Garden 2022

[Heartbroken]

Got my seed orders in but still browsing. It's like an addiction, I always want more seeds. Starting to get materials pulled together to start seeds and I noticed the jiffy 72 cell trays with covers are hard to find and expensive now. I remember picking them up for 8 to 10 dollars but walmart has them at 18 with 13 for shipping and amazon has them at 26. Dang! I wanted to replace some of my old ones but that's a lot of money.

 

[JustMe]

Got my seed orders in but still browsing. It's like an addiction, I always want more seeds. Starting to get materials pulled together to start seeds and I noticed the jiffy 72 cell trays with covers are hard to find and expensive now. I remember picking them up for 8 to 10 dollars but walmart has them at 18 with 13 for shipping and amazon has them at 26. Dang! I wanted to replace some of my old ones but that's a lot of money.

It may be cheaper to just get the seed starting soil, and if you buy their salads in the plastic square thingy, use that and just plant the seeds in the soil in the container

 

[WVDragonlady]

It may be cheaper to just get the seed starting soil, and if you buy their salads in the plastic square thingy, use that and just plant the seeds in the soil in the container

Thats what I'm using to start my seeds right now. They're clear plastic that hubby got donut holes in. They're nice and deep.
I also have some shallow ones that some rotisserie quarters came in. They're black on the bottom but the top is clear. They'll still be good for germinating seeds in, then transferring to larger pots

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I decided the share carrot harvesting with the wife. I took the small overflow container that I had carrots in upstairs and we put it on a tray where the wife could see the carrots come out, I was so sad they were very very small.... The carrots in the five gallon buckets are over 6"s long and about 1" in diameter, they were planted at the same time. The wife suggested that I do staggered planting in the five gallon buckets until I had at lest 6 buckets going all the time. So now I need more buckets with holes in the bottom...

 

[LadyLocust]

Today I decided the share carrot harvesting with the wife. I took the small overflow container that I had carrots in upstairs and we put it on a tray where the wife could see the carrots come out, I was so sad they were very very small.... The carrots in the five gallon buckets are over 6"s long and about 1" in diameter, they were planted at the same time. The wife suggested that I do staggered planting in the five gallon buckets until I had at lest 6 buckets going all the time. So now I need more buckets with holes in the bottom...

It surprises me that you haven't learned that by showing Mrs. what you are doing, new projects follow
Please know I'm joking~ it's so loving that you were thinking of her and willing to go out of your way.

 

[Bacpacker]

Today I decided the share carrot harvesting with the wife. I took the small overflow container that I had carrots in upstairs and we put it on a tray where the wife could see the carrots come out, I was so sad they were very very small.... The carrots in the five gallon buckets are over 6"s long and about 1" in diameter, they were planted at the same time. The wife suggested that I do staggered planting in the five gallon buckets until I had at lest 6 buckets going all the time. So now I need more buckets with holes in the bottom...

I use so many buckets I taken to buying 3-5 w/lids every time I go to Lowes

 

[Heartbroken]

Reading this thread I realize I don't have any plastic containers like that. And I've never seen salad in a plastic dish except if I happen to get one at the McD drivethru, and I haven't done that for a long time. I'm thinking I may go ahead and invest in some more expensive but highly rated 1020s with domes from bootstrap farmer. I live on a main road and could maybe sell enough of my excess plants to pay for them.

 

[joel]

My 31 year old Princess has married & bought her first house, with very little landscaping (I think they removed the old plants).
So I bought $200 in bulbs for her & some of them will be planted on the farm, also.
I have azaleas & daylilies for shiny spots, Hosta for shade.
We are going to have some fun when she close in March!

 

[LadyLocust]

Just handy~

 

[Amish Heart]

Wow! Keeping all the BFF's straight is a challenge, isn't it?

 

[LadyLocust]

Wow! Keeping all the BFF's straight is a challenge, isn't it?

That's why I put it here - I like to remind myself. Kinda handy to know I can plant carrots at the base of pole beans etc.

 

[Bacpacker]

I got a wild hair last night. Moon phase and signs were good according to the almanac. So when I got in from work I planted one of my raised beds. Put out some short rows of carrots, some short rows of parsnips, a tomato cage and planted snow peas in it give them something to climb on. Set out a second cage to plant in 2-3 weeks. That took up half of a 12' bed. The other half a planted in left over yukon gold taters left over from last fall. They are sprouting like crazy. Probably way too early, but worth a short for some early taters this summer.
Fertilized the asparagus bed also

 

[Neb]

Seed orders have started to arive. I should be starting seeds soon. Grape vine clones are developing leaves.

The spruce tree seeds should be ready to plant next week.

Ben

 

[Justaguy987]

So being in a new place, I went out a couple of days ago and stuck a shovel in the ground while it was warm just to see what I could find in the soil. Lots of rocks in the top few inches, and it was frozen under that. I guess I’m a little early because now it’s now under a foot of snow. I do have my seed starting stuff out and set up in the house, but don’t they actually have any seeds going yet. I’m a little late with some things but think I will still be fine.

