2023 Garden Plans

[Mule 11]

Started mine in egg cartons also. So far I’ve got a bunch of basil, 6 tomato plants, 5 zucchini and my strawberries have flowers on them...

[Ranger99]

Still mostly slow with my plants.
The crazy weather this year has
messed everything up.
High 70's and 80's last week, and
cold rain and mid 40's last night.
I thought I saw some snowy stuff
in the PH on the doppler last night.
I hope all those gardens made it ok

[JBinMN]

We are still working on our inside plants/seeds. Been to cold here in these parts to do otherwise.

[teamnelson]

we were hitting the 50s last week, and right now its in the mid-20s. Some of our starts are ready to be planted ... oh well.

[Bob Riebe]

I just checked the 10 weather forecast and suddenly, day time and night time temps. forecast have raised 5-10 degrees but with night temps. still in the thirties, better than hard freeze twenties it said yesterday, it will be a long time before ground temp.is about 45 for putting potatoes in.

All my onion/shallot plants have arrived so I may put them out.

[wtxbadger]

Picked our first couple of cherry tomatoes yesterday and will be picking yellow squash in a couple of days. Blackeye peas made a good stand but not blooming yet. Butternut squash is looking good. The english peas were a complete dud and still thinking on what to plant in place of them. Been picking blackberries and freezing them, still have a bunch more to pick. Beets are looking good and so are the onions.

[Bob Riebe]

Past three Weeks:

I have a lot more to do but as I am actually starting a little earlier than on average, and  the fact that I uncovered three large toads, up North, still waiting for soil to warm so they could hit the road again, I do not feel bad about that.

I put in some of the potatoes up North:
Agata
Grand Duke
Sinatra
Satina
I collected far, far more leaves than normal for rose protection last fall, so I have a lot of extra bags of leaves; may put then extra deep on the potatoes , as I have a bad feeling about rain this year.

I put in one spicey chile, and three varieties of Sweet.
Buy them in six or four packs is cheaper but you get more than one wants.
Planted my Rakkyo, Candy, Cipollini Gold Coin Onions and Conservator Shallots.

I was too lazy/cheap to put bird (squirrel) food on the ground, so some critter has zapped my cauliflower and Broccoli plants. (Putting critter food on the ground has saved my early garden for decades.  I should have known better.)

Up North I also put in 4 larger sized tomatoes; Green Zebra is my favorite but no one has it and talking to a person who sets up temp. garden shops, it is not available whole sale up here now.

Every thing I fully pre-intended to plant down South is now in the garden.
I planted the potatoes, 98.6 percent carry overs down there, and then uncovered the roses and put the leaves on the potatoes.

I planted the potatoes in the lessor production side of the garden because I did not want to have to cart the leaves any farther than absolutely necessary.
The South garden was HEAVILY hit with 30-0-10 fertilizer because I had it and was curious to see if that makes any difference.
Garden was roto-tilled twice, partly for weed control the second time, so it is mixed into the soil.

I have approx. 35 hills each in the North and South gardens.

I planted some ButterCup Squash and a pot of cucumbers but as of now the rest is Corn and Potatoes.
Corn planted was:
World's Largest Giant Corn Seeds
Seneca Red Stalker
Tuxepeno
Hickory Cane
Boone County White Dent
Goliath Silo Field Corn
Eureka Ensilage Dent Corn.
Zanadoo Sweet Corn
Martian Jewels Sweet Corn
Tuxana Sweet Corn
Double Red Sweet Corn

Plots are unevenly sized but on average, guessing, Seven by five.

My neighbors gave me a packette of Sun Flowers, so I did transplant two volunteer Sun Flowers and planted six Mammoth Sun Flowers.
I have two small open spots I may put some thing else in but as of now I am far more concerned about enough rain and the stinkin Turkeys.

Today I start to finish the North Garden which will be mostly corn though I will have to replace the Cauliflower and Broccoli.
Did put in six green snap beans of which 4 are coming out of the ground .
Looks to be a good year for onions so far but we need rain .
My Dad always planted some flowers so I am putting a goodly amound of Zinnias and Marigolds this year.

