What are your garden plans for 2022?

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larry_stewart

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I was out and about this morning and saw a bunch of seed displays out, so figured its that time a year again to start this thread.

The other day I went through all my current seeds to see what I had, needed, what was good or winding up in the trash.

Also went through my pile of garden catalogues ( for the 100th time). to ry and narrow down what I'm getting and who Im getting It from.

Each year I get less seeds and buy more things already started at the nursery.
I just find it easier and less time consuming. There are some things I jus haven't been predictably successful starting from seeds over the years, so I prefer to focus what Im good at, and let the pros deal with the finicky things.

I used to exclusively shop from Burpee, but have had issues the last few years, so Im not putting all my eggs in one basket this year.

Has anyone ever ordered from Territorial Seeds, and if so, any issues? They seem to have a lot of things I want. ( I also order from Johnny's, Vermont Bean and a bunch of others).

Has anyone grown Shishito Peppers? I've never grown nor had them, but in the past month I've seen recipes for them popping up all over he place ( almost like kale, and brussel sprouts have done in past years ). so im thinking of giving them a shot this year. Any challenges in growing them compared to other peppers? or just another pepper?

As of right now, Garlic, Kale, carrots and shallots are in the ground from last year. Carrots will get picked as soon as the ground is workable. Kale will kick in and bolt, but I like eating the florets ( tastes like little broccoli) and I usually cook them up with ramps which are ready about the same time.

Late march the leafy stuff will go in ( lettuce, arugula and radishes ( which. hate).

Already ordered Onions and leeks, and over the next few weeks will scout out some farm stores out east to pick up potatoes so I can Chit them prior to planting.

I did expand my front garden by ripping up a few kiwi vines that took over that part of my property. Ill be planting 12 blueberry bushes there, and It will also be more of a conventional garden ( not defined raised beds), allow me to grow some squash, melons ... and let them grow and spread without shading out for over taking other parts of the garden.

I pruned many of my fruit trees the other day. Not as aggressive as I should have been, but more aggressive than the past.

Also have a few new mushroom beds I stared last fall ( Morel and wine cap) which Im hoping will fruit this spring ( morels can sometimes take years, so my hopes aren't too high on that one).


Still deciding whether or not to grow sweet potatoes and peanuts. both do well, and we love the excitement of not really knowing what your going to get til you unearth them, But , they take up a lo too room, and we really dont east sweet potatoes much. Although, I may grow them in that new area up front.

Asparagus was ripped up after years of disappointment ( turning it into another potato bed, now that I store the potatoes as fries in the freezer successfully )

Still deciding if I should give carrots and beets another try, as they usually stink

How are your guys plans going ? Anything new? Anything you're giving up on ?? .
 
Larry, I remember you mentioned having worked out how to successfully freeze fries. I don't remember what you did. Do you mind repeating that or linking to the originals post?
 
The gardens here will be the same size. No potatoes this year, they are just so inexpensive and take up too much space. Cutting back to 60ish tomatoes, two kinds, and only one kind of pepper, bell, 30ish. With all the extra rooms we are trying new things and adding more root vegetables and others.
Kales, carrots, beets, amaranth (two kinds), more sunflowers, cabbage, and we're putting in a cattle panel arch for squash, pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, anything that vines. It will be a new adventure to try new things. More variety.
 
Larry, I remember you mentioned having worked out how to successfully freeze fries. I don't remember what you did. Do you mind repeating that or linking to the originals post?

This is the link to the site I learned if from.
I have done it about aa dozen times , or so, and only once they came out a little mushier than Id like. I think my error was I blanched them a little too long. They say 2 minutes but it needs. a little more time ( probably based on how you cut the potatoes ). But I figured that out , Is definitely a learning curve. Now I kinda start tasting them after 2 minutes and I know the consistency they need to be when you pull them out and shock them Ice water.

They also say russet potatoes. I grew 3 different varieties ( russet, red norland and Yukon gold). the russet were slightly fluffier and better, but tithe others were just fine.

Also, I says to bake them at 425F for 20 to 25 minutes. In my oven, I have to boost it up to 450. I kinda shuffle and salt them mid way to get an even crisp.

