The SDMB 2019 Gardening Thread

Cafe Society
1

So to take my mind off the current Midwestern subzero temperatures, I have been daydreaming and ordering seeds and scheduling a small seed swap. This year we should be able to be more ambitious, now that the 8 (!) raised beds are built, plus the 2 long, skinny ones on each side of the garage from the bricks from the chimney that we had knocked down before we moved into our house a couple of years ago. Trellises were built last year and plant supports acquired, but I was somewhat hamstrung by plantar fasciitis, so didn’t get to do everything I wanted last year, especially planting many of the flower seeds.

So far the new stuff acquired for this year is:

Syrian Stuffing Eggplant
Mitoyo Eggplant
Carouby De Maussane Snow Pea
Laxton’s Progress No. 9 Garden Pea
Lemon Squash
Rugosa Friulana Squash
Arka Surymukhi Squash
Berkeley Tie-Dye Green Tomato
Striped Roman Tomato
Brandywine Tomato
Lakota Squash
Red Kuri Squash (Hokkaido)
Sucrine Du Berry Squash
Lucid Gem Tomato
Solar Flare Tomato
Quadrato D’Asti Rosso Pepper
Lipstick Pepper
Shishito Pepper
Beit Alpha Cucumber
Marbles Mixed Four O’Clocks
Double Carnival Rosy Red Hollyhock
Swiss Giants - Pansy
Grandiflora Mix-Salpiglossis
California Poppy - Rainbow Mix
Leutschauer Paprika Pepper
Arroz Con Pollo Pepper
Catnip
Collective Farm Woman Melon
Little Fingers Eggplant
Ha’ogen Melon
Armenian Cucumber
Hmong Red Cucumber
Aswad eggplant
Purple Dragon Carrot
Shanghai Pak Choi

Left over from last year:

Peppers: King of the North, Criolla de Cocina, Padron, Corno di Toro, Mehmet’s Sweet Turkish, Firecracker, Orange Jalapeno
Squash: Acorn and Butternut
Eggplant: Black Beauty, some lilac variety that one of Tom Scud’s cousins gave us, and I swear I had some of those awesome fat Iraqi ones left but I can’t find them
Melon: Green Nutmeg, Charentais, Minnesota Midget
Kale: Nero di Toscana, Scarlet
Turnip: Nagasaki Akari Kobu
Radish: Purple Plum
Parsnip: Hollow Crown
Swiss Chard: rainbow
Kohlrabi: Blauer Speck
Chinese Cabbage: Chirimen Hakusai
Tatsoi
Radish Chinese Red Meat
Beet: Chioggia and Okragly Ciemnoczerwony
Carrot: Cosmic Purple
Cabbage: Brunswick (these were a freebie)
Sage
Ground cherries
Tomatillos
Sweet peas

I don’t know that I will bother with the tomatillos or ground cherries; they both take up a lot of space, and they didn’t wow us. And the Mehmet’s Turkish peppers were super prolific, but we like our peppers fleshier for sauteeing and roasting, so I may just give away a bunch of those seeds. And the acorn and butternut squash were OK - I wouldn’t have bothered planting them left to my own devices, but a friend gave us the seeds so I thought I’d try it. But I think it’s more fun to plant varieties that can’t easily be bought at markets. And the above list doesn’t count flowers, which will mostly get planted in the front or on the side of the house. I want to plant a flowering shrub or two on the side of the house, maybe something that gets trellised? Ideas welcome.
What are you guys planning?

2

:: bump :: Nobody else around here is obsessing about seed catalogs yet?

3

Not until the end of the month, really. I might get some chillies and tomatoes started soon, but for the rest, I’m just starting to think now.

4

Wow, that’s quite a list Eva Luna! Puts my efforts to shame. I’m in zone 9B, so I’m actually a little behind schedule. The only vegetables I’m doing for Spring are two tomatoes - Big Beef and Cherokee Purple - and bell peppers. The tomatoes were bought in pots last week and are only about 10" tall now. I have yet to get the peppers. I would love to have some poblanos, but for the last 2-3 years my poblanos have had no ‘bite’ at all. Is it possible that they cross-pollinate with the bells and don’t produce the normal share of capsicum? I didn’t think it worked like that.

Almost all of my flowering plants are perennials, but I do put in some annuals here and there. This past week I planted zinnia and marigold seeds in flats and put them out on the patio, so they won’t be ready to go in the ground for about a month. I wish I could have spread those seeds on the ground and thinned them as they grew, but there is too much mulch everywhere and the germination rate would go way down. I had already planted some dwarf euryops seeds that were taken from my existing plants last month, but I fear they will not sprout - it’s been too long already. I’ll probably just do some softwood cuttings from those now.

My biggest concern is when to trim my orange trees. Everybody says to wait until March 1st, but I’m afraid they will bloom before that and cutting them back will destroy a big chunk of the crop. My neighbor’s ratty mulberry tree is budding out with new leaves already, one of my gardenia bushes has flower buds, and the hibiscus never stopped blooming(fortunately no freeze this winter). I’m sure the orange trees won’t be far behind, so maybe I’ll just give it another week and then do the deed. Are there any Dopers on the Gulf Coast with citrus pruning experience?

