Tennessee 2022 Garden

[Gary350]

25° last night cold, ice & snow no problem for broccoli. 13° and 3" of snow Thursday night. Sun was so bright I can't see what I am taking a picture of there should be 3 broccoli in 1st picture.

[Gary350]

I checked out the potato plants early this morning freezing weather & snow killed plants tops they will grow back. Here are 3 pictures, plants before snow, snow then plants after snow.

I can't eat pac choy fast enough there are probably 70 to 80 plants. White stalks are 12" long the leaf tops make plants about 20" tall. I have been eating them in many things, salad, sandwiches, soup, stew, eggs. Too bad they don't make good wine. 3° might kill them Thurs night.

Broccoli is doing great, snow, ice, 24° no problem.

Hard neck garlic plants are looking exceptionally good I switched to the same fertilizer onions like, 0-20-20 plus small amount of 46-0-0. Tops have 5 to 7 leaves so far. I replaced about 10 plants that never grew there should be about 95 garlic plants.

More than a month ago I cleaned out the pantry there were about 50 dark brown garlic cloves that looked like swiveled up raisins I planted them all along the top of a potato row just to see if 1 or 2 will grow and they all grew. Tiny garlic plants look puny I can't give these garlic any nitrogen fertilizer that will screw up the potato crop. Maybe later today I transplant garlic.

[Gary350]

Tabasco Champagne already tastes good alcohol is 12%. Fermenting mellows out the spiciness & brings out the pepper flavor. Today I am adding more sugar to get 20% alcohol with champagne wine yeast.

I watched a dozen YouTube videos some hot sauce are fermented & some are cooked. Thai, Korean, Vietnam, Mexican, are often cooked but some are fermented. Most hot sauce have 30% vinegar and 3% salt. Some have, garlic, tomatoes, cumin, sugar. Fermenting breaks down solid material so it purees into a thick creamy sauce. You can ferment with bread yeast but only get 8% alcohol.

When fermentation stops 20% alcohol will turn to about 20% vinegar if the container does not have a lid, it will take about 4 weeks for natural vinegar yeast in the air to convert alcohol to vinegar. I will still need to add 10% more vinegar to = 30% vinegar total.

Chicken sandwich, cheese, pac choy, onion, hot sauce.

I learned there is a pepper fermentation group of Facebook. I am told that I should have left my pepper sauce at 5% alcohol then added 30% vinegar. Fermenting to 20% alcohol will over ferment and loose a lot of the good pepper flavor. Oh well I screwed up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7BcCdjJGO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiGTOAWdVUc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgWk4nhwHNY

[Gary350]

Today I planted 24 Prunus Virginiana seeds = Choke Cherry. I wonder if these seeds require cold weather to germinate. I laid out rows 4' between plants in both directions, 4' between rows so the lawn mower will go between every row east/west & north/south. There are several YouTube videos that claim bushes will have Choke Cherries this year & many more next year. People claim this are a substitute for pie cherries if you live where it is too warm to grow pie cherry trees. They are suppose to make good jelly, jam & wine. Wife said her grandmother grew choke cherries, the reason they are called choke is they are so tart they make you choke. My grandmother always said, anything tart makes excellent, pies, muffins, jam & jelly.

[Gary350]

Today I am fixing yesterdays mistake & watching it snow through kitchen window. I have a lot of pureed peppers in mason jars that I can ferment to lower 18% alcohol to 5% by adding 6 pints of peppers. I already added 1 pint of peppers to get fermentation started again. Tomorrow I need a larger 1 gallon jar to add the other 5 pints of peppers. This gets me back on track. I need to grow Tabasco peppers again in 5 months. I have ordered several different pepper seeds they should arrive soon but not today post office will not deliver mail when it snows. We have 5" of snow again.

[Gary350]

It is 19°F here I can't see any garden plants they are under 5" of snow. I won't know what has survived until snow melts, maybe Sun or Monday. Oh well.

My 1 gallon jar is too small I had to switch to a larger jar that holds about 1½ gallons. After tasting the pepper sauce I decided it needs a quart of tomatoes. Sauce flavor is better with tomatoes and not as spicy hot. I added more pureed peppers and more garden tomatoes. Sauce needs to ferment for about 1 week alcohol will be 5% then I will add 3% salt and vinegar. Recipe says add sugar too taste. Recipe says 30% vinegar but I will add vinegar, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, etc. little each time and keep tasting it. Vinegar above 15% kills yeast & fermenting will stop. Some recipes say add, garlic, cumin, onions, after ferment stops. Sauce already tastes good. Celery & cilantro might add a nice flavor to the sauce.

