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Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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Edmonton has warmed up at last, and my first daffodil arrived yesterday. :D

Since I can't officially plant anything else until Victoria Day weekend, I undertook the massive project yesterday of repainting our white picket fence, which is peeling like nobody's business. It's looking much better, but will take forever. Mr. Hip put together my new electric tiller. I think it'll get the job done, but it seems a bit more rickety and pez than the gas model my mother-in-law has. It was around $140 at Home Depot. It's the Homelife (or Homelite) brand. I hadn't heard of it before, but Mr. Hip says they've been around in Canada for years.

I have various seedlings started indoors, and I'm really looking forward to getting outside more to transplant them. I'm taking a rest today. I think being outside in the sun all day yesterday has caused a reaction with the drugs I'm on. Feeling pretty blah today. :/
 

Fenika

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I wish you warmer weather, Hip.

Anyone know if brambles are okay with a light freeze?!? 36 tonight, 33 or so tomorrow. And will they be grumpy if not covered??
 

blacbird

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An experiment this year: I saved a bag full of last year's unused seed packets, just to see what would remain viable, and planted some of those to find out.

So far: cabbage family seeds (cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, arugula, mizuna) all have sprouted. This suggests that other cabbage family plants (bok choi, turnips, rutabagas, cauliflower, mustard, etc.) are likely to do the same.

Also beets and swiss chards (the same species) have come up. So far, no lettuce, though. I'll continue to discern what works and what doesn't, and report accordingly.

caw
 

sunandshadow

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I wish you warmer weather, Hip.

Anyone know if brambles are okay with a light freeze?!? 36 tonight, 33 or so tomorrow. And will they be grumpy if not covered??
You mean like raspberries, or like roses? I would imagine it depends what phase they are in. If they have flowers already, the flowers might die. If they don't, they shouldn't have any serious problems.
 

milkweed

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An experiment this year: I saved a bag full of last year's unused seed packets, just to see what would remain viable, and planted some of those to find out.

So far: cabbage family seeds (cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, arugula, mizuna) all have sprouted. This suggests that other cabbage family plants (bok choi, turnips, rutabagas, cauliflower, mustard, etc.) are likely to do the same.

Also beets and swiss chards (the same species) have come up. So far, no lettuce, though. I'll continue to discern what works and what doesn't, and report accordingly.

caw

Most seed packets are good for 2-3 years beyond the expirey date on the package. Store them in a dark, cool, dry place and your good to go.

K-
 

Fenika

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Yeah, I meant berries :) Thornless blackberry and some raspberries. I'll check the raspberries for flowers but I don't think they have any.

I also have roses and I wish they would all collapse and decompose. I hate roses. I could appreciate the odd highlight but a hill full of them? Ick.
 

blacbird

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Most seed packets are good for 2-3 years beyond the expirey date on the package. Store them in a dark, cool, dry place and your good to go.

Well, this does depend to some extent on the plant species, or family. Which is why I'm experimenting. And I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before.

But your suggestion of seed storage is spot on. And easy to do, for most people. A grocery bag with the remnant seed packets securely closed by a paper clip or something, and kept over winter in a closet, would work pretty well.

I grow a lot of lettuce, numerous varieties, and I'm still waiting for last year's lettuce seeds to germinate, so that's the one major thing I don't yet know about.

Which brings up another suggestion for anyone interested in growing lettuces: Three years ago I got seeds for a variety called "Merlot", which was a dark wine-red leaf lettuce that turned out to be the best variety I've ever grown. Of course, that variety has not shown up in the seed selections at any of my local garden stores since. I've substituted others (the heirloom Lolla Rossa variety is quite good) but I really miss that Merlot variety. If you can find it, I recommend it with leviticous deuteronomy.

Oh, yeah, and just for grins, the weather forecast here is for snow showers on Saturday (May 17). Most years I already have starts in the ground. This year, the ground still has an impenetrable layer of ice about six inches down. I won't be getting anything in the ground until maybe Memorial Day.

caw
 

blacbird

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Well, as a capstone to the most miserably cold spring I've experienced in 22 years of living in southern Alaska, there's a firm prediction of 4-6 inches of snow on Saturday, followed by a couple of days with low temperatures of around 20ºF. All of my plant starts are doomed. Might not be any garden this year.

caw
 

milkweed

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Oh, yeah, and just for grins, the weather forecast here is for snow showers on Saturday (May 17). Most years I already have starts in the ground. This year, the ground still has an impenetrable layer of ice about six inches down. I won't be getting anything in the ground until maybe Memorial Day.

caw

May 16th in central Iowa and I haven't even planted the lettuce yet.
 

sunandshadow

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I planted 2 packets of okra seeds and only two seedlings have come up. o_O Had a similar problem last year, but these are a different variety in a different box garden, and I had no problem with okras the two years before that. *confused* I would have thought okra would have similar needs and tolerances to corn, but the corn all sprouted and is about 3 inches tall.
 

Fenika

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My lettuce is looking great, and the other plants are happy. My hybrid basil had a 100% fail rate compared to the sweet basil I planted with it. Dire. I have different packs of seeds so maybe another will produce.
 

Fenika

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Shadow, I don't know a thing about okra. I can't get most my spinach seedling to not shrivel at the base of the stem and die at a young age. I have one patch that is doing well though.
 

