2019 Garden Thread

[makattak]

It seems no one has started it yet, so I get to.

I've had my early crops in for about a month now (peas, kale, lettuce, arugula) and I just planted the main crops today: 16 tomato plants, 12 cucumber, 1 row of onions, 2 rows of okra, and 2 rows of beans.

Mortgage lifter is my favorite of the tomatoes but Sungold is a huge hit with everyone, so I did 8 of each.

I also have plums growing for the first time to complement the many peaches

Also, the rhubarb is growing very well already.

All that matters now is mitigation of animal damage. (Hoping the early crops can avoid rabbit/groundhog/deer attention)

[zxcvbob]

I have pepper seedlings growing under fluorescent lights.  Just planted more today.  The ones that are up and have at least one set of leaves: jalapeno, puya (a smaller and hotter version of guajillo), Thai, and Murupi Amarela (sp?).

My 7-Pot and rocoto pepper seeds didn't come up (actually they were just starting to germinate when I went to Texas for a week and a half, and they didn't survive the trip) so I replanted those today, and some Fresno peppers.  I may start some tomatillos this weekend.  Don't think I'm going to plant any tomatoes this year.  There are more pepper varieties that I have seeds for and want to plant, but that's probably enough.

[charby]

Rhubard is growing, asparagus is starting to poke up, black raspberries are leafing out and blueberries are budding.

Supposed to have 4-6" on snow on Saturday and a freeze to follow. So no annual plants yet.

Dug up my sand cherry bushes, just too bit large for my perennial garden. If you like a cherry between a pie and sweet cherry with a zone 2 hardiness I recommend these. Fruit is set on 2 year old wood, bush is about 5'x6' in 3 years, pretty white flowers in the spring.

Moved a flowering bush from my pollinator garden to my front landscaping, planted some toad lilies, false goats beard and bleeding hearts in my pollinator garden in the shady part. Moved a peony bush to make it easier to mow an area in my back yard with the rider.

Going to look for a Dutch elm disease resistant American Elm for the backyard and probably plant a sugar maple or swamp white oak in the front yard for when the green ash in my front yard finally dies from EAB. I treat it every year, but things happen.

[Chester32141]

My results have been mixed this year.  Planted 2/15 … 3 rows of Blue Lake Beans and 2 rows of Clemson Okra … to plant I dug 5x20' trenches in the sand and filled each with Black Cow … same technique I used last year w/ good results … beans have been producing 1.5 - 2.5# daily for about 2 weeks now and are going strong … same bag of seeds as last year but the beans seem tougher and less flavorful.

 I use a drip irrigation system for all five rows along with an irrigation timer.  The Okra didn't grow for some reason.  They came up and looked real healthy but never got over 10" tall … about 2 weeks ago they started to bloom at 6-10" tall.

 So I pulled them and planted a new row of Okra that I had started 2 weeks before in a flat … this second set of Okra has done nothing since planting … no frosts this winter, a few cold nights into the mid 50's yet the Okra just doesn't want to grow.  Same bag of seeds as last year which did really well.

 I've since added 12 pepper plants that I started from seed and they have flowers starting … I expect peppers in about 3 weeks.  Put in 12 Banana trees for privacy about a month ago and none of them are doing as good as they should.  

Any input on my Okra problem would be appreciated.
 

[K Frame]

I planted a crap ton of basil seeds the other day in a very large pot I had sitting around. If even half of them come up I'm going to be eating pesto for a long time...

[Larry Ashcraft]

I planted a crap ton of basil seeds the other day in a very large pot I had sitting around. If even half of them come up I'm going to be eating pesto for a long time...

Pesto freezes nicely.  My wife hates wasting basil, so she makes most of it into pesto and freezes it.

We've got all our plants and seeds, but nothing in the garden yet.  Wife wanted a new herb garden for her 70th birthday a couple of weeks ago, so that has taken precedence.  It's about 4'x10', kidney shaped, built out of brick with some rocks, wine bottles and pottery for decoration.  I can't lay brick very fast anymore, so it's been a long process.

The whole garden will go in in about a week or so.  Our last freeze date is May 15th, but it rarely freezes past May 5th.  If the tomatoes and peppers are in by Mothers Day, they'll do just fine.  Beans, lettuce, spinach, and pickling cucumbers should be in by May 1st.  Those are all from seed.  Last year we put up 146 quarts of dill pickles from two 50' rows.  I grow our dill too.

[Silver Bullet]

Is anybody using a raised bed?

[K Frame]

I believe that Castle Key is using about 8 raised beds this year.

[Ben]

I'm so freakin' busy this Spring that I don't know if I'm going to get anything in the ground. If things settle down in the next few weeks, I'll probably try to get at least a small garden going, but not much. I still have to research what grows well here. There's a pretty big farmer's market in my little town, so I'll probably get some ideas there for next year at least. I would like to get at least a couple of peach trees and a couple of apple trees started this year though. The previous owners loo kto have put a couple of fruit trees in. They're still small and just starting to bloom, so I haven't figured out what they are yet.

On the raised beds, I've used them with mixed results. They have worked well for me for stuff like radishes, carrots, and spinach, but I used potato sacks last year in addition to having some in the ground, and the potatoes in the ground did way better. YMMV depending on the ground you have. One thing I will miss about CA is I had really good ground around the house for growing. The ground around the house here has a lot of pit run under a fairly thin topsoil layer. I have better ground out in a couple of the fields, but it would be too much hassle to set something up there both for watering and keeping the cattle out.

[charby]

Cloning my black raspberries. Mine are really sweet and couple friends want some for their garden.

[French G.]

