Posted on 04/06/2012 9:30:28 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! The weather has cooled-down a bit, the sun is shining and my grandgirls have been here all week. I am one happy blonde today.
It rained again 2 and 3 days ago, so I haven't even disked up the garden spot yet, but that will get done Monday.
All of the fruit trees and bushes that I've planted are doing very well and the regular rains have been perfect to keep them moist and off to a great start! Some of the raspberries that I planted were established plants, and some were bare-root canes. Many of the canes have come alive with new growth, and the others are showing buds this morning.
A visit to the apiary this morning showed a good buildup of comb and honey stores. They say that the Spring following a drought will yield little honey flow, and half of my hives are going along with that. The other half is building comb and producing honey like crazy, so I don't know what to think.
For those of you traveling for the weekend, I wish you a safe trip! And I wish each and every one of you a blessed Easter. Enjoy!
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!
Previous weeks' threads:
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
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012
Detailed State Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
International Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Australia
Canada
China
Europe
Japan
IT’S RAINING!
HALLELUJAH!
Bought four bunches of green/spring onions at the supermarket. Stuck ‘em in the ground. They’re doing fine. North Shore of Ohio.
Good Friday good morning to you! Everything here is a month early (that is according to the “official” weather peoooooooople.) I suppose I should start thinking about the garden. It seems odd to have to pull weeds before the taxes are due...but just to be sure that we are still in WI, a freeze is forecast for tonight.
PS — there is another thread started. But, yours is prettier.
Home garden coming along nicely - 12 of 14 raised beds planted - everything but 1 type of watermelon up and happy.
This is a bit of a tangent, but it is garden related and it is Good Friday.
I am raising $500 to help a small Christian orphanage in Pakistan start a chicken farm and vegetable garden - so they can feed and support themselves.
The Facebook page is: ‘Love and Hope Christian Orphanage’.
50 X $10 buys 50 chickens and everything they need to make this dream a reality.
You can ‘buy’ a chicken via PayPal: loveandhopeproject@gmail.com.
18 chickens raised so far - only 32 to go.
Thank you!
The same wish to you all my FReeper Gardening freiends.
My daughter and I travelled to southwest Florida yesterday to spend Easter with my Dad and Aunt.. It is absolutely beautiful here, but like so many other places they are dry, dry, dry!
Happy Easter all.
Dear (Not)JustaDumbBlonde :)
Kindly add me to the gardening ping list.
I am starting my first ever garden this year, 100 sq ‘.
It’s going great so far but I’m kind of scared!
Well, silly me! I didn’t think to check for a thread before I started one! Oops.
We have been drying some of the gorgeous spring flower blooms in the garden for later use in craft projects - cards, bookmarks, etc. What we are using to dry the flowers is the 'Microfleur' Flower Press Kit for Microwave Ovens. It works very well - you can dry flowers in minutes rather than weeks. We have been quite pleased ..... here's a link:
One of the gardeners got itchy for the thread and started it. I presumed they had been in touch with you and were given the ok. So I provided a ping to the thread.
Boerner Botannical Gardens, Milwaukee
Beautiful!
A very blessed Easter to you and to the rest of the gardeners!
PTL!
I’ve only grown onions once and bought those little tiny sets. What do you end up with when you plant green onions? Large onions?
“What do you end up with when you plant green onions? Large onions?”
Nah! The bulbs will get a little bigger. But the hollow leaves grow quickly, so I always just trim some off, and use them to garnish soups, salads, sauces, fish,,,,, whatever! Just pick out bunches at the store that have some roots. Poke a hole in the dirt, and stuff ‘em in. Squeeze the soil around it, water ‘em, and you’re good to go! Learned the “trick” from a Chinese ladyfriend!
Thank you! I like having fresh onion greens ... got some that are freeze-dried, but nothing is as good as fresh.
Thank you for checking in, Gabz! Enjoy the weather and your trip.
Happy Easter to you as well.
Can’t get into the garden for the rain..Every day this past week.
Onions in the raised beds are doing well.
Happy Easter to all.
And my plants are loving the weather this year.
Strawberries are loaded. Blackberries are in full bloom with pretty good crop already set.
Grape vines is doing very well.
I discovered the wonder of solitary bees this week. Was worrying about the honey bee population. (seems small this year) But I noticed for the first time Blue Orchard Mason Bees and an unidentified small bee. Boy are they doing the job.
Even made a nesting block to see if I can encourage them to stay around.
Fruit trees are doing great. The older ones are loaded. (Pears, Plums, Persimmons) The young ones are blooming, but don’t expect much yet from them.
Only have 1 blueberry bush that clearly survived the 100 year drought last year. At least one more shows signs of life.
You’re very welcome! Now is the time to get into the edges of the woods, and find bunches of wild chives. I’ve transplanted several bunches around the house, and use them all the time. The chives will come back every year, and if you leave the onion bulbs in the ground, they’ll most likely come back on their own too. Things is, some of them are hybrids, and may exhibit some different characteristics in following years.
