Rick

My plants could be better. I have tried using Happy frog potting this year, and as of now I feel that it is not worth it. but I felt the same way when I first used Pro Mix, but if I can make Pro Mix work, why pay extra for the Happy Frog?

I took my plants outside for a couple of days, but brought them back in this evening, some were not happy at all, the cold wind, or something sure roughed them up. Most of my plants are too small at this point, but there is still plenty of time before I plan on planting them.

My basil looks pretty good, but it also is small. I have 22 plants total of basil, I have close to a 50/50 mix of Sweet basil and Rubin basil. I just started planting basil a few year ago, because my grand daughter want some. I have never used basil, but it sure smell good when you start moving it around.

Very weird. This did not show up until this morning.

Kim, I didn't make the thread until last night. I was too busy on Sunday.

It is cold out there. Josi had a vet appointment this morning and I'm exhausted. LOL Taking my furry friends to the vet isn't fun at all.

She's exhausted too. She crashed as soon as we got home. (I'm annoyed that I had to take her at all. All I wanted was Bravecto for fleas, but because they haven't seen her in a year, they wouldn't sell me the Bravecto. EVEN though she is on the 3 year vaccine schedule and completely legal. Wow. Vet care is pricey anymore. One guy about passed out when his bill was $600+ for one dog. I'm not sure what all he had done. I get it. Prices have gone up for them too, but wow. )

I just opened the hoop house and it felt good in there. In good news, we didn't frost and/or freeze last night. Maybe we'll dodge it tonight too.

My basil is very, very small, Larry. It's barely up. I have no idea how many plants I have. Not a ton. Varieties: lemon basil, Thai basil, Genovese, a compact Genovese, and Tulsi (holy basil). The Saint John's Wort is just barely up.

I might put the compact one in the Greenstalk after the lettuce is done.

I'm not going to do a lot of preserving this year, but do want to make pesto and freeze it. I made zero pesto last year and it's so good...and I missed it.

Ethan has his flight to come home in June. It will have been 6 months since I've seen him at that point. That's the longest I've ever been away from one of my babies.

June 14... trying to think what will be happening in the garden that week. It will be about time to dig potatoes and pull onions.

The baby should have arrived by then too.

It will be a busy time for sure.

I want to remember to start fall tomatoes by the end of June. Hopefully these sickly-looking tomatoes will snap out of it, and I'll have ripe fruit to save seed from and then replant it. IF that happens, we'll be on generation 4 for these heirlooms. I also want to start more Sungold by then. As tasty as they are, they start looking diseased and all by July. Some fresh ones for fall would be great.

I'm just now planting basil--darn! My favorite is Cardinal Basil, and I was shocked that I couldn't find it in my seed stash, so had to order it. Also love Siam Queen, Persian, and cinnamon. Happy March everyone. Brr it's cold today (but didn't freeze last night).

Rick, I have to blow all pictures to get a good look at them, I did not do that till this morning, and you have some beautiful potatoes, and looks like you have some nice corn in the upper left of the picture. I hope everything makes it through the next few days without getting bit, but if it does I hope it rebounds nicely.

I have too many plants, even if I only had two plants, here would be a good chance that I would get the name tags mixed up on them. I have already found plants missing their ID tag.

My computer is acting very strange this morning, I will shut down and hope that it post okay.

Hey Larry , that's onions in the upper left of the picture. Some of them are fall onions that overwintered.

Too early for corn just yet , usually plant corn around 1st of April , won't be long.

That picture doesn't look so nice now with my boot prints in the mud trying to cover the potatoes with row cover while the wind was blowing it like sails on a sail boat.

.Nearly got stuck in the mud too.

Rick

Rick, do you start with sets every year? I have grown bulbing onions and bunching onions from seed before, I felt that the bunching onion were much easier, because timing was not as important. I have bunching and bulbing growing now, most of the bunching onions were seed some years ago, others were started from sets planted at different times between now and early this past fall. One kind of bunching onions look like they are making seed scapes now. I have no idea what kind of onions they are, but the lady at the feed store said that they buy the bulbs from a man that grows them about 50 miles north of me. I would like to come up with some ( forever crops ) and just keep reproducing everything that I can right here at the house.

One of the reasons I ask about corn, is because my neighbor has okra and corn planted in his greenhouse. I told him that was a first for me, it seems as though it would be too much trouble. I can understand wanting to experiment, I do it every year, but if I put okra in the ground too early, it just sits there with cold feet and gets very cranky.

Nancy, it is good to see you post. I am still using some of the seeds you sent. The bush determinate tomatoes were a real winner with us, we planted some in a mineral tub and they did very well. A couple of other seeds that I am trying this year ( that I think came from you ) are Isis candy, and Fred's Tie Dye. the Tie Dye is an interesting looking plant, it looks to be a good container plant.

