Vegetable Gardening

[Aggie_Ama]

Okay the gardeners/fruit growers finally piqued my interest. I am considering if I can get DH to resign himself to helping build and let me have the space putting in a small vegetable garden. Based on my CFO (lives same geographical area) and my fabulous Mammaw I think I could have some success with squash, cucumber, tomatoes in my area. My Mammaw also grew corn but I don't have the extremely huge yard or the patience she was blessed with. I am thinking larger tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, squash, zuccini and cucumber (and getting Mammaw's pickle recipe mmmm).

Our backyard is rock under 1" of sandy loam so it will definitely be a built up garden for sure. We have a perfectly rectangle lot, 50X150. House is relatively close to the street (I bet not more than 20' back) and 1630 sq foot. So I guess the backyard is probably 80-90 foot deep still. It is long so I have room to work with but DH probably won't let me have too much as he has "visions" of a large covered patio. Okay back to the task at hand.

How much room would I need? It is full sun right now but there are plans to put in a large shade tree practically middle of the yard with a canopy that one day will shade 90% of the width or more (we are thinking a Monterrey Oak ~30-40 ft canopy). What type of fill dirt? Can I just build up with landscape timbers? How many plants of each? We are a house of two, don't eat that many tomatoes but homemade salsa might be a task. We would steam the veggies as we both loved steamed squash. So this is more just for fun than anything. What else do I need to know?

[OakLeaf]

Squashes need a lot of room to spread out. Lots of people around here grow them separately from the rest of the garden. They're pretty plants (I think), so people put them around their mailbox, around the house or walkways, or just in random places in the yard.

With tomatoes, it depends on how much canning/freezing you want to do, and also if you're not a super-diligent gardener, yields can vary a lot from year to year. A dozen to 18 plants are enough for DH and myself, but for instance, this year with 10 plants (plus one cherry and one tomatillo), less than ideal weather and a distracted gardener, we got a total of 4 pints of sauce and no other preserved tomato products.

When you build up your beds, don't use treated or creosoted lumber. I would guess that the recycled plastic timbers should be safe, but I really don't know, so I'd want to read some more about it. In my own garden, rather than built raised beds, I just mound up beds at the beginning of each season. That gives me drainage and soil depth, but I can still till and amend the garden all at once, and build up a deeper and deeper topsoil year after year. But my soil is over clay, so that's different from rock...

[buddha_bellies]

It's probably better to start small and expand as you go along. Gardening in a big space might be a put off after you realize how much work / time is taking you. I would say start maybe a off 4 - 4'x4' bed and see how much you like. You can always expand if needed. But don't forget there's only the two of you! Unless you're vegetarians, I doubt you can eat all that food. I'm not sure where about you live, but first to do is find out what "zone" you're in. It basically tells you what you can grow when. http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

Unless you live in the hottest zone down in the States, tomatoes do well in full sun. Most vegetables needs at least 6 hours of sun. Lettuce and some other leafy vegetables can use less sun.

And I like to have raised beds that are about 4'x4' with about 2 feet of foot path for wheel barrows. 4' is good because you can reach in the bed without stepping in it. Ideally, you should have about 12" of good quality compost/soil. Not sure if you have access to "sea soil" down where you are. But I had some one year and everything I planted with that soil grew like crazy!

If you need more help, try http://www.gardenweb.com I learnt a lot asking people in that site. Or email me directly if you have more question :) Gardening is my passion :D

[Aggie_Ama]

Oh 4X4 sounds alright. Or maybe two 4X4 so I can position them along the fences. My mom had a graden ages ago and recommended 8X8 but that is a large square. We are Zone 8B, so that is good to know. I already learned a bit about zones and soil planning a shrub/flower/landscape bed with DH.

I will check what the soil places have, I went cross eyed at the selection buying landscaping dirt. :rolleyes:

[GLC1968]

A great resource for raised beds, particularly if you are starting small is:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
The soil mix used here worked great for us - as did the trellis.

For your environment (which is similiar to the climate we had the last summer we were in NC), tomatoes, squash, green beans, peppers and cukes would do well. Those are all the things that suffered here because it was such a short summer this year. You could do all this in one 4x4 space if you planned it out right. You would have plenty for eating, but likely not much for preservation/canning unless you happened to have a bumper crop. If you did SFG, you could also do succession planting and get spring crops, summer crops and fall crops from the same 4x4 space (particularly since you would have a long growing season). It's surprizingly less work than traditional 'row' gardening and it uses less water!

