Too soon to talk about gardening?

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Winchester

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Nice! Really nice! I just love that purple! 
 

Draco

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I thought yellow flowers would look nice with the purple pots.

Thanks all :) my nieces gave me that dragonfly for Easter lol
 

angels mommy

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Unfortunatly, I'm still unable to load pictures on my computer for some reason, but I got out today & seperated the sunflowers a bit, sense they were tall enough. They are about 4-8 inches high now.

The allums are almost as tall as my legs, & I have gladiolas coming up!  
 
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Winchester

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We planted 8 ten-foot rows of bicolor corn and 75 onion sets yesterday. Rick had tilled it out on Saturday morning and then we had a wee bit of brush and branches that we took out to the municipal shredder for mulching. We have part of the 8-foot tall fence up, but we have to finish that. And then put up the rest of the fence. While Rick pounded posts into the ground, I spent the afternoon weeding the strawberry patch....we already have a nice amount of flowers on some of the plants....and the small asparagus patch.

We'll probably get to our favorite nursery on Saturday for some plants: cabbage, butternuts, yellow and green squash, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, and peppers. I said I really didn't want to grow broccoli this year (I really don't like broccoli once it's been frozen), but Rick said maybe three plants, just to see us through the summer with some fresh broccoli for suppers. Maybe a couple rows of lima beans again; they produced fairly well last summer, not as prolific as green beans would be, but OK. And I want to try my luck with red beets again.....although I don't know why. 
 

Boris Diamond

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I used to grow a big vegetable garden.    

That's okra on the left, white half-runners (green bean) on the back right with corn sticking up above it.  The watermelon and cantaloupe patch is on the bottom right of the photo.  I had tomatoes, eggplant and hot and mild peppers.  Now I use small raised beds and try to maximize my production.  This photo is the best my garden ever looked!

I have started using grafted* tomato plants.  Last year two grafted tomato plants out-produced the other eight non-grafted plants in my garden.  This year I am going to try making it on four grafted tomato plants.  I hope they will do as well this year, but I have had disease problems and I am not assured of a great crop.

*Grafted tomato plants- specially bred disease resistant root stock with popular tomato varieties grafted to the root stock.
 

MoochNNoodles

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This looks great!!  I love how those pots just pop too!

We got some new things in the ground this weekend and I'm hoping to get my seeds in the ground today or tomorrow.  I planted 2 new kinds of peppers; Gypsy and Orange bells.  I also potted 4 types of tomatoes; cherry, roma, patio and "better bush" I think they were called.  I decided to put the pots along side of my shed this year instead of on the patio.  I think they will get more sun this way.  

Last year my tomato plants were "leggy" but not bushy.  Does anyone have advice on what to do for that?

My peas and garlic are sprouting now.  The mariachi pepper's are looking good too.  I need to try another store for some banana pepper plants.  They had some at Walmart his weekend; but only in trays of 5 plants and I only have room for 2.  I hate to buy and not use all the plants.  I don't have anyone to split them with either.  I could tell the plants at Walmart had been neglected over the weekend.  Some were so dry!  Other were sopping wet.  But I've had good luck with plants from there in the past.  

DH decided to put in a small strawberry patch too.  We put it along the fence line behind the garden.  I'm thinking of putting something between them and the fence to help prevent weeds from coming through.  DH dug out the grass in a long strip and we filled in with new garden soil.  I'm not sure if they should be mulched to help prevent weeds.  We got the "ever-bearing" variety.  I planted some berry plants at my mother's house when I was in high school.  We just put them in the front boarder between the house and the front sidewalk and they went nuts. The patch wasn't tended very well; but they filled in like ground cover and the birds and one of the dogs enjoyed the berries.  
 

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Everything has suddenly started to come alive this week. I have daffodils, tulips and pansies by the front path.

[]

The deck is starting to look more colourful too.


Someone gave us some blueberry bushes, so I've made a little blueberry forest for the kitties to stalk each other around.

How many cats can you see?


Blueberry flowers, close up.


Chicken doing headstands in the mud.

 

MoochNNoodles

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How many cats can you see?

I've counted between 8 and 10 cats.  It's hard to tell black kitties from soil! 
 

I love the flowers on your deck on the bottom right!  I'm into bring flowers this year I guess! 
  Your little gnome/dwarf looks right at home there! 

I am hoping to get outside and finish planting my garden today.  I just haven't been in the mood to sweat yet.  We've had several days of temps in the 80s and I'm just not ready!  Some of my plants and flowers are loving it though.  And I haven't had to haul any in at night. 
 

