamental peppers, zinnias, nicotiana (although not too close to the tomatoes). Have multi-colored carrots, rainbow Swiss chard, kale growing in some pots as well. This years is more about playing with vegetables than ornamentals with more sun in my little side garden after removing two trees last year.

CindyMyzone5; I have some zinnias, the butterflies and bees really enjoy them.Usually a few them are blooming by this time only I didn't get them in or the weather got the early ones
I'm hoping to get the cosmos in , still have a week or so for September blooms.Lots of other annuals are just sprouting to a few inches tall, Bachelor Buttons African daisies ,marigolds,I'm sure some of those will do well in the hot dry summer that seems to be coming.
Watering everything is sometimes a chore though, I don't like to have to water, guess that is why I always enjoyed perennials.
Sunflowers seem have fallen victim to something , I'll be guessing and watching till I find out what.

I have very limited sunny space and I'm trying sun-loving annuals for the first time in 20+ years. Next year it might be something else.
Yeah - I'm worried about a hot, dry summer too. We had a hot one last year but managed to get rain about once a week. Dryness will keep the mosquito population down so that's a plus. We live next to a wooded wetlands/creek.

We live maybe three blocks from the white river, it is somewhat humid all the time .Sounds similar to you.

Evidently it's going to be a good year for caterpillars from what everyone is saying, last night some of them chewed on my watermelon.Big ole chunk out of one leaf today but I re- powdered and we will see.

Everything looks amazingly better after it rained real good for about half an hour about 6 pm yesterday. That was a long awaited happening for this time of year.

more melons to plant next week, along with some smaller staple vegies, and more herbs of various sorts.I doubt about everything getting planted only most will

My pitifully few veggies are camouflaged by perennials so maybe I won't get some of the veggie garden bugs. Growing 'Black Krim' tomatoes, zucchini (green and yellow) and cucumbers with kale, Swiss chard and carrots in pots. Doesn't put a big dent in our veggie consumption but at least it's convenient.

more plants growing and blooming tomato, watermelon ,and cukes.

Not a lot going on here:a few blooms.

juhur7 - are you going to grow your cukes in pots? Curious. I had read somewhere that cukes have to be transplanted rather quickly once they sprout because they don't like root disturbance. I sowed my seeds in paper pots to minimize any disturbance.
Astilbe 'Peach Blossom' is blooming strong here as well as some of my white Astilbe. Forget if it's 'Bridal Veil' or 'Deutschland' - one blooms before the other. The roses have been spectacular this year - guessing it's the extra sunny days helping. I'm amazed at the blooms in the bed where we took out two oaks last year. Totally surprised what some additional sun will do since I'm accustomed to gardening in the shade. My tomato plants have settled in nicely and are growing well. I'm a little concerned about my sugar snap peas because they haven't bloomed yet. They're about 3 ft tall on trellises but no sign of flowers yet. Maybe it's been too hot? First year growing them so I'm definitely a veggie newbie. Almost done planting the annuals. One more day should do it. I am hoping for some rain tomorrow as I've been watering because everything's dry and the super intense sun doesn't help there.

Yes, I thought I would try growing the cukes in pots this year.There are a lot reasons,only it is mostly to see if they will be any easier to care for and my soil seems to be full of fungus off and on. I'm using new soil with compost and they look to be off to a great start.It has not even been a week since they were planted.
I've heard the season for peas comes and goes quickly,only I have little to no experience with them.I would imagine the cooler temperatures this week may help your bloom set with that.
That morning glory in first pic ,second set of pics is about the extent of my annual succes this season.Everything seems to be a target for anything and everything as soon as it is set out in the garden.

That is a cute morning glory. I've been growing a couple in pots for the past few years so that I can move them into an empty space in the bed once all of the intense spring flowering is done. Because I cram so much stuff (mainly perennials and herbs) into my one sunny bed, there's not enough "dirt" to dedicate to the morning glories. The pots usually get tucked in around roses that have been cut back a bit after the big first flush.
As for targets this year, no bugs yet here but I've got powdery mildew on an apothecary rose already. We haven't had that much rain (it's pretty dry) so I'm not quite sure what got it started. Only thing different (other than the weather) was that I had used some oak stump grindings from the tree removal last year, mixed with some "natural" fertilizer as a very light mulch. I've gotten away from using wood mulch but had so much from the trees that I had to come up with handy places to put it. Multiple wheelbarrows of the stuff. And I added the fertilizer since it was raw wood and didn't want decomposition to deplete soil nutrients.
Waiting for some rain here (hoping).

