well, we woke up on sunday morning to this:
arghghghghghghghghggh! the white stuff is back! we got 3-5cms and there was no brown to be seen anymore!!!! later in the afternoon tho, we saw some brown. mostly on the catpaths.
it melted and dripped for most of the afternoon - it was a beautiful day - 22C on the plastic-wrapped porch and about 30C in the greenhouse. a large majority of the snow is gone but then it dropped to -10C at night so now it's all ice out there - even the brown parts.
so ya, i may have jumped the gun a bit when i announced spring - especially since we are supposed to be getting belted this wednesday with 20-30cms. ugh. which means we'll probably have snow on the ground for a good few weeks. unless we have enough sunny, bright days to melt it. it's been a long winter, and a lot longer and harder for some of you than us, but man, i am just tired of white.
anyway, i know that some of my gardening buddies will care about my seed list plan for 2014....the rest of you can just skip to the bottom of this post and commiserate with me that the snow is back.
Framboise Manor Plant List 2014:
Tomatoes (12 varieties, some determinate, some indeterminate, 6 plants each):
Early Jetsetter Big Beef, Cobra F1, Earliana, Bloody Butcher, Pomodoro, Martino's, Amish Paste, Saxon, Clark's Early Jewel, Genovese, Big Beef, Pink Roma
Pepper Plants already established: these plants were overwintered: 1 Sweet Italian, 1 Quattro, 1 Orange Belt, 2 Yankee Bells, 2 Cayenne, 3 Big Bomb and 3 Monets. these plants will be potted into bigger pots and moved into the greenhouse once temps at night go no lower than -2C. the plan being that the heat captured during the day will stay ambient even overnight.
Peppers to start from seed: Hungarian Hot Wax (6), Orange Bell (6), Regular Reds (6), Yankee Bell (4), Orange Thai (6), Alma Paprika (6), Hot Chili (6), Early Jalapeno (6), Yellow Bell (6), Cayenne (4), Monet (4).
Cucumber: (6 varieties, 6 plants of each): Summer Dance, Sweeter Yet, Straight 8, Cross Country, Armenian, National Pickling.
Summer Squash/Zucchini: (4 varieties, 4 plants each): Black Beauty, Sunburst, Elegance, Golden Dawn.
Winter Squash:(2 varieties, 3 plants each): Early Butternut, Burgess Buttercup
Beans: (7 varieties, some pole, some bush, 6 plants each): Light Red Kidney, Navy, Arakara, Tendergreen, Bountiful, Kentucky Wonder, Cherokee Trail of Tears.
Peas: (8 varieties, some pole, some bush): Super Sugar Snap (6), Sugar Snap (6), Oregon Sugar Snap (6), Sugar Lace (6), Lincolnd (4), Dwarf Grey Sugar (6), Saber (4), Asparagus (2).
Melon: (5 varieties, 4 plants each): Small Shining Light Watermelon, Amish Melon, Malali, Earlichamp, Hale's Canteloupe, White sugar.
Pumpkin: Marquis de provence (2).
Beets: (5 varieties and succession planting): Detroit Dark Red Supreme, Detroit Dark Red, Rodina, First Crop, NS beets.
Carrots: (6 varieties with succession planting): White Satin, Purple Haze, Rainbow, Scarlet Nantes, Chantennay Red cored, Scarlet Nantes coreless.
Lettuce: (in pots in the greenhouse with succession planting): Endive, Rome 59, Red veined sorrel, Batavian endive, Australian yellow leaf, Red oak leaf, Mesclun, Heirloom, Black Simpson, Forellenschluss, Paris Island cos, Rouge d' Hiver, Gardeners Blend, Yucaipai.
Onions: (6 varieties with succession planting): Parade, Norstar, Milano, Talon, Yellow Utah, Spanish Red.
Radish: (7 varieties with succession planting): Green Radish, Easter Egg, Daikon, French Breakfast, Cherry Belle, Watermelon.