[Aggie_Ama]

GLC- That site is intriguing and looks like it would be something taking little work from DH (a plus). Plus, I guess if I hate gardening I could turn them into flower beds at that size. The backyard is completely barren with just a bunch of struggling Bermuda, I am sure DH would warm to the idea of a tidy garden. I hope.

I don't know how I could forget my Mammaw growing beans and peppers! I only remember the corn, rows of it. :p

[tulip]

In my experience, 4x4 beds are a bit of a reach (for me). I prefer 3x8 or 3x6. That way, I don't have to stretch so much to reach the middle of the bed. Square Foot Gardening is good, although the author gets a bit compulsive on the measuring!

[Aggie_Ama]

In my experience, 4x4 beds are a bit of a reach (for me). I prefer 3x8 or 3x6. That way, I don't have to stretch so much to reach the middle of the bed. Square Foot Gardening is good, although the author gets a bit compulsive on the measuring!

LOL, yeah he site was a little over excited but my lovely alma mater has a whole web page of how to container garden, terrace garden and what vegetables to plant in various parts of the state updated yearly. All hail Aggie Horticulture! :p

[OakLeaf]

Aggie Horticulture!

Is that a tautology? :p;)

[Aggie_Ama]

Is that a tautology? :p;)


Oh lookie I learned a new word today! I guess in a way it is. :p;)

[ms pepperpot]

To start, I think my location means I'm in a completely different position to you climatewise

But....

From a few year of growing veg I would say the following:

- Never wiorry about space, you can always grow something. If it's tiny then herbs. as soon as it's bigger than a window box you can grow more than that.
- There seems to be types of squash that grow everywhere, but always need lots of water and possibly feeding if thye haven't had enough compost to starrt with. I had silly huge amounts of courgette (zucchini) this year. Some other winter squash - varies what they need but lost of water generally. others a few (a type of patty pan) needed more sun than others.
- Beans - there will be types that will grow everywhere and lots. beans are fab. this year i have grown cherokee trail of tears - wow they are amazing. tasty and go on and on and on. rather than glut they have given me a steaday crop (for a single person).
- tomatoes - great to grow because the taste is so much better. there are so many types - there's bound to be one that suits what you want
- cabbages and brassicas - I wish I could comment but the caterpillars ate mine.

this is just brief - but the main thing is just try and grow stuff, experiment and see what you can grow.

[gingerale]

I tried a garden a couple of years. I did learn one lesson, I planted way too many squash! I mean, I like squash but there was no way I could eat as many as I planted. And I didn't even think I'd put in that many plants.

Okra is a great thing that loves sun and heat, I think. My grandfather always grew lots of okra and tomatoes with his gardens.

If I had it to do over again, I'd also start with the tomato plants already started and not seeds. I live up in the panhandle so for me it didn't get warm enough to grow mine up in time before it began to get too cold.

[carpaltunnel]

I planted a little garden for the first time in several years. I re-learned one thing: you only need one zuchinni seed.

[gingerale]

I planted a little garden for the first time in several years. I re-learned one thing: you only need one zuchinni seed.

Amen, sista'! LOL

[OakLeaf]

The one Garrison Keillor bit sticks in my head, how in Minnesota in the summertime, someone will ring your doorbell, and when you come to the door there's no one there but a huge bag of zucchini. :D

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Bumping this thread up because I am planning to put in a new larger vegetable garden in the back yard this year. For the past several years I've had just a small 5' x 18' or so tomato patch in which I stick a few greens and beans as well:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2221/3537146848_49536c3696.jpg
But this Spring I found i wanted to try growing more things and simply didn't have the room in that patch. I've already planted lettuce seeds and chard and cilantro in every available space that looks empty in the photo. And I can't expand it because it's almost at our property line already.

So DH and I talked today and mapped out a large rectangular spot in the back lawn that's 18' x 30' for an additional food garden. I know that sounds awfully large but there will be foot paths criss crossing around in it, and I can delegate some parts to squash plants and bean teepees, both of which take up plenty of room.

Whatever it winds up being, it will have to have a substantial fence to discourage the woodchucks, rabbits, and occasional deer. We have yet to decide whether it will be raised beds or traditional dug.
Either way I will need the landscaping/excavating guy's help and plenty of topsoil brought in. He helped us with our front grading/backhoeing/landscaping several years ago and we like him a lot, so he's coming over soon to perhaps help us plan it out. I know there is almost no topsoil there, but if there is a lot of dense shale there under the lawn we may have to use raised beds- he can advise us and can hopefully help us make the garden happen.
It'll be put in too late to plant much this year, but I might be able to get some leaf lettuces and other fast growing greens from it this year, depending on how quickly we can figure it all out.

