Posted on 01/13/2012 8:25:57 AM PST by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning everybody! It is cold and clear here in NE Louisiana, zone 8a, we should reach 50° today under sunny skies. We've received several inches of rain in the past 3 weeks, so there will be no garden prep for a while yet, but the sunny sky has a way of getting me in the mood.
In last week's thread we discussed our seed and supply catalogs. This week I intended to discuss saving seeds from our own harvests, and starting seeds indoors. In preparing, I actually found a couple of articles that are very informative and give good information in very plain, easy to understand language.
Both of these articles are from GRIT magazine online. It is my hope that you will benefit from this information. The pages seem to load very slowly, but you may find it time well invested.
Vegetable Seed Saving: What You Need to Know
If you have any links with good information along these lines, please feel free to share them with the group!
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 makes it fun and interesting. Jump in and join us!
Good morning JADB! Yep cold here and sunny, may get to 50°.
We’re back in the freezer here in Central Missouri. 12° when I left the house this morning. Nothing doing in the garden until it warms up a bit.
Thank you!!
We are in SE Pa. and it is coooold and very windy out. A grey January day.
Seeing this post and entertaining thoughts of planting gives me a smile on a day like this. :-)
Hi everyone! I am telling you our weather is just crazy. Yesterday, it was close to 60 degrees. Today is cold and windy. Up and down, down and up. Hubby is saying if we get any more warm days, he’ll have to cut the lawn. LOL!
Don’t forget about saving Tomato seeds using Oxi-Clean.
Here is a link with instructions and photos.
http://www.settfest.com/2009/01/saving-seeds/
The weather is absolutely unreal and we are getting most of our spring cleanup done a little early. It still continues to be a bit cooler than normal and we have gone from 25% more than normal rainfall at the end of October to a deficit of 45% today and We now have 26 seed/plant catalogs but that’s my wife’s fault...
Does anybody recommend an heirloom seed company? I ordered from heirloomseeds.com last year and I was disappointed in some of the seed. Last year was my first experience with heirlooms, so if bad seed is common let me know. My beans, corn, toms, and peas did well. My melons, squash, cabbage, and broccoli did not. I'm a bit worried about my garlic. After planting it my husband has suggested that we start a major remodel of our house. If we start in a few months the garlic will be destroyed. Is it possible to transplant them this spring?
Morning.
Sun is shining and thermometer reads 44 (it was over 60 yesterday) but with a 35mph wind and higher gusts, it sure as heck does feel like mid 40s.
Good chart! It shows my zone of 7b to be at 0-5 degrees... it’s exactly 3 degrees outside our door!
We’ve got the same problem here and we’ve also had a good bit of rain. cutting grass in January is just sooooooooooo wrong.
Our wind was 20-30 mph yesterday. Deer hunting ends last day of the month, so I was up a tree yesterday afternoon. Got settled, only to discover that I’d dropped my gloves someplace along the way. You can’t keep your hands in your pockets and use binoculars or hold the gun. My hands were frozen when I finally walked back to the truck. Found my gloves on the front porch. [sigh]
You are so welcome ... I’m glad you’re smiling!
After two decades of not having a garden, my SIL kindly loaned me a section of her raised garden beds last year. I planted tomatoes, peppers, scallions, eggplants, Swiss chard, spinach and mesclun, plus some herbs & marigolds. Although the garden got out-of-hand (planted too close, weeded too little), there was still a plentiful harvest. .... lots of tomato sandwiches, fresh salads & even enough basil to make some pesto. This year, I want to do a “square foot” garden ten yards or so out the kitchen door ..... easier to keep an eye on and water when necessary. The tomatoes are grown vertically - considering they collapsed my cages last year, I am looking forward to trying this method. Last fall, when I made the last trip to the garden to harvest anything that was left as the first cold spell was on the way in, I was surprised at the very real sense of sadness that hit me when I realized there would be no more fresh goodies. I can’t wait until Spring!!
There were lots of seed recommendations in last week's thread (link above). Shumway's has a bunch of heirlooms.
Very interesting... Thanks. ;-)
Some personal notes...when doing business with these companies; you will find that you are communicating DIRECTLY with the owners of these small businesses...since it is their personal reputation on the line; you will find that they go above and beyond to provide great customer service...I have found that to be the case with EVERY one of the companies listed above that I have dealt with. (I have NOT dealt with all, just most.) Several offer items other than tomatoes.
Double Helix is well worth visiting...beautiful photos, and the owner is a biologist; who is designing heirloom tomatoes that will be EXCLUSIVE to his company. He can put you on a list so you can be among the first to receive the offerings of his 'new' tomatoes. Check it out.
Select Plants does NOT offer seeds; plants only. A text-intensive website; but loaded with information, and an AMAZING selection of live plants...shipping is a bit rough, but he has gone to a great deal of trouble to get nice healthy plants right to your door.
Heritage Harvest Seed is another beautiful site, but they are in Canada, so you might want to inquire about seed being shipped to the states. They provide that service, but it seems to take a while. However; they have a wide selection of rare and unusual tomatoes. Fun to check out, even if not ordering.
Marianna's has another stunning selection, but still lists her '2011 Offerings', so I am not sure what is going on there...she might be working on updating for this year.
Tons of offerings to troll through, but you weren't doing anything this holiday (for some) weekend, anyway...right? Enjoy.
Sorry, guys!
I have never attempted to transplant Garlic. MY garlic is ready to harvest starting in late May through July depending on the variety. Can you tell me the variety you planted and area where you live?
