Garden 2017

[Socalman]

We had a good thread for Garden 2016 so I thought perhaps I would start a new for the year.

Due to being pretty busy with so many little things, the garden has seen some neglect this year. On top of time, the few days when I had time we had an unusual weather situation here in So. Cal...something called rain.

At the present time, I have the berries pruned and ready to go. Several seedlings going on the tomato and pepper front. Fruit trees are doing well, we have a huge crop of valencia oranges that are now ready. My peach tree that a bear attempted to nest in last year was pruned and has set several blooms. I will not allow it to set too much fruit this year as we need to allow it to rebuild the strong framework. The apricot tree has been covered in blooms. Avocado trees are loaded though the fruit is a bit smaller than we normally see, however it is tasty. Strawberries are setting but still green.

Kale plants still doing well from last year but I am fighting aphids for posession! Lettuce doing quite well.

I need to get my first planting of beans in SOON. Still to come are squash, cucumber and eggplant.

Tell us about your home grown foods!

[bacpacker]

Timely thread. I planted my 1st dozen cabbages this week. Got all but 1 1/2 of my fruit trees pruned. Still need to do the grapes and blueberries and fertilize everything.
I planned to start planting my taters and onions Monday, but we got rain last night so that will get pushed back. Turning cold tonight, suppose to be down in the 20's, may even get some snow. I hope the blueberries and fruit trees aren't far enough along to be hurt. I've got taters left over from last year that I'm gonna plant whole this year. Ordered 5 or 6 bunches of Onion slips from www.dixondale.com Most of them are Copra's. They stored and produced very well last year.
While I was getting the cabbage in the ground, I pulled a few green onions left over from last year. Bulbs were no good, but the greens were awesome.

[helomech]

Got my romaine lettuce, salad lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumbers, squashs, and cayenne peppers planted in my raised bed. Some of my (expensive) orange trees that where supposed to make it down to 10F died this year, and it never got near that cold. I am pissed about that. Other than that all my other fruit trees made it fine. Hoping to get my big greenhouse built this year. Got 16k set aside to do it.

[RedJohn]

Got my romaine lettuce, salad lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumbers, squashs, and cayenne peppers planted in my raised bed.

Not seeing one of the most important survival food: Potatoes.

[Sniper-T]

I too plant very few potatoes... Why? because we rarely eat them. While I understand their value as a prep tool, it keeps coming back to, at least for me, 'Store what you eat!'

this weekend, I will be getting my seeds going. more posts to follow!

[helomech]

Not seeing one of the most important survival food: Potatoes.

I eat low carb, potatoes are not on my diet.

[bacpacker]

I'm trying to get goin on a low carb diet as well. But I love taters and they are easy to grow and store with no energy needed for months. They are too valuable to me long term to not grow them. Plus I can regrow from leftovers the next season.

[Socalman]

At least here in my area of SoCal, I have not found potatos to do well, therefor, I don't plant them.

[Sniper-T]

Got my first 72 cell Jiffy tray filled and ready for business.

6 - Tiny Tim Tomatoes
6 - Jalapeno Peppers
6 - Portuguese Chili peppers
12 - Roma tomatoes
12 - Match Chili peppers
12 - King Bell Peppers
12 - Yellow Bell pepper
6 - Orange Bell Pepper.

Also got 8 garlic plants started in pots.

not sure how these will turn out...

planted 4 pots of broccoli, and another four of green onions...

need to buy:
carrots
dill

(not sure how I let myself run out of seeds :( )

[bacpacker]

Well I lucked out yesterday. We had rain Thursday and pretty much blew my plans of planting taters this week. Plus it was going to rain yesterday evening. I left work late and by the time I got home it hadn't rained yet, so I rush around and get two rows laid off. Ran up and got 2 buckets of taters and got them planted and covered. The last row got covered in the rain.
Cold weather hasn't hurt the cabbage either, so far. Supposed to be 20 Wed night.

[Caveman Survival]

Got my first 72 cell Jiffy tray filled and ready for business.

6 - Tiny Tim Tomatoes
6 - Jalapeno Peppers
6 - Portuguese Chili peppers
12 - Roma tomatoes
12 - Match Chili peppers
12 - King Bell Peppers
12 - Yellow Bell pepper
6 - Orange Bell Pepper.

