[Red_Devil 232]

Weekly Gardening Thread

Weekly Gardening Thread

[Red_Devil 232]

Ping to the Weekly Gardening Ping List.

I hope all of you will stop by.

This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.

If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.

[momtothree]

Happy Friday, Red Devil! Something very cool happened here and it is sort of related to gardening. We had a Summer of weird pop-up weeds... everywhere. One of those weeds is vine like that has small “grape like” clusters of purple berries. We got rid of most of them BUT one large weed escaped our diligence. Last week, we saw two little birds eating those seeds... birds that I can honestly say I have never seen before in my life. After a bit of research, we found the birds to be Eastern Bluebirds. Very pretty little things with a rust colored chest and the most beautiful blue body. So... I guess I have learned a good gardening secret: even with weeds, beauty can arise.

[rightly_dividing]

It’s 31 deg here with no frost. It’s still too dark to get out to the garden and look at the collards. They are going to be thinned out tomorrow. They went in late, but it was gamble on them or miss out.

[rarestia]

Hi everybody. I’m an amateur gardener from central Florida and wondered if anyone had any suggestions for seasonal crops? I don’t have a ton of property, but I’d love to grow some foodstuffs for the family.

I’ve successfully grown and harvested tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and green bell peppers. I’d love to grow onions, shallots, asparagus, and a multitude of herbs, but I’m not sure if they would be appropriate for our clime.

Any links for research or friendly advice would be very much welcome.

[Redleg Duke]

Greetings from southern New Hampshire! We got about 15 inches of heavy, wet snow on Saturday evening. I was able to get the chimney back up on the shop on its stand-offs before the snow and the woodstove and heat exchanger are installed and working now.

We spent Sunday clearing snow and downed limbs. The fencing around the duck pond where the ducks and chickens usually spend the day was taken down by the weight of the snow. Jack and Barb corrected that and Barb shoveled a path from the coop and duck dorm to the duck hutch. The ducks were perplexed with their new ability to walk on water.

We lost power at 6 PM on Saturday and got it back at 8 PM on Sunday. However, the generator and transfer switch worked great and we had heat, water and lights as well as a full A/V center. Lost cable from about 9:30 PM Saturday until Wednesday morning.

We now have three New Hampshire Reds laying daily. Should get number four on line this coming week. Our five Marans pulleets are really eating and getting large, but may end up spending most of the winter in our dining room. At least, once they start laying, it will be convenient to the kitchen! They are characters.

[bgill]

Whew, it went from the mid 80s down to the mid 20s here. What happened?

[Arrowhead1952]

Still very dry in Texas. I have to water my garden twice a week. I’ll be turning the compost again this weekend.

[greeneyes]

We have had great weather here in Missouri, until yesterday. Weather in the 60’s and briefly 80 degrees;lows in the 40’s and fifties. Yesterday it was 40’s and 30’s with very cold rain. Now we are warming up and will be back to 60’s and 50’s for several days. So far I am loving the fall weather and extended gardening season.LOL.

We received a load of dirt, very rich loam from a guy my husband helped by finishing some concrete. Same guy that brought us a load of manure last spring. He had an old guy with him, and we talked about growing and harvesting strawberries, corn, and raising bees.

Even though we had a light frost, I am still getting some tomatoes from the makeshift green house built with row covers. I have brought in some of the branches for the indoor garden. Dug up a pepper and put in a pot to bring into the house. For now it is doing fine on the patio next to the house.

Still eating plenty of spinach salad, the lettuce is coming a long, but not ready to harvest yet. Garlic is looking good. Have a great weekend and God Bless.

[greeneyes]

I forgot to tell everyone about freezing corn in the husks. Hubby harvested a huge amount of corn and piled it in the basement kitchen.

After working till midnight shucking and packaging bags of corn, a huge pile was left, and I was out of steam. So I googled freezing corn in the husks.

Yep you can do it - just eat the corn within about 3 months (no problem for us). To use it, I just put two ears in the microwave on 4 and 1/2 minutes, cut off the stem end, grabbed the silk end and shook it like a rally towel. Perfect ear of corn with no silks no fuss and no mess.LOL.

[tubebender]

Two of seven of our 2011 Cinderella Pumpkin harvest which Lady Bender is steaming to freeze for pumpkin pies, breads, soup etc. The temp here was 70 degrees on Wednesday with a low of 47...

[satan69]

South Florida Garden UPDATE Pictures!

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8430/1000260o.jpg

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7492/1000259.jpg

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1169/1000258x.jpg

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6870/1000257w.jpg

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/7403/1000256a.jpg

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/5898/1000255r.jpg

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8954/1000254ik.jpg

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/9909/1000253v.jpg

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/9932/1000251ls.jpg

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9604/1000250u.jpg

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/4084/1000249a.jpg

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5310/1000248n.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8201/1000247n.jpg

[afraidfortherepublic]

It’s SNOWING here. Too early, too early.