Posted on 05/21/2010 5:00:30 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Wish I could send you some sun...no sign of rain the next two weeks, outside of an ‘isolated’ thunderstorm. Planting will be outstanding...
Wow. I’m impressed. How much coffee do you drink? :)
I just started a couple of planters with your Beneficial Bug Mix. I could not find orange cosmos so I used a mix called Summer Sunshine Mix - has orange,red yellow flowers.
Hey, Diana.
How is everything?
Your gardens look beautiful. My yard does all right, mainly because of previous owners planting the right stuff. I’ve been a good shepherd for them, but that’s all the credit I can take.
I’m trying to get a good vegetable garden in. Last year’s tomatoes did well, but the zuke did not grow fruit. I’m reading the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Veg. Gardening and Veg. Garde. for Dummies. I just wish I had a complete list of what would grow best here, when to plant it, and how to take care of it. It seems like the information is scattered all over the place.
What are the good bugs and bad bugs you have to deal with? Also, do any critters eat those “good bug” plants?
Wow...the only place I thought that zucchini wouldn’t grow is the top of Mount Everest.
If you can’t trust an old farmer, who can you trust? ;)
http://www.almanac.com/topics/gardening/starting-your-garden
Pots and pots of it, LOL!
They do grow better in the rain.
I’m in NC - I have tomatoes on the vines, we have been eating leaf lettuce and spinach for weeks, the pepper plants (5 varieties) are blooming, the eggplant is growing well, have blooms on my squash and zucchini - everything is going great so far. We have had a very moderate spring, not too hot not too cold, good amount of rain. Looks like a bumper crop at this point ...
:)
We have plenty of room so I thought I'd add on - seemed like the thing to do since food is so expensive and you don't know where it comes from anymore.
Spring is the season of hope and when gardening is fun. When the hot and muggy Maryland summer gets here, not as much.
But gardening is good for the soul and body, and is always worth it, particularly that first yummy tomato.
Happy hoing!
I picked three tomatoes the other day. We have onions that are almost ready to pull. Bell peppers are almost big enough too. The cilantro is coming along nicely too.
Peas are climbing the new pea fence and are chest high and blooming. Potatoes are up and growing. Eating lettuce, onions, spinach, a few radishes and turnips. Few strawberries and pick some rhubarb and cherries yesterday.
Have one tomatoe as big as a tennis ball (From the one I started early in the new greenhouse) Others need to be caged.
Planted beans: green, lima and soup earlier in the week.
Also squashes and transplanted all the cabbage family into square foot area: Brussel spouts, brocolli, cauliflower.
Today’s list just gets longer and longer...but it’s suppose to rain and the HD crew should be here to put in new garage/shop door. At least we shoud have a good test of the repaired roof Rubin, Jacob, Levi and Marvin did this week.
Peas are all harvested..Garden re-tilled, tomatos and peppers, squash, cucumbers, pole beans, and kale all in the ground. Huckleberries coming up nicely, and I have been harvesting strawberries the last 3 weeks. My new compost pile is composing nicely, and 2 ten gal. buckets of compost tea ready to go. God I love the Gardening season. And by the way chickens are laying once again. We threw some golf balls out there, and that old snake got one..so no more snake stealing the eggs.
Not your imagination...a showery day in the low seventies is perfect for veggie flats...won't be happening around here, unfortunately. :-(
A post every minute? This thread is on FIRE!
You might get some good info from about what to plant and when. PennState Horticulture and Gardening
I’ve worked REALLY hard on making my farm a place where birds and good bugs and frogs, toads and snakes like to live. I have a lot of cover for the birds, fresh water, a full feeder (always) and then specialized foods at different times of the year. Right now the Baltimore Orioles are passing through (hopefully a few pair will stay) so there’s sugar water and orange marmalade out for them to eat. :)
As you can see from my pictures, I don’t mow every square inch around the yard; that gives cover for the anphibians who eat a lot of mosquitoes and flies, etc. We also have brown bats that are (unfortunately) in the attic; we are working on relocating them to the barn...they’re not catching on too quickly though, LOL! We have a lot of dragon flies (helps to have a lake across the road) and they eat their weight in skeeters each day, too. One evening there must’ve been a huge hatch because there was a layer of dragonflies about 6 feet off the ground darting around, feeding, and then above them were the swallows at 10-15 feet or so, doing the same.
No chemicals used, either. Chemicals REALLY effect anphibians in a very bad way. Well, I use a little Round-Up here and there, but I’ve gardened organically for the past 15 years and it has really paid off. I have little slug problems, no damage from tomato horn worms, no cutworms, etc.
Nothing I like better than seeing a Mama bird with a beak full of bugs heading back to her nest!
Just do a little something for the wildlife every season. Look up ‘planting for birds’ or ‘planting for butterflies’ or ‘planting for wildlife’ and add a perennial plant or shrub or two to your property each season. It eventually pays of in a big way!
...or how it has been 'fertilized'...eeeewwwwww.
...just stay away from the worms in my raised beds, Mama...
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