Posted on 04/22/2016 5:12:38 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.
Thank you for setting up the gardening thread, hoping all is well with you and your family.
We have had a wonderful Spring in Connecticut, more like summer with temps in the 70’s.
Bought one tomato plant from Walmart for $1.00 and it is flourishing. Doesn’t have a home yet as I doubt the warm weather will last.
Oh MY, indeed lessons learned for all of us.
Prayers up for you to get better real soon.
As far as I have heard, “volunteer” potatoes would be something you want to stay away from.
A “volunteer” plant is one that grows from seed. This means cross breeding. Since there are so very many solanum species, potatoes might just latch onto something a little dangerous...
Potatoes that just grow from potatoes left behind in the ground from last year are fine. Heck, I haven’t bought potatoes in years, I just wait for the stragglers to sprout or actually plant potatoes I have bought (to eat) to sprout.
While I am not sure as to what kind of micro-climate you have in Delaware, I would postpone for a week,
or plant and be prepared to cover from frost/cold with blanket or tarp and some straw.
We have full moon, and a cold wave coming in with frost warning for Tuesday-Wednesday in Western NY.
Sometimes it is better to be safe ,.. rather than sorry !
Will do.
I imagine so - hard work hauling water. It’s heavy.
Jealousy here.
You are welcome, but I did not set it up. I just agreed to take up the posting after Red Devil and JDAB had to stop. It had many names already when I started posting.
Before that, I mostly just lurked and posted an occasional reply. We went to Connecticut in 1984. Stayed in a camping place - Strawberry Park. Went to lunch at Misty one of the days. Also went to New London to the Coast Guard Academy on that trip.
It is the latter sort of. We had so many potatoes last year, that I left a 16 sq ft. bed in the ground intending to dig it up in November after we had eaten some of the ones we dug from another area.
During cleanup, that bed got covered up with all manner of leaves, straw and plants pulled from the other beds at clean up which was never completed either. I had forgotten all about the potatoes.
When planning this year’s garden, I realized it, and uncovered the bed, and sure enough there were some leaves. Then a big frost, and some of the leaves turned black, but there was enough left that all are surviving.
Hubby had claimed in years past that we could just leave them in the ground till the next spring, and have potatoes get an early start, and I tried it one year, but guess they weren’t deep enough or covered enough cause it was a big failure.
Ouch!
More a landscaping than gardening heads-up, but I was doing some heavy pruning with a chainsaw on fruit trees earlier this week and while I was at it decided to take out some old hedges—and got into some poison ivy.
The urushiol doesn’t show up on skin until about 12 hours later, and I had to, uh, relieve myself and now I feel like a leper ... don’t worry, no pictures.
It’s been many years since `an ocean of calamine lotion,’ no fun.
Picked up some herbicide today. Watch out for poison ivy and oak, stay safe.
The rule of thumb with beans is to stand barefoot where you want to sow them for five minutes. If your feet get uncomfortably cold, cover the soil with black trash bags to build up the heat until the soil feels comfortable to stand in. Works for all warm-weather seed crops: cukes, squash, melons. Keeping the bags cutting Xs with a scalpel knife to burrow the seeds in until frost risk is past, then use scizzors to cut the bags away and off when not needed anymore. Or keep the bags, cutting long irrigation slashes and mulch for cosmetics with gravel, straw, etc.
Our soil warms up so quick in centex we don’t have to do that, but conversely we can’t grow many fruiting trees for lack of chilling hours. They are selling Kiwi vines at our Lowe’s nursery this week, and raspberries.
Rots, you say? 2” seedlings rot or seeds you plant after emerging? Rhubarb is essentially red Celery for care and planting purposes. I was in Fredericksburg last week and saw an amazing swiss chard (needs same care as rhubarb) in large urn planters with viola, alyssum and jumbo snapdragons lookin lively and mature. Grow rhubarb in an experimental pot using Mel’s Mix - look it up - which is disease free. It sounds like you have some sort of damping-off disease in your soil, or fungus. Can you grow anything else in it?
Now that is a great idea!!!
Figs were showing an awful lot of fruit.Two cold snaps took the leaves off most of the fig trees; they shriveled and turned black. Figs next to the house however lost almost zero leaves. Giant sunflowers are unhappy from the recent cold but all alive at their posts and rabbits mostly ignoring them. Mulberries are small and white now but will soon turn black. Muscadine grapes are happy and thriving in all situations so far, and air layering has been a success with them. Worm activity in all bins of different substrates even with neglect are proving their hardiness and breeding up a storm. Castings will be amended into whatever I grow this season.
Try washing with liquid dish soap. Then, if you have jewelweed growing nearby, blend up some leaves and stems with enough water to make a slurry, and smear that on the rash.
Storm over Denver area will remain to about 6 days before moving out
Very cold in the Rockies all this week; with warmer in the East and North East which will remain into next week.
Wet Spring in Texas, and staying wet all spring due to a trough in the West and a ridge in the East ; those with rain will get more ,
and the Plains wet all next week, especially, a lot of precipitation in the mid-west
On the positive side , there will be reduced number of tornadoes as a result of El Nino moving into La Nina .
Our bog filter is now operational and Barb is planting both bog plants and land plants in the surrounding beds. It was a lot of work, but the Jonh Deere 318 with its 44 Loader sure made it possible.
I just moved our original raised beds over to the new garden area, around the pergola and water feature and the area exited will become “my” vegetable garden for potatoes, winter squash, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and sweet corn. You know, small-town Wiscconsin stuff!
The weather is moderating here so I have spent some time outside cleaning up the gardening pots. Pansies blooming nicely, bumper crop of lettuce - yummy. Some spring bulbs are sending up flower stalks, others none at all. Think I’ll pull all of them up in the fall and freshen the soil. The rose bushes are loaded with buds and will bloom sometime this week. The lavender is a pleasant surprise. It is blooming profusely in this bright, indirect light!
No produce
wow. You have micro-climating DOWN. Impressed.
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