[crazy8kids]

I bought some of the wave petunias, but I am afraid to set the out. It has been really chilly lately.

[mforward]

Well, our darned potatoes are now higher than knee high!!! We planted them in their buckets on March 11th. I guess I am gonna have to reach down in there to see what is going on!

[Private01]

I want to start gardening but don't know where to start

Sent from my iPod touch using AFullCup

[rentel]

I bought 4 Knockroses at Walmart today. Paid $12;95 Looked like they are in good health. However some of the plants there looked like they got the frost the other nite.

[polydoly13]

Originally Posted by mforward

Well, our darned potatoes are now higher than knee high!!! We planted them in their buckets on March 11th. I guess I am gonna have to reach down in there to see what is going on!

Have they started flowering?? They have to flower and the flowers will be gone before there are potatoes. In our area I plant them around 6/1 and I can prob start digging potatoes end of Aug (new potatoes) and then the plants will die sometime in Sept. I'm guessing it's a little early to have any potatoes worth digging up. But I wouldn't fault you for trying. I think I usually dig the majority of the potatoes in Oct.

Originally Posted by Private01

I want to start gardening but don't know where to start

Sent from my iPod touch using AFullCup

Start small, maybe with a couple plants/veggies you really like. Tomatoes, zucchini and peppers are pretty easy and you can get started plants at Walmart, Lowes, etc. They like full sun, LOTS of fresh water and fertilizer, I just use miracle gro. You can always do more next year.

Originally Posted by rentel

I bought 4 Knockroses at Walmart today. Paid $12;95 Looked like they are in good health. However some of the plants there looked like they got the frost the other nite.

Some plants will pull through even after frost, but if frost is a threat you can always cover with a box, bucket, etc to prevent damage.

[mforward]

Thanks Poly - I guess we didn't think it was going to be 3mths but we are almost 2mths into this great potato bucket experiment! No flowers yet but boy are those plants hardy! I am not real pleased with the growth on my blackberry canes that I planted in the fall but I really can't expect too much the first year.

[polydoly13]

Originally Posted by mforward

Thanks Poly - I guess we didn't think it was going to be 3mths but we are almost 2mths into this great potato bucket experiment! No flowers yet but boy are those plants hardy! I am not real pleased with the growth on my blackberry canes that I planted in the fall but I really can't expect too much the first year.

Sorry to disappoint, yes it can take a while - give it a little longer, they are so worth it. Remember you can leave them in the ground until there is a hard freeze (a small threat of frost shouldn't bother them) and then once you dig them, keep in a cool dark place (don't wash until ready to eat) and they should last a good long time. I even eat them if they have small eyes starting, they are that good.

I can't help you with the blackberries - I tried them up here in zone 4 and it's a no go.... I know raspberries/blueberries should work ok up here but I struggle with those as well. Hoping to do better this year.

[mforward]

I guess I am so used to seeing blackberries everywhere here in the south, I thought they would just take off. Patience is also a challenge
We are super excited about the potatoes and plan to make this a regular gig.

To those thinking of starting this with no experience....dive in! It's fun!

[siriradha]

Originally Posted by mforward

Well, our darned potatoes are now higher than knee high!!! We planted them in their buckets on March 11th. I guess I am gonna have to reach down in there to see what is going on!

You might want to wait till the vines die back before messing with them. They can have really lush vines and eensy weensy potatoes at the bottom!

[joshmamabear]

I'm so happy our peach trees survived the frost. We have 7 trees and we trimmed the branches and had to remove some of fruits to make larger fruits. Here's hoping to buckets of peaches in the summer

[mforward]

We have two peach trees but only one has fruit. Ours did ok with two threats of frost.
We discovered two tiny pears that survived the deer feast that got everything BUT the large peach tree on the end closest to our driveway. We have sprayed a liquid fence to allow the rest of our trees a chance to grow. We were a little slow on the uptake that our trees were actually being eaten.

[Minijump21]

We can't really garden in our back yard. Our neighbors told us after we bought the house that a previous home owner had owned a landscaping company and had parked his backhoes and such in the back yard. As the machines would start sinking, he would dump more gravel. So, we have feet of gravel below our grass.

We've done some hard dug landscaping over the six years we've owned our home. And a couple of years ago we put in a raised bed for vegetables. Today, we were talking to the neighbors while getting our raised bed ready for planting, and they volunteered something else we could use for a raised bed. An old car bed. It's just our style! I can't wait to fill it with dirt!!

