Gardening

Replying to: steve_ (Apr 24, 2009 11:31 am)

Replies to this message:
• steve_ (Apr 24, 2009 11:42 am)
• Mr_Shiftright (Apr 24, 2009 12:05 pm)
  • steve_ (Apr 24, 2009 12:14 pm)

Replying to: kirstie_h (Apr 24, 2009 11:38 am)

Replying to: kirstie_h (Apr 24, 2009 11:38 am)

Replies to this message:
• steve_ (Apr 24, 2009 12:14 pm)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 24, 2009 12:05 pm)

Replying to: steve_ (Apr 24, 2009 11:31 am)

The purple taters never did much for me,
 
They are higher in anti oxidants than white potatoes. I agree growing potatoes in ID seems silly. When I visited my folks in Nampa in the 1960s, they could not give them away unless they were in bags ready to go. Here red potatoes & sweet potatoes average a buck a pound. Growing russets is a waste of time and water. For the soil question. The patch that produced the best sweet potatoes last year we had about 30% mulch and 20% sand in the local clay. I keep hauling in trailer loads of different amended top soil to see which works best. For starting potatoes I used Miracle Gro potting soil and it was so much faster. Those plant are huge and the potatoes in the ground are just now coming up. It is all a learning process for me.
Pics today:
 
One of the Hooded Orioles that hang out by my office window. They go through humming bird nectar at the rate of about a gallon a day now. The other is one of 3 tomato patches. We have little gold cherry tomatoes that should be ready in a week or two.
 

 

Replies to this message:
• steve_ (Apr 29, 2009 7:01 am)
  • gagrice (Apr 29, 2009 8:41 am)

Replying to: gagrice (Apr 29, 2009 5:48 am)

Replies to this message:
• gagrice (Apr 29, 2009 8:41 am)

Replying to: steve_ (Apr 29, 2009 7:01 am)

This is a cold year for us also. A late frost may have destroyed the peaches on one tree that bloomed early. I just planted an avocado and hope that one cold day did not damage it. We had near 100 degrees last week and this week is cold and not so nice. I blame it on Al Gore.
 
Yes I believe ours were garnet Yams. They have the prettiest flowers. I don't have any starts this year. They may come up again as I don't know if we got all of them out of the patch last year.
 
We have three orioles that feed at our nectar feeders. The Scotts have not shown up yet. We have several pairs of the Northern or Bullocks Oriole. They are so pretty.

Replying to: gagrice (Apr 22, 2009 4:30 am)

Thank you for the nice words . Sorry I did not reply earlier, I was hoping to get around to taking some pictures, but the weather here had other plans
Those tomatoes are from two years ago, I believe. We still get the seeds from my wife's parents. She thinks we still have some left, so we'll check and I'll be happy to mail some so you may try them
This year we were hoping for an early start and replanted them outside about two weeks ago. The weather did not cooperate though We had a Frost Advisory in mid-May, so had to even cover the plants one night just a few days after we replanted them. Then we had a few very windy days and some of the plants did not make it. I had to get creative and stick yogurt containers (with cut-out bottoms) around the plants to protect them. This was the first time we had to replace plants. Fortunately, we still had some inside in the pot where we initially planted. The wind also broke all the cucumbers plants we had planted in the newly made beds. But the weather is much better now, although it's quite dry. I think all the plants have caught now and getting stronger, but nowhere near two feet yet
I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.