The SDMB 2018 Gardening Thread

Cafe Society
21

:: bump ::

The seeds have arrived, and the weather forecast over the next few days is supposed to be highs around 40, lows in the upper 20s. I am itching to start planting things!

This weekend I will start some of the earlier items inside (beets, kale, etc.), but is it warm enough to plant spinach, peas, arugula, and radishes outside? Or should I wait until next weekend? By the end of next week it’s supposed to be warmer - highs in the 50s, lows in the 40s. The seeds will just take longer to germinate if it’s cold, right? I probably won’t freeze anything if they sprout quickly?

Also, does anyone have a lighting fixture setup that they like? Tell me about it - I’ve never used lights before but am considering giving it a shot this year.

22

I got an Ikea light set at Christmas, having no good windowsills.

It’s simple to set up, looks decent, the light seems good (stuff like thyme and basil are growing OK) and the LEDs are cheap to run, but the downside is that the setup is rather small, and can’t be adjusted to grow taller plants. I don’t think it’s available in the US at the moment though.

I’ve just optimistically started sowing some hardy stuff outdoors… I have backup seeds if they fail, so it’s hardly a huge risk.

23

ACK I HAVEN’T STARTED ANY INDOOR SEEDS YET HOW IS MY FRIEND GOING TO GET HER EARLY-JUNE BRIDAL FLOWERS IF NOTHING’S PLANTED IN TIME NOOOOOOOOO

[ahem]… sorry, guilt reflex triggered by seeing the thread bump. Outdoors is still under 8" of snow so I’m not planting even the sweet peas any time real soon, but I REALLY need to get those indoor starts going.

24

I have a little plastic greenhouse. I’ve started some perennial flower seeds in there (putting in a big border this year) plus lettuce, chard, and annual artichokes. I moved my trays of columbine seeds, which were outside stratifying over the winter, in there. And I’ve put all my bagged hosta and peony roots into pots and put them in there.

Indoors, I have tomato seeds germinating on a heat mat in the front window, and more columbines. I really effing want columbines. Lots of them.

It’s a beautiful sunny day, so I’m going to work on clearing winter debris out of the shade garden. It’s under a row of ratty black pines that drop needles and sticks on it when we have wind storms. If that doesn’t completely wear me out, I can pot up the bagged roots I’ve bought for it: some tricyrtis and some bleeding heart, and more hostas.

Jung just shipped my dahlia order. Time to pot those up pretty soon, too. There won’t be much space for walking in the greenhouse.

25

I have a few things started on top of my hot water tank. This week I hope to start tomatoes, lettuce, and radishes under my glow light. We are still suffering through a cold, wet March here in Pennsylvania and it don’t look promising.

26

It’s lovely and sunny out here today, and yesterday we took the plastic covers off the 2 raised beds that had them. The strawberries had gone a little crazy under there, sending out runners. Also, the spinach I planted last November in the other half of the strawberry bed in an attempt to see whether I could get a little crop before the worst of winter hit didn’t do much then, but is happily sprouting now. A little patchy, but sprouting. I spread out the strawberry plants across the rest of the bed in the hopes that when it gets warmer, I will have an entire bed of strawberries.

The middle bed was planted entirely with garlic last fall, and a few shoots are starting to poke up through the mulch. I am torn between leaving the mulch where it is, and pulling it off so I can plant arugula or something around the garlic.

The third bed is totally tabula rasa for now. I’m thinking of planting the kale and collards and radishes and a couple of cabbage seeds from the seed swap there, in the hope that most of it will be ready to pull out by mid-May, when the tomatoes will go there like they did last year.

The long, skinny bed against the garage is ready to be filled with the soil, peat moss, manure, and mushroom compost that we bought last night. Then it will get planted with a first crop of peas and spinach. Later in the spring, we will build a trellis like we had at the community garden at the old place out of 3/4" galvanized pipe and nylon netting, and it will be home for the cucumbers and melons.

