Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on May 13, 2020 4:30:32 GMT -5
I am impressed by the size and what you have done to your garden. I can not give any advice as I have never had an outdoor garden (or one that grew/survived). But will be watching as yours grows.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2020 11:52:03 GMT -5
What a lovely garden you have there! I am afraid I cannot offer any advice as to in-ground vegetables because if I planted berries, the squirrels would abscond with all the fruit! My vegetable growing is in the Earthboxes and I follow that method.
There are tons of outdoor garden sites that deal with vegetable gardening and here are 2 I can strongly suggest, though. I am SURE if you search these you will find what you need for outside gardening tips for soil amendment, nutrients,etc.
Gary Pilarchik's Rusted Root
CaliKim's Garden Site
One guy shows his methods of germinating the turnips, but in the end, the squirrels found them. But it would be good info on germination methods.I think they love sandy soil. |
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Post by akivalocal on May 14, 2020 20:46:55 GMT -5
Thanks Sher! It's really lovely to hear your reactions. I'm trying to make my garden as well-rounded as I can!
Yes, the prairie turnips are a northern specialty, though not many people know about them. Their local name is "timpsula," and I learned about them from this amazing book The Sioux Chef. If your into cooking with wild/native ingredients, I'd highly recommend it. It's a cookbook all about cooking with ingredients native to Minnesota and the Dakotas! That's where I got the idea for a native plants garden, and where I first read about hopniss, prairie onions, and timpsula! Here's the page about timpsula, which is pretty cool:
The hopniss, amaranth, and some squash (why not?) went in today. All that's left are the prairie turnips/timpsula (chilling in the fridge) and showy wild garlic!
@cornne, thanks so much for the links and tips! Super helpful!!
Hopefully things will start to grow soon, and then I can provide some updates! And Shawn can experience my garden vicariously. 
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Sher
AGA Farmer
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Post by Sher on May 14, 2020 21:31:13 GMT -5
Thanks Sher ! It's really lovely to hear your reactions. I'm trying to make my garden as well-rounded as I can!
Yes, the prairie turnips are a northern specialty, though not many people know about them. Their local name is "timpsula," and I learned about them from this amazing book The Sioux Chef. If your into cooking with wild/native ingredients, I'd highly recommend it. It's a cookbook all about cooking with ingredients native to Minnesota and the Dakotas! That's where I got the idea for a native plants garden, and where I first read about hopniss, prairie onions, and timpsula! Here's the page about timpsula, which is pretty cool:
The hopniss, amaranth, and some squash (why not?) went in today. All that's left are the prairie turnips/timpsula (chilling in the fridge) and showy wild garlic!
@cornne , thanks so much for the links and tips! Super helpful!!
Hopefully things will start to grow soon, and then I can provide some updates! And Shawn can experience my garden vicariously. 
The cookbook sounds heavenly, but I doubt it would be practical down here in Georgia. Although there are some plants we share, there are a lot we don't. We are especially short of starchy root vegetables since plants don't need to store a lot of food due to our milder winters and early spring. In fact, the vast majority of the starchy root vegetables are in the northern 2/3 of the country. (If I remember correctly.) Even burdock does not grow down here.
I have eaten hopniss, wild yam and wild carrots here. I have been too lazy to dig wild sweet potatoes, as they are very hard to get out of the ground. And once I tasted the rare Indian Putty Root. Raw it's like a crispy water chestnut. Cooked, it will literally glue your teeth together! I scared myself doing that one time!
I have sampled most of what is edible in our area. Some good, some not so good.
You would LOVE Samuel Thayers encyclopedic books on wild edibles. He gives information on where to look, how to recognize, how to harvest and how to cook mostly northern plants. He even shows how to gather and prepare wild rice and lotus root! And it is loaded with several gorgeous photos of each plant. I have two of his books and they are prized treasures.
He literally rewrote the book on wild edibles, even pointing out mistakes that Euell Gibbons made that have been parroted in wild guides ever since. And he debunks (scientifically) many wild food myths, including how Christopher McCandless died. And it was not from eating poison potato seeds as has been publicized.
Thank you so much for the information on timpsula. I have never heard of it. Wish it grew here!
It is so exciting to me to find someone else who is passionately interested in foraging!
I can't wait to watch your garden grow!
