I've only been to W. Virginia once and that was when I was working an election there. I thought it was very humid, lol. I'm used to drier heat in Fresno.
WV has many different kinds of ecosystmes going on in the state and depends on which part and what time fo the year you are here. That is why is is so hard to predict what will and what won't grow good in a garden. I do have several gardens that are not raised but only are sectioned off.
Can't remember where I was, but it was May or June. It wasn't a Nov. Election that I know. I'm thinking Chester County but I may be mixing that up with a Chester county I worked in PA.
When I first moved up here to my parent's cabin it was early May and it was 97 degrees and very humid that whole month. I didn't have anything. I didn't have A/C and only had a wood burning fireplace and baseboard heat. It was their vacation cabin. We live and have remodeled it now. I thank every day that I can go outside and garden on my parent's for giving us this cabin. I love to garden and I love animals and this is the perfect place for me. This is just another garden that we made when we had to have a dead tree cut down and we couldn't move it so we just made a garden there.
Yesterday was just a beautiful day here, and I set out the little tomato plants during the day and let them get a taste of real sunshine. I also took out the containers with lettuce and spinach in them. I am hoping that since they have sprouted, the bird and squirrels will not eat them like they did last year. It is warm enough now that they can pretty much be left outside. I got some of those little expanding peat disks, and am going to start more greens there and then set them outside once they are up and growing. Another exciting discovery was that all of our rose bushes are starting to leaf out. They just did SO poorly last year that I was not sure if they would even survive. So far, it looks like they all made it, and hopefully we will have roses again this summer. I raked the pine needles out of the side gardens along the fence line, and hopefully, we will have comfrey coming up soon, too. Last fall, I found a lilac bush on sale at Lowe's, and that is starting to leaf out, as well. Gardening is progressing. ! !
That's great Yvonne! I don't think you could kill roses here even if you wanted to, they do very well.
It looks like this is all I will continue growing for this year. Some seasons of life are just full of surprises. I will be "growing" grandbabies this season.
I am glad I haven't gotten around to planting much yet this year, because we are supposed to get snow again today and tomorrow. This was an odd winter. It was mild, but it doesn't want to end. The grass is still brown and the trees are still bare.
Spring Flower bed is in and our bright yellow and multi-colored Lantana is planted and mulched. Since we are using the vining Lantana instead of the bush ones for this flower bed...before you know it the Lantana will spread to fill in all of this bed. It will bring some cheerful color to all the green surrounding us now. And the butterflies, etc. love the Lantana too.
I am a newbie as well and probably should have said that with a capital "N". I'd like to try planting tomatoes in a container, so any advice is much appreciated. I was also reading the articles this morning about planting strawberries and may try that as well. For now, I have to do the garden in containers because our backyard is ripped apart until next year...sigh.
We do most of our gardening in containers, too, @Andie Nuckels . The yard has a lot of shade trees, and the ground itself is hard-packed clay, and not good for plants to grow in. Everything seems to grow a lot better when we plant it in a container where it has good soil, and then set it where it can get enough sunlight. One nice thing is that the containers can be re-used. Most of the ones that we have from last year are being re-used this year, and I just added some extra dirt and mixed it around, and they were ready to re-plant. We start everything inside in the Aerogardens, and then once it is large enough to move outside safely, I transplant it outside into the containers. I just planted the salad greens kit in the large Bounty Aerogarden. It has 9 growing spaces, and we should have lettuces growing in there all summer long for salads or sandwiches. I have been using both aerogardens for starting plants all this spring , but now I will just use the little Sprout Aerogarden for starting more plants, and grow the salad greens inside so they don't wilt and die when the heat of summer arrives.
Terrific! I finished planting most of what I plan on planting yesterday, and it's raining today. That's great because my plants seem to far prefer God's watering to my own, and that should give them a good start. I haven't decided yet whether to plant potatoes this year. I grow them in paper leaf bags, and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to fill them or not. I probably will since I never seem to have trouble with potatoes.
Everything I've planted is up and growing except the okra which I just planted the seeds a few days ago. The potatoes are starting to bloom which means I should be able to grub some new potatoes.
This year I have been very focused on what to plant this year. So far, I have planted dinner onions, lettuce, okra, green beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumber and bell peppers. I still have some space left and would like to plant one more thing. Any suggestions for zone 8?