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Heather,  I totally agree regarding the weather (I live in SW Ohio, so I know what you mean!) and the garden.  We always have a small garden, with tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, squash, lettuce and eggplant.  A few years we have grown giant pumpkins, and we also have a blackberry patch and an asparagus patch.  I HIGHLY recommend growing asparagus, it is so delicious and low maintenance!!  We salt it in the spring to keep the slugs from overtaking things, but other than that and occasionally pulling weeds, we just enjoy the wonderful asparagus and try and come up with more ways to enjoy it.  I still think my favorite way is plain, just lightly boiled to take a little of the edge off.  (I still like them with a little bit of crunch)

Do you grow your own starts, or do you buy plants?  What do you think (if you don't mind saying) is the trick to growing broccoli?  I have tried it a few times with little success.

We have always in the past grown our tomato, pepper and eggplant starts from seed, but this is difficult unless you have a greenhouse.  This year with our daughter just turning one this week we decided to buy plants.  The quality of plants you can find at a store is great, just sometimes the variety isn't there.  Squash and hardier plants such as that are fine to start in the ground from seed (lettuce, cucumbers and peas also), but in my experience squash does better in direct sun, and you have to be very careful the baby plants don't get rotton on the end where the bloom falls off or your entire plant can die.  Picking the rotton squash early and removing them from the area around the plant is important.

You can plant asparagus and it will continue to come up year after year, with new little shoots growing out from the original plant.  You will want to lay 2x4 or some other edging in the ground to keep the plants from spreading outside the area where you want them.  They require little to no maintenance and provide super rewards!  We put salt (the rock salt you might spread on your sidewalk during bad weather) on the asparagus patch in the spring to keep the slugs out (slugs love asparagus and will tunnel all the way from the ground to the tip ruining them if you let them!) and that's it!

Happy Gardening!!
Steph

Great article, Marva!  We plant on a much smaller scale, but do many of the same things. 

We have a BIG japanese beetle problem, do you have any suggestions for that?  We don't use traps, I think that just makes the problem worse.  We have used Sevin (I think that is how it's spelled?) and that works well for our smaller plants, but the blackberry patch and cherry trees are hard to get covered effectively.

I don't suppose you give out that peach salsa recipe?!? 
I wish we still had peach trees, ours all got bores a few years back and we haven't replanted.

Isn't it funny how we never learn that it doesn't pay to try and mess with nature?  We have lady beetle problems too, and the extension office says they were introduced to control aphids, now they are crowding out the natural ladybug, and the female lady beetles bite, ouch!

We will try a sprayer this year, and actually I haven't used bore spray, I will try that too, thanks!

Yes, losing our peach trees was a big bummer, they were delicious and prolific!!  We still have several apple trees, at least.  I will keep a look out for your peach salsa recipe, sounds delicious!!

Take care,
Steph

For asaparagus, you can buy plants.  You will not get edible asparagus the first year, and you can plant at the end of the season.  The last time we planted asparagus, we bought clearance plants for near to nothing at the end of the year and they came up wonderfully the following spring. 

Plant the plants, a dozen or so will get you started.  You will probably want to lay some 2x4 wood into the ground to help cordon off the area you wnat the plants to grow in, planting them evenly throughout the area.  The next years plants will come up near the original plantings and they will spread, so the boards will help keep the plants from spreading throught your lawn!  Let the initial plants go to seed and die.  Once they are dead you can mow them or cut them off.  The following year, new asparagus will come up around the initial plantings and those you can cut and eat.  Some plants each year will come up as very thin plants and go to seed almost immediately, let them go and they will help ensure plenty of plants the next year.

Happy planting!
Steph

I am always happy to talk about gardening!!  I get such great advice from you ladies, I am glad when there is a subject I have a little experience with

Take care,
Steph

Our raspberry bushes just finished for the summer and they were sooooo good, although with the funny weather we had this spring and the harsh winter, our crop was way down so I had to cherish every berry I picked!