Garden season up north

Man I thought I was late this time.
My timing was off for spring mud season.

Nope, not late, everybody knows you can plant near till the end of June and still get a garden. My folks and theirs, have did it up here for over 100 years.

Rule of thumb here is after full moon in May is usually safe.
Twice I got froze out in my life from not heeding.
I need to return to Fall soil prep. We go from mud to heat in Spring.

10th of June here, unless a full moon is before that. You are usually safe after that.

Wow, sweet setup trapper les!

Wife and I just got our tomatoes peppers, and cucumbers put in the ground last night.

Yes, slow everywhere in the northern tier, had frost here a few nights ago, several nights in a row south of town.

I always plant t a late garden.
When I was growing up everyone did.

The early garden was for eating out of and the late garden was for canning.

Th reason was it was usually cooler when the lthe garden came on so it was more comfortable to can cause it wasn't as hot in the kitchen

I always plant t a late garden.
When I was growing up everyone did.

The early garden was for eating out of and the late garden was for canning.

Th reason was it was usually cooler when the lthe garden came on so it was more comfortable to can cause it wasn't as hot in the kitchen

Late gardens are almost a thing of the past.

Been wanting to plant garlic, does it carry over if you don't pull it all?

Very nice Trapper Les! Thank you for sharing gave me some ideas

I harvest in August, late, let it dry a bit, and break your finest looking bulbs into cloves and poke them into a hill row on the first of October. Every year...about the nicest 5th of your crop as bulbs have 4 to 5 cloves per bulb. Plant earlier in the north, like me, later farther south. You dont want them poking through the soil in the fall trying to grow.

Holay!! Just has the nicest fanciest gardening tools a man can think of!!

Looks great! Makes me want to walk across it lol.

We finally received some rain! We had about .5 inches in two weeks. Got 1.5 inches in a soaking 16 hour rain, just right. Gardens moving well We were up at our northern cottage Saturday about 80 miles south of Ashland and it was 42 on on Friday AM and 37 on Saturday AM. Cool, windy and clear skies sure shot the fish down!

Bryce

Looking good. I am at about that stage too Les. A buddy of mine transplanted 51 tomato plants on the first and they froze hard enough to turn the tops black a couple days later. Mine are still inside.

been getting a bunch of rain here

I may have to try your parsnip broadcast seeding and give that a try

I have my tomatoes in and they are about a foot now , cabbage is looking good , beans and that I direct seeded are up

I have more onions to get in yet

looking good there Les

Looks good Les. Sure could use some of that nice dirt here. We got either slimy red mud or baked brick hard.

I really wish I could blow these mosquitos into a different state, I havent seen them this thick for a while.

Oh no memory loss from year to year is not good
2 seasons of drought the spring mosquito species did not hatch, so we have a 3 season worth this year.

Mosquitoes aren’t actually that bad considering. Seen worse years. They are 3x bigger though.

I know, I picked one off my sack the size of a hummingbird...what up ?

Dry spring here so very limited on mosguitoes here YET. With 1.5 inches of rain now and warmer weather they will be coming soon. Nice to hoe in the garden in he evening with no bugs.
Late season here so far, no deer fllies as of yet and just seeing turtles along the road the last week or so.
Bryce

Unless the sun if full out, there's bugs here, lol, and LOW is in record flood stages, and the swamps are wet.

LOW,, you are up North.
I heard there's a couple walleyes around there.

Yep, a few walleyes, a little too much traffic on the lake these days in winter....fishing could be better.

Great video Les…..but SLOW down panning around with the phone…Iam about to throw up my breakfast. Keep up the good work. Talking about the first video….Haven watched the second one yet.

Sorry about that, lol

Les….is all them plants for yourself ? Or you have a little side hustle going on…?

Looks good, garlic look like it has enjoyed this spring's growing conditions.

Big time side hustle, lol

I learn so much from this site!

Picked the 1st ripe tomatoes today, they were darn tasty on my salad and burger...

that looks good

Iam jealous GutHooked ….I won’t see a mater till the end of august

Here's my little garden started planting stuff may 20th. Squash is bearing now and tomatoes ain't far from it

Nessy, here's a lil trick I been doing for a while, I buy a tomatoe plant that puts out early they are called forth ofJuly, hence they usually always have them by the forth of July too. The local green house sells them.

Trapper Les, looks like you made it home safely. Sure was nice to meet and visit with you at the FTA.

That's very lush around there.
Good to meet ou too, yep, still tired from that drive.

Peas like cooler weather here which we have been getting. almost frost several mornings.

I got rain and hail last night. I have not built up nerve to go look at the garden yet. The hail was small, about pea size, but we had a good wind with it. I am sure the weeds lived through it.

