Posted on 05/23/2014 12:40:08 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.
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Columbia and Hartville. The garden in Hartville sometimes lacks for water since I only get down 2 or 3 times a month. Sigh.
Hi all, getting some plants in this weekend. Tomorrow is wood splitting day we have a big splitter reserved for 24 hours. Hubby getting on in years and can’t do it all by hand anymore. I have peppers, cukes, radishes and some tomatoes going already, will need to transplant my romaine lettuce soon. Zucchini growing also. I stuck in a basil plant I bought and also stuck in the ground a basil plant I kept going in the house all winter, I took a cutting from the garden, rooted it in water and it kept going all winter. Granted it looks more like a tree with a woody trunk but what the heck I stuck it in the garden and it will be interesting go see what happens to it. Three of my 4 young pawpaw trees are leafed out, fingers crossed on the last one.
Buy the cheapiest red pepper you can find. Circle whatever you want to protect. It will give some things the needed time to get going to the point the squirrels are not interested.
I’ll need to hurry and get it done now while we still have the moderate temps. Can’t take the heat for very long. Once everything is in I can get the watering done and other stuff in the AM. Usually go out about 20 minutes before sundown to check on stuff and walk about.
LOL. I hilled the potatoes with straw this year. They have just started blooming. I will tell you this, potatoes are my favorite thing to plant.
Catch a nice day in April and git ur done. Cover with straw. Water if it doesn’t rain, but here we almost always have sufficient rain in April and May. Easiest thing I have ever grown.
I think everyone looks forward to this Holiday weekend. LOL
It sounds like you have it figured out pretty good.
I’m glad to hear you sold out everything last time. It’s good to have an affordable outlet for your goods.
Thanks for the link. This book that I read also mentions the Price studies and has pictures of children and their teeth.
He took pictures of brothers and sisters. The older ones had eaten the traditional homegrown foods. The younger ones had eaten the processed western style foods. Big difference.
Some of the initial studies were done so long ago, that it is shame more education about it hasn’t been done.
Blessings to you too. How’s your weather?
I've seen some sellers at farmers markets in the city buying produce from the central distribution point downtown and re-selling as locally grown. The issue is that we don't know where those veggies were actually grown. We pride ourselves on selling locally grown produce.
FYI, NEVER buy Scotts Pro Landscape Fabric. It just makes a nice shady damp spot for weeds to flourish. It's bad enough that it's impossible to keep up (iow, given up) on pulling weeds in the beds but now I have to pull weeds that are sprouting out of the weed block material. Ok, it slows them down but that's all. It also rips in the winds too easily. My aching bones and joints just can't deal with it so my new philosophy is that weeds are also God's creatures so let them grow. Solid carpet of weeds as always. As for crowding out the veggies, I'll just sprinkle out more seed. As for shading the veggies, heck, they need shade in the Texas sun. As for weeds stealing all the water, that's horse hockey as all plants get equal amounts of water and I have a well so no worries until the pump breaks (knock on wood three times).
The Long Lasting (not!) Cilantro and India Florida Broad Leaf Mustard are both bolting and have only harvested one dinner batch of mustard. The broad leaf mustard is a new try this year thinking the leaves would be easier to clean. Ok, so they don't hold the sand like the curly leaf but when this package of seeds is empty, that's it with such an early bolt.
Happy, happy there are a few little nobby fruits starting on the new blackberry vines!
All the volunteer tomatoes I moved a couple weeks ago survived and there's more popping up here and there but they're staying wherever. However, one is smack dab in the middle of the garden gate so he must be moved. They haven't produced the past 2-3 years but here's to this year filling the freezer and jars.
There are a few volunteer bush beans popping up but they're smarter than the maters and know where they belong. The pole beans are vining and just starting to bud so we'll be eating green beans soon.
The garlic is blooming so will need to be dug soon.
There are still only a couple squash blossoms but I'm keeping an eye out for those evil svb. The nasturtiums planted with them are slow coming up so may bloom too late to deter the little monsters. We've had an outbreak of snails in them so having to “squash” that problem.
The NZ spinach and Chinese Celery never germinated. I'll try again in the fall for the celery but I'm out of the NZ spinach so will have to order more. It never went to seed last year before the freeze so it may not seed for me and I'll have to pay for seeds every year which wasn't what I'd wanted to do. But it is a good producer and didn't bolt last summer so that's a major plus.
The cukes, eggplant, peas, peppers and various others are just sitting there but guess they're happy and will take off when they're ready.
The feral cat still watches and talks to me from a safe distance when I'm in the garden and waits for her bowl of food.
Now, an update on the ghost dog who followed me in from the garden 2-3 weeks ago. I'd come in from the garden and hadn't let the dogs inside yet but I heard slurping at their water bowl. Well, a couple nights ago, hubby was letting the dogs outside when he heard a big sigh in the corner where current and previous dogs like to sleep. We've both noticed the big slobber bucket hasn't been sleeping there as much lately so who knows. Cue the spooky music...
It’s about 84 during the day, and about 80 at night. Summer is HERE! :-)
Rye is a good cover crop. I plant winter rye in the space where I plan to plant corn in the spring. It needs to be worked into the soil several weeks before you plant the corn, or germination will be slowed.
Hairy Vetch and clover are also good cover crops. I also plant winter wheat in the fall, and in February sprinkle in some clover.
Not much new to report here, but I may have to brace my pear tree limbs again this year. The tree is loaded with fruit and most are the size of ping pong balls already.
We have about a thousand gallons in the swimming pool. Would have had more, but it sprang a leak, and we had to use it all so that we could make the repair.
/johnny
I would find it hard to get that far away more than 2 or 3 times a year. We have about 20 acres about 15 miles away, and we don’t even try to garden there.
We are going to put in some native stuff like paw paw trees and nut trees. So that we can have “forage” foods when we want them and to help the critters that we might want to hunt some time or other.
I can’t take the temps like I could years ago. Now I have to start early and knock off about 10 due to the heat and humidity.
Right now we have 18%, that is low for hot weather. It hurts when it gets to 95/95!
My wife an I usually go out for a few minutes after supper to refill bird feeders and look around. I was watching my wife through the dining room windows yesterday evening scattering bird seed by hand around the patio outside the windows where the fountain is now. She looked like Mother Nature, feeding her children!
We have a van size debris pile out back from the ice storm, and I saw an unusual bird back there today. He/she runs more than flies. It saw me and ran across the street, when I saw me and Scooter coming toward him/her, it took off running up the street about 50yds away, turned and looked me square in the eyes, then took to running further and took a rt turn down the next street like it knew where it was going. I broke off the chase because he/she was too fast for Scooter, and I wasn’t interested in terrifying the bird, either.
/johnny
I have a basil plant that I started from seed in 2010. It’s in a 10 inch pot. It now resembles a small tree, but it keeps on producing. I harvest it several times a year, and take it outdoors during the summer, it’s in a south west window the rest of the time.
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