Growing/sharing/learning to garden: 2022

[alanjh595]

[Catsumi]

I suppose you could add lots of nitrogenous fertilizer to your peas and beans, but you may wind up with just leaves.

Legumes take their nitrogen needs from the air whereupon they ‘fix’ it into little round balls attached to plant roots. That is why it’s a good idea at end of season to cut off legume plants at ground level (do not pull up the roots) as that way the N stays in the soil.

Your choice of fertilizer should have the first number as the lowest (5-10-10 for example) not the highest.

I presoak beans and pea seeds overnight or longer prior to planting, and yes, water the seeds and emerging leaves as they don’t like to dry out. That’s why they don’t perform as well in heat and dryness of summer.

[Lady tehMa]

Good to know, thanks everyone

[Bsuds]

Started weeding today...they are winning!

[Catsumi]

Growing Celery was mentioned in the Weather thread so thought I’d bring it here.

A couple of years ago when perusing thru an Okanagan Historical publication [1950’s) I was delighted to find that Armstrong was once known as the Celery Capital of Canada. They grew so much and so successfully that they exported all across Canada and into the USA. The landowners used Chinese labour for field preparation, planting and harvesting.

The backbreaking planting of the seedlings was greatly reduced by ingenuity of invention of the celery planter whereby several could be inserted into the muck at one time, however, the harvest, taking one mature plant out at a time still meant much bending over.

The link contains a bit of info for your reading pleasure.

https://www.bcfoodhistory.ca/armstrong-bc-celery-city/

[Babba_not_Gump]

Talking about bending over for celery....

13XMKeXPOdUPzXae4dnm13liiqJg6ez-gSrd4J3bSBs.jpg

[Catsumi]

^^^^. That’s some incentive to buy celery

Ribed? Haha

[Lady tehMa]

Summerland Plan Sale 2022.jpg

[Lady tehMa]

Pruned one of my 2 raspberry patches.

I have one to go. And then the blackberries. And then the plum tree. And then I have ornamental garden beds to clear out.

I may have too much garden.

[oneh2obabe]

Different garden method to reduce costs of topsoil and compost in raised garden beds.

A better method, “Hugelkultur,” is said to have been used in Germany and eastern Europe for centuries as part of a more extensive permaculture system, which maintains that nature should be left to do its own thing with as little human interference as possible. That includes allowing logs, branches and other plant debris to decompose into nutrient-rich soil, as it would on a forest floor, which is arguably better than anything that comes in a bag.

Hugelkultur, or “hill culture,” has been a darling of the permaculture world since the 1970s, but has been gaining mainstream and social-media attention lately.

https://www.timescolonist.com/the-mix/h ... ds-5233992

[Lady tehMa]

I've seen that before - it looks really cool! This is the link I have on my Pinterest https://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

My Chinese cabbages have sprouted, yays! Peas are finally coming up (barely above ground but still).
Celery seeds are sprouting, too. I will probably need to buy starts when planting time comes, but at least I know I can start them.

[alanjh595]

My Sweet Peas are starting to pop up too, even with the frost.

[Babba_not_Gump]

Another way to enrich your soil is to plant a cover crop in the fall.
I plant fall Rye, mid to late October. By winter it's up an inch or two.

In the spring, let it grow until two or three weeks prior to the start of planting and rototill it in.
While it's growing it suppresses the the weeds and after tilling it in, it rots and enriches the soil.

Often called "green fertilizer".

[normaM]

some of you going to grow so much you'll be selling it. Found this helpful sign

[Lady tehMa]

normaM - that physically HURTS

The last of my seedling pots sprouted, so now I have a flat taking up space in the kitchen. in a few more weeks they can go outside to my tiny plastic greenhouse.