Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Next week: Soil types & the importance of soil tests
I got my soil sample ready to mail away. Maybe I will get on with the program this year rather than procrastinating again.
Strawberries, geraniums, green beans
Hibiscus, snapdragons and red knockout roses
Flowering broccoli, artichokes, soon-to-be-planted bananas, and raspberries
Last week, we doubled the size of the garden last weekend from teeny to small. Still not enough room for everything but it’s now at the max. that will fit around the obstacles in the yard. It looks like a drunk put up the fence what with having to zig zag around the septic. Oh, well, it’s up! Procrastenating on the tilling but that’s on the to do list today.
FYI, cattle panel prices have gone up about a third again from last year.
Thanks, J. Got the newspaper pots made and planted with tomatoes and peppers. Now, if they’ll grow!
Planted some bulbs by the front door to brighten things up. Still don’t know what to do about my berries. Mr. B wants that bed but I’d like to convince him that we can have both his flowers and my berries there together. Last year, don’t know if it was the heat or what, but both plantings of berries died immediately. I’ve had both berries and roses there so it must have been the 100+ temps.
Started a new garden spreadsheet. Hopefully, knock on wood, this one will won’t end up like the last one after the Big Computer Crash I & II of 2011.
I also have 11 bare root trees in the garage that I need to plant. With all of the rain we’ve had, the ground should be soft and make the job a bit easier.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
We have been going back and forth between high fifties and single digits for the last several weeks. Last nite it got down to 5, this weekend supposed to be near 50.
Everybody complains about it but I don’t mind a cold snowy winter. January and February are down times for me and it’s nice not having something to do in the garden. Builds anticipation for next season. It’s a good time to clean up, plan, organize, take care of little projects, and kick back a bit, and live off the harvest.
Going to do some sprouts next week I think.
Looks like Peggy has found a house in Marshall, Tx. She will meet with the owners tomorrow. It is a small older house with a nice sized fenced in backyard. She will find out if they will have a problem with me having a vegetable garden.
Being a noob to gardening and a noob to chickens, I’d like to get some input on what to plant in this years gardens that would is good for chickens.
The couple of things I know for sure is lettuces’ and corn but anything else, I’m not sure of or am him-hawin’ about.
Also anything about fertilizing with chicken manure.
We keep straw down in the coop but I think I want to switch to some wood pellets or un-treated wood shavings or maybe if I had a source, some saw dust.
Any thoughts, experiences, opinions etc ??
Ah, the sweet heartbreak of a false Spring day
When the fresh smell of rain is in the air,
And the breeze has a soft edge to its chill
But tomorrow's coming will be colder still
And 'though future days may be considered fair
More inevitable Winter is on the way.
As for the garden, I bought my mom a camellia last Mother's Day .... the first & only one in her garden. It is a Kumasaka & it blooms winter to mid-spring. It has done very well and is loaded with what looks like big buds and we're getting anxious to see what the flowers will look like. The description is "pink peony" and the pink is not a soft pink, but brighter and darker (several shades lighter than fuschia). It should be beautiful!
Thank you for this most excellent gardening thread!
Between this FR thread and a couple YouTube channels (praxxus55712 and voodoogarden) and all the catalogs I learned about here, it’s going to be a brilliant gardening year!
This Spring will bring a new vegetable garden to the new house. 12 raised beds - @ 500 sq ft. Fruit trees and chickens to follow in the Fall.
If anyone has any heirloom/old school vegetable seeds they are willing to share, I will send a SASE. (The only seeds I can offer in exchange are baby blue morning glory seeds - great way to hide an ugly chain link fence.)
It would be an honor to grow other people’s favorite plants here.
Here is Charleston, SC - zone 8b. We can grow just about anything here, with gardening being mostly weed and insect control, it seems.
Photos to follow as the garden progresses - primary day here today (I’d vote for mama grizz if she was on the ballot) - then back to putting in the raised beds.
Take care - have a blessed day!
Thank you for this most excellent gardening thread!
Between this FR thread and a couple YouTube channels (praxxus55712 and voodoogarden) and all the catalogs I learned about here, it’s going to be a brilliant gardening year!
This Spring will bring a new vegetable garden to the new house. 12 raised beds - @ 500 sq ft. Fruit trees and chickens to follow in the Fall.
