Zones 8-9 Fall/Wntr 2010 IS UNDERWAY - Part III

Oh poor little guy! Hope he feels better soon, I am sure he'll remember the ice cream part for the rest of his life, I still remember when I was little and had to undergo some sort of operation and all I could eat was cold things like ice cream and yogurt, and also rest in bed and no school for a month which was the best part.

Are you going to get chickens? I just got some a month or so ago, I have 4 dark brahmas! It's like having someone live with you that works in your yard! They have weeded and debugged my garden, the azaleas, the patio . . .

I let them free range in my garden when they were young, I left some dying tomato vines there to provide cover for them while they were small but now I think I am getting a second crop of tomatoes so I am letting them be for now.

My old squash bed is ready to replant but I need to refence the garden to keep the chickens out, it only has a small fence to discourage doggies so far. I think it will also keep the chickens out for now, but I need to fix it sooner rather than later.

The chickens have been a joy so far. I have to get rid of the roosters though, and I think I have 2 of them. I plan on adding more hens till I get to my legal limit of 5. I have a chicken tractor for now but am looking to use a dog kennel pen to make a run, and I'll put the coop in it. The tractor will be used to introduce new hens.

I live in the 'burbs but I feel like i have my own little homestead now that I have chickens! www.BackYardChickens.com is like the daves garden of chickens.

Back Yard Chickens is the most excellent website for chicken lovers!

Is there a website for people that r crazy enough to have a baby guinea bird on their kitchen table?

I actually spent a few minutes browsing that chicken website and it was pretty cool. Seems like it is a great resource and community judging from the board activity. Now that would really be something...chickens in the back yard!

Has anyone tried growing summer squash in the fall? My veggie planner from the local extension says no planting after July, but an article in the gardeing section of the Houston Chronicle said summer squash was an option for fall planting. Squash grows pretty fast- what do ya'll think? I have yellow crookneck and black beauty zucchini.

I'm growing both that you mentioned in my garden right now and your area doesn't get as cold as it does here. You should be fine.

Thanks Lisa, I'll give it another go!

Here we would be at the very tail end of planting a fall crop of summer squash - I would go for it if you have the room!

Lisa - you already found it - all the crazies (for one reason or another) are here...

John-Here is the link for the chart I use, according to it you have until Oct. 1.
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/fallgarden/zones.html
That dang bird won't stop cheeping! I guess I need to buy it a friend. LOL

You are it's friend Lisa - it's talking to you...

It keeps repeating itself. Why did I rescue it from that D....egg?

Thanks for the link Lisa.

Anyone growing potatoes this fall? I had to cancel my fall potato crop, unfortunatley.

Yes I'm growing the same plants that I put out in the spring and they look great. I haven't had tomato plants that look this good since I lived in Ca 18 yrs ago. I did direct seed some in the middle of June but they may get put in pots because they are still small enough and that will extend their season.

PS Bought another guinea keet to keep the first one quite but they are affraid of each other. So all I've managed to do is double the noise! Now I need to buy ear plugs.

Do sweet potatoes count? :)

Decided to scratch the potatoes for fall. Didn't get a good yield in the spring, so I'll try them again next year. Oh to have unlimited garden space....

There are NEW stickies of interest at the top of this thread...bump

Cool - thanks Linda!

Wow Linda you are very resourceful, thank you!

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Check out that Refrigerator Germination! It's gonna save my fall/winter crop!

I just spoke with Calalily (she is just an Angel!), and she says the Fridge process is simply to pre-germinate the seeds. Which is why you only need 3 days or so (some may take a little longer, but not much...) for them to just start peeking out of the sand. Then, you plant them under the soil (she might put a little sand in the planting hole), and they'll continue to push through. So, you actually are planting what looks like "bean sprouts!"

But, you've got a head start on having a whole batch of seedlings that you know have germinated. This allows you to better control the numbers of seedlings with a little more certainty!

She has done this with all the cole crops, as well as with turnips (and some other stuff that we've been told doesn't like to be transplanted!)

We also discussed using Remay to keep the seedlings protected until they're established, but how UNVENTED Remay will set up a HOTHOUSE effect and cook the babies. So, she's now forming a little hoop tent with the Remay open at the ends to allow ventilation, just until the germinated seeds/seedlings are established. The bugs don't get in (much?), and the seedlings have a good headstart.

How COOL is that?

THANK YOU, CALALILY!

