.
All the snow that Washington DC didn’t get at the end of the week ended up here in lovely New England, ten to twelve heavey wet inches of it right on top of our little homestead. The good part is, this being March, quite a lot of it melted away on Saturday; the less good, the weight of the snowmelt took down part of the back porch roof to make itself a convenient drainage funnel. The Spousal Unit is eyeing a complicated extruded-plastic & aluminium-post “system” to replace the roof, and I can only hope that the installation won’t require opening up the side of the fence where I’ve established my tomato planters. Or at least that, when it does, the whole mess will be out of the way before the second half of May, when the plants I’ve ordered from three different sources arrive…
This year’s list, representing the usual mix of old favorites and novelties(*) :
Red: Anna Russian*, Bear Claw*, Carmello, Kobe Beefsteak*, Marianna’s Peace*, Momotaro, Rose de Berne, Sainte Lucie*, Stupice
Yellow: Garden Peach, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Pineapple
Black: Black Krim, Black Prince, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Amazon*, Chocolate Stripes, Japanese Trifele, Paul Robeson, Pink Berkeley Tie Die*, Sara Black
Paste: Goldman’s Italian-American* (since I couldn’t find Opalkas)
Cherry: Black Cherry, Blondkopfchen*, Gold Nugget, Golden Sweet, Isis Candy, Peacevine*, Sungold, Sweet Hearts, Sweet Pea*, White Currant
I know some of you have started your seedlings already, and you Southerners are probably looking at planting out your beds. So — what’s going on in your gardens now?
? Martin
Our tulips are starting to turn. My wife got a lovely display for Valentines day, but now it’s time for the other plants to take over. Most everything is now blooming, the ivy is getting its leaves. We need to get on the veggies ASAP.
Xenos
My dandelion farm has been, largely, a disaster. I put the dandelion seedlings in window-box style planters and left them outside to get established last summer. They were brought back in to a sunroom at the first frost, but a lack of sunlight and the fact that the cats like to sit on them has left them failing to thrive. We actually had half a day of sunlight yesterday, but hard frosts for the rest of the week coming up mean that the little darlings are not ready for the great outdoors.
Meanwhile, the little testudo marginata for which this lame attempt at gardening is being done is now hiding in his shell and refusing to eat any more store-bought lettuce.
raven
I keep putting up a long post, is says it’s here but it’s not!
raven
This is going to be a strange, and strained, gardening year. My bride has been dealing with a herniated disc for some 8 months. She has tried every miracle working therapist, masseuse, spinal injector and website she can find and nothing has helped. She and our GP met last week and decided to proceed with a microdiscectomy. We are also embarking on a major addition to our house that is going to drastically impact our yard. I took down a magnolia yesterday along with moving one of her prized rose bushes that came from her aunt’s farm in Virginia. She was able to do the pruning and I dug the sucker up.
raven
That was half of it. I keep trying to paste the second part but it won’t stick!
raven
I’m also moving a huge amount of granite that we used for walkways and planters. How this will all work and still have the gardens is going to be quite a challenge.
Gindy51
Our garden is a raised bed, square foot gardening type of arrangement. Nothing to do until it gets warm enough to bother planting anything. I have to add some soil but no plants until mid May. Who knows if Indiana will shock us with a first of May frost (like it has every other damned year). It means later fresh veggies, but at least I won’t have to replace the pepper plants.
Right now there are baby trees stuck into the soil and those have to be moved to the new wildlife area we “built”. We added a vernal pond next to the back yard for the animals so we could see the wildlife up close and personal. So far we have had some shore birds stopping by on their way up to Brookville Lake and last summer great blue herons were spied trying to catch the frogs in the pond. It doesn’t take long for something to find water and lay eggs in it.
I am planning on planting twice as many tomatoes now that our dehydrator is around. Nothing tastes better than “sun dried” tomatoes. I add them to my vegetables, eggs, and salads.
Linda Featheringill
@Xenos:
That’s sweet. Hope the little fellow finds something to his liking.
Usually, dandelions are very tough. I think they need deep soil, though, like carrots.
Linda Featheringill
@raven:
Good luck to The Bride with her back. That can get nasty!
SectionH
The big push right now is to finish building two raised beds so we can get things planted asap. This is mostly a response to our crappy “soil” here, and I use the quotation marks advisedly. The beds make a nice transition from the paved patio area to the kitchen/herb garden, and are looking really good if I do brag – actually the original concept was Mr S’s not mine. We are still buying and moving blocks, and it’s taking a bazillion cubic feet of soil and amendments to fill the beds. And then there’s the irrigation system to deal with. Omg, learn by doing and hope you don’t screw it up too badly! But the results are worth it.
