Hallo gardeners,

this is a new gardening technique and I read almost the whole book. Wow. Lots of great charts, love em.
I am a Master Gardener trainee, a horticulture student at Clark College, and love to visit nurseries, attending their classes.
Sunflowers are my favorite flowers, I grow them every year.
Today I planted bush beans in my square foot garden. This is exiting. Tomrrow I will plant carrots, lettuce, rutabagas, ect.
That is it for now :o)

Just in time for fall gardening. As a master gardener I think you will appreciate the ease and convenience and efficiency of SFG. Let us know how you like it. I will be planting my fall stuff next month. I can't wait.

When is your first freeze date for the fall.
Last year we had an unexpectant freeze on the 11th of October; hope we do not have it this early this year. I want my beans.
accuweather has last years temperatures in their data base :o)

Chopper wrote:Just in time for fall gardening. As a master gardener I think you will appreciate the ease and convenience and efficiency of SFG. Let us know how you like it. I will be planting my fall stuff next month. I can't wait.

It rather depends, but we can experience frost in the huge window of about Dec 31 thru Jan 4. There are the odd frosts outside of that window also. The worst I have seen is 5 nights frost/freeze in a row. I plan to be ready with covers for my beds that have growing items at the time. I have not gardened over the winter before so it is all new.

Have you ever tried to combine the two?

Welcome, SunflOwer.

We are in the midst of planting our fall garden here in southern Missouri. I hope to get beets, carrots, and turnips planted today, which is a good day for planting root crops according to the moon signs. I use the planting signs when possible, and I really do think it makes a difference although my brain tells me it shouldn't.

Keep us posted on how your fall garden grows.

Missouri,
we lived in Fort Leonard Wood years ago; about 17 years.
How long is your gardening season? Do you grow lots in the fall?
Which moon signs calendar do you go by? I found one on-line talking about short-, long-, and extra long germination seeds.
Also found one from Ed Hume Seeds Co, which is a good seed supplier for my area.
Till later,

ander217 wrote:Welcome, SunflOwer.

We are in the midst of planting our fall garden here in southern Missouri. I hope to get beets, carrots, and turnips planted today, which is a good day for planting root crops according to the moon signs. I use the planting signs when possible, and I really do think it makes a difference although my brain tells me it shouldn't.

Keep us posted on how your fall garden grows.

Sunflower:

Anecdotal evidence from my early childhood talked about two brothers who had large gardens. One used the Old Farmers Almanac using moon phases and times to plant (including planting after dark for peas on a dark moon etc.). The one who followed the Almanac was reported to have few if any bug problems and the other brother who planted when he thought the weather was right always had problems with insects in his garden. Again all this is anecdotal and goes back some 55 years. I had not followed the Almanac on planting dates and have had bug problems. Humm.... maybe time to try something....

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

very interesting, Ward.

Welcome, Sunflower!

Welcome Sunflower!!

How does one get to be a Master Gardener? I would love to do that I am sure. Oh to be able to garden all day whenever I want.

The phases I garden by could probably be called the "Hit or Miss" phases. These phases are largely determined by weather, inclination and time. When all three co-ordinate at the same time, I plant stuff. Maybe that is why my gardening is so 'hit or miss'!!!

Forgive me for asking but what do you mean by planting "in the dark"? You don't seriously mean you plant at night??????? I am definitely going to have to find out about this gardening by the moon.

GK

Old Hippie wrote:

Forgive me for asking but what do you mean by planting "in the dark"? You don't seriously mean you plant at night??????? I am definitely going to have to find out about this gardening by the moon.

GK

Okay, just read Ander's post under overwintering vegetables about moon phases. Great stuff. Thanks!!

GK

sunfl0wer wrote:Missouri,
we lived in Fort Leonard Wood years ago; about 17 years.
How long is your gardening season? Do you grow lots in the fall?
Which moon signs calendar do you go by? I found one on-line talking about short-, long-, and extra long germination seeds.
Also found one from Ed Hume Seeds Co, which is a good seed supplier for my area.

Our frost-free season runs from about mid-April through late October. I try to plant a little lettuce on Valentine's Day and potatoes on St. Pat's Day, and my onions go in the ground as soon as I can get them in.
In my area the fall gardens consist of mainly turnips and mustard greens, and a few folks plant winter radishes - China Rose or Black Spanish usually, although I might try Daikon in my deep SFG box this year. I also plant lettuce, spinach, carrots, and beets, and this year I'm trying a fall crop of fennel.

I used to always use a gardening calendar given away by our bank each year but they were gobbled up by a bigger bank and they no longer give away calendars. I've been using the Farmer's Almanac or checking online to find the signs.

BTW, I didn't follow the signs this year for planting and I've had one of the worst gardens of my life. Granted, we had drought, heat, and I got a bad compost mix, but I've never seen so many bugs, and so many plants that grew but just didn't produce. I planted some pole beans in the sign of Libra and they flowered all summer and never set a single bean. Was it coincidence? My husband set out his watermelon transplants at the right time and raised delicious melons. I don't want to believe it makes a difference but sometimes experience makes it hard not to.

The main part of our gardening season starts here on the May long weekend. I plant radishes, peas and onions pretty well as soon as I can get in the garden so about the beginning of May and sometimes even the last week of April. Even the first week of June we can get frost so you always have to watch the forecast and be prepared to cover cucs and tomatoes. This year we even got a freak frost on the 5th of July. I didn't get any where I am just because of the micro climate I have in my area, but people who live not far from me are at a slightly higher elevation than I am and lost beans and tomatoes and zucchini. By the first week of September we can expect light frost at night and need to be prepared for a killing frost by the middle of September. Sometimes, like last year, we didn't get a killing frost until almost the end of September.

Fall gardening is something I am experimenting with this year to see how it goes. I would like to try cover crops but can't really see them doing much when they are covered with three feet of snow!! LOL! But I am getting some fresh manure to make a hot bed out of the cold frame and see how that will do. The manure is free so all I can lose is a bit of time and work.

GK

Hey GK,

I can sympathize with your freak storms. I grew up in New Hampshire and one year we got a late June blizzard which broke a lot of our 12 ft+ lilac trees which were in full bloom at the time. And this year here in Virginia, we really didn't start much until the May weekend. Maybe I am in 3b after all!

I am interested in cover crops, too, but enough is still growing I'm going to hold off for now.