I filled 27 round pots and 5 10"X24" wooden boxes with Black Gold soil for the deck flowers. I'll fill the rest when it stops raining...
Posted on 05/27/2011 5:16:22 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. I apologize to all Freepers for the flame skirmish that occurred on the thread last week. This thread is intended to give like minded Freepers a place to share their gardening experiences and knowledge - a respite from the everyday problems we all encounter without encountering more on a benign gardening thread. Please be civil to your fellow gardeners, Thank You.
Ok, back to gardening. Every one of my plants I started from seed are doing great! This includes two varieties of paste tomatoes and three varieties of winter squash and a few pepper plants. Unfortunately some of the beneficial flowers, I started in a small raised planter were raided by a digging Cashmere (Irish Setter) hiding her Milk Bones.
My garden received a nice drenching rain shower yesterday afternoon. It supplied a good soak for thirsty roots.
If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.
Hi Folks!
I have not posted in a while here, which really is a good sign that I’ve been too busy getting my hands dirty in the garden to post...
I just put up a new thread about my potatoes, so I could update it later and talk about the yield, and I wanted to cross-post it here so you could review it.
Thanks, and I hope the snow is melting wherever you are!
“Potatoes and Chickens”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2726999/posts
While the USPS certainly has too many issues to describe, I would like to mention that while most post offices are closed to the public on certain days, the actual processing of the mail continues non-stop, 24/7, reguardless of holidays. During those times when the union postal employees have off, the work is done by contractors and “temporary” staff. I only know this because I worked for the USPS for 6 months between highschool and college. I was one of those “temporary” workers. My supervisor told me that as long as I was in a different department every 6 months, I could keep working there indefinitely and still be considered “temporary”, but I decided I’d had more then enough by that point (it was hard work and my coworkers were creepy).
I do hope your plants survive. Rest assured that they will not likely be parked in a truck that whole time.
BTTT
I always suspected 'Priority Mail' was a thinly-veiled 'scam'; now I am sure of it.
Are you still allowing your honey to go walking with the bears? Isn’t that dangerous?
OK. I’m just getting started on the garden. My boxes are all weeded and new compost, manure, etc. added to fill them back up to the top.
I grew potatoes last year in those fiber bags. The potatoes were delicious, but I didn’t eat them all (although my waistline looks like I did.) The left over potatoes are sprouting all over the place. Can I just replant, or is there a point when I should just toss the whole mess and buy new seed?
I have 4 planting boxes — two 4 x 8 that are 4 timbers deep, one 4 x 8 that is 3 timbers deep, and one 2 x 8 that is 4 timbers deep. Instead of draggin out the fiber potato bags, I’m considering turning my 2 x 8 bed into a potato bed. Tomatoes grew there last year. Does anyone see anything wrong with that plan. I figure that I’ll get bigger potatoes if I give them more space. Should I remove some of the planting mix and then add it back in as the plants develop, like I did with the planting bags?
I’m planning to plant peas and beans in the bed that held corn last year. Should I also add 10/10/10 fertilizer to that bed before planting?
I’m moving the tomatoes to the bed where I had squash and melons last year. I’m moving the squash to where I had lettuce last year. And, I’m planting lettuce (from seed) in my perimeter beds.
Should I put my onions in between my tomatoes? Or, where?
I know this is a long question, but I really would appreciate your input. Y’all know why I got such a late start, and I’m trying to salvage the season.
For those who saw the pictures of my garden set up last year with it’s 6 ft. tall fence and arbor gate that my husband built to keep the deer out, you might be interested to see it after winter. You’ll have to use your imagination cause I don’t have a picture.
The deer broke the hinge and latch on my gate and came in to forage amongst the weeds. Then, they must have gotten spooked (probably by my dog) and tried to leap through my fence to get out. All they accomlished was to get sore heads and to bend my fence in extreme “pooches” facing out! Well, one faced in too, so it’s obvious that one tried to jump in at one point.
So part of the weekend was spent repairing the fence and the latch. My husband was able to take his pliers and bend the wire in each square to shorten it and to make it stand up straight again.
