2014 Gardening

I have no problem with blackberries, my vacation property is COVERED in them. I planted some raspberries there and kept three for the home. The three here got leaves, then died. I may have over watered, dunno.

Why measure, just keep trimming a little bit off until it fits!

 

He cut it too short, not too long.

 

Beans up well in the big garden but no corn--no rain in two weeks. Raised beds are looking wonderful. Pulled off a tomato "sucker" and even it is growing. Have them caged up and the garden peas ready to climb. Tomatoes are blooming and the strawberries about "nickel" size.

 

My strawberries got snowed on last night. Welcome Spring, you never know what your are going to wake up to.

I wonder why your raspberries are not thriving? I would never think to water and such. Don't they just grow naturally?

 

Cameron, NC used to be known as the Dew berry capital of the world. There were large fields of them that was used for jellies/wine/etc. No one uses them today but they grow wild beside rural roads. We used to pick them as kids and mom would use them like black berries. Had a 20'X20' patch at our first home. Pretty good but loaded with sharp briars. Anyone use them today?

 

Does anyone have or had one of those little garden tillers? I have been looking for a long time for a used one but may have to get new. Are they worth it? Do they get the job done. We have pretty hard dirt but I have small spaces here and there that need tilling and if it is small enough I would like to till my planter boxes.

 

I do manual tilling with my pitchfork, hoe, rake, and shovel.

 

Had one till a scum sucking thief took it. Now I just use a shovel to turn . Add a wheel barrow of horse and one of goat manure every year to each bed. Soil is rich and black with lots of earth worms. I shovel 8-10" deep and slightly pile it along then rake it out smooth. Mixes fairly well that way. I cultivate the beds with a hand rake--takes about 10 minutes to do all four. Looking mighty fine so far. Just transplanted a bit of Clemson Spineless into gaps this evening and watered heavy.

 

Troybuilt Horse model with a Kohler 8hp engine. Replaced the Kohler with a Subaru. Have not used with the new motor since all the drought latly. Purchased back in 1980, worth it's cast iron weight in gold.

 

Rained HARD yesterday afternoon and overnight. Green room leaked. RIGHT ONTO MY SEED PACKETS! Only a few of them, but still, now in addition to starting carrot, melon, and pumpkin/squash seeds, today I have to plant 3 radish packets, 1 celery, 1 kohlrabi, and 1 beet. Which means I have to manually prepare planting rows/beds for them. And it might snow tonight.

 

Ok good news, the radish seeds were dry, I had after all put them into little plastic baggies and then back into the original seed packets, so it's just everything else that has to be planted SOON. All I ended up getting planted today, because of the weather, was 3 small rows of the Tonda di Parigi carrots.

 

Decent hail today. Got the spinach and peas protected. Oh crap...the strawberries!

 

Broccoli is coming in good, still no cauliflower heads starting. Spinach, well, it's starting to bolt, so it's almost done. Tomato plants are getting blossoms. I went through and removed some of the sucker branches today and started staking them up.

Was supposed to rain here today, nothing but clear skies. Figures. Watered the garden with my rain water collection so it "rained" for me.

I'll be spiking my compost piles with my chicken litter in the next week or so. Since I have one bed that is nitrogen poor (yellowing plant leaves) I thought about just putting the litter on that bed, what harm can it do? The litter will be a mix of pine shavings and chicken poop, so it should be high in nitrogen.

 

Ok I started seeds this evening for corn, pumpkin, watermelon(it's all your fault Motomom ), spaghetti squash, and Crane melons(cantaloupe). Parsley seeds, it says they germinate best if soaked for a few hours in warm water, so I'll soak them overnight.

 

@VHestin hopefully they won't takeover your garden.

Just talked to my Mom and we came to the conclusion that I should keep my apple trees in the house. They are so happy and thriving, why put them in the ground. I have a few large pots and I can just let them live in there till they are too big for the house.

 

@VHestin I am planting the smaller watermelons. The ones you split in half and just grab a spoon. I told the kids it would be like eating a bowl of ice cream. They can't wait till harvest time.

 

Yeah I'm doing Sugar Baby watermelons, have more seeds of them than the Golden Midget Watermelon. Oh and my corn is sprouting!

 

I picked up 5 strawberry plants today. Plus a rosemary tree. The strawberries were normally $8 each but I got them for a dollar a piece. The snow crushed them a bit but they are so healthy. Most people won't by a plant unless it looks perfect. Personally I wouldn't look good if I had to live at Lowes either.