the garden thread

got my onions are in and some of the garlic. plan on gettign the red tators in tomorrow and then start the seeds inside for peas and beans. this is a shot before any planting
who all is doign the same

 

Did the same 2 weekends ago, then it froze last weekend. I'm not seeing much green after the freeze.

 

I've started a couple varieties of tomatoes, some serrano peppers, eggplant, cilantro, dill, and basil. Cann never figure out the weather here, but the new house has a sun room with the heater venting in to it, so things should be good to go. Eventually, the front yard will have more gardening space (after I pull out the 20 or so juniper bushes, and build some planters). For now, I'm trying to patiently wait, and plan what to do with the veg once it arrives.

 

I gotta scope out a nice spot for a small garden. There is one patch of trees in the new yard. I need to keep an eye on the sun on a day off to see when/where the shade hits. I'm thinking evening shade will be good thing, and morning/noonish sun will be good.

Gotta pick the sweet spot

 

we picked the spot that made it easy for wattering and weeding. and the raised beds are great (i can cover them a few weeks to let them dry out ) alot of people round here cant even think about tillig yet as its all too wet. jsut for specs the beds i have are 6x6 foot and in the picture the lower right siis shaded till nearly noon and is great for salad greens since it keeps a hair cooler (less bolting ) going to try black beans and carrots in that bed along with the red taters. im guilty of tight plant packing

 

How deep are they?
And do you have plastic underneath?

Seems relatively easy to build which has me intrigued. I've only ever tilled the land.

Here's a GIANT tomato plant my brother had in his garden in 2013. That's a 6ft fence.


Here's the start of my garden in 2013

 

Nothing here yet, except Leah's done some work cleaning out the raised beds. First year in a while she did not sprout seeds, but that just isn't feasible right not with Luca running/climbing all around inside. We'll probably get some lettuces in, but not much other early stuff. Some herbs are already springing back with a vengence, which is good to see. But all of our vegetable, tomato, pepper, etc. plants this year will need to be purchased as seedlings. Last year Leah tried onions and garlic for the first time; not in the works for this year, though.

The raised beds have been great; overall much better yield then the 'patch' we originally created. More of a pain for tilling, watering and pest protection though. My main project this year is to build some framework to support fencing/ netting. I had a great setup for the patch, so I'm hoping to get close to that again. it's definitely more of a pain trying to cover the boxes then a single rectangular patch.

 

so you can kind of see that my beds are right off the back porch and the pic was taken from the upper deck. there was a natural gradient down so from the concrete pad i did step down beds lumber used were 2x12s and 4x4s. 6x6 was picked caue of board lengths and i can still reach mostly in from both sides. i back filled the beds with the topsoil that was dug up from my shop build last year. thinking that this year we might finish the walkway between the beds and dig out the walk way to the front of the house (more top soil for maybe 2 more 6X6 beds )
last year i think we got abot 140lb roma maters off of just 3 plants and nearly 100lb red skin tators from 10 plants at the rate we are going we might have to set up a stand and put the kids to work

 

toothpick
no plastic under (i wanted earthworms easy entrance )
top beds are 24 deep and bottome 18 best part is the divider /step-down board is easy to remove also the upper beeds are only 2 inch above the concrete pad. i take out the board drive the tiller in make 3 passes and then slightly dig out were the board was put it back and shovel a few scoops of dirt back up then rake out. when i dig tators i take board off and dig straight in and lift (no digging down )

 

ok so they are bigger than they look in the photo.
I may attempt just a single box bed this year.

Thanks for the info!

 

cleaned mine out, put down some compost and tilled it in. won't be long now. should see some asparagus coming up pretty soon.

 

Bacon Seeds....

 

I wish they stayed that small forever! I'd have one as a pet

 

The weather forecasters are calling for a warmer than normal summer since I don't have any tomatoes started. Might need to go to the local nursery or the farmer's market (starts this weeked) and look for some plants. After almost no frost at all this winter, we had a couple frosty days recently, so too early for sensitive plants. Was doing some weeding and pruning in the yard today and saw some garlic plants that I missed last year. Need to mark them so I can remember where they are before the weeds take over.

 

Any composters? I ended up using my reserve for some grass seeding I needed to do off a recently installed patio where it was all tore up.
Here is my compost bins.


The "How Hot's Your Pile" compost thermometer. Its cookin!


Hope to have it ready to use in a couple weeks. Its cooking pretty good right now. since I'll be mowing now, I'll be able to get the next batch going pretty soon.

 

Looks like a great set up Mike. I compost less with chickens, but we'll put that to use too.

 

After I tore up my back I stopped turning compost with a pitchfork and got this beast:



One thing that I like about it is that you fill one half at a time, so the other half gets to break down. I need to find my axle grease and lube it up--makes a big difference in how easy it turns. Also need to trim the cedar. It was only about 10" high when we put the composter in.

One thing we've found that's been really good for our compost is coffee grounds. Starbucks used to give them away for free (don't know if they still do.) They've got a lot of nitrogen in them and will get the compost steaming. I've heard that they're pretty acidic, although some folks say since they've been used there isn't nearly as much acid in them.

 

Lucretia, If I didn't know that the CSS Hunley had been recovered, I'd think you had an historical find there. That is quite a rig and I know those tumblers work pretty good. Turning isn't so bad if you keep it organized so you are just moving it to the next bay. And if you saw my anvil post, you know I'm not bright enough to stay away from heavy lifting:k. That is a pretty small batch there. We generate plenty of coffee grounds and other assorted kitchen scraps added once or twice a week.

Mike those chickens would get a compost heap going pronto. I have access to horse manure, but did not use any this year.

 

I like that two chamber unit. We have a 'single' which basically means you can't keep adding to it, so we basically just do one batch a year. Not very cost-effective!

 

Yeah, I like the 2 chambers. Very useful. And you can fit a wheelbarrow underneath when it's time to empty a chamber. The only problem is that they're bloody expensive--especially when you consider they're plastic and cheap sheet metal and tubing. I got mine as a "factory reconditioned" deal. Factory reconditioned my Aunt Fanny--they sort of took apart one that someone had returned, just enough to put it in a shipping box. Parts were rusted together, the sheet metal was bent, and it even had dried compost on it. I squawked about it and they send me a second one. Just as bad condition, but between the 2 I got one working unit. Had to sand down some rusty spots and apply some Rustoleum, but it works well.

Spring is really coming early here. Dogwoods are just starting and crabapples are at their peak:





Tulips & bluebells going strong:




And the tree peonies are starting to bloom: