Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 10/28/2011 5:05:33 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. We had our first frost last Friday but the weather has been beautiful ever since. I have been gathering leaves and other yard waste to add to my compost pile, which has grown nicely over the last few weeks and it is heating up and cooking nicely.
I hope all your Fall gardens prosper.
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.
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
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Good Morning!
Planting Season is HERE in S. FL!
I have put in seedlings for Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Bok Choy, and Cabbage, and have made little seed beds for green onions, sweet peas, and green beans.
I am going to EAT well in the Spring! LOL!
Last evening, I had the pleasure of driving through a mix of rain and heavy wet snow! We didn't get any accumulation where we live, but when I drove down the turnpike through south Nashua, it looked like close to 1-2 inches of accumulation on the median. A foretaste of the feast to come, I guess.
Not much to say about the garden, except I still need to till it and empty the compost bin and till that in. We are getting two chicken eggs (medium sized) and two-three large duck eggs per day. I need to threaten the rest of the ladies to start producing.
Our Marans pullets are getting used to being held and also getting out of their cage in the dining room to check out the rest of the house. Chickens as housepets isn't going to work out, I am thinking.
Thet are calling for a freeze tonight here in Maryland, and snow tomorrow. I think other than clean up my gardening days are over till Spring. So soon it will be time to browse the seed catalogs - that keeps me going through Winter.
I'll leave the Kale out there. I'll mulch it. A frost won't hurt it.
Also I am going to ask my next-door neighbor for stem cuttings from his fine "Sweet Millions" tomato plant--- before it's too late! I want to try to raise a little 'mater over the winter. Not because I think it'll bloom and bear (we won't have good enough light for that) but because I want to use it for vegetative cuttings for early "starts" next Spring.
Hope Springs eternal!
Had a really lousy year for beets - they just didn't germinate, and usually I have tons of them.
Ah yes...I remember those. I used to live in Boston.
It’s a cool and breezy 50º here this morning. Rain bypassed us again. I’ve noticed a lot of trees that are really stressed from lack of moisture.
There are even a lot of cedar trees dying. One community - Horseshoe Bay - is thinking about cutting down all cedar trees due to their water intake.
For all I care, Texas can hire every Hydro mulcher in the country, start at IH, and head south to the Rio Grande and shred every juniper / cedar they encounter.
Mid 50s here. Just had a line of showers roll through here. I have a dog that seems to love being out in the rain. Can’t get her to come in out of the rain for anything. Have to get the towels ready for when she decides she has had enough.
“Chickens as housepets isn’t going to work out, I am thinking.”
LOL! Been there and done that. A couple of years ago, my husband found one tiny chicken in our barn. The hen was gone and there were no other little ones. He assumed this one had hatched after a fox or coyote had gotten the mom and siblings. Anyway, he thought it was a rooster and called him Rooster Cogburn. Turns out, he was a she, so he changed her name to Ruby Cogburn. Ruby grew up in the house in a pet carrier. When she was big enough to go outside, he would put her out during the day and brought her back into the carrier at night. Eventually she started staying out at night, too.
When she started laying eggs, she would come to the door, he would put her in the carrier where she laid her egg, then he would put her back out. She was paying for her room and board.
During the summer, if he sat on the porch in the evening, she would come and sit on him like a dog or cat. Unfortunately, Ruby got sick and died a couple of weeks ago. I felt like I should send a sympathy card to my husband.
“... in Maryland, snow tomorrow”
Think of us tomorrow, Gramho12. We’ll be freezing our tushies off while watching a high school football game. I don’t remember a possible snow of up to an inch this early here....
Could you recommend a place to start educating myself (books, web sites, etc.) about vegetable gardening? I have never done this, and do not necessarily have a green thumb, but with empty nest coming soon, I would like to get into this more. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Since 3-6” of snow is predicted for my little part of Connecticut tomorrow I have a question for the experts.
Can I leave collard greens, tuscany kale, and Brussels sprouts out in the garden to harvest later this Fall, or should I pick it all prior to the snowfall??
I’ve heard that frost enhances kale, but I don’t know about snow.
Last pics for the year!
 Collection of various beets: orange, yellow, sugar, red |
 Misato Rose radish cut open to the red inside |
 Some fall asters and goldenrod in the pasture |
 Fuseau Jerusalem artichokes in full bloom |
 Rox Orange cane sorghum and Mammoth Russian sunflowers behind |
 Fall greens and roots with lots of volunteers from my seed saving efforts |
 Hoop tunnel rows trenched and filled with compost |
 Hoop tunnel rows mounded and planted |
First thing to decide is if you will be doing an in ground garden, raised bed (square foot gardening) or containers. There are plenty of good books dedicated to each type of garden.
Second thing is to come and visit and ask your questions on this thread. It is posted every Friday morning and don’t forget to revisit it throughout the week as more FReepers post. There are 489 FReepers on the ping list for this thread and I am sure one or two or more will have answers or advice to help you out! We have Master Gardeners and very experienced gardeners along with those just starting out who visit the thread regularly.
The thread is usually slow this time of year but really heats up (pun intended) as Spring nears.
Unless you are selling eggs, that rate of production is going to start affection your cholesterol, methinks. (Just kidding, I don’t pay any attention to all that cholesterol stuff. I love eggs and insist on eating them at least once a week.)
Anybody know anything about vegetable gardening in the snow (in a coldframe). I heard it can be done. Somebody posted a link to a website:
http://www.humeseeds.com/falwint.htm
Has anybody here tried it? It sounds like something I’d like to try!
How best to prepare my many houseplants for the siege?? New potting soil? Bigger pots? Fertilizer? Lighting? Water with tap vs. distilled water?
Any and all suggestions would help....
Those Misato Rose radish look so good. How big are they? The look huge.
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