SPRING GARDENS thread!

You are tooooooooooooo adorable, LOL!

Then I'll go ahead and plant my garlic sprouts, too, this weekend. We're supposed to have spectacular weather!

I need good weather cause I have a list of yard chores:
►Put together a new raised bed for more planting space,
►Clear a side yard of year old leaves that have burst from their garbage bags, and
►Construct a Mittleider T-Frame over my tomato bed before next weekend.

I need a handyman....

Babies are always cute!

Yes, they are!

The first planting of radishes is in, as well as peas, carrots and lettuce. That's all I am doing for the spring season.

The seedlings look great. I had poor germination with basil and artichoke. I have enough plants, but I restarted them anyway. I like to have spares to share or replace any early losses.

How do you use radishes other than eating them raw?

I DON'T like raw radishes, but I grow the for my DH and he loves them.
This year I harvested so many and I decided to try this recipe:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/11/in-a-pickle-sweet-pickled-daikon-radish.html

Well ... I just couldn't get enough of those radishes myself ... so good !!!

Thanks, drthor!

I just started canning this past Thanksgiving, and this recipe is right on time! This season, I'm going to try to grow cucumbers for the first time, to make my own pickles.

I will be sure to report back on how the Sweet Pickled Daikon radishes come out!

I don't like radishes, but my BF does. He'll sit and eat two pounds of them raw.

Ugh.

Onions, garlic and broccoli and looking good. Need to thin out the radishes and plant more lettuce. The tomato seedlings are ready to plant up into red Dixie cups and then spend some time on the back porch before they get planted out. Won't be long now LOL.

Time to rototill another bed!

Linda,

Hopefully this isn't too far off topic for this thread... when you grow those cucumbers in your spring garden, try this. It's the jar on the left. I've also used this recipe for straightneck yellow squash. Pick them small and tender.

Mama’s Bread & Butter Pickles

4-5 quarts medium cucumbers, sliced ¼-3/8” thick
8 small white onions sliced (or 4 medium)
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 sweet red bell pepper, sliced
½ cup coarse salt
Cracked ice/water to cover

Mix above ingredients thoroughly and let stand 2-3 hours
Drain and place in non-reactive pot.

Pickling mixture:

5 cups sugar
1 ½ tsp ground tumeric
½ tsp ground cloves
2 Tbsp mustard seed
2 Tbsp celery seed
5 cups vinegar

Combine ingredients of pickling mixture and pour over cucumbers. Bring to the boiling point but DO NOT BOIL. Stir with a wooden or plastic spoon until cucumbers have a yellowish-green color.

Fill sterilized pint or quart jars. Process in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from bath, cool, and check seals. Store in a dry, dark, place.

Yields about 10 pints.

Thanks, David!

Just the recipe I needed!

Hello, spring!

I'm happy to see the spring thread going- We had a preview yesterday- 1st sunny day in ages, and best of all the persistent wind is gone for now. I dragged my garden hose out and watered everything- We haven't had snow, and things are dry. I also cleaned up my back yard and organized my bags of soils- I have a bale of ProMix which is very dry, so I watered and mixed it up. Then last night I prepared my labels & cups- today I sowed my Tomatoes-10 varieties- 3 cups of 2 seeds of each. They are on a heating mat in my sewing room where I can monitor them. That is my start on Spring--
Oh, I wanted to ask- how soon can I plant some potatoes in a half barrel? The soil looks good and is not frozen-- I have some Yukon Gold that are sprouting-and, yes, I know some people say NO to that, but I have done it for years and got great harvests.

This message was edited Feb 22, 2014 4:21 PM

Traditional phrenology says you plant potatoes when the daffodils start blooming.

We plant potatoes around St. Patrick's day.

The Garlic in the garden , is sprouting ,,
Green is greens , I guess

Planted my Sugar Ann peas yesterday. Weeded the squash bed and the eggplant bed and added compost. They are ready for planting when Spring finally gets to town. Filled the wooden raised bed with rotted hay and compost. Lettuce will go in first followed by peppers and cauliflower. Put down a new layer of wood chips in the walkway and started "paving" it by laying flat stones over the chips to discourage the cat from using it as a toilet. I have seeds under the grow lights in the small greenhouse inside. I have tomatoes, sweet peppers, herbs, okra, eggplant, spinach and cauliflower. The spinach and cauliflower are sprouting. Chances are they will outgrow the small greenhouse before they can be planted out but I have a larger greenhouse on the porch they will be moved into.

