Garden 2022

[Tirediron]

The grounds's still frozen and its snowing, I don't want to think about gardening yet

 

[elkhound]

siberian kale that over wintered in garden. lowest tempt was 7f..i think..mighta been 4f...but anyway these laid under a blanket of ice and snow for about 6 weeks. just 2 weekends ago it hit 16f and last few nights in mid 20's. this plant is tough..it bounced back pretty fast with a little tlc and warmer temps.it looked ragged awhile back. i cut/trimmed the largest plant and filled a gallon baggie close to full.

 

[Amish Heart]

Nice it came back! Got too cold here, and I lost all the kale. Reseeded a different variety of it the other day

 

[Heartbroken]

Headed for single digits tonight so I had some more covering to the the plastic/moving blanket tent I have over the seedlings in the greenhouse. I'm monitoring the temps, and last night when it got down to 22, the greenhouse was at 44 and the tent enclosure was at 68. Since my bedroom was only 58, I'd say the seedlings have it good! Hopefully the extra layers will help it maintain warmth tonight.

 

[Peanut]

Stopped by the green house at the co-op while in town... just getting ideas. They had a lot of poor looking plants and only half of what they usually have... empty shelves everywhere. The did have bellpepper plants, wished I'd gotten a tray.

I checked 3 stores today looking for lemon balm plants, not one to be had anywhere.

Over all impression, even the plants at lo.w..es, they looked pitiful. Everyplace had empty shelves too.

 

[Weedygarden]

Is there a trick to getting delphinium started? Or do the seeds take a long time to germinate? (I need to get the package out & read if it says)

There are a few different kinds of delphinium. Some are biennials, some are annuals and reseed themselves. About 30 years ago I planted larkspur, a variety of delphinium by one side of my home. They have spread and are already up in my yard, nowhere near where near my home.

 

[joel]

Anybody use Rice Hulls as mulch or in compost for the garden.
I am thinking of using it as mulch for onions & garlic this Fall.

 

[Bacpacker]

Bought another load of compost and topped off the last bed. Gonna plant 1 bed with yukon gold taters tomorrow night. Then time to build my last 2 beds I have planned.

 

[Double R]

Finally got catnip and salvia’s planted tonight.
Dill and oregano has started coming up. Hopefully a few more germinate.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today, it is warming up, thunderstorms tomorrow so I reconnected the rain water collection. I checked on all the plants and the only ones that may have taken a hit is some container potatoes that were just coming up when the cold wave rolled in.

The salad stuff in the raised beds did fine, the one raised bed that I put an emergency cover over has not been checked yet, will do it during tomorrow morning's break time.

I read part of the Garden 2021 thread to see how thing are doing compared to last year and it really made me feel good:

I am not wasting as many seeds, I do not have as many plants started, but I will not have to give a lot away either.
We have made our first harvests of spinach for freezing, that is 2 months ahead of last year.
I actually have much more celery, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower growing than I have last year, but this year I have a plan for dealing with the insect problems that I reported last year.
It is interesting to see that my growing station is now 1/3 smaller than what I was doing last year, but the usable plants I have are in better shape.
And my water barrels are now assembled and ready to catch water, it was June last year before I had them all working...

I also enjoyed looking at all the work that everyone else has been putting into their over the years. There were a few member who have not been online for almost a year I it made me sad to think they may be gone.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Got some more seeds planted yesterday.
Several kinds of seeds, but not whole packages of anything.
Don't have the space.
But all in all planted 72 cells total.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Got some more seeds planted yesterday.
Several kinds of seeds, but not whole packages of anything.
Don't have the space.
But all in all planted 72 cells total.

This year I am planting starter seeds by the pinch and then resealing the envelope with scotch tape. I am trying to have a place identified for each plant as I go, but sometimes more plants come up than I expect.

 

[Neb]

Today, it is warming up, thunderstorms tomorrow so I reconnected the rain water collection. I checked on all the plants and the only ones that may have taken a hit is some container potatoes that were just coming up when the cold wave rolled in.

The salad stuff in the raised beds did fine, the one raised bed that I put an emergency cover over has not been checked yet, will do it during tomorrow morning's break time.

I read part of the Garden 2021 thread to see how thing are doing compared to last year and it really made me feel good:

I am not wasting as many seeds, I do not have as many plants started, but I will not have to give a lot away either.
We have made our first harvests of spinach for freezing, that is 2 months ahead of last year.
I actually have much more celery, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower growing than I have last year, but this year I have a plan for dealing with the insect problems that I reported last year.
It is interesting to see that my growing station is now 1/3 smaller than what I was doing last year, but the usable plants I have are in better shape.
And my water barrels are now assembled and ready to catch water, it was June last year before I had them all working...

