Well I thought I would start a garden thread for 2026. I always enjoyed the Les garden posts over the years and learned alot. Not much to look at here yet. In Ohio I really don't start anything until after mothers day due to early spring cold, frost, wind, and rain. So This weekend I thought I'd get a picture of me getting started as I pulled the tomato cages from last year. This is the time of year you don't know to have your tractor setup to mow, spray, or till and you have to be ready to do any of the above knowing it just depends on what the conditions are when you get home from work. Were still drying out from a rain last week but its about time to start hitting it. Weather wise I should have my hardy cold items out already but I haven't prepped anything yet and am just getting started.

Edit - Adding a picture, July 8 2026:



What 2026 looked like on Day 1, the start of this post.

Weeded and fertilized the strawberries. Planted candy onion sets. It was about 50 degrees just before dark. I struggle this time of year b/c its still so early with lots of wind and rain but if you don't go buy plants now they will be out of stock when you go to get them... but its kinda too early to plant too... but its also gonna rain and if you don't get going now you may have to wait a couple weeks for it to dry out. Gotta get that tilled up before the rain. I think some stuff does better if you wait for it to warm up though instead of being stunted at the beginning of growth. Like I wouldn't buy cucumber or melon plants yet. Anyway, I try to get some out now and some out later and the later stuff may even be a second planting of what I tried to get out early it just depends if the wind and rain beats it to death or if it freezes out or not.

Day 2: - 30-60 minutes.

Looks like you may have a cat using your raised bed for a litter box. Some extra fertilizer.

Still getting frosts and freezes here the last few days. Supposed to warm up next week sometime.

Same here, still having overnight freeze warnings the past 7 days. I know everyone is anxious to get started; but history says to wait at least another week.

I have brussels, egg plant, cpl toms,

and bean seeds in.

rhubarb, onions and garlic almost ready,

Cuc starts are struggling bad.

Trappers gamble.


The May full moon date is the watch-it for here.
This year there are two.

No cats around here. No thats me pushing in onion bulbs planting the candy onions.

Full moon? We shoot for mothersday and if this week would have been a full moon it'd be sketchy for frost but its later enough in the month for us this year that it should be fine.

The pictures should look like were rocking and rolling soon. I just thought I would try to capture that its not a ton of work all at once, its just 30-45 minutes everyday or so right now to get going if you start soon enough.

Got her busted open last night. The first 11 tomato plants are out, the first 6 jalapeno plants, and about a dozen sweet bell pepper plants red yellow and black. Got the raised bed turned over and planted it with herbs too. I don't know much about these tomatoes they are the strange ones I bought at the greenhouse. They have the weird ones there you never heard of. I will plant more and be sure to have cherokee purple in that batch but if you wait too long they are hard to find. The plants that go out later after its actually warmed up will probably do better but I like to get some early ones out thinking they'll fruit sooner but everything hits at once it seems like.

I hill both my pepper and tomato plants. Tomato plants were planted 3/4 deep up the stem, deep roots and the stem grows more roots. Thats how I keep weeds away from the plants. Till between plants/rows and hill fresh loose dirt up around the plants to keep weeds out. There is a full shovel length from any one tomato plant to the next. The cages take up room and the tiller has to go down through there. Better to till going down and coming back instead of trying to do it in one pass b/c it gets too tight and you'll till plants. Anyway thats how I do it. Tomato plants like having all that air between them too, so the plant doesn't stay damp, they like to air out. Helps keep mold and fungus down. Peppers like being hilled too which you wouldn't think and I fertilize and really cram them together.

Day 3: 2.5 hours. Normally I wouldn't have done all that in one day but rains coming. Today I will try get my seed out before it starts wind and rain. We haven't really had our spring monsoon yet, mothers day was dry and usually rains.

So last night I got home and caged up the tomatoes I had. Im trying kitchen trash bags to see if it keeps the wind off of them. I got half a dozen 50’ sweet corn rows out and two green bean rows. I sowed some tomato seed, radish seed, broccolini, and something else. Now itll be a week of rain and i will find some cherokee purple tomatoes if i have to start some and once it drys up and warms up again it should be prime garden time and i will replant what i have to.

Its been wet but I found some great plants at Ace Hardware of all places. I was tickled to see thick stemmed healthy plants that weren't Bonnie brand and cherokee purple tomatoes to boot!!! Should be rocking and rolling getting these into the ground this week / weekend.

If you decide to give your garden a little boost with leftover fertilizer from last year, be sure it's NOT Weed'n'Feed.............

I could see it happening. My best friend in schools dad bought a jug of round up and a jug of weed and feed and when he was done weed and feeding his say 5 acre lot he realized he poured the wrong one into the tank... Sounds terrible but he just left it go and it grew back on its own but it all died. The weed and feed of a garden is preen and I worry about it keeping garden seeds from germinating but I plant mostly plants. I like the preen with the green top. It has fertilizer.

Tip. That preen with green lid is the perfect plant food for these potted garden plants before I get them planted. Preen them in the container and water them. Make sure to rinse it off the plants. The plants will usually look healthier just the next day.

Got most of those plants out except for the tomatoes. Beat the rain hilling a row and planting but got soaked taking the trash down the lane. Like if I had my wallet on me I'd had to head to the house raining. I finished taking the trash down and just wrung out when I got back. Its raining pretty hard in this picture.

I put some early stuff in over a week ago. All the set plants are ready to go this coming weekend or right after. Been cool to even cole here near the lake. Today the east wind off the lake had afternoon temps in the upper 40s!

Bryce

Pruned the tomatoes, see how tall the stems are. That will all get buried. Spread them out. Sprayed them with Dawn dish soap solution and a Fungicide solution. I mixed up some planting fertilizer today. I will put a couple handfuls of that in each hole I plant a plant into. Tomato plants, the actual green plant, doesn't want to be wet or dirty and when its wet and rainy like this for long periods of time its good to hit them with a fungicide. Notice the preen in the cups, green lid.

Fire ash and charcoal, 10-10-10 fertilizer, oyster shell, epson salt. Even parts. I added the chicken manure this year. Should work great. I made that gallon scoop and just scooped a scoop of each into the bucket and poured it between two buckets until it was all mixed up. That mixture takes care of end blossom rot, calcium deficiencies, funky fruit, etc etc... Couple hand fulls in each hole, mix it up in the loose dirt at the bottom, plant it.

The plants I already planted will get this top dressed in. This step got missed rushing to beat the rain. Some of these tomatoes will replace some of those I already planted that don't look so hot.

im having trouble with these pictures

I mean give me a second fellas. geesh. lol. Not sure why I got blacked out. hahahaha.

When I pruned those tomatoes I stuck some of those clippings in the ground and they seem to have taken off. Seems like a good way to duplicate some Cherokee purple tomato plants maybe, we'll see.

Those are the dead clippings on the ground from the other day vs the green growing ones by the pepper plants.

Update.

Wow: a garden without a deer fence around it would not last 24 hours around here.

Yeah I have to sit a few days to see a deer. I've hunted gun week without seeing a deer. However, there are deer tracks in my garden! Last year I think they ate some strawberries but nothing is really ready for munching yet and having each plant caged I think helps keep them at bay. I thought about just laying some tomato cages up in my strawberry patch but this time of year the deer usually keep to the honeysuckle back in the woods.

Rain again here today. Got some plants to still get out yet. Looks like lows of 60's next week so it should be prime growing weather coming up soon.