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Post by laurazone5 on Apr 23, 2020 13:31:37 GMT
All 4 beds with yummy compost. Gonna rain today and all that lovin' will soak in. Set the posts yesterday w my boy. When the weather straightens out, I will string the fence. Those are my tomato beds. Compost bin doing it's thing! New 16 foot bed full of goodness for my pole beans, and the spot on the ground is for Sunflowers. Grape vines with a healthy dose of nom nom Trellis project. Strip, weld, paint!!
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Post by feather on Apr 23, 2020 13:38:41 GMT
laurazone5, beautiful. You've been working. Working so hard.
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Post by solargeek on Apr 24, 2020 2:52:07 GMT
Wow looks spectacular. Congratulations on the hard work --it's paying off.
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Post by midtnmama on Apr 24, 2020 13:30:30 GMT
woolybear, laurazone5, feather, solargeek, I look forward to seeing your progress. Laura, I know you feel very isolated at this time. Are there no gardeners you can get together with (online, now)? I am not meeting with my music group, but we are talking, emailing and meeting online every week. It is a great comfort. I'd like to find organic gardeners in my area, but havent found one yet.
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Post by susannah on Apr 24, 2020 15:53:03 GMT
I can't post any pictures yet. Well, if I did, you'd see empty planters on the deck and a huge raised bed that's surrounded by snow. Not a whole lot of gardening to see in northern Wisconsin in April.
But - exciting news (for me anyway) - I got an email from the small organic farm nearby where I had a CSA share a few years ago. They are taking orders for seedlings, and having seen their seedlings and enjoyed their produce, I know the quality is amazing and beats that of anything else I've found up here. So I did order some cherry tomato seedlings and a few other ones, mainly for the deck container garden. They will be available for pickup at the farm mid-May.
Back when we lived near the city, where it was a much warmer zone due to our proximity to Lake Michigan, I could plant earlier, and winter sowed many of my plants. Two years of attempting winter sowing up here were epic fails. Regular doses of -30F actual air temperature, ZERO direct sun and some very enterprising wildlife told me to walk away while I still had sanity - and hair - left. I miss it, though. I grew the most amazing plants through winter sowing. So thick, so beautiful, so hardy, so healthy - so much better than the puny ones I'd previously started indoors.
But I'm really stoked to be getting these seedlings. They were going very fast! And I have my seeds for direct sowing - when it becomes a little more...safe...to do so. I can't wait! But yeah, I'll have to...
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Post by midtnmama on Apr 27, 2020 14:06:49 GMT
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Post by farmchix on Apr 28, 2020 8:18:51 GMT
I transplanted some of my cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, etc. out to the big garden from the high tunnel yesterday. The forecast says we aren't supposed to freeze...we shall see. I probably just doomed every gardener in the state! LOL
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Post by mogal on Apr 28, 2020 11:43:01 GMT
Every time I see the title of this thread, my brain adds "because this year, it very well may."
I started more cabbage, heat tolerant lettuces (Jericho and Anuenue) and herbs yesterday. I'm hardening off the things I started earlier. This is Missouri and I've seen frost the Thursday after Memorial Day and measurable snow on April 16. I definitely err on the side of caution.
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Post by MeandTK on Apr 28, 2020 16:53:04 GMT
Friday we canned our first five quarts of snap beans. I will pick again today.
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Post by feather on Apr 28, 2020 17:33:36 GMT
Every time I see the title of this thread, my brain adds "because this year, it very well may." I think the same thing.
MeandTK, wow, already you have beans.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2020 17:34:05 GMT
All your gardens look great. Mine here is just 3 3'x4' raised beds, 2 with hoops and some big pots. I took the gutters off the cottage and planted strawberries and greens in them. Leaned 2 2'x4's up against the sleeping room and attached the gutters to them. It needed new gutters anyway. We have had new potatoes and pod peas, lots of greens, green onions and kohlrabi. I have mixed vegetables in with flower beds this year too. Also have ground beds with chives, asparagus, strawberries and raspberries. I have started everything from seed, have 2 tomatoes in big pots. I had everything planted in the greenhouse at home, DS has been tending that. He was going to tend all the gardens this year, there. We won't be renting out this cottage this year so figured I might as well garden here. Plan is to spend equal time at all 3 places. Depends on if and when we can go off in the RV....James
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Post by MeandTK on Apr 29, 2020 18:26:21 GMT
Every time I see the title of this thread, my brain adds "because this year, it very well may." I think the same thing.