[Gary350]

3 packs of pepper seeds finally arrived after ordering them again. More seeds are on the way. I am ordering only sweet pepper seeds and a few very mild spicy pepper seeds. My new AD blocker browser is the problem it blocks all the ADs on the garden forum but it also blocks payments to pay for seeds. After buying items it says, your order has been made, but buyers never receive payment so they cancel my orders. I need to remember to use both browsers. Mail is fast again seeds arrived in 2 days not 2 weeks.

I had a 2 year old bottle of white wine that is sweet as pancake syrup, how can anyone drink sugar syrup. I threw the white wine bottle outside into the yard it was 12°F and water froze but not the alcohol. I turned bottle upside down it took about 10 minutes for alcohol to run out of the ice then I poured the alcohol into a different bottle of wine. Wow flavor of white wine was in the alcohol it added extra flavor to the red wine. I think this is like adding extract to something for flavor. Cabernet Sauvignon wine is now 19% alcohol and flavor is amazing good.

This gives me an idea. Quart jars can be compacted full of fresh home grown garden herbs then jars filled with vodka to make cooking extract.

[Gary350]

Hard rain finally stopped for a moment. Garden greens look Kaput. 1 large pac choy looks ok & a few others are good, several romaine lettuce look good, 1 broccoli looks fine too, the rest are Katastrophic. 12°F was 3° too cold for a few plants, last year everything survived 15° weather several times.

I enjoy reading email from my friend in north Germany he speaks fairly good English well enough to know what he says. He uses K where we use C. Many German words are English words too, easy to understand but K always throws me off base for a few seconds, LOL. North Germany is having exceptionally warm 15°C weather.

.

[imafan26]

Gary, you can change the settings on your ad blocker to make it less sensitive and allow acceptable ads. You can also just temporarily turn off the ad blocker when you are on that site. Most sites use tracking cookies and some won't work unless you allow them. Remember to clear the browser history after you visit.

I've ordered a few new pepper seeds too. I have had to go to new companies because many of the seeds were unavailable or not offered. I found a new one, Southern Seed Exchange. They are located in Virginia and offer seeds for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. I have more heat and disease tolerant choices there.

Actually, I actually preserve my hot peppers in vodka. Vodka does not have a taste so it just gets infused with the hot peppers. I can use it like tabasco, only hotter. I preserve ginger after I harvest in sherry. The sherry gets infused with the ginger, so I can use that in Chinese recipes that call for ginger and sherry.

[Gary350]

It is 29°F I'm setting on the patio petting dog & cat while watching a wood pecker 20 ft away. This little bird works very hard for a meal. Bird makes long head strokes to hammer on the tree for several minutes then it appears to be nibbling small bits of something, then I see a tongue licking up something. Bird tummy is probably marble size it will take a lot of small stuff to fill it up.

Greens are mostly dead or dying. Oh well, I don't care, it is a relief to have a vacation from the garden. Soil is crunchy and almost frozen 1" deep. 15°F is the cold limit for, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, pac choy.

[Gary350]

Today chili sauce has stopped fermenting. I decided sense we have almost 10 lbs this should be Enchilada sauce. I added, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, salt, sugar, vinegar. I pureed sauce over & over until it all went through the screen wire strainer. My $1 yard sale blender that only runs on high speed worked great. That is the best $1 I ever spent, LOL. I ordered Mexican Oregano from NV. Now sauce needs to be in jars or empty wine bottles.

[greenstubbs]

Dam, you got a lot more snow than I did! I finally bought a house south of you, as I call it, I'm in "UA", Upper Alabama, 2+ miles from the state line.. Moved in Veterans day weekend on 1.5 acres, the only drag is where I want to put the garden is on the North side of the lot. I have so many trees, and a few may/will need to come down. I already have extremely, very neglected grape, muscadine, & blueberry bushes that probably haven't been trimmed in over 5+ years. My trees consist of oak, maple, pecan, hickory, and figs. I'm not hip on where the figs are, there butted up against the house. I'm sure I won't get anything done until I figure out how to deal with the tree rats & chipmunks first. I need to dial in my pellet gun!

