Posted on 05/01/2015 12:41:21 PM PDT by greeneyes
Good afternoon Gardeners! We have the most beautiful day so far this week. Temps in 60s and beautiful sun shine and blue sky. Truly a gift from God.
I just wanted to mention to those who may have missed JRandomFreeper's post yesterday, that he has started his Chemo Therapy today, and needs your prayers. Thank you all in advance for helping with this request.
Not much has changed here. I have been taking the tomatoes in and out. Yesterday, I forgot and left them outside, but they seem to be ok. Hubby plans to plant corn this weekend. I'll wait 2 or 3 weeks before I begin sprouting my corn seeds.
Did I mention that I ordered some Evergreen Corn to try this year? Should be an interesting experiment. I left the rye go too long and now it has some seeds. They are not ripe yet, but hubby wants me to let it go and save the seed.
Problem is, he bought them at the feed store, and doesn't really know what they are other than rye. So I think I'll just pass on that. Besides, a short maturity variety will be going in there, so I doubt I have enough time left for it to mature.
I'll have to leave pretty soon to finish up some errands that I didn't quite get around to, that absolutely have to get done today. So if I go dark for a while, please forgive me - I'll be back later.
Tomorrow we planned to go to the neighboring town to visit the farmer's market, but that was before I remembered the Derby is this weekend. Probably will postpone the trip, if not we'll reduce the number of other places to visit while we are over there.
Have a great weekend everyone. God Bless.
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. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
Pinging the list.
Planted my tomatoes and a couple of bell peppers last week. I hope they all have enough time to grow and produce this summer.
Favorite post of the week! Keeping JRandomFreeper in our prayers this weekend! Please do the same. Going to take the plastic cover off the greenhouse this weekend. Today is the last frost date for this area. Thus far, most of my plants are out of the greenhouse, but I’ll be keeping the actual frame up for the shelving. Gonna be in the 80’s this weekend! I hear the call of the wild...might just hafta run away and go camping!
60’s up here in Northern Minnesota! All the raised boxes and garden area is broke up and rototilled. No skeeters yet! Just waiting on the overnight temps to warm up. When that happens, we will be ready to set plants!
Being cautious though... It can still snow and wipe out everything we plant... So goes Spring in MN!
Spent all week at home planting.
North Georgia area is still getting a little chilly at night though.
I have built a bin out of old pallets to grow potatoes. Has anybody tried this?
Hi greeneyes and everyone! Wow, as I start this post, I’m on the first page!
This week we had an INCREDIBLE class on BUGS!
There is a lot to share on it, but as I mentioned to greeneyes earlier, I am seeking to complete the soil notes before delving into the other stuff. I guess we’ll be doing these posts for the foreseeable future! There’s a lot here!
In the meantime, I did want to share a couple of things from the bug class:
Our presenter was Eric J. Rebek. He helped us learn to identify various “bugs” to the Linnaeus “Order” level. We looked at such things as wing type, mouth structures, body structure, legs, or no legs. The main thing I want to share with you guys is the incredible online OSU publication FREE which you can access at:
http://entoplp.okstate.edu/factsheets.html/?searchterm=E 1023
E 1023 is the publication with info on how to preserve the “good guys.”
Enjoy the pretty pix! Bear in mind these are the good guys found in OKlahoma.... but I imagine that some of them show up in many of our other states!
Here begins the 6th installment on SOIL:
PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT
* Algal blooms: from fertilizer run-off. These will take up available oxygen in a pond or body of water and kill other life forms living there
* Reduce Direct Nutrient Loss: People’s grass clippings can be carried to local streams and ponds in the run-off and add to the nutrient loads in those bodies of water. Those nutrients are also then not available to the people to feed their yards and gardens.
* Use Spreaders: He showed several pix of a couple of different kinds of spreaders – Rotary and Drop Spreaders
* Eutriphication Impacts Water Quality (Webster: Definition of EUTROPHICATION: the process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients (as phosphates) that stimulate the growth of aquatic plant life usually resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen)
- Causes an increase in water treatment needs at a very high cost
- Decreases recreation value of a body of water
- Decrease in the aesthetics of that body (it doesn’t look as nice!)