My job is to find some rag strips, or some sparkly foil, to tie along the fence at various levels to warn them that there is a fence there and to stay out!
With the gate open, a baby rabbit got in and was hiding in some weeds in the corner when my husband reached down to pull them out. I’ve never heard a rabbit squeal before. My. my. they can make a big noise.
The good news is the planting beds look beautiful, and the weeds were easy to pull. I’m going to try to get my purchased plants in today.
Of course it’s dangerous and I have warned her repeatedly “DON’T HARM THE BEARS”! They have feeling too...
Welcome to the wonderful world weeds and critters. I always plant my leftover potatoes and even set some aside for that purpose however (comma) NOT if my spuds had late blight. I would definitely use the 10-10-10 in the former corn patch as they are heavy feeders and take a lot out of the soil.
A soil test is going to be your best friend in this situation. Peas and beans won't need the added nitrogen, as it will give you huge green plants, but not so much in the way of peas and beans. Use a fert with the first number being zero.
Planting potatoes in the bed sounds fine, and I don't see why you wouldn't use the same procedure as far as building up the soil height.
Onions between the tomatoes sounds like a good use of space, so long as the onions will receive adequate sunlight. My tomatoes are such lush plants that other plants wouldn't get much sun at all ... they are planted 2' apart on the row, and the rows are 40" apart.
Glad to hear that you are getting in the garden. Planting and tending are good activities for the soul. I wish you bumper crops and lots of good times!
I've really not contributed much to the gardening threads for some weeks now. DH bought me a new tractor with several implements, and I've enlarged the garden significantly. In addition to that he pinched 6 acres off of the farm for me to plant produce, and I've been able to get it all planted. Luckily, he had that 6 acres worked and ready to plant, or I would have had another couple of days of work.
Our temps in may have been incredible ... it was 97 yesterday and will be again today. It has been that way all month, except for two sets of a couple of days that cool fronts came through and it was in the 80's. No rain for weeks. It is as dry as a powder keg and my hose is going 24/7.
I filled 27 round pots and 5 10"X24" wooden boxes with Black Gold soil for the deck flowers. I'll fill the rest when it stops raining...
I am so excited -- my Thompson seedless grapes have never done anything in the 3 years since I planted them and this year I have huge bunches of grapes hanging all over the arbor! It won't be long now!
Here is my new tool this year. Never had I imagined all of the things you can do with a front-end loader. That thing has changed my life!
My best to your lingering house guest with the best flowers in the universe.
Thank you for posting the 5 stages of gardening. It brought much laughter and hope again. I was in a depressed state of mind because it seems all of my efforts this year in the garden FAIL.
The weather has been so unpredictable causing me to second guess every decision. I haven’t given up just started again.
Nice!
Nice Toy there JaDB!!! There aren’t many hard working Farm Gals like you any more and it’s a pleasure hear from you and to see the great photos you post. What are y’all growing on the big farm this year?
Greetings everyone!
I just updated my henhouse egg statistics thread...700 eggs, 58.33 Dozen so far this year weighing just under 100 pounds...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2681583/posts?page=1
Cheers!
UPDATE: that might have the case. The one NICE clerk at my local PO called real early this morning, told me she had the box, and that I could have it before opening if I came after it...grabbed my water bottle and headed out. I opened the box, and checked the root ball. After six days; still damp. (That leads me to believe that they did NOT spend the holiday weekend in a hot truck, and it was upper 80's all the way.) Leaves were weeping, so I gave them more water. Bottom line: they are beat up, and some of the limp branches will need to be clipped when they get their 'sea legs' back, but I believe all eight will live. Whew...Purple Haze and Goose Creek...did NOT want to lose those.
Final Score: WKWE/Tomatoes 8, USPS 0.
Nice try.
Raining in Benderville like it was April. 1/4 inch do far today on top of the 3/10 for the past 5 days and we are seeing some of the healthiest Banana Slugs in many years. We got the last of the potatoes planted late yesterday and today was a trip to Costco and then the Ace for more Black Gold P.Soil and steer manure and Dr Earth Pro Biotic Microbes...
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