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The gardening thread is BACK!!! I was really enjoying this thread and then we went through the week from hell culminating in us having to bury our beloved German Shepherd Dog Moose who was my wife’s constant companion/shadow and her true soulmate. Tough time.
But it is gardening season, so that helps. Someone way back in the thread asked where I’m from and that’s way up in the NW part of Ashe County. 2 miles from the Voles and 5 miles from the Hokies. My gardens are at just shy of 4000 feet elevation. Gotta be tough and fast to grow up here.
I do everything organically and have been for over 40 years. We were in the certified organic vegetable business until a couple of years ago. Lots of folks still don’t understand organics very well. Certainly some practice organic by neglect but that’s not really the essence of it. It’s also way more than just avoiding certain “chemical” products and fertilizers. I use many techniques that focus on building the soil over time. There are some good organic fertilizers available, mostly based on chicken manure. I am going to be fertilizing my 15 acres of meadow with it this week if it dries out enough. I also keep it limed properly and oversees every 5 years o so. I keep a strong population of clover seeded because clovers actually capture nitrogen from the air and fix it into the soil.
Our lawn is mostly creeping red fescue mixed with white clover. Again, the clover helps fix fertilizer for free. I also will put down an inch or so of black cow every few years. That’s it. I mow it rather close in the spring a few times and then leave it at 2-3 inches after that. Healthy grass chokes out the weeds. I get a few dandelions and I dig out a few of them. Dandelions are a great indication that your soil is too compact.
Great discussion on peppers. My father’s people are from Barbados where the Scotchbonnet is king. I’ve always thought that they were more or less habaneros. Too much heat for my bride’s senses. I grow a few jalapeños and a scotch bonnet, but I do about a half dozen Joe E Parkers. I think they are considered an Anaheim chile. I also grow a few of the Italian peppers mentioned before. Corno de Toro (Horn of the Bull). They are sweet and real nice. Peppers are really easy to preserve. We just cut them up into usable slices or chunks and freeze them on cookie sheets and pop them into ziploc bags. You can just grab as many as you want for chili or whatever.
I’m big into edible landscaping. I had a vision some years ago of having my fence along the driveway covered with roses (RED) and raspberries (WHITE blossoms) to make a living Wolfpack fence. So the roses bloomed later than the berries and the berries choked out the roses. But now, we get gallons and gallons of red raspberries. Again, all you have to do is spread them out on one of those cookie trays with the lip around it and freeze and bag those suckers. I also preserve a bunch of raspberry sorbet. We have several blueberry bushes scattered around. Thye freeze super easy, too.
We love fresh cukes and do several varieties of those. Somebody mentioned having some problems growing them. Most of the issues with dukes are directly or indirectly due to them dang cucumber beetles, the spotted ones and the stripy ones. They can devour your seedlings overnight and if they just nibble on them they spread all kinds of viruses and stuff. Prior to bloom, I dust with diatomaceous earth. After the dukes blossom, I stop that so as to protect the bees. I also use a technique called “trap cropping.” In this case, I always plant a winter squash variety called Blue Hubbard at the ends of each row of squash and cukes.. For whatever reason, these Blue Hubbards are like crack to those duke beetles. They will swarm it and mostly ignore the other stuff. Then you can concentrate your spraying on the masses. It really works.
I’ll leave it at that for now. I enjoy sharing some of my decades of experience with gardening/farming. It’s always fun to learn from others.
You sacrifice Hubbard squash to the beetles!?
Heresy, I say!Gotta say…I had some dicey moments last week with the Grand Artichoke Experiment. I made the transplant to the garden and 6 of 8 looked damned peeked in 2 days.
The cool weather rejuvinated those tempermental girls, and all seems well. It will be interesting to see what happens when the tap roots reach all the buried fish carcases.
Well how d’ya like that.
A banty purple cell came through the hood, and shot the sh#t out of my ‘chokes, ‘maters, peppers…Shredded like bird pellet with pea sized hail.
Hmmm.
Whelp. Plan B.
So sad CD. I got plenty of maters and peppers and the offer still stands.
Smarter than the average bear
Gotcha Yog.
Gotta get my pupette off to Team Netherlands of Alkmaar tomorrow, and deal with two sads at the Farmer’s Market.
Don’t think I’ll find the artichokes there, but the kid is gonna be playing softball in tulip fields.
🙂
CD, got the goobers in the ground today, that true southern delicacy called boiled peanuts is about 90 days or so away, I cannot wait. Corn is mostly up, okra, squash, cukes, red and gold potatoes, and three kinds of maters. And the surprise to me so far are the onions and shallots! Been looking at some plans for a DIY PVC greenhouse that I’m gonna do in late sept when some of the season is over, plus some cool weather crops.
Smarter than the average bear
Hows your Turnip greens growing? After the late frost, its recovered well. Everyone likes to stop by ask what the pretty yellow flowers are. NC State Agronomy in all its glory.
Hail without brimstone is barely worth complaining about.
Up here, they predicted “accumulating hail” but it never did it. High winds and some flurries but it only got down to 35.
I’ve finally got the cabbage, broc, carrots etc planted.
My maters are about 4 inches tall and I hope to get them in around May 23rd. Or a week later depending on temps. I’ll plant 24 plants with 12 different varieties.
C’mon global warming. Hit me.
