2021 Garden Thread

[clancey]

Good idea--do you think that I could grow something like Okra.? Or maybe some hot peppers or something but "not the hot ones"--whatever you call....maybe some carrots too...getting ready ahead of time here--lol...Take care dear garden people and rest for the winter and get ready for the spring...Bless you...old clancey

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Grow what makes you happy!

Carrots don't grow well in my garden, but it's not hard to put a few in the ground and see if they'll grow well in yours!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@clancey, I agree with @EatenByLimestone that you should concentrate on growing what you like to eat. I think okra should do fine there. You might need to start it from seed. I don’t know if you could buy starts or not.

I did a quick search and found an article about gardening at high altitude. I thought I’d include it here. You don’t need to get bogged down in all the details, but it has good lists of cool weather versus warm weather crops, and it’s important to know which vegetables like heat (tomatoes, peppers, okra) and which like cool (carrots, lettuce, cabbage).

How to Grow a Colorado Vegetable Garden at High Elevation

Growing your own vegetables can be a very satisfying and rewarding experience, yet elevation adds some dynamics to your Colorado gardening. The Centennial State features a wildcard of conditions and no matter what your skill level, it’s best to be prepared.

www.uncovercolorado.com

My husband and I worked outside a lot today. I did watering. We both emptied a compost tumbler and spread compost into the four square beds where we plan to plant garlic. I mixed that in with a little hand rake while he worked on chipping lots of branches. He made four wheelbarrows full of mulch for the paths in the new garden area which had not been completely covered.

 

[clancey]

OMG--you people are workers..lol Later I will read the artlcle that you presented and thank you so much...Thinking about peppers too but not the hot klnd--there are plenty of choices for me--hard decision this is..lol..thanks..clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

OMG--you people are workers..lol Later I will read the artlcle that you presented and thank you so much...Thinking about peppers too but not the hot klnd--there are plenty of choices for me--hard decision this is..lol..thanks..clancey

Another thought I had was that you could grow some sunflowers to have seeds for your birds.

 

[begreen]

I am dealing with a bad knee so my outdoor time is limited. Picked about 20# of carrots the other day and it just about did me in. My wife harvested the last apples today (Enterprise). Hoping to plant garlic tomorrow if the ibuprofen holds out.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I am dealing with a bad knee so my outdoor time is limited. Picked about 20# of carrots the other day and it just about did me in. My wife harvested the last apples today (Enterprise). Hoping to plant garlic tomorrow if the ibuprofen holds out.

Ouch. That’s no fun. Do you have a stool or something that you can take to the garden to sit on while you plant? As I recall your raised beds are pretty high off the ground. How much garlic will you plant? What variety/ies?

 

[begreen]

I've lost track of the varieties. I will just be planting the best of this year's crop. Some hardnecks and some soft.

 

[kennyp2339]

Pretty much done with the leaves here, this year I'm doing a little experiment, normally I just blow all my leaves into the woods, this year every time I did a clean up I would mulch them first with the lawn mower then go back over them with the bagger and pick up the little chopped pieces. I've dumped on average about 6" thick of chopped leaf mash in all my gardens, like every garden has a 6" layer, my hope here is 2 fold, one is creating a good soil layer for worms, nutrients, and moisture the other is for the leaf mulch to act as a natural weed barrier.
This past summer I spent close to an hour a week just pulling weeds (I dont like spraying because my cat also likes chilling in some of the gardens) the weeds still got the best of me, and my heart just isnt there to manage all the space I have. Anyone else try this method? I watched a few youtube video's on this and people really liked there results.

 

[kennyp2339]

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this is the video that triggered the madness on my property, So far I've used all of my leaves, and cleaned up 2 of my neighbors yards for they're leaves, they think I'm off my rocker lol but they got free yard clean ups out of the deal.

 

[begreen]

I will be mulching some beds today. Still harvesting carrots, kale, cabbage, lettuce, beets, and swiss chard. The last of the cucumbers are still growing in the greenhouse along with some tomatoes. It's nice to have them fresh in November.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I've mulched the beds with leaves before. The worms love it!

It's also great mulch when you want to start a new bed.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

here it is Thanksgiving and I got good tomatoes to pick in the greenhouse

 

[begreen]

Nice! What variety is this? Our early girl is still producing, but the tomatoes are now 1/4 the normal size. We also still have a lot of picked tomatoes in the greenhouse that are ripening. We should be good with homegrown until the new year.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I have 2 better boy, 1 roma and 1 agi red. that aggi red I go from a friend on here. The plants were all cuttings that I took off plants that were in my garden this summer and I rooted them up and put in large containers. I also have frying peppers and red bell.. its 43 degrees out now and 85 in there with the vents open

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Nice! I'm jealous!

 

[fbelec]

+1

 

[clancey]

you better all get out there now and get some cuttings even if there is snow on the ground..Sounds all good..clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Pretty much done with the leaves here, this year I'm doing a little experiment, normally I just blow all my leaves into the woods, this year every time I did a clean up I would mulch them first with the lawn mower then go back over them with the bagger and pick up the little chopped pieces. I've dumped on average about 6" thick of chopped leaf mash in all my gardens, like every garden has a 6" layer, my hope here is 2 fold, one is creating a good soil layer for worms, nutrients, and moisture the other is for the leaf mulch to act as a natural weed barrier.
This past summer I spent close to an hour a week just pulling weeds (I dont like spraying because my cat also likes chilling in some of the gardens) the weeds still got the best of me, and my heart just isnt there to manage all the space I have. Anyone else try this method? I watched a few youtube video's on this and people really liked there results.

