Come on spring!!

It's been so beautiful outside these days, I can't wait to get started with the yard and garden. We still have snow out there though. 15 km down the road it's been gone for at least a week, can't wait til it makes its way out here. Anyone have anything new they are trying in the garden this year or a fun yard project?

Well, I think I might have a potato with orange flesh. it's very tiny and there is only the one, so I just nicked it with my nail to show the flesh colour. Seems orange though. I'll grow it out and when there are more than one, I'll eat one and see what it's like. I've got some tiny pear trees coming up on the kitchen table, momma is a Bosc, poppa unknown. They are all of about 3 inches tall at the moment. Bosc will tree ripen here without the centres going brown, so I'm eager to see how the seedlings do.

Well, something I WON'T be trying again is a certain variety of carrot. I can't even remember off the top of my head, but it had white carrots growing in the bunch, turned me right off. I am going to be growing chatenay for my main stay. They are easy to get out of the soil because of the triangle shaped body and keep well. I am just using up the last of my fridge stored chatenay carrots this past week. That is a long storage carrot for sure. I have an extra fridge for my extra stuff and I had so many of this variety of carrot. I stored them in large zip loc bags and they were remarkably sweet, still months later. So impressed. Those will be my storage ones for next winter. For the daily eating, I will choose a short carrot. I amend our soil here greatly with all the horse and chicken byproducts, smiling that big smile, and the bedding from the chooks as well. But the soil is clay, so is wonderful for holding nutrient, far better than sandy loam, as in some parts of the Okanagan, so is good. But even with the amending of such friable materials, it makes for getting carrots and I would say parsnips are even more difficult, out of the soil. I must dig slightly around the root vegetables to loosen the soil, then they pop right out, but I like to just pull some out quickly....doesn't happen, still have to dig out the roots. Chatenay pulls out easily. Ooops, did I ramble a bit off topic, Izzy, you asked new things to try. I for surely am going to order the giganteous sunflower seeds that you grew last year into those massive heads. I still recall the picture of your face near the flower head, it was a beautiful thing to see. And of course, all the sunflowers that self-seed, I will still let that happen, but thin a bit better, so I have room to grow other sunflower varieties too. Those mammoth ones, well, I think they will be grown along the property perimeter, smiling. Good post, by the way. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM

Jocelyn, you started your pears from seeds?
Where did you get the seeds? I'd love to try that!
Cynthia, I'm glad you mentioned those carrots for storing as if like to try to grow some to put away this year too.

Got the seeds in the grocery store. Buy some bosc pears, eat them and put the seeds in a small jar half full of soil. Pop in the fridge for about 100 days. keep checking once a month to see if they need water or if any have sprouted. Pears from cold store have already had some of those 100 days, so you don't know when they will come up. Your own pears will need about 100 days. Anyway, when the seed has a tiny white root, time to pot them up. After 120 days, any that have no root will probably come right up if you pot them, so you don't need to wait for the last of them. They sprout right in the fridge, so keep checking so the poor things are not clawing at the top of the jar to get out, grin.

Yes the weather here has been so nice as well. This year I'm gonna keep it real simply. So far there are only 2 new things I'm going to grow... one is the Lakota Sioux squash, a rare heirloom. says it has a sweet nutty flavor and good for pies, so we will see the other new thing will be non gmo heirloom variety of Soybean. I have 4 different varieties, Ji Lin, Chico, Maple Arrow and OAC Aries. Going to try growing 2 of these varieties and stager the bloom time so as not to cross pollinate... but we will see.

