2022 Garden Thread

[Dan Freeman]

OK, I admit it. I couldn't wait, so I started some seeds today. 40 Tomatoes, 20 peppers, and 10 Eggplants.

I also got the energizer for the electric fence around the food forest hooked up in my shed and the wires run down to the field. Now, I just have to get going on the fence!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

40 tomatoes! Wow! You must be making sauce!

I'm jealous of the land! I'd love to explore the food forest idea more. I use my peach tree as trellis, but that's not the same, lol. Its fun to see cucumbers hanging down from the branches though.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We make sauce from the San Marzano tomatoes. Of course, we eat a lot and give a lot away during the season. We also dehydrate and freeze dry many of them for winter cooking. Don't know how much property you have, but I have seen modified food forests done in just a side yard of a suburban home.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We moved 3 of the fruit trees we planted last summer down onto more level ground and pruned all the apple, peach, pear, mulberry and filbert trees. I find it "scary" to prune. My nature says, "don't take too much off", but everything I read and have watched on YouTube says prune the heck out of them, so the trees don't control you, you control the trees. We want to keep the trees manageable and in the best shape to bear the fruit without putting strain on the branches. Still nerve racking taking 2/3's of the tree off!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

We moved 3 of the fruit trees we planted last summer down onto more level ground and pruned all the apple, peach, pear, mulberry and filbert trees. I find it "scary" to prune. My nature says, "don't take too much off", but everything I read and have watched on YouTube says prune the heck out of them, so the trees don't control you, you control the trees. We want to keep the trees manageable and in the best shape to bear the fruit without putting strain on the branches. Still nerve racking taking 2/3's of the tree off!

Yeah, the trees almost look dead by the time the pruning is done.

We grow san marzanos too. They produce well for us!

 

[Dan Freeman]

Yeah, the trees almost look dead by the time the pruning is done.

We grow san marzanos too. They produce well for us!

One year we switched to Roma's, but I didn't think they make as good a sauce, so we went back to the San Marzano's. As we pick them, we freeze them. Once the season is over, we have 1-gallon bags full of them. Once defrosted, the skins come off easily, no blanching required.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I've tried Romas too. We didn't get the production out of them.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

OK, I admit it. I couldn't wait, so I started some seeds today. 40 Tomatoes, 20 peppers, and 10 Eggplants.

View attachment 293613

I also got the energizer for the electric fence around the food forest hooked up in my shed and the wires run down to the field. Now, I just have to get going on the fence!

View attachment 293614

And earlier I had been going to remark that I admired your forbearance on planting seeds!

Actually, I think it makes sense to change when one starts or transplants based on time available, weather and soil conditions, and experimentation.

Your food forest looks amazing. I found all of your ten new raised beds, even though they kind of disappear in the vast expanse of land shown there. The square footage of just those beds exceeds the entirety of what we call our “main garden” beds, though we did expand last year into a “new garden” plot with the addition of four large raised beds that we received from new neighbors who didn’t want a garden area. I‘m glad for you to have so much space to grow, but I know you’ll be working hard this spring to fill those beds and fence that space.

One of my goals is to find a sauce tomato that does well in our heat, but I will make sauce out of just about any tomato that produces for me. The two I’m trying for this season are Marzano Fire (an offspring of San Marzano) and Heidi, a variety that hails from Cameroon. I was very thankful to be given seeds for that last summer and am looking forward to trying it this year. Cherry tomatoes do particularly well down here, so I even use those in salsa and sauce, but I’d prefer to have more dedicated sauce types. We also enjoy dried tomatoes of all sorts.

 

[Montanalocal]

Two specialty tomato seed sellers are the following. They specialize in tomatoes from all over the world. I get all my tomatoes from them.

TomatoFest- /

Totally Tomatoes- /

 

[Dan Freeman]

Yes, we are so lucky to have the land. We have about 8+ acres, mostly wooded. When we first moved here 27 years ago, the woods grew right up to about 30 feet from the back of the house. We cleared a lot of it the first few years until it looked like this:

But due to the upkeep, we have let the back half go back to nature.

