Jayne's Urban Paradise

[JayneR13]

I'm not quite as wet as you, but the soil is pretty wet. I wouldn't even try to plant anything right now, other than the crowns. Besides, we're still getting nights down into the lower 30s. Snow, even serious snow, is NOT out of the realm.

Indeed, I purchased a metal bed to replace the wooden one, which is a few years old and starting to show its age. It's an off brand that cost me $125! Name brands are indeed big expensive. The corners of these beds came apart nicely, so I have my hopes. Fingers crossed!

[GoDawgs]

We do what we can, when we can and however we can. Ya can't keep a good gardener down.

[JayneR13]

That's right! Even if we're not as fast as we used to be, we get it done! Gardening is good for us, on a number of levels.

[JayneR13]

Today was the day I went through my seedlings, adding some Osmocote, stirring up the compacted potting media, adding more as required, and removing any too runted or diseased to be useful. Granted most runts will come back and produce, but diseased runts aren’t worth the effort. I have time to reseed so why bother? And I picked some disease resistant varieties this year just to play around and see how good they really are, including Diva Cucumber: https://seedsnsuch.com/products/diva-cucumber-seeds. Imagine my surprise as I’ve found 4 of the 6 I started with some fungal pathogen! This was diagnosed via my plant app, PictureThis!

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I’ve reseeded with Spacemaster, which has had a few things chewing on them but a bit of home made insecticidal soap will fix that! AAS All-American selection too. I doubt I’ll be planting this one next year. Phooey!

On a good note, I found a 4 banger T5 rack on sale! The seedlings under the single bulb, 2 flats in 6 rows, will appreciate that. I might have over obligated myself a bit this year oh well!

[JayneR13]

Things are greening up around the yard! My neighbors’ daffodils are blooming

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My tulips are developing

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And the rains from the last two days made my garlic perk right up!

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One of my strawberry patches seems happy. I couldn’t find the other two.

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And my lilac is leafing out! Yay!

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Spring is springing! Happy gardening!

[bower]

I grew Diva once, and although they took forever to produce anything, I really liked the cukes. Good tasting, no seeds. Hope the last two can do right!

[JayneR13]

Interesting to know! I’ll keep an eye on any Divas that make it to planting. I replanted with Spacemaster, and have six plants up. They’re supposed to be very prolific.

[JayneR13]

Today was a nice day to go over to the pantry garden and give my new Cape Cod weeder a try, so over I went! Discouraging both dandelions and creeping Charlie in the garlic area can only help, plus I wanted to test soil temperature for possible reseeding. Sure enough, the temps are in the low 50sF so I replanted some bare spots. Onion sets in the front two rows and onion seed in back.

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I found four strawberry crowns trying to sprout, so I took those home to plant with the other crowns that seem happy under my lilac tree.

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Some bunching onion is coming up in my big raised bed.

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My tulips are coming along nicely!

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These are branches of my lilac tree that I cut down last year. They were leaning into my neighbors’ yard and were mostly dead & raggedy. I pruned them back and new shoots are growing in the proper direction!

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[JayneR13]

Said lilac tree is getting ready to bloom! Yay!

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The new high school greenhouse is looking good! They’ll open May 9 and sell until the plants are gone. Yes, I have plenty of plants & seed at home! Yes, I’ll walk over, just to see what they have, and will likely buy something. I like to support the high school kids.

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The new four light rack. I had to clean it up before use and it simply doesn’t hang evenly, so I’ll have to play with it a bit. For now it’s good, and the plants seem to appreciate the extra light.

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Another new fixture, a two LED light fixture on a PVC stand. Yes there’s the old single lamp fixture behind it. I really bit off a huge chunk of elephant this year and seriously needed the extra space! Between the pantry garden, my garden, and eleven seedlings for one of my fellow volunteers, the plants were ‘way too crowded and that’s not healthy. And there’s always next year! Did I mention that the pantry board bought some raised beds to expand the garden? Thankfully they’re thinking to plant kale and cilantro, and perhaps more onion in those. I have seeds for that!

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And lastly, my garlic is looking better. The Krasnodar red has nine of the eleven cloves I planted, which makes me happy. The white is still three with a possible fourth coming up. That’s off camera.

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My garden is coming alive! Yay! Happy gardening!

[JayneR13]

Before we plant comes the preparation! Today was a nice weather day so I decided to get out and prep a bit. A good part of my garden will be on my deck this year, so it was time to bleach and fill pots. I used about half garden soil & half potting soil for the mix.

