Thread: gardening /09

Try the newspaper pot tutorial Here I made mine with a bit bigger container but they work verry well. i bought some plastic pot trays and set them in one. I can then place my water in the tray and they all soak it up. I have had mine like this for a two weeks and can still pick up the pots without them falling apart.

Originally Posted by redring

Try the newspaper pot tutorial Here I made mine with a bit bigger container but they work verry well. i bought some plastic pot trays and set them in one. I can then place my water in the tray and they all soak it up. I have had mine like this for a two weeks and can still pick up the pots without them falling apart.

Yes! we've made paper pots up over the winter while watching movies. Got several sizes and excited to have the free pots to fill!

Look for canning jars at yard sales, all so check freecycle, and Craigs list. This funny but my saw her neighbor but 2 boxs out for trash and took them for me. Check your prices now Walmart near me has them right now $3.00 cheaper then during the summer. Debbie

I've been collecting canning jars all winter. I thought I'd have to wait until Spring to find any but I've almost got what I thought I'd need and they have been cheaper than they are during the summer!

I also have Jenny Lind Cantaloupe seed if anyone wants any!

I have found over the years that you never have enough canning jars when you start the actual canning process. Always seem to have more harvest than anticipated. So this year I am going to make sure I have a couple of cases extra before I start, just to be sure. Hopefully, I won't have to run all over the place looking for canning jars in the middle of canning season. Thanks; Virginia

We are ready for Spring--Gardening is our way of life around here, winter is a hard time.
We have a sweet potato plant growing in a pot. It was sprouting so we potted it up about a month ago, it is now about a foot and a half tall and looks really healthy and green. A couple of weeks ago we planted Jumbo Pink Banana Squash, in the pot with the sweet potato, to check the viability of the seed and had 100% germination. I guess the seed is good. We transplanted the squash plants the other day giving them their own pots. They are healthy and dark green with quite large leaves, already. Hope we can keep them alive and healthy until time to put them in the ground, but know that that is not likely. Neither Sweet Potatoes nor Squash are cole crops so they have about 7 weeks to go before it would be safe to plant in the ground without covering them. Might try putting them out and placing plastic jugs on them (depending on the weather) in 4 or 5 weeks, but they may be to big by then. Oh well, it is nice to see them growing, we will just hope for the best.We knew it was way to early to plant them but just couldn't wait.
Now the Irish Potatoes can be planted in about 4 weeks here. We try to plant them on the 100th day of the year or on Good Friday--this year it appears to be one and the same day. Hopefully the weather will allow us to plant. We planted 4 varieties last year; Red Norland (an early potato), Pontiac (late Red), Kennebec (late white) and Yukon Gold (mid to late potato). Averaged among the four varieties grown we harvested approximately 50 to 55 pounds of potatoes per every one pound of seed potatoes planted. Not a bad amount. We still have a huge amount in the basement. The Yukon Gold potatoes seem to be storing the best, as they have just recently began to sprout. Hopefully we will have as good a harvest this year as last.
Planning lots of other stuff for the garden. Still to early for much yet, but will be planting seed inside for Tomatoes and Cabbage and other veggies in the near future.
We live out of our garden year round, (eating fresh in season, storing the harvest for the rest of the year.) so it is very important to us.
Thanks; Virginia

Originally Posted by Virginia

We live out of our garden year round, (eating fresh in season, storing the harvest for the rest of the year.) so it is very important to us.
Thanks; Virginia

Virginia,
This will be the first year we have a big enough garden to cover us for the full year. We're putting in a root cellar this summer for the root crops and my husband is finishing up the basement storage room now building special shelves for all my can goods. With you living mostly from your garden how much do you spend at the grocery store? I've began making my own soaps and learning as many skills as I can so we will be able to make it on our own and maybe only pick up a few things once or twice a year. Just wondering how well we'll do at the grocery store in the future!

Thanks!
Cherlynn

I'm a newbie here, but a very active member of a gardening forum site that hasn't been mentioned here. I don't know what the protocol is for that, so I won't write it until someone lets me know.

I did want to tell you all, that if you go to Home Depot's website and join their gardening club, they will send you emails with gardening info PLUS coupons - usually 3 coupons in an email. They just started up again for this season this week, and I'm excited to go use my "buy one get one free" bulbs coupon. Not bad, huh?