This weekend is predicted to be perfect for outdoor work though. I will be concentrating on patio cleanup which involves lots of leaves and green shoots that the squirrels have been pulling off the trees as well as some leftover fall leaves-more compost for the garbage bag compost experiment.
We have finally received most of the seeds and plants we ordered and have been busy with starting seeds and planting/protecting the plants.
The peanuts I received are only showing a 1O% sprout rate, so I will be exploring non-GMO heirloom seed companies for peanuts. If anyone has a particular company that has peanuts, please let me know. I did a search at Baker's Creek Seeds, and didn't find them.
I did run across this list of companies late last night that I thought someone else might also be interested in exploring.
http://www.safelawns.org/blog/2011/02/growing-your-own-veggies-only-use-these-companies/
Hope all is going well with all of you. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
Sign me up! I love gardening but as I grow older, my patience with insects and weeds grows thin.
Nearly five inches of rain scraped some of the gravel away from the blacktop on our downhill driveway. Some of the asphalt is undercut.
I’ll be working on this repair this weekend.
Look at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:
I’m going to order the ‘Georganic’ because they’re supposedly more disease resistant than the traditional heirlooms but aren’t GMO.
This might be a good one too, supposedly more cold tolerant and earlier than most peanuts :
http://jandlgardens.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=242
Haven’t grown either variety and haven’t done business with the last company but they’re supposedly OK according to ‘Tomatovillians’.
We have a tornado watch until 10 p.m.!
Got another 9” of snow this week, but not before last week’s single-storm & April-total records setter was gone.
It was sort of dry just long enough to see a couple of garlic coming up, before everything was buried again. More rain & snow in the forecast until Tuesday.
On the positive side, we are no longer in the Exceptional Drought status, but on the border line between Moderate Drought * Abnormally Dry. More rain & snow in the forecast until Tuesday.
Johnny is growing peanuts, maybe he has a good place to get them.
The cherry tomato plant I put in a bag of potting soil to grow is almost twice as tall as the one in a pot and the truck is twice as thick as the pot one. It is growing on steriods. The cherry tomatoes on it are twice as large as the ones on the pot one.
Wellll, I’m planting whether the seeds come up or not. See, I can’t imagine a plant growing from a small seed. If any of these seeds grow, I’ll change my mind that it works and I can do it.
The seeds I have planted in the ground in the places where the rose plants died and that I have planted in a planter attached to a brick wall and two long planters on the ground are marked by an “x”. The rest, except the strawberries, will be in the ground in another week for sure. Directions said to freeze the strawberry seeds for three weeks before planting to get a larger number to grow, so I’m doing that.
All are heirloom:
Lemon Basil
x Leaf Celery
x Wild Galapagos Tomato - plant later today
x Romanian Sweet Pepper
x Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce
x Kentucky Wonder Bean (Brown)
x Zappallo de Tronco Squash - plant later today
x Evergreen Bunching Onion
Alpine Strawberry ‘Ruegen’ – in freezer another two weeks
Borettana - Cipolini Italian Onion
Armenian Pale Green Cucumber
Jalapeno M Pepper
Little Finger Carrot
Does anyone here have chickens in the city? We’re chicken owners for the first time and am confused about the best options for what to put down in the coop and the best way to keep it clean. I’d love any and all opinions to confuse me even more. :o)
The earthbox juniors that I grow the herbs have been planted. They are small tha I can bring them inside if we are expecting a late frost.
Way to much rain for one week in Central Missouri made a terrible mess of things all over the place. On the bright side, I have seedlings peeking out of the soil in my garden. Hope to find time over the weekend to beat the woods for some wild morels.
My spinach planted last fall has once again survived the winter and is growing great. Picked up some vinegar for spot weed killing. Planning to pick up some lettuce and other plants tomorrow if they’re available.
I planted some peanuts last year (seeds were picked up from amazon.com) . They grew like crazy and every seed sprouted and they took over the entire area in a tangled mess.
Oh yeah the reason I mention this - make sure you get the bush type and not the vine kind (it was worse than pumpkins lol)
The bush type are easier to harvest too .
As a last resort if you can’t find them anywhere check on amazon.com
What’s normal cherry blossom time?
I am up in Alaska and my wife is taking care of the garden down in California. She says everything is blooming except the cherry trees. We had a bumper crop last year; are the trees going to take a year off to recover? :-)
Greetings all from chilly Tennessee. So much for warm weather. The cold front made its way across our fair state yesterday-down in the 40’s with a brisk cold wind. Brrrr!!!
Been enjoying the comments regarding backyard chickens. We have friends down south of Nashville-out in the sticks. They have been raising chickens. Got a call a few weeks back. They were wanting to know if I would like to help them um “process” them. Hah! I said “say what? You mean kill slaughter and fix for eatin’ ?” lol. So tomorrow I get to learn how live chickens get from the farm to Kroger. Ought to be an experience!!! I figure-regardless of how messy it may be-it seems like a good skill to learn in these times.
The yard and garden need so much work. So many weeds to pull, borders to re-do, planting, tilling, mulching, fixing.... just have to keep at it and be patient. Going to start tomatoes indoors this weekend. Going to grow “Celebrity” and “Mortgage Lifter” tomatoes. I’m also going to take J Random Freeper’s advice and plant a lot of Romas. We struggle so with fungal/blight problems with tomatoes.
Sure enjoy this thread. Enjoy hearing about everyones struggles and successes.
Psst.
The winter sowing.
It’s working.
I am amazed!
I was away last week, and they are sprouting in spite of my neglect.
I’ll post pictures tomorrow if I get a chance.
Well...I moved about 10 months ago, and this week I took the plunge. I now have a full blown herb garden growing on my little balcony!
My food tastes GOOD again!
Chives
Basil
Rosemary,
tarragon,
Oregano,
Dill
Sage
and lavender for potpourri.
Some house plants for color, and some potted vaggies!
Woo Hoo!
Garden thread ping.
We're 50 miles south of Rapid city, in the lower reaches of the Black Hills.
The trees I ordered got here at the same time as our latest snowstorm. We’ll see what the weather’s like tomorrow, I might have to keep them in a bucket until I can plant.
I checked on my tomato cutting between flurries, it’s still green. Hopefully it’ll make it through the night. A few days ago I had to rearrange the bags in my homemade wall-o-water. They had slumped over and were blocking the vent hole, my poor cutting was getting cooked!
The strawberries have decided that it’s spring, no matter what the weather does! They’re pretty hardy, so they’re growing in spite of the cold snaps.
Not much else to report, just waiting for warmer weather.