Spinach: (5 varieties with succession planting): Viceroy, Bloomsdale, Galilee, Red Malabar, Strawberry.
Swiss Chard: (2 varieties with succession planting): Fordhook Giant, Lucius.
Kale: (2 varieties with succession planting): Black Tuscan, Curly Blue Scotch.
Various: Tango Celery, Minute Man Cauliflower, Green Magic Broccoli, All Season Broccoli, Jade Cross Brussel Sprouts, Win Win Choi, Emiko Chinese Cabbage, Optiko Chinese Cabbage, Golden Acre Cabbage, Fennel, Rutabaga.
Potatoes: (3 varieties, 8 tires each): Irish Cobblers, Brown Russets, Red Chieftains.
Garlic: spring and winter sets of saved cloves from last year.
ok - i think i covered everything. the tomatoes and peppers get started in the house this weekend. other cold weather crops get started in the greenhouse this weekend. as soon as the ground is workable we will direct sow the spinach, some brassicas, swiss chard, kale, carrots, onions and peas. and as each week goes by, we will start different things in the greenhouse getting ready to put the actual plants in the ground between may 27 - june 5. however, by being able to start so many things so early - woohoo - it's looking like a bumper year.
i will do our herb planting list in the next day or two.
i am looking forward to seeing your seed planting lists, too.
I feel your pain about Spring. While it is obviously much warmer here in Mississippi, every time y'all get snow, we get down right chilly! Tonight it's supposed to be below freezing. Our last frost date is between 4/1-4/10. But there's no way I'll be putting my tomatoes, peppers and whatnot in the ground in a week.
ReplyDeleteI agree, looks like you're going to have a bumper year! Those are so much fun, aren't they? Okay-- so much work, too. But who doesn't like putting up quart after quart of pickles? :-)
My list looks a lot like yours, though I'm growing tobacco. Four air-cured varieties, mostly for fun. Also, I just learned that fennel is a true allelopathic plant-- is suppresses growth of anything nearby. Who knew?
Looking forward to the herb list.
Marica - so nice to hear from you! as for sending our crappy weather your way - man, i'm sorry for that. as for your last frost free dates...oh i would definitely hold off for a week or two after that - the way this crazy winter has gone, it seems that spring is going the same route - as in crazy!
Deleteya - if we can successfully pull of what we are planning - and of course, we expect failures so that has been worked into the plan as well. but if we can pull it off - woohoo! this will be our best year ever! we will be able to use the greenhouse until at least mid-october, and jam plans to build a bunch of coldframes in front of the greenhouse for use as well.
oh you must keep us updated on growing the tobacco. why are you growing it? i've never taken you for a smoker?
you are right about the fennel. i grew florence fennel last year and it is all over the yard. no probs tho, they are such pretty flowers and really fit in with the wild flowers. this year i will be making a bed specifically for them and blocking them in...if any spread or start to take over another planting area, i will just remove them from that area. but we have tons of wild growth of all kinds of stuff going down our road to the river so if they want to go there - no probs!
i'll get the herb list up in a day or two.
holy moly - i just realized that you aren't in our blogroll. that will be fixed pronto!
What an emotional weather setback you have to deal with!
ReplyDeleteI wish your garden list was mine, just don't have any sun in my yard except for a 3 x 20 foot area next to the garage and 11 buckets making up my bucket garden.
This year is pretty much the same as last years. 2 Celebrity (large) tomatoes, 3 Red Cherry tomatoes in the ground that I transplanted this last weekend. The bucket garden is growing already; 4 green beans, 2 beets, 2 basil, 1 carrot, 1 green onion, 1 green bell pepper.
