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Old 31-03-2018, 06:43 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default starting back up for the year

pulling off the last of the old bean vines from the
fence.

chopping up the wild grapevines so i can spread them
on the surface of a garden (don't want to bury them
until they've dried out for another year or two). will
take me a few more days to get all of those done. not
sure the weather is going to cooperate much more for me
to be outside this week. we'll see.

plugging up groundhog den.


songbird
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Old 06-04-2018, 08:38 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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wrote:
....
After a warmer than usual winter (but nothing record-setting), we
have typical April weather down here. Lows around 60-ish; highs around
80. Clear with little to no rain. Spring is a dry season here.


i sure haven't seen much rain heading your ways recently...

we've still been well below average here. overnight
temperatures still hitting the teens.


The gardening year continues with the October "little marvel" peas
heading to compost today but the February "Thomas Laxton" peas are
covered with blossoms; no peas, yet. I'm thinking they'll benefit from
shading from at least afternoon sun, as does the spinach—a variety
called "Tyee", which is doing well in the warm weather but must be
shaded from direct sun. This is my second season of planting this
cultivar and it produces well in the variable wintertime temperatures
down here.


fresh peas...


The now defunct peas share a bed with turnips which are at the
"must harvest" point. They'll be blooming soon, if mildew doesn't cover
them first. I have some really late mustards and turnips started. If
grown rapidly, they usually usually yield a few croppings before
blooming.


i'm not sure i will see any turnip blooms early
this season. the two biggest areas where i have them
wandering around were upended or are being upended and
so no over-wintered turnips anyplace. diakon radishes
may have to substitute. those sure are monsters if
left go.


The "provider" bush snap-beans were planted far too early in
February and sort of marked time due to the chilly nights but now that
the weather seems sure-enough to be warming, they're finally perking up
a bit.


the earliest spring flowers here are usually crocuses
and some small bulb irises which often bloom through
snow or very cold weather. they don't seem to mind
being repeatedly frozen, but i'm not sure how they
manage it, flower blossom petals don't strike me as
very durable, but they've persisted for a week or two
now.


Today's gardening project is one of preparing a bed to receive
seeds of either "white acre" or "zipper cream" cowpeas. I intend to
grow both; just not sure where yet.


no gardening projects here today other than walking
outside to check traps and the den plugs. last time
i headed off new attempt by groundhog to make it back
to their den i sliced my hand on a sharp piece of
concrete/rock and so that is going to need another
day or two of healing before i can try to chop more
vines up. it doesn't matter, snowing and rain, windy,
cold, etc. i think next week we'll maybe see towards
50F. if the forecast is right.


Have seeds in for sweet peppers, hot peppers, eggplants, tomatoes.
Picked up more paper cups for okra seeds. I usually plant okra directly
into its beds but this year's different: The okra's eventual homes are
occupied by other plants that will limit okra seedlings' exposure to
sun.


i don't have any recall of the okra root ball of
the one time i grew it here - i know it was in a
very tough location and so would likely not have
been an accurate indication anyways. how long can
they be happy in a container that small before
needing to be transplanted?


Spent a little time today rehabbing the ginger bed. I'd thought it
all dead after an extremely dry summer followed by a few prolonged lows
in the high 20's. At any rate, DW discovered green buds so I spent a
little time removing chaff and redistributing the sprouting pieces.


*mmm* fresh ginger...


songbird
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Old 09-04-2018, 11:13 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default starting back up for the year

On Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 12:43:23 PM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
pulling off the last of the old bean vines from the
fence.

chopping up the wild grapevines so i can spread them
on the surface of a garden (don't want to bury them
until they've dried out for another year or two). will
take me a few more days to get all of those done. not
sure the weather is going to cooperate much more for me
to be outside this week. we'll see.

plugging up groundhog den.


songbird


From the weather reports, it looks like last night was our last below-freezing night. My wife pulled up the garden cloth that covers the paths between the rows in the back quarter of the garden this morning and I tilled it up for her.

Lots of seeding trays in the greenhouse and cold frames, plus lots of healthy vegetables in her auxiliary greenhouses, the clear boxes I built to extend the growing season in the garden.

