[JustaDumbBlonde]

Previous weeks' threads:

Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Happy Easter!) Vol. 14, April 6, 2012

[JustaDumbBlonde]

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[JustaDumbBlonde]

Detailed State Plant Hardiness Zone Maps

Alabama	District of Columbia	Kentucky	Montana	Ohio	Texas ( East )
Alaska	Florida	Louisiana	Nebraska	Oklahoma	Texas ( West )
Arizona	Georgia	Maine	Nevada	Oregon	Utah
Arkansas	Hawaii	Maryland	New Hampshire	Pennsylvania	Vermont
California ( Northern )	Idaho	Massachusetts	New Jersey	Puerto Rico	Virginia
California ( Southern )	Illinois	Michigan	New Mexico	Rhode Island	Washington
Colorado	Indiana	Minnesota	New York	South Carolina	West Virginia
Connecticut	Iowa	Mississippi	North Carolina	South Dakota	Wisconsin
Delaware	Kansas	Missouri	North Dakota	Tennessee	Wyoming

International Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Australia
Canada
China
Europe
Japan

[Peter from Rutland]

Still too cold for warm weather crops to be planted here in (M)assachusetts. My spinach came up a couple of weeks ago and is doing fine despite the drought (because I’ve been watering it). My asparagus is in it’s second year since planting the roots and has not come up yet.

We just had a frost last night. I may be planting either next week or the week after and let nature take it’s course. The seed will come up when it’s ready.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

This is the new mini truck that my husband gave me last week. What a hoot! 3 roaring cylinders of fun. Steering wheel on the right-hand side was not nearly as awkward as I had imagined it would be. It is 4-wheel drive, so a great hunting buggy! Running around town is great because it gets 40 mpg. I only get about 16 mpg in my diesel Excursion, and fuel is $4.10 here vs. $3.79 for regular unleaded.

[evets]

I'm growing Patty Pan squash this year...

Question: What should I do with them... (Is food?)

[DollyCali]

you have planted 1.6 acres of corn! Gads, My accomplishments melt into smoke next to you!

Good going!

Still waiting for weather to climb out of 40s here

[dschoemaker]

Have cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower and romaine lettuce coming along nicely. They survived the frosts this week nicely, can’t say the same for my basil.

Have tomato, San Marsano, Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine and Sweet 100, and pepper, Pepperocinni,Habanero, and California something or other, coming along nicely. Was actually pleasantly surprised at the germination rates especially on the peppers, got at least one in every cell.

Dave

[IM2MAD]

Does anyone know about Mason Bees? We had some last year and they nested in tubes. I put them in the refrigerator over winter and they’re still there in the tubes. It’s still too cold here to put them out with no pollen producers blooming yet.

My question is, should I have taken the paper liners out, unwrapped them and removed the larvae? Or do the bees do that on their own?

I’ve never see good instructions on what to do and when, after the bees fill the tubes.

[Bulwinkle]

Just came from my community garden plot [In Fairfax, Va.] Last saturday I transplanted 80 silverqueen corn plants that I had sprouted indoors... they survived the week and it is supposed to get real warm here for the next four days!

Dug up one red onion... not big but very tasty. I have a bed of 120, err, 119 red onions.

Going to take my tiny tomato and peppers out for some real sun in a few minutes. I am sprouting everything in a basement shower stall we don't use, using an incandescent grow light....have not tried this before!!??????

[SumProVita]

Here in Tennessee, everything that’s been planted is doing well. We had frost the last two nights that singed my new grapes (they’ll bounce back), the figs and the new growth on just about all trees and shrubs. Kolrabi, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, kale and spinach are all OK. I covered my newly sprouted cucumbers with a flake of straw on each hill and that protected them just fine.

We spent the day yesterday mulching many newly planted shrubs, trees, etc....and flower beds. We’ll need to get another truck load and continue this next week.

;-)

[Bitsy]

Where in Southeast LA. I’m in Metairie and love sweet corn!