To do today:

  • Fill long skinny bed with dirt, etc.

  • Wash out all the little plastic pots from last year to start seeds in

  • One of my co-workers who basically has an organic farm going in her backyard a few blocks from me recommends sanitizing the pots with a vinegar solution to kill any nasty bugs. I’ve also seen recommendations for a bleach solution. Thoughts?

  • Bring the wire rack up from the basement and put it on the back porch

  • Plant peas and spinach outside

  • Fill the cleaned pots with soil and start seeds for the following:

Beets
Chard
Eggplant
Peppers
Tomatoes
Calendula (or maybe just wait and seed them outside in a month? I am going to run out of space to start things inside)
Sage
Lavender
Asclepeias
Creeping thyme
Ornamental peppers
Gomphrena
Bee balm

Next weekend:

  • Start basil and marigold seeds

  • Try to find another raised bed kit to put by the back fence, maybe with a trellis there too?

  • Buy and assemble trellis materials

  • Plant a bit more spinach?

The following weekend:

Plant outside:

Arugula
Cabbage (just a couple)
Kale & collards
Radishes
More spinach?

I am starting to rethink the idea of planting the couple of acorn and butternut squash seeds from the seed swap, because squashes take up so much space. Is it possible to trellis winter squash, or is that insane?

Should I plant Echinacea inside now, or wait until later and do it outside? Same for snapdragons and some of the other flowers.

I also have a few parsley seeds from the swap, which I should have started inside a month ago. Maybe I should just wait and start them outside?

This is all starting to seem a little insane, and like I will not have space for some of these things in the raised beds. Maybe the herbs should go in front and we’ll pretend they are ornamental plants?

One of my friends from the seed swap was saying he might rent a tiller, and offered to share. I’m seriously considering ripping up the patchy, weedy grass in the front yard and just covering it with flowers and creeping time and anything else that doesn’t need mowing. And maybe some mulch around the plants. There are a few bulbs starting to peek up there now (the crocuses and hyacinth and tulips that we planted last fall, and I think some daylilies), and I had been planning on pulling up the sod bit by bit over time and adding other things, but maybe I should just do it all at one shot. And this friend and a couple of others have offered to let me take things that they are either dividing or pulling out, like lilies of the valley, hostas, etc. I told them I would take whatever I can get - there’s a lot of space in the front that needs some love!

Sigh…this is all starting to seem like a lot of work. But maybe if I do it bit by bit, it won’t be so bad.

27

In my experience any daisy-form flower seeds had better wait until the ground is truly warm. I’m holding off on my calendula until May.

28

I bought a huge clove of garlic to cook with, but it started shooting sprouts up overnight, so I’m gonna stick them in the ground and see what comes.

A whole fifty cent investment, I think.

29

You can grow small fruited winter squash up a support, if it’s strong enough, I know people who do. Bigger than a couple of pounds and the stalks tend to snap unless you mess about with nets and stuff to support every fruit though.

I’ve got the first batch of sweet peas and some other miscellaneous flowers starting off inside, and I’m almost out of space already. This is going to get complicated…

30

Maybe I’ll give it a try, or at least the acorn squash.

Yep, yesterday on the back porch I planted two 10" x 20" trays full of recycled pots from last year with:

Peppers (several different kinds, hot and sweet)
Beets (Bull’s Blood and golden)
Eggplant
Creeping thyme
Asclepeias
Snapdragons

Today I plan to add:
Lavender
Sage
Bee balm
Gomphrena
Maybe also the basil and marigolds

And some more spinach in the backyard.

I think I need to acquire a couple more heat mats and some grow lights, and also to jack up the space heater on the back porch to 50 degrees.

Meanwhile, the bulbs planted last fall (crocuses, tulips, hyacinths, daylilies) are starting to poke up in the front yard and on the south side of the house. Woohoo!

