2021 gardens

[roony]

The sugar snap peas you eat the pods and all. Just rinse them and steam them. A bit of butter and lemon pepper, mmmmm.

[Dotch]

Those are the ones I've been growing. They seldom get cooked here. The last several times I grew them I gave away gallon bags full. No way I could eat all of them. I'd like to get them in the ground the end of July along with some of the winter radishes and greens.

Turkey update: He left the garden alone yesterday. I scattered some shell corn I'd saved for the pheasants out in that vicinity. Not sure he found it but the squirrels did so they can point it out to him. Now I'll have a yard full of Round Up Ready corn. 

The yellow canna opened up yesterday! Pretty flowers. Hope the heavy weather stays away tonite. 

[glenn57]

  what's this heavy weather you speak of???? iffin it brings rain......i'll take it!!!!!!!

[Dotch]

Could be some high winds and hail after 5 p.m. here. Hope it gets out of here before dark. I've got chicky to grill! 

[glenn57]

Could be some high winds and hail after 5 p.m. here. Hope it gets out of here before dark. I've got chicky to grill! 

meh.........dont need hail..........it is a form of water however!!!!!!!!

[deadeye]

Dotch,
I'll save you some purple ones if you save some yellow ones for me. 

[HD]

this has me very curious. especiallies Kens take on seed racks at the big stores. quess i've never had to many issues with the seeds i get, but if i can save a buck and get better seeds.....i'm in. 

KEN........ do these places have seed catologs they mail out to you?????

HD.......do you also get seed catologs...........i dont order online stuff.

Yes, I get a catalog from them. I do know that they are a small outfit and if you don't order after a year, they won't send out another mailing. Because of cost.

I get all the other regular ones from the big outfits,  but it seems like almost to many.

[Dotch]

Dotch,
I'll save you some purple ones if you save some yellow ones for me.

I'm game if I can get it to produce a bunch of bulbs. Purty little thang. Will do my best. Plenty of sheep manure under and around it. I'll probably topdress it with some urea after a bit. Looks like rain for Sunday so might do that Saturday afternoon. Appears we got dry cleaned this afternoon and likely the same for this evening. Going more off to our south...

[KEN W]

Here is a list of seed catalogs I get. Most come around Christmas time. Looks like a lot. But they are nice to look at in the middle of winter. All you have to do is go to their website and fill out the info to get one. I start all my own plants for my garden. Except I buy sweet onion plants and potato sets.


Twilley(small packets). Seeds and Such(small packets), Park, Jungs, Johnnies, Burpee, Gurneys. R H Shumway, Nichols, Territorial, Morgan County, Willhite, Totally Tomatoes, Harris, Pinetree(small packets), Baker Creek, Fedco, Nourse Berry Plants, Garden Trends, Indiana Berry Plants, Seed Savers Exchange, Farmer Seed, Burgess.

[roony]

Dotch,
I'll save you some purple ones if you save some yellow ones for me.

I'm game if I can get it to produce a bunch of bulbs. Purty little thang. Will do my best. Plenty of sheep manure under and around it. I'll probably topdress it with some urea after a bit. Looks like rain for Sunday so might do that Saturday afternoon. Appears we got dry cleaned this afternoon and likely the same for this evening. Going more off to our south...

You got your rain 2X now when I got zilch. My turn next.

[glenn57]

Dotch,
I'll save you some purple ones if you save some yellow ones for me.

I'm game if I can get it to produce a bunch of bulbs. Purty little thang. Will do my best. Plenty of sheep manure under and around it. I'll probably topdress it with some urea after a bit. Looks like rain for Sunday so might do that Saturday afternoon. Appears we got dry cleaned this afternoon and likely the same for this evening. Going more off to our south...

You got your rain 2X now when I got zilch. My turn next.

:rotflmao:yea dotch is a rain hog!!!!!!!!!

[roony]

He always gets all the rain! 

[glenn57]

Here is a list of seed catalogs I get. Most come around Christmas time. Looks like a lot. But they are nice to look at in the middle of winter. All you have to do is go to their website and fill out the info to get one. I start all my own plants for my garden. Except I buy sweet onion plants and potato sets.


Twilley(small packets). Seeds and Such(small packets), Park, Jungs, Johnnies, Burpee, Gurneys. R H Shumway, Nichols, Territorial, Morgan County, Willhite, Totally Tomatoes, Harris, Pinetree(small packets), Baker Creek, Fedco, Nourse Berry Plants, Garden Trends, Indiana Berry Plants, Seed Savers Exchange, Farmer Seed, Burgess.

holy smokes Ken......thats alot of catologs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so..couple questions..........

when you say small packages...how small say vs the ones in the big box store........and price wise????????? on a normal year when i get seeds i plant 4 of the big box store packages of kalarabi and carrots. 1 each of green beans, cukes and lettuce and spinach. if i want to equal that how many small packets would i need......relatively. i also usually plant about 6-8 radish packs per year.

