# 2019 Garden Thread



## AlbergSteve (Jan 4, 2019)

Three inches of rain yesterday and some of our garlic beds are underwater, hope they survive! 

It would be nice if we could get some of this rain in August!


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jan 4, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Three inches of rain yesterday and some of our garlic beds are underwater, hope they survive!
> 
> It would be nice if we could get some of this rain in August!
> 
> View attachment 237418


That looks terrible.  

We live on a slope, with precious few level spots.  I used to think it was a bad thing, but after this year, I really appreciate the drainage.


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## AlbergSteve (Jan 4, 2019)

ED 3000 said:


> That looks terrible.
> 
> We live on a slope, with precious few level spots.  I used to think it was a bad thing, but after this year, I really appreciate the drainage.


I bet, you folks had a lot of rain last year!


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## begreen (Jan 5, 2019)

Wow! Sorry to report there is a chain of storms coming. Unusual for an el Nino year.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jan 5, 2019)

begreen said:


> Wow! Sorry to report there is a chain of storms coming. Unusual for an el Nino year.


Wonder if the old el patterns are going to hold in light of the changes?  My guess would be, expect new patterns to form, or if CO levels keep rising, expect lots of volatility until they stabilize and allow new patterns to form.

Another rainy Saturday in a long string of rainy Saturdays here.  Could be worse, could be 2' of snow.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jan 8, 2019)

We, too, have had a series of wet Saturdays this fall which has put us behind on outdoor work, but we had a spring-like Saturday this past weekend.  We took the opportunity to remove some cedar (considered a native invasive around here) and prune some live oak before the wilt-carrying beetles become too active.    We’ve got a lot more to do, but we’re already thinking of where we might plant an olive tree for my youngest’s third birthday this spring.  I love that his older sibling thought up that idea as the perfect present.


There was apparently some cold while we traveled recently (I kept track of the weather to see if the neighbors needed to deploy the large cardboard boxes we had left to protect the young citrus, but it never froze).  Since we’ve been home, it’s been warming.  My kids have been in shorts, and the plants are waking up fast.  Both the peach and the cherry had a bloom open today.  The blueberries look like they’re getting ready.  We have some apple trees in our way-too-thickly-planted backyard that need to be pruned (I think the previous owner planted them and then did nothing else), and we need to cut more vitex and hackberry so that they can get light and air.  I hope the cool (not cold) air blowing in tonight will remind the plants that it’s not really spring yet, even in south Texas.


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## AlbergSteve (Jan 10, 2019)

This keeps up we're going to have bud break any time now...


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## begreen (Jan 11, 2019)

Here's where we're at. Every year for the past 4 yrs. these have been opening up a week or two earlier then the prior year. At this rate we'll be celebrating Christmas with daffodils in less than a decade.


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## AlbergSteve (Jan 11, 2019)

begreen said:


> View attachment 237988
> 
> Here's where we're at. Every year for the past 4 yrs. these have been opening up a week or two earlier then the prior year. At this rate we'll be celebrating Christmas with daffodils in less than a decade.


Wow, that's crazy. We had another 10 degree C day today.


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## AlbergSteve (Jan 15, 2019)

Installed 1000' of deer fencing this week...hope this keeps them out of the garden!


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## begreen (Jan 16, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Installed 1000' of deer fencing this week...hope this keeps them out of the garden!
> View attachment 238341


It should help. Half of our yard is deer fenced. It's the only way we can grow plants and fruit trees around the house.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jan 30, 2019)

Well, I did it.  I started pepper and tomato seeds in January.

Last year I had read a seed-starting date of January 24th for this strange land of Texas in which I now find myself.  I didn’t really believe it.  I decided I’d aim for mid-February, and then I never got to it because of one of my children needing to be hospitalized at that time (asthma flare due to a mystery virus—all fine now). By the time things settled down, and I got seeds started, the plants weren’t mature enough to set a lot of fruit before the brutal heat came in (reportedly it was earlier and drier than usual last year).

Last year winter was cold.  This year I’m not sure we’ve had winter, though there were a couple hard freezes in November.  The cherry and peach are in full bloom, and even an apple is starting.  It does feel more like time to think about gardening.

I still wonder if it isn’t too early, but I decided I’d go for it.  My six year old (the one in the hospital last year) helped me drop in the seeds and record what was in each spot and get our area all fixed up in the school room (out of reach of the toddler).  We’re trying three varieties of tomato said to do well in these parts (Celebrity, Juliet, and Sweet Million) and just small sweet peppers.

My husband and I also plan to move our deer enclosure that protects the garden to a different spot on the property where there will be a little less sun (who’s ever heard of needing less sun for the garden?).  We’ve been trimming way-overgrown trees back from utility lines and still have one large cedar to drop before we can begin that move.  Thankfully we still have weeks before our final frost date to work on that.  Meanwhile my kids and I will watch for the first shoots from the newly planted seeds.

On a different note, I was really quite excited when I opened up the newly started compost bin today (we use a two tumbler system), and it was steaming in the crisp morning air.  This one will keep receiving food scraps and leaves this spring while the other one keeps cooking.  It’s doing well, but I think it got a few too many live oak leaves at the end, so my husband has arranged to get coffee grounds from a Starbucks in his building for me.  (We don’t brew coffee at home, and we already get some grounds each week from church, but we really can use more.  I’m thrilled.)


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## AlbergSteve (Jan 31, 2019)

We could almost direct seed everything here, it's been that warm. This from today...


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## begreen (Feb 1, 2019)

Keep them indoors. Cold front coming thru on Sunday/Monday.


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## DuaeGuttae (Feb 2, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> We could almost direct seed everything here, it's been that warm. This from today...
> View attachment 239771



Whenever you post those pictures, I’m surprised at how similar our temperatures are.  I could have posted almost the exact same thing on Thursday.  We’ve been heading up, however, while it seems that you have some cold coming in.

Even with all this warmth, I wouldn’t consider trying to sow pepper seeds directly at this point. (I assume you were using hyperbole.) I keep debating getting out my seedling heat mat for them because the room they’re in doesn’t actually have heat, though it’s wide open to a heated part of the house.  I haven’t done it yet because the temperatures aren’t low, and it’s okay with me if things germinate slowly.

@AlbergSteve, do you Canadians use the USDA hardiness zones commonly or a different measure?  I’ve read some about it on a government site, but I wasn’t clear in the end how Canadians speak of their zones.  We’re in USDA 8b down here.  @begreen, are you the same?

I cleaned up one of our indoor scrap containers (a 10-quart stock pot, I think) a couple days ago, and my husband took it to the Starbucks in his building yesterday.  He brought it home full of coffee grounds, and he brought another large bag as well.  It totaled almost thirty pounds.  This morning I get to play with those if the rain holds off.  Fun!


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## AlbergSteve (Feb 2, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> Whenever you post those pictures, I’m surprised at how similar our temperatures are.  I could have posted almost the exact same thing on Thursday.  We’ve been heading up, however, while it seems that you have some cold coming in.
> 
> Even with all this warmth, I wouldn’t consider trying to sow pepper seeds directly at this point. (I assume you were using hyperbole.) I keep debating getting out my seedling heat mat for them because the room they’re in doesn’t actually have heat, though it’s wide open to a heated part of the house.  I haven’t done it yet because the temperatures aren’t low, and it’s okay with me if things germinate slowly.
> 
> ...


Yes, just kidding! Most of our seedlings will be purchased from local farmers this year. At our last place we had a great greenhouse where we started everything.  We're so busy trying to get the property dear fenced and orchard planted I didn't have time to build a green house. My wife is is the "head gardener" around here - she's the one with the permaculture certificate( and a handful of English degrees) and calls most of the shots, and I'm the "infrastructure and physical implementation and installation" guy - I just build the barns fences, and greenhouses and dig holes for plants! 

We are zone 8b here and unfortunately we're having much drier summers than in the past so water is becoming an issue.

Mmmm...coffee grounds! Whenever we're returning from Vancouver on the ferry, I make a trip to the coffee shop in the terminal for free bags of grounds.

Here's a link to the garden at our last place - grew some amazing stuff there in a small space.


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## walhondingnashua (Feb 2, 2019)

ED 3000- you stated that you do not have much level ground.  I have some level ground but its all clay.  My best soil is on about a 30 degree grade.  What do you do, or anyone else or that matter, do to garden on ground that is far from level?  
I am building a stone terrace for one, but its a hell of a lot of work just for a small gardening plot.  I have fruit trees planted and have started a blueberry patch but I would like more ideas if anyone has them.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Feb 2, 2019)

walhondingnashua said:


> ED 3000- you stated that you do not have much level ground.  I have some level ground but its all clay.  My best soil is on about a 30 degree grade.  What do you do, or anyone else or that matter, do to garden on ground that is far from level?
> I am building a stone terrace for one, but its a hell of a lot of work just for a small gardening plot.  I have fruit trees planted and have started a blueberry patch but I would like more ideas if anyone has them.


