Weekly Gardening Thread ----- Tossing Around Ideas

My "pea" brain | 1/24/08 | Gabz and GardenGirl

[Gabz]

Howdy folks!!!

I originally planned to wait until tomorrow (Friday) to get this going, but it is such a damp, dreary, plain old yucky day here on Virginia's Eastern Shore I decided to do it now --dreaming of spring, so to speak!

One of the major topics that seemed to arise last week dealt with "zones" and how even people living in the same "zone" will have different growing conditions based upon location. Also because we are all so spread out the different zones do matter when it comes to planting times and plants.

GardenGirl and Diana in Wisconsin are among our resident experts, but I am sure they are not the only ones and so we would all like to hear from others both amateur and professional, food growers and flower gardeners, folks that deal with trees and shrubs, I hope you get the idea!

Exchanging ideas and getting help on garden problems weere among the reasons for starting this thread, and I would like to expand on that and ask you all to help me come up with ideas of specific topics we can delve into.

Let's have fun --- and wish for spring!!!!!!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"We do something similar but we use drip irrigation. We lay the cloth, plant, we harvest and take the cloth up in the fall. It also works for flower beds.

That is a great method and we recently purchased a machine that hooks to the back of the tractor ... it rows up the bed, lays the plastic and drip tape. We intend to plant a couple of acres of strawberries next year. We are also considering a few acres of cantaloupe.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Can you put me on the ping list?

[ticked]

Please add me to your ping list.

Thanks. :)

[Gabz]

Sorry I didn’t respond earlier — but I didn’t see you (just kidding)

[Gabz]

Not much else I want to do at 74.

Good grief - I think you're doing plenty - for someone a heck of a lot younger than you.

Good for you!!!

[tubebender]

Well I did get started on pruning the raspberries when the sun peeked through yesterday. They are double croppers giving berries on the tips of new crop of canes in the late fall and then you cut off the tips for a second crop of berries in the late spring the following year. You also cut out the dead old canes to make room for those new canes that come up in the spring.

[Gabz]

Thanks for the Winter Sowing link — that looks really interesting!

[Gabz]

Joh Scheepers’ Kitchen Garden seeds has 2 gourd “mixtures.” One mix is large gourds and the other is small one. They might just be what you’re looking for.

The web site is www.kitchengardenseeds.com

Hope that helps, all my other catalogs are downstairs, but if I come across any others I’ll post them.

[Gabz]

What a nice break from the debates and politics.

You've got that right!!!!

[Gabz]

It is chilly here and had been raining all week, but the sun came out late today.

Gee thanks, you must have sent me your weather :) The later in the day it got, the more it snowed. I guess I shouldn't complain, it is the middle of winter, after all!!!!

[Gabz]

You’re both now on the list!!!!!!!

[Gabz]

You’re making me hungry!!!!!

I have had absolutely no luck with berries at all. I’ve tried raspberries (black and red), blueberries and strawberries. I finally gave up.

Thankfully there are several U-Pick berry places nearby, so I get what I need for jams that way.

[gardengirl]

I don’t know how to tell you how much. Just sprinkle some hydrated lime over the top of the pile. We can get it in small bags, maybe 2# and 5#? Otherwise it’s 50# bags.

We haven’t been able to get dolomitic here for a couple of years, but I think it’s the fertilizer co. we deal with.

Speaking of fertilizer, y’all are in for some major sticker shock this year. It has gone out of sight! We just got a load in—we start fertilizing pecans here in Feb—10-10-10 with extra zinc.

All the fert products we carry are premium, with added trace elements because of our poor,sandy soil. You can get cheaper, but you get what you pay for.

Celestial is a good fig. Never heard of Black Jack, except we once had a lab named that. The best way to get ones you like is to take cuttings from someone who has a bush you like. We have one here that we call Davis Island because that’s where the cuttings came from. Davis Island is an island off the coast. You wouldn’t think anything could survive in sand and salt air, with no regular watering, but they thrive. DI is a bigger fig than Brown turkey, but not as sweet. BT is another good one.

