General Discussions - Chapter 21

OK- keep your fingers crossed for me! I planted cantaloupes, sugar baby watermelons, acorn squash , radishes, basil and lettuces today. The bales are so lovely- it's so incredibly easy to plant in the hay!

Good luck Suzan. They will flourish!!

Jeanette

Ok!! Everything's in!!! Yes, we had to deer fence this year, too, Kent

My son has his "in the dirt" garden in, too.....he is doing a 3 sisters garden for corn & squash & beans & sweet potatos & melons......
he is using the "greenhouse" side to grow all the cukes & pole beans so I don't have to worry about any of those.....

In my bale garden..... I have
6 kinds of tomato, 2 kinds of eggplant, 4 kinds of peppers, 3 kinds of squash and a separate bale as a summer herb garden.....
my old bales from last year are shadier this year & I'm using them for lettuces, & spinach.

putting my bales side to side instead of end to end is keeping them moister with less water usage....(always my problem)

Hey! where are all the Carolina gardeners from last year...chime in guys!

will send pics as soon as I get my camera back......

Foggy

Gee Foggy, sounds like you have all bases covered. Should be a fun year for you. Also a busy one. Hope you don't have any vacation plans. lol

Jeanette

Jnette, What do you mean????

This IS my vacation...lol :)

Foggy

Good for you. Mine too. lol

Jeanette

Today I put in snow peas, green beans, lime basil and sweet basil- onward and upward!!!

xox Suz

Well, we had a litle sprinkle of rain yesterday, hardly enough to do much good, but found 3 Morels today. Just in time too 'cause we had a big T bone steak to go on the grill. Bob is lucky though 'cause I can't eat mushrooms. 3 is hardly enough. If it would just pour down for an hour or 2 they would be everywhere.

Jeanette

We had a down pour last night. I thought about going out to pick up some night crawlers, for a later fishing day, but was a little too tired. Gave up on that idea. The mushrooms popping up all over sounds great though. Have a Dr, appointment this morning but maybe after lunch, HMmmmm.
Might be awfully greasy where I've been going, just have to go slower and watch my step.
Have my bales laid out, getting soaked. Still have plenty tomatoes left to plant in the bales, when they have done their thing. I am not sure yet how many tomatoes I will plant. But I want to have a steady supply, just in case we have good luck in selling them. Want lots of cucumbers too.
Checked on the first row of corn I planted. I found that it is sprouting.
When it dries up a little I will break up some more ground just for more sweet corn. I didn't get that area sprayed to kill the grass, so I will have to use a lot of paper and mulch between the rows. or the grass will take all the nutrients and moisture and leave nothing for the corn..
I wasn't prepared for this idea, of trying a small scale truck garden. But I'll give it a shot. Who knows it could give us some extra $$$$, so we could get a bicycle, to go to town to get what we don't grow, LOL
The large corporations and the Arabs, May force us back to the horse & buggy days.
Do you think it would be legal to put one of those little guys on the back of a buggy, ( the one that is peeing on something) like a gas pump with an Arab holding the nozzle????:>) heh heh heh

Heh heh heh......We are already doing the bicycle bit, Russ...Rob rides his bike to his bosses house & goes to work with him & I've slowed my trips down to once every two weeks...i tell myself it leaves plenty of time for gardening.....lol............... i like your Hood ornament idea, but even in our little town, there's no place to park a horse & buggy.......

Foggy

Finally feels like spring. Planted my first corn seed yesterday, in the ground.

Have been really busy trying to get hardened off flower seedlings into pots or ground, so obviously hoping for no more hard frost.

Tomatoes are looking good. Hope to plant bean seeds in one bale today and maybe an extra tomato or two in another.

Donna

Well, we have just a few more days until that Master Gardener's plant sale I so stupidly volunteered to help with. Good grief I am tired. I had decided to plant all the seeds I had left over from the last couple of years and I have tons of plants. I haven't figured out how I am going to get them all to the sale site yet, the Jeep will only hold so many. Bob moved them to the greenhouse (my portable one) with 5 flats on top of the Jeep roof. That works for the driveway, but don't think they would make it 14 miles down the highway.

I haven't even had time to do anything with my strawbales or anything other than growing my plants along with the ones for their sale. So, my plants are ready, but just nothing ready to plant them in outside. Guess you know what I'll be doing next week.

