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my garden plans, sort of...

 
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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Planted the first bed that was ready in the big garden in purple top turnips...we always get lots of greens and sometimes nice turnips.

Laid in a flat in the house:
three of what we call 'georges' sweet potatoes that we've been growing more than twenty years and our favorite, and then two purples from a friend here in town that we've grown for 5 years and a couple Kroger's that we've grown out for a few years now.

I used to start them all in water but tried a few in flats and I think they are happier and produce more slips.

https://permies.com/t/17569/perennial-vegetables/sweet-potato-propagation-harvest
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Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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Working on a cold frame today.
As usual, it was not in my plan for this hoop house originally so I had to rearrange a bit and move a lot of wood chips out of this bed.
One flat of turnips in as a test...I'll have to fit things a little snugger and add ends so the cats don't lounge there...and a soil thermometer...and the cardboard goes.

We've had a stack of big aluminum framed windows around for years thinking we'd close in the flat sides of one of the hoop houses...not happening...so I finally realized I could take the framed glass out of the big frames...way easier to handle.
I'm forking the opposite wall of the hoop to plant long beans for some summer shade.

This was the new hoop house intended for pots and a shady place for things in the summer and summer seed starting.

I used both hoop houses as shade houses last year and that seemed more beneficial than plastic covered here in the Ozarks...too much adjusting vents for daytime heat over the winter and then it drops to as cold inside as night time lows outside so the variation in temp is more extreme.

🌞🌞🌞
low 42F
high 72F so far
actual high was 80F
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gardener
Posts: 1877
Location: Zone 6b
1174
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
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Maybe you will recognize the clump of grass in the right corner here. It's the one with extensive roots and a great soil builder on farrow land. Mixing some soil doesn't help with weight in your case and it also contains weed seeds. But I find the resulting transplants have less shock since the contrast between the potting soil and garden soil will be less.

BTW, you picture of sweet potatoes looks like wall art! Love the color and composition!
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Perennial grass
Perennial grass
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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Thanks May!
Is that grass tall fescue?
Types of grasses are hard and I only know a very few for sure.
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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This is the time of year I'm running walking out to dig a hole and plant something before the skillet bread needs flipping...all young whips but promising 🌞 mimosa, pecan, persimmon and mulberry...a few of each and then we start on the goji and elderberry and blue salvias.  All from seed except the elder was a cutting.

highs of 80's and temps above freezing overnight this week...our last frost date is mid april give or take a few days.

Started the last of the 'saved for slips' sweet potatoes in water (all the flats are spoken for)
4 purple, 4 of georges and 1 krogers.

Trying a seed starting mix of half peat/ half perlite with some rock dust, ag lime, and sea 90.
Seed starting doesn't need nutrients but many times I leave things in the flats longer than optimum...probably should make some compost tea later on.

This week I started arugula, lettuce and spinach in flats.
The 'test' turnips are up in their flat but the ones in the garden are waiting on rain.

56F low
80'sF high
🌞🌞🌞
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sweet potatoes for slips
sweet potatoes for slips
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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Things are growing fast and furious and at the same time we are still having an occasional frost and likely another hard freeze or two.

Turnips should make it but the peach blooms started opening yesterday and the pear buds are so close I don't think they can resist all of these warm sunny days.

Have planted most of the dormant 6"-8" tree whips from pots and the rest of the mulberries will go to youngest son's two acres where we'll have to protect from deer and bunnies.

The winter peas are really taking off and we're eating pea tips every day.

lots of arugula up in a flat but no sign of lettuce yet.

Chicory, dock, dead nettle, dandelions, henbit, winter cress and garden sorrel are on the menu now.


Planted/sowed daikon radish and last years saved parsnip seed with big garden turnips.


