[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
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 19 (Getting Projects Done) May 11, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Harvesting Wheat) Vol. 20, May 18, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 21 (Keywords) May 25, 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

[Oshkalaboomboom]

I have plenty of extra Ghost Chile pepper seeds if anyone needs some. My project for this year is Datil peppers. So far I’ve managed to get 3 seedlings going and my largest plant is a little over an inch tall. But that’s how I started with my Ghost Chiles and this year I will be harvesting them by the dozens and expect to easily have over a hundred by the end of the summer.

[Taffini]

I have some shrubs in front of my house that if they were cut back to a sane size would just result in a bunch of bare wooden sticks waiting to impale the ups guy so I cut it down to a nub. At least I don’t have to look at the overgrowth, but this isn’t good either. I have 4 of these. I don’t think I can dig out 25 years of roots so how do I kill off the top so I can plant something else? These bushes are near other plants and I don’t want to kill them. Any help would be appreciated. I’m not good at this...you folks are, (Imagine a heart here)

[sueQ]

One more question if I may... I’m expecting a good crop of Roma tomatoes... can I slice them and put them in the dehydrator and end up with something similar to sun-dried? I love sun-dried tomatoes but they are so expensive.

[Red_Devil 232]

I like the keyword idea. Excellent!

The past two days we have received .75 inches of rain. It was needed. My tomatoes are doing fine. This afternoon I will be posting my first Monthly Homebrewing Thread. Wish me luck.

[MichaelP]

Well, I have my entire garden planted, a new fence built for the pole beans.... and a myriad of leftover veggies sitting in pots... What do I do with them? Some I can give to friends, but I can never let something go to waste! What to do? Oh yea! Expand the garden beyond the confines of its perimeter. I can fit 3 tomatos here, and some peppers over here, cukes there...you get the picture:)

Here in Michigan weather is in play again. Low temps in the 40s over the next several days... Poor tomatos..just sit there! At least we are getting some rain!

Mike

[rightly_dividing]

Our direct sowed okry are doing great, about 3" tall or a little more. At what size do we thin them out?

Something is killing off our yellow squash. The leaves are dying and the squash are shrivleing up. I can't find any bugs on them.

Peppers are growing like gangbusters.

Tomatos are nearly ripe, the grape tomatos are ripening.

[texas_mrs]

I think I got booted off the gardening thread(?) because I don't get pinged anymore :(

We got a 1" rain yesterday morning so everything is looking great today. Been picking squash and zucchini daily and now have people avoiding me for fear I am targeting them for some. Bell peppers doing well, no ripe tomatoes yet, but I planted late. Okra about 10" tall and expecting to see flowers soon. Love their flowers. My green beans, pintos, and black-eyed peas are very healthy and I'm expecting beans very soon. I wish I hadn't planted so late, but my garden has never looked better. We put in a gravity-fed irrigation system and it has made all the difference.

I even have some tomatoes in my greenhouse in plastic-lined wooden beds that look awesome as well as a few in self-watering containers. I got alot of tomatoes out of the greenhouse last year, even though they say you can't use it in the summer (in Texas). If you ventilate and shade enough, you can. I may add a misting system to prolong it's use. I'm hoping to plant a Fall garden this year, too. If only I could quit my job and garden full-time!

[Taffini]

Any cut worm advice out there?

[Augie]

We’re very dry for the month of May here in Central Missouri. ~3.5” below normal, have only received .25” of precip at my house since the 5th. I’ve already drawn the pond down 10” irrigating the garden and orchard trees - not good.

Garlic is ready to come out I think - I’ll pull some tonight and if it’s ready it will all come out this weekend. Tomato plants are going crazy, I think I’ll be eating some by 4th of July. Brocolli has been harvested - best I’ve ever grown - bug free heads a foot across - I should have taken a picture so you’d believe me. LOL

[tubebender]

I spent the morning at our son’s house repairing the drip irrigation in the foundation planting and around the back yard and wondered why my ears were burning as though someone had singled me out for my superb Garlic Skills. The afternoon was applied to our main garden and tomorrow is Fill the Deck Planters Day in the back yard

[greeneyes]

We are experiencing very cool rainy weather in S.E. Missouri. Temps got low of 49 dgrees. I only have 2 beds planted with 5 left to go. The first planting of corn has sprouted and is 3” tall.

