Anybody here started their garden yet?

[GeorgiaXplant]

I've been digging new flower beds and tidying up. There are seeds started indoors for cosmos, daisies, bachelor buttons, baby's breath and black-eyed susans, although they're nowhere near ready to plant for maybe another 4-6 weeks. I bought three big senetti plants in pots a couple of weeks ago, and they're already planted, but we're supposed to have a brutal (for us) cold front come through tonight with daytime temps maybe in the 40s and nighttime temps in the low 20s until the end of the week.

At least the sun will be out starting tomorrow...if we haven't been lied to again by the Whether peeps (they're those folks on TV that tell us whether or not it'll rain, sNOw, sleet, hail, be cold or hot, or whether the sun will shine.

In my next life I'm coming back as a meteorologist and get one of those jobs paying big bucks to be wrong 50% of the time!

As of today, there are pansies, flowering kale, daffodils, crocus and snapdragons blooming. Down here they're all cool-weather flowers so should be fine with the cold temps at night, but the senetti will get covered after supper along with some astilbe and lily of the valley that are just starting to come up. There are peonies poking up through the dirt and will be left uncovered, and the hydrangeas already have little leaves but they're such big shrubs that I can't cover them. Maybe it'll be warmer up close to the house where they're growing.

I'm getting impatient to sit on the patio and admire the garden in bloom. Somebody remind me of this when I complain in July that it's too hot and I'm tired of the maintenance!

 

[RadishRose]

I'm so jealous Georgia!

CT is expecting snow tonight and it's c-c-cold!

 

[Butterfly]

Weather still too unreliable here.

 

[GeorgiaXplant]

LOL about the weather. Ours is not quite as dependable as church on Sunday, either, so I just sort of work around it...figure out what needs to be done and what kind of day I need to accomplish it. Right now it's raining pitch forks and hammer handles so nothing is being done outdoors. Tomorrow is going to be colder than a banker's heart, and it remains to be seen what can be done. If it's too windy, I'll be spending the day indoors playing solitaire!

 

[rkunsaw]

planted taters the first of February.

 

[Don M.]

This week, we have "hopefully" Winters last blast...4" of snow last night and miserably cold for the bulk of this week. Then, the temps begin to get milder....if the forecasts are correct...and depending upon how the Spring rains arrive, I usually try to get the garden going by the first or second week of May. Any earlier, in this part of the country, is usually a disappointment.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Way to early to even think about planting in the garden in New Jersey but I've started some seeds that are coming along. I use those plastic containers that the already cooked BBQ chickens come in from our grocery store. They make great little hot houses. I do put some holes in the bottom for drainage and vent them now and then. When they sprout I take the covers off. Once they get their true leaves I transplant to paper cups and in early spring I harden them off on my porch.

This year I'm growing some flowers as well. I have snap dragons, coleus and trying lavender for the first time. Snow is headed our way so the poor things will have to do without sunlight for a day or two.

 

[GeorgiaXplant]

Ruth, that's a genius idea...my kitchen is small and the counters are all but unusable with the trays positioned to get the advantage of bright light. I'm gonna save my containers from whatever to-go food I get, and even if I don't use them this year, they don't take up much space so can save them for next spring. I'd never have thought about this on my own!

 

[HazyDavey]

Not just yet, probably start early April. Although I try to keep the soil tilled up in the Winter with the rototiller.

 

[retiredtraveler]

I'm going online today and ordering seeds. Will get peppers and tomatoes started in the house by end of week, assuming seeds are mailed right away.

 

[Tommy]

Our gardens are currently under 2-3 feet of ice and snow. We live on the side of a mountain, so once the ice and snow finally melt and the ground thaws the soil will remain too wet for tilling until mid-May. Short growing season up here ... timing is everything!

:lol:

 

[tortiecat]

Same here in Quebec. Don't start gardening until mid May.

 

[Ken N Tx]

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Ken,I love that little garden of yours. We have a store nearby who sells tiny pieces like that for,as they call it, fairy gardens. I've often thought about putting one together but wouldn't know what theme to choose. Love those little pigs.

View attachment 63087

 

[RadishRose]

planted taters the first of February.

Larry, do you ever mess around with those fancy little purple, blue and red ones, or those long "fingerling" potatoes?

