WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 16 APRIL 18, 2014

Free Republic | 4/18/2014 | greeneyes

[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.

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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.

[greeneyes]

Looking good. Thanks for the pics.

[greeneyes]

you soil = your soil

[Arrowhead1952]

Garden is doing well. I noticed several two inch long squash on the vines today. Tomatoes are blooming with lots of blooms on most vines.

My neighbor has about 50 strawberry plants. They have already picked over three gallons and let me pick about two or three quarts.

[IM2MAD]

Spring is finally here. I got so excited I wet my plants.

[Qiviut]

I currently have 4 ‘volunteer’ cilantro plants .... had one in a pot last year sitting next to the raised bed and evidently the seeds self-sowed. I am shocked they made it through the very cold winter ... not sure when they came up because the garden was under row cover from December to maybe 3 weeks ago. When I uncovered everything, there they were! Since then, I did cover them with large mayo jars during a late snow and a couple of heavy frosts. They just made it through two light frosts with no covering this week and are doing fine.

[greeneyes]

Things are going well then. I hope we get some strawberries. Hubby covered them with straw and left it too long. About half the leaves are dead/brown. Hoping all recover. We get our crop usually in June.

[Marcella]

“I currently have 4 ‘volunteer’ cilantro plants .... had one in a pot last year sitting next to the raised bed and evidently the seeds self-sowed.”

Thanks for that, gives hope maybe I’ll get cilantro out of these seeds just planted.

[ApplegateRanch]

It's Good Friday and God has blessed us with sunshine and perfect temperatures today.

Amen to the weather & history lesson.

I put the hiller/furrower back on the tiller, and tilled up 5 20' furrows. Next, I added fertilizer, then went back over the furrows to deepen them, and to till in the fertilizer. Final step (following a folk tradition for Good Friday) was planting 50 German Butterball, and 12 Russet Burbank potato sets. I was thoroughly not helped by D.Metrea: head bonkings; stroppings; hand flippings with her head to be scratched; and furrow-floppings. Earlier, she caught & ate an extremely fat vole; maybe it was pregnant; one can hope.

In the garden, volunteer spinach and/or Toy-Choy is coming up, and more garlic is pushing up: 3 out of four German hardnecks, and a few each of both the stuff from the local organic store hardneck, and Christopher Ranch's California softneck. We love the organic; it is much larger than the California, and has both a stronger "garlic" flavor and pungency, which we prefer to the anemic tasting California White.

I do believe Spring finally is here; snow & icicles Wednesday morning, followed by freezing fog; gloomy & windy yesterday. All of our snow & ice is finally melted, and I can get the studded tires off the truck before the May 1st deadline. The picture is today's weather, and capsule forecast.

Not sure if I mentioned that last Friday we bought 18 chicks: 12 white Cornish-cross broilers, and 6 black Jersey Giants. Today, one of the whites had died of unknown causes. It happens. Both birds will ultimately achieve the same final weight, and were both shipped from the hatchery last Wednesday; they were the same size when we brought them home, but...

The American Chincilla bunnies were born March 25th, so are just over 3 weeks old.

[Marcella]

After shade arrived, I went out and watered all 126 (think that's about the number now after transplanting today) containers and that takes a while. If you think of growing in containers, here is what is happening now:

Evaluating progress, this is where I think the containers are in producing food - listed by production at this time:

1. Strawberries are turning red and plants are healthy. They work fine in shallow containers about 5-6 inches deep.

2. Deck Corn seed from Burpee: I have to list the Deck Corn next as the majority of the 13 plants are 15 inches tall and solid plants. There are two in a container that finally came up using Jiffy Seed Starter and those two are about 4 inches tall, way behind the others that came up quickly using Espoma. This Deck Corn was designed to grow in containers on a deck and produce regular sized corn on the cob. The containers are large ones that would be suitable for a tomato plant. There are three plants in one container and four corn plants in two containers and the two little ones in another container. I would never have thought one could grow corn in a container. Now, I wait for actual corn to prove this can be done.

3. Next are the Egyptian Walking Onions in a long wood planter on the ground, filled with new potting soil mix. This is the onion to have. I planted these onion bulbs before winter set in. I did absolutely nothing to them, didn't protect them at all. They didn't care. They even grew green tops. With the first hint of spring, they began to grow quickly and are now forming new bulbs at the top that will fall over and that is their walk to another piece of soil. I can't eat them this year - they need another year to produce more and then eating can happen from then on. They won't die out and will produce onions from now on. I have other type onions growing to eat this year but won't need them next year, will use the walking ones.

