Garden Goals for 2021

[Terri9630]

I haven't thought much about next years gardens yet, I'm just now clearing this years garden from the greenhouse. Pulled out the tomatoes today, my hands were stained green. Looked like alligator skin. Tomorrow we are pulling up the peppers and harvesting the dried beans.
I have been ordering seeds though. Lots of seeds!

 

[elkhound]

Elkhound builds what someone years ago on another forum called jurrasic fences...lol....its 8 strands high tinsel electrified.heres tear drop orchard fence when i was building it. its 7.5 feet tallish or a bit more.

 

[CalicoKatie]

I've already been going through my seeds and deciding what to plant. I'm limited on space and will just be container gardening in my backyard so I want basics that are big producers mostly tomatoes, peppers, green beans, squash, okra, lettuce and radishes. I did order a few new seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom the other day including an okra that I have high hopes for. It's called Heavy Hitter. Is anybody familiar with it?

https://www.rareseeds.com/heavy-hitter-okra

 

[Meerkat]

Elkhound builds what someone years ago on another forum called jurrasic fences...lol....its 8 strands high tinsel electrified.heres tear drop orchard fence when i was building it. its 7.5 feet tallish or a bit more.

View attachment 54284

Elk at least it worked till you found something better.

 

[Meerkat]

I've already been going through my seeds and deciding what to plant. I'm limited on space and will just be container gardening in my backyard so I want basics that are big producers mostly tomatoes, peppers, green beans, squash, okra, lettuce and radishes. I did order a few new seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom the other day including an okra that I have high hopes for. It's called Heavy Hitter. Is anybody familiar with it?

https://www.rareseeds.com/heavy-hitter-okra

We like Bakers Creek too, also used Gardens Alive but that was sevral years ago.

 

[Bacpacker]

My saviour in that regard is mulch, lots and lots of mulch. It reduces the number of times I have to water, bugs and of course weeds! So my only really busy times are planting and harvest.

How do you water your beds? I put a drip system in my 2 this year and that worked very well. Hook up water hose, turn on turn off an hour or two later. I want to run a faucet out to the area the beds are in and just feed it all from there when I get the rest of the beds put in

 

[Alaskajohn]

I built the wife a makeshift greenhouse this past spring and it exceeded our expectations. So this coming spring I will build her a real one. I should have gotten around to building a real greenhouse this fall, but other projects took priority. I’ve seen greenhouse kits that look functional and durable that I might consider, but I always think I can build stuff cheaper and better than anything you can buy.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Year before last I made a makeshift greenhouse, plants grew well until insects got in and just took over... This year I am fighting aphids, they are in 1 raised bed and hard to get rid of..

I have very little growing space 400 sqft outside in raised beds, 200 sqft of concrete that I can put containers on, and what ever space I can create inside the house. Lighting ranges from morning or afternoon, to full sun south facing.

Summer water, I have 500 gallons of rain water storage with 1200 sqft of rooftop collection, water is supplied using a pump and drip irrigation on a timer. Can easily be supplimented with house water if necessary.

I have ordered all my seeds for the next year, all but one order is in hand.

Current gardening activity:
I have 4 covered raised beds each is 21sqft that are still growing lettuce, spinach, onions, parsley, carrots, beets, and garlic.

Inside the house I have a growing station with 3 2'X4' shelves for growing under artificial light, part are containers and part are hydroponic tubs. I also have 12 starter pots each with a different type of plant in each that are almost ready for transplanting into larger containers or hydroponics.

I currently have 4-5gallon buckets with new potatoes started indoors.

Future plans:

I have ordered some more shelves and lights with the intent of making a 4 shelf growing station next to a west facing sliding glass door.

Wish I had more space, but I do what I can with what I have..

 

[elkhound]

Elk at least it worked till you found something better.

NO...the high tinsel fence turns deer and bear and more. but little critters jump through and between wires. the versa netting will go along bottom to prevent that sorta thing from happening now. like i said thats only one of several gardens.the orchard is fine without versa fence. my main goal is to keep bear out of my trees breaking them apart and down to only a stem.i have seen bear climb 6inch red maple sapling 30ft tall and break entire tree over by riding it to the ground to get a bald face hornets nest out. i had one hanging in a crabapple tree and the bear destroyed that tree to get it.no apples were on it. also now i have wild elk on other side of my county...its only a matter of time before they get to my wilderness area.

 

[Rebecca]

How do you water your beds? I put a drip system in my 2 this year and that worked very well. Hook up water hose, turn on turn off an hour or two later. I want to run a faucet out to the area the beds are in and just feed it all from there when I get the rest of the beds put in

My raised bed are in two areas. The main area with 6 large beds I use gravity fed drip irrigation from rain barrels. The main thing with this is because the psi from the gravity feed is so much lower than what you would get out a normal tap it takes much longer to distribute the same amount of water. So if under normal drip irrigation pressure of 20psi you leave the water on for an hour, at 2 psi I would leave it on for about 5. The plants are still happy so it's all good lol.