One half inch of rain in yesterdays blow up storm, and we went from 91 to 70 in an hour, it was nice. Nothing got too wet.

The tomatoes are well pruned this morning. I got 1.45 rain and hail mix yesterday evening. It came down hard for a while. I have seen the garden look much worse from hail.

Yes this is quite some big system moving through right now, hail is everywhere from this heat

Just cut garlic scapes this past weekend and pickled them. No frost since I planted Memorial Day weekend, but it's been cool overall and the peppers and tomatoes are slow. Had plenty of rain. A few hot days and everything will take off

Your looking at a pumpkin plant ,that has the potential to grow a Pumpkin at well ovah 1,000 pounds. Wallace Organic Wonder….giant pumpkin growing kit. Stay tuned !

Hey Les, how often do you till in manure? Found out manure raised my phosphorous levels off the chart and I got the high levels from manure and miracle grow. I do have more of a clay soil though.

Nice side hustle you got!!

I add a little here and there every year, and two spade fulls for every tomato plant. I am pro-phosphorous

Tornado a few miles from the house out of that system.

Nice action!!

Just shows what 300 miles further north can do for a growing season. Typically, I start planting directly sometime after Mother's Day, although a buddy of mine got whacked with this tomatoes when we had a late frost around May 21. I'm still getting a few things put in yet, will scrounge a couple of stores today for marked down plants (mostly tomatoes, maybe some peppers) that they're trying to get rid of before they tear down their "greenhouses" around the 4th of July.

i have the first few zuchini bout an inch long right now and a few tomatoes about the size of marbles hoping for some tomatoes soon

We had a very cool and moist early May so gardens and native plants were later than normal, about 10 days to two weeks. Since about June 15th we will have had 6 days or more over 90 with even 70s at night so things are moving rapidly now. The heat unit plants are really growing. The photo period plants are not far below normal but still not normal growth stages. We can see it as much in the insect populations as the plants. Many of the over wintering insects that are in the soil over winter are coming later due to cold soil temps in May. The cool soil temps also impacted the germination of plants like green beans for me too. I replanted my first planting wich was put in about May 15.

Bryce

Just put in some summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers today in some open spots of the garden. Should have them producing right till they freeze out. Had poor germination on my winter squash and cucumbers. Pepper plants are slow growing thus year. Southern mn.

Finally got some rain. Been picking spinach and should have zucchini and Kholarobi ready this weekend.

Watered my home garden last night. Two more mid 90 degree days coming with not much rain. Wow the mosquitoes exploded the last two days. There were almost none until a couple storms and the heat. Will need some protection if going out evenings. I am going to look into one of those screen hats. Good for using in other venues as well.

Bryce

long pants , long sleeve shirt with collar couple sizes too big , tucked in but billowed out a bit at the waist collar turned up , bandana to cover opening at front of collar , gloves put on before the shirt , wide brim hat with mosquito netting cinched up around collar

also ear plugs or ear buds with music , because the noise will want to make you itch 100 skeetters next to your ears will drive you nuts

tomato picking time , get out pick a couple bushel and come back in and take a cold shower

Radishes are just coming on with a few timely rains

just a little flea beetle chewing on the leaves.....no root maggots, boy you are lucky

First picking of peas. Can tell we have had a cooler than normal spring and June. The brassicas are really doing well. Lot of big broccoli heads starting and early cabbage is forming heads. Peppers on the other hand are growing very slowly. I have 4 sweet corn plots. The early 67 day stuff is pollinating like crazy right now. The rest are scattered out over a month. Tomatoes are looking good and am spraying with fungicide weekly. Hope that works well. The biggest potato vines I have ever had. Hope to get some tubers too. The organic approved product I have used the last two years have really worked. The years before I could not keep ahead of the beetles.
Some big setbacks, horrible strawberries and raspberries. Currents and cheeries look good.My radishes were not good either. Sweet potatoes are growing well.

Bryce

There was one or two with root maggots

Is anyone pulling garlic yet ? In the north ? I figure at the end of the month.

Did mine on the 4th 288 heads.

Dug a few this week. This weekend about 250 will be hanging in the sugar shack.

Good, I am up on the 49th parallel, but my garlic looks like I could pull it here shortly and not hurt anything

We have had zucchini, radishes, peas, and garlic come to the table so far this year.

We had a lady who is a mechanical engineer for decades. The company was bought and they eliminated her position when she was 54 years old. Her husband was an engineer at another firm and had a heart attack 3 years ago and passed away. For 8 years this lady did organic CVA produce baskets and built quite a businees. The last two years she has planted the whole organic garden area to garlic and is doing better with less work. Don't know exactly but looks to be near an acre or a tad more.
We are hoping for rain tonight. I weeded today and the dust was flying all over the place. Can tell the heat units have increased the pumpkins, squash and peppers are really growing even with limited moisture.

