Author: Bob Bauer

Mid May is the time of year you can plant out all your summer crops. It’s been so warm this year I had to take the cold frames off my zucchini hills because they were wilting from lack of air circulation. The frames did a great job keeping the pill bugs and slugs away from my transplants, I’ve had no […]

One of my 18″ tall tomatoes in a 4″ pot had a label on it that said to bury two thirds of the plant. Well that’s not gonna happen because if I dig down a foot, I hit red clay soil. Roots don’t grow well in clay. Instead I dug a trench 8″ deep tapering up to 4″ and laid […]

I could tell that the ground temperature was high enough for planting out this year by the way the beans came up. They poked up through the surface, straitened right up, unfurled their solar panel leaves and kept growing, all in one continuous flowing motion. Last year they reluctantly exited the ground and remained hunched over like old people in […]

The salsa lady’s friend showed up today with four each of tomato, pepper, eggplant and cilantro plants. I guess salsa is on for this summer. Two of the peppers are jalapeno so they’re gonna spice up my life. It will take a week to get them acclimated to full sun so I have plenty of time to figure out where […]

There were no sow bugs in any of my ten cold frames this morning. I’m stoked. I think the ones I’ve been finding were inside when I put the frames down. There are no damaged transplants, which is a first for me. No slugs either. I feel confident now in using some of my compost to mulch around the outside […]

I got the watermelon and cantaloupe transplanted out today, and the temperature is on the rise. We might have a frost free May. Everyone jumps the gun at the end of April. Hope springs eternal. I’ve got Honey dew melons and tomatoes left to go out, and I’ll get peppers and eggplant from our local retailers in a week or […]

I got two mounds of zucchini and two mounds of cucumbers planted today from my jumbo four packs. They were only three weeks old but we’re starting to get root bound and needed a dose of half strength fish emulsion. I put some of my portable cold frames on them so if frost occurs they won’t be harmed. Ten corn […]