Hope you are all doing well. Have a great weekend, and God Bless.
Hubby drained and cleaned the swimming pool, since he never got around to covering it up last fall. My lemon tree has 10 new lemons - pea size and marble size mostly.
Hubby has started about 100 pepper seeds - California Wonders. I have a few more tomatoes ready for transplant into 4 inch pots or styro foam cups.
Have a wonderful weekend!
The maintenance man took the bananas before they were fully ripe. Grrrrr.
Pinging the list.
This morning, I put a potted tomato plant into my sunshine- perfect garden.
I've been researching State and Federal regs, and it looks like I'm going to kick my growing into high gear so as to have plenty of extra to take down to the local farmers market this spring. Found out I can even sell my extra tobacco plants. As long as I don't sell any perennials/biennials, State Dept. of Ag doesn't regulate "greenhouse" stock, only "nursery" stock (trees, shrubs, sod/turf grass, etc.).
At this point, I've got 3 or 4 varieties of tomato, a number of squash types, 4 or 5 tobacco varieties (I'm calling the stuff I got from JRandomFreeper "Nicotiana Free Republica" - HA!), including Virginia Gold, Burley, Havana Gold, N. Rustica and a "Lite" variety. I've just got to get a bunch of annual flowers and such growing at this point, and I'll be ready for farmer's market!
The last paragraph was mysteriously chopped off of my original post. Friday the 13th mystery I guess. LOL
Hope all is well; have a great weekend, and God Bless.
A little rain today in DFW area. No complaints though—except too wet for soil turning. Started a few tomato and pepper plants by seed last month. Lets see how these slow pokes develop. Might have to buy a few plants as well. Going with more greens this season. Trying escarole by seeds— first time in decades. Italian grandma used to make her escarole with chick peas—mangia. ‘sca-rol-a’ she called it. She’s cooking it up there in heaven now.
After a lot of research I’ve decided to go biointensive this year. Anybody here garden this way?
http://www.thelaketoday.com/news/2015/mar/11/how-start-seeds-part-4-transplanting-seeds-how-whe/
I retrieved the Red Menace from the diesel doctor over lunch today, so I'll be able to make a materials run to the lumberyard tomorrow AM. If all goes well the cold frame will be up and running by the end of the weekend.
I never did find a lemon tree or lemon grass last year so green with jealousy.
Finally got some seeds into pots and most are up despite being stomped on by the kitties. It’s 73 with occasional sun so opened the windows and the back door for the four leggers to come and go and was presented with two presents yesterday - a snake and a baby rabbit. Hubby disposed of the snake and took the rabbit in the opposite direction of where they roam. Hey, as long as they keep the snakes out of my garden.
Speaking of pets, we have finally taken the dogs off Purina and Pedigree because they did nothing but chew themselves down to bloody flesh. The vet kept saying fleas forever but I knew that wasn’t the problem. The past week or so, I’ve been feeding them rice with canned cat food (9 Lives fish and chicken) and table scraps and the chewing has all but stopped so they’re more relaxed and happier. One’s hind end has completely cleared up and fur looking better and the other is showing great improvement on a huge raw spot. Just saying what with all the dog food being in the news.
I am starting year two of trying to have a garden, last year was difficult. In the past,I have only had a small garden plot in my back yard in town that didn’t produce much and what did actually grow was eaten by the varmints.
Last year I tried gardening on some land we purchased, between the weeds and the rye grass that had been planted in that area, it did not produce much. I really don’t know how to proceed but I know that this is a skill I need to learn.
I have read about using straw to keep the weeds down, does it actually work? What about using landscaping fabric?
Someone suggested using a roundup type thing to kill off the weed and rye grass seeds. Wouldn’t that also prevent the seeds I plant from growing or does it have a limited time of effectiveness?
Please help me oh green thumbed masters.
I moved a lot of potted plants from my sun room this morning and put them outside near my compost pile. It’s near my water well and the best sun exposure at my house in town.
Already have 3 varieties of tomatoes and 5 varieties of onions in small pots. I started the seed for those plants in folded wet paper towels in a ziplock bag. I was amazed at how good the germination level was for seeds that are 4 years old. That is old for onions. I would not have gotten that germ percentage if I had planted them directly in the pots. But also learned that you must carefully watch the seed, wait a day or two too long and they are hard to plant without damaging them.