Cloning my black raspberries. Mine are really sweet and couple friends want some for their garden.

Layering or what method?

Busy on my garden. I have plants in way early for my area, see what happens. Started a new herb patch next to the house, see how that goes.

[charby]

Layering or what method?

Busy on my garden. I have plants in way early for my area, see what happens. Started a new herb patch next to the house, see how that goes.

I fill pots with potting soil, stick the end of a growing cane into them. Cut the from the main plant when it starts to make new canes from the pot. Must keep the soil in the pots moist.

[makattak]

I forgot to mention our raspberries are doing nicely.

I've got an issue with ducks getting out of their pen and eating our greenery, so I either have to figure out how they are escaping or pen the garden. Preferably both, as a friendly little rabbit is likely helping them with the garden greenery.

But I'm seeing Okra starts and the beans are doing very well. Our tomatoes are growing nicely, too.

And, as per usual, the wildlife (and domesticated life!) leaves our arugula alone. So there's that, at least. Kale, spinach, and lettuce are all suffering, though.

[Angel Eyes]

 "I am SHOOK, like honestly, gardening, FOOD-- that comes out of dirt... like, it’s magic."

 

[K Frame]

My basil finally seems to be coming up. I think the cool wet weather held it back.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[makattak]

Well, I've found the way the ducks were getting out and have patched the fence there.

I'm quite annoyed as it looked like they ate some of the Okra sprouts. I'll have to plant more because that will not stand.

[BobR]

After reading up on Carolina Reapers and other super hot peppers I have decided not to attempt to grow any this year, our growing season just isn't long enough it seems. Last year none of my super hots (Reaper, Scorpion and Ghost peppers) produced any peppers. :(

bob

[RoadKingLarry]

Not too much this year. Our historical wet weather kept me from putting much in.
I do have okra and a few tomatoes and peppers.
I was little late getting the okra in but it is starting to take off. I've had 3 pickings so far. 1st two were only about a gallon each but yesterday was close to 3 gallons. Tomatoes are doing ok and we'll have some in a week or so.
My blueberries had the best year so far. They have struggled since I planted them in 2010/2011. I initially planted 25 plants in 2010 and another 100+ in 2011. The drought and extreme heat we had in 2011 and 2012 killed off most of them. Between my past medical issues and varmints and life in general I've neglected them some. I have 43 bushes left. I've picked about 6 gallons this year. Picked.the last this morning and only got a couple.of quarts. Loves me some blueberry pancakes.

[K Frame]

A few weeks ago I transferred the basil out of the big pot it was in into my neighbor's raised bed. They weren't using it, so I said if I could plant the basil there they could use all of the basil that they wanted.

22 plants came up and were doing very nicely. Since transplanting them to the bed they have gone absolutely nuts.

Unfortunately something keeps eating some of the leaves. Nothing terrible, just annoying.

They're almost big enough that I can start making pesto!

[RocketMan]

We planted late this year and it shows.  Half-runner green beans are doing okay, but not huge like in past years.  Squash is also doing so-so.  I think it may be a lack of honeybees.  We aren't seeing many this year, so pollination of blossoms must be down.
Okra is 8-10 inches tall, and that looks like all it will do this year.  Right after planting we had three weeks of atypically rainy weather, and I think that stunted the okra.
Our few green pepper and jalapeno plants are doing really well, though.  We have to keep Rocket, our cocker spaniel, out of the garden as he will eat the green peppers right off the plant.

[BobR]

My tomatoes look like a jungle this year :)

My Corn seems to be doing OK although I had to be the pollinator. :) / :(

Pablano, Anaheim and Jalapenos are going to town. :)

Cucumbers are growing like crazy. :)

Carolina Reaper is not very big, flowers and then no peppers. I guess I need to tickle its fancy the next time I see blooms. :(

Ghost pepper plants gave up the ghost. :(

I prepped the beds with 46% Urea Nitrogen this year and every 2-3 weeks give the soil around the plants (especially the corn) a good dousing with a couple of handfuls of the nitrogen dissolved in 2 gallons of H2O followed with Miracle Grow. It must be doing something, I have never had this much growth on plants here in the past.

I wish I had Everbearing strawberries rather than the June bearing in there now. I picked about 4 gallons of cherries from a neighbors tree, gave up after about 2 out of every 3 I pitted had a small larva in it (Cherry Fruitfly?).


bob

[RoadKingLarry]

Too much nitrogen will yield lush plants and little to no fruit.

[BobR]

Too much nitrogen will yield lush plants and little to no fruit.

I must have lucked out, everything is fruiting well, I am mainly using the nitrogen for the corn. the rest gets the leftovers. The super hot peppers don't really surprise me, they have never grown well for me up here. And this growing season has been unseasonably cool overall so far. I thought we were finally getting into some hotter weather but it was just the two days I picked to refinish the front porch. Now we are heading into another cool down for a few days. We are still dropping into the high 40s/low 50s at night. The next ten days are looking up weather wise, mid to high 80s and lows in the high 50s/low 60s.

bob

[charby]

I must have lucked out, everything is fruiting well, I am mainly using the nitrogen for the corn. the rest gets the leftovers. The super hot peppers don't really surprise me, they have never grown well for me up here. And this growing season has been unseasonably cool overall so far. I thought we were finally getting into some hotter weather but it was just the two days I picked to refinish the front porch. Now we are heading into another cool down for a few days. We are still dropping into the high 40s/low 50s at night. The next ten days are looking up weather wise, mid to high 80s and lows in the high 50s/low 60s.

bob

Too much N will also acidify the soil too. Corn needs about 1# of nitrogen per bushel of harvested grain.