Among other plans is a tentative one to combine forces with another person to jointly rent and operate a rototiller to expand our “holdings”. There’s also something about chickens and eggs but this is a gardening thread, not a livestock one.
I’ll pulling back a little from species diversity this year, but still seeking multi-color varieties. So far this year’s list is:
carrot, radish, chard, beans, lettuce, cucumber, dill , spinach, bok choy, squash, beets, turnips, parsley, corn, and onions
Of course, as I write this we still have a foot or two of snow in the back yard and more coming down this morning, but I do believe in spring. Eventually.
This was going to be the year I showed restraint in seed starting.
So I wind up with six varieties of eggplant (including ‘Ronde de Valence’ and Turkish Orange’), seven types of tomatoes (among them ‘Indigo Apple’ and ‘Artisan Green Tiger’), ‘Topepo Rosso’ sweet pepper, two kinds of brussels sprouts, okra, cabbage, purslane, and yellow alpine strawberries.
Then there are the sixteen or so ornamentals waiting to be started from seed, tubers, rhizomes and cuttings.
This weekend the new LCD grow lamp gets installed and some of the first seeds planted (there are already perennial seeds sown in the coldframe, but they won’t be doing much for awhile, especially as the frame is supposedly about to be buried under up to a foot of snow).
I know people who swear by starting their seeds indoors but I’ve never had much luck with it. I plant directly into soil and get results I’m happy with, and in the end, me happy is what counts and keeps me doing this.
I’d love a cold frame… but my funds are, as always, limited and I’d rather buy another trellis for the climbing stuff, or maybe kick in towards rototiller rent.
I tried starting seeds indoors with very little luck. The tomato seedlings in the neglected back row of our neighborhood Home Depot were better than anything I ever grew. I’m sure it’s the lighting.
But now that you’ve got me started thinking about it, I think I’ll start a few columbine seeds. I had one of my very few successes starting columbine. Another success was marigolds. But those don’t count as those things are indestructible.
I can’t really participate here yet, since we have another two months before we can even think about gardening here and it’s currently -300º.
I haven’t had much luck with starting seeds inside, either, but it’s necessary for any of the longer growing season plants. Someday I’m going to learn the tricks to doing it - my sister starts tons of seeds inside every year with no problems.
I’ve already started 3 varieties of tomatoes and some peppers off inside, plus some flowers Here in the UK, the summer isn’t long enough to grow them any other way. I also start loads of other stuff inside, because there are fewer slugs on the second floor of the house.
So far as I’ve ever worked out, the secret is pretty much: make sure there’s good light- rotate things often so they don’t get leggy and lean, and take your time hardening them off, unless you want to just grow tender critter snacks.
The flip side of the short, cool summer here is the mild winter, so I’ve already planted some stuff outside (broad beans, shallots, garlic), some in the dodgy unheated greenhouse (peas, leeks) and I’ll be sowing parsnips straight in the soil in the next few days. March is the start of busy planting season, and I’m already getting a little low on windowsill space… I will be more organised about it this year though, and at least I have access to a greenhouse of sorts!
I finally took out the last of last year’s beetroots and carrots yesterday, and dug the whole plot over, with the exception of the potato patch, which had several volunteers looking so hopeful I couldn’t bring myself to remove them. I’m hoping to be able to get round to the stables this week and pick up some manure to dig through, and then I’ll be doing a freeze dance. I’ll put in more carrots and beetroots, spring onions, and I’m thinking chard this year. Peas definitely, beans maybe. I’ve never had the least luck with tomatoes or peppers, but I’m going to try again. Hope springs eternal. Since the whole of my growing space is approximately the size of two double beds end to end (the sleeping kind), I don’t have room for much!
I started some sweet potato slips yesterday (I’m in the Bay Area, where it’s well and truly already spring). I had a go at potatoes one year, and quite liked it, but I’m stuck with containers, as I only have small patio space.