 

[Neb]

So being in a new place, I went out a couple of days ago and stuck a shovel in the ground while it was warm just to see what I could find in the soil. Lots of rocks in the top few inches, and it was frozen under that. I guess I’m a little early because now it’s now under a foot of snow. I do have my seed starting stuff out and set up in the house, but don’t they actually have any seeds going yet. I’m a little late with some things but think I will still be fine.

I can relate.

As I walk across the ground this time I am consciously feeling how the ground feels. I have about 8 pine trees waiting for a home but the ground is not ready yet. The recent rains have gone a long way with thawing the soil getting ready for running the shovel again.

I am late with starting seeds but I am not interested in being the first to harvest. The Princess decided late that we should be doing vegetables in addition to grape vines, trees, bushes etc. Looks like I will be finding out how tomatoes do with elder etc.

Ben

 

[joel]

I got my herb & morning Glory seeds today, I will plant them in different places of course, I have enough weeds in the garden already.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today, I am making some small (2 gallon) buckets for carrots. I have read that the soil for carrots needs to be very light and not have any rocks or sticks in it so I sifted everything first using a shell sorter insert in a 5 gallon bucket. I have drilled 7 1/2" holes in the bottom of each of the small buckets, I then inserted a trimmed paper shop towel (could have used a coffee filter, if I drank coffee) before filling each with my soil mix, I used the soda can which is normally attached to my right hand to make rings for spacing the seeds. I am only putting 3 seeds in each ring because I really hate thinning. The buckets will be placed in a seed starting tray (2 will fit in each tray) and they will be bottom watered). The plan is to have several buckets going all the time and as they get older they will be moved to an outside tray.

I have a number of outdoor projects that will need hardware supplies so I may pick them up today or tomorrow morning. With the cold rain outside it is hard to consider doing much outdoors.

 

[Terri9630]

Replaced the plastic on the top of the greenhouse and added more soil to the raised beds. Now we just have to wait for the overnight temps to stay up.

 

[joel]

Replaced the plastic on the top of the greenhouse and added more soil to the raised beds. Now we just have to wait for the overnight temps to stay up.

How often do you replace the plastic??

 

[Terri9630]

How often do you replace the plastic??

The old plastic is what came with the high tunnel and only had a 1yr warranty but lasted 2 1/2 years. We just replaced it with one with a 4yr warranty.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Yesterday, I did a little work on my irrigation system, I ended up getting soaked and decided I had done enough of that for the morning, it was 38 and that water felt cool...

I ended up getting the hinges I needed to fix my rotating composter so now I can add that to my list of fixes.

While at WM I saw strawberry roots for $3/10 so I bought $6 worth of them. I planted part of them in my indoor growing space, part in a covered raised bed, and part in an open raised bed; it will be fun to see how they do relative to each other....

The outdoor temps are staying right at 30 at night now and into the 40s during the day time, so the beds are thawing out enough for me to start working them, my south facing beds have sunk about 9"s so I will need to add some soil to them before planting starts there, one of the beds has onions in it so I will have to wait until early summer before I can add anything to it.

It looks like we are going to have a good spinach crop this spring, it would be nice if we could put up about 20 pounds of it this year.

 

[Smalltimefarmer]

Thats what I'm using to start my seeds right now. They're clear plastic that hubby got donut holes in. They're nice and deep.
I also have some shallow ones that some rotisserie quarters came in. They're black on the bottom but the top is clear. They'll still be good for germinating seeds in, then transferring to larger pots

I start my seeds in cut water bottles. Cut off top and poke holes in the bottom then set in a plastic tub to keep the water from running everywhere.

 

[Acdoctor]

my daughter has a small hydroponic set up in the corner of my shop that we built as an Ag project her sophomore year, I’m sitting here watching it rain outside and with the fertilizer shortages going on now just got to thinking of alternative growing methods, liquid fertilizer is plentiful and it doesn’t take much in comparison. I know you are limited on what you can grow but with the much faster growth it could be worthwhile. I may go down and clean it up good, check out the solar panel and pump and get it going. With the cost of food going thru thr roof this may be a alternative for certain foods.

 

[WVDragonlady]

We've spent the day doing clean up. Between the freezing rain and the high winds, we had a bunch of tree limbs down. So we went ahead and trimmed the cherry trees too today. Cut them back pretty good this time.
We then clean up all the limbs everywhere and put them through the chopper. Started a small pile so far. Still have the pear trees and apple trees to do yet.
I am also going to cut back my blackberry bushes hard this time. I have 2 or 3 gallon bags of them left over from last year in the freezer. They really produced last year.

Our rototiller died on us last year just when we finished turning the big raised bed. We dragged that out of the shed and got it up on hubby's truck today, so we can get it looked at and fixed (hopefully)

I have some swiss chard and spinach germinating out in the green house so far.

