The 2013 Garden Thread

reply to post by Gazrok


I don't like beets either. But I love beet tops. They taste like spinach. I just eat the tops and give the bottoms away.

reply to post by otherpotato


I'm in Utah. Not more north, just much higher elevation. I also live sandwiched between the Rocky Mtns and the Great Salt Lake - "lake effect" weather is so much fun. So planting out is Memorial Day for me.

For your onion sets you might consider Henry Field's/Gurneys. Much of their stuff is crap, particularly the seeds, but the onions, potatoes, berries and apple trees I've received from them are fantastic. And this link will get you 75% off the entire site. I know it's not timely, but onion bulbs will keep. Not sure when the 75% off runs out, I found it on gardenweb.com where it had been posted the beginning of April.

My broccoli seedlings have two sets of real leaves on them, not counting cotyledons. I'm tempted to put them out.... Hmmm....

reply to post by otherpotato


I believe in allowing nature to do her thing. This picture is proof. I went out and pulled this up on thanksgiving, cleaned it, then stuffed it for my Vegetarian child and everyone else for a slice to taste. It was wonderful! Cooked just like a turkey.

I have thousands of them all over the property, yellow flowers so pretty, bees humming happily. I mowed walkways through them the other day that were beyond picturesque.

So, when we use non GMO, no treated seed, believe you me, nature has her own plan for humans and insects, birds, animals. It makes my heart fill so grateful.

I had Austrian winter pea flowers ready to bloom all over the place before we went from 83 degrees to snowing and freezing today. They will survive, but the yellow mixed with the violet blue may not be as majestic looking this year.
My then 12 yro, now 13 showing how big this parsnip is! I see carrot size ones in the store and we just crack up! The price at that time of year is simply not doable either. (Keep stuff around you can go out, pick and eat during the winter just in case)

I was recently asked about the canned cole slaw. Forgive me the computer has been in the shop for the past week, and forgot all about getting it posted. So here it is...

Coleslaw to Can or Freeze:
1 medium head cabbage
1 large carrot
1 green pepper (I prefer red)
1 small onion
1 teaspoon salt
Syrup
1 cup vinegar
¼ cup water
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Shred together vegetables. Add the salt. Let stand 1 hour.
Drain water from vegetables. (I also rinse and drain.) Boil syrup ingredients together for 1 minute. Cool.
Add syrup to vegetables (or vegetables to the syrup like I did).
Pack into quart jars. (I use pints.)
Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
If you don’t want to can it, you could put it into freezer containers instead and freeze. Leftovers may also be frozen. This slaw may be drained before use and mayonnaise added, or used as is.

Busy day in the garden today.

Dug up all the nutsedge I could find in the main bed.

Planted a bunch of flowers: nasturtiums, dahlias, zinnias and poppies (fingers crossed on the poppies - they NEVER come up. But I froze the seeds this year). Also four starburst lilies in a flower patch that has nothing but pink yarrow every summer.

Planted some anise in a pot. Never tried anise before so I didn't want to commit anywhere in the actual garden. Any advice?

Planted several red raspberry canes to supplement the three golden raspberries that took last year.

Moved a few renegade sunflowers. So far over 20 sunflowers made their way up through the soil in the main garden bed (first time that's happened even though we plant sunflowers every year). I moved a few next to the peas as I heard they can provide good support for them. Trying this out as a test this year - nothing to lose!)

I tested the temp of the soil and it's a solid 65 degrees about two inches down. I'm going to test the nighttime temp tonight. May plant my first batch of corn in one corner tomorrow and possibly some bush beans.

Been putting my tomato and watermelon plants out every day. They'll be ready to go in the ground as soon as I feel confident of the nighttime temps. It'll be getting into the upper 40s a few days next week so I'm thinking I should wait a tad longer.

Biggest problem right now is that everything is so dry. We haven't had a good rain in some time. The soil is blowing around every time I disturb it. Going to need a good nostril cleaning in the shower!

I planted my garden 2 weeks ago. It snowed again day before yesterday. Nothing has come up but 3 sunflowers. I am surrounded by farmland that has yet to be planted. The good news is the summer squash and green beans are going like crazy in the greenhouse, tomatoes are blooming and I picked a handful of strawberries today. Guess I am going to have to re-till and start over again outside...if it ever quits raining.

reply to post by americanwoman


Send some of that rain my way! Nothing in the forecast until Wednesday. May need to run the sprinkler tomorrow.

It's a no on the gardening forum, but I stickied this thread to make it a little easier, especially if people want to add links to other, long gardening threads we may have missed in the past.

reply to post by Gazrok


Hey, you asked, so thanks for that. I had inquired about a pet forum, in BTS, and DTOM filled me in on the logistics involved. Whew, a lot of work.

I should be doing a second tilling this eve, Zone 6, and probably snap a few pics of the 22 x 45 plot where the garden will be this year. I'm almost ready to plant.