“I was surprised at the very real sense of sadness that hit me when I realized there would be no more fresh goodies. I can’t wait until Spring!!”
I totally understand. My lettuce ( under plastic over wire hoops lasted until the beginning of January...but is now gone.)
My spinach and kale (and ONE lettuce plant) are still doing very well in the cold frame. It was around 20 degrees this morning and will stay cold for the next couple of days.
In the meantime, my sister and I are combining our seed/plant orders to satisfy the requirements for FREE shipping. I’m getting seedless grapes (the ground was already prepared with good compost, horse manure and peat moss; put down some landscape fabric and covered with a heavy bale of straw...it’s percolating all winter)... and raspberry canes.
Has anyone here got tips on raspberry culture that could be beneficial?
I’m also ordering some more blueberry bushes. I am actually using these to landscape. ;-)
We went from nearly 60 to about 10 degrees in 24 hours. I’m fine with that, I want at least a couple of weeks of subfreezing to kill bugs and heave the ground.
In low gear now. Living off of the harvest and just ordered seeds. Doing cleanup from last year and will be starting stuff in about a month.
Great post! Jam packed with info! Thank you.
It was -20° yesterday in Yellowstone, so it could be worse! We are headed to that area in a couple of weeks. Brrrrrrrr.
South FL UPDATE:
Busy cleaning up the mess from the freeze, I got my seed from Burpee and I will be planting them next week.. My sister is down from MD and is enjoying the weather.. Hoping I can get her to help me weed the garden. Her and her husband are enjoying the freezer full of viggies and everything I canned. I love my American Made canner..
Oh Yea, The corn all came up.. Sweet Corn, It kept it’s head down till the cold weather left. It’s 62 day sweet corn so we are hoping to have some fresh corn before they leave... Round us is working slowly on all the weeds from the squash garden... As soon as my back stops spazzing I will go out there and clear the mound and plant my Rattlesnake watermellon.. Going to 75 degrees today..
My Motherboard blew up in a powersurge so it will be another week before I can post anymore pics.. The temp computer I am using dosn’t have a flash drive...
Later all, Have a great weekend!
I am partial to Fedco, Baker Creek, Gourmet, and Landreth, though I've ordered from all of them at one time or another.
Horizon Herbs is amazing. They do mostly herbs and exotics so I go there for those. They have stuff I've never, ever seen anywhere and have a huge selection.
I’ve spent some time culling through websites looking for sites with some of the most popular heirloom tomatoes available...hope everyone enjoys them!
We have several members that do square-foot gardening. I look forward to your contributions to the threads.
If you can, you NEED one of these...
My neighbor told me about this website yesterday.
http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=education.htm
We are so unaccustomed to temps as cold as 12°, that we’d be scrambling around like chickens with no heads trying to prepare! Stay warm!
Amen.
Thanks for the update.
I’ve received my All American 941, which is the 41.5 qt. model. Think I am going to have to use it on the back porch with the turkey fryer propane stand. I’m thinking that my cooktop built into the countertop is not going to do well with the weight of this thing loaded up. That will keep the heat out of the kitchen as well.
Several members of our gardening gaggle have used Seedsavers with very good results. Thank you for the link. I’m still trying to compile a list of all of the links from last week’s thread. It was a great thread, with over 300 replies, so it is taking me longer than I anticipated.
I trimmed back the branches which had thorns, since the non-thorn branches are the ones that bloom and have fruit. Everything else I have tried is to no avail, so I just hope it survives till spring so I can get it outside again. It just never does very well indoors.
Everyone have a great weekend. God Bless.
They’re good. I just got my order from them about an hour ago and wanted to order about everything they have.
They have a little peach tomato called Wapsipinicon Peach. Woo boy, talk about sweet!
Thanks for the most excellent thread - I discovered it last week! (Ordered multiple catalogs and saved many gardening URL’s.)
GRIT links not working for me - fyi.
Sunny, windy and chilly (mid 40’s) here in Charleston, SC.
Currently building a dozen 4’ x 8’ raised beds - gardening here is more about weed and bug control than I care to admit.
Fruit trees and chickens will have to wait until the Fall.
Thanks again for the most excellent FR thread!
HELLO everyone from cooool central Texas. It is just wonderful. Of course I love cool to cold weather, you can keep layering to keep warm, but when it’s HOT, you can take off just so far to be acceptable.
Thank you Red Devil for the tomatoe seeds cleansing.
I LOVE this weather. I can work in the yard and work on my stained glass project in the garage. Life is good.
Wow, a dozen raised beds is quite a project! Please keep us up-to-date on your progress. You will be able to grow enough for a small town with that much room.
Would you like to be added to the ping list?
Tattle tail! Do you get so see some of them?
Looks like we’re in 8b. It’s nice to know where we are, but turn me around 3 times and caa poo eee, I’m lost.
Yep, he looks like a fellow who’d name his farm Wild Boar.
Didn’t look like a Muslim to me, either...
The dollar is there for scale. I have not found a way to grow them, yet.
I've resolved not to make the same mistake for spring. So, Nov 15, three full months before I'll start the garden, I started my seeds. From the looks of it, it was a good decision for the eggplants.
Okra, on the other hand, maybe doesn't need quite so much lead time.
The okra picture is pretty poor. Hard to get the level of detail I wanted while at the same time showing the whole window height for scale. I'd try harder, but the picture I really wanted the other night when there was a pretty yellow flower on one of them I plain forgot to take, so now I don't feel like messing with it.
Can you tell me the variety of the 62 day sweet corn where you got it...
Beautiful broccoli and cauliflower! Bravo.
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