Garden plans for this year?

[Penguin]

Hey all. Thought I'd see what all of you good folks have planned for this year's garden/orchard. We're getting a bit of warm weather this week and look like we might even nudge 70 degrees this weekend. I'm getting in the mood.


On the garden side:
1) I have to admit that I ran dry of hot sauce this winter and am going to probably double up on the peppers. I really liked the taste of the Santa Fe peppers though so I will keep them just double up on numbers.
2) Looks like the tomatoes are in status quo mode. We really liked our choices for last year (WV 17B and Better Boy with a few heirlooms thrown in. We are going to space them a bit more this year though. Last year was a damned jungle!
3) Potatoes look to be two rows instead of one. And man did they do great last year. Kennebec again.
4) Please dear Lord let the beans do well this year. Two years of bum seeds have me scratching my head and looking at the empty shelf where I used to have a bunch of them sitting. As always we'll go with Mountaineer Half-Runner.

For the orchard:
1) I've got the small/young trees hand pruned and am hoping to get a little production this year.
2) None of the big trees have been pruned and my pole saw is in the shop... Hopefully this gets squared away soon.
3) The grapes are going into summer #3 and have made it to the the top of the trellis. Can't wait for them to produce. I haven't made a batch of wine in ages.
4) Additions this year: one crabapple, two dwarf pear, and one Mulberry tree.

Anyway I'm interested to see what everyone else has planned. I think I'll check in with some pictures once everything starts blooming.

Will

[quercus alba]

heavy on the squash and tomatoes with some green onions and a few herbs. My wife has too many sources that give her veggies for me to do any gardening.

I'll supply the fish

[Trav]

Shallots, Black Nebula & Kurbota Carrots, leeks, yellow squash.

[Thumper]

Kroger

[FooBang]

I got some of the cherry pepper seeds I'm gonna plant. I'm w/ Thumpy, though, if I could buy them at Kroger, I would. I haven't seen cherry peppers in the stores in a very long time.
They got the right amount of spice/sweet/flavor.

[Thumper]

You’re right Foo, I can’t remember the last time I saw them fresh, but admittedly, I haven’t really looked. I used to see them at the weekly flea market here. They have a HUGE fresh fruit/veggie area and I doubt there’s any anything that grows out of the ground that’s not available there. I’d bet we haven’t been there in 15 years or so. It’s close to the house, but we just got out of the habit. I also saw one vendor with them at the farmers market we have downtown every Saturday from 8-2. Vendors from all over the area set up at our town square and it’s really been popular. Covid shut it down, but it’s back now, although we haven’t been. I also stumbled upon them once at either Fresh Market or Trader Joe’s (can’t remember which) but that was years ago I and think they’re seasonal. They’re readily available (pickled) in jars, but you’re right, fresh is hard to come by.

[DeputyDog]

I would love to have a garden but do t have a place to grow one. I have the space on my property but there are too many trees and I couldn’t get enough sun to it. I could probably try to do one at my in-laws but my brother-in-law did that a couple years ago and my in-laws ended up getting stuck with all of the work. Not sure he take the chance again. [emoji16]


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[Chicken Dinner]

I wish I had room for an “orchard”. But, space is limited here in suburbia and all I have is a single persimmon tree. I’ve got my garden down to an early spring mixed greens for salads and then couple varieties of tomatoes to spread the time they produce over a longer period and some peppers for his sauce and pepper jelly.


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[Big Skyz]

Tomatoes and peppers will top the list in my garden this year. If y'all like cherry tomatoes I've found that the Rapunzel cherry tomatoes are off the charts for good. Almost like eating candy they are so sweet. I will likely put in some beans, squash, and melons of some type as well. I'd plant corn, but it seems the only thing I do well with corn is kill it. I've never had a good corn crop, but thank goodness I have friends in town that are good at growing it. It's a brand new garden so it will be interesting to see what actually will grow and what won't this first year. It usually takes me a couple years to get the soil just right for things to grow abundantly. Then again, if this drought doesn't end soon out here, it won't matter what I plant or how the ground is.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Carmen sweetpeppers, some hots I haven’t settled on, Big Dena and beefsteak tomatoes, and some okra later in the season. And then on the medical side of the garden, we’ll have a couple of Lily Pie, an unknown Roatan strain from some seeds I picked up while diving there, and a couple of RoatanxBlue Dream that I’m experimenting with.

