2021 Garden Thread

[begreen]

Phooey. The weather took a turn toward chillier and these plants want to get into the ground.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Here are my cabbage family seedlings. There are 72 pots of cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. I seeded them April 1, and plan to plant them out around May 15. Mt garden is still covered with snow and my last frost free date is June 15.

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Those look very nice. We had a similar one light system in our basement workroom in our home in Virginia. I like how you use support underneath to get the seedlings closer to the lights.

I had a few brassicas this winter that were doing well until February‘s freeze. I replanted a few after that, but broccoli and cauliflower never took off. I think they really do better in the fall here as the spring goes from cold to hot to cold to hot so much.

When is your first frost in the fall usually? It must be a pretty short season.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Phooey. The weather took a turn toward chillier and these plants want to get into the ground.
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Those sure do look like they want to go out. I hope the chill won’t last too long. Are these the plants for your new cinder block bed? I just added a few new herb transplants to mine. I’m really hoping they take, especially the za‘atar as I only got one good seedling to go out.

 

[begreen]

Those sure do look like they want to go out. I hope the chill won’t last too long. Are these the plants for your new cinder block bed? I just added a few new herb transplants to mine. I’m really hoping they take, especially the za‘atar as I only got one good seedling to go out.

They are for all the beds. The new bed will get some peppers, eggplants, and maybe a zucchini or tomato. Haven't decided yet.

 

[Montanalocal]

Those look very nice. We had a similar one light system in our basement workroom in our home in Virginia. I like how you use support underneath to get the seedlings closer to the lights.

I had a few brassicas this winter that were doing well until February‘s freeze. I replanted a few after that, but broccoli and cauliflower never took off. I think they really do better in the fall here as the spring goes from cold to hot to cold to hot so much.

When is your first frost in the fall usually? It must be a pretty short season.

Yes, we have a short season. First frost is around Sept. 15, which gives us a 90 day growing season. Root crops, brassicas, onions do quit well. One thing I do is plant my carrots in the late fall. They come up much earlier than when planted in the spring.

Shifting the bottom supports to raise and lower the seedlings is vastly easier than trying to change the chains on the lights.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Looking good. No okra growing here. Do you get enough fruit to harvest the olives?

The olive trees were only planted two years ago as young seedlings, so they were too young to bear fruit yet. It’s my understanding that they can bear in this climate. We don’t have plans to have major olive harvests, but I would love to be able to brine a couple of jars.

My youngest son’s favorite food is probably black olives, and so when we moved to Texas his older siblings suggested that we plant olives for him. The trees were his third birthday present. Thankfully the one Koroneiki variety we had is coming back. We need to replace an Arbequina that died, but those are the most easily available. The other variety that survived is a Mission.

I took a couple of photos this morning of the itty bitty olive growth that’s coming back. The trees were small before the freeze (above my knee), but now it’s just six inches of growth. They’re surrounded by a circle of wire fencing to protect them from the deer (the second one got broken badly by a deer when it was younger), and I do need to get in there to weed.



Our large satsuma mandarin is also going to be much smaller this year. It used to have an eighteen foot diameter canopy, but now it’s just a bunch of sprouts up the lower trunks. The good news is that this is all growth above the graft. This one was covered and heated by incandescent lightbulbs during the freeze, so we’re very thankful that there’s some hope for it. Two of our six citrus trees died, but they were much younger and were covered but didn’t have lightbulbs.



We also had a mature cherry tree that seems to have died. It was fully leafed out before the freeze, and we never really imagined that it was in danger. We’re used to cherries living through freezes just fine where we both grew up, but of course this tree never really went dormant, and its branches froze. It tried putting out new leaves here and there, but they shriveled up and died. It had been a really beautiful tree that we could see from our kitchen/dining room windows.

 

[begreen]

I have an arbequina that is in a pot. It had one olive last year. I'm thinking of putting it in the ground this year. It's about 4ft tall and robust, but getting pot bound.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I have an arbequina that is in a pot. It had one olive last year. I'm thinking of putting it in the ground this year. It's about 4ft tall and robust, but getting pot bound.

We debated pots for both citrus and olives as we are on the edge of their hardiness zones, and we knew they would need winter protection when they were young. We wanted them as part of the landscaping, though, and to reach their mature sizes. I also just didn’t think I could handle watering so many large pots in the Texas heat.

I would think your climate would be pretty good for an olive in the ground, though I know you get cold snaps, too. How old is your four-foot tree?

We had plans to expand our line of olives all up and down the fence line on the south of our property. There used to be an olive ranch south of San Antonio that sold inexpensive seedlings and gave free tours, and we wanted to go on a family trip there. We had it planned for my son’s fourth birthday, but that fell in the middle of the Covid shutdown last year, and they never reopened to the public. Sadly the owner just passed away last month from cancer, and the ranch is shutting down.

