Where are you with your garden this year?

Owl
Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

Here in Alabama I am planting seedlings every day almost. I have tomatoes, various greens, lettuce and my first medical flowers/herbs bed planted as well as carrots just sprouting. I’ve been preparing for the upcoming shipment of my sweet potato slips as well as the ones I saved from last year.by filling canvas bags with a nice mix of dirt and chicken coop mulch and I can’t wait for the first ‘mater sandwich of the year!

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Comments

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    I'm a bit behind you in NC.. I kind of got stuck in an unexpected place due to a family obligation and the virus' "stay at home orders". I began planting everything form seed in March. I've planted around 1/8th acre with just a hand trowel and a garden rake.... all new ground. I've been harvesting greens for a couple of weeks. Radishes should be ready to pull by the end of the month. Most things have sprouted, but are still very small. Peas should be ready by the end of May. I'm really focused on making deer fencing and stakes/trellises (out of pallet wood) for the beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc right now. I've planted 300 yards of sorghum, lima bean and wormwood seeds for a living fence to keep the critters out this week..... that should be tall enough to be effective by the end of May, too. So, just plugging along... lots of hard work.

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    Got onions in a pot, but we have had snow everyday for the last 14 days( I think). From a few flakes to 5+". So think I better wait a little more. Have the plans drawn up, know where stuff is going. My dad never planted everything till after Memorial Day - end of May cause we always get a frost with the full moon in May.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Wow! I’m seriously impressed! That’s a lot of hand work. I’m trying to get my new greenhouse up and running with raised beds and it’s going slow because the rain stops us being able to move dirt. I’m loving every minute of it though! I have wanted one for years and years so it’s a labor of love!

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    @Lexie I think you may have been referring to me... so, thanks! One thing all this has done is confirm for me that even in tough circumstances, I'd rather grow food than most anything else. I had already decided to try to make a living out of a small farm.... now, I feel more confidant than ever that I've made the right choice.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 You're growing food, not getting bored and building muscles while away from home. How are the seniors in the neighborhood reacting to all your changes?

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Judson, yes, I was talking about you! I think your plan is awesome! Sorry to not be able to reply the way you guys do, my ipad has issues they are currently working on. I’m hoping to have lots of extra produce to help out some struggling friends from church. Last year I was able to keep a couple of families in eggs and winter squash but I’m hoping to expand that to include tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, summer squash and cucumbers this year. All the doomsaying from the media can’t tell the story of all the good people in the background trying to be the face, (and hands and feet) of God to their brothers and sisters. We really do live in an incredible world!


    I LOVE spring, can you tell?! Haha!

  • Alison
    Alison Posts: 179 ✭✭✭

    It's going into winter here but the garden has become the most productive this year since we've had some break in the drought in the past couple of months.

    I am hoping the frost holds off long enough for the pumpkins and potatoes to mature. The greens are taking off now with the rain and heat having settled a lot, have broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, purple top turnips, snow peas, parsnips in and some near harvest. I've got some other seedlings plodding along in trays that I'll put in a smallish home made green house when they are a bit bigger, that should provide a 2nd wave of broccoli, cauliflower and some cabbage. I direct sow carrots around almost all veggies now.

    Jerusalem artichokes don't seem as prolific this year due to the drought etc, but I'm sure they will still provide well. I've transplanted some of the QLD Arrowroot to the greenhouse in the expectation of a larger harvest next year.

    Plenty of herbs.

    Still have plenty of carrots from last planting to pick, fruits such as some strawberries, raspberries, figs and last of the apples avail, though I've got some dehydrated also. Pink grapefruit getting close as are the lemons...a long way to go before the mandarins will be ready to harvest.

    Older chooks going off the lay, but ones I bred last Nov should start soon.

    Huge amounts of work mulching with free woodchip, fixing old pens etc, planting and starting trees for next season for self and with the hopes to sell.