P.S. She plants her germinated seeds (teeny, tiny sprouts) directly into her garden rows. But, she said you could plant them in starter pots (completely covered very lightly), and let them grow a bit more if you want to, before planting out.

Linda

This message was edited Sep 23, 2010 10:12 AM

Carminator,
I think you'll be particularly interested in her method. I added another link where she explains her process in more detail. She also lists which crops she has successfully used her Fridge Germination method with. It is a long list!

Very exciting!

I'm gonna grab a bag of sand at lunchtime, and do some seeds this weekend. Since I'm not ready to go straight to plantout, I'll set each germinated sprout into my yogurt cups and cover with a light mixture of the sand and MG seed starting mix (loose enough for them to push through!) But the time I get my eBuckets up again, I should have a whole mess of my OWN seedlings!!!!

Calalily is a lifesaver!. P.S. She even does TURNIPS (which I've been told should not be transplanted)

P.S.S. She also told me where to get the pine bark fines I've so desperately been trying to find!!!

This message was edited Sep 23, 2010 10:24 AM

I'm pretty excited. I got my beds all cleared out and straightened up yesterday afternoon. I pulled out 15 volunteer Thai basil plants and am drying the leaves (can't let good basil go to waste). They will go into the dehydrator tonight.

The veggie beds are ready for the seeds and transplants which I will be putting out as time allows during the rest of the week. I know Labor Day was my original plantout, but it was so dang hot, I was pretty sure that they'd croak.

Sorry guys I really have been out of touch, we are all sick, have been for a week now so my energy is low and even my wonderful ripe sungold tomatoes don't look appetizing at all, my DH and DD have been eating them. Thankfully it rained quite a lot this past weekend so I did not need to water at all. Hope to start feeling better and start with my fall garden soon, I still have all the seedlings under grow lights or should I say huge plants, today is a gorgeous day and not so hot at all, we will see if this changes or not.

Sapphire I feel your pain I too was hoping to have everything planted by now but it has been realy hot here as well.

Too hot to plant here... Triple digits all week again. Am shooting for this weekend to start some sowing;o)

C - hope you feel better soon!

It has finally quit raining here and I managed to get a few things planted. My pre-germed seeds of romaine, butterhead, kohlrabi, turnips and leaf lettuce are coming up. Carrots and onions do just as well planted straight from the package without using the damp sand. I plant the seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and try to keep them moist. With the constant rain it wasn't a problem.

I plant squash year round (and cucumbers), but we seldom get a frost. The only time I have trouble with them is starting them in late November-December. If they are started in October, they do fine and ones started in January do fine. I don't know if day length has anything to do with it, but our day length is longer here in winter than most of the country because of our Latitude.

Potatoes (regular plus fingerlings) do well when planted Oct-late Feb, if started in Aug or after Feb, they grow tops but don't make potatoes.

Sweet potatoes do well from Feb until Sept, but this year I'm experimenting. (I do that quite often, I've learned lots of things by just trying something different). We have weevil problems so I put some under row covers to exclude the weevils and they're growing in beds that haven't had SPs before and no morning glories (host plant for SP weevils). One row is not under cover but treated with Spinosad. I won't know if it worked until I dig the potatoes.

My tomatoes are blooming. I'm hoping this cool weather will make them set fruit.

My beans have two sets of true leaves and look better than in years past, another crop we can't grow in summer here. It's not that we're so hot (seldom gets to 100). It might be the wind, or the angle of the sun. Still experimenting with beans. They do well fall thru spring though.

My strawberries are getting ripe!

I am experimenting growing cucumbers, squash and sweet potatoes under Remay row covers this winter. So far the ones under the covers look 10X better than the ones exposed to the elements, no bugs, no virus.
I will take some photos to share later.

I forgot to mention: I transplant all kinds of things that aren't supposed to be moved. Pac choi, bok choi, turnips, beets, lettuce.........eggplants with blooms, papaya trees.....most of the time they do fine. I use butcher paper, bed sheets or flower pots to shade them from the sun for a few days and keep them moist.

Wow Calalily, you've got a lot going on!

Anyway, glad to hear I am not the only one that is a little behind in planting fall veggies. Just got back from a 4-day cruise to Cozumel out of Galveston, and had a blast!! It was also a relief to come home to cooler temps- it's 78 deg right now.

I should have everything planted by Sunday evening, hopefully, but I've got lots to do.

