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March Banter

JoshM

By JoshM,
in Southeastern States

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packbacker

packbacker

Posted
Posted

Can't wait for the big winter storm on Thursday!

 

LOL...if we get 2" of snow this Thursday this will go down as one of the best winters since 04, atleast for RDU.  As of now I would give us a solid B.   Unfortunately, that's more of a reflection of how bad winters have been since 04 but it's still a solid winter.

 

I have my doubts we see anything accumulate but for the NC/VA border counties they could see some good snows/sleet.

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JWXnc

JWXnc

Posted
Posted

I'm going to be on my third year of having a small garden.   Anyone have some ideas of some additions for a novice.   Lat year I had:

...

 

Potatoes -- good, but they work well for me one year and were awful in subsequent years. Probably the wet/cool weather we had a couple years ago. They took up too much space for me for such a small return, but I'll try them again sometime.

Tomatoes -- try a variety like Big Beef, or most any variety with "Mountain" in it's name. You'll want to look for the disease resistant varieties if disease takes over your plants each year. Nobody I know has had consistent results with Better Boy or many of the main kinds they sell as plants at stores. If you want to go heirloom, try Black Krim -- usually the first in my garden to produce, and produces a lot!

Beans (snap beans) -- try a bush bean like Contender or Provider, or to save space try a pole bean like Rattlesnake. Rattlesnake beans do awesome, and I usually have to pick the beans every single day to keep up with them. The vines for me usually climb up a 7ft fence, and all the way back down again.

Squash -- I prefer the flavor of yellow crookneck squash. But whatever you do, plant squash/cucumbers/melons/pumpkins from SEED -- do not buy plants for them at stores. Melon seed, for me at least, always do 200% better than bought plants. It's amazing how much difference it makes.

Pumpkins -- To save space, try a semi-bush variety like Gladiator, which is also somewhat resistant to powdery mildew (they still get mildew in my garden in the humid summer with afternoon thunderstorms, but by the time it hits, the pumpkins are almost ready to harvest). I plant my pumpkin seeds around the end of April for the Raleigh area, and I usually pick my pumpkins around the 2nd week of July, wash them off with a bleach water mix, and store them in a dark closet indoors. They will still keep through January. Planting early also helps the plants get a jumpstart on the squash bugs, which show up for me around the end of May or early June. By then, pumpkins have already set and are steadily growing before the insects hit hard. I also tend to plant a trap crop of yellow squash -- the bugs in my garden always go for the squash plants before hitting my pumpkins. I also plant marigolds throughout my melon plants. Whether it helps or not, who knows.

Cucumbers -- Arkansas Little Leaf has very small leaves, compact vine, and doesn't need good pollination to set fruit. Try a variety that is compact/bush or intended for containers

Okra -- try a cowhorn variety, and you will have okra stalks about 7-8ft tall that grow all summer. I've also noticed that with the cowhorn varieties, you can let the okra pods get larger than with the common clemson spineless, and they wont get woody as fast.

Peppers -- bell peppers are hit or miss for me. Some season they do well, some seasons I only get 2-3 from each plant.

Purple Hull Peas -- always do well for me, are very forgiving of growing conditions

Eggplant?

Watermelons? Look for a compact or semi-vine or bush variety to save space

Cantaloupe? Same, look for compact/semi-vine/bush

Sweet Potatoes? Long vines, morning-glory-like flowers

Peanuts?

Corn? I never have luck with corn because it requires a LOT of nitrogen and water. My neighbors, however, always have corn plants that are seriously 10 foot tall with ears of corn almost the size of footballs...

 

Plant some marigolds and zinnias or other annual flowers in and around your garden to attract the butterflies and bees and other pollinators. Keep-up with fertilizing and providing enough water. And if you want to bump-it-up a notch, look into a fungicide routine if your garden usually gets hit with disease early in the season. But most fungicides only work as a preventative... if you wait until disease already starts, it's typically too late!

 

Spring and Fall stuff (I plant most of these in August/September for the Raleigh area, which allows them to mature in cooler weather):

Broccoli

Cabbage

Lettuce

Carrots

Rutabagas

Turnips

Collards

Kale

Beets

Radish

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Met1985

Met1985

Posted
Posted

Do you use raised beds? I plan on putting them in this year. I have chickens as well. I get about 6/10 a day.

We have done the traditional heaped up rows but may experiment with something different this year. Nice on the eggs. You can tell a difference from our eggs to store bought eggs. They taste much better. How do the raised beds do?
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burrel2

burrel2

Posted
Posted

I got a good 1-2 inches of sleet, that at first was looking like 4-8 of snow. The most snow was 1/2 inch during the surprise Tuesday storm. Then 1/8 inch of sleet , when they were calling for 3-7 of snow! So 2" of sleet and half inch of snow puts me at about 25% of climo ! This winter sucked and fab Feb wasn't that great imby. I'd give it a D-

 You left out your November snow... didn't you get like 2 inches from that one?  

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Cold Rain

Cold Rain

Posted
Posted

JWXnc,

Good post and good info. Thanks for posting that. I've had good luck with bell peppers every time I've planted them. I've had good luck with potatoes and sweet potatoes until my yard became infested with voles and moles. That just happened 2 years ago. Now they're everywhere.

I planted corn one year and got plenty of it. I planted it two years later and got 4 ft stalks and puny corn that wasn't edible. Bad pollination, I guess.

Every year, I planted pumpkins. I usually buy seed packs from Lowes. Vine borers, squash bugs, and powdery mildew got them every single time. Never even saw more than one or two baby pumpkins before the plant died. Two years ago, I bought a big pumpkin from a local farmer. I saved the seeds. I planted six of them. I got the best plants ever and even grew a pumpkin about the size of a cantaloupe before the frost got it. :(

One of these days, I'm going to grow a pumpkin! It is my mission in life!