Chitting my potatoes: Russets, Red, and Golden

 

[Dan Freeman]

Two specialty tomato seed sellers are the following. They specialize in tomatoes from all over the world. I get all my tomatoes from them.

TomatoFest- /

Totally Tomatoes- /

I have a friend on the National Gardening Association Forum who buys her tomato seeds from Totally Tomatoes, and swears by their quality and variety.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Rainy day, so I couldn't do much outside. I got another 58 pots started with seeds.
18 Zinnias
18 Marigolds
14 Shasta Daisies
4 Parsley
4 Basil

This puts me up to 128 pots with seeds. Still more to go.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I noticed green leaves starting on the basil planted Saturday. Absolutely amazing how fast it’s coming along.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Rainy day, so I couldn't do much outside. I got another 58 pots started with seeds.
18 Zinnias
18 Marigolds
14 Shasta Daisies
4 Parsley
4 Basil

This puts me up to 128 pots with seeds. Still more to go.

We need a rainy day down here in south central Texas. We’re back in drought conditions, though thankfully the high heat hasn’t hit yet.

It was actually a beautiful afternoon today, so I sat out on our back deck in the shade of a large Live Oak and potted up some peppers and eggplant. I have a few more that need to grow more roots, but I wanted to get some into soil today before their roots get too, too long. (Starting them hydroponically encourages long root growth.)

Yesterday I potted up just a few tomatoes (pictured with the peppers). Unfortunately I broke the stem of one of my only two small cherry plants. I buried it deep and have hopes that it will revive. I can start another if I need to, but I wanted to give this one a couple of days to show me whether it will recover. It also just dawned on me that if this one doesn’t do well, I can plant a sucker from my other plant later in the season.



I didn’t do anything with my sweet potato slips today other than check on and admire them. My husband helped me rotate the planter yesterday to increase sun exposure to the other side. We’ll see if that encourages more growth. Overall, though, I’m very pleased. I’ll have enough slips for myself and to give to my neighbors.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I noticed green leaves starting on the basil planted Saturday. Absolutely amazing how fast it’s coming along.

Congratulations! It’s great in spring, but you’ll love it in the winter, too, when that little growth is especially cheering. One downside of having spring and fall growing seasons down here in Texas is that I use the Aerogardens so much for seed starting that I really don’t grow any plants in them any more. I have used them in the height of summer, though, to grow some lettuce inside when it’s too hot outside. I might have to try to sneak in a basil crop in December and January, though. I was missing it when I used my frozen tomatoes for sauce.

As I was potting up my peppers today, I thought I might mention to you that a large pair of tweezers is really helpful for removing the small starts from the tray. I have a pair with a curved point, and I stab the side of the sponge with them and pull it out.

Also, I thought I’d mention that I do occasionally find sponges from failed transplants in my garden beds. They don’t always disintegrate in the soil if there hasn’t been a lot of root growth through them, and I will bring those back into the house. Once I have a collection of them, I sterilize them with boiling water and reuse them. It seems to work just fine.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Great tip with the tweezers! I haven't gotten that far in my thinking yet, lol. My heat pad arrived, so I got my peppers and tomatoes started. I just have the tubs sitting on the pad. It fits 2 of them. A probe is snaked into 1 of them for temp control. Once they sprout I can move them over to the aerogardens to take advantage of the light and circulation pump. I haven't added fertilizer either.

I imagine we'll use the aerogardens all year since they can grow herbs, green onions, etc.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Today we got 6 of the 10 raised gardens ready for soil by lining the bottoms with cardboard and a few inches of wood chips. We also finished taking out the old garden fence on the left side of the picture (red outline). For size reference, that old garden was 30 x 20 (600 square feet).

Here is what that garden looked like when we used to use it years ago.