    Always busy.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Alison, yum! I love broccoli and artichokes and all the family! I wish I could find a source for wood chips, free or not. I’m signed up for chipdrop, where I financially “encourage” anyone with wood chips to drop them on my property but I’ve been with them over a year and nothing. I can buy wood chips but they are pine and cedar and both are supposed to have some hormone (or something) that suppresses growth of other plants. (Sigh!) I’m trying so hard to introduce better practices into our family farm and have been making do with leaves, pine straw and grass clippings from a local yard maintenance service. The leaves make excellent mulch! I have been using them like some folks use permalite, to hold seeds in place until they can germinate. I guess that’s part of what makes gardening so much fun, improvising and putting all the puzzle pieces together to equal yummy fruits and vegetables.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    I'm almost embarrassed to say how little I've gotten done. I started the following seeds in the last 4 days - 15 tomato, 9 bell pepper,15 calendula, 6 hibiscus, 3 bird house squash, and 9 Rembrandt snapdragons. I've seeded 6 cells of stinging nettle, 6 cells lemon balm, and 3 cells wormwood.

    Outside I broadcast seeded some Bee Feed Mix with a bit of calendula mixture added in. I found 8 cloves of garlic I had forgotten so stuck them in the ground too. Three canna bulbs went in the ground too.

    Our average last frost according to the USDA chart is May 12. According to the Old Farmers Almanac it is April 28. Either way, I am a bit late getting things started.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Dottile, I have done that every other year! This is the first time with starting my own seeds on time. Couple years ago, we built a simple 2x4 frame around the primary garden spot in the fall and put regular roll plastic you get at the local hardware store around it. We ate tomatoes from that little project until Christmas. The plastic lasted through the second winter and my dad just finished eating the last tomato yesterday. It was profitable enough to teach us that we would appreciate an actual greenhouse so we bought a box kit and are still working on assembly. I’m thinking that we will just leave the end walls until the fall and use it like a high tunnel for the summer. It gets really hot here but the wind blowing through keeps it tolerable.

    In my humble opinion, there’s usually a way to make it work regardless of the timing, just like you’re doing. Now, tell me how you germinate calendula? I got some seeds but haven’t done anything with them yet. My snapdragons are happy and the mullein and echinacea are thriving too.

  • drpclarke
    drpclarke Posts: 53 ✭✭✭

    I'm near Charlotte, NC and I am way behind. I decided to open up a small scale edible nursery and most of my focus has been on that until this past Sunday. I have been planting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and other early spring crops in areas that will not get a lot of the NC heat here in the next couple months. My goal starting Sunday is to do a big push to get the summer crops in the ground over the next week. I am using landscape fabric to keep weeds out. My biggest nemesis is bermuda grass. It strangles everything that it gets near.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Oh yes, Bermuda and Johnson grass are hard to kill! I use raised beds and mixes that are (hopefully) loose enough that I can pull them up easily. When I start a new one, I put down lots and lots of cardboard to kill the grasses underneath.

  • chimboodle04
    chimboodle04 Posts: 286 ✭✭✭

    We really didn't have much of a winter here in Ohio, so I got my seed starting in early... Now, we are dealing with colder than average temps and I am wondering if I made the right choice?! I have planted my onion sets and a few cold hardy seeds in the garden beds, which are all coming up and sprouting nicely :) I have protected them from the colder nights and they seem to have come through just fine so far :) I am hardening off my brassicas and leeks to transplant under cover in the next few days, and have potted up my tomatoes, peppers, flowers, and herbs indoors. Hmmmm - is that a bit of extra space beneath the grow lights I spy? I may have to pop in a few more seeds :)

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We are way, way behind. Can't put anything outside until after June 1 here. I don't have a greenhouse... yet. And very little space. Hoping to get 4 trays started this week. Hubby is build a shelf and putting in some LED lights to get a few things started for me. This will be our first real garden since we moved here. Had a big one (about 50X50) at our last place. Only got a few things planted last year. Missing my garden and working hard to get one started this season. Won't have as much as I want to, but have to start somewhere.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    I LOVE SPRING!! So many choices, so little time! We have been having a lot colder days than expected too and I was scared to part with my babies and make them brave the harsh outdoors but they are fairing well. Now I’ve got to harden off these baby chicks!

  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭

    I’m in zone 7 and I should be able to plant my summer garden, but it’s only partially planted because it keeps raining and my garden is a mud puddle. So I have tomatoes, peppers, sesame etc waiting until it dries out some so my little plants don’t drown. I just need a little patience.....

