Garden Geeks thread

[Bob Gray]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Our garden is coming along pretty well, except the garlic has been trouble. Arugula, kale, romaine, beets, carrots, pumpkins and watermelon are all coming along. And some onions we had given up on popped up over the weekend, so that was fun. We planted to garlic in mid September, per local planting guides and only a few are just poking up. The farm we got them from then told me they shouldn't be planted until November first, so there's a disconnect between the farm and planting guides. Hopefully we get some more given we had bought some ajo rojo and sonoran especially for growing in the desert.

Oh, and our grape vines are bad shape with leaf hoppers continuing despite several sprayings and skeletonizers now joining in (sprayed them several times also). Not sure if the grape vines are worth the trouble given the proliferation of pests that get them and one of the three already looks like it is dying. Arg!

[Timothy A]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

My garden got killed dead by a heavy frost last weekend. I was getting a little sick of tomatoes anyway.

[CLS]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Got a hard frost here too. I had decommissioned my garden because I want to expand it, but I had put a few "volunteer" tomatillos in pots. Don't know exactly what I would have done with them, maybe try to trim them back and grow them inside with plant lights. Just before I went to bed I looked at the outside thermometer and it said 33 and didn't feel like bringing them inside and sure enough, next morning they were dead.

[bigmrg74]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

We had a hard frost Monday night. Tuesday morning, everything in the garden was dead.

Fortunately we harvested all the beans, tomatillos, and tomatoes over the weekend. Have quite a few green tomatoes wrapped in newspaper to ripen.

I really miss the morning glories though. They were spectacular this year. Over a dozen every day on the trellis that frames the south gate to the garden.

Soon it will be time to dig leaves into the soil and cover with black groundcover fabric for the winter.

We pulled out everything that was worth bothering with a few weeks ago, and I've been moving the portable fencing around the garden for my chickens to tear it up, and they love to do that. when we planted everything in the spring, we broke open the straw bales and set the slabs on the garden to keep the weeds down. I had them around the coop to keep them warm and out of the wind last winter. They love tearing that old straw up, and they have done other things there that will help the garden next year.

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

The day before the frost killed everything, we picked all the green tomatoes, wrapped them in newspaper, and stored them in a box in a cool room. Last week, we unwrapped them, and they had ripened. Most of them became sauce, a few wound up in salads.

Overall, the best year for tomatoes out of the past 6. Although spraying fungicide every week was not much fun, it did work.

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

phew, just in time...

We have a water line that runs from the house to the back of our lot. Every fall, not only do I need to shut off the water supply to it, I also need to blow it clear (it would be a real pain to have to replace a burst pipe underground...). I had meant to do it this past weekend. Last night, when I got to the train station, my car window already had some frost on it, and so when I got home I shut off the water supply and opened the tap, and some water trickled out....it had started to freeze but had not yet frozen solid enough to burst the pipe.

[walrus]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Broke thru an inch os of frost to dig carrots for thanksgiving. Supposed to warm up so I'm going to cover rest of row with a foot or so of leaves so I can dig rest later on, supposed to get wicked sweet if you do that, going to find out

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Broke thru an inch os of frost to dig carrots for thanksgiving. Supposed to warm up so I'm going to cover rest of row with a foot or so of leaves so I can dig rest later on, supposed to get wicked sweet if you do that, going to find out

I hope it works....once frost sets in for the winter here, it gets hard even to get a shovel into the ground....though I suppose the composting leaves will keep the ground softer.


For some reason it brings to mind a memory from childhood. During autumn, the street sweepers would pile all the fallen leaves into one huge mound, maybe six or seven feet high by nine or ten feet across. (later, a front-loader and dump truck would pick them up). We could build forts in them, burrow down and hide, etc. If a pile had sat there for several days, and you burrowed down far enough, you'd get to the moldering part, which would be steaming and warm. that was fun.

[theprofromdover]

For some reason it brings to mind a memory from childhood. During autumn, the street sweepers would pile all the fallen leaves into one huge mound, maybe six or seven feet high by nine or ten feet across. (later, a front-loader and dump truck would pick them up). We could build forts in them, burrow down and hide, etc. If a pile had sat there for several days, and you burrowed down far enough, you'd get to the moldering part, which would be steaming and warm. that was fun.

We used to just burn them.

[bostonewe]

We used to just burn them.

The leaves or the children?

[walrus]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I hope it works....once frost sets in for the winter here, it gets hard even to get a shovel into the ground....though I suppose the composting leaves will keep the ground softer.


For some reason it brings to mind a memory from childhood. During autumn, the street sweepers would pile all the fallen leaves into one huge mound, maybe six or seven feet high by nine or ten feet across. (later, a front-loader and dump truck would pick them up). We could build forts in them, burrow down and hide, etc. If a pile had sat there for several days, and you burrowed down far enough, you'd get to the moldering part, which would be steaming and warm. that was fun.

The ground won't freeze under the leaves, they act as insulation. Last year I wouldn't have needed leaves as we had several feet of snow in garden, it didn't freeze as the snow insulated the ground

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Seed catalogs and spring garden catalogs are starting to arrive.

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

we started some seeds indoors about two weeks ago. Planted some peas in the ground yesterday.

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Last yr I still had >1 ft of snow on the ground. This yr I have raked all the mulch off because stuff was bolting through it and the mulch was stiffling some plants.

Ordered seeds this past week.

[FiveHole12]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I usually grow about 24 tomato plants of 4 different types (6 of each). This year I'm going to try about 12 different types, 2 plants of each. I have always grown indeterminate plants, but adding some determinate and semi-determinate varieties this year. Some of the newbies to me include black krim, sweet tangerine hybrid, sweet seedless hybrid and honey bunch hybrid cherry tomatoes, along with my more traditional varieties. Should be fun tasting these odd colored fruits. Let's see how many actually make it to the kitchen table (I eat them like candy when I'm out in the yard and garden ).

Doing the same with some direct sow seeds as well. Cucumbers, spinach, summer squash and radish will all have some old and new varieties to try.

Ordered 20 new asparagus crowns. 10 Jersey Giant Hybrid and 10 Sweet Purple asparagus. With just 4 crowns planted over the last 8 years, spears rarely made it to the dinner table as I'd eat them as I picked them. There's nothing quite like the flavor of garden fresh asparagus spears. With 24 crowns producing, I should be able to get some to the table. If you ever plan on planting asparagus, take the time and material to get the beds prepped right or you're wasting time and money. Well prepared asparagus beds will be good producers for 15-20 years. Do your homework and don't skimp.

I'm really looking forward to this year's growing season. With very nice weather this early in spring I'll be able to get the winter rye tilled in this weekend and get some of the cold weather seeds in the ground. We've had some significant rain recently but my raised beds dry out pretty quickly. Won't jump the gun on the warm weather plants no matter how nice and early the spring is. That early to mid-May killing frost always seems to appear when it seems it won't. Patience grasshopper, patience.