2022 Garden Thread

[Dan Freeman]

Yes, I know a number of these plants can be directly seeded. I just like to get them off to a good start in my greenhouse. I have found many of what I plant does better in the long run if I do them like that.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We located the 10 new raised beds down in the food forest where we want them, and drove in stakes for the 13 trees, bushes and vines we're supposed to get in early April. All in all, a good day

 

[clancey]

I would say..lots of work here..I did some research on gardening with raised beds and so glad your"s are made of stainless steel even if you have to put a lot of screws in them.. After all you have nothing better to do than screw things together..lol I am thinking of buying some concrete blocks of some kind and turning this into something maybe a few tomato's and maybe some green chili or something like maybe some lettuce as well--just thinking here--lol..clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Good work, @Dan Freeman. You’ve got a lot in store for you getting them filled. Have fun!

I spent time yesterday letting my younger kids play tag in the garden while I covered my little potato sprouts with piles of leaf mulch to help protect them against a sudden hard freeze we’re expecting tonight. My husband also helped me later on to put up frost cloth over our blueberry bushes. Just before dark tonight I put a poultry brooding lamp with a 200 W lightbulb underneath to add more heat. I’m not worried about the bushes themselves, but they’re all in flower right now, so I wanted to try to get a crop this year. (Some had already flowered and even set fruit in December it was so unusually warm this year.) I’m afraid that we won’t get any peaches this year again. Here’s the view out the family room window.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Hope the freeze wasn't too bad, DuaeGuttae.

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[EatenByLimestone]

Went to Sam's Club. Splurged. I'm such a tool to things that look neat and are on clearance.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Went to Sam's Club. Splurged. I'm such a tool to things that look neat and are on clearance.

View attachment 293417

That will be a great tool for you for starting tomatoes. I know you’ve struggled with getting good transplants in the past, but using the Aerogarden seed starting tray makes it quick and easy. We were given one years ago, and I liked it so well that I found a second one used and purchased it. I can’t believe the new prices when I see them, but I am very thankful already to own two. It’s great that you found one on clearance. I get a lot of use out of mine. My tomatoes are mostly potted up now, but I have peppers and eggplant in a second, and I’m thinking of starting more herb seeds today. I have more success making small transplants for such things than I do with direct seeding..

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Hope the freeze wasn't too bad, DuaeGuttae.

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Thanks. It got cold, but it will take some time before I really see the effect on unprotected plants. We‘re supposed to have a sunny afternoon, so I’ll turn off the brooder lamp. I think I’ll need it again tonight, though, so the frost cloth will stay up another day.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

So, i ran into an unexpected problem. Since this toy is automated, I need to find a spot that I can plug it in and not move it, resetting the program. I dont know where to put it, lol. My house is small!

I'm really happy you like it! I'm wondering if I should go get another now, lol. There was a pallet of them. But then I'd have to figure out where to put 2.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Thanks. It got cold, but it will take some time before I really see the effect on unprotected plants. We‘re supposed to have a sunny afternoon, so I’ll turn off the brooder lamp. I think I’ll need it again tonight, though, so the frost cloth will stay up another day.

Every time it gets warm here and the snow melts, we get a blizzard. Nature is a cruel lady this year. This morning at 5:55 I had a bird wake me up with its song for the 1st time this year. I love bird alarm clocks! Then the blizzard hit! Poor bird is probably wondering what it got itself into!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

So, i ran into an unexpected problem. Since this toy is automated, I need to find a spot that I can plug it in and not move it, resetting the program. I dont know where to put it, lol. My house is small!

I'm really happy you like it! I'm wondering if I should go get another now, lol. There was a pallet of them. But then I'd have to figure out where to put 2.

I actually unplug mine rather frequently. I don’t move the bases, but when I start hardening off the seedlings, I carry the water bowl outside for hours to days at a time so the seedlings get used to our sunshine before I put them in soil. I unplug during that time. It does mess up when the lights come on, but that’s easy to reset. More modern versions might be “smarter” though, so that may make it harder if it’s some goofy WiFi or something.

