Well, today I decided I'm goin' to plant a garden this year. As some of you know.... I didn't have the time or energy last year to plant one. I'm thinkin' of havin' a good sized one, and a BIG punkin patch. Later on today, I'm goin' to venture outside, and look over my fruit trees, grapes, flower gardens, and Champ's rose bush. Hopefully, everything survived the Winter. We have a bazillion lady bugs in the house already, and last week, I pulled a tick off one of the outside cats. :spooked: Jesum Crow.... I hope this is not an indication of a bad bug, and tick season. I've never found ticks in this area before May so, that is not a good sign. I still haven't decided what to plant in my garden but, I know I'm planting potatoes, and onions. Those are pretty much a staple at my house. :yes:
Are ya gonna do pumpkins again? We're gonna try some bush cucumbers again this year but I think we're probably not going to do radishes or green onions. We'll probably do more green beans than we have been and bell peppers and tomato's. I'm thinking real serious about some swiss chard again too.
Well I really want my yard sodded this year but it is going to cost a little over $8000. I'm going to have the guy come over next week so we can map out flower beds and a garden so I need less pallets of sod for my yard. I could reseed the whole thing, but it still needs torn up and grated. Also with seed and my sandy soil, it could all wash away with the first rainfall. I'm thinking about going to the bank and seeing if a can get a loan. I know that is just crazy talk right about now.
What I would like to do is instead of cutting out a whole chunk in one area, eliminate a 2 foot wide strip along the back and plant vegetables in there. That way if it doesn't work well or I get tired of it, it isn't a huge square and I can plant perennials. Does that make sense?
It sure does make sense. You might want to go a tad wider than 2ft though. Our yard is too small to have a chunk cut out for a garden so we put ours along our privacy fence and its about 5ft wide and 10ft long. It started out about 3ft wide and 8ft long but we found that wasn't quite large enough so we increased it. If you're planting tomato's get some sweet basil and plant between the plants and it will keep those ugly worms off of them and you can cut and dry it in the fall and use it for seasoning if you like.
Too bad you didn't say something about needing to reseed your lawn last fall. The best time to put out grass seed is on top of snow. I know it sounds crazy but it works. I've done that to a couple of places and when the grass came up in the spring it was thick and pretty much even. One of the yards was nothing but weeds and we made sure they were pulled up or cut short that fall, threw down seed after a snow fall of around 3in and the grass came up and choked out the weeds, thank goodness, in the spring. The other yard had a hill that was bare and washing away and we did the same there and the hill is covered with grass now and not washing away.
We don't get snow! :biggrin: Although we did a little this year. We can reseed either spring or fall around here. I really need to tear up what is out there and start over because I have some pretty nasty weeds that have taken over and the job is just too big for me.
I thought of only going 2 feet wide because the length of the back part of my yard is 130 feet. I am going to come out 4 feet from the fence with pine straw. He wants to put 18 Leyland Cyprus trees in along the two sides of my yard. I have 100 feet in length on either side.
Good call on the basil. I would like to have herbs too!
I'm thinking about trying those a couple of those deals where you plant tomato's or strawberries in those hanging pots that grow the plants upside down.
I've seen those. the third graders are making them with 5 gallon buckets, screen and newspaper.
Quote from: kimmi on March 21, 2009, 08:14:17 AM
I've seen those. the third graders are making them with 5 gallon buckets, screen and newspaper.
Let me know how that works out. I'd think a 5gal bucket would be awfully heavy for hanging though. Are they using plastic or metal buckets?
Plastic. The good part about them is that they can be reused next year. I don't think you have to fill the whole thing with dirt. We have an organic garden at school and I think they hand them from the posts so they have something really sturdy to hang them on.
