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Zone 3-5 Gardeners Early 2010

13K views 214 replies 52 participants last post by  lovermont 
#1 ·
Hey there! Wasn't there a zones 3-5 gardener thread? Want to start one up with me?

I'm in zone 5a, I believe. I'm beginning to start thinking about planning the garden again. I think I'm going to shoot for growing in the garden beds, only direct-sow plants. I don't know if I will be able to start the seedlings like I did last year, and I'm curious as to whether I can even do something like this. I might grow 2 tomato plants in a pot, I don't know. I didn't have a whole lot of success with the tomatoes last year, well, I didn't have success transplanting anything I started indoors last year.

Anyone ever try this?

Also, now that our gardening area has been through one garden season, I notice that much of it is shaded. Meh. Probably should pick a different spot, but it is what it is. I've read that certain cooler temp crops (lettuce, spinach and other greens) might do ok in that sort of area. Any feeedback on that.

One thing I've discovered is that carrots and radishes either really like us or are just easy to grow. Heh.
 
#177 ·
There! So I finally have my garden fence up... only a week late, not bad!
There's still a bit of fencing to put up (was raining to hard and hasn't stopped yet) but I think it will happen quickly. And then I have a bit of tweaking to do.

It should stop raining tomorrow and once the ground dries a bit (by afternoon?), I'm going to start planting. Oh happy day!
 
#178 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome View Post
There! So I finally have my garden fence up... only a week late, not bad!
There's still a bit of fencing to put up (was raining to hard and hasn't stopped yet) but I think it will happen quickly. And then I have a bit of tweaking to do.

It should stop raining tomorrow and once the ground dries a bit (by afternoon?), I'm going to start planting. Oh happy day!

Wow - looks great. You must be so excited to have it finished so the planting can get started
 
#179 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome View Post
There! So I finally have my garden fence up... only a week late, not bad!
There's still a bit of fencing to put up (was raining to hard and hasn't stopped yet) but I think it will happen quickly. And then I have a bit of tweaking to do.
It looks great! I love those rustic fence posts!

I hit the university horticultural sale over the weekend and got a bunch of little fruit tree seedlings- haskap, apricot, and asian plum, all bred hardy for our climate. I've been wanting apricot and haskaps for a couple of years. I got them for just under $4/plant.
Now, I must plant those and my tomatoes/nightshades while the sun is still shining!
 
#180 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kathymuggle View Post
I has been so hot and dry I am going to have to reseed much of my garden. OH well.

In other news, of my tomato plants, the one that is doing the best is the one I planted upside down like this (not my photo, mine is still much smaller):

http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash....own-tomato.jpg

It is early days yet, but so far I give upside down planting a


Kathy
Very cool! How often do you have to water? Do you add any compost/compost tea over the growing season?
 
#182 ·
I have weeds. And strawberries trying to turn.
The weeds are killing me and make the backyard look horrible (our house is on the market). I'm to the point where I may just get some awful chemical to hose down the garden to just make it stop.
 
#185 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome View Post
So far? Just chives.

That's all I've gotten from my garden too.
I know of a lot of people here who haven't even planted yet... it has rained so much here the last couple weeks. So lots of people had to hold off on planting.

I have spinach, carrots, peas, beans and cukes coming up. I'm going to get a ton of beans this year. Yay! Onions are doing well too. I need to replant my lettuce, beets and swiss chard. I moved my blueberries to my big flower garden out front. I have 2 huge pines in the front yard that drop needles in that garden like crazy so I figure they should do good up there. I'm actually thinking of digging up my perennials up there and having just blueberry bushes up there. Raspberries are doing good. I got a ton of canes from a friend and I did lose a couple but the rest are starting to get fruit so I should get a nice haul of raspberries. I'm excited, as this is my first go with raspberries and I really didn't know what to expect.
 
#186 ·
I want to join! I'm a zone 3. I have tomatoes, arugula, a pepper, parsley and basil growing right now, all in containers. I'm planting carrots and radishes this weekend in one of my window boxes, and I'm also going to do a cuke and a squash of some sort in 5-gallon buckets. (I'm starting them from plants, not seed, because I have no place to start seeds indoors). I'm undecided about the other window box-any recommendations? It's 3' long and about 12" deep.
 
#187 ·
What I've used from the garden so far: rhubarb, chives, basil (put in as plants), bags & bags of lettuce, and dandelions for jelly & lemonade. Used the rest of the wintered over kale about two weeks ago. Used the rest of the wintered over swiss chard last week. Will use up spring's spinach and arugula this week & replant swiss chard and carrots in that spot.

