Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My garlic is like a weed to me. I always leave some cloves behind by accident. I haven't planted it in years. Dill too grows like a weed here in my garden boxes.

We are still trying to minimize stuff here. Last year I let stuff go wild and that was a mistake. Next year we will kill or dig up some self seeding perennial like phlox, and marshmallow. I can no longer weed my flower beds, so I'm trying to convert most to shrub beds. We also took down the fences around the two beds so the chickens can help to weed, and they hopefully won't dig too close to the shrubs.

I'm also going to only start my tomatoes, and am planning to direct seed my pots instead of starting stuff.

Our corn field worked out okay. We probably don't need as much as we planted. The pumpkins got choked out by the weeds, so I'm gonna try maybe planting in the donkey pasture. They grew there once before from a self seeding.

As you can see I have tons of plans already, and I haven't even gone through my seeds yet to take inventory. Oh that reminds me also, I still got a few carrots out there I should go find.

 

[jvls1942]

this summer with the help of my nephew I finally got the grape arbor built. I have six concord grapes planted. Room for two more.
and we planted 28 new rhubarb plants. two different patches.
The big plum tree blew down. got it cut up into firewood yesterday.
I have a nice young plum tree growing close to where the big one was. plus one scrubby one growing close to it, just keeping it for pollination.
.....jiminwisc......

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I added a couple of plum trees as well. One died back to the root stock. It happens often with trees from Jungs for me. We will see what the root stock is eventually. They did give me a credit. Not sure what I will use it on. I do still need better strawberry plants.

 

[tripletfeb]

I plan on doing some more strawberry too. I love making my own jelly from my own plants. My son and I started an avocado tree from a pit a few weeks ago. I know we can't plant it outside but it's fun to watch it grow inside. So far, the pit has split and a tiny root has started

 

[CluckerFamily]

I always start itching for spring to come and start planning in the winter. This year, I started some peas and beans indoors 2 weeks before Memorial Day (normal outside planting weekend for me) and they did amazing! I then planted some seeds outside when I transplanted the peas and beans into the garden, I had peas and beans for a longer time this year.
I have apple trees and plum trees but the one apple tree I would love to grow is a Wolf River. I have tried year after year and planting in different spots but it always dies on me. All my other apple trees do amazing. Does anyone have Wolf River apple trees? Are they picky trees?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Let's see if we can revive this thread.
what are you planning for next spring ?
I planted some garlic this fall, first attempt at it.
After I harvest it in the early summer, I am going to try to plant that bed with asparagus. Then I will prepare a new bed for the fall planting of garlic. then the next spring I will plant that bed with asparagus.. and so on and on it goes.

Sounds good! I want to try asparagus for the first time this upcoming spring as well, though I need to clear out and amend the bed it's going in.

I have most of my seeds for next year ordered already. Going to revise my plans from last year (I made a spreadsheet to organize what goes where, and plant dates), mostly to reduce some stuff that I overgrew (10 collards is too much!) and try a few new things (couple of beets, broccoli, some greens).

I'll direct seed most things but need to sprout frost sensitive things like tomatoes and basil indoors. I started tomatoes way too early last year (Jan) when I can't plant them until first of May, so need to adjust the timing of that as well.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I plant Willy nilly and often forget I planted an area. My vegetable garden is chaos, but usually really productive. I would like to add some sort of automatic watering system. I hate standing out in the beating sun watering, which I need to do daily with my garden boxes.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I plant Willy nilly and often forget I planted an area. My vegetable garden is chaos, but usually really productive. I would like to add some sort of automatic watering system. I hate standing out in the beating sun watering, which I need to do daily with my garden boxes.

I take a stick and mark off planting sections (usually 1'-2' increments) and the lines stay visible for a month or two, so that helps my spread out seeding a bit better. Otherwise I was overcrowding beds which increased pest density and led to some stunted plants.

Yeah, watering in summer is a bummer, definitely the one thing I don't enjoy with gardening.

 

[jvls1942]

I don't mind watering, I sit on a lawn chair and do the watering late afternoon. I use the time to think about other projects , or to think of nothing at all..
I quit the regular garden. last summer I tried container planting. I had pretty good luck with it. I did plant too many tomato plants, though.
My daughter brought me four different varieties , Rutgers, Roma, Big Boy and Early Girl and one cherry tomato. I got 150 cherry tomatoes off of that one plant.
In all, I had 60 tomato plants. That is way too many. I turned out to be a chore rather than pleasurable.
green bell peppers did great in the buckets.
I mixed 5 gallon batches of dirt and Tomato Tone organic fertilizer in my cement mixer.
Picked out any weed or roots before putting the dirt into buckets. I used 5 gallon plastic buckets. there were very few weeds grow in the buckets.
My plum trees are the wild variety that grow along the ditches around here. They send up shoots from the roots like strawberries do. I just mow down most the shoots and mow around one or two of the shoots that come up in a decent place..
........jiminwaUSAu......

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I’m looking forward to planting a big garden again this spring. We did the biggest garden so far last year at 100 by 100 will definitely be making some changes this year though. Last year dad thought 500 FEET OF OKRA WAS A GOOD IDEA 500 FEET. We were getting about a bushel a day!

This will be my first spring growing hot peppers I’ll be starting Jalapeño cayenne and Serranos