Horticulture Archives - Page 3 of 7

Bare Root Raspberries 7 Month Progress

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We had planted 2 raspberry vines last year, but they never grew and died. They were a part of the shipment that got lost, came late, and were planted late. So back in February on a trip to Tractor Supply we bought 4 more bare root raspberry canes (2 Heritage Everbearing and 2 Latham).

We planted the raspberries just a few days later and said a little prayer.

For what seemed like the longest time there was again no sign of life. Then 2 months after planting we finally saw some green life to them.

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Garden Update

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Much of our garden has turned into a jungle. Between all of our excessive rain and just getting busy with harvesting and the rest of life the weeds have taken over! Many plants are coming to an end or dwindling down now. Our second planting of green beans, black eye peas, and crowder peas are doing well. But what has me anxiously waiting the most is our watermelon and pumpkin.

Last year we only planted 4 mini pumpkins. It was a little late in the season and we knew we would not have time for large pumpkins.Those started growing wonderfully, but over night (literally) they were destroyed by stink bugs! I was disappointed. And we did not even plant any watermelon. I’m not a big fan of watermelon. I’m surprised I’ve not been kicked out of the south! But the rest of our family likes it. So since we had neither last year we are anxious about this year’s crop.

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Garden Harvest Showcase

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There really hasn’t been much time to do blogging lately. It seems our “real” jobs, family, church, and our garden has been keeping us busy. It is all a good busy….well except for maybe the “real” jobs. Actually, that is a good busy too. We are both fortunate to have good jobs so I really should not complain. Although, in some ways the unusual weather this year has caused us a few issues, we believe overall this year’s garden is a vast improvement from our first garden last year. Our sweet peppers are a nice size now. The crowder peas are turning purple and popping up all over the place! I love crowder peas. Our corn has several nice ears filling out. They are looking more promising than last year’s corn crop. We’ve also harvested all of the yellow onions and winter onions and they are curing.

Our First Blueberries

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Last spring we planted two blueberry bushes. Although, we are quite impatient people and would love to have immediate returns we were really not anticipating having any blueberries this year. So we were ecstatic when we saw how well they were growing this year and saw them putting out blooms. Each bush was a different variety and one of them was about a week ahead of the other with blooms and the blueberries ripening. To our dismay the birds picked the first bush clean before we even knew what happened! But Jon put bird netting over the other blueberry bush along with our other berries and we were able to have our first small harvest of blueberries. We had just enough to eat fresh and some for blueberry pancakes. Two more times we have picked a small handful such as this. The rest we have been just eating fresh and throwing in smoothies with some other fruits. How blessed we are to be able to have our own fresh fruit, even if it is only in small handfuls.

Our First Handful of Blueberries Ever!

Seed Storage Organization

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Last year was our first time having a garden. We just bought some random seeds from random places and started planting. Since that time we have done a lot of researching, planning, discovering, and failing. I’m sure we have much more of all of that to come. We decided that next time we wanted to start right and that meant (among a million other things) using heirloom seeds.

First, we shopped around a bit for some reasonably priced heirloom seeds and bought most of what we needed. We also had a few random seeds left over from last year that were not heirloom that we were going to use up and get rid of. We had some seeds from Jon’s Mom from her garden. And lastly we harvested some of our crowder peas to attempt our hand at keeping and using our own seeds. We dried some of the crowder peas successfully. We had the second attempt mold. Because of the mold, the third time we thought we would not air dry them but try drying them in the oven on low like we read online. That worked for some and well I burnt some because I forgot about them and didn’t set a timer.

Here we are only on our second garden and had seeds in store bought packets, seeds in sandwich baggies, seeds in small mailing envelopes, and seeds in boxes from orders online. I could already see we needed to come up with a seed storage method.

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Bird Netting for Berries

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There is nothing more disheartening than having your berries be almost ripe one day, and completely wiped out by birds the very next day. It is amazing how fast birds can pick an entire berry bush clean. The simple solution is to net your berry bushes to keep the birds from getting to your precious berries.

We recently purchased Bird Block Netting netting for our berry bushes and fruit trees. There are many types and brands of netting available, and I am not saying the other brands will not work as well. This is just the brand we purchased due to the price and the size (we are rather cheap).

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Update On Our Berries Growth

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Our berries are well on there way and doing well.

Blueberries, Our One Raspberry, and Blackberries Galore!

Winter Onions – 6 Month Update

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In November we planted winter onions for the first time. Winter Onions are also referred to as “Egyptian Walking Onions”, “Egyptian Tree Onions”, “Tree Onions”, “Walking Onions”, “Top Onions”, and “Perennial Onions”.

The blue-green shoots/stalks/leaves are round and hollow and typically grow approximately 3 feet tall. As the plant matures a cluster of bulblets will begin to grow at the top of the stalk encapsulated in a protective papery casing referred to as a tunic.
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Peak at Our Garden Progress

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It seems the weather in April in May has just been a bit bi-polar and our garden is not as far along as we had hoped. But we are finally having some consistent warm days and our garden is starting to improve. Here is a little bit of what’s going on in our garden.

Contender Green Beans, Carrots, Tomato Blooms, Top-Pick Crowder Peas, Leaf Lettuce, Potatoes Plant, and Oregano

How to Divide Hostas

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Hostas is a perennial plant with broad oval or lobed leaves that grows from rhizomes (root mass or cluster). They grow well in partial and full shade. The are very hardy and easy to grow. I struggled for years fighting crabgrass in my flower bed bordering the house in the front yard. I tried black plastic, landscaping fabric, various plants, and lots of weeding! Initially, I only had 2 hosta plants. Over the years I learned that hostas was very hardy and would actually beat the weeds. So, I started planting more hosta in this troublesome area and less of other plants. Most of them I received from my Mama or aunt when they divided theirs, but I did buy a very few small plants of different varieties.

Now, I have 33 hostas plants of various varieties. They are beautiful and I love them. However, my L-shaped flower bed that wraps around the corner of the house is over flowing in spots and starting to look like a jungle.
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