Fyi most of the seed garlic comes from Northern Nevada as well as an awful lot of the process garlic
STARTING OUR 2012 FALL/WINTER VEGGIE GARDENS - PT. 3
Garlic from Texas (& a few other places in the US) http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/index.htm
Linda, thanks for the info. I hadn't read about the RU in Hempstead. It's a little far, but tempting. Would be great to meet you in the middle, though! I'll think on it and let you know.
WEEKEND UPDATE:
This weekend:
►I noticed that the cut stems of all the okras growing in the buckets have sprouted again along the stems!
►I learned how to use a PIPE CLAMP to pull the bowed out corners of my 3x10' box together. Cut cedar fence pickets, and started facing the outside.
►I separated more seedlings (mostly cabbages) into individual vessels (4" nursery pots). The Early Jersey Wakefields are totally beautiful, even as seedlings. They look like miniature, full grown cabbages!
►I set broccoli and cauliflower seedlings out for hardening off. They look amazing, too!
►Picked all the remaining eggplants (a LARGE aluminum pan full), and did a parmigiana for dinner - a totally delicious, "make-it-up-as-you-go" recipe.
►Last weekend I trimmed all the BP plants back to about 18". This weekend, I noticed that the 2nd wave of miniature bell pepper that is maturing seems to be growing a bit larger than the first. Maybe it just takes longer for them to get bigger, and definitely more watering...
►Another batch of seedlings will be going out for hardening off, as they have outgrown the height of my light stand, and I'm getting weary of adding blocks to lift it higher for them...
I've come a very long way from when I was a beginner gardener. I babied seedlings because I was scared of them. Now, they cringe when I enter the growing room. When I potted up the broccolis and cauliflowers into drinking water bottles last week, I was none to gentle, since I had to fairly rip apart the roots. They looked absolutely pitiful when I was done, practically laying over on the bottles. Lots of leaves started turning brown and drying up...miserable.
Today, all those transplants have thrown brand new leaves, and you'd think they started out in those water bottles.
I LOVE GROWING SEEDLINGS
Linda
Sorry, Seedling pics tomorrow...
Go, Linda! Wow, you've done great. Okay, I'm now inspired (LATE, but inspired!) to go plant some more stuff. lol
Don't forget those pics.
Ditto LisaP, and I love growing seedlings, too. It's so rewarding to see a plant grow from seed. I'm hooked and will never be the get-plants-at-the-local-greenhouse-in-spring gardener, again. When I was a kid, everything was grown from seed. I think society is moving back to the old ways...very slowly...but it's started, I think. I found out that the local greenhouse doesn't even start most of their plants from seed- they BUY seedlings from some big city seedling wholesaler!
LiseP,
You're not late! You're right ON TIME! Girl, that's what's so good about this fall/winter gardening. We have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG SEASON! Yay!
Before I knew anything at all, I used to sweat, sweat, sweat, and agonize, about getting stuff in the ground on time. Since I've discovered fall/winter, my goal this year is to put something in the ground every few weeks up until December 20th, when I start the tomato seeds.
I have an initial batch of cole crop seedlings ready for transplanting this weekend. The pics I post later will be of this 1st batch. I'll start a second batch indoors, soon, and hope to direct sow some seeds beginning in the 1st of October.
If all goes according to schedule, something should be either growing up, or coming up, in all available sites, from this weekend until December 20th. Then, I should be able to harvest veggies from late November until next March.
On December 20th, I go back inside and watch the cole crops from the windows, while I play with tomatoes and bell peppers inside!
LOL!
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be on some kinda track this year!
It's 6:30am in the middle of September, and it's 48F outside. Brrr! And it's going to do this again tomorrow night, and the whole next week is going to below normal.
I hope my cabbages are happy.
They should be starting the beach volleyball games right about now!
You have some frost protection ready, just in case?
Yes, but mostly I just roll with the seasons, particularly fall. Average first frost is only about 6 weeks out, hard freeze in 8, but a frost won't bother my fall crops anyway and the final round of garden turnips and radishes I planted last week will be in by then.
I should have the first fall peas soon. Maybe today -- I didn't check the garden this AM. I was NOT going out there in shorts and a tank top!
You can WEAR shorts and a tank top? wow.....
LOLOLOL!!!!
Well I can't garden nekkid. Think of the sunburn.
I mean you can FIT into shorts and a tank top? wow.....
LOLOLOL! ^^_^^
Lots and lots of black eyed peas are almost ready to harvest!
My broccoli seedlings are coming along nicely. I have a few that are lagging, so I might replant some.
Jalapenos anyone??
Nice, Steph!
oh my black eyed peas, I loves those, gosh now I've got to go and order some, where is the best place for them???? any suggestions folks?
Jan
I purchased mine by the scoop at a local nursery, so I'm no help. I think I ended up with about a pound of seeds 3 years ago! LOL I have purchased other seeds from Baker Creek (www.rareseeds.com) and Sustainable Seeds (http://sustainableseedco.com/).
Pink eye purple hull flower this morning. Love the light purple color!
