No worries! You have got the basics well covered for making a great mix. I sometimes add Azomite, for the minerals. Good compost is the key to completing the mix! In fact you could have good stuff with just good compost and vermiculite and perlite.
I am itching to work in the gardens but mine are soaked by a major rain event. I inspected some things under row covers and picked a bit of lettuce and a few cabbages but it was too muddy and I quit. Typical for me here is to have too wet soil for tilling or even walking on in the early spring...
OP heirloom tomatoes get the Lion's place on my list. Every year I try at least one new Old variety! I do grow a couple hybrid blight resistant varieties every year as well. I never heard of the Tycoon and will be waiting to hear your remarks this season.
Yes, Sally PB, just 5 degrees could help a lot here as well! It has hit below 10 degrees F here the last several years now. That is unheard of in my Lifetime. Yet somehow they want to classify us in a warmer grow zone now at the USDA and USWS. They both know it is a distortion of facts. My...
All our expectations sometimes get a detour dealing with the nature of life. It can be so surprisingly resilient , yet so fragile at the same time... It just started sleeting sideways here in the 30 to 40 mph wind gust. I was changing out the chicken water when it went from blowing drizzle to...
I start in December, planning next years gardens. I start ordering seeds , plants and supplies and continue right up till spring. I have to spread out the purchases and of course, I keep on finding things I want or need for my gardens. Looks like I need to work on my grow light. The ballast has...
Windy and rainy here this afternoon. Cool now, but dropping behind the front to in the low twenties. Next week projected to drop below twenty one night. That is cold here! That will require me to harvest the rest of the lettuce because it gets damage under 20 with the row covers I use. A couple...
It is still cold today for here. Hovering about 40 degrees F and north wind again today. I am just taking care of the chickens and staying inside mostly today. I am spending hundreds of dollars in my head while going over the seed catalogs flooding in, now. If I change my mind and get bored I...
Yes, the ones i have been ogling for years start at about $8,000 or much more for the bigger ones. I need to learn to settle for my reality instead of just having a dream.
I guess that is why I don't have one yet! I been holding out for a huge one like I worked in and it has never happened! I guess I should settle for something I could afford!
Okra here (Mid south USA zone 7b) of some very desirable heirloom varieties get over 8 feet tall and the stems can get 6 inches thick or more near the base. I have climbed and stood in some plants to pick the top of the plants. You can dry and grind okra and make a bread and so many other ways...
Timing is everything! Figuring out the right time to start the seeds /transplants is key to winter gardening in a cold greenhouse or under row covers here. They have to be well started before the real cold weather arrives. You will figure it out and be successful! What you can grow successfully...
I miss working in a green house! I use to have access to using a green house at a nursery I was associated with. Now days , I just have my low tunnels and covered raised beds. If I come into some unexpected money I am going to build a green house! Been saying that for fifty years! The low...
I have never grown winter melons or many Asian melons, but will after seeing the Winter melon soup recipe. I have been growing many heirloom melons for fifty years, some years commercially for income. They love and thrive on lots of compost is my number one take away. I put a heaped five gallon...
Okra is very sun and heat tolerant, takes full sun and 100F plus temps and is more likely to wilt from excessive rain or watering or cold temps than heat. It has never missed a beat here even in past years when the temps were over 110 F with 80% humidity and in full July/August sun. They just...
It is cold with a north wind today so I am not going to do much outside, I think. Yesterday , I cleaned out the cleanout area under the chickens roost and added it to the compost system. Scattered some crop residues for the chickens to work on in the run. I also recovered a couple rows the wind...
It works , we use to do that at a nursery I worked at to keep the squirrels from eating bulbs, tubers , corms and stuff like bottle brush buckeye seeds.