Friday, March 30, 2018

Planning For The 2018 Garden

Trying to decide when it is actually time to plant here in New Home has always been something of a crap shoot.  Witness the last two days:  summer like weather, followed by 4 inches of rain, followed by summer like weather. 

Plant too early and the ground is cold; plant before the rain ends and  you are likely to get flooded out; plant too late and it is already into the hot season when peppers will not blossom and tomatoes never flourish.

I always manage to plant a little too late and my stuff seems to be stunted until near late summer.  In years past I have always tried to fit it in between other weekend activities.  This year, as part of changing the pace of my activities overall, I think I shall definitely have more time to plant - I am thinking maybe the middle of April.

What I am going to plant? I am, as always, not sure.  I have my seeds from when Bountiful Gardens went out of business, so there is a variety of things (mostly beans, I suspect) in there.  I try corn every year and fail every year but I will keep trying, I suppose (I think my problem is always not enough water).  Tomatoes as well (The Ravishing Mrs. TB always wants them and I can never seem to come through).   And, as usual, something completely off the wall (like sorghum).

This is always the best time for gardening - right before it actually starts happening and everything is growing, at least in my mind.

6 comments:

  1. This year all I have sown so far is peppers and Tomatoes, I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to grow much else unless I rearrange the chickens field to close off a couple of beds. Then again I guess you can't have your cake and eat it, building the farmhosue takes priority this year :)

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  2. Hmmmmmm. Nobody I know up here in Canada can do corn. Everyone tries, once in a while somebody gets lucky and gloats - and the garden gods square up with them the next year.

    Everyone up here does tomatoes well and has too many at the end of the year. Not trying to be offensive or anything - but could this be something silly and blatantly obvious TB? I'm asking because I don't know... everyone around here says they are so easy even a guy like me could grow them...

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  3. It is always a balance is it not, Tricky Wolf? What we want to do versus what we can do. I forgot peppers (always do well here). Okra does well too, although okra recipes being fried and pickled are pretty scarce.

    Good luck on the Farmhouse and thanks for stopping by!

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  4. Climate and sun Glen, climate and sun. For me I have sun but the climate is terrible.

    It could be something silly and blatant - like I am trying everything that is not going to work. Although I suspect this true of gardeners everywhere.

    Regular farmers grow corn here - why can I not? Gardening is the most frustrating of all exercises.

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  5. Hey TB, have you ever thought of starting seeds indoors by a sunny window? That's the only way I have any "control" over the gardening season starting!

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  6. I have tried Rain, although not recently. I am a failure at hardening them off.

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