Strawberry Harvest?

Strawberry harvest is close. The bottom picture was taken the night before. This strawberry needs another day or two to ripen on the ground side. I woke up to this frost the next morning. It is the same strawberry.
Berries don't ripen off the plant, so be patient and leave them on until fully ripe to get the best flavor. You need to snap the stem with the thumbnail to harvest. This way the cap and stem will be on the berry and will keep longer.

Hail on Hosta

This Sum and Substance Hosta was planted in the new Hosta bed at the Riley County Courthouse Plaza on Friday. Early Saturday morning, it got hailed upon. Stop-by and watch these Hostas which are part of the Prairie Bloom suggested cultivars to plant in Kansas. Go to http://www.prairiestarflowers.com/Prairie%20Bloom%20pages/Hosta_allpics.html to see the Hosta collection.

Frost on May 2

Freeze injury to my potatoes on May 2. Potatoes will bounce back.

Frost on Strawberries

My last post suggested planting tomatoes, which I did. Three days later, it frosted. I cover the tomatoes but not my strawberries. Time will tell how the berries handled the frost. May 5 is a 95% chance of no more frost in Riley County.

Tomato in a container

May 1 is a common date on planting tomatoes in our area. Frost is unlikely to occur. This Mountain Bell cherry tomato will spend its life on my deck. My pasta tomatoes are in the garden. To read about growing tomatoes in pots or the field, check out these 2 pubs. http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf2873.pdf - containers

http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf312.pdf - tomatoes

Peas Growing Like Weeds

The spring weather isn't getting the tomatoes off to a fast start, but the cool-season vegetables are growing well. These peas are looking good. I hope you got peas planted because the spring is the only time we get to enjoy these. The soil is too warm for good germination for a fall planting.

Aspargus Harvest

Last week, I started harvesting asparagus. This is a patch that has been there for 35 years. Harvesting will continue for about 7 weeks when all of the spears are the size of pencils. At that point, the spears need to be left to grow into food producing factories for next years crop. The spears grow rapidly in warm weather and everyday harvest is necessary. Spears are tender when harvested 10 inches or shorter by snapping them off at ground level. Asparagus beetles usually do some feeding on the tips. I haven't seen them yet. It has been too cool for them.

Smell of Spring

Too bad I can't insert the perfume this plant produces. I clipped some blooms off of this Korean Spice Viburnum and have them on my desk. I would wish that everyone had at least one of these in their landscape. The plant gets about 5' tall and wide. Mine gets morning sun and then shade for the rest of the day. Consider this plant for yourself.