Jeanette

Jeanette;
Well here it is the 10th. accordingly, The 10th. is about the date that Steele's plant Co. was to start sending The Sps. to zone 4. Don't really have a reason for being anxious, as I still have plants that need to go in the ground, that I picked up at the RU. That's a week since we got back. I got more ground broken up and tilled. Got 7 more rows of corn planted. Mowed the Church yard yesterday. Good thing as it started raining last night, and it is still raining. A nice slow rain. 1/2" since last night.
I guess since, I want to get them and see how they are, and get some sent off to you, is part of the reason, ( My story, an I'm sticking to it.)
The Begonias are doing beautifully. I was surprised at their size.
I gave up on trying to get a Bruggi to do more than put out more than two or three leaves. It got a new home, and I hope it likes it better there than my place. I really didn't have room for it anyway.
Anyway I will start looking for a UPS truck this week. Can't help it I have another person to send some to as well since I missed having all the plants for trade at the RU. And she really wanted the bush type SPs over the Centennials. So that is kind of where I am at present.
My onions are about 8" tall now, and the radishes are all looking good. Spinach is up and some of the first row of corn is just starting to poke through. I think spring may finally be here. Saw a humming bird by my apple tree going from blossom to blossom. Yup I think spring is here.
Russ

Oh, my. It is in the high 40s - low 50s here today . . . WEIRD!

But looking at the news, I feel so blessed to be right where I am. My word, the tornados and cyclones, the flooding and earthquakes . . . there are so many tortured souls on our planet today. I thank God that my bales are getting soaked, and that they're still THERE.

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day. It's always a real challenge for me, but I have friends who made it good.

xox Suz

Here's the configuration with the pallets/newspaper mulch. Everything seems to be doing ok.

Boy Russ, I sure envy you. Sounds like you have so much done. We finally got thru the plant sale and what a relief that it is over. My kitchen and small greenhouse look bare, but it sure is nice to have so much room. Now I am going to go ahead and plant my planters and leave them in the greenhouse until it warms up enough to put them out.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get some work done on the bales. It is in the low 60s for daytime highs and high 40s at night. What a rip!!

Jeanette; I took a couple hours of time out. from the garden. Garrett and I went mushroom hunting after he could close the post office and store. Found some but they were very small. So we just picked enough to satisfy the taste buds. He is the only one in their family that will eat them. Barb and I both like them. So supper was a little on the weird side. Dipped in egg and rolled in flour and seasoning and sauteed in butter. and fresh asparagus, steamed and buttered. And a few chips and home made salsa dip.
After supper, went out and planted a row of beans and another row half cabbage and the other half, peas. That was that giant cabbage.
Don't know if that will grow or not, but i seeded it direct.
I'm still planting stuff from the RU too. Planted three OT lilies, a bunch of Crocus, and Arum.
Biggest problem is I don't have a plan as to where all the flowers and shrubs should go. I need the skid loader running again, so I can get a good spot leveled behind the garage and plan out the paths and plant accordingly. The loader sprung a leak on one lift cylinder.
I don't have an ounce of art in my blood. Guess I need to consult some books!
I need to get some cucumbers in soon too as well as those melons.
Well supposedly we'll have sprinkles tomorrow. If we do that will be perfect. Except for getting more planted. Oh well huh?
Trying to get the row of bales to cook yet. Still can't plant in them. That is OK though it is still early but I have to take some chances so I can be early with some of the veggies, if we are going to sell some.
Take care- - - it will soon be time for you to plant very soon. Then we will be too busy to visit. LOL
Russ

Always find time to visit over the garden fence, errr bale, Russ. It is still in the 50s and they say it is suppose to be in the 80s by Thursday, for 4 days and then back down to 60. Now, I ask you Russ & Barb, how can any self respecting tomato ripen in this type of weather????

Your dinner sounds wonderful. Especially the asparagus. But, I have been roasting my asparagus for a while now and love it. Better than the steamed. So good and unfortunately the season for it is so short

My computer has been down for the last 5 days so I've had a lot of catching up to do. Glad the begonias are doing well for you. They really are beautiful, I just have had them so long I was kind of wanting a different color I guess. Glad you got them going. You will love them. Glad I found a good home for them.

Jeanette

Jeanette, I still don't have my computer back from hosp. sure hope it works better after she brings it back to me, at least better than the loaner one.

I have never roasted asparagus, how do you do that?

I didn't find time to plant my bean seeds in their hay bale, so will today if it doesn't rain. Still lots of weeding to be done.

