I'm going to do it!

[Lannie]

I must be totally and udderly insane. I'm going to plant my garden again this year. Every year I say, NEVER AGAIN, and every following Spring, I go out and plant. sigh...

(All you gardeners will resonate with this next statement...) But THIS YEAR is going to be DIFFERENT! You see, now that I have a mean vicious dog roaming about, all the bunnies have moved on and I haven't seen a deer in weeks. So that takes care of two out of the three gardening problems I usually have, the third one being weather. Nothing Cowboy can do about the weather, I guess. But hey, two outta three ain't bad!

I have tomato seedlings in the house, Jalapenos that are just sprouting (also in the house), lettuce and cabbage out in the garage under lights, and Rich just tilled the garden a couple of days ago. I'm going to go throw on some of that black gold that's been composting all year and he'll re-till, then I'm going to plant beans, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas. I'm starting cucumbers and squash in pots today - they'll go in the garage with the lettuces and be planted out when they're a decent size.

I'm not planting peas this year. I give up on the peas. In the 5 years we've lived here we've only had Spring weather once. This will be growing season #6 in this place, and I'm tired of putting all that work into peas and then getting only one or two pods. They just can't take the heat here, so I'm not even going to plant them. That'll be one less disappointment for me this summer.

Wish me luck, eh?

~Lannie

[Leimana]

Good luck Lannie!!! Maybe try a hardy heat tolerant bean instead of the peas? Plant the peas thick and they will create their own shade which keeps the soil cooler. Also have you ever tried a bean innoculant to increase your yield in growing and fruit production. I find that I get horrible yields without it. Hope your harvest is bountiful!!!

[Liz]

Yeah Lannie!!

I am with you on the "this year will be different!"! ;D

We have had good luck with the green beans and yellow wax bean--they save me having to grow peas and shell them.
My peas always go to dust too. The yellow and green bush beans grow like crazy, I plant them about 6" apart. They produce a lot to can or freeze also.
I am looking forward to hearing about your garden, sounds lovely, especially the black gold compost!

[Lannie]

I tried planting them close together, but it didn't work. They do OK up until about 80-ish, but when the temps get into the 100s, they croak. This just isn't the right climate to try to grow peas in. Beans I have no problem with, as long as I can keep the deer out of them, and now I have Cowboy to take care of THAT problem, so my beans should be fine.

I put down compost where the cucumbers and squash will be, and Rich tilled it in for me and I raked everything nice and smooth. Then the chickens decided to help. I need to close the garden gate after they go to bed tonight! LOL!

Tomorrow I'll compost the area where I'm putting the beans, and get those planted. I also have a bunch of seed tapes I made with green onions, carrots, and parsnips, so if I have time, I'll compost an area for that stuff too, and get them in the ground.

Even though I've had really crappy (or NO) harvests the last 4 years, at least the soil's improved. It's gorgeous! Especially with the extra compost tilled into it. One of these days, if I keep slaving away at it, I WILL have a nice garden again. The first summer we were here, I had a phenomenal garden! I planted seeds, and they jumped right up out of the ground and almost hit me in the chin! LOL! Just kiddin' but that's what it seemed like. Everything grew so big and so well, but mostly because the deer and rabbits hadn't discovered we'd moved in yet, and neither had the bugs. I had summer squash plants that were 4 feet tall. Oh, they were gorgeous! The weather was pretty nice that summer, too, mostly in the 80s and 90s, rain two or three times a week, no damaging wind or hail storms. I'd really love to have another summer like that one.

~Lannie

[medwife]

Hey Lannie, do you have a partially shaded place (raised bed perhaps?) where you could plant peas? This year we planted peas on the east side of our corn, so it would be shaded in the afternoons.....other than that, I plan on putting peas in a place where they only get morning sun and afternoon shade.....this might help your pea issue......
Cindy

[Lannie]

I do, Cindy, but Rich has convinced me to plant the tomatoes there this year. I keep losing them in the bad thunderstorms and this one corner of the garden (the NW corner) is the "L" of the lilac hedges and protected from the worst of the slashing rain and hail that we get in summer thunderstorms. So I'm going to try the tomatoes in that corner. I worry they won't get enough sun, but they'll have full sun until noon, and I'm just going to hope it's enough. One of our neighbors always puts her tomatoes on the east side of her big lilac hedge, and she never loses any in the storms, so I'm going to follow suit.

In the meantime, I'll just buy frozen peas. If the tomatoes survive in that corner this summer, then maybe next year I'll put peas in with them. I wonder if they'll cohabitate peacefully?

~Lannie

[medwife]

Lannie, I used to go with the old belief of planting tomatoes in full sun, but we planted them in both full sun and full shade after 12 noon, last year.......the tomatoes in the shade did MUCH better and didnt need as much water as those in full sun......those in shade produced alot more tomatoes as well.......so this year we planted all of our tomatoes in the shady part of the garden and probably will only rotate them out to replenish the soil. I also imagine peas and tomatoes will do okay together.....I know alot of people who do square foot gardening, and those plots are not always planted in the same kind side by side.

Cindy

[Lannie]

Wow, that's good to know! I'd LOVE to get a decent amount of tomatoes this year. It kind of makes sense them liking some afternoon shade, considering I keep thinking in terms of "The Valley" where I grew up. LOL! I don't live there no more! Over there, yes, they thrived in full sun, but the summers were very moderate. Here, not so moderate!

Thanks for the vote of confidence - I won't hesitate (or quake in my booties) to plant those maters in the shade. ;D

~Lannie

[callie]

if you toss some composted manure on the garden each year, you don't have to worry about the tomatoes or corn depleting the soil's nutrients. But you do have to worry about bugs finding your plants more easily.

Any more - when I read gardening advice, I always try to find out where the author gardens - it is way different in SD than in Ca. Tomatoes that are grown in full sun - when the temps get over 90 degrees, they quit producing blossoms until it cools off anyway.

Good luck this year!

[Shawn]

I don't think "full sun" on the instructions really means full sun in the Midwest! I've planted cantaloupe on the east side of our house where they only get 3 hours of sun and they LOVE it.