The 2023 Gardening Thread

[AbbysMom]

How I started off the 2022 thread -

We haven't planted the vegetable garden for a few years now. Neither of us has had the time. Our garden was here when we moved here 17 years ago and it's just a mess. It needs to be completely redone. This year we want to disassemble it - Take down the fencing, the pressure-treated timbers, weed it, etc. Long-term we would like to make raised beds out in that area, but doubt that will get done this year.

Well, disassembling didn't get done last year. On to 2023!

 

[NY cat man]

I would like to expand the raised bed area, only without resorting to stone or lumber to do so. More green beans and carrots; fewer tomatoes and cucumbers, and add butternut squash, beets and leaf lettuce; and take another stab at potatoes, as our- admittedly limited- efforts seemed to work out all right last year.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I’m not sure what I will do come spring. One of my raised beds has come apart. So I need to get new sides for it at least if I’m going to plant. DH wanted me to take last year off. Right now part of me is ok with not doing the raised beds again. But I’m not ready to tear out the beds either.

I think I need to just wait to see how things go. I’ll have my potted stuff for sure. I do have the Burpee catalog here to drool over…

 

[doomsdave]

I love the way this shot of my palm garden turned out. It needs a song playing in the background, maybe Stevie Wonder “Ribbon in the Sky”….

 

[DreamerRose]

Burpee's seed catalogue arrived last Friday. They are ever hopeful. If I can just get the beds cleared of trash and weeds I will be happy.

 

[posiepurrs]

I am all set for the planting season with the exception of seed potatoes and onion seeds. I still need to order those. I have everything else. Plus extra of things I have never grown. I ordered a grab bag of seeds from my favorite place and got some things I have never grown along with things I needed. I have never grown parsley root, bronze leaf fennel, okra, rutabaga, and Swiss chard. Not even sure what to do with the parsley root or fennel. I did some winter sowing of flower seeds the other day.

 

[doomsdave]

I love the way this shot of my palm garden turned out. It needs a song playing in the background, maybe Stevie Wonder “Ribbon in the Sky”….

View attachment 440213

 

[doomsdave]

I would like to expand the raised bed area, only without resorting to stone or lumber to do so. More green beans and carrots; fewer tomatoes and cucumbers, and add butternut squash, beets and leaf lettuce; and take another stab at potatoes, as our- admittedly limited- efforts seemed to work out all right last year.

Hmm. Raising beds without a structure is a job, that, in my experience usually fails in the end, since mounded dirt tends to go back to its level. On the other hand, you can keep piling and piling, and packing down the "retaining walls" hard and see if that helps.

I grew potatoes one year following a method I learned from a friend (you may already know this, so I also post it for the lurkers and newbies): Loosen the soil about a foot down, all the usual compost etc. dig out to about six inches, smooth out, and plant seed potatoes on top of that "lowered" dirt area, then instead of burying in dirt, cover with straw, and water and feed like usual. Harvest is a cinch, just pull aside the straw to reveal the potatoes below. Mr. Spinal Column will appreciate.

 

[NY cat man]

Hmm. Raising beds without a structure is a job, that, in my experience usually fails in the end, since mounded dirt tends to go back to its level. On the other hand, you can keep piling and piling, and packing down the "retaining walls" hard and see if that helps.

I grew potatoes one year following a method I learned from a friend (you may already know this, so I also post it for the lurkers and newbies): Loosen the soil about a foot down, all the usual compost etc. dig out to about six inches, smooth out, and plant seed potatoes on top of that "lowered" dirt area, then instead of burying in dirt, cover with straw, and water and feed like usual. Harvest is a cinch, just pull aside the straw to reveal the potatoes below. Mr. Spinal Column will appreciate.

I accidentally got into potatoes last year when a neighbor was in the hospital, and came home to find her potatoes were sprouting. I cut out the 'eyes' and put them in peat pots in the basement until the weather allowed planting them outside. Surprisingly enough, they grew and we actually had a crop, so to speak. Had it not been so dry, we might have done better.

 

[Winchester]

We have the Burpee's catalog as well as Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog and Rick has been busy perusing both.

One of the items he wants to get is garden mats to help with weeding and such. Garden Mats Landscape Fabric Weed Barrier | The Weed-Free Garden Solution
Our pharmacist has a huge garden and she wouldn't be able to take care of it all without her mats. She's had hers now for a good 7 or 8 years and she swears by them.

We did both white potatoes and sweet potatoes one year. They both did very well!

 

[doomsdave]

Long as you're doing taters, try some of the exotic kinds from places like Peru, where they originated.

