Garden 2023

Zone 8b checking in.




Got about 120 starts still indoors, all from seed, mostly tomatoes and pepps but also some flowers like celosia, amaranth, anise hyssop, and of course marigolds. Most of these planties leveled up last week into the 3.5" pots but a few remain in the little array. They are taking over my living room.

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The overwintered outdoor stuff is doing ok, but I slacked a little last fall and the spring has been cool.... I'm a little behind on the rainwash stone roundup and general tidying.

Brussels are fat and excellent. And as with all brassicas, the second-year flower shoots are some of my favorite garden fare. So sweet and crunchy and good af for ya.

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Swiss chard, "Bright Lights" variety.

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Peas are coming up but a bit slow.

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First rhodies are starting to bloom this week while the hellebores wind down.

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And a new experiment this year... mason bees! Had a pile of cocoons in the fridge till now, but I finally built the house for their nesting tubes and hung it on the sunny side of the house. Brought the bees out today with the start of a warm weather stretch and about half of em hatched. Could hear them chewing out of the cocoons.

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Lots more to come.

Please post up your garden! Grand or humble, all are welcome.

Bees!

Next level gardening. Nice work.

Nice looking starts and bees, they're going to love all those flowers you're starting.

Never have had much luck with brussels, got way too many aphids. Got any tips for getting brussels to produce without a ton of those little sap suckers? Zone 6b/7a (Boise) for me.

Working on getting my drip lines redone and finished prepping of the Mrs' and my garden, then I'll post up some photos.

Glad to see this thread. Gonna try to get planted before the rains this weekend - Zone 6B in New England

Just grow it.

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Originally Posted by mtnjam

Never have had much luck with brussels, got way too many aphids. Got any tips for getting brussels to produce without a ton of those little sap suckers? Zone 6b/7a (Boise) for me.

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I got a bunch of aphids in the fall crop, and attempted to control them with plain hosewater blasting, but the winter temps were the only thing that really kept them at bay. Boise is probably too cold to keep em in the ground for the winter, tho.

I've read that you can deter them with certain companion plants, with soapy water (maybe with deleterious soil effects?), or with predators like ladybugs. All kinda wimpy options. Or just roast and eat them with the brussels.

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Spring skiing, business taxes, rolling into busy work season, and start of gardening all converge. My garden is usually the thing that suffers. Maybe I'll get drip lines set up this year.

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Originally Posted by Rideski

<snip>Maybe I'll get drip lines set up this year.

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Game-changer, for sure.

Dunno what zone I'm in. NOAA says 330 day growing season, and I kept a tomato plant alive outdoors for 3 years. Frost finally got em this winter. Maybe for the best as I'm losing the battle against spider mites. I saved and propagated a Sun Gold, but even indoors, I'm not sure I've eliminated the mites. Thought I had, then came back from skiing to find an infestation.

So it'll probably be all new plants. I have space for 5 in containers. Not sure what to do about my drip system, landlord doesn't like the "always on" hose any more - I might go for an elevated bucket to gravity feed it. Soil-wise I added leaves and compost over the winter. Now it's time to plant.

Last fall's garlic is off to a great start.

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Have a pile of onion seedlings on the go. Pretty boring stuff but I need a ton of something to hopefully help remediate a previous tomato area that desperately needs some 'rotation'. (Been battling what I think is some form of mosaic disease there for the last two seasons)

Beyond that have been slacking with seedlings. Have a tray of various peppers so far but that's it. Will get some tomatoes and cucumbers going shortly. Have all but given up on germinating some herb seeds. Cilantro and dill are super successful here, but thing like common parsley, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil etc I get near zero germination rates.

Still having light frost but will chance it with some greens soon as well.

My favourite time of year by far. We have the entire, glorious summer waiting right in front of us. Days are longer, trees are budding and flowers are blooming.

Bumblebees are happy
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Missed getting a pic of the first dandelions as they closed this afternoon when the sun and temps climbed above 25C.

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Tulips blooming, and so far the deer have left them alone. Been placing a few kitty litter pucks around the plants (first spring with Kitty). Seems to be working as most years the ungulates live for the emerging tulip blossoms.

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Radishes happy, other greens are sprouting.

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Just pulled the big empty planter from forcing the rhubarb. Love munching on the first stalks of spring.

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Last Nov cold snap really set back the strawberries, but they are making a comeback. raspberries are flushing in time with the lilacs. Chives are so nice with weekend breakfast eggs.

Not bad start to zone 5B(6a now?)

great starts everyone has!

garlic is up, my bees are out - onions in this week.

everything else waits til 1june.
still snowing ever other night in these parts.

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^^^ solid bush!
:biggrin:

Late start this year, we excluded the chickens from the garden early April and tilled a couple weeks ago. After 5 years of bringing a few cu yards of compost every spring and letting 10 birds use the place as their litter box the soil is finally looking semi decent:

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Unpleased chicken having lost 70% of its roaming area:

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Weed block went around the rows a couple days ago, bunch of things have been direct sown, and the rest is in and out of the green house for hardening with plans to be in the ground this weekend. Can't fucking wait to spend 4 hours on my knees wrestling with irrigation pipes and tiny tubes...
We didn't do anything for the cool season, Ms Boissal was otherwise occupied with her pregnancy and I'm too much of a degen to think about the garden while there's skiing to be had.

