BYC gardening thread!!

[Kraftcrazychick]

I planted my garlic and onions at least 2-3 weeks ago and they are looking awesome. I'm actually surprised I never did garlic before. It's so easy. I had my daughter smell test to tell which is which as they are in the same area of the garden. I thought it was fun.

The strawberries have clumps of green fruits forming. I'm very excited that I could actually get a single pint in one picking this year. Sadly, the ones I gave my mom (the extras) are not faring as well. I told her the secret. Just ignore/neglect them. Shove them in hard clay, water them occasionally and they will be hardy and sending shoots out all over. Of course mine have taken 2 years to get to this level.

The started pumpkins I planted during Memorial weekend did not do so well. We planted three and only one seems to be recovering. I ended up buying some started ones from a local greenhouse up the road from work to replace them. I got 4 pumpkin plants for $1. I also bought another variety of tomato and some eggplant. I've never grown eggplant before. Anyone have any experience with it?

I still need to move my squash, zucchini, hot peppers, tomatoes and more watermelon out to the garden. I'm pretty sure I need to build more beds, again.

 

[dan26552]

This is what my leeks did, I didn't know they did that.

 

[lazy gardener]

I need to start scrounging again, a greenhouse is on tap and another chicken facility. I have pretty well depleted my stores of lumber. I love repurposing materials.

I love to have a project underway. I've moved my cattle panel green house off the garden, and plan to repurpose it for combination sun room for chicken winter play, green house for spring time use, maybe even grow out coop for meaties. Lots of possibilities. I want to buy a green house tarp that could be easily put on/off. Put a skirt around the bottom, layer rip-rap stones over that for heat sink, and cover the whole thing with hardware cloth/chicken wire.

 

[hennible]

Love to.  Garlic is the easiest lazy crop there is.  When it sends up the seed scapes in the early summer, don't remove them.  They will "flower" and produce a crop of bulbils, which are small bulbs at the top of the scape.  Leave these in place until they get quite large.  They will get up to 1/2" in diameter.  You can then pick them off and plant them where you want your next crop of garlic.  (or you can just let them fall to the ground and plant themselves.)   I warn you: it will take a while.  They will send up a tiny bit of growth the first year, looks like a couple of blades of grass.  The following spring, you'll have a single clove from each bulbil.  Leave that in place, and the following year, you'll have a typical head of garlic there.  Now, depending on how much garlic you use, how much garden space you have, and whether you till or not, you can leave a clump of garlic in place indefinitely.  I have clumps of garlic that are about 8 - 10" in diameter at the roots.  They consist of MANY heads clumped together.  When the leaves die down in mid summer, I harvest enough heads to carry me through the year, and leave the rest of those clumps right where they are.  Until this season, garlic was every where in my garden, all stages from recently sown bulbils to 10" clumps.  This year, I re-organized my garden, so dug up most of those clumps, and put them in a single row.  They are spaced about 1' apart, and the row is about 30' long.  I broke up some clumps and took them to a fund raiser plant sale.  I sold every pot I took, and could have sold a lot more.  Am thinking that garlic plants would be a great spring cash crop.  People really became interested when I explained how garlic can be a perennial crop.  

For northern gardeners, you want to be sure to grow a stiff necked variety.  I am zone 4, and don't do anything to protect my garlic over the winter.  But, my soil is sandy loam.  Did you know that bulbs have the ability to draw themselves deeper into the soil?  They actually use their roots to pull themselves down if they are not planted deep enough.  Ever noticed that when you plant tulips or hyacinths, and dig them up several years later, they're deeper than you remember planting them?  How awesome is that.  Who taught them how to do that????

Way to cool. Thanks for all the info.

This is what my leeks did, I didn't know they did that.

Weird

 

[dan26552]

Way to cool. Thanks for all the info.
Weird

Thats what I thought

 

[hennible]

Thought I was looking at grapes :/

 

[dan26552]

Thought I was looking at grapes

LOL I thought they'd split like onions

 

[dan26552]

 

[hennible]

Happy June

 

[dan26552]

You too