[Gary350]

Dam, you got a lot more snow than I did! I finally bought a house south of you, as I call it, I'm in "UA", Upper Alabama, 2+ miles from the state line.. Moved in Veterans day weekend on 1.5 acres, the only drag is where I want to put the garden is on the North side of the lot. I have so many trees, and a few may/will need to come down. I already have extremely, very neglected grape, muscadine, & blueberry bushes that probably haven't been trimmed in over 5+ years. My trees consist of oak, maple, pecan, hickory, and figs. I'm not hip on where the figs are, there butted up against the house. I'm sure I won't get anything done until I figure out how to deal with the tree rats & chipmunks first. I need to dial in my pellet gun!

Check PM messages.

[Gary350]

I have never seen TN soil freeze 2" deep it has been below freezing for about 3 weeks. It is 13°F again today the whole garden & yard is frozen hard as cement except 3 potato rows covered in pine needles. Wood mulch is frozen hard as cement too. Soil under pine needles is so soft I can push my finger into the soil 3" seed. Pine needles in some places is barely enough to cover the soil and still soil is not frozen. What is the science behind this? 2 potato rows are not covered very deep with soil new potatoes may be frozen already. I'm not sure if I can rake up more pine needles but if I can row 21 is going to get covered with pine needles in about 30 minutes. Potato row 7 is covered 6" with soil.

[Gary350]

Potato row is now covered with pine needles.

[Gary350]

Everything spring is in the stores already, Valentine stuff started Jan 7. Garden seeds are in the stores now. Organic seeds $5 and $6 per pack of 10 seeds. That is crazy over priced. Companies seem to think the word organic allows them to charge unreasonable high prices. Off brand seeds cost less. Walmart use to have 99¢ seed packs now they are $1.99 each. Lowe's has $2.99 seed packs. I have already ordered a few seeds on ebay $1.59 free postage for 100 seeds. I have E85 corn seeds from Farmers Co-op left over from last year. I don't need seed potatoes this year. Co-op will have onion sets &1.50 for bag of 75 sets March 1st about 8 varieties. Martins garden store has tomato plants & pepper plants, $2 for 4 pack, $3 for 6 pack. April 20. I already have water melon seeds & cantaloupe seeds. I ordered pepper seeds but now I wish I had not, I should buy $2 plant trays at Martins.

[imafan26]

Yeah, everything went up. The university seeds are still a deal even though their prices went up from $1 to $1.50 per packet, but it includes local postage as long as it is not a bulk order. I could also go the the UH and buy it directly from the seed lab if I want bulk, but then I would have to pay for parking. No win there.

The seed company prices are also up and the minimum shipping charge means that it is even more expensive if I don't order enough seeds. Baker still has the same shipping, but the price of the packets are up a little and it seems like they have fewer offerings. Luckily, I don't have a big order of seeds this year. I have ordered a few. I am waiting on the Santo cilantro which has already shipped, so they are shipping it out faster from the company. It still depends on how fast the mail is. There are still a few seeds that are out of stock, but I have other things I can plant instead. I can also save a lot of seeds from what I have so it is not like the garden will go naked.

The prices of plants have also gone up. They have doubled. A 4 inch starter is $1.98-$2.49 I haven't checked out the 4 pack starters. They were $2.50 each before. It was already a bad idea to get them for things like lettuce, because I could get a bag of tossed salad from Sam's Club for fifty cents more. I don't blame the growers because I have to buy garden supplies too, and the cost of fertilizer alone has quadrupled. Let alone the fuel prices for the farm and deliveries to the stores. Other things have gone up too, but I bought a lot of my garden supplies in September, so I haven't really felt the cost of the other things that have probably gone up too.

[Gary350]

I put a box of sweet potatoes in the unheated shed they never froze even with a month of 12°, 15°, 18°F temperatures for a month and several days it never warmed up outside above 25°F for a week several times. I had 2 water bottles, cans of water, pan of water, bucket of water, inside the shed they never froze. Water containers outside all froze. I never expected an unheated shed to be useful as a root cellar in winter. I covered the walls with scrap lumber it seems to feel warmer in the shed but thermometer says its not. Summer when its 98°F outside it is often 140° in this shed, this will not be a root cellar in summer. Sweet potatoes have sprouts.

