| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/5/2008 12:20:50 PM | Anyone got a winter garden in? Mine's growing leaps and bounds. Anxious to start harvesting lettuce soon. But our winter is more like everyone else's spring.
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/7/2008 4:15:59 PM | | For heaven's sakes Pistols...I just got my first seed catalog the other day..LOL. I've been thinking about ordering some onion seed...I really want to start some early this year so I can get the type onion that I like. I think I will have to start them in late January so they will get some size before transplanting in the garden in April. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/7/2008 9:04:42 PM | Hahaha Where I live winter is like spring everywhere else. So I have in all the early spring things. Some people were talking about doing indoor gardens. I miss having winter to go through catalogues and dream.
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/10/2008 3:32:36 PM | | I just got my seeds in for more of my fall garden. I have planted califlower, brocolli, peas, brussel sprouts, rutabagas, and beets. The new seeds I have are Blue cabbage, purple califlower, purple, white, and red carrots. I bought alot of exoctic veggies for the fun of it. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/10/2008 3:49:10 PM | Ya know kids? This simply isn't fair! I wanna protest! I am sittin here with snow so far up my hinney in 25 degree weather! Dayum you are all makin me jealous!
Please parcel post some o that fine produce my way will ya? | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/10/2008 4:03:31 PM | Why moon mah darlin', you need to come down south heah where it's 70F today and sample some of this luscious southern cuisine it will make you forget all about having tea with the QUEEN!
Ok turn off the "Scahlett" accent now...
Edit: 25? Isn't that a heat wave? | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/10/2008 4:26:59 PM | Now Mr. Mee? I do believe you are teasin me Sah! And sadly, Miss Moon would luv to move on down south where tis warm all the time.
But 25 a heat wave heah? Come now young man! We are not that cold here in the land of ice an snow! Just our planting season for a garden really does not begin untl May!!! | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/10/2008 9:24:46 PM | Well Miss Moon--Satin and I are within about 45-50 miles of one another, and trust me when I say that next summer when everything is warm but not unbearable where you are and you have that fine garden in, Satin and I will be into "5th" season where all we can grow well are cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and long hot season stuff like watermelons, winter squash and pumpkin. Well I guess corn too come to think of it. And apples. Well just not the cool weather stuff like lettuce and spinach, celery, carrots, beets, cabbages, brocc, peas, green beans, cauliflower etc. It will be so hot here that we will wish for some of your snow. LOL Look how pretty everything is with all that pretty snow. Enjoy the season and your catalogues. As for me, tomorrow it will warm up some and there's no fog tonight finally (maybe an end to a couple of weeks of it!) so I will get in some more parsley, beets, carrots and lettuce.
You should have seen me at 1 am Mon/Tues. I woke up and remembered I'd left the trash can at the curb. They'll ticket you here for that (I know, I know it's a gestapo state; heaven forbid the rest of the world become disillusioned when they discover that Californians put out trash like other people do!), so I went out to move it in behind the fence. The grass looked like it had frost on it but I thought I was seeing things. Lo and behold the car was all iced up too, so there I was running around in the back yard shivering in my nightie, covering up all the plants. I don't think I've warmed up yet.
Those carrots sound exotic BlackSatin.
What kind of onions are you going to grow Pupdaddy?
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/11/2008 10:57:16 AM | | Hey P&P, the carrots are cool, but the blue cabbage and purple califlower is ewesome!, I also bought some red cucumbers, purple radishes and some 3 color green beans (yellow, green and purple) for next spring. Here is the website for these veggies, astore.amazon.com/keiths permaculture store. They have rare seeds there. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 12/22/2008 4:42:54 PM | | P&P..sorry I took a while to respond..sometimes I forget I posted something in these threads. I like an onion called "Candy". They seem to be very sweet when grown here in Ohio..and are what they call "day neutral". Meaning they aren't affected by day length like a large Texas Grano, or Vidalia..which are short day onions...or a Walla Walla, or Sweet Spanish..which are long day onions. It has to do with what triggers them to mature..Short day onions are best planted closer to the Equator in the winter (Hence why they use them in the South) and Long day onions are best planted in the North. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 2/7/2009 6:39:56 PM | No problem PD See how long it's taken for me to get back to it, and I'm into active gardening this time of year. In fact, I think 1st cutting of broccoli might be about ready. I've been eating salads for a couple of weeks, usually cutting a bunch of lettuce and about 1/2 cup of Italian parsley and a green onion from the garden then adding a store bought English cuke. YUM I should get out the camera and post some pictures of the garden at this stime of year . Everything is doing so nicely.
