THE OFFICIAL GARDENING AND PRESERVING CHALLENGE

[FarmerJamie]

Cindi - are you eating anything out of YOUR garden yet?

Part of dinner tonight!

 

[raiquee]

Hey all!

I found radish and spinach/arugula seedlings! I am happy cause I was worried about them! I found my sprinkling method to SUCK as far as spacing them right. Next year, doing tape!! (I found a blog that said you could use toilet paper and adhere the seeds on by making a flour/water mixture into a pastey glue, and glueing them that way. Gonna try it in fall!)

Ok heres the update:

5/1: Transplanted somewhat leggy tom seedlings into bigger flats. Got 2 flats (32 hole) done.

5/4: Transplanted rest of tomato seedlings and cuke seedlings into bigger flats. 1 more flat done. Also planted 2 more rows of Home Depot onions (one bunch was white, one bunch was yellow...do you think the bunches were labeled? NOOOOO!) and also planted two rows of Copras. I wasn't suppossed to get the Copras, but having a baby is time consuming and I forgot to cancel my order of them :/ Oh well, luckily those store well. I don't know how many onions I have, but it sure felt like a million when I was planting them.

Today:
I am having a "rough" day sooo, I may just try transplanting the peppers/eggplants. I really want to get the additional seeds going too, so I will try my hardest to do that as well.


At least I got them dang onions planted!

 

[Wannabefree]

Cindi - are you eating anything out of YOUR garden yet?

Part of dinner tonight!

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/2768_sdc10346.jpg

3 batches of turnip greens so far...EWWWWW@asparagus!!!

 

[lwheelr]

The TP and flour paste seems like overkill for making your own seed tape.

I should think toilet paper would work if you just dropped the seeds on it, folded it over, dampened it and let it dry. It sticks to itself when wet, and stays stuck when dry. Seeds would push right through it when the TP was wet in the soil.

If you have to thin salad greens, wait until you have 3" long leaves and you can pull them and use them for baby green salads. We even wait on thinning carrots until they have a baby carrot on the end, unless they are just so close they never will.

We are feeling very thankful to have the garden right now. It is supplying all of our veggies except potatoes and onions, and is really helping us start to get the grocery budget going in the right direction. We've even had baby squash the last week - those little first squash that won't fertilize right because the female blossoms always start to bloom before the male ones do (hmmm... metaphor there?). We just pick them bitty and saute them in butter.

For the last two weeks, the garden has also been feeding our animals. Mostly with WEEDS! The weeds were pretty aggressive in most of the garden (a neglected patch for six years before we spaded it up this spring). So we have an abundance of grass, purslane, chickweed, and other assorted weeds to feed to the animals. Nice since we can't let them forage.

We also have turnip thinnings, radishes, bean and squash thinnings, and some lettuce that we ended up not liking very well, that go to feed the beasties. They are thriving.

 

[calendula]

The TP and flour paste seems like overkill for making your own seed tape.

I should think toilet paper would work if you just dropped the seeds on it, folded it over, dampened it and let it dry. It sticks to itself when wet, and stays stuck when dry. Seeds would push right through it when the TP was wet in the soil.

I will have to try that. A couple years ago, I attempted making seed tape with newspaper strips and flour paste. I failed miserably! It didn't help that it was a breezy day when I tried planting them and they kept blowing all over. Then the number of seeds that actually sprouted was really low. On some tapes, none of them sprouted. Luckily, they were only flower seeds, so it wasn't any of the food crops. I haven't tried it since then.

 

[TanksHill]

Dang, I forgot to weigh my veggies!!

So far I have picked 10 beets, about a dozen carrots and lots of green and butter leaf.

Green beans are on, ground cherries, tomatoes and bell peppers are all on track.. Squash and zucchinis are lagging.

g

 

[Neko-chan]

Snow peas are coming on well, the chili peppers and bell peppers are turning red, the last cherry tomato plant is thinking about finishing up, and the radishes and swede are sprouting in the plot. Lettuce didn't make it past the snails though. I set some traps for them. I also planted leeks and broad beans. FIL rented another plot as well, so we'll be tending the soil of that one and getting it ready for spring.

 

[Dace]

Gina my peppers keep dropping their flowers...no fruit yet although the tomatoes are doing fantastic.

So we are weighing stuff huh? I have pulled about 8 radish from my garden and a few spring onions and herbs. Gonna need a micro mini scale

My green beans are forming though...I have really never grown them, I am so excited! I loves me some green beans

FJ, those spear look delish! I love asparagus, but I am the only one in my family....more for me I always say.

 

[raiquee]

Oh, So I thought I would attach pictures of my gardens. These are from last year.

Side Garden- I grow "hot" stuff in this one. Toms, Peppers, eggplant, etc.

Weed Garden- I grow spring/fall veggies as well as veggies I can't kill no matter what! Beans, squash, cukes, zukes.

I had an "Ah-ha!" moment last night. I did plant up those seeds I wanted to start, but I looked at a package of those asian yard long beans and was mad because I hadn't figured where to put them in my garden plan. I was going to have a year with no beans!! I was so bummed. Then, it occured to me. On that lattice we only have planted a few scraggily looking blueberries, and one grape vine. Well, blueberries don't climb, and the grape vine isn't going to cover the whole terrace...soooo why not plant these bean plants on the BACKSIDE of the terrace? There is like 6" of soil on the otherside before the end of the garden, just enough to get the plants started and they can climb their little hearts out! Then i'm not really sacraficing "garden space"!! I figure I can get 4 maybe 5 plants back there! That's a lot of beans I wasn't going to have this year!!

I was pretty proud of that. Wish I had more moments like that

So, 5/5: I transplanted the Carmen sweet peppers (the anchos weren't ready yet) and the eggplants over. Also re-planted my broc, brussels, eggplant (different type), asian long beans, jalepenos (that I saved...) and my squashes again into a new flat. I know it's terribly late but oh well. They grow fast enough, and will probably catch up when I plant them outside in a month.
I also picked up 3 blueberry plants, as I am a sucker for berry bushes.

ETA: Laura) Thats a great idea!! I was just thinking glueing them down so that I wasn't trying to do that on a windy day in fall, but maybe if i do it 4-5 squares at a time, wet them down inside and then carefully go and plant right away it won't be so bad! Thanks for the good idea! Yeah I don't worry about my lettuces pooling, cause we like baby greens and really I haven't had too much trouble growing spinach/arugula in cramped enviroments. Doesn't seem to mind too terribly!

 

[Dace]

Here are a few green beans in a pot.....

Lucky for me, I have about 12 more plants in my earth box! I loves green beans!

I seriously need a little digital scale.