What are you planning for Spring?

[obsessed]

I plan on putting up a garden fence so my little pit bull will stop digging up my garden. I also plant on growing a lot of tomaotes. Just for fun I never had a glutton of tomatoes and I want to try it. I will also do orange watermelon because I never had one. I am doing a ton of peppers both hot and not. A few eggplants. some beans. some collards. some squash and zuccini..... and

 

[HiDelight]

right now the only thing I have planned is to first do a

HUGE SPRING CLEAN!!!!

it is appaling out there right now and if it is nice tomorrow I am going to start having at it!!!


after the sping clean then I can focus on any changes or things I need to do but for now all I can see is a big soggy mess to dive into

I have several weeks of picking up ...chipping ..fix the fence ..help build the last gate .....hauling ..turning ..tossing and mowing to keep me busy the first sign of spring ..

Presidents day is not spring officially but I do plant quite a few things on that day
peas onions lettuce spinach and beets

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Delight says: right now the only thing I have planned is to first do a

HUGE SPRING CLEAN!!!!

it is appaling out there right now and if it is nice tomorrow I am going to start having at it!!!



Hi Hi !!

SNAP!
My garden is a mess after all the snow, ice & now rain.
I need to do a big clean up & get my peas in & my lids over them. Pop in more garlic. spinach etc.

Mind you they are threatening more bad weather this weekend & it is still only +2*Celsius during the day & -4*C at night. Not quite Spring yet!

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[sparkles2307]

OMG we are having about 12 different tomato varieties...9 melon types... potatoes, squash, corn, pumpkins, ground cherries...all kinds of stuff.

 

[wifezilla]

I need to finish my outdoor quail pen. I have been thinking about that more than gardening since it is still so cold and there is ice everywhere. Then it hit me last night....the quail pen could ALSO work as a cold frame!!!

Now I am a little more motivated.

I am starting with a dog pen that is about 7'x5'. I am going to use PVC to add a hoop style roof to it. It will be covered with netting on the top and hardware cloth on the sides. One it is quail proof, a large sheet of clear or white plastic could turn that in to a descent cold frame. I only have 4 quail at this point so there is plenty of room to put in my rolling rack and stack it with plants.

 

[boggybranch]

Planning on having dirt under my fingernails....a lot. Already "jumped the gun", a little. Planted collards, spinach, lettuce and sugar snaps, in the garden, on the 20th. Got over 5" of rain, that night. So far, have 3 or 4 collards breaking through, but nothing on the rest. Keeping a watch, with fingers crossed, for the rest.

 

[ducks4you]

New garden is 10 x 40. Full sun all day
I'm planting tomatoes, onions, spinach, brussell sprouts, zuccini, okra, cucumbers, pumpkin, hubbard squash, and sweet peppers there.
1 1/2 ft. wide, 35 ft long (I think) plot on west side of garage (full sun 1/2 day).
Not sure yet, but I might try asparagus, garlic and some flowers.
U shaped, 1 1/2 ft. wide bed around cistern (South Side off of house) mostly sunny, some shade from trees (Roma tomatoes did GREAT there last year)
Tobacco
Teardrop shaped Herb Garden Full sun, N, NW and NE of garage
Re-Plant HUGE Geraniums that I pulled out from 2009 and are growing NOW in the basement, re-planting basil (it never seems to re-seed itself), re-plant dill, more flowers, garlic and leeks, keep existing: sage, bee balm, borage, and chives, cut back oregano
Undetermined size, west of New Coop, and east of barn Full Sun
Wild Bird Seed--see what comes up, to give to the chickens
40 ft, east side of old cattle fencing, 8 ft. from street Full Sun
Not sure...whatever seedlings don't have a home, flowers I start inside before the last frost...something that'll look nice to my neighbors
POTS
--carrots
--lavendar
--rosemary
West House Mint Patch
Mint, clean up any weeds or weed trees, and throw some zinnias and black-eyed susans, because they like it there!

**I don't know about you'all, but every time I look at the catalogs, I go shopping at the local Hardware Stores and Farm Supply Stores and I found MOST of what I'm looking for, for sale there, without the S&H charges--tax is cheaper than S&H.