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-freeze-your-own-french-fries-235216
 
Baker Creek does have a great catalog. On a gardening forum I go on all the time, someone brought it to everyone's attention Friday that BC is donating 100% of their seed sales up to midnight tonight to Ukrainian humanitarian aid.
https://redirect.viglink.com/?forma...ty invites YOU!&txt=www.rareseeds.com/ukraine

A bunch of us had already gotten everything we needed, but we ordered a few things anyway! What's a few more seeds?
 
I have a bunch of new tomato varieties this year, as always, but only 4 oldies but goodies. It's exactly reversed with peppers - only 4 new ones, and 9 must haves.

Only one butternut - polaris, the long, vining hybrid, that I haven't had any come close to. Same with the bottle gourds, just the one long variety. The bitter melons I have 3 new ones of, and no other unusual Asian gourds.

With beans, I only have my usual pole beans, plus a new, green hyacinth bean - Bhavna - listed as a pole bean, while most of that variety are bush. And the fact that it is heat resistant, being grown in southern India, caught my eye - many of my beans are stopped, by my frequent heat waves. The Thai red long bean and rattlesnake, are two that keep producing.

I haven't started any greens yet, but it won't be long! Another month, plus a little, before the later things, but I'm experimenting now, as usual! Last week I tried some tomatoes that I got no germination with last two seasons, from 2019 saved seeds (or the last of the original packet, maybe 2013), but I found another I had saved from 2018. The tomato is a favorite - Amish Gold Slicer - but it's nowhere to be found, including Baker Creek, where I got it as a free seed pack! I was desperate to get just one to germinate, so I soaked some of 2019 and 2018 seeds overnight in a saltpeter solution (what I always use for peppers, and tomatoes and eggplants, as well since I have it at the same time), then put them in separate trays in a seed sprouter - the kind for mung beans and the like. This is always what I try as a last resort! After 2 1/2 days, rinsing 5 or 6 times a day, I thought I saw a sprout on a 2018 seed, and the next day it was definite, with a bunch of sprouts, and after 4 days every single 2018 seed sprouted, but not one of the newer ones!
I think every one of those 2018 seeds sprouted! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Now I have another, even older (2010?) pepper seed - Maui Purple - I'm trying. Someone told me about soaking their pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide, with great success speeding them up. So I tried a bunch that way, and a bunch in the usual saltpeter, then in the sprouter. On top of this, I'm keeping it heated, about 85°, in the Instant Pot, on yogurt/low mode. I'll see what happens...
 
Thanks for the recipe link Larry. I have saved it to Copy Me That. I really prefer the idea of oven baking my own fries and having them handy over getting the ones from the store with all the weird stuff in the ingredient lists.
 
Thanks for the recipe link Larry. I have saved it to Copy Me That. I really prefer the idea of oven baking my own fries and having them handy over getting the ones from the store with all the weird stuff in the ingredient lists.

Deep fried are better , but his way is still very good. Im not big into deep frying things. Also, for me, a great way to extend my potatoes throughout the year after picking. They only last few months before the eyes start growing ( I dont have a cool enough place to store them long term). So, I make these fries, also do the same for shredded potatoes and freeze them too for future hash browns or potato pancakes, and then I make pierogi and freeze them too. I tried making gnocchi, but the consistency was weird, so I stopped doing that.

Again, the key to the French fries is the time needed to boil them enough, but not too much so they get mushy and fall apart.
 
Couldn't sleep last night, so I ordered my Beess ( Mason and leaf cutter ) for the season. I actually have about a dozen mason cocoons overwintering from last year. The first bunch will be released early April for the fruit trees. Then late may Ill open my leaf cutter tubes o see how many leaf cuter cocoons I got. they will go out May - August to pollinate the rest of the garden throughout the season.

Also ordered the seeds I needed for the year. Still have to order a few more things from other catalogues

Today Ill order mushroom spawn ( shiitake and wine cap). The other day I was driving and saw many perfect logs from a cut down tree that were just sitting there ( probably from a recent storm). I conveniently stashed a few in my car, perfect for shiitake, Plus, I still got 4 inoculated logs from last year.

