I never watched that show! LOL!
STARTING OUR 2012 FALL/WINTER VEGGIE GARDENS - PT. 2
Ive got broccoli and snow peas up and growing.Started them outside since so warm. Hope to get green beans going this weekend along with Gai Lan and carrots radishes and beets. Might wait on the root veggies. will try to sow lettuce then as well. tomatoes are growing but still too hot to produce.
So far, I have sown broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbages, some lettuces, baby pak choy ,and sprigarillo. But I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants - our well has been down for over 2 weeks!! New well is suppose to be drilled/dug either tomorrow or the next day. I am so tired of hauling water in!! It's a 30 mile round trip to get it. we've been using most of the toted water to drink and flush toilets. My poor potted babies are really suffering with all the hot weather we've been having. And it may be another week before we have water. Couldn't drill next to the old well, so both the electric lines and water lines need to be rerouted to the house from the new well. Otherwise the well guy was going to have to chop down one of my persimmon trees (NO WAY!! It is loaded with green fruit!), and bury the new well casing in concrete - because the old well wasn't 50 feet from the septic or the neighbors property line.
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This weekend I want to get some cukes, dill, 3 kinds of peas, and zucchini planted. Also need to clear the bean trellis, bring in a couple of truck loads of manure, and till!! Sure hope the expected rain co-operate!!
Does anyone know when we plant jicama or fennel here in zone 8/9 of Texas?
Dr. Bob Randall recommends fennel from seed Sept. 1-14, with Sept.15-30 being the optimal seed starting dates. Also, Oct. 1-31 are optimal seed starting dates for fennel in the Houston metro area.
He shows optimum for jicama from seed as MAY 1-15. That's the only date he shows optimum for jicama.
Linda
Greta, Bernie from Country Gardens told me about the Seascape variety from Indiana Berry Company. I had tasted them at his farm when Bud and I stopped to visit last year. He has the best set-up for growing berries.
Simple Strawberry System...
My plan for tomorrow is to get up fairly early, do some stretching for my back, then get out in the garden. I need to get the cabbage seeds in the ground, pull out 2 rows of okra, take cuttings from the tomato plants and get those planted, pull out the spring tomatoes, and then plant cukes, lettuce, and bush beans.
Thanks for the info Linda. I am going to have to look for Dr Randal's book.
Did you drill holes in a bucket for the strawberry plants? They sure are healthy looking ones!
Yes, TBaby, there are holes drilled in that bucket. I put 25 plants in, but next time I'll only put 12 plants.
Hi -- I want to plant my first ever winter vege garden this year. Yesterday, perusing this forum, I came across a link to a website that had plant dates for various vegetables based on the earliest frost date for your area. I've just scrolled through this whole topic and now I cannot find it again! Am I blind? Sorry, but could someone post the link again? Thanks!
Oh, I found it! It wasn't here afterall. It was over at the Seedsavers Exchange -- a nifty chart!
http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=buyonline.htm
Well, my plans have been rained out for today. What a mixed blessing.
Linda I just haven't had the motivation this year for the driveway crop.
I did save some of the snow peas I grew from spring and dried in a windowsill. I soaked them overnight and will put them in some seed starter mix today.
Think I mentioned my iguana eats greens only - herbivore - and she costs us the most pound for pound of any of our critters. It makes too much sense for me to try to grow my own. I guess I'd better pray for some motivation.
Last week I got tired of all the dried bamboo in the drive I've been saving all summer and dragged it to the curb. I heard the municipal truck out there for what seemed like an hour trying to feed it all in. Bless them. :D
I've only got a few of the purple trionfono pole beans growing on netting. If they don't do too well all I will get is a handful of dried beans to plant again next season.
Will keep you posted and certainly keep following yours.
A.
I scored 10 garbage bags full of coffee grounds today. Competition from other gardeners is pretty keen behind the Starbucks, so showing up when the bin is overflowing is a rarity. (Showing up when the bin isn't completely empty is rare, too.)
Sounds like those grinds will be well used in the garden.
How do you use the coffee grounds? In the compost, or just on top of the soil? Or what? The comment that it draws worms got my attention.
You can use coffee grounds as-is -- you can add them to a compost pile but you don't need to. They won't burn your plants. I mix them into my soil if I am setting up a new bed, put it on top (under mulch) if it's an established bed or I know some people who put a little bit in the hole with new seedlings.
