We got almost an inch of rain last night. We are supposed to get several days of rain next week. Rain barrels are full, but the swimming pool is not yet.
I have some ripe cherry tomatoes to eat from Mr. Indoor tomato, so salad tonight or tomorrow. I moved the peas and lettuce outdoors for transplant tonight or tomorrow. Lemon tree blooms are smelling good, and lemons are of various sizes all still green.
Cut some rye grass and used it for mulch along with some straw. Potatoes are about 1 inch above the straw mulch. Corn and second set of peas are soaking and will be started indoors tonight.
Hope all is well with you and your gardens. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
The tomatoes are hardened and I just checked the 10 day forecast. They are going in today.
Have you ever really looked at a mature Anise plant? In most big towns, Anise plants and seedlings are as ubiquitous as dandelions, and often just as lowly valued. If you want a mild licorice flavor or aroma, you can easily get that from anise. There are many Asian recipes that rely heavily on flavors like anise or clove. I used to smoke those french clove cigarettes in colored paper, until the fumes overwhelmed the room I was in.
Yesterday I was in my car sitting at a red light, and to my right, by the freeway curb was a majestic growth of this plant, easily over 6ft high, and still thriving, still reaching up, up, up to confront the sun. Look at the top edges of the leaves or fronds, see how soft, wet and green they are? The Anise foilage has a slight resemblance to the asperagus fern, another plant that once established, can be low maintenance and highly pleasing to see in it’s natural state. One might say the roadside Anise, ignored in it’s soft fragrant, flowing perfection, is the dirty pigeon of the succulent freeway greens. The Iceplant is a half step higher in status, more homogenized, and domesticated to suit the needs of people.
How far apart should fruit trees (apple/pear/peach) trees be planted?
I’ve heard anywhere from 10’ to 20’.
Garden is doing great. Beans are growing like crazy. Some tomatoes already on the vines. Squash are about three inches long with many flowers on the plants. Herb area is going gangbusters.
Here in Cedar County, MO it’s full steam ahead! Warm, wet, windy and green! I am planting more this year than I ever have. The tators are up and growing REALLY fast this year. Time to cover them up to their necks.
Have put in 4 of 6 raised beds that measure 4’x3’. Three of them are planted. Tomatoes with a lettuce in between them and carrot and radish seeds sewn around in the 1st. Tomatoes, green bell peppers (for a little shade from the toms), basil, and chives in the 2nd. Blue Lake bush beans and zucchini in the 3rd. Fourth one will be herbs: Rosemary, thyme, Basil and lemon grass that I have managed somehow to grow from seeds. Will throw a few sunflowers in with them for intermittent shade. Fifth and 6th raised beds will be hot peppers and some more staggered lettuce.
Along with the tators in the ground garden there are carrots, cukes, straight and crooked necked squash. East of them, to be planted as soon as it is not raining sideways with widely scattered tornadoes, will be the 3 Sisters using watermelons, cantaloupe and pumpkins as the squashes and more bush beans in staggered plantings. Corn will shadow all of the low crops from the afternoon blaze.
I hope I can keep up with it all. Oh, I forgot the red, yellow and hot peppers in the pots.......Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated. Also forgot the elephant and white garlic and sweet yellow onions that are just exlpoding!
Hello everyone!
It’s been busy and productive these past few days! Darlin and I installed a new hot water heater, so for a few days, we were rather ripe!
I was able to put my sunflowers and my okra into dirt! Also the Echinacea sprouts and chamomile sprouts.
A man came and trimmed out some problem limbs in a large tree in our yard, so we’ve been picking up brush and stacking some firewood! Having that limb gone also gives us some more “full sun” garden space! It wasn’t the intent, but I love that particular unintended consequence!
I started some more T squash. Got them into soil pellets.
Almost wiped out my unplanted green babies in their flats. They are living on the front porch now, and it has been VERY windy, and we were out of place and by the time I got to them, they were very dry, and VERY wilted. I hope I was able to revive them, but I’ll be able to see that tomorrow I suppose.
