My Mother was also in a wheelchair. I made the raised beds 1 foot high and 4' x 4' square. They are great! They are a perfect height to access from a wheelchair and you can reach the center from any side.
Posted on 03/05/2010 5:04:40 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! Here in Central Mississippi spring type weather will be here soon. I can feel the warmth at the other end of the tunnel! Highs for the next week will be in the 60’s and 70’s and I will be out in the garden and yard cleaning up. I will have around two or three weeks to get the garden area in shape before any plants get transplanted into the garden. Spring officially starts March 20.
If you are just starting out gardening and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in. There are many Freepers from all over the Good Ol’ USA that are willing and eager to help.
The Weekly Gardening ping list has grown to 303 Freepers as of yesterday.
Have you ever grown radicchio? I’m going to assume it’s a spring/summer thing in your zone. Do you have any idea about its hardiness? I’ve read it’s hardy down to 10F. Which would be amazing. I’d order an ounce of it and plant a half acre of it this fall LOL. Hubby likes it in stir fry.
Good luck! If you can do it, you’re a better woman than I!
My Mother was also in a wheelchair. I made the raised beds 1 foot high and 4' x 4' square. They are great! They are a perfect height to access from a wheelchair and you can reach the center from any side.
I thought I had replied once but didn’t see it, and have to make sure you know these are the best I have seen so far! Thanks!
It is a spring-like 52F today! I got my order off to www.jungseed.com. I was planning only a small order. I was unsuccessful due to many fruit and nut trees I could not live without! I wanted to get a pipestone plum to cross with my toka plum, but found it could not ship to Colorado. Don’t know why??? So I got a black ice plum which seems to cross with red plum varieties.
I have spent the weekend making the rounds of the garden centers and spending too much money. Today, after church I saw corn rubble and DIRT in fields adjacent to the road. At home, I find that the snow is all gone next to the house on the south side, and pots planted with bulbs that never made it into winter storage actually have tulips breaking the soil. They spent the winder on the front porch, and I thought they were a lost cause, frozen beyond repair.
I believe that I have located all of the ingredients for Mel’s Mix for my Square Foot Garden boxes, although I’d buy more compost if I could find another kind. Mel suggests 4-5 different kinds if you are buying it. I’ve a couple more garden centers to check. The boxes are still frozen and unreachable, although they will be free of ice soon if we keep up these temps. I just don’t want to get my shoes dirty going out there.
Today, my husband will mount my handy dandy new combo clock/thermometer to the tree closest to the SFG. And I found twisty tomato supports that I am going to try insted of the wire rings that alwalys collapse on me. My list is getting shorter and my checkbook emptier. Must actually plant something soon.
My first wife took over 100 Daffodil blossoms to Church yesterday for todays Baptisms of a new born. The parents are from Wisconsin and 17 family members were in Eureka today, eh...
It got to 67 here.
I use pine cones in the bottom of my containers....it won’t let a lot of soil thru the drainage holes but water can drain away okay and you don’t have to use so much potting soil...
canned dried tomatoes in oil?....does that need processing?
I don’t know what the deal is about shipping to some states and not others. It varies from state to state.
I hope they have a Black Ice plum for you! Rumor has it they were in limited supply this first season. If you get it, you’ll have it and I won’t because they’ll ship through mail order first, then send the rest to the stores.
I’m adding pears this season; ‘Hardy Wisconsin’ and ‘Flemish Beauty’. :)
I make small batches for gifts in fancy glass jars and I just keep them in the fridge. The oil congeals, which doesn’t look nice for ‘presentation’, but 30 minutes at room temperature returns it to normal. When you use some of the tomatoes or the oil, add additional oil so that everything is completely covered, screw the lid back on and pop it back into the fridge. Always use the best olive oil you can afford. (It’s not cheap, but it’s worth the flavor!)
You could ‘can’ them with a hot water bath process, but I don’t know for how long off the top of my head. ;)
“My list is getting shorter and my checkbook emptier.”
Only for a short time. Your return on investment will be astounding, and alot of the money you’re investing these days will pay dividends for years to come.
Just think - this time next year YOU’LL be answering all the ‘newbie’ questions on these threads! :)
I’m to the point where my garden usually costs me about $50 a year in seeds and potting mix. That provides a good 6 months of veggies that I don’t have to buy at the grocery store. I recycle everything and today I’m sorting through the pot recycle bin at work and grabbing all I need before someone beats me to it, LOL! I also have five horse stables on my road, so I have all the dirty straw manure I can haul, and I can get free mulch from our town, and we also compost to make Black Gold.
A worm farm is next on the agenda. We live near a lot of lakes, so I could sell Red Wigglers to the anglers passing through. :)
Each year I’ve added more ‘perennial’ food crops such as fruit trees, currants, blackberries, grapes and other small fruits, asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish, shallots, a garlic patch, nut trees, a sturdy chicken coop, etc.
And, of course, a LOT of flowers for cutting: Food For The Soul. :)
By the time I sell, this place will be on auto-pilot for the new owners as far as food production is concerned. Of course, creating it all has been the fun part! :)
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m just hoping that I’ll have nice vegetables to eat with enough extra to give to my friends, or to the church. I’m not expecting much this year because the beds will be new, but it should get better as we go along. Especially if I get my own composting opertion going.
This year I have steer, leaf, and peat compost so far; and I’m still looking for 2 other kinds.
Tell me about your asparagus. I’ve always wanted to grow asparagus, but the 2 year wait until a crop appears has always deterred me. LOL. Same with blueberries. Just think what I’d be growing had I actually done it when we moved here 23 years ago! LOL
Oh, your wife is more valuable than diamonds, or pearls. Isn’t that what the Bible says? 100 daffodil blooms — a gift of pure gold.
I was also thinking about adding pears. Will have to figure out where to put them first.
that sounds great.....will try it this summer....
Asparagus takes about three years, and then you can start harvesting. We added a 40’ bed last season; I don’t know what took us so long, other than that my in-laws had a huge bed and we had all we wanted to eat from that.
That bed is gone; it’s gone into additional regular veggie garden space for my FIL.
Don’t delay! Asparagus takes a while, but it is SO worth it. We have Jersey King, and maybe this season or the next we’ll sneak in some Purple Passion just for fun.
Jersey Supreme (replaced Jersey King; it’s most likely the same stuff), Mary Washington and Purple Passion are what I sell at Jung’s.
http://www.jungseed.com/dc.asp?c=162
Can you please put me on your Gardening ping list.
Just moved to a beautiful house in the country, with a big, big garden... =)
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