On a Gardening Note

[Collector]

Here is my garden's nearest Wunderground webcam.

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You can see that the April snow didn't amount to much and light rain followed. I don't know that we will get much more of the stuff but the greenhouse furnace has its job to do today..

It will freeze tomorrow morning but then we are supposed to go on to a sunny day ... think I'll go ahead and move some more tomato plants this morning, anticipating LOTS more sunny days!

Steve

I am getting sick of this weather already. Yesterday I ditched my pickup by Fighting creek. Was able to get out of it in 4x4 but not before tearing the front spoiler off .
I sure hope it turns around soon or I'm going to have to put the snow tires back on. Not supposed to have precip today thank god.

 

[digitS']

One day.

That looks about IT.

This might be another spring when the central part of the country cooks while storm clouds never make it over the Rockies, week after week after week. What a contrast to Spring, 2016!

Steve

 

[digitS']

It's sunny! Mornings are either rainy or clear with frost and a sunrise!

In the middle, almost, of moving dahlia roots to their home in garden. In the middle, almost, of repairing/repainting my front picket fence ... but, I'm still spending a lot of time in the greenhouse .


Can you see the evidence in the way of a note that I pulled out of the potting soil? "Washington Red Delicious"

Yeah, it was a bag of Black Gold from Sun-Gro, headquartered in Agawam, MA. That's somewhere west of Boston .

Do you ever wonder about companies shipping stuff around ... or ... just, "re-branding?" We should all be learning about re-branding, these days. Maybe that little sticker doesn't mean that this potting soil was hauled less than 100 miles, and if it does, that's more than okay with me but ... do you ever wonder?

Scotts owns Miracle-gro, Ortho, etc. etc. etc! They are headquartered in Ohio ... They make something of a big deal that Whitney Farms products originated in the PNW but I just figured out that, at least some, of their organic fertilizers are still processed in Oregon. A rep from a company that deals with them describes the fertilizer company as a "small outfit." Scotts just has them dump it in their bags. Pricing should push us to do a little research on these sorts of things. I wonder how much Scotts gets for the use of their plastic bags.

Steve

 

[digitS']

The dahlia planting is preceding apace.

With my efforts to do-everything-at-once, I'm planting without building beds first. Unframed, they aren't more than elevated soil with shoveled paths between. The tractor guy did okay with depth but dahlias require quite a bit of that. Initially, they need little more than protection from the frost. So, I'm only shoveling half of each path . Hopefully, I can get back soon to move the remaining tilled soil from the remaining one-half onto the beds.

Yesterday, I saw the first sprouting weed seeds. Maybe the spinach and peas should be showing up from their sowing, last week. If'n I was to use the Oregon Grape blooms to guide that sowing, I'm still too early. Dandelions are beginning to flower everywhere, including 3 in my lawn. Completed the first full mowing of the year, now they will have to try again.

I think today's rain will be south of us. Too much to do even with an additional day!

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I planted some radishes, a few shallots, some spinach and mustard spinach. I am so far behind and no tiller. DS is going to build 3 boxes for me, one for potatoes, one for asparagus and one for greens. The rest of the garden will be turned by hand - maybe. Might just go rent a tiller and get this done fast. It is going to rain on and off all week. My peppers are, outside under the heat lamp and plastic, but I may bring them back in. There just is not enough sun.

 

[digitS']

My peppers are, outside under the heat lamp and plastic, but I may bring them back in

No heat lamp but I set up a hoopie and moved snapdragon, kale and cabbage under it. I think they will be okay. They had only one night with a fan and electric heater in the bigger hoophouse over the last week. I think we had frost 3 times.

After the little hoopie was filled (partly) and covered we had an outrageous hailstorm! Sooo, the idea of going off to a distant garden was tossed and we showed up at DD's with the rototiller. After about an hour of tilling their front yard, I turned over the task to DSIL. I'm sore and tired but I think it is from the previous days' garden work.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Kale, cabbage and onions even spent a night on the patio without any cover and did fine. They have been outside in the sawhorse greenhouse for a couple of weeks, but I noticed the collards were not growing and the containers they are in are too wet. I brought them in last night and they just snapped out of it and look so much better. I guess sawhorse is same has hoop house temperature wise. Are we still zone 5

 

[lcertuche]

It's been really cool the last couple of days. High is suppose to get up in the 70's today. I was suppose to get a fence up around my garden this weekend but rain on Saturday, DH had to sleep so he could pull a double shift last night and my grandson had a stomach virus. I didn't even make it to church! Maybe I can bribe my sons into doing it this week. I gotta find someway to keep the chickens and rabbits out of the garden. I have more potatoes up and I planted a few cherry tomatoes seed in a pot since my others didn't make it.

 

[Nyboy]

Home made cookies always a good bribe

 

[digitS']

I noticed the collards were not growing and the containers they are in are too wet. I brought them in last night and they just snapped out of it

Hey, this is the first year for me to grow collards since the early 80's. That was such an uneventful experience that I can't even remember eating them ...

We had some from the store this winter and decided to try them again. I think they looked okay the last I took note of them but while moving the cabbage and such out the hoopie, I noticed some plants looking really good. Checked the name: my Portuguese kale!

DW kids me that they aren't much different from cabbage (but she's wrong ). Collards, cabbage, kale - they are all the same species but there are differences.

Steve