MeandTK , wow, already you have beans. It seemed spring was coming early, so I took a chance and planted early.
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Post by Jolly on Apr 29, 2020 19:47:01 GMT
Friday we canned our first five quarts of snap beans. I will pick again today. When we don't get any rain for awhile in the summer and then suddenly we get one of those half-inch thunderstorms, folks generally say somebody must have paid the preacher. If that's true, what does a feller have to do to get early snap beans?
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Post by MeandTK on Apr 30, 2020 18:37:29 GMT
Jolly, Years ago a preacher and his wife were driving to church. Both were very quiet people, and short in their words. He saw corn drying up and dying from drought, and said, “Humph! Somebody must not be paying the preacher!” His wife said, “Humph! They might be paying the wrong one!” Oh, what a cut! 😂🤪😎🤣
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Post by feather on May 3, 2020 13:49:08 GMT
This month is the weird time of year where our transplanting isn't yet outside, not quite yet, so our tomato and pepper transplants are multiplying like rabbits. We have 13 with a few more coming, of the 10x20 trays full of larger containered transplants, in our living space, using southern windows in 4 rooms. We check them for moisture twice a day.
WI, for us, the planting date is the end of April May and beginning of June. (this is very early for us)
We also have 60+ milk jugs with transplants growing outside, which get planted directly into the gardens.
The cover frame is now fully planted with some stuff coming up, we've picked kale so far, and I've cut parsley. The bigger gardens with no cover frames in the yard, are being prepared.
(more to do, prepare more for the asparagus new area, move the mulching straw bales away from the black berries, check out more on the strawberries.)
Garlic is doing well, potatoes planted.
Cover Frame has 4 sections, left to right. Section 1 and 2
Better view of section 2
Section 3 (back left of it, I'd already cut off the parsley and let the rest grow)
Section 4
The dirt areas are now planted with seed. The list of kale and lettuce etc in there are now: curly kale, butter crunch, black seeded simpson, merlot (red), arugula, parsley, mustard, and dill. Some celery may get put in there too.
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Post by mogal on May 3, 2020 15:20:54 GMT
Lookin' good, Feather!
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Post by midtnmama on May 6, 2020 14:23:27 GMT
I envisioned this thread as a way to help people learn ideas about how to grow food for very little $$$. This is a video about growing peas. this gardener does not plant directly in the ground because he has a "vermin" problem. Seedlings work better for him. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHThKr2swhc
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Post by feather on May 23, 2020 13:55:07 GMT
As if your life depended on it.
It does. (why we haven't invested in a hoop house, is beyond me at this point)
Sometimes (and some years) we wouldn't have planted so early but with the world the way it is we planted early in the cover frame. Remember Jan Feb March, I'm growing sprouts and trays of microgreens in the house, underfoot, to get more green stuff in our food. To put it into perspective for us in WI, (very different from out southern neighbors and denmark) we don't plant until June 1st because we do get snow and below freezing weather right up to about now. Our last freeze date is May 21st-31st. The only place we can plant is in the cover frame raised bed, the cover frame we'll move off the garden this week barring a frost warning.
Instead of shopping for greens it's going to be a matter of trimming up this garden. Except without wearing a mask. I want to collect kale seed but it seems a little early for that yet, so it looks unkept but this is where I want it to be.
And the next salad instead of buying from the grocery, will be these three kinds of lettuce which look delicious. Off to the right in the back, you can see the dill that came back, and that needs to get trimmed back and dehydrated because we use dill weed a lot for flavoring.
The next section is our crazy arugula, in the back you see the parsley I snipped back a few weeks ago, it's all ready to be snipped back again, for more rice/parsley/lime and some dehydrated to keep us green in the winter. The arugula has a ways to go before I'll cut it and steam it for my daily greens or share it with mr feather in his salads.