[tubebender]

I was in Costco yesterday and saw their wild bird seed mix is now $15.00 for a 40 # box, 4 months ago it was $11.00. I have been using white millet from the local wild bird store. I’ll call tomorrow and see what 50# are. I prefer it to the mix because of rats and skunks are more attracted to the mix on the ground.

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds like a great deal!

[gardengirl]

Yeah. Our feed prices have gone up tremendously. We get nearbout a tractor trailer load every two weeks, and I think everything went up almost a dollar a bag.

Our 20-25lb mix is 8.95 or close. Weird thing this year and I mentioned it to Swamp sniper on one of his threads, said he’d noticed the same thing. We don’t have any small birds—unususal for us this time of year. I guess the drought has driven them elsewhere.

I got 3 feeders for Christmas. They’ve been up since a couple days after. I’ve seen one little tweetybird at the feeders, some type of wren, I think.

Whar do you have that will eat white millet? As far as I can tell, even when we have birds, that’s waht they scratch out on the ground. The little white pea looking seeds, or are we talking about something different?

We have rats, living right on the marsh like we do. Nasty things. Fortunately, no stunks, as my youngest called the one and only skunk he ever smelled. :)

[trisham]

Nicely done!

We're planning to grow some squash and zucchini this year. We may also try again with a few Brandywine tomatoes. We had some problems with disease the summer before last, so we gave up on everything but herbs, except for the cherry tomatoes that come up every spring and grow like crazy until frost.

[Red_Devil 232]

The Celestial Fig Tree is a regional favorite of the Gulf Coast due to its excellent quality, high yields and cold tolerance. This variety has long been grown in areas that dip into the single digits from time to time. The Celestial Fig Tree is a small to medium-sized violet to purplish-brown with white flesh, shading to rose at the center. It is firm, juicy, and one of the sweetest of all figs. Sometimes referred to as the Sugar Fig Tree.

The Black Jack Fig Tree is a large, long, purplish fruit with a strawberry red flesh. It is a very sweet, juicy, and a heavy producer. The tree is naturally semi-dwarf and can be kept under 6-8 ft. tall with pruning. Otherwise, it can reach 12-15 ft. Black Jack Figs ripen from June to September.

The Brown Turkey Fig Tree is an old time favorite in the southeast for fresh eating and canning whole. The medium sized, bell shaped fruits are purplish-brown with light pink flesh. This small productive tree will produce delicious sweet figs in summer and usually a secondary crop in early Fall. Old Brown Turkey Fig Trees have survived single digit temperatures from time to time near the Willis family farm in southern Georgia.

The Celestial Fig Tree is a regional favorite of the Gulf Coast due to its excellent quality, high yields and cold tolerance. This variety has long been grown in areas that dip into the single digits from time to time. The Celestial Fig Tree is a small to medium-sized violet to purplish-brown with white flesh, shading to rose at the center. It is firm, juicy, and one of the sweetest of all figs. Sometimes referred to as the Sugar Fig Tree.

The Black Jack Fig Tree is a large, long, purplish fruit with a strawberry red flesh. It is a very sweet, juicy, and a heavy producer. The tree is naturally semi-dwarf and can be kept under 6-8 ft. tall with pruning. Otherwise, it can reach 12-15 ft. Black Jack Figs ripen from June to September.

The Brown Turkey Fig Tree is an old time favorite in the southeast for fresh eating and canning whole. The medium sized, bell shaped fruits are purplish-brown with light pink flesh. This small productive tree will produce delicious sweet figs in summer and usually a secondary crop in early Fall. Old Brown Turkey Fig Trees have survived single digit temperatures from time to time near the Willis family farm in southern Georgia.

[gardengirl]

Thanks!

We have sugar figs around here, so they might be the Celestials. Regional names are so funny.

I handmake our signs—I’ve said fig tree and fig bush, and gotten in trouble with someone over both. I just put FIG on the signs now!

[Red_Devil 232]

I think I am going to plant at least one of each of the figs. Is there a “best” time of year to plant? Or should I just go ahead and plant as soon as the weather warms up a bit?