 

[ninnymary]

Oh my gosh Ducks4you! I'm exhausted just hearing how big your gardens are and how much work you will have. How much time do they all take? I know it's all joy but it also seems like alot!

mary

 

[ducks4you]

I give them ALL a lick and a promise. DH just wants the tomatoes to work--he doesn't care about much else--oh, yeah, he'll eat the lettuce that comes up, and the radishes, but he'll watch the rest of the plants dry up or get smothered by weeds. I've been reading up a STORM over the past year about how to keep the weeds out. For instance, THIS winter I've been emptying my stalls(manure, some shavings, and wheat straw) and straw from the chickens (with their manure) onto my 10 x 40 ft. plot. Come March, I'll be moving aged horse manure on top of it and see how THAT works! Weeds are my biggest problem. I live on black, glacial dirt on an old farm property, so A N Y weed that likes acidic soil wants to take a permanent vacation here!!! I've been really encouraged by the 4 sister-sites (TEG, and the other 3 with links at the bottom of this page), and everybody's helpful suggestions. SOONER OR LATER, I'll figure out how to be the LAZIEST gardener in my county, with fruit to show for it!!

 

[Whitewater]

What am I planning? Well, the biggest thing is to rent a small tiller for the day and till everything with the tiller, instead of doing it by hand, like I did last year . . . ugh. We've got heavy clay over here in 4a-land, not to mention years worth of uncontrolled weeds (including milkweed, which is great for butterflies but terrible for veggies -- and thistles, which aren't great for anything as far as I can tell). Tilling by hand, well, let's just say that in three weeks I managed to get a total of 8'x3' tilled with my own two hands (well, Hubby helped some, but I did 95% of it!).

Yep, renting a tiller. . .

Then to go get some of the free compost -- my city has a program where you can go to a specific location and dump all your green stuff (right now it's full of Christmas trees!), including leaves and grass clippings, basically all the green stuff that our garbage companies won't touch. The city piles it into one HUGE (right now it's a good 12' high and a good 100' long, and it's *been* composting for months!) compost pile, to which people just add as they have stuff to get rid of. Then, in the spring, people can just take what they need from the stuff that's been composted, although you have to get there quickly, once it's good weather for breaking ground, the entire compost pile can disappear within days.

Our plan this year is to go over as soon as the compost is ready and get a jump on it, then keep it in bags and so on until the ground is ready to be worked. We may go before we rent the tiller.

Years and years of neglect and not growing anything in the beds we have at home means that the soil desperately needs to be . . . enhanced. I know there's a right and proper word, but I've forgotten it!

Till up the weeds, add compost, till again, let it rest and warm up. Around here your cold weather stuff (for us, that would be beets and beans) goes in right around the end of April, then your warm weather stuff gets planted right about Mother's Day Weekend (which is also the fishing opener!) in mid-May, ie, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, etc. People thought I was crazy for putting my tomatoes in the ground on Mother's Day, but it didn't harm them at all.

Also going to clear more of the strawberry patch and buy new plants, to start the strawberry rotation. Didn't have much luck last year with Ebay (you get what you pay for!!), going to try local nurseries to see if they have any interesting varieties.

Veggie garden plans: Beets, beans, cucumbers, zukes, tomatoes, jalapeno and bell peppers, and maybe carrots if there's room.

Going to add chamomile and mint to the herb garden and hope the dill and sage come back!

And we'd like to buy a 2 or 3 year old apple tree to put in the backyard and give the dogs some shade, we're mostly full sun all day and the dogs hate it because there's no shade. We planted our first apple tree two summers ago and Dog 1 ate enough of the bark off of the trunk (it was only a baby tree) to kill the tree. This year, we're taking out the old one, putting in a new one, painting it with orange juice (Dog 1 hates oranges) and putting a tall fence around it. That should foil Dog 1's plans!

We grow organically and we prefer heirloom varieties. The goal is to eventually grow 100% heirloom, organic veggies.


Whitewater