2024 How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Watchman]

Happy New Year! PLEASE DO NOT START A NEW SUBJECT - just reply to the current year posting and everything will stay in order. Thanks.

[Toepopper]

Have been working on extending a raspberry patch 18' longer. Used railroad ties for a wall on the deep end to hold the dirt and must bring 3' of dirt in to fill the low side of the bed. Its built on a hillside which I have terraced over the years but each year I build a new raised bed it takes longer due to old age. Once planted, red raspberries are easy to take care of. They like a slightly acidic soil and the only maintenance is to remove the dead canes and run support wires. Last year I made the mistake of adding wood ash from the stove. This is a no-no because wood ash will raise the ph. level of the soil so the plants look sick with yellow leaves and small berries. I have corrected this by adding Sulphur pellets and fir tree sawdust to bring the ph. level down to the appropriate level. When I awoke this morning it was 33 degrees so its still too early to plant any other crops.

[Watchman]

A handy hint for Old people (who, me?) to sow tiny lettuce seeds. Get a used spice shaker similar to the one in the photo and put in a "pinch" of lettuce seeds (about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon). Add two tablespoons of fine-ground corn meal to the shaker. Mix everything up thoroughly and use the shaker on your pre-indented lettuce rows. Be sure to use UNPROCESSED corn meal. It will dissolve into the ground. Works like a charm!

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[Watchman]

What a failure! Of all the seeds I planted, only lettuce and radishes germinated. None of my cucumbers or squash. I'm going to try it again.

[Toepopper]

I'm in the same boat. Its still way too cool to germinate seeds outdoors, very weird weather this year. I planted 13 tomato plants and they are doing fine with yellow flowers showing. Too cold to plant beans as they like warm soil. Corn seed has rotted in the ground for the same reason. This is the year we need our garden food supply the most, with potential election after effects in November.

[Watchman]

UPDATE: 24 Jun 24 - We had a tornado off in the distance (30 miles), then severe thunderstorms, then a massive hail storm which struck us directly. My beautiful lettuce was flattened, and tomato plants. Cucumber and squash seeds never sprouted.

[Watchman]

I had two tomato plants in containers (cherry tomatoes) that made it and 1 container with green bell peppers. That's absolutely it! Wyoming was hit by an infestation of Mormon Crickets that came in from the south and west. They have decimated most all home gardens unless the growers coated their plants with poison.

[Toepopper]

The weather has changed to cool and wet here in Oregon, so I have harvested most everything before the rains start. Picked all the grapes, plums, and ripe tomatoes so they don't split open from the rain. Dug up the potato patch and picked the remaining blackberries. Decided to leave the apples on the trees because they need a little more time to ripen. Have spread peat moss over the red raspberries to drop the Ph of the soil for a more robust crop next year. Maple leaves have begun to drop so I am raking them up and dumping them in the potato patch to break down over the winter. Last spring I planted 30 new red raspberry starts but none of them are showing any sprouts or signs of life. I have watered them faithfully every other day and am hoping some new shoots appear in the next few weeks.