yes but cut the bottom off? The bottom of the yogurt cup? Couldn't I just water first then gently pull the plug outta the cup? The bean plug would be in tact and I could reuse my yogurt cup.
Please advise. Thanks.
Swiss Chard in containers?
Thats ok to Paul
Gymgirl, I've transplanted beans quite a bit here, it gives me a head start on my market sales. I've started them in 50-plug trays before and also the 6-pk cell packs and they've transplanted just fine. I think your yogurt cups will do them justice! And yes, just gently plop them out of the cups and then into the ground. (It's a great sight to see! Instant garden!)
Shoe
Is swiss chard quick to bolt like lettuce?
No, not at all, Dean. Swiss Chard will grow several years with no signs of bolting. I love it! Sow it, grow it, pick it for a long time. Some of my last plants were easily two years old and eventually died out.
Shoe
I had mine in 9a summer heat for over a year and a half. Never bolted, finally died when it didn't get watered over a vacation. Man was that a hardy plant!
Jill, we should start "Swiss Chard Farms"! We'd be rich! You can cover the West part of the States, I'll cover the East!
Shoe (dreaming on!)
Okay, I was wandering because where it's at I wanted to grow cucumbers. I'll have to rethink my garden lay out.
Dean, you can still grow cukes there. S-Chard is pretty hardy and will allow the roots of cucumber to live with them just fine. I think I'd be tempted to set your cuke plants a foot or so (maybe less) from the chard and train them up a trellis. So, chard growing at ground level, cucumbers growing above on a trellis/fence.
Shoe
Horseshoe, that sounds like it would be pretty as well as practical--I might have to try it myself!
We could expand our mission to chard and cukes!
Okay ,Horeshoe, I was planning on growing the cucumbers up a trellis anyway.
Ya'll take pics if you do!
Shoe
Thanks, Shoe!
Here's green mustard greens growing. I've been eating from it for about 4 months now. Paul
And here is some red mustard greens that have been up for about 1-1/2 weeks now growing in a window box Paul
PHicks!
When you get tired of eating those mustards, just freeze me some and ship 'em to Houston. I cooked a pot of mixed "greens" yesterday, with ham hocks. YUMMY!
Now, a Question for y'all "greens" growers. I'm sure you've seen my world famous bean trellis by now. It's sitting in a wonderful bed filled with sifted compost from my pile that's been cooking since last summer. I would bathe in the stuff it looks so inviting!
I've bought some Swiss Chard seeds to go beneath the green beans. I want to grow some beets, too. Can I put them together in the same bed beneath the trellis? Seems the Swiss Chard is growing up, and the beets are growing down. Should work, yah think?
Please respond soonest. Thanks!
sure it will work beets and chard are the same family
I grew a sq ft bed last season with just that combo, and they all peacefully (and productively) coexisted.
Heres some Garlic i pulled today
Beautiful. I hope mine survived to grow this spring. I planted them in October, the racoons dug them up, I replanted what I could find, the snow covered them all winter and bare ground has just emerged. They weren't up yet as of 2 days ago, but things happen fast in the spring. Hopefully they have been busy making roots all winter.
It still amazes me that we are actually growing food. While I'm not one of those who believed food came from the supermarket, I am humbled to see a bunch of onions with dirt on 'em sitting on the daily paper. And, no one had to go to the supermarket...
My dream is an urban garden, to help feed my family. Not that they can't just go to the super. But, just like what's going on with almost-$4 a gallon gasoline, and the housing market, where people are just locking their doors and walking away, I figure if I can help relieve just a bit of economic pressure while I'm doing something that brings me peace, well, I'm doing my part.
Thanks for inviting me to the garden.
We are still eating from last year's garden but the only things we have now that weren't preserved are onions and winter squash. 2 weeks ago we ran out of homegrown potatoes. Of course I have canned tomatoes and green beans, and frozen peas and brocolli, rhubarb, apples and more. When I go to the supermarket I check the prices of their produce and know how much money I am saving by growing my own. And then there is the part without a pricetag, the personal satisfaction and knowing we are eating healthy food.
I.ve found that I actually eat more veggies when I've grown them myself. They really DO taste better, but it's much harder for me to waste something that I put so much work into. I don't just stick them in the fridge after a trip to the market, I go get it when I need it, and it never even gets to the fridge.
