Posted on 03/07/2014 12:18:07 PM PST 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!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
Did you grab a catalog from Northern Tool? They have stuff like this:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200621938_200621938
Harbor Freight has these, but the nearest store is at Sam Houston and 45
http://www.harborfreight.com/capacity-lightweight-movers-dolly-61164.html#.UyD5M4U6aS0
I didn’t think to ask about a catalog. I had written down the number of the blankets I wanted so a guy got them and I was in and out of there fast.
That’s interesting. We got a swimming pool from walmart to help store water for the garden. The cover isn’t really much to write home about.
So you’re saying that the engineer’s Dad made a cover for the swimming pool? Was that directly over it or the roof of a room?
Sounds like a winner for sure. Hubby tells me that plants grow in the dark - not in the day. They get all the sun etc needed for growth, but don’t grow till the sun goes down.
Glad you were able to aquire one. We only have an Acre, so a pond doesn’t really fit in here, but I’d like to have a nice big one for catfish.
It was over it fairly high up so people were swimming in the pool with the cover above them. Engineer remembers swimming in the pool in winter due to the cover helping to keep out the cold (and this was in the north part of the US, maybe Illinois), keeping out the cold plus the dad made a heater to warm the water. He got parts and pieces from old equipment where he could find it and made a filter and the heater.
Remember his dad is the one who made a car that floated on air. Engineer got those smarts from that dad plus the mom was smart but the dad invented numerous things. Think I remember the dad worked at Sears and they gave him equipment that didn't work and he would fix it for them. People with that kind of mind are “different” and so is the engineer as he is one of “them”.
What gets me is he knows how things work that he has never seen before. I have a gold (not real gold) lighter with my name engraved on it that my husband gave me. I had lost it for a time and then I found it and was delighted except it didn't work. It was a Calibri and that is a fine lighter. I called the company and they don't fix the lighters but would give me a new one but they aren't like this one and I wanted the one I had so I didn't send it to them to get a new different one. Next time engineer was here, I asked him if he could look at it and do anything to it. He had it apart in a minute and cleaned the parts, put it back together and I'm using it now.
He has built a computer from scratch. One job he had was writing computer virus code and sending them to a naval base for their computer people to try to fix it so that virus couldn't hurt their system if they ever got it. He wrote computer viruses for a living. He is different just like his dad was different.
Yes, plants store up energy during the day and grow at night. It’s the same with us. When we sleep, our body works to heals what is wrong and resets our brain. People who don’t get enough sleep are harming their brain and body. Sleep has a reason to be there. In fact, blood pressure medicine should be taken at night because our blood pressure during sleep goes up. I couldn’t get my blood pressure down enough, it was spiking and dropping, just a mess, then heard a doctor say that, started taking it at night and it leveled out my blood pressure right during the day - no more drastic fluctuations during a normal day.
FR is back online. Yay..now I can stop doing stuff I had been putting off..cleaning pots for new plants, weeding, watering. talking to seedlings.
It froze here early this am..31 F. Hopefully, that is the last one until Fall.
When FR goes away, I can’t get my daily fix of FR.
I have to transplant more seedlings from cups into larger pots today. I wish I could start more T squash and other seeds but I’m waiting for the other seed starter. I have a T squash to put out in the greenhouse for a couple of days, then put it in a permanent container. I have some in greenhouse to go in permanent containers, too. Damn, I have so many plants going in various stages, it’s hard to keep up with the work.
I’ve gotten the sweet pickle peppers from Parks. LOVE them! They never made it to pickle though, we ate them mostly and I dehydrated a few.
I ordered some of their asparagus seeds, some ‘sugg’ peanut seeds and some of the $1 seeds with the free shipping.
We are going to gamble that it is over. Our 90% last frost date is Mar 17. We will plant some stuff this weekend.
I have my raised container beds ready to go, the supports are in place, containers are drilled for drainage, potting soil on hand, peppers ready. I am going to throw a tomato plant in there and let it “free range” and see what happens. It will be a Boxcar Willie. I saw a video of one done that way and it was quite amazing how productive it was. I have not bought a timer yet, or dragged out the drip system parts box, but I can water the old fashioned way at first.
We are planting a spot out back that was a second garden spot a few years ago that did not work out well. She is going to plant Texas wildflowers in it, and probably zinnias, too. She has seed that we collected last spring, and will collect more this year. The only one that we have a name for is the Blue Bonnets.
Below is what I ordered for containers. The NuMex peppers are a hot pepper for containers but the info. on the pepper indicated it's not horribly hot.
Since I live by myself, if the sweet peppers produce, I should be able to can a few jars - think I will use pint jars for most veggies. I still don't have any jars or lids or enough vinegar. I must get those in a month or two. I was going to skip Okra in my plans for veggies, but this Okra was developed for containers so I got it.
05927-PK-P1 Sweet Pickle Organic Pepper Seeds 5 $1.00
05168-PK-P1 Green Fingers Okra Seeds 1 $4.95
51519-PK-P1 NuMex Easter Ornamental Pepper Seeds 1 $3.95
05535-PK-P1 Gonzales Hybrid Cabbage Seeds 1 $1.95
I’ve grown Park’s dwarf okra before. It worked great btw. Baker Creek has an OP dwarf one as well, Vidrine’s something or other IIRC.
The container peppers I grew were Albino Bullnose (Baker Creek), Redskin, Mohawk and Fruit Basket. All did just great btw.
