I have a lot of seed starter trays from Ferry-Morse that I like to use for seedlings - each holds eight trays just like the ninepack seedlings come in at an arboretum or store. Right now I have five of them full, plans for three more, and potted plants starting besides.

I'm going to grow my tomatos on the back porch/deck in containers so the vines can be strung over the deck rail, and a biggy this year is going to be lots of rows of corn... I have cayenne and habernero seeds in some, chili's in others, and a lot of pumpkin seeds started.

Pumpkins I have no experience with at all...

But the temperatures are up outside, and I think the end of march should be ideal to get a "home vegetable department" up and going

 

Damn, I wish it was warm enough here. I grew corn a coupla years ago, but the rabbits got to it before i did

 

I've got 24 peat pots filled. 3 jalapeno, 3 habanero, 3 Cali bell peppers, and 3 sweet bell peppers....3 cayenne and 3 chili peppers.......In 6 large peat pots, I've got squash and eggplant........The squash are poking out right now, and the eggplant just started to show. The others are still hiding.

I'll plant those---as well as a dozen or so tomato plants, which I'll buy as plants and transplant.

I'm shooting for 4 weeks to plant. Already tilled the garden once.....I'll till it again about a week before I plant and put some lime down at that time......The soil is nice and rich. When I tilled it, I uncovered a carpet of nice, fat earthworms. The birdies were having a field day......

 

The rabbits gnawed the crap out of my bells last year.....I'm putting the 6 bell pepper plants (2 different varieties) into 5-gallon buckets this year. This'll keep them high, and I'll have the pots sitting on the concrete slab....Which the bunnies don't really like too much. Drill several holes in them......Put about 2" or 3" of river rock on the bottom for drainage, and fill the buckets up with regular garden soil from the garden.....(after 2 years of putting truckloads of compost into the soil, the garden is about 3" or 4" over the level of the driveway.....PLENTY of dirt). This should keep the bunnies out.

Oh yeah...Jake....My peat pots are still inside. If it's in the 60s or 70s, I'll set them outside for a couple of hours....But mostly they stay inside. We don't really plant the warm weather 'fruit' veggies in the Piedmont until late April....Sometimes early May (although that's pushing it.....Late April is a good target).

 

started my seeds inside the other day ive got 2 kinds of lettuce,2 kinds of tomatoes,2 kinds of onions,carrots,cucumbers,coliflor,and seedless watermelon!Im gona try a veg garden this year!

 

Rabbits have been mostly killed out around here - it's a local sport and cuisine

GOPHERS are another story....

I DID put some corn seed right in the ground, but it hasn't come up like the other seeds. It may be looking at the temperature.

I have never done any good with LETTUCE, ONIONS, or CARROTS. I think I was probably impatient...
*Those might have to be a container crop

 

Have about ten 'flats' started in the hot house.
But spring welcomed us yesterday with snow squalls in the morning.

Wolfie, your Martian planter idea is working in my head but I think i'm going to end up with some plants close to the kitchen door, probably in 1/2 bourbon barrels.

 

I cant cut down the large trees to have much space to plant outside so I grows most of my plants in a special indoor room using HYDROPONICS..I bet alot of folks will soon be doing it too with the hards times and all..........

 

I miss the days when I was a kid and lived in the country we grew just about everything that could be grown in a garden at one time or another. I live in the city now,can't really have a garden because the rabbits are BAD and there is no way to legally control them. the neighbors might get suspicious if they see me sitting outside on my lawn chair with my 22 rifle in hand.

 

Those plants grow better if you pipe some Grateful Dead or some Reggae into the room......

 

I plan to have about 4000 sq. feet of gardens in my yard. I also plan to plant a good many food plots for the wildlife out in the woods. I already have the first tilling done on over 2000 sq. feet.

 

Just spread the horse manure on garden. Next week it gets tilled then in go the spring onions. I didnt have much luck with corn last year. Damn groundhogs chewed the stalks off before I got any thing good. (And its not like there was a whole field next door to my garden full of corn....wait till I get them in my cross hairs this year) Ground sucked last year as well though (first year for my garden) Not expecting a miricle this year, but hopefully a better garden. I want some jalapeno and habanero as well as red sweet peppers, maybe try potatoes this year. Tomatoes grew like a weed last year. Now I just have to wait for it to get a little warmer yet.

 

NOW!!!!

You're ahead of me there.... I have a five pony tiller that I was going to go over and set to rights for the season, just not yet.

I can say this much: This Seasons seeds that I tried so far have germinated in something like four days on average....


Fast, isn't it? Especially from a "DOLLAR STORE". I'd like to find sweet white corn and tabasco seeds.

 

I wish we could plant a garden. Our yard isn't big enough. The property behind us is huge though, I don't know why they don't. If we had their yard, we'd have corn and potatoes, maybe carrots, lettuce, onions... We had all that when I was a kid. Oh, broccoli and cauliflower too.

But you guys got me intrigued with peppers. How big of a pot do you need to grow peppers? Like jalapeno, chili and habanero peppers.

 

CONSIDER CONTAINERS!!!!

Always, HELL YES!

A good window and a pepper plant is a wonderful house guest (lots better than me), and looks good. You have no idea until a Tabasco plant looks like a Christmas Tree - but thats another story...

Tomatos do good in comtainers, and it helps keep the vines off the ground. Figure about a five gallon container - or six.

Peppers are sturdy - but need direct sun, all day if possible.

- A lot of these make FINE house plants, or office cheer, especially when the peppers turn color.


Figure about a five gallon pot for a big plant like a pumpkin or tomato.

But small plants like peppers, make do in a medium sized potter of about two or three gallons.
(one gallon, for small peppers)


*Ooh! A Tabasco Pepper bush on your winow sill, in that little office....
(they restrict themselves to an eighten inch radius)

Okay, well I lied....

But they ARE beatiful to watch...