Gardens for 2021 season

[hube2]

On a positive note, my apple tree is going to be droopy with apples this year. The last time it had this many blossoms the branches sagged nearly to the ground from the weight of the apples. Not 100% garden related, but I think of it as part of the garden.

 

[kenmbz]

Hope the stress test goes well!

 

[Greenvalleymatt]

We have grown veggies for market, and personal consumption for years. After the pandemic and seeing how many people needed things outdoors to do (lakes were full everyday, not enough stuff for the hoards of a booming population here in north Texas). We decided having a you pick operation would be a good idea. We decided on flowers because let's face it, most people would destroy a vegetable garden picking veggies, but we figure snipping a flower stem wouldn't be quite as difficult for someone with no gardening experience, plus we have made signs with instruction for each row of flowers on how and where to cut them. We're starting small this first season, we've got about 350ftx3ft beds planted out of heat loving varieties (sunflowers, zinnias, celosia, cosmos, amaranth, marigold, statice, gomphrena, basil). We're also prepping a larger site on another part of the property to plant pumpkins, as well as sunflower and zinnias in a much larger quantity, and hoping to open our first smallish fall pumpkin patch this fall. Wish us luck!

 

[Greenvalleymatt]

Just starting to get our first flowers!

 

[Sonny580]

Good luck on the tests! -- dont give up on the gardens! -- weather here been wet too but that is about to change---looks like 80's coming next week, and probably no more rain for the rest of the year.
We have a few apple and peach trees here that are for some reason OVERLOADED this year and will have to start removing green fruit as the season goes along. 1 apple every 4 or 5 inches average along the branch is plenty---leave more and you have inferior size and quality since the trees can only support xx many apples total.
Peaches are not quite as picky but still have limits.
Pick your own is never a good thing, but a lot of people have these operations. not many around here. The flower idea might be something different and could catch on! Good luck with it! Also pumpkins in late fall can be a winner too! Time your planting so your varieties dont get ready too soon!!
A lot of farmers market activity here and direct sale from gardens.
We just give away what we have extra,( which is usually a bunch) and just getting people to come get it is a major problem!
We have 1 guy that will come and get stuff and take it to his church food bank for us.

 

[hube2]

My apple tree seemed to survive the over abundance the last time. Branches sagged but did not break. I will have to keep an eye on it this year, but it's a tree and I like letting them grow the way they choose and let nature work it out. It is a Northern Spy. The apples vary greatly in size but are usually smaller than what you see in the store which is why it never caught on. Need to leave them alone until after the first good freeze in the fall for them to get sweet.

I do the same with my garden. We put away what I need for the year and then anything else we give away, preferably to someone that needs it. Some people get upset when I refuse to take their money. If I needed the money I'd put up a stand on the side of the road.

 

[oldballs]

I never figured Mother Nature out. Some years my apple trees would be loaded and other years they wouldn't. Used to have a variety of fruit trees in my orchard...about 20 trees in all. Gradually most have died out over the past 45 years.

I'll post some pics of the iris that are lush right now. We always had a lot of flowers. This year the forsythia was frozen, the lilacs were poor , but the spirea was just OK. Thanks for your encouragements.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Jstpssng]

soil temps here are WAY too cold for seeds. Have replanted some of the stuff 2 times and still nothing. Either too cold or I have soil insects attacking the seed! Anyway I will try 1 more time after it dries up and warms up and see what happens.

I planted my peas way too early, then laid some greenhouse plastic over them. That did help bring the soil temp up faster, but I still didn't have a very good germination. I want to plat a couple of short rows this fall, early enough so they will come up a few inches then cover with straw to winter over. It COULD work....

 

[oldballs]

Here's some pics of today's garden. Note the volunteer lettuce. The rest is mud. Also is a pic of a bumper crop of apples in 2014. The past about 10 days I have measured approx 6.5 inches of rain.
Cheers,
Mike

 

[herm0016]

to get an aprox. soil temp, just avg the high and low temps for the week. most things will not germinate until its 50 or 55 and some things wont until its 65 or 75 degrees.

my wife picked a varity of amaranth that wont pop till 70 ish degrees. we are still around 60 for soil temps. Im not sure we hit 75 all year.