In all, despite my near disaster, I feel happy about progress. I hope everyone else is better at plant - parenting than I am! LOL!
I have our beet and radish seeds in and the potatoes planted. Our hoops are all wrapped like burritos. Though the temps overnight are still in the 30s, the thermometer in one bed showed the temp was in the 70s. I will get the lentils in next, then massive planting of seeds the beginning of May.
Covered hoops are a must up here at the top of Idaho. We used electrical conduit. I rigged a series of heavy nails and bolts in the size of the arch I wanted the hoops to conform to. We centered each pipe with me holding one end and my husband the other and got a ton of them bent quickly. My husband hammered holes about 1’ in each spot the ends go and I shoved them in. I do not remove them, using them for tying beans, peas and other vining veggies to or rigging string “trellises”. I may get a couple of bolts of cheap tulle as summer covers to keep the bugs out until plants start blossoming.
For composting, I dig a pit, place any kitchen or garden waste every few days. Top with a little of the dirt dug out. Repeat until full and covered. Dig a new pit next to it. Repeat. A year later, compost. This year, the now-3 1/2 week old chicks (got 4, got 4 more Wednesday), will add good poo to the compost pits. We will eventually get eggs and meat in the bargain, the “ chicken tractor coop” (waiting for the rain to stop to build), will be wheeled all around the perimeters of the gardens and the meadow for the chickens to do some serious bug control. Another win.
I grow 30 varieties of vegetables, herbs and medicinal herbs. I have two pitiful blueberry bushes and will go for the native huckleberries next time. We have a josta berry bush doing well. It is a cross of currant and gooseberry. My strawberries are always abundant by June. I am constantly digging baby runners and moving them to the ever-growing strawberry boxes. I have 45 sq. ft. of strawberries this year. I am also planting persimmons, a variety that is cold hardy. You know you live in a short growing season area when you find sub-arctic tomato and pepper seeds exciting. ;) my husband is better at greenhouse growing, so I put him in charge of the tobacco, tomato and peppers seed starting chore. I am glad he has that talent. I get leggy plants.
We may build a cattle-panel hoop house for a winter greenhouse this year. The hard part is watering in the winter. It would mean burying pipes and bringing a spigot into the greenhouse.
May your gardens all continue to thrive!
It’s been a terrific week - lots done and lots going on.
As of Thursday, I have two new 8’ x 4’ x 10” raised beds to add to a small 6 x 6 bed that just wasn’t enough last year. After hauling 4 loads of great dirt from an old brush pile (bulldozer pushed a lot of good topsoil into a mound clearing a field), plus adding some bought soil/compost to top it off, I think I’m getting close to “planting” stage.
My Trombetta di Albenga squash seeds (2) have germinated and are doing great. The Cucuzzi (cucurbita maxima) squash hasn’t put in an appearance yet, despite being presoaked (per instructions). I’m giving the little plants another two weeks before putting them in the garden to make sure they don’t get nipped by frost .... and also to give me time to come up with something for them to grow on - need 6-8 ft trellis .... I’m thinking an old ladder would work well.
The tulips (now on the wane) were spectacular - 117 blooms! I suspect this success has to do with a (deliberately) reduced squirrel population.
Of three old-fashioned lilac bushes planted last year, two survived and 1 is actually blooming - LOVE the smell of lilac.
Planted 6 Eastern Redbuds .... all are leafing out so if we keep them watered this summer, they should be blooming next spring.
Weather is gorgeous this weekend - spending it on the mower trying to get a couple of acres of grass under control .... if I listen carefully, I think I can hear it growing!
Happy Spring, everybody! :-)
One other thing. here is a link to a noaa page that reports wind, hail, and tornadoes for the lower 48 states. When storm season really get kicking in a few more weeks, it will show hundreds of hail storms, with hail up to 4” in some cases. When I worked as a storm insurance adjuster, I watched this page regularly to get an idea where I might be going in a day or so.
Yesterday, the 29th, the were 11 tornadoes, 46 hail storms, 2 were serious.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/yesterday.html