Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 11/25/2011 5:10:38 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. My day was nice, quiet and lazy. Mrs. RD had to go to work at one pm and did not get off until two this morning, so we will be having our Thanksgiving feast this afternoon. We are having a roasted Turkey breast with the typical side dishes. We usually have a Ham but Mrs. RD wanted Turkey this year so Turkey it is.
It is forecast to be in the low 70s today so I may get out and gather up some leaves for the compost and some pine needles for mulching.
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Weekly Gardening Thread
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I plan to finally get some bulbs in the ground today. And about time. We had some rime (touch of frost)on the grass yesterday morning here in western MA., but it’s getting warmer and we still haven’t had a hard frost. Six squirrels hit the tree with all the bird seed this morning, as usual, plus some little red squirrels, mourning doves, chickadees, nut hatches, woodpeckers. And blue jays. The cardinals go to the feeder on the other side of the house. I’ve been rolling pine cones in peanut butter and sunflower seed for the birds, but that squirrel family steals everything.
I have four dachshunds very interested in everything I do, so I expect I’ll have to replant those bulbs a couple of times. They come right along after me and dig up everything.
“... they come right along after me and dig up everything”
Little devils are helping. They see you digging so they give you a hand. Of course, it would be far more helpful if they dug a hole BEFORE you planted the bulb... LOL!
My garden is doing well with the 1.75” rain we got. I may try to get the onions into the ground today if I have time.
I’ve received more than a dozen seed and nursery catalogs so far. They arrive earlier every year it seems.
Our raised beds are cleaned out and turned over with a bit of compost added. I might add a third raised bed nearby since there is adequate sun. We have a lot of big oaks so shade is a consideration.
Glad to hear you finally got some rain.
Tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers in December?
Our average first frost date is 15 November. During the pre-dawn morning of the 11th we briefing touched 31 degrees, hit an afternoon high of 68 degrees, followed the next day by a high of 80 degrees.
Plants which survived the awesome summer heat are bearing fruit and the bees are still flitting from blossom to blossom doing their busy work. But, the tomatoes are still green, the surviving cucumber plants are producing fewer and smaller cukes. Bell peppers are decent producers but the peppers are smaller than in the spring.
Oddly, the seranno, jalapeno, and pablano peppers are going like gangbusters even with the fluctuating night and daytime temps, as are our cherry tomatoes.
Ten day forecast calls for night temps 38 - 48 degrees and day temps 64 - 76 degrees.
With a little luck, maybe we’ll have vine ripened tomatoes for Christmas.
Snow peas, broccoli, cabbage, collards, onions and garlic are coming along nicely. And so are all the potted herbs. Only the Thai basil seems to be giving up.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
For me, this is cause for Thanksgiving. We feel that this year we are finally making progress on the Haney Place. We hope you all have a restful winter and great success in next year's endeavors!
There is very little good soil around the Lake of the Ozarks so we had the garden soil trucked in. It was harvested from a river bottom north of here and is quite heavy.
We added cotton burr to fluff up the material.
Red_Devil, I am never here on Fridays to post a “hello” and a “thank you” so here it is. Hello, and thank you.
CH3CN
I have been fooling around in the dirt (er, soil) for a long time and am still learning. The best book I’ve read of late is this: http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X The book is loaded, and I mean loaded, with good information about producing food anywhere under nearly all conditions. No snotty enviro stuff and it’s all written from experience for practical application at the low tech level. Very good and highly recommended for all gardeners at all levels of experience. Good luck, Eric!
Good to see you here this morning.
My gardening is pretty much over for this year. Did get some garlic in the pots but we don’t care for greens so didn’t plant any. Since I have to use buried pots since all we have is sand it’s just pulling the pot dropping in some compost and put the pot back in and I’m ready for next year. Might seem tedious to some but it goes rather quickly.
In central Jersey, between the rain and the warm temps, we’re having a re-bloom of some early summer flowers.
I have often wondered about cotton waste. Do you get that burr from the gin?
Lady Bender did her usual masterful job on the Turkey and Fixins. Guests were my daughter and her husband and their son and his girlfriend (this is new). Her daughter is now married and went to his parents home in NE Calif near the border. Our son and his wife traditionally spend this week in Portland Ore shopping, going to shows and exhibits.
I have many things to be Thankful including the fact my daughter got me my Fotki account back. I assumed it was a password error but she spotted the problem within seconds. My account name had gotten corrupted and there was never a reason to change my passwords.
I made a quick pass through the garden yesterday and noticed about 90% of my 7 varieties of Garlic are up with several at 100%. My cover crop of Red Oats is also sprouting but I don’t see the Austrian Field Peas yet. We still have a few Raspberries producing in our patch so I had a few. The temp in the compost piles show they are still active but they are darn soggy from the rains even though they are covered.
A storm moving across the country. Just heard the heaviest rain is expected in the Mississippi valley.
Do you still have snow on the ground?
Lots of snow on the ground. Eldora Mountain Resort is a ski area I can see from the back window and they are open. it is 34F right now. Not too cold.
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