Gardening Gardening

Not sure if I have ever posted this guy on here. He is awesome! I’m sure some of you guys have watched his stuff.

 

Good stuff Brandon. I hadn't seen him, so I have some catching up to do.

Check out this one too, it you haven't already, the Old Alabama Gardener:

 

I stuck a thermometer in the compost pile I was building all winter and it shot right up to 80f. It should really get cooking over the next few days.

The compost pile that was just about finished by the beginning of winter is frozen solid.

The earliest I have ever planted anything outside here is March 18th. I spread grass seed yesterday ahead of some weekend rains. Today I am going to plant some radishes, spinach, lettuce, cilantro, carrots, and kale. There is really no advantage to waiting until mid-April, in terms of an early harvest, but it will be something to look forward to doing, and then fun to monitor.

 

Kid is working hard!

 

That's not easy (especially) when it's muddy.

 

Put in 9 raised beds (6x3) and mulched the paths. Under the mulch is heavy duty weed block. I havent grown anything in 3 years since I closed the veggie farm and didnt have time to put in a garden at this house until now lol.

 

Oh dont worry! If it gets less than 70° in here, Miss July will have a blaze going that will dry your eyes out!

 

FYI...
Some Walmart, Costco, Target stores barred from selling nonessential items

 

I wonder if they have those signs in the cosmetics section. FWIW I bought a bunch of flower seeds at our Wal-Mart 2 weeks ago.

 

Busted sod and started a new garden plot. Got a free tiller but had to borrow a friend's tiller with reverse rotation times to break the sod and not me. Gardening was easier when I grew up on the farm and used 80 hp tractor to work the garden.

The shed next to it is the youngest kids chicken coop with covered run. Chicken waste can be seen on the garden before it got mixed in.
Free tiller, starts and runs.

 

Garlic doing well in 27f today. It got down in the upper teen last night.

My garlic is well adapted to my ground now after growing it for so long and saving the best cloves for replanting in October.

I have another bed 300 miles north of here at our cabin which does well also, although that garlic is under 20" of snow still.

 

Once you harvest it, how do you process it for storage?

 

I simply dig/pull it July, hang it in bunches of 6-8 plants in the garden shed for a week or two (until the roots are dry), lightly brush off the loose dirt, cut the tops and roots off, pick out enough of the biggest heads for planting in the fall, and then hang the rest in mesh bags in the basement.

We are still enjoying last year's harvest and are down to about 20 heads. We use and gift a lot of garlic. I use it in a lot of my canning, cooking throughout the year, and making pesto with our basil in August. The pesto gets placed in 1/2 pint jars, topped with a layer of olive oil and frozen for year round eating.

 

And a few other places.

The only thing I have in the ground is 4 rows of peas. They aren't peeking out yet. but only been in for 8 days.

 

My guajillo chili pepper plants have germinated. I put an old towel around a heating pad, and placed it under my seed starter flat. That worked well, nearly all are germinated as of today. The picture attached was from the other day. Planted the seeds on 4/2 that I cut from dried guajillo peppers bought from the Mexican grocery store after I made powder from those Chili's for tacos al pastor.



I may have a few pepper plants this year, even after thinning some out, and giving a few plants to a friend.

I can always find Serrano, jalapeno, and other peppers as started plants once this state/ country is back to normal. Peppers just take so long to grow, so they need to be started sooner than the traditional early May gardening time.

 

I started peppers a little late this year.
The first batch I started didn't do anything so I bought new seeds:


and of course once these started showing the others started. So I may have a few peppers this year. Albeit late. Season is a little short here so it's not like I get a LOT of peppers from each plant. First year growing cayenne chilis.
I'm a bit short of space so start dense in small containers, then transplant them out.
I use a lot of salad dressing cups and dessert cups. Vermiculite as it is easy to transplant from and doesn't have some of the problems associated with peat.

It's a little extra work this way but it beats vegging out in front of a TV.

 

Lately it’s been Sugarbug87 and I tending to some green thumb stuff and this is basically half of it, other half is in starter planters, smaller pots and whatnot. Growing a wide range and we’re not even done with the seeds yet as we’re waiting on the temps to get a bit warmer for squash and Zucchini’s. Might have to make more spaces too. Uh ok photos uploaded lets see here:
Very end of the row is a raspberry bush, then the two rows closer are 6 broccoli bushes, a garlic clove popped out of the middle of that, then some small steamer onions I believe with the small tops, then garlic(4) in the row left to those onions. We planted peas left of the garlics kinda late, (oops they may revive themselves though!) Dirt is still pretty cold here and plants are adapting. At the far end, beans like 3 kinds of varieties green white and purple, they were doing very well inside but I think the chilly weather in the morning is a bit much for them so if they don’t work, we’ll try again. Oh down the right side are all herbsregano, thyme, rosemary, etc. then the box at the foot of the picture green onions. Lots of those and some off to the side in smaller planters. Literally some of the easiest things I’ve grown besides zucchini’s, I swear some will have grown an inch and new stuff will pop out in days. The warm weather lately has been amazing. Usually we’re getting drenched by spring break being first week of April here but so far, it’s been pretty sunny skies. Windy days but I’m not gonna complain!
Lettuces and spinach
Basil, have a couple more varieties. Some of these suffered some kind of burn and I wonder if it’s got to do with the sun around here. Since hardly any really cloudy days have stuck around, they are browning a bit and leaves have popped off dry...Plenty of water though.

Ok this one is an assortment: front is Left to right Borage, rhubarb (lady loves this so I said why not do a pie?) another borage, then the middle row left radishes halfway sprouts and then other half right carrots varieties. Way back two parsley, a borage middle and last two parsleys. Apparently chickens love borage and I grabbed before knowing how huge it can grow but wanted to try something different. At least push comes to shove we can feed the cut ups to those chicks when they get older.

I still have some plants to pot. And it’s still bright and early as far as gardening goes! Social Distancing has got me doing lots of projects all over the place. Only way to stave off the boredom a bit, silver lining in everything. More plants to come but have corn and peppers in select pots, May make another raised box planter like the last picture as I’ve got plenty of material for that. I guess I’m wanting more reliance on eating what we grow at home. Buying veggies and cooking them is fun, I don’t mind it one bit but tending to crops is just fun and healthy all in its own. I’ve got the time and the space for it, why not? Encouraging my family to be able to pick some good things to eat during this time was the point. At least summer rolls around, this will hopefully look quite full.

 

FatBoy85 , nice start! The browning of the basil is probably due to cold temps. It's really a sub tropical plant. They really don't like temperature under 50 degrees.

If you have an old window, you can make a mini greenhouse for them for overnight at least, or if it's not that warm. At least it looks like a window might work perfectly for your planter you have the Basil in.