Garden thread.

[PEG688]

Planted my first lettuce plants tonight

 

Not a very good photo but thats what you get at about 8 PM , on a rainy night! Almost dark 

[glenn kangiser]

Our garden is doing pretty well.  I got another 10 yards of Alpaca manure for it last week.  Yummy.

Looks like you have a good start, PEG.

[mikeschn]

We will be having snow for the next 3 days. After that I am thinking about putting my onions and lettuce outside. 

Mike...

[glenn kangiser]

The composting Alpaca manure has white smoke coming off of it when I stir the pile with the Bobcat so I thought I would just take a bit of it and spread it around the new trees so Sassy can play in it.  Cabbage is coming along nicely.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Our potatoes are the only thing that got bit by the "big spring blizzard of '09".     They're starting to recover.  Even the apple trees were buzzing with bees the morning after the snow, and the blossoms on the peaches weren't hurt either.  Now to get everything else in.  This morning was supposed to be our last frost of the year.

[glenn kangiser]

This is the first time we have gotten Rhubarb that was not buggy or dying or something.  It really looks good and is growing pretty fast.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I want to plant some... mine in WI had just started doing really well and I was going to have enough to harvest some if we'd stayed through the summer, and then we moved in February when everything was buried under two feet of snow, so I didn't bother even trying to dig it out.  It would be nice to have rhubarb pie and preserves.   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Yesterday we got out the Colocasia and the Caladiums, as well as finally getting the strawberries planted.  Should have had that done a while ago, but with still unpacking, it hasn't been easy to get stuff done.  We also got peas, napa cabbage, leeks, and turnips planted a few days ago.  I put out a lot of turnips because lately I've been on a turnip kick.... raw turnips for dessert etc.  By the time they're ready, I probably will be out of the mood for them.  I like the greens though, too, and that'll be nice.  We still have a lot of cool season stuff that should already be in the ground or it is going to burn up.  Our spinach and lettuce wintered over really well (in the knock-off earth boxes we moved with us from the city.)  We've been eating salads out of them nearly every day and there is still plenty.  Also, working on the chicken house has slowed gardening down considerably, but did finally get the other two garden beds turned and the soil is nice and fluffy.  After seeing the voracious appetite of the guineas for the bugs around, I wish we had twenty of them... there are tons of bugs to be had this year.  A LOT of grasshoppers.  I'm hoping  that this year isn't like a year we had about six or seven years ago where there were clouds of grasshoppers that would land and destroy everything in sight.  At the highway intersections, as you slowed your car to a stop, you could hear them all crunching beneath your wheels.  Our neighbors lost their whole gardens that year; the only reason we didn't is because we stopped supplementing the chickens with much food and let them clean up the pest problem!

[glenn kangiser]

I am fortunate, being a man, Homey, in that I am not moody.  Turnips could be good at any time of the year. 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

 

The turnips have sprouted, and some of the napa cabbage, but no leeks yet.  Also planted strawberries the other day, and today planted wax beans and okra and sweet potatoes... the sweet potato plants were going crazy in the windowsill and were kind of in the way inside, so I had to get them out even if it is a little early yet for them.  Have peppers and eggplants growing inside, and tomatoes, of course, and hope to get at least some of them transplanted tomorrow.  Want to plant some tomatillos too, but not sure I'll have room or time to.  And it is about time to get the corn in too.  And need to plant all the cucurbits.  I don't know where I'm going to put it all...decided to wait on the other cool season stuff like carrots and radishes and plant them for fall instead.  Want to plant some more of the yard long beans this year.  We grew a few in the city last year, which violated our lease, I'm sure, but they were pretty good.  Unfortunately, our neighbor sprayed roundup on his side of the fence and killed everything on our side as well.  My daughter is adamant that she has to have her watermelon patch this year, too, and pumpkins, and of course there  needs to be enough cucumbers to can pickles as well as eat fresh, etc.  Anyway, garden season is in full swing again.  I'm happy because peonies and carnations have come up in various spots in the yard.  Whoever the first owners of this house were, they loved gardening....my kind of folks... and the dogwoods are all blooming out in the woods, too.  I also want black eyed peas, but realized today that we ate them all and didn't save any to plant.  I love spring.  Oh, and the chicken house is "almost" done.

[glenn kangiser]

Have peppers and eggplants growing inside

Does that hurt?  hmm  


Sassy thinks she may have gallstones.