Larry , in the fall I start with onion sets ( the little bulbs) and let them over winter.

In the spring I start with both plant bundles ( for big bulb onions) and sets for scallions mainly (green table onions).

I usually have the spring onions pulled before the fall onions. The fall onions take a lot longer to make a decent size bulb and seem to taste sweeter than the spring onions.

I've never started onions from seed.

I can't see doing corn in a green house., can't see how it could pollinate very well.(I guess you could blow a fan on it). And it would take up a lot of space.

It would keep the coons out of it though.

Corn needs to be planted in patches several rows wide and pollinated with the wind

blowing on it.

I guess you could do okra in containers in a green house if you want to.

I usually plant my okra outside in early May when the ground is a little warmer.

Rick

Rick, neighbor's idea is to start seeds for a woman up on the mountain from us, says they are going to plant through black plastic. I had kicked the idea around to use black plastic myself, but I have not broken down and did it yet. My health is such as I dont know just how many more years I have left to garden, and I dont want to start off on a major learning curve.

I am going to go out to the garden, it looks like the wind maybe has dropped. I started out earlier today, and when the cold wind hit my face i didn't even go on through the door, I haven't even been outside today.

Rick those rows look awesome. I miss having large garden. Larry I like the pro mix. I mix in a little Espoma and it does great for me. My basil is up and I repotted on Saturday so it should take off as soon as it warms up. Nancy I have never tried Cardinal basil. What does it taste like? I have lemon, lime, large leaf, purple, and 2 more. The wind has been horrible here too. I need to get insect netting on as soon as it slows down. Larry the very best sweet potatoes I ever grew were planted in black plastic with drip line under the plastic. Because the black plastic was a huge area it warmed the soil and by time the heat of the summer hit the black plastic was covered with lines and you couldn’t see it anymore. If I ever do sweet potatoes in ground again I will do it exactly the same way

My best looking tomato so far

Kim , I found a few Porter Improved toms a while back and had them in the hoop house the other night when it got a little frosty. They look to have gotten frost nipped a little at the tips even with a row cover on them. Might have had them them sitting to close to the outside wall. That's why me and Jennifer moved all my toms and peppers into Tom's shop. and covered them with several layers of row cover in there. Probably a good thing we did.

Rick

I have about 10 or 15 Porter improved that I will be bringing two for spring fling. Some of these plants are from seeds that are 11 years old. I lost about 30 in the frost last week. This week I am bringing my trays in the house if it gets anywhere near 39 or less.

Kim, I like the idea of using the black plastic, I just dont want to try to learn a lot of different things this late in life. Your tomatoes look better than mine. I will try to post a picture of my best looking flats.

I have too many tomatoes and peppers, and I still don't have all of them up potter. I wish I knew about what the people a SP would want. I have a 6 pack potter up for Jennifer, they may have to be up potted again before SP. If I had an idea of what would be in demand I would try to bring it, if I have it.

We will celebrate Madge's 85th birthday Sat., and if I knew what people wonted I would try to set if back, because I expect to see some going home with Madge's kids, and most of them don't know one tomato from the other. I still have a bunch of Cherokee Purple, and Beefsteak to be up potted. I was just thinking, maybe I should just pot the Beefsteak and Cherokee Purple plants and send them home with Madge's kids and grand kids, I have 100's of others already in the flats. Altogether I think I must have between 8 and 9 hundred plants, and only 2 light shelves.

You can see all my plants are small, except the cucumbers, I started them too early. Madge was concerned that she would not have the cucumbers that she liked. I did not know what she bought last year, and I did not remember either, so I found some seeds that I though that she may have bought, and planted them, same way with her peppers and tomatoes. I am not sure of what all we have, but we have plenty of it.

Here is some of the cucumber plants. I will be harvesting them in the bedroom if the weather does not warm up.

Larry if you make a list we can post it to fb and get an idea. Please tell Madge happy birthday for me.

The kids wanted me to be sure that I had plenty peppers, so I started another flat. If this is not enough peppers, I need to give some kids away. I really thought that I had enough before starting these. I expect to up pot before planting.

I grew Fred's tie dye in a mineral tub. It got about 4' tall. I liked it, it may be the only "dwarf" tomato that did produce for me. I put dwarf in quotes because Fred's is not very dwarfy. But it did do well in a mineral tub. Tastes good too as I recall.

Thanks, Amy, I have high hopes for Fred's tie dye. and I do want to put some tomatoes in mineral tubs. I tried Bush Beefsteak in a mineral tub last year and was happy with it.

I have my plants out for a little sun today, its about time to put them in the shade, but I wish it was a little warmer than 52 degrees.

