Posted on 11/09/2018 5:17:13 PM PST by greeneyes
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. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed any time-and don't have to be about gardening.
It is 31 degrees and heading to 18 tonight with Snow flurries right now. We have now reduced our heated green house area from 8 x 12 to 3x8 feet, using plastic and some overhead cardboard and insulation.
That immediately raised the temperature inside by 15 degrees after the sun went down. The electric heater is now cycling on and off instead of staying on all the time-mission accomplished.
The wheat and garlic is on it's own outdoors- Except for some leaves that fell. Row covers were misplaced, and I couldn't find them. So we'll see how it goes.
Hope all is going well with everyone. Prayers up for all. God Bless.
Pinging the list. If you would like to be on or off the Garden Thread list, please send me a private FRmail. Thanx.
*BUMP* for morning coffee! :)
I dug up the last of my potatoes to save for planting in the spring. I was just in time because the ground was frozen for about the top two inches. I had to really work to break through it.
May not have much to contribute, but this stuff is usually interesting .. please add me to your ping list, thanks.
We just got our sweet potatoes in too, but at least we didn’t have frozen ground yet.
I’ll do that. Feel free to talk about hobbies, homesteading, recipes, etc. especially in the winter we don’t just talk about gardens.
They usually do real nice, but my tomatoes sucked this year (northcentral PA) .. no bugs or critters, just sucked.
Mighta had something to do with the 340 feet of rain we had this spring/summer though. :-\
Am considering reclaiming that raised bed space and building a mini-shed for the old 318 Deere.
Or maybe an anti-aircraft battery or . . .
Well, this ;year I am trying something new. I put in artichoke plants and they did well but no fruit yet. I am in CT so they won’t make it through the winter without help. A friend nearby put up plastic sheeting over a ‘garage’ frame and her artichokes have lasted for years and produced like crazy. So, I put up hoops and plastic over the raised bed that has the artichokes. Fingers crossed!
Will try to raise some maple sprouts I brought back from a trip to Illinois and see if they’ll grow in WA.
We kept my daughter’s cat for a while and the chipmunks made themselves scarce. After she took the cat back, the chipmunks returned, and started sampling the tomatoes - a bite from each one! And undermining the concrete steps.
So we’ve acquired a pair of feral kittens, who are taming nicely, and after growing up inside this winter, and being spayed, and getting all their shots, can be set loose on the chipmunks next summer.
The vet says to give them bright collars, not bells, to alert the birds. Not that I feel much charity when the catbirds and wrens are in my berry bushes. Still I’d rather that the Cooper’s hawks come back to make them hide away, instead of my cats preying on them.
Has anyone grown honeyberry aka haskap aka edible honeysuckle? How do you like them? I put in four small plants in spring but their roots didn’t seem to want to grow out into the soil.
LOL. That sounds like us. Many things we are thinking about doing or building.
Might work. I have no experience with artichokes. However lettuce and other cool crops have grown successfully under row covers. Other people have reported successfully growing carrots in the winter under tarps etc. that gave them early spring harvest in March.
That’s interesting. We have some feral cats in the neighborhood, but the squirrels are way out in front of them. They tend to hang in our yard because we have a lot of nut trees. I do see the mama cat dragging them back to were ever she is hiding out.
Now I have read that Wrens prefer bugs to berries, and are territorial and will chase off other birds. So I’m surprised if they are eating a lot of berries.
Good luck with that. Please keep us posted on progress.
Brought (sneaked in) some sprouts from Australia. Just acted like they always lived here. I thought they’d shed in summer and bloom in winter but nope.
MM. You probably shouldn’t admit that on open forum. Big Brother does watch. LOL
Lots of familiar tomatoes and other veggies plus nice flowers, by the hundreds.
The brief blast of cold weather has us thinking about starting seeds. But not till early February for our area...
Thanks for the ping GE! A guy came over today and got me signed up for Fotki so I should be able to post photos again. Too tired to try tonight. The frost got our 3 hills of cucumbers but we saved most of the cukes. All the tomatoes are fine in the tent. My 2 older brothers and one sister served in WWII and all came home safe and sound. The other 3 of us were too young to serve...
Glad to hear you are doing fine. Looking forward to Pics.
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