The Dawg Patch

[AdrianaG]

@AdrianaG, welcome to the Junction and come on in to da Dawg Patch, so named because I'm a big U of Georgia fan.

the garden stretcher snookered me into making two more so-called beds

That darned Garden Stretcher! Sneaks in in the night!

[AdrianaG]

the garden stretcher snookered me into making two more so-called beds

That darned Garden Stretcher! Sneaks in in the night!

[GoDawgs]

Everything looks really nice.
Some sort of winter critter is eating holes in my cabbage.

With all the rain could it be slugs?

Or little green caterpillars from cabbage moths! One of my plants got decimated overnight!

Slugs are something I'm fortunately not bothered with but those cabbage worms are. So far I've not seen any of the moths yet but the season here is a bit behind what behind @worth1 has. Those tent caterpillars are just as destructive but I think it's a little early here as I haven't seen any webs up in the trees yet. But I have my bT ready to deal with them!

[GoDawgs]

But hey, who needs a gym membership when you have a garden, eh?

And good surgeons! Had my second hip replacement last year and 2 spine surgeries which is why the bulk of my growing is in 20” high raised beds!

You with your hips and back and me with my knees! Both have replacements and both have had the originals replaced too. At least the originals lasted about 22 years. Fortunately I can spread my feet far apart and do my weeding and planting bending over. No sitting though as getting back up is a bit difficult. Ya can't keep a determined gardener down!

I love your beds!

[GoDawgs]

Spring is now coming in quickly. Yesterday I noticed that area dogwoods are starting to bloom. Another "Plant when...." thing I read is to plant beet seeds when the dogwoods bloom so after soaking the seed overnight I will plant some tomorrow in another effort to get beets to grow! It just ticks me off that off all the stuff I grow, beets are problematic. Grrrrr! "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!"

The oak trees are putting out what I call dingle dangles, the catkins which are the oaks' "blooms" for future acorns. When they dry up and drop there will be a mat of them on the ground and of course they will fall in your hair. any open drink you are carrying and cling to shoes and pants cuffs.

25.03.23 Oak has dingle dangles.JPG

This is what the shadow of the above tree limbs looks like. It's not showing shade yet but it will soon! Trees in the area are taking on that red tinge as leaf buds swell. It won't be long before there are leaves on the trees changing that red tint to that glorious glowing spring green.

25.03.23 Bare branches, no shade yet.JPG

Today I will put finishing touches on a few beds where more stuff will be planted out or sown tomorrow. Three more pepper plant seedlings are up this morning under the lights. Six to go.

[Wildcat82]

But hey, who needs a gym membership when you have a garden, eh?

And good surgeons! Had my second hip replacement last year and 2 spine surgeries which is why the bulk of my growing is in 20” high raised beds!

You with your hips and back and me with my knees! Both have replacements and both have had the originals replaced too. At least the originals lasted about 22 years. Fortunately I can spread my feet far apart and do my weeding and planting bending over. No sitting though as getting back up is a bit difficult. Ya can't keep a determined gardener down!

I love your beds!

So you've basically becoming a cyborg. After my brother got both hips replaced I started calling him that.

I actually kinda like the idea of becoming a cyborg. I figure if I had a mechanical arm i could I could add on a power drill and a metric socket wrench to my appendage. It would a lot of trips to the tool shed.

My day is probably coming.....

[GoDawgs]

It was a pretty day yesterday with a high of 76. I got the 15 tomatoes seeded and the second carrot row turned and prepped for planting. The last few cabbage and mustard plants were supposed to get planted late afternoon but the wind got up with gusts to 25! I was afraid the plants would get torn up so into the shed they went for planting today.

I did get four small sweet potatoes planted in a window box to make slips for planting in May. And finally I sowed 7' of beet seed in the eternal hopes that they might grow to maturity. I had read another "plant when..." thing that said to sow beets when the dogwoods bloom. They're starting to bloom around here so one more try!

Here's what our weather looks like through Monday with the the rest of next week looking similar. Spring is definitely here. But I'll believe a forecast of rain when I see it. It's getting pretty dry here!

25.03.27 Weather, for Mar 27-30.png

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday Pickles gave the place it's first official mowing and I took the weedwhacker around all the garden beds, fence line and the fallen pecan. The place looks pretty good without all that winter lawn lettuce! Dandelions, henbit, etc.

Today we'll put the trellis on the one surviving pea bed and that should take about 20 minutes. I planted two beds and each bed has a double row on each side, so 64 row feet per bed. Only about 11 peas came up in one of them. This has never happened before. Maybe that bed got planted a bit too deep? Oh well. Yesterday I transplanted the little orphan pea plants into skips in the other bed and the empty bed will be used for a new-to-me squash since the trellis poles are already there. That was gonna happen anyway after the peas were done but will happen earlier now.

Meanwhile the tomatoes were seeded three days ago and should start popping up any time now.