This was the first winter that I tried and succeed in hand pollinating both tomatoes and Pepper plants indoors. Simply rubbed the blooms together.
My plumb bushes somehow made it through the recent week of very cold temperatures without blooming, but the buds look like it will happen soon.
Spring is in the air in Texas. (smile)
I just found out what caused a massive failure of my pepper seed planting. I used one of those “jiffy” planting kits, with the peat pellets. Big No-No. Planted about 52 seeds, with zero germination. Then I just found this at Seedman’s pepper seed supply-
http://www.seedman.com/pepper.htm
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Never use peat pellets for germinating pepper seed.
We recommend Seedman’s Tomato/Pepper Grow Cups and Supplies that contain everything you need to start your own healthy, vigorous plants fast and easy, and allows you to grow large plants, so that you start them earlier and harvest fruits earlier.
Peat pellets are okay for tomato seed and vegetable seed in general and a few types of pepper seed will germinate in them, but for some reason, most pepper seed will not germinate well, if at all in peat pellets, we suspect it is the pH in the peat, plus the fact that peat tends to stay soggy and holds too much moisture against the seed, literally drowning it.
Always maintain a steady temperature of 80-85°F daytime and no lower than 70 degrees nighttime while seeds are germinating.
If you cannot provide this, you will probably not get germination from many varieties, especially the chili types.
Be careful how deep you plant the seeds.
Never plant over 1/4” deep.
Do not keep soil too wet.
Be very careful about overwatering, pepper seeds cannot tolerate wet soil!
Remember! Different pepper types take different lengths of time to germinate. Some hot varieties can take 2 or more weeks longer that bell types.
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Anyway, I’m over that, just bought a nice selection of plants in 4” pots-
Two Gypsy peppers, one Big Chile (moderately hot Anaheim type pepper), one Santa Fe Grande, one Carmen, (an excellent rated Italian Sweet type), and one sweet Banana heirloom, plus one highly rated heirloom tomato, a San Marzano, a Roma type, sort of. Got them all planted out into 1 gallon pots for now.
Best thing that I can come up with, here in W.MI. is that despite 6”-8” of frozen white stuff there was a honey bee trying to get in the window to my Amaryllis.
My hubby joked that the bee was like the bird Noah sent out from the ark.
Beautiful weather here. MOST of the snow & resulting mud are gone, though the garden is still pretty much saturated. It is also a veritable warren of vole holes & runs.
We bought 2 each gooseberries & Logan berries, which got put into large pots this week, until they can be planted out. The Logans look good, but the gooseberries didn’t appreciate the wind; they now have windbreaks around them.
Bunnies are now looking like small rabbits, and can get in & out of the nest on their own.
If not this week, maybe next, I can get the cover onto the greenhouse, and start putting shelves, etc. into it.
Once the rain stopped here in Central Kentucky I started pruning and shaping our apple and pear trees. One apple had really gotten out of hand so it is taking lots of time and effort to bring it back into what we hope will be a productive tree once again.
Has anyone tried this and does it work?
From the link:
Here’s how to make it:Ingredients:
1 gallon of water
1 tbsp Epsom salts
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp powdered milk
1/2 tsp ammonia
2 drops blue food coloringHere’s how to make this concentrate:
Simply mix all ingredients together, except for the powdered milk
Add 1 tablespoon of powdered milk to each feeding, to prevent spoilage.
Store labeled, in a cool, dry area within your home.
Also, I add two drops of blue food coloring, which is non-toxic for your lawn and plants, to indicate that this is a mixture which should not be consumed; the idea being that if it resembles miracle grow, and is placed in my original miracle grow concentrate containers, cross contamination or accidental injection would be limited.
Here’s the correct ratios per mixing:
Spray Bottles: Mix 1 ounce of concentrate (1/8 cup), 1 tablespoon powdered milk, with three cups water.
Manual Feedings: Mix 2 ounces of concentrate to 1 gallon water 64 ounces) of water, with 2 tablespoons of powdered milk.
For Hose Attachment Garden Feeders: Add 8 ounces (1 cup) to your feeder, add 3 tablespoons of powered milk, and water accordingly; this method feeds my entire garden, yard, and various beds for six feedings.
This formula works as the original, and costs a mere $0.35 a bottle to make, whereas Miracle Grow costs $9.98 a 12-ounce container! I have never had an issue with this mixture clogging my home attachments, and my plants seem not to notice either! I highly recommend this blend!
Here’s to saving!