Larry I grow my tomatoes in mineral tubs and they do very well if I put them one per tub. I brought my frost tender plants in last night and it only got down to 40 but I was being cautious. Most of my Roselle got nipped in the last frost so I am going to replant this weekend. I have five more seeds to try. I will never buy from pine tree seeds again because I’ve had very poor germination and the seed count is ridiculous per pack. It seems I can’t find a decent seed company that grows true to seed great germination and great seed count.

Kim, I had a pack this year that only had one seed in it, an it did not germinate. I don't expect to need a lot more seeds. I am completely happy with the seeds I get at the Farmers Co-op, they may not have the pedigree of the seeds found in other places, but they are cheap, produce well, and have good flavor.

I did not have any Earlygirl, or Forth or July, and did find any at the Co-op, so I am trying Early Treat for my early tomato this year.

Isn’t that something Larry. I’m not sure where to get decent priced seeds anymore. Especially for specialty items.

For those interested in growing corn:

Dawn bumps about planting sweet corn.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3976887/planting-corn-late-june

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2057869/which-is-your-favorite-corn-to-grow

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2058636/whats-this-corn

Here's OSU's guide on sweet corn:

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/sweet-corn-production.html

I'm trying to get ready to plant corn.

I usually plant corn around the 1st week of April.

However these cold spells we've been getting may delay it for a week or so.

The key is to wait till the soil temps are around 60 , right now it's barely in the 50's..

Might be ok to plant field corn now which is probably what I'll do over east.

I usually do some dent corn like Trucker's Favorite Yellow.

It needs the soil temp to be at least 50.

I used to grow half field corn and half sweet corn over east till the coons started ravishing the sweet corn.so I quit sweet corn there and just go with field corn . the stalks are stronger and the coons don't tend to yank them down as much.

I've been doing sweet corn over at Jennifer's lately.

Bodasious is what I've been growing lately.

Lucky that the coons haven't found it there yet.

I remember having discussions with Dawn about building coon cages out of chicken wire to place over sweet corn patches.

Rick

Thanks for sharing your pictures, Kim and Larry. And Rick too (those potatoes look familiar. lol)

If it's in your budget, I highly recommend getting a Greenstalk and keeping it next to your door. The plants are growing so well in it. I've made salads for lunch both yesterday and today. I can also see seeds that were sown in some of the pockets beginning to sprout. I realize that lettuce will only last through May (if I'm lucky). I can either fill in with some sunny flowers or do something else. I saw a video of a woman who planted bush beans in her Greenstalk and they did quite well. She did it before fall lettuce.

Anyway....I'm enjoying this thing a lot.

If you buy lettuce and/or spinach/other greens every week at the grocery store, it could really pay for itself.

I want another one, but it's NOT in the budget for this year. And I don't need another one. I do like the new basket-weave style.

It was really cool and wet this evening. I don't think we got much rain here at the house, but we had quite a bit of rain and sleet at work.

I did take Josi for a walk around the property to check things out. It really is spring even though it's so cold.

This may be rambly, but here I go....

The back of our property where Charlotte is buried, has the wild violets that I planted last year from our old neighbors' property. They are making blossoms. Love them so much. Seriously they were watered everyday last summer. I sure wanted them to survive, and they did!

There's some other interesting things back there too. Grape Hyacinth for one. It is new back there. The beautyberries were planted in that area last fall. They haven't awakened yet. I hope they do. One is from Kim and the other was purchased.

Unfortunately, poison ivy likes to climb the mulberry tree back there. I have to keep an eye on it. It's one thing I'll bring the Round Up out for. It's a pretty vine, but Tom is very allergic.

The "native"-garden-plus-red-poppies is a mess. However, I see that the poppies are close to blooming. These are special because Stella gave them to me on her first trip here. They are going on their 3rd year. The gaillardia never died out. And there's honestly too much of it. There's henbit that needs to be pulled and a million sunflowers. Just the field ones that are pretty in the field but shade out/take over gardens. All the native things seem to be waking up except the mountain mint and the false indigo. Oh, and milkweed.

In one of the other herb beds, I see the beardtongue is coming back and the bee balm. As well as the valerian!

There is a second valerian that is at the base of the herb spiral. It's back too. And some lemon thyme.

In another bed with the goji berry, I see what appears to be sunflowers. But these aren't the field ones. I had a mix of Lemon Queen, Autumn Beauty, and Velvet Queen in that bed.

At the NE corner of our property, I put a lot of gaillardia that was pulled from the native bed. I think it's coming up. It's hard to tell. I do see the yarrow.

The first Indian Paintbrush has arrived. The goldenrod has not. It was new to my property last year.

Isn't it funny how you can sorta "will" something to come to you? The Indian Paintbrush showed up about 4 years ago. I didn't plant it. The goldenrod showed up last year...and I didn't plant it either.

IF we have to move or decide to in the future, it's these things that matter most to me. Isn't that funny? The veggies can be planted anywhere in many ways, but these precious things....I just don't know. I would want someone who cares like I care to live here. That's probably very hard to find.

