Hey Veggie Gardeners!

Steph,

We have an Heirloom Plant Festival every year here around the first part of April. Plants, food, speakers (like the Dirt Doctor, etc) are all here for a day at our museum grounds. I can give you more info if you'd like. We'd be glad to meet up with you if you all decide to come. You could meet our kitties, see our gardens, etc!

I would like more info on the plant swap you were talking about as well. That sounds like fun.

Lovely veggies! And I just love your basket, too. I'm so jealous.....we have a snow covering and such cold temps that we can't even think about a garden yet.

I attempted to grow some vegetables last year, but sadly I had very little success! I'm currently living in a second-floor condo with no yard, just a balcony with an overhang. I think the combination of trying to grow veggies in pots and them not getting enough sunlight caused the project to fail.

It's a shame because I really love gardening, and love having fresh veggies! I keep trying to figure out some way to do it now, as opposed to waiting 2-3 years when I'll theoretically move to a place with an actual yard.

I have been told that I need to take some of my peppers to a farmer's market....but I just give them away.

By seasons end, I had well over 1000 habanero peppers. I gave them to co-workers and customers alike.

If there are any handymen/women who can help me build this:



Its a tomato arch and I think it looks lovely.

It looks like some 4" x 4"s or fence posts in the ground with cattle panels over the top.. You'd have to plant some heirloom indeterminate tomatoes to get them to cover it.

OMG I wish it were warm enough at our house to grow okra and tomatoes!

We can't put the garden in until April, and then only cool-weather crops for the summer. It's always 10°C cooler here by the water than downtown only 8 blocks away.

What a beautiful basket of veggies, I would eat it all raw straight out of the basket!

Originally Posted by DarkMavis

...Or personal advice?

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I love your seedlings, wow what a great setup! My advice is to fertilize with fish and seaweed - everything grows like crazy when you do. And eating the delicious veggies gives you all the trace minerals from the ocean (I believe there are close to 100 that have been identified while vitamin supplements usually only have about 8).


Put coffee grounds for acidic-soil-loving plants such rhubarb and strawberries - it's amazing how much it perks them up! I'd never liked strawberries until I had them from the garden. This year they went crazy with the coffee grounds (from local coffee shop) and we got these big strawberries with amazing flavor!

I grow most of our fruit and vegetables each year (for the growing season only--I don't have enough space to grow the amount needed for preserving a year-round supply).

It's WAY too early here to grow anything outdoors--and we have about 8" of snow on the ground. I have, however, planned my garden and perused seed catalogues.

I start seedlings indoors in late March, usually leaf lettuce.

I did find a basket of forgotten home-grown red potatoes today, which are sprouting. Guess they'll be seed potatoes in the Spring!

I bought tons of 75% off seeds in the Fall, so I don't need to buy any more for this year. If you keep seeds in a cool, dry place, they'll last a year or 2.

I plan to try the upside-down tomato things. MIL did last year, and she harvested 200 tomatoes from them!

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Peas don't like to be transplanted, so transplant them early. I direct sow mine. I've grown both "Alaska" and "Wando". The Wandos are more heat and cold resistant, which is good in my area.

Here are the quality control officers checking out my taters that arrived yesterday.

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Aww, that is so cute! This thread has inspired me to start shopping for my tomato seeds online. I like to plant something that's pretty certain to do well (Better Boy) along with heirlooms or something I've never tried. I almost forgot that I'm planting strawberries from seed. I picked up a little strawberry pot at the end of the season last year for almost nothing and it came with its own seeds.

Here's my list of what I'm planting:

Tomatoes (most have short date to maturity due to our climate)
Determinate=one flush of fruit and then it's pretty much done
Indeterminate=more than one flush of fruit
Wayahead (75 days, indet.)
Homestead (80 days, det.)
Earliana (65 days, indet.)
Sioux (78 days, semi-determinate, whatever that means!)
Chadwick Cherry (80 days, indet.)
Pantono Romanesco (75 days, indet.)

Bell Peppers
Red Bullnose (from seeds saved from last year's crop)
Sweet Chocolate (new for me this year)
Orange Bell
Golden California Wonder

Radish-Early Scarlet Globe
Carrots-Danvers Half long & something else that I can't remember right now
Peas-Wando
Beans-Blue Lake pole & Contender bush
Okra-Emerald Green Velvet
Onions
Potatoes--Rio Grande russet, Purple Viking, and Red something or other
Watermelon--Crimson Sweet
Cantaloupe--Honey Rock (AKA Sugar Sweet)

I currently have lettuces and garlic that I started late fall. I don't think I'm going to plant any black-eyed peas this year. I also have some dill growing that reseeded from last year's plants. I grow this for the butterflies.

SwampWitch- how do I know what plants would benefit from coffee grounds? I have plenty of them, I always forget that I can mix them into the dirt instead of throwing them out. Duh.

Stephanie- that's quite an assortment! Yum!

I am wondering where I'm going to put all my veggies, the more I look, the more I see less space. Stuff is going to have to go between existing plants I think. I am going to plant my peas today after mixing in some compost, I know I should've mixed the compost before, but.. I didn't. Maybe I can plant the peas in a few days? I don't know. Here they are now:



From the right are winter squash, peas, tall things are broccoli, then tomatoes and a few rows over are catnip. More peas on the far left. Green beans, spinach, eggplant, chives and asters have yet to sprout.

They'll grow well in the compost, unless it's fresh manure, then it'll just burn the roots. I have lots of things growing in my compost pile!

Nope, the compost isn't manure. So, I planted a bunch of peas and 4 squashes today!! I am excited. I really hope they take. HUNGRY!

I may end up having to do containers for at least some of my other veggies, otherwise I'm afraid they won't get enough sun.

Don't forget to trellis the peas. They'll need something to climb on.

I've got the trellis in, no worries! They're still alive and there, the birds haven't picked them off yet.

Has anyone here have success with bhut jolokia peppers?

I wish I could grow peas. I planted them along my wrought iron fence by my swimming pool one year and they were beautiful climbing up the fence. However, come harvest time, they disappeared. My DOGS ate them!!!

Sigh...

Mark eats the peas before they get into the house!

LOL! Does he dig in the compost like my dogs do, too?

My onions arrived today!! I think I'll plant them in the next week or so.



Maybe we should start a Gardening group!

Where I live you're not supposed to start seeds indoors until March, and outdoor planting doesn't start until after May 15th. So right now I'm just looking at the seed catalogs and dreaming of spring...