Gardening 2017: Fruits, Veggies, Flowers

[Lady tehMa]

If you can find a seedless concord, get that - freeze them on a cookie sheet and measure them into freezer bags for baking grape muffins in the winter. Also a White Himrod are delicious! Another nice white is Interlaken. For a pink table grape I tasted a Canadice, and it was lovely. Though I hear Somerset is hardier.

You could add bushes too - haskap, blueberry. Or canes - like thornless blackberry or raspberry (and tayberry, and loganberry).

Edit: though I seem to remember reading that you don't want to plant blackberries and grapes beside each other

[Jflem1983]

Well I already need to grow a gardener . Last owner had helpers . The front is like an Edward scissors hands adventure .

[Queen K]

Yes, mix up the fruit season that way. Good idea Lady t. I'd love to try the pink grapes, where did you get to?

[Lady tehMa]

Last fall I was at Art Knapps on Benvoulin, and one of the vines in their display was fruiting - it was planted in-ground, wrapping around one of the fences. :)

Edit: I bought a pink grape on clearance somewhere, and I think it is a Canadice. I'd have to go out and look. I dug up my Coronation and gave it to my inlaws - wasn't happy with the flavour. The pink is where the Coronation was. Also found a Concord at the end of the season at Home Hardware :) That one is in a different spot.

[Jflem1983]

When I walk by orchards and vineyards near my house . The grapes appear to be spaced about 5 to 7 paces apart . Does that sound rite . I have never paced it out . Just what I see from the road

[Lady tehMa]

I haven't a clue - I'm the type of gardener that tosses things in, and looks it up later

Case in point: http://www.grapegrowingguide.com/newsletter-vine-spacing.html

[Jflem1983]

Me 2 lady . Me 2 . Gonna try ginseng this year and grapes . Those are my two out there projects . The ginseng I doubt will work . Although if my research is good I have a decent shot . I'm pretty young for gardening . I find it does me good . I got farming in my blood .

[Bpeep]

I do compost them but I would like to spread them on my beds as well. Shredding them just speeds up the process and stops them from forming those 'hard as cement' layers.

Thanks for the suggestions offered. I'm still mulling over what would work for me going forward.

If u don't have many, put em in a bin and take the weed whacker to them.
If there's lots, rake em into a pile and do the same.

[slootman]

I'm gonna need a bunch of dirt to fill up a raised 4x8 bed. Any recos on types of soil and sources? Preference to car-friendly solutions.

Peas carrots and spinach seeds outside "soon" (grumble)

[Queen K]

Art Knapp's may have the best solution yet. I believe they deliver dirt to your door, or driveway spot where you've told them to dump it. To reduce loss, have it dumped on a large sized tarp. And some places have that "dirt in a bag" only the bag is huge and delivered. But they aren't the only ones who deliver, there may be a business somewhere closer to where you live.

I used to load up the back of the Subaru with buckets, fill them with dirt on the lot, pay whatever was charged and come home to find that it didn't go very far. Very inefficient for the first fill in new garden beds.

I believe to get the initial dirt for the raised beds, we had a delivery here and used wheelbarrows and shovels to trundle dirt around to filling the beds. So long ago now.

Raised beds also suffer from soil shrink, a phenomena plaguing all raised beds with having to top them off using new materials all the time. I had lots of compost last fall, so that got dug into most of them. I also use the clay I now find to underlay the soil in side the beds. So move good dirt over, lay in the clay materials, and cover.

[Sige]

Oh wow! My sorrel is up about 3 inches! I didn't realize it was a perennial when I planted it last year. My bleeding heart is poking out of the ground as well. So excited

[Bpeep]

Lady T, your blues are starting to pop!

[Lady tehMa]

Lady T, your blues are starting to pop!

Hurrah!

How many are growing? I promised you some, some to QK and I'll take about 2-3.

Hey, slootman!

Better Earth is pretty good and can arrange delivery https://betterearthgardencentre.com/our-products/

Classic Compost I've heard is good, but are too pricey for me to try http://classiccompost.com/compost-products/

Nature's Gold is phenomenal stuff, and you can get it at most local garden centres or at the sources - and I believe they can arrange delivery too (I've seen their truck around town) http://www.naturesgold.ca/

Oh, and these guys are around http://www.reimerslandscapesupply.com/big-yellow-bag-topsoil.html

[Lady tehMa]

Oh wow! My sorrel is up about 3 inches! I didn't realize it was a perennial when I planted it last year. My bleeding heart is poking out of the ground as well. So excited

It's not only a perennial, it will also spread quickly. I planted mine in a pot . . .

[Lady tehMa]

Oh, slootman - one more thing. Mostly what I do is get together with my friend - she has a small trailer which takes half a yard - and then we buy glengrow at the dump. Glengrow is like Ogogrow, but without the "biosolids". She shovels at my house, and I shovel at hers. If you know someone with a truck, it is the cheapest way to go. :)