The Garden Thread

[Omega]

I moved my garden, sprayed round-up, twice, during non-rain days.  Finally, I tilled the area, but the next day it rained so will have to do it again.  I have some garden soil from lowes to raise it, so planting should go well either way.  I have plants, peppers and tomatoes,  under the lights doing well so hoping for a decent crop.  I plan on planting about the middle of the month, hopefully the last freeze will have passed by then.

[Mark A]

We are building 2 more 10x50 chicken runs. The three we built last year have been good and scratched in. I'm thinking a total of about 7 will allow us to keep a couple green for the girls, a couple growing cover crops ( which will also go to the girls and 2-3 producing food close to year round.

The aquaponics system was refined over the winter and is now producing a ton of leafy greens things. We eat what we want but the majority goes to the pigs and chicks.We also set up a large sprouting operation over the winter. We have about 30 bus tubs of various organic non- gmo grains sprouting. This will cut back soon. We mostly used this to keep the various critters in green material during the winter.

Still haven't worked out exactly what we will do with the aquaponics once it gets too hot to grow leafy things. Probably build a few wicking beds to grow various peppers. The fish water is excellent for irrigation and that help keep the water clean for the fish because we put in makeup.

 

Mark

[gregintenn]

Planted my garden yesterday, except for tomato and pepper plants. Those will go in this evening.

Anybody else planted yet?

[Raoul]

6 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Planted my garden yesterday, except for tomato and pepper plants. Those will go in this evening.

Anybody else planted yet?

Onions, radishes, chard, arugula, and carrots are all poking out of the ground. Just a wee bit mind you, but up nonetheless.

[Omega]

Just put out my peppers and tomatoes.  I want to do sweet corn, radishes and some type of melon, but may have to buy seedlings for the melons.

[peejman]

Once I got the tiller to run...  I got the garden tilled last night and my wife planted this morning. Maters, beans, peas, zucchini, okra, peppers, spinach, cukes, ... I think that's it. 

[analog_kidd]

We planted our garden this weekend... TWICE

We had bought some veggie plants from Home Depot a week ago, and they really needed to be planted, so I got motivated. I had tilled a week or two ago, and our free-ranging chickens loved scratching around in the freshly turned dirt. The wife and I were concerned about them messing up the plants, or digging up seeds, so we added a layer of plastic fence netting to the existing electric fence. They are usually unaffected by the electric fence, as I think their feathers must be a good insulator.

Anyway, we got the garden all set up and everything planted, and went out to dinner. Later that evening we got home and I went up to the barn, and glanced over at the garden. Every single plant we planted was pulled up and thrown aside! I was dumbfounded and thought someone was playing a mean joke on me. I guess a chicken had gotten in under the fence somehow and just went to town.

So, there we were, just after dusk, replanting our whole garden. Needless to say, our chickens are no longer free-ranging.

[peejman]

Make some chicken pot pie with the veggies.  

[Ronald_55]

The spoils from my garden so far....it is a small garden...

 

[FrankD]

My strawberries aren’t even close to getting anything yet, I do have a couple small green tomatoes working though!

[gregintenn]

Scarecrow made from PVC, bucket, gourd, and my old clothes.

[Omega]

2 hours ago, gregintenn said:

Scarecrow made from PVC, bucket, gourd, and my old clothes.

That's one nice garden spot!

[Ronald_55]

Just put out 2 types of peppers and some tomatoes yesterday. My wife's work was giving plants away as part of their healthy inintitive. I still have cucumber., cantaloupe, squash, and watermelon to put out. Gotta get some dirt to get the other raised bed set up. Hopefully get tgat done today. 

Got more strawberries to pick once this shower lets up. Looks like my rhubarb may not be coming back though. 

Does anyone use a rain water catch barrel to water the plants. Either manually or via soak hose. Rainwater always seems to do better than utility water.  Just would be hard for me to set up. 

[ReeferMac]

Agree, nice looking Garden Greg!

I've seen people using those 250-330 gal caged plastic containers you see on Craigslist for rainwater catch. Need screen netting to keep mosquito's out the top, and a few pieces of PVC to reduce the 1" valve at the bottom to hose-bib, but are fairly easy to setup elevated on cinder-block foundations, etc.

[gregintenn]

I about let mine grow up because of all the rain. After yesterday afternoon and this morning, I have it fairly clean again.

 

The scarecrow is working, because I've not seen one on the place since I put him out. I think I'll let the corn get big enough the crows won't pull it up, and put the scarecrow in the barn so they don't get used to him. When the corn is about to get ripe, I'll put him back out there.

[Dirtshooter]

Hi guys, for all that don't have a nice garden spot like Greg I want to let you know about raised bed gardening. I started raised beds about 4 years ago and wish I had done this about 40+ years ago. I found crates from a local tractor co. that were free so that is what I used. You can make beds as long as you want, just keep them 4 ft wide or narrower as you can reach in from both sides. I bought a load of topsoil and mushroom mix and it is really the key. First on raised beds is you don't need a tiller or hoe, you don't compact the soil as you are not walking in it. You don't have to compete with weeds and grass as you are above them. I put down cardboard and some black plastic along edges and added dirt mix. First year I literally pulled 3 weeds all season. There is lots of info on web, but if you have any questions let me know.

