Patience and Self Control

I will not plant cucumbers before June.  I will not plant cucumbers before June.  I will not plant cucumbers before June.  I will not plant cucumbers before June.  I will not plant cucumbers before June.  I will not plant cucumbers before June.  I will not plant.....

Maybe I'll plant the beans...

One of my general rules is to wait until June before planting cucumbers, summer squash and beans.  That way the soil is warm and dry, night temps are high enough, and I don't have to deal with the wild fluctuations of May.  And most importantly the cucumber beetles hatch and there is nothing out there to eat.   The past week has had daytime temps in the eighties and night time temps in the sixties and it is getting harder and harder to wait. Yesterday I was sitting near the garden and the table next to me looked like it had been sprinkled with black pepper.  It was flea beetles!  I haven't planted anything that they will want to eat this year but it was a good reminder.  There are pests out there ready to devour my garden.  

Peas and Lettuce

Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbages
And some annuals seeking refuge from the blistering sun

Three plantings of Carrots

To distract myself from planting seeds, I worked on my sweet potato slips.  The past few years I have grown Mahon Yam from Johnny's Seeds.  It is a variety exclusive to them and it has been excellent.  Last year's harvest wasn't the greatest as far as quantity.  The grower had trouble producing slips due to weather and they came late and dilapidated.  I experimented with my soil mixture because by the time they arrived I was out of potting mix and I was cheap - and the end result was a very small harvest.  

But I still have a few in storage including some from my 2020 crop (!).  If you cure them properly the storage life is Amazing.  Usually 25 slips are $24.99.  That's expensive enough but this year they were priced at $37.00  I don't think so!  Not for my success rate.  And since I was still on the fence about it when I placed my main order, I would have had to pay the minimum shipping on top of that.  But I still had those tubers so,,,,

I decided to try growing my own slips.

I have two tubers sprouting and I am starting with just the one... since I am new to this.  I snapped off the slips, preserving as many roots as possible, and put them in a jar of water to continue rooting.  I put them back in the cold frame so they are in sun and won't need to be hardened off.  We'll see how this works.  They already look a hundred times better than any slips I ever got in the mail.

I am slowly starting on my annuals.  Celosia in the fire pit planter...

The Charming Beauty tulips are blooming.  These are suppose to deepen in color as they age.  Right now they are a very pale lemon which I'm not crazy about but...

Each bulb is producing two, three and even four blooms each!