Garden 2024

[larry_stewart]

The next week his supposed to be relatively warm. tomorrow or Monday will be my transplant to larger pot day. Probably start hardening the tomatoes in the garage. Partially to harden, and partially to slow them down a bit before they get leggy. They grow so quick once they get going

 

[pepperhead212]

I put the tomatoes out late, to start hardening off, in this last of the cool weather. I'll put them out again tomorrow, after the sun is off that area, or maybe on the front porch, early - I'll wait and see. They are going to be planted sooner than I thought!
Starting to harden off the tomatoes and tomatillos. 4-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[rodentraiser]

And here I just threw my little tomato plants out in the cold. LOL And then I wonder why nothing grows.

It's done nothing but rain all day, so apparently the canopy is on hold.

I thought I was done growing things. The contractor came over today and started cutting down all the Scotch Broom that's infested my yard. I still have junk I have to move out of the yard by Monday because that's the day the contractor comes by with yards and yards of dirt. Then the seed for the lawn, wildflowers, and orchard grass goes in. Hopefully he can dig a hole on the other side of the ditch so I can finally get my willow tree out of the bucket and into the ground. Next stop: buying sprinklers and hoses.

I'm starting to question my sanity and wonder if I can just pave the whole acre, especially as next week the guys come to get all my stuff out of storage and then I go in for surgery consult. Plus I have weeding up the wazoo to do, too.

Hey, does anyone know anything about pampas plants? I got two last year and one looked dead, so I tossed it. The other one grew like a weed, but a couple months ago, all the leaves turned brown and fell off and I haven't seen any growth on it at all. Are they just slow to come back or did the snow kill it?

 

[KatyCooks]

All it has done in Hampshire is rain during April. It has also been mostly very cold. I have managed to preserve the strawberry plants, but my hanging basket plug plants are dying because I can't plant them out. Guess I'll have to order some more.

 

[caseydog]

Hey, does anyone know anything about pampas plants? I got two last year and one looked dead, so I tossed it. The other one grew like a weed, but a couple months ago, all the leaves turned brown and fell off and I haven't seen any growth on it at all. Are they just slow to come back or did the snow kill it?

Pampas plants/grass is highly invasive. It has been banned in many places, including the city I live in. You may be lucky that your's died.

CD

 

[pepperhead212]

Here's an article about pampas grass in your area, @rodentraiser. Evidently, it's not just invasive in warmer areas.

Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board

www.nwcb.wa.gov

 

[GotGarlic]

Here's an article about pampas grass in your area, @rodentraiser. Evidently, it's not just invasive in warmer areas.

Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board

www.nwcb.wa.gov

"The fruit is a dry, one-seeded fruit, 1 to 3mm in size. The estimated mean number of seeds produced per plant, counted from escaped pampas grass plants, was 416,399, ranging from 54,567 to 840,905 per plant."

No wonder it's invasive!

 

[rodentraiser]

oops. Anyway, I'm not the only one with a pampas plant. There's a few of them along the road into town.

What a day. My neighbors came over to help me put up the canopy. But afterward, I had to stick the legs in cinder blocks, tie them down, then pour sand into the blocks to hold the legs. It doesn't sound like much but that's as much carrying, lifting, and stretching as I've done in a long time.

This might not count as garden, but yesterday the contractor finally came over and mowed most of the Scotch Broom down. I say most, because I still have the remains of last year's canopy, the wire cage, and the trailer table in the yard. My neighbor said he would come over and throw it in his dumpster (his dumpster is too high for me to lift that stuff into) but he hasn't done it yet, so I'm thinking tomorrow morning I'm going to have to drag it all into the ditch when I go out to move my satellite dish.

The contractor is coming tomorrow to finish mowing and he's also bringing dirt to spread across the lot, probably 4 to 6 inches of it. Then it will be seeded. I can hardly wait. My yard originally looked like a moonscape, then it looked like a scene from a jungle, and now it will actually look nice.