 

[begreen]

I've lost two young olives before this during below-freezing spells so I let this one get a couple years older. It's about 5 or 6 yrs old now. Will try it in a more sheltered location.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

here's some of the stuff I have in the greenhouse.. Ill be planting in a week or 2. This past Thursday it was 35 in the morning. Got tomato,onion,carrots, eggplant peppers and more

 

[begreen]

here's some of the stuff I have in the greenhouse.. Ill be planting in a week or 2. This past Thursday it was 35 in the morning. Got tomato,onion,carrots, eggplant peppers and more

They look nice and healthy. Onions and carrots can go in the ground now. I sowed my carrot seeds outdoor a month ago and they have sprouted now. Onions have been in the ground for a few weeks now.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

They look nice and healthy. Onions and carrots can go in the ground now. I sowed my carrot seeds outdoor a month ago and they have sprouted now. Onions have been in the ground for a few weeks now.

I'm not done my garden yet.. My son and I moved it this spring. I am making a Dedicated wood processing area and had to move ALOT of stuff. The back of the property held alot of water and this is where my wood stuff is going.. Im accumulating alit of wood and all that goes with it

 

[begreen]

3 more beds prepped and ready. Cabbages and kale in the ground now. It looks like I will be doing a lot of transplanting later in the week. Ready to start green beans and corn sprouting.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Thanks for reminding me, @begreen. I intended to sprout some corn tonight. I have some older seeds I want to use up. We did not have good success last year (who knew that fire ants actually eat corn kernels?), but I have seed and a little space, so I want to see what I can do.

Does transplanting later in the week mean you’ll get to put out your heat lovers?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

here's some of the stuff I have in the greenhouse.. Ill be planting in a week or 2. This past Thursday it was 35 in the morning. Got tomato,onion,carrots, eggplant peppers and more
View attachment 278159View attachment 278160View attachment 278161View attachment 278162View attachment 278163View attachment 278164

Those are looking really nice. I hope you have some good weather coming up for getting the garden in.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for reminding me, @begreen. I intended to sprout some corn tonight. I have some older seeds I want to use up. We did not have good success last year (who knew that fire ants actually eat corn kernels?), but I have seed and a little space, so I want to see what I can do.

Does transplanting later in the week mean you’ll get to put out your heat lovers?

Yes, for the tomatoes, squash & cukes. Peppers and eggplant will be in a couple weeks.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'll be able to set my tomatoes, zucs, squash, and basil out side today to get real sun.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I'll have the door to the greenhouse open for the next 3 days.. its warm out

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I love it when my seedlings start to get fresh air and real sunshine. I always feel like they have little milestones: first time outside, first whole day outside, first night outside, and that sort of thing.

Last night my garden had a milestone of sorts: first major rainstorm of the season. We really needed it. We got about an inch and a half of rain, and thankfully we were spared the hail and possible tornadoes that hit really hard in areas quite close to us. (We spent time sheltering in our small interior hallway last evening, but the most violent storms missed us.) The garden was a bit beaten down this morning (potato stalks beaten down and even broken in places and onions lying down not due to maturity but wind and rain), but I was very pleased that tomatoes I had worked on trellising as well as a few cucumbers and pole beans had remained up.

 

[begreen]

Tomatoes are planted.

 

[clancey]

They look beautiful when will get one? What is that big white metal fence type thing for ?...Can I get one of your tomatoes mailed to me? lol good for you...as you see I know very little about gardening but a well kept spot is a beautiful one...Sounds like DuaeGuttae had a hell of a storm--how scary.. I saw the moon two nights ago early in the morning about 3am and it was huge and made me think of your gardens with their little leaves stretch out to the moon...Get funny thoughts in the wee of the morning...lol clancey

 

[begreen]

The white structure is just a pvc pipe frame to support and contain the cherry tomatoes.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Tomatoes are planted.

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Is that an artichoke in the background? If so, what kind of harvests do you get?

My garden is small enough that I don’t want to give up the space for an artichoke inside the fence, but I agreed to try to grow some outside the garden area because my oldest child really wanted to grow some. We germinated a few seeds inside this winter but only got two seedlings to plant out. The deer pulled one up but only nibbled the other. They’ve left it alone since.

I think an armadillo may have gotten into my garden the night before last. When I checked it yesterday morning, I found holes in my sweet potato bed and one of the pathways.



Thankfully the plants weren’t fatally disturbed, and I rebedded the slips. I didn’t see an obvious point of entry around the fence line, but I’ll need to investigate more. I don’t want this kind of digging to continue.

 

[clancey]

Do you have any squirrels? clancey

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My tomatoes starts got hammered, I think by the weather. I'm hoping they make it. I never have the luck I want with tomato seeds.