I’m actually doing pretty good with volunteer tomatoes, a bunch come up and I keep a few. I should have some ripe ones soon. That is not supposed to work well but my tomatoes don’t seem to be listening.. I even have a volunteer pepper or two this year, they are more behind but I should get some peppers from them.
My kale is still going, it’s surprising it has not bolted yet. All the other greens bolted a month ago. The beets I need to finish picking, they are getting too big now.
I love volunteer tomatoes! Always a fun cross of my cherry ones. Why aren’t they supposed to work well?
I too am shocked that the kales are still actively growing in spite of last week 100’s. It’s amazing.
I think onions are getting close to ready, I think. I either pull too early or forget I planted them and pull at the end of summer when a kid finds them, but this year I planted more that are highly visible. Just starting to flop over, no browning leaves. Other people pulling yet?
I have started all of these indoors and it went well! I used an LED tube light and a little tent made of plastic to keep them warm and humid. I don’t think they’d be okay if you just used a window- they really need the extra light. I started the peppers and tomatoes about 7 weeks before my last frost date.
I used some seed starting mix and also tried those little peat pods that expand with water. In the past, I had used homemade mix or potting soil and was much less successful - I think there was too much fungus and the seeds rotted or the plants got fungal infections and died.
After some advice from @Fusion_power, I made sure to touch them a little when they were growing so they developed properly. I turned them and moved them around too, since some spots ended up being brighter.
The cucumber seed packet said specifically not to start them inside, but I did anyways. I just waited till May and started them in the little cardboard pots. Then I could rip the paper off the outside when I planted them (which meant I didn’t disturb the roots as much).
I have also had good luck with volunteer tomatoes!! When I got some two years ago, I was pleased that they’d planted themselves exactly where I would have put them (because that’s where my tomato plants had been the year before =)). Perhaps they were not as gourmet as a fancy named tomato but were definitely superior to what I can get in the grocery store.
About 15 years ago, I grew some solanum pimpinifolium tomatoes (size of a large pea, red, very sweet, good flavor) and birds ate a bunch of them distributing seed in the area. Some grew in a ditch by my neighbors house. He liked them so much he let them grow and walked by to grab a handful now and then. Other people walking by on the road saw them and soon he had people stopping to raid the ditch. When I stopped to see him a few weeks ago, he made a point of showing me a few plants still volunteering in his ditch. He also let me know he was still happy to have them even with occasional human harvesters.
I’m going to try using some of my grow lights and cover better. I kind of got lazy with it, so I know it’s most likely on me! I used potting soil and used strawberry containers.
Harvests are starting to pickup here. New to the garden this year is a few Japanese eggplant we put in to compliment the Sicilian variety we usually try to grow. Picked our first one last night and had it with a pasta dish. Wow… if these are as prolific as they seem to be, they are going to be my new variety of choice. Really good flavor and they seem to grow super quickly!
San Marzanos are starting to ripen (even though BER is such a jerk), and cucumbers are going to town. Now I need to figure out next year what to plant for the very early season so we don’t have to wait until July for meaningful harvests. 
Kale, collards, arugula, cilantro, oregano, thyme, parsley, dill, beets, radish, sweet peas, lettuces, Bok choy (Tatsoi, chijimisai) etc.!! My favorite season. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower too
I really need to get over my strong dislike of cruciferous veggies. 
Kale chips?
Some people have a gene that makes them taste more bitter. Roasting or frying can downplay those flavors and the sulfur.
Also, if you haven’t had any of the more recent varieties (Since the 1990s they’ve been working on improved cabbages and brassicas and there are some that just came out around 2020 that are pretty good) they’re much tastier than the old ones.
Interesting to know! As I get older, I find that I just need to get over it and just enjoy what the earth gives me. Plus, I think that growing it yourself makes it taste better!
