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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

seeds and planting 2019!

Getting a jump start on planting. :) Somehow, I never got much fall garden in, even though I'm in a perfect climate for it. Just seemed like too much going on in my life or I wasn't on top of things enough. So I thought I would experiment with planting some things now. It is not a conventional planting time. But all those cool weather crops mostly say "plant as soon as the ground can be worked." Well my ground is perfect for working right now. We have had lots of rain, but the beds are well drained and not soggy, just very soft and falls apart at a touch. And full of earthworms, which never used to be here until I started feeding my soil. The question is, is the ground going to freeze too much later.

But seeds are cheap, so I put in some broccoli and spinach seeds. It just depends on whether the seeds will sprout. The little plants of broccoli and spinach are exceptionally cold hardy. If I really wanted it to work, I would start them indoors and then put them in the garden when they are a few inches tall. But I don't have my lights and everything set up for seed starting yet. So if these don't work, I will just redo it at a more appropriate time. And I will start some broccoli under the lights, once I am ready.

I will get the seed starting set up right after the holidays. :)

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have a late garden too. I have komatsuna, and I just harvested my first broccoli. The broccoli was getting ready to bloom. I did plant spinach, carrots, and detroit dark red beets. I am surprised the spinach came up at all since the seeds were very old. The germination was patchy, but more than I expected. I have transplanted some super chili seedlings and have a few more to go. Vates kale, Tokyo long green onions, American Flag leeks, and Buttercrunch lettuce have all sprouted. Italian and Moss curled parsley also sprouted, they were old seeds too. The only one that I am still waiting on is the African daisy. I have more problems with perennial flowers than I do with old seeds from veggies and herbs. Yard long beans and choi sum sprouted in pots, but I may have to do the choi sum over, all the seeds piled up on one side of the pot. I need to replace my Swiss chard plants. I potted up the citrus and bay leaf cuttings that have been under the bench for months. I think some of the soil mix had way too much fertilizer. All the cuttings in that mix died. I still have more cuttings under the bench, so I can get a different soil mixed up and have room for the other cuttings of bay leaves and citrus to come out.

I managed to repot one orchid, actually half of one. It was overgrown and part of it is now attached to a branch of the Meyer lemon tree, the rest is still firmly anchored to the rack. I am glad this is just an oncidium and not a gram scriptum. I wrestled the center of the orchid out. The pot was a 6-inch terra cotta. I ended up making 4 divisions in 6-inch pots. The rest will have to wait for another day.

I pruned part of one plumeria tree and filled the green can. I have the rest of this tree and two others to go. I still have the weeds and weedy trees to deal with. However, I can see my backyard now, although I do have to keep hoeing out the weeds and when they get to be too much, I hit them with more round up. I have to get them when they are small or they get away from me.

I bought myself some new tools for Christmas. My corona pole pruner is from 1990 and I cannot find another blade for it and a new head will cost what the original pole cost. So instead of paying $80 for a manual pruner, I bought an electric sunjoe pole saw for $70. I have to get some bar and chain oil and I am waiting for the rain to stop and things to dry out to try it out. I also got a ratcheting heavy duty lopper. I retired a couple of my other loppers. I still have to have the time and energy to get out there and do the work. I like working in the yard, but I just get so tired that I need a lot of breaks and divide the tasks so I have heavy and light tasks to do or I have to take very long breaks. The next tool I am eyeing is a sawzall to do some of the pruning instead of using a hand saw. I still have to lay out the weed block and move the plants back where they belong. A few of them need repotting. There are still the badlands with weeds I have not gotten to yet. Today is green day. There will not be another one until next year and my cans are almost empty. It is still dark outside. I guess I have missed this green day. Since Christmas and New Year falls on my household trash day, there will be no recycling pickup for the next two weeks. If I can manage to get enough done, I will have to load my van and take it to the composting facility instead or load my cans up for next year. At least I did manage to finally weed whack the front yard.

It is a good thing the plants don't need to be watered everyday since the pots are drying out slower. I had a couple of appts on Wednesday morning and a Christmas party yesterday, so I have to water the plants today before I leave for today's appointments. I am probably not going to do much in the garden today either.

I have gotten two of my three sets of seeds that I ordered. The kra pao basil seeds may not come till January or February.



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