Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[Cheeky Chick]

I am still having a relapse and the new meds are giving me a run for my money, but I am trying to push through it again. The thoughts of spring gardening keep me going.

Here is what I am growing this year (did anyone get any squash from those seeds last year?):
Collective Farm Woman Melon
Early Silver Line Melon
Sleeping Beauty Melon
Charentais Melon
Love-Lies-Bleeding - Red Amaranth
Fengyuan Purple Eggplant
Resina Calendula
Atomic Red Carrot
Purple Sun Carrot
Purple 68 Carrot
Red Samurai Carrot

Basil - Emily
Forellenschluss Lettuce
Lollo De Vino Lettuce
Buttercrunch Lettuce

Mayo Bule Gourd
Big Apple Gourd
Birdhouse Gourd

Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Flamingo Pink Swiss Chard
Blue Curled Scotch Kale
Vates Collards
Cour Di Bue Cabbage
Nero Di Toscana Cabbage
Red Orach

Sungold Select II Tomato
Black Icicle Tomato
Gezahnte Tomato
Tigerella Tomato
Japanese Trifele Black Tomato
Indigo Blue Berries Tomato

Jimmy Nardello Italian Pepper
Shishito Pepper
Canary Bell Pepper
Emerald Giant Pepper
Corno di Toro Rosso Pepper

Zucchini Fordhook Squash
Patisson Golden Marbre Scallop Squash

Bush Buttercup Squash
Golden Delicious Squash
Kikuza Squash
Galeux D' Eysines Squash
Rouge Vif D' Etampes Pumpkin
Musquee De Provence Pumpkin
Tennessee Sweet Potato Squash
Victor or Red Warty Thing Squash
Thai Rai Kaw Tok Pumpkin
Marina Di Chioggia Pumpkin
Gills' Golden Pippin Squash
Butternut-Waltham Squash
Baby Blue Hubbard Squash
Table Queen Bush Acorn Squash
Boston Marrow Squash
Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin
Sweet Dumpling Squash
Jarrahdale Pumpkin

Calima Bean
Purple Podded Pole Bean
Or Du Rhin Bean
Chinese Red Noodle Bean
Envy Soya Bean
Sugar Snap Pea
Little Marvel Garden Pea
Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea
Speckled butter bean
Scarlett Runner bean

Boston Pickling Cucumber
Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber
Muncher Cucumber

Cherokee Long Ear Corn
Luscious Corn Organic
Strong Start 7112 Corn
Glass Gem Corn Organic

Cylindra or Formanova Beet
Detroit Dark Red Beet

American Ginseng

WOW! I'm jealous of all the space you must have for all those crops! I can't wait to plant my little garden-I have more space this year since we got rid of the trampoline, and hopefully we can also get rid of the swing set that's taking up sunshine in my yard! My Bees are also coming in April, so I'm pretty excited about that-Spring is coming!!!

 

[JerseyHen]

Carolyn, when the woodchucks don't get most of it, I do prep and freeze a good amount of produce for the winter and the squash last all the way until the next summer.

I do intensive square foot gardening with a lot of rotation and succession planting. I will get greens started as soon as I can see the dirt and the black covers start to warm the soil a bit. Then they come out and the next thing goes in. It is the only way to go. I do have the sprawling pumpkin/squash/melon patch that I had no luck with last year, but I will keep trying. I just dream of having a huge patch full of amazing and exotic looking squash. It is too bad I didn't get much last year, since I like to eat squash for breakfast and mine have been gone for some time. I broke down and bought one the other day... This year I am going with straw bales in there to see if it is easier. The weeds just get away from me in that patch and I think the bales might allow the squash to sprawl even more than it does. I prepare and freeze whatever we don't get around to eating, which isn't all that much to be honest. That kid of mine eats veggies from dawn until dusk while she is outside all summer. I don't think a single asparagus made it out of the garden.

 

[Carolyn252]

Carolyn, when the woodchucks don't get most of it, I do prep and freeze a good amount of produce for the winter and the squash last all the way until the next summer.

