I always start with optimism in the spring, and move on to disappointment as the critters eat everything I’ve tried to grow. So, here’s my spring optimism.
Speaking of trialing varieties, I decided to plant peas this year. The sort of peas that you pull out of the hull, not snow peas or sugar snap peas. My father grew them when I was a kid, and when they were fresh they were always fabulous. Well, except for the over-ripe ones.
I gave up on peas years ago (the rabbits like them too much) but I built an enclosure to protect my bamboo last year (yes, it was being eaten) and that was so successful that I expanded the enclosure and plants an apple tree, some raspberries, some scallions, and a couple of pea plants last year. Yes, I bought little pea plants at the garden shop, crazy, I know. But i got some peas from them!! and actual harvest. The little fence kept the rabbits out.
So I went to the little local grocery/garden shop (because I also needed scallions for supper – annoyingly, they were out of scallions) and they had several types of peas. Mostly sugar-snap peas, but I picked up a packet each of “Tall Telephone” and “Lincoln”, packaged by “NESeeds”, which I’ve never heard of. I’ve never heard of those pea cultivars, either, but I suppose I wouldn’t have.
I interplanted them, by way of trialing them. The “Tall Telephone” is supposed to be so much taller that I ought to be able to tell them apart.
I did a small order one year from NESeeds; everything arrived all right.
I used to grow Lincoln, and they did very well for me in my previous location; but for whatever reason not as well as some others have here. It’s an old variety with a good reputation. Tall Telephone I haven’t grown because I don’t do heavy-duty trellis for my peas, so stick to shorter varieties.
Interplanted peas are going to grow up and wrapped around each other and you’re probably going to have a lot of trouble telling which pods grew on which plant. But maybe the ripening season or the appearance of the pods will be different enough for that to help.
Honestly, the fence I planted them on isn’t tall enough for “Tall Telephone”, so it’s sort of a random swing to see what happens.
Glad to hear that “Lincoln” may be a decent choice. I planted more of it (on the apple tree’s protection, as well as on the fence between the two plots, which I interplanted.)
All the peas are next to a chicken wire or similar fence that’s sturdy enough to keep out rabbits, so I expect the strength to be adequate for peas.
What I do for peas is just lightweight bamboo stakes about every 15 or 20 feet, and a few layers of twine between them; the whole thing winding up about 3 to 4 feet high aboveground. And some years I don’t do that; though they’re certainly easier to pick in the years when I do.
I made new herb boxes for the deck and the wife transplanted from the old disintegrating boxes. That’s going to be the extent of our edibles this year, as we’re selling the house (including the herbs). But the peonies have popped their lovely heads above the soil for a look-around, and the pear tree is in bloom. The hellebores are really taking off this year and look great, as does the veronica ground cover. Tulips will be up next, of course.
In addition to vegetables (shallots and scallions are among the new ones coming up in the coldframe*), I have lots of perennial seedlings growing under lights, including Delphinium “Connecticut Yankees”, two types of Agastache, Penstemon etc. Some of them should flower this year.
Will traditional lilacs do well in central Kentucky? I’ll be finding out.
*Last night we dropped down to 21F, but it was a cozy 39F in the coldframe with the help of seedling heat mats.
You’re all making me very jealous. It’s 20F here today and will be for at least a week. I still have 2+ feet of snow in my yard. I have a long wait ahead of me.
I put in the seed potatoes a couple of weeks ago, and they’re just starting to come up. Either this weekend or next, I’ll be putting in the tomatoes and zucchinis. I may also put in a bell pepper or two.
Potatoes are very hardy plants and can go in at the same time as bulbs. By putting them in the second weekend in march, I should have a crop good to go in June, and a second in October.
Putting the other plants in this weekend is a bit more of a gamble. We’re expecting temps in the high seventies this week, but it’s late March/early April in Middle Tennessee, so who the hell know what next week is going to be like.
A few years back, I bought a potted Columbine because the flowers attracted me.
Oddly enough the plant thrived and actually took over another pot. I say oddly because I didn’t expect the Washington state flower to like living on my Arizona porch. All four pots started coming up a couple of weeks ago and I’m seeing flower buds already.
It’s still too early to put tomatoes in, but the root crops went in around the first.
A couple of years ago, I planted peas which did very nicely. One of the pods got left in the bed and sprouted very late in the year. I thought it was kinda neat so I kept taking care of it. That was the winter that it snowed! and then froze. The pea plant was seriously covered in a block of ice. I left it alone and the ice melted by itself. A few weeks later, the plant started showing new life and finally grew big and produced one pea pod. Which was eaten by something before I could harvest and replant.
