Your 2025 Garden

[NanaK]

I've bought those small plants in boxes a few times. They use to be be clear bags tucked inside the box. Most of the ones I see now are in white bags and you can't see the roots.

I think I've had the best luck with these when I bought then shortly after they were put out in the store. I pot them up in good soil and let them grow a bit more before I planted them out. Many I've just planted in the ground died.

Trumpet vine grows wild here and is invasive. I constantly pull them out of my flower beds. I do let some grow around the woods. Pretty but it is a struggle to keep them back.
Ya'll are welcome to come dig all you want.

 

[R2elk]

^^Maybe that's what happened to mine. It was "on sale," so it had been there a long time and they don't water those things, I'm sure.

At the local Walmart they kill them and the bulbs by placing them directly under an overhead heater. They are okay if you buy them the first few days they put them on display but they get them in months before it is planting season.

 

[TOMTE]

I've been thinking about trying hügelkultur raised beds, when I can. We have so much wood around here from fallen trees and branches, we'd just have to get the stuff to make the beds themselves.

 

[TOMTE]

At the local Walmart they kill them and the bulbs by placing them directly under an overhead heater. They are okay if you buy them the first few days they put them on display but they get them in months before it is planting season.

Why the heck would they do that?!

 

[R2elk]

Why the heck would they do that?!

Under the overhead heater is to make sure they don't freeze.

The timing of the arrival is determined by corporate people who live elsewhere and have no understanding of local conditions just like the idiots at TSC who keep trying to sell almond trees here.

 

[TOMTE]

Under the overhead heater is to make sure they don't freeze.

The timing of the arrival is determined by corporate people who live elsewhere and have no understanding of local conditions just like the idiots at TSC who keep trying to sell almond trees here.

Ah yes, those almond trees would surely love all the snow you get up there.

 

[R2elk]

Ah yes, those almond trees would surely love all the snow you get up there.

None of them survive their first winter. Unfortunately the snow isn't the problem. Some idiot redid the growing zones and no matter how hard they try to claim we are zone 5, we are at the very best a very cold zone 4. Zone 3 trees and plants have a much better chance of surviving. Zone 5 trees and plants will not survive here as perennials.

 

[Sally PB]

Ya'll are welcome to come dig all you want.

I know they're considered invasive in many states. And they grow fast! I wouldn't give them a second thought if the honey bees didn't like them. I guess our winters are harsh enough to keep them in check.

Some idiot redid the growing zones

Yeah, supposedly we're now 6a, bumped up from 5b. When I was looking for grape varieties, I looked for zone 4 hardiness.

 

[Sally PB]

@TOMTE, hügelkultur is a great method for planting. I wish I'd known about it when I made my raised beds.

BYC has an entire thread on it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hügelkultur-raised-beds.1604433/

I did bury a lot of logs/brush in deep trenches in my "flat area." That's where I plant things like potatoes (between the trenches) or squash that wants to sprawl.

I also buried some chunks in my heavy soil garden. That soil can use all the help it can get, as far as organic matter to lighten it up.

 

[R2elk]

I did bury a lot of logs/brush in deep trenches in my "flat area." That's where I plant things like potatoes (between the trenches) or squash that wants to sprawl.

I also buried some chunks in my heavy soil garden. That soil can use all the help it can get, as far as organic matter to lighten it up.

I used to bury all of my downed branches. My sand dune needs all the organic matter it can get. The places where I had previously buried branches are now natural mushroom producing areas.

Now I just turn all the branches into wood chips.