What Has Everyone Been Planting Today ?.

[Dutchs]

Today I planted more herbs.

I find that lemon basil is a better choice than lemon balm.
It's more vigorous, less fussy about conditions and it's a bigger plant that produces bucket loads of seeds.
I like it better than sweet basil.

I also planted lime basil in a lesser quantity because I've never tried it before.
I have a recipe for watermelon salsa that calls for lime basil so I'll grow it for that.

Other herbs I planted are Calendular, Huacatay - Tagetes minuta, Dill, Borage, Broad Leaf Plantain, and Soapwort.

I need to do Basil as well. Didn't realize there were so many. It's a Super nice addition to so many meals.....

 

[Tank-Girl]

I really should have done my update this evening when the day was done and I had finished a long hot bath but....

I planted sugar loaf cabbages, fat hen, cucumbers and winter destiny lettuce. Winter destiny is a very cold tolerant variety of lettuce. It's very hard to find but I found a seed supplier all the way down in Tasmania. I won't be planting any other lettuce varieties so I can seed save.

I only have one 72 hole flat left and I'm saving it for when my KY1 tomato and Cali wonder red capsicum seeds get delivered in the post. I haven't made the beds for them yet
so it's a good thing the seed hasn't arrived yet. I'll cut the bamboo clump for tomato stakes the day before I plant the tomato seedlings. Fresh green bamboo won't split like dried bamboo when I pound them into the ground with a hammer.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

You did a lot @Tank-Girl I hope they all come up for you and do well . Nothing like a good warm shower after you are all grungy from a day in the gardens.

 

[Sonya_6]

Started some bush beans in seed cells today (the ones I planted in the yard didn't come up so we will do this under controlled conditions).

Finally finished digging all the weeds and wild grass out of the garden. I tore them up and laid it all out in the sun to dry, then used that as a lower layer of mulch and put pine straw on top. The worms should love all that rotting matter. Finally the last of the herbs can be planted on Saturday when it is cloudy.

God clearing that patch was slow backbreaking work. Made me think of the Southern Plantations, they supposedly had a habit of not worrying about crop rotation because there was so much land, they would just clear new areas when the soil lost its vitality. I told my lawn man I could see why they needed slaves as it is really slow and difficult! Though I suppose they had plow animals to help. If I expand the garden again I will definitely have it roto-tilled, though I suppose doing it by hand probably helps maintain the soil life so there is one benefit.

 

[Patchouli]

started some seeds in pots this evening: cucumber, tomato. hope to start zucchini and flowers tomorrow. there are herb seeds I want to plant to and will do direct seed with some of the flowers and herbs.
It is thought this will be a cooler summer than usual so I'm hoping for that. I know it's late for Texas but maybe this will be a better year.
I got so mad today. Property management had guys mow and weed whack and they took down everything that was green in the backyard.
There were a few perennials and my huge mullein plant that fortunately I had harvested a few leaves of last week. GONE.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Sonya_6 you have done a great job by the sounds of it and it isn't easy work to dig out grass manually at all so I admire your never be beaten attitude . Hope your second attempt at the bush beans works for you. Have you thought of getting a small rototiller to help you there to do the backbreaking work ?, if you do go for one that is self propelled as it literally walks with you along behind it.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Patchouli glad you got lots of things planted it all really helps with the grocery bill. Are your vegetables over there getting expensive to buy as they are here ?.

Oh bugs on the property management annihilating everything , have your thought about putting little wire cages around the plants you want to keep to stop maintenance killing everything. That way they would know that it is something you want to keep hopefully.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

We did a little work in the gardens today and also yesterday afternoon picked 3 more cobs of corn that we blanched and froze for the freezer for another meal for the two of us. I trench composted all the peels from the lemons we made into lemonade concentrate with honey last night and put in the freezer.

I planted another 3mt row of carrot seeds in the gardens and raked up leaves around the sheds to get ready to shred with the ride on along with grass and Lucerne hay tomorrow. We also put a tonic of Seasol or seaweed concentrate on all the vegetable plants today and also gave all of our silver beet and capsicum a side dressing of urea to give them a nitrogen boost.

 

[Sonya_6]

@Sonya_6 you have done a great job by the sounds of it and it isn't easy work to dig out grass manually at all so I admire your never be beaten attitude . Hope your second attempt at the bush beans works for you. Have you thought of getting a small rototiller to help you there to do the backbreaking work ?, if you do go for one that is self propelled as it literally walks with you along behind it.

This was a "one time" job, now that the grass is gone I can easily pull any vegetation that comes up from here as I use the no-till method. This patch would have required a bush hog or tractor for the large/thick clumps of grass anyway, some of them were incredibly tough!

Also thanks again for the tip on leaves/pine straw. I have plenty of pine straw in the yard to mulch the whole garden, much easier than buying it a bale at a time and bringing it home in the car trunk.

