23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

My cats are ALL outdoor cats. They're "barn cats" that were feral kittens we took to the animal control, who fixed and vaccinated for free, then returned them to be our barn cats. They take care of the vermin and give my dog something to bark at! Nancy

I think this fits. If you want outdoor cats, then you'd better put up with your garden being a cat litter box. It is, after all, used as a litter box by all the other outdoor creatures there. Yes, Toxoplasmosis is often carried by feral cats, but it's also carried by the majority of farm animals, and lots of rodents and birds. How much squirrel poop do you have in your garden?

Cook your meat, and wash your hands and your veggies. Just because your cats aren't using your garden as a litter box doesn't mean that your garden is sterile.

Your questions are not unusual for first time gardeners.
During the winter months use the time for learning. The dea about covering your garden is an excellent idea.
Things to look into
1. What Zone are you in. This can be done on this site but verify it on the USDA site.
2. Once you know your zone you can determine what grows best in your area. An excellent sourse is the ''Farmer's Almanac'' There you can put in your zone and it will filter the results, Each result ie tomatoes will tell you when to plant, sowing vs transplanting, ph requirements etc,
3. one you have determined what you want to plant, you can also find instructional videos online. All are free,
4. any equipment you are thinking you may need the winter months are the time to buy them. The only suggestion I can give you on that is if you plan on buying a tillar make sure it has reverse, You will appreciate it later.
5. Go to your local feed store and ask them what grows well in the area. They will also have plenty of seeds, but do line 2 first.
6, when fighting pest you need to decide if you want to go organic or non organic. Assuming you want to go orgainic for example. There are a number of way to fight the critters attacking your squash, Wrapping the stem with old panty hose for instance will keep away the squash bores. 1 tablespoon of REGULAR Dawn soap ( notice the word Regular) mixed with 1 qt water in a spray bottle will kill the squash Beatles and the eggs they lay. Early detection is important. you have to spray the Beatles and the eggs. You dont want to transplant the Beatles to another location because they will come back. They make excellent fish bait by the way.
7. Have fun and don't get discouraged.

some great info already posted. I second Fedco Seeds as a great source. I also like Johnny's and Baker Creek. Keep your eyes and ears open for a group that is placing a group order to Fedco which offers group discounts. I went to a local lecture on gardening and joined their group order. One of my mistakes is trying to grow too many different things and not giving all of them enough attention so winter squash gets planted late and tomatoes don't get mulched. One of the things I enjoy about gardening is the fun of having an early crop. We like parsnips so they stay in the ground all winter until the ground thaws. Spinach can winter over here in NH so it starts growing very early (old leaves will die over winter but the plants aren't dead). There's garlic scapes in late June from hard neck garlic I plant in late October/early November.

Also check Craigslist for some local plant sellers. I get a great choice of locally grown veggie plants from a seller who lets people buy one each of different varieties so I can get 12 different tomato plants.

You might find a local gardening group on meetup dot com that holds plant and/or seed swaps.

I start some plants indoors so my husband made an indoor plant stand with fluorescent lights hanging on adjustable chains. I still make lots of mistakes. Go easy on yourself.

It's really nice to find some favorite vegetables you can't buy at the supermarket although maybe you can find at a local farmers market. Just bought an unusual squash at a VT farmers market and will order seed if we like the flavor.

50-60 days is to harvest, not to grow to full size. They grow pretty fast, not as fast as summer squash though. If they haven't grown at all in a week, something isn't right if you ask me.

I think the OP was asking about how long it too to ripen, which is how long to harvest. But that's a good point that they grow to full size well before that. I too am a little surprised that in a week they haven't seemed to grow at all, but in my experience it could take a week for the transition from fertilized ova to growing squash to be very conspicuous. I mean, it takes a couple of days for the flower to fall off.

I do keep a small piece of flesh attached. It acts as a moisture reservoir/wick for the shoot during the first day or two before roots develop, especially if you plant the slip into soil that is not quite warm enough (75+). As an intermediate step, I pot up my slips in 3" pots until the pot is colonized, and then I transplant out like I would any other vegetable transplant.

Before the spread of endemic SP diseases they were commonly planted in the spring in the same way as Irish potatoes, cut seed put directly in the ground. There is a fascinating photo in the LOC online collections taken just pre-war in coastal SC showing the people cutting the piles of tubers on the edge of the field and getting ready to plant them out.

I will second the pea suggestion, in my case edible podded peas. I plant twice a couple of weeks apart and end up eating them for about two months. Most of them I eat raw out of hand, but they are great steamed, sautéed, and in salads. I plant in a band about three inches wide with the individual seeds about an inch apart and get as many peas as we can eat in perhaps 10 feet of row space. You could plant along a north edge of a bed that also has something like tomatoes or peppers that need more space as they grow since peas are an early crop that are finishing up as the peppers and tomatoes start to get more size.

