re: 2023 Spring Garden Thread

I’ve owned a couple of similar types and I’ve never been able to trust the accuracy. They’ve almost always been way off compared to lab soil tests.

There are more accurate ones out there that you can calibrate. But you’re going to pay a pretty penny for them.

Butternut squash is climbing. I’m not sure what’s up with the one on the left. There were ants there a couple weeks ago and I soaked them, maybe that’s it.



Some early tomatoes




Cucumbers, squash and cantaloupe.






I didn’t realize beans took off so fast. Yeah I have to thin these too



Do have a few issues I’m not sure what to do about, if anyone can help

All of my sunflowers have these spots on the leaves…
(ETA: after checking out the info on page 1, looks like a fungus. I’ve mixed a treatment ratio as shown on the linked chart. Do I just spray the entire plant? Should I also spray a preventative ratio on the neighboring cuces and tomatoes ?



Mint has some spots as well



Eggplant seems slow to get going. I fed everything today so hopefully that gets it going.



I jumped aboard the trap crop train when I read the beginning of this thread. This blue hubbard is going crazy. Should I snip off the fruit off or let them grow if I’m not going to eat them?



On the flowers side of things, I really need to get these to their final resting place.



These are lantana cuttings I snipped a month or so ago. I’m impressed how easily they’ve rooted. Roots are coming out the bottom of the pots.



I tried to divide a hosta and part of it completely fell apart. All that I had left on one part were three individual leaves down to the base (no root/bulb). I just stuck these in the dirt and looks like they may survive.

Is it too late to sow watermelon in BR? My 4yo wanted to plant pumpkins yesterday, and I told him thats for late summer.

Always a hoot reading this thread in early April - I’m in the Ozarks and it’s still too early to put anything in the ground. Starting my tomato seeds today and prepping beds all week for Spring greens. Broccoli is almost ready to put in ground.

Between late freezes, torrential downpours, and hail - it’s just best for me to wait till mid April…but seeing everyone’s pictures sure makes me jealous.

Should I play 2 seeds per hole? Spacing?

Well the squirrel finished off the rest of my corn that was sprouted. Those fricker even just cut most of them at the stem.

I have cucumbers planted there for the ground cover. What else can I play there that grows up?

I'm thinking about planting more corn in my watermelon patch now, the squirrels didn't get to that area last year.

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I’ve spotted my first Vine Borer of the season. Smashed that fricker with the trowel.

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I’ll have to get the trap set up and start monitoring.

For watermelon I sow seeds on a “hill”. Basically I just throw a bunch of seeds down in about 1.5’ - 2’ diameter area and then thin them down to 3 plants. I try to keep ones that are furthest apart from eachother. Here’s what I got coming up now.


Same with the butternut squash. Only got a few that popped up so far.


Eggplant is starting to take off and I got my first flower. This one is called Black Moon Hybrid. Never tried it before. Found it in the Ferry~Morse seeds at Lowe’s.


Strawberries took a hit after the freeze but they are rebounding nicely. We got a few pretty berries yesterday.

I planted bare roots in the fall of last year. I think it was around October. You could probably get some transplants right now, but with as quickly as it’s warming up I don’t think you’d get much out of them. I’d probably wait until the fall and put some bare root plants in. They are perennial so you should be able to get a few years out of them if properly cared for.

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Are bare roots something that local nurseries typically stock,

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My local nursery gets some every fall, but they usually gauge interest on social media and at the store and take pre-orders. So I’d probably talk to whichever ones you normally go to and ask about it.