Trying 2 new plants this year!

[Newbee]

I get the itch every year about Valentines day, and start planting seedlings. Have a few lights in the basement for growing them out, move outside during the days as soon as possible…. I trundle flats of seedlings up and down the basement steps daily for about 6 weeks every spring… Gosh I wish I wasn't so cheap some days! 

Anyways I finally got some new seeds I've been trying to sprout, so it looks like I'll have my chance to try Ground Cherries and Huckleberry plants this year!

Anyone have any experience? They're not common in these parts, think more southerly than the North East (one reason I started so early). Tomatoe's just started, too, got white-cherry's to sprout. Should be an interesting year (make up for last year's poor performance).

It helps having these tiny little seedlings when the weatherman says 1-more week of the ugly stuff!  :'(

- K

[Bakersdozen]

I don't have any experience with either, but just read that huckleberries are a good pollinator plant.

[Newbee]

Thanks for the info!
I guess I'll have to look for friendly visitor's in the garden..

- K

[LogicalBee]

I’ve never even heard of a ground cherry until now (just Wikipedia-ed it).  What do you do with them? 

I’ve planted about 50 bush cherries over the years but the rabbits here LOVE cherry bushes in the winter.  By spring there’s not much of anything left.  Kind of frustrating. 

[Newbee]

What do you do with them? 

Thanks Logical.
Well, the seed packet said kids love 'em, and heaven know's a seed packet would never lie! 
LOL! I guess once they're ripe they'll fall off the plant in the little paper-husk, and you can eat them or add them to fruit pies, jams, jellies, etc. I get a lot of heirloom-type seed catalogs and noticed that many of them carried that plant, so for $2.50 a packet I figured why not!? Trying something different (how many green beans can you grow?). We do a bit of canning in the fall, including the local berries, so a few years ago I added the ground cherries and huckleberries to an order - this is the first year they've sprouted!

- K

[Bakersdozen]

I’ve planted about 50 bush cherries over the years but the rabbits here LOVE cherry bushes in the winter.  By spring there’s not much of anything left.  Kind of frustrating.

I share your frustration.  I have rabbit fencing circles around half of  the trees and shrubs in my back yard.  It looks like I am growing rabbit fencing.  I am to the point of wondering why I bother.

[Newbee]

I used to have rabbits in my garden….
Then I got real friendly w/ the neighbor's outdoor cat. He was a real hunter. He'd come over to visit and I'd give him lots of attention. He started hanging out, leaving me the heads of his latest victim…. Chipmunk problem went away, mice haven't been seen in my yard since, and I didn't have to put up the rabbit-fencing last year, at all!
Sadly, they moved away in the fall to a nearby town, and my wife's allergic to cat's. The new neighbor's a single girl, I'm hoping to introduce her to the local cat shelter around the corner! 

- K