25.03.29 Tomatoes seeded Mar 26.JPG

The peppers were started on the 17th and are all up under the lights. The three eggplants in front of them were started Feb 27 since they're slowbies.

25.03.29 Eggplants and peppers.JPG

I planted four small and sprouting sweet potatoes in the window box to grow slips. They should be ready to use around May 12 when I'd like to plant that row. Sure saves a lot of money growing your own! The original sweet ('Jewel') was bought at a Sprouts market about six years ago. It's a nematode resistant variety and has done well every year since. This is the box along with a parsley and oregano.

25.03.29 Oregano, parsley and sweet potato box.JPG

So the early spring garden is officially "in". Other than a few minor this and thats plus some bed prep, the next major planting push will be around April 23-24th when the beans and squash go in. A week or two later it will be okra, corn and watermelon time. But for today, once the pea trellis is up it's Day Off and Sweet 16 time!

Edited to add: Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant too on April 23-24. Will have the buckets for the maters and eggies ready for planting.

[GoDawgs]

Today I planted out the last kohlrabi and that marks the end of early spring planting. Slowly the beds are filling up. This is the south side of the garden. Because of deer munching most beds have netting over them. Snap peas and mustard in the first bed, various cabbages in the next one, broccoli, collards and kale, carrots.

25.03.30 South side of garden.JPG

This is the upper part of the north side. Those poles at the top will have some field fencing hung on them for trellising peas planted in those beds.

25.03.30 Upper part of north side.JPG

Later in April the rest of the stuff will be sown or planted out; beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and cucumbers. Then early May the corn, okra, sweet potatoes and watermelon will go in. Once that happens, the waiting begins and if all goes well it will be canning season!

The collards needed cutting and grooming so that happened yesterday and I got a nice mess of them. The kale on the other side of the bed got cut last week. These plants were fall-planted and have overwintered. Also got some more scallions in the next bed to the left.

25.03.29 Giving collards a trim.JPG

25.03.29 A nice mess of collards.JPG

Now it's time to start getting stuff ready for late April planting. Get the tomato and eggplant buckets ready, put up bean poles, prep the bush bean beds, get cuke trellises up, till the corn area, etc. If it gets done ahead of time then planting all that mess will be a LOT easier!

[JayneR13]

One thing's for sure: gardeners are never bored! There's always something that needs doing. As my Aunt Lorraine used to say: the person who can't find nothing to do, never did nothing! Weeding and pruning are forever.

[GoDawgs]

I love sunny early mornings in the garden. There's a special light that just makes things look so fresh. These are some turnips and kohlrabi loving the bit of rain they got yesterday to wash off all of the pollen.

25.03.31 Turnips and kohlrabi in 4H.JPG

This is a better pic of the south side of the garden now that the sun is on it.

25.03.31 South side of garden.JPG

Yesterday I noticed a bulge down in the middle of a few of the fall-planted Champion collards and thought maybe they were thinking about bolting. This morning there's no doubt!

25.03.31 Champion collard starting to bolt.JPG

And finally, six more tomatoes up this morning! About five more to go. Don't ya just love babies?

25.03.31 More tomatoes up.JPG

[GoDawgs]

Spring moves fast around here. Here is oak leaf progress from Mar 29 to April 4. We now officially have some shade!

25.03.29 Baby oak leaves coming out.JPG

25.04.04 Oak leaves out.JPG

This bed has 6 each collards and kale on the left side and 7 broccolis on the right. I don't see any broc buttons yet but it won't be long. In the bed behind there is mustard on the left and on the right there's daikon radish on the near side and that Shawo fruit radish on the other, two different sowings.

25.04.05 Collards,kale, broc, mustard, daikons.JPG

We've had 80+ temps all week. Another front is coming through tomorrow morning, hopefully leaving some rain after it passes through. It's beating on Alabama now. Arrival here anticipated tomorrow 6am. We'll see. We need the rain but not any damage. Usually these lines have weakened a lot before they get to this part of Georgia. Further south is another story.

I started the first few cups of squash two days ago, two yellow squash and one spaghetti squash.

Also this past week I made the annual trip to my secret source's burn pile and and rescued 40 8'x1" poles and 15 wooden pallets. Free stuff is good. One person's trash is another's treasure! The poles will be used for pole beans, holding up trellises and cut up for use as pepper stakes etc. The pallets will replace bad ones in the rows that the tomato buckets sit on. That and laying more cardboard under them for weed prevention is a chore coming soon.

[GoDawgs]

I'm doing a comparison between Packman and Blue Wind broccolis again; three Packmans on the left, four Blue Winds on the right (small collards and kale in front). They were both planted out Feb 24. Two of the three Packmans have 2" wide buttons. Oh boy! None on the BW's yet.

