BYC gardening thread!!

[vehve]

It might work, but parsnips are a long season crop, however, you'd be pulling out the onions and greens, followed by the carrots. Then you could leave the parsnips. Here in the states, we let them winter over, and they are super sweet in the spring. I'd suggest that you try a small plot this way, and see what works for you. I've always planted onion sets with lettuce with excellent results. You might want to check out some sites regarding companion planting. Some crops benefit each other, while others have a negative impact on each other. Too exhaustive a list for me to go into it here. Onion sets, lettuce, carrots, spinach, and radish are a great combination. And it looks so pretty while it's growing with the multiple textures and colors. If you do a mixed planting, be sure to not plant so thickly, and start harvesting at the "baby" stage b/c everything grows so fast.

An other great mixed crop is potatoes and corn. You could plant a row of potatoes between every 2 rows of corn, then leave a path, then do a repeat. Just be sure to get those potatoes mulched deeply. Corn will be happy with mulch as well. Tomatoes surrounded by lettuce. Cukes with fern leaf dill. Cabbage, tomatoes, or broccoli in the asparagus patch. The options are endless. If you can have your garden covered with growing green stuff and a heavy mulch where you are not growing stuff, the weeds are minimal. Weeds are opportunistic, taking root where ever there is bare soil. If the soil is never bare, what's that poor weed seed to do???

BTW, my first garden was a 4' x 4' plot in such compacted soil/gravel that i could only dig down 4". I did not harvest ANYTHING that would be considered edible!

We only do raised beds, due to the acidity of the ground. And corn doesn't do too well in a Finnish climate, not much of it being grown here. But I'll be sure to look into what I can grow together, onions and salads seem like a good combo at least. I don't think I want to leave the parsnip in the ground over winter though, somehow I think that a few months of -20 deg C won't do it good.

 

[lazy gardener]

-20*C is about -10*F isn't it? We get down that low for weeks at a time, and often go to -20*F. If you throw a bit of mulch over them, they should be fine. Otherwise, you can let them stay in the ground until just before it freezes solid, then dig them. They need the freezing weather to convert all of their starches to sugar. Before that, they're on the bland side. They're a biennial, as are carrots and parsley (same family) so are designed to survive a cold winter and come back the next spring to produce seed.

 

[vehve]

-20*C is about -10*F isn't it? We get down that low for weeks at a time, and often go to -20*F. If you throw a bit of mulch over them, they should be fine. Otherwise, you can let them stay in the ground until just before it freezes solid, then dig them. They need the freezing weather to convert all of their starches to sugar. Before that, they're on the bland side. They're a biennial, as are carrots and parsley (same family) so are designed to survive a cold winter and come back the next spring to produce seed.

I think -10F sounds about right. My highly scientific head conversion is that -40 is the same on both scales, one F is 5/9 C and 100F is about a fever of 38C.

I think the better half actually planted them last fall. Maybe we'll have to let them spend the winter in the ground then and see what happens. We're sort of new to this gardening stuff, as we've only just moved out here last fall out of an apartment where I've only grown basil on the window sill. I've got some parsley root planted on the other side of the house, that one I'll leave until next year then, maybe it will get a wild parsley growth going if I let them bloom out before harvesting.

Any thoughts on fertilizing these types of plants?

 

[lazy gardener]

Basil is a tender plant. Annual. You can let it go to seed, and harvest the seed to save for next spring. There is a parsley root which is eaten for the root, not the green leaves. I'm not familiar with that plant, though I imagine it is a hardy biannual as well. If you leave your regular parsley in the ground to winter over (I like to shelter it a bit)) it will come back in the spring, put on some top growth which will be a bit more pungent than last year's growth, but still certainly useable, and very welcome in the spring when there's not much green stuff available... Then the parsley will put up a center stalk with yellow blossoms that resemble queen anne's lace. Great attractant for pollinators. Let it mature, and you can harvest a few seed heads (to save) when they turn brown, and let the rest just fall where they choose, or pull the seed heads and lay them where you want next year's crop. You can do the same thing with lettuce, but it matures a seed crop the same year you plant it. Super easy! They don't call me lazy G for nothing!!!

 

[vehve]

Basil is a tender plant. Annual. You can let it go to seed, and harvest the seed to save for next spring. There is a parsley root which is eaten for the root, not the green leaves. I'm not familiar with that plant, though I imagine it is a hardy biannual as well. If you leave your regular parsley in the ground to winter over (I like to shelter it a bit)) it will come back in the spring, put on some top growth which will be a bit more pungent than last year's growth, but still certainly useable, and very welcome in the spring when there's not much green stuff available... Then the parsley will put up a center stalk with yellow blossoms that resemble queen anne's lace. Great attractant for pollinators. Let it mature, and you can harvest a few seed heads (to save) when they turn brown, and let the rest just fall where they choose, or pull the seed heads and lay them where you want next year's crop. You can do the same thing with lettuce, but it matures a seed crop the same year you plant it. Super easy! They don't call me lazy G for nothing!!!

Yeah, I've got parsley root planted. It's a bit like carrot only paler in color and tastes maybe a bit like parsnip. Really tasty. I would assume it behaves like carrots and parsnip. I haven't looked at how they're growing under the ground, I just dumped it in our yard next to the rhubarb after picking the seeds up for 0.70€ per bag. (We had a pile of dirt that needed to be covered with something after digging up holes for our currants and gooseberry.) It's sort of my "I'm not going to maintain this in any way" garden plot, the soil was full of glass shards and other stuff, the spot has apparently been the trash handling system 50 years ago. Even found some bones and an old condom wrapper. I'm hoping there's nothing too unhealthy in the soil. But did you have any fertilizing tips for carrots and parsnips? Or should I just let them be?

 

[chickadoodles]

I have a pile of old chicken coop bedding (pine shavings) mixed with chicken poo when we clean it out and let it rot in the sun for a few months. Then we can use it for fertilizer and mulch in our garden.

 

[vehve]

I have a pile of old chicken coop bedding (pine shavings) mixed with chicken poo when we clean it out and let it rot in the sun for a few months. Then we can use it for fertilizer and mulch in our garden.

I've got a similar project going on, I'm mainly wondering if carrots and parsnips and other similar plants specifically are better suited for some kind of fertilizing - either something strong, or something weak, or if I should just let them be. Some plants, like berry bushes, shouldn't be fertilized after they've started blooming and producing fruit. They should only be fertilized in fall and spring.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: I used to use 20-20-20 or osmacote on everything it is a wonderful fertilzer and not to strong as it is water soluable. Now I am trying to go more organic so either cow or chicken manuer or mulch.

As for the blueberries I read to use azela food on them in the spring and after they fruit.

 

[vehve]

I used to use 20-20-20 or osmacote on everything it is a wonderful fertilzer and not to strong as it is water soluable. Now I am trying to go more organic so either cow or chicken manuer or mulch.

As for the blueberries I read to use azela food on them in the spring and after they fruit.

With blueberries I'd be a bit careful with fertilizing, I think it's a bit like with vines, the plant has to suffer to produce the best possible product. A lazy plant produces bland berries. Sure is true for the wild ones at least, the smaller the berry, the tastier.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Thanks vehve I will not over fertilize them. I will wait to see signs they need it first.