We are looking forward to your harvesting and the great looking meals you'll make from your garden! :-)
Mike, buddy, thanks for that - it was a big, huge let-down! as for your garden, it is amazing that you get done as much as you do for the size!!! you are demonstrating that it just takes a little ingenuity and you can still feed yourself! do you have anywhere to drop a tire to plant some potatoes in? i am a big proponent of potatoe tire gardening - the tires don't take much room and after the plant reaches 4-6cms, you drop another tire on top of it and add more dirt. wait for the plant to grow another 4-6 inches and add another tire and more dirt. we do tires 3-4 tires high because we have room for so many of them. but i have read of people harvesting 100+lbs out of 2 tire stacks of 5 tires high...make sense?
Deleteanyway, i'll be happy to share all of our harvest and pretty much bore the living crap out of our readers with blog posts entitled "today i harvested 3 more green beans" - bahahahahah!
I feel your pain. Temps here are running 28C below normal. It should be near 4C. We all get happy when the snow melts and the black dirt show its self and calls us to plant, Mother Nature like to tease, just like some women I know bahahahahaha
ReplyDeletethanks buddy, cuz i'm feeling your pain too! and that Mother Nature IS a big tease! and yer bad - bahahahah!
DeleteHow big is your garden? I wish we had more room for a bigger garden. we can only have so many containers. We might just have to run some of them down our driveway.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more on your garden.
Flier - i'll have to get jamie to come back and give you the exact dimensions because we don't have a "garden" in the sense of a traditional bed with rows. we have 24 potatoe tires (that we stack 3 high), we have 12 pea tires with teepees and i plant 6 plants in each tire, we have 3 20X4 beds, 3 10X4 beds, a large hugelkulture that is about 20X4, and a small hugelkulture that is about 4X6. all of that is out back. out front, around our drive we have about 34 small tires for herbs and then in the middle of our yard we have 2 tractor tires surrounded by 6 smaller tires for flowers that are medicinal herbs as well.
Deletei have seen people paint tires and place them down both sides of their drives and it looks quite pretty. you should give that a try. you or kathi give me a yell through email and i can send you some links.
thanks buddy, i am so excited about this year's garden!
Sweet Kymber,
ReplyDeleteYou didn't jump the gun, this weather has been unpredictable!!! I was watching the weather and said oh boy, Kymber and Jambaloney are going to get snow on Sunday and some more during the week.
You've made a very large list of items to plant. The greenhouse will be your savior with the cold and snow for early planting.
I see you and SciFiChick will be planting all kinds tomatoes and peppers again this year :-) I've planted several inside the house under grow lights. I'm dying to get outside and plant in natural light.
Stay warm you two, sending hugs and love your way.
Your Friend,
Sandy
Sweet Sandy - this weather has been NUTS! and yes - we are getting over a foot of snow tomorrow - arghghghgh! but the temps for the next week are above zero so here's hoping for bright sunny days to try and melt all of that snow. and here's hoping we start april with brown ground and not anymore white!
DeleteSci is the pepper queen but now that we are starting off with overwintered peppers, maybe i'll steal the title - bahahahaha!
i haven't planted anything under the grow lights yet...still a little early for us. but i plan to start next week. and i hear you - i can't wait to get out in the natural light and plant - and i can do that in the greenhouse in the next week or so!
happy 2014 gardening to you Sweet Sandy! much love and hugs coming back your way from the both of us!
Mother Nature can be a b**ch! We could use your snow here in California...it's 80 degrees and zip on the water! Yep Mother Nature is on my "list"!
ReplyDeleteLynda - we have a friend in Northern Cali and he has been saying that they haven't been getting enough snow or rain and that it might be a brutal year for gardening! so i really feel for you. we are getting a foot of snow tomorrow and i wish i could mail some of it to you!
DeleteMother Nature is definitely on her "time of the month"....lol
ReplyDeleteSenior plowed the garden at the estate and we put in some sunflowers..now its supposed to be 29 Wednesday.... brrrrr.
Gurlie - ya, ahem...so am i - bahahahah! you should be soon too! i hope you guys had a nice relaxing time at the estate...i loooove sunflowers!
DeleteThe snow is pretty though :)
ReplyDeleteWe had snow/ice on the ground last week in Central NC, and it is still pretty cold. So yes, premature.
