Gardening! - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[LunaLady]

For your tomato starts, are you guys able to find organic ones? If so, where at?

[Jaimee]

I buy heirloom tomatoes.

[wellforth]

I usually buy from Baker Creek, though I have so many seeds at this point, I don't really need to buy any more.  I often start tomatoes in the ground, and it seems like they grow just as fast and easily as starts. 

One nice thing about using heirloom seeds is that you can save your seeds and get exactly what you planted.  Generally, seeds from Home Depot and the like are not heirlooms, but hybrids, and if you save hybrid seeds, they revert and you don't necessarily get what you planted the previous year.  Heirloom seeds are the same, with little variation, every year.  I really like saving seeds!

Jaimee, last year there was a seed exchange, but it didn't happen this year.  Not sure why. 

There's some gorgeous gardens in our neighborhood.  One house has probably a couple hundred garlics growing, and every square inch of their yard is soil, furrowed in rows.  I'm not totally into row gardening, but I bet that yard is going to be kick ass in a few months.

carey

[Abraisme]

Growing tomatoes from seed is okay in some places, but not in the Pacific NW.  We just don't have a long enough summer with enough heat to yield much.  Last year I had about 400 volunteer tomatoes plants grow in my garden (opps, I didn't heat my compost properly!!).  I transplanted 5 of them and while they grew and looked really healthy, none of them had any ripe tomatoes in the end.  It's best to use starts because it adds an extra 6+ weeks of growing season to your plants.

 

Originally Posted by wellforth 

I usually buy from Baker Creek, though I have so many seeds at this point, I don't really need to buy any more.  I often start tomatoes in the ground, and it seems like they grow just as fast and easily as starts. 

One nice thing about using heirloom seeds is that you can save your seeds and get exactly what you planted.  Generally, seeds from Home Depot and the like are not heirlooms, but hybrids, and if you save hybrid seeds, they revert and you don't necessarily get what you planted the previous year.  Heirloom seeds are the same, with little variation, every year.  I really like saving seeds!

Jaimee, last year there was a seed exchange, but it didn't happen this year.  Not sure why. 

There's some gorgeous gardens in our neighborhood.  One house has probably a couple hundred garlics growing, and every square inch of their yard is soil, furrowed in rows.  I'm not totally into row gardening, but I bet that yard is going to be kick ass in a few months.

carey

[seraf]

I think I could have started tomatoes outside this year in cold frames most likely. What a crazy spring.

[jbk21]

so what is everyone thinking of planting?  I want some heirloom tomatoes, sugar plum tomatoes, peppers (various), diva cucumbers, maybe some eggplant?, pumpkin (sweet meat), various leafy greens, radish, garlic, onion, various herbs... not sure what else.  Abra do you have any tips?  This will be my first year gardening in the PNW.  I want to get some galvanized troughs to use for container gardening because we can't dig in the yard- so maybe I'll put herbs and greens in those.  I can also use my neighbor's raised beds that she doesn't use.  

[Jaimee]

Usually I plant:

• Sugar snap peas
• Green beans
• Cucumbers
• A couple varieties of heirloom large tomatoes
• A couple varieties of heirloom small (like cherry, pear, etc.) tomatoes
• Carrots
• Sweet onions and red onions
• Radishes
• Arugula
• Several varieties of lettuce
• Chard
• Kale
• Rosemary
• Basil

I would like to also plant:

• Potatoes
• Pumpkins
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• A couple of apple and pear trees with compatible root stocks

But this year with just containers I will likely plant:

• Peas
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Rosemary and Basil
• A couple varieties of heirloom tomatoes
• Chard

Hey, Carey, where's the best nursery around here for seed variety and starts?

[Abraisme]

I'm going to plant: Tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, chard, beets, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, winter squash, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus (planted 2 years ago), and herbs.  I also have raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, grapes, blueberries, a cherry tree and a pear tree.     I have given up on peppers of any sort, I just don't get enough son and they taste awful.  I also can't grow melon for the life of me, it never fruits (also a sun issue).   Around here the only real pests are slugs and silver aphids.  I've given up and used slug death outside of my beds which works great.  I use soapy water and DE for the aphids.  If you don't want to use Slug Death, you'll have to buy starts because the slugs LOVE tiny baby plants.  Then you'll have to be super diligent and use a beer traps collect the slugs by hand every day.

[jbk21]

Yeah I won't be disposing of slugs by hand.  GROSS.  I have some sluggo that worked well last year.  We get a lot of sun here, so our peppers last year tasted really great!  Maybe we can just swap- I'll grow the peppers and we can trade for something you have :-)   We had a TON of jalapeños- too many for us to use, and I didn't' get around to canning because I was knocked up and lazy.  