Glad circumstances caused me to delay the garden this year. Travel, much too cool weather in April….however I got the better part of two yards of compost into my planter beds yesterday and will finish tomorrow morning, then get the plants for my wife to have “fun with”. then sneak over to Ft. Mill to grab a couple of those “Bad Boy Pepper” plants to try.
Ironically, I spied the first wabbit in my back door neighbor’s yard yesterday afternoon. Almost like they were lurking in the hedges ready to attack when I plant! Where can I get a drone that is armed with a pellet rifle and likes to attack wabbits!
Sure was nice to get home after being gone for 15 days and 10 minutes later one of my bud’s shows up with his big Kubota zero turn mower to cut my grass. His wife and daughter had gone to Churchill Downs for the week and he was bored! Their horse won the Woodford yesterday, but the Derby horse finished 7th.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Hey ‘stick, sounds like that if you can get those wabbits to take a bite of those Carolina Reapers you’ll never see ’em again…
Hey ‘stick, sounds like that if you can get those wabbits to take a bite of those Carolina Reapers you’ll never see ‘em again…
Great minds think alike! That’s exactly what I’m hoping! Ran into a fellow today when I was buying seed and plants and he raises rabbits…Said he’d buy them from me, but I have yet been able to trap one of them. Must be using the wrong bait…I’ve got one of those modern traps plus an old timey rabbit box.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Picked up 2 Carolina Reapers yesterday at the local nursery. I will have to wear gloves when picking the peppers or at least remember to wash my hands BEFORE taking a leak…..picked up and unloaded 2 yards of compost Saturday and the garden is planted except for Cukes and they are on the agenda for tomorrow.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Too shady for anything in my yard but flowering plants. I did plant a lot of these though. These are an actual variety and called Wolfpack Red Azaleas. I tried to link some pics from my Facebook page, but it would not work. So I just grabbed and image from the web.
Good stuff. There is nothing better than growin’ yer own.
From fields to grids, to courts, to plots, to children.
Homegrown.
BTW. The artichokes have new life after the hail storm.
Don’t know how they will react to the tropical coming our way, but whatever ya survive makes ya stronger. No?
Let me know how the “chokes” work out for you…I was looking at a catalog today…Didn’t think we could grow them here because of the heat…I’m not a big fan, but haven’t had my California inlaws give me specific training yet. Looks like eating a cactus to me.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
… first harvest of 2015 is in…
an excellent mix of spring greens, including savoy, plus all the green herbs, radishes and boy choy…
100% organic…makes a fine “weed” salad…
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Bill, my onions, potatoes and shallots are going gang busters. The cold snap the last half of April musta been the deal. The negative side of that is I had to replant corn, eggplant and okra. Half my corn came up and almost none of the okra and eggplant. Melons are on the replant list too, not sure if that was the cold snap or birds/rabbits or both.
Smarter than the average bear
^ this is Week 8 of a Spring in New Hanover County…
everything is late and cool season stuff is rocking…
‘maters and peppers are just shifting into high gear…
we just got corn, okra and melons planted last week…Ana dropped 3 in town and 5 on the farm..
and who knows when is gonna get “hot”…‘farming by eye this season, not by the book…
where are you Yogi ?
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!5 miles from the corner of I95 and I40. I’m having to replant quite a few things and I transplanted some stuff too early. On a positive note I waited until the first of May to plant the peanuts and they are zooming up out of the ground right now. The replanted corn will just allow a much wider harvest period which will mean two sessions of putting it up in the freezer. Have a few squash and Zucchini plants with flowers so that won’t be long now.
Smarter than the average bear
My wife plants the squash seed, they come up and two days later, the wabbits clipped every one off…However, I’m starting to wonder if Mockingbirds are doing some of the damage. I know we’ve got them around and read something about that the other day.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Well up here on top of the world, this has been a great start to the season. NO frost in May. That’s a first for my memory bank. The fruit trees look to be loaded (plums, apples, cherries, peaches pears) and all the early season stuff is perfect.
I’ll till the main garden and put in everything else this week including first corn and bean plantings. I’m trying a brand-new corn variety called “Who Got Kissed?” which apparently refers to some old game played during corn shuckings. Tomatoes will go in June 1.
I just returned from a trip to the west coast where I picked up a pair of Border Terriers. Best varmint dogs ever. Them wascally wabbits better be doing their cardio cause Ima sic Ripper and Nipper on their arses.
I need some help from some of the experts here. I live in the Raleigh near the Brier Creek area. I am at the point in life where my girl and I have downsized to a townhome. I have planted pots for tomatos and peppers and a assortment of herbs that have turned out great. We have a patio that gets pretty good sun. I won’t be able to plant this potted garden on the south side but I can on either the west or east side. I think both are fine but not as good as the southside. Is the east better than the west? Or vice versa?
My next question is who has experience in planting in pots? What are some of the other vegatbles that work well in pots other than the ones I mentioned above? Next who knows a good setup for a drip watering system as it relates to potted vegatables and herbs? Ease of setup would preferable be the driving force but obviously I want something that is reliable and effieicient. I have been reading that cucumbers are good and can be vined. Has anyone tried those potato bags? What about okra? Can beans be vined? I would love to grow some half runners like my aunt grows up near Sprucepine. Thanks for all the suggestions.
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