2012 Tennessee Garden Thread
Cargo Master
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,985
Likes: 0
From: Sewanee, Tennessee
I planted: "Sweet 100", "Park's Whoppers", "Early Girl", "Yellow Pear" & "Lemon Boy" tomatoes; "Red Chile", "Hot Banana", "Caribbean Habanero", "Hot Gypsy" & "Golden Bell" peppers; "Straight 8" & "Burpless" cucumbers; sweet peas, Kandy Korn sweet corn, yellow wax beans, Red Cored Chantenay carrots and some lettuce. That's my "main" garden. More will go into containers throught the spring/summer to have fresh veggies until winter.
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Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
Lay mulch - then sweep it back from the sprouts after the frost.
~Your move, doomsayer!
*another good way to "BIODOME" early sprouts is to use old milk bottles with the bottom cut out as a temporary greenhouse for the night
*2 liter soda bottles also work well
IN FACT - with mulch in the bed, you can heap the mulch up around a bottle with the bottom cut out to improve the temperature stability even further
*You can use an old JUICE can (6" wide, but ten tall) as a tube to just heap mulch around a plant, while also protecting it from wind and containing a break in the temperature.
~ There are lots of options, even just using discarded materials
SPEAKING OF discarded materials -
I grow all the lettuce I want every year (and it grew last year all the way up until JANUARY!!!) in four (4) old Super Swamper 39 X15's that I layed flat on the ground, and filled with dirt. I wanted to cut them in half around the tire tread, but didn't get around to it before the growing season. If I had, the halfs would be bead side down, and would be gigantic salad bowls by now.
But I just like the look of those BIG OL' tires, right like they are...
WITH LOTS OF FOOD GROWING OUT OF THEM!!!
~Your move, doomsayer!
*another good way to "BIODOME" early sprouts is to use old milk bottles with the bottom cut out as a temporary greenhouse for the night
*2 liter soda bottles also work well
IN FACT - with mulch in the bed, you can heap the mulch up around a bottle with the bottom cut out to improve the temperature stability even further
*You can use an old JUICE can (6" wide, but ten tall) as a tube to just heap mulch around a plant, while also protecting it from wind and containing a break in the temperature.
~ There are lots of options, even just using discarded materials
SPEAKING OF discarded materials -
I grow all the lettuce I want every year (and it grew last year all the way up until JANUARY!!!) in four (4) old Super Swamper 39 X15's that I layed flat on the ground, and filled with dirt. I wanted to cut them in half around the tire tread, but didn't get around to it before the growing season. If I had, the halfs would be bead side down, and would be gigantic salad bowls by now.
But I just like the look of those BIG OL' tires, right like they are...
Thread Starter
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Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
This is going to be a record year if the weather holds...
I have more tomato sprouts than I can count - and a bunch of "other"
This is not the time to talk about it, sprouts still comng up
I have more tomato sprouts than I can count - and a bunch of "other"
This is not the time to talk about it, sprouts still comng up
Thread Starter
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Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
Now if that is true - picture the end result of a long mild growing season after last year - food prices should drop in the groceries, but not nearly as low as free from right outside the door!We needed to be blessed after last year... A lot of people just can't grow stuff
Lead Driver
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,015
Likes: 131
From: Maryville
Food is shipped, gas is going for an all time high, look for high grocery bills to cover fuel surcharge.
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Cargo Master
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,985
Likes: 0
From: Sewanee, Tennessee
Tonight will be the last cold night of the season. Not supposed to get below 40 degrees in Chattanooga, but the plateau and northward will get some patchy frost. Make it through tomorrow morning and you will be fine.
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Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
Dogwood winter? I don't think I've heard of that.
60 out at the big river right now -it wasn't much down into the fifties last night here.
I got the rest of my tomato spots blocked out and the main tap roots on these weeks hybrids were a mile long in the seed pockets... Even with barely the first two seed leaves open! I wondered what was keeping them, they got root bound before they even got started.
I have a lot of sprouts left in trays and am watching them.
About those 2 liter soda bottles? I have one spot where I set one up in february to see what happened, it now has a really nice clump of catnip growing where it was.
60 out at the big river right now -it wasn't much down into the fifties last night here.
I got the rest of my tomato spots blocked out and the main tap roots on these weeks hybrids were a mile long in the seed pockets... Even with barely the first two seed leaves open! I wondered what was keeping them, they got root bound before they even got started.
I have a lot of sprouts left in trays and am watching them.
About those 2 liter soda bottles? I have one spot where I set one up in february to see what happened, it now has a really nice clump of catnip growing where it was.
Lead Driver
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,015
Likes: 131
From: Maryville
Dogwood winter is old school, my granny warned about early planting due to it, it's called that because it comes when the dogwood trees bloom, they were early this year, but this is when they are supposed to bloom. The older generation knows about all the seasons, the younger generation doesn't have a clue, they just stick their head out of the house to see the temp or listen to the weatherman, hoping their plants are safe.
Dad put a bucket over a plant years ago to protect it from the frost, bad idea, you're best off with a sheet, don't plant till Mothers Day, no cold snaps after that.
Dad put a bucket over a plant years ago to protect it from the frost, bad idea, you're best off with a sheet, don't plant till Mothers Day, no cold snaps after that.