Our weather has been cloudbursts interrupted by sunshine but it's getting cold out for the next couple of nights. Temps in the 30s and almost down to freezing on Tuesday. That could always change but I'm trying to decide if I should dig up my little tomato plants and bring them back in the house!

 

[pepperhead212]

I got a lot of things done out there today, preparing for those tomatoes going in, though I'm going to have to wait until Thursday or later for that, as they are now forecasting a thunderstorm late Wednesday, so I'll have to play it by ear. I brought the tomatoes back inside today, after leaving them outside overnight, and it rained .25" in the morning, but they dried out quickly. Not sure how long I'll leave them the next two days (or how long I'll be out there!), as it is supposed to be in the high 80s, with humidity, and they are talking about heat index already! I got all my hoses ready, with the timers, fixing some of the leaks, etc. I also put some crumbs of the mosquito dunks in the SIPs - something I do to keep any mosquito larvae from forming in those, as well as any fungus gnat larvae from living in the soil. I tried to start my 'tiller for the first time, but couldn't, even with the starting fluid, but it got too late to fool with it - I think I'll have to get some fresh gasoline for it.

 

[rodentraiser]

High 80s, wow! We're supposed to have rain for the next 12 days or so with a break here and there, but it won't get up to 70. I sure miss California when I started my garden in March, harvested in mid-July, replanted, and harvested again in late October.

For crying out loud, the sky was crystal clear a couple minutes ago when I let the cat out, and now it's raining again and she came in soaking wet. Unreal.

Edit to add: now it's absolutely pouring out. Well, at least I won't have to water the new grass right away. All my plants in containers might drown, though. Sheesh.

 

[Kathleen]

Just curious, what do you do with your okra. I use okra in gumbo, and love it cut, breaded and deep fried. Both of those are Southern staples. That's about the only way I like it.

CD

I absolutely love okra. I have multiple recipes including one with eggplant (which I also love.) Bamya is awesome, but I prefer it cut rather than whole. I've also made this recipe for the past few years. I tend to make it a bit on the drier side rather than making it soupy.

 

[dragnlaw]

RR you don't need to dig up your tomatoes! Put a plastic bag over or a box. Should be enough to protect them. If they are really small, maybe an empty flower pot?

 

[blissful]

All day yesterday and last night's rain total 1.75 inches. It's wet. Not much rain in the forecast.
Our june bearing strawberries are coming today, and I expect strawberries in June 2025, ha ha ha ha, a long time to wait. We're moving our ever bearing strawberries into the flower gardens.

 

[pepperhead212]

I got up early today (for me, 7:30 am), because it is supposed to be hot today, and I wanted to harvest some stuff, and run up to the PO, and mail a couple of things. I checked my seeds I am sprouting, and all of my cukes sprouted in less than 24 hours, and almost all of the okra spouted in about a day and a half. All those are planted in pellets now, as are all of the gourds. Might plant a few zinnias today, too.

I keep getting just enough rain to be annoying, and make it so I can't finish that staining of my deck. Every day has a possible TS forecast for late in the day, until Thursday. Too windy in those thunderstorms, to plant the tomatoes, even though it's just 5 minutes or so! Tonight there is possible pea sized hail - I can't imagine being in those areas with the large hail! I hope nobody gets hit with that (or other severe weather).

 

[larry_stewart]