A number of the California natives we still have in containers are in bloom and/or looking happy (ceanothus, salvias, lavatera, asclepias come primarily to mind). Some of them took a hit when the temps dipped below 30F in January, but the only things we actually lost to cold were a couple of not-natives, which I won’t replace because we get that cold every few years.
This is starting to be primo spring season here, and we srsly need to get things planted now so they can get established before the natives go dormant for the summer, and the rest have sufficient root systems to survive. We’re way down on rainfall this winter over the last few years (cue ominous music…).
Mustang Bobby
I live in a rented house in South Florida, so I keep my gardening to a minimum: two large philodendrons on the back patio with a couple of orchids hanging around. (One of the philodendrons was a 30th birthday present from my sister, so it is now more that 30 years old and still going.) Other than that, I let nature take its course.
My yard has five or six hibiscus bushes that bloom incessantly, and there’s a couple of queen palms out front that drop huge fronds on unsuspecting passers-by; it’s as if they lie in wait for them.
Linda Featheringill
Gardening! Optimistic bunch, aren’t we?
Starting seeds this year. This is new for me but it works for other folks so why not for me? [Please don’t answer that.]
So far I have tomatoes and peppers planted. Heirloom tomato mix from Burpee: Black Krim, Brandywine Pink, Coustralee, Dajen Lee’s Golden Girl, Golden Sunburst, and Green Sausage. These are all mixed up in a package so I have no idea about what is where. I am trying to start 20 seeds and if I get half of that in plants it’ll be plenty for us three.
Peppers have proper labels and aren’t such wild cards. Heirloom again. Sweet peppers California Wonder, Sweet Banana, and Jimmy Nardello. We’re trying Sweet Thing, which is supposed to be a tame version of cayenne. We’ll see. For hot peppers, I discovered Hot Fish in the catalog and am trying it. Apparently, it’s been hiding out in the AA community since the middle of the 19th century.
I’m going to try to start green onions. Never planted them and don’t know how tough they are.
Plants really have to have a strong will to live in order to thrive for me. We’ll see how these do.
currants
Just ordered last night! But I’m a piker compared to you, Anne Laurie, when it comes to tomatoes–you must have a ton of space, and how do you manage the indeterminates? They get ahead of me every year, SO much taller than my supports (which are 6 ft).
Anyway, I have 6 raised beds, two for ratatouille (1 goes to tomatoes and 1 to peppers and eggplants). The other 4 get carrots, beets, green beans (string and lima), celeriac, kale, garlic, lettuce, spinach, leeks, beets, chard. Asparagus, squash, peas, drying and pole beans around the perimeter. No brussels sprouts this year: too much space required for too little veg in return.
For tomatoes, this time it’s Momotaro, Pineapple, Cuore di Bue, Japanese Black Trifele, Kobe, Manitoba, Sweet Million, Jolly Elf, Zebra cherry, San Marzano, Beaverlodge, and Longkeeper. The only ones I’ve grown before are the black Trifele, Sweet Million, and San Marzano.
Thank you for the garden threads–Anne Laurie, and all of you who post on them. I really enjoy reading about what folks are doing, and every year I get new ideas and sources from you all.
Betty Cracker
My husband does 100% of the gardening around here. He uses raised beds and already has tons of tomato plants, eggplants and beans going, plus dozens of seedlings in red Solo cups (I have no idea what they are). I know he’s growing Carolina Purples and Black Cherries per my especial request; those were particularly awesome in our last crop.
currants
@Linda Featheringill: This year and last year the only seeds I started were celeriac–just didn’t have time to manage more, so ordered plants instead. But before that, I started tomatoes and peppers and leeks and thyme and rosemary and a few other things in my attic. Saved my sanity in the last year of a bad job, and the first year of a career-change post-grad program. It’s wonderful to have a room that smells a little like a greenhouse, and to go into that room daily was almost as good as gardening itself.
I will note, however, that you are clearly more circumspect than I was the first year I started plants from seed. ;-) I ended up with something like 89 tomato plants I had to find homes for, because I started so many different types (what? make decisions?) and so many more survived than I expected (what? throw away a perfectly healthy seedling?). Yar…. I think you’ll be fine!
HeartlandLiberal
The recent 3-4″ of wet snow was melted off the garden as temps hit the fifties yesterday in south central Indiana. I bagged up over a cup of soil, mixed from four locations in the garden, and boxed it and got it in the mail to a lab in Fort Wayne that will return me a full analysis on the soil, what it needs in terms of fertilizers and minerals, how good the compost level is, etc.
