# It is spring who's planting?



## stephanie

I am finished prepping my garden for the year.So far I have planted,spinach,lettuce,carrots,collard,kale,onion,garlic,peas. In the next couple of days I am planting my corn,squash,green beans. I am so excited to be able to plant seeds right now.The weather has been perfect this spring. It is supposed to be 70 in washington state this saturday! It will be a couple more weeks before I am able to get my potatoes,tomatoes,asparagus crowns in. This is the gardeners busy time to get planting,get some sun and fresh air!


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## angel1237b

oh steph..i am happy for you..i still have a month and a little to wait..as soon as the snow leaves i will start raking the yard...lots of leaves and pine needles...that will help me pass the time until last frost...may 18...i have a question for you...i hope i am not a bother..when i rake up my leaves and pine needles..do i just spread them into the garden and till them in...they have been on the ground under the snow all winter and should be somewhat rotted...i am never sure what to do..thank you steph.


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## Tammy

so far I have in lettuce, radishes, garlic and my raspberry shoots are emerging, the blueberry bushes have closed buds on them and the strawberry plants are starting to really produce alot of new leaves. this wknd is supposed to be nice though and then heading for low 70's into next week. So, hopefully we can get the lumber this wknd for three 4x8 raised beds, DH can build those for me and then get them filled with soil. Ideally, I can really start planting more things by the following wknd then!


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## stephanie

angel1237b said:


> oh steph..i am happy for you..i still have a month and a little to wait..as soon as the snow leaves i will start raking the yard...lots of leaves and pine needles...that will help me pass the time until last frost...may 18...i have a question for you...i hope i am not a bother..when i rake up my leaves and pine needles..do i just spread them into the garden and till them in...they have been on the ground under the snow all winter and should be somewhat rotted...i am never sure what to do..thank you steph.


I would spread them around as mulch on top of the beds this year and then till them in next year. plant your seeds then use the pine needle and leaves as a top dressing mulch.


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## Shannon

Woo Hoo! Its getting warmer -43 in Northern Illinois. I can hardly wait! My ground is still frozen. Last week I sprayed dormant oil on my fruit trees (the bugs discovered them last year) and today I pruned them. It felt so good to be out in the sun even though it was muddy and chilly. . As soon as that ground softens up I'll direct sow my greens.


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## angel1237b

lol...you go shannon..i feel the same way...come on sun.


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## MorganLovesGardening

Its 55 degrees here on the Jersey Shore. I just planted peas, onions, and scallions yesterday. I need to start seedlings today. Wondering how the salt from the ocean has affected my soil.


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## PHONETOOL

MorganLovesGardening said:


> Its 55 degrees here on the Jersey Shore. I just planted peas, onions, and scallions yesterday. I need to start seedlings today. Wondering how the salt from the ocean has affected my soil.


It's probably beneficial Ocean water has quite a few minerals.
I add this when watering about once a week >>> http://www.seaagri.com/fertilizer.htm


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## Tammy

today should be almost 80 degrees here and how I wish I had the day off and could plant! 

DH is still constructing my raised garden beds though. Three 4' x 8' beds. These suckers will be strong and will last a long time! He's doing such a good job on them and I know it'll be worth the wait. 

but the last several days of warm weather, following a rain/thunder/lightening storm that rolled through on Saturday have sure made things explode! My radishes and lettuce have doubled in size, lots of new shoots on my raspberries and all my fruit trees are ready to bust out with new leaves.


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## stephanie

my peas,lettuce,spinach and collards are up now, fruit trees have started blooming, the mason bees are out doing their jobs. my daffodils and tulips are both hitting full bloom. just finished planting corn,squash,onion,broccoli and carrots. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and through the weekend here in western washington. still have another garden area to prep and plant. Hubby's a bit slow doing his section and trial with growing the three sisters using the traditional dent corn,bean(pole) and squash(pumpkin). I have some ornamental trees to find a perm home for and you would think I could on 5-1/3rd acres but nope can't figure out where I want them to grow and look pretty. finishing up the pig pen repairs today so my new arrivals tomorrow will have a safe dry place to lay their wee heads. till they are full grown in october. oh ya pigs grow real fast 3-5 lbs per day I get them at 6-8 weeks old. this year we are going to raise one up as a breeding sow and give that at whirl on the farm.


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## HOOKER

beefsteak maters & cherry maters seeds go'n tamorrow before sunrise..
will look fer 6-8 mater plants at ACE Hardware when they open...

lost all my seed cups in my BaitShop Room & hadnt figger'd out why yet,,
room is fully climate controlled with Auto Ventalators (exhausts lead & paint fumes)
81* constant with 63%rh constant also since 1/3/13
still lost'm ALL??? 
I DUNNO eether.....

oh well, just start over with seeds in soil


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## stephanie

currently my garden as of yesterday is being heavily watered by mother nature. this is good because I have seeds that needed that boost of water and warmth. hubby got his tiller off to the small engine guy and should get it back by this weekend in time to till the horse poo in and plant his seeds in his area the traditional native american way with the traditional seeds. plus a few other types of seeds out there


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## Shannon

Oooo baby pigs - so cute - (yes, I know they're not pets) LOL I would love to live on a farm for maybe a year to get the full experience. It seems like hard work but so fulfilling.
I like the 3 sisters idea of planting. I tried it a couple of years ago but it didn't work for me even though each crop grew well in it's own section of the yard. Maybe I payed to much attention to the 3 sisters and watered them to death or something. I need to take another look at that simple but brilliant growing plan.


