Garden plans this year?

[St. Louis]

I'm not sure whether this is the right forum for this question -- bartenders feel free to move if necessary.

What are your plans for your garden this year? Have you already started looking at seed and plant catalogs?

I'm particularly interested in heirloom / vintage gardening. My own garden is very tiny (about 20 x 30 at the largest section) It's overshadowed by a huge oak and a tiny garage (too small for even my subcompact) so there's rarely enough sun for vegetables. I try growing a few things on the front stoop, like peppers and chard. For the most part I have to make do with a shade-flower garden. Here in St. Louis the summers can be brutally hot and humid, so my attempt at creating a microscopic woodland garden has been fairly successful & has created a pleasant little oasis. This year I want to uproot the daylilies from the one and only sunny spot in the garden, just to see if I can grow a few tomatoes & cukes.

Anyone else making some changes in their gardens this year?

 

[Vera Godfrey]

I've had to modify my garden plans because of the dogs. It's all good, I think! I am more determined than ever to have a garden this year and plan on growing (or trying to grow):
tomatoes
cucumbers
peppers
carrots
peas
and various herbs

Good luck with yours!

 

[sheeplady]

This summer I need to get the various plants moved from the old house to the new house.

Mainly this includes transplanting the multitude of black and red raspberry bushes to the new property.

My daughter wants to plant peas and got it into her head to have a "girl" (planted and tended by myself and her) and a "boy" (by her father and brother) garden. She's 3, but already competitive. Future blue ribbon winner at the county fair.

 

[Vera Godfrey]

Good luck, sheeplady, with your transplanting!

 

[sheeplady]

Thank you. I got started last year, but had a late start (we had snow on the ground until almost May) and then we had our son in July. So I didn't get as much transplanted as I had hoped.

There's a robin's nest in the brambles, and this reminded me to relocate it before they lay eggs in it again. So i can also blame the Robins for holding me up, as I stopped working on the brambles when I saw the nest with eggs and later chick's in it. Thank goodness I saw it, I would have been devestated to break a set of robin eggs.

 

[Rodney]

It's been a really wet spring for me this year. I haven't gardened for the last couple years so mostly it's going to be a bunch of weeding and cleaning up the garden bed once things dry out a bit. I'm hoping to at least get some peas planted and maybe put in some fresh strawberry starts.
Rodney

 

[Stearmen]

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on who you talk to, the big garden that came with the house may go away in the next month. I am hopefully going to expand the garage another twenty feet, so the garden has to go!

 

[Mlle Elza]

I have the immense chance of having a "victory garden" in my backyard. It's going to be my garden's 4th years this summer! It's composed of 6 raised boxes. The rabbit-proof fence and the boxed are all made with recycled material. (We used to have swimming pool and a deck to access it. All the planks and poles come from the deck!)

I've already ordered all my seed, I mostly chose heirloom or vegetables with interesting colours!
"Indigo Apple" tomato
"Schwarzer Runder" radish
"Pomegranate" lettuce
Mâche lettuce
"Des Vertus Marteau" turnip
... and the list goes on.

Here's a picture of the garden in mid-july last year!

 

[newsman]

Our garden in is and not as nice as the one above. That is...quite a joy.

But it's so blasted hot where we are it's hard to grow some things. That being said we've got about peppers, swash, tomatoes, the usual stuff all doing quite well. Especially, the okra. Not being from the south I've spent a lot of time living in the south...wondering why I had been deprived of okra during my youth.

Once the heat is over 95 some of the stuff will stop producing. I'm planning to shade some of it by then.

 

[St. Louis]

Mlle Elza, that is wonderful! Really impressive. Did you build those raised beds yourself?

I've got swiss chard and some lettuce starts, plus the usual kitchen herbs already. I just cleared out a bunch of day lilies to make room for squash & cucumbers. I get so little sun, though, that I think that'll be pretty much the extent of my vegetable gardening/

 

[Mlle Elza]

Mlle Elza, that is wonderful! Really impressive. Did you build those raised beds yourself?

I've got swiss chard and some lettuce starts, plus the usual kitchen herbs already. I just cleared out a bunch of day lilies to make room for squash & cucumbers. I get so little sun, though, that I think that'll be pretty much the extent of my vegetable gardening/

Thank you so much!
Yes, I built them with the help of a very handy family member. It was a lot of work but it was very rewarding and totally worth it!

