Posted on 04/12/2013 12:55:20 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.
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!
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We avoided the tornadoes that struck St. Louis, but we had plenty of high winds and severe thunderstorms.
So I got one of the raised beds totally planted with spinach and lettuce. I got some seeds started indoors under the kitchen grow light. I also started a bag of lazyman's compost.
A dark garbage bag full of twigs, leaves, some kitchen scraps, shredded newspapter, and old bark. The bark had fallen off a tree stump next to my garden and I could break it up into pieces with my hands. I raked it all together and used a dust pan to help scoop it up. It was laying on some pea gravel, so I even got a little pea gravel in it. I punched holes in the bag and set it in a corner of the patio, where it will get plenty of sun once it decides to shine. Should have mulch by summertime heat or at least by the fall planting period.
Turned under the rye grass in one of the raised beds, and covered it up with cardboard from some of the boxes the seed companies sent stuff in. Anyone know why they use huge boxes to ship something that doesn't even take up 1/4 of the space?
I have an experiment going on with the lettuce and spinach. I punced holes in a bag of top soil, and a bag of mushroom compost. Mixed a 50/50 mixture and combined it with my existing soil. Then I split the bags open and planted the same thing in each bag and the mixture to see which one does the best. I read that mushroom compost is superior for spinach and lettuce so we shall see.LOL
Spring cleaning continues - very slow indoors and outdoors. All in all a pretty good week. Hope you and yours are doing fine and having fun with your gardening. Have a great weekend and God Bless.
Pinging the List.
I have chard, beets, radishes, and cabbages popping up now. They’re little cute things an inch high, but progress is progress and I’ll take it. It’s been two weeks since I planted.
Here’s a planting calendar that you can use by just typing in your zip code. It was accurate for my area, but for those who may have year round growing seasons, not so much.
If you try it, let me know whether it works for you or not.
http://allthingsplants.com/apps/calendar/
Here is the link tubebender provided last week. It was a pretty interesting video for a laid back approach to gardening and the use of layers of mulch. Lots of biblical quotes as it goes along. I really enjoyed watching it.
http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/
I have nothing sprouting outdoors yet-it’s been pretty cold most of the time.
I do have some spinach and corn sprouting indoors. I have never tried this with corn before. I am hoping to get a jump start on the corn so that I can beat the heat/drought season and get some heirloom corn this year.
Tomatoes are growing great, no losses to cutworms this year because I remembered to use aluminum foil around the stalks. Some of the tobacco is going crazy and shooting up, and some is just lazing along. I don't know why. 2 died, but I had replacements to put in their place.
Potatoes are putting out foliage like nobody's business... If they make potatoes, I'll be happy.
Peppers are waiting for the heat, but I expect they will do well, they are healthy and strong.
Sunflowers and peanuts are planted, and should be up by next friday's thread.
Wound up giving my daughter a shopping bag full of lettuce that I had to thin out. Spinach that germinated is doing great, but lots of the seeds didn't germinate this year for some reason. Maybe a bad batch of seeds.
Kohlrabi is doing well, and I've had about 8 or 9 meals out of the asparagus bed so far this year.
Lots to do, but lots of positive feedback from how everything is growing so well.
I hope that continues and we don't end up with another nuclear summer.
/johnny
Warming up the grow lamps, starting some seeds this weekend. Looks like a late May planting season again... goes with the Mn turf!
/johnny
It's 75F here, and I've got windows open in the house and a fan on. They are saying 85F for Monday.
/johnny
Ditto that about nuclear summer. Michigan Bulb still has not shipped the potatoes that I ordered Feb. 1st. I filled out their survey gave them a very poor rating and also written comments about their unacceptable service.
April 1-15 is the date for planting potatoes in Missouri. Today we got part of the order delivered, but still no potatoes. If they don’t come in the next few days, I am going to just get some walmart product maybe.
I cut off the tops of my indoor pepper plants, and they are now blooming again, I may transplant them out doors and just see how long I can keep them going.
I have a basil plant that I planted in a little 5 inch pot in 2010, I have harvested more basil than I could ever use, and given some away. I just keep cutting it back and it just keeps on growing. At some point you would think it would get root bound and die or something. It will be interesting to see just how long it can go.LOL
I was hoping that we would have an early spring this year, but no such luck. It sounds like you have a good start on the growing season.
You do have some challenges in your zone!
Good to know. Thanks.
Here's some pictures of the garden last week before the storm. It's a lot more bushy than this already, and we got some fruiting going on-- tomatillos, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas and squash. My marigolds are doing good, and my zinnas are just about to bust out, I think.
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Love that miniature corn for Asian dishes - but the cans are so expensive. I read up on it and apparently it is normal corn just picked very early while the ears are ‘miniatures’. So I experimented with a small row last year but the bugs got to it.
Will give it another shot. Gardening is great for the grandchildren too - it encourages them to appreciate and even eat the veggies once they understand how much work, science and effort is involved. Home grown veggies are valuable in so many ways.
Well if there’s a ping list for the garden then please put me on it.
We always have a garden but one thing I want to do this year is start a few herbs outdoors in small window sill-sized containers.
Then in the fall we can bring them inside to winter over, use, and hopefully bring outdoors again, if that’s even possible, I dunno.
Something like basil, parsley, chives...whatever is useful and will stay compact.
hey fid-— do you start everything by seeds planted where they currently are or do you transplant any seedlings later on? I’m so jealous, ehehehe !
On the tomatillos.. I don't use them a lot because I don't think of them unless they are in front of me but they make a great green salsa. How are they different from growing tomatoes? If I was growing them, I would use them.
/johnny
Just returned from a business trip in Florida. I brought home some seaweeds from Dania beach—packed in plastic inside my luggage. What a stink-—right now its out back in a bucket of water in the sun brewing seaweed tea—for the plants of course. Anyone have experience using seaweed tea or just for mulch/compost?
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