I did terracing, 4' wide on the most level spot in the yard, using timbers I cut from my woodlot, and salvaged lumber.  The wood is about 5 years old and mostly rotted, but about 80% is still holding together enough.

Once it's rotted away, I'll replace it with stones.  It was a lot of work with the timbers, and will be even more moving the stones.  Hopefully I can stagger it out over several years.  It's about 70' x 70'.


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## DuaeGuttae (Feb 3, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Yes, just kidding! Most of our seedlings will be purchased from local farmers this year. At our last place we had a great greenhouse where we started everything.  We're so busy trying to get the property dear fenced and orchard planted I didn't have time to build a green house. My wife is is the "head gardener" around here - she's the one with the permaculture certificate( and a handful of English degrees) and calls most of the shots, and I'm the "infrastructure and physical implementation and installation" guy - I just build the barns fences, and greenhouses and dig holes for plants!
> 
> We are zone 8b here and unfortunately we're having much drier summers than in the past so water is becoming an issue.
> 
> ...




Wow!  That was an amazing garden!

I talked to my mother today when she was in front of her computer, and so I talked her through how to find your video.  She watched it while we were on the phone.  She's a very impressive gardener/farmer herself, but she was certainly impressed.  Her big question was, Why did he move?  I suggested that it may have been to get more space to be even more impressive.

I remember from an earlier thread that you're planting lots of apples.  Have you considered having a few Satsumas?  You could do it in 8b.  We were really blown away by our tree this year.  Unfortunately because we didn't thin the crop, not really knowing what to expect (or rather expecting the wildlife to obliterate it for us), we probably have encouraged the tree to continue a pattern of strong alternate bearing.  Last January we had precisely one fruit.  This year we had oodles to give away.  I don't know if it will have the strength to flower this spring.

Our climate is very dry (historically at least--it was unusually rainy in September and October this year).  Water is a big issue here.  All summer we were on water restrictions; they've been relaxed this winter, but we're still only allowed to run a hose twice a week.  We moved a couple small rain barrels from Virginia when we came but quickly realized that we needed something else to capture the torrential downpours and to see us through weeks and months of dry weather.  We bought one 500 gallon tank and two 250 gallon tanks and have managed to fill them several times (a little tricky considering that we don't actually have gutters on the house.)  All spring and summer I was capturing condensation from the air conditioning units in watering cans and using those to keep plants alive.

My goal is to have a small garden this year, and I decided that I would focus (mostly) on growing the ingredients for tabbouleh (not including wheat).  My children love it (they ask for it for their birthdays), and only recently has our family been able to enjoy it (due to one child's allergies/sensitivities).  Most of our time outdoors is devoted to trying to reclaim some of the worthy plants on the property and to reduce some of the exotic and native invasives that cover the land.  We've made some progress, but it's hard work.


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## AlbergSteve (Feb 4, 2019)

Satsumas might be a stretch, but we'd like to try them. Bob Duncan lives about 6 miles to the east of us on a 1/2 acre suburban lot and it is amazing what he's growing on his property! We've been there when he's had olives, grapefruit and oranges on the trees.

Here he is growing lemons and limes...at 2:02 you'll see an olive tree that reaches almost to the top of his house.


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## begreen (Feb 4, 2019)

That's great and impressive! Wonder how they are doing today with the cold wave that just blew in? Unfortunately our property and house don't afford the shelter that he has rigged up. I hope our lemon tree and olive in the greenhouse make it.


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## AlbergSteve (Feb 4, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> Why did he move? I suggested that it may have been to get more space to be even more impressive.


We wanted more space, went from 1/2 acre to 2 acres. Starting a small market garden/mini farm. Hoping to "retire" to the garden from my current part time job. Ordering the next batch of trees this week.


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## AlbergSteve (Feb 4, 2019)

begreen said:


> That's great and impressive! Wonder how they are doing today with the cold wave that just blew in? Unfortunately our property and house don't afford the shelter that he has rigged up. I hope our lemon tree and olive in the greenhouse make it.


I think he's good to about -10C, but that's a rarity for us. The first week of February last year we averaged about +12C!


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## DuaeGuttae (Feb 4, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Satsumas might be a stretch, but we'd like to try them. Bob Duncan lives about 6 miles to the east of us on a 1/2 acre suburban lot and it is amazing what he's growing on his property! We've been there when he's had olives, grapefruit and oranges on the trees.
> 
> Here he is growing lemons and limes...at 2:02 you'll see an olive tree that reaches almost to the top of his house.




Thanks for that link.  The video was really interesting to me, especially hearing the part about the heat necessary for sweet citrus.  I’ve focused much of my reading on citrus on Texas publications, and that has never been touched on since it’s not a concern for anybody down here.  Our area historically has between 91 and 120 days a year over 86 degrees (30* C).

My mother has grown lemons and limes in pots in zone 7 for as long as I can remember.  She has a lovely sun porch where the trees spend the winter.  She used to have a small woodstove to heat some nights but took it out a few years ago when she had some problems with the roof.  She has a space heater she can use, but mostly the thermal mass of the concrete floor keeps things warm enough unless it’s really extreme.  She was really only on the fringes of this most recent polar vortex.


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## DuaeGuttae (Feb 4, 2019)

begreen said:


> That's great and impressive! Wonder how they are doing today with the cold wave that just blew in? Unfortunately our property and house don't afford the shelter that he has rigged up. I hope our lemon tree and olive in the greenhouse make it.



I’d love to see pictures of your trees if you have some handy.  What do you do for heat in the greenhouse when you need it?

When my husband and I married, he had owned a lime tree for more than twenty years.  (We used to refer to it as the child he brought to our marriage).  It wasn’t very fruitful, but we enjoyed it.  Every year when we harvested the limes we’d cook some special recipe like salmon with lime salsa and invite some friends to dinner.  Our first apartment had a balcony with sliding glass doors that faced south.  The tree loved it.  When we moved to a rented townhouse, it didn’t have the best exposure inside during winter, so we bought a little pop up greenhouse and kept it outside wrapped up in Christmas lights.  We continued the practice at the first home we bought.  It made it through many freezes (even blizzards) with no apparent damage until our second child was born.  My mother-in-law came to help (she flew in during a snowstorm) and during her visit managed to turn off the switch that powered the lights.  By the time we discovered it, the damage had been done.  It never recovered. 

My husband was very glad to be able to plant a lime tree outdoors this fall.  I’m not sure we still have working incandescent Christmas lights, but we did cover it a few nights in November with a very large cardboard box when the temperature dipped into the 20’s.  It’s supposed to be in the 70’s with thunderstorms early this week but then drop sharply to near freezing at the end.  We also get a lot of wind, so we may be bringing out the boxes again to protect the tiny new growth it’s putting out.

We don’t have any olive trees yet, but they are highest on our list for planting (we need to clear a whole grove of cedar, and we try not to clear too much at one before we can saw and chip the wood; we don’t want piles for fire and snake safety).  We’ll also need to manage deer protection in that area.


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## begreen (Feb 4, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> ’d love to see pictures of your trees if you have some handy. What do you do for heat in the greenhouse when you need it?


Well, they are chilling out right now as a cold freeze has hit. The lemon tree is about 5 yrs old and the olive is new this year. I have tried olives (arbequena) outdoors, but a good cold snap killed them. This one is in a pot.  I even fired up the Jotul in the greenhouse today. Normally we have a small electric heater that will cover it but temps dropped down to 35º so I fired up the little Jotul stove to bring the greenhouse up to 55º. 

Here is a picture of the lemon. It's in a big tub planter. I move it into the greenhouse in the winter.


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## DuaeGuttae (Feb 9, 2019)

begreen said:


> Well, they are chilling out right now as a cold freeze has hit. The lemon tree is about 5 yrs old and the olive is new this year. I have tried olives (arbequena) outdoors, but a good cold snap killed them. This one is in a pot.  I even fired up the Jotul in the greenhouse today. Normally we have a small electric heater that will cover it but temps dropped down to 35º so I fired up the little Jotul stove to bring the greenhouse up to 55º.
> 
> Here is a picture of the lemon. It's in a big tub planter. I move it into the greenhouse in the winter.
> View attachment 240241



Thanks for the picture.  You’ve probably been needing that Jotul a lot this week.  When I looked at weather up your way, I saw snow and wind.  The weather’s been strange down here.  I awoke the night before last to sleet hitting the roof and windows.  There were periods of sleet off and on throughout the day, but it remained above freezing.  It dropped down to freezing overnight, and then I was awakened in the middle of the night by thunderstorms.  The cardboard boxes will probably need to retire after their valiant service protecting new lime leaves and lemon buds.  They’ll be turned into a sheet mulch project in an abandoned bed in the backyard.

