2016 Vegetable Garden

yep thats about how i do it, lol!

I keep my seeds starting stuff in a place I can easily see it. I also use notes to remind myself, soon t just becomes a habit.

Jo-Ann, that all sounds wonderful. Do you have a greenhouse or is this setup in your home?

Jo-Ann, the hoop house that you mentioned previously?

My setup is a hoop house built over 2 of my 4x8' raised beds. Last year was my first year with it, but I started the seeds inside & moved them to the hoop house with the first transplant. This year, I started all the seeds in the hoop house. This photo gives the basic structure. The peppers on the left are 4 Thai pepper plants that overwintered in the ground for the 2nd time this year. I move all my adeniums (seen in the foreground) into the hoop house to go dormant over the winter. I install shelves on both sides for the transplants. There's a space under the shelves for c10 Christmas lights, the big, old-fashioned kind. I can run electricity to it from the house. It worked wonderfully this year, until the mice decided it was a good place to overwinter. Out came the mouse traps!

My biggest problem is heat build-up. On a sunny day, it can easily reach 95 to 100 degrees. At that point, I open the door & turn on a box fan. I'm looking into something with a thermostat and some exhaust fans like in the bathroom, to automatically turn on when it gets too hot.
Jo-Ann

My potted peppers, that overwintered outside, are starting to come back, some from the roots and some are just leafing out. I've never had this happen, in TX. Strange, strange weather.

Same here.
None of my pepper plants did dye last year !! I had such an amazing peppers season last year and I decided to not plant any in 2016.
Go figured ... now these are TREES already and they are started to make flowers ALREADY!
I've never had this happen either!

Tomato's picture of today !

I thought I posted this last night, but I guess it didn't take.

This is what I did yesterday . . . the tee-pee doesn't look straight here, but it really is. I didn't see spending $6 for bamboo sticks when I have so much nature in the back yard.

When this starts to grow, we will have corn, bush beans, pole beans, sunflowers, and pumpkins. There is still space in the front/middle to put something else.

Took down the hop house today. All the peppers that were growing in it are either in the ground or waiting to be planted. A few days ago, had to run an electric fence around 2 of my raised beds, cause the new dog has decided that the nice loose soil there is the perfect place to do his do. I think he's got the message that he now has to stay out. And of course today, I forgot it was there & the entire neighborhood heard me scream! The shock isn't damaging, but you certainly know you've been hit!
Jo-Ann

quick question about potatoes, i have some that have some really long eye sprouts on them (you can see plenty of root nodes too), would they still have to be attached to a little piece of potato to grow well, or can you break them off of the potatoes and just plant them, considering they have all of those root nodes on them already

Finally got my green beans in the ground yesterday. Should have been done a couple of weeks ago.
Jo-Ann

I'm overdue for an update, so, I'll just post pics!

#1 Contender Green beans sowed on 02/27/16
#2 & #3 Contenders as of 3/12/16
#4 Bull's Blood Beets transplanted from yogurt cups on 02/27/16
#5 Detroit Dark Red beets transplanted on 3/5.

This message was edited Mar 16, 2016 9:23 AM

Soon as I figure out how to remove the duplicate post, I will...

#1 Cukes sowed in EBs on 02/27/2016. Pic taken on 03/07/16.
#2 Cukes on 3/12/16
#3 Kellogg's Breakfast tom transplanted 02/27/2016
#4 Arcadia Broccoli on 02/18/2016
#5 4th batch of Arcadia Broccoli side shoots. Have Harvested ~10-12 lbs. of broccoli this season. The unseasonably warm weather kept the crowns from getting as large as they usually do, averaging ~.75 lbs. I usually harvest heads from 1.0-1.75 lbs. However, the side shoots remained prolific, although I had to watch carefully, and harvest them before they bolted. I've put 7 vacuum-sealed bags of flowerettes in the freezer, to date.

LOQUAT/Japanese Plum/"Misbelieve" trees in my neighborhood. FREE fruit. Plan to harvest as much as I can handle this weekend, and make Loquat jam.

Will freeze some, pickle some, and dehydrate some, too. Will report on the jam.

looks amazing, although the detroit dark red beets look a bit sad, im assuming because of the unseasonable heat you mentioned.

Im just now getting decent sized seedlings on my detroits. Also have red romaine lettuce started in a container and got some kale going outside.

And inside i have my tom's, peppers, eggplant and basil going. Oh and i also got myself some German Thyme.

Thanks, JMC1987!

You'll catch up in a minute, cause spring has sprung, LOL!

The Bull's Blood Beets looked exactly like the sad looking DDRs when I transplanted them in! And, the DDRs are all perked up now. Didn't take a recent pic yet. Regarding the heat, they were kinda swooning, so I vented the sides of the plastic-covered hoop, and the increased airflow helped tremendously. I held my breath the squirrels weren't brave enough to slip underneath, but, there's enough fluttering of plastic in the wind to keep them skittish enough not to go under, LOL!

