added to
space
Posted on 03/04/2011 5:04:58 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Hubby and I had some pretty good salads last night. I planted some red lettuce, bak choi, arugula, and a nice green romaine back the end of january. The baby greens are just wonderful now. I had to cover everything with clear plastic for about a week when temps were 15-20ish at night and in the high 20’s/low 30’s during the day. But since it’s warmed up down here they’ve really taken off. My green onions and peas are doing well too. Still a little to go for them. Radishes should be done in about a week. Chinese cabbages are probably a month out also.
Plan to plant more peas tomorrow evening once the rain’s gone and get started on another flat of peppers and tomatoes. The two flats I started about 6w ago are doing spiffily right now. Putting a heating pad under the pepper flat really helped those get right on up in my unheated garage. Hubby got me a bunch of the peat pots last fall, on sale, so I’m going to start cucumbers, zucchinis, patty pans and maybe some winter squashes as well. Busy weekend at my house!
My neighbor has about 36 seedlings up already. I noticed the hardware store has some outside as well, but they didn’t have any Sunmaster tomato plants yet. I love those since they are determinate and have a lot of fruit.
...at least you can see your lawn...
Please add me to your list. I’m known for killing plastic plants but I WANT to be a gardener ;-) Maybe reading your thread will help.
We are going to plant some yellow squash and pickling cukes just as soon as I get the area finished. Peppers too, I hope, they have not sprouted yet.
There is a small farm here in New England that employs this system...it is quite interesting.
Way cool. Thanks for sharing. Nothing better than fresh brown eggs. With eggs going at $2.00 a dozen and higher, the payback will take awhile. But in the end you will come out way ahead.
My kids love fried squash. They ask for it. My oldest saw one of my seed packsts of scallop squash and wanted to know if that was for supper. It’s cheap and filling too. And not completely devoid of nutrition. Summer lunch at our house is usually a couple of chicken tenderloins, oven baked okra and fried squash. For snacks there’s cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, fresh mini cucumbers and melons of various kinds. Lemon cucumbers are favorites. I found those at a farmers market for 0.50 each. My oldest will eat 3 in a sitting and then a bowl of cherry tomatoes followed by a couple bell peppers. That ‘snack’ I’ve calculated would be about $5 if bought. Fortunately we can just carry a picking bucket to the backyard.
I’m anxious to get all that ‘free’ produce in our budget again. And this is the year I plan to perfect seed saving. We’ll see how that goes LOL.
Your chicken coop is amazing! Where do you live? (It’s pretty cold here in the winter. When I used to keep peacocks, I had to heat their little barn.)
Did you build the coop from a set of plans or have a plan available?
We have many squash recipes, quite a few casserole recipes. Squash is good fixed in so many differant ways. We steam veggies in a food steamer often during the season, maybe 4 times per week. In one meal, we may be cooking Brocolli, cauliflower, squash and new potatos in the steamer at once.
Yellow tomatos are great, and low acidity, too.
Haven’t begun to think about the garden yet. I still have 8 inches of snow on the ground with more possibly coming on the weekend.
I’ve been so busy between my mom (in CA) and my husband (here in WI) that I haven’t spent any time on garden plans, beyond making a list in my head about what worked well last year.
I plan to simplify and allow more space around each planting. (I do Square Foot Gardening and have decided that you really don’t have to cram so many things into your spce.)
I’m never going to buy seed mixes again. I’ll make my own according to Diana’s Beneficial Bug mix. I’ll space out my tomatoes so they don’t get so tangled and plant them 2 weeks apart in 3 plantings so that they produce for a longer period.
I’ll plant onions, potatoes, tomatoes, basil, peas, yellow squash, Acorn squash (does anyone know a variety with a softer shell?), maybe cukes if I can find a smaller variety, carrots, lettuce, spinach, % melons. I’ll skip corn, broccoli, cauliflower, okra, and some others that were so ummemorable that I can’t think of them right now.
NO MORNING GLORIES! No sunflowers in the regular garden — maybe someplace else. Fewer zinnias. Beans were a bust — might try a few Kentucky wonders. No scarlet runner beans.
I’ll be anxious to make my way out to the garden to see what shape it is in. I never finished cleaning it up last fall before the snow started. I still have a perimeter bed to clean out.
And my perennial garden resolution: Never buy any plant unless you already have a place dug for it! (I always forget that one and end up wasting a lot of plants that never get put into the ground. Lord, have mercy!
I still am praying for your hub. I hope that things are going well.
I am growing over fifty varieties of heirloom tomatoes this year in a quest for the PERFECT combo of 'maters for fresh salsa. It's an 'Ark of the Covenant' thing... :-)
The low acidity is why I like them. It also seems like they aren’t affected by the heat as much as the red ones.
added to
space
Since we're all freepers - all for one - one for all - can we assume you share your recipe?
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.