Posted on 03/25/2017 7:21:25 PM PDT by greeneyes
Got 4 raised beds ready, for lettuces and peas.
The weather in East Tennessee has been great for a few days so I’m hoping spring is around the corner.
Been cutting asparagus for about three weeks.
Finally, the weather is settling; able to get some stuff done. This week I bought a bag of “100” red onion sets, and today planted all 200 of them.
Just thought it was a fluke last year when my bags of “100 bulbs” had 200 in them, but same thing again this year. At least I learned, and only bought 1 bag instead of 2.
Snowdrops are blooming, and the iris, tulips & daffies are pushing upward. Also sawa shivering violet on the greening up clumps.
Started seeds inside lat week.
Pansies, violets, dianthus, and snapdragons all blooming nicely so I have a constant supply of fresh flowers in the house. Have been able to pick a small amount of lettuce every other day for a fresh salad.
Great link! Led to a supper article on composting.
Thanks!
Waiting for the snow to melt....
Here ...
When’s the best time to start fertilizing outdoor plants?
We always do some of our tomatoes in large containers. We have great success and abundant fruit. We use really big patio plastic pots and still have some goat manure we mix in with the recycled soil from the previous year. We also do our best to pinch off secondary growths. The patio plants get more sun than the garden ones and probably more water and love.
On a plant by plant basis (rather than pasture/compost/garden level), I use powdered milk to prevent blossom end rot on my tomatoes. Several years back, my cousin asked an old farmer at the general store (still have one where he lives) how he always has such beautiful tomatoes. The answer was ‘powdered milk’. I now put a couple of tablespoons in the hole along with some Tomato Tone, sprinkle a little dirt so the roots aren’t in direct contact, then plant my little tomato. I have had no problems since I’ve been doing this (neither has my cousin). Evidently the calcium in powdered milk is in a form that the tomato plants can easily “take up”.
When I first heard about the milk, it was a bit past mid-summer, the tomato plants were already big & already having issues. Since it was way past planting, I mixed the powdered milk with water & gave the plants a good drink - that definitely improved the situation - anything that already didn’t have blossom end rot never got it. My cousin, for his large plants, will sprinkle the powdered milk in the soil around the plant, mix it in a bit & let it water in, either with rain or if he has to water the garden.
Pretty excited today .... my next door neighbor (my brother!) got a nice, medium size Kubota tractor yesterday. It has a bucket on the front & a 3-point hitch on the back. The bucket is on arms so it goes from way up to down. He told me this morning he’s “ready to play” so that means a lot of stuff around here can get easily moved. The winter debris (some large branches) will be going to the trash pile in the woods, soon (I won’t have to manually cut them up & haul one small cart at a time). Also, I am eliminating the grassy areas around my raised beds and he is going to haul the shavings from the chipper piles we have in about 3 different places in the field. He can also haul topsoil to some bare spots that need it or top off my beds. In the winter, he can clear his long driveway and our even longer circular driveway, including the big, hard snow piles that accumulate at the ends of the driveway when the snow plow goes down the road. I actually dreamed about that tractor last night ..... it’s going to be a huge help around here.
It is still raining here on the Redwood Coast and we are at 175% of “Normal” with normal being 32” vs 52” today and it is raining this morning. Have only got 2/3rds of our strawberries planted and no mulch or drip lines on those yet. Every thing is behind schedule and getting worse as Lady Bender needs a knee replacement very bad.
We have had great success growing Celebrity tomatoes in large pots using Blackgold potting soil but we garden is a very unique Garden Zone...
Question about growing garlic.
The suggestion here is that garlic should be planted in the fall after the first frost.
How well can I expect it to work out if I plant some now?
I’m in Zone 5b.
Sounds like your pot soil is a bit rich. Tomatoes do need calcium, I use egg shells. I mix my potting soil with sand.
Do not potting mix, I tried that and didn’t get fruit. I use the potting soil, some sand and some compost plus egg shells. I’m not a great gardener, but keep trying. We have some real gardeners here. They’ll help you.
We’ve gotten some badly needed rainfall this weekend in Central Missouri. I got a bit of cleanup done in the yard yesterday morning, then went to the sawmill and ordered posts and planks to build another 175’ of board fence behind the barn.
The afternoon yesterday was rained out, but I’ve gotten some cleanup done today in the kitchen garden and laid weed mat down on the path between the gate and the potting shed.
The radishes I sowed last week are starting to come up. The kale and rutabaga aren’t peeking out yet but it won’t be long now.
The late blooming orchard trees are in full song. Hopefully we won’t have any more of those bad cold nights this spring.
I took the week whacker to the asparagus patch this morning. Should have done it last weekend. I hacked off a dozen or so nice fat spears. Oh well...
Thanks for the milk molasses article. I’ve used dried molasses to keep the fire ants away from my plants, but to add milk. I wonder if this combination will rid our community garden of snails. I’m going to try it.
Sorry to hear about Lady tubebender’s knee. When she sees
her orthopedist she should ask if he’ll make a half circle cut around the edge of the patella rather than a straight cut down the middle of it. The half circle allows her to kneel later on at the knee heals.
Sorry about all the rain, but just think the moisture helps the Lady’s completion and the soil moist.
Rain did keep me from filling my potato pot, and the potato plants have gone gang busters, hopefully I can still get some potaotes with the addition of soil.
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