Garden Time

dooleysm · Jan 13, 2009

It's 25 and snowing here, but I just sent off my Burpee's seed order using a $25 gift certificate I got for Christmas. I held off as long as I could. I was ready to order seeds and get started about a week after I put the garden to bed last fall. I can feel the juice running down my chin from an ice cold watermelon on a hot August day.

I had a great year last year using my 5' tiller for the first season. I got a middle buster in time for the potato harvest and had great fun with it. After a banner day selling watermelons at the local farmer's market I came home and plowed up a big section of sod around the garden to make it that much bigger for this year.

Bring on the warm weather!

WayneB · Jan 13, 2009

You are way ahead of me that is for sure. Although I did look at the Burpees site today and will be getting seeds on order shortly.

It was 6 degrees this morning and there is about two feet of snow on the gardens so I don't have to worry about tilling for awhile.

LBrown59 · Jan 13, 2009

dooleysm said:
Bring on the warm weather!

Can I second that!

dooleysm · Jan 14, 2009

My MIL starts our tomato and pepper seeds for us. It's kind of luck of the draw as to what kind of seeds she'll have. Last year we had waaaaayyy too many cherry tomato plants. None would be a good number for me, but I think we had 3 or 4. Almost all of them went to the chickens. I'm a beefsteak man!

The point being, I want to get the good seeds to her before she starts a bunch of whatever she's got laying around.

"They" are calling for a low of -5 for Thursday night around here. That's uncommonly cold for us. I'm not really looking forward to that.

forgeblast · Jan 14, 2009

I just recived my order from stokes, it made me feel good considering all the ice and bitter cold we are having.

KentT · Jan 14, 2009

Yep, I've been browsing catalogs planning my spring order since the holidays. They sure do time their mailings right to help relieve cabin fever...

Stimw · Jan 14, 2009

I'm trying to post a link and I hope it works. If you haven't seen one of these you might find it useful. It's for planting small seeds. Can't argue with the price! MINI SEEDMASTER SEED PLANTER -Makes Planting Seeds Easy

dooleysm · Jan 14, 2009

Interesting.

Have you seen the 'seed tape' that some places are selling. From what I gather it's a biodegradable material with small seeds stuck or embedded in it, spaced appropriately. You just lay the length of tape in a shallow trench, cover with dirt, and your veggies pop up. I've seen it for things like carrots and radishes.

I was thinking about making my own with a length of moist toilet paper. I thought I could lay out a length, space out my small seeds on it, fold it over lengthwise, and moisten the whole thing. Then I could take it outside and lay it in my rows. I just remembered coming up with that idea last fall. I hope I remember to try it this spring.

My normal method of planting those small seeds is to just scatter them in a prepared bed and lightly rake. I spend alot of time thinning then.

EddieWalker · Jan 14, 2009

Interesting idea about using toilet paper. I've had great luck with putting seeds in wet paper towels and a plastic bag for a few weeks before planting, but never thought about doing something similar in the ground.

My garden failed last year because I did just about everything wrong. I really need to amend my soil and plant allot earlier. Everything just burned on my in the summer sun.

Eddie

Chuck52 · Jan 14, 2009

dooleysm said:
Interesting.

Have you seen the 'seed tape' that some places are selling. From what I gather it's a biodegradable material with small seeds stuck or embedded in it, spaced appropriately. You just lay the length of tape in a shallow trench, cover with dirt, and your veggies pop up. I've seen it for things like carrots and radishes.

I was thinking about making my own with a length of moist toilet paper. I thought I could lay out a length, space out my small seeds on it, fold it over lengthwise, and moisten the whole thing. Then I could take it outside and lay it in my rows. I just remembered coming up with that idea last fall. I hope I remember to try it this spring.

My normal method of planting those small seeds is to just scatter them in a prepared bed and lightly rake. I spend alot of time thinning then.

I've seen that toilet paper trick mentioned in some gardening forum or something. I'd like to try it for my beets and turnips. Like you, I tend to just broadcast those small seeds and then I often get poor yields because I hate to thin them enough.

Anybody in to the weird plants? I get so many catalogs and some of them have strange plants I'd like to try. There's something called a vine peach that is supposed to be a native American plant. I think I may have found one on my Grandma's farm when I was about 10. I remember taking this little passion-fruit sized thing to her and she told me it was a "ground apricot". Then there's husk tomatoes. I don't particularly care for tomatillos, but I think husk tomatoes are related to them, only smaller and sweeter.

I'll be ordering some seeds, but I have rotten luck growing my own tomato and pepper plants. Fortunately there's a nursery near me that grows a good variety of the tomatoes and peppers I like, and sells them at a decent price.

Chuck