My seedlings have been doing well inside.  I think all the peppers have sprouted at this point (I don’t plant in large numbers), and the tomatoes have been working on their seed leaves.  It’s been a rough week here with sick kids, but those have been a bright spot for us (a special treat for the six year old who helped me plant them who was struggling with asthma again this week).


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## AlbergSteve (Feb 10, 2019)

NOT planting anything here anytime soon...



It's pretty for a couple of days but the novelty wears of pretty quickly!


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## begreen (Feb 10, 2019)

Normally at this time of year I would have several trays of starts planted. Not this year. On the good side, the lemon tree is holding its own so far. Hoping it will make it.


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## DuaeGuttae (Feb 16, 2019)

@begreen and @AlbergSteve, you two have certainly had winter at last up there.  At least your apples have got all their chill hours, right?

Kudos to my husband who dropped a cedar tree today just where it needed to go.  It wasn’t a big tree (maybe 8” DBH), but it had limited good positions for landing.  The power lines looked to be its somewhat natural inclination, so it had to be coaxed to the side.  He did it carefully and beautifully without damaging the big live oak or the lovely mountain laurel which were in that direction. That was the tree that needed to come out in order to get the new garden space fenced.  Next step is to move the fencing that worked last year to exclude the deer to the new spot now that it won’t be in the way of felling escape routes.

I also need to pot up some tomato seedlings as the are growing by leaps and bounds.  I wanted to do it today but had to go directly from tree felling (I was the brush clearer as there was tons from other tree trimming that had to be moved and chainsaw sharpener) to other family responsibilities.  Looking at thee plants tonight, though, they can’t wait much longer.  Maybe I can get it done right now.


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## Seasoned Oak (Feb 16, 2019)

I gave up trying to protect the Lime trees from the cold on the sun porch overnight. I put em in my warm basement under some LED grow lights. The kind that grows POT Plants. Seems to be working out fine. No POT but plenty of LIMES!


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## EatenByLimestone (Feb 17, 2019)

It's time to start thinking about the garden again! 

I want to put in some apple trees this year. 

I'm thinking about Northern spy and Baldwin if I can find it.


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## AlbergSteve (Feb 17, 2019)

We've got a list for our spring order going in this week: Gravenstein, Karamijn de Sonnaville, King,  Liberty, Mutsu, Belle de Boskoop, Cox Mendocino, Esopus Spitzenberg, Gold Rush, and Rhode Island Greening. Don't want them here too soon, still got 14 inches of snow on the ground!


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## EatenByLimestone (Feb 17, 2019)

We're supposed to get 8" tonight and tomorrow.   

That's quite a lot of trees!  Make sure you remember which trees are which!  

I want to get the late blooming, late harvesting varieties so they come in as I'm finishing up for the year.


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## Chimney Smoke (Feb 18, 2019)

I got my habenero seeds in the mail Friday.  In the next week or so it'll be time to start them here in Maine.  I also ordered a peach tree to add to my mini-orchard I'm trying to get started.  Right now I have 2 pears, 2 plums, 8 apples, 3 cherries and 5 high bush blueberries.  I also got 50 starwberry starts.


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## EatenByLimestone (Feb 18, 2019)

I started strawberries last year.   I guess I'll find out how well they made it through the winter this spring.   

I got to the local nursery and put my name on the list for the trees.   They'll call me when they come in so I can pick them out, and I'll take them home after the frost risk ends.  I'll pay a bit more, but they're local and the trees come in a pot.   I hate bare root.


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## Chimney Smoke (Feb 19, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> I started strawberries last year.   I guess I'll find out how well they made it through the winter this spring.
> 
> I got to the local nursery and put my name on the list for the trees.   They'll call me when they come in so I can pick them out, and I'll take them home after the frost risk ends.  I'll pay a bit more, but they're local and the trees come in a pot.   I hate bare root.



I get my trees from FEDCO here in Maine.  They're local to me and they have a great mail order catalog.  All their stuff is bare root and I've never had any issues with them.


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## begreen (Feb 19, 2019)

Gonna be a slow start here this year. It's as if the east coast sent its cold weather back west. February is running about 8º below average so far.


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## EatenByLimestone (Feb 19, 2019)

Chimney Smoke said:


> I get my trees from FEDCO here in Maine.  They're local to me and they have a great mail order catalog.  All their stuff is bare root and I've never had any issues with them.




Lots of people don't have an issue.   I had one with a meyer lemon and it turned me from the practice.  It might have just been bad luck.  I'll pay more for riots in soil hapily.


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 3, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> Lots of people don't have an issue.   I had one with a meyer lemon and it turned me from the practice.  It might have just been bad luck.  I'll pay more for riots in soil hapily.




I know it was just a typo or auto correct, but I think about those “riots in soil” whenever I tend my plants these days.  They have given me some smiles recently.  I potted up my tomatoes a couple weekends ago and did the peppers in the middle of this week.  I have some cucumbers sprouting now, and their roots are  already long.
	

		
			
		

		
	



I hope to get them in the ground before the full-fledged riots break out.

We’ve had mild weather for a few weeks (or all winter, perhaps), but we have a “norther” blowing in now.  It’s supposed to be well below freezing for the next few nights.  My husband and I spent some time yesterday putting support arches over the young lime and Meyer Lemons (all nicely budded with lots of new growth) and wrapping them in double frost cloth.  I was a bit stressed about the blueberries, as they are mostly blooming, but my husband just moved them into the garage for me since we grow them in containers (they wouldn’t like our limestone soil).

Our garden area is finally clear, and we’ve moved the fencing panels to the new location.  I have hopes that we’ll finish mulching the area (My two year old has been doing valiant service with his toy trucks moving mulch onto cardboard for me) and then put up raised beds this coming Saturday.

In disappointing news, I identified a new weed on the property recently: poison hemlock.  I don’t believe I saw it last year, and so I wonder if the unusual fall rains brought it out of dormancy.  An abandoned bed in our backyard was simply full of lush growth, but it’s popping up in numerous places.  The backyard area has been mowed down and covered in cardboard and rocks, and I think we’ll perhaps plant it with purple prairie cotton to try to outcompete the invader.  I have to give credit to my eleven-year-old daughter who had mentioned to me a few weeks ago a toxic plant that looks like parsley.  When I went to identify this one, I asked her what she’d been referring to, and she told me the name.  Our plant matches the description to a T.

The winds are roaring a bit right now.  I’m glad for lots of easily accessible rocks to hold the frost cloth in place at the bottom.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 3, 2019)

I'm glad you caught the hemlock!


I trimmed the peach tree.  I finished it before 8am yesterday.  Couldn't sleep, lol.   

I need to start my tomatoes.   I've been trying to hoard milk jugs for the seedlings.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 4, 2019)

NOT planting anything here just yet...



	

		
			
		

		
	
 There's garlic under here somewhere!


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 4, 2019)

We've had about 10" of new white stuff fall in the last week.  The sun's getting higher, itll be gone soon!


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 4, 2019)

I'm not complaining too much, this is  highly unusual for us and only happens about every ten years. Family in Nova Scotia expecting rain, freezing rain, ice pellets(not sure what the difference is) and 12 inches of snow tonight.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 4, 2019)

Never heard of ice pellets either.

Rain
Freezing rain
Sleet
Hail
Snow

I think that covers water falling from the sky as I've seen it.

Then there's this...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animals


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 8, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> I'm glad you caught the hemlock!
> 
> 
> I trimmed the peach tree.  I finished it before 8am yesterday.  Couldn't sleep, lol.
> ...



Our peach tree looks the worse for wear after our freezes earlier this week.  It had already set fruit, but we didn’t have the means to protect the sprawling branches.  The lemons look like they came out of their frost protection unscathed.  The lime had some damage on the very young growth since the wind managed to open up a gap in our enclosure the first night.

Do you use milk jugs for a winter sowing technique or just as a form of recycled pot?  I’ve been considering moving some of my tomato seedlings into some as we always have milk jugs around, and they’re getting pretty big.

Yesterday I just started the hardening off process since it was mild but cloudy.  I didn’t realize quite how windy it was (it is always breezy on our hill) until I saw the seedlings getting blown about.  They survived their afternoon and are back outside for a longer stretch today.

My husband is off today, so the plan is for us to work on the garden area this afternoon.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 8, 2019)

For my zucchini I just use it as a fairly deep, disposable pot.    It startds off fully filled.  

For tomatoes I slowly fill them with soil as they grow.   It helps build a real healthy root system.  And after im done, Into the recycle bin it goes!


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 9, 2019)

One blossom open on the Meyer Lemon today!

The garden area is progressing (fenced), but there’s more work to do.  We’re covering the whole inside of the enclosure with cardboard and chipped cedar.  My husband bought me better loppers (Fiskars Powergear) today so that I could help ready branches for the chipper  They made a world of difference.

