The Gardening thread

[XrayLizard]

Let’s see if this gets traction
A bit late in the year perhaps to start!

Raised beds here, just 3. another small area next to house in back. Some containers.
second year for me at being reasonably serious about it,

beds are (2) 4x4, and a 4x8
Cukes, tomatoes, bell peppers, Eggplant, a few herbs.
my containers did not do well at all.
I used a different dirt and compost mix...
Researched it more later seems way high in nitrogen.

post up your gardening!

 

[prfesser]

Small garden, about 10x20 ft, in the front yard. I planted three Better Boy tomatoes, wife planted six cherry tomatoes. Better Boys were disappointing, got maybe a couple dozen or so tomatoes all told. Cherry tomatoes were prolific but not much for taste, mostly gel and seeds. Disappointed because in tomato season, lunch every day is a couple of open-face tomato sandwiches on toast; tomato slices stacked high w/Miracle Whip, salt, pepper. Remove most of the gel and seeds to reduce mess.

May try Beefsteak or other meaty variety next year.

Best -- Terry

 

[XrayLizard]

10x20 very reasonable size

 

[Peartree]

We (mostly my wife) Planted two raised beds but I hey didn't do much. I dug the soil from the yard and is mostly clay and needs a lot of help. We planted a row of tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as a row of potatoes in the church community garden space. Both did well. We were buried in cucumbers for a while and got enough tomatoes to can a couple dozen quarts of sauce. Since we're out of jars, today I got the dehydrator from the basement and we'll dry a few racks for the freezer. After that, we'll probably donate the remaining harvests to the food pantry. I also experimented thus year with a few hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce. Definitely a learning curve and a work in progress but promising. I may be able to keep salad greens growing all winter this way.

 

[heada]

2 small plots in the back yard, both 4x8. Planted Corn, peas, green beans, sunflowers, bell peppers, broccoli, onions, carrots, regular beets and sugar beets. I'd grown a garden all my youth, 16x25, to augment our normal groceries with fresh produce. This year I skipped the tomatoes and added sugar beets because I wanted to see how they'd grow and also if I could convert them into granulated sugar. I also have a grape vine, 2 blackberry bushes, a red raspberry bush/vine and 2 strawberry plots.

As I'm sitting here typing, I'm watching a cardinal strip the last sunflower of all its seeds. I left 1 there for them. Just like I left 1 broccoli plant go to flower for the late pollinators.

 

[MALBAR 70]

We redid our garden this year as the old raised beds were dilapidated from the last several years of use. We used landscape timbers to construct four raised beds and filled them with several yards of compost soil from the local nursery. Two of the beds are 4'x8' and are about 15"-16" deep. the third bed is approximately 12' long and has three tiers . The fourth bed, the squash bed, is 4'x8' and is about 8" deep. We also put in a small patio area for some of the containers and grow boxes (and of course a barrel planter for herbs) and a 12"x 8' area for Asparagus. There are also several other containers around the garden as well.
We planted a lot of stuff, Two Beefsteak tomatoes, two Cherry Tomatoes, two Grape tomatoes, onions, Broccoli, Cauliflower, red, green and Jalapeño peppers, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Cantaloupe, Cucumbers Butternut Squash, Acorn Squash (from sprouts I found in my compost) Carrots, Parsnips Potatoes, Lettuce, Cabbage, Beets Celery, Brussel Sprouts, Fennel, Asparagus, Several types of beans (including Lima beans) and all sorts of herbs. I'm sure I missed a couple of things, but you get the idea.
Over all the garden did excellent this year. We ended up with so much of some of the stuff, like the Zucchini, Tomatoes and Acorn squash we have been leaving baskets on the neighbors door steps.

 

[mo2872]

30 X 20 "traditional" garden(not raised beds, just in the ground). This year we grew cucumbers, bell peppers, anaheim peppers, suajaro(sp?) peppers, tomatoes, honeydew and cantaloupe.

My boys also built SWMBO a new large cold frame, if we can find the twinwall polycarbonate for it.......