Couple more weeks and I can start my warm weather crops. And herbs.
Checked on the ones I left on the deck. Rosemary is ok just pale green. Sage is fine. Oregano died back it might regrow from the roots. Same with the marjoram.
Chives haven't popped up yet, and I gathered the seeds still left in the parsley seed heads to try to start them this year.

The 2 strawberry plants that were volunteers have both survived, and the ones in my containers did too. So I have about 7 plants this year.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I have been cleaning up my beds that I grow tomatoes in, I had some celery in one of them and I see green coming out of the center so they may be bouncing back. I noticed some green poking up from the strawberry roots I planted last week (it was really fast)...

 

[WVDragonlady]

We've spent the day doing clean up. Between the freezing rain and the high winds, we had a bunch of tree limbs down. So we went ahead and trimmed the cherry trees too today. Cut them back pretty good this time.
We then clean up all the limbs everywhere and put them through the chopper. Started a small pile so far. Still have the pear trees and apple trees to do yet.
I am also going to cut back my blackberry bushes hard this time. I have 2 or 3 gallon bags of them left over from last year in the freezer. They really produced last year.

Our rototiller died on us last year just when we finished turning the big raised bed. We dragged that out of the shed and got it up on hubby's truck today, so we can get it looked at and fixed (hopefully)

I have some swiss chard and spinach germinating out in the green house so far.

Couple more weeks and I can start my warm weather crops. And herbs.
Checked on the ones I left on the deck. Rosemary is ok just pale green. Sage is fine. Oregano died back it might regrow from the roots. Same with the marjoram.
Chives haven't popped up yet, and I gathered the seeds still left in the parsley seed heads to try to start them this year.

The 2 strawberry plants that were volunteers have both survived, and the ones in my containers did too. So I have about 7 plants this year.

 

[WVDragonlady]

We've spent the day doing clean up. Between the freezing rain and the high winds, we had a bunch of tree limbs down. So we went ahead and trimmed the cherry trees too today. Cut them back pretty good this time.
We then clean up all the limbs everywhere and put them through the chopper. Started a small pile so far. Still have the pear trees and apple trees to do yet.
I am also going to cut back my blackberry bushes hard this time. I have 2 or 3 gallon bags of them left over from last year in the freezer. They really produced last year.

Our rototiller died on us last year just when we finished turning the big raised bed. We dragged that out of the shed and got it up on hubby's truck today, so we can get it looked at and fixed (hopefully)

I have some swiss chard and spinach germinating out in the green house so far.

Couple more weeks and I can start my warm weather crops. And herbs.
Checked on the ones I left on the deck. Rosemary is ok just pale green. Sage is fine. Oregano died back it might regrow from the roots. Same with the marjoram.
Chives haven't popped up yet, and I gathered the seeds still left in the parsley seed heads to try to start them this year.

The 2 strawberry plants that were volunteers have both survived, and the ones in my containers did too. So I have about 7 plants this year.

why did this double post? so weird

 

[Neb]

Seeds and plants started arive so I had to work on my seed starting station.

It was a mess.

All but about 3 of the grape vines are putting on leaves.

I managed to find enough seeds in my seed storage to start both old seeds and new. The old are an experiment to see if they are still viable.

This is back porch The Princess wants me to convert to a greenhouse.

It should be easy to knock out those decorative cinder blocks since already freed up the blocks to the left of the door while learning to run my quad. Mixed up the throttle and the brake. Oh well.

Ben

 

[JustMe]

Thats what I'm using to start my seeds right now. They're clear plastic that hubby got donut holes in. They're nice and deep.
I also have some shallow ones that some rotisserie quarters came in. They're black on the bottom but the top is clear. They'll still be good for germinating seeds in, then transferring to larger pots

I wonder if you tried planting some of those holes, they might grow full sized donuts???






Sorry..... I just couldn't resist

 

[Peanut]

Finally, a month late and I was supposed to get 20tons. My cousin only brought 11.5 tons. I guess it’ll do, price was right, $200 delivered.

But this isn’t regular chicken manure! There is a little known secret about which chicken manure to buy.

Average testing by several sources I found on the net… “Chicken manure had a range of 26.4 pounds to 36.6 pounds of nitrogen per ton, 26.6 to 43.8 pounds of phosphorus, and 24.6 to 35.8 pounds of potash.”

I have several friends and kinfolk who have chicken houses, big business here. All chicken manure is not the same. The richest comes from broiler houses the first couple of months chicks are growing. Farmers I know who have broilers scoop up the manure early in the growth cycle and pile it separate from manure they scoop up later. This manure is much richer than manure from a laying house with mature hens.

Very young chicks don’t have fully developed digestive systems. Their poop contains more nutrients and minerals than that of older chicks.

The manure I got today was composted long enough to kill nasties and for much of the ammonia to evaporate. I still have to plow it into the soil thoroughly, make sure there are no hot spots.

(Same thing happens with young calves. Coyotes and dogs can be seen doing what looks like trailing a calf across a pasture… They are actually eating the poop that comes from those young calves. It has more nutrients than poop from a mature cow.)

So, this is what 23,000lbs of chicken manure looks like.