any gardeners?

“Nigal, I want one of those too but the rules here forbide it!!! Funny though, they didn't ever say peep about my chickens.”

“I'm thinking of building a green house on the foundation of my burned up chicken coop. Maybe lengthen the growing season a bit.”

“Nimblefoot, you trying to make us all jealous?!

I have two 55 gallon rain barrels. It's amazing how fast that water goes! It does make a great difference and I wouldn't mind getting two more for up front. I have found you can't take the water too far from the barrel so I use it for the perennial gardens near the house and my pond garden. The water would never make it to the back of the yard where the vegs live.

I think I'll email my road worker friend and ask for two more glycol barrels.”

“I'd thought of rain barrels, but only for a moment. My water table is extremely high and with a well, it's just as easy and cheap to sprinkle them at will.

I'd also considered hydropower using my stream, but with a $25/month electric bill (summer and without my son being here), why bother.

I'm still considering raising a couple of beef this summer. We'll see:)”

“I have to wait for the snow to melt off, in the last 30 years almost, I have been able to plant peas or lettuce late March only a few times, but then that gets snowed on sometimes. One year I was able to transplant some strawberries and plant lettuce and I had to clear snow off the ground to do that in April I believe. It snowed a couple three feet a day or two later. Everything did fine.

I would dearly love to put a ram pump or something in the creek to water my garden with, I only have about two feet of fall I think where it goes thru my property, I believe I need three feet. I need to research more for a water driven water pump. I saw a spiral pump online this afternoon, what a contraption. Something to dream about, I can't afford it now, saving up for a few more things for the big trip in Aug.”

“My onions are starting to sprout!

Some of my other seeds already wiped out; hard to tell if they got a fungus or dried out at first glance. I think they somehow dried out too much. Weird.”

“SOmehow I already managed to dry out quite a fgew seedlings. I guess the combination of a seed heating mat and open vents dries them out too quickly. Most of them perked back up with more water.

I've got the seed bug bad, so I started up more jiffy pellets for spinach. Mmmm. I've never grown or harvested spinach before. DO you cut individual leaves or just whack the whole plant?”

“leaves.”

“Okay. You know I've never actually seen a real spinach plant. The only "spinach" I've ever grown is Malabar Spinach, a vine with leaves that are similar in taste and appearance. They'll also take over in southern areas. Not as bad as kudzu, but they'll try.

A good recipe for spinach is steamed, then sprinkled with cumin and just a little sea salt and olive oil. Laurel (the 6 year old) loves spinach this way.”

“I like it in omelets and on sandwiches instead of lettuce. It's good on pizza and n lasagne too.”

“I found a pretty interesting local seed supplier. They pack all their seeds in paper from recycled magazines. They'll even plant and tend a garden in your own yard for you.

Urban Farmer Seeds provides high quality garden and flower seeds to gardeners throughout the US. Urban Farmer garden seeds are unique because they are packaged in recycled magazines given by local organizations.

UF carries many varieties of the most popular vegetable, fruit, herb and flower seeds. Unlike large seed companies that may package their seeds in paper envelopes many months in advance of sale, we typically package orders as they are received.

http://sites.google.com/site/urbanfarmerinc/Home”

“Pretty cool website there.”

“I started diagramming out the garden beds today, for the early crops. That was fun. Tomorrow I'm headed over to the out-laws' place, to cut some bamboo and make cold frames with them and 3.5 mil sheet plastic. Not to mention a bunch of bricks to hold down the edges, given the brutal winds we get here during the winter months. The fences that we and our neighbor put up this past year have helped, although hers is pvc snap together garbage that I've had to put back together twice now, after particularly nasty gusts.”

“I started spinach seeds a few days ago, and of them's sprouting nicely already. Now I just have to protect all of my various seedlings from the cats; they love their fresh greens.”

“I ordered my seeds today from Park and Seed Savers. Spent $35 with shipping and didn't need to order peas as I had plenty seed from last year. I found a source for sweet potatoes that can be shipped to CA. I'll order them soon, they only do snail mail, checks, no credit cards or online stuff.

We still have snow and it is snowing now, that's good, I can go play tomorrow maybe.”

“Thanks for reminding me, I need to order sweet potato slips too. I want to try some different varieties this time around. They say not to let sweet potato vines root at multiple points along the vine, just at the crown. I think a trellis is in order for that to happen. FWIW, O'Henry sweet potato vines have pretty purple flowers and are rather decorative.”

“i wish we could garden this year, we need to wait and see where we will end up living first. we had plans for a larger garden too.”

“I'm supposed to head out and cut bamboo for cold frame supports, vine trellises and whatnot. It's still in the 30's, grey, windy, and I don't want to go out in that right now. I guess staying up until some time after 1 am has something to do with it.”

“Sandhill has different varieties, one with a shorter growing season which is what I need. I'm not sure if it will work, they don't ship until June, I need to get things started before that with the short season here in the northern Sierra, it starts cooling off here by mid August, I like for my corn and beans to be about done by then, although I have had extended corn eating for a month quite often using two maturity dates.

I don't utilize all the space I can grow on, I am limited by how much manure my back wants to shovel. I have an area I have been just growing a cover crop, Winter Rye, just to have something there besides weeds. All I do with that is til the rye under in the fall after a good rain, then stand back and watch it come up. I want to get some strawberries going again, but they need to be picked every other day when coming on and I work out of town, maybe my neighbor who waters for me could pick strawberries during the week. More money to spend.