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elderberry
elderberry
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comfrey, the 'scarey' one
comfrey, the 'scarey' one
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brilliant blue flowered comfrey
mullein, elephant garlic, iris
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young turnips up and parsnips, daikon seeded
young turnips up and parsnips, daikon seeded
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austrian winter peas
austrian winter peas
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walking onions
walking onions
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beds og rye grain and winter peas
beds of rye grain and winter peas
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brilliant blue flowered comfrey
brilliant blue flowered comfrey
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peach buds
peach buds
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asian pear buds
asian pear buds
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easter lilies, helborne, day lilies, orris root, bugle weed, coral bells, hazelnut, elderberry
easter lilies, hellebore, day lilies, orris root, bugle weed, coral bells, hazelnut, elderberry
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asian pear
asian pear buds
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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Our peaches couldn't wait...full bloom today!
Looks like the oldest asian pear will bloom tomorrow.

So now it's pins and needles with every frost and freeze.

This is a pretty regular thing...we tend to get an early spring and then some freezes that ruin fruit set.
The asian pears are excellent tasting and loaded with fruit the years when there's no late freeze though.

Strawberries are easy to cover if a freeze is due after they bloom and they set fruit...otherwise we lose them also.
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May Lotito
gardener
Posts: 1877
Location: Zone 6b
1174
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
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Can the second year woad still be used for blue dye? I read that the yield will be low and it dyes wool pink instead. I am sowing more woad seeds for fresh harvest later in the year.
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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May Lotito wrote:Can the second year woad still be used for blue dye? I read that the yield will be low and it dyes wool pink instead. I am sowing more woad seeds for fresh harvest later in the year.


That's when I've always used it, the second year in the early spring or late winter before it flowers...my bit of dyed wool is still blue.

I see my plants are just beginning to send up flower stalks but I would harvest now if I were using it for dye.

Mine has many times seemed more perennial even after letting it go to seed the plants stick around a few more years at least. and is finally spreading from seed also.
I've read that you can dye with the seeds in addition to the foliage.

It is also a good medicinal tea...according to Michael Moore it is best prepared by a slow gradual heat up to a brief simmer then a steep.  We use equal parts woad and red clover as it benefits from the same method.  I like to add just a bit of lemon grass and mint at the steeping point.  Our favorite winter tea.

here's a link to the second page of my blue dye thread where Daniel Schneider explains in detail his processes using woad  https://permies.com/t/40/37159/dyeing/Indigo-blue-growing-harvesting-processing#543896

EDIT:
May, looking in my dye books I see where Rita Buchanan is much looser with when to harvest and mentions that an early spring planting can be harvested in the fall but late summer/fall planting is fine the next spring.
Jenny Dean has much more narrow guidelines for her dye recipes.

I had Rita Buchanan's book years before Jenny Deans so those are my experiences.

so it's another 'it depends' situation.

here's the link to my experiment with woad https://permies.com/t/15888/dyeing/growing-harvesting-natural-dye-plants#274420

...the photos I've added were taken this morning.
The plants have now somewhat naturalized but the originals were all fall plantings.

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chinese woad march 19, 2025
chinese woad march 19, 2025
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chinese woad march 19, 2025
chinese woad march 19, 2025
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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.
IMG_20250319_085110_583-2.jpg
teasel
teasel
IMG_20250319_085118_479-2.jpg
teasel
teasel
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asian pear bloom
asian pear bloom
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madder
madder
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madder
madder
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alfalfa
alfalfa
 
master steward
Posts: 13017
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
7470
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
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Judith wrote:

I had Rita Buchanan's book years before Jenny Deans so those are my experiences.


I'm starting to pay much more attention to where authors live. It is quite possible that Ms Buchanan and Ms Deans live in just different enough ecosystems, that their experiences are different, and their writing reflects that.

As you say, with permaculture and life, so much goes easier if one can remember, "it depends"!
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
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Spring is here in the Ozarks!
The past few days I've planted chard, more 'going to seed' spinach, nasturtium, tithonia, and zinnia in flats under glass cold frame.
and cucumbers in small pots, also in cold frame.
gts sunflower mix in garden.

