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ElizabethB
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Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

Getting ready for spring

First I want to thank you all for your inquiries about my Brother. He is doing much better than I expected considering the scope of his surgery. We had a wonderful visit. He is such a lovely man. I really lucked out on the weather. Most days were cold and clear. VERY low humidity which made below freezing temps tolerable with a little layering and a light jacket. Two days the temps were in the 60's. Crazy. Earlier this week we had temps in the teens in south Louisiana. Really Crazy!

Picked up a nasty cold virus - probably on the plane. I have been very wimpy since last Sunday. Finally doing better and thinking about my spring garden.

Sat down with G and made a material list for 2 more table height 4' x 4' boxes. Ordered seeds earlier today. 7 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and Asian long eggplant seeds. Will get local seeds for pointe set cucumbers, leaf lettuce, parsley, cilantro and bush beans. Starter plants for black beauty eggplant, jalapenos, sweet banana peppers and other assorted peppers. I have basil and dill seed. My oregano died. My sage is hanging in there. The thyme is looking wimpy and may need replacing. Must get a couple of rosemary plants. I had a HUGE potted rosemary that up and died. Also need fennel seed. The veggies are grown in my boxes. Tomatoes are all indeterminate and grown vertically. Cucumbers are also grown vertically. Herbs are grown in pots.

My seeds will arrive mid week. Looking at the extended weather forecast I will be able to plant them and leave them out during the day and most nights. I may need to bring them in over night a couple of times over the next two weeks. Hope to plant mid March. Baby Brother has started his seeds in his green house. He will be planting late February - early March. Extended weather forecast is a great tool.

SOOOOO what are you guys and gals up to?

I have been cooking. I joined a cooking forum and have spread my culinary wings. Almost as fun as gardening. A wonderful avenue for self expression. Cooking appeals to me on two levels - artistic and scientific. :-()


I will hang around more now that spring is on the horizon and gardening is on my mind. Miss you all!

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jal_ut
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Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Best wishes for your brother.

Check this out!

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jal_ut
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xtron
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Location: christiansburg virginia

I've ordered my seeds too!!
again this year I'm only planting 1/2 the available space, the 1/2 that was fallow last year. of course the rest is going fallow, and next year it will all return to production. because of the restricted space, I am using an intensive dense spacing method.
everything is in 4 foot wide rows, that's the most conforatable for me, with 2 foot walkways between. the rows are 25 foot long. the crops are planted as close as I can get then, and still have a good yield.
from east to west,
corn, golden bantum 4 rows 1 foot apart, with 1 foot spacing. the rows will be "checked" at 6 inches..I.e. every other row is off set by 6 inches. grandpa use to do this with his field corn...sometimes old school is a good thing.
1/3 row star of david okra 1/3 row late dutch flat cabbage 1/3 row Rutgers tomatoes spacing to be determined
potatoes 3 rows hills 2 feet apart, checked 1 foot. Pontiacs, russets, and kennybecks, 1/3 of the row each
2 rows of peas spaced 6 inches all directions. after the peas are in replant with 1 row top crop green beans spaced 6 inches and one row black beans.
1/2 row butter beans spaced 6 inches 1/2 row beets broadcast and thinned follow on second crop of red beans 6 inch spacing
1 row of navy beans 6 inch spacing second crop of navy, black or red beans, or 1/3 row of each, TBD
one end of my garden is permaculture with rhubarb, asperagras, and horseradish already there. in a vacant space we will be adding jerusalam artichoke(sun chokes). another availavle space there will get onions until figure out another perannual to put there. it was a strawberry bed. I had to move the berries and deal with a serious infestation of creeping Charlie. the strawberries are reestablishing themselves near the rhubard. co-planted with the berries is garlic...they REALLY like each other..
some where, I haven't decided yet, I need to put in 2 hills of cucumbers, and a hill of cantaloupe, maybe.

60 days and I will be chomping at the bit real hard.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have started to plant some peppers, kale, and herbs in compots. I have put more compost in the herb garden. At home, I am still weeding, but I did manage to plant 2 roses and some strawberries (I hope they make it). I still have to put more compost in the front border bed before I plant the glads. I haven't even started to get to the back yet, but I am hoping I can put a dent in my chore list tomorrow.

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ElizabethB
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Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

James - thank you. Very thoughtful.
Pacing the floor waiting for my seed delivery.

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ElizabethB
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Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

Seeds arrived yesterday! Seed pots have been cleaned, filled and planted. I hope to have plants ready for the garden by mid March.

These are the seeds I ordered: 7 Heirloom tomatoes - Green Zebra, Matt's Wild Cherry, Yellow Pear, Brandywine, Striped German, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and a package of Orient Express - a hybrid, long purple Asian Eggplant.
Cucumbers and beans will be sown directly. Starter plants for Black Beauty Eggplant and assorted peppers. Have basil and dill seed from fall planting. Need lettuce, chives, fennel, parsley and cilantro seeds. Starter plants for oregano and rosemary. Thyme has perked up. A little pruning on the thyme and sage will get them going.

The plan is 2 more 4' x 4' table height boxes for a total of 4. I have plenty of pots for herbs. Need ingredients for planting mix.

Time to get my hands dirty! :-()

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jal_ut
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Hope your brother is doing OK. Sounds like you are about to get into some gardening?

Here early February, we still have snow on the ground and I expect more to come. Not much gardening going on. It is too early here for starting plants for later transplanting out. We can't really plant tender things out until mid May or first of June. At present its calm, overcast, and 45 degrees. I was expecting some snow, but it is not snowing yet. (11:06 PM)

ACW
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Posts: 152
Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:20 am
Location: London

My getting ready for spring involves lots of hard work.
After two years of chasing the Council to repair a wall this has finally been done .I now have a small area that is mainly a mixture of sub soil and rubble .The building workers obviously had no ideas re gardenning ,or could be bothered .
Its really to cold at the moment to spend more than an hour at a time there .
theres a lot of digging and sifting the stones and gone of cement ,disposing of these bits and then restoring replacing the veggie beds .
Have managed to plant 3 bare root fruit bushes /trees.
Hopefully the weather will warm and dry out a bit for the times I have spare to deal with a daunting task.
Sadly I think there wont be many vegetables grown this year .
Always next year .

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jal_ut
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

30 degrees this morning, calm and overcast. The snow is all gone from the lot. Too early to plant. Guess I will go take the wild birds some seed and sit here and play on the computer? Oh, yesterday I did go find the seed box and went through it and made a list of what seeds I had, then made a list of what seeds I needed to go buy.



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