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.
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
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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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.
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?
Are these late cold snaps going to kill a lot of seedlings?
The lilies are popping up. Waiting for calla lilies and lily of the valley to pop up. Cold weather veggies are doing fine but not big enough to pick.
Hi all,
Greetings from Tennessee. It’s been mild this week. Heavy rains and storms last thursday gave us about 2 inches of rain.
Had an interesting experience last weekend. A friend of mine has donkeys and a small bobcat/tractor. Got a load of donkey poo with an agreement from my husband that I would clean the pickup when finished. Good heavens. Had poo all over everywhere. But am grateful for the compost-the poo has been sitting for over 6 months. Am hoping it is composted enough. Was surprised that the stuff didn’t stink. No smell at all.
One other little surprise today. I planted some amaryllis bulbs outside in the ground after their Christmas blooming. A guy at Lowes swore that if planted they would survive the winter and bloom in spring. I didn’t believe him but thought I would experiment. The silly things have green fronds about 3 inches high. Am wondering if it will really bloom? Thought they were tropicals but hey-what the heck. Time will tell.
Sure enjoy everyones posts and stories. Thanks so much!
Murrie
I was getting impatient, so I started planting even though it’s still too cold. I have friends who swear by their wall-o-waters as season extenders, but whenever I see them in the store they’re always more than i can justify spending. Well, it occurred to me that I could make my own, sort of.
I cut the bottom off of a 20oz plastic bottle, cut the top and bottom off a milk jug, and filled some plastic ziplock baggies half-full of water. Then I stuck a tomato cutting in the ground (from my indoor tomato vine, it’ll root anywhere it has moisture), and set the 20oz bottle over it. Then I put the milk jug around that, and anchored it with 2 lanscape staples stuck through holes in the sides. Lastly I filled the space between the two bottles with the bags of water.
We haven’t had our April snowstorm yet, although we’ve had a few nights dip into the lower 30’s. Every time I check, that cutting is still green, so I decided to do the same with a couple of zucchinni seeds. We’ll see how it goes.
Mr. Sg started corn, several varieties of squash, hot and sweet peppers, several varieties of tomatoes, cantaloupe, and green beans and herbs from seed. It's amazing to see them grow so fast. He wants to put them in the ground but I'd really rather wait until the end of April. Weather patterns have been so weird.
Heirloom Tomatoes ... both determinate (Rutgers)... on the right... and (Beefsteak) indeterminate... on the left... are doing well. So is everything else! The mushrooms, popping up by the thousands are a good thing for the 'soil'.
Plan for the future ...
Meanwhile by the pool are citrus trees, herbs and flowers...
Anyone have any experience with using effective microorganisms?
I read good things, but have no experience with it