I am thinking about putting the sweet potatoes in big barrels outside the back patio fence, to get more sun. They’re decorative enough, I don’t think the HOA will ding me. Maybe I’ll do some regular potatoes too.
What else… tomatoes, I never have very good luck with them - I usually end up with one ugly, leggy old cherry tomato plant that just won’t die, and keeps fruiting through October. I usually have them in ~2gal pots, which dry out quickly in the heat. Maybe bigger planters this year. Not much space left in the front, sunny patio, though!
I put snow peas in already, but they don’t do well for me either. Wow, I suck at veggies. I have some salad greens under the bigger trees (peach, lime) which I harvest now and then, but mostly I use them as sacrificial offerings to the greenfly.
I got a tip on sowing seeds indoors - take the tomato plants and plant them up to the first set of leaves to make them grow big and strong once you transplant them outdoors. I’ll have to try that some year.
Planting tomatoes deeper every time you pot them on, or plant them out, works well, because they then put out more roots from the stem, which makes them more stable and improves the root system.
Not all other plants will do that though- with some, planting too deep just increases the odds of getting stem rot.
No garden this year We are scheduled to close on an old (1891) crate of a house in a town an hour away … in the third week of April. Or not. It’s all up in the air.
IF I start a garden where I am … I’ll lose it when we move. I can’t start a garden THERE … because we aren’t really there. Yet.
We also had a brutal long cold snowy winter, with much damage to trees throughout the state and here on the Midcoast of Maine. We had much shoveling out of snow all winter long.
The calendar say’s it’s spring. We got freezing SLEET today; snow predicted next week. AGAIN.
OTOH … indoors, I have 3 bloomin’ orchids & 3 more in spike … narcissi that I neglected to plant well before Christmas and planted in Feb. are now flowering and scenting the air … and I got this (see linky http://www . medinilla.ca/index . html) at the Boston Flower Show!
First warm day of spring. We raked, chainsawed, swept, clipped and trimmed out front. We uncovered spring under all that muck and garbage the snow piled in our yard.
The first three pictures in this album are from today’s clean up.
Two things: First, does anyone know how to link to just the pictures on Pinterest? and B) The way I know I’m creeping closer to my death is that usually my shoulders wait until I try to get out of bed the next day to show how much they hate me. Today they showed their contempt twenty minutes after I finished.
I’m not going to be doing much this year other than containers. I have an old sandbox I got off Craigslist last year filled with soil and have planted my lettuce mix. I have mache already planted in another container. I have seeds for 2 kinds of arugula, mizuna and some pretty Rudbeckia flowers. I have 5 kinds of tomato plants on order - 2 cherry varieties and 3 heirlooms. I’m most excited about the Green Zebra, but also have Cherokee Purple and Pineapple. I’ll replant my herb containers too.
I got started late this year, but have most of my stuff planted.
butternut squash
strawberries
a variety of hot peppers
yellow squash
onions (2 varieties)
tomatoes
bell peppers (still indoors, but finally sprouting)
lettuce (left over from fall planting, no freeze this winter so it’s still hanging on)
I have a really little yard with awful soil, so everything is in raised beds or containers. Just a few plants of each. This summer we are going to work on a section of the front yard to turn it into a garden.
The rabbits are already pushing their luck this year.
They are always a hassle but they seem to have marked my tulips for death having earlier annihilated at least half the crocuses. Granted, it is a target rich environment right now but it seems like every morning, I find new tulip flower buds lopped off with a few tiny bites for insult. At least a few have been eaten all the way down to the soil but they are hard to find once that happens.
Last year, I tried a spray bottle of rabbit repellent and they didn’t seem to notice at all. I wish there was a surefire way of moving them along without my killing them. Aren’t there places to rent a wolf or eagle or cobra for a couple weeks? These are the types of crazy thoughts these rodents bring to mind. Cute, though.
Here in the UK, the summer isn’t long enough to grow them any other way. I also start loads of other stuff inside, because there are fewer slugs on the second floor of the house.