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Post by akivalocal on May 19, 2020 20:49:17 GMT -5
Well Sher, I've certainly never foraged as much as you have! My interest is much more recent, but the more I learn, the more excited I'm getting. Thanks for the Thayer book recommendation! I'll order it with my next paycheck. For now I'm reading a basic gardening book called "The Kitchen Garden" that I'm liking very much. I'm learning about building my own compost pile (heaven knows I certainly have enough dead plant matter!), what time of the year to plant what, and just generally building my knowledge base. I have a few updates on the garden, too! I've gotten some organic soil acidifier to help my blueberries along, and they seem much happier now. I can also see some of my plants growing! Below is some very happy prairie onion:  And here is some Showy Wild Garlic peeking out! I planted these last week after the bare roots were shipped to me.  And here is the most exciting thing of all: my Burgundy Amaranth is sprouting!!  No squash seedlings visible yet. C'mon, squash! I've gotten so excited that I've decided to dig up the other side of my yard to plant some more things. I shall dub this new plot "Garden Junior." Here's what that side of the yard looked like a few days ago, before I cut the branches down to size, bundled them, and took my shovel to the large weeds:  Aaand here it is today!  Obviously I'm not done; I've got to go in there and turn the earth over, get rid of all the weed roots, loosen up the soil a bit, and lay down some compost. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of the week! I want to plant some nice flowers for the bees, some milkweed for the monarch butterflies, and some veggies that are good for an early June planting: carrots, kale, peas, winter squash, maybe a few other things, too. "Garden Senior" (as I am dubbing my first garden) will be for my native plants, and I'll try to branch out a bit with "Garden Junior." What do y'all think? Good plan? Bad plan? I've certainly caught the gardening bug in a big way! In any case, I'm having a lot of fun being outside and mucking around.  |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on May 20, 2020 7:09:18 GMT -5
Wow! You have caught the bug, and it's the happiest, healthiest addiction there is! I am so proud of and so happy for you!
I love the idea of a bee/butterfly garden. It will delight you, too.
As for which vegetables to plant, I can't advise you because our climates are so different. For instance, our season for peas is long past, and it's too hot for kale until fall planting.
Shawn and Corinne are farther north and can advise you on that, as well as a lot of others who are located closer to where you live.
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on May 20, 2020 7:29:06 GMT -5
Shawn and Corinne are farther north and can advise you on that, as well as a lot of others who are located closer to where you live.
HA, don't ask me. I have NO clue about anything that grows outside. |
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mike
The Pepper King
Posts: 3,661 
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Post by mike on May 22, 2020 20:31:37 GMT -5
Hi,
I hope you haven't had periods of frost in Minnesota as we have here in Michigan. There's a standard rule of thumb here in Michigan, don't plant before Memorial Day. Last Thursday through Sunday we had mornings around 27°f. Congratulations on your outdoor garden. My favorite outdoor plant is Black Krim Tomatoes. Yumm.
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Post by akivalocal on May 24, 2020 18:15:03 GMT -5
Hi mike! We've been lucky enough to not have any frost over here, thank goodness! The weather has been a bit wet, but warm enough for everything to do well. I have some updates! Finally, after weeks of waiting, the squash has started to come up!  And the blueberry blossoms have started to fall, and the fruits are beginning to plump up! Sher, do you think I need more soil acidifier, or do these look good for their stage of development?  One of my other blueberry bushes was leaning into the garden walkway, so I made a makeshift trellis for it. Check it out:  I'm so excited!  |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on May 25, 2020 8:05:19 GMT -5
Wow! Things are popping in your garden!
I can't tell from the pictures about the pH for the blueberries. Around here, our wild blueberries' leaves are a darker green. But that could just be the kind of blueberry. We have both short, compact ones around here, as well as a much taller type.
They are producing blueberries and look fine to me. You can buy a very cheap soil pH testing kit if you are worried.
One time years ago, I planted dianthus next to concrete steps. They did not thrive, and I realized the concrete was sweetening the soil and they needed more acid to grow well. So I simply watered them with a very weak vinegar and water mixture. The dianthus were thriving the nest day, and went on to bloom beautifully.
So just watch your blueberries and they will let you know if they need help.