 

[Patchouli]

@Patchouli glad you got lots of things planted it all really helps with the grocery bill. Are your vegetables over there getting expensive to buy as they are here ?.

Oh bugs on the property management annihilating everything , have your thought about putting little wire cages around the plants you want to keep to stop maintenance killing everything. That way they would know that it is something you want to keep hopefully.

I had no idea they were coming, the area of flower beds was obvious, but an untrained eye saw only weeds. Next time, there will be a barrier!
Yes, produce is ridiculously priced at some stores. I've tried growing stuff here in Texas (I'm not a native of TX), but it gets too hot (95F+)for plants to set fruit, or it's too windy, or I can't keep up with the watering. It is so dry here most summers.

 

[WVDragonlady]

I finally have the plants I want to put in the beds. All I need are cantaloupe plants and some nasturtiums to put among them and the squash. Its finally planting time here now. I also have the herbs I plan on growing this year. I'll be potting up the herbs this afternoon and I'll start the planting of the beds over the weekend


I have to say I've gone to three different places to buy plants and the prices are getting ridiculous. I'll be starting my own seeds. I've done it in the past but now I plan on doing next year.

 

[SheepDog]

Putting cantaloupe in a bed with other plants? You do know that a cantaloupe plant will cover a 10 foot circle, right?

 

[Patchouli]

@WVDragonlady Do you start your nasturtium from seed? How do you prepare the seed? I read it needs to be roughened. I want to grow these too.

 

[Sonya_6]

I have to say I've gone to three different places to buy plants and the prices are getting ridiculous. I'll be starting my own seeds. I've done it in the past but now I plan on doing next year.

If you are feeling thrifty I have found that ebay is a great place to buy seeds, especially if you need smaller quantities or hard to find varieties. A lot of home gardeners sell packs of their home produced seeds cheap (plus the varieties are pretty much guaranteed to be non-hybrids since they produce them themselves).

I ordered about 20 different types of less common herbs/veggie seeds off ebay this year with very good results, price wise it is much cheaper than a seed catalogue especially with shipping (who needs 300 pepper seeds anyway?).

Though I just had one rather major disappointment this week, I ordered a specialty flower seed back in November and started them indoors 2 months ago, they finally bloomed this week and it was the wrong freaking variety!!! The variety I received is good, but not what I ordered and looked forward to for months (the seeds look just like the other type so the seller likely made a legit mistake). Just re-ordered from another seller but it will be "iffy" trying to start them this late.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Putting cantaloupe in a bed with other plants? You do know that a cantaloupe plant will cover a 10 foot circle, right?

the cantaloupes have their own bed. the nasturtiums are to to block pests ( I use them with squash also) I also use marigolds for some beds. I use basil plants with tomato plants and they work great. the pests go to the basil and leave the tomatoes alone and I still get way more basil than I can use ( even after dried and pesto)

 

[WVDragonlady]

@WVDragonlady Do you start your nasturtium from seed? How do you prepare the seed? I read it needs to be roughened. I want to grow these too.

I just stick them in the dirt and they come up lol I have read that they prefer a more "poorer" soil, so I try to keep them out of the soil that had the manure added ( usually around the edges)

I guess you could try using an emery board to roughen them up and see if they work lol

 

[Tank-Girl]

I planted more zucchini and used up all my seeds.

Bunnings eftpos was down so I couldn't buy seedlings or more potting soil so I went overboard with the seed planting.

My hakari turnips have germinated. Wow going by the number of punnet cells that have nothing sprouting in them I REALLY need to wear my glasses
when I sow seed. There's no way every single seed in those cells failed to germinate so they were a complete miss.

Provider beans have germinated in their cells. I got about a 80% germination which I think was pretty good.
I'll wrap the stems in foil before I plant them out and then put a flat cardboard collar around them to stop the dreaded cut worms from helping themselves.

 

[Sonya_6]

Provider beans have germinated in their cells. I got about a 80% germination which I think was pretty good.
I'll wrap the stems in foil before I plant them out and then put a flat cardboard collar around them to stop the dreaded cut worms from helping themselves.

Did the cutworm problem occur after planting in what was recently a grassy/weedy patch? Last year I had a horrendous cut worm problem in a newly dug garden but this year none so far (knock on wood).

I am planting the susceptible varieties (i.e. beans) in the older garden sections to avoid the little monsters, and planting less tasty herbs in the freshly dug areas.