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Where are you located and do you have a website? Maybe I can drop in and buy a few things when the virus stuff ends.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    @Lexie calendula is probably the easiest one. I have a couple aerogardens (sorta like aquaponics) that I start it in. The ones I seeded into the growing pods Saturday evening were sprouting Monday evening. The water in the aerogarden stays pretty cool so last year I gave it a try. The info I've read on calendula says the seeds can be direct sewn when there is still a chance for a light frost or in milder climates you can fall seed. With the wet winter we had I didn't get my new bed prepared and don't want to chance not having any calendula so went back with the aerogarden.

    I will probably sew some in the next day or so, an experiment of sorts, as I think we will still have a light frost. Bee Feed Mix has calendula in it, and a couple other seed mixes I have do as well. They say to sew after all danger or frost. I had a few come up last year from a wildflower mix that was seeded after the last frost. Two days after I planted that mix we had torrential rain, overflowed the gutters, and washed out all the new compost and a good portion of the seeds.

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    We have all the spring greens up and ready to eat. Have been planting tomatoes and peppers. They still have to be covered if the weather gets too cold. Garlic is up as well as parsnips and turnips. I figure we will be planting greens/lettuce again before the weather gets too hot. Perennial herbs are going great. All in all a good spring.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Ah! It wasn’t calendula, it’s nasturtiums that are giving me grief! I’m hoping to add some aquaponics to the mix in the greenhouse, once I get all the seedlings out. What do you grow that way and what medium do you use? I’m planning to get food grade plastic barrels and split them for the job but I don’t really have plans for medium or plants.

  • Obiora E
    Obiora E Posts: 517 ✭✭✭✭

    @Lexie I started in January putting some things in the ground. I have been sowing and/or broadcasting every month. I also did garlic in January. My Stinging Nettle came back with Horsetail (Equisetum Hymale). I will go back to check on our two acres the first weekend in May. I also put in ginger and turmeric back in March along with a variety of other plants.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2020

    @Lexie it is an older model of this and another model from them that is older too. I've never paid full price for any of their products, always bought them on sale.

  • burekcrew86
    burekcrew86 Posts: 248 ✭✭✭

    It’s been cold here in PA. We had snow flurries two days ago. Finally got my seed potatoes and carrots planted. My cold crops are all in. Hoping the weather is kind to those plants.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    I sprout seeds on the counter top year round. Broccoli, radish and onion are the current favorites. I love the versatility of them, you can grab a handful for a salad or an egg salad or stir fry and it’s always ready. I read that the sprouts are also pound for pound more nutritious than the vegetable itself. I had to reorder my sweet potato slips because my original order was delayed and they weren’t going to arrive until May! I can’t wait that long.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    I’m in Northern California and the garden is coming along great! Tomatoes, potatoes, onions, broccoli, and greens are doing really well. Next week I plant corn and put peppers in the ground.

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    I have been a reluctant veggie gardener but have slowly added perennials; artichoke, asparagus, rhubarb, several berries and fruit trees plus over 30 varieties of herbs. I plant sugar peas, bush beans, kale, chard, cabbage, beets and radish every year This year I added 3 kinds of potatoes for something new.

    I don’t have a long enough growing season and no greenhouse (yet) for nightshades but will add strong 1 gallon pots later in the season to grow for harvest.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    I planted my first rhubarb today but I didn’t look up how best to do it. It was an impulse buy and I just planted it like normal with a deep layer of mulch on top. I’m kind of reluctant now to go back and research how it should be done. I did order asparagus crowns that aren’t here yet so please, everyone, give me your advise on how to best plant them. I’m so excited about it!

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    For that rhubarb, it seems to grow bi-annually, or very fine one year, quite poor the next...

    Michael Moore is talking again...free on you tube, 'planet for humans' title of new movie, fine to some extent, overall premise is off, imho

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @herbantherapy what zone/area are you in again? I don't remember. So many members are in warmer climates than I. Would you be able to buy short season nightshade seeds from a company in an area that caters to shorter seasons?