What did you do in the garden today?

[Hinotori]

I can keep tarragon alive through most winters here if it's at the south facing back door. Rosemary will survive without cover here as long as it doesn't drop below 25. There will be some dieback. Last cold winter it spent a week iced under some black plastic bags. There was several inches of dieback but the plant survived down to 10°F.

I keep it in a pot so it doesn't drown in our normal winters. I am thinking about putting in a raised bed just for herbs.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Love, love, love Rosemary. No way can I keep it alive here during the winter. But, I can keep Sage alive for 3 - 4 years before it gets woody and needs to be replaced. Oregano: I can't kill that stuff. Egyptian Walking onions: Same. Garlic is super easy for me, and overtakes the garden if I don't keep up with the scapes. Dill: annual that overtakes. Thyme sometimes will survive the winter. I might try heavily mulching some rosemary this winter, and see what happens. We usually have a few weeks of sub zero temps, then, things moderate, with highs getting up to 15 - 20* for about 4 weeks before we see > 32* at all during the day.

 

[Daisy]

Rosemary grows great here. Everyone has it. Bees love it. Good stuff. I just cut back my huge bush to a more manageable level. It had grown right over a pathway I forgot was there!

IMO, you can't kill oregano!

Oregano on the other hand... Dies over winter here. I have it in a pot near the front door for morning sun and its brown and dead now. Usually it will come back in summer. I have tried to start it multiple times elsewhere around the garden, hoping it would take off as a ground cover, but no luck. I have one little cutting I am nursing along out the back in full direct all day sun with an old bed sheet wrapped around it for frost protection and it still has some colour to it maybe it will survive there. Next to the rosemary! Haha

Im trying to get my dill going. Second generation of seeds but the plants are still really small. Not much is actually growing right now (besides weeds) and I think its time to tip some trace minerals in as the days lengthen again.

I dug up a few spots to put lawn seed in, but its a bit frosty to try starting it yet. Heaps and heaps of chopping done. Hard pruned the natives with more to do. Havent started pruning the fruit trees yet, but they are next.

The bulbs are beautiful, even the ducks pen smells lovely with all the flowers growing along next to it.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I also sprout in the winter. For the birds, and for myself.

 

[Hinotori]

These are the planting charts for Washington State. East and West side are separate. Actually the East side o e works fine for Mom in Oregon on the Columbia River on the East side there.

 

[Britesea]

Harvested my first ripe tomatoes today! My program of selecting for the earliest producers seems to be working.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

So, tell me what you started with, and how your selection process went.

 

[CrealCritter]

My mother in law was looking at the garden last week and everything's looking good but how can you grow anything in this dry soil? I said bend over and stick your hand in the soil tell me if it's dry. She did and said well it's wet several inches down but dry on top. How do you do that? I told her it's called cultivation. The soil was plowed turned over so I cultivate about 4 inches on top to encourage deep roots where the good stuff is. She didn't get the concept.

Truth is I rarely mulch, I use the dry soil as mulch I guess? I am going to mulch a little tommorow mainly the onions because they are looking like they need nitrogen and have just the cure. This winters CCX, Turkey, Ducks and Chicken deep bedding, with lots of barn lime mixed in.

Tallest tomato is a little more than 48 inches. The soil at the top of the hill is drier, so the tomato plants are bigger because the roots are in the good stuff. The bottom of the hill should catch up eventually if we don't get to much rain. Maybe I should cultivate the bottom of the hill a little more, the soil is still looking pretty chunky, I like it powdery. But I'll wait and see what happens. 1st year gardens are hard, really don't know what to expect.

There are 100's of green tomatoes on these two 50' rows. My wife probably should get ready for some serious canning. Because there are four more 50 foot rows coming in right behind these, if we don't get any severe winds we should be good to go.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Britesea]

So, tell me what you started with, and how your selection process went.

Well, I started a couple of years ago with Betalux tomatoes- an early determinate. The first year they did ok, but I only got a couple of tomatoes in late July, with the bulk not coming in until August. The next year, I bought some Romas in 6" pots and planted them out in June. About a week later, I noticed some volunteer tomatoes in the area where the Betalux had been the year before. Amazingly, they gave me ripe tomatoes before the Romas (which were at least 2 months older judging by the size of the plants). I saved the seeds from the first tomatoes, started them indoors and set them out in June again. Saved the seeds from the earliest fruits, and did it again this year. Getting ripe tomatoes first of July is pretty amazing for this area... we were still getting snow in May. The indeterminate plants that I planted in the next row have a few green fruits; we'll see how they do this summer. We are getting a lot of smoke from fires all around us.

 

[CrealCritter]

It looks great!!!!
Just me,,, but ,,, if I had that lot of ground I would be putting a thick layer of as much horse/cow/chicken compost
down ( which I think you did) and than a 3 inch layer of wood chips on the whole space.

I garden weird/strange/different than most people do. I rarely mulch, if at all. No I haven't put any mulch in this garden or any soil admendments yet. I don't even know what my garden method is called honestly, it's more mini farm crop rows, than anything else. I start by plowing (turning the soil over) them disc or till until smooth. Then I plant my rows, hoe the weeds in the rows and cultivate in-between the rows. Besides for t-post and baling twine mainly for tomatoes, that's pretty much it. I may lay down landscape fabric for melons and squash because they run all over the place but that's about a I do.

With all that mulch and wood chips what do you do next year when you want to plant rows? It seems to me that with all that mulch and wood chips would be a great place for bugs to over winter, but I don't know it's just a guess.

Jesus is Lord and Christ