Time to Start the 2010 Veggie Garden?

[JaneG]

I'm placing my Park Seed order tonight. The garden is waiting another day or to two to dry out before tilling, then I hope to get some early plants out there in late April/early May. Still a slight chance of frost here, but crossing my fingers that we won't get anything too harsh once I've started.

Last week when DH heard the neighbors tiller running, he said "We gotta get started, I want tomatoes before Fred this year!" Fred is the neighbor! DH never had the slightest interest gardening, but once I started the garden it didn't take him long to get in the competitive spirit once he realized how crazed most gardeners are and how much he enjoys the fresh harvest during the summer!

The Rhubarb is over a foot tall and if we don't get a freeze, we'll be enjoying it next month. In the garden we will have sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, green beans, peas, winter squash (butternut, acorn, spaghetti), radishes and onions.

Karma, you usually get a jump on us, how's yours coming along? And thanks for the Parks tip last year. I loved all the seed I got from them and am ordering again.

[Gardentoad]

My rhubarb is the same height as yours. I planted peas, spinach and turnips last week. I planted brussel sprout, swiss chard cabbage and onion sets yesterday. I also planted a lettuce mix. I know we may still have a frost so I put it in an area that I can cover easily.

I found this guy's site last fall. He is in my town but we are the same zone as you. His gardens look great and very productive so this year I think I am going to follow his schedule as close as I can.
http://timssquarefootgarden.com/calendar.htm

[JaneG]

You've got a head start on me. That's a cool site with good info for our zone. Now if I had the energy and organizational skills, I might be able to do that. I poop out in the heat of July/August and from there on out the garden has to fend for itself, except for a little watering if things get really dry. And I've never started my own seeds indoors. I either direct sow some things and buy plants for others.

I see you've got cool season veggies in already. Seems like I'm always a little later than most folks.

Went for a walk today and introduced myself to a new neighbor who moved in a couple months ago, but hadn't met yet. She was out starting a new veggie garden and I found out she has a whole set-up in the garage and starts her own seeds, so I might get some good things from her!

[party_music50]

Sorry I missed this post earlier. I'm in z5 too and it's been a very early spring for us. Everything is ahead of time, and so far I'm keeping up on starting my veggie garden. Peppers, Tomatoes, Herbs, and now I'll start things like tomatillos... in fact I have a question, so I guess I should start a separate thread.

[gardengirl13]

I'm almost a zone 6 in my yard but all the charts say 5, and have raised beds. So far we've planted lettuces, arugula, mesculin, radishes, peas and they are all up and very doing well. Last week we got broccoli and cabbage plants and they are doing well too. We should be able to have a good size salad this weekend with the greens.

This year I tried pepper seeds and they seem ok so far. kind of stunted once their true leaves came out. I put them outside on nice days and they seem to like that a lot, but still aren't growing much. The tomatoes I got from my dad are now already 18" tall! I can't get them to slow down! ha ha! I transplanted the peppers into larger pots and the ones that looked weak I tossed into the garden boxes. Well 6 of those are doing great! So i put them in the ground not expecting them to survive being outside already. We'll see what happens.

i got my poles and trellis thingy up and ready. Impatiently waiting for cucumbers and pole beans! Last year with the bad weather most everything was lost except the cucumbers. Man we were eating those with every meal! I couldn't believe the weather, we normally bring in a mixing bowl full of cherries tomatoes to work every day as a candy bowl on my desk, last year I think we had 4 cherry tomatoes total! It was horrible!

[beautifulgardens]

It is good to hear that you are starting your home gardens; it sounds like they are going to be great. You can add your own home farm to our interactive map in order help you connect with other local farmers and track your own farm’s progress at http://www.triscuit.com/homefarming. What’s your favorite herb or vegetable?

[gardengirl13]

To eat I love corn on the cob, but we never have the space to plant it. To grow my guess would be the cherry tomatoes since they do so well. We both love lavender, we have huge plants by the front door, but they're not doing too well this year. I think they got too big and old, so we're going to move them and replace them with more lavender.

