Posted on 03/15/2013 3:25:57 PM 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 wont be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isnt 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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I usually just plant the seeds outdoors. Mid year 2011, I had ordered some Arkansas Travelers during an after spring sale pretty cheap.
They backordered them. Then finally sent a card saying that the were out of stock and crediting back my account. Imagine my suprize when the spring of 2012 rolled around and they sent me the order, and just charged the sale price!
It was great to have the plants to transplant too, but of course starting your own is still the best.
We’ve got tomatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, beans, and zucchini started. All of them are from heirloom stock.
Still holding right around the freezing mark. Maybe if I dance nekkid in the moonlight it will warm up . . .
Sounds like good progress to me.
Petruchio, great to hear from you. Nice picture. Be careful where you dance. Spies are everywhere these days. LOL.
Gotta go now, be back later.
OK, OK. I planted one cherry tomato in a pot. Kudos to me! I’ll do more tomorrow. Last time I looked, the tobacco was still growing in the teeny/tiny pots.
But, I now have Cuesta Mesa Gold Tequila and Baja Bob’s Non-sugar Margarita Mix and Jose Cuervo Margarita Salt - does that count for somehing?
Put in a late order with Springhill week before last. Got my order in today. Wow. Got 30+ Trinidad Moruga Scorpion seeds for $3.00. Which is a steal. Very very pleased with them.
Second batch of tomato seedlings is ready for their first transplant. They’re about 5 or 6” tall right now. First batch got eaten by mice! Augh. We had the garage door open one day doing some cleaning and left it open way past dark by accident. Sneaky little critters. Took traps + poison to get rid of them. I *think* they’re gone now.
Also put in a late order to Cooks Garden for some Biker Billy jalapeno seeds. Hubby loves those as they’re extra hot. Picked up a chive plant called ‘Cha-Cha’ that looks interesting. Ordered the patio corn variety from Burpee along with the 2lb sauce tomato. I couldn’t resist. Got the bush melon ‘Honey Bun’ and a spaghetti squash ‘Goldetti’. We’re watching ‘Biggest Loser’ and a couple of the contestants rave over spaghetti squash.
Finally got around to putting my Jungs order in. Algoflash, Sluggo-plus, one of the little squeeze bulb pro seeders, some ‘Barbeque’ rosemary and ‘Hot and Spicy’ oregano too. Trying some ‘Kakai’ pumpkin that has the no hull seeds. My chickens love pumpkin seeds. Re-ordered my Rumbo pumpkin seeds too. We love that variety, planted early we can get 10-12 10-15lb pumpkins/vine.
Now comes all the hard work.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting all the peppers. About 2m too late. But I wanted to make sure my garage was mouse free before I chanced the expensive seeds once I saw the destruction, utter destruction, of my maters. have to plant all my herbs, eggplants, tomatillos, ground cherries, and some zinnias to grow under the lights.
I’ll be starting some zucchinis, cucumbers, bush watermelons, and about half of my winter squash in peat pots for transplant.
Then I get to work in my strawberry bed. And preliminary work on a front yard ‘decorative’ herb bed. Have 2 fig trees coming in and need to get their home prepared too. Hubby’s got to prepare the ‘big garden’ so we can plant corn there in a couple weeks. Weather has been dicey this year. The project should feed our chickens once we’re done.
Sunday I’ll probably be immobile on a heating pad.
I really admire you to be able to work/plant like you do. I like reading about it even if I can’t do it. Good health to you as you go through this process.
Oh... I'm there at this point. I finally crashed hard about an hour and a half ago and just now woke up with a crease on my forehead. I shouldn't fall asleep at my desk. ;)
I've got several more days ahead of me of the same kind of work. And the SIL is coming over with his truck to help me get about 4 yards of mulch early tomorrow AM. If I can hold on for a week, then everything will be on autopilot for a while.
/johnny
The strawberry bed really needed doing about 3m ago. But, we had 3m straight of torrential rain. I have to dig up the bunched up runners from last year, spread them out a foot or so apart, cull the older ratty plants that won’t make anything and neaten up the edges. Then I take cardboard from cereal boxes, pasta boxes, toothpaste boxes etc (the small thin cardboard) and cover over all the open space between the plants. Pinestraw goes on top and when I’m done it looks like a landscaped bed with groundcover of some sort. You have to get close to see all the strawberries. Keeps down weeds and only requires half or less of the water in the summer than it took before I started covering it over.
The problem is it’s time intensive, involves sitting on a stool and mucking about. The great part is it only has to happen once a year. After that, no weeding. Just picking!
Enjoy your margaritas. That would be totally not required for me to crash very hard tonight. (Again).
/johnny
/johnny
Hubby got 2 big bags of cow poop and will get 2 or 3 big bags of pinestraw from the local nursery supply gal. I *really* need to remember to sweep my parents yard and get it free this year. Really I do.
I got a pack of rice seeds (carolina gold) that I’m going to plant somewhere wind protected. It sounds delicious!
Tomatoes and tobacco will go out right after Easter. Corn and sunflowers will get planted ASAP (Monday?). I've already got squash, zuchinni, and okra just started in their little pots. Peanuts will be in the ground by Good Friday (I hope).
/johnny
We got peanuts too this year. SESE had something that looked delicious at the time. Never order seeds or plants while you’re hungry! That’s how I ended up with 6 new tomato varieties. And a dwarf tangerine tree. And 2 new fig trees. And the Cha-Cha chive plant.
I’m still looking for black oil sunflower seeds. Supposedly chickens love BOSS. (and deer and other critters too)
Thanks for continuing to include me! Here’s a shameless plug for my Garden Center. I’m in Madison, WI. We have 5 stores; mine is the biggest (and best!) :)
http://www.jungseed.com (Ask for a FREE catalog - you won’t be disappointed!)
I’m readying the Bare Root Room to open on March 23rd!!
I have potatoes (a dozen varieties) and my packaged roses came in today. Lots of lovelies in that bunch! Cannot WAIT to add a few more shrub roses to my garden border!
Fresh seed is in for 2013, though I am still missing a few varieties due to supply and demand; we ship all over the USA.
I have fresh houseplants up from Florida and some herbs and lots of bloomin’ lovelies to brighten up the windowsill while we’re watching the snow melt up here on the Tundra - it’s slow going - we were in the 70’s and then into the 80’s in March of last year - which was insane, but made for great sales!
Doesn’t look like any of us up here will get our peas or potatoes planted on March 17th, LOL!
/johnny
Blah, keep those three leaf ones away from me. They’re weeds in the garden. Four leaf ones are more than welcome.
Half the garden is planted and for some reason half of that went poof, disappeared, not even a dead leaf. Then I let the inside transplants get a little droopy dry so hoping they’ll perk up so they can go outside this weekend. Then I can start over with seeding some more inside to transplant later. It’s supposed to be near 90 the next few days.
Hubby finally tilled the side garden today and I worked on cleaning out the herb bed. Spread weed and feed on half the yard. There’s so many fix it chores that I don’t know what to do first. I’ve been out to the garden three times today and still never managed to cut the asparagus.
I hadn’t thought about just using those. Did you just plant the ones that come in the bird feed bag? That might be ridiculously cheap.
Got the basic tilling done for the ‘pea patch’, but still need to go over it at least one more time at full depth. I plan on 7 50’ double rows of Sugar Snap. That’s about 2,100 seeds.
Good thing we like them!
Yes, they are going in mainly for soil improvement; also, a certain restaurant in town may well be interested in taking some off my hands...and I know the food bank will.
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