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Originally Posted by Boissal

^^^ solid bush!
:biggrin:

Late start this year, we excluded the chickens from the garden early April and tilled a couple weeks ago. After 5 years of bringing a few cu yards of compost every spring and letting 10 birds use the place as their litter box the soil is finally looking semi decent:

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Unpleased chicken having lost 70% of its roaming area:

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Weed block went around the rows a couple days ago, bunch of things have been direct sown, and the rest is in and out of the green house for hardening with plans to be in the ground this weekend. Can't fucking wait to spend 4 hours on my knees wrestling with irrigation pipes and tiny tubes...
We didn't do anything for the cool season, Ms Boissal was otherwise occupied with her pregnancy and I'm too much of a degen to think about the garden while there's skiing to be had.

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Or while you could be boning the Mrs during the sweet spot in the pregnancy.

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Originally Posted by Boissal

^^^ solid bush!
:biggrin:

Late start this year, we excluded the chickens from the garden early April and tilled a couple weeks ago. After 5 years of bringing a few cu yards of compost every spring and letting 10 birds use the place as their litter box the soil is finally looking semi decent:

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Nice junipers.

:fmicon:

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Originally Posted by riser4

Or while you could be boning the Mrs during the sweet spot in the pregnancy.

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That ship has unfortunately sailed, she's about to burst...

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Originally Posted by skaredshtles

Nice junipers.
:fmicon:

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Hate those things with a passion, they look like shit and are real scratchy. There are some wild rose bushes in there too, impossible to trim. But, the birds love them and it hides the road...

Progress was made:

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10 tomatoes, 12 or so pepper (+ a couple in containers), eggplants, bunch of squashes (direct sown), a couple cucs and melons on trellises and a ground cherry (all out of sight). Not a fun round of planting as it kept raining on my ass. Irrigation going in tonight along with cages to protect everything. Then we wait...
We've scattered herbs all around the house this year instead of planting them in a dedicated spot. Might as well make use of the "ornamental" garden beds and plant edible stuff in all of them.

My walnut has finally come back to life as well, I'm so pumped! There are 3 massive black walnuts in the neighbor's yard, beautiful trees putting out a ton of fruits, and last year I found a tiny sapling along our fence. The fruit it spouted from barely managed to take root (it landed in an area with weed block covered with wood chips) and I was 90% sure I had killed it when I moved it in late spring 2022. The fucker is tough and managed to grow a 3" stalk and a single leaf over the summer. I've been watching it since the snow melted and was losing hope, the stalk was looking very dead without a single bud on it. Ms Boissal suggested notching it but that seemed aggressive for such a small guy. I ignored it for a few days and BAM, 4 leaves, can't wait to get fruit in 15-20 years :D

So many impressive setups here.

Me and the oldest daughter put ours in today, using local starts. Lots of lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and some carrots. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d66b98b9ee.jpg

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Honeysuckle’s are doing well. Have had a terrible aphid infestation last 2 years. This year in winter I sprayed all the stems and soil with aphid killer, then again early spring once leaves started to bud, so far so good. If they come back during bloom I just spot treat with insecticide soap so I don’t kill other critters or harm the hummingbirds.

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5 variety Apple tree already has some nice apple buds, should be a good harvest. Got over 90 apples off this little tree last year. Love this thing

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Raspberry bush budding nicely

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Gave up on a food garden but wife loves the yellow cherry tomatoes so set this up

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Peony about to pop

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All the struggles last year took the wind out of my sails and I bailed on almost all the food plants this year. Between diseases, bugs and drought I figured I'd give the beds a rest this year and do just flowers and herbs. The blueberries didn't survive but the blackberries did fine, I cut the raspberries down to the ground over the winter and they came back denser than ever. I didn't plant it this year and haven't taken care of it at all but there's a 3 foot tall parsnip that I'll pull soon. After the mosaic that ruined the end of the tomatoes last year and the blight that took the melons and cukes I turned those beds into native plant pollinator zones, next year I'll do a bigger bed a little further out. We have a dozen hanging baskets with herbs so that'll be nice.

Pge took out several trees on our property last summer, which opened up a new and better area to have our garden in terms of sunlight and location. Part of the little area has invasive Himalayan blackberries, so we’re slow rolling getting it all set and established. Probably will plant next summer if we get our shit together. And will have a few containers with tomatoes and peppers in the are this summer. A few weeks ago, we burnt most of the area as a step in eradication of the blackberry. It worked pretty well. I’m digging out the new sprouts and runners as I see them come up.
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Our old garden spot has some herbs that the deer ignore, raspberry, and a few orchard trees/sprouts: an older cherry tree, walnut, and fig. The fig is from the Felix Gillet Institute, which is a pretty rad local nursery. We’re hoping to plant a few other orchard trees from their stock in the coming years as we open up more of our little forest property.

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Originally Posted by gravitylover

All the struggles last year took the wind out of my sails and I bailed on almost all the food plants this year. Between diseases, bugs and drought I figured I'd give the beds a rest this year and do just flowers and herbs. The blueberries didn't survive but the blackberries did fine, I cut the raspberries down to the ground over the winter and they came back denser than ever. I didn't plant it this year and haven't taken care of it at all but there's a 3 foot tall parsnip that I'll pull soon. After the mosaic that ruined the end of the tomatoes last year and the blight that took the melons and cukes I turned those beds into native plant pollinator zones, next year I'll do a bigger bed a little further out. We have a dozen hanging baskets with herbs so that'll be nice.

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We had a year like that, and soil remediation fixed our issues.

Zone 4 is a little behind everyone else but off to a good start.

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Apple tree blossoms really popped this year

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The 'bee bed' with a couple of cherry bushes and some annuals that got fried by a late frost

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And a new flock of fertilizer machines

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Originally Posted by Percy Rideout

We had a year like that, and soil remediation fixed our issues.

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Hence the native wildflower beds I planted. That should add back the nitrogen and a few layers of compost along the way, then turn it in with the leaves in the fall and throw down some clover seed. It should be good to go in the spring.