31

Everything is up and growing. Still too cold outside to transplant, but I put some of the baby dandelions into the tortoise tank. He destroyed them in minutes.

32

Come the end of April, I’m going to seed the outdoor large pots with various letti; They are a gift that keeps on growing. Another pot will be seeded with parsley which lasts into late fall. I’ll cheat on the rest of the herbs and buy seedlings at the garden center. I always buy too much and have a bushel of basil and thyme before the official first day of summer arrives. I’ll do so again this year.

33

I do the same old boring stuff every year. Lots of hot peppers; lots of tomatoes; a bunch of herbs.

I don’t bother with anything else. I don’t bother to do it from seed. (I did one year, and it was interesting and gave me a sense of accomplishment, but it was a effing pain in the ass to keep up with all the seeds, the lighting, etc. It was great in the sense that I got to grow stuff I can’t find at plant nurseries, but I’ve found that I can find 95% of what I want to grow at the nurseries with 0% of the trouble.)

The peppers and tomatoes I don’t really care about the exact varieties. I usually have some early tomatoes, some beefsteaks, an “oddball” I’ve never had before, and a darker/black tomato. I’m not into cherry tomatoes, and I’m not into plum/Roma tomatoes. Mostly sandwich tomatoes.

For peppers, I always have some habaneros or scotch bonnets, some ultra hots, and a lot of thai reds, tabasco, something called “super chile,” cayenne, and whatever oddball stuff shows up at the nursery. Last year it was ultra-hot chocolate trinidad scorpions and white habanero.

For herbs, my standbys are: thyme (which overwintered), sage (also overwintered), thai basil, cinnamon basil, a little Italian basil, tarragon, mint, rosemary, chives. The old house (which I rent out), also has a big lovage bush in the back, which I haven’t taken a cutting from yet to put in the new house. Then I sometimes supplement with oregano, marjoram, savory, etc., that sort of stuff, but I tend not to use those herbs that often fresh.

34

:: bump ::

The crocuses and tulips and hyacinths and lilies are starting to poke up through the mulch! Also possibly some daffodils that I totally forgot we planted last fall, and something else that I can’t identify. Maybe I should actually keep track of what I plant where? But what fun is that?

Of the things I planted last weekend, so far the creeping thyme is sprouting like gangbusters, and a couple of the beets and one of the tomatillos are sprouting so far. I wish the other stuff would hurry up and let me now whether it’s actually going to germinate. It’s been pretty cold this past week, so I cranked up the space heater to 60 degrees. I’m hoping the greenhouse effect will keep it a bit warmer on the plant shelf, though. And I have a couple of heat mats going, and ordered some plant light strips.

Outside, the peas and spinach haven’t done anything yet, I hope because it’s been so cold. The strawberries and spinach that overwintered are looking pretty happy. Today I also planted arugula, kale, radishes, and red cabbages, and watered everything - it’s been pretty dry. I hope we start getting some spring rains soon. Tom Scud assembled the 4th raised bed and is outside right now filling it with dirt. I was hoping to do more, but my stupid left foot hurts (I think it’s plantar fasciitis but couldn’t get an appointment with my ortho for another week).

I’m debating staying off my foot, or going outside to make the trellis in the long, skinny raised bed next to the garage - I should stick to the former, even if I am also dying to make brick borders/raised beds on the other side of the garage and next to the front stairs with the bricks we kept when the chimney got taken down last year. I keep trying to tell myself that it’s better to let the damn foot heal completely, but it’s frustrating not to be able to do much of anything.

How much does cold weather slow down germination? At what point should I assume that the peas and spinach outside aren’t going to germinate at all?

35

I think the traditional time to decide all seeds aren’t going to come up is 24 hours before they actually pop up, just after you sowed the replacements. The general rule I’ve heard is that almost nothing in terms of vegetables will germinate under 8°C (translate as necessary), are you colder than that? It also depends on your variety, some peas will be able to just sit and wait for things to warm up, assuming nothing eats them, others may get damaged by the cold and rot.

