What Are You Planting Today, This Week, This Month?

[unclejoe]

NOTHING. We've had almost 5" of rain over the last 2 weeks. On the bright side, I now have 500 gallons of water in my rain barrels for the dry times.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

unclejoe,

I need some of that rain over here! My ground is way too dry for this time of the year -- especially as we are told we are going to have a much hotter summer than usual.

I have tried to prepare for that by mulching as much as I can. I am also putting wet newspaper, along with my well-rotted compost, down under the areas I'm growing my sweetcorn, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, zucchini etc. My grandfather used to put his old woolen socks under his needy veg, when grandma finally refused to darn them anymore....!! I top mulch with stones as well as all the usual things. I saw this done years ago in Malta & in Spain & since I have a pebble path running through my woodland garden I steal some of them to mulch the tops of my pots of tomatoes. It works really well & the stones hold on to the days heat for much longer -- very useful in the fall when you are trying to ripen the final crop. That is very important here in the UK.

I hope the weather improves for you very soon & you can get things dried out for planting or setting out. GOOD LUCK! :coolsun

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Catalina]

Good tip Hattie about the rocks! I might have to steal that.

 

[COgirl]

Today was beautiful here in Colorado :coolsun just a bit of wind this afternoon. I started my three sisters garden today with the corn Ruby Queen . Also got in some cukes, Lemon, Classy Hybrid and Simply Sweet. Watermelon and cantalope, dragon tongue beans, wax beans, carrots, some pansy starts and holly hock, blueberry bushes, indian blanket flowers, blue hubbard squash, borage and 5 tomatoes into the garden, 5 potted into containers . Tomorrow back at it need to work on all the pepper plants and moving some basil and planting more seeds. For now I'm tired, sunburned and enjoying a nice cold Fosters yes life is good on my little piece of Colorado right now

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi COgirl,

I know that relief at the end of a productive day & the glass of beer! There's nothing like it. I hope you are not aching tomorrow -- you certainly got a lot of stuff planted all in one day. I say that with feeling as I was exhausted yesterday after doing far too much on Tuesday! I tend to forget that I am "an old biddy" now & still recovering from 7 weeks of flu earlier this year......!!!

What are dragon tongue beans? I have never heard of them -- do you grow them to eat the whole bean or only the seed part. I am growing yard-long beans for the first time this year --- they are 6" tall now (I started them indoors)! Other than them I sowed English runner beans, broad beans (fava), bush beans, purple podded climbing beans & an Italian climber for drying. I soak my beans for a few days before planting, do you? I find it gives them a better start. My soil is very dry this year as we have had very little rain this Spring & we are supposed to be having an unusually hot summer. That means water restrictions for us.

Today I shall be potting on aubergines, tomatoes etc. It is still too early for me to plant them out in case of late frosts. I have to cosset my veggies etc with floating fleece until early June. I make walls of it round my raised beds. I put stakes in the corners & peg the fleece to them. It also keeps my marauding chickens off the little plants. We have been having very strong winds lately & this system has been very useful, stopping the plants being damaged & drying out.

Happy Gardening! :tools

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[freshfood]

Nothing today as it is raining (finally - it's been way too dry lately). But I got my seed potatoes and onion sets today, all ready to go in when the weather clears. In the past few days we've put in 50 asparagas plants, blueberries, black raspberries, two elderberry plants. Indoors we've started broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), leeks, sweet corn, and my experiment this year, horehound.

A few weeks ago we direct-seeded romaine, bok choy, radishes, spinach, onions, beets, and peas, all of which are up and growing nicely. I put in my second fence of peas on the weekend, but of course they're not up yet.

Our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a seeder, with six seed plates. Can't wait to use it for the rest of the sweet corn, the second plantings of lettuce and spinach and beets, the zucchini and cukes.... Sure will beat scooting along the rows on my butt, poking seeds into the ground!

Can't wait for the harvest to start!!!!

 

[COgirl]

Hi Hattie,

Dragon tongue beans are a pretty heirloom bean, buff colored with purple streaks, can be eaten as a snap bean or a dried bean. I love them, I've only had them fresh but if I do well with them this year I may dry some. I don't soak my beans but I should probably try that, I do soak my morning glory seeds though. I wanted to try the yard long beans this year but forgot to order them :/ . I am growing the purple podded in my three sisters garden.

7 weeks of flu!??! My goodness that is terrible.

I am more sore from the sunburn than anything and had to come in after digging a garden along the side of the greenhouse.

I did find out that my Golden Retreiver loves basil I put some plants in with the maters I potted up, then walked around the corner to get the hose that quick he pulled out 3 basil plants and ate two .

Have a great day :happy_flower

 

[warmfuzzies]

I am hoping to finish up planting my flower plants in my cutting garden, and get the squash and cucumbers in. I also badly need to mulch the poor strawberries. I am having trouble keeping them wet enough already!

If only I diddnt have any dishes, laundry or cleaning to do! I could spend all day outside!!

 

[COgirl]

Boy warmfuzzies I hear ya, my housework tends to get a tad ignored in the early spring. I try to get up extra early and get everything done before 7am inside so I can have the rest of the day outside, but it doesn't always work that way .... Oh well that is what rainy days are for I guess

:happy_flower

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there!

We actually had rain late this afternoon. Not a lot but at least it will refresh all the leaves a bit -- they have suffered a lot in the drying winds of late!
My parcel of scented geraniums arrived from a small specialist nursery in Northern Ireland, They are all little starter plants as I thought they would travel more successfully. Anyway they are easy to grow on into specimin plants. I have wanted to have a collection of them for a while as I love all the different scents you can get & I'm fascinated by the differently shaped leaves. I bought 17 variations & joined their club -- this means you get priority on new & rare varieties plus a good discount. They arrived in good condition, beautifully packed & in 6 days from ordering.

So I spent the afternoon potting them up; they had been grown in tiny netted modules full of growing medium, I gave them a good soaking first. Some were already starting to flower so I pinched them out.

I'm looking forward to my house being full of their scents all winter after growing large all summer outside. Some of them have surprisingly large flowers. I shall also be able to use some of the leaves in cooking. I love sponge cakes with a few rose or lemon scented leaves at the bottom. Mmmm!

All my aubergine seedlings are up & looking very perky! I've never grown these before -- but this year I have decided that I want to preserve them, mixed with zucchini, tomatoes, onions etc. Grilling them first & then covering them in good virgin olive oil -- like the Italians do so well. So if anyone has advice, pass it on. I've got proper preserving jars, those with rubber rings that you have to renew. I've had them for years but luckily you can still orded new rings. Virtually no-one here in the UK preserves this way now; they just rely on the freezer (& lose everything in the power-outages).

Tomorrow I shall finish potting up my tomatoes & start on my peppers. I shall plant some of the dianthus out in the garden (but in some of my large pots), I always lose them in the ground!

I have to start thinking about my hanging baskets soon. I have 2 on my workshop (soon to become made-over into another chicken coop & brooder). I think these I will plant up with tomatoes ("Tumbling Tom"), parsley, Greek Basil & Nasturtiums -- all edible.

I need to get to sleep now -- I can tell as I keep making spelling mistakes.
So goodnight everyone; you all have a great day in the garden, if you can. Bye!


:rose Hattie :rose