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Post by richardw on Apr 5, 2018 1:24:40 GMT -5
richardw Your garden pic is beautiful. How do you choose which plants to put next to others? And do you organize by row or by bed? (I'm struggling with garden layout right now. It's bigger than it's ever been and yet somehow I have nowhere to put my tomatoes...on my plan, at least.) I dont get into companion planting but i do like to follow a ration whereby root crops are followed by a nitrogen fixing crop and thats about it. I often find myself standing in the middle looking around thinking, 'where can i plant ..!', thats if its a free small bed and as had compost buried in it within the last two years. |
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Post by shmack1 on Apr 7, 2018 0:19:32 GMT -5
Ha ha, I guess everything is relative, what you call a drought is a good bit of rain were I am! I'm starting to understand why the drought tolerant varieties I get from some US breeders never live up to there name..
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Post by jocelyn on Apr 13, 2018 14:40:07 GMT -5
Hi reed, good luck on the rugosa roses,  I started mine in the porch because of the mice. Picture in a minute. I think you said you can plant outside? Less mice? |
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Post by jocelyn on Apr 13, 2018 14:44:29 GMT -5
Here, just for you.  |
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Post by reed on Apr 13, 2018 15:26:09 GMT -5
O wow, our weather has been so goofy I'm behind on things and just got mine out in the cold frame yesterday. Sure hope I get a good bunch to start.
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Post by jocelyn on Apr 13, 2018 18:02:49 GMT -5
The same planting will send up new seedlings for several years, so don't give up on them. They need about 12 weeks cold before they come up, and hard dormant ones may take 2 or more winters till they pop up.
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Post by reed on Apr 15, 2018 4:42:45 GMT -5
It was about a month ago during a warm dry I planted a bunch of stuff and then it turned mostly cold and wet. Not much of anything had come up except for barley, oats and a little later lettuce. Oats are a little thin but I think every kernel of barley sprouted. I had planted all of my onion seeds saved from Joseph Lofthouse 's and toomanyirons 's trades from the year before and all of my leeks from richardw 's. I was getting worried that I might have lost them but as of yesterday I have very good germination in all of them. And, even better, they are much stronger looking sprouts than the year before when I did them inside or in a cold frame. The first leaves seem thicker and darker green. And I don't have to scoot along on my butt setting them out, all I gotta do is thin a little. Carrots also coming up good, I mixed the seed with some chopped up dry leaves and it worked to make a nice even sowing, won't have to thin much at all. I'v been pitching radishes all around and have them in different stages although the first ones to sprout got frozen. Probably 3/4 of my pear and apple seeds also came up to early and got frozen but I still have a dozen or so of each that look real good. I'm out of space for trees but I pot them up and sell em. Noticed the first volunteer sunflower yesterday and dill is all over the place as usual, I'll have to pick out a spot to transplant them in to. Nothing yet on Swiss Chard, may have to replant it and nothing yet on potatoes. I hope the potatoes didn't rot, they should be up pretty soon if they didn't. I scattered bread seed poppies around here and there, they might be up, I didn't think too look. All the garlic and several different hardy onions look fine. Yesterday I replanted all the best of last years onion crop that had stayed perfectly good all winter in an old dresser drawer in the spare room. Hopefully they will just all bloom together and mix up a little. Tomatoes, dahlias and a few TPS are doing fine in the cold frame, they were getting a little leggy but past few days of warm sunny weather with the lids open seemed to perk them all up a little. I left the TPS outside, can always drop them back in if it looks like frost might happen. |
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Post by richardw on Apr 15, 2018 15:15:01 GMT -5
Good to read that my leeks are doing well, how do you grow them?
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Post by reed on Apr 15, 2018 19:57:59 GMT -5
Good to read that my leeks are doing well, how do you grow them? Well, last year I didn't, I forgot about them last spring. I thought about planting them last fall but changed my mind. Since they are supposed to be perennial and I'v read of people leaving them in place to form permanent plantings I made a special spot for them and just direct sowed. As of yesterday I had a very nice showing of seedlings. I figure I'll just leave them alone till big enough to need thinning and replant any I pull. If they get big enough in one season I'll eat those. The ones left behind in the new leek patch, I'll just mulch and leave in place. I'v never grown leeks before. Does that sound like a good plan? |
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Post by mskrieger on Apr 16, 2018 11:00:14 GMT -5
Nothing like reading your garden reports to give one springtime hope! Absolutely nothing has sprouted in my garden yet, and the new blackberries are just sitting there in the soil, probably still dormant. I've been having that sinking feeling that the seeds have all rotted...but of course in a week or two they'll show themselves. I got to have faith. And some warmer weather. Send some my way  |
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Post by richardw on Apr 16, 2018 14:59:46 GMT -5
I dont know about growing them as a perennial because i dont grow them like that. I thickly sow late winter in a small square, when they get to about 40cm tall and by then are rather clumped together i dig them up for transplanting, thats normally mid summer. In a separate bed i use the handle of my shovel and ram it as deep as i can into the soil, up to about 40cm, then wiggle the handle from side to side to press the sides of the hole as i left the handle out making sure the hole doesn't cave in, then its just a matter of dropping the leek plant down into it so just the tips of the leaves are showing, then just a wee bit of water in each hole to cover the roots, in time the growth tip climbs its way up outa the hole. So you end up with a long white eatable section  |
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Post by reed on Apr 16, 2018 16:56:23 GMT -5
richardw, Well, just by chance that is pretty much exactly what I did. And that's what I'll do when they get big enough. If ya don't grow as perennial how do you care for the ones you keep for seeds? Don't they have to overwinter fer that?
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Post by richardw on Apr 17, 2018 15:29:19 GMT -5
For me the seed leeks are grown as a biannual, but thinking about after i recently pulled my last seed crop out there were a few that had grown some bulbs, so yes i suppose even the modern strains of leeks would turn into a perennial if left in the ground, i do have a bed of perennial leeks but these are the smaller stemmed and stronger tasting, i would think is more of a old wild strain, only has a short flower stem, i like these more for eating than the modern strain but there's a lot more work processing enough for a meal.
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Post by steev on Apr 18, 2018 2:38:52 GMT -5
You get what you pay for. Modern cultivars of everything have been bred for yield of quantity, not quality.
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Post by richardw on Apr 18, 2018 14:58:07 GMT -5
Thats right, pull one modern leek you have a meal, easy.
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