Jennifer that would be hard to find. I see posts in local groups about people getting free stuff because new home owners didn’t want any garden stuff. And I want it all including some land. Talking about corn and potatoes makes me misty thinking about my old garden. I had so much fun learning new things there. Of course I am still learning . Now I am learning how many plants can I cram in one tub.

Pictures

Your stuff looks really good, Kim.

You know, maybe your "new" thing is making a small garden work for you. I've seen so many awesome gardens that are small and still feed both the gardener and the pollinators. You could do so many amazing things in this season of your life.

Maybe things will be change in a year or two....or maybe you'll still be doing small gardens, but both can be amazing. You're amazing too! You are an inspiration and an encourager.

Jennifer thank you. It’s challenging to say the least but I love gardening and even if I only have a pot of basil I will grow something. I have 20 tubs planted and 5 I am waiting to see if they will come back. It they don’t I will plant them with summer crops. It definitely could be operator error with my seeds. I am getting more soil tomorrow and plant out the rest. Rebecca totally tomatoes is one I had trouble with.

I think the only seed I've had germination issues was a couple of Marigold varieties from Park. (Knock on wood)

Rebecca, keep us updated on your indoor lettuce experiment. There is a fancy (and expensive) indoor contraption that is for that exact thing. I can't remember it's name, but it's a tower type of thing. A friend of a friend of a friend has one and brought lettuce to a July 4 party.

It was nice out this afternoon after a pretty bad frost this morning. After work, I was able to walk Josi and spend about an hour outside pulling weeds. I have the elements garden weeded and part of the herb spiral.

I also took the peppers out and gave them a bit of fish emulsion, rinsed the tray and brought them back indoors.

Also, the sickly tomatoes. I left them in the hoop house for the night, tho.

Now I'm sitting and I like it.

I took most of my seedling out for a little sunshine today, one tray I took out later, and came back into the house to rest a bit and fell asleep, that tray got a few hours of sun, but it looks okay. I have almost all of my seedling up potted, but I will have to leave most of them outside for lack of space in the house. I wish I had done better in school, because each year we say 12 tomatoes and 6 peppers are plenty for us, but I just keep missing those numbers.

I use to try to plant something on Good Friday to use as a reminder of the reason for Easter and Good Friday. I have gotten away from that practice, I think I want to start doing it again. Some years I would plant a bulb of a bush because some Good Fridays were too early to plant a sensitive plant. I think that I might get away with planting a tomato, or maybe a flower that Madge likes. The next day we celebrate Madge's Birthday, maybe I could buy a plant and we can plant it together. I would have to do all the work, but I think that I would like that. Madge is still having problems walking, and she ask me to drive her around the yard today, but she got cold and wanted to go inside.

I carried my seedlings in these last few cold nights. I must say I am thankful I winter sowed. If I had to do that every day I think I’d give up lol. It’s alot with 8 trips in and out. I am done bringing them in. It doesn’t look like we will go below 45 anymore. Today I have my little granddaughter helping me. She loves the garden. I got another bag of soil to plant a few more seeds and pot up some seedlings. I will pull most of my brassicas. They are flowering. I will also direct sow some things.

I think that I am about through with seedlings, I may have to up pot a few before planting time, which normally comes late for me because of late frost in this valley. I am not through hardening off yet, but most of that is just taking the plants from the porch to the sun. I think that I have 20+ flats to take in and out.

I want to show my daughter how to make sweet potato slips, and maybe make a light shelf for her. I have a flat of Covington sweet potatoes in the neighbors greenhouse and have already pulled 69 slips for him and others, I will start on my slips soon.

Madge is going to the beauty shop this morning, then we are going out to Ft. Smith to eat and pick out something to plant for Good Friday. We may get something to plant on our fur babies grave, we really miss that little boy.

I ask Madge to show me how to make coffee. Here I am 80 years old and cant remember ever making a cup of coffee, I can only remember drinking a few cups of coffee in my life, I was never man enough to drink it.

Not much to talk about. It's been a very long day at work. A very loud and busy day. Tomorrow will be the same....and the morning of Sunday will as well. My jobs have me very busy Easter weekend....and the week before.

THEN, on Sunday evening, I'm going to the garden just to be quiet and work in peace.

I'm a little sad that I won't see either of my kids this weekend.

Anyway...I hope you all have a good weekend and get to spend some time in your garden.

Jennifer it is so hard to be away from our kids on holidays. I am blessed to live fairly close to my daughter. I too enjoy the peace of the garden. Since my niece moved home with her 4 kids it’s harder to come by lol. I am training myself to get up super early and get in the garden before anyone wakes up. Larry I hope you and Madge found something good to plant. My granddaughter and I were very busy Friday planting and watering. Of course playing with puppies was part of our day.