12

2015 Gardening Thread (Read 121 times)


Prince of Fatness

    Better late than never.  Use this thread to ask questions, or just to relate what you have going on in your lawn, garden, flowerbeds, etc.

     

    2014

    2013

    2012

    Not at it at all. 


    Prince of Fatness

      This has been one of the driest springs that I can remember.  Warm, too, and after a very cold February and March. We have received a lot of rain since Saturday and it has helped.

       

      Anyway, I got my potatoes in on time but am thinking that yields will be down due to the weather.  They are usually flowering by now but not this year.  Just planted some tomatoes and squash this past weekend.  Not sure what else that I will plant.  Flowers have been in for a couple of weeks.  Beds mulched.  Only good thing about the dry weather is that I did not need to cut the grass very often. That will change with all of this rain.

      Not at it at all. 

      kcam


        We've had a decent year, some things grew awesome some not so great.

         

        The good:

        Lettuce - excellent this year.  We had lots of varieties and they all did well in Jan - March.  Starting to get a little warm/dry for them to do as well now.

        Fava Beans - we harvested and ate those things from late Feb thru April and now that I've developed a fondness for them .. they're gone. One of my favorite things to eat from the garden.  Fairwell until next year Fava Beans!

        Peas - same as above.  Just tore down the last of the plants.

        Kale - has been excellent, still producing.

        Carrots - were OK, not great but better than previous years.

        Onions - also OK.

         

        The bad:

        Cabbage - we got a few heads but nothing like previous years, a lot of the plants just didn't do anything.

        Brussel sprouts - Big Fat Zero.  The plants got huge but no brussel sprouts.

        Garlic - this is the garlic capital of the world and we usually get tons of awesome garlic bulbs that will last us all year.  This year they're very anemic.

         

        Stuff growing now:

        Various leafy greens

        Corn

        Tomatoes

        Green Beans

        Cukes & Zucchinis

        Peppers

        Garlic

        Onions

        Potatoes (we never get a decent harvest out of these it's more for fun, same as corn)

        Eggplant (these grow really well in our climate)

        Probably more that I can't think of right now.

         

        Side note:  I stripped our front yard of ALL lawn and sold my lawnmower.  Free, free at last!  We're going through this crazy drought out here and that's my contribution.  Replaced the lawn with drought-tolerant, native species and boulders.  Looks good but it was about 10X harder than I thought it would be.

        BeeRunB


          After 6 years of some pretty poor gardening, with a few successes, I planted early this year with good results. The lavender and sage I planted a few years ago are flourishing. My neighbors small bamboo grove has leaked over the fence into my yard, and I have a single tree that's about 4 feet high, so a new addition. Weeds are awful here in Atlanta. Weed-whack-a-mole.


          Feeling the growl again

            Congrats on the lawn, Ken.  I've wondered why more people don't do that.

             

            I've minimized the gardening this year...relatively.  Annual-wise, the potatoes are up and going well.  I'm putting the third installment of sweet corn in tomorrow.  Green beans are up this year (I plant them every year and can about 100 quarts).  We were late with the kitchen garden (half flowers half salad) so the spinach and lettuce are just coming up.

             

            The strawberries are out of control.  My wife picked 7 gallons and told me to text people to come get the rest, it looked like she hadn't even been in there picking!  I split out my black raspberries and moved them into rows to grow new hills..nearly 100 of them...so not many berries this year.

             

            The vineyard is okay, not great.  Some of the vines are still shocked from 2 winters ago.  Others took an extra year to realize that part or all of them needed to die.  But what is there is setting a nice-looking crop.

             

            The orchard looks pretty good.  Lots of apples, pears, and peaches growing.  Cherries, not so much.

            "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

             

            I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

             

            Birdwell


              My contributions to the garden are complete as of 10 minutes ago. I removed a bunch of juniper bushes and expand the garden area from 600 square feet to about 1400 square feet. I tilled, leveled and covered the whole thing in two inches of mulch (Chipped wood from the local tree removal place).

