http://www.thelaketoday.com/news/2015/mar/25/how-start-seeds-part-5-getting-your-vegetable-flow/
And some more cool pics from Eric:
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.
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.
I am trying to psych myself up into getting into my garden and remove the old ground cover I put down last year and then till the garden area. The weather has been nice temp wise but rains have kept me from starting. I bought 8 bales of wheat straw, from Lowes, to use for a ground cover and a weed block. Tomorrow and Sunday may be perfect days to get started.
Two weeks ago my wife bought us a new lawn tractor (John Deere D130) to mow our yard. Our 15+ year old lawn tractor has seen better days.
http://www.thelaketoday.com/news/2015/mar/25/how-start-seeds-part-5-getting-your-vegetable-flow/
And some more cool pics from Eric:
But, it's never all bad. The baby peeps are doing well. I got the asparagus bed cleaned out. All of the bluebird and wren houses have been hung up around the yard. The computer is mostly fixed. I had to buy a new one and thank goodness I had Carbonite. It took three days to pull my files down, but that beats hell out of losing them for sure.
The rhubarb is peeking out of the ground.
The cold frame did its job protecting the babies from the ice we had Thursday night.
Two hens arguing over who's going to be first to lay an egg in the mineral bucket this morning.
First- Good news, Johnny. I was thinking of you when we got the tobacco seeds started. ;)
Weird, but I plant and start seeds by the moon. Experiments I have done proved that it has improved our yields by quite a bit. In our cool climate, that is something. We got the nightshades in a mini indoor greenhouse in the garage. The Husband gets the tending job for that. I do better with the dirt outside.
I tried growing in our meadow and the yields have not been all that great. That area will be tilled, fenced and get wheat, something that does well here. The rest of my various garden areas are getting complete redos- tilled under with the copious amounts of chicken poo from last winter, resetting of the garden beds, trellis added, and so on. I figure the pain of the physical job ahead will wear off about September. It sucks to be middle-aged at times. (grin)
When we had out chimney and wood stove installed last fall, the owner was admiring the spa in the back. We rarely used it, and it needed some servicing we cannot afford. We told him if he could haul it off, it was his. This gave us a huge area for tobacco we could protect from the nicotine addicted deer and elk, the Husband another shooting area as a bonus. The area abuts a small hill, perfect as a “backstop”.
We spread that area with the chicken poo and mulch they made from the straw in their yard. After being tilled and worked, it will be a great growing spot. I am doing the same with a lower area that gets rather warm, giving a short-season corn a try. Corn is very hard to grow up here.
For seeds, I get a local small seed seller’s offerings, along with High Mowing Seeds, Irish Eyes and Johnny’s. I am trying some of Ed Hume’s this year, along with some other place’s offering of Alaskan seeds, just to see if sub-arctic varieties of tomatoes will do better here.
On top of redoing the garden, I am still working on our floors. I got the great room/kitchen done. 2 bedrooms and the craft room to go, sanding each board, oiling, sanding, nailing, waxing... While cookjing from scratch, making soap, sewing quilt “ curtains” and maybe a few dresses, before I have to start canning and such this summer.
I rarely sit still.
Hi everyone! Checking in late this week.
Class was amazing. We had our lecture on ornamentals/color in the landscape. Our OSU professor introduced 6 hours worth of a LOT of shrubs and trees - MANY of which I had never heard of. Darlin and I were cross-eyed when we left.
I put a star in my note margins for the Alnus maritima “Seaside Alder” because it was a gee-whiz that I thought you guys might enjoy.
Its size is somewhere between a shrub or a small tree. He tells us, “if it wants to be a shrub, let it be a shrub. If it wants to be a tree, let it be a tree!”
He says the advantages to this plant are:
Eye candy in winter
Crafters will like them
They are drought resistant.
I got a kick out of learning this fact, and wanted to share it:
It is a mystery in the plant study world. Here we are in land-locked Oklahoma, and yet we seem to be an island of SEASIDE Alder! Not found in surrounding states. How did this disjunct population get here??? He speculated that perhaps Indians from the coastal states brought them at some point to a particular area of Oklahoma where the plants were happy. Or of course, perhaps they were brought here by animals or birds. But that really doesn’t totally explain why not the other surrounding states. So there it is. No one really knows!
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week507.shtml
For those who are into horticulture for prepping purposes may be interested in this one:
Vitex
White pink, purple, or blue flowers on long spikes (for most spp)
Heirloom flowers - you can sometimes see it old timey pictures
Doesn’t need a lot of water
In Oklahoma, (approx zone 6) harsh winters will kill it back, but it is root hardy and can come back and bloom on new wood.
It historically has MEDICINAL properties. It was used to help regulate female cycles and can if I followed the discussion properly, was also used to help men calm down if they were burdened with too much testosterone on board.
Be aware that it can be mistaken easily for marijuana in its growth habit. People have been reported to authorities who grow it! [If okra can be mistaken, well this stuff can too!]
I still hope to share info from that famous Bean handout!
Finally I have a few moments to share at least a first installment on the bean plant info. For many of you this is probably old news, but I know that some of it for me is quite new and will be very helpful!
BEANS: A Planting Guide
In general, beans are very sensitive to frost.
Most beans grow best in air temperatures of 60-70 degrees F and soil temperatures of at least 55 degrees F. Soggy cold soil will cause the seeds to rot.
Beans need a sunny, well-drained area rich in organic matter.
Plant your beans a week after the date of the last expected frost.
Always make a hole in the soil about 3-4 inches deep, add some good compost, and plant the seeds about 1 inch deep to help the seedlings emerge.
BUSH BEANS - plant 8-10 bush bean plants per person in a family. (2 seeds in one hole.)
POLE BEANS - Plant seeds in 3-4 feet of area per person in family. (4-6 seeds per feet.) Pole beans produce about 3 times the yield of Bush Beans.
Beans are self-pollinating, so you can grow and cultivate side by side. They germinate in about 8-12 days. [Texokie note: there is a big “HOWEVER” attached to this about growing them side by side. If you want to save your seeds, they will cross pollinate! So for seed savers, if you want to keep your lines true, don’t have more than one kind going at a time, according to our presenter.]
Light mulch when they are about 1-2” tall, and add more mulch as they grow.
Our presenter stated that she puts her seeds in luke warm water (130-140 degrees F) for about 10 to 15 minutes before planting to soften the shells and to remove pathogens and unwanted particles.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
POLE BEANS OR BUSH BEANS
POLE
*Grow tall and need a pole for support
*Produce 3 times in less space
*Need more time to mature - about 65-75 days
*Plant will keep giving produce for a long time as you harvest your beans
*Best for fresh everyday use.
BUSH
*Grow only about 2-3 feet tall and does not need support
*Needs more space
*Mature quickly in about 50-60 days
*Plant produces most of its beans at the same time
*Great for freezing and canning
[Note from our presenter: For pole beans, place them at least 3 feet from any fences! Other wise they will go there and you will potentially have a mess!]
End of installment one on beans!
Less & less water in CA.