[KEN W]

That's difficult to answer. Some packets are sold by weight and some by seed count. I will look at what the size packet is and try to get the number of seeds I need for 1 year. Some varieties are hybrids and others not. I usually try to get hybrids if possible. Except tomatoes. Hybrids are almost always a step up from nonhybrids. Better germination, better taste, more uniform etc.

 Most seed varieties in Big Box Stores are not hybrids or older. There are no hybrid beans or peas so I keep some for the next year by letting them dry.

I also like to try newer supposedly better varieties that are never on seed racks. Especially the new All American ones.  Can only been found in seed catalogs.

AAS WINNERS are flowers and vegetables that have been "Tested Nationally & Proven Locally.™" Each AAS entry is tested for superior garden performance by horticulture professionals across North America.

 The best Sweet Corn can only be gotten from a catalog. I wouldn't even think of getting corn from a seed rack. My family is fussy and will only eat Augmented Supersweet Corn. If you have never had a Super Sweet Corn, you are really missing out.

Same with melons. Wouldn't get from a seed rack. Other veggies the same. If you will tell me what you are interested in, I can give you some suggestions.

 

[Dotch]

One thing I am curious about, when you order a single packet from one of these outfits, what kind of shipping charges do you incur? For instance, I found Mexibell peppers on Seeds-n-Such, an AAS proven winner back in the day I believe that I grew back in the late 80's. A friend who was working with Sun Seeds at the time gave me the seeds along with several other things to play with. The Mexibells did great even direct seeded in '88. '88 was hotter than hell here. We had water access tho where we had recently torn down the old barn. I think they'd work great for stuffed peppers with their added zing. Would love to grow them again but if it's gonna cost $10 to get the seeds here, perhaps not.

I went by Souba's Greenhouse in Owatonna today, coming & going to BTT50's registration. They worked with Ball Seed a lot and had a large selection of AAS proven winners in their offerings. The wife went along to see their extravaganza for many years. Sometimes though I like some of the things that I remember that are no longer available. For instance, Norgold russet potatoes. For the home garden growing up in SE MN, far superior to a Burbank russet. The Norkotah comes close but even those have fallen out of favor, being replaced by something "new and improved". If I ever find a Patten greening apple tree, it's coming to live here, regardless of the price.     

[glenn57]

Ken I'll write down what I plant. Pretty basic but I'll do it tomorrow.

[KEN W]

OK

I have grown Mexibell peppers in the past. I really liked them. Now I grow Red Ace. A short season Bell Pepper. I also have grown most of the potatoes developed at NDSU. I tried Norgold, but seemed to not be a very long keeper. Now I grow Norkota. Depends on what I want to use them for. My grandkids love mashed potatoes. The best potato for that is Norland. Been growing it for over 40 years.It keeps well, and flowers early so it is great for baby reds.

i planted 65 hills this year.....Norland, Norkota and Red Viking. They won't last past Christmas.

Yes, shipping charges can be high. So I try to get seeds from 2 companies. So the charges aren't to bad.

[Dotch]

Have grown lots of Norlands over the years. A friend of mine grows them in the Valley. He sent me some seed Norlands a few years ago. They arrived in a couple egg cartons. Pretty cute. Would've been wonderful baby reds but I planted them. I liked growing them as an early red and Ponitac's as my later red. Fried potatoes it was hard to beat a good Pontiac. I seem to recall the same about the Norgold but we ate them rapidly so not a problem. We loved baked potatoes growing up and still do. As I get the garden here transitioned, potatoes will be back in the equation.

Thanks for your honest replies Ken. The world could stand a lot more of that.

[glenn57]

OK....i remembered............ this is what i buy and plant for seeds.

lettuce, spinach and kalarabi..........off the top of my head i cannot remember the variety 

radishes.......my best luck like i said begore was or is the cherry bell.

green beans........long lake

cucumbers......i prefer the straight 8

carrots.....i,ve tried other varieties but always got back to the danvers.

and i tend to stay withthe burpee brand.i've tried others but burpee to me so far have better results for me.

onions...... i buy the sets from the local hardware store...it,s definetly hit and miss usually i'm satisifed with th results...........this year based on what i see will be a good crop.

the tomatoes and peppers i but the plants from fleet farm, they get there stuff from a big greenhouse out by monticello and have had generally good results from them. although i kinda enjoy starting that stuff from seed.......i', simply dont have the room or a setup to make it feasable!!!!!!!!

