Anyone into gardening here? | Page 44 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Anyone into gardening here?

Nematodes for the grubs. One application took care of mine.
I've already mowed my lawns once.
Tilled the garden too. Nutt'n else to do.
 
Did the treescaping on the big maples this week, tilling the gardens and trying a new fertilizer scheme -- composted chickens and chicken guano. Brother in law raises chickens, every 8 weeks he has hundreds of cubic yards of barn waste that he clears and spreads on his fields, I took a bunch for the gardens and will be tilling in this week.

The light garden has been loaded up with about 1000 flower and heirloom veggie seedlings -- lots germinated in the last 2 days. Overwintered mandivillas, passion flowers, ivys, 420s, and reaper peppers are waking up and starting to show new spring growth. Radishes are up, lettuce and kale in the coldframe is delivering first crop this week.
 
I miss the little garden my family had when I was young. Just go outside grab some pepper, green onions. tomato and viola a great breakfast.
green beans and eggplants were aplenty. Surprise not many people have a small garden in the back yard
 
We were going to do a big backyard overhaul this year with new deck, stonework and gardens, but might be better to wait until next year to see how this economy plays out.

So same ol same ol, but the garden is so thick and full, don't need to do much to it. Might actually need to thin out a bunch of the natives because they seed and move around so much.

I wonder if garden centres and nurseries will be doing business differently this year.
 
As long as i can get my hands on some tomato plants all will be well with the world. Fresh backyard tomatos that didnt spend childhood in a hothouse or two weeks on a truck from Mexico is my summer passion.
 
shanekingsley said:
We were going to do a big backyard overhaul this year with new deck, stonework and gardens, but might be better to wait until next year to see how this economy plays out.

So same ol same ol, but the garden is so thick and full, don't need to do much to it. Might actually need to thin out a bunch of the natives because they seed and move around so much.

I wonder if garden centres and nurseries will be doing business differently this year.
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Curb pickup at Sheridan near us
 
crankcall said:
As long as i can get my hands on some tomato plants all will be well with the world. Fresh backyard tomatos that didnt spend childhood in a hothouse or two weeks on a truck from Mexico is my summer passion.
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I used to start my own toms, now I buy them. $12 for 48 plants from the local nursery. For $2/ plant the sell early starts that get me tomato’s starting in July.
 
Mad Mike said:
I used to start my own toms, now I buy them. $12 for 48 plants from the local nursery. For $2/ plant the sell early starts that get me tomato’s starting in July.
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That’s a good price. I have about 30+ seedlings up now but they are all mostly heritage varieties. A mix of maturity dates, sizes and colours too. I like the yellow and black varieties as they are pretty tasty and we always grow brandywine beefsteak toms. Got 30 bags of garden soil ordered so a couple of plants in each and I’ll be done.
 
I've been doing garden prep and this year I'm diving into heirloom tomatoes (after last years great grow). In addition to Manitoba tomatoes, I'm also planting white, brandywine and pineapple tomatoes. Plus the non-heirloom beefsteak tomato. And those are just the full sized ones. I'm also going with heirloom indigo fireball and chocolate sprinkles cherry tomatoes, plus non-heirloom topsy tom, sweet 100 and the excellent sun sugar cherry tomatoes.

The rest of the garden will be similar to earlier years with homesteader peas, snow peas, red potatoes, carrots, two types of onions, various Chinese vegetables, three types of cucumbers (including the white martini), rhubarb, etc. I'm getting a pollinator perennial too; a bee balm mix. The raspberry bushes have been trimmed. Busy times.
 
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kwtoxman said:
I've been doing garden prep and this year I'm diving into heirloom tomatoes (after last years great grow). In addition to Manitoba tomatoes, I'm also planting white, brandywine and pineapple tomatoes. Plus the non-heirloom beefsteak tomato. And those are just the full sized ones. I'm also going with heirloom indigo fireball, chocolate sprinkles, topsy tom and sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, plus the excellent sun sugar. The rest of the garden will be similar to earlier years with homesteader peas, snow peas, red potatoes, carrots, two types of onions, various Chinese vegetables, three types of cucumbers (including the white martini), etc. I'm getting a pollinator perennial too; a bee balm mix. The raspberry bushes have been trimmed. Busy times.
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If the pineapple ones are called pineapple pig then they are delicious.

my seedlings look really strong right now. The aerogarden gives them a great start.
 
Very nice. There's so many interesting tomato varieties to try. One variety I try to grow every year is the green zebra.

No seed growing for me this year - waiting til Monday and buying a bunch of veggie plants. Just turned the compost bin and amended the beds. It's going to be a good year for the garden with so much time spent at home!

Another great pollinator plant is Joe Pye Weed.
 
Thx. I only recently got into heirloom tomatoes and I struggled to find a local source with lots of options. I luckily found a very small grower with many of these heirloom varieties on Kijiji this year, and it's the first year they're doing this. Their heirloom tomato list was impressive, so I decided to dive in and try a number of new-to-me varieties while I can. Googling white and pineapple tomatoes looks extremely promising from a taste and visual perspective. The Brandywine heirloom tomato looks particularly good visually.

