Garden 2024

[caseydog]

That actually happened a few miles from us a few years back. An adult man and his adult child had moved out of the house but it had not sold. Nice neighborhood, nice houses. So they outfitted it with grow lights and watering systems, grew lots of pot. The electric bill was so big that they were found out and arrested. It was in the newspaper.

Our fear is that the police don't know the difference between our legal tomato and pepper plants and illegal pot plants. From all accounts they rip out all the offensive plants and take them with them before they find out what kind they actually are. That would ruin my summer and my canning!

It happened in my sister's expensive gated community, directly across the street from her.

Two very nice young gentlemen bought the house across the street. They were quiet, polite and friendly. They also turned the whole two story house and garage into a grow house.

My sister came home from work one day, and the house was surrounded by police cars and those black Chevy Suburbans.

It was the electricity consumption that was their demise. The power company tipped off the feds, and the feds did some infrared camera shots of the house, got a search warrant, and that was that.

CD

 

[dragnlaw]

In the northern snow areas during winter, cops watch for houses with no snow on their roofs.

 

[pepperhead212]

The lights used most these days - the LEDs - use much less electricity and put out much less heat, for the light output, compared to those metal halide, or HPS lights.

 

[larry_stewart]

Garlic is at about 1 foot, Rhubarb, figs and even cherries ( in their infancy) looking promising. Also inoculated 16 logs with various strains of Shiitake mushrooms. Cant take 6 -12 months before they start to produce depending on variety and weather conditions.

 

[rodentraiser]

I was out after dark with a friend of mine on some acreage his aunt and uncle owned in the Santa Cruz Mtns. We watched the helicopter fly over and I mentioned it was flying really low. My friend said it was because they were looking for pot fields.

After the helicopter left, I saw a light bobbing on the ridge. I asked my friend what that was and he said, "Oh, that's Manny. He's gonna go pull his plants now."

 

[rodentraiser]

So tomorrow I'm having someone come over and he's going to open the bags of dirt and bark and spread them in the front. Then I'm hoping he'll help me pull the two tomato buckets (no tomatoes in them right now) and the strawberry barrel up to the trailer. I had white strawberries in the barrel and moved those to a bucket, then my neighbor came and took all the tulips and the bucket with her.

My first batch of strawberries arrived yesterday and I planted them in the barrel today after I moved the white ones. Now I wish I'd waited a day. I neglected to look at the temps and they're going down to near freezing and we have a frost warning tonight. I don't know what to do about the new strawberries except hope they'll survive.

I also got the butterfly weed today and I guess I'll plant that tomorrow.

The blue mist plants are fine and it looks like the deer are leaving them alone. Although it may be because the deer just haven't been around lately. This is fawn season now.

But now that the tulips are gone, I have two more barrels to put in the 25 strawberry plants that have still to arrive. They'll come with the two blueberry plants and the wintergreen plant I ordered. The rose is looking great but I still haven't noticed any growth on the pampas plant.

I also have what is supposed to be an azalea. It's about 5or 6 inches tall and it's leafing out again. But it was 5 or 6 inches tall when I got it and this is its third summer. Does anyone know why it won't grow? I'm going to put in a smaller pot if it doesn't want to get any taller.

 

[pepperhead212]

...I also have what is supposed to be an azalea. It's about 5or 6 inches tall and it's leafing out again. But it was 5 or 6 inches tall when I got it and this is its third summer. Does anyone know why it won't grow? I'm going to put in a smaller pot if it doesn't want to get any taller.

That doesn't sound right for an azalea, unless they have dwarfs, or some other miniatures! But then, I've never grown them, just seen them elsewhere.

All of my tomatoes are started; those two that were the latest - Big Cheef and Daniel Burson - have only one seedling in the two pots, and the second pot of each I filled with extras of others, Pruden's Purple Pink in one, and Oaxacan Jewel in the other. Everything is doing so well, I finally pinched off all of the extras, figuring I won't be needing any more of them; hopefully I'm right! However, I planted twice as many as I needed for all of them, and have 69 seedlings, so if anything dies, that's one less for my friends I give the rest to.

All of my eggplant pellets now have seedlings - one of the ichibans, which was the slowest to show up, now has 3 seedlings - I thought I had only put up to 2 seeds in each pellet, but not that one! The ones that had 2 sprouts, I waited to see which one was the largest, then pinched off the smaller one, as usual.

Peppers the slowest, as usual, though the ones already up, have seedlings in all the pellets, in many of them all the seeds germinated. Only 3 of them have no sprouts at all, and they are all new this year! Go figure...