I also enjoyed looking at all the work that everyone else has been putting into their over the years. There were a few member who have not been online for almost a year I it made me sad to think they may be gone.

My potatoes bounce back fast from freezing. The leaves die and crumble but it short order one would never know.

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

My taters that were already in the ground came up and got bit by the snow/freeze we had. Today it looks like most all the plants are up. Some more than others, but looking decent. Most of the parsnips are up as well and the carrots are starting to. Both plantings of snow peas look good to. All the garlic is kicking it. Onions still look sad but after a good rain or two will take off.
Tonight I planted 10 lbs of Yukon gold taters. I had to split a little over half of them to have enough, but I put 48 sets in a 4 x 12 bed. Pretty much layed them out in a square foot grid.
Harvested 7 asparagus stalks. They are starting to come in better. But will only get one or 2 full pickings this year.
Hope to at least start installing the drip system in the beds this weekend. And build the last 2 planned beds.

 

[Neb]

"
I am growing food I don't need now so I can make mistakes when it doesn't matter rather than wait until it does matter and find myself in deep sheite.
"
Ben circa 2015

Today presented some disappointment lessons and mysteries.

I was disappointed when I noticed almost all of the shallot sprouts decided they were dead.

Bummer. In the same tray as onions, peppers and tomatoes that are doing fine. Same soil water etc. ? I had been reducing the water (I water the trays not the pots to encourage root development) so there is a possibilty that the shallots are the cannery in the coal mine. More thought needed on that issue.

14 of my 18 seedless grape vines clones looked like they were going to make it. The other 4 looked bad or lame. So I removed the high dome to let them harden off from the high humidity and get them ready for the real world. Two of the good clones were not happy after 24 hours if no dome. Maybe should have kept the dome on longer (how long) and maybe should ensure the first node above the soil is not far from the dirt and allow ariel root development.

The challenge of sprouting seedlings from seeds that require stratification is still a mystery to me.

The above pictured 72 cell tray had a total of 3 seedlings. I initially planted strawberry seeds where one sprouted! After 20 months of stratifying. A minor miracle at best.

I reseeded the tray with spruce tree seeds stratified 4 weeks. Probably to short? Two of the 71+ germinated. Lots of questions... mystery for now.

Anyone else sprout seeds that have to stratify?

Ben

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Will be picking up more seed tomorrow.
Grocery shopping for Dad.
I pick up seed every chance I get.
Will be checking prices of stock tanks for future purchase.
To get proper spacing in grand daughter's garden, we use the bottom of muffin pan (12).
But I have used the muffin pan spacing before in the garden.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Not a lot of updates for today, everything is fine, haven't lost any plants after the week of cold nights.

The reason I'm posting here is to ask a question or 2 looking for honest answers:

1) Have any of you ever sprouted seeds and then planted them? The context is I need a lot (for me anything above 50 is a lot) of corn and pole beans but I don't have a lot of space and the germination rates can be mixed.

2) I am thinking about adding a swing arm to my covered raised beds that has insect netting on it. It would require a redesign of a clam shell nature having 2 swing arms, the inside swing arm would be the insect netting, the outside swing arm would be the frost shield (just made that up) plastic sheet. FYI my raised beds have tops like the hinged covers on hot foods at a buffet-style dining hall.

3) I am thinking about making a shelf under my solar array to grow cool weather plants or ones that like the shade.

There are no wrong responses, I just want your feed back because I learn so much from you and I value your opinions:

I reserve the right to respond like Mark Watney does in "The Martian" but I won't type it here... Oh if you haven't seen "The Martian" it's a cool space survival flick that over uses the F word...

 

[Double R]

Transplanting tomatoes and peppers to pots today.

 

[Alaskajohn]

The snow started to melt about a week ago so it won’t be long. The once armpit deep snow over my gardens is now about mid thigh depth. My trusty old Troy tiller finally crapped out summer last year after about 20 years of service. I ordered a new Mantis tiller that unfortunately didn’t come in until after the snow started falling. This will be the first time I will be gardening where I didn’t do my usual fall bed prep. My hope is I won’t notice a difference. I am eager to try out the new tiller and probably 45 days away from breaking it in.

