December Dreaming

[sumi]

Beekissed, you reminded me of something we used to do. When I wanted seed for peppers, for example, I would go out and buy a nice big one in the supermarket and take the seeds out for planting. Same with pumpkin, butternut squash and some other vegetables. Saves money since you get food with your seeds, or should I say seeds for free!

 

[Beekissed]

Beekissed, you reminded me of something we used to do. When I wanted seed for peppers, for example, I would go out and buy a nice big one in the supermarket and take the seeds out for planting. Same with pumpkin, butternut squash and some other vegetables. Saves money since you get food with your seeds, or should I say seeds for free!

I've done that too....with varying results...but it's still a cheap way to get some hybrid seeds. You get to have your cake and eat it too!

I tried it this past year with a sweet pepper of a certain type my brother loves that he bought at Sam's Club. He wanted me to start some plants so he could grow that particular pepper this past year. Well...all my pepper seedlings were a couple of inches high and looking good and even that pepper's seeds had germinated well. I placed the trays out under my grow tunnel so they could get more consistent sun and moisture than my windowsill.

When next I checked them some pest...slugs maybe?...had nipped every head off of every pepper seedling. Just little stems sticking up in the tray.

Didn't get to see how that sweet pepper grew and produced.

 

[sumi]

Heritage vegetables was not easy to find for me, so I was quite happy to harvest seeds from shop bought produce And as you said, we got to have our VEG and eat it too!

Pests in the garden are SO frustrating! I once grew some bell peppers and it set fruit... one huge, yellow fruit. I waited patiently for it to get ready to pick and… Found a snail cozy inside it!

 

[Hinotori]

I'm thinking of planting extra squash this year to take down to the food bank. Both summer and winter do very well here.

I've planned out my raised bed cages to keep the deer off of the peas and green beans.

I'm going to try broccoli again. This time with a grewn house start.

Tiller is coming out and Im putting in a large patch of black oil sunflower seeds. Might do some buckwheat as well.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm doing some different things here as well...improving on my tunnel frames so that the cats don't tear up my Agribon and also attaching the hoops to the tunnel frame itself instead of pushing them into the ground. I'm going to try and start work on these things this winter so I'm ready to go at the earliest possible moment in the spring with these grow tunnels.

I'm also going to start ALL my greens in trays this year, as that was the most successful way of growing them in this type of gardening. I'm going to sit down and actually figure up how many of this or that head of lettuce or pak choi or whatever we can eat in a week's time, then plan my succession plantings around that amount so that I don't have all my lettuces and greens coming due for picking at once. I had that last year and many went to waste.

I'm going to start my cukes and squashes in trays also and let them get so big before transplanting that they can withstand all the squash bugs....we had literally thousands of them last year and they killed every single cuke, pumpkin and yellow squash we had, which has never happened in the history of my gardening. And, now, all their babies are lurking under that soil, just waiting to take down my vines again.

 

[Mini Horses]

There's that Palmolive original spray mix waiting to help with the squash bugs. Crealbilly swears by it and he had pictures of huge amounts of produce!!

Cleaning out some of mom's things I came across a slew of panty hose and knee high ones. Those are RELLY great for putting sevin dust on plants. Put the dust in them, then hold top and just wiggle it while dangling the hose by the plant. It puts out a very fine dust on the plants, top & bottom of leaves. Uses less product & covers more surface. Sevin is organic approved.

Most of my seed stock is heirloom & organic. This year I hope to save enough for next year and to share if anyone needs. Must have 20 type of tomatoes. But colors, varieties, etc. make for a lot of selection.

 

[Beekissed]

And I'm gonna try that soap! I saw a vid on it on YT and was mightily impressed, though a sour puss who touts chemicals on the garden forum said it didn't work for him...I'll take that with a huge grain of Roundup, his best friend.

 

[Hinotori]

We always used dish soap and water for aphids when I was growing up.

 

[treerooted]

Went through a seed catalog with my Dad at Christmas and circled all the things I wanted!
I originally told him I'd just take one of everything

 

[goatgurl]

came wandering over to have a nice quiet afternoon and couldn't do it. all of you, yes all of you are such enablers, such bad influences. I got my bakers creek catalog the other day and placed an order. then read baymules blurb about bountiful seeds and had to order some things from them too. been hauling bunny poo and digging it into the barrel planters I use for raised beds. can't wait to start getting seeds ready and planted. spring will be here before you know it.