2022 Garden Thread

[begreen]

@begreen , I'm surprised that moisture retention is a problem for you with such low annual rainfall. I guess it all comes at the wrong time of year for you or something. Do you use a mulch on your beds in the winter? Or cover crops?

Moisture retention is an issue for our shallow-rooted crops in the summer, but definitely not an issue fall through spring. I do mulch in the summer when I have a good source of mulch, but I need to be careful. Last year I put grass clippings on, but too late. The grass had tons of new seeds in it and by late fall I had a nice lush crop of lawn grass on my beds. Oy! I had this happen once before with in ground crops that I mulched heavily with bedding straw. The straw was full of seed heads and created a real mess in pathways. I do use shredded leaves in fall but need to get more than our yard produces. Daikon radishes are great for a fall crop in in-ground beds. They set very deep roots. I don't think that would work for our raised bed, but maybe there is a shorter variety?

Use BT and maybe diatomaceous earth for cabbage worms. Spinosad is harmful to bees.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I just went looking at my local nursery for broccoli plantlets. None in yet, but they had peppers? Huh? *shrug*. Then I remembered I had the aerogardens. I put about 30 seeds down.

The peas went into the kale bed. They’ll be long gone by the time the dinosaur kale gets big.

 

[begreen]

I just went looking at my local nursery for broccoli plantlets. None in yet, but they had peppers? Huh? *shrug*. Then I remembered I had the aerogardens. I put about 30 seeds down.

How many aerogardens do you have?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

3. I bought 1 on clearance because it looked cool. DG said how much she liked hers, so I decided to pick 2 more up. This was in the middle of a blizzard so they didn’t go fast, lol. If it wasn’t for them being marked down I never would have bought the first one.

I think they would have been worth the price now, but I’m cheap and would have had a hard time trying something new for that much when I’d been successful enough in the past.

 

[begreen]

What is a good price?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Moisture retention is an issue for our shallow-rooted crops in the summer, but definitely not an issue fall through spring. I do mulch in the summer when I have a good source of mulch, but I need to be careful. Last year I put grass clippings on, but too late. The grass had tons of new seeds in it and by late fall I had a nice lush crop of lawn grass on my beds. Oy! I had this happen once before with in ground crops that I mulched heavily with bedding straw. The straw was full of seed heads and created a real mess in pathways. I do use shredded leaves in fall but need to get more than our yard produces. Daikon radishes are great for a fall crop in in-ground beds. They set very deep roots. I don't think that would work for our raised bed, but maybe there is a shorter variety?

Use BT and maybe diatomaceous earth for cabbage worms. Spinosad is harmful to bees.

I think I phrased my “moisture retention” comment badly. I was trying to express surprise that your beds hold on to too much moisture at all because I remember being shocked by just how low your rainfall totals are. Isn’t it something like 16 to 18 inches a year? I need to get my beds to hold on to more moisture than they do.

Grass all over the garden beds and pathways sounds awful. I’ve been guilty of using compost that wasn’t finished or had had something fresh added, and have had a lush covering of tomato seedlings. Thankfully those are pretty easy to eradicate.

We have an abundance of leaves at the moment. We do get some in fall, but the majority of ours fall in March. We try to make piles of leaf mulch to have available for when we need it. We’re far behind on that project this year, but the leaf drop has been behind, too.

Knowing that you have concrete and landscape fabric under your beds, I agree that daikon would not be a good option. I wonder if something like Austrian winter peas would suit. I’ve never grown them, but I know others love them.

Thanks for the warning about Spinosad. I don’t use it lightly and take precautions precisely because of pollinators and other beneficials. Right now there is no honeybee activity in the bed because there are no flowers. I also did it early in the morning so that it could dry as I understand that is important. I expect this is the only time I’ll spray the plants because I’ll be cutting them soon. I was hoping this would get into the cracks and crevices where I can’t see and mush. Mostly I just try to squash worms and eggs, but they were starting to get ahead of me, and I needed help. I had this in my cabinet but no BT on hand. I have a hard time using BT down here because it isn’t as effective in really high temperatures, which is precisely when I need it most.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

What is a good price?

Harvest 360 at $80 each.


Looks like they’re currently being offered at $160-101

 

[Northern NH Mike]

Got some onion sets out two days ago and we had two inches of snow late yesterday

 

[begreen]

Got some onion sets out two days ago and we had two inches of snow late yesterday

A friend is visiting in CT. I was surprised to see that there are no leaves on the trees yet. We've had a record cold April, yet most of the leaves are out or starting to be.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

It’s stupid cold this year. Silver maples are just starting to leaf out here. It’s still mid 30s at night. I’ve had tomatoes and zucchini in the ground by now in past years.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Coolest (coldest) Spring I can remember in years. Everything is late! Feels more like the end of March, not the end of April.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

My two youngest kids had a sick day off of homeschooling today, so I had a little extra time to take care of some planting in pots and planters around the house. I replenished the soil in some large pots on our front porch and transplanted some seedlings for Balsam flowers (touch me nots) into them.