ReplyDeleteRussell, i've learned my lesson. time to take some "spring gardening" viagra - bahahahahah!
DeleteIt was cold and blustery here all day. Never got above 34 and the wind howled and rattled the house. We had snow showers but it was too dry for them to stick. Maybe this will be the year without a spring.
ReplyDeleteoh Harry - don't say that this will be the year without spring - arghghghgh! i NEEEEED spring! we were supposed to get dumped with a foot of snow yesterday but only got about 10 cms. today is windy and blustery but not too, too bad. this upcoming week should see this snow melting and hopefully the first week of april will return to "normal" spring. i hope. fingers crossed. much love to you and M. xox
DeleteKymber,
ReplyDeleteAbout growing potatoes, I forgot to mention that I have 5 plants growing in the ground. One of the plants already has flower buds on it. I also have read about tire growing potatoes and it seems to work for them, I simply have no room, mostly no sunny area to do that.
Mike, buddy, i am glad that you have some plants in the ground. but i am telling you, if potatoes is a staple in your house, make room for two tires, and then stack them 4 high - the yield is amazing if you hill them properly. just yell if you want more info or have any questions, buddy!
DeleteYou have a large list, but that's pretty awesome. We are planting less variety and more of what we use/like the most. More tomato, pepper, bean, zucchini and squash plants. Gave up on the corn finally, it just takes up so much room for a small harvest.
ReplyDeleteWe had snow this past weekend (we weren't here for it at least) and now it's in the 50's/60's all week. Watering the grass again this evening.
Max, buddy - we are going whole hog this year! we finally have enough of our own 3yr old compost, we have 5yr old manure from our friends farm, we have the greenhouse and we are spending the summer making coldframes for in front of the greenhouse. as for corn...we have the room for it but the land must be cleared, tilled, ammended, etc. before we can do corn. you poor duck having to water...that is a problem we really never have.
DeleteWe're still enjoying eating last year's bounty. Even though the cold is annoying, I don't mind waiting a little longer before adding garden to the long list of chores to do.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in more beans, purple pod pole beans are nice, and McCasian pole beans are very productive.
The last couple years I have had pretty good luck with starting Super Italian Paste (a yellow and red striped roma type heirloom sold by Burpee) outside in the garden (sometimes under a tent) and then transplanting. Their estimate of 70 days to maturity is pretty close.
Mrs. S. - the Marquis de Provence pumpkin seeds are from you! i planted 2 seeds last year, got the seedlings going, planted them in a tire but they just seemed to struggle and struggle - but that was because of poor soil. so this year we have all kinds of stuff to amend our soil and i will grow those pumpkins if it kills me - bahahahah!
Deletethanks so much for the tips on beans and tomatoes...maybe i can try those next year. thanks for stopping in - your advice is always appreciated!
Hopefully the 2 year old seeds you have sprout ok. Germination rates can drop off considerably as the seeds get older. Sometimes they seem to do better if you direct sow them, less transplant shock.
DeleteYou can try starting a few indoors, and throw a couple more seeds in the ground when you transplant them. Try for at least 3-5 plants in a hill so you have enough male flower production for pollination.
Mrs. S. - i plan to try and sprout a few seeds in a soaked paper towel...if they sprout then i'll trust them. they have been kept in the dark in a cool location so i am sure that they will do just fine. and yes, i plan on starting some seedlings as well as chucking a few seeds in a few beds. i'll let you know how they come along!
Deleteand thanks for the tip about 3-5 plants per hill!
Man, oh man. Jealous of your dead brown earth! We're at 8 feet and still climbing. We got another foot dumped on us yesterday, and more in the forecast for next week. So, so, so sick of winter. At least the temps are climbing now, with the odd day even getting above zero, and sunshine! Blessed sunshine! The critters are claiming spring is on the way though. Nelly's just about ready to calf!
ReplyDelete