All my garlic was planted in November, for May/early June harvesting. It all got knocked down a bit with all our unusually cold weather, but we had a mild week last week and it all popped right back up. I have well over 300 cloves planted. This week we will have three more mornings with below freezing temperatures, and tomorrow and Friday it is predicted to get down to 22 F and 24 F. We warm up above freezing then. I planted 50 onions in the raised garden last week and put a handful of Irish potatoes in three "potato bags" last week as well. My broccoli really got pounded during the winter but again, with the mild week, it is looking good again. I guess those 20's will knock it back again. I had several lettuce survive the cold and look good. It is all purple or green leaf lettuce. I have lots of seedlings in the greenhouse, started in 72 pc. trays and sitting on a large heating pad. I am also rooting numerous sweet potatoes, very small ones that were not large enough to use, that were harvested in November and dry-stored since.

Ken

Guess you are a bit warmer than us, Ken -- I didn't have anything survive except the garlic, and it looked pretty bad until recently. Now it's growing well. Hopefully temps in the teens and a wind chill near zero won't set it back again, but it's survived worse this winter.

Did you plant hard neck or soft neck?

I have two more beds rototilled so time to plot them out--only because I can't wait for this weather to finally blow through and let spring begin. I've had Bianco Spagnolo and Viola Francese planted out since October and one took the weather well. The other not so well but appears to be bouncing back fine. I won't know which they are since the tags blew away sometime in January LOL! Guess I'll find out when I harvest. I also planted out more garlic this spring as I got a box that must have been on back order. I figured I might as well plant it and see what happens and it is coming up too.

My onions or onioning along and the broc is starting to look pretty good if I do say so myself. Each year I plant out three or four varieties of onion trying to figure out which one I want pick as my main variety. And each year a different variety does better than the rest, but never the same variety. So far White Bermuda is looking best with the most green leaves (are they called leaves or something else?). I think the more leaves the bigger the final onion, right? But the race isn't half over yet, so we'll see.

Should be getting more lettuce into the ground this weekend. I had to pull my tomato seedlings off the back porch as it was supposed to get down to the 20's last night and again tonight. I know some of you already have tomatoes planted out, but I'm just not there yet. I still think I'll get enough tomatoes to make so sauce, etc. I didn't get my eggplants and peppers seed planted last weekend, so this weekend will be e & p - appaloosa.

And I've been staring at the area I want to get ready for watermelon and melons. I just ordered my sweet corn seeds. I've got spring fever baddddd! Those goats are down in their pens making lots of goat poo for me so the more beds the merrier!

OK, good. Those are two varieties I have never grown.

Ken

P. S. I hope that the 22 F tonight/morning does not damage my garlic. They are just starting to perk up with nice erect, green top-growth. When it gets into the mid to lower teens, I partially cover them all with oak leaves, but I am now leaving them to the elements, sink or swim.

Terri, I hear ya on the goat poo. I don't have my goats anymore but I am availing myself of the muck pile out behind the barn. I am delving into the oldest area and it is black gold. Been there for years and I am filling my raised beds with it.

They're up!

CajuninKy, I bet you get some whopper tomatoes from those beds.

NicoleC, so are mine!!!! Don't know what will happen to them today as the winds are truly wicked out at my place, but spring can't be far behind ☺. This is a first year bed for me, so I don't think I will harvest but one or two stalks. Just so I can show DH that we do have asparagus going. Very exciting to get a new bed of asparagus going, isn't it?

I won't be growing the tomatoes in soil this year. Going hydroponic with them. I have lost my tomatoes to wilt and blight the last four years. Hoping this will take care of the problem.

Hydroponic sounds like fun...hope it works just like you want it to, CK.

I've got peas!! The bluejays have already discovered the seedlings, too. Bad birds! We'll have to put some kind of screen mesh over them to protect them from the birds apparently.

My onions have finally rooted and are turning more green with the leaves growing. We got more than an inch of rain last week, which I'm sure has helped them. When we planted them, we put out high nitrogen fertilizer and will fertilize every 2 weeks with the fertilizer from Dixondale. On the off weeks, I'll probably put down blood meal. This week, I'll also put down some mulch on the garden. Have to get hubby to mow over the leaves on the side yard and then put them down in the garden.

