February 4, 2006:  After the abnormally cold spell we had in mid December, January has turned out to be the second warmest here in Central Indiana on record.  The spring flowering bulbs have started to poke out of the ground.  My fall planted onions appear to be greening up a little.  Randy, my other Indiana Field Correspondent, reports that he has been harvesting spinach and his lettuce is growing in his covered raised bed!!

I have ordered most of my seeds last week.  My brother will be adding a 4ft x 4ft raised bed for growing potatoes, next to his raised bed of corn.  We will be planting Red Pontiacs in this raised bed.  I will be putting up my cold frame in about 2 weeks.  Spring cannot be far behind, although it is snowing here right now with about 2 inches of snow on the ground :-(

February 25, 2006:  After the warm January, we have had a relatively cold February so far.  I put together my cold frame a few days ago and placed it in the garden. I like to get the cold frame set up so I can adjust the solar vent on it before I put plants in it.  I do not have any plants in the frame.  I will be starting my lettuce seeds in about another week.  I am hopeful that the weather will warm up a little by then.  I will be planting some peas this year.  I will be growing them on the same vertical supports as the pole limas.

March 21, 2006:  Happy first full day of spring. I was greeted this morning with snow!!  We received about 4 inches of snow in the Indianapolis area today (see the pic of my snowy cold frame below).  I have started lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts seeds and they have all germinated and are now in the cold frame. I just started pepper seeds a few days ago, and have put them over a seed warmer to hasten germination.  I will be starting my tomato seeds in about 5 days.  I am still waiting on my celery seeds to germinate.  They usually take a few weeks to germinate.  I have successfully germinated my fennel seeds (I am trying fennel for the first time this year), and they are also in the cold frame.  I decided to try peas this year.  I am hopeful to get a mature crop before I plant beans.  I have planted 12 peat pots with pea seeds two days ago to try to get a jump on the growing season.  I hope the snow does not hang around much longer!!

April 30, 2006: Sorry for not posting sooner, but I have been very busy.  The weather over the past month or so has been, on average, warmer than normal.  I planted onions the first week of April and they are doing fine so far.  I planted my broccoli and cabbage plants about one week ago and they seem to be doing fine (see pic below).  My peas have germinated, but are growing more slowly than I anticipated.  It seems that starting peas in peat pots has not given me much of a head start as I thought it would.  The ones I direct seeded in the ground are about the same size as the ones I started in the peat pots.  I have had two small harvests from my lettuce so far.  My lettuce is growing very well under my hoop house right now.  See lettuce pic from April 21 below.  I hope to plant my tomato and pepper plants within the next week if the weather stays warm.  My brother's new potato plot is doing well.  The red potatoes were planted about 2 weeks days ago and have started to sprout. Onions slips were planted around the outside of the bed to be harvested as green onions in about another month or so (see pic of raised bed below).

Oh, how could I forget to tell you about the severe hail we experienced on Good Friday, April 14th.  It hailed for nearly ten minutes and some of the hail stones were as large as 2 1/2 inches wide (see pic of hail stones collected in the yard below.  That is a standard twelve inch ruler in the picture with a silver dollar, a half dollar, and a quarter).  It did a number on my onions, but most appear to have survived.  My hoop house over my lettuce was beat down really good, but all of my lettuce survived.  I doubt many of my lettuce plants would have made it without the hoop house cover.  My cold frame sustained a few big dents, but it is still intact and useable.

May 31, 2006: Well the weather has turned from wet and abnormally cool to very hot and humid it seems just overnight.  It has been really hot for the last 6 days now.  Things are really starting to grow now.  The potato raised bed is really filled out now and the red Pontiacs are really growing now.  Some of the warm season plants (tomatoes, peppers, etc) that were struggling with the abnormally cool and wet spring are starting to grow now.  My lettuce is really doing well, and harvest continues.  Some of my early spring planted lettuce plants are reaching full maturity.  It looks like my broccoli should be ready for harvest in about two more weeks.  Most of my green beans have sprouted.  My peas are just starting to flower.  It now seems we could use a little bit of rain as the soil is starting to dry out a bit due to the high temperatures.