In other exciting news, I got my blueberries in a pot! 25 gallon bag for the patriot and dug up the cranberry to use as a living mulch in it. I got the pink lemonade seedling in a 5 gallon bag for now. I used peat moss and fresh “homemade” mulched up pine bark. I had a few pine trees that fell years ago so I harvested my own bark. It looks way better than where they were. I hope they recover nicely and enjoy their new home!
I planted all these young fruit trees in the spring. I can’t believe the amount of insect pressure (I don’t think it’s an animal) the leaves of my trees are getting. My aronia tree had like 30% of the leaves eaten off of it within a couple days. I never seen insects other than maybe ants during the day. I’m assuming the damage is happening at night. All the trees have a metal cage around them. Rabbits can’t reach the leaves. Deer can’t really enter the property. I had to put fine netting over the trees to stop the destruction.
The same thing happened to my almond tree, persimmon tree leaves, mulberry, etc. Something is buzzing through the leaves in a disrespectful manner.
I have tanglefoot. I’m tempted to put it on some of the trees and see what I catch. I did see a turquoise colored june beetle on a fig tree leaf during the day. The fig tree leaves haven’t been ravaged yet. There are so many massive trees around the vicinity. None of those tree leaves seem eaten. Why do they have to attack my young fruit trees? 
Leaves are tender than the older trees IMO. Most likely are the June beetles and there’s another brown beetles that are in full force mainly at nighttime. If you go outside with a headlamp you’ll see.
It’s probably worth inspecting a few times a day and figuring it out.
A few of my young trees were defoliated a couple years back. While most did not die (two peaches didn’t wake up in spring) it definitely set those trees back.
Sometimes there’s something you can do about it- if the trees are very small you could put some fine netting to keep June bugs out. Or you could spray bt or insecticide if it’s something treatable like that.
Mine were all different reasons. I had apples defoliate because of leaf blotch (fungicide to fix, but you have to spray before the leaves get the blotch), pears because of pear leaf blister mite (spray in fall/early spring with sulfur and oil), and I don’t know what ate the peach leaves but they looked like netting after (now they get two insecticide sprays per season).
A lot of insects mainly leave my fruit trees alone, I’m guessing since I have more attractive plants for them in the veggie garden. If I wanted any eggplants, I have to now spray kaolin clay which I just got not too long ago. It’s helped tremendously. Nothing else I sprayed seemed to do anything. I am trying it on my apples to see if it helps with the aphid pressure.
Speaking of the veggie garden, is anybody growing zucchini and getting any yet? I know male flowers usually pop first, but my plants are massive and not a female flower to be found!
If anyone local wants to pick up some mayapple, shoot me a message. One kid is too scared to try after I laid into how poisonous they are lest she grab one off the counter when I wasn’t looking, and the other loves the one ripe one we attempted to eat but is 5, and I don’t trust him to spit out every tiny seed. I don’t have it in me to stand there for 10 mins per fruit trying to separate out a microscopic bit of gunk from the million seeds. Got them from Cabin John trail Sunday and the rest are counter ripening to yellow. Tasted like a cross between paw paw and passionfruit.
Spoke too soon about my raspberries looking great… lol. Looks like I might (no pun intended) have some sort of spider mite or aphid thing going on. I noticed some webbing which points me to probably the mites.
I sprayed some of the bio insecticide I have. I’m not sure if it will be helpful. Anybody have any experience with raspberry pests? Rinse off and neem maybe? Trying to hopefully save my primocane crop this year.
Random Edit: Btw, it really looks like this kaolin clay is saving my bacon on the eggplants. I don’t think I would have any without it, considering the beetle pressure that decimates the plants. The plants look incredible!
DC metro Code red and grey as out there. Wear masks. As a human, endurance athlete, parent…it’s intensely upsetting watching the world burn and being stuck indoors. Be careful.
Is anyone local interested in a black consort currant? We definitively do not find them palatable and I don’t have space to keep it. 6’ tall, robust, healthy plant. planted last spring as a bareroot. I’m removing it this fall. Message me if you want it.
What is not palatable about it? I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten a currant. I do like things that are sour and astringent. I eat random autumn olive and like it.
