Garden Season has finally arrived (for me)

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larry_stewart

Master Chef
Joined
Dec 25, 2006
Messages
6,169
Location
Long Island, New York
Im excited.

Got a batch of seeds last week from my mail order, and my first batch of plants also arrived ( cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower).
Onions should arrive at the end of the month, and the local farm store should have potatoes available in a few weeks too.

Ive spent the winter thinking about what I did wrong last year, and how I can improve upon it this year.

Of course, the day I get my plants is the day before i was going away for a few days. The weather is a little unpredictable still here in New York, so Im hesitant to get anything directly in the ground. I planted the plants in 4 inch starter pots, just to give them room to breath for a week or two, until i feel comfortable enough that the weather won't kill them.

Just about everything is in raised beds or pots for me, due to voles, moles and other rodents. turned out to be a decent defense for me ( one of the things I've been tweaking over the years).

Last year I was smart enough to create a nice spread sheet as to when I planted, when I fertilized and when I harvested each edible thing in my yard. its nice to have something like that to fall back on. Makes tweaking that much easier having my own personal guide (wish I was doing it for the past 20 years, but better late than never).

My weakness is, If a plant pops up because it reseeded itself from the previous year (usually tomatoes), I tend to let it do its thing instead of removing it to keep ideal growing conditions for the other plants. Also, If I see an unusual plant or variety that I've never tried before,I get it. Doesn't matter if i have the room or not, I just get and deal with it.

Anyway, Im just excited and had to tell someone ( or everyone).

Here's to a great gardening year for anyone who gardens, and may the varmints move on to my neighbors yard and leave me a plentiful harvest!

Cheers,

larry
 
Today is the best day we've had for ages. Mrs. L has planted tomatos in small pots and they're just about ready to 'pot on'. We've still got a good crop of leeks - planted last year - but we will soon need the space for this year's potatoes. Need lots of leek recipes ! There's just so much to do and we're having a holiday after easter for a few weeks. Have to get things started and hopefully our son will tend things while we're on vacation.
 
I just tilled my garden last weekend. Today I'm off for supplies. I will do a soil test asap. Wish I realized how important this was 30 gardens or so ago.
We don't plant cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower in the spring. These are a fall crop for us.
I have been using those round "cage like", cone shaped, things for tomato plants, but this year we are trying something new.
Metal fence posts with a galvanized wire stretched down the center of the row to tie our plants to. I have a few turnbuckles left from a project years ago. Very glad i saved them.
 
Larry, I plant outside in gardens and raised beds and when I get a volunteer tomato or pepper, I also let them do their thing.

Capt, when the leeks come up the second year they send up a seed stalk. If you use most of them but let one go to seed, you can collect the seeds to plant next year. Onions will do that on their second year too.

I planted 3 flats of onion from seed for big bulbing onions this year. The covered raised bed, my lettuce garden, gets volunteer tomatoes and peppers among the herbs and all kinds of greens and lettuce (planting now). I'll be starting our peppers and tomatoes from seed in flats in the next weeks. We are 2 and 1/2 months from planting at the end of May up here in Wisconsin. This will be a big year for tomatoes, peppers, and beans. The lettuce garden grows best in the cooler spring days and then another crop of lettuce and greens from scratch starting the end of July until November.
 
I envy those of you who have lots of land to garden, and looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labor!

My patio container tomato plants are about 7 inches tall right now, and just about as wide as they are tall. :) They're loaded with blossoms, and I've also got spinach and green onions coming up. The rosebushes are blooming, trees are budding out, and the desert floor is green and starting to get wildflowers. I love spring - even though it's technically still winter. :ermm::ohmy::)
 
Well I'm excited that Larry's excited. I hope we see a few photos early and mid season. I remember looking at your harvest pix and raised beds last fall.

Like Blissful, we won't be planting out until mid May. However, there is a lot of prep to get ready for garden season. So much to look forward to. I'm going to plant tomatoes in pots this year with tall cages That seemed to work pretty good.

Not much snow this winter, even if I grumbled a bit. As soon as what little we had melted, the ground is really very dry. A little spring rain would help and also green things up everywhere.
 
Yeah, Im in prep mode now.
The yard looks like a disaster ( garden included)
Ill take pics at every important stage to show the progress.
Right now, Im just in the " get everything ready to get the potatoes, and other early vegetables in" mode.
Ive had a branch hanging over my garden for years. Finally having it removed. (Tree guy is coming for an estimate this week).
Majority of the garden doesn't kick in til May. Im always trying to sneak a few weeks in early on, but Mother Nature rarely has the same idea in mind.
So I just have to have a lot of patience, and just get things ready for the big day.
 
Roll bones - I have about 50 tomato plants each year. the best thing I have found is 5' concrete wire. Cut it 48-60 inches long and zip tie it together. Just sit it over the plant and its done. Works great and lasts.
 
We started our garden a couple of weeks ago, by starting seeds in the temporary greenhouse DH built last fall. He started peas and about a week ago we started multicolored bush beans, squash and gourds. He wants to buy cucumber, tomato and pepper plants this year and since I always forget to water seedlings, we'll do it his way :LOL: Hopefully we'll get volunteer tomatillos like we did last year. He also wants to do a potato box.

Our last average frost date is April 15, so plants can go in the ground on or after that.