Fabled Heirloom Potatoes from the High Andes – Mother Earth Gardener

 

[DreamerRose]

I accidentally got into potatoes last year when a neighbor was in the hospital, and came home to find her potatoes were sprouting. I cut out the 'eyes' and put them in peat pots in the basement until the weather allowed planting them outside. Surprisingly enough, they grew and we actually had a crop, so to speak. Had it not been so dry, we might have done better.

A fellow in our garden club came up with a unique way to grow potatoes. He put up a column of chicken wire about 18" across, then planted a seed potato in the bottom. He covered it up with a foot or so of soil and compost. The potato grew and when it was about a foot tall, he added another foot of soil and compost. He continued this until he got to the top of the chicken wire, about five feet. At the end of the season. he removed the chicken wire and collapsed the dirt column. He harvested about 20 pounds of potatoes.

He posted a YouTube video of this, but I can't find it now. Lots of container videos on YouTube, though. Potato plants make their potatoes along the stems; that's why you can keep adding dirt and get more potatoes.

 

[mani]

I'm not sure whether I posted this in the other thread.. my oncidium went crazy this year.

Also a couple of Dendrobium with some Oncidium in another part of the garden.

 

[di and bob]

Last year was just plain miserable. We were, and still are, in an exceptional drought here in Nebraska, and no matter how much you watered, it didn't seem to be enough. I had a 400.00 water bill, absolutely outrageous! the potatoes did beautifully, grew two foot tall in a few months and just set buds, then we had a 60mph wind for two days and 90+ heat. It took them to the ground. There was hardly anything under them months later even though they grew back. a few, but not much. Onions grew well, huge like softballs, but tough and very hot. About three tomatoes off of 24 plants. that same wind mentioned above killed them and we replanted but it was too late. We had our soil tested and found out it was super high in phosphorus, It used to be a feed lot area. We have raised beds with cement blocks, so will have to figure out some way to replace the soil in them. I dug ibn about a bale of straw I had available in each bed, trying to 'dilute' the phosphorous, I'll have to read up on it, but all i've seen so far is to replace the soil.
It's strange with gardeners though, you never seem to give up, on to 2023!

 

[doomsdave]

Last year was just plain miserable. We were, and still are, in an exceptional drought here in Nebraska, and no matter how much you watered, it didn't seem to be enough. I had a 400.00 water bill, absolutely outrageous! the potatoes did beautifully, grew two foot tall in a few months and just set buds, then we had a 60mph wind for two days and 90+ heat. It took them to the ground. There was hardly anything under them months later even though they grew back. a few, but not much. Onions grew well, huge like softballs, but tough and very hot. About three tomatoes off of 24 plants. that same wind mentioned above killed them and we replanted but it was too late. We had our soil tested and found out it was super high in phosphorus, It used to be a feed lot area. We have raised beds with cement blocks, so will have to figure out some way to replace the soil in them. I dug ibn about a bale of straw I had available in each bed, trying to 'dilute' the phosphorous, I'll have to read up on it, but all i've seen so far is to replace the soil.
It's strange with gardeners though, you never seem to give up, on to 2023!

Ouch, sorry to hear.

Are you guys on the Ogallalah acquifer? I hear it's being depleted. We have aquifers here, too, and they're also running low, especially up in the Central Valley where all the crops are.

 

[di and bob]

Yes we are. We desperately need rain. Itssad to see the farmers using too much too. Filling the ditches and never turning the pivots off ( they just keep going around) is wasteful. They are monitored by guages but never seem to stop. I wonder what they'll do when they cut them off!
One bright side, we have gotten much more snow so far, pray it continues!

 

[posiepurrs]

A fellow in our garden club came up with a unique way to grow potatoes. He put up a column of chicken wire about 18" across, then planted a seed potato in the bottom. He covered it up with a foot or so of soil and compost. The potato grew and when it was about a foot tall, he added another foot of soil and compost. He continued this until he got to the top of the chicken wire, about five feet. At the end of the season. he removed the chicken wire and collapsed the dirt column. He harvested about 20 pounds of potatoes.

He posted a YouTube video of this, but I can't find it now. Lots of container videos on YouTube, though. Potato plants make their potatoes along the stems; that's why you can keep adding dirt and get more potatoes.

It depends on if the potatoes are determinate or indeterminate. Determinate potatoes only grow the tubers at the bottom of the stems instead of all along the buried stems.

 

[doomsdave]

It depends on if the potatoes are determinate or indeterminate. Determinate potatoes only grow the tubers at the bottom of the stems instead of all along the buried stems.

Interesting!

Tomatoes have the same variations in habit as well. Which makes sense since they're closely related botanically.

 

[DreamerRose]

So how can you tell the difference when planting?

 

[NY cat man]

The ones that I worked with last year were Yukon Gold, but which type they are I have no idea. I only had 2 plants to work with, but I harvested around 20 potatoes. Maybe this year will turn out better.