 

[Bacpacker]

I haven't updated my stuff in this thread in a while, so here is a little of what I've done recently.
Saturday before last I planted another 350 onion slips. These are for late harvest and storage thru the winter. Moved back planting them 2 months and hope they work out better that way. I also harvested my first green onions a couple days ago. They were planted in early March, and already have almost 3" long roots developed. Good rain and a short dose of 6-12-12 is all I've done to them.
Also planted 2 types of Cucumbers, 2 types of cantaloupes, 3 types of watermelon, 5 types of squash, and 3 types of dry beans.
Today I planted 18 tomatos and have 10 more to put out. If it don't rain over night I'll finish them tomorrow, along with 16 pepper plants. 7 types of tomatos, and 4 types of peppers.
Also found the okra coming up today. Trying a new technique this year with my cukes, cantaloupes, and some squash. I'm putting in some fence post and standing hog panels up at a 45 degree angle over the plants. Gonna let them climb. Won't take up as much space, easier to keep worked, keeps the fruit off the ground so less chance of rot if we have a wet summer. I'll see how it goes. First time trying this out.

Sounds like everyone is getting a lot out this year. Good on you all.

 

[joel]

Planting stuff today.

 

[WVDragonlady]

raining....a lot! ........lol supposed to rain tomorrow too so looks like planting will be monday........

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@WVDragonlady I am another stick it in the dirt and wait for the plant to come up gardener and it works for me .

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Your all doing well with your planting and hope you all get ample harvests there .

@Patchouli we get similar temperatures here where I live and it can be a difficult climate to manage a garden in. Do you have any trees there that you can plant under the base of or make a garden there. We find that the tree canopies shelter the gardens a lot from the heat and wind too or alternatively set up the gardens with posts and 50% shade cloth over the top to stop the worst of the heat. Are you on water restrictions there or could you run the gardens with a drip irrigation system to keep the water up to the vegetable seedlings ?. Like us here you also need to mulch mulch mulch to insulate the plant roots from the heat too.

@Bacpacker let me know how you go with the climbing cukes and other plants as I usually have them running along the ground too but as you say they are prone to rot problems that way. Anyone else run their pumpkins up over panels and had success too ?.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Had a stint in the gardens yesterday but no planting was done just maintenance and yard tidying. We collected all the dried leaves we could find in the yard, mixed it with dried composted grass clippings and 3 biscuits of hay and ran over it with the ride on lawnmower which has a catcher. We first ran over the Lucerne hay twice and then mixed it with the grass clippings and leaves and ran over it again which makes a wonderful fine mulch which is easier to get between all the seedlings. It stretched to cover around the equivalent of 1 x 9 x 2mt garden bed around all the sprouted seedlings in two vegetable garden beds. As we have high winds here at the moment we watered the mulch down as well as the new seedling transplants in the gardens.

It looks so much neater and tidier and we also weeded as we went before putting the mulch down.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Most welcome @Sonya_6 on the mulch tip and glad I could help, and it saves so much money by using what you have around you first and then buying or doing the combination and mixing them all together.

 

[Amish Heart]

Getting ready to plant our front porch flower bed today. I'm very fond of snapdragons. Planted jalapeno yesterday.

 

[dademoss]

Put in some Strawberries , and getting ready to start a couple of new raspberry patches.

 

[Sonya_6]

Well after starting another 20 bean plants in seed cells since the ones in the garden didn't come up, guess what! Yup, the garden ones came up a day later.

I transplanted some more Echinacea and Valerian and Elecampane and will do more tomorrow behind the tobacco plants. Have debated where to put it all since most will be in the ground for 2+ years. Will probably plant some of the extra bean plants in that area too.

Also ordered some white Tulle bridal mesh to make blossom bags and tent for the highly invasive pot of Sida Cordifolia (will tincture that as a backup asthma med). The plants are already covered in buds and I have struggled trying to think of an easy way to contain the seeds without having to move the whole plant indoors under lights. Found an article that suggested using a tomato cage with netting -- so simple I don't know why I didn't think of it. Bought 40 yards of bridal mesh for only $10 on ebay so I will have plenty to make tents/blossom bags for years to come.

 

[Dutchs]

So...My stepson's , girlfriend's daughter, Gabrielle, Wanted to do something nice for me. She is the Sweetest little 8 year old girl ....maybe ever! Anyway, She knows I love my garden so she bought some seed for it. Zucchini, Softneck Squash and Corn......I planted them 2 weeks ago. She was soooooooooexcited to see how much they've grown...Oh ..and my Mulberry tree is spitting out Mulberries!!

 

[Sonya_6]

Trying a new technique this year with my cukes, cantaloupes, and some squash. I'm putting in some fence post and standing hog panels up at a 45 degree angle over the plants. Gonna let them climb. Won't take up as much space, easier to keep worked, keeps the fruit off the ground so less chance of rot if we have a wet summer. I'll see how it goes. First time trying this out.

I used a hog panel at a 90 degree angle for cucs last year, worked great.

The 45 degree angle is supposed to be even better, theoretically the fruit hangs straight down under the panel and the vine stays on top so it is super easy to spot and monitor the growing cucumbers. I want to try that. Post pics once the fruit develops so we can see how it works out.