Middlemamma's 2nd try: 2011 Garden

LOL...of all places I found it at Target..in their overpriced and over-ritzed fashionista garden section. I love Target for a lot of things but gardening is lost on Target. Gardening is not glitzy yet they try awful darn hard to make it so! LOL I wait till after the season is over and I pick up the clearance items sometimes. I found this hat though for $9.99. I too had seen several that would have been great but the day I spent that amount on a garden hat was gonna be a cold one down under!

Hmmm...well maybe overalls are a next year thing then..I wouldn't have guessed they were expensive. LOL

Having spent a wee fortune on seeds this year and components for two more raised beds, I shall be buying my gardening hat at Goodwill!

I actually frequent the second stores and had no luck there...that would have been a treasure find!

Jen

I may try freecycle. It's a nationwide thing, that has many local groups, on yahoo, and you get emails or a daily list of what people are looking for or getting rid of, all of it is supposed to be free. I think you can find your local group at freecycle.com, not sure. I need to stop deleting them and start reading them again and keep my eye out for things I can reuse in the garden. We got a free dryer one time, it made a slight banging noise and the top was not pretty, but after not having a dryer for a month, and having winter fast approaching, and going one whole winter with no dryer before, that noise was music to my ears, it meant I was privileged to have a dryer. Sounds like I need to post I need overalls.

FarmerValerie wrote:As Scarlet O'Hara said "Cotton oughta go sky high this year" and they are saying it will.

Next, there will be a run on those fake denim pajamas I see on late-night TV.

I will be wearing my SFG cap!

All the rain we have been having is holding up all my expansion plans. We have to till, rake out, level and then lay cardboard and weed paper on an 25 X12 foot area in order to lay down the boxes we are adding.

So tomorrow rain or shine we are getting started. Unless it's a deluge we just have to grit our teeth and bare it

After we get that done tomorrow....then I can mix tons more MM throughout next week, I have a lot of stuff to fill up with it! I am willing to bet I end up buying another round of ingredients before June 1 comes.

On the bright side, all the rain is making my snap peas happy...they are growing right along. My lettuce, spinach, radish, green onions and other cooler crops are growing but pretty slow. But not dead...so another plus!

I have two 4X4 beds planted with only potato onions and garlic and they are coming up beautifully! Nearly every square has sprouted. That makes me EXTREMELY happy as it was only my second winter here and I had no idea the lows we would get, averages I read were way of of what we got, and I didn't mulch. Next year I will for sure.

I have so much to plant when we get the next bed in and filled...my little starts for cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower etc need to be in the MM!

I have been inpatient for spring..but it is so close I can feel it...

Middlemama - How do you handle a mixed 4x4 bed with potatoes, onions and garlic? I am planning a mixed bed as well (potatoes, onions, and carrots), but from reading postings on the forum it seems that potatoes need to be planted and then covered when they grow 4"-9", then covered again when they grow out again. My beds will be 18" deep and I'm trying to figure out how to manage the potatoes in the same box given the differing height needs. Do I plant them shallower, say at 9", then cover that section with additional MM as they grow? I was beginning to think that I had to put the potatoes in a separate container by themselves. Does my question make sense??

FarmerValerie wrote:I may try freecycle.

I've gotten more junk I didn't need thru freecycle... Plus their emails will take over your life. Some of the things people put on there just crack me up.

But, I found a big straw beach hat as a Halloween kid costume at Goodwill, you might want to try there too.

(oh I guess someone already mentioned Goodwill)

MasonGarden wrote:Middlemama - How do you handle a mixed 4x4 bed with potatoes, onions and garlic?

Two part answer:

Midmom didn't forget a comma! A lot of us are trying 'potato onions'. I forget why they're called that, but I have potato onions and garlic in the same box too.

You could build a 'high rise' to set on top of a few squares for your potatoes and/or carrots if you wanted. Mel describes it his book. I grew 16 squares of potatoes in 6 inches last year. That box produced about the same as the 12 inch box beside it. You just have to be careful to keep the potatoes covered up so they aren't exposed to sunshine.

YES!!!! Thank you boff.

Potato Onions are something Ander217 got me started on

HERE IS THE THREAD

I don't remember why they are called potato onions either but they are a multiplier onion...and you can't find then many places because after you get going with them you never have to buy onion starts or sets again, (of this kind) because you can eat half of what you harvest and plant the rest to get another crop.

And I have never done potatoes in SFG...I do them in $5 rope handled buckets I get on clearance at the end of seasons at wal-mart. I will have 10 buckets this year.

But boff's answer on how to do them in SFG is the way to go and stay on par with SFG.

Sorry about the confusion on the potato onions!!

Awwwwwwwww shame shame....you said "till." Thought that was a thing of the past. I wouldn't till squat if you paid me in lottery tickets.

We need one of those smilies with the finger shaming motions. Of course, I'd usually use mine sarcastically.

Only gonna do it this once...then I shall never till again.

So we got next to nothing done today that was on our list. Everything went wrong. The rake broke, the weed eater gas cap was crooked and leaked all the gas out, the area we are clearing is way more un-level than we thought at first, the wind was 20 MPH, and so on.

So we got about 1/3 of what we needed to done. Sigh.

But tomorrow is a new day and according to the forecast, maybe the wind will be less tomorrow and we will get another sunny day. It snow flurried on us today, funny but not any significant amount.