[Ranger99]

The few tomato plants that germinated are looking
decent with a good many blossoms
Same with the banana peppers
The salvaged squash seeds are all up and have
blossoms. Very strange from the usual growth
plants are all small with roughly golf ball sized
leaves instead of the double palm sized leaves
and 18 inch tall plants. I guess we'll see
I never count anything as a success until I'm
taking a bite out of whatever came off the
particular plant
Pretty poor germination from the seed this year
that was bought.  All the seed I scooped out of
those squash late last year all fairly jumped out
of the dirt

( should add that the beans didn't do anything.
Very poor from something that I usually have
a great excess to give away)

[Bob Riebe]

I finished the Garden up North, no more room for any thing.

On the flower side , I planted:
Pack of Cosmos, I got from Cherrios some where along the way.
French Double Dwarf Marigolds
Burpee Happy Days Marigold mix
Burpee Climax Marigold mix
Orange Flame Marigold from Bakers

Bakers Queen Lime Orange Zinnia
Polar Bear Zinnia gift pack from St. Clare
Burpee Zinnias:
Big Red
Purple France
Oklahoma Mix

Mammoth Sunflower randomely on the berm

Vegetables -- beyond Potatoes, Tomatoes, Chiles, Broccoli and Cauliflower but rabbits did a number on the Broccoli and Cauliflower because I was not feeding them.

Osmak 8 row Corn
Indian Flint Corn
Mandan Bride Corn
Piper's High Protein Corn
Atomic Orange Corn
Country Gentlemen Sweet Corn
Baxter's Yellow Sweet Corn

Free Cherry Belle Radish from Mary's Heirloom
Tenderette Beans
And two varieties of carrots.

It is dry so I watered garden heavily; two hours on each side with a lap-over in the middle.

[Bob Riebe]

Won't get down home for a few days but right now the North garden is looking good.

Corn has all popped out of the ground, onions look real good, tomatoes, chiles, broccoli and cauliflower are now doing well, and some of the flowers I planted are popping out of the ground also.

It is very dry, lawn has large brown spots.
Will water again today, although , the weather experts, say it is supposed rain , to some degree in the near future -- yeah right.

[Bob Riebe]

Heading down to the South garden in a bit for a stress test  by the doctor who want badly to put me on B.Pressure meds.
Not going to happen.

Lat time I saw the garden it was pretty much solid black, a week and four days ago.
Will see If the corn is up and  not destroyed by turkey vermin.

Taking down a couple tomato and squash that I pulled out of the garden weeding up North last nigh.
Few of what one would call real weeds but volunteer Tomatoes, Squash and Cleome were/are a nuisance.

Peed away some money ordering a Giant Cinnamon and Dr. Wyche's when I started looking for odd ball tomatoes online.
With all the volunteers that came up, I really had no need to buy any, any time.

[Ranger99]

Well the hail knocked off 3/4's of my tomatoes.
Just have to see if the plants survive.
Peppers look ok, but a good many leaves
knocked off

[Bob Riebe]

I was wrong, saw a surgeon down home; He wanted to run a gizmo down my throat and another up my butt-hole.
Told him hell has not frozen over yet.

Just got back from there, literally, for a different reason; Potato beetles have arrived but they are munching on the volunteer potatoes.
I squished some beetles, larvae and eggs, but decided I do not really want the potatoes growing in the corn plots, so I took the infected ones and pulled them out and threw them in the garbage.
Will go back in two days and do a more thorough inspection; I used to dust but that often is a waste of time, so now I squish as many as I can.
Hate to say it but with the corn high enough that turkeys cannot trample it, I would like the turkeys to come a eat the damn beetles.
South garden is doing pretty good really but that area is not in a drought; up North very bad drought.
I water heavily at least once a week, often more.
All lawns not on a irrigation system are brown.
If we do not get rain, the farmers who benefited from late winter snow, will be in a world of hurt up North.

