Garden 2022

[Double R]

I bet that’s neat to see. Wow!!

 

[UrbanHunter]

I opened up my raised bed tops today, it's sunny and just too hot for the plants, we don't want any premature bolting... peas are up but there are some bare spots so I replanted.

I emptied my first bucket of carrots last night, it's the first weekend of the month so I used the soil to make 2 new buckets, I have switched from 5 gallon buckets to #3 nursery pots, they are just about as wide but not as deep, I was able to make 2 buckets with the soil from 1 of the old pots. I am now putting a date sticker on the outside of my carrot buckets cause I forget.... The goal is still to plant 2 buckets each month so that after 4 months we will have a constant supply.

I was able to turn on my water collection system just before the storm hit, I picked up 150 gallons. It will not be long before I need to start watering daily.

Well I have rested my back enough, I think I will get back to work.

edited, replacing not with now on the date sticker comment.

 

[Bacpacker]

Planted 4 Elderberry plants in one of the lower gardens. And 3 horse radish roots. Also planted 3 roots in one of the new beds. Gonna do some testing which does the best. I plan to dig both from the bed this fall and at least one from the garden and see how they did.
Planted 2 Sugar maple trees where I had done some grubbing over the winter, got a nice space cleared out for them. Both had very nice root balls. Still have one more to plant, but I've got to drop a dead pine first.
After all that I started installing my drip lines in the beds. I got 6 of 8 beds set up. I now need to figure out the most efficent way to distribute the water to the beds. Right now I'm thinking on running a 5 way manifold with hoses to each set of beds and use a 2 way splitter to cover each bed. That'll cover the 10 beds I intend to have in use this year.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I finished restoring my "free" wheel barrow, it is now like a new one. I am doing very little work today because it's Sunday and the wife says I'm being bad...

I am going to make the inside of what used to be the tomato cage into a refuge for the delicate plants that the bugs love. I am going to use insect netting all the way around and over the top so it will be an 8'X7' walk in bug free zone, I am also adding shelving to allow me to grow on 2 levels. I have a gallon of Permethrin, that insect repellent you put on clothes, I am thinking I will use it to "wash" all the bug screen materials at one time before installing the netting on several of the raised beds and the new area.... It may be a little over kill but hey it's what I do...

I need to spend about 2 days installing more drip irrigation tubing and anchoring it all securely to the raised bed frames where ever possible. I have been putting a valve at each raised bed as I go so when I am watering I can turn off the water to any of the beds that are not in use. I also have been installing a tee to a capped fitting at the lowest spot close to each circuit so I can drain them quickly by removing the cap at the end of the season, now if I could just remember where I put the bag of caps..... I've been installing drip irrigation stuff here for over 10 years and I may finish it all up some day...

 

[Bacpacker]

Laying out drip systems and figuring out how to tie it all together to make it work like you want takes time

 

[joel]

Some of things I am trying in my perennial garden, I will not like, but even if I have to choke it down, it is better than eating insects.
So If it is not to hard to control, I will keep a few plants & if we lose seeds source or meat source, then I can live on weeds in my perennial garden.

 

[UrbanHunter]

The rain came in yesterday, I have left my raised bed tops open so they can catch that rain. I have finished the design of my new-improved raised bed tops to allow for 2 swing arms, an inner with insect netting, and an outer with the plastic to act like a greenhouse. I need to go to HD to pick up the wood and supplies for the build upgrade, but I don't want to do it in the rain, plus the next two days are already packed with stuff the needs doing.

I am enjoying my "free" wheel barrow, I only had to replace everything but the tub, but I can already see it as a time saver. I have been widening my walkways so I have room to navigate the whole area, I still need to figure out some ramps to go between levels, my garden is on 4 levels, and is 5 feet lower than my driveway.

I need to get all this "getting ready" stuff done because I have lots of little plants that are wanting to move out to bigger digs.

The wife's "free" red-bud tree is all popped out with beautiful purplish blooms, after growing in a container for 5 years, I finally transplanted it last spring. It survived the summer and looks like it made it through it's first winter in the ground. When I got it, it was the size of an ink pen refill and now it stands about 8' tall, nature is amazing.

I did want to share an update on the short growing season corn I am trying to start, out of 80 seeds I got less than 20 plants (I need 60 plants for my plan), so I started (wishful thinking there) all my back-up seeds of that variety. They will be 3 weeks behind but it is better than a half empty bed.... Now watch, knowing my luck they will all come up and I will be looking for another spot to plant corn..... gardening on a postage stamp is full of challenges.

 

[Neb]

The rain came in yesterday, I have left my raised bed tops open so they can catch that rain. I have finished the design of my new-improved raised bed tops to allow for 2 swing arms, an inner with insect netting, and an outer with the plastic to act like a greenhouse. I need to go to HD to pick up the wood and supplies for the build upgrade, but I don't want to do it in the rain, plus the next two days are already packed with stuff the needs doing.