So will be back at it tomorrow and hopefully mixing Mel's Mix by Wednesday!

Are you familiar with the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good. Very Bad Day"? Sounds to me as if you had one yesterday. I have them more often than I care to admit and I just tell myself that they have days like that in Australia, too. Sorry the weather didn't cooperate. Virtual hugs your way! Spring is supposed to be here, right?!?!

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Awwwwwwwww shame shame....you said "till." Thought that was a thing of the past. I wouldn't till squat if you paid me in lottery tickets.

We need one of those smilies with the finger shaming motions. Of course, I'd usually use mine sarcastically.

Will this do? Page 4 and 5 of emoticons

LOL...Thanks Nancy! Yes Furbalsmom THAT should work!

Well today is a no go....I have snow/rain/hail/weird weather here today!

Hopefully soon though I can get out there and finish!

Woke up this morning....no wind...SUN!!!!

Got kids to school, ran errands that had to be run, got home, got out the weed paper and cardboard, got two rows laid down and .

WTH???

Sigh. Ah well....a little at a time will get it done too...

I am so far gone over this gardening thing...I need help.

So my efforts were thwarted again today by my bi-polar weather.

After we gave up due to rain, wind and snow, for the second day, I came in and cleaned the house.

About an hour into that the sun came out again. Disgusted I ignored it.

On March 13th I planted 4 squares of snow peas. Three weeks later I hadn't seen a sprout and I had PM'ed camprn and Lavender Debs and asked if I should replant or wait a bit longer. They advised to replant and also to soak the peas inside in water and then leave in a wet paper towel until I saw a little tail and then plant.

So I procrastinated of course...and my peas originally planted started to come up! So I waited to see how many would to follow camp's directions.

So Saturday night I felt all that were going to come up had, so I started them in the water and then placed in the paper towel. Camp warned: DON'T LET THEM GET TOO LONG OF A TAIL. WATCH THEM CLOSE. I was thinking this process would take at least a FEW days, because look how long it took these things to sprout! I am a pot watcher so I put these things out of site out of mind so I wouldn't obsess. So tonight I check them and I have tails!!!!

So it's 15 minutes till pitch black outside and here I am out in the Mel's Mix getting my little peas in the dirt! It has been sunny since I was cleaning the house earlier and not a drip of rain. So I am out there planting away....and I notice these little teeny tiny minuscule white things hitting the MM and I think...what the heck? What is that? And they keep falling and I check the nylon net that is my trellis, and I am thinking to myself is that stuff flaking off? So I shake the trellis and nothing...so I continue planting. Then the flakes get BIGGER and I realize...IT'S SNOWING!!! (insert expletives here) ARE YOU BLEEPITY BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP KIDDING ME!!!!!!

I think Mother Nature has it out for me. LOL

But I got my peas planted! Thanks Camp & Debs for the help.

It was sunny!

It was 55 degrees!

It was nice and breezy, not windy!

It was GLORIOUS!

I was in my garden for 4 hours!!! In short sleeves!!!

I got all the new boxes places, I mixed Mel's Mix and was able to fill three boxes of the 4.

I am so excited...it was just an absolutely beautiful day. I am wrecked, so tired from head to toe but I feel wonderful!

One more afternoon like that and I will have everything mixed and everything ready to go for my cool crops inside in the seed trays!

I have peas coming up everywhere!! I just want to jump up and down.

My spirits so needed today! Thank you weather for cooperating!

Jen

We understand, and we are excited for you!!!!

middlemamma wrote:snip....It was GLORIOUS!

I was in my garden for 4 hours!!! In short sleeves!!!....snip...I have peas coming up everywhere!! I just want to jump up and down.

My spirits so needed today!...

Dancing with you! Glorious was the word that I used to describe yesterday (but I might have spelled it wrong). I think that my face is burnt and I'm good with that. Sadly slugs got most of my peas this year and it is late to start more But there are seedlings of everything else ready to go!

Glory!
Debs.....Happy Easter t0 you and joy in the remembrance of the resurrection!

So happy for you Mamma. It was gorgeous here yesterday too, but I had to work so couldn't play in the garden. Today is supposed to be nice though and since we were unable to go visit our kids and see the new grand baby this weekend, I will play outside when I get home from church!!!

Gwynn

Well take heart Gwynn...you know when it gets better for me, you are next!

I have a 10 day forecast that is all rain. So my yesterday and today were just Spring starting it's engine....it isn't revving in our neck of the woods yet.

Sigh! I love seeing the pictures that have been posted of veggies that are growing in SFGs around the country, or that have been harvested already - yum! I have to say though, that I am jealous because I don't have any "babies" to take care of yet. As you saw from Nancy's pictures (although my yard hasn't been flooded), we've just had a steady downpour here in the Cincinnati-area so setting up my SFG has been impossible! I have been waiting several weeks now for the rains to subside just so that I can get my beds set up.

It looks like we will continue to get rain for the next few days, so I am hoping that by Friday it'll be dry enough to venture out and get my MM mixed and the boxes set up and filled. At this point, I'm not sure we'll be able to have any spring crops (I was SO looking forward to Nantes carrots, spinach, kale, lettuce, and collards!), but will get ready for the warm weather crops instead.

In the meantime, keep those pictures coming. I'll live vicariously through the rest of you -- and drool!