Spring Fever *Pics*

[Chellester]

Nice plants CB! Wish I could grow stuff all year 'round!

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Ditto.

Going to start tomatoes 8 weeks early in the house... I plan on setting them on the last week of march... They'll go out in may...

 

[RioLindoAz]

Those are just this years batch

.............................

 

[chickflick]

You are so mean!

 

[wife2brad]

I am so ready for spring and my garden!!! We won't plant until after Easter...not too much longer. Hope I can have a good year with it. Gonna be twice as big as last years!

 

[RioLindoAz]

Quote:
Sometimes my cousins and friends come help me garden on certain Holidays. It sure is Fun. THen they come back one week later and see the beautiful plants they planted.

 

[skeeter9]

Stop teasing us!!!!!! I"ll be lucky if I can get my garden going by Mother's Day. Last year we got a hard frost after Mother's Day and it killed everything!!!

Lori

 

[line-rat]

It has been snowing here WC ohio for two days and going to be for at least 1 more.

I want to move back to north carolina.

 

[rdranch]

Chicken Boy, if you are wanting to grow big pumpkins then yes you definately need to use fertilizer. Pumpkins are heavy feeders when it comes to nitrogen. I had some volunteers that grew in some composted horse manure and they out grew the ones I planted on purpose. The biggest went about 200 pounds. Also if you limit the number of pumpkins per vine that will help as well.

 

[jab91864]

I am soooooooooo jealous !!!! It is a whopping 12* here...oooooooo it's warming up finally. I have a ton of snow and ice. The flock and I are in deep depression with winter blahs right now you have no idea.

I have some 60 types of tomatoes.... gonna have to cut that down before I put my seeds in to start. And probably 20 kinds of peppers to start. I am terrible at making choices....lol. But I give away tons of young plants to friends etc..

Nothing can be safely outside here until end of May so it's still too early to start my seeds in the house. They get too tall and lanky. I need to replace a couple of my lights on my plant stand too.... my dachshund went thru a lets chew every cord we find phase over the winter. Thankfully he seems to be growing out of that now and none of those were plugged in at the time... ouch!!

I do a great deal of container gardening, using a lot of potting bags.... bought some on ebay several years ago and I still reuse most of them. My soil is pretty much all sand so I find container gardening to be more beneficial to my plants in general .

Last year I lost a lot of my plants to the poultry... hope to avoid that this year. But I will admit my best tomato was one the ducks had stripped of all the leaves half way up.... looked like a tree. I have runner ducks so they can reach pretty high up.

I have a recipe for an awesome tomato pie that is to die for!!!!!!!! I got it on a gardening forum several years ago and it sounds odd at first but it is simply delicious!!!!!!!!!!!

TOMATO PIE:
1 BAKED 8 or 9 inch PIE CRUST: enough for one crust and then a little more.

(I use 1 1/4 c. all purpose flour, 1 stick cold butter, a pinch of salt, up to 1/4 c. ice water. Cut flour, butter, and salt with a pastry blender until mealy. With a mixer, add 1 tablespoon at a time of ice water until it cleans side of bowl, usually end up using only 3 tbsp. Shape into ball, wrap in plastic wrap, store in refrigerator at least 1/2 hour.) Roll out on floured countertop to desired size, cut edges how you like. Bake at 375 for approx 10 minutes.

INSIDE:
5 or 6 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/4 inch thick. Let them sit in a strainer and drain the juice off very well.
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh chopped basil (genovese is the best)
salt, pepper, garlic pepper to taste (about 1/8 tsp each)
1 1/4 c. cheddar cheese (sometimes I use a mixture of cheddar, colby, and monterey jack)
3/4 c. mayonnaise (I only use Hellmann's)

Layer 1/2 of the tomatoes in baked pie shell. Sprinkle 1/2 basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder on top.
Repeat.
Mix cheese and mayonnaise together and spread over tomato layers, right to inside edge of crust.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.


I use my deep dish large pie pan. Added some finely chopped red peppers, a shot of tobasco and a couple shots of jalapeno sauce I like to use chipolte/monterey jack cheese. And Sargentos makes a vermont and bacon one that was so good in this recipe.... oy


Julie