A couple inches of snow overnight and still coming down lightly, maybe I can go snow camping in a week or two.”

“You could always cold frame the sweet potato bed, Hikerduane. You should probably build it before you even put in the slips, to warm up the ground in that area even more. I know you need to harvest them by the first frost, that's for sure.”

“I was thinking of covering the ground with black plastic like I do with corn, I know I need to keep things warm for them. A cold frame would get things warmed up until later when the days are a lot warmer. Always fun to try different stuff.”

“they are a little pricey (for me anyway) but they are very cool.


Bird Feeder





http://www.douglasfeypottery.com/index.htm”

“I was thinking of adding some Succulents to the garden. start in the green house and then put them outside in pots.
they seem to be pretty easy to grow and take care of. I thought they would look cool around my waterfall garden.

anyone try to grow these?

I am ready to start buying some seeds (got the itchy green finger)


also I think I will start a Butterfly garden.
I need to move and find more land!”

“Succulents are pretty easy to start. Laurel wanted a little cactus garden, and the Home Despot had a kid's cactus garden set, so....

Our neighbors (the ones we pet sat for) went to Phoenix, Az. and brought Laurel back a packet of saguaro cactus seeds as well. I haven't chuffed them into peat pots yet, but they're on my list.”

“I am going to buy a bunch of seeds today and get things rolling...I am super excited :)
FYI that is a bird feeder I post a pic of. pretty cool”

“I have been wanting to plant a few flowers, but being a bachelor, not a big priority, you can't eat the things.:) I have some bulbs and they take no care, some my neighbor gave me. A butterfly garden would be neat also, we'll see.”

“there are a bunch of edible flowers...

here is a site (I did not really look hard at it but you will get the idea)


http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers.htm

I have book on it at home and I plan on planting a few edible flowers this year. I want to try and make teas :)”

“nastertiums are some of my favorites. They taste spicy and look gorgeous. They're easy and often reseed themselves.”

“I've eaten squash blossoms in the past, while out in the garden watering. Yum. bzzzzzzzz!”

“www.seedsofchange.com

good supplier - lots of variety”

“It's supposed to stay above freezing for the next 10 days, it's 73 out right now, and I just finished putting in a bunch of cabbage seedlings, onion starts, and trying to get the coldframe bamboo finished in case of another cool off.

Laurel wants to plant her turnip and radish seeds this afternoon, too.

When I started digging up the garden soil this morning, it felt so nice and warm in the sun I just wanted to burrow right in. It's such an incredible change after the cold we've had this winter.”

“I may have to put you on ignore, just so I won't have to read about your great weather:)”

“Neener Neener. ;P

If it's any consolation I've dug up a record amount of cat turds out of the garden beds today. Most of them were flung down the hill. Some of them accidentally hooked over into the neighbor's yard. Oops.”

“I save mine all winter and in the spring mail 'em to MarkO. Just about ready for another shipment:)”

“I still have snow on my garden, the two seed sources that I ordered from via snail mail two weeks ago, I received their seeds Friday, less than two weeks to receive them. Still planning snow camping trips, talk about my brain getting mixed messages.”

“can anyone lend me a few dollars?

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-000-HOODIA-GORDONII-FRESH-SEEDS-MIRACLE-SUCCULENT_W0QQitemZ230291925212QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item230291925212&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50”

“Where should I send the check? ;)”

“LOL

I mean, who would buy these anyway?”

“Alchemists' tests, huh?

The nursery I frequented in FL. sold very colorful hoodia plants for collectors, not dieters.”

“Damn coldframe plastic blew off at some point this morning. It was down to 20 here. THe turnip seedlings and young onions look ok so far, but that can all change. Guess I'd better water them in again and cover them back up. I just don't want to go out in the wind right now.”

“I bought some seeds today. I got a great 14 variety greens mix for successive sowing. The envelope holds an ounce of seed!”

“nice.
I am looking forward to planting some succalents”

“My cat farm seems to be going well. ;P

My 3 cats and Laurels' katten are all crammed into the same sunbeam on the floor, luxuriating in the warmth.”

“I planted Elephant ears & caladiums in the yard....& basil, cilantro & lavender in my pots on the porch....
...woo hooooo...”

“I've been sitting at the kitchen table having a beer with my daughter and Les, planning the summer garden. Good times.”

“Now that the snow has finally melted, I need to go see what survived the storms we had under the cold frames. They took some damage.”

“I dug down thru the snow last weekend to get some manure and soil to put into some pots, so I can plant some tomato seeds the next day or two before it is the full moon. They will be ready to get put out in the garden in early May, inside Wall's 'o Water.

Going on a almost full moon snow camping trip by the Carson Pass area, just south of Lake Tahoe this weekend with a bunch of the California crowd, about 10 or more going.”

“I'm going to start some seeds today. I generally suck at seed starting but I'm going to try any how.”

“Div, Elephant ears are my all time fav plants!!

I love they way it feel. so soft and HUGE


I pulled out my flower book, time to start getting MORE seeds for the butterfly garden.
my livivngroom looks like a greenhouse LOL

just got the right dirt I need for the succulents/catus plants. now I need a heating bed. any suggestions>”

“Nigal's list of facts above Mapleleaf:

Loves Wendys
Loves elephant ears
Does not fart

to be continued...”