The Garden Thread

[Dirtshooter]

Mark keep us posted on the aquaponics, I have a friend in Mississippi that has done it for about 3 years, he uses bluegill because his is outside and in Miss. it is illegal to use tillapia as it doesn't get cold enough to kill them if they got into a stream or river as they are considered an invasive species. He told me the tomatoes were the most delicious he has ever had and he is over 65. Sounds like you got a very nice place to retire, hope all your plans pan out!!

[Guest]

Everyone getting their seed ordered for 2017?

[peejman]

We've saved a small variety of seeds for the first time this year. Time will tell how that works out. 

[Guest]

Everyone got your seeds started for this summer?

[monkeylizard]

started? With this weather, I already have 6' high tomato plants. 

[Dirtshooter]

I started celery inside planted Feb. 1st. I thought carrot seeds were small, but those things are almost microscopic. Plan on starting brocolli seeds 1st of March. I found this while looking at planting dates, it is called Phenology which is an observation of natual phenomena. You can find several sites that give a correlation between plants blooming and such to a planting time. For example plant potatoes when 1st dandelion blooms, plant bean, cucumber and squash when lilac is in full bloom. Thought I would pass this along, I had never heard the word, but it is like other old time sayings that people had observed over many years. Good gardening to all and may your harvest be plentiful.

[Mark A]

DS, let me know how your celery does. I've about given up trying to start it from seed...

 

We are trying some new things this year. I should have something to show in a couple of weeks...

[gregintenn]

Planted my garden yesterday evening. We'll see how it goes.

[peejman]

Planted ours a couple weeks ago.  Just the usual stuff, nothing elaborate this year.  Picked our first  harvest today which is a single jalapeño. We've got a few other varieties of hot peppers, but they're not doing well. I assume all the rain is the culprit.  Everything else looks good so far. 

[A.J. Holst]

Really dropped the ball, planted 12" pants 2 weeks ago.

Low effort this year, trying 2 plants, patio barrels.

Plus cilantro and basil.

Not going to survive the Apocalypse, but we should have a few tomato sandwiches and salsa

 

 

[gregintenn]

33 minutes ago, Gotthegoods said:

Really dropped the ball, planted 12" pants 2 weeks ago.

Low effort this year, trying 2 plants, patio barrels.

Plus cilantro and basil.

Not going to survive the Apocalypse, but we should have a few tomato sandwiches and salsa

 

 

Tomatoes are the apex of homegrown goodies!

[A.J. Holst]

That's planted plants, not pants

[Guest]

How's everyone's garden doing?  

This is our 2nd year doing the back to Eden style and it's incredible.   No tilling, 98% less weeding and the weeds pull out easily, and we haven't watered all year except right when we put the plants in, to water the transplants in decently.  Highly recommend  everyone check out the Back to Eden documentary with Paul gautshi, free on youtube.

[A.J. Holst]

11 hours ago, BlessTheUSA said:

How's everyone's garden doing?  

This is our 2nd year doing the back to Eden style and it's incredible.   No tilling, 98% less weeding and the weeds pull out easily, and we haven't watered all year except right when we put the plants in, to water the transplants in decently.  Highly recommend  everyone check out the Back to Eden documentary with Paul gautshi, free on youtube.

Basil and cilantro doing well, been harvesting for a few weeks.

Patio tomato plants have greenies, first year trying this method, so I am pretty hopeful.

[bersaguy]

Back when I first moved to this location I decided I would plant a garden and a buddy of mine tilled a plot about 60X80 feet with his tractor and tiller and he chopped it up so good it took about 10 minutes with a rake and it was ready to make rows and begin planting. I had never had a garden but my father had a very green thumb and could grow anything. I went with the basic stuff. Tomatos, Squash in 2 kinds, Banana peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Cucumbers, Okra, and put a small hill of watermelons in and they vined all over the yard that surrounder the garden on one side. Got about 25 melons of the plants that year. At the time I did have a lady friend that helped me tend it and I guess some of my father passed down to me cause I had enough veggies to give the neighbors a bunch. There was a  eldely gentleman two doors down from me and he put a garden in also and I would watch him till his ground and it was very hard on him so when I got my buddy to till mine I got him to till the old gentlemans while he was here. 