Donna

Donna, to roast asparagus you just sprinkle a little olive oil, or veg. oil, on it and I make sure it is all coated, then salt and pepper. Sometimes I even sprinkle parmesan cheese on it. Sometimes I use seasoning salt, or instead of the olive oil I use Italian dressing to coat them in. Whatever strikes your fancy. Then spread them, whole, on a cookie sheet or something like that and put them in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until they are the way you like.

Donna, to roast asparagus you just sprinkle a little olive oil, or veg. oil, on it and I make sure it is all coated, then salt and pepper. Sometimes I even sprinkle parmesan cheese on it. Sometimes I use seasoning salt, or instead of the olive oil I use Italian dressing to coat them in. Whatever strikes your fancy. Then spread them, whole, on a cookie sheet or something like that and put them in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until they are the way you like.

Donna, watch out for that 80 degrees we are suppose to get on Thursday. Might get a sun burn out there.

Jeaenette

Yup watch out; We don't want a sunburned Stewardess on the flight if The Straw-Bale man ever gets around to making the trip. LOL
Right Kent???
I think I'm going to go ahead and plant some cucumbers today. The 15th is supposed to be the last frost date. It don't look like it will drop any time before that. and even if it does, the seeds won't have sprouted above the ground yet. So in they go. I have some trellis fences to put up, as the cukes will be trellised. This year the beans were bush type. Now the sweet potatoes, The Centennials that I put in the garden I am going to try tying them up on a fence. I have plenty of hog wire. I can put up 1 above the other. I really wanted to try that last year. Just let too many things get in the way, so all I got done was a couple plants in tomato cages. Well that wasn't a true test, as they grew up over them and back down to the ground. so I had a lot of rooting going on, and taking up a lot of garden space.
I will be getting your SPs sent soon. They got nipped a little and looked a little punk, so I am sprouting some new ones. and if the Vardamans get here I will send some of them as well. Sounds like it's not quite time to plant them yet anyway. It will be shortly though.
Well enough of a coffee break for me, best get back at putting up some fence for things to rank up on.
Take care,
Russ

Those aren't very long coffee breaks Russ. I have cucumbers started already and am seriously considering planting them, but our last frost date is the end of the month. 2 weeks yet.

Bob is still working on the hoophouse. He had to take it all apart and straighten out the cattle panels. The snow and ice did a number on them. Maybe I will start doctoring the bales anyway. They shouldn't be in his way. It is looking like we won't have any ripe tomatoes this year anyway.

Gotta get busy,

Jeanette

Everyone must be real busy, working on gardens!

I got 5 different tomato varieties planted yesterday (;itt;e babies, though, that I started from seed- we'll see if they make it), and 2 varieties of peppers and some radishes. My lettuces (seeded into dirt on top of the bales) are doing great, and the basils, cukes & zucchinis are, too. The peas and beans (seeded into peat pots in the bales) aren't up yet, but today it's going close to 80, so maybe . . .

Still a long way to go, but it's starting to look like a garden!

Namaste- Suzan

Suzan, where are the pictures?

Jeanette

Show us some pictures Suzan! I bet its looking great. I had my first frost a few nights ago. Tomato plants are stripped to skeletons bearing the last cluster of green fruits. The seed trading for next season is in full swing though, I have about 40 new tomato varieties to try. Hey did those seeds ever arrive Suz?

Lena

Lena- Yes! Thanks so much- they arrived yesterday!
Am thinking it's a bit too late to start them for this season (might try a couple of the cukes), but I'll seal them up to start early for next spring. They sound neat!

I'll take some pictures tomorrow- bought some mature plants today (as opposed to my tiny, weak ones). I think some of the ones I put in are going to do ok, and several of the peas and beans that I seeded into peat pots in the bales are coming up.

Sweet dreams, garden buddys!

Suz

Hi Suz!

My garden, too, has "big" plants & my little home started ones......the only casualty was a mid sized Stupice tomato that simply disappeared! Nothing left & no other plants bothered...LOL.......are there garden "ghosts"? ( my garden is fenced against deer this year so they weren't the culprits.)

Even tho they are large & small now, they are all growing at the same rate. last year my directly sown plants got to a certain point & then they shot up higher than the store bought plants.

Spent a little time in hospital & when I got home....everything had grown 2 two inches.....a nice welcome home! Gardeners are sooo lucky.

