2025 Garden Thread
- Thread starter Patrick
- Start date
qclabrat
Well-Known Member
I put down the the tomatoes over mother's day which is what I've been doing for years. This year I got a few larger plants as recent years, the plants weren't maturing fast enough to catch the prime fruit time. This past weekend, put down cucumbers and squashes. Which have also been duds the last few years. Plenty of flowers but little fruit. Could be pollinator issues, will try manual pollination as I do with the Asian pear trees. End of month will be beans and peppers. Not much time for gardening this year, and hope to eventually get out on the trails this year...
SAM
Well-Known Member
I've been chipping away at it since cleaning it up and other chores in Mar and early Apr. Been better at recording dates this year, so here is the chronology:
Transplanted Brussels Sprout (Bonnie) on Mar 30 that I bought from the Big Box. They did not get eaten by the vole, so looking good right now. The battle with the vole (see posts above) took way too much of my time (and most of my broccoli and cauliflower seedings).
Seeded snap peas Apr 19 and beets, spinach, radish, & carrots Apr 21. They're all up and thinned. Radish are getting ready to pick.
Planted red onion and white Spanish onion slips (Bonnie) on May 1 that I got from the Big Box. Also on May 1, I started zucchini, spaghetti, butternut, and acorn squash and cucumbers indoors. Started hardening off the squash and cuke seedlings on May 17. I won't put them in the garden until after this cold spell.
I transplanted tomatoes, peppers, eggplants on May 12 that were started indoors on Mar 17 and hardened off starting May 3. They look so so right now. Also transplanted poblano peppers (Bonnie) and an Asian eggplant (Burpee) on May 12 that I bought from a Big Box store. Spent a back breaking half day on May 12 hand weeding the boxes, paths and berry enclosure. I'm on top of it for now. Yes, I spent nearly the whole day May 12 working in the garden.
And, yes, there were two or three days that I would've biked but did not because of garden / landscaping work. 🙁
Transplanted Brussels Sprout (Bonnie) on Mar 30 that I bought from the Big Box. They did not get eaten by the vole, so looking good right now. The battle with the vole (see posts above) took way too much of my time (and most of my broccoli and cauliflower seedings).
Seeded snap peas Apr 19 and beets, spinach, radish, & carrots Apr 21. They're all up and thinned. Radish are getting ready to pick.
Planted red onion and white Spanish onion slips (Bonnie) on May 1 that I got from the Big Box. Also on May 1, I started zucchini, spaghetti, butternut, and acorn squash and cucumbers indoors. Started hardening off the squash and cuke seedlings on May 17. I won't put them in the garden until after this cold spell.
I transplanted tomatoes, peppers, eggplants on May 12 that were started indoors on Mar 17 and hardened off starting May 3. They look so so right now. Also transplanted poblano peppers (Bonnie) and an Asian eggplant (Burpee) on May 12 that I bought from a Big Box store. Spent a back breaking half day on May 12 hand weeding the boxes, paths and berry enclosure. I'm on top of it for now. Yes, I spent nearly the whole day May 12 working in the garden.
And, yes, there were two or three days that I would've biked but did not because of garden / landscaping work. 🙁
SAM
Well-Known Member
Well, it's not a big investment for drip supplies. I think the whole system cost me around $150. Install wasn't hard either. Took me an afternoon to run and connect it all, so it might be worth it, even if you're not using it for long.
I just needed to do some repairs and the 1/2" compression coupling I needed was only 75 cents. The little quarter inch valve barbs I needed were around $1.50. I bought a few of each for a total of $10 and $5 for shipping.
SAM
Well-Known Member
Yes, regular spigot. The setup from the spigot is: back flow preventer, filter, pressure regulator, female hose thread adapter, 1/2" tubing to garden connected to 1/4" emitter tubing with barb tubing coupling valves so I can control flow to emitter tubing (shut some off leave some on).
Here's the parts list I used:
picked our radishes - no pic tho.
arugula has gone to seed - still edible.
chard is coming on
thinned some of the fruit trees
Need to get the water spouts on the pears
harvested some garlic scapes, oil s&p in the air fryer. Yum!
Corn is a fruit. go figure.
arugula has gone to seed - still edible.
chard is coming on
thinned some of the fruit trees
Need to get the water spouts on the pears
harvested some garlic scapes, oil s&p in the air fryer. Yum!
Corn is a fruit. go figure.
Robin
Well-Known Member
Garden plot fail.
I got stuff in close to May 15 but with all the rain…and life/not being home, my garden is in sad shape.
I don’t want to lose my plot as I’ve had it for quite a while and there is a wait list. I weeded again last night and shoved some seeds in. We will see.
I got stuff in close to May 15 but with all the rain…and life/not being home, my garden is in sad shape.
I don’t want to lose my plot as I’ve had it for quite a while and there is a wait list. I weeded again last night and shoved some seeds in. We will see.
qclabrat
Well-Known Member
Wow, nice specimen. Also likes well drained sandy soil. That's why they grow well near the shore and south Jersey. My soil is all clay and rocks so pretty much the opposite.
ekuhn
Well-Known Member
This explains why the new ones I planted are not looking so good.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
We have 6 around the property and 2 different varieties. This year, 1 variety is blooming like your picture. The other variety has very few blooms at all.
Yes, at my old house in lawrence, it was all shale and clay, almost impossible to grow them in that.
I also started using specific fertilizer which i think are high in acid?
qclabrat
Well-Known Member
Yep, I can tell, acidic soils bring blue blooms. We used to drop match books in the soil to make it acidic. Want pink blooms, moderate some lime fertilizer over time. They aren't fussy plants, but can't be neglected like lilies, astilbes and hostas which I have too many as my gardening time has diminished quite a bit in the last few years.
SAM
Well-Known Member
Nice! Hydrangeas, now you'll get me talking. I went full hydrangea in a spot behind the house with eastern exposure. Gets sun until about 1 or 2. So, pretty much full sun but miss the heat of the afternoon sun, which may be a benefit for them.
This is the third iteration for this spot. Had crimson red azaleas and then knockout roses in this spot previously, both of which eventually died. I put the hydrangeas in four years ago. So far, they've been doing very well.
By the way, I live in central Hunterdon County with poorly drained red shale clay soil and they seem to be doing okay.
Pic from yesterday. The two in the back are Endless Summer "Bloomstruck" and the ones in the front are Endless Summer "Summer Crush".
I also put in three Limelight Hydrangeas about five years ago. Panicle variety. They start blooming in July and go until Sept. Need to cut them back every year or they'd be huge. Here're pics from mid-Aug last year
All hydrangeas are in a fenced area, so the deer don't get to them.