              I just put the last sprinkler head on the last pole and turned the whole thing over to my wife.

               

              I also just finished reprogramming the watering system controller so hopefully (knock on wood) we won't have any issues with that this year.

               

              She's got big plans this year and we'll see how it goes.


              Village people

                Sounds like there are some yummy things growing. I didn't go too crazy. Last year I was overwhelmed with tomatoes. I ended up roasting and freezing a lot of them and then using them in chili. That is my plan for this year so I have lots of tomatoes, acouple habanero pepper plants ( for chili), I did leaf lettuce and arugula in planters and I have my usual assortment of herbs on the deck. The planters worked well and I can easily grab lettuce and herbs for cooking. Last year I had over a hundred peaches. I will be better prepared this year.


                Prince of Fatness

                  Lettuce - Meh.  We planted a bunch and it all came up.  Then it got hot and it did not grow.  It's still in there, looking the same as it did a month ago.

                   

                  String beans - I planted some in a window box on my front porch.  They came up but I am not optimistic.  Haven't had much luck with them on the porch.  I need to figure out a way to plant them in the garden without the deer getting them.  Maybe some wire cages.  I only need a few plants.

                  Not at it at all. 

                  Joann Y


                    Mostly flowers and perennials at home including lots of different roses, herbs, clematis. Especially been liking the Apothecary Rose and variants. Honeysuckle in bloom as of yesterday (!). First year for tulips; they have already come and gone but wow, that was amazing and worth the effort. Direct seeded a bunch of cosmos and hollyhock along the side of the house; not blooming yet but they are coming along. Weeds are in full force after all the rain and warm days. Lawn is overgrown and weedy and has some kind of silver sheen that I think may be fungal but not sure. Any advice on that? I did start a bunch of stuff from seed this year in a small lean-to greenhouse that my husband built for me...multiple colors of zinnia, a couple varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, hibiscus, basil, lavender, lupine, kale, lettuce, chard. All that stuff did so well in the greenhouse I started wondering where the hell I was going to put all of it until a friend of mine told me she got a plot at the local community garden that I help out at. We decided to share the plot this year and so put most of those seedlings in there.

                     

                    William Shakespeare Rose:

                     

                    Joann Y


                      My tiny front yard.

                       

                       

                      TeaOlive


                      old woman w/hobby

                        Beautiful.

                        steph  

                         

                         

                          Lush and lovely!

                          Recalculating...

                           


                          Feeling the growl again

                            That looks so much better than a useless pad of grass!

                             

                            My tiny front yard.

                             

                             

                            "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                             

                            I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                             


                            Feeling the growl again

                              Well, the monsoons here really put a damper on gardening.  All-time record for summer rain and it's only the beginning of August.  Some things never got in and others either didn't produce due to wetness or fungus/rot.

                               

                              We did great on strawberries, and I was able to spray the grapes enough to keep much of the rot at bay.  The orchard will do okay; lost a lot of peaches to rot but the apples and pears are looking great.

                               

                              The potatoes may have dried out just in time to not rot in the ground.

                              "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                               

                              I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                               


                              Prince of Fatness

                                I dug up a bunch of potatoes this past weekend.  Yields were OK, voles gnawed on some of them.  I have a couple of more rows to dig but they are late varieties so they can wait.  I pulled probably 5 or 7 wheelbarrows full of weeds while out there.  I had some pumpkin and butternut squash plants that I had started from seed,  Now that I have room they went in the garden.  I have a couple of tomato plants but none have ripened yet.

                                 

                                We had quite a bit of rain June and July but nothing like spaniel had.  It was nice not having to water any plants although I would rather not have to cut the grass twice a week.

                                 

                                MTA: Not my garden but our local produce place has there own corn since last week.  Mmmmm.  Fresh Jersey corn.

                                Not at it at all. 

                                12