We are huge fans of using chopped leaves here. I’ve used wood chips on a lot of the garden beds, but they don’t break down as well, and it can be hard not to mix them in with new plantings, so I want to concentrate more on leaves this winter for soil protection and mulch. We just recently planted four small beds of garlic, and they’re my first goal once we collect leaves. We don’t have as many deciduous trees down here, and they’re just beginning to drop now. (In March, though, we get a huge leaf and catkin drop when the live oaks put out their new growth). You’ll have a nice long season for decay, and I think you’ll see great results.



The four beds in the middle are where we planted garlic a couple Saturdays ago. (I meant to do it earlier but was ill at the time.) I had to hoe a couple of times because I put some compost down that must have had fresh tomato added to it by accident. (We have two tumblers, and this one wasn’t supposed to get additons in recent weeks, but mistakes happen.). I had a carpet of tomato seedlings. I figure frost will take care of that for me, but it’s not in the forecast right now.

The garlic is peeking up in all four beds, but the Shilla variety is farthest along. I hope to add a couple of inches of leaf mulch in the next couple of weeks.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

here it is Thanksgiving and I got good tomatoes to pick in the greenhouse

Nice.

I pulled all my tomato plants the first week of November, but I still have some of the fruit I harvested green at that time that’s ripening in the pantry. It is a treat at this time of year.

My peppers are loving our fall this year. We haven’t had a frost or freeze yet (this may be the latest that I’ve had that experience in Texas). I have some Chinese Cabbage and Kale in the bed behind the peppers, and I was expecting them to be gone by now, but they’re doing so beautifully that I’m leaving them while the forecast is good. We’re warming up this week to get into the low 70’s during the day and 50’s at night.

 

[fbelec]

all this talk about peppers. what kind do you have in the pictures? i tasted serrano red peppers was hot but good a little less heat than jalapeno, but also tried poblano and they have even less heat and are the perfect pepper heat wise for me. also they have more pepper flavor. both peppers are good. i had a friend who grew radishes and they were as hot as a serrano. and he assured me that they were regular radish just held back the water and that made the heat.

 

[clancey]

Glad everybody is fooling with their gardening and I am thinking about mine for the future..I think I will have one tomato plant and some peppers but do not know what kind just yet--ones not too hot and maybe I will try some potatoes with help from you people because I do not know how to plant potatoes and do you just stick the eyes in the ground?..Maybe I will try some lettuce too--getting geared up here but still waiting for our first good snow in the city for the winter and it has not come yet in any big degree. clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

all this talk about peppers. what kind do you have in the pictures? i tasted serrano red peppers was hot but good a little less heat than jalapeno, but also tried poblano and they have even less heat and are the perfect pepper heat wise for me. also they have more pepper flavor. both peppers are good. i had a friend who grew radishes and they were as hot as a serrano. and he assured me that they were regular radish just held back the water and that made the heat.

We have a mixture of both hot and sweet peppers. The long peppers that show in the first picture are a hot banana pepper. They are supposed to be mildly hot, but our experience is that they are extremely hot, definitely more than a jalapeño. I’m trying to let these get red, and then I’ll pickle slices. That way they’ll keep, and we can enjoy them on pizza or burgers as our tolerances allow. (In the foreground of that picture there’s also a sweet pepper called Red Belgium. Most of that plant got broken off a few weeks ago, but I’m seeing what it will do. The one pepper that shows is ripening, but there are some small ones still growing. There’s so little sun on my garden now, but I figure if the plants are happy, I’ll let them do their thing.)

The second picture shows one of my “Lunchbox” mix. I ended up with two reds and a yellow this year, which isn’t my favorite as the reds are often smaller than I would like. They are a nice pepper for garden salads or for kids‘ snacks, and with four kids who all like to eat sweet peppers, it’s good to have a bunch.

This year I’ve also grown fish peppers, shishito peppers, and a small sweet Ajicito. The fish peppers are a Serrano type pepper with a strong albinism gene in the plant and fruit that makes them beautifully variegated. I’ll need to harvest and dry more for grinding into powder. The shishitos have been a blast this year. They’re a small Japanese frying pepper that’s usually mild but occasionally has a surprise hot one. The Ajicitos are like small habeneros but without the heat. My younger daughter loves to fill them with soft goat cheese and eat them that way.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Glad everybody is fooling with their gardening and I am thinking about mine for the future..I think I will have one tomato plant and some peppers but do not know what kind just yet--ones not too hot and maybe I will try some potatoes with help from you people because I do not know how to plant potatoes and do you just stick the eyes in the ground?..Maybe I will try some lettuce too--getting geared up here but still waiting for our first good snow in the city for the winter and it has not come yet in any big degree. clancey

Gardening can be addictive, just like wood burning, Mrs. Clancey. You might be succumbing to both.

Tomatoes and peppers have similar heat requirements and culture. They both dislike cold and want warm soil and air.

Potatoes and lettuce both like to mature before the heat comes. You could certainly grow those; just be aware that you’ll need to start potatoes and lettuce outside much earlier in the spring than you would tomatoes or peppers. Winter is a great time to sit by your woodstove and make garden plans.

 

[clancey]

Thanks and that's for true and I will try to read up on a few things so that I can at least have the stuff to get prepared for my potatoes and lettuce. lol...Trying hard to light my stove but it is just not cold enough yet--today here--73 degrees but my wood is waiting...glad your keeping up with things and planning as well... and enjoy your wood stove too and have some hot chocolate with family with some marshmallows in it..that's always nice too...clancey