5

I have only one thing to add: Spring can’t come soon enough!

(DST in 5 weeks :))

6

I planted some garlic and artichokes and one broccoli plant late in the summer and never got around to moving them outside. They are all living in my kitchen garden window (and doing quite well).

If I can stand them a couple more months, I’ll move 'em out (and that will insure a late frost, killing them) and get a jump on the season.

7

My zinnia and marigold seeds have sprouted and are growing like Topsy. Looks like about a 90% germination rate. That’s way too many, but I’ll plant them all somewhere even if they don’t all work out too well in the end. I might amend my previous plan and get them in the ground in a couple of weeks. There is a cold front coming through and nighttime temps are going to be in the low 40s, so I’m going to cover the tomatoes just in case. But that should be the last gasp of winter!

8

Oh, pity me! I have moved to a old neighborhood with large, large trees (read: reduced sunlight)and quite literally <1% of the space I had before. I dug up some red crinum lilies to bring with me and I have no idea where to put them. I will probably plant a couple of tomatoes in containers and rely on the farmer’s market.

9

Crinums can adapt well to filtered or partial shade, so if you have an area that isn’t deep under a shade canopy they might be OK. They can also grow in containers and do well even when pot-bound(the huge bulbs probably achieve that state quickly) as long as they get some fertilizer.

10

:: bump ::

Well, the tomato and eggplant and pepper seedlings, along with some flowers and dill, are currently chugging away on the back porch on a greenhouse shelf with a space heater. Today in the backyard, we:

Put down another 5 bags of compost, plus the entire contents of our giant tumbling compost bin and the 2 remaining bags of horse manure from my friend’s 4 decrepit rescue horses. Oh, and some slow-releasing organic granular fertilizer. The veggies had damn well better be happy after all that work!

Then planted 6 raised beds full of veggies on top of the 1 bed last week and the long, skinny bed on the south side of the garage that got peas and various greens planted last week: beets, chard, carrots, bok choy, kale, radishes, parsnips, kohlrabi, and a few other things that I don’t remember. Today we added various radishes, kale, mustard greens, collards, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli rabe, green onions, a few different kinds of carrots, bok choy, and I think I’m forgetting things. And there’s still the empty bed on the far side of the garage: about 20’ by 3". Thus today’s additional seed order:

Golden Beet
Pusa Rudhira Red Carrot
Russian Red or Ragged Jack Kale
Chinese Kale, Yod Fah
Red Picotee Morning Glory
Carnevale Di Venezia Morning Glory

(The morning glories are to cover up the ugly-ass chain-link fence that separates us from the neighbors to the south.)

Later: plant 6 bags of various bulbs, 2 bare root lilac trees, our potted Christmas tree which is still sitting on the back porch, and put down the other 5 bags of compost in the front yard. Possibly not this weekend, though. Oh, and repot the tomatoes and peppers and eggplants that are outgrowing their flats. And seed the basil and sage. And over the next few weeks, figure out where to plant all the annual flower seeds that I didn’t use last year because the plantar fasciitis knocked me on my butt.

Ah well, if the house is still messy, at least it’s for a good cause!

I am hoping some of the greens will be just about done by the time we need to plant the tomatoes and eggplants and peppers outside in May. Or at least enough of them that I won’t feel badly about clearing a few spots to plant the tomatoes, and sow the cucumbers and squashes and melons.

How are the rest of you guys coming along?

11

The wife pointedly noted that I rather over-planted the peppers last year, so I’m cutting back a bit. So far I’ve containered 3 hybrid beefsteak tomatoes, jalapeno, Santa Fe Grande and Yellow Banana peppers. Tomorrow I set out the Anaheims and Poblanos. Lots of bedding flowers have been potted, and the bougainvilla are getting a running start on Summer. I found a few packets of random sunflower seeds from a few years ago, so I planted them for a lark. They are all popping up! Soon they will be transplanted to their appropriate beds.

All in all, the season is off to a pretty good start.

12

I see that Eva Luna gets seeds from Baker Creek - at least, I haven’t seen anyone else offer Aswad and Syrian Stuffing eggplant.

I am growing Lucid Gem and Cosmic Eclipse tomatoes (just potted on seedlings of both this evening, seed obtained directly from the breeder, Wild Boar Farms). Lots of eggplant seedlings are growing in community pots - Patio Baby, Machiaw, Oriental Express and Mini Round among them. I’ll look for Little Fingers eggplant at a local nursery later; it’s a great, highly productive variety.

Seedlings of several ornamentals are doing well indoors, including Cleome “Color Fountains”, Petunia exserta (slender crimson flowers) and two varieties of purple Datura.

Oh, and a bunch of potted figs went outdoors today, as they’re waking up from their winter dormancy in the garage.