 

[larry_stewart]

Although I said I'd never grow them again, My strawberry patch was a failure, so I salvaged what I could and put them in pots ( I usually have better luck with them in pots than in the ground) and ran out to get some Asparagus crowns to plant. I never have luck with them, and I dont like how they occupy a certain area in the garden, but this area is kinda isolated anyway, so I figured why not. Im sure I'll be cursing myself . Also, that fact that I have to wait a few years before harvesting is annoying. I had a bunch of left over onion plants that no one else near me wanted, so I found room to plant another 100. Nott in the ideal spot, but I figured I have nothing to lose. Worst case scenario his I use the tops to substitute for scallions.

 

[ElleSmith]

I figured that it was time to start a thread for this year's garden, though a lot of these are still from last year's garden! I have been using the leaf lettuce from 3 plants that simply have not figured out that it's winter, and the dill is still growing in that same container. And in my front "flowerbed" (where I grow almost all food, of course), I cut back the tatsoi and Swiss chard back to the ground a little over a month ago, and they're growing back! The bok choy has not come back, but might come back in spring, or before, then go to seed. I'm thinking of letting the tatsoi do this, and if any others come up, pull them quickly, so they won't cross - brassicas do this easily.
Tatsoi coming back again, after cutting back for the 3rd time. A total of 4 Swiss chards in the front row. 1-8 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Leaf lettuce and dill, coming back again, though they never totally died off. 1-8 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I recently "extracted" the seeds from the dried flowers from those lettuce seeds that I got from that plant that went from May to September before bolting - unheard of for any lettuce! This variety is something I got in a "Mesclun Mix", and have never been able to find what variety it is! I kept ordering similar looking varieties, and they would all bolt early (usually in early June, maybe a little later). This one would last well into July, and each time I'd save seeds, they'd last a little longer into summer, before bolting, and this was incredible - two other ones next to it bolted in mid August, which still would have been longer than any other types. I'll see what happens next year. This variety also does very well in the hydroponics, and usually takes 6 months or more to bolt.

I have all of my tomato seeds already, though it's almost 3 months before I plant them. I have 21 I am growing, and but 4 are new (to me) varieties(!), but there are 2 others I might repeat - some of the old seeds I've gotten from other gardeners, are being tested as I type this! I got a lot from them, so plenty to try out early.

Hard to believe I have more tomato varieties than peppers! lol Every season, however, I have a larger number of peppers I have to grow, so not as many spaces to try new ones. This season, one new one I'll try is that Indian Byadagi variety, that I get by the pound, and I got a new batch shortly after TG, along with Kashmiri, and I tried about 15 pepper seeds from some of each variety, and a bunch of the Byadagi germinated, but not one of the Kashmiri seeds sprouted. I only got one new pepper variety so far - a jalapeno, Mucho Nacho, so hopefully it will do better than the ones I've grown in recent years, which have been ok, but nothing spectacular.

I have a variety of eggplant - Matrosik - I got seeds for from a lady in S Florida, so I figured that it would have to be heat resistant! I also got Asian Delight hybrid, and Long Purple, along with the Ichiban I grow every year, and that should be enough for this season! The new okras last year didn't do great, so I'll be doing just the Emerald and Little Lucy, unless I get something in a trade.

Wow, your garden sounds amazing! It's cool how some plants just keep growing, even when it's supposed to be winter. Your lettuce and dill must really love their spot. And those tatsoi and Swiss chard are real troopers, growing back after you cut them! It's like they've got their own little comeback story. As for the bok choy, who knows what it's up to, but maybe it'll surprise you in the spring. Handling those brassicas sounds tricky, but you've got it all figured out. Your garden sounds like a fun adventure!

 

[pepperhead212]

Those Swiss chard are still getting large - surprisingly not a hint of bolting yet, but as soon as they show that, I'll harvest all of them, as those spots get other plants in them soon.

Here are those Swiss chard plants, out front, that I planted sometime last fall, harvested a bunch then, before they sort of died back (but not really), then took off again in the winter, due to mild temps.
Two of the Swiss chard plants from last fall. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The largest and the smallest of the Swiss chard plants, from last fall, on 4-18. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And there's no stopping that garlic! Do any other garlic growers remember back when the garlic would be planted around Halloween, even earlier farther N, but the garlic wouldn't even show, just grow underground some, as the ground would freeze? It would show up, around early march, before taking off! This stuff grew all winter long! But there's no global warming...
Garlic growing great, with all that rain. 4-18 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[Kathleen]

I weeded around the garlic today. It's looking good! I am hopeful!