We also did fill one long bed today.  The others aren’t in place yet, awaiting final mulching.  We’ll work more on it at the end of next week.  (The work goes a bit slower than we’d like as we also have to spend time with and constructively involve our young children.  The two year old is a mulch warrior but sometimes that undoes rather than advances my work.  He did at least understand that he wasn’t allowed to use his shovel in the garden box.  I figure he can move the mulch if it stays in the enclosure, and smoothing it back isn’t too hard.)

The seedlings got to spend the whole day outside today, still protected by the shade of an oak tree.  Even I had to stay in the shade while lopping.  It got up to 85 today.  Thankfully we’ll cool down tomorrow.


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 11, 2019)

Some of the tomatoes needed more space, so we had a family project day as our first day of spring break (inspired by @EatenByLimestone ‘s use of milk jugs).  I cut the tops off, but my son helped with the drainage holes.  All three non-toddlers did the painting and repotting.  I would have liked some of the stems where we removed leaves to be buried a bit more deeply, but I had a good time teaching the kids about potting up, and I made a few adjustments after I snapped this picture.

Tonight is the first night that I plan to leave the plants outside.  The temperature will only drop a few degrees from the daytime high, and there may be some showers.  (It was cloudy and moist all day but no significant accumulation.)  Tomorrow night or Wednesday morning may bring more severe weather, so I’ll have to figure out what to do.  They may have to have some time in the garage.  I was aiming possibly to plant in mid-March, but nights are turning cooler at the end of the week, so I decided bigger pots would give me more time.

Please pardon the leaf mess in the picture.  We do clean up in fall.  This is what live oaks do in March when their new leaves grow in.  I was laughing with my kids about how here in Texas we had all four seasons in one day on Saturday: winter because of the date, spring because of trees blooming, summer because of the heat (that day was 85*), and fall because leaves are piling up everywhere.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 11, 2019)

They look great!    I have 5 "Sweety" tomatoes brewing at the moment.   They haven't sprouted yet.    I can't find my San Marzano seeds.   I may have to order new ones.   

We had 40 degrees today, and are supposed to get up to 60 Friday!   That should get the garlic up!


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 17, 2019)

Work continues on the new garden space.  My husband finished building the boxes, and the kids and I worked on loading them up with organic material we’ve been producing and collecting.  They’ll get a good thick layer of purchased compost, too, but that part isn’t done yet.

We were also able to use the trellis frames that moved with us from our former home.  They were built only three feet wide, but we replaced the old (and worn) trellis netting with some four foot wire fencing that we got from friends who no longer needed it.  We have more supports to build, but we’re making progress.  (If you look closely in the background, you might be able to see some of the branches that had to be cleared for this project.  They’re slowly providing the chips we’re using around the beds.)

I have some cool season plants in the very back bed (dill, green onions, Brussels sprouts, and parsley).  The more heat-loving plants continue to spend most days outside but have been coming back inside at night recently.  The frost date actually just passed, but the temperatures are low enough at night for me to bring them back inside.  The peppers got potted up again, the cucumbers for the first time.  It’s looking like it may be possible to plant them out next weekend temperature-wise.  We’ll see.

This week has been a spring break devoted to yard work (there’s a lot going on other than this spot, too, but it’s not quite gardening).  We’ll be back to our regular schedule tomorrow, but it was nice to have some extra time to work and to make it a real family project.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 17, 2019)

The snow has just left our place in the last couple of days so now we've got to play catchup with planting. Wife planted 90 strawberry plants today while I re-arranged the chicken coop for more roost space for the additional dozen pullets I'm picking up tomorrow. Then this weekend we're off to Saltspring to pick up the rest of the apple trees we ordered but couldn't plant because of the weather. It was 20C here today! 

I spent the day giving them 42 lineal feet of roost and how do they thank me? By cramming themselves into _eight_ feet of roost!


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## Montanalocal (Mar 18, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> Work continues on the new garden space. My husband finished building the boxes, and the kids and I worked on loading them up with organic material we’ve been producing and collecting. They’ll get a good thick layer of purchased compost, too, but that part isn’t done yet.



Just a note on building beds.  I have built dozens for our local community garden club, and what I have learned is that it is better to run a short 2X2 or 2X4 up the inside corners and screw the side boards to that.  If you butt them up against each other and screw them to each other, then you are running your screws into end grain, and end grain wood does not hold as well and rots sooner.


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## begreen (Mar 18, 2019)

I finally started some seeds this week. Last year I started them on January 22nd. Bought some local lettuce, mizumi and pa choi starts yesterday and planted some in the greenhouse and some outside. The kale made it through the winter and is putting on nice new growth now. I harvested some overwintered carrots which taste great. And surprisingly we have several lettuce plants that made it through the cold and snow and are now putting on new growth.


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 19, 2019)

Montanalocal said:


> Just a note on building beds.  I have built dozens for our local community garden club, and what I have learned is that it is better to run a short 2X2 or 2X4 up the inside corners and screw the side boards to that.  If you butt them up against each other and screw them to each other, then you are running your screws into end grain, and end grain wood does not hold as well and rots sooner.



Thanks for the tip on the beds.  We did not know that and will keep it in mind for the future.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 19, 2019)

I use corner brackets that you can find at HD or Lowes for $1 each.  They're reusable as they're galvanized.    1 for each corner, top and bottom.

Without the brackets, 2x material will last around 9 years up here.  The corners always blow was out and rot.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 23, 2019)

Special project in the garden this week was installing gas lifts on the compost bin - we have neighbours from all over the hood dropping of their scraps and we've had a couple of bruised arms ,whacks to the back of the head, and near chicken beheadings because it wasn't propped up properly.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 23, 2019)

Why do you have a top on the bin?


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 23, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> Why do you have a top on the bin?


Living in the PNW, if you didn't have a top on the bin you'd have a soggy, anaerobic blob by June. And the chickens would have it launched all over the yard!


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## begreen (Mar 23, 2019)

Probably keep larger vermin out too, like raccoons.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 23, 2019)

...and rats and mice...sooo many rats. Wife wanted to try open composting on the ground and have the chickens mulch it for us, but decided having a rat buffet wasn't for us.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 23, 2019)

This was our first composter at the last house. Became pretty popular. Youtubers even took all the pictures and made diy slide shows from them!

https://backyardfeast.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/how-to-build-the-ultimate-compost-bin/

@DuaeGuttae , your mom might be interested in reading some of the blog my wife kept up for a while - lots of gardening stuff/pictures there.


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## begreen (Mar 23, 2019)

Nice, much better than the bins I cobbled together.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 24, 2019)

Last of the "deer" fencing going up...


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 25, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Last of the "deer" fencing going up...
> View attachment 242661



Why is “deer” in quotation marks?

Beautiful compost bins, by the way.  I read about them the other night when you posted the link and then stayed up way too late reading your wife’s blog.  I talked with my mom about it and will send her a link as I think she would enjoy parts of it.  She likes seeing “young people” learn how to do what she so loves, and the photography is lovely.


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 26, 2019)

It’s getting hot and dry down here in Texas (about 80 yesterday and today).  We were forecast to have rain this weekend and today, but despite clouds and moisture in the mornings, there was nothing to wet the soil.  The afternoons have been full of blazing sun.  I’m very glad to see shade creep over the new garden location when the sun heads west.  It’s fierce down here, and gardening is all about getting crops in early enough to pollinate before the height of summer.  That’s a real change for me from my former, colder location.

I’ve been using the dregs in the large rain tanks and carrying watering cans from the small barrel across the property to the garden where I planted out the cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes at the end of last week in the hopes that they would have a lovely weekend in the rain.  I’m still hoping for a good storm ( but not too fierce) to water those plants for me and to refill our supplies of rain water.  (We do have tap water, but it’s not my preference for the soil, and irrigation is pretty restricted anyway.)  Overall, the plants seem to be doing well in their beds, so we need to finish getting up the last of the supports that we hope to need eventually.

As I was giving the citrus a good soaking this morning, I noticed that I could see baby limes.  That was particularly cheering as this was the tree that did get some exposure to temperatures in the low 20’s when winds worked apart some of our frost cloth closures earlier this month.  The lemons are covered in blooms (probably way too many for the plants to support), but we are enjoying them.


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## AlbergSteve (Mar 26, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> Why is “deer” in quotation marks?
> 
> Beautiful compost bins, by the way.  I read about them the other night when you posted the link and then stayed up way too late reading your wife’s blog.  I talked with my mom about it and will send her a link as I think she would enjoy parts of it.  She likes seeing “young people” learn how to do what she so loves, and the photography is lovely.


Our deer fencing is usually more rudimentary, just wire stretched on posts, this is more decorative, more pleasing for the humans to look at while still keeping the deer out.