What type of squash will you be planting?

 

[newsman]

Thank you so much!
Yes, I built them with the help of a very handy family member. It was a lot of work but it was very rewarding and totally worth it!

What type of squash will you be planting?

Those poor rabbits are just going to sit there and look...

 

[Edm1]

I'm still getting used to the difference in planting time. In Mississippi I planted the garden in March. Here in Kentucky it is snowing today....

Anyways, this year we will do Tomatos,okra,carrots,jalapeños, cucumbers,squash,radishes,lettuce and potatoes. Also gonna try horse radish for the first time. And plant some blueberry bushes. I'm ready now...Kentucky isn't however...

 

[Renault]

Good morning all,

We haven't had a garden in over 15 years. When all the kids were home it was a necessity. But with work and all, kids leaving, etc. it kinda fell by wayside.

Then last week a ranching compadre gifted us a new tiller! He picked up a new one for his tractor. Didn't need the old (well it had 45 minutes on it) one anymore.

So I had to put up a new fence and opted for livestock panels. Keep the hounds out as they love to dig!

Tomatoes, radishes, bush beans, squash, peppers, carrots, okra, and cucumbers are popping up! Wifey has put in quite an herb garden too!!! She is unable to work I. The big garden. So the herbs at the back door will keep her occupied.



Basil and Spot are not happy!

 

[sheeplady]

Has anyone had luck with keeping groundhogs/ woodchucks out? we have tons of them. The only thing I've thought of I'd to bury hardware cloth down a couple of feet, but that's a near imposdibility in our rocky soil.

We're not going to get a dog anytime soon. I can't shoot all of them (although you have no idea how that appeals to me).

 

[Renault]

Sheeplady,

Greetings,

Is is possible or legal in your area to live trap them and relocate? Game laws here allow such things with nuisance animals. Sorry I know nothing about them little Critters as we do not have them here. Just a thought.

 

[sheeplady]

I don't think trap and release is legal, i am certain its ilegal for raccoons, but that may be because of rabies. I will check, we have a have-a-heart. Although I hate these things so much I'd like to use a steel trap on them...

I'm seriously all for nature, but these woodchuck are nasty. I grew up on a farm, we had rats, raccoons, skunks, and weasels. I swear anything but raccoons would be better.

ETA: apparently they are one of the few nuisance animals you can trap, release, kill, etc. at will in NYS with no red tape. Revenge will be mine.

 

[Renault]

Sheeplady!

"Cry havoc and let slip the Dogs of War!"

Good luck in your endeavor!

Planted some Swiss Chard, more radishes, and a few scarlet Nantes in a makeshift raised bed this evening. Rain expected tonight!!!

 

[BobHufford]

I've been able to avoid gardens most of my life. My theory is that if it's a bad year you can't grow anything and if it's a good year then your friends and neighbors will fill your car with zucchini when you aren't looking.

Perhaps it goes back to my Grandma's garden when all I knew about gardening was that my job was to harvest the rocks -- not too much fun. My wife's Grandpa had huge gardens both in town and down on the "farm". He even had two walk-in coolers next to the one in town and we sold the produce at farmer's market every weekend during the season.

He's been gone now several years and the "farm" is in our hands. Well ... last weekend the neighbor stopped by to show off his latest "new" old tractor and, since it had a plow mounted, he asked if we wanted a garden. My wife said yes before I could say no. So now we have this small spot behind the house that I will need to put fence around as we are only here on the weekends and the deer have the run of the place when we are gone. Not sure how this will work out.

She also decided that we should resurrect Grandpa's large garden across the creek, but leave the deer fencing down (flattened by a flood several years ago) so the deer and turkey can eat all they want of whatever we decide to put in there. This area has an above ground concrete "tank" with hook-ups for soaker hoses. It will take a bit of work to remove the scrub trees and brambles that have grown up, but I'm pretty good at destroying plants.

Guess I'm going to be a gardener ... I already have the overalls for it.

My brother-in-law helping me survey the work required on the "big" garden.

 

[Renault]

Been expanding and making improvements on Wifey's Herb Nook! When I have it presentable I'll post a pic. Have a hummingbird feeder there and a little black chinned hummer and his lady fried were my company this afternoon. No fear at all and only inches from me as I worked.