ZONE 8 - SPRING season 2012

Rich, "for the sake of doing them"? Are you sure...don't all cats have a master plan?

So far germinated:
Corn 'golden bantam'
hibiscus (tea)
luffa
misc. lettuce and radish
okra
green beans (raised beds)
anaheim peppers
basil
carrots

waiting on:
Squash
tomatillos
misc. peppers

Got 90 of the tomatoes planted out, soil was still damper then I would have liked, but I can't wait any longer or I'd picking toms out of dixie cups.

Waiting on morning soil temps to reach 70* to plant sesame seeds, this will be my first try. Excited!

I think yesterday was a bit too hot for my English peas. If I get home tonight and they look like they did yesterday I'll be pulling them out and planting green beans in their place. My soil isn't warm enough for peppers yet. The soil is still so saturated and I think that is keeping the soil temps lower. Maybe sometime this week if we get more sun. I usually dont' put my peppers out until my pecan trees start to leaf out. And no leaves on the pecan trees out at my place yet. I'm kind of hoping they are late and not just dead! My oaks just did leaf out....

Oh no, I was cheering for the peas, Terry. I've never been able to grow them well and have given up..for now.lol

We lost our pecan and all the magnolias. I was wondering were to plant the luffa gourds, I've got my cattle panels save for other plants. Thought to myself, why not use the dead magnolias.lol If that's lemons to lemon-aid, I don't know what is ;0)

The luffa on the dead magnolia I think would look cool!

Every year DH tells me the pecans are dead. And every year they leaf out once the temps get consistantly up in the 80's. These trees are huge. One of them showed signs of stress last year (see photo), but the other four looked OK. They all produced good crops of pecans last year. If they are still alive then this year will be slim. The guy down the road from us told me that around here you plant out your peppers when the pecan trees leaf out, so I've always done that.

Sorry about your magnolias. We only have two. One did great as it is in the middle of a rose bed and got a good soaking once a week. The second is on it's own right now and we just hand carried water to it every week or so. It did loose some limbs, but is still alive....

Rich, cats DO think everything is a toy!! Thank you for providing such fun entertainment for your cats. LOL

I have peas sprouting, but am not sure if they'll survive the heat. I planted 2 varieties, Alaska & Wando. Wandos are supposedly more heat tolerant, so we'll see.

We planted pole beans last week, just before and after the big rain. Some have already sprouted! Woohoo! Never grown pole beans before, just bush beans, so I'm looking forward to this year with them.

Yesterday, I planted cucumber seeds. We'll see what we get with those, too. I planted Lemon cukes (so tasty and perfect for a single serving) and Marketmore.

Terry, your pecan looks pretty good to me! When I had pecans in the city they were always shedding branches, drought or no drought. The pecan I lost was the second sapling to die on me. I can't seem to find a good spot around here. Are yours on more of a clay base?

Stephanie, still cheering on your peas :0) gooo peas!

zone 5 here and it's spring:) Been close to 80's and I have got my tomatoes going...Peppers...cucumbers...all inside and really growing....a few others and feeding with worm compost. Moved nineteen plants to larger pots yesterday. The only thing I dared to start outside was peas I popped into the soil by my porch trellis with a few 4 o clocks and morning glory seeds. Peas are a cold agreeable veggie so I just did it. Was tempted to plant some other cold loving veggies...but decided to give it a few more weeks..or at least a couple lol.

I am growing watermelon for the first year.
One of the variety I selected is: Moon and Stars Yellow Flesh
http://rareseeds.com/vegetables-p-z/watermelon/moon-and-stars-yellow-flesh.html

Look at its leaf ... wow ... it also has the yellow spot ... so cool !

One of the old trees practically exploded about three years ago. We cut it down and I have a rather large pile of pecan wood. I burned it in the fire place this past winter. The yard smelled very nice! =)

Mmm, yes. We throw our fruit and hickory woods right on the grill coals too. Not as strong as smoking, can still be tasted tho. I get upset if catch hubby throwing fruit wood in the regular ole brush pile.

I got more tomatoes planted and should be done with them tonight, tomorrow okra and squash. Then, maybe, I can start thinking about starting more seeds, yay!