Aggie-Ama- did you ever get your veggie garden going from when you started this thread?

[Jolt]

To the person who said she had a problem with the caterpillars getting into the cabbages/brassicas: here's what I have used on the broccoli that seems to help. Get a few hot peppers, chop them up and put them in a spray bottle (seeds and all). Fill it with hot water, shake it up and let it sit a while. Then you can spray it on the plants (just whatever you do, don't spray upwind) and it seems to repel the bugs. You'll have to reapply it every few days and after rain; keep the bottle in the fridge.

[Tuckervill]

Lisa, raised beds are much nicer to use than a flat plot. Your walkways are automatically made when you lay the beds, and you can reach across to do all your weeding, etc., without reaching too far or stepping in mud. If there's a sawmill nearby, you can sometimes get substandard cedar planks for next to nothing to make the beds with. You could also make a groovy cool pattern with the beds that is pleasing to the eye. :)

I'd try to make the beds lawnmower-width apart, too. :)

Karen

[smilingcat]

just got around to this thread.

Yes by all means start small. biggest mistake for someone new is starting big. They all get overwhelmed. three 4x4 raised bed is a pretty good start.

GLC's advice on succession planting is excellent.

For just the two of you, two tomato plants may be enough. one zucchini plant is plenty. In a humid environment, they tend to turn into giant club overnight.

Try beans and stake them up a pole (pole beans instead of bush beans) to save space. You can also do this with mellons. Mellons will require a "hammock" to keep the fruit from pulling the vine out of the ground. Cucumber is pretty easy too. There are lots of kind of cucumber so you need to decide what you want to do with them.

If the summer is hot, save the lettuce for fall and winter and away from direct sun as this will make for a very bitter green.

Tomato plants can get really big so keep that in mind. Oh if the dirt isn't that deep raised bed, you may want to grow patio tomato. They tolerate limited space for the root better than most other variety.

Also try some herbs. Basil, parsley, thyme and oregano are relatively easy. Thyme and oregano tends to be very invasive and so you may want to just pot them.

And enjoy the fruit of your labor.

[smilingcat]

Almost too late in season but managed to order three kinds of blueberries, Jubilee, O'Neal and Ozarkblue (in place of Southmoon). These are warm weather variety.

Also ordered Anne Yellow raspberry, tulameel (sp) raspberry and Ouachita black berry plants. Bit late to get any fruit this year but they should be set for next year. :)

Southern California is just too warm for stone fruit so have none. Instead we do have citrus trees. :D :D

We redid most of our garden so nothing looks established. bit strange to look at. Also about 5 years ago my collection of giant dahlia was wiped out. my mistake. and just today picked up three new varieties. Now I'll get to listen to one guy at my office "well my sunflower is much bigger than your dahlia" sheesh. Anyway, one variety of zuccini has set and probably ready to pick in about two more weeks. Green Zebra tomato has fruit set and first tomato should be ready in two to three weeks. Romas also has fruit set. :D :D Maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow and post.

Reading "Made from Scratch" by Jenna Woginrich. I'm just tickled pink by her writing. A young gal in her twenties decided to homestead of sort. Drives an old Subaru, her experience with chicken, bee keeping, three sheep... see coldantlerfarm.blogs.com Another book just for fun is "The Backyard Homestead" Carleen Madigan ed. bought it on advice from Amazon when I bought Made from Scratch. Just lukewarm on the second book.

Oh already pulled up two garlic heads, dried and cured. Need to start on heirloom variety of melons, and snow peas. Soo late. :(

[OakLeaf]

I use non-enclosed raised beds. Every year I till the whole patch, then dig out trenches/pile up soil in the beds.

It makes for a lot of work at the beginning of each season, but it allows me to till and amend the whole plot all at once and makes crop rotation easier. The way my yard drains, raised beds of one sort or another are a necessity.

I'm getting to a dilemma. I've put it off one more year but I'm going to need to make a decision. I've worked hard over the years to transform my plot from rocky clay to good loose topsoil. In the meantime, a nearby black cherry has worked just as hard to grow taller and taller and it's now shading a good third of my plot for most of the afternoons.