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## stephanie

I forgot to mention that my oak tree seeds sprouted and grew to 6-8 inches tall and my sweet potatoes that I bought at trader joe's are sprouting finally!


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## angel1237b

cool...i planted some seeds out of a lemon i had in the fridge...9 of them came up...they are about 3 inches tall..lol...i am not sure how to look after them...p.s. i peeled the seeds before i planted them.


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## stephanie

check on line to see how to grow and care for lemons. was it a meyer lemon you got the seeds from?


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## angel1237b

i'm not sure steph it was one i bought at the grogery store.


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## stephanie

i asked because I read some place that the meyer lemons where the only ones that would sprout and grow. they are a dwarf variety and do well indoors and will produce lemons in about 3 to 5 yrs. I would bet it is a meyer since it sprouted  If you live where it gets warm in summer over 70+ degrees you can put it outside during warm periods if you live in the south where it rarely freezes for more than a night or two it can handle temps down into the 40's in winter with dips to the 30's and will do fine out side year round.


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## angel1237b

thanks steph...i live in eastern canada...we get only 3 to four months of summer usually around 70 to 90..not too often 90...then hard winters...i have four seedlings in a 8x8 pot..i will have to separate them..the other ones are in peat pellets...i will plant them in separate pots..lots of fun experimenting..lol


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## Tammy

and tonight I'll be covering up my garden bed. Supposed to have frost. My poor little confused plants!


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## Tammy

Last night I went out to cover up my one garden bed with lettuce/radishes because we had a frost warning. And while I was out there I see that the area in my garden where I dug a hole over the winter and just put all my veggie/fruit scraps for composting, has stuff growing! It's super rich black soil with all that decomposed over the winter and it looks like I have potatos growing and I'm not sure what the other sprouts are that came up. It looks like the first oval shaped/rounded leaves that cucumbers sprout but they are BIG. the leaves are probably about the size of limes. I guess I'll just let it continue growing and see what I get.


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## stephanie

do let it grow to see what it is!!!
potatoes will do that some times from starts and if you cut open a squash before you cook it and compost those seeds some times they grow too!


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## Tammy

ahhh! that just reminded me - the area where the unidentified plant is coming up is where I composted our halloween pumpkin. It's gotta be pumpkin seeds that are sprouting. There's about 4-5 of them.


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## stephanie

cool at least you won't have to go shopping for pumpkin this year!


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## stephanie

I have potatoes coming up all over the place, my broccoli is up now so are my onions, I got my tomatoes in the green house in the raised bed. gotta keep them moist till they get used to being transplanted, some are already blooming. think this weekend I am going to flatten the extra dirt pile out and plant some thing in it. bare dirt need veggies growing in it it is screaming to be used planted in.


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## Tammy

i've been picking some lettuce and radishes, finally! We are finally getting some consistent warmer temps with the nights staying milder, so my lettuce really started growing quickly now. 

the blueberry bushes I transplanted are just really loaded with what will be berries. I'm so excited because I really didn't think they'd produce much the first year after I transplanted them. Lots of raspberry shoots coming up also. 

and what I thought was pumpkins coming up might not be. My mom didn't think they looked like pumpkins. too big for cucumbers, but maybe some other kind of squash? I guess it'll be my mystery plants - I have about 10 of them that came up. but then in another area where I buried veggie scraps for composting, I had what kind of looks like cucumbers coming up. but I'm not sure on that either, so another mystery. 

My husband finally finished up my raised garden boxes. These things are build SO sturdy. he did a great job. We'll move them out to the garden tonight or tomorrow and then this week he'll get a truckload of gardening soil for me. I'm going to start some seeds tomorrow in the many terra cotta pots I have and then in a couple weeks I can transplant to the garden boxes. 

Feels good to be in 80 degree temps this week and really feel like I can begin the gardening w/o worry of cold nights again.


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## stephanie

I have some mystery plants coming up in odd places also I am hopping they are some type of squash because they have emerged from under the edge of a raised bed and if they are potatoes I will be over whelmed with them sprouting up every where in a few years.


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## Shannon

LOL! The only mystery plants I'm getting are weeds! Chickweed is new to my back yard this year. I pulled some along with some beautiful dandelion leaves for my spring tonic. Yum.


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## Tammy

Yesterday when I was out in the garden pulling some weeds and getting a few seeds planted, I saw something growing amongst my raspberry shoots - it was only about an inch high and had delicate little pointed leaves on it. It didn't look like my other raspberry shoots coming up, so I pulled it and at the base of the root was a peach pit! I had a peach pit that was probably in with the compost I added to the raspberries that had sprouted. If I had had a clue it was a peach, I would have carefully dug it up and put it in a pot and tried growing a peach tree.


