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When do you plan on starting your garden seeds and what will you be growing?
We buy six-paks of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cukes, cabbage in mid-May to plant first of June under waterjackets (we're at 7000 feet, we still get snow and hard freezes until June 15th most years). We put beans and peas in the ground at the same time (fresh seed from the local ag store). That's all we have room for on this hill....
But I can wait forever for spring and summer - my two LEAST FAVORITE seasons.... HML, feel free to send me your snow!
Who has time for annuals?
You know what I find works really well with annuals? I gather the seeds in the fall and in the early spring, I just scatter them here and there. Most of the time they have scattered themselves anyway. By early summer, I have colorful annuals growing everywhere with very little effort.
The cucumber and tomato plants grow like nobody's business, although so far we've been unsuccessful in actually getting tomatoes or cucumbers.
If you are getting flowers, but no fruit you may have to hand-fertilise. Tomatoes there is a pray you can get, but you may also be able to use a paintbrush. Cucumbers have male and female flowers. Males have pollen and females have an embryonic cucumber behing the flower. take the male flower, remove the petals and use it to pollinate any females that are open. If you succeed it won't be long until the fruit starts growing.
Sounds like a pollination problem. Without wind or insects, you'll need to shake the plants or use a "pollination" stick for the cucumbers. Tomatoes are -self-pollinated, but lack of fruit usually means incomplete pollination. This can result from too much shade, not enough water, or most commonly, sunlight through windows that results in higher than normal temperatures.
<added /> Olwen beat me to it.
"Though I am an Old Man, I am but a Young Gardener"
Thomas Jefferson.
Being new to the Desert Southwest, I am having a wonderful time eyeballing all the beauty summer and winter. So many different variety and not just cacti, although I have started a few cacti/succulent type bowls this last year.
I have a grow room inside the house and gazillions of seeds which I have been hardening outside. I love to collect seeds when Laura and I are.... well, when Laura takes me about the region.
Talk about plant-culture shock. Yikes! Things that grew so well for me in the Northeast get punked out way to easily for my liking. However, I am woikin on it.
Amaryllis contained planted outside over the summer have had babies, fat ones too, and are now hardening. Every year I buy a couple of them just for the great blooms. Of course, I have a nice ceramic container of Paper whites too. :)
The caladiums did well too.
Nearly everything I grow is container'd. Tomatoes, Peppers, etc. Empty five-gallon paint buckets do real well for this method.
Here is where it gets a bit eclectic. I also have a penchant for raised bed planters. Rather than make them all the time, I merely attend Yard Sales looking for the 'throw away' - 'give away' pile for any kind of drawer. Kitchen drawers tend to last longer because they are generally manufactured with more water resistant materials and can last up to two years, or more.
Lesser quality-constructed drawers are simply replaced next year...after I have harvested seeds.
So, what you can end up with using these drawers is a wonderfully easy method that has the potential of change each year, with the advent of the newer drawers.
After I've culled and broken down the rotten drawers, the soil is sifted thru two types of screen wire and stored ( in the sun ) within those wheeled trash carts from the hardware store. They are quite easily moved from place to place and also act as their own hot house to kill any errant seeds or grubs contained within the soil. I have three, no four of these going at any one time.
I tried ammending the soil hereabouts, but it ain't happening for me. The corn plot yielded but a few nice ears, but boy oh boy, did those Sunflowers take off. Wow! The only problem I had with growing them was keeping the Yellow Throated Fince from eating the leaves. Strip them bad boys right down to the capilary. Not like they were using the Sunflower for nesting material...they was eatin it plain and simple.
Anyway, I must finish preperations for dinner.
Yeah, we've tried helping the cucumbers fertilize, but it didn't work. It's funny, we did think we were starting to grow cucumbers, but they just ended up being female flowers. They look like teeny pickles. Our next attempt will be to grow two of each plant. Although, even though we haven't gotten any tomatoes or cucumbers, it's still nice having something growing in the kitchen.
Reread the posts...we don't have higher than normal temperatures, but we do have lower than normal temps. Maybe that's the problem. The winter has been colder than expected, plus the plants are downstairs, not far from the doggie door, so it's fairly cool.
I live in Maine and nothing really can be planted outside until May.... usually at the end of May. It depends on the kind of plant and how long the seeds take to germinate.
We have had two miserable, cold and wet summers... I grow dahlias and it took some of them 4 to 5 months to bloom - just in time for frost!
I am starting some herb seeds right now, but only for growing in kitchen.
How's your fertilizer working for you? Any results?
As for pollination tips: If you can get an oscillating fan to keep on the plants for a few hours per day, that really helps.
Anyone going to wide-row planting? Narrow rows never made sense to me. Hated it when I was a kid because it always seemed like a waste of space. Wide-row gardens always look better than narrow-row gardens and they always seem more productive.
Just stripped the Apricots off the tree before too many are lost to the birds, Pears and Apples are coming along nicely, should ripen in a month or two. Plum tree is dropping little yellow plums all over the place, good for the soil.
Harvesting a few Tomatoes now from the first planting, second planting went in last week, soon be time for Broad Beans. Basil doing well, Pesto time soon.
Egg Plants (Aubergine) coming along, as are Capsicum (Bell Peppers). Silver Beet is doing well. Put in another row of Chili Peppers last week, along with Spinach and Parsley.
Both compost bins are awaiting new contents, which means I have to shred the HUGE pile of clippings sitting in the driveway.
Put in a row of Gazanias yesterday in a very hot dry bed that is now awaiting a planting of Strelitzias and Yuccas to finish it off.
Heaps of Geranium and Pelagonium cuttings taking root in the nursery bed before planting out in other beds. Rescued a couple of Clivia from certain death yesterday.
Dwarf Dahlias doing well, along with the Begonias. The Agapanthas are all flowering as are the miniature Agapanthas which are an unusual and pretty plant. Watsonias are spent and need clipping.
Next is the front fence line bed which needs a hedge planting and under-plantings. Bulbs again in June. And then ...
Sounds a lot, but it took 12 months to get this far from a very neglected garden.
I *love* gardening, a great break from pounding the keyboard.
How's your fertilizer working for you? Any results?
Everything grew really well, so I'm happy with the fertilizer. The heirloom tomato plant is threatening to take over the house and it's been cut back four times. I guess it works. :)
As for pollination tips: If you can get an oscillating fan to keep on the plants for a few hours per day, that really helps.
We'll try that. We have a couple little fans hanging around the house right now that aren't being used. They probably feel neglected in the winter, so we'll take one downstairs for the plants.
We're thinking of junking whatever we have growing now and starting fresh with six new plants. Maybe two bell pepper, two tomato and two cucumber. Hopefully, by the time spring rolls around, we'll have the makings of a salad.
Just stripped the Apricots off the tree before too many are lost to the birds, Pears and Apples are coming along nicely, should ripen in a month or two. Plum tree is dropping little yellow plums all over the place, good for the soil.
Put in a row of Gazanias yesterday in a very hot dry bed.I found arctotis did well for me in a dry bed. The previous owner said nothing would grow there. These tried to root in the concrete path during a drought.
Silverbeet doing very well, a few leaves every few days. Copious plum tomatoes and an interesting Yellow one, less tart and flesh like a plum. Picked my first Eggplant today, first time I have ever tried growing them, quite easy and prolific. Babagonoush here we come!
Onya
Woz
as planned, we started sweet basil, chives, and rosemary. Also planted some lupins, a giant variety of sunflower, and a bunch of leftover bulbs (pygmy daffodil and crocus)