June 18, 2006: It appears that we are now into typical summer weather, although we had a week or so of very cool weather, it has turned hot the last few days.  The soil is starting to dry out a little, so we could use some rain.  I have been harvesting broccoli over the past week.  This seems to be a bit earlier than normal.  My cabbage seems to be growing more slowly  than normal.  Most of the early spring planted lettuce has or is near bolting stage.  I was able to transplant some more heat tolerant lettuce into the garden about 3 weeks ago, and they are growing nicely.  My early spring planted peas are nearing maturity, and should be ready in another 10 days or so.  My beans have really started to grow, and some of my bush beans have just started to flower.  I have been harvesting some of my Egyptian "walking" onions for green onions.  My other onions are starting to grow and are getting some size to them.  The new raised bed plot of red potatoes are growing nicely, and are about ready to flower.  The corn is doing OK, but have lost 3 or 4 plants due to the squirrel chewing on them.  My tomatoes are doing fine, but my peppers are still a little small.  My Eureka cucumber plants have started to flower.

July 1, 2006: I have been harvesting broccoli, lettuce, and peas over the last few weeks.  My garden peas did pretty well this year, and I was able get a few meals off of the plants (see first pic below taken 6/23/06).  My topsetting onions are setting little top set onions and probably will be ready to harvest these in about one more month (see second pic below taken 6/23/06).  My green beans should be ready in another week to ten days.  My cabbage is ready and I will harvesting some heads this weekend.  My cucumber plants are starting to set fruit, and my tomatoes are starting to get some size and are also setting fruit.  The Japanese Beetles have have arrived here, but currently they have not bothered my vegetable garden much.

July 24, 2006:  I have finished up harvest on the broccoli and I have pulled up all of the plants.  I do not remember a year where I have had more side shoot production.  The spring broccoli harvest was outstanding this year.  I started seeds of the fall crop of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage about 2 weeks ago.  I have finished my harvest on the cucumbers and I pulled up the plants to allow more room for my pepper plants.  I have been harvesting green beans for the last 2 weeks now.  I have harvested a few red potatoes, but most of the plants are still growing.  The corn is almost ripe if I can just keep the &%$%*&* squirrel off of it.  I am going to try some hot pepper wax spray.  I will let you know how it works.  My pole lima beans are starting to really fill out now (see first pic below).  My onion tops have fallen over and I will be pulling them up to dry soon (see second pic below).  I have seen a few ripe tomatoes on the vine, so it will not be long before I will be harvesting and processing them.  I will be starting my seeds for my fall lettuce in 4 days or so.  Fall will be here before you know it.
 

August 29, 2006:  It has been very very dry for the last month or so.  I did get some much needed rain about 4 days ago.  Needless to say I have been watering.  I planted my fall seedlings of broccoli and cauliflower about August 10th.  I planted my first plot of carrot seeds around that same time and I planted a second plot of carrots about 2 weeks ago.  I had to water those plots every day and put some shade cloth over the plots to keep them from drying out.  I planted bush green beans in my onion plot and in the raised corn plot around the first week of August.  Germination of the beans were poor in the raised bed.  Even though I watered this bed pretty good, it probably dried out a little to much.  I harvested a good many roma tomatoes near the second week of August and made some tomato sauce.  I also harvested the tops off of my walking onions and pulled up the rest of the plants.  I will be replanting the onion tops the later part of October.  By the way, the hot pepper wax did not work on keeping the squirrels out of the corn.  I think I might try an electric fence next year.  I started harvesting my pole lima beans a few weeks ago.  They seem to be a little behind this year.  I will be planting my lettuce seedlings in about 4 days.  Fall will be here before you know it!