Thanks Gaz, your efforts are appreciated.
I got a bunch of strawberries in yesterday. They were donated to us from a family member who was thinning out his garden. Tilled a great deal over the weekend, moved a ton of mulch to where it was needed. It was good dirt working weather.
Saturday we put the new netting up over the pruned blueberry bushes. I forgot just how grabby those prickly branches are when trying to pull netting over them. Gah! Glad we only do it every few years.

reply to post by Gazrok


As I said in the other thread thank you for trying. I actually feel this is the right move - not opening yet another forum. Us gardeners will just congregate at will. Our kind always do

reply to post by shadow watcher


I have a strawberry question: we purchase hanging strawberry plants every year and then plant them in the ground come fall for a spring return. They always come back nicely but the strawberries are always tiny. Last year I started two strawberry plants from seed and they are coming back but again - tiny strawberries. Any tricks for how to get strawberry fruits to grow bigger? Or am I just being misled by the mutant berries in the supermarket?

reply to post by Druid42





I am dying for rain over here. Should have a front coming in Wednesday that'll stick around until Sunday. It's been a dust bowl. My peas will welcome the cool wet weather for a bit.

Research post will be going up this week. I'm waiting on two more members to confirm but if I don't hear from them by Wednesday I'll just move ahead and add them later. We have a solid six I think.

I woke up totally sore this morning from pulling all that nutsedge on Saturday. And it's my 39 birthday. As if pushing 40 wasn't insult enough I gotta wake up feeling old!

reply to post by otherpotato


I realize this question wasn't asked of me, but I'm jumping in anyway: be sure to clip the runners of your strawberries. You should also clip the first set of blossoms, possibly the second set as well. I have farmer friends who clip the entire first year's set of blossoms to force the strawberries to establish themselves, but I'm not this patient. I clip the first two sets of blossoms and all runners that appear. Strawberries are a little frantic, must keep them focused on the fruit.

ETA: And keep them at a minimum on the nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen will make beautiful green leaves and teeny tiny berries.

reply to post by Halekoch


I will take advice even though you weren't asked...

I haven't spent any time researching how to maximize our strawberry plants, thus my ignorance. Our berry plants have been something of an aside but next year I'd like to focus on more fruits.

I'm also reading more and more about how to get the plant to focus its attention on the fruit production and your comment about the runners adds up. It's starting to make sense. I will try your tips.

I'm not an experienced gardener by any stretch. I have much to learn. I just happen to be blessed with good soil, a great lot, and a green thumb. And an appetite to learn everything I can.

Well, I'm finally getting around to adding something to this thread:

I'm Zone 6, NE Ohio, and our season starts a bit later than others. (Or earlier, if you live in Alaska, *wink*)

I tilled the garden two weeks ago, last year's plot plus 5 feet on two edges. It works out to 22 x 45 feet. Alas, weeds are growing again.


After work, I got the tiller out, a 5hp Troy-Bilt Pony. (Notice how close the garden is to the bee hives? Excellent pollination of everything.)


I set it to four notches down, about four inches of depth. You don't want to go deeper until you make a pass each way.


I ran lengthwise, now almost width wise. I plant my rows width wise. Everything in rows.


After a pass both ways, I drop it down to 6 notches, about 6 inches deep tilling. This aerates the soil nicely, and gives a 12 inch soil bed depth wise.


Here's the almost final row at 6 inch tilling depth. Notice the footprints. I have to walk behind the tiller, rather slowly, guiding it. The final pass, I can hold it with one hand, and walk along side it. You don't want the footprints, as they are compacted soil prints, and the first rain, it is all clumpy.


Final pass. No footprints, tilled, and ready to plant.

We are going to plant on Friday, so I'll take pics and add to the thread.

Hello everyone.I have not been on ATS in a while. I was browsing around and found this thread. Great idea. I am going to share what I have been up to and then go back and read through the entire thread and see what I have missed. I am in my second year of straw bale gardening. I am planting vegetables as I did last year. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. This is a great way to grow vegetables. I had a bumper crop last year and I hope for more of the same this year. Last year I bought seedlings from the store. This year I started everything from seed myself. This is a very low maintenance type of gardening. Less disease, insects and weeds and easier on the back. Well I am going to go back to the beginning of this thread and play catch up. Happy gardening to all.

reply to post by otherpotato


I would have to agree with Halekoch on the pruning of the runners. The guy who gave them to us said he replanted the runners last year with great success. I've never done that myself. I always understood pruning as the plant has x amount of energy to give to fruit, and more fruit yields smaller size vs cutting back to yield less but bigger fruit.

I'm in Central Illinois and it's so wet here, it'll be a couple of weeks till it dries out enough to start my garden. My peach tree, strawberry plants and red raspberry are jumping out of the ground though. I tried a new fertilizer on them last year and got such good results, I'm using it again this year. I don't know if it's a national brand or regional but the name is Ferti - Lome. It says for fruit, citrus and pecan trees on the label, but I used it on all three with great results. Peaches last year were baseball size and as sweet and juicy as you could want.[ Dwarf tree ] Raspberries big around as your finger. Wish I had taken pics, but they got ate as fast as they ripened. This is a great idea for a thread, let's everyone pass on advice and tips.