Chris P

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I planted 2 packets of okra seeds and only two seedlings have come up. o_O Had a similar problem last year, but these are a different variety in a different box garden, and I had no problem with okras the two years before that. *confused* I would have thought okra would have similar needs and tolerances to corn, but the corn all sprouted and is about 3 inches tall.

Some people recommend soaking okra seeds overnight before planting, but I've not had a problem getting them to sprout. Have you tried to dig them out, and see if they just didn't sprout or if they rotted? If your soil was cool and moist they might have decayed. When I tried them in Mississippi, they sprouted fine but my soil was too hard so my plants were only a few inches tall and I got one (1) sad little pod.

I'm growing them here now, and about twenty plants have so far produced well over 200 pods. These are in well dug, manured, and mulched raised beds. We're all getting so sick of okra we're just feeding it to the cow to get rid of it. I've been threatened with nastiness if I plant more :(
 

Chris P

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Now I can't get an eggplant to come up.

Oh, and for S&Giggles I planted popcorn from the store. The plants are coming, but does anyone know if they'll produce?
 

Teinz

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But your suggestion of seed storage is spot on. And easy to do, for most people. A grocery bag with the remnant seed packets securely closed by a paper clip or something, and kept over winter in a closet, would work pretty well.

I've kept mine in the freezer last year, with good results. Airtight bag, so no moisture gets in and you're golden.
 

Sonata

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blacbird, you make me so sad! Wishing you lots of sunshine :Sun:

My DH wants so badly to move us up to Alaska, and I just keep telling him we best have the world's finest greenhouse, and I'm game.

Well, as a capstone to the most miserably cold spring I've experienced in 22 years of living in southern Alaska, there's a firm prediction of 4-6 inches of snow on Saturday, followed by a couple of days with low temperatures of around 20ºF. All of my plant starts are doomed. Might not be any garden this year.

caw
 

sunandshadow

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Some people recommend soaking okra seeds overnight before planting, but I've not had a problem getting them to sprout. Have you tried to dig them out, and see if they just didn't sprout or if they rotted? If your soil was cool and moist they might have decayed. When I tried them in Mississippi, they sprouted fine but my soil was too hard so my plants were only a few inches tall and I got one (1) sad little pod.

I'm growing them here now, and about twenty plants have so far produced well over 200 pods. These are in well dug, manured, and mulched raised beds. We're all getting so sick of okra we're just feeding it to the cow to get rid of it. I've been threatened with nastiness if I plant more :(
My soil was too dry, actually - I discovered about a week after planting those seeds that the soil in that bed was like powder, so I spent half an hour soaking it down with the hose. Since then I watered it once more and it has been raining in small amounts at least once a day, so I'm assuming the soil is still moist but there's no way it would have gotten really wet. Maybe the seeds were/are just waiting for more moisture to sprout. I need to water today since it was hot yesterday, so while I'm out there I'll do as you suggest and dig around to see if I can find a sprout or seed.

Last year I had the dwarf plants that hardly make any pods problem. I was assuming it was because I hadn't added any kind of fertilizer to that bed since the year before, but maybe there was a moisture problem there.

What variety do you grow, Clemson? I'm trying Emerald Velvet this year - had too many woodiness problems with Clemson. I was recommended to try Cowhorn for least woodiness problems but I haven't seen it for sale either locally or in the catalog I usually order seeds from.
 

Fenika

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Last year I had dwarf peppers and it turned out I had a bone dry layer about three inches down. I was not pleased when I finally figured this out.
 

blacbird

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Update: That snow that was supposed to arrive overnight started about noon. It's coming down like it does normally in December, inch-an-hour stuff. Ground is already white. It's supposed to snow all day tomorrow. We could have 12-18 inches by the time it's done, easily. Record snow for this time of year, and then expected to have record low temperatures for the next two nights.

Result? All my plant starts are doomed. Ain't gonna be no garden this year. Waaaay too late to start all over this season. Just one other thing I don't have much success at, and probably time just to pull the plug on the ridiculous endeavor altogether. Sledgehammer time for the raised beds.

Putting it in the same box as my writing. File deletion time for the wasted hard drive space.

caw
 

Fenika

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After the snow melts put in peas. Fast growers that like cool temperatures.

Then get a greenhouse with a solid north wall.
 

blacbird

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I've started peas. They'll be compost by Sunday. As for the greenhouse idea, all I can say is you really don't know about where I live. A greenhouse here is close to useless unless artificially heated in the spring and fall. I have a non-heated one. I store a lawnmower and garden equipment in it, because it proved completely worthless as a place to grow plants.

caw

caw
 

sunandshadow

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I've started peas. They'll be compost by Sunday. As for the greenhouse idea, all I can say is you really don't know about where I live. A greenhouse here is close to useless unless artificially heated in the spring and fall. I have a non-heated one. I store a lawnmower and garden equipment in it, because it proved completely worthless as a place to grow plants.

caw

caw
Are you a radish fan? They are one of the fastest vegetables I know of.
 

milkweed

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Thank you for the reminder I need to plant radishes! I also need to plant beets, carrots, and parsnips, in addition to the beans and cucumbers. That'll have to wait until tomorrow. Until then an update is on my gardening blog!