I have a 1500 watt electric heater I can use if I want to spend the day in here but it struggles to heat this room when its 45° outside it takes 3 hours to get room temperature up to 60°F.

[Gary350]

Onions & potatoes are outside in 8 ft x 20 ft unheated shed. It is 20°F outside and 40°F inside the shed. Natural soil heat keeps shed from freezing,. It was 38°F in the shed about 2 weeks ago when it was 12°F outside. I bought 6 lbs of onion sets for $11.18 they will be planted March 1st in a 3 ft wide bed 37 ft long, maybe wait an see. We hope to have about 400 onions about 2" diameter.

We are getting a 1 month earlier start planting onions this year but I don't think that will help because soil will be too cold for onions to grow they will just set there for a whole month waiting for warmer weather to grow. Some people cover onions with black plastic to heat the soil so they grow but that is extra cost and extra work. It is easier to grow 2" diameter onions than 3" diameter onions by growing 400 plants instead of 200 plants we have a very short spring 30°F to 95°F in 6 weeks then almost no rain all summer. A green house would be excellent for growing onions here now.

[imafan26]

It is good that you have the option of going to a farm store and can get bulk seed locally. There is a farm store on the other side of the island. It is why I don't use straw mulch. One, is because I would have to go so far to get it and secondly, I could only fit one in my small car.

We do have a local seed distributor of Sakata seeds. They do sell bulk seed. I would have to order it in advance and go about 20 miles to pick it up. They sell retail packets of their seed in their store and in select stores near me. Their seeds are expensive and there is not a lot of seed. However, for the home garden there is enough. The seeds they sell are seeds that will do well locally.

It is still actually cheaper to buy the seeds online if they have the same varieties because there are usually more seeds and the cost per seed is less. Then the only variable would be if I have a big enough order to make shipping worthwhile.

When buying from catalogs, I do have to read carefully. It is also true of seeds in box stores that buy seed racks. Most of the seeds in catalogs and on the seed racks will grow here. However, some things they sell would be challenging if not impossible.

Walmart and Lowe's brought in bulbs and roses this year. I have gotten the roses before. They are 1 1/2 grade roses, and the trick is to get them before they have been in the stores too long and they break dormancy. They also bring in things which would not grow well at all like onion sets. They are the wrong kind of onions for our short days. They will grow but they won't get very big. They do bring in potatoes but I have not tried them. I think they bring them in too late for us anyway. Regular potatoes are a cool season crop. And in February it is already warming up, sort of. Potatoes take up too much space in the garden and are relatively cheap to buy. I would rather grow sweet potatoes since it likes warmer weather and the leaves are edible as well, so two crops in one very big plant.

Some of the bulbs too clearly state they are for zone 8. I live in zone 12a, so they are not likely to do well. Asparagus does do well even though the zone on the label is for a colder zone.

Most companies will not ship live plants to Hawaii. Our department of Ag makes that very difficult. They have to have certificates and I have had seed confiscated because I ordered seed from Amazon and did not know that the seeds origin was China and the company did not have a certificate.

Seeds are the same way. Some of the seeds especially for cool crops have a very short season and we have so many diseases that the varieties have to be both heat and disease tolerant.

I can't get over the pictures from your garden. It is strange to me to see it covered in snow and a few weeks later, you said the ground was frozen, but without the snow, I can't really tell. Then you have things growing in the garden again. It is amazing.

[Gary350]

It is good that you have the option of going to a farm store and can get bulk seed locally. There is a farm store on the other side of the island. It is why I don't use straw mulch. One, is because I would have to go so far to get it and secondly, I could only fit one in my small car.

We do have a local seed distributor of Sakata seeds. They do sell bulk seed. I would have to order it in advance and go about 20 miles to pick it up. They sell retail packets of their seed in their store and in select stores near me. Their seeds are expensive and there is not a lot of seed. However, for the home garden there is enough. The seeds they sell are seeds that will do well locally.

It is still actually cheaper to buy the seeds online if they have the same varieties because there are usually more seeds and the cost per seed is less. Then the only variable would be if I have a big enough order to make shipping worthwhile.

When buying from catalogs, I do have to read carefully. It is also true of seeds in box stores that buy seed racks. Most of the seeds in catalogs and on the seed racks will grow here. However, some things they sell would be challenging if not impossible.

