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Gardening Thread

Hoops, one of the prettiest things we have done with our two large planters on the deck is to create all-white flowers and greenery. I was skeptical on the idea until I saw the effect of white and green together. Very calming and classy. We have loads of colorful flowers on our deck, but the green and whites are our favorites. It's fun selecting the arrangements and combining low ground cover with taller flowers and greenery. I don't put them in til Mother's Day. They last beautifully thru early October

that does sound pretty! i have three bushes in front of my house, 1 white and two pink (though they really only have flowers for 2-3 weeks out of the year). the white is behind the other two, so white flowers would probably look pretty good in the planters! i'll try that on the next round!
 
Our Calla lillies are coming up again and are doing really well. We also picked up some My Loves to put out near the mailbox and different places in the yard. I love how colorful they are:
gladiolus-my-love-8sht-afacdb-1000.jpg
 
If my plants fail to grow, I'm going to buy Basil, Catnip, Marigolds and possibly Spearmint. I'm probably going to put them all in their own pots around the back deck. For various reasons, I don't want to plant them in the ground.

What will I need to do this? Also, what will I need to transplant my growing plants out of the small planter pod and into a larger pot?

Transplanting the pods are easy. You can usually just dig a hole in the larger pot and just place them in there. I use old paper egg cartons to start my seeds in, and just cut out the individual egg holder and plant the entire thing. That way you wont tamper with the roots during transplant.
 
Transplanting the pods are easy. You can usually just dig a hole in the larger pot and just place them in there. I use old paper egg cartons to start my seeds in, and just cut out the individual egg holder and plant the entire thing. That way you wont tamper with the roots during transplant.

What type of soil do you put in the pot? Is there any harm in transplanting it into a pot that will hold the entire, mature plant?
 
I usually create a mixture of vermiculite, black kow composted manure, peat moss, and regular potting soil. There isnt any harm in transplanting it to the mature pot.
 
I usually create a mixture of vermiculite, black kow composted manure, peat moss, and regular potting soil. There isnt any harm in transplanting it to the mature pot.

Wo. That's some serious stuff right there. Can you buy that premixed, or do I have to buy the individual components?
 
Check out the Agriculture thread I've got on facebook. Its the same mixture I used to create my salad tables. You'd have to buy the individual components, but they arent terribly expensive. You can also just use plain Miracle Grow potting soil, but I prefer to keep my plants as organic as possible so I stay way from chemical fertilizers whenever I can.
 
I usually create a mixture of vermiculite, black kow composted manure, peat moss, and regular potting soil. There isnt any harm in transplanting it to the mature pot.


Similar to what we used our beds...though we added in Mushroom Compost as well.
 
Check out the Agriculture thread I've got on facebook. Its the same mixture I used to create my salad tables. You'd have to buy the individual components, but they arent terribly expensive. You can also just use plain Miracle Grow potting soil, but I prefer to keep my plants as organic as possible so I stay way from chemical fertilizers whenever I can.

I'm not going to be eating them, so I think the Miracle Grow stuff would probably be fine for me.
 
Spring planting is done. Planted some seedlings and some direct seed. Lima beans, snap beans, snow peas, black eyed peas, carrots, rainbow chard, corn, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, cayenne peppers, 3 types of tomatoes, okra, sunflowers, watermelon, honeydew, and onions (better late than never). Using the fencing for a lot of the climbing beans, but I still need to build a couple trellises at the ends of some of my boxes for snow peas and cucumbers

Still plenty of romaine, collards, kale and a little spinach from the fall, and the sugar snaps, potatoes, and broccoli still aren't really ready to harvest.

Also planted some basil, rosemary, oregano, dill, cilantro and mint.


ngy81i.jpg
 
My plastic experiment did a satisfactory job IMO. I didnt leave it out long enough, and had to put a few pieces down that were weighted down with bricks. When the wind would get up, it would separate the pieces and it defeated the purpose. I think if I do it again next year I'll get a large tarp with grommets that I can stake it down.

I lost a few eggplants and tomato plants in the recent frost. Not too bad, considering IMO we had a few more than we needed anyways. My new hops and cabernet vines are in the ground.
 
so far so good on my garden. we started our seeds way to late this season and they are only about 5" right now and will maybe plant them this weekend. we have hundreds of plants to give away or figure something out but i am just anxious to get ours into the ground. next year i will plant them a lot earlier!
 
so far so good on my garden. we started our seeds way to late this season and they are only about 5" right now and will maybe plant them this weekend. we have hundreds of plants to give away or figure something out but i am just anxious to get ours into the ground. next year i will plant them a lot earlier!

What part of the country? I did a combination of very mature seedlings, some immature seedlings, and direct seed. The good news about this area is that I'll have plenty of growing time and still be able to get in a fall planting that should last most of the winter.

Anyone ever "stored" their carrots in ground through the winter for a early spring harvest? What other crops have you grown through the winter? I've heard Kale actually tastes better after a light frost or two.
 
Centennials and Fuggles.

Excellent. We are in year 2 of fuggles and yakima, so hopefully they'll give us some hops this year.

really, really wish we could grow noble hops.
 
Anyone ever "stored" their carrots in ground through the winter for a early spring harvest? What other crops have you grown through the winter? I've heard Kale actually tastes better after a light frost or two.

I've done it accidentally with carrots and onions when I forgot about them. I was amazed at how hearty they were.

Excellent. We are in year 2 of fuggles and yakima, so hopefully they'll give us some hops this year.

really, really wish we could grow noble hops.

This will be the 2nd year of 4 of the 6 plants, and I'm already starting to see some buds on the plants.
 
That's a really nice setup, Racer. Congrats on getting the planting done. I'll get the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans and squash in this week/weekend up here in W-S, perhaps waiting another week or so. I just don't have as much room as you do (honestly, it looks like you could feed the Brady Bunch with your space!).

Tonight's fresh food menu -- homegrown kale sauteed in olive oil, garlic and red pepper flake with some diced san marzano's wamed through, served over gnocchi. Kale makes me feel like Popeye.
 
Ok, so hops...with craft beer becoming such a big deal in NC, is anyone really pursuing growing hops in the area? Are there any commercial operations? I would assume the mountains/foothills would be best for growing? Seems like a potential market with the focus in all areas of food production starting to swing towards localized sources.
 
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That's a really nice setup, Racer. Congrats on getting the planting done. I'll get the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans and squash in this week/weekend up here in W-S, perhaps waiting another week or so. I just don't have as much room as you do (honestly, it looks like you could feed the Brady Bunch with your space!).

Thanks! It's a pretty solid setup for our first go at gardening since my parents stopped 20 years ago. I built the 4 raised beds and my neighbor had the in-ground bed built. He's paid for most of the supplies while my wife and I added the work. Our yard is totally shaded out by 100+ year old willow oaks, and he has an open lot just across the road next to his house. Looking forward to having plenty of food to share, because if everything comes in, we should have a lot.

I've always heard corn is hard to do on a small scale, so I was excited to have the 16x16 in-ground bed to give it a go. Planted 4 9-foot long rows, which should hopefully be enough to self-pollinate. 75 or so seeds in total.
 
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