In other words, I am trying to go scientific about this this year, since, now that I am retired, I have the time to really focus on it.
I am trying to make Thomas Jefferson proud.
http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/thomas-jeffersons-legacy-gardening-and-food
I am going to emulate him, and plan the garden on paper; then track it in a logbook. I plan to take a daily photo, and put together a time lapse at the end of next fall in November of the life cycle of the garden.
geg6
What a beautiful day it was here yesterday! John and went down to the greenhouse and got some seeds started: Romas and young girls, green and Hungarian peppers. He’s going to do some more while I shop, houseclean and do laundry today.
Went to the Pepsi Roadhouse last night for a show. Kind of a Legends of Pittsburgh Music night with Norm Nardini and the East Street Tigers, Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band and the Jaggerz. Juicers olds may remember the Jaggerz for their national hits in the late 60s and early 70s, especially “The Rapper” from 1970. It was great and I could listen to Billy Price doing R&B all day long.
Tonight, I’m planning on making cioppino. Yum! And then a week to get ready for our new family member, Koda. Hopefully, she’ll be here next Sunday and I hope to have pix so everyone can see the good deed they’ve done. Thanks BJ and Anne Laurie!
JPL
@geg6: Did you have sufficient funds? I hate paypal although I did break down once for the site redo.
tt crews
South Jersey/Philly area: Started the “greens” indoors 2 weeks ago: mustard, kale, chard and broccoli raab. The seedlings are about 3 inches high now and look great. Starting celery and leeks now.
Planted peas yesterday: bush snap, shelling and snow. Hopefully, it won’t be over 70 before May and I’ll get some tasty ones this year. Dang global climate change.
Crocuses have been up for about 3 weeks but really bloomed in yesterday’s 60 degree “heat wave.”
Garlic I planted in September looks tall and green.
danielx
@raven:
Oddly enough my spouse had to go through the same procedure about a year after we were married, which was good for any number of jokes from friends about how we’d been swinging from chandeliers too much. As you’ve already found out, back surgery is a last resort for unbearable pain – last resort because it’s tricky and because she’s going to be in pain (lots) for a while afterwards. I don’t have a huge amount of advice to offer except to do a lot of research on neurosurgeons yourself; don’t just depend on your GP. If you have any friends who are docs, ask them who they’d have do such a procedure on them. I don’t know where you live, but it’s worth traveling a way to find one who does a lot of this particular procedure. There are a lot of resources on the intertubes giving background on surgeons now, especially if they’re really good – training, publications, etc.
Also, too – check on the hospital where the procedure is to be performed. What is the incidence of hospital-borne infection, which as you may have noticed is kind of a big deal these days? This is a particular sore point with me – my spouse was in for a procedure last summer and saw with her own eyes an aide come into her room, do something with the bedpan and then start to screw around with her IV line without washing her hands or re-gloving. This was good for mild admonishment on the level of ‘why don’t you just shoot me, be a lot less pain and trouble’. It’s the little things that can kill you these days as well as the big ones…
Anyhoo – it will be a lot of pain for a while and the recovery will be lengthy, but she (and you) will be glad she did it (eventually). One other word; if you can, get some help in after she comes home from the hospital, ideally a friend who’s in the health care field if you’re not. Good luck!
RedKitten
My husband does the landscaping. Last year was major, with new raised beds and lots of new shrubs. This year, we’ll probably just plant a couple of fruit trees. We just don’t have time for much else, what with the new babe. http://instagr.am/p/WrWndGNNPA/
RedKitten
My husband does the landscaping. Last year was major, with new raised beds and lots of new shrubs. This year, we’ll probably just plant a couple of fruit trees. We just don’t have time for much else, what with the new babe. http://instagr.am/p/WrWndGNNPA/
RedKitten
Shit…sorry for the double post.
mainmati
watching daughter play soccer game early this
I morning . have started Chili’s from Bhutan and Egypt also Chili’s from other places and chard and lettuces. My office tomato planuiiut turned 5 years old and is still fruiting.
Fluke bucket
That bird knows eleventh dimensional chess.
satby
Yes, I also wanted to know if you got enough donations to cover the transport, geg6
satby
And I’m trying grafted tomatoe plants this year, Cherokee Purple and Pineapples. Haven’t started any seed yet.. my friend and cogardener sounds like she’s starting enough seed for a space 3 times the size.
geg6
@JPL:
@satby:
Jenna is the one in charge of the cash, but she says we are fine. She’s taking her to the vet tomorrow for her health cert and trying to get a flight for Sunday, which will totally make my St. Paddy’s day.