May take a drive out east and see if they got their seed potatoes yet. Wont get in the garden til April, but dont want to miss out ( as I almost did last year).

Probably need to restock my strawberries to fill up the thinning patch.

Patiently awaiting the 12 blueberry plants I ordered over the winter. Already cleared the area and supplemented the soil where they are going. Had nothing better to do, so found aa website that figures out the sun position, angle and shadow length for each day of the year. Needed this too figure out how close I can plant the blueberries to the fence without being shaded out.

Supposed to be near 70 tomorrow and Monday, so hopefully Ill be able to get out and clean things up a bit to get ready for the season.
 
Deep fried are better , but his way is still very good. Im not big into deep frying things. Also, for me, a great way to extend my potatoes throughout the year after picking. They only last few months before the eyes start growing ( I dont have a cool enough place to store them long term). So, I make these fries, also do the same for shredded potatoes and freeze them too for future hash browns or potato pancakes, and then I make pierogi and freeze them too. I tried making gnocchi, but the consistency was weird, so I stopped doing that.

Again, the key to the French fries is the time needed to boil them enough, but not too much so they get mushy and fall apart.

Do the shredded potatoes get parboiled too? Do you freeze that in blobs or do you freeze a thin layer and break off what you need later or something different?
 
Do the shredded potatoes get parboiled too? Do you freeze that in blobs or do you freeze a thin layer and break off what you need later or something different?

Yes.
Same as the French fries. Parboil, drain and pat dry with a towel, then I store them in a ziplock kinda flattened. I save them in proportion sized amounts , but definitely could be broken off if I wanted less.

When thawed, they still contain a decent amount of moisture, so need to be squeezed to get rid of the excess liquid prior to using.

I do the larges size on the grater. They dont need too be boiled asa long as the fries due to their significantly less size.
 

yeah, I have a stack of catalogues on my kitchen table that I browse through every nigh. I try to limit my ordering to just one catalog, but although a lot of overlaps, there are also aa lot of ' exclusive' varieties which means I have to order from multiple companies.

This year, definitely Bakers creek, burpee, territorial. But im sure im not done yet.
 
I didn't buy from a number of usual catalogs this season, either because they were out of several things (or dropped them), and I wasn't going to make several orders, from the same place, due to shipping. BC I ordered from 3 times, as they would get items into their inventory, and I'd see them (and maybe a new item at the same time), and, while the prices are a little high, the number of seeds is usually good, and no shipping. I had an order at Botanical Interests And Tomatofest - both with good prices, plus someone posted codes for free shipping for any size order, probably a holiday thing.

One new site I was told about recently, is the best site for many Asian vegetables that I've seen since the original evengreenseeds.com went under. I resisted buying anything now, but I'm sure I will for my fall garden! lol One fellow that found the thread, on the other forum, said that he limited his purchase to 50! It definitely looks mostly Chinese, and has a lot of beans, greens, stem vegetables (the stem mustard is one that caught my eye, for making my own Szechwan Preserved Vegetable), gourds (more bitter melons than anywhere I've seen, including a very long white variety), and many other things. The couple that runs this also has things on YouTube, though I haven't checked those out yet.
https://asiangarden2table.com
 
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I went out late today, and the ground was ok to walk on, so I planted three 10 ft rows - carrots, 4 types of radishes, and scallions in one raised bed. It's supposed to rain even more tonight and tomorrow, so I wanted to get something done out there. I also planted those shallot seeds this morning that I soaked. And while it was raining this morning, I straightened up the seed starting room, and got the lights and timer all ready - as soon as the greens start up, the lights will be on for quite a while!

And here are those radishes, almost every one sprouted:
Here's the radishes in the bucket, 3-6, almost every one sprouted. I pulled out the smallest of the two sprouts, when both came up. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I only planted 8 more Blue Moon radishes in that 10 ft row - the last of the packet. I'm going to let one go to seed, and save the seeds, even though it's listed as a hybrid. We'll see what happens. I won't let any other varieties bolt, so they can't cross.
 
Almost all my transplants for 2022.
jugsbottlesown-002.jpg

jugsbottlesown-003.jpg

jugsbottlesown-001.jpg



And some peppers we'll be starting inside now.
 
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