He noted that a number of states and municipalities are restricting the use of fertilizers. These restrictions consist of such things as :
* Bans of P fertilizers on lawns
* Regulation of nutrient management plans/certification for lawn professionals
* Limits of fertilizers on lawns – based on soil tests
His comment is that we in Oklahoma [and for our purposes here, areas of people on our thread] need to be sure to use the fertilizers available to us properly so that they won’t be taken away from us.
BIORETENTION HOLES
Some people make runoff low spots which are called “bioretention holes” which will retain the phosphorus. – Plant-based filtration - The botanic garden in Stillwater, OK has one that can be viewed.
Here is a link describing one:
http://botanicgarden.okstate.edu/gardens-and-grounds/edible-landscape-1
He gave us a table which is a STATE SOIL TEST SUMMARY
Since I will not be able to duplicate it, I will seek to describe it.
Data is from the soil tests which the soil test department had issued (I did not catch the year or years this was documenting)
The heading describing the columns:
pH, N, Soil Test P index, Soil Test K index
The row descriptions are:
AVG, Median, Optimal
So
AVG: pH – 6.9 N-26 STP-221 [too high] STK-510
Median: pH -7.0 N-15 STP-143 STK-463
Opt: pH 6.-7.5 N 25-50 P 65-120 STK 250-350
He pointed out that the whole column listing the Phosphorus data was all way too high, and he is very concerned about them.
He pointed out that calcium will cause phosphorus to precipitate as well as aluminum. This depends on the circumstances.
CARTOON
He showed us a cartoon of a man and wife standing at and looking over their garden. He is holding a shovel. The caption to this picture is: “We have to take this soil to a fertility clinic!”
RELEVANT INFO FOR PEOPLE IN THE SOUTHERN REGION OF USA:
This includes NM, TX, OK, AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, TN, KN, NC, SC [my apologies if I did not get the correct abbreviation for your state!]
It shows how to find a soil testing lab in your area
http://aesl.ces.uga.edu/soiltest123/
End Installment 6 of SOIL
Just looked at my calendar and noticed that this weekend is the Baker’s Creek annual festival. We had hoped to go this year, but it didn’t work out.
We hope to go the first Sunday in August for one of their Monthly Heritage Days. My youngest daughter is on vacation starting that weekend and we plan to stop in Mansfield for the Heritage day and then go to Branson for a few days.
Growing potatoes in pallets. Has anybody tried this?
btw:
I cook asparagus in a wire fish cooker on indirect charcoal. Turn over at 8-9 minutes. Sprinkled with water, olive oil and a bit of pepper. Plus, some sprinkled jalapeno pepper that I dried and ground into dust with a blender.
Killer !
Amen to that! Sacred Food are those - beyond a doubt.
Camping - a great activity that I have not engaged in for a while. Just dug out our Coleman Stove this week, and couldn’t believe that I don’t even remember how to use it.
Purchase/directions predate the move to this house, which is when I bought my first file cabinet and started keeping all instructions and warranties together in a file.
So I went on line and found them! The internet is so wonderful for that sort of stuff. I’m going to try canning out doors this year to avoid heating up the house and overtaxing the air conditioner.
I don’t grow regular potatoes myself but potatoes will grow just about anywhere.
You don’t even need dirt.
You can grow them in a tire on concrete under a layer of rotting hay.
In a bin you should be good to go.
It is not unusual to have snow after April 14 here in Mo, but that is the date you have to remove your studded tires, IIRC.
While rare, we have had snow in May - many years ago.
The green house/sunroom linked to a recent garden post is on our wish list. When and if Hubby’s part of the sale of his Mom’s house comes in from the estate settlement.
Have not tried it. Sounds interesting. Let us know how it goes.
That should work, in fact you could easily cut it to half the height and have 2 growing bins.
That sounds good, I’ll put that in my recipes to try file.
Not sure if we will get to grill this year. I have a 17.5” square Sunbeam Patio Master with the wooden/slat tables attached to both sides. Perfectly fine except for the charcoal tray which has totally disintegrated.
Last year I was able to use a disposable aluminum oven drip tray to help, but this year, I don’t think there is enough of it left to do that again.
I have searched for a replacement part, which is supposed to be inexpensive, but have yet to find it. I have looked at some new stuff, but don’t like them.
I have an electric ceramic grill for indoor use, that I could use for the asparagus, but wouldn’t get that smoky flavor.
Our barn swallows returned today, so the skeeters are probably already here.
Prayers lifted, John.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.