So who's planting and what this week?

[HamdenRice]

I've been procrastinating, but I think I'm going to start some flats this week. I seem to always get my veggies out too late.

So this week: arugala, lettuce, collards, tomatoes, indoors.

Maybe peas outdoors.

anyone else?

[sazemisery]

1. My tomato seeds have grown and I transplanted them from..

flats to pots yesterday. My peppers, basil, eggplant and tomatillos are not big enough to transplant yet. Most of my summer garden is direct seeded such as radish, carrot, potatoes, beans, squash and pumpkins.

I have been adding compost, peat and worm castings to my raised beds. I have raked and piled leaves, dead tree limbs and brush for days now. We have a burn ban being enforced right now because of the scarcity of rain. Thank goodness, when I awoke this morning it was raining. Maybe bonfires and marshmallows this weekend!

[HamdenRice]

2. What's the weather like there?

Here it's in the 40s-50s, cloudy and damp. It's always guess work trying to figure out from the current weather what it's going to be like 8 weeks from now.

How do you time planting in flats where you live?

[sazemisery]

4. I start my flats in the house then I have a small greenhouse...

that I can keep above freezing with a small heater. My weather was 85 yesterday but the high today will be in the 60's going down to 40's tonight. As long as the temps outside don't go below 40 I'm OK. If that happens, I'll bring the seedlings back in the house.

The best way is to determine your last frost date. Calculate backwards about a month and start seeds then. They will be ready for transplanting after your last frost date. Or you can put them out a little earlier and cover them. I don't recommend this for tomatoes or basil as they don't like the cold.

Oklahoma has a cool website that has weather stations all over the state that transmit soil temperatures, air temperatures, etc. I rely on it for soil temps. That way I know the optimum time for planting seeds directly. http://www.mesonet.org/

[japple]

3. 3 weeks ago, we planted green peas & turnip greens. Last week, I put in

9 broccoli and 9 lettuce plants. Today, if the ground has dried enough, I'm going to plant spinach and more peas. The almanac forecast for this area is for a very warm April and May with April having above average rainfall and May below average.

The leeks are looking good. Haven't seen any signs of asparagus, but it's early yet. I'm in zone 7a/b. Always have to be cautious about planting too early, esp. field peas, tomatoes, peppers and squash.

[sazemisery]

5. My asparagus is starting to send the skinny shoots up.

I planted my 2 year old roots last year so I will try to fight the temptation to cut much this year.

[japple]

7. My folks planted our asparagus about 1982. We don't get

a huge amount, but it's enough for our family to have fresh asparagus every Sunday dinner through the month of May. I am going to pickle some this year.

[WolverineDG]

6. I caved & carved out another section for another SFG

Staked it out & used some left-over yarn to make the grid (reduce, reuse etc). I put in two tomato seedlings, 2 squash seedlings, & transplanted 2 strawberries from the pots I had originally put them in (one was doing okay, the other not so much). I've got blooms on Lazarus & on one of the Romas I planted a few weeks back. The potatoes are going gangbusters as well. :)

dg

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. Started lettuce and broccoli two weeks ago.

This week, okra, beets, sunflowers and corn. These are all in flats in the greenhouse.
Next week, beans and peas outdoors, if it's warm enough. Should be okay, cause my rhubarb is already sprouting. :bounce:

[pengillian101]

9. Hells bells, we had a big snow again today in northern MN.

I've just started seeds indoors this past week. I splurged and got 3-pod Aeorgarden for flowers just to treat myself due to snow.

Wow, that grow-light lights up a huge area, so I started some Burpee herb gardens in that same light. Wow - what fun!

[hippywife]

10. I won't have my seeds yet.

We've really, really procrastinated! This weekend we'll turn over the beds and water them a little since we haven't had any rain. Just get things ready, including beginning to isolate the chickens out of it!

[FedUpWithIt All]

11. We have been working on our rainwater collection system.

Yesterday, we sealed the hoses and spigot. We are planning to get the downspout and bases installed in the next couple of days. We would like to have this all done before we build the boxes and start transferring but i think we may end up putting the boxes together this weekend.

We are hoping to transfer out garlic, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbages outside in the next week or so. The rush is on for the garlic because we are hoping to let it get a couple of weeks of cooler weather.

We have been collecting materials for the raised beds. We were able to pick up some wood for $.40 a foot at a liquidation sale and will be putting some more frames together tomorrow. We got 10 ft 4x4 posts for $4 each so we are pretty happy.