Peas are coming well, though not blooming yet. Second round of lettuce is coming along well, and I planted another round last week, as well as more green beans and peas (in a shady spot - I don't know if they'll come well or not).

Tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers are blooming. Cucumbers and squash/pumpkin seem to be doing well too, though some cuke plants are getting eaten :-(

We've had an uncharacteristically warm (and early) spring where I live in Central Maine, so that's given everything a boost. I also got lights this year, which helped my inside seedlings a lot. I've learned that swiss chard and kale overwinter here really well. Since I have raised beds & don't rototill they just come back ready to grow. Lettuce and spinach overwinter in my two small coldframes. I don't pick once it gets cold, they just rest in there until it gets warm enough for them to grow again.
 
#188 ·
Oh, I forgot! I've had a lot of rhubarb too! Hoping to separate it this fall and move it so that it grows better. We've had some fresh and I've been chopping some up to go in the freezer. Hoping to get strawberries from the U-pick farm soon and make some strawberry rhubarb jam.

I was late planting my garden seeing it was the first year here and I had so much work to prepare the space. I feel like I'm weeks behind! We're supposed to be having some hot, humid temps for a week which should do the garden wonders!


ETA: I'm glad I planted a lot of flowers in the garden (marigold, nasturtiums etc) to add some colour. Otherwise it would just be brown, brown, brown and boring.
 
#189 ·
I put in some sweet potato slips this week. (A few photos here.) Just an experiment, and it may very well not work.

I lost a half dozen or so tomatoes to cutworms within a day of putting them out in the garden, so I made cardboard collars for all of them, and haven't lost another since. I do have replacements for those I lost- I was thinking ahead this year!! I might have to reseed a few carrots, but everything else seems to be coming along nicely.

We've been eating lettuce, shallots, herbs. Dill and cilantro grow like weeds in the garden!! Hyssop comes back nice every year. Does anyone have any other cold-hardy perennial culinary herb suggestions?
 
#190 ·
We've had lettuce, spinach, radish and chives so far this year.
My asparagus did not come up or back this year. It's under some trees so I'm going to prune and then see but a friend has a very large patch that she will let me take some roots from.
Something is eating off my beet leaves. No idea what as it's not attacking anything else.
I have broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, squash, Zuke, cukes, lots of lettuce, radishes, beans, dill, cilantro, thyme, basil, calendula and peas in the ground. I am so proud that I started everything except basil from seed this year. Can't get the hang of basil. I even got thyme and oregano to come up.
 
#191 ·
Our garden here in Maine is thriving too!
We are eating peas everyday off of a few plants that I started as seedlings inside. The rest of the direct sown plants will catch up soon. I plucked a beet to see how it was doing and I think they need a few more weeks. My broccoli is starting to form the teeny tiny head! And my tomatoe plants have tripled in size but are not yet blooming. My cukes and zukes are sloooooow. They look like they are being chewed at too. Not sure what. I can't see any visible pests. My pumpkins are struggling but I am not sure I planted them in a sunny enough spot. I just threw some more manure on most everything so hope that will help. I have managed to keep up with the weeding this year so far. Thankfully!

Anyone have any tips for basil? This is the first year I planted them in the ground rather than pots and they look sad. Kind of yellowed and droopy.
 
#192 ·
Oh goodness I have to buy all new seed. I had my seeds in plastic baggies in a rubbermaid but I left it outside and most of the seed sprouted or molded. I planted what was sprouted except for the vast amount of sunflowers that sprouted I only planted a few of those. I had to find new spots to plant since my garden is full. If this takes off I am going to have a huge harvest this year. I had been wanting to buy seeds online anyways so this is my excuse to buy everything new from a couple different places.
 
#193 ·
My garlic look ready to harvest, but they are early!!!! I did pull one and it is beautiful.

My oregano and thyme look great (anyone in Eastern Ontario? Want some?). My basil, which is an annual, is small. I am a little sad because I love basil. Oh, well, it is early still.

I have about 12 tomato plants, half of which have tomatoes and flowers. The other half do not
. What is up with that? They are big plants, but flower free.

Squash and potato look good, but of course are far from ready.

My carrots are a tad sad. I needed to replant them because they lacked watr in the beginning, and now I have some, but I think I weeded some before I realised what they were


Oh, and my mesclun! it is in too tight, and I have to thin, which is great because we eat the thinnings. They are at about 1/2 their full size...let the greens eating season begin!
 
#194 ·
#195 ·
Well after a VERY SLOW start my garden is making some progress thanks to the now hot weather. My rhubarb is huge, lots of chives and shallots ready to eat. The rest is plugging along, I think I should have some edible radishes soon.