Keep us posted. All my ‘container’ veg was in a 12-14” pot minimum.
“All my ‘container’ veg was in a 12-14” pot minimum.”
I have studied what size container (depth and width) should be used with what veggie. There is a lot to learn before growing in containers and making it work. I hope this is the last year to fail at some and hopefully succeed with others. I’m also growing different types of the same plant to see which grows best here. Hopefully, I won’t have as many types next year since I’ll plant the winners from this year.
I will say with a caveat on container size that I grew some peppers (atomic fire iirc) in the divots in the cinder blocks in my raised beds. Ditto some ‘tiny tim’ and ‘red robin’ tomatoes. I spaced them pepper, cilantro, tomato, cilantro, pepper,etc. I also grew, QUITE successfully some ‘tumbling tom’ tomatoes in the divots in my other raised bed. I planted those ‘tomato , space, space, tomato, space space, etc’ and alternated the red and yellow varieties of those. THOSE tomatoes took over like kudzu. The occupied the space on top of the raised bed edge, spilled down the side and before first frost had managed to ‘tumble’ 4 or 5 feet across the edge of my yard. I got gallons and gallons and gallons of red and yellow cherry tomatoes from just those plants. IIRC I had 3 of each color.
Where my cinderblock raised beds are closest hubby put some trellises I found on sale at walmart and joined them together at the top with a dog-wire panel and twist ties/wire to make a walk through arbor. In the divots along the trellises I planted some asparagus beans (the really long kind). Those took over as well. From just 12 or so divots (6 on each side) I got nearly a gallon bucket every other day of the pencil sized beans that we love stir fried with a little olive oil, soy sauce and crushed garlic.
I’ve also put snow peas in the divots, the dwarf kind of snow pea. 2 plants per divot.
I suspect this stuff was happy because even though the divots are small they’re deep as my raised beds are 2 cinder blocks tall. I only started putting stuff there because I hated to see it go to waste. If it didn’t get so hot here in the summer I’d put strawberry plants in them, maybe one per divot.
I went out to water some plants in the greenhouse and decided to get a hoe and clean out the old dirt in a long wood planter where I’m going to put a strip thingy of lettuce. Did that and dragged one of the heavy bags of potting soil mix (it had some out of it or I couldn’t have dragged it) to that place (that was after putting on gloves and plastic garden shoes), and just finished filling it up.
Then, I quit.
When the sun is out in Texas, even though it is March, it is extremely hot. Shade will be over that area later this afternoon, and that’s when I will plant the lettuce strip. No point in staying in the sun to do that.
Shortly today, I will start transplanting plants in cups to larger pots. That will be an indoor job so not a problem with the sun’s heat.
While watering plants inside the greenhouse which is on the deck, I spotted a bee flying to the side of me on the deck - I think it was a baby one. My first instant thought was, “kill it”. Then, I laughed to myself that is the first bee I have ever seen in my garden. Maybe this little bee is the first one recognizing there are swell flowers around those container plants on the deck AND blossoms on strawberry plants. I dub it the first pollinator I have seen.
I have dwarf peas, two kinds, ready to go into permanent containers. They are Snow Peas and Masterpiece, both for stir frying.
You mention those dwarf size tomatoes. I have several kinds to order to try to grow in winter in the house. Tiny Tim and Red Robin is on the list.
I just checked one of my raised beds this morning and I have potatoes! I’d planted 3 or 4lbs of organic potatoes that were sprouting in my pantry. And 2 days later the overnight forecast for 30F turned into 22F instead. Aie. I’d figured they were goners. Not so fast. I probably lost a few of them though but it’s not a total loss. And the red fingerlings I planted have dark reddish looking leaves. I’m excited!
Ok, I got them out of the pantry and where one growth came out, it's got gobs of shoots off it. There are two of those on each potato and one separate growth on each.
I assume I whack off a piece of potato with each big growth and a piece with each single growth and plant them, covering them up? I've already got a 10 gallon fiber grow bag with potting soil mix in it in the net room that would be right for them.
—THOSE tomatoes took over like kudzu—
I like that thought.
Have you ever seen one of the kudzu cookbooks?
We have a front sidewalk that someone built a bed along side with leftover bricks with divots. I told my wife it would look good with marigolds in the divots. Plus, it would hide the open top brick work.
It’s of the ‘nothing ventured nothing gained’ mindset. Depending on the potato type. Idaho potatoes don’t do very well down here as they need a long cool growing season. Like they have in Idaho :P
The ones I planted were some small russet variety.
I cut each potato into 2-4 pieces with each having 2 eyes. I set those on a plate with paper towel on it and let them ‘dry’ for 2 or 3 days. (this supposedly prevent rotting in the ground). Hubby and I then planted them with the eyes facing up. So far so good.
The big baking types may or may not be happy in the Houston area this spring. Never know though. IIRC they need a 100+ day growing season where it’s cool. Probably will be above 85 most days in Houston before late June though. You might try putting them in the shade when it gets hot. I’ve wanted to try that and haven’t had the time, patience or big sprouted baking potatoes.
YMMV.
Have you thought about growing sweet potatoes? There are several ‘bushy’ varieties I’ve seen people grow i containers/raised beds with some success. They just built a trellis for the vines. IIRC the vines didn’t automatically climb, they had to be coaxed. Shumway has some bush variety slips for sale as does Southern Exposure. I had very good luck with my slips from Shumway last year. This year we’re trying a variety they’ve subbed for the Nancy Hall called ‘Bonita’.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.