He grew a few different  veggies than I did so we did some trading. He had corn and Green beans that he planted so they would vine up his corn stalks which I thought was cool. I vined my cucumbers up a piece of lattus I put on the outer edge of the garden and they grew up it just fine.

Each year for about 5 years I expanded my garden space and the last year it was about 100x140 and I planted more stuff like Califlower and Brocolli which was a colder weather plants and needed to be planted when it was cooler but it worked and I began putting a bunch of stuff up in canning jars. Daughter and neighbor ladies helped with that along with freezing some stuff. I did enjoy it a lot but it got to much for me so after about 6 years I never put another one it. Now I just have a few patio pots for tomatos and a few pepper plants and anything I can grow in patio tubs.

The old gentleman passed away but one thing he left for me that last year was after his garden was done he said he wished he felt like tilling it up so he could put in a crop of Turnip Greens so I got my buddy to come down and till up his garden and he sat there beside the garden in a chair and directed me how to sow turnip green seeds and I had a small field of Turnip greens that Fall and Winter but lost him before they came into picking size. I picked some every day of so for his wife and she canned them so she would have them and I gave her veggies from my garden. Sorry for the long post but just remembering some of the good times......................

[gregintenn]

We have a bumper crop of crabgrass!

Edited June 5, 2017 by gregintenn

[peejman]

Ours is ok so far. We should start getting cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes within the week. The okra didn't all die this year, so that's encouraging. The chili peppers flopped. Win some, lose some. 

[Ronald_55]

I got about 10 strawberries. My ground cherries are growing well.

I had a bumper crop of dandelions. 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Ronald_55

[Randall53]

My crabgrass and wild onions are growing so fast you can almost hear them at night. 

[ReeferMac]

This is the first year for me gardening down here. Put in a 25x40 garden out at the farm, and have been trying out a lot of new things.

The Quinoa got blown over in the windstorms we had a few weeks ago. Didn't root very deep, were very tall plants (6-7'!), but the rootball was only the size of a baseball. Might have been my soil, dunno, first time I tried growing it. A few survived, so will take those for seed and try again!

Harvested a bunch of fingerling potatoes! Will be able to get 2 crops of those in per year I imagine. Started them in April, taking them out now in June as the tops have all died off. The Red 'taters I started about the same time are still growing and looking strong.

Corns coming up, squash are going bananas, and my peanuts have flowers! Cotton doesn't seem happy, but my canteloupes and melon's are going gangbusters!

 

- K

[MemHeli]

I've got cucumbers, squash and gords, along with strawberries, tomatoes and peppers.  I usually get basically no strawberries from the plants before the varmints get them.  

[gregintenn]

We had our first garden produce of the year for lunch today. Yellow squash and zucchini, sliced lengthwise, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with creole seasoning, garlic, and Italian seasoning, and roasted in the oven, served with thick sliced deer tenderloin, marinaded in Allegro marinade, and grilled to medium rare, and crescent rolls. It was delicious!

 

Our cucumbers are beginning to come in too.

Edited June 25, 2017 by gregintenn

[MacGyver]

Got my first two tomatoes in yesterday.  Early this year, which is surprising since I didn't get them out until late.  I don't usually have ripe tomatoes until the 4th. 

[peejman]

We've been eating cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes for a couple weeks. We're getting close to having enough okra to fill up a frying pan. We also have a single pumpkin on the vine. 

[ReeferMac]

I lost about half my corn this last storm we had. It's the 2nd time. Some of it gets blown over, some flat out breaks, falls down, and crushes whatever's underneath! Pissed, the dent corn was about 9-feet tall and just starting to tassle!

 

- K