I do intensive square foot gardening with a lot of rotation and succession planting. I will get greens started as soon as I can see the dirt and the black covers start to warm the soil a bit. Then they come out and the next thing goes in. It is the only way to go. I do have the sprawling pumpkin/squash/melon patch that I had no luck with last year, but I will keep trying. I just dream of having a huge patch full of amazing and exotic looking squash. It is too bad I didn't get much last year, since I like to eat squash for breakfast and mine have been gone for some time. I broke down and bought one the other day... This year I am going with straw bales in there to see if it is easier. The weeds just get away from me in that patch and I think the bales might allow the squash to sprawl even more than it does. I prepare and freeze whatever we don't get around to eating, which isn't all that much to be honest. That kid of mine eats veggies from dawn until dusk while she is outside all summer. I don't think a single asparagus made it out of the garden.

Amazing post. I loved every word of it. Definitely get some Tahiti Squash going. Such fun watching the fruits get longer, and longer, and longer, and yet longer yet. I too use square foot gardening. Have done for about fifteen years now. I've got 15 squares. Here's how I started out. DH and I built them ourselves. We made the boxes' walls of lumber ten inches high, four feet by four feet in width and length. And then lined the boxes on the bottom and sides with black fabric gardening cloth, the kind that lets water through but not weeds. Then I filled each box halfway with earth. On top of that I added stuff to fill each box to within one inch of the top of the ten-inch high walls. That "stuff" is a mix of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 coarse vermiculite, and 1/3 enrichment mix that I put together of MANY different composts. I use a great big kiddie pool as my mixing bowl. Each Spring I add more enrichment mix of whatever composts strike my fancy. My own chickens' composted litter of course. Some years I've used as many as eleven different composted materials: cow manure, mushroom compost, bat guano, poultry manure, lobster/seafood compost, woody compost, grass compost, rabbit manure, autumn leaf compost, ...and I can't remember the others. And I too rotate my crops. It's hard sometimes trying to fully rotate because I can't change where the sun and the shade will fall, so tall veggies always have to be in the boxes that are on the northern end of the layout. Otherwise the tall trellis of yellow pole wax beans would create shade for the other boxes. And the vining veggies need to be in the boxes that are on the outside edges of the layout so their vines can climb on the chainlink fence that surrounds the whole garden. DH always insists on more tomato plants than I want and I have to tussle with him so I can have room for all those carrots and beets and kale. I grow eggplants, broccoli, red chard and white chard, onions, dandelion, zukes, yellow crooknecks, sweet peppers, cabbage,three or four kinds of lettuce, Tahiti squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew. And the aforementioned tomatoes, carrots, beets, and kale. sometimes strawberries and sometimes potatoes, and sometimes corn. (**** squirrels took a bite out of EVERY ear two summers ago and we haven't grown any since.) And I don't do the Tahiti squash every year. Always grow herbs of oregano, marjoram, rosemary, purple and green basils, sage, and thyme. Some in the squares; some in terra cotta strawberry pots. Those fifteen boxes serve me well. Most of my plantings are from already started plants, i.e. seedlings from the garden nursery store. But I plant seeds for the wax beans and the carrots. As I get older, bending over and bending down are becoming more of a chore than I'm willing to struggle with, so I've hired some helping hands to keep the boxes weeded. Gathering produce ten minutes before dinner is such a joy. From harvest to pot to dinner plate is a golden ticket to joy. I just love it!! Writing this post has made me so happy; it's convinced me that Spring really is almost here. Off to get my first cup of coffee. Think sunshine!!
-Carolyn252

 

[JerseyHen]

Carolyn, it sounds like you have your hands full as well! I do modified square foot gardening (no raised bed walls, but mounded patches). I am making a move toward hugelkultur in the pumpkin patch, so I am going to do the strawbales and when they decompose I will add logwood/brush next to them turn the bales onto the logs, add the turf and humus layer and see how it goes (or that is the plan anyway).

I will have to try that Tahiti squash, it sounds like a lot of fun!

Carol, how do you plant peas on St. Patrick's day? There is just no way the snow will be melted here by then. Lilly did plant peas inside in a terrarium though! They are actually growing pretty well in there. She couldn't wait for her garden so she turned mason jars and a 10 gallon tank into an indoor garden. She has peas, chard, lima beans, and spinach going. She is too cute.