I’ve been up potting fig cuttings. Started 64 cuttings with a hope of 20 or more takes, but got 60! So I’ve been giving away duplicates to innocent unsuspecting friends. Also started a couple of hundred Adenium seed. They will be up potted in about a month and moved outside onto my covered plant benches, and at the end of summer will be taken to a nursery.
The garlic that was planted last Halloween has already started to bulb up and produce scapes, so they have to be monitored so that they are harvested at the right time. The patio and covered plant benches will soon be festooned with garlands of curing garlic. I expect to get somewhere north of 200 bulbs - again, most will be given to friends.
Buds are breaking on the most reluctant trees; my silk floss tree (Ceiba species) has leafed out, and hopefully it will bloom this year. i started it from seed 6 years ago, so hopefully it is entering puberty!
Soon I will have to move my Adenium collection from my friends greenhouse to my backyard. I’ve already arranged the plant benches around the garden, so the moving part should only take one day.
Five varieties of chili peppers have been moved from the propagation area, (my wife calls it a garage, but no cars are in it!), and planted in beds. I noticed the first fruit this last week.
Weeding, watering and fertilizing are now the normal daily chores. Todays temp is a bit lower at 72F, but after a couple of cool days, the temps will go up. We’ve already had our first 90F day. Gardening is a bit different than on the north coast of California where I lived before retirement. Love gardening!
Can you please talk to me about garlic? I’ve tried elephant garlic several times and can’t get it past a couple of inches tall. I’ve been planting them in a mostly shaded planter and have been wondering if even that is too much sun.
Hmm, I grow hard neck garlic in zone 6, so while I have grown garlic for years, I probably can’t help you.
fwiw my experience is that it is one of the easiest things I’ve ever grown, and if I’m not careful it spreads to places I don’t want it. I have it in full sun, plus some volunteers in my mulch pile, in full shade.
Above-ground growth is frost tender, and the below ground sets mustn’t freeze hard; but generally a late frost will only get anything that’s already above ground, and new growth will come up from the sets underground where they probably didn’t freeze.
Many people plant them while frost is still expected because it takes a while for the sprouts to make it above ground.
– I expect you know all that; but I was envisioning somebody assuming that what you meant was that potato leaves will take a lot of frost.
I know next to nothing about growing garlic in 8B; but here in theoretically 5 garlic wants full sun for best cropping.
That said, elephant garlic (which is actually something inbetween a garlic and a leek) didn’t do well for me here; but it certainly grew to normal height, it just didn’t bulb up as large as it was supposed to.
Where are you getting your seed cloves? There are a lot of diseases that are prevalent in garlic and its relatives; and the soil can also get infected.
Most years I plant a couple of tomato plants and a couple of pepper plants in my backyard. But this year, given the drought situation in California, I’ve decided to forgo planting anything, and save the water for the real farmers.
We have big ol’ rain barrels and are able to recover enough water from them that I don’t feel guilty about “wasting” water on plants. They are also a handy way to keep an eye on your roof’s health. Our gutters drain into screens so we can see if the roofing material is breaking down excessively fast.
I actually do have a couple of rain barrels. The thing is, with California’s very distinct rainy season and dry season, once I’ve used up the water in the barrels there probably won’t be another rain to refill them until probably September. So at that point I still end up having to use municipal water for irrigation.
I did not know that, thank you. I haven’t planted any this year, but got my seed cloves from Burpee all of the other times. I planted at the same time I planted our onions and potatoes.
The planters were here when we moved in and the last owners were also big gardeners. Following your infected soil clue, I’m probably going to try again next year and do them in one of my new planter.
Back when I lived there, lo those many years ago, S CA did have a monsoon season. I understand that only us really old folks remember those halcyon days. Arizona had a couple of nonsoon years but last year was good and this year is predicted to be good as well. I’d sure like to see more water in Lake Mead.
I expect seed from Burpee was probably OK. Avoid anything from big-box stores, or from groceries (sold for eating instead of for seed.)
Garlic should be planted in the fall. I don’t know the correct date for your area; around here the second half of October is good. It stays in the ground all winter growing roots, comes up in very early spring, gets harvested in midsummer. Cover it with clean straw mulch.
If the same soil’s been in the planters for years, it might by now have all sorts of things in it; especially if you haven’t been rotating crops between the planters, but maybe even if you have. Fresh soil, maybe?