Bryce

I agree Bryce on th heat units, it's showing here too, but we've had some timely moisture, and I dont need to water.

I'm going to plant radishes a few more times and beat the rootworm cycle with the later plantings.

The cabbage root maggots are around right up to frost so beating them with later plantings is not the solution. When the canola matures the flys disperse up to 5 miles from those fields.
as well the flea beetles really hit all the brassicae once the canola field dry off

later planting is because of the bi-annual cycle of radishes they go into a root development that is not a bitter to over winter with Commercial producers plant around 15 August with radishes here @ 50 degrees N

The last week I have seen nearly a dozen dead rats on the roads. All the smaller sloughs and wet road ditches are drying up and the rats are moving to try and find water. I need to secure some more river line if I can.

Bryce

There's lots of moisture here, but that can change in late summer

Last year I pulled my garlic a year ago today. That pic just came around on FB.

And last year we were into 6 weeks of drought already by this time.....not this year Noah.

That's about 50 bulbs right there, a lot for one guy to eat....from 25' of row...double row.

I need to plant a quarter acre just to see if I can sell it.

Two pickings of peas. Doing oK. Shucking nside at night with the air on! Will be a big day for brocolli Tuesday, about a dozen really nice big heads to blanche and freeze. I don't know what the spuds will look like below the ground but I have the biggest and best vines I have ever had. I guess 3 inches of composted manure worked in the garden works!

Bryce

Septoria leaf spot has reared it ugly head, and I misted with Fungonil (chlorithalinol) just now, to keep the canopy healthy.

I dip my tomato plants in a fungicide water mix when I plant them and then about every 7-10 days I spray the vines. I will do that again mid week again.

Bryce

I do about the same thing...Bryce.

The conditions for fungal pathogens are ripe, very moist soil, and heavy dew every morning. It's not dry around here at all.

That looks a lot nicer than what I have. But I'm working on it.

you can start with planting the little seed garlic on the heads this season, then dig early next season and sell to all those city folks with 3 small bulbettes per p-15 pot
friend did it for 30 years and sold to a large grocery store in 500 pound lots = $$$$

No there's an idea

Les ….came out this morning to the award winning pumpkin plant ( bought the Wallace Organic Pumpkin Seeds …giant type ) and found this !! The deer also ate all the cherry tomatoes and 3 full grown Hostas . Do you have fencing around your garden….or just use the shot gun method ?

Well it fiinaly rained here! We missed the wind but got 1.75 inches over 4 hours with a ton of lightning. Grass turned green overnight and now the gardens will explode for a week or so.

Bryce

Ness, no fencing, but deer...have been browsing here and there, most noticably on my radishes in the garden nearest the woods. Deer in the edge of town tend to browse on what ever they want in it's season. I have fenced with sheep fence in the past though.

Been a good garden season so far in central MN except my squash is trying to take over the world!! This is a new spot that I just turned over late this spring so it’s lumpy and rocky and cobbled together, but it’s a start for years to come!

Enjoy your gardening and greenhouse posts Les! Happy trapping! ScottW

Scott, your squash looks better than mine, lol
I am watering full time now. Till it's caught up.

Great corn year for me. Electric fence stopped the coons. Picked 62 dozen yesterday morning.

The photo of the young boy covering his eyes really relates to not wanting to see all that work before, during and after when it comes to gardens. I am impressed by your ability and desire to keep your's so clean. I pretty much quite the weeding when the big harvest and processing season comes. Wow that is a lot of corn! I am getting very good yields of carrots, brocolli, sweet corn. Peppers are doing good as are two of the 4 patches of sweet corn. Pickled some beets, and this week I need to shred cabbage for kraut. Green beans are OK but not really great. I love the size, texture, and taste of my variety but they don't stand well and break off easy at the ground. I may have a disease, but will try something different next year.
Potatoes are dying back and I am anxious to dig the first hill as the vines were the best I have ever had.
I am raising most of our sweet corn over at our son's place and the garden is right next to their large dog run. I have only had coons in the garden 1 year out of 7.

Bryce

What corn ?

