Tag: sweet success cucumber

Giant Rhubarb and a June Veggie Garden Review

Giant rhubarb!

While the spring has been tough on some plants, others have flourished. Rhubarb is one of the things that has flourished. I have two plantings, my original here at home that I got from my mom, and a second I got from one of her friends when I complained that mine wasn’t very red.

My original plants taste great, but the stalks were more green than red. Apparently there’s many varieties of rhubarb that run from green to red, and green ones will never turn red. So now I have a green variety and red variety! Both are mature plants so I can harvest freely, but I never cut more than 1/2 -2/3 of the stalks and stop around late July to let the plant get ready for fall. What did I do today with my harvest? A 4th of July Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for my daughter and boyfriend who are visiting for the weekend!

How’s everything else doing? Fine would be the word I use, and for gardening that’s not a bad thing. I got my first full salad harvest the other day. The lettuce hasn’t bolted yet due to the cooler weather we’ve had, the Sugar Snap Peas are plentiful and I got my first YOLO Wonder green pepper and Summer Stripe squash.

Everything else is blooming beautifully and I’m looking forward to lots of July harvests.

Sweet Success Burpless and Telegraph Cucumbers are looking excellent climbing their trellises…

…All the tomatoes are looking great. Lots of flowers and green tomatoes just teasing me with their abundance.

I’m growing Husky Cherry Red, a bush type cherry tomato, and indeterminate Yellow Cherry and the larger Juliet Grape tomatoes.

Husky Cherry Red Tomato
Yellow Cherry Tomato

Slicer tomato varieties are Burpee Early Girl, and 2 bush types, Grand Slam F1 Slicer Tomato (a Burpee Home Garden 2020 new variety) and Early Girl Bush. From the looks of it, I’m going to be having a great tomato harvest!

Grand Slam F1 Slicer Tomato
Grand Slam F1 Slicer Tomato

I’m really liking the bush varieties I’m growing. In the past, I’ve grown some slicer tomatoes in grow bags, but since they were indeterminate varieties they became really gangly and hard to deal with. These are nice and compact, great for a patio or porch, and seem to be producing equal to their wilder cousins.

Do I grow roma tomatoes? I used to, but I don’t have the space to grow enough to use for sauce etc, so I leave those to buy at the Farmer’s Market.

What else is growing?

My Burpee Home Garden 2020 new variety Redarling F1 Brussel Sprout, is looking awesome. I hope it begins to “sprout” soon.

Best of the rest…

Is your garden doing “fine”?

Seedlings on the Move

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Mother’s Day, and not just because I get to be the center of attention, but because it signals the official beginning of the outdoor garden season in my area.

Generally once Mother’s Day passes, I can start planting the warm weather plants without too much fear of a cold snap. Some things like zinnias, I will still wait a couple more weeks to make sure the ground is nice and warm. It finally seems like the vegetable seedlings I started in the house are ready to move outside. The flowers will wait a few more days (Finally Planting Season is Beginning).  About 4 weeks ago I started:

 

Squash, cucumbers and zucchini really don’t like to have their roots disturbed, so they can be finicky when you transplant them. It’s recommended to start them outdoors, but I’ve had good luck growing them in peat pots or other biodegradable pots to give them a head start. After they get nice and strong in the house, I move them to my mini greenhouse for a couple of days, then outdoors in the shade for a couple more. Then, when they’re ready to plant I gently tear the bottom off the pot and plant the whole pot.

I’m super excited to try out my new trellis for the zucchini and squash. I had to move the zucchini and squash because of last year’s squash vine borer attack.  The other vegetable beds don’t have the space to let them grow free on the ground so I’m trying the trellis. 

It was pretty easy to put together, but best as a two-person job. Gardener’s Supply Company has a nice video to show how to assemble it. It’s made of plastic, so won’t rust but seems plenty strong enough to hold zucchini and squash. I’ll let you know as the season progresses.

I got the squash, zucchini and cucumbers in the ground, but had a little incident with some of the zucchini. They hadn’t grown as robustly as the others, and I wasn’t as gentle as I should have been.

I broke the main stem, which is really easy to do if you’re not careful. Sometimes it heals, but it’s iffy. I planted it anyway and will hope for the best. So far it seems to be holding its own.

I usually try to have a backup in the same pot and thin them after they’ve become established in there ground, but in this case it didn’t grow. I also usually grow more plants than I need and hold some in reserve in case there’s an “incident”. If they all grow in the first couple of weeks, wonderful, I have plants to share.  

My “spares” in the greenhouse with my microgreens.

So far so good! A few days later and everything is looking good, even after some cool and stormy weather. Btw, for our small family 2-4 zucchini plants and 4 squash plants provides more than enough for us and some to share.

My sugar snap peas are doing great in this cool weather and starting to climb up the rainbow spiral stakes and pea trellis. I originally had the stakes “out of order”, but the science nerd in me couldn’t let that be. 🌈 I reorganized them, but from the front of the bed they were backwards, oh well, close enough.

rainbow gardener's supply company rainbow stakes

Last but not least, my mouse cucamelon plants are off to a very slow start and still in the house under the grow lights. I hope they get going soon, I’m looking forward to one of latest food trends!