The Garden Thread

[gary_boom]

I have tried winter wheat and turnips together with good results but you have to keep the deer out.

[Dirtshooter]

It is bow season, that will keep the one's you kill out.

[Shorty]

I've heard planting Rosemary or Sage will deter deer from eating nearby plants.  Haven't had to try it yet though.

[Raoul]

Best deterrent I've found is a large fence.

[ReeferMac]

Placed my first order for seeds yesterday for my 2021 garden.

 

30 days to receive....

 

Wowzers.

[Jamie Jackson]

On 1/28/2021 at 2:09 PM, ReeferMac said:

Placed my first order for seeds yesterday for my 2021 garden.

 

30 days to receive....

 

Wowzers.

It seems like everything has been affected by this...everything!

We ordered from Victory Seeds last fall. The germination and production has been remarkable in our little raised beds. We've used Johny's for several years and I would still recommend them, but Wow! I'm looking forward to spring's crop of green beans from Victory.

Oh, Victory has some info on their site regarding the impact that the COVID restrictions have had on production and business.

Link:

https://www.victoryseeds.com/

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/

 

 

[Dirtshooter]

Hey guys/gals I have been putting of starting an asparagus bed, but this is the year. We got a Burgess seed catalog a few weeks ago and I have done a little scouring the pages for some new things. I think I am also going to plant 2 or maybe 4 Hazlenut bushes. Funny thing a Hazlenut and filbert are the same thing, I don't understand why we need to words. Many, many moons ago when I was a kid in central Illinois we had a bush that was wild and produced a bunch of nuts. We planted apple and peach tree's last year. You know the saying the best time to plant fruit trees was about 8-10 years ago, the next best time is today. Hope everyone has a great gardening experience this year. I'm continuing with our raised beds, we have about 14  beds mostly 4x8 some a little longer. I wish I had done that 40+ years ago. You don't need a tiller, a fork and hoe and seeds. LOL

[peejman]

We planted 3 or 4 hazelnut bushes a few years ago. From my perspective, they're useless. They're big, they spread like crazy, they don't have pretty flowers, and they don't make enough nuts to bother with. I dont really like hazelnuts anyway.  The song birds like to nest in them, but that's their only redeeming quality. YMMV.  

Edited February 14, 2021 by peejman

[Dirtshooter]

Well I may have to rethink the hazelnut bushes then, you know your perspective of things that happened 40+ years ago are sometimes tainted with rose colored glasses.

[Jamie Jackson]

We planted the wrong apple trees back around '09. They were Macintosh and in the Knoxville area apparently very susceptible to Cedar Blight! I didn't know what I didn't know!

They finally started trying to produce about 2 years ago...but the blight got the fruits as well as the leaves.

I cut them down, dug them up, and replanted with Granny Smith's and Honeycrisps. They're growing... I just hope I live long enough to see "the fruits of my labors" LOL.

We have one 16 ft, three 8 ft and one 4x4 ft raised beds and plan to add another 8 ft next month. Love the raised be concept for sure, especially as I age.

We placed another order with Victory Seeds (linked previous post) yesterday. There's a 5% discount code from Dec/Jan that still worked.  " save5in21 " . I have no idea how long it'll last, but it was good last evening.

Our Cukes did terrible last year and we really wanted to can some Kosher Dills, Drat! Hopefully they'll do better this year. You just never know

Looking forward to the garden pics this Spring!

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Jamie Jackson
correction

[DeepSouth]

I've heard that Cedar Blight affixes all apple trees, don't know about Granny Smith's and Honeycrisps.

I got 144 tomato seeds planted in the greenhouse last week. My wife saw 2 seed packs at the store she wants to try. I'll split a tray of 48 for them as soon as this snow leaves.

[Raoul]

My seed is patiently waiting better weather. Won't be long.

[peejman]

I got my wife one of those tabletop seed starter boxes for Christmas. She started a bunch of seeds today.  Hopefully they'll sprout and the weather will cooperate when its time to move the seedlings outside. 

[Dirtshooter]

There is a greenhouse/grower in my area that says there are some apple varieties that are less susceptible to the cedar problem. I say cut those invasive cedar tree's down, all of them would be great start for me. I know ya'll wonder how I really feel about cedar tree's huh?