If anyone has any heirloom/old school vegetable seeds they are willing to share, I will send a SASE. (The only seeds I can offer in exchange are baby blue morning glory seeds - great way to hide an ugly chain link fence.)
It would be an honor to grow other people’s favorite plants here.
Here is Charleston, SC - zone 8b. We can grow just about anything here, with gardening being mostly weed and insect control, it seems.
Photos to follow as the garden progresses - primary day here today (I’d vote for mama grizz if she was on the ballot) - then back to putting in the raised beds.
Take care - have a blessed day!
Fellow freedom gardners I need a some bits of information that may be at your fingertips.
My friend is a state legislator who is a constitutional conservative. He called me Thurs. evening. He is interested in drafting legislation relating to food freedom, i.e., farmers’ markets, on-premise sales, roadside stands, etc., in that any foods grown and sold within the state shall be free from oppressive regulations. He’s willing to include raw milk, too.
I steered him towards the movie trailer “Farmaggedon” but there might be sample state legislation out there to use as a point-of-beginning.
I would appreciate you forwarding some links, info and the like on this topic. I have been working a part-time, non-farming job this winter and I’m booked this weekend, thus my humble request for help.
We will likely call it the “Food Freedom Act.”
What’s interesting is I’m a FReeping right winger whose has made food freedom a common cause with the “lovely” liberals. Who’d a thought ... freedom unites! :)
Thanks again in advance for your help.
From February 9-26, plants will be sold by the Bexar County Master Gardner association at their booth inside the Buckaroos on the Ranch: A Truly Texas Experience pavilion. Though I've already seeded my choices, I'll probably pick up a six pack. Proceeds support their "Junior Master Gardener program and other countywide youth gardening activities, along with horticulture scholarships."
The BHN variety I chose was BHN-640, plus Celebrity and 4th of July. I've also seeded 10 other mostly indeterminant varieties, not all of which will make it into the garden or containers. I like choices.
I didn't have much luck with last year's Rodeo Tomato, the Tycoon. Just down the street, however, my father-in-law had excellect luck with them. The only difference we can guess is his backyard had shade. Last summer was a dry scorcher.
"Rodriguez said last year experts from AgriLife Extension and volunteers from the agency's Bexar County Master Gardener association and the Garden Volunteers of South Texas, planted more than 4,500 tomato plants at Verstuyft Farms in south Bexar County.
"'The BHN 602 variety was selected as this year's rodeo tomato due to its superior production and quality characteristics,' he said. 'It is a well-adapted plant that produces a large, rich, red, firm, succulent fruit.'
"This year, the group planted mainly varieties which were expected to produce the large, round fruit indicative of fresh-market tomatoes, said Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde who oversaw the trials.
"'Some of these varieties included SunStart, Sunshine, Bella Rosa, Applause and BHN 602 varieties,' Stein said. 'They also planted some 'grape-determinant' varieties which produce a significantly smaller tomato.'
"These annual tomato plantings are part of a research field trial to determine new adaptive tomato varieties that will grow well in this region, Rodriguez said. The rodeo tomato was selected from the various tomatoes tested and assessed during these trials.
"In these trials we put them to the test to find the one with the color, size, texture and flavor characteristics we know to be most appealing to home-gardeners and consumers in this region," he said "This year, BHN 602, which was originally developed at a research center in Florida, was the clear winner as this year's rodeo tomato in that it adapted exceedingly well to the Texas climate and produced some exceptional quality fruit."
'Rodeo' tomato, other varieties picked from Bexar County fields, January 20, 2012
I have a nice crop of Swiss Chard right now. It will be part of my spaghetti sauce tonight. Lettuce seedlings ready to transplant. Spring bulbs sending up shoots. I wish the weather would settle down, however. It doesn’t seem like winter at all as temperatures hover around freezing mark.
I will really look forward to the information on soil types!
In the meantime....if you want to see an extravaganza of tomatoes....including LOTS of Italian types, check this out:
;-)))))
Is gleaning fruit from a source like this practical?
http://neighborhoodfruit.com/find_fruit
I live near Raleigh, 7B. This year we’ll try to plant cabbage a couple weeks earlier than last, because we got bad worm damage right at harvest time last year, unfortunately. So we’ll plant our cabbage and brocolli nearer to the beginning of February than the middle, like last year.
Can’t wait. The garden’s ready to plant.