The Endzone Garden Thread

[VolNExile]

Well, here it is, the gardening thread. @vollygirl pulled on her Wellies and kindly pulled a bunch of posts out of the VNE thread.

As many know, a combination of retirement and Covid isolation provoked Hubs and me into starting a vegetable garden last year. Now that we have this big square of fancy dirt, we’re hoping to move in a slightly more rational direction this year, including NOT buying 51 hot pepper seedlings. We need help!

So any ideas are welcome! At a start:
- vegetable gardening
- flar gardening
- fruit trees, berries, grapes
- organic gardening
- composting
- IPM (integrated pest mgt) vs kill ‘em all and let God sort them out
- no-till vs traditional
- raised beds
- preserving whatever the critters leave you
- recipes

The old posts from the other thread run through post #52, in case all this shows as “not read,” so you can jump to #53 for new ones.

Go.

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@VolNExile
Sup?

Eh, just lying in bed reading. Haven’t slept more than 4-5 hours a night since Wednesday last, which is annoying, but I’ll live. Goal for today: get my seed orders for this year’s garden in.

Ah, the exciting life of retirement!

 

[Orangeslice13]

Eh, just lying in bed reading. Haven’t slept more than 4-5 hours a night since Wednesday last, which is annoying, but I’ll live. Goal for today: get my seed orders for this year’s garden in.

Ah, the exciting life of retirement!

Ok. Just making sure I stay in the loop.
Red would like know the content of “the seed order”.

 

[GordonC]

Eh, just lying in bed reading. Haven’t slept more than 4-5 hours a night since Wednesday last, which is annoying, but I’ll live. Goal for today: get my seed orders for this year’s garden in.

Ah, the exciting life of retirement!

I haven't ordered any seeds. I have some left over from last year and need to sort through what I have.
Year before last, I used Gurney's. Last year, I got some from Burpee and some from Amazon.
I got a couple of packs of bush cucumbers I am going to try in 3.5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom.
I have a couple of trailing nasturtiums that produced a lot of blooms, and I hope some of them dropped for next year.

 

[VolNExile]

Ok. Just making sure I stay in the loop.
Red would like know the content of “the seed order”.

Will do. This is great; I’ll actually have to do it now!

 

[VolNExile]

I haven't ordered any seeds. I have some left over from last year and need to sort through what I have.
Year before last, I used Gurney's. Last year, I got some from Burpee and some from Amazon.
I got a couple of packs of bush cucumbers I am going to try in 3.5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom.
I have a couple of trailing nasturtiums that produced a lot of blooms, and I hope some of them dropped for next year.

I’m ordering from Sow True Seeds (here in Asheville) and Botanical Interests (Colorado), plus others for a few things not carried by them. Or due to my procrastination, things they’re already out of.

I’ve got some leftover seeds too, and I’ll probably do germination tests on the ones I still have a lot of. Still trying to figure where my “grow room” will be. The corner of the kitchen faces south, but it isn’t very warm. The sunroom has 5 windows but faces East and is cold too. Big old barn-y houses built in 1923 aren’t noted for their insulation!

Are your cukes for eating or pickling? I’m going to try the vining ones one more time over wire tunnels, but if powdery mildew gets them again, to heck with it!

—I had the same thing with nasturtiums and also hoping for freebies. They’re tough to start indoors around here.

 

[GordonC]

Cukes for slicing. We don't pickle these days. I keep saying I will pickle some eggs one of these days.

Nasturtiums just don't transplant well. I have tried several times. I found some deep red aster seeds last year. They didn't transplant well either, but they did great later just putting the seeds in-ground.

 

[Tin Man]

Have sproutlings from red bell pepper seeds taken from last season’s harvest. The purple and giant marconi seeds have yet to sprout. I hope they’re viable. Got three varieties of mater sproutlings peeking up, including Cherokee purple (yay).

 

[VolNExile]

Have sproutlings from red bell pepper seeds taken from last season’s harvest. The purple and giant marconi seeds have yet to sprout. I hope they’re viable. Got three varieties of mater sproutlings peeking up, including Cherokee purple (yay).

How long can you keep them growing inside before you can plant them outside? I have to hold off around here until mid to late May, and even then they just sit there before the soil and air temps get going.

 

[Tin Man]

How long can you keep them growing inside before you can plant them outside? I have to hold off around here until mid to late May, and even then they just sit there before the soil and air temps get going.

Honestly, I do not know. Peppers grow slowly indoors, and will be fine in April, when I put them in the ground. I’ve not started tomatoes this early before now.

 

[VolNExile]

Ok. Just making sure I stay in the loop.
Red would like know the content of “the seed order”.

Finally got this done. My favorite seed suppliers don’t sell Early Girl tomato seeds (Monsanto bought them out), so I’ll have to hunt them down on a rack or something so as not to pay more for shipping than for the seeds.

Memo to self: order seeds before we fire a coach.

