Spring Gardens 2015 Pt 2

You can go ahead and sprinkle now. The ants eat it. You can reapply later if need be.

Stephanie- those baby tomatoes are so cute. What kind are they?

Steph,
Here're my babies! Black Cherry. I tried them last year, but didn't get a single tomato. I think I started some bad seeds. These are from fresh seeds!

Black Cherry is my favorite. I'm growing them too.

Here're some garden update pics I snapped yesterday:

Pic #1 Sweet Bell Peppers in RB #4

Pic #2 Thai Hot Peppers

Pic #3 Snap Beans in RB #1. Strike (bottom), Ky Blue Lake (middle), Contenders (top)

Pic #4 New Big Dwarf Tomato in a planter

Pic #5 Geobin Composter holding steady at 120°. I plugged it yesterday with coffee grinds and banana peels. Trying to get up to a steady 140°.



This message was edited May 5, 2015 2:52 PM

GG, this is one of yours- a potato leaf tomato with no name- and it looks like I am getting a new tower, chuckl!

Kitt,
The only potato leaf in the bunch was the Pruden's Purple. It's a big 'un, too, LOL!

Yep. You're getting an new tower!

Did you make that one? My, my, I need to come hang out with you! I may build one just like it for the cucumbers. It looks so compact, and I LOVE that you painted it. I sooooooooo need some color in my yard. Two of those over the cuke containers would be perfect!

My sil welds, daughter is afraid i will haul cattle panels home, chuckl, says there will be a few more crossbars. I have 3 of the PP that are left, thats the fastest largest of them. I am not sure what shes made that of yet, wont be home til Mums Day :( and cannot wait.

So that frame is metal? Even better-er!

Lisa, they are Large Red Cherry tomatoes. They get to be about the size of a quarter and are so delish!

Yes, they are great. I've grown them before. I hear thunder....

Linda and Kitt, your gardens are looking great!! My garden is loving all this rain and is ready for some more.

It's strange because we aren't getting much rain here. At least not like the rest of the state. The Mosquitos are bad though.

If you're getting some rain, it's more than we've gotten today. Some is more than none.

I mean over the last few weeks and we've been warmer then you too.

went with mom out on an errand today, and found myself a neat decoration for my garden bed.

That ball is way KEWL! Glow in the dark!!!

first lettuce harvest of the year...well actually i was just doing some thinning work, but its still enough to make a salad for two.

Gymgirl, Your garden is looking fantastic! I keep meaning on taking pictures of my own garden, but keep forgetting. I'm just so pleased that everything is growing so well. I grew a lot of my own peppers from seed this year, and they are looking so much better than the few I purchased. Next year, the goal is to not buy any transplants!

So far, I have some small peppers growing: habaneros, carolina reapers, alma paprika, jalapeno & gypsy. The green beans, both strike & contenders, have itty, bitty beans on them. I should be eating some of the creole tomatoes by next week. And I have fallen in love with ground cherries!

Jo-Ann

Woohoo! Harvested my first (of many) blackberries of the season! It didn't make it to the picture staging area. ;)

the blackberry vines are just now opening their blooms up this way.

Went ahead and pulled up all of my turnip and kale today, the turnips are just a bit bigger than a golf ball, the problem was that they didnt quite have enough time to get to the size that i wanted, summer just decided to move in so quick this year it seems. Will give this another shot come autumn, i am however, satisfied with the amount of greens that i got out of it, lol ;)

Jo-Ann,
Thank you, so much, for your kind comments! I walked around yesterday looking at how much I'm NOT growing, that I feel I should be growing...

I need to fill in more spaces!

What do you feel you should be growing?

Lisa, I want to grow cucumbers to make pickles, I want to grow kale because I eat it everyday in my green smoothies, I want to grow southern peas because I love them, and I'd like to grow zucchini also for my green smoothies.

I'd like to try growing blueberries in large containers. I have at least two 15 to 25 gallon molasses cattle tubs that I could probably grow the blueberries in.

and cantaloupes!

First harvest!

Linda stick some seeds in the ground. Lol I would recommend kale when the temps drop.

Stephanie the black berries look great!

Thanks, Lisa!
I think I need to redo the soil in my raised beds.