WereBear
@geg6: We want PIX. Those ears just slay me.
I don’t know what I’m doing this year, because pansies are my mainstay and they actually suffered last summer with the higher than usual temps. We usually have lobelia spring to fall, to give you an idea.
So I might beef up some others to fill in; cosmos, violas, and of course, mini roses. I only had three last year, and I’m thinking five, this year, if I have enough containers.
The sweet William in the yard is doing well; might throw more seed out this year. And those little wild violets.
JPL
@RedKitten: My goodness what a mop of hair. Thanks for the picture.
Joey Maloney
Garden, ha ha. I’ve just gotten around to repotting my herbs from the yogurt cartons they came in. Four months ago. The bougainvillea is exploding, which is nice.
I’m thinking of getting some ivy and letting it go crazy, to help my slumlord in pulling the building down after my lease is up.
TheMightyTrowel
Last week and next week are probably our last gasp of summer – the mornings are getting cool and a couple of the nights have been downright chilly. 30 degrees today and yesterday though, so still in flip flops for a little longer.
It’s 1am my time – have had the most ridiculous bout of insomnia this week… mr trowel has headed back to blighty to submit his phd, visit with his parents and then have his viva (=defense) and won’t be back for 2 months. Sometimes adulthood sucks.
raven
@danielx: Thanks, we are trying to cover all those bases.
WereBear
@RedKitten: Congrats on that delightful little one :)
max
All the snow that Washington DC didn’t get at the end of the week ended up here in lovely New England, ten to twelve heavey wet inches of it right on top of our little homestead.
Well, the suits in DC may not have gotten snow but boy, we did. My hat, after about 15 minutes of shoveling snow. (I was just trying to rescrape the walk.)
Most of the snow has melted (I clocked it as around 16 inches of snow, but it was only twelve inches high after compacting). But we’re still freeze-prone, so nothing is going outdoors yet. However, my plants are in the basement, and the mints, chives (both kinds), the oregano, sage and thyme seems to have survived (I can’t tell if the rosemary survived or not), along with four pepper plants, so I’m ready to go with that stuff. My winter cabbage in the back seems to have overwintered, but no idea if it’s going to start growing again. (It was a late-season experiment.)
I have many raised beds to build/finish. Blah.
max
[‘On the other hand, my compost piles are going great.’]
Kristine Smith
I will be planting seeds in trays in the coming week. I’m shrinking things to two types of tomatoes–Black Cherry and Paul Robeson–Italian sweet basil, and mesclun. Maybe a few more herbs. I will plant the mesclun directly in the raised bed, but not until the snow melts and nights are warm enough. It may be a few weeks.
I checked my blog archive to see when I started seeds last year. Mid-March 2012 saw a warm streak, with temps in the 70s. I already had volunteer lettuces popping up in the raised bed. I don’t think that will be the case this year.
chopper
moving to CA from NYC this summer so no gardening is likely this year.
tho i’m hoping we’ll stay in CA, in which case watch out.
quannlace
Mailed in my seed order to Johnny’s Selected Seeds last week. Will start on my existing seed packets in the next few days. Got the ‘Tomato Growers’ catalog the other day. Damn, those photo’s are serious tomato porn. I think they must oil up and/or polish them for their close-ups.
*****
I love to grow lots of greens. All kinds of lettuce’s, kale, arugula (that reseeds itself like a dream), radicchio. Mizuna and tatsoi are two greens that hold up really well to full summer heat.
Tomatoes: Rutgers, Ramapo, Moreton, Sungold, Cherokee Purple.
jnfr
My raised beds are under six inches of snow at the moment. Things don’t really get going for another month here in Colorado, and two for the warm season crops.
I’ll start my tomato and eggplants seeds at the end of this month, and I’ve ordered peppers from Tasteful Garden that will arrive in May.
We plan to put in another bed or two this year, along the back where we had the fence replaced. And we’re getting another section of fence put in, because the old fence is not adequate for holding back the neighbor’s doggies. It’ll be a busy summer, though not as insane as last year.
RoonieRoo
I’m actually planting out my tomato plants today. I started them back in January and they are ginormous and ready to go so not really seedlings anymore. I’m being a little risky in planting them now because there is a sliver of a chance for one more freeze but I doubt it will be more than I can protect them from.