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## kborndale (Mar 27, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> It’s getting hot and dry down here in Texas (about 80 yesterday and today).  We were forecast to have rain this weekend and today, but despite clouds and moisture in the mornings, there was nothing to wet the soil.  The afternoons have been full of blazing sun.  I’m very glad to see shade creep over the new garden location when the sun heads west.  It’s fierce down here, and gardening is all about getting crops in early enough to pollinate before the height of summer.  That’s a real change for me from my former, colder location.
> 
> I’ve been using the dregs in the large rain tanks and carrying watering cans from the small barrel across the property to the garden where I planted out the cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes at the end of last week in the hopes that they would have a lovely weekend in the rain.  I’m still hoping for a good storm ( but not too fierce) to water those plants for me and to refill our supplies of rain water.  (We do have tap water, but it’s not my preference for the soil, and irrigation is pretty restricted anyway.)  Overall, the plants seem to be doing well in their beds, so we need to finish getting up the last of the supports that we hope to need eventually.
> 
> As I was giving the citrus a good soaking this morning, I noticed that I could see baby limes.  That was particularly cheering as this was the tree that did get some exposure to temperatures in the low 20’s when winds worked apart some of our frost cloth closures earlier this month.  The lemons are covered in blooms (probably way too many for the plants to support), but we are enjoying them.



Dont worry about citrus trees having too many blooms, they will drop the ones that it cant support on its own.


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## DuaeGuttae (Mar 30, 2019)

Plants all tucked in for the night!

It’s getting cold down here in Texas (for Texas in spring). The wind is roaring.  Tonight it’s supposed to be about 40, tomorrow about 36, and Monday near freezing.  A couple of my peppers have flowers starting, so all my peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers are getting a little extra protection for a few days.  I don’t think they’d be killed, but I understand they can be stressed and stunted.  

The lemons, limes, and blueberries have tiny fruits, but I think they’ll be okay.  Please let me know if I’m wrong about that.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 31, 2019)

I got to starting the spring lawn cleanup yesterday.   I checked the asparagus bed as it usually comes up early and, under a layer of leaf mulch, it's still frozen rock solid.  Well, I guess I'll check it again in a week or so.


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## AlbergSteve (Apr 1, 2019)

Busy weekend here, blueberries and raspberries transplanted, three types of black berries in, another 40 strawberry plants, and two pear trees.



And we had to move a crabapple that we planted two years ago that wasn't in quite the right  spot!


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## Dobish (Apr 9, 2019)

I am really hoping that the poppies AND the peonies come up this year!



the crocus are up!


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## begreen (Apr 9, 2019)

They're off to a good start but might not flower this year.


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## Dobish (Apr 9, 2019)

begreen said:


> They're off to a good start but might not flower this year.


They keep getting trampled


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## begreen (Apr 9, 2019)

Dogs? Stake a little 18" fence of chicken wire around them for protection. Or maybe a tomato cage would work?


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## Dobish (Apr 9, 2019)

i put the pile of rocks there, because the fuzz bucket loves to lie right on top of it!


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## Dobish (Apr 9, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Living in the PNW, if you didn't have a top on the bin you'd have a soggy, anaerobic blob by June. And the chickens would have it launched all over the yard!
> View attachment 242614



we used to have a road sign attached to a string, so we could pull it from our window... it was fantastic. My neighbors must have thought we were a little nuts...


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## begreen (Apr 9, 2019)

Looks like more temporary protection may be in order for the next few days. 
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/09/711424891/a-second-bomb-cyclone-colorado-predicted-to-go-from-80-degrees-to-a-blizzard


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## Chimney Smoke (Apr 9, 2019)

My tulips are up a few inches and yesterday they got covered in a few inches of wet snow with more coming tonight.  My new peach tree and 50 strawberry plants arrived yesterday as well in the snowstorm...


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## begreen (Apr 9, 2019)

Our tulips are blooming and happy in this spring weather. Dafflodils are nearing the end of their bllom. Lilacs are next.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 12, 2019)

begreen said:


> Our tulips are blooming and happy in this spring weather. Dafflodils are nearing the end of their bllom. Lilacs are next.



I miss tulips, daffodils, and lilacs.  All my life those were the joys of spring, but they just aren’t plants that would thrive in this area.  We do have some lovely alternatives, though.  It rained on Sunday morning after a long dry spell, and I really enjoy seeing the rain lilies come out a few days later.



The weather was quite warm last week, then we got some cooling storms with about an inch of rain.  It warmed up again to the eighties and even nineties on Wednesday.  The peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes seem to be enjoying it.






I personally enjoyed the cooler days, and I’m hoping for some more rain by morning.  If the front does push this far south, I may even need to pull the frost cloth out again (not for actual frost, just a little heat retention).

The current “mulch” by the way is oak catkins that Sunday’s storms brought down in our back yard.  The kids helped clean up and we used two big wheelbarrow loads around the taller plants.  We need to add some wood chips, but blueberry netting will be higher priority tomorrow.


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## begreen (Apr 12, 2019)

I can recall motorcycling in south Texas and loving the scents of spring there. You are way ahead of us this year. Feb here was deep freeze.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 19, 2019)

begreen said:


> I can recall motorcycling in south Texas and loving the scents of spring there. You are way ahead of us this year. Feb here was deep freeze.



I’ve definitely noticed some sweet aromas in the air for the past few weeks.  I think it has been oak pollen.  Last month the mountain laurel was fragrant (it’s always described as smelling like artificial grape flavor).  On Saturday after a brief and, thankfully, not-too-damaging hail storm, the air was positively tangy.  I think it was bruised cedar, rosemary and Mexican oregano.  The cedar is invasive all over our land, and the herbs are huge shrubs in our landscaping.  It was a beautiful smell in the post-storm air.  

We certainly didn’t have the cold February you had, but it means that we won’t have any peaches or cherries this year.  Three days of freeze in March froze our small fruits, and I was even worried about whether there was too much leaf damage on the peach.  It seems to have recovered nicely.  (We only had a few peaches last year and no cherries because of squirrels, but this year there are none left to try to protect.)

Last year I really did not understand that despite the early and late frost dates there isn’t a nice, long growing season in this part of Texas.  It’s simply too hot in summer, and plants hunker down for self-preservation and nothing more.  It’s apparently two shortish growing seasons in spring and fall.  I’m doing my best to get my plants growing and producing sooner rather than later because the days are heating up, though the nights can still be cool on occasion, and it goes against all my previous gardening experience to rush to get plants in the ground.

My six-year-old daughter is really delighting in the buds, blossoms, and tiny fruits she finds.  She delighted me the other night by seeing that a cucumber tendril had wound itself tight around the wire and exclaiming, “Mommy, the cucumber’s tendrils are getting more muscles every day!”




She’s also very proud of “her” baby tomatoes and peppers.




Part of moving our garden area this year involved relocating our blueberries.  We put them in an unused bed in our backyard that had unfortunately started growing a lush crop of poison hemlock earlier this spring.  Moving the plants wasn’t too hard, but we also needed to disassemble and reassemble “the cube” my husband had built last year.  He added a door last weekend, and now the bird netting is up, but I have easy access to the plants to water and to harvest in a month or two.  (Let’s just hope the squirrels aren’t voracious enough to chew their way inside.)




I know it’s starting to warm up in other areas of the country now, too.  I’m looking forward to seeing what other folks are up to this year.


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## EatenByLimestone (Apr 21, 2019)

Yesterday I brought the Apple trees home!   


I'm way behind in putting the garden in this year.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 7, 2019)

We had our first cucumber harvest today.  We’ve been using some parsley, dill, and green onions here and there, but this was our first fruit.  My kids love pickles, so we collected some of our sunburned dill and started fermenting the two pickling cukes.  The slicer I chopped up and added to homemade yogurt with some mint and green onions to make a sauce for our lunch.






There are some other cucumbers set, but they’re still quite small.  I’m enjoying seeing green tomatoes on the plants and wondering when they might start showing a hint of red.  It’s been a pleasantly cool May so far with some rain (we have escaped some of the very violent storms the state has suffered), but it has also meant less sun than normal.  I don’t mind that, and the plants don’t seem to either.


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## begreen (May 7, 2019)

Looking good. In 2015 we had our first cucumbers at this time, not this year.


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## begreen (May 16, 2019)

We're finally getting some spring produce and have our first little tomato set plus a 2" zucchini. Getting there.


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## AlbergSteve (May 16, 2019)

That's crazy! We don't even have zucchini planted yet, tomato starts just went in the ground this week and the strawberries have only had blossoms for a week. You must be in a pocket a zone warmer than us.


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## begreen (May 16, 2019)

We are close to the water which protects us from some of the inland cold. Broccoli went in the ground in March and is getting pretty big now. Corn is about 8" tall.


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## Doug MacIVER (May 19, 2019)

anybody got a helper like this guy?


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## DuaeGuttae (May 19, 2019)

begreen said:


> We're finally getting some spring produce and have our first little tomato set plus a 2" zucchini. Getting there.
> View attachment 244226
> View attachment 244227
> View attachment 244228
> ...