 

[Bacpacker]

Time don't make much difference with the drip systems IMO. I like your way better,

 

[Terri9630]

Year before last I made a makeshift greenhouse, plants grew well until insects got in and just took over... This year I am fighting aphids, they are in 1 raised bed and hard to get rid of..

I have very little growing space 400 sqft outside in raised beds, 200 sqft of concrete that I can put containers on, and what ever space I can create inside the house. Lighting ranges from morning or afternoon, to full sun south facing.

Summer water, I have 500 gallons of rain water storage with 1200 sqft of rooftop collection, water is supplied using a pump and drip irrigation on a timer. Can easily be supplimented with house water if necessary.

I have ordered all my seeds for the next year, all but one order is in hand.

Current gardening activity:
I have 4 covered raised beds each is 21sqft that are still growing lettuce, spinach, onions, parsley, carrots, beets, and garlic.

Inside the house I have a growing station with 3 2'X4' shelves for growing under artificial light, part are containers and part are hydroponic tubs. I also have 12 starter pots each with a different type of plant in each that are almost ready for transplanting into larger containers or hydroponics.

I currently have 4-5gallon buckets with new potatoes started indoors.

Future plans:

I have ordered some more shelves and lights with the intent of making a 4 shelf growing station next to a west facing sliding glass door.

Wish I had more space, but I do what I can with what I have..

I ordered some ladybugs this spring to deal with the aphids. They did a wonderful job and we still have some floating around the greenhouse.

 

[Erin]

Next year I'm planning to keep it similar to what I did this year, except move some plants around. Several had issues so I'm hoping being in a new soil patch will help them, might also try doing alternating rows of plants that get along. Definitely doing sweet potatoes again because they turned out so well. I'm currently trying to overwinter potatoes, carrots, kale, onions, and garlic, we'll see how it works out. Might turn over the soil again in spring if I can do it without hurting the current plants. Also need to be better about weeding, that kinda got away from me towards the end of summer.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I may have to buy lady bugs this year....

I have also determined that I will not bring plants back into the house unless I have a way to keep them isolated. The aphids from some outdoor plants got onto 2 of the plants I had started from seed indoors. I have moved them all back out into one of the covered raised beds. It was cool last night (mid 20s), but the plants in the raised beds were fine this morning.

Last night I cleaned and marked some window shelf type containers, I wanted to have clear depth measurements on the inside and 3" spacing marks along the top to allow me to easily space my transplants without having to think. I transplanted cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage last night.

I have another bunch of lettuce and spinach that is almost ready to go into hydroponic containers. I need to make about 12 floats to support baskets before the weekend gets here.

My potatoes are now about 6" tall, I plan to put a large cup (like one of those half gallon Ice-Tea glasses) over them and then add another 4" of soil to their containers. The cup is just so I don't cover the leaves with dirt and is removed after the soil is added.

 

[Support Gunner]

I may have to buy lady bugs this year....

I have also determined that I will not bring plants back into the house unless I have a way to keep them isolated. The aphids from some outdoor plants got onto 2 of the plants I had started from seed indoors. I have moved them all back out into one of the covered raised beds. It was cool last night (mid 20s), but the plants in the raised beds were fine this morning.

Last night I cleaned and marked some window shelf type containers, I wanted to have clear depth measurements on the inside and 3" spacing marks along the top to allow me to easily space my transplants without having to think. I transplanted cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage last night.

I have another bunch of lettuce and spinach that is almost ready to go into hydroponic containers. I need to make about 12 floats to support baskets before the weekend gets here.

My potatoes are now about 6" tall, I plan to put a large cup (like one of those half gallon Ice-Tea glasses) over them and then add another 4" of soil to their containers. The cup is just so I don't cover the leaves with dirt and is removed after the soil is added.

Get some Diatomaceous Earth and coat your plants when you bring them in. It will kill off everything that is on them.

 

[Meerkat]

Year before last I made a makeshift greenhouse, plants grew well until insects got in and just took over... This year I am fighting aphids, they are in 1 raised bed and hard to get rid of..

I have very little growing space 400 sqft outside in raised beds, 200 sqft of concrete that I can put containers on, and what ever space I can create inside the house. Lighting ranges from morning or afternoon, to full sun south facing.

Summer water, I have 500 gallons of rain water storage with 1200 sqft of rooftop collection, water is supplied using a pump and drip irrigation on a timer. Can easily be supplimented with house water if necessary.

I have ordered all my seeds for the next year, all but one order is in hand.

Current gardening activity:
I have 4 covered raised beds each is 21sqft that are still growing lettuce, spinach, onions, parsley, carrots, beets, and garlic.