Oh, I'd be using shepard's hooks so I think I'd need to go smaller.
me: a nice healthy IND. tomato plant needs some room to spread its roots; the 5 gallon bucket sounds good -- you just need something sturdier than one of those cemetary/yard plant shepherd's hooks to hang it from. At the least, a piece of concrete rebar could be driven in right alongside and wired up securely to give your hook more "spine". Just a thought.
Quote from: Ma and Pa on March 21, 2009, 10:09:46 AM
me: a nice healthy IND. tomato plant needs some room to spread its roots; the 5 gallon bucket sounds good -- you just need something sturdier than one of those cemetary/yard plant shepherd's hooks to hang it from. At the least, a piece of concrete rebar could be driven in right alongside and wired up securely to give your hook more "spine". Just a thought.
A friend of ours did shore up our double hook one with a piece of rebar but, even though it don't bend now, it tries to fall over when it gets windy and the ground is soft from a lot of rain. I think the Better Boy tomato's would do fine in a 3gal bucket because we've had them grow to over 6ft tall and pretty thick stems and when we pulled them up in the fall there wasn't that much of a root system comparatively.
I thought about attaching some sort of sturdy hooks from the bottom of my deck for the tomato plants to hang from.
me: A piece of steel with a hole in the center to slide the rod thru could be welded at a preset depth to sit at ground level and keep the hook from tipping, I've done this, so I know it works. If you don't know a welder, I'll do it for you.
Quote from: kimmi on March 21, 2009, 10:59:18 AM
I thought about attaching some sort of sturdy hooks from the bottom of my deck for the tomato plants to hang from.
That should work as long as they can get sun. You should be able to get some heavy "S" hooks at Lowe's or some place like that.
Quote from: Ma and Pa on March 21, 2009, 11:01:59 AM
me: A piece of steel with a hole in the center to slide the rod thru could be welded at a preset depth to sit at ground level and keep the hook from tipping, I've done this, so I know it works. If you don't know a welder, I'll do it for you.
The guy that welded the rebar to it could do that but remembering to take it with us when we go to Lizton to visit would help...lol
Quote from: me on March 21, 2009, 01:30:52 AM
Are ya gonna do pumpkins again? We're gonna try some bush cucumbers again this year but I think we're probably not going to do radishes or green onions. We'll probably do more green beans than we have been and bell peppers and tomato's. I'm thinking real serious about some swiss chard again too.
Yes... definitely on the punkin patch. What are bush cucumbers? :confused:
Quote from: kimmi on March 21, 2009, 06:57:00 AM
Well I really want my yard sodded this year but it is going to cost a little over $8000. I'm going to have the guy come over next week so we can map out flower beds and a garden so I need less pallets of sod for my yard. I could reseed the whole thing, but it still needs torn up and grated. Also with seed and my sandy soil, it could all wash away with the first rainfall. I'm thinking about going to the bank and seeing if a can get a loan. I know that is just crazy talk right about now.
What I would like to do is instead of cutting out a whole chunk in one area, eliminate a 2 foot wide strip along the back and plant vegetables in there. That way if it doesn't work well or I get tired of it, it isn't a huge square and I can plant perennials. Does that make sense?
Wow.... sounds like quite an undertaking. :spooked: Jesum Crow.... $8,000? :eek: Glad I'm just puttin' out a small garden. :laugh:
Quote from: me on March 21, 2009, 08:10:25 AM
I'm thinking about trying those a couple of those deals where you plant tomato's or strawberries in those hanging pots that grow the plants upside down.
Topsy Turvy tomatoes? I wonder if those work. It would seem like gravity would work against those things? :confused:
Quote from: Dexter Morgan on March 21, 2009, 01:34:14 PM
Yes... definitely on the punkin patch. What are bush cucumbers? :confused:
We planted some last year. They don't vine like regular cucumbers so you can plant in a smaller area. They have a real good flavor too.
Quote from: Dexter Morgan on March 21, 2009, 01:38:42 PM
Topsy Turvy tomatoes? I wonder if those work. It would seem like gravity would work against those things? :confused:
I think the idea is more nutrients can get to the fruit since they hang rather than the nutrients having to fight gravity to get up the plant.
