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Time to plan the garden, so what are your plans for your garden this year?
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
January 15, 2009 3:06pm CST
Mine is to get some bugs that eat other bugs. Last year a lot of my garden got eaten alive. Do my greens indoors because the outdoor greens got eaten and something I read said to rotate my crops. Then get some bug and disease resistant crops. Also onions and garlic indoors as well as some herbs. Outdoors, it will depend on what I can find for bug and disease resistant crops.
So have you gotten any gardening books yet? What are your plans? Our Cooperative Extention said that if I want Blue Berries, I should prepare this year to have them next year in order to change the soil enough and the colder the region, the lower to the ground they must be. I don't want the new tree ones anyway. Who can pick anything above 6 feet high. Our apple tree we shake. But I don't know if I want one inch plants and to crawl all over, esp. since we have sub-zero temps.
So are you planning any new crops? Rotating any? Do you know the things that you have to watch out for in your area? Like we can't buy currents from most places because they carry a disease that kills pine trees, esp. white pine which is a very important crop here. But one current company is certified to be sold in my area because they are pine disease free. Also, we had raspberries and blackberries where I used to live and someone planted yews or junipers, something that had a disease that killed our berries. So make sure you find out what plants have diseases that kill other plants and be careful.
I love to hear other people's plans, it gives me ideas. The most fun I ever have is when I plant something unusual like huge gourds or caster bean plants. I did those in different years and they were fun. Do you plan on any unusual plants?
2 people like this
8 responses
@Grandmaof2 (7579)
• Canada
15 Jan 09
Plan the garden Oh My Goodness. We're in the midst of trying to figure out where we're going to pile all our snow. It has been so cold and snowed for three days straght and it's still snowing. I think I'm coming to your place, put the coffee on lol.
2 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jan 09
Don't come to my place, it's sub-zero. Minus 16 yesterday.
Now is when all the gardening magazines come out and when some people up here order things. Not sure where it works where you are.
My Mom used to plant seeds on the window sill in February (Valentines day) or March (ST. Pat's Day) like tomatoes so the plants would be ready.
Take care.
@heavenschild (4777)
• Canada
16 Jan 09
I love gardening also Writer but alas I cannot have one as my back yard is a parking lot!
Please, Enjoy your garden for me!
~Heavens~
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jan 09
I will, do you have window sills where you could plant a little something like onions or radishes? They don't take much room.
@heavenschild (4777)
• Canada
16 Jan 09
I wish I did have...
We live in a very tiny apartment!
~Heavens~
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jan 09
I wish you had window sills, too. I have aloe vera on mine right now. Hope to have greens and onions soon. My Aunt had a small table up against a window and she grew some neat things by putting plants on the table. My Mom even grew plants on top of her TV set. Just had to be careful, she would water the plants in the bathroom over the bathtub and bring them back so she wouldn't over water and short out the TV. You never know. A friend of mine said he had no room, now part of his kitchen table has one aloe vera and another widow has a table with another aloe vera on it. Our living room has a hook for hanging plants. We just don't get enough sunlight for hanging plants. So you never know, a sudden inspiration may come to you. You may see a place or a spot you can have a plant. Take care.
1 person likes this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
16 Jan 09
I don't plan to plant anything because I have lousy luck when it comes to planting. I tried tomatoes one year and that bombed miserably. Nothing grew at all. We get the intense sun in the afternoon at the back of the house and morning sun in front. I tried to plant on the side of our house. My decision was to do this because we had a neighbor who planted on the same side of his house and had a tremendous amount veggies. He used aluminum pie pans to keep the critters away. I just don't have a green thumb so we buy fruits and veggies at the store.
1 person likes this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
16 Jan 09
Don't know what kind of soil we have. Do know our neighbor was able to grow healthy, tasty tomatoes outside each year. He was a farmer at one point so knew what he was doing. My husband won't eat garlic, onions or anything that tastes really good. He's boring! Therefore I rarely buy onions.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jan 09
Noticing the sun was a good start. What Ph is your soil? If you don't know that, then you don't know what grows. Mine is acid, so only acid plants will grow. If yours isn't acid, then tomatoes won't grow. There is a Ph range that every plant likes and if you're outside it, then it doesn't grow. From one piece of land to another or from one side of a piece of property to another, the Ph can be different. Tomatoes usually love sun, but they are tricky, many diseases and the amount of water you need is tricky. I always start people off with onions or pumpkins. Nothing eats onions and they let you know right away if you have too much or too little water. As a root crop, they don't need much water. Pumpkins, the shoots coming up can get eaten by pests, but other than that, they grow well, because they're a vine, they need lots of water. Your first crop should be onions. Tomatoes are very, very hard. Every other year we had problems with ours, root rot one year, blight another, spots another. They're the hardest crop to grow. You have to study what the lastest problem is and prepare for it unless you're really, really lucky.
Can you grow a few veggies indoors? Last year, pests killed a lot of my stuff. The stuff I grew indoors did better. Also can control the amount of sunlight with shades and so on better. Onions and garlic can grow in pots indoors, but garlic likes cool weather like 60 degrees to 70. Onions can grow any time. Greens are like garlic, 60 to 70 degrees. Take care and thanks.
@manleyjoe (1597)
• United States
17 Jan 09
Yes beans and peas. I'm going to try and get some peas this year last year I did real well with the green beans but my area is really small. Last year was the second year for the garden bed, 3 fr by 8 ft, but I had enougn corn for a good mess of roasted ears. Cucumbers is another I like to grow and they seem to do pretty well in my built up spot.