I'll be planting the wild rice seed later this week, carefully following the directions that came with the seed packets. I've tried growing them several times before without success.

Paul
North-east of Baltimore
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Old 10-04-2018, 08:51 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Pavel314 wrote:
....
From the weather reports, it looks like last night was our last below-freezing night. My wife pulled up the garden cloth that covers the paths between the rows in the back quarter of the garden this morning and I tilled it up for her.


mm, smell of fresh dirt...


Lots of seeding trays in the greenhouse and cold frames, plus lots of healthy vegetables in her auxiliary greenhouses, the clear boxes I built to extend the growing season in the garden.


all would be very frozen here. it's been rather rediculous
compared to normal (whatever that may be), but i'm sure i'll
get over it.


I'll be planting the wild rice seed later this week, carefully following the directions that came with the seed packets. I've tried growing them several times before without success.


good luck!

if the wild rice spreads by stolons you may wish to have
a good border around it if our past experience is any thing
to go by. it sent runners out many-many feet travelling
along barriers, under black plastic, etc. very hard to
control until i ripped everything up and tracked all the
roots/stolons/runners and got them out of there.


songbird


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Old 11-04-2018, 08:14 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default starting back up for the year

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 3:25:51 PM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:
...
From the weather reports, it looks like last night was our last below-freezing night. My wife pulled up the garden cloth that covers the paths between the rows in the back quarter of the garden this morning and I tilled it up for her.


mm, smell of fresh dirt...


Lots of seeding trays in the greenhouse and cold frames, plus lots of healthy vegetables in her auxiliary greenhouses, the clear boxes I built to extend the growing season in the garden.


all would be very frozen here. it's been rather rediculous
compared to normal (whatever that may be), but i'm sure i'll
get over it.


I'll be planting the wild rice seed later this week, carefully following the directions that came with the seed packets. I've tried growing them several times before without success.


good luck!

if the wild rice spreads by stolons you may wish to have
a good border around it if our past experience is any thing
to go by. it sent runners out many-many feet travelling
along barriers, under black plastic, etc. very hard to
control until i ripped everything up and tracked all the
roots/stolons/runners and got them out of there.


songbird


I dug two rice paddies into the hill on the side of the pond. The walls are lined with plastic cloth to slow any leakage and the whole thing is surrounded by a woven-wire fence. If anything creeps out beyond the fence, the sheep will eat it before it gets very far.

We have a small creek on the north end of the property; I'm thinking of planting a few seeds in the slow eddies just to see what happens.

Paul
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Old 14-04-2018, 07:20 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default starting back up for the year

wrote:
songbird wrote:
wrote:
...

i sure haven't seen much rain heading your ways recently...


Finally, getting a little rain but not much; just nasty weather,
mostly. We got more-or-less an inch overnight for a total of about one
and one half since that advent of a cold front. The front has stalled
at about this latitude and "rained out" so we're having a humid, warm ,
intermittently cloudy/sunny day. The great outdoors are overwhelmingly
_wet_ in this kind of weather. Still going to (try to) get a bean bed
ready today for planting this evening or tomorrow.


at least you got a good rain out of it for a change.

pretty raw out there today. rain/sleet/snow, maybe
ice later, we'll see...

a good day for me to be inside doing other things.
geeking about and minor cleaning, perhaps may get some
pictures done and posted. or take a nap.


fresh peas..


Yep. Got some on the vines now—primarily on the morning sun side
of the row. Got the "white acre" peas planted, finally, too. If nights
continue warm, the peas should be up within a couple of days.


it will be interesting this season for sure as we
are still in early spring flowers (crocuses, some of
the bulb irises and glories of the snow) and just now
starting the next part where i see the earliest
daffodils and the grecian wind flowers. the earliest
tulips will be along soon too. the earliest crocuses
limped along for the past three weeks. the later
crocuses are coming out the past few days.

i'm just happy to see spring flowers here at last.

strawberries aren't going to be blooming anytime
too soon. it may be a very compressed season for
them. with the very cold weather and them being so
exposed without snow cover many are looking pretty
sad, but they are usually able to recover well
enough. the only ones i'm concerned about were
those that i transplanted right before winter
came along. i may have to move other plants in
there instead.


i'm not sure i will see any turnip blooms early
this season. the two biggest areas where i have them
wandering around were upended or are being upended and
so no over-wintered turnips anyplace. diakon radishes
may have to substitute. those sure are monsters if
left go.