I am enjoying my "free" wheel barrow, I only had to replace everything but the tub, but I can already see it as a time saver. I have been widening my walkways so I have room to navigate the whole area, I still need to figure out some ramps to go between levels, my garden is on 4 levels, and is 5 feet lower than my driveway.

I need to get all this "getting ready" stuff done because I have lots of little plants that are wanting to move out to bigger digs.

The wife's "free" red-bud tree is all popped out with beautiful purplish blooms, after growing in a container for 5 years, I finally transplanted it last spring. It survived the summer and looks like it made it through it's first winter in the ground. When I got it, it was the size of an ink pen refill and now it stands about 8' tall, nature is amazing.

I did want to share an update on the short growing season corn I am trying to start, out of 80 seeds I got less than 20 plants (I need 60 plants for my plan), so I started (wishful thinking there) all my back-up seeds of that variety. They will be 3 weeks behind but it is better than a half empty bed.... Now watch, knowing my luck they will all come up and I will be looking for another spot to plant corn..... gardening on a postage stamp is full of challenges.

Jerusalem was built on a hill so there are stairs everywhere.

Ramps everywhere for carts.

No vehicles allowed in the old city so everything comes in on carts.

That tire on the ground is chained to the cart. When going down hill he stands on tire as his brake.

Ben

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Green beans are up, but not big enough to transplant yet.
Kale is up too.
Peas are up.
Some things are not up,
But Grand daughter's carrots are up, but just barely.

 

[Double R]

Upsized pots for the bell peppers. Also dill and oregano. Working on starting more marigolds

 

[UrbanHunter]

It has rained for a couple of days now and my rain barrels are at 100%, I know because I can see water running out the over flow. I broke the handle on my hoe the other day, the ferrule came lose and the wood cracked, had an old handle what was crooked as a dogs hind leg, well that will work for a while. I am getting ready to move the operations outdoors. I cleared off a table on the patio and it will be a potting table for a while. I expect the next several weeks in the garden will be very busy.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Will be digging up some of my raised bed dirt.
Filling raised beds on legs with some of it.
Putting the rest in 18 gallon totes on back patio.
While they set forms to cover everything in concrete.
Then will raising approx 48 more beds after concrete cures.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Will be digging up some of my raised bed dirt.
Filling raised beds on legs with some of it.
Putting the rest in 18 gallon totes on back patio.
While they set forms to cover everything in concrete.
Then will raising approx 48 more beds after concrete cures.

Just reading this makes may back hurt, raising 48 beds, on concrete... yep that sounds like work to me!

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Just reading this makes may back hurt, raising 48 beds, on concrete... yep that sounds like work to me!

I don't do it all at once.
Just as budget and Dad's needs allow.
Easy Peasy, besides almost always great nephews, nieces and grand children in trouble that need to work off punishment time. So they come to my house for hard labor. Pull weeds by hand, no weed eater, move dirt by shovel or bucket etc.
So my garden heavy lifting gets done. And they learn something about the "OLD" ways of living and providing for my family.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Just before lunch the wife calls to me, I need more green lettuce, baby spinach, and carrots so I can make us some bagged salad for the rest of the week. So I run out and harvest everything on the list, run back in wash it, spin it and give it to her to chop and bag.... Then she calls down, do you have any 2 gallon bags? This salad will not fit in a 1 gallon bag.

She says that I'm most likely the only person for a hundred miles that grows a garden all winter long. What can I say?

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Just reading this makes may back hurt, raising 48 beds, on concrete... yep that sounds like work to me!

I don't do it all at once.
Just as budget and Dad's needs allow.
Easy Peasy, besides almost always great nephews, nieces and grand children in trouble that need to work off punishment time. So they come to my house for hard labor. Pull weeds by hand, no weed eater, move dirt by shovel or bucket etc.
So my garden heavy lifting gets done. And they learn something about the "OLD" ways of living and providing for my family.

And I have bunches of great nieces and nephews.

I have 4 grand children 3 girls ages 1,4,6, and 1 boy age 9.
I have 14 great nieces and nephews aging 2,4,6,12,14 girls and the rest are boys aging 3 through 16.
Lots of great helpers to pass on the old school knowledge too.

 

[Bacpacker]

Just before lunch the wife calls to me, I need more green lettuce, baby spinach, and carrots so I can make us some bagged salad for the rest of the week. So I run out and harvest everything on the list, run back in wash it, spin it and give it to her to chop and bag.... Then she calls down, do you have any 2 gallon bags? This salad will not fit in a 1 gallon bag.

She says that I'm most likely the only person for a hundred miles that grows a garden all winter long. What can I say?

I say you all are well fed all year

 

[elkhound]

martin garlic,siberian kale and walking onions

 

[hughewil]

I can't even plant yet. still snowed here as of last weekend and drops into the 30's.