 

[aerostadt]

Don't forget corn. I tried Brussels Sprouts years ago, but I have since given up on that crop.

 

[XrayLizard]

Nice cold frame!

community gardens are out there for those that need a patch of dirt
One church I know of, doesn’t require you to be a member of the church.

 

[XrayLizard]

I need to fix my raised beds so they don’t leak dirt so much. Not difficult, just a get around to it thing.
I find that my yards clay dirt with some amendments does quite well.

 

[Citizen Baslim]

I used to have gardens...I still have goats

 

[XrayLizard]

One of these days I will figure out Strawberries.. you would think they are easy... but noooooo

 

[XrayLizard]

I used to have gardens...I still have goats

Neighbor has free roaming chickens... between those and local free roaming dawgs, had to encircle the garden with chicken wire etc

 

[mo2872]

Nice cold frame!

Thanks! Top hinges up to open, and the doors will have stops to prop them open as desired as well. Luckily, I've found a source for the twinwall poly in Wichita, so since I'm gonna be up that direction this weekend.........:y::y:

 

[Onebadhawk]

Heyy,
This is a cool idea for a thread..
I always love to plant veggies..
Don't always get too though..
We did this year, in pots, a few different types of tomatoes and a few different types of peppers..





The I'm not certain what type of pepper the longer peppers are..
The small ones are scotch bonnets, I didn't like the scotch bonnets at first,
They're so hot they're difficult to handle and work with, but I've found they have a super flavor..
You just have to be careful how you handle them and how much of them you use..

The tomatoes didn't do as well as they usually do due to the heat..
It was like 100 degrees + here in the north east for the whole month of July,
and 95 before and after that..
The Romas did ehhh, and the other large ones the same..
The cherry tomatoes did great though..
Super delish right off the plant..

Teddy

 

[RocketTree]

Raised deck garden. Built 4'x8' (1.5' deep) planter Two 1.5'x8' planters.
The 4x8 is doing excellent

Corn, watermelon, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, hot peppers

Not the right companion plants all thrown together, but limited on space, I wanted to experiment with different veg and take note for next year.

So far harvested dozens of cucumbers, 100+ green beans.

Corn almost ready. Only had 1 watermelon grow (oops..). Tomatoes are still green, hot peppers are still trying to flower.

In lined rubbermaid bins, I have yellow and red potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, brussel sprouts, onions. Looks like only a few weeks left of grow season.

 

[heada]

One of these days I will figure out Strawberries.. you would think they are easy... but noooooo

If your yard supports clover, then strawberries will be natural. They're similar to a ground vine where they send off shoots to expand so if you don't pay attention, they'll try to take over everything. When you're getting them established, plant the starter/transplat in loose soil that was tilled with manure but drains well. Don't let the soil get too dry while they're getting established but after that, very little care except keeping them in their assigned plot.

I actually had to remove 2 wild strawberry plants from my yard before I tilled my garden.

 

[XrayLizard]

lol, my "yard" all 1 acre is weeds,weeds, and more weeds. Thank goodness no HOA.

 

[boatgeek]

We don't do much in the way of vegetables, but we have tons of fruit. The big producers are two plum trees that together put out about 100 lbs of plums mid-summer. Our fig tree is finally producing well, and we have blackberries out back plus a few blueberries in front. You can't eat them, but we also have lots of daylilies as well.

 

[JamesS]

At the moment, my garden is mostly fruit trees that my parents planted - 4 plum varieties, 2 apple varieties, pear, nectarine, peach, persimmon, pomegranate, fig, pinneapple guava. I'm now trying to learn/fail-by-doing to manage them because I didn't pay attention to what they were doing when they were around. It's been going ok so far and I've been making lots of plum wine and hard cider with the fruit, also some jams.

I'm also learn/fail-by-doing with vegetables, testing both raised bed and in-ground planting. Frankly, not doing too great but at least collecting some data to make adjustments going forward. How do you guys deal with pests like pill bugs, ants, earwigs, etc....?