I am all typed out, so here you go:

 

[joevol33]

Did you take charting classes from Butch?!

 

[Behr]

 

[vollygirl]

View attachment 347100

Lmao!

 

[82_VOL_83]

Finally got this done. My favorite seed suppliers don’t sell Early Girl tomato seeds (Monsanto bought them out), so I’ll have to hunt them down on a rack or something so as not to pay more for shipping than for the seeds.

Memo to self: order seeds before we fire a coach.

I am all typed out, so here you go:

View attachment 347080

View attachment 347081

You may have said this but do you guys do a farmer's market type set up?

 

[GordonC]

Finally got this done. My favorite seed suppliers don’t sell Early Girl tomato seeds (Monsanto bought them out), so I’ll have to hunt them down on a rack or something so as not to pay more for shipping than for the seeds.

Memo to self: order seeds before we fire a coach.

I am all typed out, so here you go:

View attachment 347080

View attachment 347081

Wow. Great planning.
I'm impressed by your organizational skills and by your in-ground space. HA
I usually grab a notecard and just write some stuff down, and most of the stuff I grow is in containers. I keep saying I'm going to do a journal.
I was "late to the game" in terms of selecting determinate tomatoes. That makes a huge difference, especially in container gardening.
I am not starting any seeds indoors this year.
When we get going this spring, you should start a gardening thread in the Zone. I'll surely contribute.

 

[DD4ME]

I’m ordering from Sow True Seeds (here in Asheville) and Botanical Interests (Colorado), plus others for a few things not carried by them. Or due to my procrastination, things they’re already out of.

I’ve got some leftover seeds too, and I’ll probably do germination tests on the ones I still have a lot of. Still trying to figure where my “grow room” will be. The corner of the kitchen faces south, but it isn’t very warm. The sunroom has 5 windows but faces East and is cold too. Big old barn-y houses built in 1923 aren’t noted for their insulation!

Are your cukes for eating or pickling? I’m going to try the vining ones one more time over wire tunnels, but if powdery mildew gets them again, to heck with it!

—I had the same thing with nasturtiums and also hoping for freebies. They’re tough to start indoors around here.

Growing weed?

 

[VolNExile]

You may have said this but do you guys do a farmer's market type set up?

Oh gosh, no. We eat everything we can, give some away to people who can’t escape, and can the rest. Of course, I’m saying this as if we had done this for more than one year.

All we had last year was a water-bath canner, but I bought a pressure canner this winter, so I can go beyond tomatoes and pickling and salsa. We also bought a vacuum sealer and (finally!) a small freezer, so I hope to be able to preserve lots of sauces and stews.

Our garden is severely challenged by shade issues (hemlocks, oaks, and maples), so luckily it’s not as productive as it could be. But by August, I was eating 3-4 tomatoes a day in an attempt to keep up. lol

 

[VolNExile]

Wow. Great planning.
I'm impressed by your organizational skills and by your in-ground space. HA
I usually grab a notecard and just write some stuff down, and most of the stuff I grow is in containers. I keep saying I'm going to do a journal.
I was "late to the game" in terms of selecting determinate tomatoes. That makes a huge difference, especially in container gardening.
I am not starting any seeds indoors this year.
When we get going this spring, you should start a gardening thread in the Zone. I'll surely contribute.

I’m terrible (read lazy and inattentive) at container gardening. Trying to do better this year, although it will be mainly herbs. It would help if we didn’t have monsoons through June again.

Now that we’ve seen what indeterminate tomatoes can do once they get going, we’re planning on a monster trellis system and a lot of pruning to keep the bastidges under control. And the cages didn’t work for the determinate, half of which topped six feet.

 

[VolNExile]

Growing weed?

Well, not deliberately.

 

[DD4ME]

Well, not deliberately.

The couple times I grew gardens weed(s) were the predominant crop

 

[VolNExile]

The couple times I grew gardens weed(s) were the predominant crop

There is some sort of Plant from Hell that keeps popping up, maybe horseradish from the previous tenants? We cardboarded the heck out of the garden area for 2 1/2 months before planting, and that really seemed to help. Bermuda grass is always fun of course.

We’re doing no-till this year if I can keep the shovel away from my husband.

 

[Orangeslice13]

Red likes the plan.

 

[VolNExile]

Red likes the plan.

That’s a relief! No kidding. I’m guessing y’all have been gardening a lot longer than I have.

 

[Orangeslice13]

That’s a relief! No kidding. I’m guessing y’all have been gardening a lot longer than I have.

She charts everything and plans the same way.
If we’re going to eat we have to plan

 

[VolNExile]

She charts everything and plans the same way.
If we’re going to eat we have to plan

How big of a food garden will you have this year? Ours shouldn’t be 20x20, more like 18x20, because of our shed on the southeast side casting shadow, but it will only be flowers and other pollinators, so not a crisis if they’re not full sun.