I also worked on a planter in the backyard that was probably built by the previous owners. It sits in front of a south facing window and gets lots of afternoon heat and sun. It can dry out easily, but it also gets pounded by roof runoff when there is rain since that portion of the house doesn’t have gutters. I’ve had herbs in it before but nothing was coming back except a few garlic chives. I decided earlier this spring to give lemongrass a try. I managed to germinate one seedling, and it has been growing slowly, but I decided that it had enough roots to go out today. It’s the tiny blades of green in the very center of the top tier. (The taller blades are the garlic chives.). It’s hard to believe that tiny shoot has the potential to grow tall and thick, but that’s just what I’m hoping it will do.



In the front tier I put one more Balsam seedling as well as some Mexican Mint Marigold/Texas Tarragon. I mulched with wood chips to help control the soil splashing, but that may well defeat my hopes of having the Marigold and Balsam reseed themselves in this spot. First, of course, I just have to get these seedlings established here. Here’s a shot of the Mexican Mint Marigold.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

34 this morning. Winter has beaten me. It took to late April, but I'm done with it. This is March weather. Im going to accelerate fast this morning to do my part for global warming.

I have almost all of the soil moved now from the bed that will be disappearing. So beds are full again.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We got one of the plum trees and one of the cherry trees planted today. It took us over 2 hours to break through the Zoysia grass and all the shale in the soil. We dug extra big holes and back filled with good soil/compost. Tomorrow, we'll plant the other plum and cherry trees.

Started filling two more of the raised beds, too. It took me over an hour to water everything. It has been very dry the past few days with very low humidity. In fact, we are in a fire warning right now.

 

[begreen]

34 this morning. Winter has beaten me. It took to late April, but I'm done with it. This is March weather. Im going to accelerate fast this morning to do my part for global warming.

I have almost all of the soil moved now from the bed that will be disappearing. So beds are full again.

I thought the same here. We are about a month behind in temps locally as a strong La Nina continues in the Pacific. But then a friend visiting back in CT posted some pictures. I couldn't believe the trees were all still bare. We started leafing out a few weeks ago.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We got another cherry tree (Bing) and another plum tree (Methley) planted today. Filled 3 more of the 4 x 10 raised garden beds with the 50/50 mix, peat moss, and vermiculite. All 10 are now filled. Still have to move the raised beds from the backyard down to the food forest. We also got about 100 feet of the 2-foot ground fencing covered with cardboard and wood chips. We also got a delivery of 10 cubic yards of "sawdust" from out wood guy. Exhausted. Treating ourselves to Olive Garden takeout chicken parmesan, salad, and bread sticks.

Tomorrow, we want to get the 3 Hazelnut trees planted, and start covering more grass with cardboard/wood chips. Also hoping to get some of the electric fence run. Monday looks like rain, so we want to take advantage of the nice weather tomorrow.

 

[clancey]

Good Job.. but take some time off for yourself and family too...I like Olive Garden especially their bread sticks and salad and everything is looking really nice as well,,clancey

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How's your back feeling, Mrs. Clancy?

 

[Dan Freeman]

Thanks, Mrs. Clancey, but we are fighting mother nature and the planting season, so it's hard to take some time off this time of year.

Well, I really didn't want to have to do this, but I think I am going to have to up pot my 40 tomato plants to larger pots. Usually, they are about a foot tall when I put them outside. This year most are already 1.5 feet tall, and it is at least another 2 weeks before I can safely plant them outside. They are in 3.5" pots. I have a bunch of 5" pots that I will move them to.

My plantar fasciitis in my left foot is throbbing today. That's what I get for walking on uneven ground covered with wood chips all day yesterday as I covered about 100 feet of the ground fencing with cardboard and chips on the hill side of the food forest. Working in the greenhouse today transplanting will at least keep me on level ground for today.

Now that all the new raised beds are filled with soil, I am anxious to start direct sowing my cukes, cantaloupes, acorn and butternut squash, beets, turnips, carrots, celery and more. I have over 200 pots of flowers that I have started that I need to plant, too. Every year I say I am going to cut back, and every year, I plant more. Must be some kind of sickness! LOL

 

[EatenByLimestone]

This is the first year I shrank the garden. It was only the prospect of having to tear up a planted bed that got me to decrease the size.

 

[begreen]

It's the first year in decades that I am thinking of cloching many plants and using row covers for the tomatoes.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We got the 3 Hazelnut trees planted today, more wood chips over cardboard down, and I up potted the 40 tomato plants. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't want to do the up potting, but it wound up being a very relaxing, "therapeutic" hour or so. Here is the aftermath of the up potted tomatoes and the rest of the plants in the greenhouse.


Here is the latest picture of the food forest. While we have over 30 trees/bushes/vines planted, it is hard to see them in this pic since it takes in such a large area and all the plants are small. I will start taking pictures of individual plants as they grow.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I planted my garden today. tomatoes peppers red bell and banana. 60 onions lettuce, watermelon ans cantaloupe eggplant zucchini.as well as the seeds bush beans, peas ,cucumber and sugar snaps..

 

[begreen]

I planted my garden today. tomatoes peppers red bell and banana. 60 onions lettuce, watermelon ans cantaloupe eggplant zucchini.as well as the seeds bush beans, peas ,cucumber and sugar snaps..

That is a busy day. Are these all from starts or some from seeds too? I have a greenhouse full of starts but I'm waiting for the soil to warm up some more.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I planted my garden today. tomatoes peppers red bell and banana. 60 onions lettuce, watermelon ans cantaloupe eggplant zucchini.as well as the seeds bush beans, peas ,cucumber and sugar snaps..

Wow! You had a busy day!