Posted on 03/03/2017 7:29:22 PM PST by greeneyes
Solar fence is pretty awesome. We don’t have any fences. Squirrels and a few possums and neighborhood dogs are the main pests around here.
Thanks for the garden ping. Both wife unit and I are waiting for warmer weather after record rains here in the Redwoods of NW Calif. Our normal rain for the season is 28.5 and we are at 48 with 3 months to go. Have you heard from the gardener up in North Dakota this year. I can’t remember his handle...
Nothing from the bee hives. Will check next week when it warms up.
Barb has a lot of seedlings up in the plant-starting area in the basement.
This is the time of the year when my late Grandpa John would traditionally plant his tomatoes in northern Wisconsin. He'd direct seed them with a 12 gauge!
Last year, we started seeds indoors on February 10. It was a bit of a struggle to keep the plants going. This year, March 3.
We’ll see how that works...
If you think Cherokee Purples are good, then you will love Black Krim. Mortgage Lifter is very good also a very sweet pink tomato with great flavor.
Never even knew there was a goodwill website? Who knew?! Learning a lot here. Interesting story about the Haitian corn grinder. I find the back story about things pretty fascinating.
I’m loving Walmart.com. They went from 50.00 to 35.00 an order free 2 day shipping. They use fedex so it comes right to your door. If I want something I usually find it there for the best price then if I need to get something else to make up the minimum I get the small 6 packs of Welch’s grape juice/with black cheery juice. I just ordered a 3tb WD backup drive for my desktop. Instead of 2 days it came the next day. We haven’t used amazon for months.
BTW greetings to all from west Michigan. Still too cold here to do any gardening, just growing alfalfa sprouts now, and getting bluebird boxes cleaned out.
I’ve been using the Jiffy pots for years with good success. Keep the covers on when sprouting. Mist them at least a couple times a day. I use a little room in the shop to start and I keep it at 80 to 85 degrees as instructions call for. Peppers will not germinate well at colder temps. I have Ozark Giants, Chinese Giants, Big Bertha, Jalapeno, Ghost, Carolina Reapers and Chili peppers started.
The trick of growing bedding plants is to keep grow lights—I use 4 ft florescent— an inch or so above the plants and raise them as they grow. This way they will not get spindly.
I keep experimenting with tomato varieties but my staple is Parks Hybrid. They grow large-bread sized slices— never split, good flavor, and not watery. Five varieties planted and will grow a total of around 40 plants in the gardens.
Wow, that’s impressive!
We use cattle panels covered with chicken wire to 4 ft tall for rabbits. Then 8 ft posts with electric wire to 8 ft. We have to use solar chargers as there is no electricity near the gardens. Rag strips tied to the electric wire so deer can see it. I keep live traps out for the possums. We used to let the dogs run the 5 acres but there are wild geese nesting on the pond so they are confined to the back yard.
No apples or cherries this year as the warm weather had the trees blooming then it went down to 24 the other night. Rhubarb looks singed but hope it will snap out of it.
Check out Lehmans in Ohio for a lot of hand tools, which are available online.
They are in Amish country in Ohio.
I plant Cherokee Purples for making spaghetti sauce, which pretty much gets me off the gift-giving hook with my entire family, plus Brandywines and Garden Peaches for fresh eating/canning and cherries to snack on and dehydrate.
AWESOME! I still have weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks to go before I even start my tomatoes. :(
The year I experimented with growing in large nursery pots. Tomatoes, cukes, and peppers. Worked well!
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