Garden!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shorthairman]

Not sure about up in ND, but down here strawberries usually end up being a nuisance! Not in a bad way necessarily, but they spread like crazy. Around here usually you can find someone who wants to thin their strawberry patch and they will give them away. We started ours with some plants we ordered and I saw the other day they are starting to perk up a bit. I don't think you should have any trouble getting strawberries going. One thing that did not work for us was when the wife wanted to plant some in an old claw foot tub...between the heat drying them out we constantly had to water them and then the kicker was I think they froze so hard in the tub that it killed them...whichever it was, they did not come back the 2nd year. My grandma used to have two big stock tanks that were her strawberry patches.

 

[LBrandt]

My mother would always cover her strawberry plants in the late fall with about 2' of straw for the winter than remove in early spring. We always had fresh berry's all summer. Every couple years she would start a new patch by using the runners from the old plants.

 

[Lycanthrope]

any tips or tricks to get strawberries going?

I havent mastered strawberries yet, they are tricky IMO. I think they really need to be replanted frequently to keep harvest going, first year they might produce a few berries, 2nd year is the best, 3rd year they taper off and then you need to completely replant the bed and start over from my experience. Also they tend to be sensitive from the cold so it is good to cover them in the winter and birds will eat them before they are ripe so you need to net them also. Slugs can be a problems too, at least in my yard, they like the berries....

 

[BDub]

From what I've seen they don't over winter very good up here. They do like full sun and the south side of a building is a good place for them. They can be sort of a project unless you find the perfect place for them. I used to have an area where they did real well. I turned it into a flower garden.

 

[Davey Crockett]

I built a raised bed next to my basement foundation and made use out of that heat loss we get a row of early peas and the strawberries thrive in there. I saw some were turning green yesterday before the snow hit and there is still frost in the ground so it pays to make use of the basement heat loss. There is a tricks to help keep the birds out. Take a bunch of strawberry sized rocks and paint them red and put them down by your strawberry plants, Birds get tricked a time or two before the berries are ripe and they don't hang around. It helps that ours are right next to the house because Knucklehead (cat) loves to lay in them and take a nap and chase a bird once in a while. What gets ours is wasps and bees, They eat holes in them so we pick early in the morning. Going to plant a pollinator garden this spring and see if that will keep them away. The same here with the plants fizzling out after 3 or 4 years , We are on 6 or 7 years and still get a decent crop but not as big and juicy as they once were. Try the rock trick and you will laugh that something so simple actually works, My wife was in charge and she made them look just like berries and fooled a few humans too.

 

[Fisherofmen]

I can relate to that. Remember weeding potatoes for hours as a kid thinking man i could by a 50lb bag of unclassifieds for $3 at the time . Now i see things a little different.

 

[BDub]

Since there isn't much else to do, list the tomatoes you will be growing this year.

I always plant some heirlooms for eating.

Mariannas Peace. A pink beefsteak heirloom. I have been raising these for several years. They can get up to a pound, for taste they blow hybrids out of the water.

I'm going to try Berkley Pink Tie Dye tomatoes this year. Supposedly they rival heirlooms in flavor. I always try different varieties, just for the hell of it.

For salsa and sauce I'm trying Hungarian Heart tomatoes. They are large and meaty. A friend had good luck with them last year. Another heirloom.

Last year I raised San Marzano romas. Meaty and thin skinned they produced quite well. Not much problem with blight.

When it comes to making sauce I've found they heirlooms cook down quicker than hybrids with better flavor.

 

[Traxion]

Where is a good place to order supplies? With this funk we've got going around I'm not doing much shopping in my normal places. And looking for some different varieties too that I can't find locally.

I am going back to San Marzano's this year. I make sauces and the Roma's have been OK. Amish paste last year was a bust.

The inner prepper in me is growing with the current situation....

 

[LBrandt]

I stick to the old tried and true. Early girl, big boy, 4th of July and sweet 100. There is one more but for the life of me I cannot remember with out dragging out my seed orders. Those can well for me and also sold well last year. I could not pick enough of the sweet 100 as they were the first to sell out.

 

[BDub]

I buy most seeds online. Johnny's is good but pricey. They are a great source of information. Tomato Growers has a huge selection of tomatoes and peppers. Superseeds.com has all heirloom seeds. I also buy from Jung seeds, mostly flowers. Gurney's and Burpee are also worth looking at. Lots of other sites out there.

My favorite hybrid is Big Beef. Reliable, heavy production they taste good and are good for salsa and canning.

 

[Lycanthrope]

for seed starting supplies I get a lot of my stuff from greenhousemegastore.com

 

[LBrandt]

How to get ready for a spring that never wants to come? Ground is all white again this morning from SNOW.;:;banghead;:;banghead;:;banghead

 

[Twitch]

You have to love living in a state where the growing season could start either on march 11th or august 8th

 

[BDub]

I'm a month out of knee surgery so no rush to be out working outside. But this weather sucks! The third year in a row with shitty springs. Luckily it was nice a few days so the fishermen got out.

Hopefully May will be decent.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I had to move a bunch of small plants back inside the garage again, starting to think I might as well leave them there for a while...

 

[Davey Crockett]

Happy National gardening day, I didn't realize we had one till a few minutes ago. Its almost time to start the tomato plants.

 

[sl1000794]

I was told once that when you transplant your tomatoes to dig a shallow trench from north to south, plant your tomatoes in the trench from the south to the north and pick off the bottom 4 to 6 leaves and bury the stalk. It will grow roots, the stalk will be warmer in the sun facing south and the plant will grow faster with more root than stem. Seemed to work for me when I was able to plant a garden.

This YouTube shows part of what I was talking about. He just buries the stem deeper rather than in a shallow trench. I think the shallow trench would work better if you have the room because the roots will be warmer. For him the raised beds are warmer than in the natural ground. My neighbor at Metigoshe used to plant tomatoes between our boathouses and would put an old car tire over each tomato hill to add heat to the plant. Worked well.

Davy, I'm sure you knew Les Benno back in the day.

 

[BDub]

Happy National gardening day, I didn't realize we had one till a few minutes ago. Its almost time to start the tomato plants.

Started 24 tonight.! Peppers tomorrow.

 

[LBrandt]

Always plant my tomatoes deep and I have been saving those clear plastic cheese ball containers that you see at Walmart and sams club. Cut the bottom off and set over plants. Acts like a mini green house and I just leave on all summer. Works great for me, I just build cages that fit around the outside, trim lower branches off and when I water I just fill the tub full and let it soak in.

 

[BDub]

Always plant my tomatoes deep and I have been saving those clear plastic cheese ball containers that you see at Walmart and sams club. Cut the bottom off and set over plants. Acts like a mini green house and I just leave on all summer. Works great for me, I just build cages that fit around the outside, trim lower branches off and when I water I just fill the tub full and let it soak in.

I follow the same concept except I use five gallon paint pails cut in half. They offer protection from the weather and are great for watering. The heavy cages fit inside. I use those buckets around all vine vegetables also.