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sfallen2002

It's officially gardening season

sfallen2002
14 years ago

Overwintered lettuce and carrots putting on some growth, radishes and peas are up in the protected box, the unprotected lettuce box showing zilch. Garlic has some nice top growth happening. Overwintered chinese cabbage (no protection) got nailed by our last frost and shows no sign of returning.

Comments (10)

  • koszta_kid
    13 years ago

    We got radish,onions and spinach planted Sunday. But with the rain we're to get tonight. Will be up soon. Was out working in flower beds. Lot of the crocus I planted last fall just now making buds. Few of the flower beds need to amend soil Hard and crusty.

  • sosusie
    13 years ago

    Transplanted outdoors snap peas that I started indoors,and then planted more snap peas. Was SO happy I got the potatoes in the ground on Good Friday and before the rain...until hubby came home and showed me a whole bucket of potatoes I missed ;( Oh well, they will just have to wait until the ground dries again.

  • tyranodette
    13 years ago

    I started watermelon, cucumber, tomato and melon seeds on Sunday. Cucumbers are already at 2" and watermelon have just popped up last night. Placed flats on hog nursery heat pads set at 93 degree and dome covers. My wife said that I was stewing them with all the water that I let the mix soak up and the heat.
    I have never had as good results from seeds as what I am seeing in the seeds from SSE and the SunGro Metro 830 mix

  • tannabanana
    13 years ago

    It's April 16th and the peas have been up for a good week. So are radishes, carrots, and spinach. Onion sets have good sprouts on them and the cabbage, broccoli, and pak choi are all set out and seem to have survived the transplant. Lettuce did too until the bunnies came and had a buffet. sigh. Forgot I put those in planters last year! Maybe the potatoes I planted on Good Friday are up? Maybe? I need to go to my community plot and check (first timer out at the community garden!).

  • sfallen2002
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Hauling plants out of the basement for sunlight _ day 2. If this keeps up will have plants hardened off by end of next week! 10 day forecast seems promising, lows in 40's.

  • sfallen2002
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Cukes went in the ground this AM, covered with frc to keep from getting sun stroke. Also helped when the wind kicked up. 24 bean plants went in - tomatoes tomorrow if it doesn't rain!

  • sfallen2002
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Looks like 2010 is not so different from past seasons after all :(
    All my san marzanos were nailed by that last frost. Other vars seemed to survive (mostly). I can't seem to time this right! This year I pulled my wire cages apart, bent lengthwise and covered with plastic to keep toms happy but it wasn't enough. I guess painter dropcloth plastic is not thick enough on its own, prob should have had a couple layers frc over. Interesting thing is that cukes out same time, better protected, are starting to take off - diva and homemade pickle vars.

    Put melons into raised boxes despite gooey mess, under frc, and into "compost pile" 3 days old prot. From rain with tarp, pile straw and grass clipping layers moistened as built, a fair amout of heat being generated. Hopefully the plants won't cook!
    Noir des carnes, presxcott fond du blanc, and petit gris des rennes - handful of each.

  • sfallen2002
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    OK, tomatoes are beginning to show signs of recovery, greening back up and putting on new growth. A far cry from the brownish-grey sticks from a week and a half ago. Have lost a few, but when you start out with more than you need..
    Lost one Diva cuke plant, other 2 are fine. First zuchini blossoms, and I have one potatoe plant (overwintered or survived in the mulch pile) also blossoming - that's one healthy looking plant!

    Now if only I can catch the groundhog before he eats again.. nailed my broccoli and he took the only thriving beet, blast him!

  • sfallen2002
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    First harvest strawberries... Spotted a cuke and a zuke.. Tomatoes and potatoes have blossoms..

  • thefrugalgardener
    13 years ago

    Hi, I am in Marion, IA and completely new to gardening, this year is my first time ever planting anything. I planted a variety of things on 4/29/10: lettuce, peas, carrots, and a few pumpkins from seed sown directly into the ground...and about 10 tomato plants and 1 pepper plant that were transplanted store-bought plants.

    I pretty much took the 'plant it and if it grows, fine' approach since I had this big bed with nothing in it and wanted to save some money growing my own if I could. I can hardly believe that I just harvested my first lettuce this week and all of the rest of my stuff is growing phenomenally well...peas definitely liked the cooler weather we had today - had a ton of blossoms that opened up, it was like they exploded today!!

    All of my tomato plants have blossoms and I have 15-20 blossoms that have already set fruit and are growing rapidly. Is this common for Iowa Already?? I have Rutgers, Big Boy, and 1 lone Burpee Supertasty plant or something like that. I have since done quite a bit of reading - all post-planting....I feel like I got lucky that all of this stuff is doing so well thus far=)

    Glad to have a place to share and ask questions!!

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