Willowy

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Does anyone know if I can put weeping cherry trees in pots for a few years? And if so, how would I overwinter them? I ordered a couple and I guess I don't know seed catalog language because I didn't expect them to be so tiny. They're just little twigs! But I guess that's why they were so cheap :lol3:. I'm pretty sure that if I plant them in the ground the rabbits will eat them. I love weeping cherries so I hope they survive.

I got my blueberry and blackberry plants on Tuesday but I won't be able to plant them until tomorrow. I hope the wait doesn't hurt them.
 

kntrygrl256

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WOO HOO we got some plants in the garden finally!!!!! 


The weather finally cleared up, NO RAIN, long enough for our garden spot to dry out enough for us to till and plant some.

We started out with pumpkins, cantaloupe and 3 different kinds of watermelons, I'm so excited!!!!!!!!

We will work on beans / peas, salad greens, tomatoes and cucumbers over the weekend then next week we will put in the corn, okra and whatever else we can think of.....
 

di and bob

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Willowy, I have had great luck getting big pots, filling them with good potting soil and then burying them in the ground. Plant your little trees and they should be fine for a couple of years. The burying helps insulate them in the winter and really helps when you go to transplant them in their permanent place. Just remember they have pretty extensive root systems so a 5 gallon size wouldn't be too small. I use pots with the bottoms cut out in my hillside too, it prevents the water from just running off and keeps the soil around the plant. The plants just grow right through the bottom!
 
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Winchester

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Last night, while Rick was mowing under our pine trees and planting the cannas and elephant ears, I was working up in the veggie garden. I planted:

4 zucchini plants

4 yellow squash plants

24 Red Zepplin onions (I love red onions, both to eat on burgers and also to can. I use the canned onions in all kinds of recipes.)

16 tomato plants (8 Roma tomatoes, 4 Health Kick tomatoes, and 4 Parks something-or-other...I don't remember. Please don't let us have blight again!)

16 pepper plants (8 Lady Bell peppers, 4 Sweet Heat peppers, and 4 Mariachi peppers. Lady Bell peppers are great for our area; the walls are nice and thick and they can get pretty large. I slice or chop them and then throw them in the freezer. We go through tons of peppers during the winter.)

4 mesclun mix plants

4 buttercrunch lettuce plants

And then we gave everything a good watering because we need some rain. The corn we planted last weekend hasn't broken ground yet. None of it. We need some rain. The strawberries have tons of flowers, but I don't know how good the berries will be as the plants really suffered from the cold of this past winter. I need to get up there and throw the netting over the plants; I was going to do that last night and ran out of time. We didn't cut any asparagus this spring because we were told to let it go for this year, as it was just planted last fall. We now have an asparagus forest! I think some of those plants are almost as tall as me! Seriously! We have little asparagus trees!

I forgot to buy butternut squash plants! I cannot believe I forgot to buy butternuts! Hopefully I can get to the nursery this weekend for butternuts. Still didn't get any red beets either. Or potatoes. Or broccoli....Rick wanted to get 3-4 plants, just enough to eat fresh for supper. Or lima bean seeds. 
 It doesn't pay to make a list, if you go to the nursery without the list. Darn it.

I kind of wanted to try growing cabbage this year, but Rick said cabbage can get really buggy and he didn't want to go there. 

We looked for the Ketchup and Fries plant at our local nursery, but they didn't have any. They've heard of the plants, but they didn't get any.
 

kntrygrl256

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Well my garden has been put on hold for now. My gardener, aka- BF, has been sick since Friday and isn't able to do anything. I had to work all weekend and last night so I haven't had time to do much either. He's feeling a little better but not enough to be outside digging in the garden.
 

MoochNNoodles

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My tomatoes are loving the hot weather we have had.  DD found a tiny tomato forming the other day.  My cukes are sprouting and my peas are about 5-6" tall and starting to climb the netting.  I need to get out and weed tomorrow.  Our silver maple has been dropping tons and tons of "helicopters."  It was windy yesterday and it just looked like it was raining them down!  

I really need DH to mow and weed-wack around the raised beds.  He didn't get to mow last weekend at all and hasn't used the weed eater around the beds at all this year.  I'm not looking forward to kneeling down in all the weeds to pull more weeds. 
 

kntrygrl256

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We went out and checked what we planted so far and we have babies sprouting!!!!!

We have pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelons (3 kinds) and peas sprouting!!!!!!!!!

Now if we can get out tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in soon.
 

Norachan

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I've got loads of stuff coming up in my vegetable patch. I planted corn, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. The thing is I've never grown any of those veges before so I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like. Could be vegetables, could be weeds.

Only time will tell.

 
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