The 2016 Garden Thread

Pretty great weather this weekend despite a few spot storms in there.  But we needed it as things were fairly dry in our area.  Got a good amount of landscaping in.

Once again ours has gotten rained out.  The 30 tomato plants all but died, the okra never bothered to come up and the onions got washed out of the ground.  Rabbits ate the leaves off all the green beans so they are badly stunted.  Even the banan plants are taking their time getting going.  Looking like another bad year for the garden.  The wife replanted the okra and added about 15 new tomato plants.  The onions appear to be taking root again and the beans aren't completely dead.  Ah, the life of a gardener.

that's why i don't bother...my time is more important right now.  I'll buy my veggies or wait for my neighbor to send over their surpluses

< trying to be self sufficient for the soon coming end of the world.  Probably just means i wont have to eat my dog as soon as you will.

goodal said:

< trying to be self sufficient for the soon coming end of the world.  Probably just means i wont have to eat my dog pine cones in the yard as soon as you will.

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Fixt since they don't have any pets.  LOL

We do the same thing every year, maters, peppers and cucumbers.. I tried doing my own Mater seeds his year to see if they will yield earlier... Seems like it's always late July here before we can eat fresh maters...(can't really plant till May here...

Still have a large empty planter box.  If I'm lucky, I'll clean the racing crap out of the truck this weekend and go buy dirt.

Still have bags of soil and cedar boxes in my garage. We've gotten too much rain this year, like last year. We put up a greenhouse last year, and the rainstorms tore it apart. Anyone have one that holds up? I'd like to grow in winter, too.

Finished the last of the squash and zucchini from this first growing last night. Planted a little early to get a jump before the squash vine borers came, but they came early too. **** they can destroy a zucchini plant. Cucumbers still going strong. Tomatoes and peppers growing. About to plant some okra.  

We have replanted the beans for a third time.  I have a friend picking beans this week and our plants are still about 2" tall.  I designed and installed a "rabbit deterrent system" which consists of pie tins and mason lids on a string tied to pvc poles at the ends of the aisle.  The string is just above the plants.  The idea is that when the bunnies come to dine, they hit the string and get scared off.  We also bought some commercial stuff to spread around that they don't like and we transplanted several marigolds because they supposedly don't like the smell.  We'll see.  the squash and zucchini look awesome.  The plants are 7' across.  Usually the borers have gotten them by now, but so far they are going strong.  

Well, after two years or so of an empty planter box, it is finally full of a 50/50 screened soil and leaf compost mix.  We're going to hold off on planting anything for a couple weeks since well be off on "vacation".

this is the earliest I have had tomatoes out here. (cherry tomatoes) but they are bursting out...

May as well revive this thread since it's already getting to be that time in the Carolinas, despite the cold weather this week.

Are there any better sources than Walmart/Lowes/HD for seeds or seedlings?  Anywhere good for online ordering?  Would like to explore some hot pepper varieties that I'm not sure I'll come across locally.  

Ill see if the wife recalls where her mom gets hers (she is a "Master Gardner") whatever that is..but they do have a nice garden (about half an acre worth)

we got really crappy results with our mix of Lowes / HD plants last year..

So this year were trying one of these things: (instead of buying the plants, were just going to plant our own seeds from sort of "scratch")

I will be building new raised beds this week. Hopefully this cold spell will be the last one, so I can get seeds in the ground.

Supe said:

May as well revive this thread since it's already getting to be that time in the Carolinas, despite the cold weather this week.

Are there any better sources than Walmart/Lowes/HD for seeds or seedlings?  Anywhere good for online ordering?  Would like to explore some hot pepper varieties that I'm not sure I'll come across locally.  

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I order from parkseed.com

One of the selling points of the house we bought was a greenhouse, since my wife was "retired" at the time and is a huge gardener.  I shoveled a path to the greenhouse through the accumulated 3 feet of snow we have on the ground - the first time we've enetered the greenhouse since early October, when the snow first fell.  Given that it's still getting down to 20 below or worse on some nights, it will be some time before we can get started.  But the sun is already out for almost 12 hours a day now, and soon it will be sunny almost all the time, so it won't be long.  

Last year my wife planted tomatoes and several different kinds of lettuce in the greenhouse, which was nice for eating.  We also have tons of flower beds and she just used the typical Home Depot seed packs to plant those, and they turned out pretty nice.

Here's a shot of one of my wife's flower beds with the greenhouse in the background.  Her pride and joy.  

matt267 PE said:

I order from parkseed.com

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I may have to order some of their starter plants.  At about $15/ea for what I'm looking at, sure beats the added time for seeds.

We bypass the big box stores and go to the mom and pop feed store type places.  We get better results from the plants and they seem to care more because they start everything from a seed vs. unpacking it from a truck.