Anyone Garden?

begreen said:

We've been growing Sugar Buns for several years. It matures pretty quickly. We get a good crop for a small space. The corn keeps well and has great flavor.

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Thanks, do squirrels/deer like them too?

mass_burner said:

I like spinach, asparagus, potatoes.

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I like all of those too, but we can't grow spinach. It bolts too soon. I've heard that it's a common problem. Any suggestions for doing it right? I'm wondering if it's a zone/climate thing.

I've tried spinach and it would bolt on me and get rather bitter also. For what it costs to buy and the space it takes I'm not putting a lot of effort into row covers and hoop tunnels. Swiss chard I have better luck with but haven't grown any in a while as no one likes it but me.
The peas I planted on 9March have all poked above ground.
I put onions in at the same time and might put a row cover on them for this cold weather that's coming Sunday as they are all sending shoots up too.

billb3 said:

Swiss chard I have better luck with

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Fortunately, we like chard too. In fact, I just had some for lunch.

My wife is actually the gardener. She has a bunch of seedlings starting in one of those $20 greenhouse things indoors near a south window. It works quite well. She also has one out on the front porch. Like these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bond-Man...x-2-ft-2-in-x-1-ft-Greenhouse-63516/204755513

Thanks for the spinach link. We'll look into it and your suggestions. Swiss chard is good, and we grow a lot of it. I've found that beet greens are a pretty good green, too. Although I don't like the beets. But I really like spinach. I am what I am and all that.

3-4" snow today, sure glad I didn't plant anything yet.

snow is usually OK as long as nothing breaks from the weight. It can even serve as an insulator from cell busting cold.

My tomatoes are germinating! Yay! Also planted the fig tree last weekend. All of my other perennials previously mentioned are in the ground and I managed to score some raspberries from my aunt too. Peas are poking up and lots of other seeds are in the ground too. I have been busy.

Fig tree with root restriction:


For one of my cherry trees, when I pruned it to start the fan-training, the centre of one of the branches and the central stem were both punky inside. It looks super happy on the outside though - lots of big leaf buds. Anyone know if this will be a future problem? It was container grown and a little rootbound when I got it.

the box forces the roots down ?

I had to take all my seedlings out of the unheated greenhouse and put them under lights. It was getting too cold at night .

The box keeps the roots and tree small and focussed on producing fruit rather than growing more tree. Apparently. I'll let you know. I got that tip off of the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) website. I figure our climate is a lot like the UK's, so their advice should be good here. Haha all lots of fun!

Just discovered this gardening thread and love it. Background; growing in central Montana at 5000 ft elevation in zone 4. 90 day growing season, 2500 sq feet of in-ground gardening area, been gardening in MT for over 60 years.

Re; spinach.

I have let my spinach go to seed and volunteer for many years. The dropped volunteer seed comes up in the fall and grows to about one inch popcorn style all over the garden before winter sets in. It will go through anything, 30 below no problem. Is bright green after the snow melts, and immediately takes off. We have been eating this years spinach for several weeks now.

The first picture is late summer bolted spinach. Let go until completely dead and has mature seed ready to drop. Till over the top to plant seed in fall.

The second is this years spinach in late April. Do not dig up whole plant, pick individual bottom leaves from the ground up.

Thanks Montana! I'll relay this to my executive chief gardener... as I have with begreen's advice. Nearly given up on it, but we'll keep trying.

A further word about spinach.

We have a favorite way to consume large amounts of spinach during its productive season, when we can literally harvest shopping bags of leaves at a time. We do that by letting the leaves and plants get large, each leaf being the size of your hand. To do this, we need to thin our plants aggressively, giving them a lot of space, and harvesting the largest bottom leaves progressively. Those little baby leaves you find in stores do not have the good flavor of the larger leaves.

This spinach salad recipe is yummy. Cooked or boiled spinach? Yuck!


Wilted Spinach Salad

Large bowl of fresh spinach, torn into bite sized pieces.
1/2 cup cut up green onions
4 slices bacon
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Brown bacon in sauce pan. Remove and crumble. Remove about half bacon fat.
Into the sauce pan with remaining fat add water, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.
Bring to simmer, stirring to dissolve suger.
Sprinkle onions and bacon bits over the fresh spinach, then pour hot vinegar mixture over spinach, and toss immediately to coat.
Consume immediately while warm.

Mmmm bacon...


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That's neat you get spinach volunteers. I'm not sure I have enough room for all of that spinach!


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My latest update: peas, lettuce, beets, spinach, etc all doing well. My pak choi got eaten by wood bugs though (twice!). Who would've thought? I replaced them with some donated walla walla onions from a friend.

I expanded my irrigation system on the weekend - my cranberries were turning a bit crispy. Fingers crossed they pull through with irrigation. It is like summer here already! So dry





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Cynnergy said:

I replaced them with some donated walla walla onions from a friend.

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Don't get me started on Walla Walla sweets. When we lived in Richland, we would stock up there all the time on business trips. And other stuff. It's really a true garden spot. Accept no substitutes.

begreen said:

I would add some garlic to the recipe, sauteed in the saucepan before adding the other ingredients.

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Geez, you guys. I think I'm hungry again already.

BrotherBart said:

Nothing about meat and potatoes. I am out of this one. Leafy things that aren't firewood are evil.

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Didn't you see the bacon!?!?!

My sweet potatoes will be coming via mail order soon. Is that close enough? [emoji16]