Posted on 05/02/2014 12:25:41 PM PDT by greeneyes
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On the brighter side, we have avoided the damaging storms that have been hitting all around us so far, so we are thankful for that.
I am continuing to plant according to my schedule, but indoors instead of outdoors. Learned my lesson last year. The weather has to be right. First batch of corn is beginning to sprout indoors.
Hope everyone is doing well, staying safe from the storms, and having good luck with your gardens. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Here’s a link to a nice article by the University of Mo. on Making and Using Compost, for those who may be interested.
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G6956
/johnny
The weather has been a major factor this year all over, it seems. The only thing that I have that is on schedule is the potatoes.
The sun came out this am and I get to mow grass today. The front part of the yard is almost done... I have 3 acres to mow.
Strawberries in full bloom and unless something weather wise changes for the ‘bad’ for strawberries, I should have a bumper crop. Of course can’t count blooms as produce. So we shall see what the next couple of weeks brings weather wise.
I have planted all the early veggies, and they for the most part have survived the cold and very wet conditions.
Back to the lawn mowing.
Found a tropical plant store in St Pete that had three of the plants I’ve been looking for, Bay Laurel (Bay Leaves), Kaffir Lime (leaves used in Thai recipes) and Tea.
Sorry to hear that Johnny. I'm down in your beautiful and warm state visiting right now from just outside of KC. My tomatoes went in 10 days ago and I just missed a frost yesterday, according to my daughter. I had replacements, but now it looks like the neighbors get them.
Weather’s been cool the last several days, but it’s supposed to heat up again next week. I have little buds on my Tromboncino Squash that look like females, but I haven’t seen any males. Hope I get flowers for both at the same time. I have two dinky cucuzza plants, and ten that aren’t up.
I have lots of green tomatoes-lemon boys, romas, yellow pear, tycoon, valley cat, and mystery tomatoes. Lots of lettuce, and swiss chard. I pulled up the non productive brussels sprouts. My gypsy peppers are loaded with blooms, and I need to transplant mucho nachos out of the greenhouse.
Also, armenian cukes and two more tromboncinos, and a bunch of zinnias. My Pentas are stil the size of pin heads. My ginger root I planted from the grocery store is starting to get growth above ground, as well as the roots. My potatoes have lots of top growth, not so much underground. I think I overwatered them.
I need to mow the yard, and my water bill was 86 dollars. We need rain. That is all from the TX Hill Country.
Potatoes grow in mostly chilly places.
With all the cow flatus causing globull warming, I am surprised you can get them to grow for you! hehehe
/johnny
I keep the water bill low with lots of mulch, and only using drip irrigation. That, and stored rain water. I hand water a lot. I have more time than money.
The potatoes in the compost towers are doing great. I look forward to seeing how the harvest goes.
/johnny
My youngest daughter is Queen of the Garden, and radishes are her special favorite. She's very proud of them.
I understand but I start thinking about that first BLT with home grown tomatoes around Thanksgiving. Mid July is usually the date I get it but this year I'm hoping for the end of June. I hope the pigs keep their end of the bargain.
We have less to mow every year, as we continue to plant fruit or nut trees, berry bushes, and new garden plots.
We also keep a couple of corners as “wild” uncultivated areas. We have blooms, but no berries formed yet. One of our warmer springs, we did have a few that ripened in mid May.
It’s been very nice cool, low humidity all week, but no rain. It’s so dry I got Scooter stuck in the sand in the backyard, but I knew that was coming, I had been slip sliding through the sand for a week.
Where we are from, Southern Al and Ms got around 20-24inches of rain. There are still roads closed from the flood damage. One area in an adjacent county had 7ft of water in some low lying homes.
I woke up one morning this week to what I thought was squirrels on the roof, but it turned out to be buzzards, 4 on the roof, 4 on the gazebo roof and about 25-35 more in the yard and street. They just ignored the pups barking, but when I pitched a rock at the roof and hit the rain gutter and made a loud noise all flew at once and not been back. We do see lots of them overhead all the time, for some reason.
The maters in the GLG are blooming big time, but no maters still. The 2 in the RCG are growing like crazy but no blooms, but the peppers in the containers next to them are blooming, as are my ghost peppers, which are root bound and needing bigger pots.
Wife’s zennias are a foot tall or so it looks from the window. All her other flowers, annuals, are blooming, but none of the perennials yet, except for lilies. The ferns are beginning to make a comeback from the ice storm, as are a few of the larger container plants in the patio area.
That’s it from the north side of town, Marcella will report on the conditions on the in-town area, I’m sure.
I use Bay leaves all the time in cooking especially soups. I don’t think that our weather would allow us to grow it here though. They are hard to find, so congrats.
My wife was speaking just yesterday at supper of having a mater and mayo sandwich with a glass of tea as soon as we get some maters ripe. I like mine plain, sliced and on a plate with pepper. I can easily eat two large ones per day in the season.
After your cucuzza success, I couldn’t stand the suspense - emptied out my two cups and looked to see if the seeds had any sign of germination. Nada. So, I now have two new seeds soaking (will soak for much longer than 12 hours) and then they’ll go in that warm window sill right away. Maybe I’ll get lucky with the second try although I’m not sure where I’ll put them if they do germinate since they are such climbers & I already have the two Trombettas. It would be a “nice” problem to have!
Plenty of rain our way .... April showers bring May flowers ... and as of yesterday, clouds of gnats ... UGH!
Well you have a pretty good bunch of plants going. The potatoes won’t even have small new potatoes until they have blooms. Potatoes also need lots of organic material in the soil.
If you get lush green plants with no blooms, then you nitrogen ratio to other nutrients may be off.
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