[Dotch]

So far so good placating the wild turkey with my corn offering. Didn't see any more of his damage in the garden yesterday. Now however the dummy appears to be following the squirrels around and digging up the corn wherever they plant it! Last night I was checking things out and he was standing on the edge of the yard no more than 30' away from me. Didn't have anything handy to throw at him so I took off after him waving my arms and yelling. He didn't seem real afraid of me, just sorta sauntered off into the plum & sumac brush. 

If he continues to leave things alone, the main garden is off to a good start. All 6 jack o'lantern pumpkin & 10 buttercup squash hills have plants in them that are loving this heat. Watering was a must or we would've had squat. After being somewhat pokey, yesterday I noticed that 11 out of 15 hills of cukes were emerged. Oddly enough, the year old green dragon seed was out of the ground before the new muncher seed was. The tendergreen string beans are finally showing some signs of life too. Doing a little digging I could see the crooks below the surface a half inch down. Tomatoes continue growing like mad. Several yellow pear fruit set. Zucchini may need a little TLC in the form of some nitrogen so may address that tonite. Did that last year & they took off like gangbusters. Cannas are coming up here and there like they always do. Still puzzled why the four o'clocks are so slow. Not sure if I might've overwatered or what but both beds have spotty emergence. Two different seed sources, some I saved and a packet the wife bought. The 4 volunteers I transplanted into pots are 8+" tall now.     

[KEN W]

OK.....the only hybrid pea is sugar snap.
No Hybrid beans
No hybrid lettuce

Their are hybrid Spinaches but I usually grow heirloom Bloomsdale

Straight 8 is a good cuke

Carrots...I always try to find the variety Bolero....The longest keeping there is. I can keep them for 9 months in cold storage.

A couple things about onions.....They are biennial. The second year produces seed pods on top. They don't keep at all. The larger the sets, the more likely they will bolt to make seeds because the onion thinks it is the second year.. So buy the smallest ones you can find. In bulk if you can find them. Don't use the scoop. Pick out the smallest ones. More per pound also.

My philosophy about onions is...."if they make you cry when pealing them....They are to hot to eat raw." Because of this I always buy sweet onions in bundles.
Yellow Candy and Red Candy. Plant as soon as you can get them in the ground. The larger the top when they start making bulbs....the larger the bulb will be. I just fertilized mine again today with 10-10-10. Try calling some nurseries and find out if they have onion bundles. You will notice the difference.

As far as starting your own peppers and tomatoes....I start them in small round or square pots like the ones geraniums come in. As soon as they come up I put 2 apple boxes apart and put a shop grow light suspended. As soon as seeds come up they go under the lights. I have to put something under them to get them an inch below the light.

When they get true leaves on them about 3-4 inches high....They get transplanted into those round pots. Gradually move them outside for an hour or 2. Then longer. Every time they get transplanted the stem is buried. When I move them outside, they go into a greenhouse on my patio like this....

https://www.menards.com/main/outdoors/gardening/greenhouses/4-shelf-mini-greenhouse/xjgh-018a/p-1499668417118-c-10122.htm?tid=-6001035026327367726&ipos=1

I do the same with Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, and Lettuce. Plus all my melons. In also start my own Herbs. I just took mine apart a week ago till next year.

The seeds you are buying are fine. But if you want to start your own tomatoes and peppers.....buying them all from a catalog will bring the shipping down.

I didn't realize this was this long un till I posted it.

[glenn57]

  thanks Ken!!👍👍👍

[mike89]

thanks Jen!!👍👍👍

who's jen????  just askin for a friend...........

[glenn57]

thanks Jen!!👍👍👍

who's jen????  just askin for a friend...........

fat fingers on a skinny cell phone. but I have a daughter named Jen!     I'll fix it iffin it's gonna make you feel better.

[mike89]

dats ok we knew what ya meant!!!   

[glenn57]

Man that sun is doing a beatdown on my cucumbers plant leaves. I so can't wait till tomorrow and all next week for cooler temps.

[KEN W]

And rain on Sunday. Even though it is Fathers Day.

[glenn57]

And rain on Sunday. Even though it is Fathers Day.

I'll gladly take that rain for father's day.

[KEN W]

Forgot to mention.....If you want to eat the best sweet corn you have ever had, you have to get it from a catalog.

I have already planted 3 varieties and will plant the next one tomorrow. With the last one on July first.

[glenn57]

Not really a garden product but.... 18 lbs of cherries for 28 bucks. That is roughly $1.56 a lb. To the math challenged. might be some missing already.

Next up should be the blueberries, then peaches and pears. Dang I love this time of year.