Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the middle of a Wisconsin winter

[Plucky Clucks]

Definitely both flowers and veggies. I've been researching veg/flower pairings that help repel pests aside from the usual marigolds. I'm playing with the idea of using a cattle panel set in a semicircle to train vines on in order to create a semi secluded picnic area. It's going to be a lot of work but I'm excited anyway. I'm always drawn to the more uncommon varieties and species of plants and my area has a great growing season so I have at least some room to play! Big hopes for the new growing season.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I grow my cucumbers up on cattle panels set at an angle, your future picnic area sounds lovely, that's a great idea, a good privacy fence that looks and smells nice. I haven't practiced companion planting, I always forget about doing it.

 

[Miss Biddy]

I mulch my tomato plants with grass clippings all summer and avoid the blight most years, last year I stupidly planted them next to the potatoes and a few succumbed. I have never tried cover crops because I practice no till.

Have you tried dehydrating in your car, I did dry out my thyme one year. Do you seatbelt those plants in?

You have some great ideas.

Thank you! Old Hen, next time you plant potatoes, plant some bush beans around them. It's supposed to repel the Colorado potato beetle.
The farm I worked at is organic,(Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY) so we had to pick them/knock them off by hand into a bucket.

Oddly, the ducks didn't even like to eat them.

Cover crops add to the soil, till or no till. I swear by it.

My garden heroes are Ruth Stout, and Ron Finley. "Growing your own food is like printing your own money"
He is the "Gangster Gardener" of South Central L.A.. He's getting young men to change what it means to be "gangster": being a gardener with a shovel with the best garden in the hood.

I think growing stuff and being close to nature can heal and nurture our body and soul.

 

[Miss Biddy]

Yesterday, I sowed more tomatoes, and marigolds. They're a cooking in my microwave right now.
I must be crazy, but I'm going to grow them indoors until I can set them out.

Plus, as I said, I want to sell some to recover my gardening costs. I figure $2.00 a plant* and they'll be pre-hardened off, unlike Lowe's and the greenhouses around here.

Speaking of Lowes: they have a rack where they give away all sorts of gardening containers. I get all my 6 packs and 1020 flats there. One year I even grabbed a huge clay pot with a crack in it.
Fixed it with some silicone and works just fine.
I can grab a bunch of plastic pots for selling my plants.
I've already made a flyer for how to plant tomatoes to hand out.
I LOVE talking to people, so I'm hoping my little stand will attract thousands of buyers!

*Is that a fair price? They'll be at least 6 inches tall. I plan on selling herbs, flowers and veggies that grow well up here. They aren't getting my artichokes! Or my indigo.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Two dollars for a tomato plant is a good price. I don't start mine until 6 weeks before because they get crazy tall fast, I will be interested in seeing how you're do. I didn't know Lowe's gives stuff away like that, I don't go to them too often, I will have to keep my eye on them. I usually got to the Home Depot because it's closer.

Thanks for the tip about pole beans, I do occasionally get potato beetles, they are nasty looking bugs. I have always enjoyed being a part of the natural world and agree gardening is good for the soul, it also keeps my mind occupied and is a good companion to my joy of keeping critters too. I think I have Hobbit blood in me.

 

[lazy gardener]

PP talk about enjoying perusing the seed catalogs this time of year made me smile. Several weeks ago, my 9 y.o. GD was with us for the weekend. I walked into the living room. There she sat, curled up on the couch, with a seed catalog. She was flipping pages, and circling different varieties with a sharpie, "just like Grammy does".

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

PP talk about enjoying perusing the seed catalogs this time of year made me smile.  Several weeks ago, my 9 y.o. GD was with us for the weekend.  I walked into the living room.  There she sat, curled up on the couch, with a seed catalog.  She was flipping pages, and circling different varieties with a sharpie, "just like Grammy does". 

Very cute.

 

[lazy gardener]

Got an other order of seeds today. Oh the promise in those little packets! Can't wait til I can start seedlings... but the flip side is I hate all of the extra work they entail. I swear they are more work than tending an incubator. Certainly more mess. I'm battling an attack of spider mites in the east kitchen window, and aphids on my lemon tree in the south window. Won't touch seedlings until those issues are cleared up!

Anybody ever started asparagus from seed? How bout Siberian Pea tree from seed? Trying both this year.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have unintentionally started asparagus from seeds, they are showing up in my flower beds, eventually I will have so many that they will become a weed. I know the seeds will need a cold treatment period, I would personally just start them in the ground where I wanted them. Let me know how it works for you.

I haven't had any fungus gnats this year, yet, I'm trying not to over water my house plants. I finally got rid of most of my ones that had scale, I'm down to my ficus bonsai, it's a pain to give it soap baths every few months, but I've been growing it for ten years and it's the only bonsai I've been able to keep alive.

Seed starting does make a mess, but it's something to do during our long winters, though after a while I do get to hoping I won't get such great germination of some seeds, I have learned to plant only as many seeds as I need, otherwise I feel like I have to save everyone who germinates.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Lots of planning going into the gardens all over it looks like.
The new home and blank slate made me think back to when I bought this place. Only 4 trees, one huge Honey Locust in front, 2 Ash planted way to close to the south fence to do any good, and one sad -used to be a christmas tree- little thing. OH and one evergreen bush that covered half the front of the house.
NOW? Evergreen is GONE, about 800 bulbs are in, 16 lilac bushes, 9 sumac, 12 rose bushes, 2 peach trees, one apricot tree and 2 flowering pear trees. There are some assorted other perennials out there too about 60 or so plants and some other shrubs.
Looking at it now that was a lot of digging in the dirt.
I have had my share of utter failures along the way but many more successes in the end.

I think we love the little seeds BECAUSE they are so full of promise and represent new life for us. I would have it no other way.

I found this and thought it was interesting but may pose the problem of becoming to hot in the mid day heat. Lemme know what ya'll think please. I have lots of extra roofing metal from making my coop. Hate to send it to scrap.