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Post by akivalocal on May 25, 2020 10:33:36 GMT -5
So helpful, Sher! Thank you! I plan to buy a ph test kit as soon as I researched which one will be best for me. I think the garden center might have some, and I plan on going there later this week. We've gotten some rain last night and this morning...and already the squash have opened up even more! It's amazing to see. Hopefully they'll become big, pretty bushes in no time.  If I plant these again next year, I'll definitely give them an Aerogarden start. I planted 6 spots, with 3 seeds per spot (potential low germination rate), and I have one seedling in one spot and 3 in another. I'll have to think out the spot with 3; hopefully I can salvage one of them and move it to another area. But that might not work out, since they're so close together.  The amaranth has blossomed overnight, though!  I won't mind thinning those out so much when they grow bigger. There are so many! I'm prodigiously happy with them. |
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Post by akivalocal on May 29, 2020 16:22:23 GMT -5
The garden continues to grow and be very happy. And guess what I fount today! The hopniss is coming up!  |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
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Post by Sher on May 29, 2020 17:04:49 GMT -5
Awesome! Did you know that in the early years of our country there were serious attempts to domesticate hopniss?
You might find the following info as fascinating as I do. Link
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Post by akivalocal on May 31, 2020 17:44:08 GMT -5
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on May 31, 2020 20:56:20 GMT -5
Thank you for that article! I especially loved the reference to Thayer. He is the most knowledgeable foraging author I know of by far.
I'm attaching a photo of a few I gathered. They are small because they grow here in heavy clay. (I think that's the reason.)
The main way I like to cook them is boil them in heavily salted water with skins on for 20 minutes. When they are done, one end splits open and a little flesh protrudes through the split. I drain them, put butter and a little parsley in the pot and skitter them around until coated. The skins taste kind of like boiled peanut (a Southern thing) skins to me. And the flesh tastes like a dense little potato. Very good and very filling. They are delicious hot, but not so much after they cool.
I can't imagine taking the time to peel them before cooking after the work of scrubbing the clay out of the crevices with a toothbrush. Bigger ones might be easier to clean.
I can't wait to see yours!
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Post by akivalocal on Jun 1, 2020 9:58:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the photo, Sher! They look amazing. I also appreciate the tips on how to cook them. Butter and parsley...mmmmmm!!I've never actually eaten hopniss, so this will be an adventure for me. I know they can get weedy, but I hope mine do propagate; there's a whole corner of the garden I'd love for them to take over. |
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Post by akivalocal on Jun 5, 2020 14:54:11 GMT -5
Has disaster struck my squash? I'm noticing little holes in some leaves. Perhaps it is the dreaded cucumber beetle? I don't think it's squash borers (though I might be wrong). At first I'd hoped it was just powdery mildew, but it seems too severe for that. Sher, what do you think?  On a happier note, the timpsula is coming up!!  |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
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Post by Sher on Jun 5, 2020 15:50:07 GMT -5
It is not powdery mildew. It is not cucumber mosaic virus. And it is not squash borers. Squash borers lay little red- brown eggs at the base of the stem. They hatch into larvae that eat into the stem and eat the inside of the stem and kill the plant. The first sign is wilted leaves.
I am not sure what kind damage cucumber beetles do.
I don't know what it is. I hope someone else can help. |
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Post by akivalocal on Jun 6, 2020 15:39:42 GMT -5
I've figured it out! It is the dreaded flea beetle. Turns out, we do have them up here. The ones on my plants must be babies, because they were incredibly small. I had to get very and watch very carefully to figure out they weren't specks of dust. I figured out they were flea beetles because they are *jumpers.* Eeek! Also: the only plants with damage were my squash, some amaranth, and a tiny bit of hopniss. They don't seem to like the blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, onions, or garlic.  The U of M extension says that it's not necessary to treat flea beetles in the summer, after seedlings have 4-5 leaves and can survive feeding damage. They also don't list many remedies. I found this site that suggests diatomaceous earth, nematodes, and fungal pathogens as organic remedies. But I'm not sure if I should trust those recommendations; maybe I should just stick with the U's recommendations? Ack! Sher , my gardening guiding light, what do you suggest? Edited to say: I also used the ask a master gardener link at the U of M extension, so maybe I'll get a more specific answer from them. Still, the worry consumes me... |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
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Post by Sher on Jun 6, 2020 16:27:38 GMT -5
Akiva, I am doubtful that is flea beetle damage. There are a lot of tiny things that jump and hop. Flea beetles (in my experience) leave clean holes all the way through the leaves.
As I said, I am NOT an expert, and I make a lot of mistakes.
Here are some good pictures of flea beetles and their damage. I am afraid to embed the images because of copyright laws.
This last picture is from Georgia and shows exactly what MY flea beetle damage looks like--perfectly round holes. And mine don't stop. They keep going until the plant is decimated.
There may be different types of flea beetles.
If you can find the county Cooperative Extension Office for your area and send them a picture, they can give you a positive ID.
If you can't find the phone number, call your County office and ask them who to contact. They are usually delighted to help.
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