Garden 2021

[MoBookworm1957]

Ha Ha. They do. But they're on our table almost every night. Husband likes them.

Harvard beets-yum
Pickled beets -okay
Harvard beets- yum

 

[Peanut]

Harvard beets-yum
Pickled beets -okay
Harvard beets- yum

I've never had Harvard beets, in fact never heard of them. Just check the web for recipes, seems simple to make.

For us growing up beets were always pickled beets in the winter. Used to have pickled peaches also, either were dessert.

 

[Double R]

Everything is now in the garden.
Peppers are already looking better. Planted them a little small but figured it was worth a try. Ordered some special fertilizer for the tomatoes and peppers. Think maybe there’s a deficiency and that’s why we’ve never been successful with peppers. Was watching some videos and saw similar issues in deficient pepper plants. Worth a try.
Most of our seeds have now germinated. Waiting on beans and one set of cucumbers.
This evening the ground was moving with lady bug larvae. Quite a few on the tomatoes. Wondering if they are feasting on the little gnats I’m seeing on them. First time in years I may not have to buy lady bugs! Moved a few to my roses that I have an aphid infestation on.

 

[UrbanHunter]

This weekend I finally got busy on the new raised beds, the ones that I have been growing tomatoes in were only 2X6 and I wanted to add some companion crops, they were not big enough. So I decided to replace them with a pair of 3'X8' boxes, this is about as big as I can go on the space I have. The old boxes were built about 10 years ago, but they still have some life left in them so I will be trying to be gentle with them and move them into a new location (hopefully).

I got one of the boxes emptied, about 24 cubic feet of soil, and then removed the liner and moved the box out of the way (in 2 sections cause one section is all I can lift). I assembled one of the new boxes and in the process found that the 8' 2X10 ranged in length from 7' 11 3/4" to 8' 1/2", so I had to stop and trim them all down to the same length or they won't stack right or be square. Got the one box built and fully lined with 3 layers of 6 mil black plastic.

I added all the soil from the second old raised bed and it is obvious that the new boxes are exactly 2 time the volume of the old boxes, I had 50 gallons of recycled soil ready but that didn't put much of a dent in the gap, so this morning I went to HD and got a truck load of soil, should be just enough to top off the first box......

On a happy note while I was watering my indoor tomato plant yesterday it droped a nice ripe tomato on my head, it startled me but it didn't break open and when I looked up I realized that there were a half dozen ripe tomato's hidden between the floor joists above my head. They will go well with the 5 gallons of salad the I picked on saturday afternoon. This weekend we will have to start blanching and freezing spinach, we just can't eat it fast enough to keep up.

 

[bamadeb48]

Planted 2rows of red potatoes,4 rows of pencil Cobb corn, 2rows of October beans,19 hills of squash, planting peas today, and okra soon, cold in the 30s tonight. Planting tomatoes next week.

 

[bamadeb48]

Did I say I LOVE GARDENING!!

 

[Terri9630]

I have dropped beans sprouting in the greenhouse. That must mean its warm enough to plant, right? The beans wouldn't lie to me, would they?

 

[elkhound]

been having frost last several morning. but tomorrow night freeze is coming.temps below 32f all night it seems for 2 nights in a row. i guess the taters i planted first need protection. they popped ground a few days ago and frost not bothered them but hard freeze will do them in. with these crazy winds its hard to keep straw in place so unlike last year i am just going to hill dirt up over the small plants and let them bust through soil a second time instead of letting them freeze.

not much going on but i did grind some purple dent corn i grew last year for meal. about only exciting garden stuff going on here.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

I've never had Harvard beets, in fact never heard of them. Just check the web for recipes, seems simple to make.

For us growing up beets were always pickled beets in the winter. Used to have pickled peaches also, either were dessert.

Spiced peaches-yum

 

[Bacpacker]

Put in a couple fence post with a rope between them to drape row covers over my mater plants to protect from frost tonight.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Thursday or Friday will be putting together another raised bed..
Ready to plant beans.
Kale, spinach is up.
No carrots yet.
My grand daughter Estelle and I planted carrots few weeks ago.
She checks every time she comes over.

 

[Terri9630]

My mechanic who is also my hay guy has a big ol pile of horse manure and bedding out behind his barn. Guess who's getting it for free for the compost pile...

