BYC gardening thread!!

[heartsizedfarm]

I usually plant in the fall & harvest in June.  I generally get a pretty good harvest, planting whatever variety the supermarkets generally offer. Is it worth seeking out the others?  I know there are a lot out there, just never bothered trying them.  I didn't get any in this past fall though. 

Yeah in the past I've just planted what I found in local stores. Then I was visiting my daughter last fall and she took me to the Ithaca Farmers Market where a gentleman had about twenty different varieties, each with a full description like a wine tasting! One was supposed to have the sweetest tasting scapes, another was the most strong and pungent, another was best for roasting etc. I was hooked! I bought four bulbs of four different varieties, two to plant and two to eat.
Hoping they'll all adapt to my soil. So far it looks good. Because of free ranging chickens garlic is a good choice for my veg garden. They just leave that whole section alone.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Huggstaff: nobody laughing in Minnesota when we are getting snow storms yet up here.

I'll think you'll find me quite envious actually....LOL.

 

[RustedOak]

Huggstaff: nobody laughing in Minnesota when we are getting snow storms yet up here.

I'll think you'll find me quite envious actually....LOL.

Wow, I couldn't even imagine! Here in central Texas, it's comfortably cool at night and in the 70s during the day! Only problem is, we aren't getting any rain which usually leads to grass fires.

 

[urbanchange90]

No chemicals!! There are always natural ways around it. You should never spray your plants with something your not even supposed to touch to your skin that you intend on eating

 

[heartsizedfarm]

I guess this thread ran out of gas because everybody is actually out gardening now!

The bees are really active today, in the plum blossoms, in the strawberry flowers, and even some very fat bumblebees in the clover in the sheep's meadow. Are you noticing good numbers of bees this spring wherever you are?

 

[Nutcase]

Plenty of bees here. I'm in Australia, so we have big, fat, noisy and furry native bees that the chickens love to eat for some reason.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Plenty of bees here. I'm in Australia, so we have big, fat, noisy and furry native bees that the chickens love to eat for some reason.

That must be very entertaining, watching a chicken chase a bee!

 

[Peep_Show]

We had mega amounts of bees in the apple blossoms this year....and so nice that they weren't the Africanized ones.

I've got a question regarding apricot trees and pruning: I recently bought a property that the absentee previous owners weren't aware that the water had been turned off into the veggie yard for nearly a year (bad lazy hired gardener) resulting in VERY distressed trees that were within. I managed to save the trees, but on the apricot I guess its self-preservation mode was to die from the tips of branches downward. So I've got about a foot of dead branch at the end of the limbs. Needless to say, no fruit this year...I'm just glad the trees are still with us. Anyway, do I trim off the dead stuff and, if so, when?

Love the trees, but -- wow -- really had to baby them this year to save them prompting my husband to comment that "They're trees, not orchids!"

 

[heartsizedfarm]

We had mega amounts of bees in the apple blossoms this year....and so nice that they weren't the Africanized ones.

I've got a question regarding apricot trees and pruning:  I recently bought a property that the absentee previous owners weren't aware that the water had been turned off into the veggie yard for nearly a year (bad lazy hired gardener) resulting in VERY distressed trees that were within.  I managed to save the trees, but on the apricot I guess its self-preservation mode was to die from the tips of branches downward.  So I've got about a foot of dead branch at the end of the limbs.  Needless to say, no fruit this year...I'm just glad the trees are still with us.  Anyway, do I trim off the dead stuff and, if so, when?

Love the trees, but -- wow -- really had to baby them this year to save them prompting my husband to comment that "They're trees, not orchids!"

I bought a book called Gardening for the Faint of Heart because it had a chapter on pruning and I'm clueless. I would assume you would prune the deadwood to give it a fresh start, but I'll read that chapter tonight and get back to you ok?

 

[Peep_Show]

Thanks! Could use all the input out there on this one. I'll try to get some pictures of the tree.