I don't think they draw worms any more than any other organic material that isn't "hot." When I raised worms they'd ignore my coffee grounds in favor of almost an nasty, rotted vegetable product. The more mold and slime the better they liked it. :-/
Iggies LOVE green peas- the frozen kind thawed out, not the canned ones. They are also very fond of Jacaranda blooms, dandelion blooms, and stray fingers.
Amanda ~ Did you save enough bamboo poles for staking plants next year, or do you have more growing?
NYRita ~ When will you be starting your tomatoes for next year? And when can you safely put them out? This year, I put mine out too late, but last year we had a lot of late cold weahter and frosts, hail and snow. This year was completely different. I put mine out at the end of May. Maybe I will put out a few "test pilots" in March, April and then May. I really had enough leftovers and put them all in pots or in the ground, though I lost a few to gophers, darn!!
Nicole ~ Wow, that is a lot of coffee grounds. Are you going to put them in the compost pile or directly onto your garden beds?
last year I grew some winter radish turned out really good and if I could remember the exact cultivar I would gladly postit so if anyone wants this info I can get it from the Co Op I had a lot more seed from last year so just planted the leftover this season and it is already up HOORAY PS the radish kept all thru the winter??? was kinda nice to go out to the garden in January and pull some radish..
TBaby,
Tryin tah post a pic for you for 2 days
That's not a lot of compost grounds when you spread them over 600 sq ft. :) I'm saving these just for my new garden beds (300 sq ft) Perhaps next weekend I'll try to ring the jackpot bell at Starbucks again. There's less competition as we start to head into fall and winter.
evelyn, I have always before just bought tomato seedlings at the nursery so this starting of tomato seeds is going to be a new thing for me. So I still have to figgure out exactly when I should be starting them. I have my tomatoes out and in ground by May 8th.
Rita,
This one's for you!
My Seed Starting Process
http://allthingsplants.com/blogs/entry/136/
The seedlings grow fast- tomatoes do- ready within 6wks I think, down here to put out, can run a hand over em as they grow, or put a fan on em to keep Em toughening up as they sprout.
Hey, great blog!!! The tomato seed starting is going to be quite the adventure for me. I have never started tomatoes before but the darn things start themselves from dropped fruit all the time so they must want to grow. I do start peas, cucumbers, melons, brocolli, beats, greens. Well, things like that.
Rita ~ You will do just fine. Tomatoes are really easy. I even planted all of my leftover seedlings everywhere...in pots, in the ground...of which some, the gophers ate, along with the beans growing up with them....darn!! It is just if you get a very late spring, like last year with a lot of cold weather...just put out a few and then if you lose some, you will have more "waiting in the wings..."And you don't even have to go to buy any!! That is the nice thing that you have many more choices when it comes to varieties. Of course you have leftover seeds, and that is when you get into seed trading so you can try someone else's seeds too!
Most of mine are in Square Foot Gardens (4'x4') boxes, with hardware cloth on the bottoms, or in large pots. Some are growing in the amended soil in the ground, but they are smaller, so far.
I think God is trying to tell me something....
This is the SECOND weekend in a row I haven't spent much time out in the garden doing anything but watering/feeding. And, the seedlings under the lights don't need anything much, so I've not done anything there either. And, I keep feeling like I need to be doing something other than nothing!
Went to a gardening seminar two weeks ago. Master gardener from Corpus Christi? gave us her fertilizer recipe, and I bought ingredients last week, and fertilized last Monday. The plants seem to be happy. Nothing's dying anywhere.
Here's Mary Demeny’s Fertilizer recipe:
Add the following to a 20-gallon can of water (I had standing rainwater, so they got extra nitro):
2 cups alfalfa pellets
2 cups Epsom salt
1 cup Medina Hasta Gro (lawn food fertilizer; Google it)
1 cup fish emulsion
20 drops SuperThrive
Mix with a shovel or long stick. Use rubber gloves to avoid skin contact. Use a watering can with the sprinkler removed to apply to the base of plants.
Amount to apply: Pour for 3 to 5 seconds for large plants, less for smaller plants.
I used a small pail (quart size?) and poured half a pail on each plant, since most of them are almost uniform size.
NOTE: YOU MUST KEEP STIRRING so the alfalfa pellets don't settle to the bottom of the water!
After this first time, my next batch will have a slight modification. I will soak the alfalfa pellets to soften them, run them through the blender, then pour the slurry into the water. That way, the alfalfa can be even distributed in the mix.
Question: My Okras are slowing down (not that they ever really took off), and wondering when to pull them? It's gonna take manpower to pull up those stalks. Some are almost silver dollar diameter! Too bad they didn't give me many okra pods. But, better yield than last year, so progress was made.