After waiting for a few years for my asparagus to really take off, I planted new crowns along the back wall. Someone mentioned onions at Dixonfarm on here last year. I bought a sample of onion sets and placed them out last week. Hopefully tomorrow, I will put a few tomatoes in the ground.

My grandmother always told me to wait until the Ice Saints passed to put things in the ground. I am going to gamble against them and put four tomato plants in the ground by the weekend. Honestly, I have been the only person around to not have tomatoes by July, so....well, okay. We shall see.

 

[larry_stewart]

Those Swiss chard are still getting large - surprisingly not a hint of bolting yet, but as soon as they show that, I'll harvest all of them, as those spots get other plants in them soon.

Here are those Swiss chard plants, out front, that I planted sometime last fall, harvested a bunch then, before they sort of died back (but not really), then took off again in the winter, due to mild temps.


And there's no stopping that garlic! Do any other garlic growers remember back when the garlic would be planted around Halloween, even earlier farther N, but the garlic wouldn't even show, just grow underground some, as the ground would freeze? It would show up, around early march, before taking off! This stuff grew all winter long! But there's no global warming...
Garlic growing great, with all that rain. 4-18 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

II also have chard that survived the winter with no bolting yet. When it starts to go, Ill probably pick it all and make a saag paneer of something of the sort

As far as garlic goes I used to get nervous when I saw growth in the fall/ winter. Now I get nervous if I dont. I used to pick the garlic on July 4th, now I pick them or at least consider picking them mid June

 

[rodentraiser]

Well, everything in barrels and buckets is up against the trailer and behind the netting and everything, except my yard, looks much better. Thing is, the netting is still down on one side and we took the other side down yesterday to build a second post to attach the netting/parachute cords to (the cords were attached to a wire "cage" I'm getting rid of). So I still have to put the netting back up.

I should explain. I have my netting attached to parachute cord which is attached to the side of the garden arch, then to a post at the end of the garden bed, the cord goes around that corner post and back to the front of the trailer and is attached there. Same for the other side, except it's attached to the front end of the trailer. It's like I've fenced a small yard on the side of my trailer.

The two "posts" (I had wanted real posts in the ground but couldn't get anyone to do them) consist of 4 cinder blocks stacked on top of each other, a dowel stuck in both openings, and the cinder blocks then filled with sand to give stability. The dowels stick up over the blocks about 4 inches and those are what I tie my parachute lines to. Then I take clothes pins and pin the netting to the line, which is attached to the garden arch on the other end. It's called cheap fencing. LOL

I do the same for the sides as well. The netting isn't high enough to keep out some really determined deer, but it does discourage them and I still put netting over my roses and strawberries inside the net fence "just in case".

So tomorrow the netting goes back up and I'd like to plant the irises out front. The entire front is done now except for the section between the two driveways and I'll tackle that next year. We have one more night of almost freezing weather, then I think we're home safe for the summer.

 

[pepperhead212]

As far as garlic goes I used to get nervous when I saw growth in the fall/ winter. Now I get nervous if I dont. I used to pick the garlic on July 4th, now I pick them or at least consider picking them mid June

That's exactly what happened with me, maybe the 3rd year I was growing garlic, and was afraid that the garlic that had appeared would get killed by the extreme cold of the winter ahead! Others that had been growing it for much longer, told me not to worry, as it would always come back.

 

[rodentraiser]

Well, it's tomorrow and I haven't done a thing, as usual. Amazing that anything I plant grows around here.

 

[pepperhead212]

I got some gourds and melon seeds soaking in 250 ppm GA3 solution - works well for those, and many other seeds, but doesn't help with tomato or pepper seeds. Okra is another that GA3 speeds up, and it will be planted soon, too. Everything outside needs to get readied, as time flies at this time of year!

 

[blissful]

It's been wet here then it was drying out and getting warm and we made plans to switch around landscape fabric but it rained all day again. Then today, big winds and we can't do switching with the winds. I don't think we'll have time to work on the garden until after tomorrow-the bees are coming.
We have flats of onions growing, and 2 flats of peppers, and 6 of tomatoes. The cover frame is set up and rebuilt again, so I can put in the lettuce garden on the next warm day if the wind isn't crazy.

 

[larry_stewart]

I got some gourds and melon seeds soaking in 250 ppm GA3 solution - works well for those, and many other seeds, but doesn't help with tomato or pepper seeds. Okra is another that GA3 speeds up, and it will be planted soon, too. Everything outside needs to get readied, as time flies at this time of year!