I love that bowl of lettuce, Begreen!  Thanks for the update.  My kids were reminiscing fondly just yesterday of the “lettuce ranch” we had in Virginia.  I tried lettuce last summer but didn’t succeed.  This spring has been cooler and wetter than last year and probably would have been great, but I didn’t attempt it.  It’s in my plans for fall.

We had the potential for severe storms and hail yesterday (it didn’t materialize), but my husband and I set up shade cloth/hail protection over our blueberry cube and over the two long garden beds.  I think we’ll leave it up for this week which looks to be hot but with more storm potential.

We started seeing a Sweet Million tomato blush red last week, and then a Juliet.  I was surprised yesterday to see some red in a pepper.  I took photos just in case a hail storm did come through.  If you look at the cucumber leaves, you can see where some small hail punched through some leaves about a week and a half ago.  The storm dumped about 2.5 inches of water in an hour or two.  The hail was thankfully only marble-sized and of short duration.


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## begreen (May 19, 2019)

You are at least a month ahead of us. I'm glad the storm didn't damage much. You might want to try growing some lettuce under a shade cloth to keep it cooler.


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## Highbeam (May 22, 2019)

The hops are hopping! These are first year cascade hops.


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## Dobish (May 22, 2019)

Poppies popping! The snow in summer was blooming until the snow came for real.


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## begreen (May 22, 2019)

Highbeam said:


> The hops are hopping! These are first year cascade hops.


Build a tall trellis. They can get 10-12' tall.


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## AlbergSteve (May 22, 2019)

begreen said:


> Build a tall trellis. They can get 10-12' tall.


I had 16' high posts for our hops at the last property and they would grow _down_ another four feet from the top!
Couple of pics from that property...Cascades, Galena, Mt. Hood and Nugget


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## Highbeam (May 22, 2019)

begreen said:


> Build a tall trellis. They can get 10-12' tall.



I read they can go way over 20’ but I am trying a 10’ pole with wires leading away like a hop teepee. I expect a big ball of hops at the top.


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## begreen (May 23, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> I had 16' high posts for our hops at the last property and they would grow _down_ another four feet from the top!
> Couple of pics from that property...Cascades, Galena, Mt. Hood and Nugget
> 
> View attachment 244411
> ...


Wow, that is some serious hopping! That's enough hops to start a brewery. Nice garden too.


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## AlbergSteve (May 23, 2019)

begreen said:


> Wow, that is some serious hopping! That's enough hops to start a brewery. Nice garden too.


Thanks, it was an amazing garden. About 85% of our veg for the year was grown in this garden. Couple of show-off pics...

Fifty row-feet of red and yellow onions...



Cabbage that grew like they were on steroids...



Walls of peas and beans...



And every other day we'd get a bowl of tomatoes...



Then in the fall before the rain or frost got them...



We're hoping the new property is going to be as productive.


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## begreen (May 24, 2019)

Very Nice! It must have been hard to walk away from that garden.


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## begreen (May 27, 2019)

All beds are now fully planted. Green beans are coming up. Peas have flowers and will soon be bearing. We have a couple small tomatoes on the early girl outdoors and several bigger ones on the greenhouse plant. It's already almost 5' tall, while the outdoor one is about 30". I did succession plantings of corn this year. The tallest is about 10" tall now and the shortest is 2" tall. Just started our 4th lettuce seeds and 3d carrot planting. The greenhouse got a serious case of aphids on the peppers so I move them all outdoors and brought in some ladybugs.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 4, 2019)

begreen said:


> All beds are now fully planted. Green beans are coming up. Peas have flowers and will soon be bearing. We have a couple small tomatoes on the early girl outdoors and several bigger ones on the greenhouse plant. It's already almost 5' tall, while the outdoor one is about 30". I did succession plantings of corn this year. The tallest is about 10" tall now and the shortest is 2" tall. Just started our 4th lettuce seeds and 3d carrot planting. The greenhouse got a serious case of aphids on the peppers so I move them all outdoors and brought in some ladybugs.




I did a couple rounds of corn and okra this year in our back yard (the deer don’t usually come in unless we leave a gate open).  My second round has outpaced my first already in both crops.  The corn was knee-high by Memorial Day (lacks the traditional ring) but has a ways to go.  It responded well to some supportive mulching that I had to do after forty mph wind gusts one day.

We’ve been south of much of the violent weather our state has been suffering.  I’ve been using our rain tanks and air conditioning condensation to water the garden every few days (it hasn’t been brutally hot yet either), but there was a brief shower this afternoon.  I always like checking on the garden after a gentle rain.


The tomatoes and cucumbers are making their way up the arched trellis.  A couple of the cucumbers are as tall as I am now.  The turned up mulch in the path is what I haven’t cleaned up after an armadillo (I assume) did some digging in my garden.  There were also six big holes among my cucumbers and herbs, but thankfully the plants all seem to have suffered no harm.  I fixed that bed up today and applied mulch around some young basil where we hadn’t done so previously.  It’s supposed to get hot later this week, so I may even put up my shade cloth again.








My theme for the garden this year was “tabbouleh,” so it was a victory when we had a friend over for Memorial Day and harvested enough parsley, cucumbers, and tomatoes to make our dinner.  (I had green onions, too, but forgot them.) We also harvested two red peppers that day.


Last Saturday was also our first blueberry harvest.  It was only a quarter cup because I wouldn’t let the kids take anything that didn’t fall into their hands with just a tickle.  Some of the berries remaining on the bushes are quite large (the size of a penny).  The more heavily laden bushes have smaller berries, but I wonder if they will plump more as they ripen.  Rabbiteye blueberries are new for us.




The heat is about to hit down here, so we’ll see whether the plants keep growing.  (Last summer my garden didn’t produce because I started too late, and the heat hit early.)


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## begreen (Jun 4, 2019)

You're polevaulting ahead of us. Can you mitigate some of the stress of heat with shade cloth?


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 5, 2019)

begreen said:


> You're polevaulting ahead of us. Can you mitigate some of the stress of heat with shade cloth?



That’s the plan.  We tested the shade cloth set-up a couple of weeks ago, and it definitely kept things cooler.  




We put this up to offer some protection when hail was forecast (thankfully we never had to find out how much help it would have been).  The horizontal stakes through the trellis are to help extend it, but I need to secure them better.  We did keep it up for a week, and it held up to wind, but it’s been down recently since the hot spell passed.  It seems that the cool spell is over for us, sadly.  It hit ninety today, and it’s supposed to go up every day through Sunday.  I’ll probably try to get the cloth up again on Friday or Saturday when the sun is forecast to be more intense.

This photograph is taken from the west facing east by the way, and there are two big live oak trees behind me that help provide some afternoon shade.  That’s the primary reason we relocated the garden.  We originally had it in a different spot getting actual full sun till late in the evening, and it was brutal.  I’ve definitely had to learn a whole new set of gardening tactics down here.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 7, 2019)

I went out yesterday to check on the garden after an overnight storm and found that an invader had stolen my large red tomato, taken it to a nearby location, and eaten two thirds of it.  I picked the ripening grape and cherry tomatoes and brought them in.  Thankfully there didn’t seem to be further damage today, but I’ll be seeing if we can possibly install some hardware cloth before it gets too hot tomorrow.  (Probably not because we have to make a trip to the farm store to get it, and it will be too hot by nine in the morning in my opinion.) I did get the shade cloth up over the long beds this morning.  The difference was immediately noticeable.


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## mass_burner (Jul 6, 2019)

should i plant bulbs now rather than risk them dying before fall? i've had for 8 months now, in a cool dark place. 

Sent from my V11 using Tapatalk


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## begreen (Jul 6, 2019)

mass_burner said:


> should i plant bulbs now rather than risk them dying before fall? i've had for 8 months now, in a cool dark place.


What type of bulbs?


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## DuaeGuttae (Jul 7, 2019)

Where are all the reports from my fellow gardeners?  I’m missing all your pictures of your harvests.

Our garden has remained alive this year, and we’re pretty pleased about that.  It’s been a cooler and rainier June than normal, and I’m sure that has helped.  The heat is picking up now, so we’ll see how long things continue.  It’s this month that people often pull out their summer produce and plant some things for fall, but I’m not quite ready to take that step.  The cucumbers are producing steadily, and the tomatoes are ripening.  (I’m particularly pleased with our Southern Delight hybrid cucumber).  I’m not sure if the peppers will continue to set new fruit, but they are still flowering.  I figure we’ll keep going with what’s in the ground and see how it fares.  (Our bunny-proofing seems to have worked at halting tomato theft for the moment).

I am interested in starting a few things for fall.  Some I’ll start inside (Brussels sprouts, perhaps cabbage), but I’ll probably need to start some butternut squash in the ground in a couple of weeks.  We’ll see if I can make a space.