It’s been unusually cold here as well; according to all the historical averages, it should be warm enough to start direct sowing a bunch of stuff outside, but it really isn’t yet, and the weather people are even mumbling about more snow… I have potatoes I need to get in the ground asap, because blight reliably wipes them out if they’re too late, but I’ve been waiting for things to start warming up and they haven’t. Frustrating. I have so little indoor space available that it’s really holding everything up.

I also seem to have had no chilli germination this year, I’m not sure why. Several different batches of seed, some left overs from last year, some from a new sealed packet. Everything else seems to be coming up fine, but my heated propagator is now full of sad pots of compost labelled as chillies. Oh well, I’ve bought some. Maybe that will trigger some others into growth.

Oh well, my garlic and broad beans are looking good, and I’m not really behind yet, it just feels like it. I’ve ordered some strawberry plants as well, so hopefully I’ll be picking them this year at least!

36

Today the high is apparently 5.5 Celsius, but it’s supposed to get warmer over the next few days. The instructions on the peas say to sow them as soon as the ground defrosts in the spring, so I have high hopes! Most of the seeds are actually on the enclosed back porch with a space heater going, so the outside weather shouldn’t be affecting them. Just the peas and greens are in the ground so far.

37

Today I put in two beefsteak tomato plants, two Anaheim pepper plants, one habanero and one Santa Fe Grande pepper. I’m seeding Black Vernissage tomato and Cubanelle, Figitelli and Elephant Trunk peppers early, to be followed (as I prep the beds/pots) by Black Prince tomato, jalapeno, Poblano, Manganji, Serrano, Goat Horn, Jimmy Nardello and Tunisian Bakluoti peppers, and maybe a few more habs and jalapenos. The pots are already prepped for the various types of basil and cilantro, along with a long rectangular pot that I think will get Italian parsley this year.

I love Spring.

38

I’ve started the outdoor planting today (well, I did sow broad/fava beans a few weeks ago, the first is just peeping up). Early potatoes are in the ground, the first flower seeds, and some radish, beets, and various salad leaves.

I’ll get peas and a few more things in the ground soon. Assuming it stops raining for long enough for me to squelch to the plot.

39

Yesterday the first few crocuses in the backyard bloomed! And I was afraid that the peas and spinach were both going to be crop failures, but there are signs of life finally poking up - I think it’s just been cold, with most evenings below freezing. None of the other seeds I have planted over the last couple of weeks outside have sprouted yet, not even the radishes. I really hope it’s just the cold weather.

Inside on the greenhouse shelf on the back porch, it’s looking like we are going to have a bumper crop of tomatillos, and for the first time I managed to get basil seeds to sprout, as well as a bit of sage and some of the flowers. The only peppers that have sprouted so far are the ornamental ones, and I don’t know how, but somehow I forgot to seed any of the tomatoes except the dwarf ones. On the suggestion of Tom Scud’s cousin’s wife, who grew up on a farm, I decided to try sprouting the tomato seeds (and the fennel, and some padron peppers) wrapped in wet paper towels and sealed inside ziploc baggies - she says she does hers that way, and they sprout faster than they do in dirt.

The last frost date calculator says I should start squash and melons and cucumbers on April 4th inside, but maybe I’ll jump the gun by 3 days and do it tomorrow? I just turned up the space heater on the back porch to 65 degrees.

40

Also, we assembled and installed two 10" trellises made out of 1/2" galvanized electrical conduit and nylon netting and leaned them along the garage. Now if the peas would just sprout already, we’d be in business. I’m thinking peas will be the early season crop, followed by cucumbers and tiny delicious melons.

And maybe we will install another trellis in the new raised bed along the back fence, for the tomatoes? Or the squashes, and do the tomatoes in one of the other raised beds with the fairly robust wire supports?