Zone 3-5 Gardeners Early 2010 - Page 5

[Nillarilla]

Thanks for all the seed company links. Anyone have any in BC?

[Stitches]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

Who else woke up to snow this morning? *sigh*

No snow yet but it's coming this weekend. I still haven't got my seeds started indoors...I just can't get motivated when the weather seems so far from being nice. I'm mostly going to plant into the ground this year, we are in the middle of some house renos and I just don't have the room to have my usual overabundance of plants started.

[redveg]

Morning

All y seedlings are doing well. It's so exciting to see them starting I will be working on the garden space this weekend, trying to get it ready. I might try to get some lettuce, carrots, spinach and a few others in the ground either this weekend or during the week.

[lotus.blossom]

I'm going back and forth about putting in my beets and peas from seed and my broccoli and lettuce seedlings soon. I need someone to hold my hand!

[limette]

Originally Posted by lotus.blossom

I'm going back and forth about putting in my beets and peas from seed and my broccoli and lettuce seedlings soon. I need someone to hold my hand!

I put some radish and lettuce seeds in the other day. On the next warm day I'll add more and some pea and beet seeds.

As soon as potatoes come out in stores they'll go in.

My front yard needs some serious work. I didn't do any cleanup in the fall, so there are tons of deady annuals that need pulling out.

We didn't get any snow.

[heavensearth]

Originally Posted by Nillarilla

Thanks for all the seed company links. Anyone have any in BC?

http://www.saltspringseeds.com/ Ive been checking out their selection for some time now, looks like great stuff!

[redveg]

Originally Posted by lotus.blossom

I'm going back and forth about putting in my beets and peas from seed and my broccoli and lettuce seedlings soon. I need someone to hold my hand!

Maine, you guys still have cold weather there? I am central New Hampshire and I am putting in this weekend, or trying to get my cold weather things going. I know a few people who started last weekend though. I am not sure about the garden, but I say as long as the snow is gone and the ground isn't frozen, go for it Seedlings, if it were me I would start, by the time they are ready to go in the garden the weather will be perfect, fingers crossed

[Hibou]

Blizzard outside my window right now!

Originally Posted by Nillarilla

Thanks for all the seed company links. Anyone have any in BC?

Full Circle Seeds in Sooke is where I ordered some of my hardiest greens a couple of years ago.

[jildez]

my husband worked on getting our beds into shape today- i've been sidelined with a combo sick and teething babe for the past few days- and a couple of days ago one of his co-workers came by and showed us around the property (it belongs to his nonprofit and she gardened here last year. Found out there is rhubarb and lots of flower bulbs coming up and she says somewhere along the back fence line there in asparagus- does anyone know what that would look like at this point in west central iowa?- i went looking today and didn't find anything.

[redveg]

Originally Posted by Hibou

Blizzard outside my window right now!

Yuck. I feel for you. I am so over Winter. This year seemed very long to me.

Originally Posted by jildez

my husband worked on getting our beds into shape today- i've been sidelined with a combo sick and teething babe for the past few days- and a couple of days ago one of his co-workers came by and showed us around the property (it belongs to his nonprofit and she gardened here last year. Found out there is rhubarb and lots of flower bulbs coming up and she says somewhere along the back fence line there in asparagus- does anyone know what that would look like at this point in west central iowa?- i went looking today and didn't find anything.

I worked on my garden yesterday. Over the winter I grew so many rocks! I thought I got rid of them last year? Sorry to hear about your little one, hope babe feels better asap.

[lotus.blossom]

Originally Posted by redveg

Maine, you guys still have cold weather there? I am central New Hampshire and I am putting in this weekend, or trying to get my cold weather things going. I know a few people who started last weekend though. I am not sure about the garden, but I say as long as the snow is gone and the ground isn't frozen, go for it Seedlings, if it were me I would start, by the time they are ready to go in the garden the weather will be perfect, fingers crossed

I wouldn't say cold. The snow has been gone for a while, and our average temp these last few weeks has been about 50. The soil was workable a while ago and I have been turning over and weeding for weeks. I just consider my seedlings to be my babies and I don't want to kill them!! I guess I could start hardening them off to see how they react. I have 20 broccoli seedlings and they are getting huge. I went a little crazy.

[floiejo2]

Hi all, I haven't had time to read all the posts in this thread but i'm jumping in. Zone 5 here and very new to gardening. My parents had a garden while I was growing up but we were never involved in it so I know basically nothing. We did try our very first garden here last year and didn't plant anything in the ground(seeds) until the end of May. I haven't had any luck with starting things inside and then transplanting them so we're just doing the seeds outside again. When do you all plant everything? Right about now? I know we were a little late last year and really the only thing that worked great was our corn, tons of it. Which was sooo exciting and fun for us and our girls! We also had 2 little watermelons that worked. I'm not sure it's done freezing here, I guess that would be a good thing to pay attention too. And we have tons of work to do to get the ground ready... We're still doing the very basics, carrots, corn, squash, cucumbers, a few melons, maybe going to try to transplant some raspberry bushes from my mom's house. Any very new basic gardening tips?

[COgirl19]

flojoe- I see you are in Zone 5 but where exactly if you don't mind my asking? I am in Northern colorado and will probably get things in the ground at the very end of this month, though with covers at the ready in case of frost. Right now they are all in mini cold boxes made from milk jug containers to give them a head start.

So far I have sprouted:

1 eggplant
1 hot pepper
LOTS of caulifower and
LOTS of collards
several Basil and Lavender plants

I fear I may have started the eggplant too early. I have grown them before but when we were living in the Southeast and the more I read the more it seems they may not do well here. Even in July and August the nights can get down to the 50s. Anyone have experience with eggplant in our more northern climate?

