23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Well the only thing lost is a few zucchini seeds. Go for it if you want IMHO, if it doesn't work out plant some more. I found zucchini to be very cold tolerant for tender frost sensitive veggies. The more sensitive nightshade transplants are another story.
Thanks for the great advice everyone. Just as an update for anyone who might come across this, here's what happened so far:
A couple days after the frost incident I stuck a couple squash seeds in the ground next to the poor frost damaged one. The new seeds sprouted, but before true leaves emerged the original plant had put on a bunch of new growth and I decided to pull out the seedlings. Next to the transplanted squash was another squash seedling that also took damage, it now has true leaves so I think we are on the way with that one. The four tomatoes all ended up with a small amount of damage, but appear to have recovered, and are now flowering. The bush beans are another story...about half of them came back, but the other half are still struggling. I planted another batch of bush beans (succession planting every two weeks) and those are doing well, but a good deal of the frost bit ones have no leaves and are just sad stems. I don't think they are going to make it and I am debating pulling them out or some spinach to make room for the next set of beans this weekend.
Either way, I've learned a lot from this experience, and I'm definitely going to try to be patient next year with my frost date?
Very few suppliers apparently and most are in Europe and UK. Unless you can find them available in a grocery store and plant those you'll most likely have to order them online from overseas and pay the high shipping costs. Ronnigers Potato Garden has several other blue/purple varieties but this late many of them are already sold out.
http://www.potatogarden.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PG&Category_Code=NSP
Your ideas sound great. With such a big yard like yours, I could never limit myself just to that area you have, so kudos to you for not turning the entire place into a garden.
I would wonder if during this renovation, you might add in some kind of watering system? I currently don't see any thing about an automated system so I thought maybe you are doing it manually.
While I do like the layout can you just border the perimeter with a 2ft bed all around? I think that will save some building materials.
I don't think you need to make the bed 3ft wide for the zucchini. The plant can bush outside the bed but be planted within a 2ft bed, me thinks.
I prefer to compost on the ground right next to my plants as the roots will extend outside of the beds in search of nutrients. But I just compost in one pile
Is that gravel you are using as mulch? The beds don't look that old in these pics.
The optimal size for a sprout is ½ to ¾ inch long...preferably green sprouted. If the spouts are put where they get moderate light when they are small, they develop sturdy green sprouts. This is not absolutely necessary, but is highly desirable.
You can plant brussels sprouts in the spring and fall in cool climates. As mentioned the fall planted ones are better. Here are the recommended planting dates for MD: MD Planting Dates
Peter - why does failure to germinate mean the mix has to be contaminated? They will germinate in garden dirt - not recommended of course but still possible - which is far more contaminated than any potting mix. Of course whether they would remain healthy is another matter.
Dave
Most people keep their potting mix very moist prior to germination (some put greenhouses over the seeds to keep the soil wet even and the whole area humid) and the seeds germinate fine. For not a single seed to germinate out of all those different plantings, IMHO there has to be fungus already in the mix. While you could grow seeds in garden soil riddled with various damping off fungus by keeping the soil very dry, no reason to use soil riddled with damping off fungus, when sterile potting mix is easy to come by.... sure, if you keep your mix too wet, fungus is going to find its way in there.... eventually.
Of course, JMO. All the same though, you don't think it is good advice to get a fresh bag of potting mix, to increase his chances of success?
What size is this insect? It could be anything from a tiny leaf hopper to a katydid, going by that image.
The first rule is to ID an unknown critter. Much of the time, with the worst of the plant pests, the damage simply isn't obvious until too late. Scale insects, aphids, and leaf hoppers, for example, aren't plant chewers but instead suck plant juices in large amounts.
You'd be surprised at the people who don't think aphids are a problem because they don't see any holes or chewing damage.
To glean good information from us, you need to give us good information: your location, behavior of the insect, size, etc.
I grow butternuts every year, and we eat a lot. So my compost pile routinely features butternut seedlings, and I've transplanted some of them to my bed. That's exactly the situation you're in The fruit I get are pretty butternutty, though maybe shaped a bit different.
The raised bed on the left was put in in 2011 (I believe). The rest of the area (minus the new little plastic raised bed in the middle) was my front lawn, which I covered in cardboard and 5" of compost January 2014. May 2014, I cut 4" holes in the cardboard, removed the grass under where I'd cut,
planted corn in the holes, and recovered with the compost. The corn did great! Granted I only planted 12 plants, but an in-ground garden is possible over existing sod.
My property is bounded on 2 sides with horse farms, both of which have token plow horses and some antique agricultural equipment... so the idea isn't as far-fetched as some I've heard! However, the sod is far more likely to be covered with broad-spectrum pale ale than herbicide... not that I encourage anyone to drink and till... but a man's gotta stay hydrated, right? Thanks all for the input. It is, as always, much appreciated!
I'm betting Rob is looking for quotes/anecdotes. Rob, do some research, then come back and ask for stories based on what you find. I'm growing asparagus for the first time this year and it's a nail-biter, I'm tellin' ya.
I can't imagine having more than 1 zuk and 1 crookneck unless there is a VERY large family! One of each was fine for our family of 4, but now that we are only 2 we give away quite a lot! Nancy
Does that mean you get a large crop all at once? That would be preferable at times.
I basically have a lot of sugar snap peas over a period of about three weeks, beginning to end. Again, the endergy f th eplant is all going in to making peas, not making vines. It would be interesting to know if the temperature causes fruiting to "turn on" in sugar snap peas. Certainly if I had planted, say, in February, I'd have much smaller plants possibly starting to bear right now.