Too cold, too hot: Gardening in Missouri

Well, we had two weeks of spring, so I guess I should be happy.  

I'm not unhappy, just slightly aggravated.  The first two weeks of April were freezing, and the first two weeks of May are turning out to be late July/early August.  I'm going to have to quit looking at the forecast, because every day they show less chance of rain and higher temps - into the low 90s now!  We haven't had any rain since some time in March.  Luckily I have a source of water nearby, but this is not good.

Enough complaining.  I'm now able to harvest lettuce, and about to dig into my first garden salad with baby greens from the 'Rocky Top' lettuce mix, arugula, tatsoi, red-veined sorrel, and home made wheat bread croutons and last year's pickled beets.  

Things are coming along, even though they should be farther, I think.  Too cold at first, now too hot.  Nobody knows what to do.  This is definitely not weather for peas.  I'm sad about that, as they were so good last year I planted twice as many this year.

But, I'm feeling hopeful about the onions.  For the past two years my onion crop has been a failure.  Even when I harvested lots of onions and dried them, they ended up rotting.  I'm thinking that maybe I watered them too much - at least the year it poured rain endlessly, they even rotted in the ground.

I haven't watered them since they emerged from the ground this year, and it hasn't rained, but they seem to be doing okay, so maybe I'm onto something.

The runner beans I planted at the trellis are looking good.  The cucumbers I started early indoors - something I haven't done with cucumbers before - look good, but the seeds I planted directly in the ground failed.  Only one little plant emerged.  Also, the golden zucchini I planted directly didn't come up.  Both packets of seed were from last year's purchases.  Most seeds I get are good for at least two years, and there are always too many cucurbit (melon, pumpkin, squash, and cucumber) seeds in a packet, so I didn't buy new ones this year.  I've made a note not to use old seeds for those plants again.

front row: 'Sunset' runner beans; back row: 'Marketmore' cucumber

Another  issue I've noticed this year is little dead spots on several plants, not all of which are related: melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, tatsoi, sorrel (dock).  The first year I put out my garden, beets and arugula were loaded with the same.  I thought it might be something coming from the nearby wildflower garden, and active in damp, cool weather.  Obviously, that's not the case this year, so I still don't know what it is.  It looks like shothole fungus, a serious pest of fruit trees.  Here it is on the melon seedlings:

My best guess at this point is Cercospera, which attacks in warm humid conditions.  We're not having humid conditions naturally, but I am watering, so that would do it, I think.  I could be wrong.

I won't do anything other than pick off the leaves most affected unless it gets really out of hand, and then I'll either have to apply a fungicide or cry.  I'll be crying in good company of the farmers in the area if we don't get some rain.

Vegetable garden

Left: cut flower garden; right: rose garden

Chives in bloom

UPDATE 5/20:

I'm not seeing that spotting on leaves any more. We've finally gotten some rain. Maybe the change in weather is the reason. I picked off the leaves that were more heavily infested, so hopefully it won't be a problem going forward.