Posted on 10/02/2009 3:59:53 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. I started the clean up of my garden this past week. I am taking my time doing it. I started with my tomato plants and decided not to use them in my compost pile. I do plan on pulling up my landscape fabric and saving it for next season. I would like to plant winter rye grass in the garden but would like other advice from y’all. What would be a good cover for this area until spring?
Well, I mowed two lawns this week, will that help? I’m about ready to do the “short cut” on the lawns (MIL’s next door too)and do the winter fertilizer application. Windy, rain and possible snow this weekend here. We are going to try to go to the Fall Festival downtown but I’ll draw the line at freezing rain.
Fortunately next week has about 4-5 sunny days so I should be able to wrap things up outdoors.
When the season shuts down here, it shuts down, period. I have yearly photos of 3’ high snow in my driveway in several of the years we’ve been here.
My pond is deep enough in back that even w/2’ of solid ice the goldfish still survive. It’s frozen over for most of 4 months...I think they’ve got a game room & TV in one of their little hidy-holes.
We but them in cardboard boxes, a couple of layers and then sprinkle lime on them. Keep the box closed so they are in the dark, store in cellar or basement. Or a cold room.
I don’t know much about calla lilies, either...how do you prepare them, and do they taste like chicken? *<];-^)
Our non-mowing season usually comes in the summer. That extended to about nine months this year though with the lack of rain. If we get the water, the grass will grow year round, freezes don’t last but a couple of days and it’s never enough to really shut it down.
I am trying to see how to store veggies long term so am trying storage over winter. The research I have done for rutabagas and turnips says to pull up. cut off roots and leaves, place immediately in a cold, humid storage area. I put into cardboard boxes with plastic and then newspaper lining. I can periodically spray with light mist of water. I put into basement where the thermostat is set at 40F and it is usually about that for 6 months of the year from fall to spring. Recommendation not to wash before storage.
For the potatoes, recommendation to not wash too, but to cure them at room temperature for a week before storing in a cool, dry and dark room. I have another room (old sauna room) that is dark and cold due to no heat, but does not get below freezing. I will store potatoes there. I have picked out potatoes with many eyes to cut up for next year stored in a small cardboard box that will go into the same cold room.
I had many very small potatoes that were marble sized and buried them all together as a backup plan. I put them together about 2 feet deep, covered with pine needles and then covered with dirt. Put in a stake to be able to find them next year. Near where I will plant garlic this fall and will be covered by the same 2 ft of mulch to insulate from ground freeze. A big experiment and waiting to see what works best!
Next year will try pressure canning.
I used to live in Florida. Perpetual sweating and if you open your mouth you will get a few mosquities on average. The roaches were everywhere too. Now in Colorado there are mountains to climb and only the occasionally bear trying to break in your house (or attack you as one once tried to do to me, oh and the house break-in thing too!). Sometimes over 5 ft of snow in winter or forest fires in summer, but in general all is well! Lots of potatoes!
We raise chickens the easy way. Summer of 2007, we split off and sold 20 acres on contract to a couple we knew.
Every month they bring us a check and all the fresh eggs we need.
Turkeys are easy to raise, too. We just put out cracked corn, and they show up to mooch from early spring until just before Thanksgiving. The deer fence is no obstacle for them, so they also help with in the garden by eating bugs; they have so far not ever scratched up any of the plants or seeds. It's a kick to watch the Toms doing their thing around April & May; then the hens disappear for a while, and a month later are back with their babies.
Buy a cheap woodburing pen,and some stencils & spray paint at the harware store: voila! Instant "Gucci" pallet boards & Eddie Bauer planting buckets!
Wonder what they would think of my former neighbors "flower pot"?
Saw this near Alliance, Nebraska a few years ago. We farmers & ranchers just do not do well with your type of neighbors. LOL That's WHY we live where we do: nobody else will put up with us!
Please add me to your ping list. Gung ho gardener!
I have a greenhouse, and grow cool season plants: lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, and carrots over the winter, and waste time trying to grow cabbages and brussels sprouts. I keep some of my outside plants alive, and also a few plants for neighbors.
There is no way I could keep “summer” vegetables alive, let alone producing through the low light period of winter, without a major additional investment in and willingness to pay the ongoing additional expense of heating to hothouse temperature here in zone 5A.