[peejman]

This season is going ok so far. As usual, my one jalapeño and cayenne plants have made more peppers than I know what to do with. The okra is in full swing. The cucumber was going great until the weevils got it. I pulled it up this morning and will plant another. My zucchini was great but rotted at the base all of a sudden. Got another one planted. My tomatoes are absolutely loaded with green fruit. Seems like theyre taking forever to ripen. Got 2 pickings from the green beans, pulled them up and will plant more. The snap peas didn't do much. Got barely a mouth full. The spinach was great while it lasted.... too hot for it now. 

[Omega]

My cucumbers have been great, got probably over a dozen from about 4 plants so far.  My peppers are doing good, got a few so far, tomatos are doing good, but none red except a few cherries. I have one watermelon, about 8"-10", but looks a bit weird, sort of like a half crescent but may straighten out.  

[Ronald_55]

Striking out mostly. Got a few strawberries and a couple onions. My tomatoes seem to have bloom rot. Couple one inch cucumbers trying to grow, but the watermelon and cantaloupe vines are not growing. Pepper plants bloom, then no fruit...

I got things out late and not in the best place, but normally I get a few things off what I plant.

[Jamie Jackson]

Well, I've learned that raised garden beds using landscape timbers have a "shelf-life" of approximately 10 years, give or take a year... the timbers will disintegrate! LOL

I tore down all 8 raised beds I had and have started rebuilding them...slowly and will probably not build as many as I initially had, as I don't really feel the need right at this time. (pic with a bunch of beds was from 2010)

The 1st below pic is my first rebuild. I used soil I've built up from the beds I took down. We planted 3 regular tomato plants, one cherry, some cayenne peppers, some basil and some rosemary during the first week of May. We've already harvested the basil and have picked and made a vinegar based pepper sauce and still have a good amount of peppers still hanging. I'll probably string and dry those.

Our tomatoes started turning this past week. Oh, those cherry tomatoes...the were/are obviously an indeterminate variety and are taking over the entire bed! But Boy are they delicious!

We celebrated with our first tomato sandwiches yesterday. I look forward to those each year.  

The 2nd pic is from June 28th fwiw

 

edit...OK, so I didn't load the pics as I thought they'd display...I'm a technotard...

2010 is the 1st pic...May 2018 the 2nd pic...yada yada 

Edited July 15, 2018 by prag

[gregintenn]

Let's get this started again. Mine is coming up better than ever so far, and due to the lack of rain, I've been able to keep it clean so far. I expect something to start eating on it anytime now. My neighbor's dog decided to live here about a year ago. She's beginning to discover that I want her to keep critters ran out of the garden, and is doing a pretty good job. I hope she keeps it up.

[peejman]

Our garden is doing pretty well except for the okra, which I assume the rabbits are eating. We've had at least 2 clutches of rabbits in the yard.  

Heres the first harvest, taken just a Little's while ago.... 

Edited June 2, 2019 by peejman

[Ronald_55]

Here is the entire garden this year. 2 potatoes that sprouted eyes so I stuck them in the raised bed that failed miserably for vine plants last year. The grass you see is just clippings I tossed in. I decided that we are just too busy to keep up with stuff. No one wants to help and it seems like I am the only one that eats it. 

[Jamie Jackson]

Nice peppers @peejman! We ate our first mess of Swiss Chard just last week and will be cutting another today 

I've learned over the past 10 years that the landscape timbers I use last approximately 8-9 years before they deteriorate. So I tore down the 8 beds I had last year (2018) and I started rebuilding them using a "nailless" method. This will make replacing the timbers in another 8-10 years much easier than having to cut those suckers apart with a Sawall!  At my age that's something I needed to take into serious consideration.

I'll take some pics later this morning.

All of our tomato plants are blooming and setting. The peppers are just now blooming. I added some red and yellow bell pepper plants and a couple of cuke plants just last week.

@Ronald_55 Don't give up brother. My most productive raised garden year(s) ever was when I was working 50-60 hour night shift weeks for a 3 year stretch. Raised beds can be set up to require remarkably little time and effort. The results certainly brought my wife and now my son and his family into the fold on this. Gardening leads to canning, canning leads to food storage because of the potential yield...first thing you know a person is teetering on the edge of being a "Prepper". I know there's a negative connotation linked to Prepping these days...so how about just becoming more "Self Reliant" 

I'm certain I've posted the below pic before, but it's what I was able to accomplish in 2010 when working a bunch of hours (to get us out of debt...a Number 1 priority!)  I doubt I'll go that big again until I retire (at age 70 which is less than 5 years away, God Willin').

LOL...I see that pic from a post I made last year (July 2018) ...please disregard the redundancy...

btw...we are still eating dehydrated veggies from that garden yield. I have no idea how long the shelf life will be, but some okra and bell peppers I used in a pot of French Market soup last week tasted and smelled fresh off the vine after rehydrating overnight. Delicious!

[Jamie Jackson]

Here's a couple of quick pics. The peppers and Chard were started from seeds indoors in March. We usually purchase our seeds from Johnny's. We always have an excellent germination rate using Johnny's seeds.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/

I like this system of bed building. Simple, fast, and easy. The weight of the soil holds the landscape timbers firmly against the t-posts. The chicken wire keeps the rabbits out, and believe me, we have a bunch of rabbits in our neighborhood, and especially in my yard!