Oh, and I forgot to ask someone to refill my hummingbird feeder while we were out of town, so I think all the birds that frequented my yard flew the coop. What a shame, I must have had 7 or 8 hummingbirds buzzing around our living room window before we left town. I refilled the feeder not long after I got home so hopefully they'll come back.

This message was edited Sep 28, 2010 12:32 PM

Hey, gymgirl == "P.S.S. She also told me where to get the pine bark fines I've so desperately been trying to find!!!" == where? :)

Tx,
Calalily recommended Nature's Way Soil Conditioner. I believe it's sold at Ace Hardware Stores but I haven't checked them out yet. Online it's priced @ $7.99/per 2 cu. Ft. bag.

However, Tapla blessed off on the Evergreen Organic Soil Conditioner sold @ Lowes. Theirs sells for $2.90/per 2 cu. Ft. bag! But, I went to two stores yesterday and they didn't have it anywhere in their inventory. Felt lik an online bait 'n switch, although at my request, they're considering making it more available down here for us.

Supposed to hear from them in 24 hours.. I'll keep you posted.

Linda

PS you can google it as "Evergreen Soil Conditioner Lowes" and the link should be in the list.

Hey, Linda
Sent you dmail... have you seen or checked out Nature's Way Resources (http://www.natureswayresources.com/)? Lots of locations listed for their products.

Ok, I finally built my raised beds over the weekend in addition to completing loads of other gardening to-do's. I planted 6 pacman broccoli, 2 cabbage, and 1 cauliflower transplants as well as 4 tomatoe transplants. I know I am way late on the tomatoes (roma + 1 cherry) but I was so late building my beds so I am chalking this up as "experimental", lol.

I have 5 more pacman transplants that I will plant in 2 weeks. I'll be sowing lettuce and spinach soon, as well as carrots.

I also bought some green onion sets from my local farmer's market. They were sold in bunches of 5 or so bulbs and they were stuck together due to the dirt...I assume you break them apart carefully and plant, or do you just set the whole thing in the ground?

Mary,
Thanks for the link. Wabash Antiques (one of my favorite places) carries the Nature's Way. Waiting on a price from them.

John,
Soak them to loosen the dirt, then plant them individually....

Anyone ever space their pacman broccoli plants 12" apart? What kind of results did you have?

Oh- and thanks for the advice on the onion sets Linda...I tend to over complicate things sometimes.

I always space my broccoli 12" apart. They do very well. In a 34 x 4 raised bed I plant 99 plants in three rows spaced 1' apart.

Sorry to have dropped off the face of the earth, but it's been a difficult last 2 months. Between the hotter than anything summer and then DH having allergic reactions to some medications the doctors put him on, I've not had time to do much of anything with my fall garden. I have enjoyed reading all the posts with great suggestions and following everyone's progress, though. Oh well...spring is coming and I got some shop lights off of the Freecycle site so I can start maters and peppers and stuff inside starting in January!

Sorry to hear about your DH! I have not been very active on these boards as well over the summer but lurked from time to time. It seemed to me that the boards were not as active as usual but maybe that was becuase of vacations and such.

P.S.- what is this Freecycle site that everyone speaks of??

If you go to www.freecycle.com and type in your zip code, you should find a link to the group that's closest to you. You can post stuff to give away and folks come pick it up or you agree to meet somewhere to pick it up. You can also post what you want and if someone has it, you can make arrangements to get it if they offer it to you. In my area, there's also a yahoo group called "Fort Worth Free Stuff" that is made up of current and former Freecyclers.

Thanks Steph- what a concept.

Calalily- glad to hear that someone else has had success with spacing pacman plants12" apart. My raised beds are 12'x3' and 12x2' so I am trying to make the most out of my space. I guess we all try to maximize our planting space.

John,
I am going to have to come visit you down there! ^^_^^

Using Mel's square foot gardening grid gives you approximately 60 squares to plant in. If you go to the garden planner site in the sticky at the top of this thread, it tells you how many of each thing you can plant in one square foot!

Below is from memory, so don't quote me til you check out the planner!

Broccoli, Cauliflowers = 1 per square
Turnips = 9 per square
Carrots = 16 per square
Leaf lettuce = 9 per square
Beets = 9 per square

This message was edited Oct 6, 2010 11:05 AM

This message was edited Oct 6, 2010 11:07 AM

This is a high yield garden layout on the garden planner.