Posted on 03/23/2012 8:53:54 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! Hopefully everyone has received beneficial rain this past week. We've had an additional 2 inches, which was a blessing because just to the south and southwest of us as much as 10 inches fell. While the area needed the rain, it didn't need it all at one time.
Looking forward to reading what you're doing with your gardens and plans this week. Photos will earn you bonus points! :^)
It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but I do have lots of raspberry bushes to get planted. Then, the beeyard. They are already capping honey in the supers and I will have a bountiful late spring harvest. Mark and I have 2 cutouts of bees in buildings that are coming up this week, which will make a total of 7 hives in my beeyard. We did a huge cutout 2 weeks ago and Mark added those to his beeyard.
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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 is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Detailed State Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
International Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Australia
Canada
China
Europe
Japan
After an insane 5 straight days over eighty here in New Sodom (NH); it has cooled off to seventy today. Back to normal Monday; highs in the 40’s, lows in the twenties. Can’t believe I had to protect my peppers from sun scorch in mid-March.
I just put some green onions in. I like to snip off the tops and put them in my salad.
Our runt, Anna, who we nearly lost to a blockage, showed the rest how to climb the deck stairs on Wednesday evening, and let three of them up the stairs last evening. This morning, she led all of them out of the house, down the deck stairs and to the pond.
We do not allow spoiled animals in our house!
The seedlings are doing well and we need to start getting the raised beds in shape as the Forsythia are blooming down near Concord, MA already!
I sit here in a fog bank accepting rain off and on all morning. My bulbs are in full bloom in the front of the house and the forsythia (I have a late blooming variety) is already a gorgeous, blazing yellow. In fact, some of my daffs and tulips are already curled up and brown because of the heat.
It’s been 80 degrees all week — most unusual for the middle of March. Yesterday I saw that they had erected the temporary greenhouses in the parking lot of Shopko. Are they going to fill them with plants? Now? And what are we going to do with those plants?
I don’t remember much, but I remember a snow storm the week after Easter that froze my little bulbs and killed them dead for the year. And another year, (about 1989 or 1990) I remember a wild snow storm on May 5 that broke all the blooming trees, including one of mine.
Ellendra said it best a couple of weeks ago. It is wise to remember that we probably have 2 snowstorms and a deep freeze to go yet this spring.
On the few remaing farms around here, I’m seeing green fields of winter wheat already up an inch. Of course, winter wheat will withstand any change in the weather.
It was the companion to this tree that I lost in 1989, or 1990, in the freak storm of heavy, wet snow on May 5. This picture is from 2 years ago. It won't bloom until the end of April, at least.
Do I get my extra points?
Finally .... the Kumasaka Camellia is blooming!! :-)
Beautiful tree and I LOVE your flag pole!
We had a very mild winter (sounds redundant for Houston but still, milder than usual) and I’ve had azaleas blooming all winter. This is the best they have ever looked...and I put in all of my garden plants/seeds during the past two weeks and everything is doing well. Leaf lettuce is the most fun to grow because those tiny seeds germinate so quickly
Starting over, here at the border of 8b/9a in Florida. I haven’t gardened much in a few years, except for a few fruit trees and a couple of grapevines that I mostly neglected but got fruit from anyway. This spring I have a couple of brand new new raised beds for veggies; I’ve never used raised beds before. I also have a few EarthBoxes.
I transplanted tomatoes, peppers and eggplants into the garden just over a week ago, and I direct-seeded my other hot-weather crops a week ago as well. I have seedlings everywhere. It’s so much fun watching everything come up!
I also seeded a few carrots, lettuce, and radishes, and a little cilantro. Usually I can plant those through March here, but it’s so warm this year that it’s probably already too late for them. I thought it was worth a try, though. If they fail, I’ll just start over in the fall.
Oddly, the marigolds are not germinating well (less than 10% are up after a week), though everything else is coming up on schedule with very good germination rates. It’s fresh seed, and I’ve never had trouble starting marigolds before, so I don’t know what the problem is. If they are not up in a few days I’ll go get a different brand of seed and try again.
We haven’t had any significant rain here in weeks (spring is a dry season for us), but we are expecting some rain today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
The tree was originally one of three, I’m told. There were only 2 here when we bought the place in 1987 and we lost one in a storm. I don’t know how much life is left in the remaining one. It has some splits in the trunk that worry me.
The flag pole has been here at least 40 years and has gone through at least 3-4 flags per year. It is lighted at night, and the flag flies 24/7. We love it.
