Almost Spring '16...what are you doing (or have done) Today?

[JayPoc]

Still a bit too early here to plant most things outsides, but I do have a big day planned.

-First project, start my peppers and tomatoes on the heat mat inside.

-Second project, prep all my outside containers. I have dozens of containers from 5 gallon buckets on down to half gallon containers that I use for all sorts of things. I'll dump the dirt from last year in my wheel barrow, removing the root balls that can be easily removed. I'll thoroughly mix in some fresh potting mix as well as my own compost, and then refill my containers so that they're ready to go when the time is right.

-Third project (time and energy permitting), plant some peas. It's supposed to be warm for the foreseeable future, so why not?

So what do you have planned?

[imafan26]

Since I only have wet and dry seasons, I have harvested 5 cucumbers already and another may be ready today, napa grape tomatoes, and kai choy, komatsuna, cutting celery, are ready. Still waiting on the broccoli and Brussel sprouts. I waited too long on some of the kai choy and tatsoi, they are compost now. I planted UH # 10 sweet corn on February 28. I will check again today to see if they have sprouted.

The first second Saturday sale was successful and I am gearing up for the second one this Saturday. I am going to try to pot up kale and dill today and maybe make more pepper starts and sow some other seeds if I have room and take more cuttings. The gallon pots take up more room on the bench so I will have about the same number of trays just fewer plants (around 400 plants)

I weed whacked half the back yard yesterday and made space on my bench for more trays. I am going to try and get a little more weed whacking done today.

I am going to the community garden to water and spend an hour or two weeding and take the weeds to the dump.

It also looks like my beans are making more leaves so maybe I will get more beans out of it after all.

Hopefully, I can get most of this done today. I might run out of energy or willpower (especially when it comes to weed whacking) but I have ambition and a pretty nice day to garden. High temps will be about 77, the winds are from the south so basically not much except for vog and a slight chance of rain from convection heating after noon.

[applestar]

I Uppotted the Chinese cabbage and Asian greens K cups yesterday by double-deckering them. This morning, I just finished uppotting some Venus flytrap babies and sorting through all the photos I took. I'll post an update soon.

Last night, I went overboard with varieties of tomatoe to start for this year by putting the selected seeds in zip seed bags and adding water to soak them, which means I can't change my mind and put them back afterwards, I realized there were still some dwarf and micro varieties that I held back on last time, and I will have to decide whether to give up on them or not. The soaked seeds will need to be started in some way -- either Spoonzip method or more Doubled K-cups. I found more sandwich/bakery clamshells I had been saving and DH is drinking more coffee on weekends since he gave up on sugar substitute sodas, so I might have enough K-cups to start one more batch today.

If we're done with mid-20's night temps, I'll put some of the broccoli back outside to harden off. Maybe sow some peas and spinach....

[rainbowgardener]

Right now I am still trying to get all my beds ready to plant in, having moved last fall. So yesterday and today and probably tomorrow, I am hauling cart loads of composted manure from the horse ranch behind us and putting them in the beds. It is lovely stuff, well broken down, no odor.

Then in the next couple days a truck load of "premium planting mix" will be delivered. This place is in my little town:

http://www.windwoodbulk.com/ This is what they say about their planting mix: We have been making Planting Mix for over 20 years. It is a weed-free planting mix used for raised beds, shrub planting, annual flowers, perennial flowers and vegetable gardens. Planting Mix is made in Ringgold Georgia. It is used throughout the Chattanooga, North Georgia, and Ringgold area. It is a special blend of aged soil conditioner, mushroom compost and composted leaves. (We compost the leaves for over a year) It’s basically weed-free.

I'm planning to just put it down on top of the manure, which probably has a lot of weed seeds in it, without mixing them, hoping that will slow the weeds down. And of course once plants are up, I will mulch well.

So within a few days I will finally have some beds ready to plant in!

[Taiji]

Well, yesterday I started broccoli, cabbage, and peppers, (green and jalapenos) in cells with heat mat. I only wish I had started the brassicas a month ago or more, I could almost put them outside by now.

How fortunate you are rainbow to have the horse farm so close! I can get free manure around here too, but it always seems to have so many rocks and dirt in it. I like the idea of that premium grow mix too! I suppose to bring me some they'd want a trip charge.

[imafan26]

Usually stables want people to come and take it away, all you have to do is ask , but they prefer you bag it yourself.

[Taiji]

Yeah, most of the stables here scrape their barnyards with front end loaders, and so, scoop up rocks and dirt at the same time. Hard to find nice clean manure. Maybe I will check around some more.

[rainbowgardener]

My composted horse manure is very nice, with very few rocks in it. It's a place with only a few horses (less than ten I think), so small scale operation. I didn't bag it at all, just shovelled it into my garden cart and then dumped it out again.

