Posted on 03/23/2012 8:53:54 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! Hopefully everyone has received beneficial rain this past week. We've had an additional 2 inches, which was a blessing because just to the south and southwest of us as much as 10 inches fell. While the area needed the rain, it didn't need it all at one time.
Looking forward to reading what you're doing with your gardens and plans this week. Photos will earn you bonus points! :^)
It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but I do have lots of raspberry bushes to get planted. Then, the beeyard. They are already capping honey in the supers and I will have a bountiful late spring harvest. Mark and I have 2 cutouts of bees in buildings that are coming up this week, which will make a total of 7 hives in my beeyard. We did a huge cutout 2 weeks ago and Mark added those to his beeyard.
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
Your dad sounds wonderful, BTW. Our elderly parents have so much to teach us.
I lost my mother in 2007, when she was about 6 weeks away from her 95th birthday. Miss her so....
The ‘ancient’ mostly non-grass yard has a charm all it’s own. It is full of wild flowers .... violets, Persian Speedwell (beautiful little blue flowers), plus lots that I don’t know the names of .... many ‘purples’. It’s like having another flower garden! We haven’t mowed the first time yet .... rained all weekend and I can ‘hear’ the grass growing so I’ll be out on the mower today.
Tell me about it! Guess what? in the 7 days that have gone by from when I ordered the test kits, the price has gone up another $5!!!
Another WOW! $5 in seven days?
I had planned to go see our Extension agent today to get his analysis of my test but have had to put off until tomorrow.
My test kit consisted of one double sided printed page of instructions on how to collect the soil sample and a form on the other side to fill out and heavy duty paper bag that will hold about a pint of the combined/mixed soil sample.
Is that how your kit was?
I had to box my own and send it via US Mail.
I can see now why yours cost so much. I just strolled into the Extension Office picked up my instructions and a sample bag. Filled the bag with my sample and mailed it off.
Hi everyone!
Your cool weather is coming wkwe. It’s blowing here now, with a hard frost coming tonight.
Spanish Onion seeds and oriental Poppy seeds are germinating.
I’m not entirely happy with using egg cartons. I find it hard to keep the soil moist.
Geraniums (hybrid-red) were seeded yesterday, all 8 of them. The package was supposed to have 6, but I got lucky. Also, at $3.99 for the package, vs $4.50 for each plant in the garden centres, even if only half make it, I’ll be ahead.
It’s here, friend! Five consecutive days in the 80’s, including an 86! Now the winds are ripping (worst I’ve seen all ‘winter’), and the temp is heading down to fifteen tonight. Even the broccoli and cauliflower will be indoors in this weather...
Good to here you have been having great weather! Hate the below freezing temps for you tonight! It is definitely spring down this way! Lows in the 60s to high 50s for the next weeks and highs up into the 80s or so, unless AlGore stops by! LOL
Couldn’t believe I had to bring my peppers INSIDE out of the direct sun in mid-March...the leaves on some of my habaneros are showing some sun scald. Tomato plants were lovin’ it, though...
I visited with the Harrison County Extension Agent this morning and he went over my soil sample results with me. He said it was not bad except I needed to apply about 40 lbs. of Lime to bring the soil pH up to a 6 to 6.5 level. The Soil Lab’s recommendation was to also add .75 lb of a 16-6-12 Fert per 100 sq ft. He said I may have difficulty finding that exact fert proportions and should look for and use a 15-5-10 (same proportions of NPK). He was right every feed store and garden center had the 15-5-10. Seems to be a popular turf fert around these parts. He said I need to till the lime and the fert into the garden as soon as possible. I will start that tomorrow. that is all the amendments I need to add. I did bring four large bags of my old compost with me when we moved and will also add that in.
:) for your ancient lawn.
Raised Beds
Along Driveway
I am going to try and contact the Master Gardener they list tomorrow when he is supposed to be in the office.
Looks like both your soil areas are slightly alkaline. I wonder why they don’t give you a Nitrogen reading? At least I don’t recognize one.
I really don’t know. This is a first for me. I have never done one of these tests before.
To be honest, this stuff confuses the heck out of me. I understand this just about as much as I understand women. Which is somewhere between clueless and hopelessly lost . . .
We'll see about that...
Can God make a rock so heavy that He can't lift it?
dono ducks for cover
Why isn't a test for nitrogen run? Several reasons, including cost, reliability, time, and lack of relationships between soil nitrogen levels and yield. Soil nitrogen levels change greatly due to moisture levels, microorganism activity, temperature, leaching, and organic matter levels. A test run on samples taken in November (to allow time for lime applications to react for spring) would not give reliable results about the nitrogen status of that soil in March. Soil organic matter is estimated, and from that a number is derived for the amount of nitrogen the soil will probably supply.
It was very rude of the jet stream to be fickle like this.
I planted some old beet, pea, and lettuce seeds (for the fun of it) in one of the beds last week, and threw a ton of dry leaves over them yesterday, to see if they can survive.
What do you do with old seeds anyway?
LOL!
You won’t be laughed at for asking a Gardening question because this thread is about Humans in the Garden.
Silly!
Still raining here... Doesn’t matter where here is if it’s still raining
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