My Zone 5b Garden Is Coming Along In May!
Welcome to gardening season 2022!
Last year, I planted a late crop of wheat for fun. Not knowing anything about wheat, I planted it to see if it would grow. Over winter I was able to read about how to harvest wheat and realized I was not prepared for harvesting wheat.
In order to prep my bed for the gardening season, when visited my garden for the first time, I decided to harvest my wheat. As I read about harvesting wheat, I found many articles referencing harvesting large amounts of wheat. My wheat crop was about 5 stalks, and I was able to use a similar process, just small scale.
When it was all said and done, you can see my entire harvest below. I decided I would keep my “wheat berries” and plant them some other time. In order to have a successful crop of wheat I need a large space so I can grow lots of wheat. Next time I’d determine how much I need to grow in order to have enough wheat for flour.
Starting My Gardening Season Early
To start my gardening season this year, I started early – in February! Last year was my first year gardening, I got my plot in April and didn’t have a lot of prep time. This year however, I know more and was able to be more prepared. Starting in February seemed very early to me, but I can now see my efforts have paid off.
I started almost everything in February – squashes, tomatoes, basil, etc. Having a great game plan for this year helped me determine what I wanted to grow and how much I need to grow. Knowing I wanted to grow plants to help deter pests was important to me, I had to determine how many of each plant I wanted.
Check out my progress below – I have squash flowers already! My mammoth sunflower is about 1 foot tall, and I have marigolds budding. I’m so happy I started early and I will be doing this again!
A New Feature In My Plot This Gardening Season
For my 2022 gardening season I decided to add a cattle panel to my plot at the community garden. Someone else had this in their garden last year, and I really wanted to have one. With all my plant starts, I’m hoping to use the cattle panel as a trellis for squash, hops and other vining plants.
As the garden season grows along, I’ll be sharing updates on my blog. If you are interested, you will want to follow me on social media so you don’t miss a post!
Garden Beds, Greenhouse And Buckets At Home
Recently I posted how to fill a raised garden bed, my bed of choice was a metal bed from Amazon. Coupled with my community garden bed, I have added two 6’x3′ beds as well as a greenhouse to my yard at home. The greenhouse I bought brand new from a fellow gardener and it’s 6’x8′ – perfect for this awkward spot I had in my yard. Not to mention, it fits perfectly over my garden bed. This way, I can practice over wintering plants next winter as well as keep my seedlings protected this season.
My buckets are back! Last season I used buckets to grow lavender and basil, and over wintered what I could. In addition, I used buckets as a test area to grow potatoes, lettuce and beans. Buckets are great to keep at home as I can keep an eye on how dry they get during the day. For 2022, I’m growing potatoes in all of my buckets, so far I have 8 buckets and I just picked up 5 more from a fellow gardener. Those 5 will also get potatoes – I need to transplant some sweet potato slips out of my other bucket.
Click through the images below to see more growth!
A greenhouse was used to prepare for gardening season. 
A greenhouse was used to prepare for gardening season. 
Lettuce is growing well in preparation for gardening season. 
A potato is growing in a bucket this gardening season. 
Snap pea is getting ready for gardening season. 
Green bean is getting ready for gardening season.
A Mystery And Bugs This Gardening Season
Who doesn’t love a mystery? The buckets I described above from last year have sprouted a mystery! After growing lavender and basil during the summer, I planted more lavender and basil seeds which never sprouted. To my surprise, one day I found sprouts coming up. As the sprouts grew they started looking very tomato-y. I confirmed that these sprouts are tomatoes – something that’s never been grown in this dirt! Follow along this summer to see how this tomato works out.
Coupled with starting early, I love to learn. Over winter I learned about worms and praying mantis. After some searching online, I found a great source for both. All of my beds now have worms in them, and my mantis should be hatching any time now. The mantis will be released in all of my beds and around my general home area. Mantis are great for aphid control and swill stick around as long as they have food. Fingers crossed that I will have less aphids this year!
Check out me releasing worms in the garden: https://youtube.com/shorts/ald1M1k4Kek
Starting Off With A Late May Frost
On May 20th, 2022 we received a late frost/snowstorm. The day before was almost 90 degrees, and I worked hard to cover my plants as the sun was going down. A trip to goodwill for blankets, covers, and even curtains may have saved my garden!
When I saw the forecast, the first thing I did was head to Goodwill. While there, I found a few blankets, curtains, and even plastic cups that I could use to cover my plants!
One key to keeping plants protected during a frost is to cover them. The covering shouldn’t touch the plant itself, so I used a tomato cage to help with that.
A second tip is to water deeply, water acts as an insulator. My deep water around 2 PM was great, and then around 6 PM, I covered all my plants. After covering, I placed more straw around the covers to help in case there was wind and also to retain moisture.
The next morning I woke up to a cold, overcast day, and by 9 AM it was sleeting. I’m so glad I covered my plants the night before and not the day of. Below you will see some images from the late frost/snow we had in Zone 5B in May 2022.
Post Snow Impact On My Gardening Season
Two days after the snowstorm, I headed to my plot to assess the damages. To my surprise, my garden was just fine! My little plastic “greenhouses” were mostly intact – some had flown out of my plot due to the wind. I’ll be finding rocks all summer long in my plot.
Even my precious potatoes were good – and they were just under a bed skirt. When I first moved the potatoes that I have in a bucket at home to the greenhouse, they died due to the cold (and I didn’t properly harden them off, either) so I was very worried about my in-ground potatoes. The bucket potatoes have bounced back and are now doing fine. As are the potatoes that are in-ground – check them out in the image below!
Last weekend I went to a garden center to look, and then bought new plants. One of my new plants was strawberries. Some of the strawberry plants already had fruit coming in or flowers. The strawberries also survived the late cold snap!
I hope you enjoyed my first garden update for 2022, I must get back to the garden now! Follow me on social media and never miss a post.
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