Gardening Thread

[Dustin_m]

That blows, dustin.

If you stay semi- near by, maybe the cool guy will let you come by and partake in the harvest.

Too much to move, thats for sure....

Yea he said that I could come get some stuff when I want, so that's cool. Just not sure how often ill want to come over.

I need to do some more trimming and weeding, but its too damn hot out this week.... It's mostly just crab grass.

Looking good. The only issue I see is that those squash plants will probably get big and they might be a little close together. Not sure how big those plants will get in your area, but my yellow squash is about 4 feet across and growing, and the zucchini plant is just a little smaller.

 

[Briansol]

yeah, i had no idea how big any of this stuff would get. This is my learning year for sure. I already have about 10 'don't do this next year' things on my list.

 

[chestercheeto48]

as soon as I get a chance I will post all my pics from our garden. So far we have already had some lettuce, green onions, sweet peas, basil, parsley, and zuchs in various meals. I still have tomatos, carrots and peppers coming. I also have already starting planning on what I am going to do different for next year including adding an outside ring for lettuce, herbs and green onions and a design for a "green house convertible top" that will allow me to work on compost later into the year and then start earlier in the spring. I am going to try and skip the starter plants in the house if possible since all of the plants I started directly in the ground are better off than the ones I started inside. Also the best bang for the buck spent so far was for the drip irrigation system. I got the Rainbird brand kit but I should have just bough the rolls of tubing and the fittings seperate. The thing is awesome - I have it on a timer and set it/forget it which has saved me thousands of skeeter bites.

 

[Briansol]

2 more zuc's and a couple peas harvested

 

[D16Civic]

A little late getting into this, but my wife talked me into building her a couple of 3x8 raised beds. We probably got it planted about the middle of May as we had a late spring here in Michigan. So she planted 2 cherry tomato, 2 "regular" tomato, a couple each of green and red peppers, some onions, cucumbers, squash, green beans, and I think a canteloupe.

I was shocked at how big the plants got, and how fast. She just took our first harvest on Sunday, and it was about 40 cherry tomatoes, 7 green peppers, a gaggle of green beans, and 4 or 5 cucumbers. There's another 50 or 60 cherry tomatoes not yet ripe, and more regular tomatoes than I can count that are still green, as well as more cucumbers, peppers, etc.

We really haven't watered very much at all, and it's been extremely hot here this summer. I think the fact we started with 3 yards of good composted soil has everything to do with it. That and the dog killing the rabbits that come by.

Definitely gonna be expanding it next year. I also built a compost bin so we'll have some good fertile soil for next year.

 

[Briansol]

I have my first tom blooms

 

[Briansol]

Well, this thread sorta just died out last year, but i had pretty good harvets through out the rest of the year. a few random pics that seemed to only make it to facebook from the 2011 season:

So i did end up getting a bit of a variety of stuff. The broccoli was gross and i never got a chance to try the turnip before they rotted. Otherwise, i ate pretty much everything that came out of the garden or gave it away to friends/family. Unfortunately, hurricane irene brought in some pretty good winds and bent/broke most of my crops at their base. So, i never got to try any corn, and most of the tomatoes. I should have staked them better or at all (corn), but it was just about end of the season anyway and i didn't have any stakes handy so just let it go and see what would happen considering we haven't had a hurricane up here since 1986 do any real damage. Irene didn't really do anything either, but its gusts were enough to break the crops out.



This year, I'm going bigger. Space was my biggest issue. I didn't have enough of it for the stuff I wanted to grow. Instead of 5 rows, i think i'm going to make 6 boxes in the square foot style. I'm also going to expand the garden, mostly on the right, bottom (in most the pics) as that area gets the sun, and the lawn is thin there, which makes it easier to turn.

I'm still debating getting chickens. I want them. I don't know if I want the responsibility of them. I've been saving egg cartons so i can be ready if i do decide to jump on it. There's a few local places on CL that have them for spring chicks. Now that i'm back working full time at an office it's a bit harder than it was when i was at home all day. I did have some weird bugs show up though, especially on my zucchini. I guess they are called zucchini beetles. I've never seen anything like it before. Picture a Stegosaurus, but light green and tiny, and that's what these looked like. Supposedly the chickens will help eat these things. Otherwise, pests weren't that bad. I killed a ton of grub 'pods' and there were hundreds every day. I squished and popped them as i found them the best i could. Again, the chickens would feast on these things. so, it's really in my best interest to get some. Taking care of them in the winter will be the hard part.