[considerations]

So far just strawberries from last years mommy plants, garlic, onions potatoes, a baby rasberry plant, a new grape plant, the chives are growing like crazy already, saffron crocus are going to sleep for the summer, and a new bay laurel.

The daffys, tulips, and iris are coming along.  I think I lost a few baby trees in the cold.  I'm even worried about a couple butterfly bushes, one of two climbing roses and a crape myrtle.  Oh well, the baby cedars and redwoods are still happy.

[muldoon]

tomatoes really liking the hot sun.




happy squash and a pumpkin




peppers coming in
serranos


ancho


bells and golden bells

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Looking good, there, Muldoon.  We still have greens growing in one of our knockoff earthboxes we made.  The spinach is starting to bolt, but then it has been in there since last year, so it had to happen eventually.  We're trying to eat it all up before it goes to seed. We've made salads all winter long out of there.  It is also full of red leaf lettuce.   I am thinking about planting some squash or something in the other container.  The garden is going to be full to bursting at the rate we're planting.  I have about six pepper plants that I have no idea what to do with... and I keep looking for someplace to squeeze them into the garden and just don't think it is going to happen.  So, they'll probably end up in the front flower bed or in a container on the porch.

[Sassy]

Nice looking veggies, Muldoon! 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Got popcorn, black-eyed peas, perilla, and about 18-20 of the tomatoes planted today.  It wasn't easy with the "help", but we got some of it done anyway.  Tomorrow hope to get pretty much everything else in.  The weeds keep trying to climb up over the sides of the raised beds, so I spent as much time weeding as I did planting.

[PEG688]

Finally got time and good weather to get some things in the ground,

 

Various lettuce varieties, Walla walla sweet onions ,  and for seed plants radish, spinach , Kohlrabi's, bush beans .




   

[Alasdair]

It's a few weeks til we can break ground for the buildings but as we don't need planning for a garden we put in some fruit trees and an asparagus bed - never too early I think, as it will be a few years before we see any goodies from them on the table.

It took us all the first day to pick up the trees and assorted kit as the nursery was some distance away. Here we're nearly ready to start.



Can't afford a tractor... but I've got a good gardener.


70 heads of aspsragus happy in bed


6 Apples and 2 Pear trees. Hopefully the wire will stop the deer crowning them - We also hung cheap soap on the them - apparently the smell is a great critter deterent.


We decided against any soft fruit trees just yet - (cherries or plums) as we have spent two weekends clearing the land of black knot infected choke cherries. We may put some in in a few years if the infection does not return.

thanks for looking.
Al

[glenn kangiser]

Al, I did not know you could grow stuff in the Great White North, but what you are doing looks great.

PEG - what is that Blue stuff in the background of your picture?  Garden looks great --- now I'm behind again.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

do moles or gophers eat strawberry plants?   I have never before had trouble growing strawberries anywhere.... none of ours even came up.  I noticed a few of the beans and peas near them have been chewed off just above the ground, but other than that no damage anywhere.... any guesses on what happened?  I am also wondering if the starts we got were bad to begin with perhaps?

Another thing... we planted four packets, yes four, of Korean varieties of cukes.  Only two have come up... two lousy plants!  We've had trouble before with buying seed from Korean seed companies where the seeds have a very low viability and they often remark seeds from previous years for this year.  Korean cukes are excellent IF THEY GROW.  There is nothing wrong with the soil.  And all the seeds I saved from everything else are growing like crazy.  Similar problem with the Korean melons.  I have seed from Johnny's for SunJewel Asian melon, and they're up and growing.  The same plant from Korean seeds has yet to have a single one sprout... (I planted them on opposite sides of the garden bed so that I could tell which was which.

[glenn kangiser]

Homey, Gophers will even crawl out of the ground and walk across the top of it to ruin your best plants and vegetables - I've seen them do it.

