well, not 'master gardeners" as in Master Gardener - like those real smaht gardener types
So, who's starting what in their gardens? Or who's dreaming of what in their gardens but are still buried in snow?
photos are welcome too!
I started my tomatos and cucumbers indoors a few weeks ago. We still have some nights that get down to frost temps, so I can't transplant anything yet. Well, plus I can't transplant because DH hasn't tilled my garden yet. hopefully soon. then I can get in my cool weather stuff - lettuce, peas, spinach.
most everything else I start to plant around mid-May if weather cooperates.
Tammy
Prince of Fatness
I started a gardening thread out in the main forums a week or so ago. There were some people chiming in there. Click.
Just potatoes in for me right now.
Not at it at all.
Dear son#2 just make 4 nice raised garden beds for me, so I will not have to weeding my garden so much this year. Happy mama for that.,
I just hauled manure for the garden on Sunday...that was hard work. This week I am going to be working the composting materials into the soil, then I hope to plant some peas and some greens this weekend.
Great idea for a thread, Tammy. I am green gardener, so I have so much to learn.
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
#artbydmcbride
I've started pulling all of the weeds that suddenly just sprang up. Dang winter rain.
Runners run
Hi Tammy and MrPH!
Another gardener here!
MY tomatoes are started from seed in the basement under lights, and I got my dahlias potted up on Sunday... all 30 pots of them. Cannot for some odd reason bring myself to throw out perfectly good tubers (much like still usable running shoes!), but wind up with more and more every year. I give lots away, but still have too many to deal with.
We won't be planting outdoors until the end of May.
...and it's going to take that long to get all the outdoor beds cleaned up, edged, veggie garden turned, yadayada.
Cross training indeed!
.....Nancy The road to hell is paved....... run trails!
MM #5615
Wow, Nancy! That is nice! Geeze--I plant a few annuals out front and that's it. Oh, and I mow the lawn now and then, too.
Marathon Maniac #957
OMG - Heme! That's gorgeous!
Much smaller scale here - just never seems like enough time to keep up, but I did buy some seed potatoes this weekend to add to my usual tomatos. However, I ended up battling weeds and ran out of time, so they will have to wait until this weekend for planting. Nothing else gets planted until after Mother's Day here.
I was at the grocery last week and saw raspberry plants on sale and stood there looking at the different varieties for 10 minutes, quietly swooning....
Why have I never noticed until now how weird the spelling of "raspberry" is? I looked it up, too.....
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
TheProFromDover
Does 10 tomato plants count?
-Craig - "TPFD53 at gmail dot com"
it all counts!
what a great son you have there Nancy. well, even if he didn't make raised beds for you, he's still a great son.
heme - that looks arboreteum like! just beautiful!
I have a pretty large garden - around 500 sq ft maybe? and I try to pack in as much as I can because I can as many veggies as I am able. I still have around 10 qts of beans from last year, a few pints of beets and some tomato sauce also. for fruit I have an apple tree, blueberries bushes and a strawberry patch. I have a cherry tree also, but only one, so I never get cherries. I really should buy a mate for my cherry tree. I have my most commonly used herbs on hand - thyme, oregano, basil and cilantro. love love love being able to make salads for dinner and just go out to my garden and get everything I need. well, except the croutons. I don't grow croutons.
Trails are hard!
I would say with some certainty that Heme's garden would place her in that category. I'm torn about showing DW those pictures--she'd absolutly love it, then break down crying , and then hit me and say "why can't we have gardens like that"
I'm in Mike's class as gardener. Although I do have some competition from a large Golden in getting enough grass to mow at times.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Nancy, your garden is flat-out gorgeous! Congrats!
Last weekend, I cut back all our ornamental grasses and divided/replanted a couple of them. I also raked out our heathers and heaths. DW raked out a couple of beds and pruned our hydrangeas. I also (finally) took the Christmas lights off our blue spruce in the front yard (I suppose that doesn't count as gardening?). Not starting anything new in the garden this year - just trying to well-manage what's there.
Jay
Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.
Thanks for the comments on the pics. Those images were from a few years back, when the garden was my primary obsession. I kept eating up more and more of the lawn, egged on by my DH, who wasn't really fond of mowing. Most of the pots this year will be either dahlias, geraniums and spikes or vegetables.... no more hours to be spent raising umpteen plants for artistic mixed pots like in the pics.
Now with all the time spent running, I just hope I can keep it from degenerating into a hopeless jungle. I've given up trying to either control the rapidly spreading perennials or babying the weaklings. The edging alone is a full two day effort every spring.
Like you, Tammy, I'll likely concentrate more on the veggies and herbs this year. I agree....nothing like the fresh stuff straight from the backyard!! I just wish our season was longer.
Yes, Pro.... 10 tomato plants count!
Pro, 10 tomaotes do count...heck...one tomatoe counts...even one basil plant counts!!! or a potted tomatillo plant is good enough.
but heme's garden makes me feel like a slacker, .....AWESOME garden btw!!!!!!!! wow...I now have a new garden idol!!!!
Thanks for posting the pictures!
Like tamster, I enjoy growing my herbs, tomato and tomatillo plants to make all the marinara sauce I will need for the year. I grow plenty of basil, thyme, sage, oregano and other herbs to provide for my crazy love or need for fresh herb. Last year I was able to harvest enough green beens, until October. This year I plan to learn to make my swiss chard and peas bountiful...one year at the time. Still learning...still in the neonatal care of gardening.
Heme's yard looks like a Sunset Magazine photo shoot! Wow....
My garden is pretty large, but I don't think it's as large as Tammy's. And I suck at growing tomatoes, don't know why. But potatoes, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, beets... yum. And more. Here's a photo from late July 2009. My biggest challenge is the voles and the moose... And you've gotta love that fireweed on the east side.
I suck at growing tomatoes, don't know why.
My experience is that they like a lot of sun and don't do well with over watering (I think that people tend to over water in general). The last two summers were complete opposites here. Two years ago we had a cool wet summer. The potatoes loved it, but the tomatoes, not so much. I ended up pulling them up early. Last summer was hot and dry, and the tomatoes did really well. Yields on the potatoes were way down, however.
I'd say that my garden is about the size of Erika's, maybe a little bigger. Two thirds of it has potatoes. I try to plant the early varieties towards the middle so I have room to plant other stuff once I dig them up. Later I will plant summer squash, tomatoes, beans, etc. I could plant broccoli and cauliflower now but haven't had time. Maybe in a week or two.
I don't have any good pictures. I'll try to get some over the course of the growing season.