Amaryllis is blooming in the house and peaches and asian pears in the yard

There were some very light frosts just before full fruit bloom but no damage...pollinators are busy out there these warm sunny days so we're hopeful for a good pear crop this year.

just a very few strawberry blooms so far and we are ready to cover if a frost is forecast.
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Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 13017
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
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duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
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We've got blooms happening, but also endless rain, so I haven't seen a single functional pollinator. Sigh...
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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Jay Angler wrote:We've got blooms happening, but also endless rain, so I haven't seen a single functional pollinator. Sigh...



Jay,  I would gladly trade you some pollinators for some rain!

The soil here is still holding moisture for established plants but I've been putting off  planting many seeds in the garden areas until we have some regular spring rains and a lot of rain water stored up.

This is why I like starting what I can in flats...I can easily keep them moist enough to germinate.
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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sunny and breezy today and major rain in the forecast.

We're planting lots of spring things...radishes, spinach, chard, arugula, potatoes, parsley.
and some cucumbers in pots to transplant out when we're past last frost.
transplanted some new strawberries from a friend into another bed and got my potted blue salvias and anise hyssops that I grew from seed last year in the ground.
the goji plants from our son are set in and also 3 saplings descended from his pear tree

I have 4 pale purple cone flowers plants from May's seed that wintered over as well and a flat of more coneflowers and milkweeds started.  I have to give them a head start on the bermuda grass so grow in pots until they get some size.

I have one flat of cayenne pepper seed in the house on a heating pad hoping to get them germinated soon.  We grew enough cayenne 3 years ago to last awhile and looks like it's time to grow more.

Sweet potato slips seem slow.  I started them later than usual.

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dandy lions
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forsythia and grandson's gate
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amarylis
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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more blooms...

tried to correct green color after accidently hitting the AI button
IMG_20250403_130952_504-3.jpg
blueberry
blueberry
IMG_20250403_130337_952-2.jpg
woad
woad
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strawberry
strawberry
IMG_20250403_125903_929-2.jpg
winter cress
winter cress
IMG_20250403_125742_705-3.jpg
comfrey
comfrey
IMG_20250403_125607_107-2.jpg
pippin apple
pippin apple
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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more green growth...
IMG_20250403_131046_051-2.jpg
easter lilies
easter lilies
IMG_20250403_131021_915-2.jpg
bugle weed, daylilies, iris, coral bells,
bugle weed, daylilies, iris, coral bells, hostas, valerian, columbine, hazelnuts, elderflower,
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sorbus leafing out
sorbus leafing out
IMG_20250403_125820_604-2.jpg
burdock
burdock
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
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after 10" of rain and cloudy days, we have sunshine and two light frosts this week.
The asian pears had already set fruit so maybe this is their year to produce!
The only apple tree left, a pippin from seed, is still blooming and does not look damaged.
We have been covering the strawberries that are blooming.

Mowing for bagger mulch and time to sharpen my scythe.
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asian pear
asian pear
IMG_20250408_104605_596-2.jpg
asian pear
asian pear
 
pollinator
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Location: SE Indiana
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Looks like you are about three weeks or so ahead of us. Our Asian pears have bloomed but leaves are still just little more than buds. I saw farther up in the thread where you were starting your sweet potato slips, I'll be starting min mine in a week or so. I love seeing your pictures.
 
Judith Browning
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thanks Mark!
I was feeling late starting my sweet potatoes and they are sprouting so slowly.
Many times I start them in February but the house is actually warmer then because we have the heat on...march and april are much cooler indoors.
Do yours make slips faster once it warms up?
and this is when you start them from seeds also?
 
May Lotito
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You are 2-3 weeks ahead of me too. BTW, how soon can you tell if a pear flower is fertilized? Do you see the size difference by now? I have one blooming pear tree and I hand pollinated it. I am anxious to see if I can at least get one fruit.
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Woad patch
Woad patch
 
Judith Browning
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May, I just go by fruit size to judge pollination...our pears are showing some size and shape.  I do notice that the unpollinated bloom stems easily brush off of the bloom cluster and there is no sign of a developing pear.