October 1, 2006:  I cannot believe it is already October.  It seems like summer just flew by this year.  Well, my fall vegetable garden is doing pretty good so far.  We had a stretch of unusually cool weather for most of September, which has slowed the growth of my late planting of green beans.  They seem to be coming on now.  I made my first harvest of these beans a few days ago, with many more soon to be maturing within the next two weeks.  My fall planting of cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage is doing pretty good, but they also seem to be a little behind schedule.  I have just started to see a few broccoli plants with some very small heads forming.  As of yet, no frost, but I will need to get some row covers ready just in case.  My fall planted lettuce is just starting to get some size (see first pic below).  I also replanted the raised potato bed (see second pic below) with cabbage, cauliflower and some onions, from my top setting onions, for green onions.  My celery is growing like it has never grown before.  Unfortunately, my fall crop of carrots looks like it is going to be poor this year due to poor germination of the seeds I planted back in August :-(   My crop of pole limas is much better this year, with more still to harvest.  Crops I have been harvesting in the last month: Celery, pole limas, green beans, tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers, hot peppers, fennel seeds (for drying), and green onions.
 

October 29, 2006:  Well, it has been abnormally cool and very wet over the past 3 weeks.  I just had the first hard freeze of the fall season about 4 days ago.  My first frost was about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  All of the warm season crops have been pulled up since they were finished growing.  My later summer planted green beans grew pretty well this fall and I was pleased with the harvest.  I just harvested my first head of fall broccoli about one week ago, with about four more heads still maturing.  I also harvested two heads of cabbage about 5 days ago.  I have not harvested any of my late summer planted cauliflower, but some of the heads are starting to get some size to them.  I probably will not harvest any of these for another 2 weeks or so.  I also continue to harvest lettuce and celery.  My hoops over my two carrot plots seems to be working out well again this year.  The carrots under these hoops are finally getting some size to them.  I will be planting my dried walking onion tops today for harvest next spring and summer.  I will start harvesting my brussel sprouts within the next week or so.  The growing season is fast approaching the end.

November 12, 2006:  Well, I am still harvesting fresh produce from my garden.  I harvested three heads of cauliflower  from the old potato raised bed two days ago (see the pic below).  I still have one cauliflower and four cabbage plants growing in this bed.  I also still have several cauliflower and broccoli plants in the other plot.  I also harvested several heads of broccoli and some side shoots yesterday.  I have also been harvesting lettuce and most of my brussel sprouts over the last 10 days.  There was a very hard freeze (around 16 degrees) about 10 days ago.  I covered the cauliflower and cabbage with row covers and the plants survived, although they appear a little stunted.  It was a little too cold for the celery to survive, so I pulled the plants up.  The carrots continue to grow under the hoops, but they are growing much slower now.

November 27, 2006:  The weather, for the most part, has been dry with above normal temperatures for the past 2 weeks or so.  They are predicting snow in 3 days, so winter is just around the corner. I have still been harvesting lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.  The brussel sprouts were small this year, but very tasty.  I pulled up the plants a few days ago as I pretty much harvested all of the sprouts that were of any size still left on the stalks.  The lettuce has pretty much stopped growing now and I have about completed harvesting it any ways.  I will begin harvesting the carrots growing under the hoops within the week.  I have a few small heads of broccoli that I will be harvesting within the next few days, as well as about four heads of cauliflower and two of the remaining heads of cabbage.  I have already begun receiving my spring 2007 seed catalogs in the mail!  I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

January3, 2007:  Happy New Year Everyone!!  Well, my garden is finished for the year with the exception of my carrots.  I just harvested some today under the second hoop plot (see pics).  Some of the carrots are smaller than I would like, but I struggled getting them to germinate last September with all of the dry and hot weather.  All in all I would call the harvest of fall carrots "fair" this year.  I still have about another meal of carrots still in the ground under the hoop.  Randy, my other Indiana Field Correspondent reports that he should have some new spinach and some lettuce if the weather stays as warm as it has been.  He also reports that his kale is doing good in his covered winter garden.  The weather hear in Central Indiana has been very mild, but wet.  I am beginning to wonder if we will have a winter at all.  I bet we will make up for it in March!  Now is the time to start planning your spring garden.