I had a neighbor once who mixed carrot seed and fine sand together and seeded his carrots that way. I think celery seed are as bad as carrots. I want to plant some of both this year. Love my peanut butter stuff celery stalks.
Not possible for me right now sadly.
Hmm, interesting. Twisted carrots.
We have two huge south windows that last winter I grew nearly 100 marigolds in to try keep the Japanese beetles out of the raspberries and our trees. It sort of worked but neem oil works better so I'll not be doing that this year. My indoor plants are sort of taking over those windows now as I'm propagating a bunch.
It's one of the first things I plant. It's a cool weather veggie so I can get it going in early April or even late March, depending. I put it in the shade if it's going to be really hot but by that time, it's usually done. I'll start it again late August or early Sept and get a fall crop of it too
I love neem oil. A combo of neem oil, water, and castile soap is how I cleaned my pepper plants to over winter them
Wow, could you explain over-wintering pepper plants? I always have three beautiful ones but just let them freeze and die and in spring, get three more.
I do this same plan and if it is dry I wet it down and turn with a pitchfork. I am always amazed at the amount of compost I get!
I freeze chard because it freezes well for soups etc. I also take all my greens and dehydrate them then blend them to a powder for extra nutrition in smoothies or add in soup..I figure we use a quart of tomatoes a week. Sometimes we skip a week. But I plan on canning at least 52 quarts (more like 56, since the canner holds 7 quarts). I like to have extra on the shelf.
Then there's the salsa...I need 'maters for that too.
Since hubby has developed a taste for grilled beans, I need to grow more of those for the freezer. We never seem to use up all the potatoes, but that leaves me seed potatoes for the next season.
I'd really like to get enough sour cherries to make jam, and to freeze. The birds got the 6 cherries that were on our tree. This is the first year it had cherries, so I'm hopeful for next season.
Does anyone here freeze greens for winter use? Spinach, chard?
It was actually really easy. This is the first year I'm doing it so I don't know how successful it will be come spring. But right now they are doing great. In the fall, before the hard frosts hit, harvest all the peppers off the plant. Then cut it down to just a few branches or sprigs. All the leaves come off too. Then you dig out the plant around the root ball. Shake off as much dirt from the roots as you can, use a hose to wash all the dirt off, and cut the roots down if needed(I didn't. I was afraid to cut too much). Then make a mix of neem oil, water, and castile soap(have to look online for the ratios) and dunk the root end in it for a few minutes. Flip the plant around and dunk the top in for a few minutes. That is to prevent any bugs and eggs from coming inside. Plant the plant in a clean pot or tote, filled with a new bag of quality dirt. Put it somewhere cool, like a basement. You don't want the plant to freeze but you want it cooler than room temp. Don't worry about a light, any light coming in through a window is fine. Only water it every few weeks. The goal is to put the plant in a hibernation state. I have to reread how to start it again in the spring but here are my plants right now. I also saved some seeds from these plants, in case this doesn't work. The two plants together are bell peppers and the single plant is a jalapeño. I have to remove those little leaves that are growing