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NCSNOW

NCSNOW

Posted
Posted

I'm going to be on my third year of having a small garden. Anyone have some ideas of some additions for a novice. Lat year I had:

Squash/zucchini. Did well until about the 4th of July, then Borer work nailed it

Tomatoes: Did well, did get some blight on the lower leaves (better boys)

Cucumbers: Did well but damn they go out of control

Peppers: Jalapeno and Bell. Jalapeno did awesome, Bell sucked

By far I enjoyed the tomatoes and squash and zucchini the most.

Looking for some easy additions for a limited space garden.

Thanks

-Kevin

I have a huge garden and we can alot.

But I've helped several folks start raised bed gardens. First thing you need to do is run your cucumbers. It saves a ton of space. Google you some ideas on how to do it, but I suggest when making your frame to use some wood screws, that way you can take it down after each year, store it under the deck or house and reassemble the following year. Raised bed gardens need about 8 inches of soil. Once you get it constructed and filled with good top soil it's a sinch every year after.

They save you space and make it easier to manage the hydration by saving time and using less water which is costly if your on city tap.

Also you can yield as much from raised garden beds than the half acre garden method I use. Cucumbers are delecious in the summer you not only can make refrigerated pickles or canned pickles, but we eat cucumber salad with about every other meal when their coming in. Just slice em up and pour a bottle of zesty itialian on them. Add a fresh tomatoe or I like Vidalia onions. Cucumbers are also good in white vinegar.

Plant you 5 or so squash plants side by side and about 2 zucchini plants. They are great for cooking on the grill when you barbecue or grill chicken in the summer. For tomatoes I constructed about 20, 6ft high x 3ft wide cages out of a roll on concrete wire. Easy to get your hand through and they are awesome for supporting the branches as they grow out. You can get a roll of 25ft concrete wire from Lowe's pretty cheap 15 or so bucks. Get yourself the farm ranch pliers and someone to stand on wire as you roll out 3ft at a time and cut. The section you cut rolls right back up into a 3 ft wide perfectly round tomatoes cage and will last a lifetime. Good luck

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Snowless in Carrollton

Snowless in Carrollton

Posted
Posted

This winter definitely gets an F- from me. I really thought out of all winters, this winter we would at least get a dusting. I mean really, would it be too Much to ask to get at least 10% of our average snowfall ? 3 out of 4 winters with no snow. This kinda reminds me of the stretch we had from 2003-2007. Hopefully next winter will give us a better chance for snow.

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NCSNOW

NCSNOW

Posted
Posted

Hey NCSNOW, looks like coach K tried to cover up he had a rapist on his team. opcorn:

As much as you would love to hang a noose around his neck probably due to your hatred of the Duke basketball program, I can promise you 2 things. Coach K like all of us doesn't walk on water and being that he father's a daughter would in no way shape or form cover up, let alone tolerate the lowest substance of human behavior.

I'm sure even though no female pressed or even publicly charged Rasheed as of today, the administration and coach K probably had to navigate a mine field in lieu of the lacrosse team fiasco. That error or rush to judgement has cost the univ millions in lawsuits and rightfully so. I'm sure they made every effort to have as much facts as they possibly can, before reaching the decesssion that things where not smelling right with what they've found out. One thing is certain, whoever or whatever brought these allegations to light certainly has to have some credibility or the administration and coach K would not have all of the sudden dropped Rasheed like a hot potatoe because of the history of how the university betrayed the lacrosse team when those false allegations where brought forth against those you.g men.

I speak for myself, no player or national championship is worth attaining if you have to do it with a sleeze ball wearing your uniform. I also pray and I'm confident Rasheed is getting what he deserves and not the victim of heresay or he would probably be publicly outcrying. Makes me sick a guy with the oppurtunity he had, thinks he is invincible or above the rules of society that govern the rest of us. Before making sheed out to be a rapist or whatever without any female having come forward, these accusations along with other character flaws probably cumulatively lead to his dismissal.

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gritsnc

gritsnc

Posted
Posted

I'm going to be on my third year of having a small garden.   Anyone have some ideas of some additions for a novice.   Lat year I had:

 

Squash/zucchini.   Did well until about the 4th of July, then Borer work nailed it

Tomatoes:   Did well, did get some blight on the lower leaves  (better boys)

Cucumbers:   Did well but damn they go out of control

Peppers:   Jalapeno and Bell.  Jalapeno did awesome,  Bell sucked

 

By far I enjoyed the tomatoes and squash and zucchini the most.

 

Looking for some easy additions for a limited space garden.

 

Thanks  

 

-Kevin

Leaf lettuce. I plant it every year. It grows great! I
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gritsnc

gritsnc

Posted
Posted

Spring fever is setting in. Yep good garden banter. We usually do a garden also. We usually have potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeño peppers, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, squash, corn, several different type of tomatoes, and watermelon. We also have chickens for eggs. We usually get about 15 eggs a day.

My red heat lamp burned out and the store only had the white onessport. My chickens have been laying great the past 2 weeks with that on all night. We hang it above their water to try and prevent it from freezing. We've got 11 chickens, how many have you got?
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downeastnc

downeastnc

Posted
Posted

He knew about it for over a year. It came to light because a student working in the bball office had the balls to question the situation. Yeah - no cover up at all.. :whistle:

 

http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/03/02/rasheed-sulaimon-center-sexual-assault-allegations-prior-dismissal#.VPXChi72QdU

 

LOL what did he cover up exactly? Last I checked the women never filed any complaint with Duke or the Durham PD....so they knew their where rumors of sexual misconduct but there is no proof or charges so what exactly should Coach K have done?

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