 

[JerseyHen]

This is a great spring garden show, for those of you who are so inclined... it starts next week.
http://www.springfestgardenshow.org/

https://www.facebook.com/SpringfestGardenShow

I go every year. It is at the sussex county fairgrounds (building opposite of where the poultry show is).

 

[JerseyHen]

I wish I had the skills to knit these adorable things....
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Thevelvetacorn

 

[JerseyHen]

It is sooooo quiet in here lately. Is everyone ok? What is everyone hatching? I know I said I would never do quail again, but I am trying Cots and buttons. Maybe it was just the bobwhites that were so crazy and aggressive. I also have blue brassy back sport OEG and cream legbars going in for the easter hatch. I also won some red golden pheasant eggs that are coming in April!!! I have wanted those for years, wish me luck. AND I have decided to order silver welsh harlequin ducks from Holderread's (not sure if I can get them this season or will have to wait). Now, all I need to to is track down some turkeys....

 

[Cheeky Chick]

It is sooooo quiet in here lately. Is everyone ok? What is everyone hatching? I know I said I would never do quail again, but I am trying Cots and buttons. Maybe it was just the bobwhites that were so crazy and aggressive. I also have blue brassy back sport OEG and cream legbars going in for the easter hatch. I also won some red golden pheasant eggs that are coming in April!!! I have wanted those for years, wish me luck. AND I have decided to order silver welsh harlequin ducks from Holderread's (not sure if I can get them this season or will have to wait). Now, all I need to to is track down some turkeys....

That's great about trying quail again-I keep Cots, the Texas A&M white ones-they are FAR more tame and mellow than the Pharaohs. Only problem is that there's no difference between males and females, so you kind of have to wait to see who gets a bald spot on their head (those are the poor females...)

You have got to post pics of your pheasants when they hatch-that's one thing I've never tried! LOL.

Right now in the incubator I have a new bloodline of Cots, some Trout Indian Runner ducks, and going in today are Toulouse Geese. I have 1 runner right now, and he's an absolutely dear little guy, plus runners are really great egg producers, and I love duck eggs! The toulouse are something I've wanted for awhile, so that should be an interesting adventure!
My chickens have been suffering from cabin fever, and invaded my neighbors yard a few days ago, so I owe them some eggs when the girls start up again...

Happy Spring! Hopefully yesterday was the last of the snow!!

 

[Cheeky Chick]

I wish I had the skills to knit these adorable things....
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Thevelvetacorn

The hat with the bear ears is so cute it makes me want another little girl to put it on. Ok, ALMOST. I'll have to wait for the next generation....

 

[JerseyHen]

That's great about trying quail again-I keep Cots, the Texas A&M white ones-they are FAR more tame and mellow than the Pharaohs. Only problem is that there's no difference between males and females, so you kind of have to wait to see who gets a bald spot on their head (those are the poor females...)

You have got to post pics of your pheasants when they hatch-that's one thing I've never tried! LOL.

Right now in the incubator I have a new bloodline of Cots, some Trout Indian Runner ducks, and going in today are Toulouse Geese. I have 1 runner right now, and he's an absolutely dear little guy, plus runners are really great egg producers, and I love duck eggs! The toulouse are something I've wanted for awhile, so that should be an interesting adventure!
My chickens have been suffering from cabin fever, and invaded my neighbors yard a few days ago, so I owe them some eggs when the girls start up again...

Happy Spring! Hopefully yesterday was the last of the snow!!

My chickens are suffering that affliction as well, but they are going to have to keep on suffering. I let them out yesterday, since it was not to messy out and the grass is showing in places and the hawk got 2 more of them. This time it got one of my biggest brahma hens. It has never gone for the big girls before. She had to be a 10 lb bird! The shame of it is they only rip the neck and breast apart and then move onto the next bird. This particular hawk has become quite a nuisance. It has taken 5 birds in the past month. This is the same one that got INTO the coop. I think I need to call the raptor center to see if it can be relocated. In the mean time I will be stringing up fishing line and bird netting all around to give them some cover.

The pheasants will be in a complete enclosure, so at least I don't have to worry about them. I don't know what color of cots I have, they are mystery eggs! Same with the buttons, I think it is a mix of color mutations. Do you keep your cots as pairs or in trios? I am working out the cage situation this month.