Weekly Gardening Thread – 2009 Vol.8 – July 03

FreeRepublic | 7-03-09 | Red_Devil 232

[WorkingClassFilth]

I’ve got a question related to gardening for all the folks that do multiple crops or succession planting...

I have about 500 square feet of raised beds needing a crop to be planted for fall. I’m probably going to sterilize several beds (black plastic mulch for the duration of the season) and I might also put in a cover crop for turning over late season and building a little tilth. The soil is a heavy clay loam but the fertility is quite high according to the USDA.

I’m considering some fall kraut cabbage, but I need some more ideas soon because I’m too tired to wander through catalogs looking for solutions. Of course, the rest of the garden is competing with the house for attention, the orchard needs some time, and then there’s the winter wood supply . . .

Any ideas out there would sure be appreciated!

[P8riot]

LOL! I figured someone would get a kick out of them. I get requests to play it every year at our church picnic. Glad things are going better for you now.

Curious about the picture on you profile page. "Anvil shoot"?

[CH3CN]

Yes, it’s an anvil shoot. Have a friend who puts them on every 4th of July. But, that’s not me in the photo. I took the picture. I had a great time-line going of the whole process from loading to shooting it, except the memory card got full right before the big bang. I’ve tried for 3 years to get the bang but keep missing it. This year will be my last chance to catch it. It’s the last anvil shoot my friend will be doing here.

[who knows what evil?]

NH’s Governor Lynch aigned a ‘gay marriage’ bill last month, and it been in the upper 50’s with rain ever since. Upper 50’s...more than TWENTY degrees below normal. Thank the Almighty for container gardening...I am able to move things around to avoid the rain; and all veggies are still doing well.

[P8riot]

This year will be my last chance to catch it. It’s the last anvil shoot my friend will be doing here.

I'd be interested in seeing pictures.

[Carolinamom]

Saturday morning check in: Picked my first 'mess' of green beans this week and harvested potatoes from my little patch!

I've been watching my first ripening tomato all week...will pick it today for a scrumpous BLT today!

I'm thinking of replanting that area in peas...food for me and for the soil.

My zucchini plants will soon be pulled...in time for the straight neck yellow squash that I planted from seed. By the end of the summer, I may turn into a sqash. LOL

Thanks for this thread, Red Devil. I love to read it and all the posts of people who enjoy growing things as much as I do. Tarheel: My grandpa always planted his fall crop of turnips by August 15.

[who knows what evil?]

I love to read it and all the posts of people who enjoy growing things as much as I do.

You should see the tomatoes plants I am growing from seed I saved last year. There is NOTHING like growing a nice fat garden right from seed...

[Arrowhead1952]

I picked more tomatoes early today. We have several drink flats full now. Some of those will be put up today. Squash are still producing well.

Have a great Fourth of July tomorrow!

[Arrowhead1952]

I have been picking my tomatoes once they get a pinkish blush on them. In past years I just let them go as red as they could get on the vine - they are great bird attractors when red! I have not had bird problems this year.

The local Saturday and Sunday garden shows were talking about getting red Christmas balls and some Styrofoam balls and hanging them on the plants early in the growing season. Birds try to eat them and think they are the worst tomatoes ever and will let the garden alone. I am doing that next year.

[trisham]

Great advice!

[JRochelle]

We have been eating new potatoes for several weeks now.

I planted Yukon Gold. Someone told me to put a little bit of bonemeal with each potato piece when I planted them.

My potatoes are huge. And the plants are still green with some blooms. I dig around the plant and remove one or two potatoes and leave the plant alone to grow more.

Does anyone else use bonemeal?

[tubebender]

I have used Steamed Bone Meal in the past. I was buying it at a farm store in 50# or larger sacks and I may do it again this fall. It takes a while to become available but it stays in the soil for some time. I also have to add Dolomite Limestone as the soil here is acidic from the Redwood trees. I don’t put it on the Blueberries...

[Tarheel]

What is a chicken tractor? All I can envision is a John Deere pulled by a couple of roosters.

[tubebender]

I have noticed the cluster tomatoes I buy from Costco in the off season get better tasting as they sit on the counter. We make sure a few are in the pink stage when we select a clamshell of them. My son is going to make me some 4'X6’X1’ cages of 1/2 square tubing that I will cover with some 1”X1” welded wire I have left over from building my compost bins. These will go over my strawberry plants to stop the critter that is tearing holes in the bird netting and getting the fruit before we do.

Have a great 4th of July weekend RD...

[Petronski]

Open-bottomed coop. It can be dragged from place to place so the chickens can work the turf all over the property, or parked semi-permanently over fallow garden in the fall.

The poop is low-burn high-nitrogen fertilizer. The birds till the soil, eat the bugs and turn them into fertilizer.

They can sleep, lay and brood upstairs (safe from predators) and be let down in the day (or out to free range).

[Red_Devil 232]

I guess my strawberries are done for the season.

[Petronski]

Does anyone else use bonemeal?

High in potassium, promotes tuber formation.

I'm going to be making a slurry and dumping it near the roots of my tater plants, if I can get in among them. The patch looks like a bonsai tropical rain forest.

[Tarheel]

I have cantaloupe, although a long time until they are pickable! Picked my first bell peppers this week also cherry tomatoes are being picked like mad. Got to get them before the birds. Your slicers are ahead of mine.

Still have a few zukes to come off in a few days. Did not think to put in yellow squash after the zukes are done. Will check out some possibilities later today.

Got my first few eggplants growing, finally. I planted it late so am anxious to see some results. Cukes are still producing nicely.

[Petronski]

Sorry, not potassium. Phosphorus.

The second number in fertilizer. The P in N-P-K.

[PROTESTBYPROXY]

That is best because the birds are your friends. They eat all the big bugs that eat you tomatoes.

Everyone needs to try Armenian cucumbers. Even too big they are great.