Can't believe it, but my purplehull peas popped up over the weekend! Squash and cucumbers are peeking through too. Dusted with Sevin this morning. I have both flea beetles and cucumber beetles munching on the green beans. I was gone over the weekend and the baby beans were decimated. I will probably have to replant. : (

Oh no, Dreaves. Hate it when they undo all our hard work. Found that something is munching my green beans too. My biggest spring nemesis are the worms. They are thick this year, I keep finding inch worms crawling on ME!

I just planted out a new bush bean (for me). Vittoria. This is going to be my year for new beans to try! Pole beans, bush beans--we've going to have a very beany season this year, LOL! Oh, and new squash too.

I was going to rip out all of my English peas. Upon inspection I discovered that two varieties were not doing half bad. So I left a half row of Sweet Provence and almost a full row of Freezonia. I don't know how I missed that Freezonia had a bunch of pods going. But I'm going to try a fall planting of English peas and see if I can get better production. I also think I may have planted too deep. I'm used to planting peas in a northern garden. It may be that peas are like grafted roses and planting depth varies with planting zone.

terri_emory
in Dallas the "Pea" experts told me that we have two dates to successful seed peas: September 1st and February 1st
WOW !!
Good luck and keep posting

I have removed all of my Broccoli, Kales, Kohlrabi, Spinach and Fennel.
My planting out date will be MONDAY April 2nd FRUIT day until 3pm.
I will transplant: Cucumbers. Squash, Watermelons, Peppers and Eggplants .... weeee

Same here, Terry. We love beans! I've got Valentine Black, blue Lake, Cream-40, noid cream pea, and some asparagus types for this year. I still may pick up some wax beans. I desperately want some purple colored green beans, too late to order. Please, let me know if you see any locally. What kind of squash are you doing?

Thanks, Dthor. Next time I try them will be a fall planting. Every time I've tried them February, more then half rot. Transplanting would do them well, but it would take way too many to do that sort of work.lol

Edited to say, I think snow peas do better then others for the south, but those have been persnickity here as well ;0)

This message was edited Mar 28, 2012 2:01 PM

My transplants hardening off in my back patio

Fantastic!

I'm sick I tell ya, sick!! Went to the feed store today to pick up some compost and other gardening stuff. Ended up with more tomato plants and a jalapeno plant! I have no self-control! LOL

LOL, take two geraniums and call me in the morning :0)

looks like a beautiful few days to get them in tho. Just finished the last of the okra...too tired to pick dinner!

This message was edited Mar 29, 2012 5:01 PM

I've got beans and peas coming up!!

The lemon cukes I planted the other day (Sunday) have started germinating! I found one lone watermelon volunteer and we have tons of honey rock cantaloupe volunteers.

how many bean plants for person do you suggest to plant?

LOTS! LOL I have absolutely no idea. We usually eat the peas before we get inside with them.

Tomatoes are growing really well and they are starting to make fruits

My transplants have been waiting in the porch for while now.
They are under the sun and they look great.
Monday and Tuesday will be a FRUIT day ... finally

OKRA is growing really well indoor.
Monday or Tuesday I will separate each seedling into a 4" pot.

Dreaming of roasted Okra, Gumbo ... Etoufee'

In my compost bin I have growing:
two tomato plants and one zucchini !!!

All by themselves !

Tomatoes are making lot of fruits and growing well.
I keep removing suckers every day ... it seems they grow like 2" overnight !

This message was edited Apr 3, 2012 10:46 AM

Peppers and Eggplants have been transplanted outside and mulched with pine needles

Cucumbers also transplanted outside. They are 2 weeks old.
Let's hope the PILL BUGS will not attack them. I did plant more than I need ...

As soon as the lettuce around will be finish, I plan to also mulch them with pine needles.

Squashes are planted in the front bed by the flowers ... let's hope the squash vine borer will not find them

This is my first experiment growing runner beans.
I transplanted them outside growing by the fence.

Cucumber plants are growing well ...

Cherokee Purple, Momotaro and my favorite yellow cherry GOLDEN NUDGET

updated picture of what is growing on my compost bin ...

I have planted some zucchini between the garlic this year too ...
Right now I am eating lots of Swiss Chard and I am using small radishes seed pods in my DH salad.
They are really spicy, but he loves them ...

Okra is hardening off in the back porch.
My planting date will be April 21st.

dr, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has things growing in their compost pile!

Cucumbers started from seed only one month ago are growing really well.
They started to develop tendrils and attach to the wire cages.

Onions are making a bulb ... so exciting ... this is my first year growing onions.