Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 10/23/2009 10:55:17 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good afternoon to all of you gardeners. I apologize for the late post today. Well the last days of October are upon us and the garden is finally tilled for the last time this year. I seeded it with an annual rye grass. I also started rebuilding my compost pile. The oak and pecan trees have yet to drop their leaves so I will have to wait for their contribution to the compost pile until November.
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.
If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.
I still have tomatoes and carrots.
Hopefully the winter stuff I planted will do okay.
Anyone picking collards yet?
10 inches of rain in October, an early frost, and what is left—mud pit and no chance to fall till. 51 quarts of the best salsa ever, canned tomatoes, frozen corn, and more apples now than we can even give away.
We had a freak (as in unexpected) frost earlier this week, the frost warning maps has us very much in the clear, so I didn’t do anything to protect the last of the tomatoes.........SIGH.
Pickled Collards?.................
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noooo.... Collard greens. I always make a mess of greens a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Then freeze them in vacum bags.
I got the collards myself. My neighbor has room for mustard and turnup greens. I always make at least one batch with all three combined.
My daughter calls it the “good pooping food”
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Now.........that's just danged funny :)
In before 10? Woohoo!
Weather has been gorgeous but raining now.
No collards picked yet but they are growing beautifully.
Wow! 51 quarts of salsa!
Didn’t make it before 10. :(
Fat, slow fingers. LOL
We didn’t get frost but it got really cool/close.
Funny but oh so true! LOL
Thank you, thank you very much!
Now that I’m “in” may I make a suggestion? It would be ever so helpful if other folks on this board would add the name of their State when making comments about their weather, or whichever task they are planning. That would not be necessary when you are congratulating someone about thheir beautiful flowers, or their great crop. But, when you are adding something about your neck of the woods, it would be helpful to know where you are gardening.
Not every freeper has their state attached to their name.
Sign me: “Gardening in Wisconsin”.
And it’s cold and raining like the dickens here todoay.
Close enough :)
I was not a happy camper when I got up in the morning and found all those blackened vines and transparent yellow maters.
If you don’t want to reveal your State, how about just your Zone?
Pshaw, that’s nothing. We had over 9” of rain two nights ago. And most of that came through the ceiling. One guess what we’re doing this weekend.
Oooh, salsa on a piece of toast...
I had a really stinky gardening season this year. I tore a major muscle in my leg right after I got some of my stuff in the ground this spring. Then we had a really wet spring with my strawberries underwater for the most part and me in a cast unable to reach them. After it dried out, everything sprouting baked to a crisp in an early June heatwave. I have had tomatoes and need to get out and start cleaning up after last week's frost.
I've been collecting milk jugs and 2L soda bottles to get ready for my Winter Sowing. I need to prep the containers (burn drainage holes and cut the tops). Maybe look for some end of season potting soil sales. I don't normally plant in my containers until January but I know some who start as early as Dec.
I’m needing some advice from a northern, or northern midwestern, gardener on Irises. Anybody out there?
It's been sunny and in the mid 70s here on the Virginia end of the DelMarVa Peninsula. We had the cold and the rain all of last week.
That cold spell a few weeks ago that got down to 7F put an end to everything I had growing. I planted 8 12 ft rows of 4 varieties of garlic. Got about a foot of mulch on top and shoveled the snow off the deck on top of that so it is under about a foot of snow now. I have many seeds left from last year so I an trying to figure out where to plant to get some crop rotation.
Please explain further how you are doing “winter sowing”. Do you keep these jugs under a grow light? What are you sowing?
I’m starting a Square Foot Garden for vegetables next spring. I have the boxes built, but no planting mix in them yet because the garden centers are all sold out. It is not safe to plant outdoors here until May. In fact most people plant over Memorial Day around here, although you can do it earlier with protection. It would be nice to have a few seedlings ready to go out mid May.
I am in East Central Mississippi.
Of Turnips, Mustards and Collards, Collards are my least favorite. But ALL are better than spinach or cabbage!.........................
I am at 8500 ft elevation in the Colorado Rockies NW of Golden right next to Roosevelt National Forest.
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Irises anyone? I need to lift them and add fill underneath in a bed that is too low. They’ll need to be divided, but it’s getting really late in the season. Would they survive the winter if I just dug them up and stored them in the basement in Peat Moss?