I'm quite stoked because I finally got the garden arbor I always wanted as an entrance to my side yard/herb garden/shady spot, and I planted two climbing roses on either side. In a few years it should look so beautiful.
 
#196 ·
Ooo, can I join in here? We are zone 4-ish
right on the edge of the Rocky Mountains.

So far we have herbs (rosemary, several mints, basil, oregano, etc). I just found a sort of cherry bush that we didn't know we had (we moved here two years ago, it was crazily overgrown so as we are cleaning out some of the overgrowth on stuff we keep finding cool plants we didn't know we had LOL!) The cherries from the bushes are yummy, like a sweeter than usual pie cherry
Tomatoes are just itty bitty cute green things, we got them in pretty late this year. We planted grape vines (wine growing, can you believe it in our zone???) that are setting leaves nicely, need to get out there and stake them better, though. In the overgrown back of the garden I found 3 more grape vines that are alive (and 2 that were rotted at the base, yanked those up) so we'll see what we end up with, no idea what kind they are
We also put in blueberry bushes this year (well, blueberry sticks so far, but they are starting to leaf out finally
) So, in theory, in a couple of years we should have lots of fruit things, but for now the mystery cherries are it


Our neighbor has a monster garden, every year, he is retired with way more time than we have, but he also shares a lot so I have a pile of romaine in the fridge for tonight
 
#197 ·
My Garden last week. I've been taking pictures every Monday lately so I'll have some new ones in a couple days. Already the garden has grown so much this past week! I guess it loved the heat wave we were having and thankfully it was able to hold on until our big rain last night. We don't have an outdoor house yet and I didn't want to water by hand.


I have too many radishes and have started to give them away. I planted them throughout the 'root' bed because I read they're good at keeping pests away. I'm thinking of just letting some of them go.

The zucchini plants tripled in size this week, all the other squash plants are doing great, the corn is getting taller and fuller, potatoes are begging to be hilled.
I have some work to do this weekend now that it's cooled off...
 
#198 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Hibou View Post
Does anyone have any other cold-hardy perennial culinary herb suggestions?
I'll have to let you know how they go, but we put in tarragon, lavender and thyme this year. Oregano did fantastic in our garden at our previous house, in fact, it did TOO well, we had little oreganos all over when we were there that we had to keep weeding out, and my brother has lived there the last two years and doesn't do the garden thing so now the "herb" garden is an "oregano" garden
Chives do pretty well, but they frost heave if you get freeze/thaw a lot like we do. Mints should do pretty well, too, we have four different kinds, so I'll see how those work out.
 
#199 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Stitches View Post
Well after a VERY SLOW start my garden is making some progress thanks to the now hot weather. My rhubarb is huge, lots of chives and shallots ready to eat. The rest is plugging along, I think I should have some edible radishes soon.

I'm quite stoked because I finally got the garden arbor I always wanted as an entrance to my side yard/herb garden/shady spot, and I planted two climbing roses on either side. In a few years it should look so beautiful.
Ooooo, my DH wants an arbor in a bad way! Pics, please?
 
#200 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome View Post
My Garden last week. I've been taking pictures every Monday lately so I'll have some new ones in a couple days. Already the garden has grown so much this past week! I guess it loved the heat wave we were having and thankfully it was able to hold on until our big rain last night. We don't have an outdoor house yet and I didn't want to water by hand.


I have too many radishes and have started to give them away. I planted them throughout the 'root' bed because I read they're good at keeping pests away. I'm thinking of just letting some of them go.

The zucchini plants tripled in size this week, all the other squash plants are doing great, the corn is getting taller and fuller, potatoes are begging to be hilled.
I have some work to do this weekend now that it's cooled off...
Mine was the opposite, we have had rain for 5 days in a row (totally bizarre in super dry CO) and now that I want to work out there it is HOT
and totally muddy still. Boo


Hope you don't mind, I followed your blog, I adore home remodeling blogs, it is so much fun to see what other folks are doing with their places! We have been in our place for just over two years, it is a 1947 farm house and needs so much work, but we're loving it anyway
 
#201 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by zavierchick View Post
Hope you don't mind, I followed your blog, I adore home remodeling blogs, it is so much fun to see what other folks are doing with their places! We have been in our place for just over two years, it is a 1947 farm house and needs so much work, but we're loving it anyway

No problem, the more the merrier!
And if you love seeing houses being torn apart, just wait until next week. DH goes on vacation and we're gutting the addition. Actually, he couldn't wait and starting ripping out some stuff today.


So far he's found 4 layers of flooring in the old bathroom... and it's only been there since the 60's.
 
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