I hauled in top soil from Wal-Mart and made my garden. Green onions did very well too. I set out 15 thornless blackberries last year so should have some berries this year. Last year was first year for the strawberries and they sure were good. again I bought top soil from Wal-Mart to make the raised bed for them.
I plant my Tomatoes and bell peppers in earth pots that I picked up at an estate auction and am real happy with them. Last year was way to wet here and the tomatoes did not do well nor did my Zucchini. I dearly love Zucchini fried in a little extra virgin Olive Oil. Fresh sliced tomatoes, can't hardly wait til Feb so can start the seeds for some of it.
Well I will just go and thumb through Gurneys catalog again, if this weather don't warm soon I'm going to have the printing wore plum off the pages.haha
1 person likes this
@manleyjoe (1597)
• United States
17 Jan 09
I have tried the composting but never had any luck. Guess I just didn't do it right. I have thought of getting one of those barrel type composters but can't seem to get the money together at the present.
I did blow all the leaves that fell from the trees in the yard into the row where the blackberries are, hope that will rot down and help to keep the grass down. I am going to pile the yard waste from mowing and such in one corner of the yard and try to get it to rot down again this year but I don't have much faith cause I have never had any luck before.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
23 Jan 09
I used the pealings from my veggies and they broke down great! Have you tried searching (Googling-whatever) with the words: Cooperative Extention and Composting ? Try it. You will see what you're doing right and what you need to change to make it work. Like sticks and big stuff don't work. But carrot peelings do. Meat products should never be put in it. Etc. We, Americans have paid for these cooperative extention bulletins with our taxes, so I recommend them. Anything you want to know that has to do with gardening, Cooperative Extention plus whatever you want to know. They have great bulletins on blackberries, I haven't tried one for zucchini yet. Take care and good luck!
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jan 09
Manley Joe, You've got the spirit of this winter planning for summer! You go!
I hope you start a compost from your garden this year so you will be able to feed your soil and cut down on Walmart purchases of soil for next year. I made an herb garden just from compost from the previous year once, haven't been able to get back to composting since.
We had a wet year, too. Many were complaining about their tomatoes. But all the vine plants did well up here. The Farmers' Almanac had said wet and vines would work out and it was wet and vines did work for many gardens up here. But people did have to replant three times because the spring was horribly wet. Farmers replanted corn three times. I replanted root crops three times and greens (my earliest stuff). Love all the stuff you grow. Sounds like you do a lot with your 3 x 8.
I've been pawing through my seed catalogs, too. Thank you very much for replying and thanks for joining Mylot (I see by your number, you're relatively new). You keep up these good, quality posts and you should do great here!
@mammamuh (582)
• Sweden
13 Feb 09
This year I will finally get my green house so I'll grow tomatoes - I haven't been for years and I'm looking forward to eating my own tomatoes again.
I grow potatoes,onion, carrots, lettuce, parsley and dill every year and will do so this year as well.
I haven't started to think about it that much yet - there is still months until I can start growing outside.
I have 6 current bushes that I hope will give berries this year - they are very young - I have 2 each of white, black and red.
For this year I hope my apple trees will give more fruit than last year - that was lousy - the year before was a bit better, but still they are very young trees.
Last year I got a plum tree that I don't think will get friut for several years, but I still hope it will.
Since I live very far north there isn't many bugs that does any harm - they'll freeze to desth during the winter.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
13 Feb 09
Sounds like you've got great plans. I always wonder what people grow in other countries. I see you are in Sweden. That is soo cool. I wish you luck on your fruit trees and your tomatoes. Sounds like you're very proficient on the other stuff. Thanks for responding and take care.
@djonghs (560)
• Indonesia
16 Jan 09
Lucky me, I could do gardening for full whole year. There are no snow here, only rain. I live in tropical country, snow is not my concern. I do planning to plan a new kind of plans, and right know I prefer to plan a plans with fruit or maybe vegetables. I still try to squeeze a spare time to start planting a new tree.
Happy gardening to you.
BR.b
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jan 09
Gardening year round. How wonderful! I would think I had gone to heaven if I could garden year round. Thank you very much and happy gardening to you, too.
@WebMann (4731)
• Canada
16 Jan 09
We are on our second year as gardeners, well newbie gardeners. Last year I messed up and only got started gardening about a month after we should have so this winter we are planning ahead.
We will be planting a lot of what we have from seed so we get the entire experiences this coming season.
We are gong to be planting beans, peas, pepper, pumpkins, next year we will work on other letters in the alphabet. :)
Seriously, we are going to have a lot more flowers this year in the hopes we attract more butterflies and birds.
Our vegetable garden is going to be raised beds and square foot gardening so we can use the least amount of space and hopefully have less weeds.
I am quite excited. Last year was a trial run to see how badly I could mess up. That will make this coming season so much better.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jan 09
It takes a few years to get the hang of it. There are some fun gardening sites on the net and some wonderful seed/plant sites, too.
Glad to see that getting started late didn't discourage you. We had several "wash outs" litterally last year. Farmers had to replant corn three times because their fields kept flooding out. They still brought in corn, hay and short day crops (onions, radishes, greens), but not much else.
I love the letters b and p for gardening, I just didn't know it. B and P crops are great. I like green beans and green peppers best (I'll have to work on liking other colors). Thank you very much for responding and take care.
@nancyrowina (3850)
•
26 Jan 09
I've got some tomatoes, two different varieties of Cauliflower purple and yellow, some pumpkins and two types of chilli. I haven't planted the seeds yet as it's too early but I'm looking forward to getting some going, the the variety of tomato I've got can be grown indoors so I may plant some in a couple of weeks.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
26 Jan 09
That sounds great! Let me know how you do with them. Take care and thanks for your response.
