2025 Garden Thread

[begreen]

Time to be pruning, ordering seeds, and getting ready for spring. Meanwhile we continue to harvest carrots, beets, and our first January King cabbage of the year. They are extra sweet and tasty after the first frost.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I’m looking to redo the wood raised beds this year. A few years ago I got some seed filled compost in and it’s been a battle every year since dealing with it. At this point I want to yank the remaining wood and stone walkways out, mow the area down, find a new raised bed container and bring in new soil.

My neighbor replaced the fence between our houses last year and I no longer have a rabbet proof barrier on one wall of the garden too, lol.

Have any of you found a good, ready to purchase raised bed you like? I’m kind of past making my own beds again.

In order to keep the critters out, the containers will have to be 2ft tall.

 

[begreen]

Livestock tubs work well. I have several Vego beds that are starting on their 3d season. So far they are working out ok.

https://www.vegogarden.com/collections/on-sale

 

[EatenByLimestone]

That’s what I’ve been looking at, but I wasn’t sure if I was missing something.

 

[EbS-P]

I buying a 4 pack now!

 

[begreen]

This was a month after they were installed.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Time to be pruning, ordering seeds, and getting ready for spring. Meanwhile we continue to harvest carrots, beets, and our first January King cabbage of the year. They are extra sweet and tasty after the first frost.

View attachment 336227

Thanks for the picture, Begreen. I always think your cabbages are beautiful, and it makes me want to try that variety.

When was your first frost this year?

 

[EbS-P]

I’m going to start tomatoes today. I think I’m late.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the picture, Begreen. I always think your cabbages are beautiful, and it makes me want to try that variety.

When was your first frost this year?

We had a mild fall here. The first frost of the season was mid-January.

 

[begreen]

I’m going to start tomatoes today. I think I’m late.

I'm a bit envious. We have ripening Tiny Tim and Siam cherry tomatoes indoors, but I wont be starting tomatoes for outdoors for another month. Your weather looks variable and much warmer than here right now. My sister lost a hot water heater in that deep freeze that hit NC a few weeks ago.

 

[EbS-P]

I'm a bit envious. We have ripening Tiny Tim and Siam cherry tomatoes indoors, but I wont be starting tomatoes for outdoors for another month. Your weather looks variable, but much warmer than here right now. My sister lost a hot water heater in that deep freeze that hit NC a few weeks ago.

I drained my irrigation pump and added some heat tape but haven’t decided to prime it yet. Surprisingly the chard in my tower garden has survived.

I have more work cut out for than I want this spring. But I do need to get some komatsuna and mustard planted outside.

Plan is for eight 2x8 beds up this hill with a 18” wall along the bottom and stairs between each bed. Gotta get this tree slabbed up. 75 today!

 

[EbS-P]

Making my tomato list. Decided to do more dwarf fewer indeterminate

Winners from last year were

Dwarf— Fred’s tie dye and lemon ice, gold nugget

Indeterminate— chocolate stripe, yellow pear

Determinate— cream sausage, taxi

I ordered more dwarf cherry size. Tall tomato’s are hard in the net house.

 

[begreen]

Ever wonder why tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, etc. are edible in spite of being in the nightshade family? This article sheds some light on the interesting internal systems of plants.

Tomatoes Don't Kill Humans, And We Just Figured Out Why

Rumored to have killed the Roman emperor Augustus, nightshade's berries are notoriously deadly.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[begreen]

Nice day today so I harvested the last of our 2024 planting of carrots. It will be time to sow a new row in a few weeks.

 

[clancey]

They look beautiful...clancey

 

[30WCF]

Back in October I put some Chestnuts in a bag with a damp paper towel and put them in the fridge. I potted one today. I’ll wait a few more weeks to be sure we clear the hard freezes before I do the rest.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

American Chestnut? Cool!

 

[30WCF]

American Chestnut? Cool!

I’m not exactly sure. Tell me what I’m looking for and perhaps I can find out when the parent tree gets leaves back.

I mow my wife’s grandmothers yard. The tree is in her yard, so I can see it about every week in the summer.

Grandma planted the tree many years ago, and my FIL talked about he and his brother eating them when they were kids.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The 2 main types of chestnut are the Chinese and American varieties. One has 3 nuts in the spike pod, the other has 2. I couldn’t honestly tell you which is which and all the hybrids might mix that up. I suppose you could look at leaves, but I really don’t know. I think I’ve seen 3 chestnut trees in my life. None were probably American.

 

[begreen]

Our neighbor has a nice big chestnut tree. I suspect it's a Chinese chestnut, but might be a European variety. The blight is not as common out here. Will check it out more carefully this summer.

 

[30WCF]

I’d imagine Chinese or a hybrid. 60 years old though I’d guess Chinese. I don’t know when they started making the hybrids.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I started tearing out part of my garden today. The wood raised beds are coming out fairly easily, the hardware cloth fencing is not. I’d guessed that the grass would grow up and through the hardware cloth, sealing it from bunnies and woodchucks squeezing under it. Unfortunately I was right, lol. It’s not coming up. I’ll weed whack the grass down and it should come up then, when I have a heavier pair of gloves, lol. That stuff is viscous!

 

[EbS-P]

Building a wall the. We will level for one terrace with raised bed planters. The next wall we will use planters as the wall.

 

[stoveliker]

Do you have gravel underneath and behind it?
Otherwise water pressure may ruin your wall.
Put the downspout on the other side of the wall too.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Last year or raised beds we put in didn't do well at all. I filled they with a mix of putting soil and bagged garden soil that was waaaaay to hot off compost. This year I went old school. I took the trailer north with me to a friend's farm. He loaded it with top soil from a 2 acre pasture that has had cattle in it for over 20 years. If the grasses growing in it are any indication it seems pretty good top soil. (Yes the dirt i brought down is from below the root line of the grass).

Swapped out the dirt last week and planted one with sweet onions. All the green tips I see make me think they like it.

'Maters cuces and jalapeños next weekend.