If I take ten scoops (one scoop = 5/8 cu yard) of the premium planting mix, they deliver it for free... I may become one of their best customers for awhile. They sell all kinds of stuff in bulk: worm castings, lots of different kinds of bark mulch, sawdust, paver sand, various sizes of gravel. I have uses for all that!

Seems very late to plant broccoli and cabbage in AZ. Once temps hit the 80's consistently the broccoli will bolt.

[JayPoc]

Well, I'm quite a failure....ALL I did today was the inside stuff, plus turned the compost pile a bit. I managed to plant 40 maters/peppers of all sorts. On the porch, I'm bringing along quite a few broccoli plants left over from the boy's science fair project, and six lettuces in individual pots (3 butter crisps and 3 red romaine). Those will go in the ground when I'm reasonably sure it won't be getting below about 30 degrees (which is still a month or more away for me). I do have collards and kale that overwintered, and I expect they'll snap out of their hibernation this week when the temps get in the 70s!

[lakngulf]

Up potted a bunch of little tomato plants---Brandywine, Fantastic, Lush Queen, Better Boy and Gary O'Sena. Weather was great so I was able to open my big Greenhouse door and expose plants to the sun.

But the most important thing I did today was install a new ladder that the grandkids will use after they go down the water slide.

[Allyn]

I made a dozen five-gallon-bucket SiPs today. I have flats of tomatoes, beans, parsley, par-cel, and peppers that are hardened off and need to be planted. I checked the forecast (my last danger-of-frost date is March 15) and for the next 10 days, overnight temps aren't supposed to get below 50 degrees F. Woohoo! These SiPs will get dwarf "patio" tomatoes, pole beans and peppers. I have 27- and 33-gallon tubs to make SiPs for the rest of the tomatoes and melons. I planted lettuce out a couple of weeks ago and they're all doing good. I'm going to start more lettuce seeds for the next round of lettuce.

[j3707]

Got rained on a lot today, some hail too. No garden work today. I put 4 apple trees in the ground and caged them to keep the deer out. Apricot and Asian plums are in bloom.

[jal_ut]

Almost Spring? Here this morning 34 degrees with two inches fresh snow on the ground. Not much growing but ice. Guess I will play on the computer?

[DBG]

Started peppers and tomatoes indoors.
The weather has been unusually warm around here thinking about planting peas, lettuce and spinach in the garden later today.

[gumbo2176]

We had very little real winter weather this year and it's getting in the 80's this week. A lot of stuff I planted in October is still going strong. I'm getting tons of side shoots off my broccoli plants----more than I ever have to be honest. My kale is flourishing, as are the leaf lettuce plants that I picked 4 grocery bags of yesterday and enough collard greens to make 3 quart bags of finished product.

The seeds I have already coming up that were direct sown are yard longs, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, beets, 2 varieties of cucumbers with some for slicing and some for pickling. I also put in a dozen or so strawberry plants and my garlic and onions are growing very well. I got a few tomato plants in the ground today along with some herbs.

I have my ridiculously hot pepper seeds in pots that should be sprouting any day now and milder pepper plants almost ready to go in the garden.

Now I just need the pests to cooperate and Mother Nature to not drop the amount of rain she did last year in late spring that took a serious toll on my tomato plants. I had to toss more tomatoes than I picked due to splitting from all the rain that fell last year.

We all know gardening can be a crap shoot from year to year with what will do well and what will fail---even when successes and failures were reversed the year before.

[ButterflyLady29]

Not today but yesterday I finished getting my big pots filled and set up in my terrace garden (half of the backyard is overshadowed by a good sized sycamore tree which makes in-ground gardening impossible). Then I got my seeds and planted 7 pots with pea seeds and 6 with kale seeds. Whenever I find my radish seeds I'll plant them around the edges of the kale pots. Even without the leaves on the tree the area is still partially shaded but leafy plants and peas have done pretty well in this area before.

And no, I'm not cutting down the tree to make gardening easier. It's the biggest tree in the neighborhood and quite possibly over 150 years old. It's very healthy and gives me lots of mulch and kindling every fall.

[jal_ut]

Hang on to that tree!

Here the garden plot still a bit too wet to do much. I did have some storage onions that decided to send out some greens, so I took them out and pushed them in the ground. They can go to seed and I will harvest the seed.

[rainbowgardener]

Here's what I've been doing today:

planting mix 2.jpg (48.4 KiB) Viewed 548 times

filled raised bed.jpg (51.54 KiB) Viewed 548 times

So in the various beds in the photos, you can see all the layers. Bottom layer is cardboard, to smother the grass and keep it from growing through. Then the beds are about half filled with aged composted horse manure from the ranch in the back. Then they are filled with a layer of the "premium planting mix" I ordered. That's the pile of lovely, loose black stuff.