Heirloom tomatoes bring far superior flavors and textures over grocer tomatoes in my experience. Where once I was blind, now I see, lol. I've really enjoyed the tomatoes I've tried with funky colors/characteristics as well.


I'm also getting a scotch bonnet pepper plant for the garden. I'm looking for any and all advice on growing one of these hot peppers outside at home in our climate. All help appreciated.

I'm also doing fresh sweet basil in the garden this year for the first time, Italian Genovese. I'm hoping for a good crop and am envisioning tasty foods.
www.gardenia.net

Ocimum basilicum 'Genovese' (Sweet Basil)

Adding a great Mediterranean taste to the cuisine, Ocimum basilicum 'Genovese' (Sweet Basil) is an annual herb boasting large shiny leaves that can be used for rice dishes, poultry, fish, potatoes and vegetables, dressings or marinades. It is one of the most popular basils for culinary use...
www.gardenia.net www.gardenia.net

I'm excited about the garden again this year. Hope y'all are too.
 
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Been slow off the mark this year. Headed out to the garden to do some work today. Planted some Dahlias last week. Haven't done any marijuana since last year I got such a bumper crop. Although pot plants have a fabulous fragrance, very summery. Think I'll plant a lot of freezables this year, like green beans, broccoli.
 
Potted up some Black Seamon heirloom tomatoes today. Got them from Amazon a few weeks back, came in a hand written packet from an enthusiast grower. Planted 6 got 5 seedlings initially, second round of seeds is in the aero garden now.

In case anyone doesn’t have a lot of room in their house/apartment or even if they do, I can’t recommend an aerogarden highly enough. All the seedlings that come out of it have massive root systems and are really strong. Get the LED version. The soil pods can be pricey but I buy them in bulk and there’s probably a hack for them. Mine (I have 2)started off as the 6 pod versions but I bought an insert to start 30seedlings or so in each of them. They have an automated light system, a feed reminder and if you want you can use them just to grow herbs in for the kitchen. You can get plants about 8” tall out of them. Some dwarf cherry toms are ok too.
 
I was looking through some files I did for a landscape design project and came across a big database I created of plants that will grow in Ontario that are juglone tolerant (ie Black Walnut). So if you have a tree in the walnut family and have trouble growing lot's of plants near them, but want some options, I have this detailed list of native and non-native plants that will grow near them. The list covers small trees, shrubs, perennials and includes bloom colour/season, plant size, spacing, wildlife attracted, etc... let me know and I'll send it your way.
 
I have tomatoes in my greenhouse and it's supposed to be -1 tonight. I covered them and put some lights around them to hopefully keep them warm and happy.
 
matthew said:
I have tomatoes in my greenhouse and it's supposed to be -1 tonight. I covered them and put some lights around them to hopefully keep them warm and happy.
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I'm hoping after this I can harden things off. I’ve been bringing things in every evening.
 
I put rocks in my wife's garden....lots of rocks today...rocks are heavy.
 
jc100 said:
Potted up some Black Seamon heirloom tomatoes today. Got them from Amazon a few weeks back, came in a hand written packet from an enthusiast grower. Planted 6 got 5 seedlings initially, second round of seeds is in the aero garden now.

In case anyone doesn’t have a lot of room in their house/apartment or even if they do, I can’t recommend an aerogarden highly enough. All the seedlings that come out of it have massive root systems and are really strong. Get the LED version. The soil pods can be pricey but I buy them in bulk and there’s probably a hack for them. Mine (I have 2)started off as the 6 pod versions but I bought an insert to start 30seedlings or so in each of them. They have an automated light system, a feed reminder and if you want you can use them just to grow herbs in for the kitchen. You can get plants about 8” tall out of them. Some dwarf cherry toms are ok too.
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I have a 4 tier light garden in the basement (vintage 1980) which I've retrofitted with modern LED grow lights and a 4 channel programmable WIFI switch to control the lights. It works great, I get 12 full trays in the top 3 tiers, hydro tubs sit on the ground for the 4th level. Works like a charm. I use the hydro setup on the bottom for non stop lettuce and for cloning. Each fall I pull a few of my fave exotics from the garden, clone & keep them alive over the winter. This winter I saved 2 colossal coleus and some prized Reapers. In January I chopped up the mothers and cloned twice now I have about 40 garden ready plants that would have cost $4each. Also layered a sting of passion fruit and mandivilla by placing them along side the garden and running a vine thru sole layring pots. Marginal results, about 1/2 rooted. Kept a few 420s cuttings for monstering, they look promising.

I got one of the little 3 pod Aero gardens for Christmas, they produce like crazy. For fun I did a few toms, they were 6" tall after about 2 weeks and starting to get bushy, I divided them and the Aeropod worked juts as well as a cloner, at least for toms. I don't use the pods -- pretty expensive -- instead I use quartered rockwool cubes stuffed into spent pods - they work like a charm and for about $10 you can refill almost 200 pods.
 
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