[Bob Riebe]

We finally got some rain but I doubt it was even an inch, still, better than nothing.

Both of my gardens are doing well due to watering with a hose.
Corn in both will be well over knee high by the 4th of July.
Potatoes are still popping out of the leaf mulch.

Onion doing very well, as are tomatoes, chiles,  broccoli and cauliflower.
Saving money on gasoline with not having to mow the lawn very often.

[Bob Riebe]

Corn was shoulder high by the fourth of July.
Hope you all had a pleasant Independence Day.

[Ranger99]

Looks like the hail put me out
of the vegetable business.
I started a few replacement
pepper seedlings, but im doubtful

[Ranger99]

Rolled snake eyes this spring season
The hail beat everything to smithereens,
and the triple digit temps finished it
all off
Good thing I have a good many of the
canned article,  even though it isn't
even close to the homegrown items

The tomatoes are what hurt the most

[wtxbadger]

It's been a tough summer on gardening for sure, picked a good number of cherry tomatoes and the other tomato plants were looking good and then every plant came down with some sort of blight and withered up and died.

Yellow and butternut squash were a bust, picked one mess of yellow squash and that was it.

The only thing that has done fairly decent is blackeye peas. First couple of pickings we froze 5 quarts of peas and had a couple of messes for supper.

Going to plant more blackeye peas hoping for a decent Fall harvest and that's about it.

[Bob Riebe]

Due to a great degree a healthy water bill, both of my gardens look good.

Sweet corn is starting to tassle.
Picked brocolli and cauliflower last week; freezer is full and there is more coming.
Grew and picked green beans for the first time in decades.
Found 8 large cucumbers hanging in the 7 foot cage they are growing in.

The other half did not want cherry tomatoes but the plants she picked are just that, she is not happy. Mislabled BS that seems to have hit the markets. 
Other large tomatoes are not turning red yet and I have to get out and thin the foliage plus trim back growth as I once again planted to much to closely.
Onions are OK but while they bulbed up early, most did not get as large as I thought they would; still very usable.

CP beetles hit the South Garden potatoes hard and dusting seems to be a waste of time; at that I squished dozens but by the next day there were back in force.

[Ranger99]

. . Going to plant more blackeye peas hoping for a decent Fall harvest and that's about it.

I had some more pepper seedlings started to plant for fall ( about 1.5-2 " ) and
the hail did those immediately during the ice balls falling. The mature plants
were damaged, but if not for the severe temperatures I think they would
have recovered. Supposed to be cooler ( 80's-90's) in a couple of days, and
I'll probably look at what seed I have left and give it another try. The pop up
thunderstorm last Sunday knocked the top out of an oak in the back, and I
hope I can get it cut up in the same go

[Bob Riebe]

Was going to head home to the South garden but in the local rain storm heavy rain where it hit but missed the North garden where rain is needed, it got 3 inches of rain, so; I will go down next week and head down to Morgan , Mn for Farmfest 2023.

At that, we have been getting  pissy rains up North and as much of a jungle as the North garden is, the ground, except on the berm around the outside, will not dry out.

Sweet corn up North is at least 7 feet tall and the dent/decorative corn is at least 10 feet high.
The corn patch is huge jungle but squash vines, one planted as plants and one a fee single seed that came in a mystry gift packette , are now  in among the corn stalks.
The latter above was in with the bocolli, cauliflower, tomatoes and potatoes but redirected the vine as the leaves are well over a foot across and shading/hiding the other plants.

Tomatoe plants are very, very large but except for her, cluster /cherry type that were mislabled when she bought them, are slow to ripen.

Colorado potato beetles have gotten into the main patch , not bad but the vines are so heavy search for larvae to squish takes alot of time and with the high nineties and ninety percent humidity standing/kneeling out there get nasty.
My shirt and shorts were so soaked with sweat, I thought I had dumped water on them.

