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!
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!
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