What are your garden plans for 2021?

[taxlady]

I'm planning on using some of those containers that some restos use for delivery. The bottom is black plastic and the top is clear plastic and often already has a couple of small ventilation holes or flaps.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

I live in an apartment, but it's on the fourth floor with a big balcony and it faces south, so I get plenty of sun. I have two big pots out there with dirt in them. I want to enrich them with some organic fertilizer, then I have a starter kit with snap peas, cherry tomatoes and Thai peppers for one of them, and I want to put a dwarf fruit tree in the other. I haven't killed anything in a while now, so I am looking forward to the opportunity.

 

[larry_stewart]

Today was a real nice day ( and my day off too), so I decided to start my spring clean up around the garden. Also decided to check out how some of my plants from last year did through the water under the make - shift row covers and protection I made.

Seems like some one beat me to it !!

On a positive note, the kale seems to have survived.

 

[taxlady]

Today was a real nice day ( and my day off too), so I decided to start my spring clean up around the garden. Also decided to check out how some of my plants from last year did through the water under the make - shift row covers and protection I made.

Seems like some one beat me to it !!

On a positive note, the kale seems to have survived.

Is that your cat, Larry? It must be nice and warm in there. Cats do like warm.

 

[blissful]

Yay Larry, your kale survived. That will be the first thing we here will start eating in spring, the kale.

 

[larry_stewart]

Is that your cat, Larry? It must be nice and warm in there. Cats do like warm.

Yeah, I noticed the hole in the plastic last week, and had a hunch. Today I caught him in the act. I guess on the brighter side, he's helping keep the temp warm

 

[bethzaring]

Last week I had a huge light bulb go off in my head. I live in an intentional community of old folks and am by far the most serious gardener. Last week, we had a zoom meeting with a permaculture guy from Santa Fe. One thing he said, after touring our grounds, was we need a chipper. Well, I was the only person interested in this idea, so I bought my own.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Brush-M...n-1-Discharge-Safety-Goggles-CH8M20/311938218

The biggest issue I have is dealing will all my garden waste. I end up sending it off to the landfill, which I hate. Now I can make speedy compost and utilize leaves after running them through the shredder. Don't be fooled by the sale price, it has been on sale for over a year!

 

[larry_stewart]

Yay Larry, your kale survived. That will be the first thing we here will start eating in spring, the kale.

The kale is usually ready when my ramps pop up. Im looking forward to it. This is also the first year. can harvest my new asparagus bed so Im really excited about that.

Here is my much much much smaller effort of winter sowing . its my first year so I didnt go overboard. Got 8 containers going. 4 of which have sprouted ( peas, spinach, cabbage and brussel sprouts). As you can see, some of he containers are slightly crushed. That's because they had almost 3 feet of snow on them for about 1 month. I thought for sure it was going to be a failure, but Mother Nature proved me wrong. I was so convinced it wouldn't work, that I didnt account for any space in the garden for these extra plants , so now I have to scramble to find somewhere to put them.

The larger containers are actually kitty litter containers. The smaller are Plastic gallon water jugs.

 

[pepperhead212]

One of my chinense pepper seeds are beginning to germinate in just 5 days - the new Chocolate habanero seeds. I also have 4 of 6 basil varieties germinating in just 2 days, in some petri dishes with some paper towel pieces soaked with some 500 ppm GA-3 (didn't work with pepper seeds, when I tested it, but did great with many others).

Today, with the nice weather I had, I made up some seed starting mix, by first sifting some cheap peat moss, that has a lot of twigs and large chunks in it. I mixed in some perlite, a smaller amount of vermiculite, and some worm castings, then put the mix in one of those deep foil turkey roasters, and dried it out in a 200° oven, to sterilize it. When cool, I mixed some mycorrhizae powder into it, and when I need some, I'll dampen it with some Bt israelensis solution, to prevent fungus gnats.

 

[larry_stewart]

So Im about 2 -3 weeks away from getting my onions, leeks, potatoes and some of my leafy greens in. I was wondering if there was anything you guys do o your soil, at this stage, prior to planting these specific crops.

 

[pepperhead212]

I got my water turned on (though I may have to turn it off again, and drain the pipes one more time, due to freezing), and I got an irrigation line run down the center of my garlic/shallot row. I flushed the line, but left it running a little too long, and when I went down to put the end cap on the line, while it didn't look wet, since it soaked in fast, my left foot sunk about 3 inches into the mud! lol Despite no rain for 13 days here, and all the talk in the area about how dry it is, and warnings about brush fires and all that, it is not at all dry out there, from all that melted snow. Even the raised beds are quite damp, when I planted some radish seeds, and some scallion ends in them. I dug some compost into the surface of those beds last season, but that was all, so far. I have that kale, tatsoi, and leeks in one bed, that I want to put more in, so I might have to just pull it all, use as much as possible, and start from scratch.

 

[pepperhead212]

One problem I discovered with the dryness today was not so much the dry soil, but much of that leaf mulch blowing away, after drying out, and these winds that have been almost constant, during this dry period. I watered the mulch today, but it will dry out quickly, with the 30-40 mph winds. Often, when winds are kicking up like this around here, fronts are coming through, and often bringing rain, but not so far, this March.