Deer corn, lol

Wow that is a lot of produce. I am amazed how green and growing much of your garden is yet.
I live about 45 miles south of Green Bay and I am nearing the end with many crops.
I am done with green beans, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli,all which were good to very good
I have 3 cabbage heads for slaw and fresh. The rest are perkulating in the krock.
I am getting a good start on the tomatoes and yields look to be very good. 50 quarts up with a 100 or so to go.
Dug my potatoes today. The best yields I have ever had in over 65 years working in gardens. Lot of family will get many. Lot of new dishes to try using spuds and a bit more lefse as well.
Two patches of sweet corn were very good. The third is so so and the fourth I just cut to give to the sheep. Don't know the story there.
Onions are pulled and they were soso this year.
Peppers are doing well. They really need the heat, slow start for them this year.
Beets, only had a few and made pickled beets
I have never been much about watering, which I need to manage better, but I am amazed at how good most crops have been, even with our limited rain fall and low ground water.

Bryce

Just picked the first good sized poblanos. They came kind of late this year

Good stuff Less. thanks for sharing.

Mac

Up here, the potato farmers have sprayed/killed some of the vines, getting ready to dig, but years ago they never did that, they waited till nearly October, when the air temperature was cool, and you could ware house the spuds and blow in cool air at night so you could keep them, now they start earlier somehow, and get the harvest done much quicker.

most of the potatoes up here go to the Golden arches distribution so they start to dig early and pay a premium to off-set the yield differences.
some years in the fall rains and early frost have lost those late crops production

By spraying and killing the vines, the sugars go into the spud and the skins harden more for longer and better storage. I have visited one of the largest potato farms in WI and the technology they use is amazing. They harvest when the soil gets below a very specific temperature, which is why a lot of harvesting is done at night. They have a major contract with Frito Lay and they breed for and manage for a very specific size potato to make the right sized chips. The odd sizes get sold for other uses. They have temperature and humidty controlled storage facilities.

Bryce

Size does matter......in pataters
The feed lots can only take so many for feed

A lot of potatoes here are raised for foundation seed potatoes, and size is important....they dont want them too big.

Pickled some hot pepper rings and pick some more tomatoes today

Garden here is still chugging along. Been watering but it’s finally raining today. Corn is just about ready to eat (planted super late), beans are wrapping up, carrots are finally big, grape tomatoes are going crazy, and sicker cukes are still going strong.

The last couple days I’ve been noticing a real uptick in rodent chewing. Yesterday they got two carrot tops, chewed one right off. They also started nibbling on a squash bottom and some kohlrabi. Guessing it’s shrews but gonna set some traps and hopefully find out.

Happy trapping! ScottW

Boy whatever it is slaughtered my squash last night! What do you all think it is? Maybe rabbit, rare, screw? Haven’t seen any rabbits since I blasted one earlier this year and my problems disappeared. Happy trapping! ScottW

Deer are doing that to my pumpkins.^

Put out 5 weasel boxes with rat traps and 5 cage traps last night…….3/5 on the weasel boxes with rat traps. Redback Voles! Wonder how many more I gotta catch to get em in check. Happy trapping! ScottW

I've seen that on squash before, mice/shrew, mole/ rodent

Darn voles exploded one night and bit a bunch of squash up but I’ve caught 6 now in 2 days. Deer also started eating the butternuts. Been covering the last couple nights but when it’s 32 or colder for 12 hours overnight it’s tough to keep from extensive damage. Covered the maters and squash.

Potato digging day here! Lotsa scabbing unfortunately. Happy trapping! ScottW

I live in an area with higher pH which is conducive to scabbing also and I dig mine earlier than I would prefer but the seem to hold up well with the system I now use. I put the taters in flat boxes with no stacking on each other. I only rub the dirt off when dry. I can keep them at basement room temperature until mid-February last year. I can pick out the ones going bad easily this way.
I am about finished. My tomatoes are about done with almost all the deterninite ones dying back. I only have a handful of jars left for more speggetti sauce. I did wind up canning 36 quarts for my son's family this year too as the crop was really good. picked a bunch of jalopena peppers today so I can make a few jars of jalepeno pepper pickles.

I was not good at watering this year so the plants that can do well with less water or timely water did very well. Those crops that needed more moisture did not do nearly as well. All in all a good year with boon to bust crops. It was 40 degrees here this AM and will get into the 70s by the weekend so a killing frost is a week or two away at least.

Bryce

Buttercup squash day! Still have beets, carrots, and rutabagas going strong. Happy trapping! ScottW

Meadow voles those are, Red-backs have a red back and are under canopy of trees. I described over on Wilderness forum how to make a vole swimming pool for Jeff.

Thanks for the clarification 50! Pain in the but voles none the less. Happy trapping! ScottW

Nice haul

110 cloves planted
I pulled up tomatoes ten days ago as it frosted nicely two nights in a row, it’s calling for 26 tomorrow night and I have 4 cabbage left to pick