05/06/2026
May 5. To date I have 17 tomato, 3 bell pepper and 4 eggplants all getting ready for planting! Some will be gifts as I don't have room for that many plants.
I have a nice 5' row of peas, and small 1' x 1.5' rectangles of beets, turnip and carrots growing.
I have 4 rhubarb plants that I am going to split. I'm not positive, but a quick glance makes me think I may end up with 16 plants. Splitting them allows them to produce larger, thicker stalks. Rhubarbs are heavy feeders. At splitting time the ground is amended with cow manure compost from O'Brien Farm and triple 10 fertilizer to produce great stalks. I'm not sure what I'll do with the others.
I had tried to overwinter 10 Geraniums by the bare root method. I had 6 that cooperated. 4 died. 1 more died giving the method a sad 50% survival rate (or 50% mortality rate 🤔).
I have planted sweet corn and bush bean seeds, but I can only plant 5 bush beans and 12 corn plants in my areas. I start the seeds and transplant the healthiest looking plants. I have little space, so a skip is a major waste of possibility.
I've got 11 plastic jugs planted by winter sow method to Zinnias, Marigolds, and Daylilies. I was able to transplant 5 daylilies into my nursery bed just yesterday. I had acquired the seeds from plants that had grown in common areas. The experiment is progressing fine!
Tomorrow I'll be planting Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Zucchini and Butternut Squash. 2 seeds each! Only 1 plant to be transplanted. In a month I will repeat another Butternut and in two months I will repeat the Summer Squash and Zucchini to replace the tiring originals. The cuke should do for the entire season.
A couple weeks ago I planted Lilies into the front yard planting bed. This was fortified to attempt keeping squirrels, bunnies and deer out of it. The bunnies continue to dig birthing sites around my yard. Every year at least once and one year three times. Bad bunnies.
We had planted 2 more Lilacs out front 3 weeks ago. A heavy freeze followed and even though everything else I covered made it okay, both the Lilac plants' leaves were blackened. They are now sending out new leaves.
I had removed and transplanted rose bushes out from the areas that the Lilacs were set in. Seems like there had been 2 roses planted in a hole together. I separated them and all are doing well.
It's been a busy month.