An all American Victory Garden!

BKb

[Penguin]

I'd plant corn, but it seems the only thing I do well with corn is kill it....

That makes two of us. Like you I have friends who excel at it though.

Posty I looked up those Roatan things and I still don't know what the heck they are. Medical you say? Ah yes, now I see... :p

Hank I don't know why exactly, but I have always wanted an orchard. It just ticks some box in my soul to plant something that will produce cider/pies/desserts for a lifetime. I am really proud of myself for not killing any of the trees yet. But I have to admit that pruning is a heck of a lot harder than it looks on youtube. The trees don't fight back online lol.

Will

[Chicken Dinner]

Will, I’m right there with you on the desire to have an orchard. I’d just be feeding the squirrels where I am now even if I had the room.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

I worked a little bit in a Gerber peach orchard when I was 15-16 years old. The guy who ran it had a daughter I was interested in. That effer worked my butt off. And picking peaches is a bunch of fun for about an hour. then it gets to be hot ass hard work. I think I made minimum on that job, which was about a buck sixty then I think.

BKB

[DeputyDog]

When I was first married the old farmhouse we were renting had a few fruit trees. There was a couple apple, a peach, a pear, and a cherry if I remember correctly. Couldn’t keep the Japanese beetles off of the peach tree and the Labrador I had at the time ate every pear he could reach off of the tree.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

On my little half acre city lot, I have a bunch of native pecan, elms, red bud and hackberry. I’ve added some native ash for the robbers (waxwings) but the ash aren’t longfor this earth I’m afraid. Found some D shaped holes on both trunks. Kind of as understory trees I planted a row of plums that look like clouds in the spring, two blood peaches, an apple, a couple of pears, and a cherry. My Dad always told me I wouldn’t be happy until I lived in a forest and he was right. Been in this part of Oklahoma 38 years and I’m still not used seeing mountains on the horizon. So I enclosed myself with trees. And pines. Around my back fences I planted slash pines and Itreminds me of home to sit on the back stoop and hear the wind whispering through those pines.
BKB

[Penguin]

DD: Japanese beetles have their preferences for a fact. They absolutely swamp my cherry trees. And the peaches seem to be their 2nd choice. I don't know whether the leaves taste better to them or what the story is. the apples seem to be last on their list.

Posty: That is funny. I was raised in the mountains and can remember getting vertigo/claustrophobia the first time I left the state. I was maybe 6 or 8 years old, something like that. We went to Mississippi and you could only see to the tree line. I felt boxed in and disoriented. Like the world had shrunk to whatever field I was looking over. I couldn't automatically figure out my direction and orientation based on where I was relative to the mountains. I never did get to where I was comfortable in flat country.

As far as orchards go, now seems to be a poor time to figure out you wish to start one. Almost everything is sold out almost everywhere I've looked. I pre-ordered my stuff back in the fall. Looks like that was a good call because there isn't anything out there. I'm wondering whether it is commercial growers hoarding up stuff? But then I wonder why my go-to shop (trees of antiquity) would be shelf bare... they only sell old timey trees like Golden Grimes and Roxbury Russet. Things like that. Hell maybe everyone is looking to do some backyard orcharding.

Will

[Arty]

I’ll do the regular tomatoes and peppers (jalapeño and some sort of sweet pepper)
I might do cukes again I’m not sure.
That’ll be the extent of my garden


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[Thumper]

I’m going to broaden my horizons this year and try growing some new varieties. I’m thinking maybe some Banana Kush, Lemon Skunk, Pineapple Express, California Orange, Grape Ape and maybe even a bit of my old favorites like mango or papaya. ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Thumper, I’ve been trying to find seeds for the old landrace Columbian gold bud that used to wash up on the shores in Florida once in a while.

BKB

[Thumper]

Heck, I thought the hybrids pretty much made that extinct. I had a buddy in California that grew it and according to him, it was a real pita to grow. The main thing I remember about it was after a bowl, I felt like I’d taken a hit of speed! Like I wanted to run outside and paint the house or something.

[Thumper]

Thanks for the reminder. I need to look that old fart up. Last I heard, he was in Tennessee …. or Kentucky … or sumpin’ like like that. Knowing him, he’s still growing. :)