Posted on 03/17/2017 9:18:45 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 won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
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Cleanup continues a bit on the patio. Still researching the green house. Got to withdraw some IRA money for purchase.
Hope all is well with anyone. Have only had few hours of sleep the last few days so am heading to take a snooze. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
I talked with my friend about the ancient maise he has been growing for several years. He’s going to give me an ear for seed. I will try to post a picture of it when I get it. It looks like wheat on a cob, lol. He said it grows some 20 feet tall, I’m excited. Yes, I’m interested in getting a small greenhouse too probably 8x10 or so. My outside cats are getting to be a problem, always knocking over my pots or worse.
Biochar
Plant catnip well away from your gardening area? My sister has barn cats and she does that. The population of the cats seems to have natural controls as there never seems to be more than a dozen or so. Personally I would spey or neuter but that could/would get cost prohibitive I suppose.
Look for low cost spay and neuter clinics in your area. Here they literally do 1000’s of animals a day. Feral ones are done no cost. Staffed by a bunch of libs (aka Fake Americans) , but good at their jobs. A vet can spay 10 animals a week vs. 200 a day.
That sounds interesting. Have you tasted any of his crop? Is it used for corn meal or good to eat off the cob?
What about Biochar?
I certainly get it. It is so sad. In Missouri, this happens all the time to peach trees. Lucky to get a crop once every 4 years.
Greetings from southern New Hampshire! We got clobbered with close to 20” of snow. It took me two days to dig out. Drive belt and shear bolt failures on tractor mounted snow thrower.
Barb’s seedlings are going great guns. I am planting leek seeds this evening.
Barb found my copy of “Crocket’s Victory Garden”! What a wonderful book!
Saw my first Robins, yesterday. Cardinals are singing their mating songs. Redwing Blackbirds and Bow Headed Cowbirds are back. So are the Grackles.
Our seed-started tomatoes and peppers are about 4 inches tall and ready for their first transplant. Wife has a half dozen herbs also started.
Wish I could post some pix...
I ran across a video making a self-watering seed starter out of a plastic drink bottle. It was on Facebook so getting a link proved problematic (just took me back to the entire page, not that particular post/video). I got to searching around for something similar & found this:
Self-Watering Seed Starter
http://www.homesteadnotes.com/make-self-watering-plant-containers/2/
The idea is the same except for one thing - in the video, a hole was drilled in the bottle cap. A piece of thick yarn was soaked in water, squeezed out & then threaded through the hole, enough to coil around 2-3 times in the bottom of the part that holds the plant. Soil was then put on top of the coiled yarn & that is where seed(s) was planted. The part of the yarn dangling through the hole going the other way went into the water to wick it up into the soil.
ping
Well , we were able to see the beautiful ground for a day or two before we had that lil’ snowfall . I am not very pleased with our weather services hyping up the storms as they do , and tailoring typical storms as ‘global warming” events. To name average storms as they do with Hurricanes and typhoons seems to take the seriousness away from really big storms....must be the conditioning of the populous .....anyhoo...it has been a snowy winter this year here in Maine and our water table is great . Should be a great year for our farms and livestock and i will be in the dirt once again working for the nice couple that has the Zone 4 perrennial business which i am looking forward too. beyond that not too much going on.
Before you spend a lot of money on a greenhouse have you considered using the plastic that is made for just for greenhouses? A simple framework and a few staples or simplex nails and your done? It allows you to dismantle it if you so choose and is portable? I have built small and big ones...very frugal way to create good growing conditions!
It’s been very cold here. I’m waiting for the temperature to get above 32 before I can go out again an use a metal shovel to clean off more of the ice and snow on the deck before it collapses. :)
I guess “maize” is technically corn. Last year, I ordered
a type of ancient wheat (einkorn) that is better for us
than the new hybrids. I grind the wheat in a manual handmill
that we mounted on a cabinet; just enough at a time to make
pancakes. It’s not for the lazy or the infirm; but the
pancakes are really good with butter and real maple syrup.
Fang is a good organic gardener at my insistence. He used
to plant a half acre of garden that I could not say grace
to either weeding or picking or processing. Now, he plants
a small one with things we either eat right away or freeze
in very limited amounts. - Varieties of lettuces are the
best that we plant as salads are always good in the early
spring. We don’t fool with iceberg, rather raise Greenleaf
varieties. Tomatoes. Our fruit trees come and go. One year,
we get one thing, the next another. Strawberries, grapes,
blackberries (though I don’t care as much for tame ones as
the seeds are bigger than I like, but oh well.) This way,
it’s not overwhelming & it helps on the grocery bill.
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