The last section is the beginnings of three types of lettuce, in the back is mustard I need to cut way back and I'll steam them for my daily greens. In a couple weeks those lettuces will be perfect for salads saving mr feather another trip to the grocery (every two weeks or more) when we need salads (daily).
By the way, the red lettuce in two sections is called 'merlot' and it's looking really good and should make the salads all the more colorful and tasty (and nutritious with the 'eat your colors'). The seed packet is now empty so I'm going to let one of the patches go to seed, so I can use that through the rest of the summer, if that works. Saving lettuce seed is both messy and time consuming considering you could get another set of lettuces producing in that amount of time while you leave it go to seed, but I'm just determined to reduce the amount of seeds I buy. Greens and lettuces produce fluffy easily airborne seeds (think of dandelions) and you have to get them before the wind does. That's not easy and you have to catch them before nature does it on its own.
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Post by Jolly on May 23, 2020 14:00:08 GMT
Well, finally got the first picking of snap beans today. Should be a big picking Monday. Got several messes of crook-neck squash and cucumbers should start coming in next week. Had fried green tomatoes for supper last night, so the first ripe ones are about a week off.
Fixin' to be the busy time of the year...
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Post by laurazone5 on May 25, 2020 12:44:02 GMT
DONE Bella with the photo bomb!!
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Post by farmchix on May 25, 2020 12:48:55 GMT
woolybear , laurazone5 , feather , solargeek , I look forward to seeing your progress. Laura, I know you feel very isolated at this time. Are there no gardeners you can get together with (online, now)? I am not meeting with my music group, but we are talking, emailing and meeting online every week. It is a great comfort. I'd like to find organic gardeners in my area, but havent found one yet. Same here!
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Post by farmchix on May 25, 2020 12:49:24 GMT
DONE Bella with the photo bomb!! You should be proud! It looks great!
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Post by farmchix on May 25, 2020 12:51:20 GMT
As if your life depended on it.
It does. (why we haven't invested in a hoop house, is beyond me at this point)
Sometimes (and some years) we wouldn't have planted so early but with the world the way it is we planted early in the cover frame. Remember Jan Feb March, I'm growing sprouts and trays of microgreens in the house, underfoot, to get more green stuff in our food. To put it into perspective for us in WI, (very different from out southern neighbors and denmark) we don't plant until June 1st because we do get snow and below freezing weather right up to about now. Our last freeze date is May 21st-31st. The only place we can plant is in the cover frame raised bed, the cover frame we'll move off the garden this week barring a frost warning.
Instead of shopping for greens it's going to be a matter of trimming up this garden. Except without wearing a mask. I want to collect kale seed but it seems a little early for that yet, so it looks unkept but this is where I want it to be.
And the next salad instead of buying from the grocery, will be these three kinds of lettuce which look delicious. Off to the right in the back, you can see the dill that came back, and that needs to get trimmed back and dehydrated because we use dill weed a lot for flavoring.
The next section is our crazy arugula, in the back you see the parsley I snipped back a few weeks ago, it's all ready to be snipped back again, for more rice/parsley/lime and some dehydrated to keep us green in the winter. The arugula has a ways to go before I'll cut it and steam it for my daily greens or share it with mr feather in his salads.
The last section is the beginnings of three types of lettuce, in the back is mustard I need to cut way back and I'll steam them for my daily greens. In a couple weeks those lettuces will be perfect for salads saving mr feather another trip to the grocery (every two weeks or more) when we need salads (daily).
By the way, the red lettuce in two sections is called 'merlot' and it's looking really good and should make the salads all the more colorful and tasty (and nutritious with the 'eat your colors'). The seed packet is now empty so I'm going to let one of the patches go to seed, so I can use that through the rest of the summer, if that works. Saving lettuce seed is both messy and time consuming considering you could get another set of lettuces producing in that amount of time while you leave it go to seed, but I'm just determined to reduce the amount of seeds I buy. Greens and lettuces produce fluffy easily airborne seeds (think of dandelions) and you have to get them before the wind does. That's not easy and you have to catch them before nature does it on its own.
I love the merlot lettuce, too. We've been harvesting more seed and will continue to do so....this world is crazy and you just never know how things are going to go.
