HA! John, I was thinking about you this afternoon. I went to my colleague's house to pick up all of the HS she was composting for me. I kept calling it HS and she continuously corrected me to HM. I let her know that no matter how much she dressed it up, HS is what it was and always would be.

It's not totally finished yet, but she had to turn it so I figured what better way to turn it than to move it. It actually almost fills up the entire large bed, so it will be nice come April-May.

But more to your topic, John, if I get more than one piece of any vegetable at all, I will have doubled my production of last summer, so my odds aren't looking too bad. My building the beds and filling them questions have been answered, so I suppose I'm just waiting to plant and I'm sure my questions will be innumerable.

Well that is two of us. Have not heard from EG lately and Granny is still basking in the AZ sun, I do not know about the rest. Unlike FL, I am still fighting the snow. I have the fall decorations from family and neighbors like corn stalks about 20 pumpkins two bales of straw to grind and compost. Then comes apple tree pruning and soon after it will be seed starting time. I am starting to squirm already.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

Mistakes? Ive had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I wanted to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each square foot raised bed;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I grew it my way.

(Sorry, Frank.)

Golly, John. I'm busy down here growing lettuce, spinach, beets, onions, parsley, radishes and a stray head of cabbage! And they are growing well! Plus, if you go look at today's blog, you'll see I have seeded two types of peppers to hopefully grow for my northern garden.

On top of all that, I have been corresponding with Sinfonian and EG on my plans for a new tomato garden next year, using a form of the Florida Weave method of trellising all those indeterminate varieties of tomatoes I hope to grow. I'm also contemplating scrapping my plans for a strawberry bed this year to make room for all the veggies I want to plant.

And I'm trying to restrain myself from buying even more seeds.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: a

Aaah, dog gone it granny, now I hot a twitch on top of my squirm. My wife is going to throw me out in the snow soon. Only 7+days to Groundhog Day, I am going to shoot Phil before he gets a chance to see his shadow.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

Granny, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
Glad to know that even if you've been "basking in the sun" as John put it, you haven't been as absent as you've threatened you'd be.

John, the man's done with me as well. He's even stopped looking in my direction when I'm talking about the garden. This afternoon, while I was in mid paragraph, he got up and went to the bathroom.

The weather will soon be here and the plants will grow, but more seriously, it was the bugs...tons of bugs, squash bugs and a TON of pickleworms, that got all of my produce last year. Squash bugs I can pick and stomp, but seriously, anyone know how to combat the pickleworm without killing my entire family (or at least the dogs that will lick or eat anything in their paths) along with them?

Ribbit, I think our guys are jealous of the time we spend on our gardens. They wish we'd spend half as much time thinking/dreaming about them as we do our green beans (not you, Greenbean!)

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

You know i'm always busy doing something....Whew! Just today, I cleaned the entire house for my wife - while she worked, turned both compost piles, Dug 16 holes with post-hole diggers for the blackberries, and visited with my sisters....It was a busy day, for sure.

John - I got a new truck last week, and can haul twice as much HM now! Oh boy.....I may have to expand the compost operation some...heh.

Granny, ribbit - I'm planting potatoes tomorrow, and also onions. It's about 2 weeks early, but figure it's worth a shot. Who knows? Spring could come a little early this year....

EG

Hey...I told Mr. H I needed to take a half dozen leftover T-posts home for the new tomato garden, and he was actually happy about that! He wondered what we would do with them, as we bought more than we needed for the fence down here. They aren't quite as long as I wanted, but I think they'll work. And he promised not to trade in the pickup on a new car, so I'll still have something to haul compost and HS (if I can find some HS).

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

John,

Since this is my first year planting veggies and using the SFG ways I don't have any problems to work out.. come next winter I'm sure you will be sick of hearing from me.

EG,
Let me know how your potatoes do. I'm planting mine out the week of Feb 10th. Since this is my first veggie garden I'm using the Farmer's Almanac outdoor planting table... and get this... now no one laugh... I'm going by the "Moon Favorable" part of the table... ( OK y'all can stop laughing now... no really stop ;-)) what the heck this garden is an experiment for me anyway... I need all the help I can get! I'll be blogging about it so we'll see how I do.

Liisa
P.S. I'm learning so much from all of you.... thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Liisa's Garden Journey

Pssst...Liisa. Don't tell anyone, but I planned my entire planting schedule around the Farmer's Almanac Moon Favorable tables! I've never done it before, but it worked for my grandma, so why should I doubt it?