 

[Onebadhawk]

At the moment, my garden is mostly fruit trees that my parents planted - 4 plum varieties, 2 apple varieties, pear, nectarine, peach, persimmon, pomegranate, fig, pinneapple guava. I'm now trying to learn/fail-by-doing to manage them because I didn't pay attention to what they were doing when they were around. It's been going ok so far and I've been making lots of plum wine and hard cider with the fruit, also some jams.

I'm also learn/fail-by-doing with vegetables, testing both raised bed and in-ground planting. Frankly, not doing too great but at least collecting some data to make adjustments going forward. How do you guys deal with pests like pill bugs, ants, earwigs, etc....?

I'm really jealous..
Be careful,
if you don't do what you're supposed to irreparable damage may result..

Teddy

 

[jloveless]

One of these days I will figure out Strawberries.. you would think they are easy... but noooooo

Strawberries are really weather dependent. If the weather does what they like they do okay but if it stays wet or hot to quick forget it. Mother plays games every year giving you what you need for some stuff and not others.

 

[boatgeek]

At the moment, my garden is mostly fruit trees that my parents planted - 4 plum varieties, 2 apple varieties, pear, nectarine, peach, persimmon, pomegranate, fig, pinneapple guava. I'm now trying to learn/fail-by-doing to manage them because I didn't pay attention to what they were doing when they were around. It's been going ok so far and I've been making lots of plum wine and hard cider with the fruit, also some jams.

I'm also learn/fail-by-doing with vegetables, testing both raised bed and in-ground planting. Frankly, not doing too great but at least collecting some data to make adjustments going forward. How do you guys deal with pests like pill bugs, ants, earwigs, etc....?

With that many fruit trees, a pruning class would be money well spent. Your local county extension should be able to recommend some, though it may be a while before they start up again. I would love to have the space and energy to have that many fruit trees!

 

[Cape Byron]

Three years later... Our first crop of Ladyfinger bananas.

 

[JamesS]

With that many fruit trees, a pruning class would be money well spent. Your local county extension should be able to recommend some, though it may be a while before they start up again. I would love to have the space and energy to have that many fruit trees!

Thanks for the advise; I certainly will look into it. I've read some books and watched videos of how to prune but I'm still not fully confident when I do it.

 

[prfesser]

At the moment, my garden is mostly fruit trees that my parents planted - 4 plum varieties, 2 apple varieties, pear, nectarine, peach, persimmon, pomegranate, fig, pinneapple guava. I'm now trying to learn/fail-by-doing to manage them because I didn't pay attention to what they were doing when they were around. It's been going ok so far and I've been making lots of plum wine and hard cider with the fruit, also some jams.

I'm also learn/fail-by-doing with vegetables, testing both raised bed and in-ground planting. Frankly, not doing too great but at least collecting some data to make adjustments going forward. How do you guys deal with pests like pill bugs, ants, earwigs, etc....?

You might also try your hand at grafting your trees. It's not terribly difficult. Google knows how it's done and it'll tell you. Rubber gloves to keep from touching the cut surfaces with skin, and alcohol on the knife blade after each cut.

Here in west KY I cut twigs to graft onto other trees sometime in late February. Store in the fridge until your tree is budding. Shave the end of the graft and the end of the place to be grafted to shallow angles, exposing long ovals. They don't have to be perfect but they should be close to the same size. Fit the two surfaces together, and wind a long strip of rubber (long balloon or a cut from a glove) around the joint to hold them together. The rubber will slowly deteriorate in the sun and will fall off. If/when you see the graft budding, you have successed! It's a nice way to insure that you have both apple varieties even if something happens to one tree.

My first experience was grafting a golden delicious twig onto a Fuji branch. That twig ended up being the largest and heaviest branch on the tree, and one night after a heavy rain, it pulled the tree partially over!

Best -- Terry

 

[Cape Byron]

Harvested organic Bok Choy seed. Ten minutes work gets you about 500 seeds.

 

[XrayLizard]

and just what the heck is that lol!

 

[prfesser]

Bok choy stems are similar in texture to celery, though white, and stay crisp pretty well in stir-fry.

 

[XrayLizard]

aha