Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I need to get some fuel for our rototiller so we can plant next week. The starts I tried all failed miserably - of 36 squares in the seed tray only 4 sprouted and they nearly all died. :doh I will have to get some starts from the store at least for tomatoes, and some pea packets so we can at least plant those.


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Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I bought more tomato plants today. The second batch of peas I planted are starting to come up. I found the packet of bush beans. In the garden. Damp from the rain. :doh I'll plant them anyway, they're probably fine.

Sprayed the fruit trees with neem oil and none too soon.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I'm not a great gardener, and our soil here is tricky. We also may be pulling down our fence this summer to replace it, which is leaving a lot of stuff kind of (gestures vaguely at the backyard)...yeah.

I put 6 tomato plants along the house today, with a celery plant (never done celery before!). Also, basil in a pot. In our backyard, we have a semi-raised bed. I'm hoping to coax the rhubarb in there to produce more. I'm also putting in a couple zucchini and a pumpkin later today. I also have a strawberry planter that I'm going to fill. At the greenhouse today, I picked up some enriched soil that might help our clay-heavy yard dirt out. Hoping for something to grow!

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

We ate our first cherry tomato from our first garden today!!

We bought a Garden Tower back in March and got some nursery starts. The squash all died. The peppers are fine, but don't seem to be growing. The eggplants are flowering. The cherry tomatoes are doing great! I just had to get creative with the tomato stakes - I had to put them on top of my Garden Tower, then thread twine under the branches and tie that to the stakes at the top. I learned that tomatoes are supposed to be planted at the top! :doh:giggle

Oh and we have several herbs doing nicely, and we planted cilantro seeds that just sprouted.

I had never planted a garden in our yard before because it is watered with reclaimed water, so I viewed that as completely toxic. (And I wouldn't plant anything in our ground either for the same reason.) So we turned off one section of the sprinkler system so we could start the garden. This weekend, a friend suggested that we have the reclaimed water tested and that it was likely as clean as potable water. I don't know...but it's a good idea to get it tested. It would be so nice not to have to container garden absolutely everything.

Other "issue" is that our back yard is almost completely shaded. We have one small spot that is sunny a lot, and that's where we put the Garden Tower. But also, I believe that in FL, some shade works fine because the sun gets too hot here. So, we'll have to experiment.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

We have a community garden here where I live, and I have a 4x16 raised bed. First, all the seeds I planted were taken over by some invasive weed; the head gardener told me it was from compost they used 2 years ago and I couldn't do anything to eliminate it but use landscaping cloth. So I did, and covered it with muktch, but lost my carrots, beets, beans, and lettuce. (I started the beans in pots and will transplant because I can't direct sow again due to the landscaping cloth). We had a terrible cold snap, 5 nights at or below freezing, including one night in the mid-20s. Most everyone lost their tomatoes and peppers. I wrapped mine (and eggplant and cucumbers) in various winter coats and blankets, and covered them with plastic totes and buckets. On the coldest night, I also placed a glass jar of hot water next to each plant. Everything survives, thankfully, as did my celery, peas, and spinach. Hopefully now things will begin growing again.

My herbs are doing well, planted in containers on the porch because I can't run up to the community garden every time I need herbs.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I grew up in a yard with a lot of clay. It is tough to garden. I hope your soil amendments help.

Maybe you already knew this and don't care, but strawberries won't survive the winter in one of those strawberry pots. They're only perennial in the ground.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

My garden is in! Had to wait until after the last frost. I am a novice gardener, we will see what happens.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I have things sprouting...not sure if they are weeds or the stuff I planted yet! I'm not a good gardener. I used a companion planting chart and planted a ton of stuff close together...so hopefully a lot of it grows. Our soil is really alkaline and hard. I had some compost I threw together last year and mixed that into the soil with some peat moss and gypsum. In previous years, things would sprout but just wouldn't grow/produce. I'm hoping the soil amendments help.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

:yes I ended up putting them in the ground.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

So . . . yesterday I was looking and I thought those spinach plants are getting REALLY tall for spinach and then I realized those must be the pea plants and the pea plants must be the spinach plants. Once I realized that it was so obvious that was the case. DD planted the seeds and made really cute signs for the boxes. She must have mislabeled the boxes :giggle

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

:giggle

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I think most of what I see sprouting in the garden is weeds. :doh I will see what it looks like this weekend, then I will probably throw in the towel and just go buy starters. I think I will go ahead and order some seeds from a local company. Hopefully they will sprout if I have the starters for back up :lol

Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I can't remember if mentioned that I signed up for a free victory garden class with the University of Idaho extension office. It's a pretty comprehensive class- covering everything from compost to canning and everything in between for those interested. I imagine other states have the same thing or you can sign up for U of I's class. I need to look at the stuff on pests since I know gophers and bugs will be here before I know it!

I've got a few of my seeds sprouting. I went ahead and planted new seeds from local areas and starters anyway. If I end up with a bajillion plants in a small area in a couple weeks I can always transplant stuff. I would LOVE to have enough food to donate. That's my goal anyway.

Still working on my new compost pile and mucking out the sheep/goat/llama pen. We had a good rain so I'm digging out dirt where I'm doing the compost pile to create elevated areas in the pen so the animals have more areas to stay dry.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I started 7 tomato plants in the window in January, so we've got cherry tomatoes now. Yummy. Terrified to transfer outside.

Re: Vegetable/Fruit Gardening 2020
 

I’ve got more actual plants sprouting and a bajillion mallow weeds :doh. I’m going to lay cardboard on the walkways because the mallow is out of control. Going to mulch around plants as they get bigger. Hopefully that helps.


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