14 hours ago, Jamie Jackson said:

Our Cukes did terrible last year

Ours did too last 2 years got a dry dusty stuff on the leaves. I try to rotate my veggies in the beds as much as possible. Have had trouble with squash borers last few years also.

[Jamie Jackson]

5 minutes ago, Dirtshooter said:

There is a greenhouse/grower in my area that says there are some apple varieties that are less susceptible to the cedar problem. I say cut those invasive cedar tree's down, all of them would be great start for me.

LOL. I wish I could!

But as I live in suburbia my neighbors (withing whose yards those cedars grow) may frown on that!

From what I've read the Granny Smith's and Honeycrisps are supposed to be cedar blight resistant. We'll see, eventually.

I have a bed that historically grows great cukes.

My dear wife, in her over exuberance last year filled that particular bed with way too many tomatoes (for us). Hopefully I've negotiated the use of that space with the promise of many jars of Kosher Dill pickles. Wish me luck!  

[ReeferMac]

Carrots, brocolli, leeks and turnips are coming up. Beans went in yesterday in between storms. Trying some pseudo-raised beds this year: terrible soil here, ammendment isn't conducive. I dig out about a foot down, use waste as a border around perimeter. Backfill with quality topsoil, I get about 18 inches depth to grow into. Of course the plants can go further, but its chert and clay, so I suspect these will be essentially like raised beds. So far I have 1 setup last year that ran garlic over-winter. Put in a new one for onions, and another one elsewhere on the property for berry bushes.

Edited March 28, 2021 by ReeferMac
typos

[peejman]

My wife has tomato and pepper seedlings coming up. We've got carrots and peas in the ground. 

Beware of the potential for a hard freeze later this week. 

[Raoul]

Still a little early here. May 10 at the earliest seems to work for us. I'll need to till the rye cover so probably get things rolling next weekend.

[Jamie Jackson]

Love to see some pics of your bed design @ReeferMac. Sounds like you have a system going on.

We have one 4x8 raised bed planted with Sugar Snaps (a derivation of snow peas) and they are doing well.

Our other beds are primed and ready, but as @peejman and @Raoul mentioned, still a bit cool to do any serious planting. But soon!

[gregintenn]

We planted our garden today. It’s harder work than it used to be. I think I’m beginning to get old. If so, I can’t really recommend it.

[peejman]

My wife planted some tomatoes and peas.  We've got some seedling peppers and cucumbers that'll go in the ground in a little while. 

[Quavodus]

Me and the wife put out 8 tomato plants and have about that many more to set out. Also put out some cabbage, lettuce, radishes, and squash. I don't know if there is supposed to be any colder weather or not. 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Quavodus

[Jamie Jackson]

I feel for ya @gregintenn! "Youth is wasted on the young"... <sigh>

As I've posted before, we use raised beds here in suburbia. We added a bit more this year and we now have the equivalent of six 4x8 ft and one 4x4 ft beds plus a 2x8 ft bed.

We've already planted Sugar Snaps in one bed and they're growing well. We have Swiss Shard, salad greens, and Zucchini coming up in another. Our onion sets are doing well, as are our Yukon Gold potatoes.

My okra seeds have broken ground in the 2x8 bed... probably too early, but I have plenty of seeds.

We had planted some bush type green beans in two of the 4x8 beds, obviously too early as we had 2 days of frost to freezing temps Thursday before last...needless to say I had to replant the green beans.

We plan on putting out a few tomato plants and some cukes this week. We are limiting ourselves to only 3 tomato plants this year as we still have 10+ quarts of tomatoes vac sealed in the freezer and I've already used about 30 quarts making marinara sauce this past year. I just want some fresh eating tomatoes.

We really hope to have a good crop of cukes this year as we have a kick-ass recipe for Kosher Dill pickles and already a jar of grape leaves on standby (for crispness). Some pickled okra would be great too!

I'm hoping we're past the cold snaps. I reckon we'll see.

 

[ReeferMac]

Got some work done in the pasture garden Sunday.

Planted taters, squash (3 kinds), beans, cotton, peanuts, and 3 kinds of melon seeds.

Probably have to replant half of it, but I enjoy the time in the dirt.

Frost got my first round of beans, too. Hopefully blackberry winter skips us this year. 2nd set already popped!

[Darrell]

I love fresh vegetables, but hate garden work. Luckily for me I have a couple of very good gardener neighbors who are always looking to be rid of excess crops!