I was just outside early this morning before it got too sunny and hot. Did some major weeding and watering. Planted some transplants from my seed starting. So far we have 75+ bulb onions, 18 celery, 18 cabbage, peas growing up a trellis that shades the cabbage, tons of potatoes, 24 tomato plants, 75 peppers. 50 leeks, 7 parsley, 1 marigold plant between each tomato, 23 Aronia berry bushes, 12 ft. row of asparagus, volunteer borage and sunflower plants, volunteer Calendula flowers. A 3x4 ft. garlic bed. This is my first year with the drip irrigation system. This system has given my more time to spend weeding and monitoring for disease and insects. I probably need to add some more covering for my potatoes. Glad I watched this video. I always learn something watching your channel and appreciate it so much. My husband planted 3 pepper transplants last evening. When I went out to the garden this morning all three of them were pulled out of the ground unharmed. I didn't see any animal tracks so I just re-planted them and have no idea what did that. Crazy.
Thank you so much for your nice comments! I wonder what pulled up your peppers? That is really frustrating but I'm glad you were able to get them right back into the soil!
Yes now is the time to do a lot of little jobs now that the plants are mostly in. Today I clipped tomatoes to a string trellis and pinched off suckers. Did some weeding, and added more leaf mulch to bare spots. I dont have much animal problems, but I know soon the insects will be out, then its time to mix up some neem oil spray.
Just be careful with Neem because it is toxic to pollinators! You can still use it, but you want to be cautious by spraying when pollinators aren't active during the day and avoiding spraying near flowers.
@@SusansInTheGarden I usually spray neem around sundown. and I do avoid flowers for the most part. I find its a good solution for a lot of pests, especially Japanese beetles in my wife's roses and zinnias.
@@j.b.6855 I've been hearing how awful Japanese beetles are. So far, we don't have them in Eastern Washington but I know it's only a matter of time. Have you heard about Bt galleriae? That's an organic product that targets both the beetles and the grubs.
Can you just cut the unwanted carrot seedlings with scissors? I love that you have a Chickadee visit you in the garden. So much so that I was thrilled when a Sparrow started hanging out in mine. I named him Jack, get it? Jack Sparrow? Anyway Jack turned out to be Jackie and she made a nest in my strawberry bed! I was just about to order bird netting to keep out the birds and she has set up housekeeping inside! Guess I'll have to get creative. I peeked and there are 5 baby birds, so I'm a wildlife grandma😉
I am using some of the plastic colanders from Dollar Tree to cover some of my susceptible plants. They only cost $1.25 and allow in some sunlight, and I can water with them on.
Clever ideas Susan. I do not over seed. I space everything out per the final growing distance. It breaks my heart to pull out a healthy plant. That's just me. Have a good weekend. Thanks for the video.
Oh the critters.....squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, deer, elk and neighborhood cats and dogs. There are days I wonder why I keep gardening until I pick that first fresh pea and know it is worth all the effort.
Hi, Julie. The height of the hoops depends on what you want to grow and how wide your row cover/bird netting/ag netting is. The easiest way to decide on the length for each hoop is to take the tubing out to your garden and hold it up to one end of your bed to determine the size you want, cut it and then use that as a template for the remaining hoops. I recommend spacing the hoops about 2' apart when you're ready to put them in place.
Just a thought from someone who also hates to waste: I believe carrot tops are edible, similar to parsley, so perhaps they can be put into a dish that calls for parsley--maybe potato soup, etc?
I just got on here to ask whether the extra carrot seedlings could be cut off at soil level and leave the "roots" to compost in the ground. I saw someone else had the same question. What are your thoughts?
That's an interesting idea but I think those roots might get in the way of the developing roots. I'm really not sure to be honest. I was initially thinking that could work but you don't want anything impeding the remaining roots' growth.
Thanks for these ideas for protecting your plants. I also have some issues in my raised beds of having roly polys eating my veggies roots. They recently ate my young 10" high tomato plant in one day, and yesterday, they ate the roots completely off of my zucchini plant. Any suggestions on how to protect my plants from Roly Polys underground?
Oh my! There is are a couple of organic products you could try, both contain Spinosad as the active ingredient. It's a fermented soil bacteria that will kill pillbugs and sowbugs. One product is called Sluggo Plus (it's an organic slug bait with Spinosad added to it) and the other is Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew (I swear I didn't make that up!), which has Spinosad. But Sluggo Plus is easier to apply since you just sprinkle it onto the soil surface.
I’m having difficulty also with birds and I believe voles. We never had the voles before and the pressures from both are decimating peas and beets. I think a pepper or two as well and maybe a cut worm. Terrible time to get lettuce and beets and I think something is eating them. Each time I look there were less beets and I have a time to grow those and carrots, but never had peas attacked. I had tulle on the peas, but I think I should have waited a bit longer. Now I’m going to transplant to condense peas and get more beets, carrots and rutabagas going. Any ideas about small rodents like voles? We just trapped a couple in the second garden as they were tunneling under new bare root stock in orchard. I think that’s the only way. When we moved here we had to eradicate a Huge gopher population and now it seems they turned into voles.😏. Sorry for those that don’t agree with total removal, but there is plenty of earth to go around and my little speck of area is what feeds us, not them. It’s too costly to do the work to have it destroyed. I agree that this spring has been not ideal to start gardening off. Tonight they say 41* and then a heat wave AND we have had NO rain! Ugh! Only 30% chance June 2nd. Talk about an $80 tomato!😮. Trying to find ways to be more frugal. I’ve seen many make fertilizer slurry in pails of various green matter and compost and let it sit for a couple weeks. After that they mix a bit into watering can to fertilize with. I keep telling myself once the hardware is in place costs should go down and I’m getting quality food. Fencing is the cost that is unavoidable for us and now we have voles and I can’t justify hardware cloth price. Then the hoops, cloths and irrigation-yikes! Almost have second orchard/garden area finished. We added chickens again so the fertilizer is combined with feed cost eventually as the manure needs to sit for several months. It will be so much fun to watch the chickens this fall cleaning up the garden. I am so hoping to save seeds this year of varieties that do well here. This is the year I’m trying dozens of varieties of tomatoes and peppers. And here I thought it would be a bad bug year, but the rodents and wildlife are kicking it off. Thanks for all the tips! I use sticks around plants that are not fenced in also😊. Keep cool 😎
It sounds like you might need my new book, The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook! The 3rd chapter is dedicated to dealing with all sorts of commonly-encountered critters, including voles. If you'd like a signed copy, just send me an email at Susan@SusansintheGarden.com. It's the companion book to The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook, which is all about dealing with various types of insect pests organically.