How long do the gourd and melon seeds soak prior to planting ? I bought a bunch od melon seeds rom Bakers Creek. Varieties I've never grown ( or seen ) before. I usually dont have luck with melons. The vines die like a week before the fruit were fully ripe. The ones I got are kinda like mini melons, with shorter times until ripe. I'm hoping that will make a difference. I was going to wait until May1st to get my melon, squash and gourd things going. Okra I usually start May 1st and get them and sweet potatoes into the garden about the same time, late May. String beans also usually start May 1st, but they grow pretty quick, and I'm able to get them in sooner.

I start most my tomatoes from seed, but I'll usually get a few new varieties each year from Burpee. I've been disappointed the last few years by their packing of live plants. One year they even had to replace a few plants. It looks like whoever delivered them were playing catch with the boxes ( actually more like soccer). My dad used to order from them back in the day, so It's kinda like tradition. I get literally dozens of catalogues, which I order other stuff from too. Wondering if any of you guys had better success with the status of your live plants that have been shipped to you ?

Most my fig trees are outside in the shade acclimating to the sun ( I did see a few burnt leaves, but nothing too bad). My most productive and hopeful varieties are still in my indoor plant room , as I dont want to take a chance with them, I figure I'll get them outside May 1st. One even has about 12 Figlets on it already. Today I'll be attending " Figstock". Its a local gathering of people in the area to trade, sell and talk figs, Hoping to learn a lot and come home with a few more tree varieties.

 

[pepperhead212]

How long do the gourd and melon seeds soak prior to planting ? I bought a bunch od melon seeds rom Bakers Creek. Varieties I've never grown ( or seen ) before. I usually dont have luck with melons. The vines die like a week before the fruit were fully ripe. The ones I got are kinda like mini melons, with shorter times until ripe. I'm hoping that will make a difference. I was going to wait until May1st to get my melon, squash and gourd things going. Okra I usually start May 1st and get them and sweet potatoes into the garden about the same time, late May. String beans also usually start May 1st, but they grow pretty quick, and I'm able to get them in sooner.

I just soak those gourd and melon seeds overnight; the smaller melons, like cantaloupe and honeydew, I just plant directly in the pellets. One of those bottle gourds, that I soaked overnight, looked like it was starting to sprout already! I put those on a strip of PT, folded in 7 or 8 layers, and moistened with the GA3 I soaked them in. Those bitter melons are the slowest to germinate, but this speeds them up. Here's that photo of that 7 year old bottle gourd seed I tested a couple of months ago, and the 3 that I soaked this time are the variety with one that has a hint of the white sprout showing.
A "test seed" of a bottle gourd variety, from 2017. It sprouted in just 2 1/2 days! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

GA3 speeds up okra seeds incredibly fast, compared to just direct seeding, or just using water to soak. I'll be doing those soon - maybe tonight into tomorrow. Beans I only soak 30 minutes or so, before direct seeding, but do this after my tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, because it's a pita the way I have to do them - I only grow pole beans, in a trellis row, with some chicken wire along both sides, to keep rabbits out. Otherwise, no beans will survive. And I have to dig out/remove last year's cardboard I use to keep weeds down as much as possible, put it in the compost, clean out the row, put the drip line back down, and plant the new beans, cutting new pieces of cardboard to put in between, then replace the chicken wire. Probably takes me less time to plant all those tomatoes, and a lot easier! But these don't need to be started indoors.

I have only bought plants online a couple of times. Once, was peppers, from a place in N jersey - Cross Country Nurseries - that is much closer to you, @larry_stewart , and sells tomatoes, too. I got good plants from them that year (I had an operation, so had to reduce my indoor planting a lot!). And they have a great selection.

ChilePlants.com - Home

I've also gotten some plants from Richter's Herbs - probably the greatest selection of herb seeds and plants, and though they are in Canada, the plants arrived in great condition.

Richters Herbs - Medicinal, Culinary, Aromatic - Plants & Seeds

1000 varieties of culinary, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Plants, seeds, dried herbs, books, videos, software, seminars, workshops, conferences. For home gardeners and commercial growers. Shipped worldwide.

www4.richters.com

 

[dragnlaw]

I pass by Richters all the time. On my way to visit with my bro and SIL. Just looking at the on-line catalogue now. groan.... I want this and a couple of those, a few of these and yeah, throw in some of that while we're here.

My mom used to shop there all the time.