Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012 | JustaDumbBlonde

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Good evening, FRiends and gardeners! I deeply apologize for the delay in posting this week's thread ... this is an extremely busy time here on our farm, and when you've got just a handful of folks farming 3,000 acres, there are times when it is all hands on deck all night long. The rain has been spaced exactly right to be wrong, and we were down to the wire getting our corn crop planted.

With that out of the way, how in the world is everybody doing with their gardens and plans for gardens? We have so many members with interesting projects underway that I'm looking forward to details.

For the most part, I'm going to direct sow my garden because it is certainly warm enough to do so. I have a few tomatoes that I seeded in newspaper pots, but mostly flowers. This week I will plant about an 1/2 acre of sweet corn and a 1/4 acre each of various cow peas and butterbeans. It is my intention to have several plantings of each, about 10-14 days apart, so that all of my harvest doesn't come at once. It is already too warm for the sweet peas to make, so those will be a fall crop.

Now that I am spending so much time in the beeyard, I've decided to plant a full compliment of veggies for our personal use and canning, but only sell 5 or 6 different things. Those will be sweet corn, a few varieties of peas, speckled and green butterbeans and okra. Those are the least work with the greatest reward. I will also be selling honey.

So far this spring, I have planted 2 pear trees, 13 red raspberries, 10 gold raspberries, 5 blackberries, and 5 blueberries. My last order of fruit trees came in yesterday and includes 3 additional mayhaw trees (we currently have 5), an italian white fig (I already have 2 brown turkey figs), an elberta peach to compliment my other 2 peach trees, a bing cherry, and a montmorency cherry to go with my stella sweet cherry that I planted last year. I ordered these from Ty Ty Nursery in Ty Ty, Georgia, and they are about the best looking stock of trees that I've ever received! We are very excited.

The most fun I had this week was a trip to a local nursery where I found ... get this ... a dwarf redwood tree!!! It was amazing to me that there was a redwood tree that would grow in Louisiana! It is about 8 ft. tall now that I have it in the ground and is supposed to be very fast growing. Final height will be somewhere around 70 ft. Label reads that it will grow in zones 6 through 10, and we are in zone 8, so I have high hopes.

Have a great week, and I hope to see y'all all on time next week.

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!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Previous weeks' threads:

Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012

[JustaDumbBlonde]

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[JustaDumbBlonde]

Detailed State Plant Hardiness Zone Maps

Alabama	District of Columbia	Kentucky	Montana	Ohio	Texas ( East )
Alaska	Florida	Louisiana	Nebraska	Oklahoma	Texas ( West )
Arizona	Georgia	Maine	Nevada	Oregon	Utah
Arkansas	Hawaii	Maryland	New Hampshire	Pennsylvania	Vermont
California ( Northern )	Idaho	Massachusetts	New Jersey	Puerto Rico	Virginia
California ( Southern )	Illinois	Michigan	New Mexico	Rhode Island	Washington
Colorado	Indiana	Minnesota	New York	South Carolina	West Virginia
Connecticut	Iowa	Mississippi	North Carolina	South Dakota	Wisconsin
Delaware	Kansas	Missouri	North Dakota	Tennessee	Wyoming

International Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Australia
Canada
China
Europe
Japan

[dirtboy]

Here in SE PA, I resisted the urge to plant early back in mid-March. And I think that paid off, we had two freezes this week.

Planning on first planting next weekend.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Good job! I have resisted, thinking that we would have another frost, but in reality I could have planted a month ago and it wouldn’t have hurt a thing. The insects are already here in droves!

[rightly_dividing]

Hello! I was beginning to be concerned about you.

[jaz.357]

We have inch worms falling like rain today! WAZ UP WIT DAT?

[MulberryDraw]

Our Japanese Cherry tree has just started to blossum and it's looking pretty nice this year:

We haven't had rain for 9 days and it's 91 degrees now. Much too hot for March (Texas panhandle).

[rightly_dividing]

Our peppers, hot and sweet banana, orange and yellow bells, and some hot chilis, are growing like weeds. Our maters and squashes are doing great also, lots of growth.

Wifes container plants have been outdoors for a week now and are looking good after being cooped up on the back porch for the winter. Her flower beds all have new stuff planted, and older stuff doing good, with all being remulched last week.

Now, If I can get her bird houses put up and her new fountain and surrounding bed built, I can move on to some of my projects, like my old car that gathers dust in the garage.

[Redleg Duke]

I had my new employee orientation training today at Lowe’s. I will be working in Outside Lawn and Gardening.

[eagles_rest]

ping

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Thank you!

Sounds like you're pretty busy too!

[Viking2002]

So far, my garden is.......alive and is seeming to thrive. (Note to self: the next time I see a rack of seeds marked 'USDA Certified Organic'......just keep walking.) The Elberta peach tree I planted last year looks to be on track to produce close to a hundred peaches this season, Good Lord willing and the bugs leave the fruit alone. The Granny Smith tree is rebounding surprisingly well after a lousy 2011 (I attribute both to a healthy bee population, which was virtually non-existent last year). The blueberry and strawberry patches appear to be doing better than expected, too. The Iceberg, Romaine, and Redina lettuce (my first attempt) is going better than I'd hoped; all other veggies (straightneck bush squash, green beans, and tomatoes) all doing A-OK. I'm starting over with the bell peppers, though. Said USDA certified seeds were duds. Of course, 3,000 acres it ain't around here, either. LOL But I think I may put up a grape arbor.

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."

--H.L. Mencken, The Sage of Baltimore

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Luckily, I haven’t seen inch worms yet :) The white flies are out in full force though. You can hardly go out a door without enhaling them. I’ve got to the get mistblower out and spray them one evening after my bees have gone in for the night.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Is that cherry an ornamental, or does it produce edible fruit? The blossoms are gorgeous!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Lowes is an excellent organization. My stepson is a risk management manager at their corporate headquarters in North Carolina. Do you get a generous employee discount?

[JustaDumbBlonde]

You've got so many yummy things going! I have an arbor with Thompson seedless green grapes, and some bug invaded them almost overnight and has done great damage to the leaves. Maybe it has time to recover, if I get them sprayed soon.

Hope that everything thrives for you!

[Viking2002]

It's called 'micro-farming on under an acre'. LOL! For several years we had some black muscadines trellised in the front yard, but no amount of trimming back could keep them from being unruly. Eventually the trellis (which was a 10' banded steel unit set in concrete) finally started to give out under the sheer mass of it all. Time to try something a little less cumbersome and more aesthetically pleasing. With room to spread. Might even buy a press and see what ferments. For home consumption, of course.

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."

--H.L. Mencken, The Sage of Baltimore

[Red_Devil 232]

I am seriously thinking about just doing a few raised beds this year instead of an in ground veggie garden. I will apply lime to my planned in ground garden area this fall prepping for next spring/summer.

[Red_Devil 232]

There are what are mistakenly called Mosquito Hawks in droves around here and annoying in these numbers. They are actually Crane Flies and they don't eat mosquitoes but their larva can cause damage to roots of veggies and lawns.