25.04.05 Broc, 3 Pac (l), 4 CDome (r).JPG

Sown on Mar 15, the Asuka Akane turnips are coming right along. They're shaped like carrots! Something from Baker Creek. I grew them two years ago and decided to plant some again just for fun to follow the Purple Tops.

25.04.08 Asuka akane turnips.JPG

My only neighbor came over on the weekend with his rear tine tiller and tilled up the corn area for me. That's a blessing as it would take two forevers to do it with my Mantis. But now I can use the Mantis to prep the planting rows and cultivate between. It's 18'x15', enough for 6 rows of corn.

25.04.08 Newly tilled corn bed.JPG

Blackeyed Susans are real garden sluts. Five years ago I planted some generic ones and I made the mistake of not paying attention and letting them go to seed. They're everywhere even though the mower and weed whacker attack periodically. Oh well, at least the few that are allowed to grow and bloom are pretty and the butterflies like them. Here's a small patch of the dastardly plants!

25.04.08 Garden sluts, Black-eyed Susans.JPG

And finally, the small sweet potatoes I stuck in the window box are sprouting. There will be plenty of slips for planting out early May.

25.04.08 Sweet potato slips growing.JPG

[MissS]

You sure are lucky to have your neighbor help you out. That would have done me in for sure and I never would have planted corn again.

That Packman broccoli is sure a hard one to beat in my garden. Let me know when you find one that is better.

[GoDawgs]

@MissS , you have that right! Last year I only tilled the exact rows and left the rest just mowed. It really needed a good tilling. Today I need to mark the exact rows and then take the Mantis to those to remove any clumps. I don't want clumps drying and becoming like hard rocks!

[GoDawgs]

The Yukon Gold potatoes are going gang busters. Pickles weeded, hilled and mulched them two days ago. It's just a 12' row but will be enough since they don't store well here. No sign of Colorado potato beetles yet but I'll be on the lookout since they usually show up around the second half of this month.

25.04.08 Yukon Gold potatoes.JPG

This is the mustard growing where cukes will be sown at the end of the month. I'm going to chop it all up, scatter it on the bed and till it in to see it if will have any nematode deterrance. The hope is that if it works, the cucumber roots won't get all knotted up and severely reduce yield.

25.04.08 Mustard to be turned under for nematodes.JPG

The spring lilies are coming up in the fall aster bed as usual. The lilies were planted years ago and were there first. about five years ago I planted a few asters given to me by a friend in that bed and they've taken it over! That's ok as they all seem to get along just fine.

25.04.08 Spring lilies in fall aster bed.JPG

I didn't get to till that corn area yesterday afternoon,. Something came up that called for a trip to town and it lasted all afternoon. But it rained a tad more than a half inch again last night so the soil is still soft.

[GoDawgs]

Well, I checked the forecast and our mornings will be in the 40's the next few days and then BAM! The weather turns on Friday with highs moving from 70's to 80's and lows going from 40's to 60's. Just that quick! So the corn will go in this weekend.

So the trellises have been put up in the remaining pea bed. I still have no clue why only 11 peas total germinated in the other bed. I transplanted the survivors into a few skips in this second bed. First time for everything. And of course, Lester is such a helper. Always has to know what's going on.

25.04.13 Pea trellises up.JPG

25.04.14 Lester The Helper.JPG

Rosita (left) and Matrosik (right) eggplants are going nuts! They'll go into their forever buckets as will the tomatoes in ten days. The Chinese String isn't as big as these two and doesn't need the extra high lights.

25.04.13 Matrosik, Rosita ready to go.JPG

The 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle is blooming. It lives on a trellis by the hose holder and hummers stop to visit now and then.

25.04.13 Hose holder.JPG

25.04.13 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle.JPG

And finally, it's almost broccoli time! The first head of Packman is about 3.5" wide so maybe a week away. The first buttons of the Blue Wind broccoli have buttons the size of half dollars so the succession planting might work this year!

25.04.13 First broc head, Packman, 3-4 inches.JPG

[MissS]

Wow, look at that. You are in full swing @GoDawgs! What a beautiful site. I'm jumping at the bit to get going on mine but it still going to be awhile for me.

[JayneR13]

Here too! While there are some things that can be done, like cleaning out debris, frozen soil isn't a good place to plant much! And today, as I type, the wind chill factor is 29. Miss Yin and I didn't stay out on the porch for long!

Yes, Lester seems to be a good helper! I miss Morty. He was always into whatever I was doing too. Hopefully God will send me another gregarious cat to save soon! If Miss Yin would approve, that is. She's gotten used to being an only cat.

[GoDawgs]

Yes, Lester seems to be a good helper! I miss Morty. He was always into whatever I was doing too. Hopefully God will send me another gregarious cat to save soon! If Miss Yin would approve, that is. She's gotten used to being an only cat.

I wonder how Miss Yin would react to a kitten. Thinking the "little one and not much of a threat" category.