Your woad looks great!
I'm happy the seed was good.

I just set in three wintered over pale purple coneflowers from the seed you sent  and have a flat planted with the rest of the seed.
 
Mark Reed
pollinator
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Judith Browning wrote:thanks Mark!
I was feeling late starting my sweet potatoes and they are sprouting so slowly.
Many times I start them in February but the house is actually warmer then because we have the heat on...march and april are much cooler indoors.
Do yours make slips faster once it warms up?
and this is when you start them from seeds also?



I generally start my slips and seeds about the middle of April, but I may wait a week or so this year because of the weather. I like to start slips outside in a cold frame, but it hasn't warmed up good yet and many days of clouds and rain. I start seeds directly in the ground or directly in the pots I grow them in. I've selected my seeds over the years for fast maturity, I like seed to seed and seed to harvest of nice sized roots all in 100 days or less. I've had volunteers that sprout in late June produce good roots, so I'm not worried about being a bit late this year because there is still plenty of time before September.

Although I have selected for it, I don't know how big of a role it played in short season production. I think a lot of sweet potatoes will just do that anyway and I lucked into it early on in some of the first generations, so my selection just reinforced it a bit.  
 
Judith Browning
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thanks Mark!
The source of our cutleaf variety started them in coldframes as you describe but he was farther south so I never tried.
I was stuck thinking I had to get a head start in february then I thought maybe march.
Most that I have in water are doing ok but not the flat so I've lifted them out and found only three were sending up slips and three barely had roots and the 7th was rotten.
So, I've repotted, watered and will try them in my makeshift coldframe.

The best plant I ever grew had huge potatoes, 20# total and was among the last slips off the potato and last in the ground.  Have never been able to duplicate that.  There were six of those last minute plants and the other 5 had 8-10# each.

I'm slow to put this all together
I always have way too many slips so can experiment.
 
Judith Browning
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May,
here are some better photos of the pear tree fruit set.
The smallest in the cluster will brush off and of the largest I think only two or three will reach maturity.
Usually in a good year, they produce in groups of one or two.

I like to shake the tree periodically to thin where Steve likes to hand thin them when they are larger.
We've almost made it past last frost!
Might be that great fruit year  coming up!
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May Lotito
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Location: Zone 6b
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Thanks! I took a picture of one of the earliest cluster and it is promising. Do they look like any of your pear varieties?
IMG_20250413_090729.jpg
Grocery store pear
Grocery store pear
 
Judith Browning
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May,
Ours are all green to yellow but years ago we picked small round bronze colored hard pears from what were probably wild from seed...we made quarts of delicious pear butter.

It's going to be fun to see what you have.
I think our anjou would have had that reddish color but did not survive the fireblight.
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
2563
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I thought we had three varieties of comfrey but I only see two colors of flowers.

The purple flowered one that is surrounding a dead pear tree is common comfrey. symphytum officinale and I've divided and planted it everywhere
Very few are popping up from seed. Today both honey bees and bumble bees are enjoying it.

The other, with the bright blue flowers, is one that gets shared around here at plant exchanges...I don't know the variety but it does not have viable seed and grows low to the ground.  I've been spreading it around also.
Does anyone recognize it?
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Judith Browning
Posts: 9168
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
2563
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It looks like all of the pears have some frost damage on the very tips of some branches but there is plenty of fruit set.

I forget to check the peaches because they have been hit by frost and freezes for so many years after early bloom I don't expect any fruit but this year we have peaches!  
Just in time to grow another round to replace the ones I expect to die off in the next couple years or so.  
The original peach tree, that I began growing them from was where we lived in the '90s.  I have grown from successive trees whenever they bore well...not every year but every four or five years I think?
So this tree and others here are several generations from the original and vary in age from 5 or 6 years to just 2 or 3.
here's a link to my thread about this peach https://permies.com/t/23607/Propagating-Blood-cling-Peaches
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Until you dig a hole, plant a tree, water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing - Wangari Maathai
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
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