Walmart and Lowe's brought in bulbs and roses this year. I have gotten the roses before. They are 1 1/2 grade roses, and the trick is to get them before they have been in the stores too long and they break dormancy. They also bring in things which would not grow well at all like onion sets. They are the wrong kind of onions for our short days. They will grow but they won't get very big. They do bring in potatoes but I have not tried them. I think they bring them in too late for us anyway. Regular potatoes are a cool season crop. And in February it is already warming up, sort of. Potatoes take up too much space in the garden and are relatively cheap to buy. I would rather grow sweet potatoes since it likes warmer weather and the leaves are edible as well, so two crops in one very big plant.

Some of the bulbs too clearly state they are for zone 8. I live in zone 12a, so they are not likely to do well. Asparagus does do well even though the zone on the label is for a colder zone.

Most companies will not ship live plants to Hawaii. Our department of Ag makes that very difficult. They have to have certificates and I have had seed confiscated because I ordered seed from Amazon and did not know that the seeds origin was China and the company did not have a certificate.

Seeds are the same way. Some of the seeds especially for cool crops have a very short season and we have so many diseases that the varieties have to be both heat and disease tolerant.

I can't get over the pictures from your garden. It is strange to me to see it covered in snow and a few weeks later, you said the ground was frozen, but without the snow, I can't really tell. Then you have things growing in the garden again. It is amazing.

A full size bale of straw in TN at farm supply store is $15 each. Lowe's sells 1/2 bales for $20. A full size straw bale from Illinois farm country is $2 each.

I save seeds from grocery store watermelons & cantaloupes they grow good. If I buy seeds I save seeds from my own crops. I have okra that I am not growing this year. I have cucumber I'm not growing this year they are bug magnets that infest the entire garden.

I have lots of grocery store bean seeds they always grow good. I want to grow chip peas this year & Lentils just to see what the plants look like. I have misplaced a 1 lb bag of cranberry beans. I will never grow great northern beans flavor is terrible compared to navy beans. I probably have 25 different saved bean seeds but not going to plant anything to harvest just to look see how they grow and what plants look like. Beans are only 69 cents to $1 per lb in the store. Dry bean isle has dry rice that will grow but I'm not going to grow any. I have seen YouTube videos where people grow rice in child's swimming pool. The giant Lima beans in 15 bean bad are interesting to grow.

I have very good luck growing grocery store potatoes. Potatoes are cheap but 1 eye will grow 1 lb of new potatoes. If I had good volcanic soil like Idaho I could probably grow 4 lbs of new potatoes from 1 eye.

I often only pay $1.59 or $2 free postage for Ebay seeds. I have best luck with seeds from China but they take 2 weeks to 4 weeks to arrive.

[Gary350]

I planted ONIONs today March 1st. It is 67°F today the 2" of ice in the onion bed melted. I used my template spacer board to put onion bulbs in the correct spacing then later I pushed all the bulbs 3" down below the mulch to the wet garden soil. 3" of mulch will protect onions from 7 more weeks of cold weather. We have 196 RED Onions. 100 VIDALIA Onions. 133 CANDY Onions. About $2.50 per lb = $12.60 total for 429 onions. I hope to have larger diameter onions this by planting earlier & planting a different way. Last year it took about 4 garden onions to = 1 grocery store size onion.

95 Garlic are doing better than any garlic I ever grown. I fertilized garlic with 0-20-20 fertilizer this year. This fertilizer is claimed to be the best for onions it seems to be doing great for garlic too.

Little white butter flies are everywhere already.

5 Blue Birds are checking out the new North Carolina Blue Bird nesting boxes that I built from online plans.

[Gary350]

After 3 days of Sun & warm weather garden soil was ready to till today. About 100 gallons of saw dust was tilled into south east corner of garden Sept. that made soil in that corner soft & black like potting soil. It was 74°F today.. I left row markers in the garden all winter.

[Gary350]

POTATOES

After several days of warm weather potato plants started coming up. We have another week of 60°F weather next week. I accidently noticed a few plants coming up so I started looking for plants they are coming up in all 5 potato rows 8" apart. I found new potatoes 3" below the surface.

I built a sprayer for tomato plants & pepper plants with a home bathroom shower head, gate valve, hose adaptor, PVC pipe. Stores have sprayers but nothing longer than 30", I need a spray long enough that I don't have to bend over to use it. Total length about 48".