We’re getting mostly lettuce and radishes right now out of the garden. The peas are going to get pulled today also. The onions and garlic are growing quite well in the other beds and the broccoli is starting to head from the last planting. That’s pretty much what is going on in an Austin garden.
schrodinger's cat
@RoonieRoo: Where do you live, there still snow on the ground where I am.
feebog
It is an insanely beautiful day here in SoCal. I’m going to clean up the weeds in the garden, but not planting yet. We leave for an overseas vacation in ten days and so we will delay planting until we return. I have already filled up both my green trash cans, so what I pull today may just sit for a couple days until trash pickup.
Yutsano
@feebog: Where ya headed? This will determine my jealousy level. :)
artem1s
It’s been sunny and unusually warm this weekend so maybe the groundpig prediction of an early spring will actually happen in Cleveburg.
My first batch of tomato seedlings all are getting their second leaves now. Started a second batch of 3-4 varieties yesterday that I only had one plant for in the first batch. I find it is best to have 2-4 plants for transplanting because some just don’t make the transition well (last year was tremendously dry and the year before, too wet).
some of the varieties; Black Krim, Black Seaman; Azyochka; Candystripe; Orange Oxheart; Royal Hillbilly; Stupice; Cuoro di Toro; Greek Domato; Amish Plum; White Wonder; Green and Red Zebra; Delicious.
I have several varieties of green coming and some herbs. those I will plant direct.
But it looks like we may get an early start here if spring isn’t too wet.
Gretchen
@Anne Laurie: how big are your tomato planters? I’m awed at the thought of 30-plus tomoato plants.
I’m starting tomato seeds myself for the first time, because I had such a bad tomato year last year. Here in Kansas we had weeks of over-100 degree temps with no rain, and most of my plants didn’t flower under those conditions. I saved the seed of the one variety that thrived, and resolved to keep records from now on – I have no idea what that variety was, so I can’t buy it again. I went through the catalogues and bought everything that said “heat and drought resistant” I’m starting Costluto Genovese, Marvel Striped, Super Sioux, Blak Krim, and Old Virginia. They all came up and have 2 leaves now. I also bought 3 peppers that said heat and drought resistant, but none of them have sprouted yet. I usually put plants out in late April, so I’m running out of time if they don’t sprout. I also started an Oregon Spring in hopes of getting early tomoatos.
You successful seed starters: Are regular flourescent lights ok or do you have to get grow-lights?
Gretchen
Oh, and I’m trying annual artichokes: Violetto and Imperial Star. I haven’t been successful with artichokes before, but it’s worth another try. And 3 kinds of brocolli: gypsy, major, and calabrese. I’ve also never done brocolli from seed and would probably be better off just buying them from the garden center.
RoonieRoo
@schrodinger’s cat: I live just outside of Austin, Texas. Our last freeze date is mid-March but I doubt we are going to get another one this year. We very rarely ever get snow.
My garden runs year-round. I never have even a single week that the whole garden isn’t planted up and producing. That is the delight of Central Texas. The only time of the year that most don’t have anything is August but I even have crowder beans/black-eye peas and okra producing like mad in August.
If you ever get sick of snow and want to garden year round give Austin a thought.
FlyingToaster
@quannlace: No,some of those really look like that.
We’re putting in our order this week; nothing can go into the ground (now covered with the remains of 14″ of snow) until 1 June, due to the volatility of the west-ah-Bwhastin weather.
We’ll be getting the usual Roman Stripe Spice (from Seed Savers Exchange), some slicing tomato, and probably the green zebra since WarriorGirl doesn’t like red tomatoes. We’ll wait and get her cherry and grape tomatoes from either Gore Place or Waltham Community Gardens.
Our big deal is chilis; HerrDoktor will have to make his list tomorrow night. Tomato Growers has great chili selections.
Starlit
The scallions from last year didn’t quit; brought themselves all back. This year, creeping rosemary takes a turn in the raised bed. I tore out a juniper bush so that I could replace it with Tuscan Blue rosemary. Hoping for fragrance and hummingbirds as well as edible evergreens, come high summer.
A friend has raspberries to give away, so I’m giving them a shot next weekend.
A couple of years ago I grew corn and was ridiculously happy watching my seven plants grow. I just don’t have the land, or patience, to put in as much corn as I would eat if I had it, but for this child of dense suburbia where the pickins were generally tomatoes & zucchini, it is an everlasting joy to have blueberries, Niagra grapes, herbs, Bosc pears, and–even a few ears of corn–incredibly exotic things that were treats from the supermarket, and yet can be had straight from home. I’m in Oregon, and I love it here.