Originally, I filled them with a mix of a veggie garden blend from a local soil yard. That was in 2010. Since then, I played around with Tapla's container mix, adding pine bark fines, peat, and perlite.

I've thrown in bags of Black Kow Composted Manure at the beginning of each season, and a bit of worm compost. Last year, I fertilized once a week with Mittleider Magic Minerals, but, I'm using up the last batch and will start using my compost in the future.

I think my raised beds need another dose of garden soil.

I'm not at all sure what my beds are made of, now...

Linda

I use mushroom compost, cow manure, chicken manure, greensand, cottonseed meal, and earthworm castings as my organic material. I did add vermiculite and peat moss when I first did the beds, but don't add that back in each year. But here, the ground is nothing but sand, which won't grow anything.

woah, those are some huge blackberries!

Those deer are really starting to drive me nuts, i had bought a "5 in 1" grafted dwarf apple tree this year, it arrived to me as a bare stick, got it planted a few weeks ago and things were going great, new growth sprouting out and really getting in gear. I go out there today to find it nearly munched back down to almost a bare stick again!

This message was edited May 8, 2015 12:30 AM

I started my garden's soil years ago with garden soil brought in from a local place since then I've done mostly lasagna gardening. I also add fertilizer in each hole when I plant and spray with Hasta Grow or a similar fertilizer as needed.....Linda, why not try sticking a few cuke seeds in and just see how they do? You'll be able to tell by how the plants do if the soil needs amendments.

Ok, Lisa!

I'll poke in the cantaloupe & cuke seeds tomorrow morning. On a different note, I watered the veggies this morning and noticed there is a bunch of new growth on those pepper plants I added all those alfalfa pellet to. Looks like poo pills all over the top of the bed, LOL!

However. In addition to all the new growth, there are TONS of new blossoms on almost every one of the 15 pepper plants!

I may have dodged a bullet, here, folks!

Also, the Contender and Ky Blue Lake green beans are loaded with purple blossoms!. I guess it'll be about another 3-4 weeks and I'll see snap beans.

Gotta put the pedal to the metal clearing off the patio so I can start the canning process. I still have to assemble the camp stove and propane tank. The snap bean crop is gonna be my practice canning veggie. Finally pulling out the All American Pressure Canner (for the first time) since it arrived in the box, 6 years ago!

If I get the green bean crop I anticipate, by the time I finish canning all those snap beans, I'll be a pressure canning expert, LOL!

Hugs!

It's looking cloudy out today, and, I'll be praying for rain!

Ok, Jo-Ann, I'm gonna make you proud! And, I'm gonna post pics, too!

So, what did you put in your purple hulls when you canned them? I'm thinking a 1/2 tsp. salt per pint of snap beans. Whatcha think?

GG-your intuition must have been right and the peppers needed that extra push, good for you.

We are so wet here I can't even get in the garden....we need it but there is a good chance of rain for at least the next week...I'm wayyyy behind on my gardening.

1/2 tsp canning salt to the pint jar after filling, 1 tsp to a quart jar for any beans.

Linda, where did you get your alfalfa pellets? What's better, pellets or meal?

The high winds we had overnight knocked over my peas, so this morning out in the drizzle, I had to tie them back up to their supports. Doesn't stop them from producing and they didn't get pulled out or anything.

Today's harvest: Alaska peas and Kiowa blackberries
Super Sioux tomatoes
I love finding ladybugs in my garden
The okra has finally started growing thanks to an almost week of warm temps and not a lot of rain.
Morado tomatillos

I'm not Linda.but I just used Rabbit food it's cheap and comes in 50lb bags at the feedstore. Pet stores are much more expensive. It does look like poop when it gets wet. Lol

We are getting all the rain now..wow did it storm yesterday evening. Haven't had spring weather like this for a few years. There are bugs everywhere.

well so far so good with my little set up, things are starting to fill in a bit more.

I like your "little set up"! What do you do with the wash tub?

Lisa, how often and how much do you apply? I can get a 50lb bag for $15 at the feed store, but I don't know if I need 50 pounds of the stuff!

We're under a tornado warning tonight. Again. It did rain a nice gentle rain this morning, but we're in store for some whopper storms tonight. I hope they calm down before barreling through my little corner of the world.