Gardening 2023

[Chris 2,987]

I moved the houseplants, which are mostly potted herbs, outdoors since I'm tired of looking at them and I wanted to tidy up the windowsill. I successfully kept all the rosemary alive through winter, but next year I'm only keeping one plant. Or perhaps three in one larger planter. 

I can't do much else out there right now since it's so soggy, but the weeping cherry I planted for the wife last year is doing nice:

The peach trees successfully blossomed and the apple trees are starting to show signs of blossoming any day. With any luck maybe we'll get fruit this year. I am down to one 2ltr bottle of cider in the freezer!

I'm gonna stop and spend some money at Banfield Baker this week I believe, to get some soil additives for the raised beds. I also want to see if they have worm castings. I saw an episode of "Growing A Greener World" this weekend and it was pretty interesting. I also wanna see what they have for grapes, as I'm thinking of putting in 2-3 plants for the hell of it. 

[Adam 484]

10 hours ago, Chris said:

I also wanna see what they have for grapes, as I'm thinking of putting in 2-3 plants for the hell of it. 

i can grow you some vines this year if you want free ones. once they are growing out, it takes about 6-8 weeks for them to make root

 

[Chris 2,987]

We got the new garden bed put together and filled. My shoulder is still sore from all the shoveling involved to fill it, but man it looks nice. Kinda makes the old ones look sad. LOL

Eventually we'll replace the other beds with these cedar ones, possibly buying one more this year. We'll see. 

[Chris 2,987]

My father in law built a new raised bed using these stone things he got from Lowes:

As you can see he stacked them and then drove a piece of fiberglass rebar down the center. He said he chose the fiber because it was easier to cut off the excess. I'd say it worked pretty good, though I'm glad I don't have to fill it!

My suggestion was to have soil trucked in, if they can get a truck across the lawn. 

[Hal 529]

Potatoes have been in for a couple weeks and will be popping through with a bit more rain , tomatoes are in the raised beds along with cabbage , Brussels sprouts , rutabaga and Romaine lettuce . Watching Robins snip off the tops of tomato plants … just snip them for fun I guess because they didn’t eat the damn pieces , just snipped out of spite and did I hear that little bastard laughing as it flew off 🤔?

[Chris 2,987]

I went and got a bunch of topsoil to add to the beds, then started planting. I got Yukon gold and a red variety put in as well as some squash, zucchini, and some pumpkins. I put a couple pepper plants in as well as a single tomato plant. And I still have room for more like corn, beans and cukes, which I'll plant in the next couple days. 

I'm gonna put some chicken wire up on the road facing side of our shed and then plant morning glories there. The ground is pretty rough, so I'll likely get more topsoil before planting them. Then if they want to grow there year after year, they can. 

I have a feeling we're in for another dry year, but there's no optimism like a gardner has, so we'll just hope for the best. 

[Hal 529]

Not taking any chances with temps tonite , raised beds are covered just in case ! And I picked up a replacement Cherry tomato plant because the stupid Robin snipped the top out of the other one . 
So this year instead of just two 40’ rows of Klondike Gold potatoes I put in a third row of Red Pontiacs ( no , not Fords … Pontiacs ) and  all are peeking through the ground . We put our taters in the cellar for Winter use and between saving a third for seed and the rest for mashed potato hungry Grandkids we went through about 75lbs last year so another row is justified, which makes me happy as i really do like planting potatoes. 

[Chris 2,987]

Yeah I was on the fence about if it was necessary or not. Glad I did, there was definitely a frost here last night. 

[Kevin 426]

It's supposed to be colder tonight. Mine looks like the survived last night, but I covered them in a nice black plastic for tonight. Hopefully they collect a lot of heat today and survive the night. Luckily I only have about a dozen plants in and the rest are waiting till this weekend or next.

[Chris 2,987]

Fortunately I haven't planted a lot that I can't replace, but I hate to spend yet more money doing so. 

I still have about a bed and a half completely unplanted still. 

[Chris 2,987]

With it being so dry so soon, I think we are in for another crappy year for gardens and growing anything in general.

[Hal 529]

I believe that as well . Been using the tank sprayer on the four wheeler to water the potatoes and raised beds . So far everything is at least moving upward . 