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Post by laurazone5 on May 25, 2020 13:04:07 GMT
woolybear , laurazone5 , feather , solargeek , I look forward to seeing your progress. Laura, I know you feel very isolated at this time. Are there no gardeners you can get together with (online, now)? I am not meeting with my music group, but we are talking, emailing and meeting online every week. It is a great comfort. I'd like to find organic gardeners in my area, but havent found one yet. I sent out a post on Nextdoor, seeking like minded folks (gardening, seed saving, seed exchange, etc.) and had zero replies. I tried to find a Facebook Group close to me, but that's a hard nope. Master Gardeners around here are more flowers, and all about the chemicals. NOPE.
My neighbor (just north of 80 years old) and I swap garden stories, she saves her coffee grounds for me, I swing her way when something heavy needs moved. She is precious!!
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2020 13:31:20 GMT
Quick trip home to resupply and then off for the eastern Oregon bear hunt the next day in the RV. 6 of us got 3. I got a smaller cinnamon with 4 white socks, kind of an odd combination but a pretty hide. Back home now. The gardens are doing good, thanks to DS. He has been off work at school, so has had more time this year. Been a wet and rainy spring so his farming has been set back. I have been plowing for him since we got home. He is still cutting covercrop for silage. Hasn't needed irrigation yet. I did some work in the garden, still pretty wet and cool here but the next week looks warmer and drier. See a few cutting hay....James
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Post by midtnmama on May 26, 2020 15:50:10 GMT
woolybear , laurazone5 , feather , solargeek , I look forward to seeing your progress. Laura, I know you feel very isolated at this time. Are there no gardeners you can get together with (online, now)? I am not meeting with my music group, but we are talking, emailing and meeting online every week. It is a great comfort. I'd like to find organic gardeners in my area, but havent found one yet. I sent out a post on Nextdoor, seeking like minded folks (gardening, seed saving, seed exchange, etc.) and had zero replies. I tried to find a Facebook Group close to me, but that's a hard nope. Master Gardeners around here are more flowers, and all about the chemicals. NOPE.
My neighbor (just north of 80 years old) and I swap garden stories, she saves her coffee grounds for me, I swing her way when something heavy needs moved. She is precious!!
laurazone5,There Ya go, then! You are blessed indeed to have a gardening neighbor. Win. Win. The best gardeners I have found were in the bee group. I don't have bees at the moment, but I plan on hanging with them anyway when the covid goes away!
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Post by farmchix on May 26, 2020 15:52:50 GMT
I got most of my peppers and tomatoes in the ground this weekend. Also planted most of my beans. I'm tickled at what I got done, considering how wet it has been and us having to stop at noon Saturday for a gender reveal party for my new GRANDSON!!
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Post by grandmotherbear on May 26, 2020 15:53:33 GMT
Me! especially for irish potatoes. Jamaican Box Gardens show a big Cardboard box backed with stone or cinder block. Google for pictures jamaican box gardens
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Post by Jolly on May 26, 2020 17:20:01 GMT
We picked and canned 34 jars of green beans yesterday. It was a busy day.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2020 14:29:39 GMT
I was wrong. We have planted more. Had a lot of seeds and with some changes we have made the last couple years consolidating things, there was a nice spot in what used to be a goat paddock, to plant more garden. So WE turned it with a shovel and planted it. 2 rows of corn, more squash and cucumbers. Direct sowed more peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and peas. DS is off school so is cooking more fresh garden meals and he made a little seed starting rack. He was messing around and of course everything took off from there. He is starting a lot of flowers from cuttings in there and has had great success. Learning new ways to save money. Sometimes I think he is more frugal than me.
We are also building a new entry way into that garden from repurposed materials. 5 old chain link fence posts laying around, clad them in old cedar fence boards, more fence boards to side the front, a repurposed garden gate, piece of cattle panel to grid a window cutout and a window box from old barn boards. We are making a pergola grape arbor, 6'x8', 1 post at each corner and 1 to divide the window from the gate in the front. Free, even reusing screws, nails and hardware. Ds even started the grapes from cuttings....James
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