Virginia Gardeners

[TomNJ]

Shelly, keep in mind that while I live in Virginia, I am in the mountains at 2,600 feet, which is cooler that the coastal plain where you live. You may be able to plant earlier id you wish.

Tom

[shelleybean]

I agree, Tom. I'm thinking end of March/beginning of April. I am right next to the Chesapeake Bay and the water keeps things milder here. Thanks.

[shelleybean]

I have another few weeks in the garden before I pull it all and dig in a bunch of compost. I think this week I'll pull a bunch of escarole and beets and roast the beets for a salad with some of these nice oranges we got for Christmas. I like bitter greens with fruit. Collards and broccoli are looking good. I need to pull these carrots, too. If it's anything like last winter, I'll have to use all this up soon. Since it can take so long to germinate, I've already sown my parsley for 2015. Happy New Year, everyone!

[linzelu100]

I've got a lot growing still. Carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbages, bok choy, lettuce, herbs, kale, various greens, and endive (which we don't like and won't grow again.)

[roper2008]

I don't have anything growing except for garlic and shallots which won't be ready
until summer. Since it was such a nice warm day today, I weeded a little and threw
out some cilantro seed and parsley.

[shelleybean]

I picked almost all the carrots and threw some Garden Tone down around the broccoli, Brussels sprouts and collards. I feel good because I did a little something anyway. Hard to do much more than planning right now. Not that planning isn't fun!

[shelleybean]

This week I cut any broccoli and Brussels sprouts worth keeping and cleaned my whole winter garden out except for one row of collards and the shallots and parsley. I had already pulled all the root vegetables up. I have a few beets and carrots left but they're pretty much all eaten. I called to set up my compost delivery so I'll get all the beds ready to go. I'll start pepper and eggplant seed this week. My kids have spring break the first week of March and as soon as they go back to school, I'll start planting my spring garden outside. I have:

Waverex peas
Charleston Wakefield cabbage
All Year Round lettuce
Four Seasons lettuce
Arugula
Oriole chard
Giant Nobel spinach
Sparkler radishes
Crystal Wax onions
Hollow Crown parsnips
Burped Golden beets
Giant of Italy parsley

I've already started a few of these cool weather things and they're under lights in the laundry room. Nice to have something growing, something to look forward to.

What do you guys have planned for spring?

[roper2008]

Originally Posted by shelleybean

This week I cut any broccoli and Brussels sprouts worth keeping and cleaned my whole winter garden out except for one row of collards and the shallots and parsley. I had already pulled all the root vegetables up. I have a few beets and carrots left but they're pretty much all eaten. I called to set up my compost delivery so I'll get all the beds ready to go. I'll start pepper and eggplant seed this week. My kids have spring break the first week of March and as soon as they go back to school, I'll start planting my spring garden outside. I have:

Waverex peas
Charleston Wakefield cabbage
All Year Round lettuce
Four Seasons lettuce
Arugula
Oriole chard
Giant Nobel spinach
Sparkler radishes
Crystal Wax onions
Hollow Crown parsnips
Burped Golden beets
Giant of Italy parsley

I've already started a few of these cool weather things and they're under lights in the laundry room. Nice to have something growing, something to look forward to.

What do you guys have planned for spring?

Where do you get your compost from. I use to get it from the landfill until they
stopped making it. Now the gardens centers have really gone up in their prices
since then.

[shelleybean]

Roper, I use my regular lawn/yard crew to bring my compost and put it in the beds for me. They can get the Nutrigreen or get me mushroom compost from Pa and I opt for the mushroom compost. This will be my third year using it and I've been happy with it. I'm not sure where you are in Va Beach but I'm up near Shore Drive. My lawn service is TJ's. They are taking orders for compost now.

[linzelu100]

February- starting onion, leek seeds, and starting my pepper seeds too. Some annual flowers seeds, but not all. Parsley and some herb seeds.

I would be planting eggplant this month too...but I am so angry over the flea beetles...they get me down every year on eggplant. It's gotten to the point where it isn't even worth planting here. So..no more eggplant. Not that I have ever gotten a one here anyway

[shelleybean]

Linz, I get a little flea beetle damage but not enough to affect productivity. So little, in fact, I don't bother doing anything to treat it. Lucky, I guess. Aphids and stink bugs are another story though, just not on eggplant.

All the flowers I'm growing from seed would be fine to start outdoors but I'd like to get a jump on them just so they start blooming earlier. I always like some zinnias for cutting and to attract bees and I love portulaca. I usually have a few sunflowers. And nasturtiums in the spring and fall but it's too hot here during the summer for those.

In the yard where I used to live, we had Four O'clocks reseed and come back every year. In fact, they were unstoppable. I have a fairly empty space on a hill way at the back of the yard and the irrigation doesn't reach this area. I was thinking of starting some in pots and moving them to the hill. There is a lake at the bottom of the hill and I have neighbors on the other side. I have big azaleas blooming in the spring but just a few roses in the summer. I was thinking the people across the water and anyone in a boat would enjoy seeing a hillside full of flowers, though these would only bloom in the afternoon and evening. I could put some portulaca in there to bloom during the day. The Four O'clocks just seem like such a tough plant. And there is a stairway that goes down to our dock and I think the smell would be nice. I wouldn't be able to see any of this from my house because of the hill but we could see it when we're down on our dock.

[shelleybean]

I'm expecting someone to tell me the Four O'clocks will spread all over the place but that's kind of what I want. I have evergreen bushes of various kinds down there but they're not filling in the way I wanted. I'm trying to fill in those empty space, at least during the summer.

[linzelu100]

I think you should give morning glories a chance. They grow so easy and wild and the colors just pop! Especially near a lake. I grow them among the ugly fences to spruce them up and along the tree line. Plus they attract hummingbirds here, butterflies and some unusual bugs that are pure gold colored that turn clear invisible. Really crazy bugs...I think they are a relative to lady bugs.

Morning glories really need to be started outside though...they are so viney and wild.

[shelleybean]

Last year I grew Crimson Rambler and Moonvine and this year I have a really cool looking yellow morning glory I got from Remy's site (sample seeds). Also Rose Feather, with really interesting foliage. I usually grow these with my cucumbers and let them climb as high as they want to go. Last year they were almost totally decimated by Japanese beetles. Nothing I did stopped them. Somehow a couple of vines survived the summer and bloomed into fall. We have hummingbirds here too and I've read the feathery foliage type attracts them.

I love the goldfinches on the sunflowers.

[linzelu100]

The goldfinches on the sunflowers are our favorites too. I never get to save seed because they grab them all first...but every year some random sunflowers pop up that they dropped- so it always works out!