Posted on 01/06/2012 9:53:54 AM PST by JustaDumbBlonde
January is not the most hospitable month of the year to be sure. If you're like me those cold dreary days are best spent curled up in a chair (for the guys that don't *do* curl -- sit there very manly) with a cup of tea (insert the manly beverage of your choice) and a stack of garden catalogs that you need a front-end loader to move (got you with the front-end loader, didn't I?).
I've got to hand it to the catalog people, the covers are exceptional this year and, by golly, with all of the $25 to $100 coupons right there on the front ... I saved $475 just walking in from the mailbox!
Your first five minutes spent thumbing through will tell you something, regardless of which catalog your choose: Prices. Are. Up. Must be that ol' supply-n-demand thing, because I choose to believe that MY favorite seed suppliers would never take advantage of a market that is growing by leaps and bounds as people discover that you can feed your family the highest quality foods and save money at the same time. Not to mention, you know exactly how your food was handled and by whom. It must be said -- produce from Mexico just doesn't have the same tropical appeal that it once did.
These are the catalogs I've received as of this morning. I've put these in the form of a link that you can take to that company, if you so desire. You can request a catalog of your own or, do what I do, which is peruse the paper catalog and then place an order online.
Gurney's Seed & Nursery Co.Please let us know about your favorite catalogs and gardening-related companies. I know that we all love to discover something new that will further our fun in the garden.
Musser Forests, Inc.
Michigan Bulb Co.
Agri Supply
Growers Supply
Stark Bro's Nursery
The Greenhouse Catalog
Gardener's Supply Company
Totally Tomatoes
The Cook's Garden
Burpee
Henry Field's Seed & Nursery Co. *
Gurney's Seed & Nursery Co. *
Jung's Seeds & Plants
R.H. Shumway's Illustrated Garden Guide* Henry Field's and Gurney's are one and the same group. I suspect that Burgess is also owned by them, but haven't confirmed
I've been reading through all of my gardening books and can't wait for spring to get here.
EEEE GADS, I don’t get any of those. But I have received some. They all have pink markers in them, noting what I want...and maybe what I don’t need. Then I need to go thru the and match the numbers (price). I still have a bunch of seeds in the garden shed. The mice got in there and there are aster seeds everywhere. I did turn some sod today in the raised gardens. Two days ago, I sprayed aroung the base for weeds. This year I’m collecting all the boxes I can and put them down around the base of the raised gardens.
Does anyone have an idea how to coax worms into raised gardens? I think I’m going to have to purchase some fishing worms and spread them around. The garden on the ground has more worms than you can shake a stick at. NO, I’m not going to go digging for the..it’s too hard on my bionic hip.
What are these “red worms”, I’ve been reading about. How does one care for them? I’m thinking of getting some, but they are SOOO expensive and I’m married to a Scotsman, but then I’ve a lot of Scot in me too. Does one just put them in the garden, or are they kept “caged” with whatever they eat and then the gardener use just their litter? I always thought a worm was a worm..
hMM, that’s a new one to me. Is there an address?
It was 50 degrees on our patio this AM, but as the day came about it was 65 dfegrees, just right for messing in the yard and “KILLING” weeds. We’re adding a porch and roof to the garden shed and a ramp so I can push and pull my wheel barrel, fourwheel gad about and my little insect springler.
I’m getting ready to cut some plastic barrels to plant some potatoes, carrots on top and ???something else. I bought some strawberry plants to put in my plastic tubes. I have 4 or 5 of them. One is a long skinny one, so I’m thinking of putting quite a few strawberries in it. I’ve really ruined my fingernails. They were so nice, but today, they had to be filed down. Oh me....yard work.
Thanks! We turned the soil last fall, and I added compost, an old bag of potting mix, and covered it with straw mulch after the plants established. It has big veins of clay in it, since we dug it up down to 8’ depth for a sewer problem about 6 years ago. I will leave the roots.
Yes, the newspaper pots! I read about them here on the WGT. I hope it’s easy enough to do.
Sure is...
www.heirloomacres.com
Look on line for bulk Red Wrigglers for adding to your garden beds. I haven’t bought any is several years...
Seems like a reasonable, and tasty reward to those plants thay defied the odds!My husband loves a pick pile of pepper sauce and pickled peppers and green tomatoes in the middle of his beans and peas.
I look forward to hearing from you as you begin your garden this year. And, we love photos ... you know that old saying about a picture paints a thousand words. :)
I have an old iron bathtub from a farm house and it goes back and forth from water trough for my donkies, and a home for nightcrawlers that I raise.
We do a lot of fishing here, so nightcrawlers are fairly reasonable to buy a couple of good boxes and that it really all you need to get started.
After filling the bathtub about half full so that there is at least 8 inches of rich, loose, garden soil. I purcased mine at the garden center. It has decaying wood shavings in it, as well as some spaghnam moss. You can always add spaghnam. Keep the soil damp, but not wet or near muddy.
Night crawlers eat decomposing matter, or anything finely ground and soggy enough to be consumed. For night crawlers used as pets or being reared as food for other animals, feed them things that will keep them healthy, so they'll live longer or so they won't poison the animals to which they'll eventually be fed. Chicken mash is a common food used by night crawler farmers. There are two types--chick starter and laying mash, with the latter being the more nutritious.
If you don't care what happens to the night crawlers once they're fully grown (for people who raise night crawlers to catch fish), feed them fruit and vegetable skins, molded bread, and finely shredded paper-based trash. Make sure the food is damp, or they won't be able to consume it.
I work at a home improvement center and we've already started receiving our Spring set stuff. The seeds won't arrive for another couple of weeks, but we've already received a massive influx of tools, lawn ornamentals, and patio furniture in anticipation of the coming season.
Same with coffee. No longer 16 ounces, but the same price.
Oh, Red, I hope the move is smooth. You’ve had them before, being a Marine, you know the drill. I know, it’s the garden that you’ve tended. Good luck FRiend. I pray it will be smooth and everything falls in place.
HMM ??? reads like muddy swamp water.
LOL, thank you for the chuckle.
Thank you for the information. I’ll keep that in mind for our “Farmer’s Market”.
We have a hard frost here in Benderville this morning and y’all didn’t warn me to turn the waterline off to the garden. The Weather Bug says it’s 33(?)but the Benderstats say 26 on one and 27 on the other. I tripped on something while filling the bird feeders yesterday morning and whacked my head on the sidewalk but got my hands down enough to break the impact but still had a small knot.
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