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## stephanie

I harvested my first handful of asparagus for this year! it looks great I am so looking forwards to more. this week is going to be weather weird though, freezing at night and 70 during the day. kinda make plants do weird stuff.


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## Tammy

those kind of temp swings can be confusing for plants "oh, 70! I can grow now!" "oh, 30's, I can't grow now!" . . . last night we got pretty cold here - down in the 30's but I don't think we went below freezing, but we should be up to near 90 by tomorrow and pretty much mid 80s' all the other days, with nights staying in the 40's. 

I noticed some asparagus coming up near one of my blueberry bushes. But all it's ever done is sprout a few of the real thin feathery wispy stuff. I've never gotten a nice asparagus spear, even though I planted a few asparagus crowns about 5 yrs ago.


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## stephanie

you have to cut the asparagus when it is about 6 inches long below the level of the dirt. the wispy things are the spears after they frond out to the fern they are. cut them before they reach that stage.


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## TennesseeChicken

Today I planted zucchini, straightneck yellow squash, and peter pan squash. Yesterday I transplanted a bunch of tomatoes and hot peppers and sowed some burpless cukes and snow peas (a little late on the peas). I have kale, swiss chard, savoy cabbage, spinach growing and green beans coming up. The garlic is doing well, no scapes yet. I also have many different kinds of lettuce, kohlrabi, turnips, snow peas, and, surprisingly, one of my artichokes came back to life!! Hope to get an artichoke this year! The asparagus is coming up sporadically; I threw a bunch of seeds out from last years stems and alot of those are coming up! The alpine strawberries are blossoming like crazy and I hope to get some of those very soon!!


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## monaraebeads

I debated whether or not I would grow a garden this year; I live in zone 7-8 with a very short season. Last year was my very first garden EVER and it was such fun, but the yield was very low, and I didn't get any peas, beans, spinach, cilantro, green onions, carrots over an inch, or broccoli, and the tomatoes didn't start turning from green until the day before first frost. I grew the tomatoes on the pool table through the first 3 months of winter, bringing them out for sun each day when there wasn't snow and keeping the light on over them 24/7. I decided that starting everything from seed was not the way to go and if I was going to have another garden it would be from purchased starts.

Well...I had little carrots popping up, and the broccoli overwintered and started growing leaves again, and the green onions started again, and a single spinach started, and a lone swiss chard, and the cilantro and oregano came up again, and cleary sage too. I had rooted some basil over the winter in a glass, so I planted it next to the spinach. Then I decided to plant some of the seeds I'd harvested from last year. The bug bit me HARD!

This year I'll try beans and peas and watermelon and pumpkins from seed I saved. I bought new seeds for summer squash, kale, and cucumber. I bought some starts of baby squash, baby romaine, ever sweet strawberries, yellow bells, tomatillos, 4 different heirloom tomatoes, and RASPBERRIES!


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## stephanie

ya, some stuff over winters real good and will pop back up when the time comes. I had collard greens, potatoes and garlic come back to life this year after being covered in snow.


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## stephanie

I have tomato's on the vine, in western washington.I am so excited this is so early and it is supposed to be 80 today and in the high 70's all week in seattle! my garden is going nuts! corn is up,squash is up,spinach,carrots,onion,broccoli,potato's,strawberries are blooming both the wild and domestic ones,asparagus is up,lettuce going wild! saw a nasturtium or two up,peas are climbing!


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## stephanie

I went out today and gave my husbands garden a helping hand, some of his corn got attacked and so did his beans so he kinda gave up but I snuck out and replanted his beans and some corn as well as the squash. because he gave up doesn't mean I have. I figure in about 2 weeks or less I should see improvement  shhhh don't tell lol


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## angel1237b

what attacked it? was it cut worm...I am so afraid this year ...they got my beans last year...I had to plant them 3 times.
I just had to replant my corn and beans because of the rain...the seeds rotted in the ground...I hope it dries up soon.


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## stephanie

think it was slugs we have some horrendously huge slugs in the PNW. they get up to 8 inches long and we have three types.


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## Tammy

so you have his and her gardens? lol! won't he be surprised when stuff starts sprouting up, seemingly all its own!


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## stephanie

yes he was feeling a bit competitive this year and figured he would give it a try with dent corn,pole beans and squash the three sisters method in a different area. he gave up so I decided to help a bit and replant some of the corn,beans and add the squash. watered the heck out of it. hopefully it will take off better now and he will regain some of that gardening spirit. his was looking really sad compared to mine I inherited my grandmothers green thumbs so I know I can salvage his garden space.


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## PatOrtega

I was wondering if you knew of any top tiller brand. I've been looking for a best one. I badly need it. Thanks!
http://www.bestsellingreviews.com/Garden/Tiller/


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## Stephanie Hanlon

we have decided to not till any more but the troy built rear tine tillers hold up great.


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