Here's a pic of my seedlings inside. They are flopping all over the place, and most leaves are larger than half a paper dollar bill. Potting up time for sure, since they aren't going out until mid-September.
Hugs!
From the Houston Urban Gardeners presentation I went to Monday, August 13th:
http://www.houstonurbangardeners.org/2012/07/aug-13-mary-demeny-kitchen-gardening-and-what-to-plant-and-do-now/
We had a very early spring here this year but who knows what it will be like next spring. I do have two tomato plants in pots but really like to grow my tomatoes in ground.
And there are soooooooo many varieties if you want to start from seed. I have already ordered and received some seeds and ordered some that has not arrived yet.
But I can't wait until October which is when Heritage Tomato Seeds will be taking orders. And I will be ordering some of those New Dwarf varieties. I figgured out I have eight spots (in ground) I think will be perfect for the dwarf varieties. And since I plan on ordering four varieties I will have two plants each which I think will work out very well for me. Maybe start some extras, put some out early and have backups just in case.
Rita ~ You can also check the various seed trading forums...here on DG, Tomatoville.com, ATP, cubits, GardenWeb...etc... And there are oh, so many more new forums popping up everywhere on magazine websites, and other places commercial and non-commercial...so many kinds of tomatoes, your head will be spinning until spring!!! ^_^
This message was edited Aug 27, 2012 1:09 PM
Yes, my head has already started to spin over all the tomato varieties available.
Linda, I find it hard not to be a helicopter gardener, but the plants mostly do fine on their own. :)
?
I was making a joke about helicopter parents, always hovering around. You were saying you felt like you needed to do something.
It's pretty slow here, too. Just waiting for the seedlings to grow up. They should like the cloudy stormy weather coming -- the heat yesterday and today has the turnips pretty stressed. It's time to sow some more radishes, tho.
Ahhhhhhhhh, hovering...I get it now.
It wasn't so much "hovering" as feeling I have so much to do that hasn't been getting done for one reason or another, and mostly for reasons beyond my control -- hence, God's plan for me to not be getting it done, for His reasons, and under HIS control!
Although, I do feel rested, and, my back is doing much better..... Hmmmmmmmmmm....
LOL!
Calalily -- thanks for the Seascape Strawberry recommendation. You didn't say, how did they taste??
Gymgirl -- strawberries in buckets. I love it. So, 12 plants per bucket. Drill 1-1 1/2" holes and place 2 on top. Does that sound about right. Now, next question, when??? Would you do this in Oct/Nov? Oh, must ask, potting soil? Any special combo?
Thanks!!
Your strawberry buckets are awesome Linda!! That's an ebucket, isn't it? I used a strawberry pot for the strawberry plants I bought at Wal-Mart this Spring. Only one plant produced a couple of leaves, then they all promptly turned brown and died. I thought we were suppose to plant them in the Spring!! Now I hear they will do better here in the Fall? I haven't looked for any more plants, sure hope I can find some.
Speaking of fertilizer, I feel so privileged!! Today was the second time this week a couple of lost cows spent the day wandering around our property and depositing lovely piles of fertilizer, mostly back in the garden area. How convenient is that?!! Silly husband called the county sheriff's office and they stopped by around nightfall to check them out. Tomorrow they are suppose to come back and decide if they are going to take them.They sure seem to like it here. We have the only cleared area out here with LOTS of grass to eat.(I haven't got on the mower for about a month, due to rain, or company. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! lol)). The cows aren't tagged or marked in any way. None of the neighbors know of anyone who owns cows out here, and nobody has reported any missing. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
Discovered today my new potting shed/greenhouse is to hot for new seedlings! It's great for sprouting them, but not good to leave anything under cover or in a closed container once they are sprouted. What temp should newly sprouted seedlings be in? Do I need to put air-conditioning out there?
Seascapes taste wonderful.
TBaby,
Here's the rest of the story! Sorry not sooner, but Samsung phone not cooperating. It's no wonder Apple won that judgement for Iphone "knock-off" infringement!
The strawberry eBucket has an overturned colander for a built-in reservoir. It was filled with a mix of pine bark fines and MG potting MIX (not soil). Strawberries are WATER HOGS, so the reservoir really saved me on days when I was just not able or inclined to get out and water.
Here's the link to my eBucket construction tutorial. Just start your holes above the colander level and stagger them in each row. And, yes, I used a 1-1/2" hole saw for the holes.
http://allthingsplants.com/thread/view/3230/Make-an-eBucket/?offset=0
Linda