Posted on 03/23/2012 8:53:54 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! Hopefully everyone has received beneficial rain this past week. We've had an additional 2 inches, which was a blessing because just to the south and southwest of us as much as 10 inches fell. While the area needed the rain, it didn't need it all at one time.
Looking forward to reading what you're doing with your gardens and plans this week. Photos will earn you bonus points! :^)
It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but I do have lots of raspberry bushes to get planted. Then, the beeyard. They are already capping honey in the supers and I will have a bountiful late spring harvest. Mark and I have 2 cutouts of bees in buildings that are coming up this week, which will make a total of 7 hives in my beeyard. We did a huge cutout 2 weeks ago and Mark added those to his beeyard.
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.
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!
That recommendation of 40 lbs of lime sure does seem like a lot for a 600 sq. ft. garden area. Especially this close in attempting to plant the gardening. I think I may just try about 20 lbs and add the rest in the fall.
I potted up my 'dwarf' tomatoes tonight...sturdiest seedlings I have EVER seen...reminded me of sprouted beans or cucumbers. They are in their first year of release, and I have a feeling that they are going to become VERY popular...they were designed to be grown in containers, and will be a boon to those with limited space. There are thirteen of them (collect 'em all), with nine more due to be released in 2013. These are regular size tomatoes on a plant that only grows to three or four feet. Can't wait to try them...
Hmmm, I’m going to run over to Walmart tomorrow and get some veggie & flower Mirecle Gro and put in a couple of watermellon and canteloupe seeds and put my grids over them to climb. Thanks for the idea. I’m all for elevated growing.
Hubby had some meetings this past week and weekends. He wanted me to be there with him. I took my book of worms. As one of the speakers walked by us, he stopped looked at me and said “that book is holding your attention, what is the name, I may want to read it too”. In answered “Worms”.
Mark has healed. I’m happy to hear that.
Chuckle.
I am not so sure. Garden Lime is crushed limestone, rock, powdered rock. That’s gonna be heavy. I suspect 40 pounds is about 1-1/2 cubic feet or so. That spread over a 20x30 area is not that much.
I did read a cautionary note that said not to add lime and fertilizer at the same time. Apparently it can cause a chemical reaction that is not desirable.
I have been reading the web site of the Miss State Univ. AG Department and a couple of other sites and have read the same thing about not applying lime and fert together and should occur months apart. Normally lime is added to the soil in the fall which gives it time to alter the acidity (raise the pH) and the ferts are added months later in the early spring.
I also read on one site that lime additions should not exceed 5# per 100 sq ft. and on another site the recommended rate to raise the pH from 5.5 to 6.5, basically what I need to do, is 7.5 lbs/100 sq ft. which would have me adding 45 lbs. just about the rate the soil test lab recommended I add.
Confusion is setting in! I am debating on whether to just to add the lime to my in ground garden area now and wait until next year to plant it. And just do a couple of raised beds this season.
Perhaps the best course is to not expect optimized perfection and proceed with what you can do. Plant, fertilize.
Adjust ph this fall
There was a big storm up in here in Northern MI in May 1990.
It was May 10th and we had 10”. Remember it well as we were trying to get to the hospital to see new Granddaughter born that day! Will never forget because of date, amount and circumstances.
This year all are concerned about the cherry crop up here. No final word if the buds survived the freeze a couple nights in a row. That would be the trees that survived the big snow a couple weeks ago. Many broken and down.
The joys of Northern Michigan!
I am really leaning toward the raised beds for this year. And just planting a few heirloom tomatoes and maybe a pepper plant or two.
That could have been the same storm that I remember. It did a lot of damage in Wisconsin.
Good luck - I think the bag idea works well if you have the area without grass to mow around where the vines will go. Can you train vines for watermelon? I would think the fruit would be too heavy...so let me know if it works - that would be great!
I called the Master Gardener office this morning to discuss the test results. I was told the MG would call me back sometime this week . . .
One other thing I decided to do different this year. After spending a day searching online, I ordered some “water crystals” to add to the soil. I have looked every spring for a few years for the stuff and finally I found a place where they were somewhat reasonable in price. I think it will help if I can stabilize the moisture content in the raised beds.
I’m going to use some re-mesh and let the small watermelons grow thru to the top and they will lay on the braced remesh. I have them growing in one of my raised gardens, along the edge, so they will be “suspended” on the remesh. I’m going to do the same thing to the cantaloupe. My summer squashes and cucumbers will be using the remesh but going up. In fact my beans will be growing up on building wire. I’m using rebar for the tomatoes. My tomato growing in a “topsy turvy” died and so did the strawberries. I’m going to try it again, but this time the tomato with basil and lettuce. Only my salads, lettuces, herbs, and bulbs are not going to climb. I’m having a terrible time trying to grow a couple of the heirloom tomatoes. The rest of my seeds seem to be doing ok.
The area with the bags will have pea gravel and no grass, so I think it will work. It’s an area about 16 feet wide, so I’m thinking what can I put in there????? Maybe some yard long beans of each color, climbing nastutiums and I don’t know what else. I cannot find malabar spinach seeds anywhere. Guess, I need to order some, those would be nice with the beans.
Over here I plant the Cantaloupe in the narrow flowerbed alongside the driveway and let them grow up the chain link fence. Same with the Cucumbers.
You always have such a beautiful garden! I look forward to this years pictures.
I love your tag line. :-)
Your soil test was similar to mine in one respect, I had 5.5ph also, but had no nitrates. He advise me to put down about 2lb of calcium carbonate to bring up the ph, and about 1.75lbs nitrogen for my 175sgft plot. I got confused reading your results and advisory of adding lime, especially so much. All this being new to me, I looked up calcium carbonate to see if it raised ph also.Dummy me, it is the primary active componate of lime. He never said anything about not adding at the same time, so I(my wife) spread it all and turned it in. I guess he knows, he is the teacher over the master gardener program in Montgomery County. Our plants all seem to be happy.
There is supposed to be some chemical reaction between adding lime and fert at the same time. Kind of like peeing into a toilet that has had Clorox added to it. Not a good idea.
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