[elanorh]

Hi from Wyoming - Zone 3/4 where I am.

I just placed my garden orders a few minutes ago (finally!). We had our CSA meeting awhile ago so I know what to expect from them (more or less) this coming year.

We're going to experiment this year and plant some hops as a screen around our evaporative cooler's stand (it's elevated) -- maybe we can find a local homebrewer who will be able to use the hops. They're supposed to smell good, anyway, and grow a good screen. We'll see....

Our other experiments are showy milkweed (I may plant this along the creek past our house, rather than in the yard) for the Monarch butterflies; and ground cherries, because dd1 and I just finished reading the "Little House" series, and they grew those. A total experiment, that one! I will also grow pole beans for the first time this summer. My stand-bys are the Lakota squash, lumina "pumpkins," sunshine squash, patty-pan squash, cosmos, calendula, sunflowers, carrots, parsnips .... trying new varieties of peas, snow peas, beans (some funky red ones from Seeds of Change). And as always, our Yukon gold pototoes, Red Norland potatoes, and Russian fingerling potatoes. Oh, and growing broccoli for the first time this year! We will get tomato and eggplant starts from the local nursery (also cilantro, parsley, basil starts there). Not much for the tomatoes, because our CSA provides an abundance of those. Hopefully yellow pear, cherry, and a Black Krim. Our garden is pretty small. We will have a small patch of corn (True Platinum), and I grow as much as I can in a hybrid of the Square Foot Gardening method.

Now to start cleaning out the flower beds and garden, and decide how to fit all these seeds into our garden!

Maybe this year I will get a chance to think about permanent, long-term beds and plantings - we have 4 apple trees and a pie cherry tree planted, from two years ago - but want to get raspberries, blueberries (with the soil acidification etc. involved), rhubarb, asparagus, etc. etc. planted (plums, pears, quince, Manchurian bush apricots) .... lots of things to get going ASAP if I want the girls to enjoy helping grow and pick them, before they're gone from home!

[floiejo2]

Cogirl19 I am in eastern Colorado. On the plains. The grass around here is just barely starting to turn green. It's been a long cold winter.

[elanorh]

Originally Posted by COgirl19

I fear I may have started the eggplant too early. I have grown them before but when we were living in the Southeast and the more I read the more it seems they may not do well here. Even in July and August the nights can get down to the 50s. Anyone have experience with eggplant in our more northern climate?

I grew eggplant (started at the local nursery) the past two years. In '08, we had lots of eggplant and they were vigorous, healthy plants -- I think they started producing mid-August and produced for a month; they outlasted the tomatoes when the first hard frost hit, too. But, in '09, they didn't grow at. all. The tomatoes did just fine, but the eggplants didn't. I don't know what happened.

I use tomato supports for them, and usually use wall o'waters for the beginning of the season. The tomatoes love them all season long, but the eggplants seem to do better without them once July hits.

I think I had them with black plastic mulch, and without, with no differences in production in '08 -- I do find that black plastic mulch helps with plants that need a longer hot season, like eggplants and melons.

[heavensearth]

elanorh, sounds lovely!!! We're doing some guerrilla gardening too this year and planting poppies and calendula in the naturalized are (part of a park) right by our house.

Also planning on planting some hops to grow up around some trellis/neighbor blocking screens teeeheee

My little seedlings are not doing well this year I don't think they like the cold in the basement so we're going to go back to using heating pads under them.. it should help! Our safe planting outdoors date isn't until June so we still have some time.

Id love to see pictures of everyone's gardens/seedlings

[jildez]

Originally Posted by heavensearth

elanorh, sounds lovely!!! We're doing some guerrilla gardening too this year and planting poppies and calendula in the naturalized are (part of a park) right by our house.

Also planning on planting some hops to grow up around some trellis/neighbor blocking screens teeeheee

My little seedlings are not doing well this year I don't think they like the cold in the basement so we're going to go back to using heating pads under them.. it should help! Our safe planting outdoors date isn't until June so we still have some time.

Id love to see pictures of everyone's gardens/seedlings

heating pads under seedlings? how does this work? do you need to have them on all the time? does it need to be a specific kind of tray? I have some seedlings started, or should i say not started, although its been a week and they are supposed to be coming up... maybe i need to be doing this.

[Hibou]

Originally Posted by jildez

she says somewhere along the back fence line there in asparagus- does anyone know what that would look like at this point in west central iowa?- i went looking today and didn't find anything.

I think the first thing you'll see when they do come up is the green asparagus shoots (the part you eat). The fern-looking leaves will begin to pop up shortly afterwards.

Originally Posted by redveg

Over the winter I grew so many rocks!

Funny how that happens! When I was growing up, we had to pick rocks in the field each spring before my dad put the crops in. It wasn't so funny then.

Originally Posted by COgirl19

Anyone have experience with eggplant in our more northern climate?

I started all of my nightshades at the same time, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers. The first time I grew eggplant was 2 years ago- a hardy heirloom variety called little fingers. It did really well, but didn't produce until maybe early September, when we get frost warnings here, so I had to be ready with covers at night. Last year I seeded another hardy variety called Morden Midget which was supposed to be a little earlier I think, but the cutworms got every last one of them. Hoping for better luck this year- I'm planting a couple of each variety.

Originally Posted by heavensearth

My little seedlings are not doing well this year I don't think they like the cold in the basement so we're going to go back to using heating pads under them.. it should help! Our safe planting outdoors date isn't until June so we still have some time.

I'm still starting seeds too. Tender veggies can't go out until early June here as well. I only have my seedlings in a window, and they haven't had much sunshine. Everything seems to catch up eventually, in the summer heat.

My cold frame greens are really doing well though! I think we'll be able to start picking little salads w/in a week or two.

[zensven42]

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