[greeneyes]

Greetings Gardening Fans. It's Good Friday and God has blessed us with sunshine and perfect temperatures today. We are at 68 degrees with lows to night of 44. Our forcast is to have continued nice temps and lows in the fifties until next Friday, when we'll revisit cooler temps and low in the 40s and 30s.

I have some more ripe Cherry tomatoes with others slightly orange plus other little tomatoes ranging from pea size to slightly less than ping pong ball size.

Lettuce and spinach kicking into gear, and basil is almost ready to harvest again. Potatoes in the bucket putting on leaves, and about an inch out of the dirt.

This is a non - political thread, and I don't want to get us off the subject, but I feel I must speak from my heart about this historic day in history of the USA.

Two hundred thirty nine years ago, Paul Revere and William Dawes began their historic ride to warn that 700 Redcoats were heading to Concord to confiscate the cache of weapons, gunpowder, and supplies. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were to be arrested.

On Lexington Green, 70 men under the command of Captain John Parker faced the Redcoats, the "shot heard round the world" was fired, and the American Revolution began.

Even though the Redcoats advanced to Concord with little losses, they must have been suprised to find themselves surrounded by hundreds of our Patriots. As they retraced their sixteen mile journey, Indian style attacks on the Redcoats resulted in casualties of 300 vs 100 for the patriots.

I just had to pause this morning and give thanks for these brave citizens and all those in our history who have stood up to tyranny, and tried to keep us free.

That Freedom is always just one generation away from being lost, we know. So a salute to all who stood up in the past through all the troubled times and wars, and a prayer for the future that we continue to be blessed with such brave citizens....... Now back to gardening.

Hope you are all doing well, enjoying your gardening, and making good progress with your various plants and projects. Have a great weekend. God Bless all of you and yours.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Radishes and lettuce went in this morning.
We covered up the raised beds at 2 pm today.
Tomatoes looked a little wilted.

[greeneyes]

Pinging the List.

[Augie]

Beautiful weather we’re having today here in Central Missouri. The frost earlier in the week wiped out a couple of my basil plants that I’d stuck in the ground. Should have covered them up I guess.

Pulled the deck out from under the lawn tractor yesterday. Sharpened the blades and replaced the belt and idler spring so it’s ready to cut grass now.

Welding shop was able to repair the busted exhaust elbow from the loader tractor for the paltry sum of $80. Saved me a little over $1400 compared to buying a new piece!

Planted a row of snap peas a couple nights ago.

I’m gaining...

[metmom]

I got my lettuce and some peas in. The freeze we had took out some of the peas even though they were covered. But some made it. I also put seeds in.

I plants some bush bean seeds, which I can cover if we get a frost. I can’t wait for fresh veggies from the garden.

I am also putting in some potatoes.

All the tomatoes are doing well in their little peat pots. I won’t take any chances with them until May.

[illiac]

Here is north Idaho....

Got strawberries, asparagus, and tomatoes planted.

Also planted Walla Walla sweets.

Garlic going crazy!

All doing very well and growing quickly.

Still have to watch for night time frost - but cover them, if needed.

[aberaussie]

Can I be added to the ping list? Thank you!

[rightly_dividing]

It’s 76 and beautiful sunshine today, heading down to 52 tonight.

Our garden is doing great, with the maters begging to be staked. I will try to get pictures in a few minutes.

Scooter is up and running again. :)

Wife is home today. Life is good!

[afraidfortherepublic]

White house Blaming Fox for Destroying Michelle's Garden

[bgill]

Texas has had wonderful weather this week. It was supposed to have rained the past couple days but, as usual, nothing here. Temps in the 70s.

About 95% of the garden has been planted. All that's left are the melons and to fill in the empty spots later on. The berries are blooming and most of the transplants are perking up... except the tomatoes that hubby insisted on helping with and wouldn't listen about not wearing big leather work gloves on delicate little plants, sigh. Those will be some of the empty spots that will need filling in with something else. Ha, I know just the thing. Spaghetti squash! He hates spaghetti squash. Oh, I did another very bad thing and planted the hot peppers where the deer begin their munch fests, tee hee!

Speaking of a very bad thing, there were feathers all over the garden this morning. At first, I thought it was white berry petals. There was no other sign so hope the bird is ok. The dogs should have sounded the alarm but they were too exhausted helping with the garden this week so slept hard. One was so tired, she could barely wake up enough yesterday afternoon to go out with me. Poor little sleepy face. They rush to the door when they hear, “It's time to go to the garden.”

[TEXOKIE]

I ratify your opening historical, and in my opinion, non-political comments!

We share your gorgeous weather! I started another few T Squash seedlings. I lost a couple of them because of the recent winds. One of them blew over and broke, the other had its little dirt/peat plug dry out before I got home. I plan to share a couple of the new sprouts with a gardener friend of mine who has past familiarity with them, but has not seen them in a long time. LOL! she’s 78, a former nurse AND chef, and was so excited I had some!

Most of the little green babies are coming along well, I think! I plan to start a few more seedlings. We still need to prep our beds for the Clemson, Orange Jing, and Eagle Pass okra and the sunflowers and the onion and garlic sets. Probably will cut up the white potato sprouter to let it form its callous. Still need to start the carrots and peppers.

