December Dreaming

[baymule]

Even if you part the weeds to pick something to eat, it is still a victory.

I ordered Maestro peas too. I've grown them before and they are good!

 

[Mini Horses]

tortoise I hope that you will find some resolve for your health issues. The car sounds like a good idea. I'm certain it is frustrating for you just not knowing what you day will "allow" you to do!

 

[Chic Rustler]

I really need to get some trees in the dirt this year too. I should have done them first. When's the best time to plant them?

 

[tortoise]

WOW! My Jung seeds arrived already today! My greenhouse supplies order (jiffy pellets!) has shipped! I didn't expect to get garden stuff coming so fast! I wonder how long Baker Creek orders take?

 

[baymule]

I really need to get some trees in the dirt this year too. I should have done them first. When's the best time to plant them?

Either early fall or March. February seems to be the coldest month for us, so I would plant in March. Be sure to water well all summer. Hint; place a 5 gallon bucket with a heavy brick in it at each tree. Drill 3/16 holes (2 of them) so the water will trickle out, the ground will absorb instead of running off.

WOW! My Jung seeds arrived already today! My greenhouse supplies order (jiffy pellets!) has shipped! I didn't expect to get garden stuff coming so fast! I wonder how long Baker Creek orders take?

Baker creek order took a week.

 

[tortoise]

I woke up to Baker Creek shipping notification in my email.

I need to mark my calendar for getting ordering bareroot trees, I think it's in January. There's a program through our county soils and forestry department. They offer certain varieties of trees and shrubs for sale at ridiculously low prices. They're usually native species. In bundles of 25. I decided not to do it last year because I was especially unhealthy and DH had enough obligations and extra burdens without digging a hundred holes to plant trees.

In previous years, we have gotten hazelnut, high bush cranberry, and nannyberry tress/shrubs through the program. We got a single hazelnut off one of out baby hazelnut trees this year! I am always excited to see the year's list of available species. It's always different.

 

[sumi]

Those trees sound wonderful @tortoise I'd love to do something like that, order 25 or 50 trees and plant them somewhere..

 

[Beekissed]

Garden dreaming of late.....got my Fedco catalog, BTW!

I've switched to hay instead of wood chips, so that's something new...easier availability, cheaper, easier for me to spread and maintain. I also used hay bales to construct a narrow raised bed for the growing of root crops and possibly my onions.

I've been studying up on the onions and have found I've been doing it all wrong. Years ago I did it all right, merely on accident, but I so want to repeat that happy accident of the onions.

I plan to seed them into trays this year, then plant them into a raised bed of some type, be it in the haybales or a four inch raised row of composted material/soil. I know now I haven't been feeding them heavy enough, been planting them too deeply, too far apart, and in too shady of places(planting them in among the tomatoes or behind a row of taller things).

I also want to successfully grow carrots this year, particularly for a winter harvest. Last spring I grew such lovely carrots!!!! The tops were lush and over a foot tall...the bottoms were about an inch long and sunburned on top. My clay soil would not allow any root growth whatsoever, despite the depth of the chips overlying the soil.

This year I want to grow them in that raised bed, along with more spuds. I may extend the raised bed so that I can fit all the things I want to plant into it.

I also want to knock together a few of the scrappier looking pallets~make about a 2 ft tall box~ I have up there and start filling them with hay, leaves and chips to make another tater bin.

I'd like to do the same for my son's back yard so they can grow some spuds there too, using his grass clippings and such.

I'm going back to our traditional time of planting, as it did nothing but bad to wait a month later in order to plant.

I'm also going to plant my squash, cukes and pumpkins in trays this year, transplanting them into bigger pots until they are big enough to put in the garden and still withstand bug predation.

I'm also going to use soapy water on the squash bugs this year...watched a vid that showed how quickly they die with that stuff, so I'll use it on every bug I see~stink, squash, JBs, horn worms, soldier worms, etc. May even try it on slugs.

I've also heard a 1:10 solution of ammonia works wonders and doesn't hurt the plants, but adds nitrogen to the soil. Anyone heard that?

But, basically am going to plant much the same things and varieties I have been planting, except along with the Fortex beans this year I'll plant the half runners Mom and others love so much.

Last year those Fortex beans impressed me like no other...each and every seed germinated and did it quickly, grew incredibly fast and well, withstood horrible Jap beetle predation, and was still producing clear up in the fall. Beautiful beans all around....but everyone who ate them reported no flavor. We are used to half runners here and I think it spoiled everyone, as no one liked the pretty Fortex beans at all.

So, this year I'll still plant them simply because they will grow and other people may want them for eating, but we'll go back to the reliable half runners that so far have been unmatched for flavor, according to the bean eaters in the family.

 

[sumi]

I've never heard of the ammonia as pest control. Please let us know how it works for you?

On the beans I have to agree with everyone about the flavour, that is a must! I love beans, but at the moment I'm crazy for peas and broccoli, so I'm planning to grow some of each and hope my love outlasts the harvest! lol

 

[Britesea]

I have used ammonia on snails and slugs and it's awesome! Gruesome, but awesome-- they shrivel and writhe before your eyes and are dead in seconds. I've not tried it one other pests, but I bet it would work.