Posted on 03/02/2012 8:10:56 AM PST by JustaDumbBlonde
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Good morning fellow gardeners! Here in NE Louisiana the weatherman claims we will reach 90 degrees today. He is really starting to get on my nerves ... doesn't he know that this is the first week of March, for pete's sake? He could shade the truth and tell us it's going to be 68, it's not like he's given bad information before, he does it at least 3 days a week. But, I digress.
First off this week, I want to share a link that fanfan, one of our gardening FRiends in Canada, sent to me earlier in the week. Three seed-sowing techniques is sure to bring valuable information to many of our gardening notebooks. Thanks, fanfan!
I'd also like to share a link to an article that shows how to build a hoop house/greenhouse that is simple, yet extremely well done and strong. In An Early Start the author provides easy to understand instructions, along with photos, for constructing a year-round environment for gardening at home. At least one of these will be built at my house this year ... I've got most of the components that I can scrap up from my piles of useful junk.
I've been threatening y'all with information on soil structure, and this week I want to begin with some basic information that we'll build on over the weeks. I hope to get everyone thinking about making the most of their yards and gardens by understanding the things we have to work with. Many of you already practice soil management and understand the importance of structure. I hope that you will join the discussion and offer all of us your some of your knowledge and expertise.
Simply put, soil structure is a term that describes the arrangement of the solid parts of the soil and of the space located between them. Basic structure depends on the soil type you are working with. (see previous thread on soil types.)
Soil structure is broken down into basic types, and is best determined by taking a sample of soil that has not been disturbed and looking closely at its shape. The shape of the soil will fall into one of the following categories: granular, crumb, blocky, platy, prismatic, columnar, single-grained, or massive. Note that massive soil is not pictured in the following diagram, but is basically unpermeable soil that is a solid block with no spaces.
Each individual unit of soil in the overall structure is called a ped. Only about 50% of structure is solid material. The remainder is spaces of air, organic matter, water and minerals. Other riches in the soil are worms, mites, nematodes, deep growing plant roots, bacteria and fungi. All of these things together are indications of soil quality, and developing a management strategy to enhance that quality is a sure way to hit pay dirt.
Why is information on structure important to you and your garden? Structure determines how well your plants will grow. Good structure reduces erosion, improves root penetration and access to soil moisture and nutrients. Even seedlings will emerge easier in well managed soil due to less surface crust. Water infiltrates good structure better and is more readily retained. Some soil health consultants claim that garden productivity can improve 2 to 3 fold with improved structure.
The best news is that anyone can improve the structure of their soil. In coming weeks I will be setting out ways to do just that. I decided to do this in several parts for a couple of reasons: structure is not something that you've going to attack and change in the span of a week; and if I presented all of it in one thread, eyes would glaze over and we would all fall asleep and miss planting season. 
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!
That’s funny too. :)
Your home, flower beds and gardens are so beautiful that I could not begin to make suggestions to improve on what you have already done.
Talk to tubebender about sprouting lots of impatiens. He and Mrs. Bender truly incubate and produce a prodigeous amount of impatiens for their house and their church.
On those vincas, my daughter wrote:
That's it! I first starting buying it at Secor Farms at a small family owned pumkin and annual farm (the last farm in Mahwah) around the corner from my house in Mahwah. They were the only thing that thrived in the pots on the steps of my sunny front porch.It took me a couple of years to find someone here that sells it. Mr. Sokowloski has 7 or 8 greenhouses on his property on Grooms Road. He and his son run the nusery and he lives in the house at the front. He helps me out each spring because I start looking for it earlier than he puts it out for sale, but if I wait too long I don't have my pick of colors. So we have to go by the tags ..which aren't always accurate. Tammy plants them in South Carolina because it is very drought tolerant.
The only year they didn't last into October was this past summer when we had the remnants of a hurricane and the wind just about ripped them out of the pots and tore off quite a few branches. They were still alive, but didn't look very pretty
I have to laugh about this because this is NOT my daughter who is famed as a gardener. But, her yard always looks nice, and I see that she does put a lot of thought into it. The "Tammy" she refers to is my DIL in SC. So, here we are using the same plant in two disparate climates -- NY and SC. I've always been leery of those New Guinea Impatiens because I never thought they'd survive on my front porch.
Isn’t New Guinea a few miles south of the north pole? I asked Lady Bender to help you and her response was >I ain’t ever birthed no flowers in Wisconsin Mr Bender<
It’s Mrs. Rightly_Dividing who needs help. They want to grow lots and lots of impatiens from scratch in the Houston area.Quite a different climate from Humboldt.
I have never had good luck with any kind of impatiens. I have neighbors who can bring a few seedlings home from the garden center and they have carpets of color for the rest of the season. I can buy flats of impatiens, plant them 6 in. apart, and they’ll still be 6 in. apart in September. Just nothing.
Impatiens are popular in Mobile and do quite well as long as they are not in the hot sun. We tried them on our west facing porch, but they would not take the afternoon sun. The vincas, on the other hand, did well, so we planted a lot of vincas.
Same here!
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