Inside the house I have a growing station with 3 2'X4' shelves for growing under artificial light, part are containers and part are hydroponic tubs. I also have 12 starter pots each with a different type of plant in each that are almost ready for transplanting into larger containers or hydroponics.

I currently have 4-5gallon buckets with new potatoes started indoors.

Future plans:

I have ordered some more shelves and lights with the intent of making a 4 shelf growing station next to a west facing sliding glass door.

Wish I had more space, but I do what I can with what I have..

We want to grow potatoes in containers,buckets but so far only tried it once then had to leave it and failed to produce. Want to try it again inside greenhouse late winter or early fall.

 

[Meerkat]

Get some Diatomaceous Earth and coat your plants when you bring them in. It will kill off everything that is on them.

Be careful with DE it kills the good and bad.


https://www.almanac.com/what-diatomaceous-earth
" The downside to DE is that it does not discriminate between pests and beneficial insects. Ladybugs, green lacewings, butterflies, bees, and other “good guys” will also be affected by DE. "

HOW TO USE DE

One way is to spray underneith leaves, amphids hate streams of water.Of course this is for small areas.

 

[Support Gunner]

Be careful with DE it kills the good and bad.


https://www.almanac.com/what-diatomaceous-earth
" The downside to DE is that it does not discriminate between pests and beneficial insects. Ladybugs, green lacewings, butterflies, bees, and other “good guys” will also be affected by DE. "

HOW TO USE DE

One way is to spray underneith leaves, amphids hate streams of water.Of course this is for small areas.

Yes it will kill everything. Even the pollinators.

They sell a food grade version of it. That way it wont effect any animals or people.

 

[Meerkat]

Yes it will kill everything. Even the pollinators.

They sell a food grade version of it. That way it wont effect any animals or people.

I know a little about it, my daughter even eats the stuff. We feed the food grade to our chickens too. Always have. 23 yr.s and never had a chicken that had any shots or medicated feedchemical wormer. But they do have feed store layer.Our hens live a long time but slow down on eggs about 5yr old.

 

[Support Gunner]

I know a little about it, my daughter even eats the stuff. We feed the food grade to our chickens too. Always have. 23 yr.s and never had a chicken that had any shots or medicated feedchemical wormer. But they do have feed store layer.Our hens live a long time but slow down on eggs about 5yr old.

Its some really good stuff. Only down side is, like you said, it kills the good an bad. It dosent discriminate.

 

[Tank-Girl]

For next year I'm already planning the garden and I'm slowly buying more irrigation gear.
The beds in the back yard need fresh weed mat and irrigation on a timer.
I'm done and finished with growing potatoes. I'll be looking for a white fleshed sweet potato to grow instead.
I need to find a decent disease resistant roma styled tomato. I've spent a fortune and a lot of wasted seasons buying and growing tomato varieties that make all sorts of claims only to get completely skunked. This season was the worst and I put up no tomato products at all. Unheard of!
I've decided I hate kale and it's only fit for chickens and guinea pigs and that'll be the only reason why I'd grow it.
I need to grow storage onions and try carrots for the first time.
The broccoli I grew this season was the best I've ever grown. The Super phosphate and potash I put down really made a difrence. The variety was a hot weather variety and it was fantastic.
I don't need 8 eggplant plants. I think I'd be hard pressed keeping up with 4 plants even though I've been slicing them thickly, dipping them in a thick batter, pan frying them and then freezing them. I use them as small pizza bases. I've got fruit rotting on the plants. The chickens run away from me when I dump a bucket full of them into their pen.

I'm reducing the variety of things I'll be growing.
Tomatoes.
Zucchini.
Capsicums.
Chillies.
Beans.
Wom Bok (nappa cabbage).
Green cabbage.
Onions.
Broccoli.
Carrots.
Cucumbers.
lettuce.
Kale and swiss chard - for the chickens and guinea Pigs.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today, during my walk around I saw that something dug up about 8' of raised bed where I had shallots growing.... I think I need to lay down a little wire to encourage dogs, cats, and squirrels to stay out...

I think we need to start a "Growing my 2021 Garden" thread on New Years' Eve.

My resolution is to be more efficient with my gardening. I found an old roaster and I think that I am going to start recycling potting mix, use it for 1 crop, then steam it in the roaster, revitilize it in the compost barrel, and then put it back into service. The other thing I plan to do is to be more deliberate in the way I plant my seeds to reduce the need for thinning. I hope to have a revised water distribution plan, design and build new rain water barrel platforms/racks, and have everything ready to go by April 15, 2021. I hope I am able to stay ahead of the insects and pests that attack the garden each year.

 

[joel]

Anyone grow Lupini beans ?

 

[Meerkat]

Anyone grow Lupini beans ?
View attachment 59523

No we haven't grown any of those yet. We are trying a new one this year though, its a giant soya bean.

 

[Bacpacker]

Never heard of them, but gonna try and find seeds for them.