[imafan26]

I have grown some beans from the store too. They work, but this is not a good climate for most beans because of the humidity, and most people here like flat beans not the round pods that come in the can. I usually get seeds from varieties that have the nematode and disease resistance I need or else they are not worth growing.

Your garden bounces back quickly after the weather changes. You must still be doing a lot of work in the garden all the time to keep it looking so good.

[Gary350]

I have grown some beans from the store too. They work, but this is not a good climate for most beans because of the humidity, and most people here like flat beans not the round pods that come in the can. I usually get seeds from varieties that have the nematode and disease resistance I need or else they are not worth growing.

Your garden bounces back quickly after the weather changes. You must still be doing a lot of work in the garden all the time to keep it looking so good.

I do a very low maintenance garden it is not much work 5 minutes 2 or 3 times a week after garden is planted. It takes 30 minutes to till the whole garden. 45 years ago I was young with more energy than brains garden worked me to death 2 hours every day. Now garden is very little work. I can plant a 40 ft row of beans in 30 minutes then do nothing for 65 days then harvest 38 lbs of beans. In 45 years I learned how to NOT plant a garden, I tried lots of things. Seeds & plants are both easy & quick. The only thing that is time consuming is watering plants when rain stops & soil is dry as desert. I planted 400 onions last week that took about 45 minutes. It takes about 45 minutes to plant 3 rows of corn 70 seeds per row. 4 tomato plants 10 minutes. 30 sweet bell pepper plants about 1 hour. 1 row of cucumbers 30 seeds 30 minutes. 4 watermelons & 8 cantaloups 5 minutes. No beans & no okra this year. About 1 hour to harvest 95 garlic. Maybe 2 hours to harvest 5 rows of potatoes. About 30 minutes to pick 3 rows of corn. Hardest work is getting rid of 210 corn plants I throw them in the yard then 2 weeks later they are dry so I use lawn mower to mulch them. Once soil is tilled it is soft powder. I tilled garden soil last week just to kill chickweed. A 40 ft row of tomatoes can be time consuming but we will have 4 tomato plants this year we still have 25 quarts of tomatoes in the kitchen pantry.

imafan 26, maybe you should plant Roma Flat Pod Beans they are like eating oriental Pea Pods. I can't remember the correct name for oriental pea pods. If you can't grow peas in your area then grow Roma Flat Pod beans. Most beans are a 65 day crop but flat pod beans are about 45 days because your not waiting for bean seeds to grow larger inside the pods. I throw down 1 lb of 15-15-15 fertilizer & Urea in a 40 ft row then till in the fertilizer then pull a 40 ft string and plant 160 seeds 3" apart about 1½" deep. Come back in 45 days pull up all the plants then set in a chair under a shade tree with a cold glass of ice tea while picking pods off the plants. Beans grow fast & shade out weeds & grass. If you have a small space plant 5 rows of beans 12" between 8 foot long rows with seeds 3" apart. Beans like full sun all day & they don't need to be watered in May & first 2 weeks of June.

[Gary350]

Garden is cold today 21°F wind gusts to 30 mph. It was 70° yesterday now we have another 4" of snow, TV says this is record snow for TN, 4 snows = 19".. Patio is 1/2" thick ice. Todays high 25°. Dog ran out through the snow for 20 seconds then back inside where it is warm. Onions should be ok I planted them 3" deep. Garlic & potatoes are good. Potato tops above ground will freeze off but grow back in about 1 week of warm weather. Nothing to do but wait. Today is a good day to bottle wine or bake bread but I'm not motivated to do either 1 but I get board doing nothing. There are lots of people sledding at all the interstate over pass hills, and I got ride of my sled, LOL. It is going to be sunny today soon as sun gets above the trees. More 70° weather forecast for next week. Carrot cake is good, I wonder what carrot bread is like?

[greenstubbs]

I only got 2.5" of snow down here, most of it was gone by the end of the day even though the HI only got to 30*. Just a FYI, You do know that pine needles are very acidic and will transfer it to the soil don't you, but it does make for a great mulch covering?

[Gary350]

I only got 2.5" of snow down here, most of it was gone by the end of the day even though the HI only got to 30*. Just a FYI, You do know that pine needles are very acidic and will transfer it to the soil don't you, but it does make for a great mulch covering?

