garden question
 

my green onions, shallots, and chives are off like crazy. strawberries proliferating. I planted some mint seeds but they failed to germinate, maybe cuz it was not sunny enough in their spot. I put in a start of oregano from my brother that's taken ok. I planted 20 or so plants of five different varieties of peppers too, starts I bought. all that is going good.

I had plenty two varieties of lettuce and one packet of radishes. it's all come up fine but the radish is bitter as heck. :s15: the lettuce is bitter too, too bitter this early in the year before it's been hot too long-- based on last year's little crop, the stuff from early june was tender and sweet. not this crap, it's awful. what gives? what can I do to sweeten my soil? I plant in raised beds and I got 4/7 planted so I can redo the other three yet. advice welcomed, thanks

Re: garden question
 

On your lettuce, did you wait too long to harvest? I did one year and that was the result.

Re: garden question
 

Where are you to have such fast growth results, must be in south USA somewhere.

I don't do much serious gardening, on the mint, something is wrong with your seed germination.

Normally before planting all seeds get help in highly enriched soil, in a large plastic bin, like 1.5feetby2feet covered in saran wrap kept indoors, when the green sprouts and grows a bit then you plant in your garden.

My father has a row of mint 1 foot by 5feet, never dies,
been there for 20+years, you just keep picking it and it just keeps coming back over and over, like a bush, very green, you couldn't kill it if you tried, very hardy, and this is in winter conditions, always survives.

Right now we just planted baby plants, tomatoes and peppers, from indoor seeds to seedlings. And cucumber seeds, don't need help indoors. All the green type of
plants like onions don't need much help as well.

I do basic stuff like tomatoes mostly, some peppers, and some pickles, onions. My dads garden is huge, you name it it is there. We do not bother with lettuce.

Oh Yah, cow manure, and turn your soil, compost your home waste.
I doubt it is your soil, maybe the type of radish ? We have a bunch of clay soil up here,
it doesn't really get worse than that.

Re: garden question
 

It's the unusually warm temperatures that are causing this. Your plants are bolting too quickly because of the heat. When these plants bolt they become bitter. I am getting the same problems here with my cool weather crops as well- lettuce, raddishes and spinach. It's not been a good spring for cool weather crops. But it should be good for stuff like eggplants, melons and tomatoes.

Re: garden question
 

no, I'm in the northern section, great lakes region. the lettuce is still young, age isnt the problem yet, though it will be in two weeks. I sampled some more tonight, found some that was better than others. For the radish, maybe it just needs to get bigger or something.

soil is very clay. I composted with leaves and cuttings and horse manure, which was plenty well cured before I cut it in, and not too much of it either. Also I put in some peat for added compost, and a couple bags of prepared "garden soil" somebody gave me.

there are lots of mint patches I have seen around, once the mint gets goijng it's as easy as chive. If I knew anybody that had a patch I'd have got a start but I dont right now. I will probably just get another bag of seeds and sprout them carefully like you said.

Re: garden question
 

If you didn't cover the mint seed too deeply and still got low to zero germination then it's likely the seed was no longer viable. In general, the smaller the seed , the shorter the viability. Mint seeds are quite small.

Re: garden question
 

I too have planted a Garden this year, my 1st one thanks to you guys' influence...

I've got
Tomatoes- Doing OK, Starting to see green ones
Corn - Stalks are taking off, slowly
Green Peppers - Plants are looking ok, but no signs of Peppers
Red Peppers - Plants are looking ok, but no signs of Peppers
Jalapinos - just slightly poking though the dirt
Lettuce -starting to come along, rabbits have at some of this and some other stuff
Cucumbers - Plants doing nice, but no sign of Cucumbers
Mint - No signs of life, wondering about seeds
2 Blue Berry Bushes - bushes look a tad week, one had like 6 small berries, that disappeared, other bush looks better, but has not had any berries...
Cantalope - Nothing

We had to put up a small fence to keep the rabbits and other critters out...

Its been pretty fun, but I'm getting impatient waiting for stuff to produce...

Re: garden question
 

Peppers tend to produce after it gets hot then keep on producing till it gets cool. Cukes also produce in warmer weather. Also. check your seed packets for how long from planting till harvest. I think if planted timely as to your local weather most cukes are somewhere in the 2 months zone.

Blueberries need to concentrate on growing the first few years. They live a long time but most books advise not letting them spend energy fruiting the first few years. They need to grow good deep roots and leaves and branches.

Good for you for planting and getting your gardening skills going. And soon - happy eating! Fried green tomatoes are yummy if you have a lot of green tomatoes to spare. If you just have a few, I like ripe ones more.

Re: garden question
 

ok well in less than a week, a slug or bugs or something has chewed major holes in 1 of 4 cabbage starts.

I planted a tomato plant too and a sugar pea plant too, at my wife's request.

what I really want are some asparagus starts. cant seem to find em local, anyplace to buy on the net?

Re: garden question
 

Heat will ruin lettuce and co every time, guaranteed.

There are things to do! You can cool it by planting with shady things. Later on, calendula seems to go well, and it's edible as well. (flowers, also medicinal as a balm among other things) However, you need to know BEFOREHAND if the year will be too hot. I'd rather just interplant every year and deal with it. Peas also are dried and bitter if too hot. Same thing.

For techo-gardeners, there are hoops with row covers for this. Like cheesecloth, they shade and protect the plants. They fall, blow around, cost money, etc though. Better to plant where there is shelter. Square-foot would let you have a trellis or trellis-like plant nearby to shade and shelter. Both must have good soil, not clay. Lettuce and carrots grow in CA sand, but that takes other work, like perfect irrigation and have questionable nutrition.

Mint doesn't grow well from seed. Just find a ditch and get out of your car with a shovel. You'll be gone before anyone figures out and get a best plant, tuned for your area. The mint famility is something like this. I think of Bee Balm, Monarda, Burgamot, Oswego Tea (same thing) that expands in clumps underground. As with strawberries, growth by seeds are second-string to the creeping runners.

I think this just shows how we should not have bare earth, which is hot and dry, but a kind of intergrown permaculture, where something is always growing.

Many garden and orchard catalogs have asparagus. It can be started in flats from the berries, though.

TS

Re: garden question
 

Crikey TS you dont sound like a simpleton...