the garden thread

Over the past several weeks I have purchased several pickup loads of soil mix from a local business who caters to the recently legalized herb growers. When I put in my first flowerbed with the good dirt it was like I could see the plants growing as I stood there.
Now I have several more beds for flowers, cooking herbs and vegetables. Last count there were 63 tomato plants in the ground. Need to do a little cleanup in the garden then I will take more photos.

and....I got 4 baby ducks to eat the slugs in the garden. Ducks eat slugs, don't they?
That was how I justified getting ducks. Actually they are just goofy and fun to watch.

 

63 tomato plants! whole lotta tomatoes!

I can't say I've ever heard of ducks eating slugs, but why wouldn't they? We had a duck when I was a kid, kept it with the chickens. Every now and then we had some really funky looking eggs. Now I'm not suggesting that's even possible....but on more than one occasion I did see the duck wrestling a hen.

 

with as many mators as i got off 3 plants i woudl hate to see the pile you will get with new good ground. looks liek we will soon be pickig the start of the peas. blue bearies and black raz will be coming in soon (got to get the bird nettig up before i dont have to worry about it)
beets are lookig good as are the onions and garlic just put carrots and black beans in a few days ago but im a bit worrrid as i dont see any activity yet

 

Man I need to find a way to quit renting a basement suite and get me a garden at home! I am fortunate to have 5 4'x4' beds at work that the students of the school tend with our help.

 

My potatoes bloomed and now the greenery is starting to yellow and die back.
Is that what is supposed to happen? or did something go wrong?

 

Perfectly normal by my standards. If you want you can dig one up to check on them but they likely have a few more days to go.

Once the plant had wilted and fallen to the ground is when I dig em up. I don't know what kind of potatoes I had but the plant turned a greyish color, looked dry and was laying on the ground (It looked dead). Dug em up and they were ready ready.

There were some that were rotten, but I'd say 95% were good

 

Thanks Jason.
That is what I was hoping.

 

uep flower and then slowly dye \back normal. mine got beat up by a bad stormm but look like it will be ok. right now im keepig an eye on my garlic as soe of the tips are browing. imnot sure if wew will even bother with green beans next year as the ones we started have not done well

 

My peas are starting to produce but the beans are going kind of slow.
Tons of small tomatoes on the first ones I planted.
Gotta take some more photos.

 

Miracle-Gro for tomatoes works wonders. I don't think I've ever had a garden without using it. It's good to put it on all your plants too.

Epsom salt is also a must for my gardens. I sprinkle a cup full around the base of each plant then water. Careful not to touch the plant with it.

These are plants from my brothers garden in 2013. Worth sharing I think.

This is one tomato plant and that's a 6ft fence.



And THE cucumber plant.




Here's a better picture for scale





Makes me miss the Illinois dirt.

 

I dug up some of the dying potatoes.
Lots of potatoes from the few I dug up so far. They are not green like the photo. These are Yukon Golds.
But I learned to mix the dirt with planting mix so the ground won't be so hard next time.
These were planted in the hard orange soil we have in Oregon.

 

They look just like what I had. Very tasty!

 

We are dry, dry, DRY! Had to get the grass paint out and spray the front yard to keep the weed police at bay. All the tomatoes are setting fruit. The cherry tomatoes are almost big enough to start ripening.

WAAAAAY early this year.

Nice looking potatoes! I would boil those bad boys up and put some salt, butter, and parsley on them. Yum!

 

Probably tonight with the potatoes. There are still 3 patches to dig that have started dying back.
I like to quarter and boil them. Then eat them swimming in too much butter. I have parsley in the herb garden so I will pick some of that to go with the taters.
Started picking the snap peas this morning and getting to the last of the red romaine.

My landlord had started a drip irrigation system in the garden. The 1/2" hose goes all around the garden in the lower fenceline.
Now I need to figure out what to move and get things all set up to keep the tomatoes, raspberries and melons watered.
Did I mention that there are about 80 tomato plants now.
My wife thinks I am getting a little carried away but you can't have too many tomatoes.....can you?

 

On a sidenote;
I bought a Walmart food dehydrator and will make an attempt at drying some of the vegetables.
I also plan to try my hand at canning as well.
If all else fails I will have to buy a small chest freezer.
I am having too much fun with the garden to let it go to waste.

 

mark dont do a small cheast freezer diging stuff out sucks. i got a 2/3s vert. an din hind site thinking it should have been a full size. tht said we get half a small cow and kelly likes to hunt. between cow and garden we had that sucker packed. this year we will be canning more and working on freezing less cause both kelly and derek are hoping t go out hunting deer (if not i ll be buying a case of yard bird to break down to change up protein options

 

Thanks Butch.
I will look into the vertical freezers.
I would also like to be able to get fresh fish at the marina and freeze for the rest of the year.
The last couple times I bought supposedly fresh fish at the grocery store just stunk up the house and ended up in the garbage.

 

These are my bug eaters. They are just starting to get feathers. They are Indian Runners. A fitting name because they run everywhere. There are a lot of grasshoppers that just hatched a few days ago and these guys are having a great time feasting on them.

 

I took some garden photos this morning with my phone. The soil here is hard orange clay so I had to bring in good dirt. Now everything is growing fast. Most of the plants in these photos have only been in the ground for about a month or less.
This is a strip of flowers in front of the house. I think I planted them too close together because it is becoming a jungle in there.

These are some herbs planted last fall.

Another herb bed just put in a few weeks ago. To the right is Jack. He is my alarm system. Definitely not a people dog. Doesn't know he is only about 5lbs.

Melons, pumpkin and Cucumbers.

A few types of peppers.

And a few tomatoes. Most are different heirloom varieties that I started from seed that was given to me by a friend who produces seed for more obscure heirloom vegetables.




This last one is a grafted beefsteak from the grocery store. Not very tall but healthy and a lot of tomatoes getting started.

 

Wow looking good!!

I miss being able to keep outdoor animals. Farm animals