It would be good to have a spot for it, of course. We put our first on the corner of a bookshelf in what was supposed to be a breakfast nook but was used as our kids‘ play/school room. They don’t take up very much room, but it can be hard to find space sometimes. We have friends who keep one in a little entryway of a small apartment. I do recommend keeping them where the light won’t seep into the sleeping areas since they are pretty bright. It’s nice to have it near the kitchen if you ever use it to grow herbs. Mostly we use it as a seed starter, but the first thing we ever grew was an herb kit that was included as the present that my sister-in-law gave to my daughter, and those grew very well.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I looked at the regular online price and was astounded! I never would have bought 1 at that price.
And since you liked it enough to buy another one I did so too. I actually got 2 more. I planted the 1st with basil. I already have 2 containers with it planted/growing. So, it sounds like a lot, but between the low light this time of the year and how fast it can be used up with 1 meal of pesto, it goes fast. It'll be interesting to see if the miracle grow and grow lights supercharge them.

I plan to start all my peppers and tomatoes indoors with the new growers. Do you buy the pre-made peat starters or make your own plugs. It doesn't look like it'd be hard to do your own. You could even use a bit of poly fill if you don't mind picking it out of the garden later.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I have used Aerogarden’s peat sponges if I can get them on a sale with free shipping, but I’ve also used sponges for what I think is called Park Seed Biodome as well as just some generic ones I ordered from Amazon. I do experiment from time to time with using stretched cotton balls since they are cheaper. It sort of depends on whether I have seeds to spare or not since the cotton doesn’t work as well. I used sponges for tomatoes and peppers this spring but cotton balls for things that I try to get in the garden without potting up like beets or peas. I have hopes of trying to make my own from luffa sponges this fall if I can successfully grow luffas this season. The sponges are a recurring expense, but I figure that it really only amounts to about 10 cents per plant (or it used to with sale prices a couple of years ago—who knows with current pricing), and that still puts me far ahead of having to buy transplants. (I about fell down the other day when I saw tomato plants on sale for $20.00 a plant. Granted they were large plants rather than just starter cells, but still!)

I just went a took a couple of pictures for you. The first is the Aerogarden I used for the tomatoes this season. Four plants didn’t come up in the first batch, so I reseeded, and these are the little guys that are growing now. I plan to put them in nursery bags next week after they get a couple of days of hardening off.



The second picture is most of my tomato transplants. They were potted up in nursery bags one week ago. They spent a couple days outside but have been inside for much of this week as we’ve had some cold, but they are doing well. I like the nursery bags because they don’t get root bound and I can plant them directly in the garden. (They’re also cheap, or used to be when I bought them. I feel like I have to put a disclaimer on everything with prices these days.)



I usually use only one seed per sponge in the Aerogarden because I get such good germination. A few of my sponges must have gotten two seeds stuck together, though, because I had two sprouts in three spaces. The good thing about having an extra Aerogarden was that I could gently pluck out the second sprout and put it in a moist sponge, and it grew into a fine tomato start. Now I have a few extra plants to give away.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I never thought of cotton balls. Thats a great idea! Those tomatoes look great! It'll be another couple of weeks before I even think of planting them! But I decided to plant heavy this year and will be putting in a full garden. I was going to make the garden smaller as I wasn't planting as much, now, not so much.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I never thought of cotton balls. Thats a great idea! Those tomatoes look great! It'll be another couple of weeks before I even think of planting them! But I decided to plant heavy this year and will be putting in a full garden. I was going to make the garden smaller as I wasn't planting as much, now, not so much.

The cotton might hold a bit too much water. I’m not sure. I’m still experimenting, which is why I’m curious to try luffa sponges for seed starting if I can grow some this summer.

I’m cutting down on the number of tomato plants I’m doing this year, and I’m hoping that I’m not going to regret that. Last year the plants grew particularly well, and I had to prune and prune and prune. I’m hoping to get more room between plants this year so that I can let the indeterminates just do their thing without as much pruning. I’m still planting an awful lot, but we have a family of six, and I want to preserve as well as eat fresh. It helps the grocery bill.

