The Garden Thread

[gregintenn]

I planted my garden yesterday. There's no hurry; especially for tomato plants. If you plant tomatoes in February, and pretending frost doesn't get them, they won't be any larger today than they were when you planted them. Tomatoes do not grow until the ground gets to a certain temperature.

[jgradyc]

I'm trying a straw bale garden this year. I started composting seven straw bales the first week of April and planted my tomatoes about 10 days later. I hoped that the straw bales would give me a faster start because where I live, I never get tomatoes until the first week of July.

 

This morning, it's overcast and 52°. Soil temperature is 60° in my planters and in my yard, but in the bales by my tomato plants, it's 68 to 69°.  Hopefully, I'll get tomatoes by mid-June.

 

It's a pretty limited garden. I have 14 tomato plants, 8 bell pepper plants, and 4 cucumber vines. I don't have enough room for anything else, other than some herbs planted on the edges. 

[gregintenn]

I rarely get tomatoes before July. Last year, however, I did have some in mid to late June.

[peejman]

We planted half of it 2 weeks ago and the other half (except the okra) this weekend. The beans, peas, and lettuce are already sprouting. Hopefully we'll have a good yield this year.

[Mark A]

I rarely get tomatoes before July. Last year, however, I did have some in mid to late June.

I'm confused... my krogers has tomatoes all year long. Doesn't yours?

[Mark A]

Hah! Kidding of course.

We have (5) 4x4 raised beds at the house. The lettuces and chard and stuff like that are doing pretty well. We've actually started harvesting some of the romaine. So far the tomatoes and peppers are surviving.

I started all the really hot peppers this weekend. They don't like to get into the ground until late May. I have a couple different habaneros, some Devils tongue, about 8 ghost peppers, scorpions, Carolina reapers and a couple others that are closely related to ghost peppers. If they go like last year I will be in some serious heat by July.

We weren't going to do anything at the farm until we move there in a couple of years but my wife asked if she could plant a cutting flower garden up there this year. I was noodling it over and found myself staring at a 10x10 dog kennel at tractor supply. The light bulb went off so next weekend we are installing 2. I figured if it was good enough for her flowers it would be good enough for a ton of maters.

She then asked me if I knew anyone we could borrow a tiller from and the other light bulb went off. What is that saying? Never let an opportunity go to waste? Well, I didnt.

Anyone think a 74" wide 1,000# tiller is overkill for a 10' flower bed and 10' of tomatoes and peppers? Me neither...

We were going to buy one in a couple of years anyway. Now I have to work hard to build the toy fund back up. I'm really hoping to buy a small greenhouse this fall.

Mark

[JPS]

Just gonna let this speak for itself...

 

http://theshrug.net/she-gardens-like-a-pro-with-a-shotgun/

[peejman]

So my wife sends me a text while I'm at work...

 

Her - looked at the cucumbers lately?

 

Me - Not in a day or two, why?

 

Her - They're not cucumbers.

 

Me - mmmmmkay.  So what are they?

 

Her - Dunno, looks like some sort of squash.

 

:D

 

 

So it would seem we got some mislabeled seedlings.  We'll see what the mystery squash turns out to be, and now we have to figure out where to plant the new seedlings amongst everything else that's already in there.  Fun fun. 

[maroonandwhite]

My garden has more weeds in it than it does vegetable plants. The corn isn't coming up ( a couple stalks are), the okra isn't coming up (may have planted too deep), the beans are coming up in spots but the bugs are eating them. The potatoes and onions are doing good. My tomatoes came back after the frost got them but I have to replant the peppers and squash which I will do this weekend. I didn't expect much this first year though. Gonna have to spray it or something after harvesting everything. I'm gonna have a fun time tonight getting it presentable again haha. The problem is that it's more of those weedy looking plants than it is grass and I couldn't tell what was a plant and what was a weed.

[john455]

I have two nice rows of corn 6 tomato plants, 1 row of okra, 4 jalapeno plants, 8 broccoli plants, two rows of potatoes, 2 rows of onions, 2 cucumbers vines, 2 cantaloupe vines 2 watermelon vines and tons of strawberries. I am picking off 50-75 strawberries a day already. I used sheep manure for fertilizer this year and it seems to be doing a great job!! 

[Mark A]

Well, we erected and planted inside the 2 dog kennels this past weekend. One is full of wildflower seeds and about 20 apple tree seeds (those are an experiment). The other has about 45 tomato plants and 30 pepper plants. I have another 70 tomato starts that are getting close along with 20 ghost pepper plants. I'm going to till a 3rd area for those and try an electric fence scheme I saw on a forum. If this way of fencing works I will expand it as it is relatively cheap...

 

Mark

[peejman]

Well, we erected and planted inside the 2 dog kennels this past weekend. One is full of wildflower seeds and about 20 apple tree seeds (those are an experiment). The other has about 45 tomato plants and 30 pepper plants. I have another 70 tomato starts that are getting close along with 20 ghost pepper plants. I'm going to till a 3rd area for those and try an electric fence scheme I saw on a forum. If this way of fencing works I will expand it as it is relatively cheap...

