23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
hnycrk- NOW we're talkin! So, I get photobucket on my phone and also gardenweb onto the phone as an app? I think if I can get the basic idea down I can go to BB and they have a Samsung guy there all the time. We're also going to take an I-pad class, so I can do it from my new I-pad mini.
Getting closer
rhizo-the one that still (or again) lives with us knows the basics (texting, facebook, photos etc). The other one I don't see much and is always busy when she's around!
Well, I'm on the West coast, so I can garden pretty much all year long.
But for fall/winter I like chard and kale. Both are very hardy.
Spinach seems to take so much to get a meal, I stick to the chard. It keeps coming back!
Lettuces, radish, snow peas.... once planted, asparagus is an early spring thing (the start of garden season!)
I don't go for peas, cause you have to plant SO many for just a couple of meals! Brussel sprouts grew great the first year, til I went out in the garden with my glasses ON and found that they were so infested with aphids they were beyond just spraying them down! (I wear my glasses in the garden now! LOL)
You mentioned forgetting about the broc, cauliflower and single harvest veges. IMHO, I usually grow some just to have them, but don't count on them for my winter veges. Just from time to time. If you're together enough (which I am NOT!) to plant a few seeds each week to space out the timing....MAYBE, but ,as you said you only have a small area to plant in!
You might want to just concentrate on things you can can/preserve/freeze with your small area, or think about getting some more space in a community garden to expand. I have over an acre, but my garden consists of 4 4x8s, 2 3x6s, 2 3x3sin ground raised beds, and a couple of new raised up 3x8x1s.
Contact your county extension office (or go online) to find a planting guide! You can also check out the Harvest forum to get some ideas on what to do with your veges!
Personally, I use a FOODSAVER which is a vaccum sealer system!
And I go on! Nancy
Straight from the pages of 'Rodales Garden Answers' book....
Broccoli: Fresh eating: 5 to 10 plants per person
(One plant can produce 2lbs. of main heads & sideshoots)
Brussels Sprouts: For fresh eating, plant 5 to 10 plants per person
Cauliflower: Grow 5 plants per person, twice that for winter preservation.
Collards: Grow 3 to 5 plants per person
Kale: 2 to 5 plants per person.
Mustard Greens: Not listed
Spinach: 10 plants per person per planting.
Turnips: A few feet of row per person per planting.
Here is a link that might be useful: Rodales garden Answers Book @ Amazon
This post was edited by MsMorningSong on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 10:31
You might try shading the row where you plant your beets by laying a 1"x4" board down on it for a few days after you plant. Be sure you check daily and when you begin to see signs of the seeds germinating, remove the board. That should help the soil to be slightly cooler and will help keep it moist to aid germination.
My experience with Peter Rabbit is that there is a bite, not a nibble. It also appears to be less tender than what my Peter Rabbit would prefer.
Peter has nibbled on my green beans, topped two dill plants, topped one of my okra and, of course the peas and lettuce. Nothing as dense as a cuke.
If the split isn't due to the Squash Vine Borer (which you could pull out of the stalk with tweezers or inject the stalk with BT) - you can bury the split area with dirt.
Here is a link that might be useful: Squash Vine Borer in Zucchini Stalk
Yesterday I planted a handful of potatoes I'd had greening up since May, waiting for midsummer space to open up. I use the little reds for this because they are such willing producers under all kinds of conditions. In rainy years late blight will melt down the fall potatoes, which is a substantial risk in my area so I keep the planting small.
Thanks for the ideas on late plantings.
I just dug up a row of early red potatoes, only to find that the voles had eaten lots of them. They had also produced leafing green seed potatoes on their stems (maybe in response to the vole damage?) They are 60 day potatoes, so I'm excited about planting a bed of them again now. Good way to (hopefully) get my money's worth from the expensive early seed potatoes!
Normally, the flower rotting is normal--it serves its purpose to pollinate the fruit and then rots and falls off.
If the fruit is rotting when the squash is still small, then as Peter says, it's because the fruit didn't get pollinated so it is dying.
What you have to do is, in the morning when the flower opens on the female (the fruit) pollinate it with pollen from an open male flower.
If you're getting rot when the squash is bigger, then I don't know what is going on.
Is there anything that will steal the entire berry? Last year every time I had one close to being ready to be picked, it was taken.
I'm trying to come up with a new plan of attack this year. I live in a rural area with woods on 3 sides, so lots of critters. I feel like every year I have to come up with a battle plan so I can actually enjoy my fruits and veggies.
I'm thinking this year I'll do some of those hanging strawberry bags on my deck, and then drape them with netting. For the last two years I have attempted to grow strawberries and have yet to enjoy one single berry because of the nasty little thieves who keep stealing them all :( I do not plant them to share with the wildlife. The strawberries are the only thing I can't seem to get any of. Everything leaves my blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries alone, and since switching to trellises, stopped losing so many cucumbers and squashes to bugs.
I buried my strawberry plants right in the ground and what I thought were harmless grubs turned out to be strawberry eating pests! I also made the mistake of letting plants grow around it and although I will take care of that ASAP, I need to know what plants are attracted the moisture all the plants are creating. Then I can finally take forth in ridding my delicious straw berries of pests. Can somebody please tell me what pests I have probably attracted, and what I can do about it? I would like to use an organic insecticide and mabey other insects that are of help. (Note: I already know I have, strawberry sap beetles, roily ploys and possibly strawberry weevils.)
If anyone can help me out please do!
Thanks!
I have more sunscald some years than others, depending on how the season goes. The smaller-fruited varieties seldom have this issue, but the big bells can run into problems. I think your shade cover is perfect. The only reason I use tulle is that it stays put in the wind better than other types of cloth or row cover.
Just because a pot is self-watering from below doesn't mean you can also water it from above and just let the water drain into the bottom of the pot. Put a couple inches of new mix in the bottom of the pot packing it into the wicking chambers in the pot, wet it well, set the root ball of the plant on it and pack fresh potting mix in all around it, water it well, firm down the new mix and add more if needed. Add more water from the top until it drains out of the drain hole provided. Then set the plant out of the direct sun for a day or so until it recovers from transplanting.
Mulch the top of the soil well and from now on just keep the bottom resivoir filled with water as needed.
Dave