What did you do in the garden today?

[NanaKat]

Stay warm!

 

[Bine]

Oh, Beekissed, you don't want our weather. Yesterday was the first day w/o rain for 3 weeks or more. The temps are between 10°C at day and near freezing at night. With stromfronts comming throught every other day. Favabean are okay with that as long as they have a hay cover. They germinate around 5°C and are the first vegs I plant b/c aphids love the young shouts so I figured out that it is better to grow them very early when the aphids are still dormant. Next will be Scheerkohl a very earl brassica that can be used like spinache.

 

[NanaKat]

@Bine, I tried growing Favabeans here in Oklahoma and they were decimated by aphids. So I gave up. I did not know they could be planted earlier! I'm going to try again!

It has been super windy and cold here this past week. I've looked over the fruit trees and will be doing the last pruning. Then when the winds die I can begin the dormant sprays. I have a bed ready for onions and my peas ready to plant too.

 

[Beekissed]

Bought more seeds while at Rural King the other day....pulled me in like a tractor beam.

Some perennials to attract bees and butterflies, and some more greens, turnips, beets, carrots, etc. Can never have too many of those, can ya? Since I intend to do this four season harvest thingy, I figure I best get seeds while I can, as by August they may have been thoroughly picked over.

I'm thinking of encouraging my son to do a four season harvest method in his garden as well and maybe, just maybe, I can convince him to devote more of his yard to growing more food items. He has a very small area, so not sure if I can get him interested or not, but I'll see if I can get him to consider vertical gardening in pallets, growing taters in a large container so he can fill it up with taters, and even plant an apple tree in a space where he can do espalier on it, as well as a grape vine in the same area. On these small town lots there are many places where a person can't do much but just landscape or mow it and I'd like him to consider growing food there instead. No sense in spending money on landscaping or effort and time in mowing when he can just establish a full time growing bed there instead.

 

[Bugseye]

I suspect the same tractor beam is going to get me soon. I've got a fair number of seeds, but, yup, what's too many? And then I have at least one that needs to be stratified. Developed a major lazy butt over the winter, and now I'll have to shake it off. I can see some ground where snow is melting, so that means I can do something out there. I also want to bring my starting tables downstairs so it's not such a big chore to tend to the starts. It'll cramp us a little, but I'll convince DH that we'll survive. It's fun watching those tiny things develop.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm doing mine in the ....where else? The garden tub! It has a skylight over it, so it should be just right. Never tried them there before but will see how it all goes.

 

[Bugseye]

Well, it ain't called garden tub for nothing! Sounds like a good place. My tables have regular fluorescent light and some heat mats. Forgot to look at seeds at the market today, but I'll remember soon. I've heard there's chicken math, but I suspect there's also seed math.

 

[politicalcenter]

My wife and I started to put some more shelves in the big greenhouse today and we made some good progress.

Running out of room!

Will have to have some heat for the next two nights but then it looks like no night heat for a week.

Just about time to plant potatoes.

 

[Beekissed]

Sprinkled some wood ash on the tater rows. When the snow melts next week it oughta sink right into the heaped up compost material there, hopefully make it to the soil come spring.

Anyone ever plant carrots in the side of their tater hills? If so, how did that go? I'd like to do that this year as my soil has never been conducive for growing carrots, but I'm hoping the same material that helps the potatoes be able to grow in clay soils will also help the carrots.

 

[lazy gardener]

Bee, in my experience, potatoes sprawl so much that there would be very little that would grow if planted in the "hill". I have a hard time growing carrots b/c of heavy soil, and I tend to plant too thickly, and don't get back to thin them enough. I've had a few good crops, but they are not consistent.