So I'm still hauling manure and now shoveling the planting mix.

TOMORROW I plant some seeds in the ground! Yay! The season has been getting ahead of me while I worked on getting all this done.

[lakngulf]

Here's what I've been doing today:

So I'm still hauling manure and now shoveling the planting mix.

TOMORROW I plant some seeds in the ground! Yay! The season has been getting ahead of me while I worked on getting all this done.

Those will be some "RICH" beds. Good luck with them.

[tdump]

Oh man,it has been some great weather here the past few days and for the next several more. I am recovering very well from my sinus surgery done on the 29th of feb, and have been enjoying the good health as much as possible out doors.
I got both tractors out today, running the 5 tooth tillage tool thru all the garden spots, then the other tractor with the 5 foot roto tiller on it. Nice soil!
Smelled good to! After being couped up all winter and in the house all last week, sitting on the tractor tearing up smelling fresh dirt felt nice!

So all 3 my garden spots is tilled and ready to lay off rows. I will probably go set out a row of onion sets before the weekend in my large garden at the neighbors. 130 by 50 foot size spot in a good sunny location with beehives near by.
Got my Red Bliss potatoes ordered today from Potatogarden.com just today..
I used to grow them when I was young and then for about 20 years never could find them again until I found them on that website. They make the best cream taters I ever eat!

[imafan26]

That looks like great stuff Rainbow.
I had to try to put some loose pots away and tie down my orchid bench a little better to prepare for the gusty trades. A few plants did fall over, and the ground is a little soggy now, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The winds are gusty but most things are managing to stay put. A cold front is passing through and the wind and rain are ahead of it. It is supposed to get a little colder and wetter tomorrow, so I am not doing much in the yard. On the brighter side, I don't think I have to water today.

[Taiji]

That pile of lovely black stuff is making my mouth water! Wish there was a source for something like that around here. Maybe I should check around, I'd even be willing to drive to Flagstaff or Phoenix with my pickup to get a load. Both are equidistant from here; about 100 miles.

It is a little late for the cole crops even here at over 5000 feet. As I posted in another thread recently, I make the same mistake every year as far as broccoli and cabbage are concerned. Don' t plant them early enough, tho some cabbage seem to be successful even in the heat.

[B-T-S]

Got some more work done on the high tunnel, I haven't been able to do much work on it since the wind is always blowing 30+mph everyday. This week is looking nicer so hopefully I can get it finished.

[B-T-S]

Got the lower garden ripped with the ripper, then went over it several times with the disk, after that I made hills with the middle buster and then planted around 500 onions. About 20 minutes after planting we got a 1/4 inch of rain so it all worked out perfect.

[rainbowgardener]

Got the square bed in the middle filled with manure and planting mix. Planted the 4x8 with kale, chard, cabbage, dill, spinach, chives, and peas. Planted the 4x4 with 20 Silver Queen corn seeds.

Yay!! Spring planting has begun!

[jasonvanorder]

Well this weekend I plan on cleaning out bunny cages and tilling all of that into the garden then if time allows I need to get some pepper seeds going. Other than that its too cold to do much of any planting outside yet. We had a mild winter this year. After I get things tilled up real good would it be too early to plant garlic? This is my first year growing it. I know fall is the best time to plant but I heard spring will work also.

[rainbowgardener]

It's almost too late for planting garlic. I usually do plant it in fall. But it can be planted in early spring. It likes cool weather. You want to plant it 6-8 weeks before your last frost date or as soon as the ground can be worked.

[jal_ut]

Nice day here, the snow has left and the topsoil was dry enough I could go push in a bagful of onion sets. Also planted 3 rows of pea seeds, some radish and spinach seeds. It seems early here as we don't usually plant this stuff until April, but the weather is nice and the soil was ok to get on for a shallow planting. We will see how it goes?

[Gary350]

80 degrees and sunny here yesterday. Today 75 over cast and rain. Winter is not over yet there will be more cold weather before April. I can hardly wait to plant the garden.

[jasonvanorder]

It's almost too late for planting garlic. I usually do plant it in fall. But it can be planted in early spring. It likes cool weather. You want to plant it 6-8 weeks before your last frost date or as soon as the ground can be worked.

With our mild winter I could have worked in the garden all winter. Ground never froze like normal. I would have planted the garlic already but it's being shipped to me. I should have it tomorrow

[B-T-S]

Today was a beautiful day, got up to 70 with no wind, nice bright and sunny. Spent today burning off some brush piles and then worked on the high tunnel. We got the end wall framing finished and we are going to put the film on later in the week (if all goes well)

[imafan26]

I think my whole yard could fit in the greenhouse you are building. I am jealous. You don't have any weeds.

