[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
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Happy Easter!) Vol. 14, April 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 15, April 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 16, April 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 17, April 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 18, May 4, 2012

[rightly_dividing]

first post? Good morning.

[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

[illiac]

We had frost last night and expect some more tonight - waiting to get he garden in ....corn starts not looking good at this point, although Saturday the nights are to get much warmer, as are the days. Latest frost for our area that I can remember for a long time....keeping out fingers crossed.....

[FreedomPoster]

Great pics again, nice project.

[tubebender]

Your photos leave me week in the knees just looking at the work you do!!! I have a Doc appointment this morning and then back out in the yard after lunch with our son on his birthday...

[Ratman83]

JDB how much soil can you put on the tree roots before it is bad for the tree? I have some trees that the roots are working out of the ground and I want to protect them. I am worried that too much could harm the trees though.

[Oberon]

I'm pleased to report that, here in eastern NC, the lettuces are up and looking strong. Harvest has already begun on Buttercrunch and Black-Seeded Simpson lettuces, and we have already partaken of some Swiss chard as well. We have beets, white potatoes, carrots, and a few peas. I've never had good luck with peas here... germination and early-plant survival is generally spotty.

Oh, and we got the usual volunteer pumpkin vines coming up in the compost heap. I generally let them come on. I'm already starting to clear lettuce rows to make room for tomato and pepper plants.

[left that other site]

WOW! That’s a LOT of WORK! :-)

Good Job!

[texas_mrs]

What a beautiful yard you have and your project is awesome! I am envious!

We have had a lot of rain over the past few days, though hail broke my rain gauge some time back so I'm not sure how many inches. Part of my garden has standing water in it, but is doing well. Should be picking squash, peppers, tomatoes and jalapenos soon and green beans and black-eyes in a month or less.

I thought some of you might be interested in this new okra strain recently offered for sale called 'Heavy Hitter'. It produces heavily branched stalks in excess of 2" inches in diameter, bearing 40 to 70 tender pods SIMULTANEOUSLY. Here is a photo of ONE PLANT (there are copyright notices on the pics or I would post them here:

Heavy Hitter

Heavy Hitter Harvest

[MichaelP]

Last weekend I got my Pole beans planted. I put in Strawberries, brocolli, Brussel Sprouts, Lima beans, snap peas and regular peas in the main garden. Will add more this weekend, but not tomatos until next weekend. My flowers all are doing great and I will be putting in some annuals this weekend.

I love planting season!

Mike

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Looks like a fun project, there's nothing that delivers satisfaction like looking back on a hard job well done.

The weather is perfect and supposed to stay that way this weekend and the last frost should be gone so I'm getting ready to get everything planted.

It's amazing what happens when you ignore some plants. My spinach that survived the winter is doing great. In fact we have leaves that are about 8” long (no kidding), plus lots of little fresh ones.

I'm going to be transplanting some strawberry plants as well. Does somebody know if there is anything I should do to the soil first? I thought I had heard they like acidic soil, is this correct?

[painter]

I have a question for everyone. My mom has a nice peach tree that is full of peaches. Every year just about the time they get ripe, BAM they are gone. We figure racoons are getting them at night.

Any ideas on how to keep them out?

[Arrowhead1952]

Central Texas got just over 2” of much needed rain yesterday evening. I hope the lakes come up enough to get off watering restrictions.

Garden is doing great. Tomatoes are close to ripe and cucumbers are growing really well.

[Augie]

We’ve had a week of lovely weather here in Central Missouri. All of my herb starts have been potted and placed in the garden. Dug some oregano and transplanted it in Mom’s garden. All of the peppers have been transplanted to the garden. Seeded ~75’ row of okra. Still need to plant cucumbers, squash and cantelope which will complete the spring phase of edible plantings for me. Dug through the bucket of giant elephant ear corms and set out ~20 of the nicest ones. I started out with three that were purchased at wallymarts in the spring of ‘09, now have more than I have room to put out.

[Aliska]

Fascinating stuff. It's a little hard not to envy people who can build such neat things and I will love seeing how those azaleas do in time. Great buy BTW. We do hostas under trees here.

Starting about 2005 I took up gardening again and started planting flowers and had to dig big holes for the roses which is fortunate because my back will only allow no more than half hour of light weeding now although I can still dig a couple of those big nasty dandelions that get in the beds with a shovel.

The first photo is the view from my kitchen breakfast room window this spring which is glorious due to our mild winter. I'm slowly trying to weed and maintain the long strip but you can't see too many flaws in the photo. The huge dark pink rose I scouted around town for cuttings and rooted two, that's one. Way in the back by the alley is a different pink I rooted which I hope will eventually spill even more over the terrace. There's two more in the back yard I rooted you can't see. The others I purchased.

Second photo is Crown Princess Margareta (sp?), a David Austin own root rose. I got six bare root plants from Jackson Perkins and was it a job to space and plant them. I let them do what they want, and the first flush this spring is spectacular. I still need to clear dead stuff from last year out of that long strip which doesn't look quite as long as it is in the photo.

The purple in the bottom left corner is Baptisia "Purple Smoke". I get a lot of plants from Bluestone Perennials because they usually ship healthy plants in very small pots which make it easier to dig. They take off in no time but some take up to 3 years to get established to make a pretty showing.

I don't do veggies and the only edibles I have are the cherries (lost the mate to that little tree when a huge limb came down) and some black raspberries I grew from seed in an exchange I wintersowed. Five of those plants survived and are thriving around my compost heap but no signs of blossoms yet.

[kalee]

It’s been a beautiful day here in NC. We spent the day pruning Lady Banks roses and taming the jasmine and honeysuckle that are running wild.

We are trying to grow tomatoes in plastic tub as someone here recommended a year or two ago. I saved the directions and decided this year to try it.

We are also putting in 10 new hydrangeas along the front fence. Still have 3 to go.
I have a brick patio that needs weeded (we really should put garden cloth under the brick) as well as some beds that need weeded and mulch that needs spread.

My herb garden got out of control a couple years ago when my mother was ill. Last year it seemed so overwhelming I just ignored it. This year I think we will just dig it out and start over. :(

I could use a full time garden helper. lol

[Petruchio]

Just came back inside . . . and I am bushed!

Today was he first day the soil in my raised beds was dry enough to work.

Today I

• added aluminum sulfate to lower the ph in all 8 beds
  
• added mushroom compost to all 8 beds
  
• added "water crystals" to all 8 beds
  
• spaded then tilled 4 beds
  
• planted those 4 beds (sweet peppers, kohlrabi, swiss chard)

Tomorrow I plan to finish the other 4 raised beds.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Nice shot of the bee larvae. What kind of camera do you use?