Too soon to talk about gardening?

Norachan said:

 
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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Oh I've got weeds!   I feel nuts out there picking them out; trying to grab them when they are still small.   The only thing I planted that I don't know what to look for is the potatoes.  I found one "something" in the potato trench so I left that.  I hope it's a potato and not a tree or something like that.  I had roots from the nearby pine tree growing up into that raised bed!!  

My zucchini and summer squash have sprouted now.  All the cukes are up too.  A few beans are breaking through too.  Now I'm waiting to see carrots and the potatoes!

MoochNNoodles said:

 
  I hope it's a potato and not a tree or something like that.  

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Here's hoping for potatoes and not trees!     

betsygee said:

 
Here's hoping for potatoes and not trees!  

  

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 I have now googled "what does a potato sprout look like" and I think in a day or two I'll know for sure that's what it is.  Google was encouraging. 

I must have picked a couple hundred of those helicopters from the maple trees out of the 3 raised beds!  I didn't get to the little strawberry patch or the rhubarb.  The way the packaging from the seed potatoes told me to plant them; in a trench you continue to fill over the summer as they grow, it's a great trap for all the stuff falling off the trees!    I was wishing for something to cover it with that I could just shake off once a day!  The pine is getting ready to drop stuff too.  And needles.  DH told me to send the kids out to pick up pine cones tomorrow so he can mow.  I think he was serious.    (DD normally helps him; but he's out there too so it's "fun!" DS would rather be in the sandbox.)

We should be able to finish ours by tomorrow. BF is feeling much better and we walked through yesterday weeding and checking the sprouts. They are everywhere. I'm so excited. We will get tomatoes and peppers planted this weekend.

We have them in flower pots but they are quickly outgrowing them so it's time to put them in the ground.

MoochNNoodles said:

 

 I have now googled "what does a potato sprout look like" and I think in a day or two I'll know for sure that's what it is.  Google was encouraging. 

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I just did the same. OK, so I'm pretty sure the potatoes really are potatoes and I'm willing to give whatever is coming up in the carrot patch the benefit of the doubt for now. Nothing promising in the corn. Maybe I planted to early? The farmers down by the village only just put their corn in this week. I wonder it it's just taking it's time or has rotted under the ground.

What do you do with tulips? Once the flowers are finished and the leaves have all died off should I just cut them back and leave them there until next year? Or is it better to dig them up an replant them in the autumn? We got so many tulips this year, I hope they all come back.

I think the pepper plants aren't going to make it. They just look crappy. I don't know; maybe it got too cold for them the other night, even though we didn't get down to freezing. I may have to replant, but I'll wait a while and see.

The tomatoes are already getting yellow blotches on their leaves. Does not look good at all. I don't know if it's blight or what....the woman at the nursery told me last weekend that once you have blight, you don't get rid of it....it's in the soil. I tried to plant the tomatoes in a different part of the garden. I'm sick about it.

On the other hand, we have corn. Tiny little corn plants, lots of them. I went up last night and gave everything a good watering. We need some rain. Badly. I wish we would get a good soaking rain, where it would just rain the entire day. Not hard, but gentle, the kind that seeps way down into the soil.

Norachan, once our tulips and daffodils are done blooming, I usually let them go until Memorial Day or with later-blooming tulips, the Fourth of July because they get their food from their leaves. Then I cut them down.

Blight was one of the reasons I put my tomatoes in the big nursery pots last year.  I still had issues; but I found that once I started feeding them regularly they did better.  I also "tossed" the soil from last year's pots and started with fresh potting mix this year again.  

Winchester said:

 
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

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Add 8 butternut squash plants to the list above.

And 6 Packman broccoli plants.

Just got back inside from planting them. Looks like it could rain any minute. I hope 

We had a teeny tiny rain shower give us a little rain. 0.12" according to my weather station out back.  We didn't have anything in the forecast for today. DH had to run into the garage with the weed-eater.     We really need the rain!  I've watched all the recent storms go East and West of us.  At least our grass is growing slower because of it.  We keep having issues with the mower so it's getting a little wild looking out there.  DH was cleaning up some areas with the weed-eater.  

I want to try growing some vegetables in my current flower garden.  I'm going to dig up the few perennials and plant them elsewhere. 

It's a narrow, raised border garden (about 25 feet by 2 feet).  I want to try tomatoes, green peppers, green beans and carrots.   Possibly cucumber.

It's pretty good soil (I think).  At least it's soft and easy to dig into. 

Any recommendations on what I need to do/add to make the soil amenable for growing veggies?

Willowy said:

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

. 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.

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You can put them in pots and they can winter indoors.  The pots need to have good drainage.  I love weeping cherry trees, too.   I believe mine fell victim to an ice storm, as did my river birch.  

rubysmama said:

 
I want to try growing some vegetables in my current flower garden.  I'm going to dig up the few perennials and plant them elsewhere. 

It's a narrow, raised border garden (about 25 feet by 2 feet).  I want to try tomatoes, green peppers, green beans and carrots.   Possibly cucumber.

It's pretty good soil (I think).  At least it's soft and easy to dig into. 

Any recommendations on what I need to do/add to make the soil amenable for growing veggies?

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Tomatoes like calcium.  It helps prevent blossom end rot.  I sprinkle powdered milk in my garden sometimes before watering.  

nurseangel said:

 
Tomatoes like calcium.  It helps prevent blossom end rot.  I sprinkle powdered milk in my garden sometimes before watering.  

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Interesting. Thanks for the tip.

nurseangel said:

 
Tomatoes like calcium.  It helps prevent blossom end rot.  I sprinkle powdered milk in my garden sometimes before watering.  

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WOW I have never heard of that!!! I will have to get some powdered milk and try it. We finally got the last of our tomatoes in yesterday. Thanks!!!!!!!

That's interesting!  I've heard of using epsom salts; but then I've also heard that is a myth.  

I wish I had found this thread sooner! Epsom salts provides magnesium. I love gardening although I don't have a lot of time anymore. I am a Certified Master Gardener. When my kids were little, I grew all the vegetables we ate and a lot of the fruits too. My vegetable garden was 135 foot by 25 foot. Now I am lucky to have 3 or 4 tomato plants and a few peppers. I really miss having a nice big vegetable garden. Nothing taste better than home grown!

I grew up on a farm and we always had a large garden.  My father used Epsom salts sometimes, he didn't use it every year and everywhere in the garden, just some years in some places where he was planting certain things.

My roses are finally blooming! Yay!

Here's a couple of photos
 

Various: Reine des Violettes (the 2 lighter purple); Papa Meilland (dark red, tallest in back), Ebb Tide (deep purple, bottom) and the others are just pink Knockouts.


A bunch of Ebb Tide. Yes, it really IS that color.

Gorgeous roses Laurie! 

Hello fellow gardeners!

I planted peas, cucumber, carrots and corn late last week.  Nothing is up yet.

I also planted tomato and green pepper plants. They are still alive.

Is there a "one size fits all" type of fertilizer I can use?  Like Miracle Grow?  Or is there a better choice?