I watered some weeds today! And fertilized them, as well! Actually, they are some herbs, I grow behind my shed, so they won't spread elsewhere - some oreganos, and garlic chives. I watered each cluster, and added a little fish emulsion, and did the same with the herbs in the herb bed - sweet marjoram, thyme, tarragon, and sage, plus I added some to the other sage, and rosemary, in the garden area.

Other than this, I mostly cleaned up out there - all those branches that keep blowing down, and blowing in, and if it wasn't so windy, I would have sucked up all those leaves that have gathered together, but no sense putting them in the garden. Maybe I'll just fill those large cans with the ground leaves.

 

[larry_stewart]

We're having the same issues with dryness and winds. It was nice for a few days, but the cold has just kicked in again, so the few things I started by seed ( in small pots and flats) I had to bring inside cause supposed to get into the mid 20's last night.

My winter sown jugs still chugging along. Everything has sprouted except one onion variety.

Stopping by a local garden store today to see if they got their seed potatoes in yet so I can chit them before planting.

Spread some compost in the areas where ill be planting in a few weeks.

Checked on the garlic. They are at about 3 - 4 inches . I just have to remember not to over water, as I did last year and lost about 1/3 the crop ( didnt actually lose, but very poor quality that I had too use up quickly, as they had no storage life in them.

Didnt remove any of my row covers yet ( kale, chard from last year, carrots from last year).

Did spread some clear plastic over a few beds just to warm up the soil, and get some of the weeds to sprout so I can get them out before planting other stuff.

Started to prepare my surplus potato buckets. I always over purchase the amount of potatoes I actually need in the potato beds, and then if U cutt a bunch of the larger ones, I wind up with even more. So, I usually prepare a bunch of large 5 - 10 gallon buckets) that I plant the extras in. I actually kind like doing this cause comes mid July or so, when they are ready, Each week I just dump another bucket ( which is enough potatoes for me for the week). By the time Im done with the buckets ( septemberish). I hen start harvesting from the beds.

 

[pepperhead212]

After it finally stopped misting today, I went out and cleaned out one of my raised beds, and planted seeds for 2 types of kohlrabi, 3 types of radishes, some perpetual spinach, and some mizuna. I was going to plant a couple of other things, but they are larger, and would have shaded other things.

We are supposed to be getting 1-3" of rain tomorrow, ending with a small amount of wet snow early Friday. We do need the water!

 

[larry_stewart]

This weekend Im hoping to get spinach, leaf lettuce, arugula and radishes in the ground . I was hoping to pick up some seed potatoes from my local gardening store, but they didnt have them in yet. My potato beds and pots are ready to go. Hoping id pick them up a little early to let them chit before I plant them. Im keeping an eye on the 10 day forecast to see when I can safely removed the row cover from my kale.

 

[larry_stewart]

For those growing potatoes, have any of you experienced any difficulty in getting seed potatoes this year ? I usually get them a local garden centers ( 5 pound bags/ different varieties). I haven't located them and when I asked the manager, she said she had ordered them but they dropped out of the order ( by the suppliers choice). They have 50lb bags that you can pick from, but Ive had such luck with the others for the past 5 + years. I dont like getting them online cause something like this I feel you need to see what you're getting.

 

[bbqcoder]

Good question. I don't know as I've been using my own seed potatoes for several years. In the past, I did order from Maine Potato Lady and was happy with their quality.

I really like "Pinto Gold". Amarosa is another good one.

 

[larry_stewart]

I finally scored some seed potatoes ( although I was nervous about getting shut out). There is a garden / farm store about 1/2 hour from me ( more in farm country). They had exactly what I was looking for. The place down the block has been consistent for 20 years. This is the first year I ran into this problem. Its basically a smaller version of the one out East, but serves a more suburban/ home gardener clientele. The other one serves the home gardener, but also the big guns in farm country . Next year Ill start out there.

 

[pepperhead212]

Overnight, I soaked some of my pepper seeds in a saltpeter solution, and today I planted them in vermiculite, to sprout them. There's "only" 12, but 2 of them - Superchili and Jalafuego - I'm planting later, when I plant the tomatoes, since they grow faster, and I end up plucking the flower buds from them every year, before transplanting them. And my chinense varieties I started a while back, since they sprout and grow slower.
Pepper seeds, soaked in saltpeter solution, ready to plant. 4-1 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pepper seeds ready to cover and sprout in the vermiculite. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

chinense peppers on 4-1, started on 3-7 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After planting the pepper seeds, I counted out all of the tomato seeds, to have them ready.
Tomato seeds, counted out and ready to soak Sunday night, and plant on 4-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[letscook]

Tomatoes - Amish Paste, beef steak, yellow slicing, yellow grape, red grape
Peppers- green peppers, lil sweet red, yellow, orange, jalapenos, habaneros, Padrons and bananna.
green beans, iceberg lettuce, celery, carrots, spinach, cabbage, zucchini , yellow summer, beets, onions, sweet corn and cucumbers pickling and English
Herbs: basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary