Gardening Update

[PiedPiper]

Well, between the last two days' warm weather and a reassuring 10-day forecast, I'm figuring we've turned the corner into spring and no more seriously sub-freezing episodes (such as wiped me out last year) Planted 100 snow pea and sugar snap peas a couple of days ago, and already have a dozen plants each of Swiss chard, blue curled kale and spinach in the cold frame. Just the cool weather stuff so far. Two dozen tomato seedlings and a handful of peppers are coming along in the kitchen window. Definitely will have okra. Might add some zucchini later on, but that's about going to do it for me this season; getting too creaky to really follow up with it, though it still provides the calming zen it always has.

Anyone else making big garden plans, yet?

 

[C.A.B.]

erm... is it too cringe-worthy for me to note my year-round garden?

 

[PiedPiper]

erm... is it too cringe-worthy for me to note my year-round garden?

LOL,.... don't worry, C.A.B.,... I'm completely accepting of the advantages of your locale. Being just 40 miles abeam of Pittsburgh has confronted me with some challenges I never faced in southside Virginia,... but it CAN be sort of interesting to play chess with the seasons.

So,.. what do you grow?

 

[C.A.B.]

Well... if it helps any, I am a North East native and do remember the suicide months between New Years and that first crocus poking out of the snow. 😉 Heck, I even had a soggy garden in the U.K. and mainland Europe.

As for the now, of course all the tropicals grow well year round and I have an orchid house; but those aside, for the northern flowers and veggie crops our seasons are reversed. Ironically, in the summer its too hot and wet to grow most delicate northern things or they just bolt immediately and go to seed. A summer in south Florida is a death sentence for a tomato... very rare that anything other than a highly genetically engineered one will take, given the soil is rife with fungi and mold in the hot damp.

So we plant in the fall, when you are finishing harvest. The days are relatively cooler and dryer and you can get away with just about any crop. I like peppers, tomatoes, fresh leafy greens and lettuces, strawberries, onions, beans, green beans, eggplant, etc. I had a nice stand of raspberry and blackberry canes but they pooped out after 3 years. Mellons and such, as well as potatoes do not do well here, we have insects by the truckload and I refuse to spray insecticide on my property as I keep fish and like the animals that visit... Mostly the other stuff is pest free, not counting the occasional 6 ft iguana that wants a snack, they don't eat that much but they crush everything. We have night visitors like fruit rats, possums, red fox, racoons, heck we even had a river otter once.

 

[kurchatovium]

Well as some of you may know by now I am an avid gardener. I did a lot when I was a kid and got away from as I got older. Recently like a year and half ago I fell in love with it again. Mainly through my lovely Bauhinia Orchid trees. I have set a few goals. One is to first perfect my gardening skills again and get them back up to snuff. My widdle Bauhinias have helped me a lot in that regard. Second is try to grow as many trees/plants as possible, Mainly rarer varieties to help preserve the genetic diversity of the planet. I have about 5 little baby Italian Cypress trees now. I am very proud of them. They are difficult to grow, I needed to go through about 100 seeds to get these 5 little guys. In that sense I think I am ready to handle some rarer trees and plants that are maybe more challenging. I have started growing some Cinnamon Basil plants mainly since they are natural pest fighters too. I avoid insecticides whenever possible to help keep from killing beneficial bugs. I have a few Comsos flowers as well that are doing well mainly to help me perfect my gardening skills. Now that spring is here. I will be trying to grow a lot of rare interesting plants. I hope not only to help preserve the diversity of the planet but also to use the pictures of the plants in my art. Most of the plants/trees will likely be tropical/desert types as I do live in Southern California. In that regard I have fallen in love with a few Chilean Bromeliads
Puya Alpestris and Puya Venusta. These produce beautiful flowers with an almost metallic sheen. The first makes blue flowers the later purple. Hummingbirds just love them too. I will also be growing some Bauhinia Purpurea trees hopefully. These have bright purple flowers. In terms of desert stuff I am trying to grow Cereus Peruvianus Monstrosus (Mings Thing) an odd looking cactus that sort of looks like a green blue brain LOL. I love weird stuff. Anyway those are some of my plans for now.

 

[kered]

I hope to turn over my garden maybe next weekend. Won't be real warn but we have four or five sunny dry days after tonight. I hope the ground will let me till it up to air out before I think about planting my stuff in about a month.

 

[PiedPiper]

".....for the northern flowers and veggie crops our seasons are reversed. Ironically, in the summer its too hot and wet to grow most delicate northern things or they just bolt immediately and go to seed. A summer in south Florida is a death sentence for a tomato... very rare that anything other than a highly genetically engineered one will take, given the soil is rife with fungi and mold in the hot damp.

So we plant in the fall, when you are finishing harvest." -- C.A.B.
______________________________________

Yes, I was aware of the partial reversal of seasonal planting regimens. I spent a few weeks in Miami 'way back in the summer of 1983,... sort of a working vacation. I think it hit 114 degrees one day, and you didn't venture long out from under the poolside umbrellas, lest you braise. And I'm dark,... Chippewa. I knew my tomatoes back home wouldn't last long there.
.................

And to Kurch,............... Dang, that is ambitious.

 

[C.A.B.]

And I'm dark,... Chippewa.

Full blooded?

 

[PiedPiper]

Full blooded?

Nope,..... my father's father was. But it was enough to grease some financial wheels when I was in school, LOL. I'd never paid any attention whatsoever to the rays of the sun 'til I got to Miami.

 

[C.A.B.]

Nope,..... my father's father was. But it was enough to grease some financial wheels when I was in school, LOL. I'd never paid any attention whatsoever to the rays of the sun 'til I got to Miami.

Yes. It can be brutal. But its the humidity more than anything. Its like being stuck on an unventilated bus seat with a sweaty fat guy on either side that just wound up their Pilates class.

But... back to gardening... 😉

 

[PiedPiper]

I hope to turn over my garden maybe next weekend. Won't be real warn but we have four or five sunny dry days after tonight. I hope the ground will let me till it up to air out before I think about planting my stuff in about a month.

Kered, I really do think the seasons have turned the corner,.... and we're not that far apart geographically. What are you planting?

 

[kered]

Kered, I really do think the seasons have turned the corner,.... and we're not that far apart geographically. What are you planting?

I just need some nice sunny days to dry the ground a bit so I can get me a good loam if I can. I hate having to "mud" my veggies into the garden. I plant beafsteak and yellow cherry tomatoes, Big Bertha sweet bell peppers, a couple different types of onions, carrots, and smaller salad type broccoli. I am also trying to coax blueberries I planted last Spring and of course I have an asparagus patch.

 

[PiedPiper]

Here in this neck of the woods, we're starting a "CSA company," .... which is community supported agriculture, wherein folks pay a subscription fee for a "share" of the eventual weekly harvests from a consortium of local growers. I wasn't crazy about the idea, but got drawn in as the advertising-promotion guy. Anyone out there familiar with this sort of arrangement?

 

[paracarl44]

It is a little too chilly here.

The temperature dipped to below freezing last night, so I have no plans for planting anything just yet.

 

[kurchatovium]

An unusually cold winter for So Cal killed a lot of my widdle Bauhinias 🙁 I am planting more and recooping the ones that survived.