Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012

Friday, March 23, 2012 | JustaDumbBlonde

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! Hopefully everyone has received beneficial rain this past week. We've had an additional 2 inches, which was a blessing because just to the south and southwest of us as much as 10 inches fell. While the area needed the rain, it didn't need it all at one time.

Looking forward to reading what you're doing with your gardens and plans this week. Photos will earn you bonus points! :^)

It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but I do have lots of raspberry bushes to get planted. Then, the beeyard. They are already capping honey in the supers and I will have a bountiful late spring harvest. Mark and I have 2 cutouts of bees in buildings that are coming up this week, which will make a total of 7 hives in my beeyard. We did a huge cutout 2 weeks ago and Mark added those to his beeyard.

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!

[MissMagnolia]

Usually, we’re not safe to plant tomatoes, etc. until mid-May. I am thinking I’m going to take a chance and plant a very early garden this year - if it turns cold, it shouldn’t be for long and I’ll just have to be prepared to cover it. My cousin works in Houston, lives in Spring & spends a lot of time in the yard - I’ll have to ask him how his azaleas are doing (ours just have buds right now).

[hoosiermama]

Finally cooling off..raining all day. The redbuds are the most beautiful I can remember.
My brussel sprouts are producing in the garden. Did not get frost kill.
Onion and garlic have grown through the winter.
Got summer clothes out, but will probably need winter next week.

Planned on mowing yesterday and the rain started....Guess it will be ready to bail by the time we get to it.

[sneakers]

I tried growing in a trash can. That was a waste of time, because the plant did, indeed, grow up to be nice and healthy, but the potatoes were down around the bottom of the barrel and none grew above that. HOWEVER, I might give the black trash bags a try. I could keep the dirt in in shallow - maybe 12”. I’ll bet it works. I might give it a try. I’ll let you know if I do! :-)

[bgill]

You survived the storm the other night? Whew, it was a doozie here. Thought I was going to see the SS Minnow float by as we had no phone, no lights, no tv, and no internet for a day or two. I had just put in the last of the seeds and put out my tomatoes and peppers the day before. Why didn't you tell me not to?!?! Just came in a few minutes ago and some of them aren't going to make it after being beaten down. Thankfully, I have 4 extra tomatoes so will wait and see which ones they'll have to replace. I won't know about the seeds for a couple weeks but am sure those will have to be resown because garden soil was washed out. Blah!

The new glads are tall and happy but the lilies are just the same as when they were planted several weeks ago. The caladiums still haven't come up so wondering about them.

Hubby is in the dog house for chopping down my grapes after I told him not to touch them. He has a bad habit of doing that. He also mowed through the garlic but I kept my mouth shut on that. Doesn't do any good to tell him. Had to run out and dig up some unknown bulbs before the lawn mower got to them. Just threw them in a big clump in a hole inside the safety of the garden fence so maybe one day I'll find out what they are.

He did do good the evening of the storm by killing a big rattlesnake on the back porch. I'd found a little snake in the garden that morning but thankfully it was already dead or I'd still be running. Ugh, snakes!

[Arrowhead1952]

I dug up the old broccoli plants to make room for spring veggies. I have turnips growing, four tomato plants and lots of onions. I will be putting all the other seedlings in the garden this weekend. The three inches of rain sure helped the yards and pastures.

[Bigg Red]

I am using my black fabric grow bags for the 3rd year now. So far, great luck.

[MomofMarine]

I live in the Adirondacks and it has been in the 70s-80s for the past week! Unheard of in March here! Daffodils, hyacinth and crocuses are up and blooming. Tulips are up but not in bloom yet. Forsythia is already fully in bloom! It’s been wonderful, but there’s no way anyone can plant anything because we could still have a good 6 weeks of winter ahead! It will be a very interesting spring.

[Darth Reardon]

Being a bit challenged when it comes to gardening space, last spring I put up a 6" mesh of 20lb test along the side of the house where I have a raised bed. This way, the peas and beans and such could grow up the back. It works pretty darn well. In this picture, you can see some volunteer green beans flourishing in front of the bedroom window. It's hard to get a good angle, but you can also make out cabbage, cauliflower, New Zealand spinach, lettuce, serrano pepper, rosemary, and celery.

Oh, and there should be a squash in there somewhere.

