BYC gardening thread!!

[dan26552]

Your potatoes look nice Dan.

I have some golden potatoes planted and I am hoping they will be a nice med. size when they are ready. This is my first time trying potatoes they are in a large pot.

I got tired of all the bugs attacking my garden and I dusted everything this morning. Those darn cabbage worms were eating my turnips this time. And something has been eating my strawberries!

Thanks.

I have like five other patches of taters of different varieties.

Every time some of my strawberries start to ripen either my sister's pigs get out and into the garden or the chickens find a way in and eat them

 

[dan26552]

Look what I found eating my potatoes.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: I really did not count on any strawberries this year. Mostly setting out runners. But next year I hope to have enough for a bunch of jam and other baking ideas. I love to make sweet breads with nuts and berries.

 

[GardenNut]

Oh my! I have garden envy!

 

[Ardj]

Dan you are killing me with all of your veggies and flowers! All i have is lettuce radish and some chives. Clouds rain and Transylvania all over again.

 

[lazy gardener]

I've never really had success growing "Big" potatoes, usually just seed potato sized, when I pulled that one out I just stared at it in disbelief

What were you using for seed potatoes to grow those? If you were using sprouted potatoes from the grocery store, that may be your problem. Those have been treated with some chemical to delay sprouting, I've no doubt it will also retard the growth of the spuds. Potatoes are heavy feeders. I'm guessing your sandy soil makes it difficult for the soil to hang on to the nutrients long enough to grow a good crop.

 

[lazy gardener]

Dan you are killing me with all of your veggies and flowers! All i have is lettuce radish and some chives. Clouds rain and Transylvania all over again.

I know. This kid is something else. I've given up trying to keep up with him. I now just live vicariously through his efforts. Good photographer too.

 

[dan26552]

I really did not count on any strawberries this year. Mostly setting out runners. But next year I hope to have enough for a bunch of jam and other baking ideas. I love to make sweet breads with nuts and berries.

Well I was hoping for strawberries cause my plants are 4 years old.

Dan you are killing me with all of your veggies and flowers! All i have is lettuce radish and some chives. Clouds rain and Transylvania all over again.

I didn't get letuced planted in time, that season went right passed me

I wish I'd planted my squash about a month or 2 earlier too.

I got corn right though!

What were you using for seed potatoes to grow those? If you were using sprouted potatoes from the grocery store, that may be your problem. Those have been treated with some chemical to delay sprouting, I've no doubt it will also retard the growth of the spuds. Potatoes are heavy feeders. I'm guessing your sandy soil makes it difficult for the soil to hang on to the nutrients long enough to grow a good crop.

Some times it was sprouted grocery potatoes, one time it was potatoes bought at the farmers market but mostly bought seed potatoes. I don't have sandy soil, the only sandy that I know of on our place is down by the creek and where my parents had a truck load dumped by the house.

I know. This kid is something else. I've given up trying to keep up with him. I now just live vicariously through his efforts. Good photographer too.

 

[Penny Hen]

Dan you are killing me with all of your veggies and flowers! All i have is lettuce radish and some chives. Clouds rain and Transylvania all over again.

You need to set out some runner beans. They like the cool and wet. I am trying some Barnside Sweet Runner Beans from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They are about a foot high at the moment. I am going to have to set the trellises tomorrow. When they bloom they have scarlet blossoms and can grow to 25 feet high. I am planting them on the west side of my house to block the afternoon heat from the sun. I will probably have to harvest with the ladder. I also planted two of them to grow over the chicken coop so that it is shaded too. This is in the little 4 x 4 chicken garden that I am growing for chicken food. They can help themselves to what grows into their pen and it will keep them cooler in the Dog Days. If you don't want to have such long vines there are several other nice breeds of runner beans from Baker's Creek, even one that dates back to Queen Elizabeth I's reign and is named "the Painted Lady" because it is white with a pink blush on it. She wore white foundation and rouged her cheeks you see.

I started them in eggshells with the small ends cracked off leaving 2/3's of the shell. Fill with potting soil and plant according to depth directions. Plant them out when the third leaf forms. Be sure if you use eggshells as starter pots to break the bottom of the egg so the roots can dig deeper. Beans grow really fast so you should be prepared to put them out in a week to a week and a half of the sprouting.

 

[Ardj]

This is the first year since I've been here that is cool and rainy all the time. Usually it was in the 80. Today its 60 degrees but Wednesday will be around 90... so from cool and rainy it will be hot and humid. My tomatoes are growing,turnips are still very small,peppers the same. All is green,no flowers yet. We had a beautifull lilac blooms and then the rain came. Half of the flowers didn't bloom and they just got rotten. I am not complaining about the rain. It will be so hot here soon and dry and i will spend hours watering everything. But for now is two days of sun and some clouds and then a week or two of rain and clouds.
When Dan will have all his harvest picked up and eaten I will be still waiting for my veggies to grow...