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Liisa - i'll let ya know how they do for me. The cole seedlings will be transplanted into the garden in 3 weeks, and that's what i'm really looking forward to, though!

Concerning the farmer's almanac.....I really don't place any emphasis on which moon phase it is, when I plant. I think it's a bunch of HS. Dangit, Granny! You've got me saying it now....Oh brother!

Oh! Hey Granny! I tried the syrup a few minutes ago, and it is gooooood! Woo Hoo! Thanks!

EG

Granny,
Tell them what? ;-)

EG,

You could be right and it's all HS.. but since I don't have the foggiest idea what I'm doing I needed something to follow... heck if it works this year I'm sticking with it :-)
I'm with you... I can't wait to start planning everything out.

Liisa

My dad uses the almanac, too. I suspect that several years later we'll find out that those wiley farmers knew something we didn't.

speaking of tomatoes... Has anyone ever used this http://www.tomato-cages.com/? They look like a neat innovation. I intend on using the netting that Mel B recommends, but if I were doing a traditional row garden, I'd probably consider these. I was thinking of telling my dad about them since he has a row garden, but I didn't know if they really worked or not.

My lettuce, onions and broccoli that I started indoors earlier this week have sprouted. It's very exciting times around here! I think I'm kinda late starting the broccoli and lettuce, so I'm not sure how much we'll harvest before they succumb to the brutal East Texas heat...

Rachel

I have been busy with tending to plants I started. Spent Saturday potting up and starting more seeds. I also started a blog. I am itching for spring and so is my wife. I'm driving her crazy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening by the Seat of my Pants

Eg, the weather is so favorable now, I don't think you'll have a problem. We're in the high 50-60 for at least ten days, so that will be nice. Seed packets say you can plant peas, radishes and carrots here in March, but the UGA guide says late Jan/early Feb. I gambled and put some in the garden yesterday, we'll see what they do. If not, I think I still have about two million carrot seeds in that packet if I need to try again.

EG, when you get your HM, is it straight HM or does it have shavings and hay in it?

Hey, I wasnÂt talking about you guys I got questions of my own and I did not think there was anybody to answer them. You in the South and one in particular in the W-W-W South are having so much damn fun you donÂt want to hear any of my concerns. Oh well I will ask anyway, maybe there is one kind sole out there that will help. After reading another post, I am going to try some seed tapes/squares. I would like to use the brand X paper towels, the ones that fall apart when they get wet and cornstarch glue. My question is, once the tape/squares are in place what do you use to cover the seeds and how do you distribute it evenly at the proper depth? ;o) ;o) ;o)

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

I am so anxious to start my sfg. At least I have Winter Sowing to distract me this year. My husband is glad to see me have something other than cabin fever. I can't wait to be outside again though.

This forum is such fun. I'm new here, and it's soooo cold out today (18 degrees here in Western KY) - but I have spring fever and driving my DH crazy with all of the seed starting and planning. It has been so much fun to read about some new ideas and problem solving.

I'm not new at gardening, and have been using raised beds and SFG for at least 15 years (were has the time gone?), and it's fun to read new things. Last night I tried the paper towel and school glue to make seed tapes for carrots. Tried the corn starch first - but didn't like the way it handled. It felt like winter gardening right on the kitchen table (oh, I really need to get my hands dirty..) I rolled them up this morning, and put them in the frig.

Anyone have a good cure for squash bugs and cucumber beetles? They are my worst enemy... Deb

John said: "My question is, once the tape/squares are in place what do you use to cover the seeds and how do you distribute it evenly at the proper depth? ;o) ;o) ;o)"

John, I just placed mine on top of the garden and then sifted soil over them to the depth stated on the seed packet. These were tiny carrot seeds, so that wasn't a lot of sifting! If they were to be planted deeper than 1/4", I would just hoe a shallow depression the size of the paper towel, lay it in and then cover with soil.

With carrots, I always cover them with a board until they sprout, otherwise the soil tends to dry out (I accidentally covered some of mine with a potted plant, and they sprouted perfectly). Of course, check daily and remove the board as soon as they do sprout.

I still haven't decided if I'm going the paper towel route or the cornstarch & water solution in the squeeze bottle route. Both worked quite well, but I had too many seeds in the squeeze bottle, so there was still a lot of thinning. I think I learned by it though, and could control the amount of seed in the the next planting better.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

ribbit - the HM I get has very fine pieces of straw with it. Most of it was already decomposed, and I just take the chunks of manure, and crumble them with my hands into the compost piles. Sometimes it's still pretty fresh, though. Heh.