As to onions, I suppose I should follow the lead of local farmers and plant something called Stockton Red and one other I can't remember the name of right now. It's just about time for a visit to my favorite feed store which carries everything for the farmers. Best place I know of to get the right stuff for this part of the world.
Way back on the early pages of this thread someone had mentioned that it was very difficult for her to grow tomatoes--she was in Spokane Washington. So for any of you just reading your catalogues now, there is a tomato called Sub Arctic Plenty that works pretty well for that climate. We used to grow them when I lived 20 miles from the Montana border in Wyoming. They are a 45 day tomato and can take some real cold conditions. A wall of water or mini greenhouses over each tomato might help guard against those low nighttime temps that make it diffifcult to set fruit, but this tomato really does take care of many of those problems.
Get ready everyone! Gardening season is just around the corner. I still get all excited in the spring even though the dates don't mean anything in terms of planting here. My mid western and Rockies habits have been slow to die. The internal clock is still not on west coast time.
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 2/8/2009 8:24:23 PM | | It's kind of funny..I just saw a blurb about growing tomatoes in Seattle on one of the PBS gardening shows the other week..and they mentioned it was next to impossible to get good tomatoes there. I believe it was because the cool nights they have make it very difficult for the tomatoes to ripen...they don't have much trouble setting fruit...but the nights are so cold..they don't mature. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 2/9/2009 12:12:24 AM | | That's why they need to use wall of waters and mini greenhouses --to keep the temperature above 55 at night so they will ripen. I'd bet they could get the SAP to ripen | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 2/9/2009 12:10:50 PM | | ...I suppose that Sub Arctic tomato is a determinate type...I'll bet several of the early determinates would be likely candidates. I've grown a tomato called 4th of July for years..Just a couple plants to get an early tomato. They don't grow too big..so wrapping some plastic around a tomato tower would probably give them a real chance of ripening. | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/14/2009 9:54:25 PM | I'm in heaven after finding this thread....I thought I was looking for love on POF, and here I am... a lot more excited about finding fellow gardeners!!
Up here in Western NY, it's also time to plant indoor tomatoes, peppers, herbs, etc. in my temp. greenhouse...i.e., (AKA spare bedroom). I acquired a commercial-sized (20'w x 30'l x 12'h) greenhouse last fall, and hope to have it operational by March 1st. I might even start and sell veggie plants at the local public market.
Among my plans at extending the season of other crops this coming fall/winter, I plan to grow about 6 varieties tomatoes in the g-house to see if I can harvest em thru xmas. Anybody else have experience at extending the veggie season....either before or after the "typical" growing season? With a big greenhouse, I'm open to any/all ideas.
I don't know about you folks, but I can't look forward enough to spring!! My lettuce seed gets planted every year under plastic here by 3/1, even if I have to shovel the snow off my raised beds. The payoff: 1st salads by 4/30 
Anyone else getting planting fever ?? GARY | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/16/2009 10:38:37 AM | Mr Garden Hi there I think you said what a lot of us have begun thinking!! LOL Definitely more excited about fellow foodies and gardeners. Of course if that "one" came along... but the gardening is the real thing .
You asked about extending the growing season. I used to live in Wyoming and several other states with harsh winters. We used all sorts of tricks. One was bales of hay surrounding the beds. Nice insulation. The other was to bring planting boxes in to the basement with grow lights. Those worked nicely to have something fresh in the winter.
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/16/2009 11:32:54 AM | Well, in a perfect world, the "one" for me would be another gardening foodie, who lived 20 miles away.
At my house everyone is ready to be outside digging in the dirt. My 7 year old ask me this week-end if it was time to get out our saved seeds to see what we could grow this year.
Here in Texas it really is time ~ I've already seen the first rose bud opening.
tb | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/16/2009 1:02:29 PM | You are so lucky..I want to sniff that rose bud...
