21 replies to this topic

[88tc]

Anyone plant anything yet. It's early, I hope it doesn't freeze again. I planted habanero, jalapeno, watermellon, and strawberries. I also have some yellow crookneck squash seeds that I might plant.

[Rando]

Onions and potatoes have been in the ground for about a month now. Probably plant the rest this week. I'm thinking 4-6 tomato plants and 4-6 pepper plants with the rest of the room for squash.

I planted a couple kinds of beans, cabbage, onions, beets, and carrots for my grandparents last weekend.

How do you go about planting strawberries?

[88tc]

Rando, on 25 March 2012 - 08:47 AM, said:

How do you go about planting strawberries?

I got the small strawberry plants from the local nursery. Planted then in rows, each plant about 7" apart, but probably should have put the further apart. They might be a little crowded when they get bigger.

[EtdBob]

Uh, I still got several feet of snow in the garden....And it's snowing again today...

[oblivionboyj]

My wife has seedlings in the greehouse, but I am not sure what she has started yet.
We have decided to go with raised beds this year.
I am on vacation next week and that is when the new beds go in

[eurycea12]

I filled 3 raised beds today - only got up to 37 degrees. After this cold snap passes the shell and snow peas go in.
The cabbage (2 kinds) broccoli, brussels, spinach and lettuce will hopefully be in next weekend.
Rhubarb and asparagus are peeking through.
Tomatoes, peppers beans and others will not go in till mid-May at the earliest.
5 out of 6 years we have been here we get a frost Memorial Day.
This year I plan on using row covers.

[Mike]

We got our little garden back going again this year, after neglecting to do so the past 3 years. It is only a small suburban garden, about 8'x14' or so. What has been a problem is the fact that this little area behind the shed used to be a gravel-surfaced dog kennel. So it has been a proper bitch removing all the gravel. Every time it rains, I go in there and pick it out by hand.  
This pic was taken before we planted, right after I tilled in a truckload of manure and made some mulch paths. Anyway, the section on the right has 3 broccoli plants and 3 cauliflower plants. The middle section has 3 Mortgage Lifter tomato plants and 3 Brandywine tomato plants. The section on the left has 36 candy onions and one each of the broccoli and cauliflower plants.

[Bezukhov]

I won't be participating in the local community garden this year.  But I will have the opportunity to at least plant some cucumbers and tomatoes in the back yard. My landlord usually does that but the poor guy had a stroke a couple of months back so he is not interested. I also want to get some herbs going, oregano and sage in particular.

Edited by Bezukhov, 29 March 2012 - 02:51 PM.

[Rando]

Quote

I got the small strawberry plants from the local nursery. Planted then in rows, each plant about 7" apart, but probably should have put the further apart. They might be a little crowded when they get bigger.

Ah. Saw some strawberries at Lowes, I guess they've always been there and I get tunnel vision. Might make room for them in a future garden though.

Replanted about half my onions. Don't know what the hell happened to the others.

Anyways, planted six tomato plants: Mr. Stripey, Golden Jubilee, Black Cherry, Big Boy, Celebrity, and Bonnie Original.
Eight pepper plants: Three different bells, gypsy, cherry, jalapeno, pablano, and anaheim. I was disappointed by the lack of banana pepper. Also have twelve mounds of crook-neck squash.

Good luck everyone.

[88tc]

Rando, on 30 March 2012 - 04:18 PM, said:

Also have twelve mounds of crook-neck squash.

I love crook-neck squash. It's one of my favorite things to grow in a garden. 12 mounds of squash? If they are in fun sun, with plenty of water, you are going to have a lot of squash.

[Rando]

Yeah, not really my idea. I was okay with six mounds, but the seeds were like $0.50 so my Dad had me plant the rest. Ours always revert to gourd-abominations in the summer anyways, so maybe we can put up (and give away) enough to last the year before they become inedible.

EDIT: Turning the furthest 2-4 into pumpkins. Having trouble finding the seed in town though.

Edited by Rando, 04 April 2012 - 04:45 AM.

[88tc]

EtdBob, on 26 March 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

Uh, I still got several feet of snow in the garden....And it's snowing again today...

Living in Texas, I miss the snow we had growing up in California. I like wearing shorts in january (in texas), but i miss the snow.

[Rando]

Anyone have their 2013 gardens in the ground?

Right now I've got a row of taters, a row of onions, six varieties of pepper, five tomatoes, crook and straight neck squash, zucchini, and pumpkin. It's all up, save the gourds. Had a close call with some freezes, but it should all be fine.

[JoshF]

Hoping to plant this week. I was late getting my soul test back. I am off to get a ton of dolomitic lime today as well as a ton of mushroom compost.  My soil is terribly poor i am surprised it grew as mush food as it did last year.
I planted grapes and fruit trees early. Grapes killed by frost but trees look good.

[EtdBob]

I'm busy putting in a new corn patch where my old horse corral used to be. It's a south facing hillside just below our cottage and of course the horses ate everything to the ground there and killed most of the cedar trees as well ( they like the sweet bark ).  Naturally, they also contributed quite a bit of manure which hopefully enriched the otherwise poor forest soils we have.   So, for two days straight I've been running my chainsaw, felling trees and piling up logs to get more sunlight on the area. Maybe next weekend or this week after work I'll run our little crawler tractor back and forth and around all the stumps, then plant the "three sisters" the way the Indians used to, corn first, then beans and squash run in among them. Not sure how I'll keep all the wild animals out of the patch, but we'll see. Now that we have a solar powered well  pump I can even water this patch, and its far enough downhill that it should have sufficient pressure to run a sprinkler if I can get enough garden hose to reach that far!

Edited by EtdBob, 06 May 2013 - 11:28 AM.

[crackshot]

Gardens are a hassle and a pain in the ass. By the time you calculate tilling up soil, weeding , watering, protecting from freeze, treaing for insects and fertilizing, it is cheaper to go to the supermarket.

[Rando]

I don't treat for insects or fertilize, so basically all that's in mine is time and the cost of water. Even then, I've taken measures to cut down on that as well. I don't mind. Just about everyone from my grandparents back are farmers, my mother is a landscaper, and my father used to grow huuuge gardens when I was kid. Bringing forth plants out of the Earth is a family tradition.

[Thrawn]

Tasty home garden produce > mass produced blandness. Even if one isn't worried about things being genetically modified, doused in questionable chemicals, and irradiated, that alone makes up for any cost and effort.

[Thrawn]

Tomatoes for instance, every single one I've had that hasn't been grown in someone's backyard has been disgusting and nothing like a tomato at all.

[Rando]

I agree. Supermarket tomatoes look better. They're bigger, more consistent, shiny, red. Beautiful. Almost completely tasteless though. They do some stuff better though. Hot peppers, for one. I still grow them, but by god, they will light a fire under your ass. Even mild varieties. So, if I want to do hot stuffed peppers or shishkebabs or something, the bigger more consistent supermarket peppers are better.

Edited by Rando, 07 May 2013 - 02:27 PM.