Next week I will plant some beans in spaces between corn, potted tomatoes for patio, some basil and carrots between the tomatoes planted in a raised bed, and some more corn, green beans, and melons.

Have a great weekend everyone. God Bless.

[who knows what evil?]

Figures...get over fifty tomato plants in Earth Boxes Thursday night, and along comes a ‘wrath of God’ level northeaster with driving rain and howling winds to flatten all of them...only one broke, but they are all wondering why we set them out to face this...maybe NH will finally get that message about reprobate behavior, but somehow I doubt it. I really need to get out of here...

[JustaDumbBlonde]

A warm welcome to our latest members!

[ApplegateRanch]

Yesterday, I got the rest of the garden tilled, before we had to leave for our annual electric co-op's meeting & dinner.

This afternoon, I planted 6-25' rows of the Serendipity corn you sent me. I wasn't familiar with it, so Googled it: it sounds perfect!

After dinner --a fresh, home-grown chicken-- I managed to get a 25' row of the Clemson Spineless okra seed from last year planted.

Just as I put the garden tractor into the garage, with all the seeds & tools in the trailer behind it, the thunderstorm I'd been watching come in arrived.

Thanks again for the seeds.

So far, the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, Jumbo Pink Banana Squash, and pattypans have been added to the cool season stuff already planted.

Hah! The weather warning just went off. The TS is "severe" from about a mile north of us, all the way along a 30 mile N-S line, to Custer. We got just enough rain to wet down the new plantings.

[wastoute]

I am getting in so far down the thread I may not get much response, but here goes. Mom grew up on a farm in eastern Colo. She made us help her in the garden evey summer in the ‘60s and as a child (like all) I hated it. I was surprised myself when in college in the ‘70s and rented a house after the last frost I found myself in the yard turning over the soil for a garden. It worked well and I did what mom did for several years and enjoyed success. Raqdishes, tomatoes, lettuces, corn (never got any, damn raccons), all grew well. Med School, the Army, and a bunch of other stuff intervened and gardening was forgotten. When we bought this house the 140 foot loblollys on the back property line shaded the entire back yard and I concluded 20 years ago there would be no garden here.

SHTF stuff has had me rethinking this for the last several years and this year I moved the 20 yr old Forsythia and Wyegelia that had been on our southern side after realizing the fence I had built made it possible to protect a garden from the deer. Cudos to whoever recommended “How to grow more vegetables” I bought 2 or 3 years ago and I have started a “small farm” as I like to refer to it. It has taken all my time dawn until dusk for months and I will tr to post some photos (someone remind me how, I used to know the codes and websites several years ago).
Now I am branching out to crops I have no experience with. Brassicas. The seed package says don’t plant cabbage in the same spot. Why? Trying to find out why I discover that Sunflower (which I will never plant again! The damn flies were everywhere) will keep potato from tubering. Tomatoes will stunt Brassicas. Now I am wondering what else don’t I know. I have planned to rotate out the plants that don’t well in heat (radish, lettuce, carrot) from a bed I prepared that is about 4 foot by 15 foot and put in the cabbage, brussels, broccoli, and cauliflower I have germinated and are now about 2 inch high sometime in July or Aug. I planned to rotate annually, so I want to cover the bed with wheat or barley over the winter and plan to start germinating that in Sept. and then transplant into the bed after harvesting the brassicas in Oct or Nov. I hadn’t really planned on moving things around and now I am wondering if I put the brassicas into the bed will there be a problem putting other things there in the next seasonal rotations or even putting brassicas there again next year?

[Augie]

Does anyone know about nectarines? My tree is loaded but there's something wrong with the fruit. They go from perfect to wrecked almost overnight. One side will start to get squishy then the mold comes. Maybe some kind of bug infestation. The only spray that goes on my orchard trees is dormant oil during the winter.

[Augie]

Does anyone know about nectarines? My tree is loaded but there's something wrong with the fruit. They go from perfect to wrecked almost overnight. One side will start to get squishy then the mold comes. Maybe some kind of bug infestation. The only spray that goes on my orchard trees is dormant oil during the winter.