Posted on 03/27/2015 1:25:20 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. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
Any way I'm going to go ahead and post this, then write my update, and finally ping the list.
Lemon Tree has olive size fruit, and is blooming again. It needs re-potting, so I have been looking for a container I like that won't expand too much, as I don't have room for much more growth.
I transplanted some more tomato seedlings into paper and Styrofoam previously used cups. This weekend I will do the WhipperSnapper and Chaddwick tomato transplants. Also time to start another batch of some determinate varieties.
Will also be getting the seed potatoes out to green up. April 1 is the normal plant day, but I'm going to wait a bit due to the colder temps so far - also waiting for payday to purchase some gardening supplies.
I bought a copy of GRIT Magazine while I was checking out the new Dollar Store. It describes something called the $43,560(income) initiative @ Virginia University. Modified Sq. foot gardening on a One Acre scale. The spring soil improvements they are using are 1 gallon of poultry pellet manure and 10 gallons of mushroom compost per 100 sq. feet.
I am going to try to post a link to an article about this as well as a link regarding the legality of seed exchanges next. Hope you all are doing well - have a great week end. God Bless.
Here’s the link for $43,560 :
Here’s the link re seed exchanges:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3272480/posts
Thanks to momtothree and black agnes for the heads up.
Pinging the List.
Zero Sunshine today. It’s totally overcast and gloomy. Darn!
Favorite FR thread of the week! I’m up to 12 hops plants, which is very exciting to me, considering all the times I was told that growing hops is difficult. Last weekend, I broke down and bought a smallish greenhouse - $50 @ big lots, compared to $100+ that I had been seeing from other sources. My small PVC greenhouse worked, but wasn’t roomy enough. I recently bought some “rare” hokkaido/densuke watermelon seeds online, and am going to get those sprouting this weekend, along with my potatos. Supposed to see 80 degrees the beginning of this coming week here in Western Colorado!
Just a little warning. I had ordered some heirloom seeds from a company at heirloomseeds.com but hadn’t gotten them over 20 days later. When I emailed them, the only way to contact them, I was told it would be another week before they would send them. I’m in S.C. so the time to plant most of them in flats had passed. I simply cancelled the order as I had already gotten what I wanted from another source. Needless to say I will never order from them again.
Cold (overnight) weekend coming up. I took pity on all the birds & bought some more black oil sunflower seed for them. They’ve been hunkered on the empty feeders in the rain today ... one feeder had a small amount of seed left & there were numerous fights over who would get to sit on the perch (under a little overhang). Crummy day outside, but there is an upside ... the bathrooms are VERY clean.
My kale & kohlrabi got “hit” a week ago with a very cold night and aren’t looking so hot .... this weekend might finish them off. We had rain today (very warm & sun yesterday) & if we didn’t have two cold nights coming up, I think the plants would take off and be ok. I’ll cover them with some row cover and see if that will get them over the hump.
Last weekend, I was out of town in NC and the trees were in bloom while all was still bare in our area. Today, I noticed some of our trees are beginning to bloom - daffodils are out and one camellia bush is blooming. After the rain today, it looks like I’m going to have to mow grass before Easter.
I’m such a brown thumb, my beautiful raised planters have been a failure. Or, I probably should say, I’ve been a failure to my beautiful raised planters. Last year I planted sunflowers, cantaloupe, pumpkin and watermelon in my four planters. The sunflowers were beautiful, everything else got eaten by our central Florida megabugs. Figured I’d take a break from it this year, but a small patio tomato followed me home from the nursery last week. Now I need to get around to building a screen cage to cover it and keep the bugs off and hope that the wind will pollinate it.
It’s wet and gloomy here too. I need to do clean up and every day something comes up that is more urgent. I will try to attend to matters this weekend.
Class is going well. We’re covering landscape design, insects and diseases and vegetables. There is so much information that I’m finding it difficult not to get confused about what he’s teaching. I think if I had more knowledge it would be easier to keep things straight in my head.
I hope everyone has a great weekend no matter what your conditions are.
Lots of sun here!
That’s great news! Boy oh boy I am impatiently waiting for warm temps and plenty of sunshine here. I’m going to be checking out the farmers markets a little more here this year. I want to see what all they are growing.
I might consider growing some stuff for sale in 2016, but want to make sure that I am not competing with stuff that everyone else seems to grow. Just a thought for now, and may be just a passing thought at that.
Guess not. It’s the indoor garden that gets me through weather like you are having.
Think you got troubles? We are supposed to have temps in the teens again in a few days. Ugh. I was hoping we wouldn’t get below 30 during the days again this year.
One of the pie pumpkins on my dining table has a blossom! So there is that.
“Just a little warning. I had ordered some heirloom seeds from a company at heirloomseeds.com but hadn’t gotten them over 20 days later.”
They may just send you the tomatoes and cut out the middle man.
Well, it seems like everything in my garden is growing nicely. Beans are through the soil and leaves are present. Does anyone know anything about artichokes? I have two plants in the ground, growing nicely, just don’t know if they are going to grow up or out.
Everything else is great. Better than the last two years. I am still going to attribute the growth to the bees I have been seeing.
Rose bushes are also growing well. Planted two of them a month back and they are 3 times the size of when they went in the ground. Cannot wait to see what comes off of them. The wife wanted fresh roses in the house.
I am going to put in a shameless plug for Baker’s Creek Seeds for Heirlooms, they are headquartered in Missouri around my hometown area.
I have also had good luck with Bountiful Gardens, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and Jung’s.
Love the new tech. They use the x on each side to aim the radiation, and unfortunately, I kept most of my hair. That means I have to shave and cut my hair.
I may quit shaving in a few weeks. ;)
My recent "gardening".
We've got beautiful weather, and I may do some garden tomorrow since I'm up to it.
Now, though, I'm working on some art.
/johnny
WOW! You have things growing outdoors already? We can’t put anything in the ground until the end of May. And that’s still a bit risky.
Well, actually we can plant snow peas, and green peas, and maybe spinach - but that’s it, and those can’t be done until the end of April or early May. Depends on how wet the ground is.
Looks like my spinach is just fine, but I might have to cover it tonight as the temp will get down to 28.
Well, maybe try a different variety this year, or maybe some other vegetable/fruit. I haven’t had very good luck with squash, melon, cukes etc. either and neither has Hubby. Cukes and summer squash we have been able to get now and then as well as a zuke - but last year’s zukes were totally a bust.
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