Posted on 10/19/2012 10:42:12 AM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
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Tomatoes are still hanging in there with lots of green tomatoes. About every other day, I get one or two with a blush that I pick and wrap in newspaper to ripen.
Hope all your gardens are doing well for the current season. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
We've decided to leave the sunflower stalks in place and use them next year for her Philippine long beans.
The tomatoes did well (again) on my invented "bed"
And I just came in from moving our chicken tractor in place so the biddies can come and go into the 6ft high, fenced, 50 X 50 garden.
I top dressed with cow manure yesterday and didn't till anything under ... I'll let the chickens have at it for the winter.
We'll see ... never did this before.
Should be nitrogen rich by spring. LOL.
North Idaho - garden all prepped and ready for winter with manure and organic clippings.
No snow yet....should be some in the higher mountains this weekend. Mountain pass traveling in the Cascades and Idaho/Montana line could be dicey. Possible rain/snow mix in vallys. Highs in 40’s next week.
Cocoa and seed catalogs by the fireplace....
Peppers are just about done changing colors...orange, purple, red, and chocolate bells looking good in Red Hampshire...mustard habaneros ready to be processed for hot sauce.
2013 seed offerings are starting to pop up on line...a sure sign of spring. :-)
Cocoa, seed catalogs, and a fireplace. Sounds devine. Cooler temps are arriving here as well.
I find it difficult to grow much of anything in S FL.
You said cocoa? mmmmmm
Sounds great. I have one sweet pepper finishing up indoors(I rescued it from the garden and put into a pot in the afternoon shade)as only yield from a dozen plants. Also 2 fooled you jalepeno peppers from 2 plants indoors as well.
Next year I am going to plant several pots in addition to the garden plot.
If I can grow lemons in Missouri, surely you can grow some in Florida? LOL.
I plant all my peppers in 3-gallon pots...mobility is essential this time of year, and I get a better yield in pots.
Yeh, I am definitely going to do that next year. Also going back to having at least 4- 5-gallon pots for Tomatoes too.
My sister in Ft. Myers area grows lemons, limes, and grapefruit in her yard. She is thinking of trying a few earthboxes by the swimming pool for a fall/winter crop of veggies.
Thank you for taking over the gardening thread, Greeneyes! Things have been busy with trying to start a new business. Half the time I don’t even know what day it is.
I did manage to get the potatoes harvested this week. It’s been interesting to compare the two varieties. I had ordered a fingerling potato after carefully comparing descriptions, but for some reason no matter how many times I said I’d ordered them, my dad had it in his head that I expected him to buy me seed potatoes. He does that sometimes, he gets so convinced he knows what you mean, that he doesn’t actually hear what you say.
Anyway, he brought a nameless variety of red potato, so I planted both. The fingerlings had long vines that I couldn’t seem to keep hilled. The reds had kind of short, stubby vines. The reds died down at the first hint of cold weather, but the fingerlings took several freezes before the vines died down. The reds produced about enough to replace their own seed potatoes. The fingerlings produced about 4X what was planted, although some of them are kind of funky-looking, with multiple arms and legs.
Both survived the drought, but I think I’ll only plant the fingerlings next year.
My tomatoes didn’t make it through the drought, but the farmers markets are full of them, so I’ve been canning up spaghetti sauce.
Picked a bucket of fresh limes today. That was about twice the amount we got all last year. Garden veggies are doing OK, but still waiting for some to come up.
Hi from SE PA! My first gardening post. I grew tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and cukes, red onions, garlic and a 2nd year fig tree.
Tomato leaves got black spot and leaves all fell off. The early fruit was fine, but short season and not as many tomatoes as I would have expected (not enough to make much sauce).
Peppers grew well, but didn’t get very large.
Zucchini, squash and cuke leaves got a white mildew and some veges had, I think, blossom end rot.
Red onions and garlic bulbs didn’t get very big, so I left them in the ground.
I had my soil tested and amended; good watering and plenty of sun in raised beds; the only think I can think of is that they were planted too close together.
Now on to the fig tree. It’s a brown turkey fig and I’ve protected it from our one night of frost. It has quite a few figs, they are all very green and hard, and I think they are supposed to be picked when soft.
Anybody have any fig ripening suggestions? Should I pick them before it gets frosty?
I was asked to make a carrot cake and so my first tour of Cosco I bought a 10 lb sack of carrots. Peeled them all, shredded enough to make two carrot cakes, and chopped the rest and canned 8 pints. They sure look pretty.
I still have not gotten my sweet potatoes dug as the ground now is soaked from last weekend's monsoon, but tomorrow is reported to be a warm up and so that is what I will do tomorrow.
My strawberry beds are also on my to get done list before the ground freezes. I will make some paths and add some black mulch. I have found that black mulch works best for weed control and retains the heat come spring when the plants begin to blossom. Strawberry beds always require lots of labor every couple of years.
Thanks for the ping GE. As I reported in the last thread I got my Garlic planted, mulched and covered to keep the skunks from digging up the sets. Picked the last of the salad cukes today and all of the pumpkins. We are in full time cleanup mode here on the shores of Humboldt Bay. I’ll post some photos later...
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