Our spinach survived the winter, but I keep forgetting to pick it :LOL: I should get some more lettuce while it's still cool enough to grow it.
 

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the Of course, the day I get my plants is the day before i was going away for a few days. The weather is a little unpredictable still here in New York, so Im hesitant to get anything directly in the ground. I planted the plants in 4 inch starter pots, just to give them room to breath for a week or two, until i feel comfortable enough that the weather won't kill them.

Larry, you can find the last average frost date for your area here: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/weather/sprfrost.html

Plant a week later than the LAFD and you should be safe.
 
I have been using those round "cage like", cone shaped, things for tomato plants, but this year we are trying something new.
Metal fence posts with a galvanized wire stretched down the center of the row to tie our plants to. I have a few turnbuckles left from a project years ago. Very glad i saved them.

We started using fencing for tomatoes years ago. The indeterminate ones get so heavy, those little cages don't work well at all and I don't know who ever suggested using stakes - the tomato vines just slide down. You'll love the fencing :)
 
One more pic! Here's DH working a beehive with our friend. Paul is going to split his two hives and give us the splits to start our hives.
 

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Roll bones - I have about 50 tomato plants each year. the best thing I have found is 5' concrete wire. Cut it 48-60 inches long and zip tie it together. Just sit it over the plant and its done. Works great and lasts.

My neighbor makes wire rounds like you do. He said his were six inch squares. He welds his together. He does not use galvanized and IMO that is a mistake.
He cuts the bottom so he has spikes to push into the ground.
This is considered to be the best way to prop up tomato plants. At least it is here.
I know another guy who does nothing to his tomato's and he is just as successful as anyone else. They lay down then aim right back up. I saw his garden last year and not one tomato was touching the ground.
Funny how mother nature seems to know exactly what to do.

We started using fencing for tomatoes years ago. The indeterminate ones get so heavy, those little cages don't work well at all and I don't know who ever suggested using stakes - the tomato vines just slide down. You'll love the fencing :)

The cages are not all created equal. I do agree they can and do fall over. But in many instances, its operator error. They come in differing sizes and wire thickness.
My wife thought it was best to try and keep the growth inside the cage and that's exactly what you do not want to do.
The tomato plant needs to grow normally out through the wire cages and should not be trained to stay within the cage. This way the cage does not support to much weight.
Stakes were what was used for ages before these other options were available and no support was used before stakes.
Wooden stakes are what the local commercial farm uses. The wooden stakes do not allow slipping. I have even seen wooden stakes with notches cut into them for this reason.

Does anyone do their own soil testing? If so, what product do you use.
I know my extension office can do this for $6 per sample.
I would like to do this on my own and not have to get a sample and mail it off only to wait for the results.
TIA
 
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Speaking of supporting tomatoes, here's a picture of the last harvest a couple of months ago. The fence posts work great for a wire cage. SousChef already has little tomatoes on the new plants he planted last month with the same set up.

img_1459067_0_9246b97e74e1c0ae3e93d3e9ff026e49.jpg
 
Got Garlic, we ordered from Renee's Garden a few years ago. I loved how she would have 3 colors for beans, beets, zucchini--those variety packs were done well, each type of seed in a mini container-small envelope inside the seed pouch. The germination rates were great too. I'd recommend them in a minute.
 
blissful, good to know - thanks! :) I haven’t ordered from there before. I went to a talk by a Master Gardener last fall on "The Potager Garden" (French techniques for combining edibles and ornamentals); the speaker talked about these and showed pictures from her garden and I fell in love ? lol
 
Kayelle, that's similar to what we do. Our Master Gardeners who take care of the vegetable garden at the extension office have a similar setup, but they use wood.
 
The cages are not all created equal. I do agree they can and do fall over. But in many instances, its operator error. They come in differing sizes and wire thickness.
My wife thought it was best to try and keep the growth inside the cage and that's exactly what you do not want to do.
The tomato plant needs to grow normally out through the wire cages and should not be trained to stay within the cage. This way the cage does not support to much weight.

I know they do. In our case, it was wind from nor'easters that blew them down. We have some pretty fierce storms here.

You don't want to keep the growth inside the cage because it would get too crowded. Most plants need air moving through them in order to dry out after rain or watering; wet plants encourage fungal growth.

Whether the plants are inside or outside the cage, the weight is the same and the cage is supporting it. Unless you're letting it lie on the ground, which I wouldn't recommend.

Does anyone do their own soil testing? If so, what product do you use.
I know my extension office can do this for $6 per sample.
I would like to do this on my own and not have to get a sample and mail it off only to wait for the results.
TIA

It shouldn't take more than a week or so to get the results. The extension results will include micronutrients, which many home test kits don't, and they will also give you recommendations for any necessary amendments based on your local conditions. I also read an article that said home test kits aren't necessarily reliable. Extension kits are done at agricultural universities. I think it's worth the six bucks.
 
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One more pic! Here's DH working a beehive with our friend. Paul is going to split his two hives and give us the splits to start our hives.

Im Jealous.
Ive been eyeing a local bee keepers class for the last few years to take with my son.

This year was the year we were going to do it, and this year it was cancelled .

I did attend a lecture on bees at the philadelphia flower show a few weeks ago. Great lecture. Definitely made me even more interested. Hopefully they will bring back the class next year. ( Its a year long hands on program).
 

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