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## Highbeam (Jul 13, 2019)

begreen said:


> All beds are now fully planted. Green beans are coming up. Peas have flowers and will soon be bearing. We have a couple small tomatoes on the early girl outdoors and several bigger ones on the greenhouse plant. It's already almost 5' tall, while the outdoor one is about 30". I did succession plantings of corn this year. The tallest is about 10" tall now and the shortest is 2" tall. Just started our 4th lettuce seeds and 3d carrot planting. The greenhouse got a serious case of aphids on the peppers so I move them all outdoors and brought in some ladybugs.



Serious aphid issues for us this year too. First time for us. Plum tree was a mess, then pumpkins and hops severely infested. I’m testing the soap and malathion methods separately to see which works best. I will not be adding ladybugs though I appreciate their help too.


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## EatenByLimestone (Jul 13, 2019)

My garden really didnt happen this year.  Business, weather, family,  it all took its hit.   

I have kale, cokes, zucchini, and tomatoes.   Everything else is just weeds and perennials this year.


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## EatenByLimestone (Jul 13, 2019)

The weather made for bumper raspberry harvests!  The kid is really enjoying that!  I lost her in the back yard the other day.  I called her and cc'd she popped up in the corner by a fence.  She found a patch of extra large blueberries that needed harvesting and had to crawl under the bushes to get there.


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## begreen (Jul 13, 2019)

Highbeam said:


> Serious aphid issues for us this year too. First time for us. Plum tree was a mess, then pumpkins and hops severely infested. I’m testing the soap and malathion methods separately to see which works best. I will not be adding ladybugs though I appreciate their help too.


First time for us this early too. Part of the problem is that thatcher ants are tending the aphids so that they get their honeydew. They had a whole cherry tree treated as a colony. Never seen that before. It's common for hops to get aphids. Tie them up well and hose them down. I would not use malathion on anything edible (or drinkable). It's better to have some aphids in the wort than toxins.


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## AlbergSteve (Jul 13, 2019)

Highbeam said:


> Serious aphid issues for us this year too. First time for us. Plum tree was a mess, then pumpkins and hops severely infested. I’m testing the soap and malathion methods separately to see which works best. I will not be adding ladybugs though I appreciate their help too.


Same here. I left a few thistles in the potato patch and the stalks were black with aphids - and ants getting their fill of aphids!


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## begreen (Jul 14, 2019)

Picked our first full-sized tomatoes yesterday, early girls. The cherry tomatoes have been bearing for the last week. Cukes and zukes are going gangbusters and we'll be picking early corn soon. Broccoli is just about done and peppers are ripening slowly. Eggplant likewise. July has taken a cool turn and it's slowing things down.


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## Dobish (Jul 15, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> My garden really didnt happen this year.  Business, weather, family,  it all took its hit.
> 
> I have kale, cokes, zucchini, and tomatoes.   Everything else is just weeds and perennials this year.



yep. i have a neighbors garden and some weeds.


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## AlbergSteve (Jul 28, 2019)

Seven hundred and fifty + heads of garlic out of the ground...


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## EatenByLimestone (Jul 28, 2019)

I'm jealous.  I planted a bunch of garlic last fall and lost a lot to flooding over frozen ground.   I was hoping id have enough to be self sufficient in it after this year.  I'll start again this fall.   Time rolls on.


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## begreen (Jul 28, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Seven hundred and fifty + heads of garlic out of the ground...


 No vampires in your neighborhood for sure!


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## AlbergSteve (Jul 28, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> I'm jealous.  I planted a bunch of garlic last fall and lost a lot to flooding over frozen ground.   I was hoping id have enough to be self sufficient in it after this year.  I'll start again this fall.   Time rolls on.


We weren't sure we'd get any either. The first post in this thread has a picture of what our garlic beds looked like(under water), then had two feet of snow for six weeks.


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## AlbergSteve (Jul 28, 2019)

begreen said:


> No vampires in your neighborhood for sure!


Nope, and only _really _close friends that don't mind the smell of garlic!


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## begreen (Aug 17, 2019)

The big tomatoes and paste varieties are starting to ripen. This is a brandy boy with a cour di bue to the left. By grocery-standard these would be imperfect tomatoes. Some might even call them ugly, but oh the flavor is divine. Our early girls are the showy ones. Each is perfect and way better than any store-bought tomato.


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## AlbergSteve (Aug 17, 2019)

Twenty. Seven. Ounces. What are you feeding them?!


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## begreen (Aug 17, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Twenty. Seven. Ounces. What are you feeding them?!


That's just the first one. Last year we had one weigh in at 33.5 oz. I just do the initial soil prep in spring. They are on their own after that except for watering. The bed got a refreshing with compost, some bone meal, greensand, and Down to Earth organic fertilizer in April.


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## DuaeGuttae (Aug 17, 2019)

begreen said:


> The big tomatoes and paste varieties are starting to ripen. This is a brandy boy with a cour di bue to the left. By grocery-standard these would be imperfect tomatoes. Some might even call them ugly, but oh the flavor is divine. Our early girls are the showy ones. Each is perfect and way better than any store-bought tomato.
> View attachment 246514



I would never call it ugly!  That’s some nutritious food right there, a labor of love, and that’s a beautiful sight.

I did pull out our cucumbers last month as it just got too hot.  I planted some pole beans and butternut squash.  I couldn’t bring myself to pull out the tomatoes, and I’m sure glad I didn’t.  We’ve been enjoying them fresh and in homemade pizza and marinara sauce.  I’ve been stocking a bit away in the freezer as well.





I recently planted some corn and a few more cucumber seeds for the fall garden season.  We’ll see if I can keep the surface moist enough for them to germinate.  It’s been in the high nineties for weeks with no significant rain.  We have less than 200 gallons in our rain tanks, but I’ve been faithfully collecting our A/C condensation (gallons every day), so I can keep providing the potted blueberries calcium-free water even if our tanks go dry.  Last September was unbelievably rainy.  It will be interesting to see what this one is like.


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## begreen (Aug 17, 2019)

They still look good. You're into your second season already. We only get one shot.


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## DuaeGuttae (Aug 20, 2019)

begreen said:


> They still look good. You're into your second season already. We only get one shot.



We tried a very small fall garden the first year we moved in, but that was before we realized that we needed to take drastic measures to protect it from deer.  We didn’t do fall vegetables last year as we were more focused on using the cooler weather to do a lot of cleanup.  This year will be our first real attempt at the second season.

The beans we planted germinated pretty well and are beginning to climb their trellises.  I told my husband this morning while we were watering that I really love plants that twine or have tendrils.  For some reason seeing that grasping curl really makes me happy.

The cucumbers have all come up, and the corn is just beginning.  I’m trying to soak the surfaces both morning and late afternoon until things germinate and their roots develop enough that I can let our submerged watering system sustain them.  With our heat and sun the surface dries out pretty fast, and I wear out pretty fast taking water to them when it’s hot.

I planted some dill in the spring, and it grew, but we never had huge harvests as it’s really not a summer crop in Texas.  I wanted it to go to seed, though, so that it would come up on its own this fall.  I guess my surface watering for the cucumbers did the trick because this morning I found a whole patch of seedlings.  Hurray!


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## begreen (Aug 20, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> I planted some dill in the spring, and it grew, but we never had huge harvests as it’s really not a summer crop in Texas. I wanted it to go to seed, though, so that it would come up on its own this fall. I guess my surface watering for the cucumbers did the trick because this morning I found a whole patch of seedlings. Hurray!


Yes, our dill, anise hyssop, arugula and cilantro are self-seeded.


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## begreen (Aug 25, 2019)

Harvest time happening. Corn, tomatoes, and super-sized celery.


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## DuaeGuttae (Oct 18, 2019)

The weather is finally really cooling off here in Texas (it was downright cold one day).  The pepper plants that I started from seed in January and planted out in March lasted all through the summer and rewarded me with the occasional pepper but no abundance.   Now that the temperatures are more moderate, though, they are loaded with tiny fruits.  I hope they have time to mature before any real freezes blow in.

 I made a big batch of pesto yesterday from basil that needed to be cut back, and we have some beans and butternut squash maturing.  I picked one cucumber the other day that was still a bit on the small side, but I needed some crunch in tuna salad, and it fit the bill.  There are other flowers, and it’s still pretty warm, but I don’t know that this second round will have time to do well.    This is my first real fall garden here in Texas, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I also have one Brussels sprout stalk that grows slowly but steadily.  I had to pick some worms a couple times recently, so I’m watching it carefully.


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## DuaeGuttae (Oct 30, 2019)

A real freeze is blowing in.  I woke up to 47, and the temperature dropped from there.  When it got light, I decided to see what I could do with frost cloth over some larger plants.  I covered the peppers, though I don’t know if it will be enough protection for them.  I also filled the ollas with warm water for a little extra help.

My sweet potatoes are growing up a trellis, and I couldn’t get the cloth down to the ground without wrapping those vines, too.  The wind is roaring over the house now, so we’ll see if things stay closed up till morning.  It’s supposed to drop to 29.

