The first of the year. I hadn’t checked the garden in a while since it has been raining for the past five days, and this guy was a surprise! It is a little small (about 4 inches), but I am sure there are many more to come. I noticed a few of the flowers have been cut off just below the base, and am wondering if a cutworm of sorts is the culprit. If I have time tonight, I will try to go out and investigate since I have read they are active in the evening (at least when it is dark). I noticed the same flower-sheer type thing with my potato plants as well.
Winter planting plans
I scheduled some plantings for the fall, which can be seen on the calendar on the side of the (non-facebook) site. I will be planting broccoli, peas, romaine, spinach, and radishes. I was hoping to do a little more, but I waited too long to start anything else (cucumbers or more summer squash specifically).
Start peas this week
Start peas in the garden this week.
Plant spinach this week
Plant spinach seeds in the garden this week.
Plant radishes this week
Plant radishes in the garden this week.
Start romaine this week
Start four romaine plants.
What’s next?
I have 11 or 12 empty squares where the lettuce, broccoli, and spinach was planted, any suggestions? I think I am going to re-plant broccoli in the same spots for the fall (probably the peas too once they are done), but that still leaves 4 or 5 empty spaces.
Onion flowers are bad?
Apparently they are if you are trying to grow onion bulbs. I didn’t know that and just tried to search the interwebs to find out how long after they flower I have to wait for harvest. I also learned that you are supposed to plant the smaller of the sets to produce onion bulbs as larger ones will bolt. I assumed the larger ones were better (obviously?).
Tomatoes
More and more tomatoes. All three types have a ton of blooms. There are beefsteak and cherry tomatoes in the picture below.
Something else
I think this is the same thing that is affecting the squash, but this time on the beans. I thought it could be (again) caused by too much moisture, but the black spots might indicate something else.