 

[UrbanHunter]

This afternoon high wend's set in and the temperature is expected to drop, so I created a plastic row cover to keep the delicate plants safe. I am glad that when I put up a frame to support the tomatoes I included a couple of horizontal beams to support a cover about 3' above the new raised beds. The plastic covers are getting wipped badly by 60mph winds but they should just hold long enough to make it past this rough spot.

 

[Meerkat]

So far all is coming up nicely.Especially the beans, sunflower,squash.Tomatoes have blooms ,they were set back a couple weeks ago from frost bite.Thought we lost them.
Lots of work trying to stay organic,time to build more compost.Have plenty of leaves I raked up but need to throw some green into pile.Have plenty of green vines may put them to use in compost.
Sowed seed 5wks ago'mid March but frost set them back a couple times.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Planted more garlic

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I got the second new raised bed assembled, lined, filled, and planted with the starter tomatoes. I need to direct sow the companion plants now. I also moved the plants from 2 growing stations out into the container garden. I have now used up all the soil that I had available. I did not harvest the spinach like the wife wanted but I think it will be find for a couple of days.

I have 3 trays of sad looking tomatoes that I don't have a home for, I think I will try to give them away tomorrow.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Will putting together another raised bed tomorrow.
Will get soil into it tomorrow also.
Planted 2 more flower pots of garlic today.
Grand daughter also helped Granny plant garlic in whiskey barrel too.
She sang it a little song about growing up big and strong.

 

[lilmissy]

@elkhound, how much corn meal did you get and from how much corn? Do you use it fresh?
every night we have had a frost For three nights now. Suppose to warm up this week. I do have beets, lettuce, onions and peas in and they look good. Peppers are slow to germinate, but arent they always

 

[elkhound]

@elkhound, how much corn meal did you get and from how much corn? Do you use it fresh?
every night we have had a frost For three nights now. Suppose to warm up this week. I do have beets, lettuce, onions and peas in and they look good. Peppers are slow to germinate, but arent they always

well its hard to say exactly as i lost a harddrive last fall and lost my pictures.i managed to save a few. but i grew this corn out for seed and to see how it does. it was about 10 year old seed and i germinated it in feb and it was close to 100% so i planted a bit to check it out. i only got a half gallon bag full and a quart bag fro best ears. you really are suppose to select seed from a mix of minimum of 200 ears but that couldnt happen and might not ever happen to be honest.i am growing this corn for meal only and possibly hominy.i am going to processes a bit.like a handful to see how it tastes.

from memory it was only 22 stalks and i harvested 20 ears...i think?

this is what it looked like

 

[elkhound]

@lilmissy from my notes and actually do it. this new mill i got back in winter needed to be used first with corn to knock any lose burs off grinding plate. so i ground some squirrel corn.heres what 2 ears looks like shelled and ground. from my thinking its going to take 2 ears to get a pan of cornbread. i will know more this week when i use the purple mill i ground and measure it out. thats painting with a broad brush too as all corn is not same size wise nor kernel size. so take this with a grain of salt. i will have more experience with this after this year..hopefully i am going to grow a pretty large patch of corn. i grew one or lets say i tried to last year and i failed over picking wrong cultivar of corn for here in my area.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I am trying to plan my planting around companion plants, I replaced 2 small raised beds (6X2) with 2 larger (3X8) ones for my tomatoes, I am hoping to make better use of the space. The beds run east to west, I put the tomatoes in the center and am planting hot peppers on the south side of them, trying to pair up the pepper plants and space them so I don't have a problem with cross pollination. I am thinking about putting in some green onions and lettuce along the south side of the beds and spinach along the north side. I have some celery started and may try to add them into the mix. I need to be careful not to over fill the pot.

I was planning to plant beets there but they seem to be a poor match with tomatoes, so I am going to plant my beets in with onions I have growing in narrow beds along the south side of the house.

I was wondering if any else who does container/raised bed gardening has any experience with companion planting and high density gardening? I would love to get any knowledgeable advice on the subject.

 

[lilmissy]

Great info @elkhound! Thanks. you said you should pick from 200 ears. Do you mean to plant right?

@UrbanHunter, i have raised beds and i plant in the ground. To me, certain things do better in the ground if you are planting a large amount. I wont do green beans again in the raised bed. they did well, but I planted way To many In the box. I didnt want green beans In 2 separate Locations, not sure why. I am weird like that this year I have onions and lettuce in a raised bed. They say, anything you eat together can grow together.