13

A surprising amount of my herbs overwintered - I’ve got parsley, bay leaf, oregano and chives from last year, so I’ve only purchased another oregano plant and some basil so far. I may get some dill and thyme, haven’t made up my mind about that yet.

My strawberry plants overwintered for the second year as well, so we’ll see how those do. They’re in a planter, so I might need to find a spot in the ground for those in the fall; they’d really like to spread but can’t do it from a planter and they sure seem hardy enough.

I need to find a place for the wintergreen as well - they’re also in a planter and I think it’s time for those to go in the ground. Not sure they can compete with the weeds that always want to come up in the front garden beds so I may make a new place for them.

The raspberries I planted last year are looking good and I hope they flower this year. The blueberries are also looking OK and they didn’t get singed by the last frost this year so that’s a plus.

Tomatoes and peppers have been planted and so far so good for those.

I have a new American cranberry bush and a lilac that I just planted. We don’t have good luck with bushes so if they last for a few years I’ll be pleased.

The snap peas I planted from seed are just coming up and if it stays warm through this week I’ll plant my cotton seeds.

14

Yeah, I like the wide variety of things that they offer that I haven’t seen anywhere else. The Aswad eggplant, in particular, was the most awesome thing we grew last year. (Out of the vegetables, anyway - we also have a garage wall full of raspberries and a bed of strawberries, and eating those straight from the backyard is a totally different experience than eating anything you can buy in a store).

15

Got snow yesterday ffs.

Have ordered bean, soybean, lettuce and flower seeds.

Fingers crossed for last year’s hops having survived the winter (despite distinct lack of mulching, sorry hopsies) and coming back!

16

My new apartment has absolutely zero gardening space so I thought there would be none of that this year.

But it looks like I might be helping a friend get a start in gardening.

Went out to look at her previously failed (as in everything died) garden. It was better than I expected. Came up with a plan and nothing too elaborate - figure on some lettuce and kale (her husband is a big fan of kale), some onions, tomato and pepper, and I’m giving her my four trellises from The Old Place for beans and maybe a cucumber and squash. She has plenty of space, but I wanted to keep it to things fairly simple to grow. Her husband is going to layout a soaker hose for water. The ground is in good condition - prior tenants had a fine garden there, and it’s full of nightcrawlers and creepy-crawlies.

Gonna start her with the lettuce and kale in a week or so, meanwhile we’ll get the ground ready.

17

This will be my fourth year - always wanted to but never had the time etc etc.

After yr 1 the raised beds (at home) which used to be a pilot plant for the allotment (Community garden in US?), have morphed into a kitchen garden with herbs (thyme, lemon thyme, parsley, marjoram, rosemary, basil, tarragon, mint, coriander - all bar basil and coriander overwintered); berries (gooseberry, blueberry, blackcurrant, redcurrant) and salad to sow imminently (mixed salad leaves, spinach, chard, rocket, land cress, spring onion, beetroot) also chives, garlic chives. Last frost risk hereabouts is historically second week of May.

The allotment is the workhorse - as yet untouched, but will start this week with new potatoes. Aubergine/eggplant, courgette/zucchini, squash and two types of pumpkin (pacific giant and mystery African) are on the windowsills. Runner beans, broad/fava and peas (a mystery heritage variety) I’ll start in the shed shortly. French beans and chickpeas/garbanzo I sow direct. My mentor (J, no relation) is providing tomato plants for the patio and has directed me to buy cucumber plants.

The asparagus beds can be harvested for the first time this year. Turnips get sown when the potatoes come out.

BTW - any suggestions gratefully received. Bear in mind that my style is distinctly - ah - pragmatic.

j

18

You know what works well in a garden?

Piss works well in a garden.

There, I said it and I stand by it. You take healthy unmedicated urine collected in a clean jar, dilute it with water in about a 1:10 ratio, and pour it on your soil and/or your compost pile (without getting it on the edible parts of your food plants, although even that wouldn’t really matter after a good rain rinse), and you’ve got high-quality, fast-acting fertilizer rich in potash and nitrogen.

It may be euphemistically referred to as “flowerdew” in honor of the renowned British organic gardening expert Bob Flowerdew who promotes urine use in gardening.

Plus, it reduces wasteful water use from flushing perfectly good liquid fertilizer into the sewage system several times a day.

19

I planted an apple tree (karmjn de sonnaville on g41) today, along with parsley and pansies. The peonies and epimedia are in bud, as is the apricot. My cornus mas is in full bloom.

Spring has finally arrived.

20

We’re already getting green onions. The snow peas are climbing, the lettuce and squash are in, as are the radishes and beans. Trying bok choy this year. I just dug space for the tomatoes, eggplant and more beans. With all the rain we got, the ground is really easy to dig.
The compost giveaway is next Sunday, where we get the contents of our green can back in usable form, so I’ll spread that and then do the tomatoes. And we got alfalfa for mulch.
Last year we were gone so much that things were a bit of a mess. This year we are sticking around more.