Posted on 06/02/2017 7:44:10 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds.
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They are way overdue for transplanting, so it might not be a great result. Plan to go to Walmart tomorrow and see what they have on sale.
Got some patio clean up done, and the daily sweep of junk from the maple tree is here again.
I have been looking at the sales of the seed catalogs. One interesting plant I have seen is Mahonia Aquifolium. It's an evergreen with edible fruit. Also sometimes called Oregon grape-holly. Leaves are supposed to be good to make a lemonade type drink.
As I have mentioned, our front yard tends to be the great killer of plants and trees due to extremely poor soil. We tried to plant nut trees and none survived. We tried Rose of Sharon, Roses, Holly, Hydrangeas etc.
This species says it tolerates poor soil, drought, shade or sun, so I thought it might be worth a try. It doesn't get all that tall, and it would be nice to have some things that are still green during the winter, in the front yard. Has anyone ever tasted the berries? I'm betting they are sour.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Prayers up for all. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
my garden word for the week....MOSQUITOS!
Rain and 60’s.
The peas and the lettuce are doing great.
Tomatoes, not so much and they won’t unless we get summer.’
Sheesh, it was in the 80’s in March and has been crappy since then.
It needs to warm up NOW. I’m tired of being cold.
It’s finally nice out.
But now, i just wanna ride my motorcycle! :-)
I plant basil since that is supposed to be good for shooing away mosquitos and helpful to tomatoes. We used to use Avon Skin so Soft as a repellent.
These days, I just make sure to get out when the skeeters are not out. Plus we try to avoid standing water except for our rain water containers and those we put in the mosquito dunks.
My dad used to float a little oil over the water he used for plants, but we use the dunks.
If this sort of weather keeps up, I may have to move my computer upstairs or put in a wood stove.
I was looking at adult tricycles the other day. They make them with various gears and purposes, including some with motors if I recall correctly.
We have had some decent weather here and things are doing very well. I did the second hilling of the potatoes and we’ll do our second picking of strawberries Saturday for Church fellowship Sunday. I’ll post some new photos later...
Looking forward to those pics.
My little 7 x 12 garden is doing well. I put up a little three foot fence, ugly but no critters have got in it. My container tomatoes are unbelievable though, absolutely beautiful plants. I used some organic dirt with worm castings and some bone meal. I used some stuff last year called “mater magic” in a roundish red jar. No end blossom rot like I had before and I always thought it was a lack of water that caused that. I got spinach, radishes, Okra, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and zucchini. The kitties are lounging under the century plant, how cute.
Have a run of weather that is not below freezing. Have some tomatoes grown inside to get a start on our 90 day frost free forecast.
Sounds good. My garden bed actually totals about the size of yours in sq. feet, but is only 3 feet wide. That’s what I use for most of my stuff, and it’s right by the basement patio.
I use the patio for potted plants such as tomatoes and cukes. I have another set of beds that is shadier and too close to the walnut tree, so I am still experimenting with things to grow thee-not much is successful.
Was happy that one of those beds has been great for Strawberries. Wouldn’t grow corn, sunflowers, peanuts, or peas, though.
90 days is not long for crop growing, but sufficient for a lot of stuff.
Speaking of strawberries, I had a little raised bed of strawberries. Didn’t flourish for two years. Third year a bunch of strawberries “escaped” to nearby niches. This year I have a dozen plants and more berries than I have seen yet. If the chipmonks didn’t get out there today - I will eat my first strawberry of the year in the morning.
Other than that - onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, 2 types of radish, snow peas, green peas, squash, various herbs and chives, horseradish,barely a few greenbeans, just put in some pepper plants and tomato plants. Have some more to go in tomorrow as well as cucumbers and more peppers and some basil. Going to put in carrots even though I am a couple of weeks behind for those. And beets - but I though we had some, now I think we didn’t plant them.
And my peaches are BOOMING.
Sad note- my three hens all died. Some parasite, perhaps from the wet spring. I cancelled the new babies - I want to let the coop and enclosure lay until next year to be safe.
50's at night, but (true to average form), the NOAA and others predicted (April 20) a warmer than average May-July:
[I can no longer find that image on the NOAAA site]
“Temperature outlook, from May through July, favors above normal temperatures,” according to the latest outlook from the Climate Prediction Center. The center’s longer range forecast also projects above normal temperatures to continue the entire summer into late September. The climate center says New England and eastern New York have an 80 percent probability of exceeding normal summer temperatures from June through September. - http://www.ctpost.com/weather/article/NWS-We-re-going-to-have-another-hot-summer-11089137.php#photo-12768343
The outlook — which covers April, May and June — says that most of the country should be expecting normal precipitation levels and much higher than normal temperatures. - http://wtvr.com/2017/03/18/expect-a-warmer-spring-noaa-says/
May was cooler than average, but a month (May 18) later the NOAAA predicted a warmer than average June-August:
Likewise https://weather.com/news/weather/news/june-july-august-temperature-forecast-summer-2017-the-weather-company for June and July (but below avg. for August):
I know it is not a long growing season. Potatoes do well.
Early starts indoors are almost always needed. I have some in patio containers to extend the short season.
Fungus is eatin’ my maters up.
We’ve been getting lot of rain.
Two weeks into May, heavy rain and night temps in the 40’s. Not! Good!
I’ve pulled up about 15 or so mater plants.
Alternating Daconil and liquid copper every five days or so.
Seems to have stabilized. Trimming the infected parts from the tomato plants. I have some 42 hybrid tomato seedlings waiting their turn in the soil.
My Korean cukes are beyond belief. Some are close to 10 feet tall with fruit every five or six inches. They are popping with cukes. Amazingly vigorous plants.
Cool spring here in Waterville , Maine. Vegetables slow going...will be fine. The perennial farm is putting out some of the best ...the buyers need a break from the cloudy/drizzly weather....sometimes whats good for the goose is not always good for the gander.
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