[imafan26]

Today is the monthly sale at the garden. Yesterday, I moved the plants to the sale area and got them ready. I have about 600 plants, most of them are herbs. A lot of peppers Korean, anaheim, chinese giant, and yellow bell. Kale, arugula, cilantro, parsley, mint, oregano, marjoram, pandan, gynuura, garlic chives, green onions, rosemary, and bay leaf. I will be leaving soon and spend about 6 hours there. This afternoon I have a succulent class from 1:30-2:30, so I have to take the leftover plants back to the nursery a little early so I can make it to the class.

[applestar]

I started the last batch of tomato seeds for this season today. I am NOT going to start any more, no matter what anybody says to tempt me.

[JayPoc]

finally did the rest of that work. I dumped the soil from 25 plus pots, mixed in compost, bagged soil, and other amendments and then refilled the pots. Most of them are 5 gallon plus sized containers. Then I prepped one of my 4 x 8 beds to get it ready. I dug it up, removed any old plants and weeds, and amended the soil. I think I'll put the peas there...we'll see. I reckon I'll be pretty sore tomorrow...

[Taiji]

Today I took some cuttings from trees with swelling buds and hope to pot them in a little while after dipping them in some rooting powder, just to see what happens. Lilac, pear, arizona ash, mulberry, aspen (took a drive up to the national forest for that one!).

Cabbage and broccoli seedlings are up, and put them in the sink for a short while to water from the bottom, them set them outside for just about half hour.

I started the last batch of tomato seeds for this season today. I am NOT going to start any more, no matter what anybody says to tempt me.

But have you tried... just kidding

But all seriousness aside, I used to grow a tomato called Golden Boy but haven't seen it for years. Wonder if it's still around?

[tdump]

Seems I saw that golden boy tomato listed on ebay a while back.
I am figuring on laying off rows and planting my corn and taters and some onions in my large garden spot at the neighbors up the road Tuesday.
Shipping is to high but here they are.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Golden-Boy-Toma ... SwF1dUO-7D

I wonder how close to the same these are,much better price.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Golden-Jubilee- ... SwYGFUtHLs

[imafan26]

I went to the succulent class after the sale this morning. It was a busy day. I started putting my herbs away early and everyone else decided to end early too. We had people trying ot buy stuff off the carts as we were putting them away. It was slow after 10 a.m. anyway. We had to take the tents down because there wasn't enough people to help so it was a good thing we broke up early, it took about a half an hour to do that. I made it to the class with about 15 minutes to spare but, the place was packed so I had to park on the street, and by the time I got in there the class had just started. It was an interesting class and I won one of the door prizes. A rare lithops plant and I have a certificate to redeem for one free succulent, but I have to go to the other side of the island to their nursery to get it. Now, I have to keep the lithops alive in wet Mililani. It is started to shed its' leaves so I was told not to water it for a couple of months and keep it in the sun. Hard to do both at this time of the year. I have it in my entry. It is covered so unless, I get driving rain it should stay pretty dry. I will have to move the plant into the sun every morning and bring it in every evening. I will have to add that to my daily routine. I don't go out the back door on the mornings I go to work so it was better to leave it out front than in the back. On rainy days or days I forget it will get some sun part of the day, just not for much of the day but it will get bright light. He said after the new leaves comes out it would still only need to be watered once a month.

I was hoping to get more done today. But, I am too tired, so all I did was the daily watering. I have a couple of more orchids budding up and golden aya is blooming. The orchid show is next week.

[rainbowgardener]

Tues it looked like this:

filled raised bed.jpg (51.54 KiB) Viewed 345 times

Today it looks like this:

garden beds planted.jpg (41.08 KiB) Viewed 345 times

Two of the 8x4's and the 4x4 in the middle filled and planted. The 4x4 is all filled with Silver Queen corn. One of the 8x4's has two lengthwise rows of mixed lettuces, two lengthwise rows of carrots (regular and purple dragon), with room for tomato plants down the middle later. The other has chard, spinach, cabbage, kale, dill, chives, garden peas and sugar snap peas.

Yay!! I have gardens!

[applestar]

Looking good Rainbowgardener. ...are you seeing any bunnies or other possible threats? No need for fencing around the beds?

... I didn't even realize there was one in the back yard when one dashed away from the asparagus patch (which is not fenced) when I approached to check on a birdhouse. I'll know when they start getting more active when the crocuses that are blooming beautifully in the front yard beds start dsiappearing....

@imafan, please post photos of your orchids before you sell them all.