 

Mark

 

 

That sounds like a bunch of plants, how big are the kennels?

[Omega]

I have 8 of the 55 gl barrel halves planted with 4 varieties of tomatoes and three different peppers and some broccoli with a bunch of turnips thrown in.  The tomatoes and broccoli are doing good, the pepper plants are still small and the turnips are exploding everywhere so its a good start.  I started with about a yard of topsoil in the barrels then added miracle gro planting soil in all the holes I planted in then spread the rest on top.  Since this year is an experiment I am not quite going all out with too may variables so staying with the miracle gro planting soil and maybe some miracle gro plant food in a couple of months even though the soil package says it feeds up to 6 months.  If this works out, next year I will mix in some vermiculite and some chicken or other natural manure to make the soil more rich and not as compacted as it is now.  My old garden was very well balanced with that mixture so I expect this one to be the same.  Now if I could only keep the squirrels from digging around in there I would be good to go, they are as bad as me with the memory and can't understand that they did not hide any nuts there in the first place.

[monkeylizard]

That sounds like a bunch of plants, how big are the kennels?

 

I thought the same thing. If it will hold 20 apple trees it's not a kennel, it's a fenced field. :D

[Mark A]

The kennels are 10 x 10 each. The tomatoes and peppers are planted on 1' spacing and every 2 rows there is a 2' path where we can kneel down and weed. That way we only have to reach up to 2' away.

 

The apple trees are all seeds. They are in a sandy soil that will allow me to pull them if they grow. Right now the seedlings are just a few inches apart. If any of them take I will move them to a grow bed for a year and those that survive that will get stuck in the dirt. It is mostly an experiment just to see if I can get them to grow at all. If they do make it to dirt they will go in an area that will be grazed by a few pigs. These apples are not for harvesting for us, but rather to fall and hit the ground and be consumed by porkers...

 

Wifey wanted a cutting flower garden. Everything she planted (except for some sunflower seeds I snuck in) are perennials.

 

I'm hoping that we get some decent harvests but mostly this is to learn about our dirt and what will and won't grow there. When we move up there full time in a couple of years I will then be able to plant a lot more...

 

Mark 

[Grand Torino]

We planted corn, potatoes, green red and yellow bell peppers, habenero peppers, onions, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, mint, oregano, cilantro, green onions, basil, and oh yeah....peas.

 

Everything seems to be growing very well at this time. My fingers are crossed.

[john455]

SONOFA!@#$% I just realized I screwed up. I planted 2 rows of sweet corn and let my granddaughter plant a row of Indian corn beside it, cross pollination never entered my head. Now I have to figure out a way to ACCIDENTLY kill my granddaughters Indian corn without her finding out lol.

Edited May 20, 2015 by john455

[Omega]

SONOFA!@#$% I just realized I screwed up. I planted 2 rows of sweet corn and let my granddaughter plant a row of Indian corn beside it, cross pollination never entered my head. Now I have to figure out a way to ACCIDENTLY kill my granddaughters Indian corn without her finding out lol.

Just plant sweat corn in its place, it shouldn't have that much of a head start.

[john455]

Anyone have any suggestions on keeping wild turkeys away? There are a couple turkey hens that keep raiding my strawberries, I have shot in the air and shot them with a pellet gun to no avail, TWRA informed me that if I killed them and got caught it would be a $600 fine per turkey and confiscation of my gun, unless I was to have an officer come to my house and actually see the turkeys damaging my garden, then they would sell me a special permit to kill them for $15, so that's a no go.

[Mark A]

I don't deal with the TWRA much but I wonder if you showed them video evidence from a couple of different days if that would help get your permit.

Mark

[peejman]

I'll send a couple of my turkey hunting friends over. Wherever they go to hunt, the turkey's go somewhere else. :D

Try stringing up a couple layers of twine around the perimeter. Tie some strips of something shiny/flashy that will blow in the breeze every so often around it.

[gregintenn]

So, how's your garden doing?

 

We had to replant a lot of ours. For some reason, not much came up the first time.

 

Anyway, it's beginning to produce now. We've been getting yellow squash for a few days now. I think we've picked three ripe tomatoes. Yesterday we put up 7 qts of dill pickles. Today we put up 4 pts of blackberry jelly. The blackberrys didn't come from the garden;, but from the fencerow next to it. They are wild.

 

How bout you?

[Raoul]

We're eating carrots, tomatoes, cukes, and green beans...oh and a few peppers. Probably have to start canning and freezing stuff in another couple of weeks.

[gregintenn]

We're beginning to get a few bell peppers as well.

[Mark A]

We've been picking cherry tomatoes for a few weeks. We have a couple beefsteak type maters that are getting close. Tons of Roma's ready in about 2 more weeks.

My pepper plants are all small so far this year. I do have one beautiful habanero ready to pick...

We bought a couple Meyer lemon trees that we are keeping in containers. They have some lemons popping out.

We are also trying to container a couple of Avacado trees. One is doing ok. The other I'm trying my hardest to kill, apparently.