My stand of Kale is awesome, and has been for a couple months now. I need to go harvest it, and the collards and spinach that haven't bolted under the plastic-covered Earthboxes. The only reason I can come up with for all these greens not bolting under all that heat, is the EBs are sitting on a shady section of the fence, and the Kale is in a shady bed along the back (east) of the house. In addition, both beds are along a natural breezeway, and maybe the constant air circulation is keeping them happy enough to keep cranking out produce.

I also started two flats of eggplants, although only one has peeped.

Gotta rip all the broccoli now and set my pepper plants in.

Hugs!

Pic #1 Kale harvested January 27th. The stand under the covered bed looks exactly like that! Initially, it was very crowded, since I just scattered the seeds. However, once I got in there and thinned it out, it took off! Shade in the morning, then, indirect, bright light for a couple hours after noon. Then, brightest light as the sun is setting in the evening for a couple hours.

I'm so happy I can grow my own beautiful Kale, now, because the bundles in the store were becoming poorer and poorer in quality!

This message was edited Mar 16, 2016 3:25 PM

This weekend the temps are supposed to be in the low 60s and high 30s. My plants are confused.

I'm simulating summertime heat under all those layers of plastic sheeting, LOL!

No confused behavioral issues so far, LOL!

We had severe weather with straight line winds and hail early this morning (4AM kind of early). So thankful my plants are still inside safe from the weather!

everything is out in my garden ... so far so good !
The first tomato varieties to make fruits in order:
Stupice
Principe Borghese
Topaz
Glacier

Expecting a frost tonight in my area and a freeze to the north of us. Had to bring in the herbs and other plants I overwintered that I'd just put out a week or so ago.

Expecting a frost tonight and a freeze tomorrow. I'm glad everything is safe.

frost for us too. Thankfully i only have cole crops planted, veggies that dont mind this kind of stuff

44 F degrees here this morning ... everything is great !

Wax Wings are almost done eating all my berries from the Holly shrubs. Now in place of the berries the Holly has tons of green flowers and tons of bees flying around them.
Irises are blooming, clematis too and Crossvine is showing off.
Happy spring time !

32F for us for tonight and tomorrow right, quite a shock from the almost 80F temps that we have been having, lol.

Putting a cloth over top of my new dwarf apple tree and peach tree and hoping that the new green shoots will not get freezer burned off

It was in the upper 30s for us. Glad my stuff is still inside!

It's really odd because I'm further south than you and to the west. I'm not sure if that's the reason why you don't have luck with peas, though. ;) I plant tomatoes later because I follow a different planting calendar. You garden by the moon and lunar phases. I use the planting guide from Texas A&M.

I'm much further south and a freeze is expected tonight. I'm at the base of the Hill Country, and very rural. Nobody has started planting around here. We have seen too many late frosts even tho the weather is warm now and I plant almost entirely large fruited varieties which set later and take longer to mature.

We froze last night....not summer here.

83 F next Wednesday here!

I woke up to 43°. The green beans, collards, spinach and cukes are covered completely. I think they lived.

The beets bed was vented along the sides, and, I know they just had a pool party under there last night!

The tomatoes and eggplant seedlings were totally exposed, and I haven't examined them yet...we shall see, soon.

I made LOQUAT jam yesterday!!!
Sooooooooooo much fun (except for the 4 hours I spent de-seeding them Friday night...). I made a recipe that uses Cardamom. It needed Cardamom, or, something to make it "pop".

I also made a batch and added crushed tabasco peppers. That's going to be interesting when the heat permeates the jam!

Next up: Loquat Barbecue Sauce!

Happy Monday, ya'll!

It's supposed to be in the low 80s next Wed, then go back into the 60s, but today it was 31*. According to the weather report a series of cold fronts are lined up next week and the temps should return to more seasonal temps. Tx weather is forever changing. One day in the 80s doesn't convince me that we won't have another freeze. I've lived here too long to believe that.

30 this morning out at our place. Glad I'm behind and still have my tomato and other seedlings on the back porch. Goats were all frisking about this morning, so they are enjoying the frost anyway.

Verrrrrry windy all weekend. But the sun is out today and the Weather Channel calls for low 80's and rainy by Wednesday. Variety is the spice of March in Texas☺.

I have determined that I will not be putting my transplants out until April 1st at the earliest. Past experience has told me that I am not the type to really want to run out and cover/uncover everything. Nor do I have the time. We also tend to have wicked wind for most of March and late frosts in my microclimate. So I am just going to wait even though I know I won't get the most tomatoes, I will still get just as many eggplant and peppers, etc. I'll just spend this extra time throwing more goat-poop compost on my garden beds.

And weeding the rose beds. Ha!

We're supposed to be up in the 80s on Wednesday, but then cool off again. Still waiting until the first weekend in April. Besides that, I've got some weeds to dig out and compost to spread.

This frost/freeze isn't late, at least for my area, I think I just got use to the warm weather which makes it seem later then it is.