Time to head out to the woods for Morel mushrooms too.
My husband used to sneak into the garden and pinch suckers, because his momma was one of those oldtimers that told him suckers MUST be removed. It took me 2 or 3 years of threatening him with his life to get him to stop. The little wilted ones laying on the ground always give him away :)
Careful about that rain!
We just got a trace, and it so startled my wife that she fainted.
Had to throw three buckets of dust in her face to revive her!
Yeah...it’s been mighty dry around here!
That’s a good point...my prized Purple Haze tomato plant was ‘pruned’ by a spring thunderstorm last year. Two nice branches snapped off...stuck them in a vase with treated water for a few weeks, then re-planted them in a new container. I wound up with THREE Purple Haze plants for the price of one! Sweet.
I’ve got a large bed (2-20’ X 1’ wide, raised rows) of perpetual onions. They never bulb; never flower, but just keep dividing into larger & larger clumps. VERY hardy; they have withstood -30F winter temps without any mulching.
We started the bed less than 10 years ago, when I moved a large tub full of thinnings from a couple of 18” X 18” beds in the back lawn of the house in town that we sold when we moved to the ranch full time. They were there when we bought that house; and still there when we sold it 10 years later.
The “bulbs” get to about thumb tip size, max. Genuine onion flavor/smell, rather than scallion-like; typical crackly onion skins, rather than the thin scallion skins.
We have both yellow & red varieties, but they are mixed in the beds. We use them both fresh & dried, as they do dehydrate well. They work in any situation calling for onions that their size allows for, as well as working for a lot of scallion uses, though they do have the stronger flavor.
As the clumps get larger, we lift them, and divide them into a few to replant; the rest get cleaned for the kitchen.
Keep them watered, and give them a bit of fertilizer when lifting/replanting, and they are happy.
These are the “Amish Friendship Bread” of onions!
If anyone wants to try them....
I transplanted some wild onions a couple years ago, but found I didn’t like them. Quite bitter. Have not had success replanting this;
http://www.wildcrafting.net/forage/plant/170/
A Happy Easter to all of you!
Good thing we held off early planting in that false Spring we had lately... the temps are back into the twenties at night. Will hold off to plant at the traditional time of mid May... (N. MN).
Interesting chat with my dad about 'creasy' greens aka 'creasies, upland cress, winter cress .... he remembers them from his childhood. Maybe I can find some seeds and plant some for him - evidently it is as easy to grow as spinach, but more cold tolerant.
At the first hint of spring in the Appalachian Mountains, folks start looking for “creasy greens”. They are the earliest of any of the wild greens, often poking through the snow, and although traditionally hunted by foragers they are now grown commercially. Creasy greens are usually cooked long, like kale, mustard or turnip greens but they are equally good raw in a fresh salad (from davesgarden.com)
I believe wild onions are an acquired taste: you only acquire a taste for them if you’re starving.
Hard core wildcrafters and Native Americans can have my share.
Hello gardeners. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with a project going on. Last year, during my Master Gardener class, I suggested to my church a Mission Garden. We couldn’t get it together for last year, but they came back to me in January saying they really wanted to get it going for this year. I think I would have preferred more time, but it is what it is.
So last weekend, we got our “small” plot for the garden turned, tilled and plowed into twenty 30-foot rows for general veggies and six 80-foot rows for corn. So, “small” became somewhat larger. My home garden is not even 100 square feet, probably the equivalent of 2.5 rows of the Mission Garden.
I just finished a garden plan and our first round of planting is tomorrow morning. Lots to worry about. We still need to figure out an irrigation system, a trellis system, and a volunteer system to make sure the garden is tended often enough. I’m just hoping its not a complete disaster. But even if moderately successful, with the size of the garden, we should be delivering hundreds of pounds of vegetables to a couple of local soup kitchens.
Your mission garden sounds fantastic. Hope you can get some of the youth involved - youngsters usually get involved and enthusiastic after seeing seeds/plants they put in the ground growing and producing.
Wow you are talking about a big garden!
What is nesting block?
Neat! Thanks for those links.
Here is a book from 1914 entitled:
The Mason-bees
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2884/2884-h/2884-h.htm#2HCH0010
No pics, but shows pretty extensive knowledge of them long ago.
“BRAMBLE-BEES AND OTHERS”
from 1915
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3421/3421-h/3421-h.htm
There is a section on Mason Bees in this one too.
Bushes like Blackberries & Rasberries are “Brambles”. (you may have already known that)
I planted some peppers and cilantro this week. Everything is growing great. My cucmbers have runners already. No blooms yet, but should be by the end of the week.
I'm in Southern Iowa. Half my raised beds are now showing small lettuce, beet, pea, and spinach plants. The other half await tomatoes, peppers, zukes and beans when things get warmer.
Question, question......can Comet Red Daisies be transplanted via the stem (like a geranium)?
All of my squash fruits were shrivelling off and rotting. Of the possible causes I found, lack of pollination seemed like the easy one to start with. Early results look promising...
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.