No rain here this week, but it has taken most of the week to dry out from all we had the week before. Supposed to start raining mid day tomorrow and continue through until Sunday.
We’ve been patiently waiting for a “5 in 5” rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, but the weather has been totally uncooperative. The launch window has between midnight and 3 am every night this week and it really looked like a go last night (this morning) but the weather went to crapola over the New Jersey viewing site and so it was once again scrubbed. It’s supposed to be really cool with 5 rockets going off with in a total of 5 minutes. it’s already a no go for tonight, so because of the forecast it looks like next possible window will be Sunday night/Monday morning.
Gorgeous! That is one plant that I cannot grow in Wisconsin. I used to enjoy them in Texas, California, and Washington, however.
The sugar snap peas, snow peas, collards, spinach and lettuce we planted 1-2 weeks ago are just starting to come up. I’m not sure we should have planted the collards so early, but we’ll cover them up if there’s going to be a frost. It’s unusually warm her in western Pa too. Forsythias, crab, all blooming like crazy. The potato experiment I tried is semi-successful. I planted seed potatoes last November. I dug up a few to see if they were still there. One was just a ball of mush, but two were healthy and sprouting. I covered them over again. Mr S wants that bed for something else. Can I move potatoes?
I put in all raised beds last year since Mr S has heart problems and can’t dig much. He is loving the raised beds. The soil is just as fluffy as can be, and all I did was add a bit more top soil and compost.
Wow! The competitive streak in me just loves those 10 bonus points. TY.
It’s been a soggy week here in Central Missouri. I expect that all of the seed I planted last weekend has been washed out and will have to be replanted. On the bright side, my pond is back up almost to the point of overflow. I’m sure to be in need of that water for the garden later in the season.
Have you ever seen the video of using a black trash bag to grow potatoes? Google it - really looks interesting
Usually, we’re not safe to plant tomatoes, etc. until mid-May. I am thinking I’m going to take a chance and plant a very early garden this year - if it turns cold, it shouldn’t be for long and I’ll just have to be prepared to cover it. My cousin works in Houston, lives in Spring & spends a lot of time in the yard - I’ll have to ask him how his azaleas are doing (ours just have buds right now).
Finally cooling off..raining all day. The redbuds are the most beautiful I can remember.
My brussel sprouts are producing in the garden. Did not get frost kill.
Onion and garlic have grown through the winter.
Got summer clothes out, but will probably need winter next week.
Planned on mowing yesterday and the rain started....Guess it will be ready to bail by the time we get to it.
I tried growing in a trash can. That was a waste of time, because the plant did, indeed, grow up to be nice and healthy, but the potatoes were down around the bottom of the barrel and none grew above that. HOWEVER, I might give the black trash bags a try. I could keep the dirt in in shallow - maybe 12”. I’ll bet it works. I might give it a try. I’ll let you know if I do! :-)
The new glads are tall and happy but the lilies are just the same as when they were planted several weeks ago. The caladiums still haven't come up so wondering about them.
Hubby is in the dog house for chopping down my grapes after I told him not to touch them. He has a bad habit of doing that. He also mowed through the garlic but I kept my mouth shut on that. Doesn't do any good to tell him. Had to run out and dig up some unknown bulbs before the lawn mower got to them. Just threw them in a big clump in a hole inside the safety of the garden fence so maybe one day I'll find out what they are.
He did do good the evening of the storm by killing a big rattlesnake on the back porch. I'd found a little snake in the garden that morning but thankfully it was already dead or I'd still be running. Ugh, snakes!
I dug up the old broccoli plants to make room for spring veggies. I have turnips growing, four tomato plants and lots of onions. I will be putting all the other seedlings in the garden this weekend. The three inches of rain sure helped the yards and pastures.
I am using my black fabric grow bags for the 3rd year now. So far, great luck.
I live in the Adirondacks and it has been in the 70s-80s for the past week! Unheard of in March here! Daffodils, hyacinth and crocuses are up and blooming. Tulips are up but not in bloom yet. Forsythia is already fully in bloom! It’s been wonderful, but there’s no way anyone can plant anything because we could still have a good 6 weeks of winter ahead! It will be a very interesting spring.
Oh, and there should be a squash in there somewhere.
And here we see the girl dog taking time out from her busy schedule of laying in the sun to get in a quick yawn.
And I have to say I laughed when I read that your husband was chopping down grape vines. I planted some blueberry plants a few years ago and after several times of my husband weed whacking them to nothing I got mad and just pulled up the almost dead roots. Now I see that is a common issue with me. ;^)
Oh cool! If I had a large area that had no grass I would try using the big bags of soil and just dropping in watermelon seeds - I’ve seen several videos of using the cut open bags instead of ground to plant. However the vines would cover areas here that would have to be mowed so it isn’t feasible
We have had such an early spring I’ve been missing the Gardening thread to plant. I have never had this much in this early.