We have to take a morning to tighten up our plan a little. We ended up planting more than we originally intended. Not certain where the extra will go.

We have started flats in the cellar. They were planted in 3 sets.

We have tomatoes, peppers, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cukes, peas, beans, beets, watermelon, pumpkin, lettuce, spinach, garlic, onion, leeks, eggplants, zucchini, yellow squash, scallions, potatoes and 22+ types of herbs.

[wildeyed]

12. Today is gardening day!

I have three nice blueberry shrubs I bought at the local 4H sale, a flat of Early Dividend broccoli from the Lowes (I did very well with that last spring) and a pot of flat leaf parsley since my patch petered out last year. I will direct sow some greens in a container on the patio. I may start some tomatoes and basil, although I feel like I am a little late for that down here in NC. Definitely start some kale and chard, too. My little kale plants gave from early spring straight through until fall last year.

[bearfan454]

13. Ill be doing it today

We've been in the high 70's and low 80's lately with 50's at night. Franmarz and I went looking for plants all day yesterday. Today at my house I will plant:

8 Early Girl
2 Old German
3 Brandywine
1 hot banana pepper
4 Sandia hot peppers
1 Habanero

Tomatoes and peppers are the easiest for me. I can tomatoes and salsa.

At franmarz's house I will plant:

2 Super sweet 100's
1 Brandywine
1 Old German
1 Early Girl
10 strawberry plants
Onion set of 50 sweet onions
2 sweet banana peppers
1 white eggplant
1 Japanese eggplant

and a couple of other sweet peppers.

I tilled until dark yesterday for the 4th time. I'll be adding the chicken compost and slow release nitrogen pellets today. Hopefully the tomatoes will reach 8 foot tall again this year.

[wildeyed]

14. Which variety of strawberry did you choose?

I am considering adding some if I can get a bed built in time.

[pleah]

15. I just planted my cucumbers that I started from seed.

I have basil coming up. Getting ready to plant my tomatoes. I still have lettuce, arugula, cilantro, cabbage (picked on of them for St. Patrick's Day), green onions, red onions, Hubbard squash, zucchini squash, two more blueberry bushes and that is about it for now.

[Gman]

16. I planted the first weekend in March

since I'm in S. Texas. Tomato plants are getting big and several have blooms. The cherry tomatoes have a few small tomatoes on them but those plants were big and had blooms when I bought them the last week of February. The Bell Pepper plants are getting big too. Carrots from seed are coming up and I'm thinning them. Bush green beans are coming up quickly. (I planted the green bean seeds a couple days before this month's full moon so I'm expecting they should do very well.) Leaf lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson I think) planted last fall is big but my spinach planted last fall is going to seed no doubt due to the upper 80's and a couple of 90 degree days in the last few weeks. My Serrano pepper plants never froze so I cut them back and they are coming back very full this year. Onions have been in the ground for about 3 weeks and are starting to grow well. The Cilantro planted last fall went to seed and is gone already but the seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago are now coming up (we'll have to settle for store bought Cilantro for the guacamole for the next several weeks!).

[geardaddy]

17. No planting yet for us.

We're in Zone 4.

[MuseRider]

18. I am going to pot up some seeds

today. Our last freeze date is May 1.

Yesterday we finished getting our new garden tilled up. It is 2500 sq. ft. and going to be a good one. The soil without amendment is pretty good already and I have a huge manure pile from 7 horses just waiting. We are planning on trying fertigation this year in an attempt to conserve water a bit. All our garden water will come from the pond, we sank a pump so we can use it. This week we start the tedious job of fencing it all in and putting something under the first few feet of soil in hopes of keeping some of the burrowing critters out.

We have always had smallish gardens so this is exciting for us. It will not be just me doing it this year, my husband is also working very hard on it. I plan to put up a lot of food. I have a large crawl space that I plan on using as a "root cellar" and I love to can and am going to try drying and also doing some freezing. I am hoping in a couple of years we will have the process down so that we can estimate how much we really need to make it through to the next harvest without having to buy things like tomatoes and beans. Next year I hope to have enough potatoes, turnips, rutabagas and carrots to get the goats through as well. I will start photographing the progress to add to the journal we have started. This is our summer project and I can't wait to see the green begin to pop up. YAY! Gardens!

No chickens this year, just not quite ready but next years project is to put a chicken moat around the garden. I really wanted to get chickens this year but that will have to wait. :-(