2011 Gardening Thread

[jim.b]

hey brad when should i plant taters this spring and how long till harvest. and when should i start to teal up the ground. oh master of the graden. i should have payed more attention from my father. he had supplied me with veg for a lot of years. i never got it till a couple of years ago. growing a garden is a lot of fun. looking forward to spring

[unknown 3]

hey brad when should i plant taters this spring and how long till harvest. and when should i start to teal up the ground. oh master of the graden. i should have payed more attention from my father. he had supplied me with veg for a lot of years. i never got it till a couple of years ago. growing a garden is a lot of fun. looking forward to spring

Is it new ground that you're tilling? If so it will take a few go rounds to get it right. I'd start whenever it's dry enough that the loose dirt won't hold a ball after mashing it in your hands. The spuds should go in mid Feb. through early March.

Back to the tilling: I've got lots of good reasons to NOT till. Come by one afternoon when we can go out back and I'll show and tell. You may find it interesting.

[wasabi]

Is it too early to put in onion sets? I bought a bag of them this weekend and could use some advice about growing them. Do I plant them in stages if I want to harvest all summer?

[Corker]

Is it too early to put in onion sets? I bought a bag of them this weekend and could use some advice about growing them. Do I plant them in stages if I want to harvest all summer?

Keep the onion sets cool & dry and wait a few weeks. Your garden sits at an elevation of 500'+ and is 150 miles from the ocean, so you have none of the advantages that allow SE VA gardners to start early. Anything you put in the ground now will just sit there and shiver. If you have muck soil or it's poorly drained, cold wet ground will rot most seed and halt the growth of transplants. Onions can take a lot, but in the long run they'll do better if they can put down roots and start growing aggressively as soon as they are planted.

The only way to cheat the climate is with black plastic. A black plastic cover captures the sun's heat and traps it in the soil. As soon as you can till your plot thoroughly, prepare a 12" to 18" seed bed with 4" deep trenches along the sides. Roll the black plastic down your rows and pile dirt all along the edges to keep it from blowing loose. Plant through small slits in the plastic. Yes this is more difficult and expensive and it requires extra clean-up at season-end, but for selected goodies, it's worth the effort.

[fatslab]

did some tilling this aternoon,gettn ready to plant onions,peas,taters,lettuce prolly 2 more weeks but gonna be ready

[Andy Clayton]

fatslab are you really here in Va.????? I took one step into my garden yesterday and went up to my ankle in mud. I don't see any late winter planting here in Suffolk.

AC

[jim.b]

hey bradley when i get a chance i'll stop by and steal some of your secrets . also do muskrats like taters. i hope not. they put a hurting on my garden last summer. funny thing was they only ate certain veggies so this year i'm not going to plant the ones they like. i think i am having a shoer moment. i miss jeff:o

[fatslab]

ac the ground is tillable here in saluda,thought i would go ahead before this mid week rain hits.prolly can open a few rows with my hand plow now that its tilled in a couple weeks or so,plantn gods willn

[unknown 3]

hey bradley when i get a chance i'll stop by and steal some of your secrets . also do muskrats like taters. i hope not. they put a hurting on my garden last summer. funny thing was they only ate certain veggies so this year i'm not going to plant the ones they like. i think i am having a shoer moment. i miss jeff:o

The muskrats might "dig" those spuds, but not to worry. I'll give you my trap. even lend you my .22 to dispatch them. You just have to prromise to post pics. of the carnage.

[Andy Clayton]

Saluda you say. Should be sandy topsoil I would guess.

AC