Next week daytime highs should be back to the 70’s.  I’m just trying to keep some of the plants alive for a couple more weeks.


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## AlbergSteve (Oct 31, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> View attachment 250271
> View attachment 250272
> 
> 
> ...


Hope things are ok. We've had a week of just below freezing temperatures  which is very unusual for us. Mostly kale left in the garden but it doesn't mind the cold.  A few weeks ago we had a hail storm pass through, lasted about 15 minutes and left everything looking like it had been hit with buck shot - lost most of our squash and pumpkins.


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 2, 2019)

I’m sorry to hear about the hail.  That’s not uncommon around here, but thankfully we haven’t had any since spring, and those storms were pretty minor.  We’re you able to harvest and preserve any of the squash or pumpkins?

We just ate up our last pumpkin this week in the form of pie (I planted a couple in the spring, and harvested just three months ago.  It was very strange for me to do that in hot weather.)  The cold weather made me willing to use the oven this week.

The cold here was definitely a killing cold for the vegetable garden.I was surprised things didn’t look worse after the first night, but after the second even some of the protected plants were done for.  The trellised sweet potato vines died, and I could have cut them off, but I decided to harvest this morning.  My seven-year-old daughter helped me, and she was so excited to find the potatoes.  We have them curing in our oven now (not turned on, just as a place to provide some warmer and moister air for them).

The peppers seem to be holding their own.  I still have the frost cloth on.  It isn’t supposed to freeze tonight, but it will still be clear and cold, and I figure any additional warmth will be beneficial.  My worry is that almost all of the plants had to touch the cloth some areas, and so they won’t come through unscathed.  We’ll see how they do when we get back to warmer days and nights.  I’d just like to get some of the set fruits through to coloring up.

The parsley looks relieved to have cold weather again.  The Brussels sprout was unphased by the cold, but I’m still finding worms.  I wish they had frozen.

We have plans to expand the garden fencing a bit and put in some more beds this winter.  This attempt at least showed that we could learn how to manage this climate zone, so we’ll keep working on improving soil and growing what we can.  The only new planting at this time of year will be some garlic and shallots.


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## AlbergSteve (Nov 3, 2019)

Getting ready for garlic...


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## AlbergSteve (Nov 6, 2019)

Getting 1500 cloves of garlic ready for planting is a lot of work!





One of my favorites is "Rod Stone", developed locally here on Saltspring Island about 20 years ago. Very large heads, large cloves.




Wife's favorite is *Nootka Rose*,  also a local variety developed on the San Juan Islands.


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 7, 2019)

Are these cloves from your flooded plantings last year?  What do you do with so much garlic?


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## AlbergSteve (Nov 8, 2019)

DuaeGuttae said:


> Are these cloves from your flooded plantings last year?  What do you do with so much garlic?


Yes, it's the flooded garlic! It actually did quite well. We eat a lot of garlic now, but the plan is to get our seed stock up so we can plant 3000+ per year and sell locally.


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 9, 2019)

AlbergSteve said:


> Yes, it's the flooded garlic! It actually did quite well. We eat a lot of garlic now, but the plan is to get our seed stock up so we can plant 3000+ per year and sell locally.



Wonderful that the garlic not only survived the flood but appears to have flourished! We eat a lot of garlic in our family, too, and we just planted a small bed of it in our garden area.  

My husband and I spent much of the day outside.  We’re expanding the garden area, so we worked on the exact placement for the fence to allow for new boxes by the old ones.  We succeeded in driving some t-posts into the ground, which is quite a feat here where rock is often at the surface or just a couple inches down.   The garden will still be quite small, but it will be nice to have some additional space come spring.


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## begreen (Nov 10, 2019)

That's awesome. I still have to plant mine. I may need to figure out a time to get up to your island and buy some garlic


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 11, 2019)

“Sadness and Despair!”

  That’s what my children and I said this morning after discovering that a buck had damaged one of our young mission olives and broken off about two feet of its biggest shoot.  (It’s from A. A. Milne, by the way, when Winnie-the-Pooh is stuck inside a honeypot in the Heffalump trap.). At least that made it slightly easier for me to put up some freeze protection.  I just hope the winds aren’t strong enough to blow the pots over.




I decided at the end of last week that the peppers just weren’t going to manage any longer in the garden, but I wasn’t totally ready to give up on them.  I decided to see if they could handle a transplanting, a drastic pruning, and a winter in the garage.  No real loss if they don’t make it, but I figured I could see what would happen.




The frost cloth and former doghouse and grill cover) are now being put to use to protect our young citrus trees.  There’s a Persian lime and two Meyer lemons.  I wasn’t sure quite how low the temperatures would drop, but we’re forecast for mid twenties tonight, low twenties tomorrow.  Since these are all relatively young trees, we’re trying to give them some extra protection.


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 22, 2019)

Freeze protection has worked so far, but it’s not even December yet.  Our family has been sick for a while, but I’m hoping to be well enough tomorrow to put some fencing up to protect those little olives from the deer.  I had been encouraged that they didn’t seem to nibble, but I had forgotten about rubbing.  The one in the center is a  Greek Koroneiki; the two on either end are California Mission Olives.



The peppers in the garage are ripening and don’t seem stressed.  They’ve probably been happy that it’s been sunny and in the 70’s this week.





The citrus is also looking good.  The Meyer lemons are small but getting more yellow.  The frost cloth was pulled down by ice or blown off the lime tree cage some time during the first night, but it must have stayed up long enough to do some real good.  We replaced it and used even more clips and rocks, and it stayed put after that.  (But we also didn’t have more ice blowing in at 40 mph the next few days.). You can see what the cold weather did to the Esperanza/yellow bells behind the lime.


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## EatenByLimestone (Nov 24, 2019)

I just noticed some potatoes with crazy eyes.

How do you think winter potatoes would do?   I wonder how much light they actually need?   Would they do well in a south window with a CFL on them for supplemental light?


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 25, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> I just noticed some potatoes with crazy eyes.
> 
> How do you think winter potatoes would do?   I wonder how much light they actually need?   Would they do well in a south window with a CFL on them for supplemental light?


 

A quick google search did bring up articles about growing winter potatoes indoors with LED grow lights.  I didn’t see anyone actually posting a personal experience, but I didn’t look long.

Were you the one who was going to grow tomatoes or cucumbers or something like that up your peach tree?  Did you ever try?


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## EatenByLimestone (Nov 25, 2019)

Oh, I've grown both of them successfully up the peach tree.    

I didn't do it this year, the garden never really got in.   Wife and kid didn't like the lack of produce and pledged to help more next year.


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## EatenByLimestone (Nov 25, 2019)

I think I'm going to try pie pumpkins this year.    It should really trip some people out to see pumpkins in mid air!    I think they'll be small enough to not need support.


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## AlbergSteve (Nov 25, 2019)

Some last minute harvesting before the _*hard *_frost hits this week. It's great to go grocery shopping in the back yard!


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## AlbergSteve (Nov 26, 2019)

...and it's sour kraut season!


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## EatenByLimestone (Nov 26, 2019)

I tried to make kraut once.   I had less than ok results.    I should try again.


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## AlbergSteve (Nov 26, 2019)

EatenByLimestone said:


> I tried to make kraut once.   I had less than ok results.    I should try again.


We've had pretty good success over the years. Made a small batch this summer and it went moldy on us- I think it was too warm.  I use 1.5% salt to cabbage and a good five minutes of kneading and squeezing to get the brine developed.


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## EatenByLimestone (Nov 26, 2019)

I asked my woodworking board for advice on how to make it, and followed ALL of it, lol.   That was a bad idea.


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## DuaeGuttae (Dec 6, 2019)

We just had a freshly opened batch of sauerkraut for dinner tonight.  I find it helpful to mix the cabbage and salt in a large covered bowl and let it sit for a few hours, then pack it tightly into one of my European canning jars using a wooden tamper.  I weight it down with a rock.  I’ve fermented in all weathers, even in summer in Texas when my kitchen is pretty hot.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a batch go moldy.  (We won’t talk about the kombucha Scoby that I let go.) I do find that my kids definitely prefer the texture of my hand-chopped kraut over my using a food processor.

I was delighted today to find some new growth on the olive shoot that was damaged and broken by the deer last month.  There is some fencing around those pots now.

The shallots and garlic are all coming up.  The dill seedlings and parsley are happy in the cooler weather, and I’m enjoying a break from the work of it.  We’ve picked five little peppers from the garage plants, and a bunch of tiny one are coloring up.

My seven year old brought me the mail the other day, but she kept a seed catalog for herself.  She then sat down with a clipboard and made a list of varieties that she wanted me to consider (radishes, pumpkins, and tomatoes).  We have most of the seeds we’ll need, I believe, but we did use the last of the pumpkin and watermelon, and we might add a couple of things if we get the new beds in.  I just thought it was funny how eager she was to get started again.


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