Here's a photo of my veggies from left to right it's my herb box, then lettuce/arugula/radishes/spinach, then garlic, then peas and cabbage and now red leaf lettuce not in the photo, then broccoli and more lettuce and arugula.



In the other boxes not shown are more garlic and the beans and something new this year for me lemon cucumbers. Planted those yesterday figuring we're mostly out of the frost times.

[Gardentoad]

Nice beds Gardengirl. I'm still building raised beds in my vegggie area.
For your peppers, try a foliar spray. I started using a kelp foliar spray last year and it has made a huge difference.

[gardengirl13]

Hmm never heard of it. I'll have to see about getting that. I've never used any sprays on my gardens until a few years ago. Living next to an egg farm (our landlord) we're getting more bugs and it seems more problems with plants. My current favorites are the hot pepper wax and Neem oil, which works wonders on my beebalm and peonies for powdery mildew. We also use dried blood which (knock on wood) keeps the deer and woodchucks away.

Does the foliar spray help with nutrients? Or with growth?

With the heat this weekend (90 and sunny) the peppers all seem to have grown a little bud of second true leaves! All but the peter peppers. The first leaves (forget what they're called) seem faded and pale, but the true leaves all seem nice and bright. I plan on watering with fish emulsion as soon as they're outside for the day so it doesn't stink up my living room!

[Gardentoad]

It helps with both growth and nutrition. It isn't for bugs. I use neem oil for that.
This is where I bought the kelp I use.
http://silk.super-grow.biz/Kelp.jsp

Here's more about it.
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles ... arden.html

I read about it increasing raspberry fruits so I bought it for that but now I use it on all my plants in the greenhouse and all my berries, strawberry, gooseberry, blackberry and currants. I had a really good year last year. Before this I only used fush emmulsion, blood meal, bone meal and compost.


I am going to try benificial organisms in teas this year too.

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20040401/Hamilton

http://tribes.tribe.net/effectivemicro/ ... fdf4f013ad

http://ormuslike.vpinf.com/em.html

http://bokashicomposting.com/

[Ginger]

Pepper plants like it hot, so once it warms up in the 80's and stays they will take off. Don't over water, unlike tomatoes they don't like too much water, an inch a week is good. Enjoy all those fresh veggies

Ginger

[gardengirl13]

But with the heat they seem very thirsty? They're still only in little 4" pots that tend to dry out very quickly. Is it ok to water them often? If they're damp in the am when I set them out in the sun but afternoon when I take them back in (it's still mostly in the 50's here at night) they are almost wilted they're so dry.

One local garden center has tons of garden sprays and stuff like that (mostly organic) so when I go this week I'll look for the kelp spray. Maybe it'll help the raspberries too! last year we used these organic steak things that my husband hammered into the ground, and the raspberries picked up a lot from the year before.

This morning I checked them all over to see how everyone was doing and the peter peppers are getting nubs now too! The fluorescent peppers still don't have second true leaves yet, but they look very healthy. Keeping my fingers crossed, because these babies were fun to buy and grow so far. Can't wait to see the fruit!

[gardengirl13]

Another question (my teachers always said no question is stupid hee hee) can I just buy the Neptune's seaweed concentrate and make it into a spray instead of using it in my watering can? Would that be the same as the kelp? The last 7-8 years or so I've always just used Neptune's fish emulsion in my watering cans, I've never tried it as a spray, but if it's the same as the kelp I'll just buy the seaweed one too.