 

[Ozarks hillbilly]

Not a lot of updates for today, everything is fine, haven't lost any plants after the week of cold nights.

The reason I'm posting here is to ask a question or 2 looking for honest answers:

1) Have any of you ever sprouted seeds and then planted them? The context is I need a lot (for me anything above 50 is a lot) of corn and pole beans but I don't have a lot of space and the germination rates can be mixed.

2) I am thinking about adding a swing arm to my covered raised beds that has insect netting on it. It would require a redesign of a clam shell nature having 2 swing arms, the inside swing arm would be the insect netting, the outside swing arm would be the frost shield (just made that up) plastic sheet. FYI my raised beds have tops like the hinged covers on hot foods at a buffet-style dining hall.

3) I am thinking about making a shelf under my solar array to grow cool weather plants or ones that like the shade.

 

[Ozarks hillbilly]

Wow, I'm not good at computers. That was supposed to be a reply to Urban and only repeated him. Sorry everyone. The reply was:

1) Both years I started seeds indoors under grow lights then moved them outside when warm enough (Last year was mid-May, this year's seeds seem week so not sure).
2) I added bug netting and occasional clear plastic to all my raised beds last year and I only wished my swing-arms were better quality (I went with 1/2" x 1/2" boards, should have used pvc piping)
3) My wife thought we should move some of our cooler weather plants to an area that got little sunlight and grew mostly moss--her idea worked, the potatoes we had.

 

[joel]

I am trying different melons, rattail radish( long edible pods),Prickly pear, Coral sorghum, red fire Orach, purple shiso, Swiss Chard,
black Spanish radish, parsnips, Celery, beets & carrots.
Most of these for the first time, so we will see if I am a true gardener.
The melons are hard to persevere, but I may have useable seeds, for next year.
Of course, the regular annuals, & the BLT, the bacon seeds are the easiest to grow.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I am trying different melons, rattail radish( long edible pods),Prickly pear, Coral sorghum, red fire Orach, purple shiso, Swiss Chard,
black Spanish radish, parsnips, Celery, beets & carrots.
Most of these for the first time, so we will see if I am a true gardener.
The melons are hard to persevere, but I may have useable seeds, for next year.
Of course, the regular annuals, & the BLT, the bacon seeds are the easiest to grow.

My great-grandmother use to grow prickly pear and used them to make jam, they also made a good security wall. But that was when we were all living in the Sonoran Desert, I don't know if that plant can take much cold.

 

[SLADE]

Prickly pear grows in zone 6. They don't get as big but still good.

 

[UrbanHunter]

This week the garden and growing station produced broccoli, 3 types of lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, onions, turnips, potatoes, and beet greens. We had sufficient to cover the majority of 8 meals. Not a lot but it is enough to impact this mornings grocery bill. FYI last night the wife made up 3 gallons of the pre-chopped and shredded salad mix like what you buy in the store and we still have bags of greens left.

 

[joel]

My great-grandmother use to grow prickly pear and used them to make jam, they also made a good security wall. But that was when we were all living in the Sonoran Desert, I don't know if that plant can take much cold.

They grow all over South Carolina & Georgia, as long as they are not in standing water or have wet feet. Sandy soil drains well, even in a high rain fall area.
And this variety is Vineland Hardy Prickly Pear, from Vineland, NJ, cold hardy as far north as zone 7.

 

[WVDragonlady]

 

[Double R]

View attachment 83681

Ok see! That’s going up in the greenhouse!

 

[Double R]

Got all the tomatoes transplanted last night. Also got the jalapeños transplanted.
Bell peppers are still pretty small so waiting on them to get a bit longer.
Dill and oregano are starting to show themselves.
A few marigolds are growing but not as many as I’d like. Going to try and plant a few more seeds. Guess I didn’t pick them at the right time. First time harvesting my own marigolds seeds.
Nothing yet from the cat nip and salvia’s.
Rose cuttings are still green! Can’t believe it! Not sure about the few that didn’t have leaves but that’s ok. It appears to be working on the ones with leaves so if I start a few more later that’s ok. Lesson will be learned.
I told hubby last night when we move we need a HUGE green house.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

There is a guy up here who built a humongous green house that is zero input for heat during a Canadian prairies winter. They live in one end, have a kids playground in the other, and gardens down the middle complete with tropicals like banana and citrus trees.

Living in it was supposed to be temporary, but now he is contemplating building another one with nicer living quarters instead of a house because it is working out so well. The greenhouse was designed for winter sun conditions and is not a regular type green house.