I joined a 'seed of the month' club a few months back and they send out about 4 paks a month at random for like $2. https://www.averagepersongardening.com/seed_subscriptions.php
I have a pretty good pile of variety from those and i still have most of my starter kit as well, but i didn't keep it in the fridge... it sat in my hot shed so it's possible that those are kicked. I'm going to be ordering a bunch of new stuff from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - 1400 heirloom garden seeds! as well to fill in varieties that i know i want to try.


I'm also going to order 2 apple tree seedlings. Apple Trees | Apple Trees for Sale | Buy Apple Trees from GrowOrganic.com | Bare Root Apple Trees Maybe get some apples in 2 or 3 years. Still trying to decide where to place these in the yard.

I also want to get some bush plants like blueberries, and i've been debating getting some potato starters to try too.

I also bought an outdoor shelved green house to hold the starter trays during the hardening process. This should help me get those out side faster to let them harden better/quicker as that was one of my major failures last year. I'm hoping to make a ton of tomato sauce, salsa, pickles, and other canned foods to store and eat later while keeping a fresh supply of food for dinner.

 

[chestercheeto48]

I'm already planning my improvements over last year. They are in no certain order:
-Less tomato plants - we had way too many.
-More room between pepper/tomato plants
-Adding a perimeter herb/lettuce/green onion smaller garden
-Improved dome out of pex tubing/plastic sheeting going up in late March to get a jump start on the season and to help buffer against the late season frost that killed some stuff last year.
-new layout for the irrigation system.

 

[Briansol]

How did that irrigation system work for you? I had some plant rot from having wet plants all the time.

 

[reckedracing]

fruit trees are a solid choice
we had apple, pear, plum, peach and cherry trees, and the bees to keep them productive
birds will fleece a cherry tree in a weekend
pruning is your friend, just don't let them get away from you or you're going to have to cut them back too much and you end up losing out on production

 

[Briansol]

I started my cold early greens today. mostly lettuce and a few onion choices, plus a couple long grow crops (100+ days) to hopefully get them to bear fruit before the season is over.

And, I ordered 42 more varieties of veggie seeds. lol I'm going to have to dig up half my back yard to fit all this stuff.

1.5 of those trays above filled my garden last year. heh

A lot of the stuff i ordered are bean plants though, so i need to build a trellis for them to climb up. Yup, watch out, I'm going to be working with power tools again! lol

 

[Briansol]

75 degrees today! last year at this time, there was 2-4 feet of snow cover. all week is supposed to be in the 50's. It looks like it's going to be an early planting season.


I might have gotten a bit carried away with "add to cart" but fuck it, i don't use the yard for much of anything else anyway. I ordered a ton of new stuff.

4 Concord Bunch Grape Vine 3 Year Old (Fruiting Size)
2 Bluecrop Northern Highbush Blueberry Plant 18 - 24" (2 Yr.)
2 Blueray Northern Highbush Blueberry 18 - 24" (2 Yr.)
2 Patriot Northern Highbush Blueberry Plant 18 - 24" (2 Yr.)
2 Heritage Raspberry Plant
2 Black Butte Blackberry Plant 2 Year Plant
1 Stella Cherry Tree 3-4'

I'm in zone 6 and all are labeled to at least zone 5, so these all should be able to grow here.

So, i'm hopefully going to have a ton of fruit for pies and jams, provided the birds don't eat it all on me I may need to figure out a way to spray them, but i'm not keen on that idea. More research to be done. I paid a few bucks extra for the 2 or 3 year old plants so they will be ready to bear fruit this season, next season at the latest. I'm going to put the grapes on my fence so it will form a natural privacy barrier, and smell awesome in the process. The Cherry tree i think I'm going to put in the front yard on the main hill. The blossoms are said to be very pretty. This breed is a self-pollinator too, so no pairing was necessary. The blueberries aren't and need the variety to pollinate with, so i got 2 of each. Not really sure what is what. We'll see what they look like when they grow in I went looking for an apple tree, but most are all sold out (should have bought in December when dormant) and the ones that aren't need 2 or 3 other trees to cross pollinate. So, i got a cheery tree instead. It was WAY cheaper too. The berries, I'm going to put near the wild raspberries on the back fence of my property. If those grow there wild, these should do well near by in the semi-sun/shade.