For more basic help with growing indoors under lights, I would suggest going here: http://www.gardenweb.com/.
Look under "forums" for "growing vegetables", "growing under lights", "growing from seeds", and "growing in containers".
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Your brother lives in our neighborhood. He is a plumbing supply owner and pretty much supplie SW ohio. Well the local constubulary of doo goooders didn’t like the fact that he always left his work van parked in the drive.
The vans he drives ... never older than 2 years but on the side is his logo .. a full lithogrpah of a crapper with swirliing water. Guess it offended the little dirtbags wives .. they ran a pettion and finally got an ordinance to mandate vehicles with logos had to be in the garage.
Bad move ... neighbborhood is 450K and up .. he went to all his buyers and collected used crappers. Lned his property with over 200 of them and yes .. planted his petunias. Took almost two years to get him to remove them .. and then he removed himself as well.
Funny thing ... he was the original developer of the subdivision, built the first house there and was plumbing supplier to the entire neighborhood.
Hey guys! And girls!
I think we’ve finally wound down here! Woohoo! I am almost out of plants—and patience! A lot more people are planting gardens this year, and we had 10” of rain Labor Day weekend—in a couple of hours. Rain the next week, another 8” the following weekend and it rained yesterday—a bunch.
Any of y’all need some rain? Would love to send it your way!
Our garden is mostly done, still have to dig peanuts. Can’t get to the garden for the moat. Did I mention mosquitoes? Carry you off type.
Planted my broccoli and collards last weekend. Some of it is still there but I can’t get in the garden to check. It was almost dry enough early yest. Sigh. Going to do some lettuces and spinach in planters, maybe next week.
Red—use clover or annual rye for cover crop. Buckwheat also works well.
Di—I love my Buffs! Have always had RIR/Dominickers/White Leghorns. The Buffs are so much nicer. Don’t seem to lay as well, but I’m up to my eyeballs in eggs anyway.:)
Gabz—sorry about the rain. Right there with you.
Just—your display is beautiful! The pumpkins here were a total bust this year. Too much rain and humidity. Once about every 5-6 years they do good. This wasn’t a once year.
Hiram—I adore Yukon golds. They don’t do well here, and won’t keep at all. Love to hear y’all’s stories about putting stuff in the basement—no basements here unless you want an indoor pool—or making beds. Fireants love potato beds and it doesn’t get cold enough anymore. The stuff just rots. Your plumbing story was great!
Have a great day, y’all. Hopefully I can spend more time on the puter now! LOL
Glad to hear you’re still alive and kickin’! It’s been rainy here, too, but not as bad as some of you have had it. Everything smells like Wet Dog, LOL!
So nice to hear from you and thanks! We have had several inches of rain, which is hampering the last of the corn harvest, but it has been good for the late cotton that we have. The pumpkins turned out really well, considering that we were not sure at all of what we were doing. I’ve got a crew headed to the field right now to fetch a trailer load of pumpkins so that I can sell them. Take care.
Add salt marsh to wet dog and that’s what we smell like! LOL
Still in the 70’s and 80’s here. Had a few nights in the 50’s. Had the ac turned off but it rained so hard last night we had to close the windows and turn the ac back on.
Haven’t even started picking corn here. Can’t get in the fields. The rain is so weird. Spotty. It poured for hours in the nearest town yest, about 10 miles away. We didn’t get any until about 3am. Glad your stuff turned out well. Ours did surprisingly well considering.
Y’all have trouble with black widows on your pumpkins? Course, the bw’s eat the caterpillars so... Most of the trouble here is mildew and rot. Too much humidity.
Wow Black Widows on pumpkins! Never knew! But hey this is October they seem to go together.
No rain needed here. Heavy waves of popcorn type showers the last few weeks seemed to have target my garden. A front went through early yeasterday dropping more rain - beautifull today - lows have been ranging from mid 50's to 60's. Nice open window sleeping. Matter of fact we have not run the A/C at night the whole summer - amazing for centeral Mississippi.
I've been told that although these are not pie pumpkins, you can still use them, so I guess after the Halloween buying is over, I'll be canning pumpkin. It will be an interesting venture if nothing else.
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