 

[rkunsaw]

Larry, do you ever mess around with those fancy little purple, blue and red ones, or those long "fingerling" potatoes?

I planted some of the blue ones once. They didn't produce but a few small potatoes. I may try again

 

[MeAgain]

planted taters the first of February.

We planted ours in January and they looked so nice till the freeze a couple days ago. Hope they come back.

We started tomatoes,peppers, squash, kale, cabbage, broccoli inside in January. Now in greenhouse in containers and hydroponics. Be so glad when we don't have to keep opening and closing it. Usually safe after first week of April here in N.Florida.

6 days ago took this pic of potatoes, now after 25 F they are shrunken and limp.

 

[Falcon]

Nice garden Ken. Mine is the grocery store. No digging and planting.

 

[MeAgain]

Small hydro reservour put up last week. Still looking for air stones and pump for them and buckets. Can't imagine how they got misplaced.

 

[GeorgiaXplant]

If wishes were horses... I'd have a little greenhouse!

Today I went to the garden center to get a sack of sand for resetting a few pavers and some garden soil for flowers. There were some plants there saying "take me home!" and some others saying "pick me! pick me!" Hyacinths and tulips in pots that have buds but not yet blooming. I couldn't just leave them there. Besides, I NEEDED them because I waited too long last fall, and when I went to get some they were all gone. So I bought some in pots because they were cheap. After I got home and thought about it for a while guilt set in, and I could hear the ones that were left behind sobbing. So I went back and bought a few more.

Yanno...our dog was a rescue. My kitty, Tucker, that died last fall was a rescue. The kitty I have now is a rescue.

So "rescuing" plants isn't altogether out of character, is it? LOL

The flowers I rescued today will get planted tomorrow. It was raining when I got home this morning, and this afternoon after rescuing more it was too late in the day to start digging and prepping soil. One hopes the rain holds off until the flowers all have a forever home.

Everything that I'd already planted got covered so survived the frost earlier in the week. Astilbe and lily of the valley are sprouting, along with euphorbia and a few other bulbs that were planted last week.

Is it summer yet? I want flowers NOW! ​

 

[MeAgain]

If wishes were horses... I'd have a little greenhouse!

Today I went to the garden center to get a sack of sand for resetting a few pavers and some garden soil for flowers. There were some plants there saying "take me home!" and some others saying "pick me! pick me!" Hyacinths and tulips in pots that have buds but not yet blooming. I couldn't just leave them there. Besides, I NEEDED them because I waited too long last fall, and when I went to get some they were all gone. So I bought some in pots because they were cheap. After I got home and thought about it for a while guilt set in, and I could hear the ones that were left behind sobbing. So I went back and bought a few more.

Yanno...our dog was a rescue. My kitty, Tucker, that died last fall was a rescue. The kitty I have now is a rescue.

So "rescuing" plants isn't altogether out of character, is it? LOL

The flowers I rescued today will get planted tomorrow. It was raining when I got home this morning, and this afternoon after rescuing more it was too late in the day to start digging and prepping soil. One hopes the rain holds off until the flowers all have a forever home.

Everything that I'd already planted got covered so survived the frost earlier in the week. Astilbe and lily of the valley are sprouting, along with euphorbia and a few other bulbs that were planted last week.

Is it summer yet? I want flowers NOW! ​

Our flowers keep trying to bloom with Florida warm spells then get frozen and die back again.

 

[old medic]

Working on ours.... Was a pine thicket last year....Half still is...
Doing a bigger garden this year.
Had several garden boxes last year and got them ready to transplant what we have started.
One already has garlic onion carrots and beets planted
Propagated and pruned back existing Figs Apples Grapes and blueberries, got plum and peach to plant.

 

[MeAgain]

Working on ours.... Was a pine thicket last year....Half still is...
Doing a bigger garden this year.
Had several garden boxes last year and got them ready to transplant what we have started.
One already has garlic onion carrots and beets planted
Propagated and pruned back existing Figs Apples Grapes and blueberries, got plum and peach to plant.

We pruned our pear and fig tree back last month too. Our figs have fruit all over them but not been maturing for last couple years , any ideas why?

 

[Ken N Tx]

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Ken,that looks so pretty. I think you can use lemon grass to flavor food also. Have you ever tried it? Maybe in ice tea? I've been thinking of growing it myself. Maybe it would keep the deer away.