Outdoor Gardens ??

[Shawn]

With Spring around the corner, who is getting ready for their outdoor gardens?  Have you begun your planning? Have you planted seeds?  Ordered Seeds?  What are you planning on growing this year?  Will you be using the Seed Starters or something else?  Using an EB, Container, or in the ground?

I know this IS an AeroGarden Forum and while we do keep that the Main focus, I still want to see what everyone will be growing outside.  I know we have a few members enjoy outdoor gardening as well. 

I have early-started my seeds in Jiffy pellets again.
I want them with buds by May planting! I do quite a few so I can share with my neighbor.
Nano Geraniums
Cana Lilies (now about 2" tall)..it took them all summer to get buds last year, so I am planting  ahead this year.
Petunias for some hanging pots
Calibrachoa (hanging pots)
Whopper Peppers(EB)
Some Biker hots as a critter repellent(started in the Sprout)(EB)
My Prevail Beans will be a direct-sow in the EB's after Memorial Day..
Snapdragons
and today I am starting Whopper Marigolds and Balloon Flowers.
Later on in April I will start my Zinnias
I am waiting on some Dahlia Bulbs to arrive to start them in soil indoors.

This year I am concentrating on flowers. I have 5 AG toms growing indoors and 4 AG peppers.

My toms and other outdoor peppers will be (ssssshhhhh---   unmentionable)STORE BOUGHT.

[Shawn]

I would love to plant outdoors but never had luck.  I was able to in the pots but they were all started in the AG (Pansies, Golden Greek)  The one I direct sowed was the Persian Carpets.  They were nice but the spider in them, CREEPED me out and they were very tall stalks with tiny flowers.

I will plant in posts this year again but do not know what to plant.  I will have to take a look at your list @cornne for ideas.  The pots I use hang from the decking.  And I have no idea as to when yo start or anything. 

pelleted calibrachoas are great for hanging pots as are the nano geraniums and ,of course petunias!, but NOW is the time to start calibrachoas(parkseed)

[Shawn]

If I order and start when they come (I have an extra Harvest) When can I plant them outside (Zone 7)?

I look up the expected time for the last frost and when the ground starts to heat up from the warm sun.
For me , I used to plant Memorial Day weekend.
However, for the past few years it has been Hot Hot Hot by then and the ideal time for me is Mid May.
So you could get an idea and then 'feel the days'.
My neighbor doesn't put his toms and other vegetables in the ground until June, but he works with chemicals and he mixes 'stuff' and his vegetables zoom up twice as fast...it is kinda scary....so much so that I would not want to eat them. He has so many tomatoes that he encourages the whole neighborhood to pick..and he also cans them. He still has some on the vines in Oct waiting to be frozen out.
Funny thing...he is right next door and the squirrels never eat a thing!

But I start the plants real early because I want them to have buds on them when I plant in May....also after the Spring Rains.
Some of these take a long time!
The Balloon Flowers(which I won't get to until the weekend) are to be planted 10 weeks before putting them in the ground as seedlings!

So...in short, Shawn...after the last frost and when the ground begins to warm up ..If the garden centers have plants hanging up for sale, that is a good clue too!(except for pansies which love the chill)

[Shawn]

Thanks for all that Corinne, very helpful.


AS for your neighbor and the non-squirrels, all those chemical may be his trick.  I do not blame you for not using them.

[MaryL]

I am feeling very lazy this year, and the thought of prepping my Earthboxes is daunting. So much so that my sister offered to do them for me.  She knows me so well!  I’d feel too guilty for that. I’d pay someone to do them for me, but traditional gardeners and landscapers don’t know how.  *Sigh*

i do want to get some seeds going, but really need to have the boxes ready.  I may try corn again (although Costco’s corn was sweeter, and easier, lol) and I’d like to grow my usual peppers (jalapeño, banana, Costa Rican, maybe my new Fresno seeds).  

I will be buying tomato plants from Tomatomania again this year, provided I don't miss the day of their traveling roadshow.  Their Gobstopper and Sunrise Bumblebee were super sweet cherry tomatoes.  The sweetest I’ve ever tasted.  Neither is red in color.  There was a 3rd that was also a favorite, but I can’t remember the name.