I've never grown daikon radishes. Don't even know what a person
does with them. Haven't grown radishes of any sort for many years.
Used to use them as trap crop to intercept leaf-eaters years ago, in the
city. I think I _ate_ a radish about sixty years ago and have found no
reason to repeat that behavior and Alana never has expressed any
interest in them so....;-)


it's a very very big radish and is very useful
for breaking through clay layers in gardens. the
roots can be 4ft long and as big around as your
arm. and of course edible. i much prefer the
sprouts/greens in the very young stage than the
radish itself. and the flowers are nice too.
seeds are also edible, a bit of a bite to them.


The "provider" bush snap-beans were planted far too early in
February and sort of marked time due to the chilly nights but now that
the weather seems sure-enough to be warming, they're finally perking up
a bit.

Blossoms on'em as of yesterday (7 April). Yay. Next mission is to
prep a bed and plant "Delinel" filet beans. They're tender, with small
black seeds. The seeds are often hard to find at retail so this year
I'll be setting some of the first aside for future years. All of my
California blackeyes are from my seeds. The stash is four-going-on-five
(or, is it, five-going-on-six?) years of age


Delinel seem to be for sale from a number of
sources so you are not going to be out of luck
with them if your seed saving efforts don't pan
out.


the earliest spring flowers here are usually crocuses
and some small bulb irises which often bloom through
snow or very cold weather. they don't seem to mind
being repeatedly frozen, but i'm not sure how they
manage it, flower blossom petals don't strike me as
very durable, but they've persisted for a week or two
now.

We have flowers pretty much year 'round, although not in the
profusion of those in the northeast and it does take them some time to
recover from extremely cold weather. Of course the spiderwort are back,
as are the "cupid's brush" as well as a number of other asters. The
spanish needles, which became such nuisances last year (although,
insects lo-o-o-ove them) have just begun to recover from the last
freezing temps.


we're still due for some below freezing nights here
and some snow. 3wks-month before planting early peas.
dunno if the ground is going to be warm enough at the
rate we're going...


We always have a few rogue bees in the early spring and they
sometimes can overwhelm local maple and sweet gum trees, which are early
bloomers and covered with blossoms at about the time bees are introduced
into the blueberry farms down the road a bit. Fortunately, the blooming
trees intercept most of the bees early in the year and by this time,
when the bee population already is declining, I depend primarily on the
mustard greens to intercept honey bees and keep them out of the garden.
But by the time summer rolls around their number has declined to nearly
zero because the summer heat kills most of their little bee asses and
the relatively few remaining work only in the early hours and are
insufficient in number to interfere with the native bees. As summer
days progress the bees spend more of their time carrying water back to
home base or taking shelter under leaves.


that sounds like a good plan down there. i'm
thinking that perhaps they are not going to be placing
50something honey bee hives near us this year. which
will be nice we can have our birdbaths back.


i don't have any recall of the okra root ball of
the one time i grew it here - i know it was in a
very tough location and so would likely not have
been an accurate indication anyways. how long can
they be happy in a container that small before
needing to be transplanted?


Not very, but long enough for them to get big enough to vie against
the strawberries. Going to put four or five okra and two or three
eggplants in the bed with the strawberries. Last year, the berries
shared their bed with eggplants and Red Creole cooking onions. Also
planting more okra in a bed with onions but can directly seed those into
the bed.
I left a few of last year's onions in the strawberry bed to bloom
and they've begun to open. Since I'm not growing any other onions that
are even close to blooming _and_ I don't see onions in any of the few
gardens I've found within a couple of miles, I'm going to save the seeds
in hope of obtaining varietal seeds that will make bulbs. I'll test
them next fall and, if successful, won't have to buy onion seeds again
for a few years.


yeah, no shortage of onion seeds here either. i used
to make a lot of effort to get every seed out of the
heads and that meant a lot of chaff. this past winter
i decided that i'd just knock out what would fall out
and leave the rest alone and took them out to the front
grassy area and left them for the birds to peck at.
much easier to remove what little chaff there was left
and still way more onion seeds than i'll use.