I read a study that said something like about 60% of the seeds they tested were not viable - even from popular companies.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

The Korean seeds were Hung Nong (doubt anyone else on here uses them) and Nong Woo seed companies.  They intentionally do not stamp the "packaged for growing season" spot, though it is on the packet because that way they can keep setting the same seeds out year after year...we usually get them from the local Korean market.  The Sun Jewel melons I planted from Johnny's were at least three years old, possibly as old as five, and yet they all germinated. This is the very same plant, very same growing conditions and plenty of rain. The ones from Hung Nong, well, so far not one.    Also I planted three year old seed for yard-long beans from Johnny's.  Every stinkin' one of them is up and growing like crazy... there wasn't a bad seed in the bunch, and apparently nothing ate on them, either.  Now, the okra was at least five year old seed (because it wouldn't grow in WI so I still had seed I'd saved from our old garden in OK.)  It all sprouted, but the rain has drowned some of the sprouts.  The only things that seem bothered by critters so far are the strawberries (at least that's my guess) and the napa cabbage... quite a bit of it sprouted only to disappear overnight in the last two weeks.  A few of the wax beans were bitten off near the soil, but most of them have been left alone.  The cat has been quick to dispatch any varmits she sees messing around here.  And thankfully she has been very understanding of the fact that she has to make her litterbox way off in the woods on the other side of hte house.   Another strange thing is that I planted all my corn at once... a bit of the popcorn has germinated, but not much of it.  The dent corn and the indian corn are growing like crazy, but there isn't a shred of evidence that any of the sweet corn is alive.  I'm worried about it because most of the local corn is at least 6" tall already.  The seed corn was a year or two old, but still should've been good... but again, it was something I picked up in a feed store somewhere, while the other corn was saved seed from previous gardens and/or ordered from Johnny's.  (The dent corn may have been from Park's?)    I've got squash growing all over the place out there and can't remember which varieties I planted where.  In general, I remember where the summer squash is and where the winter squash is... most of it was from saved seeds... a few were storebought.  In general, the garden is not doing bad.  The onions are doing great, if i could just keep the weeds under control.... too much to do and not enough time to do it!

[apaknad]

homey,

did you know that corn will cross pollinate and is one of the few plants that this years crop will be affected? corn types should be sperated and planted far away from each others groups. i just got my first raised bed in yesterday(4'X8' square foot garden w/2"X10" pine lumber sides). i guess it's too late for spring veggies but i will use it for summer stuff. i will eventually add two more modules and that will be enough for a single guy. we don't warm up in michigan as soon as you do.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Yes, I know the corn will cross-pollinate... isn't that half the fun?  I don't think it matters much though because the sweet corn just isn't coming up.  I think I'll go back and plant black-eyed peas and more okra in its place.  Heirloom corn tastes good eaten green, too, though itisn't quite as sweet.  I think it has a better flavor, though.  The popcorn is planted in an entirely different area where the dominant winds won't bother the pollenation.  Painted Mountain and Earth tone Dent are going gangbusters though.  Every single kernal sprouted, and I don't think the critters got one. 

The grape cuttings I took a while back and dipped in rooting hormone are almost all leafed out.  Now in retrospect it is really silly that I went to so much trouble to multiply the grape harvest seeing as nearly every inch of these woods is covered in possum grapes and wild muscadines, which make just as good (if not better) eating and jellies.  And, we have discovered that there are pink roses down behind the vineyard.  I don't know why they're there... it is a hybrid climbing rose, and they stuck it in a tomato cage and let it go nuts.  I may move it next winter/spring.  Seems pointless to have it where you can't see or enjoy it.  Found four other roses too, all hybrids, but out in the edge of the woods where they really can't be seen.  I think at one time, they must have had the edge of the woods cleared out a little more where it looked like some kind  of park.  There are irises ringing the entire clearing, and pinks, carnations, peonies, tons of daffodils and narcissus and other stuff coming up nearly daily.  But the funny thing is that though there are tons of "landscaping" plants, it doesn't look like whoever planted them really had a clue what they were doing.... they're just stuck here and there out in the middle of the yard, and just make more places hard to mow....I love some of the types of plants that are out here, but I just wish they had actually thought about where they were putting htem before they did it.  One thing I will not change is the long hedges of mock orange (smelling so sweet right now!) and the quince and forsythia. 

Two or three more of the cukes popped up yesterday, so maybe the seed isn't all bad after all.  Sure seems like it took a long time to germinate, though.

[apaknad]

that's quite a selection homey. sounds like you have a wonderful assortment of plants and flowers. good luck getting it more organized. hard but fun work. i know you are swamped w/other things to do like i am but i don't have the drive that you do and after about 4-6 hours of working on a project i just quit and chill the rest of the day.