Works for me:)
Long Island, NY, chirping in here to add that the Swiss Chard I grew last year, just as an ornamental was a huge hit with some friends who stopped over. They'd leave with dahlias and the chard for the rest of the season so I bought a package to grow for eating and for beauty this year. The base of the plant is huge!
As catmad said I believe it's true that we tend to eat more veggies when we grow them ourselves. We have a 12 x 12 plot of asparagus and I know I'd never be eating in a year the amount we consume from mid-April to mid to late June when we're sharing 50 to 60 at a time. Nothing can compare to home grown. The idea of eating something 10 minutes after it's picked lends an entirely new meaning to "fresh" food.
I'm breaking ALL the rules here. Five gallon bucket with no drainage. Meat bones and scraps and leftover catfood in a 3 to 5 inch layer on the bottom. Veggie scraps from yard and kitchen in the next layer, to about 2/3 full. Then a 2" layer of shredded pine pet litter, untreated, from KMart. Then nearly full with ProMix from the nursery, several inches. Expensive stuff, but well worth it. Then seeds.
There about a dozen plants, all colors. As the little ones grew, and needed thinning, I ate them.
Full shade, but very very bright light.
They were wilted a couple of days ago, eeek! The sunlight had moved, and the poor plants were getting a full blast of 11am sun. Moved the bucket a bit. Poked my finger into the ProMix, gee, dry! Some water, not a whole lot, less than a quart, and the sad plants fluffed right back up. I have city water and have to pay for it, so no drainage means a lot less watering, but now I know some watering.
The meat on the bottom doesn't attract 'vermin' because it's so deeply covered. And, someday, I'll have a bucketfull of really rich compost.
Now I wish that five gallon buckets weren't valued and hard to get! And if this bucket had a handle, I'd have kept it propped up so that I could move the bucket easily without having to get it through the leaves.
As so many have already said, nothing beats the satisfaction of stuff you've grown yourself. The other upside I'm finding is, my kids will eat just about anything that they've seen growing, helped water, and watched me pick--or picked themselves. They're even getting into salads, and I think a huge part is knowing exactly where that food came from!
My 5-year-old made my day recently when she said, "Mama, thank you for growing all those good vegetables for us to eat!"
Made me want to go yank up some lawn to grow some more! :)
Score! Regardless of all the great tomatoes we grow now my kids (43 and 39) still talk about the tomatoes I grew when they were young.
5-gallon bucket: $4.99
Pro-Mix Garden Mix: $12
The last few posts on this thread: PRICELESS!
The argument I hear from so many people out here is why grow your own vegetables when you can buy them from any farm stand. That misses the whole point of knowing what we feed our plants, watching them grow and not having to run to a farm stand to get a few tomatoes when we've showered and aren't exactly dressed to go shopping.
I don't have a farm stand. There is a farmer's market on Saturdays. It opens around seven am, and everything is gone by eight. And it's a half hour drive.
Would you get up and be on your way by 6:30 for maybe some cucumbers? haha, I generally get up at 5:30, but am not ready to go someplace that early.
Yes, there's nothing quite like picking and eating your own food.
Now, if I could only find what's making my yellow crookneck squash turn green! I put a photo under Garden Pests and Diseases. Sure would like some help with this. Thanks in advance if you go look.
Where did you buy the seeds? I'd write to the company and ask the question of them.
Prl, if your question about seed id directed to me about my wieirdo squash, Park's is where thee yellow crookneck seed came from.
I think all was OK at first, before the leaves became deformed. Therefore, I suspect an insect transferred virus.
I could be totally wrong.
I need to go to my local Agricultural Dept. People, and the Ag Station, and the 'truck' farmer down the road. Yes?
Thank you!
That's a good idea. If they don't have the answer I think emailing Park's may be the answer for you.
Molamo, I don't see anything wrong with the squash in your picture.
Do you have another one posted that is different?
Shoe
Shoe - it's the problem of the yellow squash turning green. Molamola wants yellow.
I don't know....looks yellow to me:)
It's yellow in her photo but then must turn green as it ripens, which is not what she wants.
might be the soil turning it
Sounds to me like crossed seed then. Cross pollination is very high between squash types.
Was there another pic showing the greening of the squash?
Shoe
I'm guessing you're right. Park's should send correct seeds if that's the case. No, there were no other photos of the green squash.