I would like to get some american edible chestnut trees as well this year but still just only a thought

happy gardening everyone!

peanuts! i have them started already indoors...als buckeye chesnut trees from saskatoon farm in alberta
also going to try planting lavender from seed this year. i have managed to overwinter a lavender plant two years now outside
love to hear what others are planting new

Keep us posted Miry that sounds interesting
My Black eye Susan vine I have over wintered
and it was doing great finally dieing back some but new growth showing up

I want to try peanuts too! I have the seed. Besides the market garden I'm also going to plant another round of Gigantus sunflowers. They were too cool. I'd like to try cloning some grapes that were planted on the property by the owner before us. They are very I retesting, tasting like pink grapefruit, but sweet. I've transplanted grapes before but never tried cloning them. They make a delicious jelly.

American chestnuts are tasty. Finding seed is a bit hard though. A lot of folks have one lone tree which can't make seed. Lots of young seedlings, but not old enough to pollinate the old tree. Try Schumaker seeds, Sheffield seeds, and try me in the fall, November or so. Sometimes folks bring nuts to the nutty meeting in November, if their trees have a few. If there are some, I can try to get you some. My own trees are pretty young and no nuts yet.

mirycreek wrote:peanuts! i have them started already indoors...als buckeye chesnut trees from saskatoon farm in alberta
also going to try planting lavender from seed this year.  i have managed to overwinter a lavender plant two years now outside
love to hear what others are planting new

IzzyD wrote:I want to try peanuts too! I have the seed. Besides the market garden I'm also going to plant another round of Gigantus sunflowers. They were too cool.  I'd like to try cloning some grapes that were planted on the property by the owner before us. They are very I retesting, tasting like pink grapefruit, but sweet.  I've transplanted grapes before but never tried cloning them. They make a delicious jelly.

Where did you get your peanut seeds? What variety do you have? I have a pack from last year, OSC, Valencia variety.  http://www.oscseeds.com/ecommerce/-vegetable/-peanuts-/

Grape Propagation or growing grape plants from the trimmings.





A Simple Way To Root Plants From Cuttings



Winter Time Plant Propagation (Hardwood Cuttings)

I have the same OSC peanut seeds.
Thanks for the links bcboy, I'm on my way to check them out!

jocelyn wrote:American chestnuts are tasty.  Finding seed is a bit hard though.  A lot of folks have one lone tree which can't make seed.  Lots of young seedlings, but not old enough to pollinate the old tree.  Try Schumaker seeds, Sheffield seeds, and try me in the fall, November or so.  Sometimes folks bring nuts to the nutty meeting in November, if their trees have a few.  If there are some, I can try to get you some.  My own trees are pretty young and no nuts yet.

what got me thinking about these chestnuts is actually you from another post about "chestnut porridge" I am giving it some thought of buying some trees/seedlings from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I had thought about getting their "Castanea x dentata - AMERICAN HYBRID CHESTNUT" they also have Ohio buckeye and yellow buckeye varieties but was thinking that the AMERICAN HYBRID might be better??????? unless maybe you thought one of the other varieties would be needed for pollinating??????? any ideas. That's kinda why I'm still in thought mod right now. thanks

The Golden Bough ones are great. I have one here. It's strongly Chinese in character, not altogether a bad thing, as that makes them blight resistant. You can't eat any of the buckeyes, and they are not able to make seed(nuts) with the true chestnuts. Try two from Golden Bough, american crosses, as they can set seed together. I have a picture on the hard drive of their american cross, do you want me to send it to you?

jocelyn wrote:The Golden Bough ones are great.  I have one here.  It's strongly Chinese in character, not altogether a bad thing, as that makes them blight resistant.  You can't eat any of the buckeyes, and they are not able to make seed(nuts) with the true chestnuts.  Try two from Golden Bough, american crosses, as they can set seed together.  I have a picture on the hard drive of their american cross, do you want me to send it to you?

yah!!! I'd love to see a picture and thanks for the feed back
I think I might just order 6 of these american chestnut crosses, that way I have back ups if some die.
cheers

I am going to try peanuts this year too. I have raised beds that are knee high on me and will direct sow them in April, they say 100 days to maturity so we will see how it goes.
Heather

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if this doesn't work, I'll try again

Here you go, another one

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I like it
thanks for sharing