Green Thumb Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This afternoon, in the break between phone call times, I planted my vegetable garden. I had bought the plants Sunday, and just needed a clear 45 minutes or so to put them in. Plants I transplanted:

Broccoli ( VERY late in the season to put it in, I know, but I just moved and got the garden set up. It’s a hope-for-the-best crop, maybe I’ll get some heads before it bolts.)
Tomatos;
Supersteak
Early Girl
Roma
Grape
Big Cherry
Sweet Million ( a WONDERFUL variety of cherry tomatos. It produces abundant clusters of very small tomatos that are as sweet as sugar. I eat them like potato chips all summer long. If you’re going to grow cherry tomatos, plant one of these bushes. Trust me on this one)
Peppers;
Giant Bell
Trinidad Scorpion ( The hottest known pepper. 1 pepper can easily season 7 pots of chili, quite spicely, too. Billed as “Too hot for human consumption”, and if you were going to eat one straight, I would think so.)
Garden Salsa
Jalipeno
Black Beauty
Lettuce
Romaine
Red Sail
Bibb
Zuchini
Yellow Squash
Cucumber
Cantelope
( The last four are part of a climbing row in the back of the garden, along with Green Beans which are soaking right now, I’ll plant them tomorrow. The garden is against the house, I’m gonna put up some lattice for them to climb)

I also planted some seeds:

Carrots
Scallions
Red Onion Sets

And I still have 2 squares left that will get herbs: Chives, Basil, Celantro, Rosemary etc…

I also plan to dig up a patch in the back of the yard for a couple of rows of corn ( Silver Queen and Yellow ) sometime in the next week or so.

The gardening method I use is Square Foot Gardening. There’s a book that outlines it all. I plant everything I listed above ( except for the corn ) in a 8’ X 5’ area. I’ve modified it somewhat, most notably in that I’ve never had any luck doing corn as he recommends, hence I’m going back to some old fashond rows this year, and he dosen’t leave enough space for tomatos, at least not the monster tomatos I grow. ( 1/2 cup or so of Epsom Salts in each hole before you put the tomato plant in will grow GIANT plants ) He recommends 1 plant per square foot, so that a 2’ X 4’ section of garden would have 8 tomato plants, arrainged thus:

1234
5678

I put tomato plants only in squares 1,3,6 and 8, which is why my garden is 5’ deep rather than 4, so I can stagger the Tomato plants. Other than that, I’m a huge fan of the square foot method. I get TONS of crops from an area the size of a sheet of plywood, and weeding, watering, etc…these are all kept to a bare minimum. Does anyone else use this method?

I thought a thread about gardening would be a neat idea, so gardeners, chime in! Although my vegetable garden is my pride and joy, I also have several flower gardens ( well, I will have. I’m waiting for GingerOfTheNorth to get here, that’s her passion and I want her input.) so don’t be afraid to speak up about flowers. This is the place for stories, advice, bragging ( You know you want to tell the world about that 2lb tomato, don’t you? Sure you do!), commiseration ( last year, in one night, rabbits dug under a fence at the back of my garden and ate FIFTEEN (!) lettuce plants in one night!), and anything else related to gardening. I have a question to start off:

This will be my first year doing rows of corn. Are there any animals that will eat immature corn plants? Also, I’m back in the woods now, how can I keep deer from eating the ears before I get a chance to?

2

I’ve done the square foot thing, it’s pretty nice. I don’t have as much time or energy this year so I’m just doing a few things. Garlic of course, which I grow every year. I’ve got about six different varieties I think, mostly hardnecks. I’ve got a small asparagus patch going. I’m planning on putting out the rest next weekend- lima beans which I adore; tomatoes, two kinds, sungold (cherry tomato, eat 'em like popcorn) and a paste, scallions, and I thought I’d try soybeans this year as I’ve recently acquired a taste for them. I’ll put in some carrots when the garlic gets harvested. Oh, and two different varieties of basil- sweet and genovese, as many plants as I can grow. Pesto, baby!
Everything is raised either in pots, planters or raised beds with their own irrigation system.

Your garden sounds quite nice. I love silver queen corn but don’t have the room. I’ll be purchasing mine at the farmer’s market. I don’t know about the deer though, all I’ve ever had to contend with are rabbits, a fat groundhog and the neighbor’s cat. Oh, and the birds one year ate three-quarters of my spinach seedlings!

3

Wow, I thought there’d be more gardiners!

4

Typically, planting time here falls around the May long weekend, if we don’t get snow.

I usually plant a small garden of taters, carrots, beans, peas, spaghetti squash, lettuce, and onions. My son gets his freebee tomatoe plants every year, but he eats them off the vine so they never make it in the house.

I tried the square foot thing in my other house because I had a huge garden area to play with. This year, my yard is much smaller so it will just be potatoes, lettuce and onions.

I think I’ll just come to your house for all the rest.

5

I potted a container-type tomato plant during our unseasonably warm spell, as well as planting some dianthus and trying to sprout some morning glories. I’d like to get another serrano pepper plant growing - I had one indoors that lasted 2 years and turned out a ton of peppers - but haven’t seen any seedling for sale yet. Around here we can still get frost; next month is probably the time to start planting in earnest.

6

Yeah, Dave, you’re a little premature for any Western Canadian gardeners (we just got another dump of snow yesterday). Ginger is going to LOVE being somewhere where you can plant already, if she’s a gardening buff.

(A little wedding hijack - how’s the wedding plans coming? Tell Ginger to come back and let us know how things are going, eh?)