[kHT]

Thanks JaneG for starting the Veggie Garden post, but this year my garden has taken a back seat to local gov issue that are taking up my time.
But again how can one garden with you have see nothing but rain, 32 days in the past month?? Then there is the high winds and records lows and we are still seeing snow fall!!
Yep this has been a really strange year, records heats in Febr. and now cold again?? Hail damage like you would believe and we just don't get that much hail out here.
I have hosta that were shredded to the point folks were going shocked as they were totally leafed out by the mid March.
The veggies seeds were obtained in Jan so we have them in storage but the beds are still covered with black plastic and held down by rain water!! We have tons in bloom but the weather folks are warning us of frost for the next 48 hours!! I had to kick the heaters back on in the greenhouses due to a drop in temps last night. What veggies we do have planted are in the greenhouse keeping them warm!! We are planting less this year due to becoming allergic to the tomatoes last year, just moving in another direction??

[Gardentoad]

I looked up Neptunes fish emulsion and found Neptunes Harvest. It looks like it is only fish so I don't think it has the same benefits as the kelp. You use fish emulsion to feed through the roots. The kelp is for feeding through the leaves and soaking seeds but not good to use for watering your plants and feeding the roots. That company makes a fish and seaweed fertilizer also but I don't use it so I don't know if it would work well in a sprayer.

You give very young plants both of these fertilizers at half strenght.

To address them drying out. There are a couple reasons for this.

1. The plant's roots could be too big for the pot. Look at the bottom or your cells. Are there roots coming out of the holes? If there are, then you need to put them in bigger pots. When you up-pot them, set them deeper. I cover the cotyledon (first leaves) with soil so the plant is more stable. when I plant them in the garden I bury them deeper again.

2. The soil may not be getting completely wet. I water from the bottom by setting the plants in a tray of water (or water with fertilizer added) for a few minutes with the water at least a third of the way up the pot. This ensures that the water wicks all the way through the pots or cells. I use a litter pan and some plastic trays that I bough meat in. Let them set at least 5 minutes. They should be heavy when you lift them out of the water to drain.
When you water from the top a lot of times you only get the top layer of soil wet. If you are using a peat moss based mix, once it dries it takes a while to get it wet again, The top looks wet but it is just running down the edges and out of the pot.
If you water too forceably overhead to get it soaked you can spray the soil right out of the pots.
Also, watering from the top can encourage fungus and molds like Dampening Off Disease. This attacks seedlings right at the soil line and they just suddenly fall over dead.

It is best to water them in the morning, If they are wilted in the afternoon then water from the bottom with a quick dip so the soil isn't damp on top overnight. They shouldn't dry out enough to wilt in one day if they are in the correct sized pot and completely saturated in the morning.

[gardengirl13]

OK, I have them in trays, I'll just fill the trays with water to soak them good, then dump what water is left.

Yes it's Neptune's Harvest, they have a fish, fish and seaweed combo and just seaweed. I was just going to try the seaweed only one as a spray.

These are my peppers:


Not a very good photo, but you get the idea of what pots they're in and how they look. This morning they looked better then when this photo was taken, a little more dark green then what you see here.

[gardengirl13]

kHT yeah the weather is a strange one this year! We went from almost snow to 91 degrees in 2 days. Cold nights some nights, then others are almost 80 at night! It's crazy!

[beautifulgardens]

gardengirl13,

Your home raised beds look amazing. Have you thought of planting a few rows of corn behind the beds? They don’t take that much room because they grow straight upwards.

If you are thinking of making additions to your home farm, on our site, you’ll find a Crop Guide that provides suggestions as to which crops are best for your climate. Also, you can find fact sheets on a wide variety of vegetable and herb crops to help you learn about the crops you may want to include in your home farm. Let me know what you think!

[gardengirl13]

On the other side of those beds is trees/shrubs, no room for corn. We'd love to do another bed since corn likes to be at least 4 rows wide and 4 rows deep to pollinate correctly, but we're not sure if we can do that this year or not. But we'd love corn! We found this awesome recipe for grilled corn. It's so bad for you but soooo good!

[Gardentoad]

Those peat pots do dry out very fast. You could try packing them in closer together. You can't keep them too moist or they fall apart.
I use the plastic pots unless it is a type of plant that resents having it's roots disturbed.
I save them and reuse them until they get several splits down them.