From the mushrooms to the zinnias and everything in between!

Your podcasts are so much fun - thank you!

Trish, purslane does very well in baskets too and trails a bit better than portulaca but the blooms aren't as big. Portulaca is a huge favorite and we have it in the ground in many colors - even purple

We had a lot of fun making the podcast! We're getting better at it, I think.

What fun!! Thank you again.

I love your lists, both of them, and agree in most instances, but I love okra, Dave, sorry. Fried slime, LOL!

And Trish, though I love poppies, I am such a poppy failure. However, you said something that made me realize I was sowing them too late. I need to toss those seeds much earlier. Probably like NOW in the 1/2 inch of snow that covers the 1/8 inch of sleet that fell this evening.

The podcasts are great. I'm looking forward to hearing Margaret Roach again next week.

Sowing poppy seeds right into the snow is a perfect thing, actually! Just broadcast them right into the snow. They'll come up in the spring.

I knew you'd be interested about Margaret's interview!

If it weren't 28* I'd probably be out there right now

Gotta find Margaret's new book! Parables, isn't it?
I think she grabbed my title before I could use it.

Yep, that's the one. I'm halfway through it. My interview with her is tomorrow but it won't go up on the site til next Tuesday. She's such an interesting personality!

Very interesting and congenial, easy to listen to.
Looking forward to reading the book as well as your interview.

I'm also looking forward to photo's and updates on the mushrooms - YUM!

I'm sure glad that you guys have decided that petunias and zinnias are not boring

I think your bumble bees on the sunflowers are the drones (no stingers). The get booted out of the hive once their "job" is done, with no food & shelter.
They like the sunflowers because the flowers turn to follow the sun throughout the day. That keeps them warm.

Great job on the podcost. It's very interesting how the geographical locations really have a huge influence on one's Top 5 or 10 choices.

vic- I put some pics on my blog. I'm going to do my best to do that every week.

I didn't do the mushroom logs, though. Way to cold to go all the way over there!

I have photos of the mushrooms on my camera.

I finally had the opportunity to listen to both podcasts for the new year.

I wanted to mention that the sound quality is much clearer and easier to follow in the second one.

I'm looking forward to the next one already!

Really enjoyed this, made me excited for spring! It also reminded me to check the Annuals forum and also check my small seed stash, I need to toss my poppy and larkspur seeds into the garden in hopes that it's not too late.
And I'm excited to plan this years veggies!
Thanks Dave & Trish, what a fun feature for the growing ATP site!

P.S., I never mentioned this before but I always find it funny to hear how others say my user name, in my mind I see it as California Sue.

COOL! You two rock.

I had such a wonderful time listening to this Podcast. Learned some new things, like 'viral' can be a good thing and sowing poppy seeds in winter.

Even some of us in more northern climates can grow short season sweet potatoes using varieties like Georgia Jet from Teritorial Seed Company. They offer so many short season type crops for us northerners.

Sweet Potato 'Georgia Jet' growing with scented geraniums.


And tomato seeds are one of the easiest of the winter sow (milk jug) seeds to grow.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/v...

I haven't tried sowing the tender annuals this way, but think I will be giving it a try about March using zinnia, petunias and basil.

We have been in the 20°F temps for over a week now. Today the ground has thawed and it's 32°. Went out and took photos of bulbs that are peeking through the soil right now. How exciting.
Daffodil 'Tete-a-Teta'

NOID Daffs


Muscari macrocarpum 'Golden Fragrance' This will be the second year for this muscari. I wasn't very impressed with it last spring, hope it does better this year. The foliage actually comes up in the fall, but I see little buds poking up from the middle of the leaves.


Tulipa 'Little Beauty' I love the foliage on this tiny tulip. I didn't know it would break dormancy this early, must be an early bloomer for a tulip.


I can't wait to see how your mushrooms do.
Loved the 'Top 5/10 List' from the two of you.

Looking forward to the next Podcast. So much to learn, and so little time.

I have no doubt that winter sowing tomatoes is possible...but do you get the same head-start as starting them indoors?

Mine grew better than the ones done the traditional way. They were a little later to germinate, but never went through any transplant shock and took off growing immediately when planted in the ground. I was able to put them out in the ground earlier since they grew up being subjected to cool temps from the beginning. Also no damping off.
Here are some of the milk jugs planted the middle of Jan (temps into the middle teens), but photo is was taken in March when they were filled with tiny seedlings. Second photo is first part of May. I transplanted them into 16oz. plastic cups, they got too big and over crowed in the milk jugs. These were planted out right after this photo was taken. I put the top half of the jug over each plant at night until danger of frost was over. By then they were huge and the jugs wouldn't fit over them anymore. They outgrew and out produced all the plants others had put in as blooming/large plants. I also planted 3 plants I got from our local farmers market. The winter sown plants out performed against those also.



I did over 200 tomato plants and gave many away.

Collards. I was surprised at how easy these transplanted to one of the raised beds, I also didn't know that collards could get a big as these did.

Interesting!

Well, we're always up for trying new things! Like I said in the podcast, we'll give it a try and see what happens. We're traditionally the first ones in the area (not including those who grow in a hothouse) to get ripe tomatoes, so this will fun to see how it compares!

Would be fun to see results for both WS and Traditional.

I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast. And I feel honored by you mentions of me!

I learned that I'm the resident expert wintersower. We actually have quite a few members who wintersow. But to clear something up, I don't wintersow my coleus. They are all sun coleus, mostly from Rosy Dawn Gardens. I do propagate some of those from cuttings over winter, but this year they're not doing so well.

Trish, what are you wintersowing? If you've not tried them, you might consider Laura Bush Petunias. Sold by Wildseed Farms in Texas, they've been bred for heat tolerance. They're a fragrant, reseeding, upright, old fashioned type petunia.
http://shop.wildseedfarms.com/...

A patch of volunteers


I hope you'll try a few wintersown tomatoes. I think you'll be shocked at how well they do. As long as you don't let them die of thirst, they're happy. No damp-off, no sterilizing soil. Just sow them. Very slow growing here in our cool Ohio springs, but they catch up after they're in the ground and weather warms. For those or any frost tender annual (zinnias!) I don't wintersow them until close to spring, around March for me. That's just to avoid sprouts in an early warm weather period which will inevitably later turn frosty again. In case of frost after they sprout, I throw a blanket over the jugs at night.

Any plant that reseeds for you should wintersow well. And the seed is still pre-programmed for some things, like DTM for tomatoes. So, shorter DTMs like Matina will produce fruit sooner than longer DTMs like beefsteaks.

I agree with Dave's favorite vegetables, and the okra too. Slime!

Karen