Posted on 03/29/2013 2:17:42 PM PDT by greeneyes
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.
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Today we have sunshine and mid-sixties. We have finally started to receive some of the plants we ordered. Blueberries and Blackberry bushes, which Hubby planted today.
I have done a little clean up in the yard and will be doing a few spring cleaning projects in the house. I need to make some space to start some seeds next week too.
Have a great Easter weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Hi Greeneyes!
Have a Blessed Easter!
You too!
/johnny
Interesting observation... The cilantro and cumin are taking FOREVER to sprout this year. Don't know why. Seed tested good when I did the germination test in January.
Moved wrong in the front flower bed this morning, not carrying weight or anything and am down in my back so that I wound up not getting to do anything else the whole day except take asprin and groan.
Tomorrow is another day. I hope it's as pretty as today.
/johnny
Grafted tomatoes are supposed to produce like twice as many tomatoes and can fight off diseases and fungus-es that damage normal heirloom plants.
My tomato plants are about 3 inches tall. I bought a $1..48 starter set from Lowes. They are inside under a grow lamp in Virginia.
My goal this year is to become self-sufficient with tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onions, and broccoli. I also want to work on fall and spring gardening so that we only have to buy lettuce and spinach 3-4 months/year. Early January I went to the doctor for what I thought was a bladder infection and came out with a positive pregnancy test, so we will see how this goes with number three on the way! Actually, that is probably more of a reason than any to work on my gardening goals.
Anybody grow and dry black beans and pinto beans? We go through tons of both. Is it worth it to dedicate space to, or should I stick with purchasing them?
After this week’s two nights of freezing temps, I’m on Garden 2013 v3.0. There were new leaves popping out on the mater stems that something had chewed on and now this, grrr. I’ve started yet ANOTHER batch of tomatoes and peppers inside so they’ll be waaaaay late. Squash is coming up in one area but the other nothing so need to do that again. I knew it was early but really wanted to get a jump on those squash bugs this year. I had gotten mad at the Burpee teeny tiny pots I had to buy (nothing else at Home Depot) because I ended up destroying the plants trying to get them out so I just dumped a mess of cukes. It looked like they were quite happy and growning in the pile but think they’re gone now, too. And squirrels are still digging holes everywhere.
Results of this year’s starter containers:
The Burpee teeny tiny starter trays are spawns of the devil so don’t waste your money. It’s impossible to get your plants out of them. Yeah, I know, stupid me. I had wanted larger peat pots but couldn’t find anything but these and they came with a cover so I figured it’d keep the cat out. Never again.
Homemade newspaper pots worked ok inside though they dried out quickly so I had to watch them more closely. When put outside in the garden, they all immediately died. Some I left intact, others I loosened the sides and bottom for the roots but all died just the same. I don’t know if the newspaper attracted the whatever that ate the plants or what, but no more newspaper containers for me.
Plastic Meow Mix cat food containers with holes punched (ice pick) in the bottoms worked the best. They are large enough to stay moist and the plants grew better. The plants came out very easily - position fingers around plant, turn upside down, give the bottom a whop and everything comes out intact. Reuse for next year.
If I didn’t have a heating pad to use in the mornings, I couldn’t make it out of bed. You have made good progress with your early starts.
This year I am going to try planting some of the lettuce and spinach in a bag of mushroom compost. I read that they love to grow in it. We’ll see.
Hope you have great success with this. I do well just to grow some heirlooms and save the seeds.LOL
Congrats! My third was also a surprise. I didn’t get much gardening done that summer but I was 7m pregnant in MS in August. The inventor of A/C needs to be sainted.
If you have a smallish yard you might just buy the beans. Unless you’re willing to terraform your front lawn too. Not saying this is a bad thing, I plan to do this somewhat this summer. Depends on your neighbors. I plant beans as a second crop in the summer behind corn or something else that really pulls nutrients out of the soil.
ping for later.
Beans are one of the cheapest foods to buy, and last a long time. One question is do you think you will always have enough money to buy beans? Also, will non-GMO beans always be availabe to buy?