And here we see the girl dog taking time out from her busy schedule of laying in the sun to get in a quick yawn.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Holy cow, a rattlesnake? Ugh - I'm so sick of people who think snakes are so wonderful (a whole other story in my life).... Well I am sorry for your washed out garden. Although we had hard rain (several inches) and wind, the storm really wasn't that horrible here. I feared my little lettuce seeds were going to be washed out but everything survived just fine. I was shocked at that to be honest.

And I have to say I laughed when I read that your husband was chopping down grape vines. I planted some blueberry plants a few years ago and after several times of my husband weed whacking them to nothing I got mad and just pulled up the almost dead roots. Now I see that is a common issue with me. ;^)

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Oh cool! If I had a large area that had no grass I would try using the big bags of soil and just dropping in watermelon seeds - I’ve seen several videos of using the cut open bags instead of ground to plant. However the vines would cover areas here that would have to be mowed so it isn’t feasible

[Free Vulcan]

We have had such an early spring I’ve been missing the Gardening thread to plant. I have never had this much in this early.

[metmom]

I got my peppers started indoors.

Hopefully, we’ll have an early last frost (no snow on Mother’s Day this year) and I’ll be able to get them in early.

The peas and lettuce are doing fine.

I transplanted some bushes to better locations and tried watering them with sugar water to lessen the transplant shock. I’ll find out how that went when I get back from FL in two weeks.

And the lawn really needs mowing badly.

[John 3_19-21]

My collards grew all winter long, deep freeze didn’t hurt them at all.

[Petruchio]

Well, I done did went and did it.

Me. Stingy, penny pinchin’ miserly, cheap, (did I say stingy?) broke down and called the local County Farm Bureau to order a few soil testing kits on Monday. They came on Wednesday and within hours were on the way to the lab.

This was a shocking event on many levels. Topping the list is I really did this! I was also amazed that Cook County, home of Chicago, actually has a Farm Bureau. Even more yet further surprising is there are really honest to gosh farms in Cook County that grow stuff other than pot! I thought the corrupt democrats in charge of everything had outlawed them years ago.

The reason for this outrageous extravagance was that after reviewing my garden’s harvest for the last 2 years, I came to the logical conclusion that it sucked. Not just Hoover sucked, but Tim Allen’s Bimford Industrial strength Tornado Shop Vacuum sucked.

* 8 Squash plants and 1 squash to show for it.
* Beets that were lucky to grow to golf ball size
* Sweet Peppers . . . What Sweet peppers?
* Cucumbers - planted 20 plants, got maybe 8 or 9 cukes out of the deal

I am tired of guessing what could be wrong. I sent in the samples and within 2 weeks I will get the results back. A detailed analysis of what is in (or not in) my dirt. Along with a plan of what to add to get things to grow.

If this does not work I will let everything go and say . . .

“Those aren’t weeds, they are Prairie Wildflowers!”

grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . .

[Sarajevo]

Bees! The Mrs and I were just considering bees this AM. What is the best way to start? How do you keep them around?

[metmom]

LOL!!!

Everyone has some bad years. I wasted money on watermelon seeds one year and got one watermelon to show for it and it was overripe by the time I picked it so was no good anyway.

I’ve wasted lots of time and garden space trying to grow things that just don’t work for me, potatoes, onions, and carrots being the tops. But they are so cheap anyway, that it’s not cost effective to grow them.

I get pretty good results with tomatoes, zucchini, peas, beans, scallions, and decent with peppers. The lettuce almost always bolts. I guess giving it a couple more days isn’t always a good idea.

[stefanbatory]

i forgot the year as well, but i do remember that it was May 9...

[stefanbatory]

I have some friends who raise bees. They also sell nucleus colonies every year about this time. I could check and see if they have any available...

[afraidfortherepublic]

It could have been the 9th. All I remember is that we were on our way to Florida the next morning, and we had a tree down. Had to leave it until we got back. We were not as badly hurt as they were out in Brookfield and in Oconomowoc. I just know that it was early May. MAY! MAY!!

[Red_Devil 232]

I just checked my mail and my Soil Test Results came in today. Looks to me like I will need small additions of P, K, Ca, Mg and Sulfate Sulfur. My small garden will be approximately 600 sq. ft.

I will make an appointment with the County Agent Monday and get his advice and share his info with all. It took 7 days from mailing to receiving the results.