4. Bulb onions I planted in two and three gallon fabric grow bags are healthy and the tops are about 14-15 inches tall.

5. Next is peppers. They take forever for me to grow from seeds. They have made up for that because they are healthy and growing tall, up to 8 inches for one, average is about 5-6 inches but they are taller every day. They are mainly in two gallon containers. Most are sweet and a couple are hot and most were designed to grow in containers.

6. Tromboncino Squash. The first one I planted is about 14 inches tall and taller every day with its broad, healthy leaves. It is in a 5 gallon container. The others suffered from being planted in Jiffy seed starter and didn't come up, so had to wait for Espoma and plant more, and there are five of those and are naturally smaller. They are in one, two, and three gallon pots. I want to see how the size of the pot will affect these T squash as those are the only ones I'll plant from now on.

7. Cucumbers in one gallon pots and smaller and they must be transplanted into three gallon pots. The best ones so far are Homemade Pickles and National Pickling Cucumber.

I don't know yet how the following will come out as they haven't made the progress of the ones reported above: Little Finger Carrots, Broccoli, Saint Anne lettuce, tobacco, Brussels sprouts, several types bunching onions, two types potatoes, and eight kinds of tomatoes. The tomatoes are in three gallon containers except for four that are in very large containers designed for two tomatoes in each container.

Sunflowers are about 6-7 inches tall and will be planted in the ground tomorrow. They are on their own after that.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for the pictures. Baby chicks and baby bunnies always so cute. You are making progress, and spring will no doubt be “srung” soom.

Our studded tire date is April 15, but it is not unusual to have snow fall after that.

[greeneyes]

Reading that report made me tired! You have a lot of work done there. I can hardly wait till you start the harvests!

[Free Vulcan]

Finally got all the spring stuff planted except for transplanting the leeks. Second year of mid-April planting. I’ve planted stuff as early as the first week of March, and generally about the 25th. Hope this isn’t a trend.

I had some broccoli raab that I overwintered in the hoop tunnel. When I pulled it off a couple of weeks ago it was ready to pick. Then I remembered that the bees had a pretty rough winter so I just let it flower. It is the absolutely only thing flowering right now except for a few dandelions that were also under the tunnel. A virtual cloud of bees of all types working a 3 ft row of blooming raab like it was their last meal.

On a good note I did see some honey bees. We have a wild hive somewhere close and was worried about them this winter. Looks like they made it.

[greeneyes]

I know what you mean. I would like to be able to plant a little earlier than usual, not later.

Good on you re the honey bees/flowers. All we have right not is dandelions, but a few of the fruit trees have begun to have flowere.

On bee I have seen so far is a bumble bee - just one.

[rightly_dividing]

I somehow posted before finishing loading pics. She has a few hundred zennias coming up in the outback flower patch.

[Ellendra]

It’s finally light enough when I get home from work, that I can get about 5 minutes of work in the garden every night. I’ve been planting tomato seeds in wall-o-waters. But I’m filling them with hot water instead of cold. I’m curious if that’ll have any effect.

I planted peas, chickpeas, and nunas, and the next day we had snow. I’m not too worried about the peas, but I’m pretty sure the nunas won’t make it. And I really didn’t have enough seed to waste. I only had 10 nuna seeds and I planted 4.
(Nunas are a kidney-type bean that you pop like popcorn. They are also hard to find seeds for.)

I’m hoping to get the rest of the backyard garden planted over the weekend. After that, I get to focus on my other garden, which will take longer. I still need to put down at least 5 more rolls of landscape fabric before I can plant, and I’d rather the fabric had a chance to sit for a few weeks first.

[greeneyes]

Glad you are finally getting home before dark. It’s always a bummer coming home after a hard days work to the dark.

I know I always felt better when I could get home and some daylight time.

[Ellendra]

Nice bunnies!

[ApplegateRanch]

Thanks!

[ApplegateRanch]

For all you chili pepper lovers, here’s an interesting article, and also a FR post of it. They’ve finally found the area in Mexico where they were first domesticated.

http://phys.org/news/2014-04-birthplace-domesticated-chili-pepper-mexico.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3145981/posts

[bgill]

Ok, you’re going to have to explain nunas. Beans that you pop like popcorn?