re: 2023 Spring Garden Thread

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I still don't have much experience growing squash. But from what I've seen and heard from others, they seem to be early this year. I usually don't start hearing about people having problems with them in south Louisiana until around mid to late May.

ETA: Good news is it sounds like the trap plant is doing it's job.

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I've been having a garden in my backyard for over 30 years and with our mild winters down here in the deep south, especially the past few years, I find the bugs are hitting the garden earlier each year.

No freezing weather to kill some of them off allows them to get started earlier in the spring. I know the N.O. area where I live only got 2 or 3 nights of close to freezing weather this past winter.

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Picked up a Mad Hatter/Bishops Crown pepper plant from Home Depot last night so guess I'll be pulling the zucchini and placing the hatter there.

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I have found my biggest 2 producers in the full blown heat of summer are my peppers and okra. The hot varieties do especially well while the milder bell peppers will suffer from sun scald pretty easily. I typically have at least 60 okra plants and will pick damn near a pod a day from each plant when they are in full swing between July and late September.

By mid June, early July my tomatoes are done, pole beans are heading out as are my cucumbers.

Squash are long gone due to SVB's-----IF I even plant them because of the borers.

So after the freeze knocked out all of the blueberry buds, I’m happy to see that they rebounded a little and still got some fruit going. It won’t be much, but I’m glad they’ll produce something their first year and that gives me some confidence going forward.




I was really upset about the blackberries, though. I lost probably a thousand berries in the freeze. But I’m noticing some new flowers, so maybe I’ll get something out of them.


Strawberries are also continuing to rebound and I’m noticing lots of new flowers.



The tomatoes are starting to produce. We’re supposed to get a lot of rain over the next few days and I’m a little worried about BER. So I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.


Still no signs of SVB in my neck of the woods. I have some row cover and I think I’m going to cover the yellow squash and zucchini until they start to flower. The blue hubbard plant is just starting to take off.

Glad yours are bouncing back!

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We’re supposed to get a lot of rain over the next few days and I’m a little worried about BER. So I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.

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I'm tempted to throw a tarp over the tomato cages as I also have some fruiting. Anyone ever done this in the event of a multi-day deluge?

My two blueberry bushes are loaded, but I fear birds will do what they have done to my strawberries.

A plane flew over night before last spraying some type of insecticide and a couple of my tomato plants are royally pissed off about it. Super wilted on the growing stem and leaf rolled. I'm hoping the rains and the cloudy days will help them recover over the weekend.

Glad yours are bouncing back!

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We’re supposed to get a lot of rain over the next few days and I’m a little worried about BER. So I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.

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I'm tempted to throw a tarp over the tomato cages as I also have some fruiting. Anyone ever done this in the event of a multi-day deluge?

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We’re supposed to get a lot of rain over the next few days and I’m a little worried about BER.

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Same here. Does picking them at the earliest possible stage help avoid that?

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Have you grown these before? How are they? I have two plants that I'm about to put in the ground, I lost the first two I planted in the freeze. First time trying them.

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nope, first time!

Has anyone ever used rabbit manure for their beds? I added about 30lbs in each of my beds this year. Just curious on how it'll do compared to years without.