Or, should I forget the whole thing and leave them for thel Spring?
If it were 10 degrees colder out there, I’d have 2 feet of snow on that bed right now. It might warm up again, but I have little hope.
OMG ---- I'm so sorry to hear that.
I have a cousin who lives there, but I haven’t seen her in 50 years. (MS)
My daughter lives in Richmond, VA, but I always think of her weather as much milder than ours. Your report sounds just like what we’ve had the last 2 weeks with a good day sprinkled in here, or there.
Your location sounds gorgeous. I hope people will post pictures of their views and their gardening successes ove the upcoming weeks.
Diana will be your go to person for growing in Wisconsin, but I would venture to say that she is probably still at work right now.
I am sure Diana in Wisconsin will stop in at some point and she may be able to help you. Diana is one of the 4 FReeper Master Gardners that regularly visit the thread.
Diana is north-west of me with a bit harsher climate. But, she is a good source. I didn’t now she was into gardening. Thanks.
Richmond’s weather tends to be different than ours. I’m slightly northeast as the crow flies from Richmond, but on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay. Both the Bay and the Atlantic effect our weather.
I long ago learned the only thing consistent about DelMarVa weather is its’ inconsistency :)
But, I have carefully planned these boxes, and I need a lot of compost for next year. Right now, I have a lot of leaves and grass clippings which would be a good start. But, the snow is coming soon. What happens if it freezes? Will it thaw and continue decomposing in the spring?
There are limitations to what you can grow using this method but I'd say that is limited more to tropicals or temperature sensitive plants. I grow mostly tomatoes, peppers, perennials and hardy annuals using my pots outside.
I use my husband's soldering iron to burn the holes and then cut the containers about 3/4's of the way up. Plant the seeds in the potting soil (anything cheap will do), tape the tops back down and leave the screw caps off for air and water to get in. Stick, them in a sunny spot in my backyard and wait for sprouts around March/April. I live in zone 7B.
I'm not good with html code but here's a good website with more info about this technique. http://www.wintersown.org/ I've been doing this for about 3yrs now. I now only grows heirloom tomatoes since I can finally grow them myself. I never had luck with indoor planting, unfortunately. Too many curious kids, dogs, not enough space and my own incompetence. lol
My daughter’s yard grows like gangbusters while the same plants poke along here. She looked at my raised rose garden and pointed at a little piece of ivy that I had planted to trail over the edge of the wall and said, “You didn’t plant that there ON PUROSE, did you?”
I have an Oak Leaf Hydrangea that I have been nursing along for 15 years. It’s about 2 feet high. She has an Oak Leaf Hydrangea that she planted 3 years ago and it covers a whole wall of her house!
Warm weather, rain, and a long growing season will do a lot for a garden!
I get the first to, but not the third. And I’m keeping an eye on that ivy, just in case. ;)
Do a search using the key word - weekly - it will bring up all the thread posted this year. There have been a bunch of pictures post over the past 22 weeks.
can I have your share of the collards and cabbage, please? I dont get enough of either.
I’ve done that with my irises. My zone is fairly temperate and I’ve even had some to bloom the same year that I replantd them but there may be a chance that you don’t get blooms until the following year.
That is beautiful.
That sounds like a wonderful idea. I might try that myself starting in March and see what happens. Since I have no way to recycle my milk jugs anyway, this will be a good use of them.
I’m in Zone 5B. Just a little west (1-2 miles) of Lake Michigan.
Your photo is breathtaking! Thanks.
Sorry! We’ve got a few late plants outside at the garden center. Decided not ot cover them—they were fine.
I once lived in a house, or rather shack, for a summer and every time it rained we had to put a 1/2 dozen pans and buckets down to catch the drips. The rodents loved it and would occasionally get in bed with me. I have been poor and don’t want to go back.
Salsa goes with chips, tacos, other mexican dishes, and on eggs, but not toast. Are you Kenyan or kiddin?
A food processors saves having to hand-cut and dice the tomatoes, green peppers, onions, halapenos, hot banana peppers, and cilantro. Nevertheless, it is a laborious task that no liberal could ever accomplish—too much work.
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