Move the plot? Or cut down the tree?

(Also, I set my tomatoes and peppers out yesterday, and now they've changed the weather forecast to call for patchy frost tonight. :rolleyes: I wasn't planning on rolling out the row covers already. )



ETA: Lisa, after several frustrating years, I found the only thing that keeps groundhogs (aka woodchucks) out is electric fence. A small four-volt solar charger is plenty and not too expensive. One strand about three inches off the ground, one strand about eight inches above that with a ground wire between in case the raccoons try to climb it.

Eight feet of light poly netting with a string of twine on top is usually enough to keep the deer out. :rolleyes:

You'd think these animals were starving, instead of having thousands of acres of pasture, woodlands and farm to graze. But no, they need my beans, tomatoes, greens, parsley and squash. All of them, if they can get them, and there have been years when they did. :mad:

[Aggie_Ama]

I started very small with some patio tomatoes and have several larger tomatoes. I hope the ripen soon!

[GLC1968]

We have both raised beds (SFG) and a row garden area. The idea is to be able to compare the yields of each, so we have some things planted in both places. We have one large area of raised beds with a new gravel walkway between them (the grass walkway idea from previous years was a disaster) and a large 'row garden' area that we are not actually planting in rows. It'll be more of a patchwork. So far, we've got tomatoes in both locations, beans in both locations, all the spring veggies in the beds (they were the first to warm up a bit), all the potatoes (sweet & regular) in the 'row' area and a small patch of garlic also in the row area. This coming weekend, we'll be planting more beans, corn, zuchini, cukes, amaranth, quinoa (probably a bit late but we'll give it a shot), more carrots, more parsnips and more greens in both locations.

I am also working on planting herbs (perennial) in various locations around our yard and in a few spots in the garden area (for annuals like basil, cilantro and parsley).

Lisa - even if you get a late start, plant anyway. You never know what you'll get and it's worth 'wasting' a few seeds for the learning experience. We planted mid-July last year due to our move, and we still got squash, cukes, beans and corn from seed. We also threw in a few tomato plant starts from the farmers market and were even able to harvest some late tomatoes (and a ton of green ones right before our first frost).

Things that didn't work? Carrots (too small - but tasty!), parsnips, peppers, melons and most herbs (besides basil). The season was just too short for these things. We also failed to plant the fall items early enough, so we got no harvest on those items either (except the random over-wintered chard!).

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-boxesalmostdone_730093_original.jpg

This was taken a couple of weeks ago. To the right of this photo is the row garden area. In the back - you can see where our grape arbors are (to the right of the tiny greenhouse). The garbage cans behind the greenhouse contain potato plants. And then behind me as I took this photo are our blueberry bushes and blackberry/loganberry brambles...

[tulip]

Lisa, your 5'x18' patch is actually pretty big, but that path takes up way too much growing room. I have five raised beds, each 6'x3', totaling 90 SF, same as your current patch. But my 90SF is all growing room. I don't count the paths--my setup is like a mini-GLC setup in the photo above. Right now I have radishes, carrots, zucchini, beans, and sunflowers (and a stray collard) in one, peas and watermelon in another, lettuce and onions in another, potatoes in another, and tomatoes in the last one. I grow my herbs separately, closer to the kitchen. I'll soon put in some melons and winter squash as well.

Mine's kindof based on the Square Foot Gardening book, but I'm not nearly as neat and tidy (and obsessive) as Mel Bartholemew is (the author).

I bet you could rearrange your current setup and it would be more efficient.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, your 5'x18' patch is actually pretty big, but that path takes up way too much growing room. I have five raised beds, each 6'x3', totaling 90 SF, same as your current patch. But my 90SF is all growing room. I don't count the paths--my setup is like a mini-GLC setup in the photo above....
I bet you could rearrange your current setup and it would be more efficient.

Well then mine is smaller than yours if I don't count a path either. :confused:

I have to have a path in my patch- how else can I get in and garden? the fence determines the area for now, and the fence is essential to keep the varmints out. True I have been planning to turn the slate stones so that they are narrower end to end and a couple will then be eliminated. I'll do that soon, but that'll only give me an extra 6 inch strip of earth or so. It's hard for me to maneuver around in there without at least a foot wide path. I used to have NO path, and it was really hard to move in there then.

The tomatoes are kept well pruned and staked, but even with that they get big and overhang the path by mid-summer.

