Who is planting a garden this year?

[mystang89]

Squash(zuchinni, golden zuchinni, and several larger ones) tomatoes, peppers, jerusalem artichokes, eggplant, and some other things...also put in a bunch of fruit trees and about to put some blackberries and black cap raspberries in as well.

Those sound delicious OAF the only problem with those is that it takes SOOO much room to plant. I know you can plant them going up a trellis but then I haave to make a trellis and plant them in the same spot every year.

 

[akane]

I ended up putting strawberries in today instead of other plans. I thought there would be a long debate of strawberry location and area preparation and then I noticed the perfect spot. I just tore out the mystery plants and turned the otherwise fully prepared soil in to a strawberry bed.

 

[Zass]

I'm planting every inch of my property, and as much of my mother-in-law's property as her landlord will allow.
:lol:
She lives across the street, he lives two houses down. She pays him rent. My husband helps him with mowing and gardening all summer. In return he pays my husband, AND brings (literally) bushels of produce to our household and the mother-in-law's.


Wow, looking it it critically... it's a pretty sweet setup for all of us. <br /><br /> __________ Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:37 pm __________ <br /><br /> This year, I want as many sweet potatoes as I can grow.

 

[akane]

I have to allow for running, digging dog space. In the space they have now they are already killing the grass. I am going to square the beds off and make them raised which will give me a little more space and help my ability to do stuff. Right now everything follows these curvy, wandering lines of bricks all around the fence and house. I find it annoying. I have been proven to be a bit too practical and not good at just making things visually appealing. I am thinking though of using fake stacked rock wall appearance around the front yard so the raised beds will look a little less utilitarian.

 

[bikegurl]

We have onions, tomato, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, eggplant and celery starts in the greenhouse, pepper and okra starts in the house (to move to the greenhouse once the nights get out of the 30s) and I'm going to start our Lutz storage beets, melons, and winter squash today or tomorrow. My husband has got most of the garden tilled, already, between the rain and the late spring. Peas are already growing out there, and potatoes will go in very soon. By the end of May we'll have corn, sweet potatoes, and beans planted. Right now we have the chickens in tractors, eating the weed seedlings and turning over the horse bedding/mulch we put on the garden last fall. The asparagus is starting to grow (though I doubt we'll get any, since it is just its second year) and so is the rhubarb. The strawberries need weeding, but look promising! My mouth is watering just thinking about the bounty coming our way! We also have lots of wild raspberries and blackberries nearby. And a few cherry trees of varying kinds. Last year they didn't produce, so hopefully this year they will! Ah, springtime....lots of work, but my favorite time of year, with all the new life!
This year I'm starting (with my husband's help!) a kitchen garden/flower bed right near the side door....with roses, a fig (I have three others in pots, and we will see how this one survives the winter...) lots of herbs and flowers yet to be determined!

 

[Miss M]

We burned the garden earlier this week (finally some rain-free days!). We have half of the garden area tarped now, and need to pick up more billboard tarps to finish covering it. We need to rake out the old rows in the uncovered part, too.

It was fun opening the tarps up and seeing what we had. The first one was for a bank we use as the butt of jokes around here. :lol: Another was for a casino, two for a biomedical research center, two for a dairy company, one for a tax prep service, one for McDonald's mango-pineapple smoothies, etc.

We ended up with six 10' x 20' tarps and a number of smaller ones.

If you need tarps for anything... these are all good material. Some of them are very good material. They are all in good to excellent shape, though a few were pieces of larger tarps. Tarps can be expensive. These were free for the asking. And the ad side is made to take the sun and rain. Just look at the billboards you have around you, and see what the company name is. Give them a call. Maybe they give their used ones away, too. (I'm not even sure the bank one was used. It even smelled new... you know, like a shower curtain you just took out of the package.)

I've got to find out where to get tractor tires. I may be able to get those for free, too, because you have to pay a fee to dispose of them.

I want to cover the tarps with pine straw to walk on. No shortage of pines around here. And pine straw doesn't break down into soil very quickly, so it wouldn't be growing weeds much.

 

[akane]

Periwinkle placed everywhere. All around the house, under the lilacs, and just inside the backyard fence. Every day is raking periwinkle and hoeing quickweed sprouts. The peppers had to come back inside. Rain rain rain and below freezing at night for it looks like more than a week. Now I wonder if they will survive in the low light entryway until they can go back out. I might have to move the plant light. The rain is good for the carrots, radish, swiss chard, and strawberries that are planted. Can strawberries handle frost when newly planted before starting growth? The instructions only said how to shove the things in the ground and not when.

 

[skysthelimit]

Finally got the new site covered. Lettuce, spinach and arugula so far. Need to scrape the back to prepare for tomatoes and collards.

 

[Homer]

... Can strawberries handle frost when newly planted before starting growth? The instructions only said how to shove the things in the ground and not when.

You could always put leaves or straw on them is you're worried about it but they will take it for short amounts of time each day. Yjr ground itself will have some heat built up by now.

 

[Rainey]

Our gardens are finally started--just peas, greens and onion seedlings in the ground so far.

