Something I mentioned in a recent post was the flea beetle. Flea beetles are very small, only about 1/10th on an inch long. The larvae are actually larger, 3/4" long, they're white with brown heads. You know you have a flea beetle problem when you see your leaves are chewed with lots of tiny holes. It looks like the leaf has been shot with tiny buckshot. Flea beetles love eggplant, they also feed on most brassicae (kale, collards, cabbage etc.) Adult beetles over winter in the ground, in spring (as soon as you put in your plants) they'll lay eggs in the soil at the base of the plant. Once they are well established they are very hard to control. Use a floating row cover early to protect your plants. Cultivate the soil around the base of the plant to disturb the flea beetles eggs and larvae. Flea beetles, unlike most insects, feed during the day, and they hate getting wet. Use a hose and spray down your plants in the middle of the day to try and discourage them from feeding.

 I got a really nice harvest today. From left to right; spinach, baby kale, red sails lettuce and romaine lettuce. The romaine isn't quite mature, but i needed to thin it out so the other heads could get larger. I was also thinning out my flat leaf kale, and the baby kale leaves are so tender they're great in salads. The weather is finally moderating a bit. I've got most of my tomatoes, eggplants, basil and hot peppers planted, under row covers but that also protects them from pests. In one garden i'm working in we're having a big problem with flea beetles. They are very hard to control. I'll talk more about them in the next post.

Here's one of my gardens, on the left are sweet snap peas. In the center are collards and flat leaf kale. They're both growing nicely. Last year in this garden i was dueling with a woodchuck. He let my collards, kale and broccoli get nice and large, and then ate them all down to stubs. This year, i put up posts, and netting around the bed, and weighted it down with stones. So far, so good! I don't want to kill the woodchuck, but i work for my food, he shouldn't be so lazy, he needs to go out and get a job. 

A few posts ago I showed a photo of a row cover that i was using to create a warmer micro climate for my heat loving seedlings; tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and basil. I've started planting them under the row covers, so now i have space on my seed starting shelves to start some flowers for the garden as well. I've talked about the importance of flowers for any vegetable garden. They attract pollinators and beneficial insects which help your crops. I'm growing most of these for clients and some for myself as well. One of the best annual flowers you can get are marigolds. Marigolds are great little flowers; you can eat the petals (of most varieties), they keep pests away from your tomatoes, and the roots secrete a substance that kills root eating nematodes! A very hard working little flower. I'm also growing cornflowers, larkspur, calendula, pinks (which are short lived perennials), moon vine and nicotiana. The nicotiana is on the lower right, they are the tiniest seeds! You don't even put soil over the seed, it needs light to germinate, so you just press them gently into the soil. The seeds were so tiny, i didn't realize i'd planted that many, I have a lot of thinning to do when they get a bit bigger!

When you plant head lettuce, kale, chard, collards, or a number of other seed sown crops, you always have to thin them out. Don't throw them into the compost pile though. Small immature kale, (and shown in this photo) chard and romaine lettuce, are wonderful in salads. They are sweet, tender and perfect for any type of salad. Just because they aren't mature, or full size, doesn't mean they're not good to eat. I want my kale, collards, chard large, but to get them that way i have to thin the crop so they're not too close together. I can still benefit from what i planted, and not waste them, but eat them! 

What's mature and ready to eat are leaf lettuces and spinach. The photo above shows my spinach and a leaf lettuce called red sails. When you plant early, you can harvest early and have fresh homegrown produce that much sooner. I planted my spinach and red sails lettuce back on March 22nd. I usually plant it even earlier but we still had snow on the ground. I've been harvesting it for the last 10 days or so. Planting as early as you can, as soon as the ground can be worked, gives you food to harvest as soon as you can.

