Gardening 2024 - Whatcha got going on this year?

[Rodent]

Depending on where you live in the northern hemisphere, gardening is already underway or still an anticipation of what's soon to come

I'm giving a first stab at growing veggies from seeds vs buying live plants at a garden center. This is largely because I'm no longer in a large metropolitan area with overflowing garden centers filled with endless varieties of veggie and flower offerings tempting me to overfill my garden space. I ordered seeds (mostly maters and peppers) and began the germination process in the greenhouse. A few weeks in and things are looking good

I also have a row of Super Sugar snap peas that are coming along nicely. Our transition from winter to summer is short, so these have a limited time to bear before summer heat knocks them back.

Later this Spring I'll also be getting the melons, squash, and other veggies going - some germinated in the greenhouse, and others direct sowed into the garden.

Whatcha going on at your place this year?

 

[Agent]

Garlic is looking really good with this warm spring! Naturally, I haven't gotten my cold weather stuff in the ground yet.

Onions and celery are started and I need to start pretty much everything else this week: cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, squash. Goodness, I need to go through the seed Rolodex.

Looking forward to fresh Rutabaga!

 

[Deadalus]

I remembered to take some pics today. I have a small greenhouse I remodeled last year. This may be my third year growing everything from seed. I have a number of temperature controllers and heating mats. Last year I picked up some shop lights and this year I wanted to get them wired for LEDs so that I could maximize light. I was super pleased the tomatoes uptook the 1/2 strength fertilizer I gave them Sunday. Most everything is healthy but ai noticed some aphid damage so I sprayed everything with Neem oil. I think they may have come in at night with the door open. I seem to get them when the sides or door are left open.

 

[Rodent]

Got most of the tomatoes and peppers repotted from their germination cells into 4" pots. A couple cells were not yet ready for transplanting, so they'll get repotted this coming weekend

Was on the fence whether to repot to 4" or 6" pots, and went with the smaller size given the old adage that it's best not to repot into too large of a pot. If these end up being too small I'll order 6" pots next year and use these for germinating seeds too large for the germination cells

The row of pots down the middle has freshly planted squash and cucumber seeds. I'll get the melon seeds going in a week or two

 

[Deadalus]

The 6" would take a lot more soil too. I've been repotting to a square container, a little under 4". What I really like is that they fill up a 10x20 tray (3x6 grid). I was using solo cups the past 3 years or so but they don't fit right in the 10x20 trays and would fall over when moving since they were tapered. Drove me crazy! I also couldn't do a lot of starts indoors as my windows don't face south and my cats won't leave them alone! Now that I remodeled my cheapo greenhouse I have a lot more room.

I got some more repotting done yesterday but I ran out of vermiculite.

 

[Rodent]

@Deadalus I've mostly used round pots since forever, but your reasoning for square is compelling me to consider swapping shapes.

 

[Deadalus]

I prefer round pots generally myself but those 10x20 trays seem to be a standard greenhouse size and I happened to notice these square ones were marketed to fit the trays. I don't know why the 1020 size was selected. It doesn't divide well evenly. But I like using the closed ones as they hold water for bottom watering.

 

[whoaru99]

We do a few things in containers; a couple kinds of tomatoes like Black Krim and Brandywine, some jalapenos, probably a serrano or two.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm getting loads of tomatoes now. Jalapenos are producing, habs are just turning orange, so looking good. I'll get some pics up here this wkend

 

[CKuhns]

Saw the rhubarb was up next to the woodpile about an inch. (Thats the extent of my gardening.) Looks to me like they came back again and are doing well.

 

[tracer bullet]

Freeze warnings in MN tonight. We' usually give it a few more weeks before we even think about it. Although seeds could be done soon. Hmm.

 

[Agent]

In central WI I usually planned to get my seedlings in the ground in mid May. With a general "15% frost chance after this date", I've been bit 4 out of 5 years.

Now I just put seedlings out first week of June.

I am trying out early sowing of carrot seeds. Put in 200 ft of carrots at the same time peas, radishes, kale, collards, spinach, and turnips went in.

 

[hottpeper13]

Garlic's up, had to bring in the peas,onions and lettuces I am hardening off, was 30* this morning. All kinds of stuff coming up under the lights waiting for May 15th - 30th.

 

[passedpawn]

Wahooo just looked at the garden and the habs are turning color.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Into the ground this weekend.

Beefsteaks; Cherokee Purple, Box Car Willie

Cherries; Sunrise Bumblebee, Yellow Apple, Juliet

Some sort of mini variegated sweet pepper
Serrano

Genovese Basil
Chocolate Mint
Citronella

 

[Deadalus]

I was out weeding earlier and noticed my turnips had sprouted. Haven't grown them in ages! Most of the peas are climbing and the garlic is doing well. Waiting on the carrots, parsnips, beets, swiss chard, and a new one salsify, to sprout. Lots of rain forecast this week. Asparagus and sunchokes also sprouted. Probably wait until next year to harvest asparagus. Collected some dandelion root for kombucha as well.

 

[Rodent]

right at the edge of the typical frost-free date here - weather station about 2 miles south of us has a typical date of 5 May, and the town about 7 miles north (and 350' higher in elevation) is 11 May. getting antsy to get the greenhouse babies into the outside beds, but waiting a week won't have any noticeable downside impact to this year's bounty.

all but a couple varieties of the tomatoes are definitely ready to plant out. I grew two pots of everything as a buffer in case there's a late frost. the extras will start heading to their new homes in the coming week or so. friends share vine ripened homegrown tomatoes, but family shares homegrown tomato plants

the peppers are finally growing again after a week of pouting due to the cool weather we had

cucumbers, squash, broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts are all itching to get set out into the beds. soon babies, soon ...

I'm also keeping a running sowing of Basil this year, and will eventually have enough surplus to make pesto

lastly, I started work on the new raised bed design I've been tweaking. had one tweak last night that only was obvious once I had the initial frame built. I can now fit the bottom rail that supports the bottom edge of the metal roofing. these 8'x4'x18" beds will get metal roofing for the side walls, screen across the bottom to keep out moles, and set on leveled ground with weed block fabric underneath.

 

[Deadalus]

Raised beds with metal are very nice! You could throw some wood in the bottom, like branches and small logs to avoid having to fill the whole thing with soil and compost. It'll decompose over time and add organic matter.

Just a few more days to last frost date here. It'll be a slow rollout. If I put plants out too small, the slugs may devastate them. I'm not sure about the residual population. I've got lots of beer available to put a big dent in it however!