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There will be ten pots containing tomatoes & zucchini and two for flowers. I’ll have to top them off when I plant in about one month. By then hopefully more of the soil in the beds I’m cleaning out will have thawed. I did take another inch or so off of the top so two chores in one! By the time my contractor comes in mid-June everything will be ready. It is to laugh though: I was watching the finches over supper cleaning plant debris out of my pots. Given the multi-legged creature that scared me while I was mixing, I might see a robin in there as well.

For tonight, I’m going to hang out & read a book. Maybe take an aspirin as I stiffen up. It’ll be fun! Happy gardening! At least the tourists will be leaving soon and life will return to normal.

[JayneR13]

It’s a lovely day in the Multiverse! Everything is starting to bloom, including my plum trees. Hopefully we can make it through blossom without a hard freeze! That’s the first step in the direction of plums to harvest! With only half of my garden in production this year, hopefully the garden gods will be kind.

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The plum flower is perfect, literally, with male & female organs on the same flower. And they’re very pretty.

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Let the hardening process begin! Nine trays worth, though of course the trays aren’t crammed full at the moment. Most of this is for the pantry garden. Planting Day will be here before we know it! In fact I planted some sprouting potatoes in the smaller felt bag on my deck today. I have them, I might as well use them! Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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Miss Yin loves the smells and the sun in her fur, all from a safe distance! Indoors or the catio is best for a deaf kitty, and she knows it.

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I ran across this on Bluesky. Does this sound like anyone we know? No one here I’m sure

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It’s GO time! Happy gardening!

[PlainJane]

I think of it as custodianship instead of hoarding.

[JayneR13]

Momma needed some new shoes, and the place has a garden center. Some things are already on sale, like these strawberry crowns and shallot sets. Bonus getting 10 crowns for $5! Much cheaper than online. Varieties are Sequoia and Ozark Beauty.

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Yes, I have lots of tomatoes growing at home. But not THESE tomatoes, all of which are hybrids with some disease resistance. Even granting that seeds from these are unlikely to breed true, it’ll still be interesting to save them if the plants do well here. And they’re all container friendly! Varieties are Lemon Boy, Super Fantastic, Mountain Fresh, and Whopper. I also found some petunias I like, Merlot and a black one whose name I don’t remember.

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So tomorrow I dig hostas & plant shallots and strawberries. I’d like to give those strawberries some fencing, perhaps chicken wire. Perhaps an Iron Dome! The baby rabbits are already out. Wednesday I pay my debt of hostas to one of the guys who helped raise my radio antenna. It’ll be good to have that taken care of.

Happy gardening!

[GoDawgs]

Nice haul! I had almost forgotten about the end of season plant sales. Yep, it's about that time. I'm thinking about going into the city this week (time for a Sam's run) and should stop by the big boxes and see what they have. Like I really need something else.

[JayneR13]

Only the bulbs and bare root stuff are on sale here. The transplants are still full price. End of season sales here will really kick in about mid-June. Most garden centers will close right after Fourth of July.

@GoDawgs et al, what do you all use for seedling starting mix? I've had two bad bags in two years from my Miracle Grow mix. This situation needs some pondering because the mix is now $5/bag on sale and that's expensive in conjunction with the possibility of losing an entire tray of plants to bad mix! Oof! I tried Espoma one year and learned a lot about plant pathology but had to buy usable seedlings. If you use your own brew, how do you sterilize it? Or do you? Thanks!

[GoDawgs]

I use Happy Frog mix after changing from the Miracle Grow stuff and have had really good results from it. I get the 2 cu ft bag for $17.95 at the local feed 'n weed store and am much happier with it. No problems with the seeds started in it.

https://foxfarm.com/product/happy-frog-potting-soil/

[rdback]

I use Pro-Mix, and have done so for at least 15 years. It's always done well, and I've never had a "bad" batch.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/PRO-MIX-Prem ... 9lEALw_wcB

[JayneR13]

The hostas got moved today. Only four, we say? Roots ran quite deep! They’ve been in this spot for 20+ years and probably wonder what the deal is now. The simple fact is, I move them or the contractors stomp all over them. I think they’ll be happier under my lilac tree.

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The garlic is getting big! I’ll have to dig down to feel if it’s bulging yet. Around here garlic is harvested late June/early July so we’ve got time.

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The tulips are making flowers! I can’t wait to see them!

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I also planted my shallots in the brick bed but didn’t take a picture. A few years back I made a raised bed out of cinder blocks. By turning the outer rings on their sides, I made 48 containers that have proven useful for root crops. I’ve grown carrots, radishes, small onions, and now shallots in them. The bed is 6’x5’. My garden drives my neighbors crazy but I enjoy it! Happy gardening!