[joshmamabear]

Originally Posted by mforward

We have two peach trees but only one has fruit. Ours did ok with two threats of frost.
We discovered two tiny pears that survived the deer feast that got everything BUT the large peach tree on the end closest to our driveway. We have sprayed a liquid fence to allow the rest of our trees a chance to grow. We were a little slow on the uptake that our trees were actually being eaten.

talking about deers feasting on our fruit trees, we didn't realize the deers were eating our Bartlett pears How dare them! We also have Granny smith apples and our neighbor has Pink Lady apples. we exchange apples since we don't like Granny smiths and we love her pink ladies.

I love it here in the South, our lands are so fertile, anything grows in it with very little care. We usually have a good harvest unless there's drought. We usually have several sacks of pecans to give away to everyone when harvest is bountiful. We just treat them for bagworms and other than that, nature has really blessed us. We also have rows of muscadine grapes thick with fruits. We're grateful to the past owner who planted all the fruit (except the peach and plum trees) and nut bearing trees we are enjoying today.

[siriradha]

This morning, I planted the alyssum between the flowers out front. Got really lucky yesterday as Ace had their four-packs on sale for $.99.

The spinach DH planted is up, as well as the onions. I discovered that he had found my leftover flower seeds and planted them in buckets around the vegetable garden. Some were tall flowers like larkspur, and I'm afraid that if they grow they won't have much of a chance when the wind kicks up.

The newest fruit tree, the cherry, has little green beginnings of fruits about the size of a grape seed! In the autumn, I think I'll plant some spring bulbs around it.

Some things really multiplied over the winter. I had one lone lily that is now a patch of lilies that probably should be divided. The gay feather plants are expanding their territory, too. The little patch of lilies of the valley I planted several years ago is now a 3' x 8' swathe of shoulder-to-shoulder plants that are just beginning this year's bloom. I have a smaller patch with some columbines around a statue of Buddha, and that's filling in really well. I thought the few by my front porch had been destroyed by the guys laying our new sidewalk, but they are slowly growing back.

I don't know what I do with lilies of the valley, but it must be the right thing!
For the past several years, I've given away many, many plants on freecycle--letting the takers dig their own to thin out my bed, and they just fill in almost immediately! They've even started coming out into the back lawn under their rock border. I think they have plans of taking over the world.

ETA: DH came out the front door yesterday and found three monarch butterflies on the new purple and white flowers I just planted!

[mforward]

Joshmamabear - I never really knew where you lived after all this time. I used to love your Avatar with the little girl - I assumed was yours? That picture was precious.

We have planted 3 apple trees. There are people who told us due to our lack of "cold hours" we would not have good success with apples. I hope they are wrong!

We are happy with the way everything is going for the most part. Wish we got more strawberries. Put some miracle grow on them this evening.

[cmbrn]

Does anybody have any suggestions for lettuce bugs? They are tiny and black. I have radishes planted as well. According to some organic info I've seen, the bugs prefer radish leaves.....not working here.

[babymk]

@Cmbrn

http://ipm.ncsu.edu/ag295/html/lettuce_key.htm lettuce pests list

Organic ways to get rid of pests
http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.co...t-control.html

[snmhxf]

My garden is getting HUGE! My broccoli plants easily take up 4 square feet (oops!) and the lettuce is huge, pulling it all out this week since it's surly gotten bitter & replanting. We had swiss chard but I didn't like the taste, pretty though! Tomatoes & peppers are in. Zucchini and cucumbers are coming in. Snow peas are going crazy but one little bloom... Hope they actually make fruit!

[snmhxf]

Just curious if anyone has any experience using emsom salt on tomatoes and peppers. I saw on interest it was good fr them & I have a bag so freefertalizer if it works

[msvidkiller13]

Hello I just took some pics of my table top garden and my morning glory's that bloomed this morning I have 2 purple ones and my rose bush is going on it's second set of flowers here is picture of the bud

[polydoly13]

Originally Posted by snmhxf

My garden is getting HUGE! My broccoli plants easily take up 4 square feet (oops!) and the lettuce is huge, pulling it all out this week since it's surly gotten bitter & replanting. We had swiss chard but I didn't like the taste, pretty though! Tomatoes & peppers are in. Zucchini and cucumbers are coming in. Snow peas are going crazy but one little bloom... Hope they actually make fruit!