Also got 8 garlic plants started in pots.

not sure how these will turn out...

planted 4 pots of broccoli, and another four of green onions...

need to buy:
carrots
dill

(not sure how I let myself run out of seeds :( )

Don't get dill... I have thousands of seeds if you want. I planted once 6 years ago and can't get rid of them now lol. Goes for anyone on here. Dm an address and I'll send you out a packet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[realist]

We did something earth shattering and pruned and sprayed all the fruit trees. We've prune in the past but never had the time to spray. It on the calendar now.

We went to the Seed Bank in Petaluma, Ca, pretty impressive. The people there were very helpful. Planted a bunch of seeds in starter trays.

Four weeks ago we had a few days of no rain and weeded and turned over the garden. Everything is prepped we just need it to stop raining. We've had twice the normal rate of rain.

[Sniper-T]

oddly enough, we're getting rain too... freezing rain, and the ground wont be thawed for another two months-ish. Crazy year.

Caveman, thanks, but I picked some up... I didn't see your post in time, and I don't need much, just for a small container.

[Katrina]

Well El Cheepo (DH) finally got a landscaping company to come and clean up the grounds. It doesn't look bad but there is stuff we just couldn't do ourselves. He has arthritis very bad and I couldn't do much over the last few years due to work AND ALLERGIES. We are having the Spruce and Apple trees trimmed and sprayed and the beds around the house cleared out and mulched along with the drainage ditch in front of the house regraded so no more standing water, Yippee no more skitters. It sucks getting old. With that done this year we can get back to our planting schedule and get the gardens going again.

[Socalman]

My update from the original post:

Fruit trees all looking good and fruit set, though the apple is just starting to blossom. Boysenberries are in full bloom, blueberries have set fruit and are growing. I never did get around to propagating the blueberries last year but we did add a third plant. Our grapes are leafing out nicely.

I had a failure with my first planting of tomato and pepper seeds. I think they had a day when they dried out, so I am now way behind on that front. The first plantings of sugar-pod peas are up and doing nicely. The green pole beans are starting to sprout.

Lettuce and kale doing nicely. We had about 10 days of unseasonably warm weather here in SoCal and some of the lettuce began to bolt. Harvested some onions and green onion looking good.

[bacpacker]

We just missed a heavy frost last night. Good thing to, I have apples, pears, blueberries, & pawpaws in full bloom. Taters have come up nice and full. Cabbage and onions are growing off nice. Gonna plant a tray of tomatos and peppers this week.

[Vodin]

Rhubarb is exploding(3 years old now), Raspberries and Black Jewel Raspberries in coming on strong. (Small back yard) Made a nutter 3 yard batch of soil and dispersed it in a few raised garden beds. Been doing regular stops at Starbucks and picking up ~30# bags of used coffee grounds and adding em to the compost piles. Draining the swirl filter in the Aquaponics system and pouring it on the all the garden beds. Growing seedlings in the basement for the soil beds. Hoping this will create a plentiful season.

[bacpacker]

Planted 20 winter squash, butternut, acorn, and new for this year buttercup. Planted 12 watermelons 4 sugar baby, 4 black diamonds, and 4 from some type I forgot to mark as to what they were.
Worked out my growing plants. Sprayed for tater bugs. I tried Neem oil as a spray to see how it works.

[Socalman]

I am not a fan of cumbers per se, but do enjoy most pickles. My wife likes cucumbers so we have grown a few plants on a number of occasions. This year I decided that I was going to make pickles on a smal scale, perhaps between 5 and 10 quarts. One thing I did not do, was plant enough to produce enough at one time! Duh, stupid city boy! Ok, I never lived in the city, spent most of my life in the 'burbs but we have had vegetable gardens for perhaps 45 years. Oh well, there is always 2018!

[Vodin]

My cucumbers plants produced one. Have 5 plants. So we went to the farmers market and bought a case of cucumbers. Pickeled em and used our Grape plant leaves for extra Tanin. The make a crisp loud snap when you bite into them. Still trying to have my garden preform like others. But not there yet.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y534/Vodin136/IMG_8036_zpstovitbkk.jpg