 

[Amish Heart]

Your kale looks great! Mine is still seed in the ground.

 

[elkhound]

I can't even plant yet. still snowed here as of last weekend and drops into the 30's.

snow flurries here next few days...lol...the battle between is it winter or spring is still happening.frost here this morning. i have had 50 degree temperature swings in last week....lol

 

[Bacpacker]

snow flurries here next few days...lol...the battle between is it winter or spring is still happening.frost here this morning. i have had 50 degree temperature swings in last week....lol

Same here

 

[Amish Heart]

Me, too. The plants did go from the basement grow lights to the greenhouse finally. So I put more that I just seeded in the basement. The only thing out here was what I seeded (Kale, beets, spinach). All the ladies around here cut out the bottom of milk jugs and put plants out and put the milk jug over. But the wind was so bad that there's been flying milk jugs. Noticed some put whole straw bales out to use as a wind blocker for the jugs. I would rather wait. I'll plant my cabbages and brussel sprouts out in a couple of weeks. They are fine in the greenhouse for now. And the price for single plants at Loews today! And Tractor Supply! Who would pay that?

 

[ABR]

It's really interesting to read how everyone gardens in different climates! Down here most of us don't start seeds inside. We plant straight in the garden most of the time. I do all of my veggies from seed except for tomatoes and peppers. Those I buy bedding plants. Over the next 12 months I'll be expanding my in-ground beds and will likely try to start some tomatoes and peppers from seed next spring. This spring all I have going is a few different tomatoes, couple types of peppers, 2 kinds of bush beans, shell peas, spaghetti squash, scallop squash and grey zucchini. Everything is up except the spaghetti squash and that usually takes longer than everything else anyways.

 

[joel]

I went to the 2022 Spring Midlands Plant Flower Festival, I got two pepper plants
seven tomato plants, I went to get Lemon boy, but they did not have any.
one Hibiscus sabdariffa plant for making tea.
This Hibiscus sabdariffa plant is frost sensitive, the lady said she replant it every Spring & it will make fruit & seeds by Fall.
We shall see.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I looked and I like the way my romaine is coming along, I think I can operate things in a sustainable manner. I have all the lumber for my garden upgrades here now, I am going to measure the swing arms and cut the new ones using standardized dimensions. I have switched all my covered raised beds to a standard width over the years. I started out with 2' wide beds, they were too narrow and took up too much room, I tried a couple of 4' wide beds but you had to walk completely around them. I settled on 3' wide beds, I can reach all the way across them so I can minimize the walking space required. I found if I purchased 10' lumber I could make a 7' X 3' bed with just 1 cut and that became my standard. The 7' length means that I can use a 8' 2X4 to connect my swing arms and have a half inch of clearance at each end, it also enables the upgrade to 2 nested swing arms. This will allow my to have an inner insect netting with an outer frost shield.

I'm glad that I had the frost shield this weekend as we dropped back down below freezing again..... Next weekend is Easter and I hope to be ready to start moving things out of my growing stations by Saturday. I might try to take off Friday so I can do a heavy day of building before transitioning to real gardening.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I worked around the garden a little yesterday, I started cutting lumber for some of the up grade projects I have planned, I made T supports for the top of my grape vine wall, I want to be able to have netting hanging over the grapes but not touching them, I also want to the the netting going down to the ground so I can protect the peas I have growing in the raised bed under them. I was able to re-use old wood almost exclusively for the project. I also cut all the swing arms for the raised bed top upgrades. Black soil has collected on top of my paving stones that I have as a walkway around the garden, when I started removing the soil and weeds I discovered that the stones were covered with 2 inches of muck (which I was tracking into the house) and had sunk almost an equal amount, so I bought some 6 mill black plastic and will be removing and washing all the stones, re-leveling the walkway, putting down the plastic mostly for weed control and then replacing the stones. I wish I had done this 2 years ago, OH I forgot I was putting in a kitchen back then ...

While I was walking around the garden I noticed a bunch of onions (I have no idea what kind) came up where I want to plant corn, so I made 4 of small rows in a raised bed at the base of my solar panels and replanted them. My corn is now 6" high and I need to get it moved to it's new home this weekend. I have a long weekend coming up so I might make some progress shortly. We are now eating salads out of the garden on a daily basis but it will not be long before thing start to run away with the heat.

 

[Neb]

I had planted some wild garlic cloves last fall to see how they would do given good dirt a room to grow.

Almost pen size which is the largest I have ever seen. Nowhere near as large as the domestic.

But then again the wild cloves were tint when the were planted. I think this experiment is worth another year to go.

Ben

 

[hashbrown]

I'm starting to think I might as well try and grow catfish in my garden!

 

[Neb]

I'm starting to think I might as well try and grow catfish in my garden!

Start now. They take a while.

Ben