It has warmed up in to the sixties this afternoon, and I just put my tomatoes and peppers out on the back deck in some dappled shade. Daytime temperatures look to be in the 70’s this week, but nights are still forecast to be a bit on the cool side. I’m hoping to get them in the ground by the end of the month, though. It helps to get them producing before the really high heat hits down here.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@EatenByLimestone , another thing I should mention is that I’ve found it helpful to make templates to keep track of what I’ve planted in each spot. I used to make copies of the little picture included in the box, but it was too small for me, so I had my daughter make me some on her drawing program. Those files got lost, however, and so I figured out how to make some in my open source drawing program. They’re pretty basic, but they work for helping me keep varieties straight. I took a photo of what I used for my tomato starts this year to give you an idea.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Nice! A piece of paper and a piece of charcoal or graphite could give an impression.


I was looking at the peppers tonight. Recommended planting 8-10 weeks from last frost, which is now. I guess I should get moving on that. It also says germination temp 80-90F. That's not going to happen. My house is kept in the upper 60s, lol. I can probably tent the unit and make a greenhouse over it.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I was looking at the peppers tonight. Recommended planting 8-10 weeks from last frost, which is now. I guess I should get moving on that. It also says germination temp 80-90F. That's not going to happen. My house is kept in the upper 60s, lol. I can probably tent the unit and make a greenhouse over it.

They will still germinate at the upper 60's. It will just take a little longer. When I plant my pepper seeds in my greenhouse, I keep the temps in the upper 50's at night. (Too costly to keep the temps higher.) It takes about twice as long for the peppers to germinate, but they grow very well after that.

I'll be starting all my seeds in my greenhouse next weekend. That gives me about 8 weeks until our last frost. I've been dreaming about this day for months!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Good to know about the germination! I'm actually reading the packets this year so I don't screw things up this time! I ordered a temp controlled seed mat that I can wrap around the aerogarden.

Its neat watching the basil seeds from the top without soil. They all turned a white blue. I've never seen that before. Hopefully they sprout soon.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I'll be starting all my seeds in my greenhouse next weekend. That gives me about 8 weeks until our last frost. I've been dreaming about this day for months!

That will be one exciting day!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Good to know about the germination! I'm actually reading the packets this year so I don't screw things up this time! I ordered a temp controlled seed mat that I can wrap around the aerogarden.

Its neat watching the basil seeds from the top without soil. They all turned a white blue. I've never seen that before. Hopefully they sprout soon.

Another option for you would be presprouting seeds. I do occasionally for heat lovers soak seeds overnight, then drain the excess water and leave the seeds sealed in a glass jar until they show signs of a little tap root. I can then carefully drop them in the sponges in the Aerogarden and let them go from there. I haven’t had to do that with peppers (they germinate fine for me but my indoor temperatures are in the 70s during the day this time of year, though they do drop into the 60s overnight). I did need to do it with Roselle (Hibiscus) and Okra last year (after failed attempts without enough heat, I think). My mother in Virginia, however, puts pepper seeds in a plastic bag with a moist paper towel to test their germination. She then sets those on the mantel above her woodstove. Once they show little roots she moves them to small pots with compost.

@begreen taught me about presprouting corn seeds before direct seeding a couple of years ago. That has really helped my germination rates with corn and okra. I’ve pretty much adopted it as standard practice for my large seeds.

@EatenByLimestone, your posts about basil reminded me to get some started. I put some seeds in sponges yesterday. I love checking on them and watching as they develop roots and shoots. Basil grows super well down here, but I have a hard time getting it established from seed in my garden. I just can’t keep the top of the soil moist enough with our intense sun. It does fine as a transplant, and I love giving away basil bouquets in the summer.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I was in Walmart today for some packing tape and wandered over to the garden section. Their seed prices fell to that of the mail order places! Burped organic for $2.17/ packet. Regular about .20 less. I like the guys I deal with online, but if I need something in a pinch, it'll be easy to find.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

So, the basil planted a couple days ago has started to sprout! Its so neat watching these seeds on the surface! I wonder how long it'll take to get first leaves? The seeds were planted Saturday afternoon.

 

[clancey]

Sounds wonderful "limestone" and I am afraid to go to the garden section of walmart or even home depot for what I might bring home for me to have more work to do..lol The day is coming for me to buy a plant or two and I make it like a vacation day just looking around..lol nice posting..clancey

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Thoughts of gardens get addictive this time of year. When the dog starts tracking mud all over the house, I start looking at the beds and try to figure out what I want to do with them this year.