[Chris 2,987]

I've been hauling water cans to the garden from the house, but I may start filling a barrel out of the creek soon. 

I also got the stuff to spray the apple trees for fire blight, I need to get out there and do that today. 

[Chris 2,987]

This rain is welcome, but it needs to come down more. It's not penetrating into the soil very deep at all. 

Something came along and pulled up some of my corn sprouts, leaving them laying there on the dirt. I stuck em back in the ground but some of them don't look well. And in truth, there's some that never came up. I think that cold didn't do them any favors. I should have known better and waited a week. 

I put some more beans in, three weeks from the last planting in the hopes of staggering them out better this year. 

[Hal 529]

Told ya . I stood and watched as a Robin did that to a couple plants in my raised bed and yep just left it lay there like i was going to do to him , but I gave him a second chance . 

[Chris 2,987]

I moved all corn plants into one row and, while I thought I had more corn seed, I don’t. So I planted sunflowers instead.

The taters are growing like gangbusters. And instead of “hilling” them in the traditional sense, I have some compost pretty much ready to be added so I’ll too dress the beds with that.

 

[Chris 2,987]

The garden is growing like gangbusters out there thanks to the rain we've gotten. It looks like a damned jungle. 

We've harvested a single zucchini so far, with a lot more to come I'm sure. 

[Chris 2,987]

It’s a jungle out there:

 

 

[Hal 529]

Looking real good Chris ! 
I had to muster the energy to get the last four heads of cabbage out of the raised beds and into the crock for Sauerkraut today . Only got about 15 pounds but that should be plenty . Garden to crock super fresh and I was munching on the part not going into the crock .

I put too many cabbage plants on one half of the bed (6) and Brussels Sprouts in the other half (6) , kinda crowded but growing great . I will change planting plans next year . And definitely picking up anther of these new beds ! 

[Chris 2,987]

I've been cutting and drying basil and oregano here. About the time I have once batch dried, chopped and put in the jar, I'm able to cut yet another batch to start drying. I'm getting better at cutting back the basil so it doesn't get leggy but keeps producing. Next challenge will be to keep it alive for an entire winter.

[Chris 2,987]

Quote

 

Someone wrote:

I pick my tomatoes between the breakers and turning ( closer to turning ) to no later than the pink to light red stage but no later than that.This is because of:
 

A. Animal predation , 
B transport issues 
C. Splitting 
and D science 
 

Splitting always happens between pink and light red when too much rain has fallen and if I picked them in the red stage , they would be mushy by the time I could get them out. 
Since animal predation follows immediately after the plink stage , I target tomatoes before that . 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hal 529]

The Beefsteaks will be ready next week and the Cherry tomatoes at anytime . I kind of take my chances in picking as far as timing goes . The Cherry tomatoes are loaded and will also be ready next week for me , the guy who up till last year hated tomatoes, to munch on ( sans the seeds ) while cutting grass or just cruising by . 
I just wish I had started some Green Goddess Xanadu heritage tomatoes this year , picked green when the top portion turns purple it’s the only full size ‘mater i enjoy right off the vine , and yes you eat them green … so sweet and delicious ! 

[Chris 2,987]

I pulled the potatoes today. Not a bad yield overall:

 

[Chris 2,987]

I harvested another row of green beans today just in time to be tonight’s dinner. I yanked the plants, and planted a new row of green beans. I’ve never planted this late in the year, so I guess we’ll see if I have enough time or not.

Plans are to plant lettuce, I’m just not sure when the best time to plant it is. I suppose I should start with buying some seed first.

[Chris 2,987]

I’ve been yanking stuff from the garden little by little already, but today I yanked everything in the new planter.

The tomato plant, which admittedly was seriously overgrown, didn’t have any actually ripening. Well, they were, but they were pretty much rotting on the plant.

Same with the peppers which were supposed to be yellow or orange. They would turn and rot. Pulled those plants too.

It was a good year for pumpkins, and they’re turning a nice orange. I’ll leave them a little longer.

We did get some Delicata squash. I cooked one but I was the only one who ate any. At this point I’m giving them away.

I’ve planted some more green beans. I don’t know if they’ll bear before first frost, only one way to find out. I’d also like to plant some lettuce. Need to get down and get some seed.