Think ya got your rain there Cindy, and the cooler temps should help with that powdery mildew besides the blooms on the vegies.At least one would would think so anyway.Rain started about five after five and it is still coming down steady and strong.I like that!!

Yep - got our rain. No steady downpour but lots of light showers. No dramatic thunder and lightning like the folks up north. Still raining off and on today and that's fine by me.

here's some goodies from the garden; tomato plant with little tomatoes, watermelon in bloom, the only one of my first cuke planting still growing.

Congrats on the baby tomatoes. Mine just started flowering so it'll be a while before I see any.

One tomato plant loading up with tomatoes one other blooming remainder all still small.With the weather looking as it is I am not as hopeful for a good crop of cukes as I might be.With it being hot and dry and humidity levels rising powdery mildew and every other wilt is anticipated.
Have a little melon setting on? still to small to tell.Beans are looking like double toothpicks,oh well.
Charentais melons are looking good others are ok but not doing as well as they might.
Lots of flowers blooming here and there ,just started bunches of others,a little late I know.

Yippee! My sugar snap peas started blooming. They've been in the ground for 6 weeks and I was thinking that they weren't going to produce at this rate. Tomatoes are blooming. Cukes and zucchini are starting to grow but they're being shaded out a bit by my monstrous (this year only) roses, soon to be trimmed back after they finish their first flush of flowers.

CindyMzone; I was glad that cool weather helped your pea crop chances,see patience and hope is a good thing there!!!

My cukes like a little shade sometimes other times some do well in blazing hot sun.Those get to be a finicky type of plant,so don't get discouraged if the set where they are ain't perfect,no such a critter as that!!
My tomato plant is loading with tomatoes but sure is taking it's time.Yeah one plant with tomatoes,! well any success is successs!!! Guess I will have to deal with it.AH,and me talking to you about patience.

Maybe some rain and slightly cooler temps will help with that also,the tomatoes that is.

Tomatoes here are growing well but not loaded with blooms like I'd expect. I think the heat has restricted some blooms. Hopefully a couple of days of cooler weather this week will get them blooming again. My straight neck squash/yellow zucchini is being shaded out by a rose at the moment. The roses have been growing and blooming like mad and I'm waiting (still) to cut them back a bit to give the zucchini more sun. I have one lonely 'Black Krim' tomato plant left from my early spring seed-starting with no home in the garden. Racking my brain here for a container big enough to plant it in without spending more money on pots. It's very difficult for me to throw away seedlings after caring for them for a couple of months.

The tomato plants here are blooming only the later ones are small plants.The time for optimal growth passes by the time I usually get to setting the remainder of plants .Last early frost almost always happens right as the tomato plant begins it's optimal growth time.Unless the plants are in the ground and growing they are always smaller.
The early plants (two of them) and I only have one that grew right ,one is small from damage of the very last early frost, the other is now as tall as I am and still growing only slowly.After that frost that plant grew 4 feet in about 11 days, as we hear and see that is what tomato plants are suppose to grow like.(Doesn't happen as often as I would like)

All the other plants are still only about 8 to 14 inches, even with a tomato on the 14 inch plant this is not going all well so far.With no rain for thirteen days and none forecast for here this is going to be a long summer for the garden.

CindyMyzone5; Maybe a bucket you could use around somewhere ? The tomato plants supposedly grow that way.

I have been watering since this is the best growth/bloom time for a lot of my gardens. I have emptied one rain barrel and probably half of two more. But the majority of the watering is with my city water since the rain barrels don't begin to cover even a quarter of what I need, especially when there's no rain.
I have thought about a bucket for my lonely tomato plant but I'd end up drilling holes in it for drainage. I gave my other tomato "buckets" to DD to grow tomatoes on her rental deck. I do have a big styrofoam pot I used for a small water feature and I may use that but will have to figure out where to put it.