It is a decision only you can make. For me, I try to grow just a small heirloom patch of everything including peanuts and beans, so that I have viable seed stock on hand, and knowledge/skills to grow what I need. In order to have a full protein, beans need to be paired with something like rice.
I made sure to stock up on long-term storage of rice, because I can’t grow that, and food prices are bound to go up. So I figure I am saving future dollars by buying stores now while things are cheaper and plentiful.
I try to keep at least enough beans and other dried foods on hand to get me through till the next harvest.
Your results are exactly why I am so lazy when it comes to starting seeds indoors. This year I am going to start some stuff in various small and mid-size flower pots and when the weather is nice, just set them on the retaining wall to grow. I may or may not transplant them once all danger of frost is past.
“The Burpee teeny tiny starter trays are spawns of the devil so don’t waste your money...Homemade newspaper pots worked ok inside though they dried out quickly so I had to watch them more closely...”
I haven’t put them outside yet, but so far my method of using the cut-up cardboard egg crates seems to be working well.
I cut up one of those nice and cushiony cardboard egg cartons into individual cups. We have a bunch of those plastic apple sauce cups saved up. I put an egg carton section into an apple sauce cup.
Then I place the soil into the egg carton cup. I’ve been using a half of a soil pellet as my soil, and moisten it.(But compost or whatever you use as potting soil would be appropriate.) Then, I put the seed into the soil and water.
If there is too much water, the apple sauce cup catches it and I can either drain it off or let it sit to evaporate or keep the soil moistened. In either case, because the plastic cups are transparent/translucent, I can see what’s going on and adjust accordingly.
I will generally keep the soil moist with a tablespoon or so of water each day per cup.
When it is time to set out, I plan to take the egg crate cup out of the applesauce cup and plant that.
We shall see how happy my seedlings are with that experiment. They may turn out like your newspaper pot experiment.
I love your idea about the meow mix cans....but we don’t have catz...perhaps tuna cans might work. However if we don’t rinse them off real well, we might find ourselves with some catz!
Greetings, greeneyes and all!
Congrats on the 3rd Sprout, goodwithagun! How exciting!
We are enjoying the early spring weather. I have been growing in my interest in gardening - much to the loving amusement of my darlin’.
I am hoping to sprout some more seeds in the next several days for a variety of goodies and just see how it all works. Of course, we plan to do a few sunflowers again. Our rose and blackberry bushes have survived that last bout of cold/snowy weather and are budding out like crazy!
My darlin’ helped me fertilize our pecan trees which were in our back yard when we moved in here. We have not been impressed with them over the years and recently in my reading, I learned that they need, in addition to the regular fertilizer, a source of zinc. So off we went earlier this week for a bag of fertilizer containing the zinc. After distributing it and then looking CLOSELY at the instructions (pays to read, doesnt it??) we realized we only had bought about 1/5 of what would really be required. So I guess we have another trip to the nursery in our future!
We have been blessed with black walnut trees and a butternut tree. These have really great yields every one or two years. We also have a persimmon tree, some elderberries, and wild blackberry bushes.
I am still learning how to tell when a persimmon is ripe. They tasted great then, but awful when not ripe. For now, I just eat them straight off the tree and let the birds and possums have at the rest.
If I ever get really good at it, I’ll make some jam, but I read that even 1 unripe persimmon could spoil a whole batch of jam, so I won’t waste the time, effort, and other ingredients until I am confident in this ability.
I only got 6 jars of blackberries last year, due to the drought. With the swimming pool this year, I hope to be able to provide more water. However, the apple/fruit tree orchard, and the blueberries, strawberries, and thornless black berries will get the priority.
The best purchase last year turned out to be the Goji berry. It’s drought tolerant. Some of the other stuff just wilted and died, but the Goji hung in there. Hope to get some fruit this year.
Hmmmm wonder if gojis would grow in our area? That sounds so cool!
I’m impressed with your 6 jars! I was tickled to get a few handfuls of blackberries from my one berry bush. They were really good, and somehow the birds had mercy and let me have them. We planted two more bushes, so we’ll see.
You are in another universe when it comes to persimmons. I have no experience with them at all. I do wish you well with them!
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