In general I find cherry sized indeterminate tomatoes are great use of space since they produce prolifically and use vertical space well.

I grow regular broccoli, but leave it after cutting the first head and continue to cut the smaller succeeding crops. I am still eating broccoli from the plants I planted in early summer. I agree that the plants aren't small, however.

I choose plants based on flavor and types of veggies we like, but space isn't currently an issue for me. I imagine that some of the root crops which tend to be shorter, such as carrots, onions, shallots, garlic or radishes, could be planted along the south edge of beds with larger plants as long as water and fertility is sufficient.

Like Sunnibel, I choose plants based on flavor and types of veggies we like, but space isn't currently an issue for me.

prairiemoon2, yes, I have a "big" garden) (LOL) Whole my property including house, lawn with 6 fruit trees, shed, huge compost pile and and some berry bushes is just 6000 sq feet). All together 700 sg feet for veggies. But not as a single lot, to make things more interesting, I have a hill at my property, steep one. And I have 4 planting levels all together on terraces.

Yacon doesn't sprout from the tubers but from the rhizomes at the base of the plant which are easily contained. Unlike sunchokes, they rarely (likely never) become invasive even here in the mild PNW.

Again, I highly recommend them as they're easy to grow, taste delicious and are rarely found at the store or markets.

I've just changed the layout of my garden, a section for tall plants and one section for short plants. This solved my problem. Thx all.

When I left for camp this summer my pole beans were tiny and not ripe at all, but when I came back they were over ripe. I decided to let them ripen all the way and pick then when they were all dried up and ripe, but I don't know how to cook them. Suggestions?

I'd say shell and cook before they dry out. Shelly beans are yummy. If they are already dry, shell them and cook like you would any dry bean.

The tomatoes and peppers are summer veges.
Try starting them about 6- 8 weeks before your last chance of frost. So probably Feb or Mar Nancy

I plan on growing all indoors, so it doesnt matter the time of the year. The tomatoes were a random grab, I had all ready been considering tossing them and reusing the pot. Im keeping my peppers though, thats what I want to be my main yield. I plan on letting them get a bit bigger, then taking and transplanting to bigger pots.

Im growing parsley and cilantro, they look similar to young celery in the pic. Now I know it was just crab grass I took it out, that frees up one more pot for something else. It is quite a fine specimen of crab grass lol.

Thanks again for answering my questions, I will come back here if I have anymore.

This post was edited by Sparksman on Sat, Oct 25, 14 at 4:37

First hand-pollinated female seems to have aborted.

A second female flower has opened on the same side shoot as one of the first female flowers. Should I also pollinate this one?
I have 3 females currently pollinated at the moment.

I am not going to do garlic this year but have done it in the past.
I never ordered seed cloves. Just used store bought and did fine.

About planting time: Anytime from now before the ground freezes is fine. But I plant a bit early so the seeds develop root system and possibly some green top before frost. This way they'll be ready to take off in the spring.

seysonn

The first year I grew garlic I picked up a multi-pack in a mesh tube at Aldi's (a discount grocery store) and planted those....lots of cloves for very little money and available when I made a spur of the moment decision to include garlic in the garden. It was planted in October and grew fine and produced good sized bulbs the following July. Several inches of mixed grass and leaf mulch was put on soon after planting. The garlic sent up scapes which surprised me since I thought most grocery store garlic, and especially cheap multi-pack kinds were softneck varieities. If yours scapes, cut them when they are soft and tender. It will help with producing larger bulbs.
I've selected the larger cloves from the larger bulbs to plant each year and get great bulbs every year. I've also added some named varieties from other sources with varied flavors and looks. But none of them grow any better than my original.
I know others report poor growth from grocery store garlic, but that has not been my experience.
Good luck with yours. Garlic is fun to grow!

Ingenuity ! I'll bet it was a fun discovery too. I'd love to see your garden, Floral. I read your posts but so far haven't greeted you. So hello from southern California, USA !

my "sweet 100 "tomato plants are hardy volunteers. they traveled here to this house via compost... when we moved.... so many of them. so sturdy and reliable. but of course they come up later than transplants I buy....
also this year some not dug from last year some potato.. not sure of the variety.
Oh my mustard greens came back from" went to seed" in my mini hoop houses, raised beds.
I wish I had ground cherries... a lady gave me a few dried .. They got lost in the move....
Oh also my lime basil came too. of course gobs of purple basil everywhere. they were mostly volunteers from previous owner( I guess, cant ask as she died a year or so before we bought this money pit all consuming property and house. LOL)
just chiming in. wish I had so of yall voiunteers, sounds great......Im jealous, LOL
Oh how do yall identify what is a volunteer from 'weeds" I mistked a weed for rubarhb, and another for okra