Pandemic Garden Club

[scrubjayspeaks]

Welcome to the June edition of Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!

Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.

As for myself...

Corn and pumpkin update!



I am just the “I want to see it grow up healthy” meme every time I look at them. I love the randomly out-of-its-lane sunflower.



Years ago, I won a rather large operculicarya decaryi in a raffle. This is really too nice of a plant for the likes of me. I had been keeping it in the cold frame--it loses its leaves every autumn, but I don’t trust it to survive actual freezing. I’ve just been ignoring it for the most part in there. Problem is, it’s getting too tall for the cold frame. So I hauled it out and pruned the hell out of it. (Sorry, I didn’t think to take a before picture, but it was bushy and growing in about sixteen different directions.) For the summer, it’s going to hang out in the space between the two cold frames. Come winter, uhhhhh...that’ll be a problem for future!Jay.



I’ve got some type of clarkia growing here and there as late-season wildflowers. I always enjoy stripey, remix-style colors on flowers, like the marbled four o’clocks.



I got a couple of cuttings of mystery opuntias a while back. This one is finally putting out a new paddle. Succulents are mostly a slow-growing category of plants. I am not patient, generally speaking, but I can be relied upon to forget a plant exists for a while. Provided it manages to survive, I get to be pleasantly surprised by its progress.

Comments

[trepkos]

Those Clarkia are pretty! I agree - just want them to be healthy. If they can survive the slugs and snails, I plant more of them.

[scrubjayspeaks]

We are beginning our annual battle against earwigs, which ravage anything young and tender.

[trepkos]

I'll be fine then - chewy and 65.
Do any of these ideas work? https://bugstips.com/15-powerful-plants-that-repel-earwigs/

[harpers_child]

My bush peas are doing a very good impression of pole peas. We've deployed some tomato cages so they aren't laying on the carrots next to them or escaping into the lawn.

The squirrels did their best to dig up and eat the green beans I planted. A handful of plants survived. I'm contemplating buying a third round of bean seeds and seeing if I can get a few more plants. The squirrels did manage to dig up and eat all the spinach. I planted more carrots in that spot. (Not sure if I mentioned here that I gave up on finding winter squash seedlings and just put in green beans in that space in the herb bed.)

The various herbs are doing well. Bell peppers and okra are putting out enough fruit I have to harvest once a week to keep the weight of the fruit from pulling over the plants. More tomato cages have been deployed to help support the okra and bell peppers.

Planted some lettuce yesterday between the plants in the okra/bell pepper bed. I've had no luck growing lettuce in containers, but hopefully it does okay in a different spot. Typically the plant gets between four and six leaves and bolts. Mostly I planted it to play at weed control in the okra/bell pepper bed.

[scrubjayspeaks]

Wow, you've got peppers so early! I was excited to see the first squash blossoms, but we're a long way from having anything to harvest yet. I hear you on the lettuce--it either bolts, or the insects get to it before it grows big enough to even contemplate harvest.

[harpers_child]

They're the world's smallest peppers, but they're green.

I've got my first handful of black-eyed peas that have dried out enough on the vine to harvest. One of my to-dos this week is to look up if I need to do more than shuck them for storage and the suggested method. (I'm hoping I just need to slowly fill a freezer bag.)