Last year, Hubby planted tomatoes in these big plastic flower pot thingys. It didn't turn out very good. IMO... tomatoes need to be where they can feel free.... with the water flowin' past their roots, and their stems flappin' it the breeze. he he :biggrin:
Quote from: me on March 21, 2009, 01:41:17 PM
We planted some last year. They don't vine like regular cucumbers so you can plant in a smaller area. They have a real good flavor too.
Can you make pickles with them? :confused:
Quote from: Dexter Morgan on March 21, 2009, 01:43:34 PM
Last year, Hubby planted tomatoes in these big plastic flower pot thingys. It didn't turn out very good. IMO... tomatoes need to be where they can feel free.... with the water flowin' past their roots, and their stems flappin' it the breeze. he he :biggrin:
I did that a couple of years ago, put them in large pots, they grew ok but the tomato's were smaller than what we got out of the ones in the garden.
Quote from: Dexter Morgan on March 21, 2009, 01:44:32 PM
Can you make pickles with them? :confused:
I would say they would make good pickles because they seemed to be firm and not much seeds. We pick them small though.
Quote from: Dexter Morgan on March 21, 2009, 01:36:54 PM
Wow.... sounds like quite an undertaking. :spooked: Jesum Crow.... $8,000? :eek: Glad I'm just puttin' out a small garden. :laugh:
The garden isn't included. This is just for the new yard!!!
Quote from: kimmi on March 21, 2009, 02:48:49 PM
The garden isn't included. This is just for the new yard!!!
OMG!!! The garden isn't included in the price? Wow... :spooked:
Well, with the current weather conditions it looks like the planting may be delayed a little. We've been having heavy rain for the past couple of weeks, and if we get the 4-8 inches of snow they are predicting for tomorrow, that will just add to the high moisture content in the ground. I hadn't figured out what I am planting for sure anyway. The worst part of this is the farmers can't get started on gettin' the crops in. The fields here look like lakes. I'm sure there will be a lot of delays.
Quote from: Dexter Morgan on March 27, 2009, 09:34:52 PM
Well, with the current weather conditions it looks like the planting may be delayed a little. We've been having heavy rain for the past couple of weeks, and if we get the 4-8 inches of snow they are predicting for tomorrow, that will just add to the high moisture content in the ground. I hadn't figured out what I am planting for sure anyway. The worst part of this is the farmers can't get started on gettin' the crops in. The fields here look like lakes. I'm sure there will be a lot of delays.
4 to 8 inches of snow....darn I sure hope that isn't what's headed this way for Sunday.. :o
Quote from: me on March 27, 2009, 09:38:23 PM
4 to 8 inches of snow....darn I sure hope that isn't what's headed this way for Sunday.. :o
It could be.... I'm hoping it will miss us. Our projected high for Sunday is 46*. So, it wont last anyway. :biggrin:
That's a good thing. Hope if we get it it won't last long here either.
Hubby got sweet corn, radishes and green onions put in the garden yesterday. I need to get some seeds for my punkin patch sometime. Our garden space this year is much larger than it has been in the past. I hope everything turns out good. Last year was crappy for tomatoes. :-\
Crappy ain't the word for it. Everyone I talked to said their tomato's didn't do good, even my daughter in Tn who usually has scads of tomato's. We got some cherry tomato's too since we are using the hanging thingys for some of the tomato plants this year. We're hoping our garden will be dry enough to get our plants out tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to the zucchini and cucumbers.
Today, I'm going to plant flowers in my wishing well. Hubby, is in town picking up some flowers for me to plant. I'm curious to see what he brings home. :spooked:
We were going to do some things in the yard but it's windy and a little chilly so we changed our minds and went runnin' instead and ate lunch out. Didn't find a darn thing good so came home just as empty handed as when we left.