[jbk21]

I guess I shouldn't say we haven't grown anything here before- we just had a couple of potted plants last year (peppers and herbs).  This will be our first real garden though :-)

[Abraisme]

I'll totally trade peppers for something else!  I tend to get a huge amount of zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, kale, collards, spinach, lettuce, etc..   I've never tried Sluggo, but it's pretty much the same thing as Slug Death, a poisonous powder that draws them in and kills them on the spot.  I tried beer traps the first year I gardened here and while they worked, it was way too much work to go out everyday and clean them.  Plus, beer is $$, it ended up costing way more than the slug death.

[seraf]

We will grow:
Lettuce
Chard
Beets
Kale
Tomatoes
Peppers
Yellow squash
Spaghetti squash
Cucumbers
Watermelon
Okra
Basil
Cilantro
Green beans

Seeing the size of my beds I can't fit much else.

[Jaimee]

Oooo, I would really like to grow tomatillos, but I think I'd need to start them myself.  Hmmm... I'll need to think on that.

[wellforth]

Jaimee, this is actually my first year of gardening in Urbana, since last year, I was also knocked up and lazy (and moved a couple of times!).  I know they sell pretty decent seeds at the co-op.  When I asked my friends where to get good starts, I just got offers of starts instead of any place that sells them.  So, I don't know!

I had a friend who grew tomatillos, and he said they really are quite similar to growing peppers or tomatoes, as they're all nightshades.  I don't think it's too late to start them from seed. 

Really, it's still possible we could have a cold snap.  I forget when, maybe 5-6 years ago, the trees leafed out in late February, and then we had a solid month of below freezing temps.  The leaves all turned black and died.  It was the saddest spring ever.  I don't think it warmed up enough to releaf until almost May.  So, despite the beautiful spring, I'm still thinking, it's just the end of March.  Normally I'm not even thinking about tomatoes.  I'm putting in potatoes and onions. 

Not to be a total downer.

carey

[Jaimee]

Oh I'm not planting tomatoes until May, but I need to get the peas in the ground now and if I want to start tomatillos I'll need to do that now too.  The co-op has some Amish seeds, but no heirlooms and they're not cheap either.  I bought their peas, but I'd like more of a variety and I'd prefer not to order online since I'm getting a late start.

[wellforth]

Really, no heirlooms?  Weird.  I thought they had a big variety of heirloom seeds, but I have not looked closely this year.  I have a variety of pea seeds from the last couple of years.  I *love* peas, but have no trellising for them.  If you would like the pea seeds, I can get them to you.  I don't think I have any tomatillos, however. 

I really do have a ridiculous amount of seeds.  I used to run a Food Not Lawns chapter and we had a couple of seed swaps, and at the end of the day, I took home what was left over.  I've given away a lot, but still have a lot.  

The Farm and Fleet on N. Cunningham has a large amount of seeds.  I do believe they have some labeled organic.  I honestly don't know what all they have, other than a LOT.

carey

[Abraisme]

After a lovely weekend with great weather, I finally got my garden bed turned over and planted!  All of my early veggies are in and I will do the warm weather stuff mid May.   These are some pics from today before anything has grown.  How are everyone elses gardens coming along?

[LiLStar]

That looks great Abra! Our beds are made and we have a ginormous mound of dirt at the end of our driveway. Beds are partially filled with dirt. Maaaan is that WORK! We're going to pick up some of this http://www.dejongss.com/whatwehave/item.nhtml?profile=whatwehave&UID=106 to mix in with the soil and then plant some cool weather stuff while we're still working on finishing the other beds. 

[Paigekitten]

That's awesome Abra.

I killed all my seedlings in the house except for the tomatoes, and the chickens broke into my garden and wiped out the carrots, so I just went out and bought a bunch of cool weather plant starts.  I'm hoping to plant them tomorrow, but that depends on if DH can finish our new hopefully-chicken-and-goat-proof fence around the garden.

[Abraisme]

Tell me about it!  There is always an animal escaping around here.  ;)

Originally Posted by Paigekitten 

That's awesome Abra.

I killed all my seedlings in the house except for the tomatoes, and the chickens broke into my garden and wiped out the carrots, so I just went out and bought a bunch of cool weather plant starts.  I'm hoping to plant them tomorrow, but that depends on if DH can finish our new hopefully-chicken-and-goat-proof fence around the garden.

We totally cheated when we installed these beds and payed way too much $$ to have the dirt blown in.  It was so fast and easy and perfectly fluffy, but really, it made my cucumbers cost a lot that year.  ;)  Ha ha ha.

Originally Posted by LiLStar 

That looks great Abra! Our beds are made and we have a ginormous mound of dirt at the end of our driveway. Beds are partially filled with dirt. Maaaan is that WORK! We're going to pick up some of this http://www.dejongss.com/whatwehave/item.nhtml?profile=whatwehave&UID=106 to mix in with the soil and then plant some cool weather stuff while we're still working on finishing the other beds.