Sunday, June 6, 2010

May Gardening Report

May was a spectacular month for gardening in Toquerville. Warm days and cool nights was perfect for onions, broccoli, peas, beets, carrots and tomatoes. I've never had better onions, broccoli, beets, carrots, and peas--the weather was perfect.

It's also interesting to see how much the garden changes since my last post (6 weeks ago). I have been harvesting broccoli since May 6th, green onions since May 7th, beets since May 10th, carrots since May 20th, and peas since May 22nd. And my harvest has been excellent.

My beets are about done, the peas will probably be done within a week or so. I continue to harvest flowerettes from the broccoli plants, and expect they will be ok for another couple of weeks.

But if the weather was perfect for the cool weather crops, it was not quite so good for the warm weather crops like corn, melons, peppers, cucumbers, and squash. All are doing well, they are just behind their growth from last year, due to cooler temperatues.

I have three plantings of corn however. My first planting was April 12th, second planting was May 6th, and third planting was May 26th. The first planting is nearing the tassel stage (this week I think). I planted Miracle Corn again this year, was very pleased with its performance last year, great flavor, large ears, and it doesn't blow over in the wind. With the successive plantings, we should have delicious corn for two and a half months.

The other good news (fingers crossed) is I have had no evidence of curly top. Due to the cool, wet spring weather, the beet leafhoppers have not appeared in my garden--yet. I am experimenting with two "defensive" measures. I planted both Rowpac, and Columbian varieties, both claim to be resistant to curly top. For my other two varieties (Celebrity and Better Boy), I have sprayed them with a powdered milk mixture. By this time last year, I had already lost most of my tomatoes to curly top. Last year I took no action against the disease, and had to replant most of my tomatoes, and eventually got a fair crop.