Today's harvest: purple hulls, jalapenos, and okra pods (for seeds)
Yummmmm!
steph, bear with me but what is that last picture it looks like black eye peas but the picture has a purple tint to it????
Thanks for the links.
Jan
I finished as much of the garden extension as I can do before frost. I've planted all the last seeds I can for fall and I'm not starting any new landscaping beds this fall... so other than harvest and eat my season is finished. In another month or so, it'll be time to plant garlic and do the winter chores.
Peas are coming in. The cold weather has made them small, but very sweet. Ironically, the radishes are really, really spicy. I finally planted enough to keep the boyfriend happy. He can't keep up with the harvest and he's gonna be sick of them by the time they are done. :)
Jan, they're my purple hulls. Some have a greenish-tint and some are cream colored. The purple tinge is just from my camera.
I'm going to look up the purple hulls, never heard of them before.... the last few years my veggie garden growing has been expanding like crazy, (in part thanks to DG, LOL).
Jan
Jan, here are a few links for you:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/40772/
http://www.bettervegetablegardening.com/growing-southern-peas.html
They do vine a bit and need support. Next year, I'm going to grow them in a fence-like cage (surrounded on all sides)
Today's harvest: a couple of beets, loads of black-eyes, and more jalapenos. The folks at work will gladly take the jalapenos off my hands!
Steph!
You've got beets already???!!!
I'm just preparing to sow some seeds. Hope I'm not too late! Or, were you early?
Mark sowed them early. LOL He also didn't thin, so I pulled these to make room for the remainders.
The only things still going here are my tomatoes, which surprizingly still produce some and my Fall Pea crops which have been producing steadily. I have already pulled out all my summer cucumbers and beans.
So, Steph,
When is your big sowing date?
So far, I'll be able to set out the cauliflowers, broccoli and cabbages this weekend and next, in RB #2. If I get RB #1 cleaned out, and RB #3 faced, I can sow turnip, beet, and carrot seeds in one bed, and lettuce and spinach in the other bed.
I'm still a bit up in the air about where to place which veggies, though. From experience, my cabbages, broccoli and cauliflowers will do fine in bright light. I've read the root crops, garlic and onions need the most direct sunlight, so I'm rethinking those placements.
Linda
P.S. Lemme know when you're sowing your snow peas, wandos, and the other variety you did last year!
The rate we're going we won't get anything else sown! I still have a few days left for peas and hope to get those in tomorrow. I'd really like to get some lettuce in, but I think it's too late for that.
Too late cuz there's not enuf lead time before the frost?
Not too late for lettuce. IMHO. I don't sow mine until well into Oct. It's been too hot. Some types of lettuce, like spinach won't germinate if its too hot. I'm referring to leaf lettuce. I just cut it and it grows back. I mix lettuce seeds with potting soil and toss them. Our weather is so crazy I'm not sure if there really is a right or wrong time. My tomatoes are setting like crazy, so are the peppers and my long beans. I tossed some Swiss Chard seeds in a container and they are starting to come up. Still have cucumbers setting on some plants in a container.
1Lisac,
Should I wait to sow the Romaine lettuce seeds? Our daytime temps are still hovering between 88 and 93, with nights around 75.
I don't really know. My little chart says in your area to sow around Nov 1st, but I don't know about that type in particular. The winter of 2009-2010 I sowed way too much lettuce. It was my first year and I didn't know what to expect. I sowed 3 wide rows that were 25' long each. It lasted all winter. I never covered it. That was one of our coldest winters it got snowed on and it did freeze. I sowed it so thick that the freezing temps did burn some of It but it came right back. I used blends from Baker Creek so I have no idea what germinated or when, but i did have a lot of lettuce that tasted great.
LOLOL!
Thanks!
I think I'll wait a bit. I'm feeling like I have about 70 days before our first frost, so, I might start sowing lettuce and spinach seeds next weekend.
I sowed onion seeds in the painted drawer seed trays this past weekend. Hoping to score some more cedar to build a smaller RB dedicated to garlic. That, or grow them in two 20-gallon SmartPots I have available. But, they're deeper than garlic needs and I would rather dedicate them to something with longer roots.
Organizing growing spaces is CHALLENGING!!!
Linda
Okay, so I slept in this morning and didn't have as much time in the garden as I wanted, but my hip thanks me for not trying to do more. I spent about an hour weeding and pulling out grass of one area of the garden. This is where my peas are going to go. I also discovered some ants, so I treated the area with dry molasses. This evening, if it doesn't rain, I'll get out there and plant my peas. I will plant two trellises of peas and then plant spinach and lettuce in the rest of the space. I need to pull out my okra plants and then I think I'll put carrots in their place.
I also picked more purple hulls. My sheller is currently shelling them. :)
How're you getting the okra plants dislodged? My stems are almost 2.5" diameter....
I use some loppers to cut the stems off, then a shovel to cut out the roots and lift out of the dirt.
Want some black eyed peas??
Do they dry before you use them for cooking?
No, I put them in the freezer. This filled a one quart freezer bag.
And then you use them like dried beans?
Uh, Yeah!
We need a courier between Houston and Fort Worth.