These are some of my shelling peas. I'm growing both shelling and sweet snap peas this year. I really love shelling peas, especially fresh off the vine and raw. Peas are legumes, so they can't take nitrogen out of the soil in the form it's in. They attract beneficial bacteria, which form nodes on the pea plants roots. These nods take up the nitrogen from the soil and convert it to a form the plant can take up and use. The off shoot of this is the plant puts nitrogen back into the soil in a form most other plants can take up and use. This is why legumes are known as natural nitrogen fixers. Most green manure mixes will contain some sort of legume. Most soil has enough beneficial bacteria that you don't need to use an inoculant. Inoculants are the beneficial bacteria that all legumes need. I do use an inoculant for my peas and dried beans, more because it increases the productivity, who doesn't want the most food from the plants you are growing? Inoculants are only good for the year you buy them in. So if you don't use all of it this year, throw the rest away, it will not be viable next year. Remember the inoculant is a living beneficial bacteria, there is only so long it will survive in your fridge.

As I've mentioned before, it's been a late spring. Here in New Haven CT we're expecting some frost tonight and tomorrow night. If you live in CT, Do NOT put your tender plants out yet. Especially your heat lovers, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers (both sweet and hot) and basil. Wait on any flower seedlings you've started as well. In this photo you can see the row cover i put up. Under it is an organic cloth mulch, that will heat up the soil. What I'm basically doing is creating a little micro climate. The mulch heats the soil, and the row cover keeps that heat in. In a couple of days i'll plant some tomatoes, or eggplants, or peppers, or basil, or some of each, under this row cover. It will protect the seedlings, and allows me to plant a bit earlier than I would be able to normally. I have a few of these in each garden i'm working in. Obviously i need to get some more landscape clips/anchors instead of using bricks, though, use what you got! On the right is my spinach, it's large enough that on saturday i got a nice little harvest of it. The pot holds peppermint, don't want in in my raised bed, but it's a terrific medicinal herb, and worth growing, though i always suggest growing mint or oregano in pots.

As you are planting and planning your vegetable garden, don't forget to make space for flowers and herbs. Both of them are very important to include into your garden. They attract pollinators and beneficial insects, which can help with the pest insects you might have problems with this summer. Herbs are wonderful, they attract bees and beneficial insects and you can eat them! Some herbs actually deter pest insects away from your vegetable plants. Flowers attract pollinators and can help fight pests as well. Marigolds are terrific little flowers. You can eat the petals, they attract bees, they keep some pests off your tomatoes, and their roots secrete a substance that kills root eating nematodes, what a plant! So remember to plant lots of herbs and flowers in and around your garden. They will help with pests, attract beneficial insects and pollinators, and they are very pretty too. One tip, if you're going to plant any mint or oregano (which is a mint family member), I suggest you plant them in pots, of any shape or size. Both are very aggressive growers and will take over an area quickly. If you want a field of mint or oregano it won't be too difficult to accomplish, but if you'd like that space for other plants, use pots for both. It's a good idea to cut off oregano flowers before they seed as well, they will spread by both seed and root.

 I'm planting in 3 different gardens this year. Even though they're not that far apart distance wise, even small distances can make a difference. This is my garlic, it's looking really good and healthy. I fed it today with a fish fertilizer. Garlic is a heavy feeder, and likes a fertilizer high in nitrogen. Not all fish fertilizers are the same though, so if you buy some for your garlic, look at the numbers on the bottle and make sure the first one is higher than the next 2. As i've mentioned before, all fertilizers will have 3 numbers on the bag or bottle. They stand for N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and K (potassium) always in that order. A high first number would be a fertilizer high in nitrogen, which is what you want for garlic.

This is a bed with sweet snap peas (in the back) collards, and kale. I planted 2 kinds of kale, red russian and white russian. I really like the flat leafed kale. I grew red russian last year and it's a great kale, but it doesn't stand up to frost well. The white russian is hardier, so when the red russian kale dies in the frost next fall, i'll still have the white russian going strong. As i mentioned above, even in places not that far apart, the climate can be different. In one of my other gardens, my kale is almost twice the size this is, even though i planted them a day apart. Always take into consideration where you are planting things. If you plant kale next to a brick wall, they might grow quickly, but they're not a heat lover and might do poorly over the summer because of radiated heat from the brick wall. Your tomatoes would love it there though! So consider your plants, what they like and don't like, and the places you plant them in.