If you have any college or older high schoolers around you can post to a neighborhood listserve if you have one in your area. College kids ALWAYS look for things like this.
Years ago one could trust the homeless guys with signs asking for work or food but now-a days it is too risky.. they will ask to use the bathroom and case out the joint!...at least here in the City it goes like that many times.(I had a bad disgusting experience last year...never again)

I have to partially empty my EB's and put the mix into the raised beds, and then add fresh ProBx to the EB's.
Muscles, a shovel and a wheel barrow!  Needless to say I am not calling the landscaper to pay him a few hundred to do a few hours' work when I live in a huge college area! i will mix and add the nutrients myself..I am like a kid who likes to dig in the dirt! what can I say?


The Gobstopper sounds like a great grow!!!  SWEET!

[MaryL]

Galina is the last one!  I’m so glad I took pics of the info posts when I bought them.  








And I’m willing to give this one another try because it was so interesting but critters on that side of the garden kept eating them before I could.

[Shawn]

That was VERY smart Mary!

Mar 1, 2018 11:07:53 GMT -5 @cornne said:

If you have any college or older high schoolers around you can post to a neighborhood listserve if you have one in your area. College kids ALWAYS look for things like this.
Years ago one could trust the homeless guys with signs asking for work or food but now-a days it is too risky.. they will ask to use the bathroom and case out the joint!...at least here in the City it goes like that many times.(I had a bad disgusting experience last year...never again)

I have to partially empty my EB's and put the mix into the raised beds, and then add fresh ProBx to the EB's.
Muscles, a shovel and a wheel barrow!  Needless to say I am not calling the landscaper to pay him a few hundred to do a few hours' work when I live in a huge college area! i will mix and add the nutrients myself..I am like a kid who likes to dig in the dirt! what can I say?


The Gobstopper sounds like a great grow!!!  SWEET!

Funny.....this afternoon a High School  Student wanted to do work to make money for his UNICEF Club trip . He placed an ad on the neighborhood list serve and called me after I sent an email. He is coming to help me prepare my EB"S on a warm day next week after I get parental permission.
Tomorrow we are having another Nor'easter, but a rainy one. Next week it may reach 70 again..who knows!I LOVE neighborhood list serves 

[Shawn]

WOW, talk about timing.  I do remember being invited to a neighborhood group thing a while ago.  I should check it out.  It is called Nextdoor. 

[MaryL]

Nextdoor is a great resource.  That’s where I was going to solicit help after reading Corinne’s suggestion.  There will always be the thin skinned complainers on it, but you just have to scroll on by.  It’s funny who you come to recognize as the Mrs. Kravitzes of the neighborhood.  

[Shawn]

Mar 2, 2018 5:52:29 GMT -5 MaryL said:

 It’s funny who you come to recognize as the Mrs. Kravitzes of the neighborhood.  

So true, I have one living to the left of me.

[Kate]

We need to build a new greenhouse so I can do cukes, peppers and tomatoes again. We had a bad hailstorm last year that pretty much decimated my old glass one, so I had hubby dismantle it. John says he's going to build me a new non-glass one, so I'll probably just buy baby plants at one of the nurseries here. I prefer a greenhouse so the critters can be kept away...mostly. Moose are a PITA, even in town.

We plant outside the Monday after Memorial day, typically. The last few years we could have planted earlier, however. It really "is" warming here. 

Mar 2, 2018 11:14:15 GMT -5 Kate said:

We need to build a new greenhouse so I can do cukes, peppers and tomatoes again. We had a bad hailstorm last year that pretty much decimated my old glass one, so I had hubby dismantle it. John says he's going to build me a new non-glass one, so I'll probably just buy baby plants at one of the nurseries here. I prefer a greenhouse so the critters can be kept away...mostly. Moose are a PITA, even in town.

We plant outside the Monday after Memorial day, typically. The last few years we could have planted earlier, however. It really "is" warming here. 

What is your grow zone, Kate?     6?   And are you finding LESS large animals visiting as time goes on?
My bro has a very large yard flanked by trees and used to see deer and other large animals visiting. No more...the house construction around the area are cutting down their trees and less animals are feeling 'at home' and being displaced..

[Kate]

If only. We are Zone 1a in Fairbanks, but we don't ever get that cold anymore. Not in the last decade. It really needs to be updated. We are more like Zone 3b to 4b. There are more than 16 Zones in Alaska.

I live right in the middle of Fairbanks, and we have lots of critters here. Fairbanks has about 100,000 people including the surrounding area. The city proper is a very small area of "Fairbanks".