 

[elkhound]

Great info @elkhound! Thanks. you said you should pick from 200 ears. Do you mean to plant right?

@lilmissy yes for planting seed...its said you should select seed from a minimum of 200 ears. so you shell it and then get your seed from that lot.the one thing to industry after shelling and mixing the seed they run it through a screen to cull certain size seeds out. if you notice most of seed looks like it came from center of ear of corn.the nice looking 'classic kernel'.well thats so seed goes through various row planter plates be it the small single row garden type or giant pull behind tractor type.

then theres truth in experience...all ag or at least 90%(1,000's of years worth) done in this world up until our modern age was done by illiterate farmers. they chose seed by observation of production and taste. no phd required !! if not for them we would not have any of the things we have.people tend to over think the simplest of things. me included.

 

[Meerkat]

Nice corn Elk.

 

[Erin]

I'm planning to transplant my started seedlings outside next weekend, but I'm worried because many of them either haven't come up or did grow but died quickly. I'm hoping they'll all be much healthier once they're outside.

 

[UrbanHunter]

The San Marzano's are bounding back, I hope the other tomatoes do the same... They were in bad shape when I planted them, but I planted them about a foot deep and only left about 8" of green sticking out. I planted some companion beets in with my onions, a couple of turnips too. I planted carrots, celery, spinach, and green onions near the tomatoes, but I still have some space left.

Delivered 36 tomatoes (mix of steak, 4th of Julys, Cherry, and a couple of paste) to a friend, when I got home I noticed that I still had 6 paste tomatoes that need a home.....

I am happy to have most of the indoor growing stations empty now, I still need to move out the 13 poinsettia plants, hope to put them someplace where the wife can see them from the window.

We are now having an abundance of lettuce and spinach coming off, I need to start a few new ones, possibly by the tomatoes.

I think I will ask the wife for permission to visit HD in the morning to pickup a few bags of soil before work... that is always a challenging subject here.

Stay safe

 

[Bacpacker]

Starting on my second year of raised beds. Still learning myself, but I did find last year I crowded things too much. I put 14 pepper plants and 2 echinasia plants in about 6x4' bed. the other 6' was all onions. They produced well, but it was a pain to find all the peppers to pick. Lookin back 10 peppers would have worked better. My other bed I put a 4' row of carrots, row of parsnips, and 2 rows of snow peas. Carrots got smothered out. Peas took over, but soon as they produced I tore them out and parsnips did well. I also put 2 summer squash in one corner and they went wild. Had to tear them out well before they finished producing.
Any vining or running crop, peas, beans, melons, cukes, squash, ect should be trained on some type fencing for them to climb. Give them space to go. I planted a dozen tomato plants in a 3x12 bed. 6 on each side and staggered. That may be too tight, we'll see. I'm running a cattle panel between the rows for them to climb. I planted some onions around the plants. Garlic would work well too. Another bed 3x8 I planted a dozen cabbages, 6 lettuce, and 6 spinach plants. May be too much, but I plan to pull stuff as needed. I'm also sticking a herb plant or 3 in each bed. I want to stick a few marigolds in with the maters as I pull onions. They are good to keep pest out.
I look forward to your results Urban, compare notes if you will.

 

[Meerkat]

BacP yall are commercial compared to out little garden. We are just not doing as much this past 2 years. I'll take pics for all of yall soon as crops come up more.

 

[Bacpacker]

Meer I now have 5 raised beds. Hopefully by this winter I'll have 5 more built and filled. PLan to try and make a frame to cover and try to grow some stuff over winter. One of my beds is now loaded with asparagus and it's coming up nicely.Gonna have to finish topping it off soon. Still have 2 other areas down in my field that I'm growing taters, beans, and will plant melons, squash, corn, and pumpkins.

 

[Meerkat]

Meer I now have 5 raised beds. Hopefully by this winter I'll have 5 more built and filled. PLan to try and make a frame to cover and try to grow some stuff over winter. One of my beds is now loaded with asparagus and it's coming up nicely.Gonna have to finish topping it off soon. Still have 2 other areas down in my field that I'm growing taters, beans, and will plant melons, squash, corn, and pumpkins.

Sounds great,feels good to see thing produce and know what your eating.