 

[clancey]

That's looking really good and lots of work you have done...I am working on other things right now but will be getting my few plants real soon and I am going to put them right into the ground after I turn the soil over--might be awhile--lol...Good for you and "everyone's garden projects look really good and hoping for 'everyone' to have plenty of good tasting organic food--so nice to see all your products as you get ready for this year of gardening...interesting as well..."keep an eye on that nut tree you planted"--let me know about how that is doing...Yes...clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Today we got 6 of the 10 raised gardens ready for soil by lining the bottoms with cardboard and a few inches of wood chips. We also finished taking out the old garden fence on the left side of the picture (red outline). For size reference, that old garden was 30 x 20 (600 square feet).View attachment 293680

Here is what that garden looked like when we used to use it years ago.

View attachment 293681

That 20 x 30 outline is about the size of our “main garden” area. It has eleven raised beds and a few pots/planters. There are four larger raised beds in the “new garden” space, and that increased our vegetable growing space a lot. We have trees and berry bushes in other areas. Everything I plant I have to water, though, so I can only plant so much.

The raised beds up closer to the front of the photo, are those what you’ve been using for your garden in more recent years? They look really nice.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

That's looking really good and lots of work you have done...I am working on other things right now but will be getting my few plants real soon and I am going to put them right into the ground after I turn the soil over--might be awhile--lol...Good for you and "everyone's garden projects look really good and hoping for 'everyone' to have plenty of good tasting organic food--so nice to see all your products as you get ready for this year of gardening...interesting as well..."keep an eye on that nut tree you planted"--let me know about how that is doing...Yes...clancey

All our talk about starting seeds and working beds is giving you spring fever, Mrs. Clancey. If you’re buying transplants, don’t get too eager and set them out before your danger of frost is past. I don’t know your area exactly, but I did a quick check, and it looks like Denver gets frost until late April or even early May. A good frost will kill a tomato plant. I think we’re past danger of frost down here in south central Texas, but our forecast still has some nights in the 30’s in the coming days. I won’t be planning to put my plants in the ground for at least a couple of weeks yet, though they are spending warm days outside (and the occasional warm night).

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Mrs Clancy, have you looked at square foot gardening? It’s a way to get a lot of production out of a very small area. It’s a pretty neat way to plant a garden.

 

[clancey]

This gardening has a lot more to it then one would think and I did not know about frost and will keep an eye on the weather forecast and that square foot gardening I will check out on the net. When I get my few little plants I will take a picture of them for you--lol--like if you never saw plants..lol..Enjoying and thanks...clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Mrs Clancy, have you looked at square foot gardening? It’s a way to get a lot of production out of a very small area. It’s a pretty neat way to plant a garden.

There is a book called Square Foot Gardening by a man named Mel Bartholomew. It has a lot of good information in it, and it was the resource that I used to built my first trellises when we had a small yard and tiny garden beds in Northern Virginia. Those worked great, though, for letting me grow abundant pickling cucumbers and other vegetables in that small space. The frames for those trellises moved with us to Texas. I replaced the torn nylon netting with some free woven wire fencing we were given, and I still use the trellises every year. I plan to move two to my backyard bed this year and grow luffa sponges on them. Your local library may well have a copy of the book that you could borrow. There is, of course, also a lot of information on the web.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I remember when HGTV had a lot of gardening shows....about 20-25 years ago...before they went to all house shows. (They should take the "G" out and just call the network HTV!) Mel Bartholomew even had a weekly show. I use to love their gardening shows. I learned so much.

Today, we got all the remnants of that garden fence moved to the dump in the back of the property. The food forest fencing begins on Monday. More pics to come.

 

[clancey]

Thanks everyone and those were the days--long gone---refers to the gardening shows of yesteryear..If I knew that I was going to stay here I would do something permanent but I do not know at this time and as you all suggest I look up things and try to learn "little bits"--not getting too involved at this point but I write everything down for future references if "life carries on in my life"..and in the mean while its just plain "fun" to read up with everything you people are up to in the way of gardening...What is chitting? in regard to potato's anyway--easier to get a simple answer for I am a lazy gardener at this point-lol ...All your ideas are just plain good...enjoying..I have been on that website that Montanalocal suggested and its neat so I thought I would copy some of it on here for you all to see---all kinds of tomato's--I love tomato's and also Basil too...clancey

Organic Heirloom Tomato Seeds | Heirloom Tomatoes TomatoFest