Green pine needles are acid but dry brown pine needle acid is gone. Snow & ice on, streets, sidewalk, patio, was melted by 12 noon yesterday. Most snow was melted before dark. A week of warm weather ground was too warm for snow to stay. I read online onions are good down to 25°F & other information says 20°F, I never know what is true until I test it in my garden. It was 19°F last night everything is good. I know garlic is good down to 5° it survived 5° several times. When day length is 13 hour its time to switch fertilizer from nitrogen to P&K for garlic to stop growing garlic plants and start growing garlic bulbs. Garlic looks better than I have ever seen this year I'm doing something right. Potato tops look abnormal dark green I think they froze. 53° here now but 20 mph wind makes it feel very cold.

[Gary350]

Before having 19°F temperatures I spent about 10 minutes raking dead dry brown pine needles over the potato plants for protection. I never expected to have 130 of the 162 above ground plants survive 2 nights of below freezing temperatures. It is easy to see dead plants. I also see some of the dead plants stubs are already growing tiny new leaves. If we have another freeze or frost I am not helping plants they don't need help.

[Gary350]

There is nothing to do in the garden until April 20 after last frost, then I can plant tomatoes & peppers. Then 3 or 4 weeks later when soil warms up to 65°F I can plant seeds, corn, melons, Q-cumbers. Onions at back side of house look good they are starting to grow again. It will be time to mow grass soon. Several tree limbs R down they need 2 B cut & burned.

[Gary350]

Yesterday I learned potato plants are frost resistant. Maybe I should have expected that other cold weather plants are frost & freeze resistant down to certain temperatures. Yesterday morning it was 35°F and heavy frost it looked like snow. I expected potato plant tops to be dead but 2 hours later most of the frost was gone and potato plants look good. Today 24 hours later potato plants still look good. I should be more observant I was expecting dead potato plant tops after any frost or freeze, maybe that is why plants did so well a week ago in 20°F freeze, I covered plants a little bit by raking pine needles over them. It is 4 weeks until last frost I expect more cold weather, wait and see what happens. Pic 1 shows some of the remaining frost. Garden has 21 rows, row 7, 10, 11, 15, 21 are potatoes. I'm not sure what I did on row 15 but I count 115 plants coming up. My notes only say, Row 15, 25 russet, 2 red Pontiac, 35 Kennebec. 70° forecast for every day this week.

March 21, sun rise 6:46 am, sun set 6:58 pm, solar noon 12:52 pm, day length 12 hr 12 min.

[Gary350]

Onion tops are getting tall enough to see. If potato crop in this 1 row is as good as it looks it could be a bumper crop. I never had garlic that looks this good before, it should start bulbing in about 2 weeks. We have both been sick with allergies several days it takes about 2 weeks to get use to have all this pollen in the air. Cabbage core I planted several months ago is getting larger in this warmer weather. Storm last night dumped 3" of rain.

[imafan26]

Your garden recovers fast from snow to grow.

[Gary350]

Your garden recovers fast from snow to grow.

Our weather is up & down, every time it snowed soil was warm snow on roads was gone next day by 12 noon an gone in the yard by dark. We were suppose to have 75° today & 80° Saturday, but 60° today. 56° Sat, 56° Sun. 29° freeze Sat night.

Today I planted pepper seeds. I almost backed out on planting seeds it is usually too cold for seeds to germinate. Soil is warm seeds will be ok if it stays warm. It is very likely we will have freeze and frost before last frost April 20 plants will be dead. I planted 6 of each seed and 48 of the Korean sweet 7" long chili peppers. I really only want 4 of each plant & about 30 of the Korean sweet chili peppers. I am hoping Korean peppers will out produce sweet Big Bertha Bell peppers. A dozen bags of sliced sweet peppers will be good in the freezer. I hope the sweet version of habanero have no spicy hot at all.

[applestar]

Your garden is really progressing! Maybe those plants manage to recover because the soil has warmed up enough that the roots aren’t affected and helps them resist freezing?

Parts of my garden has only recently started to thaw — even last week, I had trouble pushing ground pins and bamboo stakes into the ground. I KNOW it has thawed around the foundation of the house because we had our first ant invasion in the kitchen 4 days ago.


…I think peppers need at least 75°F soil temp to germinate well. Maybe try covering them with vented cut off soda or milk bottles, clear plastic cases, etc.