The parsley, amaranth, Echinacea, and chamomile sprout starts are doing nicely!

A couple of the sweet potatoes are going to be simple to pot, but the other 3 are out of control, and I’m not sure I can extricate them from the window they are in without stripping them of their leaves, which I believe, would kill them. *Sigh* They started sprouting too early for the set up we have here. They have wound themselves around each other and the wire structures which happen to be there.

The snap peas are starting to look for and grab their hold-fasts, and they REALLY want their little toes to get in the dirt!

I may have started the daikon too early. The are really long and seem quite vulnerable. I may have to start some more of them!

I tried a small pinch of Emmer seed, and they look like your conventional wheat grass at about 4 inches at this point. Beautiful color.

I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!

[Bigg Red]

Thank you for reminding us about Lexington. Yes, God bless them and all the brave fighting men who have defended our freedoms. May He bless and keep those who continue to do so today.

And thanks for the Gardening Thread, as always.

[heartwood]

I planted 2 kinds of kale, two kinds of beets, and peas three weeks ago. In two different gardens. We’ve only had a few frosty nights, we had a week when it was 65 or higher every day before it cooled down again.

In one of the gardens some of the peas are coming up and nothing else. These are new seeds from companies that never disappointed me before. My winter-sown seeds and indoor seeds are coming up just fine.

So when are kale, beets and peas supposed to come up? Instructions were to plant two-four weeks before last frost which is April 15 here.

[Arrowhead1952]

Garden is doing well. I noticed several two inch long squash on the vines today. Tomatoes are blooming with lots of blooms on most vines.

My neighbor has about 50 strawberry plants. They have already picked over three gallons and let me pick about two or three quarts.

[ApplegateRanch]

It's Good Friday and God has blessed us with sunshine and perfect temperatures today.

Amen to the weather & history lesson.

I put the hiller/furrower back on the tiller, and tilled up 5 20' furrows. Next, I added fertilizer, then went back over the furrows to deepen them, and to till in the fertilizer. Final step (following a folk tradition for Good Friday) was planting 50 German Butterball, and 12 Russet Burbank potato sets. I was thoroughly not helped by D.Metrea: head bonkings; stroppings; hand flippings with her head to be scratched; and furrow-floppings. Earlier, she caught & ate an extremely fat vole; maybe it was pregnant; one can hope.

In the garden, volunteer spinach and/or Toy-Choy is coming up, and more garlic is pushing up: 3 out of four German hardnecks, and a few each of both the stuff from the local organic store hardneck, and Christopher Ranch's California softneck. We love the organic; it is much larger than the California, and has both a stronger "garlic" flavor and pungency, which we prefer to the anemic tasting California White.

I do believe Spring finally is here; snow & icicles Wednesday morning, followed by freezing fog; gloomy & windy yesterday. All of our snow & ice is finally melted, and I can get the studded tires off the truck before the May 1st deadline. The picture is today's weather, and capsule forecast.

Not sure if I mentioned that last Friday we bought 18 chicks: 12 white Cornish-cross broilers, and 6 black Jersey Giants. Today, one of the whites had died of unknown causes. It happens. Both birds will ultimately achieve the same final weight, and were both shipped from the hatchery last Wednesday; they were the same size when we brought them home, but...

The American Chincilla bunnies were born March 25th, so are just over 3 weeks old.

[Free Vulcan]

Finally got all the spring stuff planted except for transplanting the leeks. Second year of mid-April planting. I’ve planted stuff as early as the first week of March, and generally about the 25th. Hope this isn’t a trend.

I had some broccoli raab that I overwintered in the hoop tunnel. When I pulled it off a couple of weeks ago it was ready to pick. Then I remembered that the bees had a pretty rough winter so I just let it flower. It is the absolutely only thing flowering right now except for a few dandelions that were also under the tunnel. A virtual cloud of bees of all types working a 3 ft row of blooming raab like it was their last meal.

On a good note I did see some honey bees. We have a wild hive somewhere close and was worried about them this winter. Looks like they made it.

[Ellendra]

It’s finally light enough when I get home from work, that I can get about 5 minutes of work in the garden every night. I’ve been planting tomato seeds in wall-o-waters. But I’m filling them with hot water instead of cold. I’m curious if that’ll have any effect.

I planted peas, chickpeas, and nunas, and the next day we had snow. I’m not too worried about the peas, but I’m pretty sure the nunas won’t make it. And I really didn’t have enough seed to waste. I only had 10 nuna seeds and I planted 4.
(Nunas are a kidney-type bean that you pop like popcorn. They are also hard to find seeds for.)

I’m hoping to get the rest of the backyard garden planted over the weekend. After that, I get to focus on my other garden, which will take longer. I still need to put down at least 5 more rolls of landscape fabric before I can plant, and I’d rather the fabric had a chance to sit for a few weeks first.

[greeneyes]

Black Agnes pinged an article related to the high cost of food. So far, I’ve been able to keep to my same pre 2007 budget for food, even while building up my supplies on hand a bit. Mainly due to my garden produce, and buying extra when really good sales are featured.

Probably won’t work forever, but it all helps. Thread for the article below.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3146675/posts