[Red_Devil 232]

Good afternoon JADB and all gardeners. The tomato seeds I started in Mississippi did not survive our move to Texas:( They got set aside and neglected and I couldn't find the seeds I had saved from my Marion and Arkansas Traveler tomatoes from last years garden. My two favorite varieties. I went to Lowe's a week or so ago to buy some wood for my raised beds and they had both varieties in stock as transplants I bought four of each plus another heirloom called "Homestead". They are ready to go into the soil and be on their own. I will have some Homegrown Tomatoes this summer!

[WestwardHo]

Two years ago I planted a dwarf peach tree. This year it is covered with baby peaches. Do I need to thin some of them out, or will they thin themselves?
Thank you for help!

[Augie]

We’ve gotten some badly needed rain here in Central Missouri today. Light frost at my place the last two nights. I haven’t had a chance to check the peach trees for freeze damage. They are absolutely loaded with little baby peaches. If the frost didn’t wipe em out I’m going to have to thin the heck out of them before they get much bigger. They’re about the size of a dime right now and there are literally hundreds of them on every tree.

[who knows what evil?]

Wow...looking at several days of mid and upper 70’s here in New Sodom...this will give the tomatoes and peppers a shot in the arm after a period of more traditional April gloom.

[Darth Reardon]

Over the winter I grew lettuce and such which required a lot of watering. On my lot, watering the garden pretty much means watering the lawn, which is only allowed twice a week. And to be honest, I didn't do a very good job keeping things wet.

This week I completed the new sprinkler project, burying PVC running to the raised beds and into the corners of the yard where I have bananas, where it converts to 1/2" poly tubing. So far I just have a few drippers installed for the bananas, but now that it's all set up and connected with it's own zone to the automated sprinkler system it's simple to add drippers wherever I need to water.

Just in time for the rainy season.

I'll probably run some more PVC for another "irrigation" project once I finish the testing phase. This picture shows the fence the squirrels use to get from my neighbor's tree (aka "home") to MY tomatoes.

(It's a motion sensitive sprinkler with a three second burst).

[JRochelle]

What is the name of the corn you plant? I am trying a new kind this year, Mirai.

Has anyone planted this variety?

[FiscalSanity]

Things are humming along here now. Even with my relatively late start, I’ve got baby tomatoes and peppers setting, and bloom buds on melons, squash, and eggplant. My bell peppers are setting fruit like mad, they have already set 4-6 per plant and have lots more buds forming. Do you have to thin the fruit on bell peppers? I’ve never had them set fruit this well before!

In my eagerness to get a bunch of homemade pickles, I think I planted too many cucumbers. They are making flower buds now, and since I am growing parthenocarpic cukes, every flower bud is a potential cuke. If even a quarter of those make, I am going to be drowning in them! If they all do...I hope the neighbors don’t mind me leaving bags of cucumbers on their porches. The fun won’t last long, though. The mildew will almost certainly kill them by June or July, but I’ll be tired of making pickles by then.

The bunching onions and herbs are also looking good - nice healthy seedlings.

The bad news is that some of my plants were set back a couple of weeks by a nutrient deficiency. After basically everything in my new raised beds turned yellow I finally figured it out and started foliar feeding. The plants have now greened up and resumed growth. The okra was slowed the most; it’s still really small, but at least it’s not yellow any more.

I had to reseed my calaloo; something ate the first planting. If these fail...I can always stick another tomato plant in that bed. You can never have too many tomatoes, right? :-)

[Sarajevo]

Oh well, we lost a chicken yesterday (Friday the 13th). A hawk got it, but the Mrs chased the hawk away from the carcass, so into the pot it went. We made about 4qts of chicken broth last night.

I've also been harvesting mulberry's. We got 3 quarts so far, about a pint a day for one tree. The Japanese Loquat will be ready to harvest in a couple days. I'm thinking....jelly!