Venting is key — Garden fleece pinned to the ground could help raise temp by about 3~4 °F

[Gary350]

Your garden is really progressing! Maybe those plants manage to recover because the soil has warmed up enough that the roots aren’t affected and helps them resist freezing?

Parts of my garden has only recently started to thaw — even last week, I had trouble pushing ground pins and bamboo stakes into the ground. I KNOW it has thawed around the foundation of the house because we had our first ant invasion in the kitchen 4 days ago.

…I think peppers need at least 75°F soil temp to germinate well. Maybe try covering them with vented cut off soda or milk bottles, clear plastic cases, etc.

Venting is key — Garden fleece pinned to the ground could help raise temp by about 3~4 °F

Ant invasion is usually ants looking for food we had the same problem when we lived at the other house 20 years ago. I put several bags of white sugar under the house, we never had ants inside the house again. Ant food also works outside if you can keep rain out and ants can still get to the sugar. Our soil usually never freezes more than 1" deep but this year it froze almost 2". 12°F killed the, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, pak choy, but not the potatoes or garlic. We are going to have 29° frost & freeze temperatures Saturday night it will be interesting to see what happens to potato plants when we return home from camping Sunday. It is actually good to have small plants or no potato plants, new potatoes are larger & more of them. Pepper seeds are slow to germinate, seeds are my backup plan B if I can't buy plants I want at the garden store, Plan A. I might need to plant pepper seeds again when temperatures are warmer Plan C.

I found another good Pickle making video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL6YCt3-hRY

[Gary350]

Not much has happened in garden in 5 days we were gone. Potato tops in 2 rows are frost bit but another row has not much frost bite. Cabbage I grow from grocery store cabbage core looks like it is trying to make a head. Nothing to do in garden for 3 more weeks. I set on patio birds are everywhere, I see 7 blue birds, 5 red birds, 2 doves, 4 blue jars, 3 wood peckers, 2 mocking birds, several robins, chickadees are inspecting bird houses trying to find on they like. Bird house in full sun blue birds are going in and out over & over. Storms forecast for tonight. Onions next to house are larger.

[Gary350]

Today I am counting potato plants.

Row 7 seed potatoes were planted 6" deep maybe that explains why there are only 7 plants in this 34 ft row. Seeds were planted 8" apart there should be 50 plants in this row soon.

Row 10 seed potatoes were planted 4" deep there are 47 plants in this row so far.

Row 11 seed potatoes were planted 4" seed there are 98 plants in this row.

Row 15 seed potatoes were covered 4" deep there are 157 plants in this row. This row was planted a month later than the other rows I found a box of tiny lost potatoes swiveled up like raisins I sprinkled them in this row not expecting very many to grow. Most of these seed potatoes were the size of a marble with 1 sprout it appears they all grew.

Row 21 seed potatoes are covered 5" deep there are 27 plants in this row.

I expect to see more potatoes soon in row 7 and row 21 soon as weather gets warmer.

2 days of frost seems to have not hurt potato plants at all. I hope we get 1 more cold hard freeze that kills all the potato plant tops. Oh well mother nature will do what she wants I am not helping.

[Gary350]

Today I went to the Garden Store to see if they have plants yet. Plant delivery truck was there about 1 hour before me they were almost finished putting plants on the tables. This is the first time I ever had my pick of everything. I finally got my hands on a Thai Basil plant these usually sell out very quick about 2 days. I bought a 6 pack of Big Beef tomatoes instead of 8 pack. I bought 1 tabasco 4 pack and 5 different sweet peppers in 4 packs. I found a sweet yellow Habanero but no sweet chocolate habanero. No pepperoncini plants yet. Prices are up 4 packs are $3.29 each & 6 packs are $3.74 each. 1 Thai Basil was $3.99.

Sunday morning was 30°f potato plants were white with frost. None of the potato plants died or were frost bit. Last frost is April 20 its not likely we will have any more colder weather that might kill potato plants. Potato plants appear to be cold hardy down to 30°F and maybe colder.

We have 4 days of rain in the forecast then 2 days no rain then 2 more days of rain. I need 3 or 4 days of sunny windy weather to till chickweed so I can plant tomatoes & peppers. 2 more week maybe I can plant tomatoes & peppers. No seeds get planted until soil warms up to 65° another month.