And, I ordered a bunch more variety of vegetable seeds on top of the stack i have already :X I'm not going to plant them all, that's for sure. There's a few things i never even heard of, or are a different variety than what you're used to seeing in the store, so i figure i'll grow one or two of those plants only to see what they are like. It's amazing how many kinds of tomatoes and eggplant there are. and squash! crazy stuff.
Tendercrisp Celery
Blue Curled Scotch
Mustard Greens Southern Giant Curled
Wrinkled Crinkled Cress
Salad Burnet
Shanghai Green Pak Choy
Yellow Wonder Wild Strawberry
Ground Cherry
Diamond Eggplant
Carentan Leek
Mary Washington Asparagus
Brunswick Cabbage
Giant of Naples Cauliflower
Catalogna Puntarelle Dandelion
Rossa Di Treviso Precoce Radicchio
Marketmore 76 Cucumber
Golden Wax Bush Bean
Contender (Buff) Valentine Bush Bean
Old Homestead (Kentucky Wonder Pole) -1/2 lb
Scarlet Runner Bean
Envy Soya Beans
Noordhollandse Bloedrode Onion
Tall Telephone Garden Pea
Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea
Serrano Tampequino Pepper
Thai Red Chilli
Tabasco Pepper
Tam Jalapeno Pepper
Cayenne Long Thin
Albino Bullnose Pepper
Golden Cal Wonder
Patio Red Marconi
Orange Bell
Red Marconi Pepper
Thai Long Sweet
Bonny Best
Moneymaker
Early Prolific Straightneck Squash
Zucchini Squash - Black Beauty
Butternut Rogosa Violina Gioia Squash
Blue Lake Bush 274 Bean


Gives a chance to try out some of the hot peppers and see if i want to grow it again net year or try a different variety or two instead.



Needless to say, 1/4 of this isn't going to fit in my garden space as it sits, so i have some more digging to do. I think i'm going to leave the main spot i have and just make some sq yard boxes in various spots and do the 'square foot' method in the sunny spots.

 

[chestercheeto48]

How did that irrigation system work for you? I had some plant rot from having wet plants all the time.

The system worked great. My only complaint would be with the actual drip pipe. It didn't quite fit my need exactly. This year I am only running it around the outside perimeter where the lettuce, herbs and onions will be. On the inside main garden I have some small sprinklers that spray in a 180 and 360 pattern. I just ran the hose bib on a water timer and watered every other day for 20-30 minutes. If I remember correctly everything was a 1-2 gallon per hour rating (drip hose and sprinkler).I didn't have any issues with things getting too wet but I also mixed in a ton of peat moss with my top soil and the whole mix was pretty loose and good for drainage.

I also started my seeds this weekend.

So Far:

Tomatoes - Roma and Mortgage varities
Onions
Peppers

Next week or two:
Zucchini
Lettuce

After last frost:
Peas
Herbs

 

[Briansol]

I'm holdin off 2 or 3 more weeks for my tomatoes/peppers and everything else.

I started my plats 3/30 last year, and they wanted to be in the ground in early may, but it was still too cold out.

 

[Jeef]

I just got a 25x25 garden plot We haven't decided what exactly going in there but it should be nice.

 

[chestercheeto48]

I'm holdin off 2 or 3 more weeks for my tomatoes/peppers and everything else.

I started my plats 3/30 last year, and they wanted to be in the ground in early may, but it was still too cold out.

I tent my raised beds with some pex tubing for the arches and plastic sheeting for the "green house" material. I plan on getting them in the ground the last week or two of April. I have some paver stone paths in the raised beds that act as heat sinks so the temps don't drop too much overnights. It worked well at the beginning and the end of last year to help out on those cooler nights.

 

[Briansol]

I just got a 25x25 garden plot We haven't decided what exactly going in there but it should be nice.

in the flats?
what did that run you?

 

[Briansol]

the arugula already popped up!

 

[Jeef]

Yeah, 20 bucks

 

[Briansol]

damn, that's 'dirt' cheap.

hopefully the farmingotn river doesn't flood it again and ruin everyones crops. i bet the soil is super rich this year because of it. If i drove home that way, i would consider it, but its just too far out of the way to go to every day for me. Not having water sucks though. Gotta haul in drums of it there i hear.