..But seriously folks
..I'm wondering about keeping tomato plants growing in a greenhouse until X-mas. I think the commercial growers go through a bunch of natural gas keeping them warm enough to ripen tomatoes. They plant them hydroponically any more..(without soil)..and tie them to the rafters..and then tie them to the strings. I haven't a clue on varieties..but you ought to be able to Google some information on greenhouse production from your local universities. | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/16/2009 7:31:02 PM | | You all have me envious! We still have mounds of snow and really cold weather here. In the summer, it is difficult to grow things in my yard. I have clay soil. I would have to bring in a lot of dirt to make a veggie garden. I do have an herb bed though and I grow tomatoes in planters. Nothing like a fresh tomato or two from the garden! | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/17/2009 10:48:57 AM | | Just two words for you Moonie...Raised Beds. You don't need to build them any higher than 8 inches...and you can probably get free compost from your city's leaf collection department. Build them in the fall with something like used concrete block, some manufactured wood product (like they use on decks these days) or Cedar 2x8's...you don't want preservatives from treated lumber leaching into the soil. If you're willing to replace them frequently...any hardwood will do. Get a little masonry sand from a concrete supply house, (sometimes they will deliver it in a big plastic fiber bag)...and mix your clay soil, sand..and compost in the raised bed. You'll absolutely love the result. Make one a year until you have four of them..and rotate crops in them each year. Don't make them huge..you want them narrow enough to reach across and weed to the middle without straining. | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/17/2009 11:22:18 AM | Pup, my daughter uses just four small raised beds each year for her garden and I am always amazed by how much such a small space produces.
She works out of town a lot and her S/O will water, but he doesn't pick anything....
So,, I do! I always come home with lots of goodies from my raids.. hehehe
tb | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/17/2009 1:55:32 PM | Hey Pup? What a wonderful idea! I never would have thought of that. I was considering doing that for my flowers but instead had my Son do a lot of diggin with me last year! There is a spot here that would be perfect for at least two raised beds. I miss my lettuce, peppers and cukes! Again, many thanks for puttin that bee in my bonnet! | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/18/2009 6:59:54 PM | What is a "bee in my bonnet." Sounds like a soon to happen be sting to me.
Pupdaddy...I agree with you completely. I've been using raised beds for 10 years now. In addition to the commonly discussed advantages of good space utilization, maximizing yields, and simplifying soil improvement efforts, veggis planted in a raised bed arrangement are typically planted much closer together than by the open-garden traditional row approach....essentially all the area of the raised bed is used for growing. What I have noticed is that once veggis are established, there is very little soil exposed to either weed infiltration or to excessive soil moisture loss. I need to water my raised beds less often than my open garden. The ONLY precaution is that intensive gardening in a raised bed quickly strips nutrients from the soil. I try to make sure I fertilize heavily at the end of each season, and add compost-type materials to the soil at least 1x yearly( my favorite is leaf compost that I get free from my town.
A final advantage of using a raised bed is that it can easily be covered to extend the growing season either in the fall, or in the VERY early spring. A few 2x2 stakes, arched 2 inch strips of plywood, clear plastic sheeting, and a few rocks to weigh down the plastic are all that is needed to allow me to grow lettuces from the beginning of March to the middle of December...without use of any heat source other than the sun. Lady Moonchild, with even a harsher winter than mine, you should contemplate this approach. Winter here is too long for me to wait...so I devise ways to start early, and continue growing late in the season. With my new greenhouse, I will likely go crazy this year.  | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/19/2009 10:27:33 AM | | ..I have an idea for you..instead of all the wood for hoops over your raised beds, see if you can get some 3/4 inch plastic conduit..and a heat gun. You can poke them in the soil..or fasten larger pieces of scrap metal pipe to the inside of your raised bed..and then take the heat gun and warm them and bend them right over the top. I just had this flash of inspiration after reading your post....I think I'm going to have to give it a try myself. | |
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| Garden Time...even here up north
Posted: 2/19/2009 3:44:03 PM | I've also thought of PVC pipe..however, I was worried about the pipe deforming when it got hot under the plastic. Good idea PD!  | |
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