I got my peppers started indoors.
Hopefully, we’ll have an early last frost (no snow on Mother’s Day this year) and I’ll be able to get them in early.
The peas and lettuce are doing fine.
I transplanted some bushes to better locations and tried watering them with sugar water to lessen the transplant shock. I’ll find out how that went when I get back from FL in two weeks.
And the lawn really needs mowing badly.
My collards grew all winter long, deep freeze didn’t hurt them at all.
Well, I done did went and did it.
Me. Stingy, penny pinchin’ miserly, cheap, (did I say stingy?) broke down and called the local County Farm Bureau to order a few soil testing kits on Monday. They came on Wednesday and within hours were on the way to the lab.
This was a shocking event on many levels. Topping the list is I really did this! I was also amazed that Cook County, home of Chicago, actually has a Farm Bureau. Even more yet further surprising is there are really honest to gosh farms in Cook County that grow stuff other than pot! I thought the corrupt democrats in charge of everything had outlawed them years ago.
The reason for this outrageous extravagance was that after reviewing my garden’s harvest for the last 2 years, I came to the logical conclusion that it sucked. Not just Hoover sucked, but Tim Allen’s Bimford Industrial strength Tornado Shop Vacuum sucked.
* 8 Squash plants and 1 squash to show for it.
* Beets that were lucky to grow to golf ball size
* Sweet Peppers . . . What Sweet peppers?
* Cucumbers - planted 20 plants, got maybe 8 or 9 cukes out of the deal
I am tired of guessing what could be wrong. I sent in the samples and within 2 weeks I will get the results back. A detailed analysis of what is in (or not in) my dirt. Along with a plan of what to add to get things to grow.
If this does not work I will let everything go and say . . .
“Those aren’t weeds, they are Prairie Wildflowers!”
grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . .
Bees! The Mrs and I were just considering bees this AM. What is the best way to start? How do you keep them around?
LOL!!!
Everyone has some bad years. I wasted money on watermelon seeds one year and got one watermelon to show for it and it was overripe by the time I picked it so was no good anyway.
I’ve wasted lots of time and garden space trying to grow things that just don’t work for me, potatoes, onions, and carrots being the tops. But they are so cheap anyway, that it’s not cost effective to grow them.
I get pretty good results with tomatoes, zucchini, peas, beans, scallions, and decent with peppers. The lettuce almost always bolts. I guess giving it a couple more days isn’t always a good idea.
i forgot the year as well, but i do remember that it was May 9...
I have some friends who raise bees. They also sell nucleus colonies every year about this time. I could check and see if they have any available...
I will make an appointment with the County Agent Monday and get his advice and share his info with all. It took 7 days from mailing to receiving the results.
Thanks! I’ve never grown Collards before. In fact I never had them at all until a friend gave me a bunch from her garden. Didn’t know they grew in Pa. Mr S and I loved them!
Despite the crazy weather, lettuce doing very well. Parsley seeds have been sown and rosemary seedlings have sprouted and the second set of leaves starting to appear. In the house, basil seeds are sprouting. Looking forward to all he goodness of home grown veggies.
I’ve become a collards fan too.
I’m in Connecticut and I put in collards last year. I just kept picking the leaves and always left the small new ones on top. I left 4 plant in over the winter. Picked my last batch of leaves on new years day and took them to a pot luck dinner. Eating collards on new years day is suppose to be good luck
Now we had a really mild winter and 2 of the plants made it through and the leaves are taking off again. I’m just going let them keep going.
Has anyone had collard plants last for 2 years ?
I think collards are supergreens as are kale. I like to curry anything that will stand up to the stove :)
I decided to be brave and planted my warm-weather crops. We’ve had temps in the 80’s lately. I know it’s a risk, but I made sure I had enough seeds to take the chance. So my tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons are all planted now.
Haven’t had a chance to plant out at the land yet, but maybe next week.
* 1 part Peat Moss
* 1 part sand
* 2 parts topsoil
The raised beds are 4' x 4' x 1' high. (16 cubic feet) I built them in 1997.
Last year I added a coffee can of vegetable fertilizer in each box because I guessed that after 14 years the soil probably needed it.
The reward in gardening is not the harvest but the quest. I like your raised beds.
Oh man that sounds good!
Copying and printing!
Thanks!
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