Hot here to today. Woke up , at the store at 7am ( I hate waiting on lines) and picked up a few things for dinner. Went on a 10 mil bike ride ( first of the season), then spent ,the rest of the day outside in the yard/ garden.
- Bought some seedlings from a nursery yesterday, and got them in the garden today ( Chard, beets, carrots and what I thought were peas, turned out to be snow peas ( note to self: Read the damn labels before buying). Not that I don't like snow peas, I just dont need 12 plants of them. All of the above I started from seed myself. Carrots failed, beets and chard not thriving and the peas that germinated doing well, but ion one row, only about %50 germination which is why I bought more plants to suplement ( or at least I thought I did). Not sure why Im having issues seeding chard the past few years, it used to be one of my easiest most predictable crops to start from seed. Im so poor at carrots and beets, I figured let me try the seedlings. I know or at least have read that the roots can be dedformed if now sown directly in the soil, but I feel I have nothing to lose ( other than a few bucks) and a farm I visited ( and follow ) always posts when they are starting their crops along with a video, and they use seedlings out of cells , so if the pros can do it, so can I.
- I have 2 honeysuckle vines that are at least 4 years old and have never flowered. I butchered them and will be replacing them with passion flower vines ( saw some really nice ones yesterday at the nursery.
- Never got a round to transplanting the tomatoes to larger pots and putting them in the garage to slow them down a bit. Maybe Wednesday. Surprisingly, the peppers I started from seeds are doing really well. First time I ever started peppers from seed.
- Stupid me went against my best instincts and put a bunch of my fig trees outside last week. I belong to a fig group and they were all saying to do it. Well, a bunch suffered leaf damage due to the few cold nights we had. Luckily, Im not too stupid, as I kept a bunch ( including my favorite ones) inside . Probably will start hardening those off in a few weeks ( one has about 20 figs on it already.
-Turned on the sprinklers and inspected them to make sure they were working and set right. Only one by the driveway was broken. Im guessing my wife probably backed over it. Couldn't have been me
- All my potatoes int beds and pots are progressing nicely. Probably about 2 -3 inches high already, strawberries , currants, blueberries, honeyberries all flowering. All fruit trees flowering or flowered already. Go try first 2 deliveries of Mason Bees for the fruit trees.Onions have shown decent growth since planted.
- Screwed up a few of my broccoli plants. Went to spray them with BT to keep the moths/ caterpillars away, and there must have been some kind of soap or oil still in the spray hose, burning a few leaves ( one plant definitely hopeless, the others appear they will survive, but did replace them).
- On Wednesday I'll probably get the last of the seeds started . Beans, squash, melons, okra.
- In two weeks Ill be looking for cukes/ Kirbies
- At the end of May, Ill be keeping my eyes out for Sweet potatoes.
Then the eating game begins .

 

[pepperhead212]

Another hot day here today, too, getting to 86°, so not quite as bad as yesterday, but I bit the bullet and turned on the AC, but only because a friend was coming over later on. I basically got everything ready for the tomatoes tomorrow - I hardened them off for 4 days, with 4 hours of sun today, which didn't bother them at all, but I took them back inside, due to the wind. No rain this time, though it looked like it might. Now the rain originally forecast for tomorrow morning, is not in this area, so I might be able to start earlier (I'll find out in the morning). It's hard to believe that these tomatoes got so large, starting the seeds the night of 4-6.
Tomatoes, and a few tomatillos, ready to plant the next day, May 1st. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[Kathleen]

Herb question: Every year, I manage to plant seedlings for herbs. They will grow, but are spindly and then quickly bolt. How do I get bushy basil, thicker dill, bouquets of parsley? And how can I get an herb garden that sticks around?

 

[dragnlaw]

Kathleen, that's exactly why I buy started herbs.

 

[Kathleen]

Even when I buy them, they don't become bushy or lush. They grow taller without adding anything and bolt. It really destroys my chance of Pollyanna bliss when everyone else (or just my sister) seems to neglect herbs but they grow in bunches and batches often year after year. You know?

 

[caseydog]

Herb question: Every year, I manage to plant seedlings for herbs. They will grow, but are spindly and then quickly bolt. How do I get bushy basil, thicker dill, bouquets of parsley? And how can I get an herb garden that sticks around?

The things that affect the growth of your herbs will be mainly food, water and sunlight. This is just a guess, but food is probably the culprit. Do you have a good mix of organic matter in your soil? You also want your soil to drain well. You want your plants in moist soil, not soaking wet soil.

Soil in North Texas is horrible, so I have to mix a good amount of organic matter (compost) into my soil every year. Then, once the plants have sturdy roots, add some good fertilizer. I use Miracle Grow Shake and Feed granules. It is a slow release fertilizer.

That's all I got.

CD