Foggy

Hi ! Foggywalk
I too have had a plant or two disappear. I do know the culprits though. It is the terrible plant munching rabbits. I now have poultry wire around 1 of my gardens. Would like to have it around the big garden too. Just can't do it all in one year. Coyote population down, Bunnie population up. City dogs don't know what a Bunnie is and cats are too darn lazy, to catch their own meal, unless it is a bird.
Ya gotta stay outa them Hospitals, wierd things happen when your not home to watch things. LOL
Take care Stay well
Russ

Foggy: glad to have you back.

Russ: praise the Lord my deer fence seems to be working. So far nothing else, other than the aphids I sprayed for today, has been bothering my plants.

Kent

Well Kent the wind has done enough damage to some of my garden without the pests. The ground has enough moisture but a hot day or two while the wind was blowing kind of took the sap out of some that I let get too big in the house, before planting them.
Today was kind of a fun day. Went mushrooming. Came back with a bag full. This is only the second trip that has paid off that way. Last week they were still tiny ones. This week much better.
Sure was a good workout too. You'd have to be part mountain goat to love those gullies and steep slopes covered with every kind of thorny brush there is. LOL Surprisingly there is an old farmstead back in there. Don't know how long it has been vacated but there is still part of a concrete wall against an embankment. A small concrete slab about 12 x 12, and an old walk in cave, or root cellar, that is in remarkably good condition. I jokingly said must been horse and buggy days.
It would definitely be very trying on a 4 wheel drive pickup.
Russ

Russ: one thing I love about DG is the pics and descriptions of all the different areas we live in, and all the different customs and past times we all do.

I've never been mushrooming. Sounds fun.

Kent

Kent, Part of it is liking mushrooms. These are the Morels. I like them almost any way you can use them. The ones last week, I sliced them in half, dipped them in egg. Rolled them in a little corn starch, flour and seasonings and sauteed them in butter.
Tonight just a few went into gravy along with an onion, and of course a few spices and put that over some fresh baked biscuits.
It may be a little late for your area, I don't know though. Here it is usually about May when they are popping up really good. That is unless we have an early spring.
Where to look. Wooded area slighty damp area, West side of slopes. and usually dead Elm trees around. Here if the may apples aren't up and trilliums haven't bloomed, you may as well forget it, for another day or two.
If you go "Enjoy"
Russ

Yes Russ, with the heat after the rain the other day the Morels started popping up. Bob went up to the north end of the property and brought back a tote bag with quite a few in it. Today of course had to go looking for that nice rib steak to go with them. LOL

Jeanette

That is another great way, isn't it?
Jeanette I think, Kent is heading out in the morning. His mouth is watering. Heh heh heh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi all,
What do you do with your old bales? I just break mine up and put the new bales on top.
Cuts down on the weeds.
God Bless, Paul.

Hi all,
Sorry folks, the only shrooms I will eat come from the supermarket. We have had several people here in the Portland area that picked and ate the wrong type. All are having to live with donor livers.
It is too great a threat. I love my grandkids too much to not enjoy them.
Bod Bless, Paul.

Paul: I have been spreading my old bales directly onto my vegetable beds. Its great compost/ mulch. I just plant right into it, or have sown rows of seeds right on top of it, then covered with some fine soil mix. Theres alot of soft crumbly compost in the middle of the bales, its great! Having a ball with the composting. Pity Ill be moving in a few years, there will be some very fertile garden beds here.

Russ, wish I could have gone mushrooming with you. Absolutely love Morels and haven't had a chance to pick any myself for years. Our area is getting too dry for good mushrooming. When our kids were small that is one of the things our family all enjoyed. Learned to identify several varieties. Wouldn't even taste any that I was not sure of.

Finally yesterday got my bush beans planted in one of my bales. Hope to plant some other things today if weather cooperates. Yesterday was very hot 93 degrees. Takes a lot of time just to do the irrigating.

Took some pictures yesterday but when I tried to download, nothing worked. The woman who supposedly is helping me with renewing my computer brought it home day before yesterday, but when I hook up the cord to down load, nothing happened And of course today is Sunday so have to wait .

Donna

Donna; When I tell on myself. You may chabge your mind. I laugh at it but I took a longer path back to the road than normal. I went around the other side of a big pond. There were a couple more steap gullies to cross. Gary thought I had either got lost or that he was going to have to rescue me. Like carry the old man back to the road! LOL
Russ

lonejack... here's the remains of last year's bales. Those are potato plants emerging from the bales, NOT from the ground.