I have not been down home for ten days now but I can only imagine what that garden looks like as I have pulled tens of gallons of weeds each time I get down there.

[Bob Riebe]

Sweet Corn is becoming ripe so I am picking some.
Today we had Martian Jewels, Double Red and Tuxana.

Double Red is nothing to write home about but Martian Jewels and Tuxana were pretty good.
All were old school tasting sweet corn but the Double Red has annoyingly smale kernels.

Tomorrow we will try Country Gentlemen and Baxters Yellow
Not many sweet corn stands up here this year with the drought.

[Bob Riebe]

My experiment with red stalked, red husk sweet corn is over and I doubt I will ever plant said same again.
The double red  is all hype as far as tastiness, not planting except maybe for decoration; red hust , white kernels, not bad, large kernels but again not as good as simple white or yellow sweet corn.

Tuxana and Zanadoo were pretty good, Zanadoo was better of the two.
Sadly my Country Gentlemen, got very, very tall and maybe because the tassles were so high above the silk, most cabs did not fill out.
I got two good cobs out of the entire stand, approx. six by six.

For years I have had more potatoes than I could eat/give away but this year, unless the plants still in the ground went bonkers for yield, I doubt I will even get a full bushel.
Colorado Potato beetles devastated those planted down South, (I dug five plants and got a little over a dozen with the largest the size of pullet eggs) two plants had zero potatoes.
Tomatoes are now producing ripe tomatoes faster than can be eaten, and the freezer really has no room for more frozen for chilli.
Chiles are the absolute best I have ever had, no hot one this year, but the sweet ones loved this summer though my water bill is one reason.
I have a vine from a single gift seed sent by the company I ordered from , acting like it is on steroids send out vines.
Thinking it is a pumpkin but not sure yet; squash and cucumbers also gave me far more than I expected, and I now realize why som my put cukes on a trellis.
Summer garden is winding down, which is oftne a bit sad.

[Ranger99]

This season was pretty much a bust for me as
far as vegetables. I think I had a couple of peppers
before the severe heat and drought.

I've noticed maybe 3 volunteer plants ( squash?)
in a couple of places where I guess a bird or
squirrel had dug up a seed or two and dropped
them on the way to their hidey hole.
No fruits, just big yellow blossoms. Be interesting
to see if anything makes before it frosts regularly

[wtxbadger]

It's been an off year for pretty much everything but blackeye peas and beets. The second planting of blackeye peas did fair but not great. Fingers crossed 24 is better than 23.

[Bob Riebe]

Both gardens are not history but up here, despite the long extreme drought but then I watered both gardens long and often.

Still eating the last tomatoes, picked green and wrapped in newpaper to ripen indoors, not as good as of the vine but not bad.
Did find a carrot I missed when I dug them up; nice big six inch long fat one, so I cleaned it and ate it.
Burying in garden, plant debris this week, as the rains came late and the garden has been globby wet for the past three weeks too often.

Up here, I have spoken to many and most say it was one of the best garden years in quite some time, despite drought.

[JBinMN]

Looks like it is time to start a 2024 Garden Plans topic. 

[Ranger99]

Looks like it is time to start a 2024 Garden Plans topic. 

We ain't waitin on me   

[wtxbadger]

Looks like it is time to start a 2024 Garden Plans topic. 

Yep, been studying on it and think we're scaling back to just planting black eye peas, squash and tomatoes this year. I ran across a yellow squash variety that is supposed to grow up vertically and take up less space in a Gurneys catalog and might just have to try it and see how it does. On tomatoes the plans are to plant early girl and cherry and improved porters. For black eye peas it will be a variety called top pick brown crowder, grew them last year and they did fairly well. They are pretty much a one shot deal on picking and I figure staggering planting for the best results.

[Dee]

For me. It'll be okra, tomatoes, jalapenos and onions. I've saved enough cattle mineral tubs to do it all above ground. No weeds, and very little bending over. I am interested in that vertical squash you mentioned.