Everything planted by memorial day

Well, now it is June 1st and the weather can't be more different.

The vegetable garden is planted and few days of above 85 temps have caused the beans to pop up and basil to germinate almost overnight! We have been eating lettuce for several weeks now thanks to the little plastic covered hoop house that I ordered from Gardeners Supply. Definitely a good way to get a jump start on the season. My garden club friends and I grew about a bazillion tomato seedlings which we donate to our annual sale and also to a community garden. We had so many that we had to rely on the gardening network to finally place all the adoptees in good homes! There is one of each kind with some old favorites such as Cherokee purple, pineapple, Dad's mug, pink pong and sungold, and a few new ones such as variegated,bush celebrity, speckled roma,and Mr Underwoods German pink (not a good germinator). I always try to spread the varieties through the season with some heirlooms and some hybrids so that I don't have to wait till august for my big crops.

I took the first compost from the worm farm this weekend; they and I seem to be getting the hang of things - how do you know when enough is enough for them?

The directions said don't feed them too much. What do overfed worms look like?It seemed to take a little over a month to start really producing, although only enough for some top dressing. I have some unusual russian varieties of squash seeds from someone in the Cactus society which I am curious to try. My Dad and pruned a salix lanfolia over Easter and I used the whips for stakes, and tutueurs-an idea I got at Chanticleer, which is right around the corner. A gardening friend suggested to set up a system of overflow containers for the rain barrel-there was a rain squall a few miles away that I got drenched in, but the black cloud did not make it over to the garden yet!