Have most of my seeds and plants ordered, received, or stored, but will still be ordering some from the sales catalogs as they come in.
Lemon tree is blooming again, and the fragrance is very nice. I'll be leaving shortly for a meeting, but will be reading and posting later on.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
I did have to transplant my first batch of Roma tomatoes into their 16oz containers only 11 days into starting them. I started the second batch when I transplanted.
Usually, I start tomatoes every 2 weeks for 6 weeks, in case I get caught by a late freeze after I set them out, I'll have backups ready.
Kids are supposed to come over this weekend to help me get a couple of truckloads of the free mulch for the garden.
I'm ready for spring to really show up so I can start moving some of this jungle into the ground. ;)
/johnny
OK, I live in moderate Maryland. My poor neglected lawn has both bare spots and weeds. When should I put down the pre-emergent weedicide and when should I put down seeds?
Please, add me to the ping list.
The bales have been watered daily. They're nice and hot on the inside, doing what they're supposed to do.
I went out this morning and pulled open the top of a bale, ready to plunge my hand in, only to be greeted by squirming maggots! YUK!
None of the straw or hay bale gardening sites mention maggots, so I've sprinkled each bale with food grade DE. It kills fleas, maybe it will destroy maggots too.
I've been outside cleaning up some potting soil all morning. I think I'll re-pot my snapdragons today and maybe plant the dahlia and other bulbs my wife just surprised me with. Speaking of the wife: for Valentines Day I got her live plants, an orchid and some tulips.
Every year I do my seed-starting thing in mid-January with specialty tomatoes and peppers.... and every year I lose many of the pepper plants and most of the tomato plants to damping off, no matter what gyrations I go through to ward it off. Sterilizing the mix, hydrogen peroxide in the water spray, etc. Nothing seems to be foolproof. Does anyone here have any sure-fire solution to eliminate the damping off problem?
Thanks.
It’s about time to go nuts...pepper seedlings, both sweet and ‘death hot’ (my Bhut Jolokia Peach is a beauty already), are doing well. Flats of Iditarod Red dwarf tomatoes all looking good, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs all chugging. Tomato flats are just about prepped...somewhere north of two hundred varieties to be tried out this year before we start cutting back...seeds everywhere. Roughly another 30 or 40 varieties due over the next few weeks.
Apple trees are blossoming, and the peach trees may follow suit in the next few days. I hope we aren’t hit with a freeze in March though.
This week, I have started some cool weather veggies under a grow light. I am going to direct seed the majority of these varieties later, but was getting itchy to grow something. I have tiny sprouts of Kohlrabi Purple Vienna, Orach Aurora, Red Romaine Lettuce, and Nero Di Toscana Kale.
I will keep y'all posted on the small-scale grain raising project. Maybe if I get over being lazy I'll figure out how to post pictures when things get going. For those interested in doing similar things, Gene Logsdon’s book ‘Small-Scale Grain Raising’ is a good place to get the fever.
Spading the new Strawberry bed was dirty, grueling backbreaking work but someone had to do it so I sharpened the shovel for Lady Bender and marked off the plot for her…
I raked the bed smooth and laid out the rows…
and started the transplanting…
And 9 rows of new Strawberries (108 plants) later…
A little spritz of a starter solution to set the roots and they are on their own…
The person with the corn seed I wanted finally updated her list. She does NOT have the variety I wanted, so it’s a good thing I ordered my backup. She does have the popbeans I wanted, so I’ll still order those. It’s a type of chickpea that you pop like popcorn, which means it cooks fast and without any cooking water! Since her philosophy is that seeds should be public-domain, I’ll be able to grow those out and maybe have enough to sell in a year or two.
My new job is going really well so far. They had a position that didn’t require talking, so while some of my coworkers find it a little awkward to have a mute working at a call center, I’m enjoying it.
On the medical side, things are iffy. I mentioned last week that my doctor had found fibroids. On Monday I met with her and she told me the rest of the story. It wasn’t just one or two, there were so many tumors that the radiologist couldn’t tell where one part of the uterus ended and another began. It was like the whole thing was made of gravel. I see a specialist in a couple weeks to figure out what to do about it.
The person with the corn seed I wanted finally updated her list. She does NOT have the variety I wanted, so it’s a good thing I ordered my backup. She does have the popbeans I wanted, so I’ll still order those. It’s a type of chickpea that you pop like popcorn, which means it cooks fast and without any cooking water! Since her philosophy is that seeds should be public-domain, I’ll be able to grow those out and maybe have enough to sell in a year or two.
My new job is going really well so far. They had a position that didn’t require talking, so while some of my coworkers find it a little awkward to have a mute working at a call center, I’m enjoying it.
On the medical side, things are iffy. I mentioned last week that my doctor had found fibroids. On Monday I met with her and she told me the rest of the story. It wasn’t just one or two, there were so many tumors that the radiologist couldn’t tell where one part of the uterus ended and another began. It was like the whole thing was made of gravel. I see a specialist in a couple weeks to figure out what to do about it.
Wow! Coming to this thread late...
My little amaranth sprouts didnt make it because I didnt put their toes into soil fast enough. I learned however, that the seeds I have are indeed viable. Just this morning I’m trying again. Since I know they are viable, I’m starting them directly in the soil.
I’ve put one of those little soil tablets into a paper egg carton section which I cut out from the dozen. It absorbs water like a sponge, so I then put it into a little plastic cup that applesauce came in.
The sweet potato sprout is going great guns! We have it in an applesauce cup in the window. We change out the water each day and it seems very happy!
Looked through my seed box, and have lots of packets that I look forward to trying soon.
Also, I planted some chard and spinach from seed. The plants are alive, but very tiny. Will they survive until spring, or will the cold weather eventually kill them? Anyone have any advice for me?