Garden 2022

[Boissal]

Damn, that's impressive, I gotta make sure Ms Boissal doesn't see this or she'll escalate to another level. Found her in the greenhouse last week spraying insulation foam in the nook and crannies cause it was not holding temperature properly.

How are the ground cherries in terms of spread? I've been tempted to try them for a few years but haven't so far cause I don't know anyone growing them and am not sure how they behave...

[Norseman]

How are the ground cherries in terms of spread? I've been tempted to try them for a few years but haven't so far cause I don't know anyone growing them and am not sure how they behave...

Dunno, first time growing them for me! They're just about indistinguishable from the tomatillos so far except for the color of the blooms. I expect similar behavior once in the ground.

I've read that they drop the fruits on the ground about a week before they're ripe, so hopefully just gathering them all before they burst will keep the seeds from getting everywhere. Or by spread, do you mean just physical plant extent?

[total_immortal]

I've done ground cherries a few times. Norseman is mostly right, they are similar to tomatillos although they tend to be shorter and broader. The cherries are in a husk similar to tomatillos and yes they need to ripen a bit once you harvest them (we would harvest when we noticed a few had fallen off or they came off very easily). We got lazy with harvesting and 2 year later we still have the occasional sucker, so be diligent with harvesting or just plan on having a few unplanned ground cherry plants for a couple years.

[Boissal]

Thanks for the beta. We have a tomatillo plant that has survived 3 winters now. Well, I should say that the root ball survives and the plant comes back in spring cause I always break the stem once it's dry in late fall. The fucker comes back with a vengeance no matter what and grows into a sturdy mini tree, wider and taller every year. I thought ground sherries like to spread a lot which is what's stopped me from planting them so far. We already fight extended battles with the squashes, cucs, melons, and indeterminate tomatoes, I don't want another plant trying to conquer the world...

[MakersTeleMark]

Iz not engineerd, but I'm torn with my plans this year. Keeping it GED simple. Just got my seeds in the mail today!

Thoughtz, besides the fact that the last time I planted pickling cukes, they all died on the vine in an early frost while I was gone in August?



I'm leaning to #2 because I can trestle them.

[Norseman]

Iz not engineerd, but I'm torn with my plans this year. Keeping it GED simple. Just got my seeds in the mail today!

Thoughtz, besides the fact that the last time I planted pickling cukes, they all died on the vine in an early frost while I was gone in August?



I'm leaning to #2 because I can trestle them.

could the cukes maybe get moar colorado sun/heat by being low on the dirt? trellises are fun but maybe it takes more energy to go up? i don't know shit. and lettuce does fine in part shade.

[Norseman]

[Norseman]

Yanked most of the overwintered rooties and put the tomatoes/tomatillos/g cherries in the dirt.

[JongDoe]

The Garden better be rocking tomorrow night or the Rangers are done.

[BCMtnHound]

Been an interesting spring so far, cool and moderately dry. If the old timers rule of snow off the closest alpine peak to town before plant, it might be June.

Little deer browse this year so far, plums and apples are showing the flower buds.


Chives are flowering

Everbearing strawberries too


Rebuilding a couple of the beds, then peas and beans will get sown. Greens and raddi’s under plastic maybe this weekend too. Getting busy now!

[BobMc]

Lotta planting, weed pulling, and work.

[gravitylover]

And all of a sudden it's looking like a garden again Beans and peas are popping, strawberries are starting to put out new runners, the berry patch is going crazy and the garlic is over a foot tall already. I can't believe how many little tomato plants popped in the last 2 days, I put down a layer of fresh soil in one bed and ignored the other then went out of town for 2 days. It rained a little bit both nights and stayed warm and this morning there's a mini forest of tomato plants. I guess the ones that fell last year... Yay.

[riser4]

My "volunteer" maters don't usually show until July.

[gravitylover]

I think it's all happening simultaneously because the soil hit the right temperature and the moisture was timed just right.

I'm going to pick up a bunch of onion starts and ring the bed the brassicas are going into to try and keep the cabbage worms away. I really enjoy eating that stuff and last year the bugs got most of it.

[gravitylover]

On track for another good year. I've got little tomato forests from all the seeds that hit the ground last year, you can see a bunch in the corner of this bed
I've got an herb bed with sage and mint (on their 4th year), basil, rosemary and some flowers
There are peas and beans
Some celery and peppers
The garlic is a foot and a half to 3 feet tall
I was going to get some onions at a nursery but didn't find what I wanted so I planted it and in a week it's already 4-6" tall This is 2 layers deep surrounding a bed of parsnips keeping bad bugz away. I did the same thing around this bed with brassicas
And the berry patch is going off

[BobMc]

Strong work!

[Thaleia]

Yeah that's pretty damn impressive. I had noticed in the the last couple garden threads our climates seem really similar (based on your observations and what was excelling at the time), but you're easily a month ahead of me this year.

[gravitylover]

Thanx guys. The only thing that's not from seed is the celery, I start everything I can in the ground and had about 10 plants started inside because 9f the extended cool, dry spring I had. Thaleia - it was all of a sudden. 3 weeks ago the only thing happening was garlic and the berry bushes started greening up, two weeks ago the mint and oregano started popping, then it rained. And then it rained some more. Yesterday when the sun came out for 4 hours it went kaboom. Today it's into the 80s already and as the soil warms up it's like you can see plants growing.

[climberevan]

You guys are making me jealous! I think we've given up on having a garden this year. The nearly inevitable smoke has made staying in town during the summer kind of a dreary thought, and if we don't have a garden we can bail. It's pretty sad, actually.

[Rideski]

4 inches of slush.
Barely got to freezing here though.
Still glad I didn't get tomatoes in the ground yet.

[shera]

This thread is really cool, love the pics. I have nothing to contribute at this time sadly, living at 10,000 feet. Planted my potatoes last week and now it's snowed a foot.

[Thaleia]

So I have a flat of pepper seedlings and they haven't grown in ~three weeks. All are maybe an inch and a half tall, and have one set of true leaves that are a relatively healthy green. Most of the cotyledon leaves have browned and died off.

But they're just not doing anything.

I can only assume I shocked them when slowly hardening them off outside. Can't think of any other reason.

Are there any tricks to getting them going?

[irul&ublo]

What is temp?

[Thaleia]

Been babying them - they haven't experienced anything less than ~60'F.

[gravitylover]

Get them out of that flat! Let em breathe man They're probably root bound now so you'll need to massage the roots loose and put them in a little deeper than you think you should.