Today I got my son to cut a branch off our only weeping willow. He had to use a pole saw since the tree sort of leans out over the pond and the branching starts up fairly high. I cut seven pieces from it and stuck them into wet places where I hope they'll root. We have black willow that we feed a lot to the rabbits and a couple other kinds of smaller willow that stays fresh looking longer but the rabbits don't seem to like as well as the other. Hoping the weeping willow will be easier to reach branches and having it closer to the rabbits and goats will save some steps eventually. Also have 3 mulberries I got bare root and set out a couple weeks ago--not leafed out yet but I'm hoping.
And I put borage seeds in an empty spot in my herb garden as soon as the ground thawed. That will also be for the rabbits if it comes up and thrives.
Today we'll be having wild leeks gathered from the woods and fiddleheads from the edge of the brook if they're up far enough. What wild things do others gather to eat?

 

[Zass]

What wild things do others gather to eat?

This time of year I gather wild leeks if I can find them in profusion. Japanese knotweed shoots and Dandelion greens for me are good now, the rest of the year they will be just for the rabbits. I'll be looking for morels, but I've yet to ever locate any.
A little later in spring I'll harvest some poke and milkweed shoots.


I think we could do a whole thread on just wild edibles.

 

[michaels4gardens]

What wild things do others gather to eat?

This time of year I gather wild leeks if I can find them in profusion. Japanese knowtweed shoots and Dandelion greens for me are good now, the rest of the year they will be just for the rabbits. I'll be looking for morels, but I've yet to ever locate any.
A little later in spring I'll harvest some poke and milkweed shoots.


I think we could do a whole thread on just wild edibles.

I love ramps...

 

[bikegurl]

I would eat ramps, or leeks, as I am accustomed to calling them, if I had ready access to them. I miss picking them each spring! Dandelions are great this time of year, too!

This time of year I gather wild leeks if I can find them in profusion. Japanese knowtweed shoots and Dandelion greens for me are good now, the rest of the year they will be just for the rabbits. I'll be looking for morels, but I've yet to ever locate any.
A little later in spring I'll harvest some poke and milkweed shoots.

How do you prepare the knotweed shoots? We have tremendous amounts growing here!

 

[Zass]

Japanese knotweed, (fallopia japonica) to make sure we have the same plant
*goes back and fixes spelling error* :blush:
It's very sour.
I usually just eat some steamed, nibble a little raw, and chop up some and freeze to use as a rhubarb substitute.
I've used it as a wine making ingredient with mixed success. I think, I've yet to find the proper plants to combine it with to best compliment it's flavor.

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants ... tweed.html
http://tacticalintelligence.net/blog/wi ... otweed.htm

It has some serious health benefits , but it also comes with the usual warning that you would get with oxalate containing plants, like rhubarb.

 

[bikegurl]

Interesting! Yes, we have the same plant. I knew it was edible, but I didn't know of anyone that actually ate it...
Thanks for the links...I think I'll try to use some this spring....

 

[EnglishSpot]

Today I got my seeds into the starter trays (prolly no more snow, but give it a week). I planted a little bit of everything! Tomato, peppers, cucumbers, spinach, two types of lettuce, beets, turnips, beans, cilantro, basil, corn, carrots, lettuce, parsley, nasturtiums, Alyssa, sweet Wiliam, impatiens, poppies, foxglove, mimosa peduca (Sensitive Plant--seeds are old, so we'll see how that goes), marigolds, zinnias, and I think that's it. (Many many thanks to Marinea!!) My SIL gave me one of those mini-greenhouses you can get at Big Lots, so I got that put together, mixed my old potting soils with a giant batch of stored rabbit poo & litter, wetted up the starter soil for seeds, and went to town!! I'm hoping that I can bring down my yearly $200 flower purchases to much less. There's a lot up the street that does the community garden thing and you can rent a plot for $15 for the season. The kids are I are going in on it!! Whatever sprouts extra can be shifted to the garden plot and offer them to fellow 'plotters'.

This is the time ever I've done corn--that'll be interesting!! I'm really intrigued with the straw bale gardening, but there's no way the hubby would put up with that in the back yard!! I saw how carrots do really well with straw bales. I want to do sweet potatoes again, but I don't have the footage here at the house to do them. At our old house I had much bigger gardens. I did pick up two Mr. Stripey tomatoes at Home Depot and planted those off the back deck; currently I have milk crates over them so the yard rabbit doesn't nibble them!!

I just spoke with the San Diego Community Garden admin and joined!!

 

[akane]

Hoeing hoeing the weeds all day long before it turns to 80F this weekend. I think I'm gonna go ahead and plant a row of peppers. I have something sprouting in my slightly raised carrot, radish, swiss chard bed. I think it's the radishes. We are attempting corn for the first time too.

 

[michaels4gardens]

I finally got all of my potatoes planted, and most of the carrots planted [we use a lot of carrot because we juice a lot] I al still digging carrots from the garden that over-wintered, The 2nd week of May is when we can plant corn, beans, squash, etc. here, - planting will begin again soon.
pictures of my garlic patch, and of the rows planted with potatoes <br /><br /> __________ Wed Apr 29, 2015 4:50 pm __________ <br /><br /> a garlic patch picture with the "weeders" on duty

 

[Gerard Dawn]

My wife and I have a vegetable garden going on in our backyard. We planted carrots, cabbages, and green pepper.

We grow different types of vegetables each year, and the nice thing it that we give our rabbits some of the greens also.

 

[Wheels]

Got it done last week - little bit of this and that - But I did get my say and got 6 rows of pink-eye purple hull peas! UMMMMM - I'll be waiting with my pot and bacon