Watch the brocolli - mine went from almost ready to flowering almost overnight. I still harvested it with a few flowers, the can't hurt right. And ok I have a question - or rather a problem, last year I grew brocolli for the first time, and I thought I'd freeze it, so I blanched it, well low and behold there was a green caterpillar/wormy thing floating in the water. So I started inspecting and they were all over the place. I picked them all off (I THINK) and went ahead and blanched all of it, and it's still in my freezer. I haven't been able to eat it because of them. What would y'all do??? I hate to waste it but what if I missed one.

What kind of swiss chard did you grow?? I've grown a few types/colors and some taste different than others. I don't think I like the red kind, but the white was good. And when I say color I mean the color of the ridge (the leaf is always green). I also steam mine and put salt and butter on it, how did you prepare yours?

I don't think I've written much on here lately, but I got my raspberries in, half my strawberries, waiting on DH to bring home some more dirt to finish our 2nd raised, tiered strawberry bed. Was able to cut 7 asparagus chutes today, will have them with dinner. Will prob till the garden this weekend and start planting potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinach, peas & beans. Still a little too early for tomatoes and peppers. I broke down and bought some pepper plants yesterday since I killed most of my seedlings. Too much sun can be a bad thing.

[snmhxf]

The Swiss chard was all colors! My broccoli has little heads, about the size of a golf ball on them, they need to hurry though so I can get my summer plants in their spots (square foot gardening) my dh sautéd the Swiss chard but I'm not a big cooked greens person but the plants were given for free through our community garden so I thought why not.

As for the worms in the broccoli.... Just don't think about it, that's part of gardening. Probably harmless! I remember growing up my mom found half a worm in a casserole made from garden veggies! That's the one thing worse than finding a whole worm!!

[mforward]

Found 3 japanese beetles on my strawberries this morning! UGH! I tried to put out a trap last weekend and DH said nah, lets wait another couple weeks. Well, there they were! I checked everything else and they weren't anywhere else. I sprayed a few things lightly with Seven spray. I hate those beetles, they are so distructive.
We have one jalapeno pepper with a few more blooms. Lots of flowers on the tomato plants and the squash it about to explode with blooms.
Can't wait to start harvesting stuff!

[polydoly13]

Got my 2nd raised strawberry bed finished today, it looks really good if I should say so myself. Now I just need to fence it in to keep the dogs from digging it up. The first bed looks a little sad from doggie abuse. I also got some tires started for vertical potato planting, DH thinks I'm smoking crack but I'm gonna give it a try. We should finally be able to till tomorrow, YEAH - I feel like I'm really behind, but it's still 3 weeks earlier than last year. And our weather has been so unpredictable, it's prob good I don't have much in the ground.

[birdlady6262]

Originally Posted by polydoly13

Got my 2nd raised strawberry bed finished today, it looks really good if I should say so myself. Now I just need to fence it in to keep the dogs from digging it up. The first bed looks a little sad from doggie abuse. I also got some tires started for vertical potato planting, DH thinks I'm smoking crack but I'm gonna give it a try. We should finally be able to till tomorrow, YEAH - I feel like I'm really behind, but it's still 3 weeks earlier than last year. And our weather has been so unpredictable, it's prob good I don't have much in the ground.

Poly, it is still too early to plant much for us also. I have planted herbs from seeds in containers and a few other veg. but only seeds. I did soak my g beans planning to plant them tomorrow. It's supposed to be 70's all day and hopefully stay that way for a bit. I'm going to hold off a bit on the actual plants since it still gets cool at night.

I had to laugh when you said your DH thinks you're smoking crack regarding the vertical potato planting. I think our neighbors must think we are smoking crack. Over late spring, my DH built boxes for raised beds for us. The last few days he moved 4 yards of dirt from our driveway to the beds in the back yard, put together patio furniture, installed a rain barrel, and a bunch of other small yard jobs. We've been on a mission to have everything ready and either planted or ready to plant by May 15th. We've split up our perinnials and planted new grass. A friend of mine gave me some of her chive and garlic plants. Another is going to give me some yellow and acorn squash next week. Hit Ace Hardware on Sat. after a new truck came in and picked up 3 kinds of tomatoe, g bell peppers, broccoli, brussell sprouts, 2 kinds of lettuce, zuccinni, cucumber, and more. I feel so blessed with the variety that we will be planting.

We were going to do the verticle planting with the tires for potatoes but don't think we have a place for the tires now. I hope you do well with it and have a good crop of strawberries also. We are starting a bed this year.

I love vegetable gardening.