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

[ninnymary]

I hope your not in Indio! That for sure is desert.

My garden is heavily mulched and since it gets that marine layer it's never hot here. I water once a week. That includes my large pots. It takes me about an hour but I find it very relaxing and helps me to keep a close eye on things.

I think I'm in USDA zone 9b also and 17 in Sunset book. We can grow almost everything except for heat lovers like melons.

Mary

 

[rainey]

Nope. I'm out in the burbs of Los Angeles. Not too far south of the big commercial strawberry fields in Oxnard.

We are just inland of the Santa Monica mountains that divide the San Fernando Valley from the coast. Before the San Fernando was developed it was citrus orchards and sheep ranches. Older neighbors who lived in my neighborhood in the 50s remember when Sunkist would pull trucks up to the houses and ask the residents if they could pick their fruit. They were picking from the random trees the developers left for "landscape" when they razed the orchards to build the post-War houses. But what now remains of those Los Angeles and Ventura County farms that fed America is backyards like mine growing tomatoes here and radishes there...

Up in Oxnard, BTW, those enormous strawberry fields are tuning, one by one, into outlet malls.

There are big changes in the Central Valley too. Many nut growers have abandoned their orchards for more water-conserving crops. Likewise the rice growers -- but I'm always amazed that they ever thought they could grow miles upon miles (as opposed to acres upon acres) of crops under-freakin'-water in an area with so little rainfall. And then bellyache that our taxes should be supplying their water. OK. I'm starting to rant so I'm done. As I said: no, we don't live near Indio. I just morphed from location and typical crops and climate to one of my own private concerns.

 

[ducks4you]

I see that you are about to have a big storm in your area. 'O'

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I made my Johnny Seed order. My greenhouse is delivered and sitting in the living room. It is snowing again. I got my seedlings fertilized and watered today. I need to start a few more kale and collards.

 

[ducks4you]

Didn't plant today BUT I found my other gro light and now have it set up downstairs on the shelving unit. I pulled up another big wheelbarrow full of burdock. GOOD NEWS!! My cleanup in the south pasture last year left a LOT less to clean THIS year!!!
Hopefully, tomorrow I will be transplanting lettuce and red cabbage and starting peas inside for later transplant.

 

[Farmer Connie]

WOOT! Tomatoes & Cukes in the soil! Film at 11

 

[ducks4you]

My SIL (now passed) lived in Niceville and she kept two tomato plants growing outside of her bathroom window in lieu of curtains.

 

[digitS']

In far Katmandu, see
It didn't cause a hullabaloo, see
Using them to hide the loo, see
In lieu of a jalousie.

digitS'

 

[ducks4you]

My gardener education continues. Soooo...started seeds under a grow light. Got tons of lettuce, but trying to transplant them to a mini greenhouse was too much trouble. I transplanted about 15 of them and then gave up. They are leggy and tender and several just split or fell apart. I filled the rest of the 72 cell unit with new lettuce seeds, spray watered heavily and put out of the south side window of the porch to leave from new sprouts. I started a new 72 cell unit with 2-5 spinach seeds. It is on top of a heat mat and under 1-2 gro lights in the basement the 72 cell units have a plastic top with ample room for them to grow and I won't have to babysit/mist every single darn day. Last year my seeds sprouted but most dried out. At some point I think I will get it right.
I will dump the lettuce sprouts out in a garden bed, wish them luck and see if make it outside.
On the OTHER hand some of the crocus and iris bulbs that I put in a small pot decided to sprout after nearly a month. I had really given up on them and was about to replant the pot. Busy today, BUT I hope to transplant the sprouted Spring bulbs from one of the pots to plastic cups and put on the porch. I will take a photo before transplanted bc the container is glass and you see the roots. VERY interesting to see.

 

[digitS']

My lettuce has not been heading types during recent years.

Started fairly late, there is no up-potting in the greenhouse. The leafies go out in little clumps of 4 or 5 plants.

The harvest is by cutting a plant out of the clump below the soil surface, one plant at a time. The remaining plants have a better opportunity to grow and they too are harvested one at a time.

Steve