new year, new plans...

[ersatz_read]

It's the dead of winter here in Wisconsin - the high on Monday is supposed to be -15 degrees Fahrenheit, with windchills pushing -45 (I know - North Dakota would scoff at our measly windchills).  It's good weather for staying inside with a hot beverage and a stack of all the best seed catalogs

Comments

[vaysha]

I want to continue to grow plenty of herbs, chives, thyme, sage, tarragon, oregano, feverfew, parsley, basil (Which I never have much luck with here in the wet PNW) and I will do beans and snap peas and a tomato, zucchini and cucumbers, onions and garlic and strawberries in the strawberry patch but less veggies and more flowers. I do so love cut flowers and so many of the veggies go to waste as we can't eat them fast enough but fresh flowers make me so happy.
:)

[virginiadear]

"...and so many of the veggies go to waste as we can't eat them fast enough "

I understand, but if you're anywhere near enough to a city or town with a food bank, a church, temple or synagogue or a mosque or other religious house with a "A Place At the Table" type program or a food pantry, or a soup kitchen for this to be feasible, or if you know, or know of, a family or an individual who could do with the added nutrition and who'd appreciate the gift, send or give them your surplus produce.
Perhaps from time to time, you could share some of your cut flowers, too. 8^)

[vaysha]

that's a great idea if they will take them. I didn't know if the fresh food had to come from a commercial source. We do give a lot of it away to neighbors and I do some canning.

[virginiadear]

From what I understand, the Cleveland Food Bank, on which many others in this country (the U.S.) pattern themselves and which is purportedly the largest in the nation, takes donations of fresh foods (and has expressed willingness to receive donations from home gardeners, especially during the summer when, they say, they can't keep up with the demand for lettuce, tomatoes and---I think I'm recalling this third item correctly---cucumbers

[dickgloucester]

Your plans sound amazing! I love the idea of a whole bee/butterfly garden - I'm trying to build up a stock of as many bee/butterfly-friendly plants as possible, too. Also, your veg plans are thrilling.

[ersatz_read]

One of the advantages of a butterfly garden is that you're supposed to leave dead plants standing in the fall, in case they contain chrysalises. That plays right into my wheelhouse!

[matrixx]

Ducks generally like to nest in tall grasses with free access to water, and from flight they are attracted to open water especially if there are already other ducks there. Once a hen goes broody, she won't stray far or long from her nest so the water source must be very close. If you can lure them in, the area will receive an awful lot of nitrogen. Ducks poop like crazy, and they don't scratch it in the way chickens do.

[ersatz_read]

Good points. I'd like to add a pond at the SE corner of the property, with plenty of tall grasses and native wetland plants. But it could be a real headache if I do it wrong - I'm still in the thinking phase.

Yeah when I accidentally uncovered the nest in the sage, the hen didn't move a muscle. I just covered it over again and backed away.

[kestrelcat]

My garden plans are mostly for tomatoes, chillies and herbs. Last year was my first year in this space garden wise and was largely an experiment.

I should say my garden is in large containers on a sheltered west/northwest facing patio. I also have a smaller front area where I can have up to 3 containers that is south west facing and much warmer. This year I'll be trying chilies and dry loving herbs. It has public access so I'll not be putting anything special there.

For your septic field you might consider other bulbs like crocus and snowdrops for early cover.

For your pond spot I'd contact your local native plant folk. Maybe county parks and see what wet footed plants they'd recommend.

Cheers-
K

[ersatz_read]

Thanks for reminding me about the bulbs - I'll add it to my to-do list for the septic field. I have grape hyacinth, squill, and daffodils that have outgrown their current beds. I didn't get enough ground cleared last fall to add any bulbs, but this fall I'll add at least some crocus.

[yesididit]

i'm in minnesota and we're facing similar icky weather. but the seed catalogs have been arriving! so i have something nice to look at instead of the cold snowy view out my window.

i'd love to add more to my garden for the bees. i've been collecting a few things on pinterest about which plants attract bees, so i need to pick out a few of those plants from my catalogs.

i need to find a different kind of canning/paste tomato to grow that is blight resistant and still natural/organic/non-gmo. there are SO many freaking kinds of tomatoes to choose from the possibilities are overwhelming.

i would love to see pictures of your progress or outcome!

[virginiadear]

Please do excuse me if you've already tried these varieties and had poor results from them. They're drawing rave reviews and I notice that several of those reviews were written by Minnesotans.

http://www.rareseeds.com/amish-paste/?F_Keyword=paste%20tomato
http://www.rareseeds.com/jersey-devil-tomato/?F_Keyword=paste%20tomato
http://www.rareseeds.com/jersey-giant-tomato/?F_Keyword=paste%20tomato

No official connection, just a happy and very satisfied Baker Creek customer. I hope, this season, to try the Jersey Devil and Jersey Giant, myself.

[yesididit]

amish paste is the variety i'm having trouble with the blight with. they're my favorite variety. i've tried opalka (olpaka?) and san marzano too, and they all succumbed to blight. i've gotten good seeds from baker creek, and do have their 2014 catalog to peruse. perhaps there will be more information in the catalog about blight resistance. i couldnt find anything in the online links. i'll take a look at the jersey devil and giant.

[virginiadear]

My sympathies! I suspect, however, that the problem might not be so much the variety of tomato as weather conditions.

I know you don't live in my immediate region, but last season was such a mess, weather-wise, every tomato variety I planted, and I planted something like sixteen different varieties including Amish paste, wound up with early blight or late blight or both. Trimming and pruning didn't help; mulching didn't help. Total failure and a huge disappointment.

What wasn't troubled by blight was nailed by powdery mildew, and/or bolted, such as the lettuces.

Something has been chewing holes in the rhubarb leaves, which astonishes me since an old French gardening trick to keep young seedlings or young plants safe from crawling, climbing bugs is to slit a rhubarb leaf to slightly more than halfway from leaf base to tip, and then secure the leaf flat on the soil around the stem of the plant: in theory, the toxicity of the oxalic acid in the rhubarb leaf discourages insect predation. That, more than any possibility of