This is my husband's "onion nursery". He planted all the onions that he thought might make it in this little plot and started watering them. Now it's time to transplant them into the rows with the rest of the onions.

My peas are sprouting too. I added about another inch or so of compost on top of them. Going to get really cold here for a few nights so it won't hurt to have them protected.

I planted two lettuce beds I made from plastic bread trays lined with cardboard and filled with compost. I planted Buttercrunch and Bibb. I watered them in and then covered it all with plastic.

I got the last of the compost put into my big wooden planting box. I planted spinach, carrots and chard in it, covered it with bird netting and plastic after watering everything in. It has hoops over it.

Stephanie, your onions look about like mine. I had to replant a few (the Red Candy just couldn't take the cold). Luckily one of the local nurseries carries Dixondale onion sets. I have the fertilizer from Dixondale, too, so I will just have to take special care of the onions this year and be happy with whatever size I get.

I have radishes looking pretty good and mustard greens coming on. I had four blueberry bushes and a couple of peach trees in bloom when the freeze hit. Lost all the blooms but the trees/bushes look OK so we will just move on and see what happens.

Still holding back on planting out the tomatoes as the soil is still pretty cold, but I got lots of roses planted out this weekend so I feel like I've accomplished something!

I have bought onion sets I need to get planted. I was hoping to get that done today. I will try to get to it if it warms up enough. Low twenties right now. I always plant sweet yellow onions. One year I grew red onions and they did okay but they were strong tasting. I have tried white onions also but they did not do well.

I thought my fruit trees had died but I noticed the first blooms on my Apricot tree this morning, way late.

That is good news.

The thermometer in my truck said 33* and "ice" and 7:30 this am. Hope the low temps didn't hurt anything, they were completely unexpected. It's doing to be a while before I get brave enough to plant my warm weather veggies, since I'm not getting any warning that temps are supposed to be so low. Lol Even if it warms up during the day the soil is still too cold.

Well below freezing this morning. Snowed off and on all day. Glad I putt that extra layer of compost on the peas.

I potted up a few more seedlings in the greenhouse today.

Warming but spitting rain here. I broad cast the last of my 50 lb bag of purple top turnip seed across two of the goat pastures last evening. I've had fairly good luck with my winter forage project/learning adventure this past winter despite the heavy weather. DH thought I was over reaching when I started attending the farmer's co-op lectures on winter forage. But now he is encouraging me to attend the meetings on spring and summer forage. It really does save on hay costs. For us anyway.

I have more radishes coming on in the veg garden as well as more mustard greens. So some progress towards spring!

Also, I had a very close look and the blueberry bushes I mentioned before--the ones that lost all their blossoms in the snow/sleet/hail storm we had recently. There are signs of green leaves poking their noses towards daylight. So, as I hoped, I will lose berry production but not the plant itself...knock wood!

Oh, and my purple martin population is back as well as the house swallows. Goldfinches and red winged blackbirds are working the birdfeeders. I think the beginings of spring is here!

What're ya'll doing in the garden this weekend?

I'm about to make my "to do" list, and we'll see how far I get by Monday morning, LOL!

Looks like a canning weekend, cause I have to take the beets up to make room for the next thing going in. Haven't figured out what that will be yet, but, something's going in, next!

And, time to take up the cabbages, too. They're gorgeous, but I'm flying close to the summertime FLAMES OF TEXAS HELL, and they'll bolt on me if I wait any longer.

So, what're ya'll doing, next?

The pics below are two weeks old. We've had rain enough to double the size you see there...

I'm installing my blackberry trellis system, planting out the last of the new replacement blueberries, and planting out and installing trellis for raspberries said to do well in hot humid Texas (well see). I have a lot of various seedlings waiting to be planted out and this weekend is supposed to be good so lots of planting to do.

DH says he will rototill a couple more beds for me on Sunday then he will brush hog the front pasture--my first experiment with winter goat pasture/forage and a surprising success. Now we need to make room for the summer forage experiment.

Someone is supposed to come out on Saturday and look at quoting new fencing for the front pasture. If he shows up. Again, we'll see.