I been trying to tell what flower is growing in a stand of goldenrod ,it's either a basketflower or a knapweed. I will be able to tell in a few days hopefully.
I have a couple of tray pots that are still empty that i am thinking about planting remaining herb seeds in as that is about all that will have time to grow. pots and things get confusing sometimes about what goes where, which plant to put in this pot or that.The one thing that seems constant is we can't stand seeing an empty pot and never have enough of them anyway.
I have been planting perennial flower seed for next year agastache, delphinium and such.
The tomato plants here look O.K. but show all kinds of stress,humidity and a hot sun is not always as good as we are told.

here's more of those cukes in pots tomato plant at end pic, ain't so good a pic.

here' one with a bloom 2&5

You're right about hot sun not always being so great. Even my tomatoes were wilting a bit by mid-afternoon. I did hear something a couple of weeks ago - better for tomatoes to get morning sun than hot afternoon sun. Not that many of us have that option.
Finally - rain! Got some last night so I think everything is breathing a sigh of relief. It's still partly cloudy this morning and I hope it stays that way for today to give everything a break from the hot sun. Zucchinis are starting to bloom and of course are all male flowers to start. And have a couple of itty bitty tomatoes starting to form on 'Black Krim'. Kale and Swiss chard have reached harvestable size but I'm only cutting off a few leaves here and there to use since I have a limited number of plants. Have started harvesting my snow peas which is fun. Should have enough for a stir fry in the next couple of days.
Have seen a Japanese beetle or two so it's time to get ready for the invasion. Doesn't matter that I put milky spore down in my own yard.

It rained on everyone except here, day 18 without rain and still counting. Makes it difficult to do much with90 degree heat. My Japaneese Beetles usually wait till July to arrive. Be back with more later.

Day before yesterday I picked and smashed a Japaneese beetle first and only one so far ( no such thing as one, like a potato chip commercial). I have about fifty quater size tomatoes hanging for a month now on that Ester Hess tomato plant. Still green all of them and the plant is approaching six feet tall.
Still needs to rain.

I've passed 60 on the Japanese beetle count, all caught by hand and drowned in soapy water. I had left the container of soapy water sitting on the ground last night and the local raccoons spilled the contents and ate all of the dead JBs.
Nice looking tomatoes, juhur! We missed out on the rain on Sunday as well so I'm back to watering. I did add about an inch or two of yard waste compost around the tomatoes as a mulch. Between 2 'Black Krim' plants, I have 7 or 8 tomatoes so far with more coming. Of course they're still green and on the small side. Will have to keep watering them though so they don't split. That sun is brutal! We're supposed to get to 100 on Thursday and I don't want to leave the cool house to go anywhere. DD in Holland, MI told me that she's already harvested her first zucchini. Sigh. Mine are still blooming with no babies yet. Peas are still coming along but I planted too many too close together and too close to the tomato cages. I'll know better for next year.

My watering this morning is everything is as dry as dust. Feel like i'm in a Prairie nightmare .
My stories about Beetles are terror tales those things are crazy and they get going they never seem to end.My last with them was smashing them till the birds at the feeder got a taste them.Seemed to work some with what I already had.
Harvests from my little garden are a long way off this year. Usually by this time I have tomatoes sitting on the kitchen counter and about everywhere else.
here's cuke plants from this morning; not as good as might be as they vine up the sunflowers.

So far, everything's surviving the heat and dryness with the exception of the lawn where I'm continually walking. The sun is killer though. Even though the tomatoes were watered, they still drooped a bit by late afternoon yesterday. Hoping to catch a little rain later from any clouds wandering through Chicago.

Well my drought is over thank goodness,,I'm typing this morning instead of being in the garden.(it is raining good and steady). Means I get to weed and cultivate later instead of looking over watering issues.My herbs and flowers had not done well with all the sun and heat so I could be better at that.Did get a few peach leaf Bellflowers to live to plant though.Not the best weather for starting seeds in pots.(try again later always do)
As my melons they have fungus affecting the set and blooms,so I'll keep a spray process going and see what happens there with the ones that have that .Everything looks allright to pretty good considering the conditions(yeah I know me and my excuses) .
I will get a few munchies out all this but not as many as usual,or as many as wanted. Have had some onions lettuce. mint, things like that and the Purple Petra basil is up and growing(late start, I know).
The Charentais melons have been blooming for more than a week or so, only "no set" there either Still seeing some this as unusual.

I had to rip out my watermelon vines I started early,stem rot on the vines,, grubs got the roots,, and gremlins have got me(SIGH).

Well today I have a yellow tomato that is about to be ripe.YEAH!! However I am looking for Japanese Beetle bait for my" bag- a- bug" beetle traps.
Yes the beetles are back" just like the "terminator" doing the search and destroy mission,except there is an army of them now!!
The rain the past few days has the melons growing nicely some of them about eight inches overnight last night.Still getting female blooms that won't bloom on the little melon sets though
I have never had that happen before!, "I am perplexed!?" " What disease is this"? "Nutrition maybe"?
I have never even heard of such a thing!