Rachel - this is fun stuff, for sure! My little seedlings have been going since the first of December, and will be planted in a couple of weeks. Next year, i'll start them a little earlier.

Carolyn - I made grannie's blackberry syrup last night, and put it on pancakes this morning. Woo Hoo! It was good!

John - You know....we got lots of room down here in the deep south. We can even go get HM together now, cause my truck will haul as much as the s-10, and your wagon combined!

floodthelast - I feel for ya, and it looks like more snow is headed your way. Bummer....

Deb - If you think it's fun now, you should have been here last summer...It was crazy in here! I consider myself to be a very proficient squashbug killer, eliminating probably hundreds last year. It's gotta be done manually, because sevin doesn't even work on them. The best advice I can give you on both, is to locate the eggs of both pests, and squish them before they hatch. That's how I deal with them.

EG

Here is a link that might be useful: EG's Garden Blog

Wow, I get busy for a day and miss tons of posts. Cool.

John, I come here daily to check things. Right now I don't have much to say, not even on my blog. Tis the season in the greary PNW, now you see why Granny leaves every year, hehe. Oh and Grenny's right about the carrots, a thin layer of sifted compost or dirt over the seeds is all it takes.

Of cource there are things I can do for the garden, but it snowed today. Odd.

Projects include light system setup, seed ordering and starting, SWC building and hoop cover repair.

But now I'm babysitting a playdate with 3 four year olds and a 2 year old. Joy.

You all gave me the insperation to brave the 20 degree weather and head out to my garden to work. Two hours later, I'm happy and frostbite!

EG - I do the same thing - manually squash the bugs and eggs - but I miss some every year and then they get ahead of me. I am so jealous that you can plant so early!!

Granny - You, too! Send some warm weather this direction! What is the Florida Weave method of trellising?

Rachel - What is the "netting that Mel B recommends"?

Deb

Deb, it's a method of keeping the tomato vines under control. I'm not so sure it's going to work well with indeterminate varieties, but I think I'll give it a shot....that's assuming my tomato seeds sprout and grow. There is a good description of the method in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Weave

I can't wait to try it EG. Kids have to get their teeth cleaned tomorrow, so will probably wait until Tuesday, lol.

I'm busy trying not to freeze, racking my brain trying to figure out when to start seeds indoors to maximize the season, figuring out what I can start indoors, figure out my square foot spacing, deciding how many beds to rebuild, how deep I should build them, redoing my SWCs for tomatoes, adding a float valve to each SWC for automatic watering....I could go on, but it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

On top of that I'm planning a birthday trip to Tennessee for my wife at the end of March!

Thanks for the info on FL weave, Granny. I might try that. I'm trying some new varieties of tomatoes, and I only have so many tomato cages. So I'm searching for new ways to keep them under control.

Deb, it looks like baling twine is the twine of choice, as it's supposed to be stronger and won't stretch as the vines get heavy. I would think the cotton clothesline would work, too. One probably has to buy like ten miles of baling twine, but you can get the clothesline in 100 foot lengths.

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Check with the local farmers. Some will keep the used twine and make a big ball somewhat like people do with yarn. They cannot reuse it except for GP twine. They will probably give you a lot more than you need. ;o)

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

Thanks for the info - but I've got no problem getting bailing twine (we bale our own hay for our 10 horses), so that's a great idea. I hadn't thought of using the bailing twine until you mentioned it. FYI - bailing twine these days for farmers usually means the polypropylene type (which might not be the best type to use for composting reasons later), but we have an ancient square bailer that uses the sisel type. And I have lots and lots of used twine, too. But will the sisel hold up in the weather for the entire season? Deb

As long as it is allowed to dry out between rains, I think the sisal will be fine.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

Rachel - I asked a dumb question about Mel B and trellising - and found out the answer today. Every year I dig out my copy of Square Foot Gardening only to look up some veggie to get spacing. Now realize that I have owned this book for 23 years - and that's probably how long it's been since I read the whole book (and how long it's been since I started SFG). Well, since finding this forum a few days ago, I dug the book out and started re-reading it. And noticed that that's who Mel B is - so the answer was right in front of me. My copy is from 1981 - Oh I'm getting old!!! Sorry for asking a dumb question...