*mmm* fresh ginger...

Yeah; Alana cooks with it. Mine started from a couple of scions
obtained by a neighborhood person of Chinese origin who is "particular"
about her ginger: "Spicy" is the word for it. At any rate, incestuous
ginger declines in flavor over time (years) and, when this does, I guess
I'll have to cop a couple more starters but for now what I have is doing
well-enough.
Well, "The Great British Baking Show" is wrapping up on teevee and
a cardinal is on the porch handrail letting me know, in full voice,
about the absence of food thereon so I guess it's time to put on some
clothes and get a bit active.


the cardinals here are wild and won't hang around
other than at a distance. i like their songs it is
one of the signs of spring when they start speaking
up again. the bluejays are noisy all season no
matter what.

so far, grackle wars have been slight, if i go out
and chase them away a few times they stay away most of
the day until they attempt to come back in the early
evening. so far they have not been given much of a
chance to build nests this way and that is all i want
for them to go someplace else and nest.


songbird
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Old 14-04-2018, 07:25 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Pavel314 wrote:
....
I dug two rice paddies into the hill on the side of the pond. The walls are lined with plastic cloth to slow any leakage and the whole thing is surrounded by a woven-wire fence. If anything creeps out beyond the fence, the sheep will eat it before it gets very far.


oh, yeah, sheep will keep it down.


We have a small creek on the north end of the property; I'm thinking of planting a few seeds in the slow eddies just to see what happens.


if the grasses already along there are holding the
banks in place you may not want a taller grass shading
them out. we've had the large drainage ditch out back
shifting because we made the mistake of shading out
some grasses and it is not a good thing to be having
to deal with... i'm going to need hip waders and a
nice dry summer to put large chunks of dirt and grasses
back along the closer bank. too bad it didn't shift
the other direction. i wouldn't have minded that as
much. but of course, with the grass gone along that
bank the water flows easier/faster and takes it out
even more. lesson learned.


songbird
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Old 14-04-2018, 08:50 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On 4/14/2018 12:20 PM, songbird and derald wrote:

Â* A lot of stuff that I snipped ...

Â* We got a buncha rain last night , looking at near/freezing temps
tonight and tomorrow . Then the forecast is for above-freezing lows and
a week or more of no rain . Just right for my timing of my seedlings ,
they're ready . The next few days will have me finishing up the
amendments to the garden , getting stuff planted and mulching with straw
.. That'll start tomorrow if it's dry enough .

--
Snag
Ain't no dollar sign on
peace of mind - Zac Brown

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Old 14-04-2018, 11:08 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Terry Coombs wrote:
....
Â* We got a buncha rain last night , looking at near/freezing temps
tonight and tomorrow . Then the forecast is for above-freezing lows and
a week or more of no rain . Just right for my timing of my seedlings ,
they're ready . The next few days will have me finishing up the
amendments to the garden , getting stuff planted and mulching with straw
. That'll start tomorrow if it's dry enough .


*cheers!* hope the late frosts don't getcha!


songbird


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Old 15-04-2018, 01:43 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On 4/14/2018 4:08 PM, songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
...
Â* We got a buncha rain last night , looking at near/freezing temps
tonight and tomorrow . Then the forecast is for above-freezing lows and
a week or more of no rain . Just right for my timing of my seedlings ,
they're ready . The next few days will have me finishing up the
amendments to the garden , getting stuff planted and mulching with straw
. That'll start tomorrow if it's dry enough .

*cheers!* hope the late frosts don't getcha!


songbird


Â* Me too ! Our usual last frost is around the 15th of April , and only
once have I had a problem planting this early - 2 or was it 3 years ago
I planted on the 15th and it frosted that night . Nearly lost it all ...
so now I watch the forecast more closely . I figger it'll be towards
mid-week before I actually get started setting plants out , still gotta
harden them off a bit more .

--
Snag
Ain't no dollar sign on
peace of mind - Zac Brown

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