What I am doing is planting green and red leaf lettuce seed in the areas that will be overgrown by the tomatoes later on- thus getting double duty from those spots. The leaf lettuces can grow, produce, and get yanked by the time those areas are filled in by the other growing plants like the stringbeans and tomatoes. :p
I've actually planted way more stuff in there this year than ever before....it used to be just a strip of tomatoes only, with a dinky deer netting fence. After both a red squirrel and a bird got tangled in the netting and died :( , I decided I had to to get rid of the netting and replace it with metal fencing.

Maybe I will go turn those stones lengthwise more this afternoon! :)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hi Tulip,
Well I pulled 4 of the widest stones out of there and rearranged the path stones lengthwise.
That now gives me a 1 foot wide path instead of a 1 1/2 foot wide path....so I got another 6" strip all down the length of the plot by doing that- allowing for one additional 18 foot row of greens that is 6 inches wide. :D That's as much planting space as I can squeeze out of it! Thanks for your comment which spurred me into doing what I was thinking I needed to do.

Still, not counting the 1 foot wide path down almost the entire length of my plot, that leaves 4' x 18' actual planting space, which equals 72 feet square- still substantially smaller than your your 90 ft. square planting space. :o

But I am looking forward to putting in my new big garden this summer! (Now if only I can get those two different landscapers to call me back.) :(

UPDATE: One landscaper called me back and might come over tomorrow! he's the guy that has done work for us before, so we like him. :)

[short cut sally]

LIsa, my Dad plants a majority of his garden from seed. He purchases onion sets and potato sets though. He plants his seeds sometimes as late as July. He staggers his lettuce (he does loose leaf-much better luck than with head lettuce) and spinach. That way it's not all ready at the same time. He's been buying his tomato plants over the past few years, there doesn't seem to be good growing weather for them.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Thanks Shelly.

Yes, i created a whole extra 6" row in my patch just by re-arranging the path stones yesterday. I planted more leaf lettuce and a new six foot row of radishes. Radishes and leaf lettuce grow quickly and easily (as long as you keep the rabbits and woodchucks out!). I do stagger my lettuce and radish seed plantings.
I too have to buy tomato plants unless I were to start the seed a month earlier in my basement with lights (which i do NOT want to do!). This week is the first week we can put in tomato plants safely with little threat of frost. I cheated when I put them in about 10 days ago, and was lucky. We've had two nights of 34F degrees since then, but were just barely spared a real frost and the plants were fine. :rolleyes:

I'm excited- our lanscape/backhoe guy might be coming this evening and he says he could perhaps get our garden dug and filled within 2-3 weeks! Unfortunately he does not do fencing, so I'll have to get someone else to come in for that. :( The fencing is a bigger project than we want to do ourselves.

[Tuckervill]

We can get away with a lot earlier planting down here, even if it's before the last frost, because our frosts are rarely to the level of a freeze (we did have a good late frost this year, with snow in April, though). But I use these to protect my 'maters until it warms up.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/image.html?sku=wallo-water

Usually when there is a late frost, all our shrubs have set blooms already and we all rush out at dusk to cover them with every spare sheet and towel in the house until the morning. I'm not sure that would help up Nawth.

Karen

[spokewench]

I just got my vege garden planted this year. Some of you are lucky and can amend your soil and grow great gardens. I would have to amend my soil for the rest of my life before it would be good enough to grow a tomato! I live in the rocky, forested woods area of Northern Arizona. We have a super short season - high altitude and weird really hot sun, kind of cold nights weather. Suffice it to say, it is a challenge to garden here!

I have 3 raised beds in the backyard. I added some compost already earlier this year and yesterday I got to plant. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zuccini (green and yellow crook neck); eggplant, green bean seeds, some marigolds, chard, sweet bell peppers. I have all kinds of herbs mixed in with my perennials in the front yard and some vege plants as well. I have planned to try some tomatoes, eggplant, bellpepper, herbs etc in pots this year as well. I have not done this before here in the mountains but decided to try this year.

Now, I was jumping the gun a bit on this planting since we can freeze up till June 15th. Remember the short growing season, but I figure I will cover if we get freezing temps this year. Our driest months are end of May and June. Sometimes, we get absolutely no rain until mid July when the monsoons start. But, what a wonderful surprise I got yesterday after I planted my raised beds. About an hour after I planted, it started raining and rained for quite a while. It is also supposed to rain a bit for the next few days which is wonderful. It is almost like the Pacific Northwest here this week! How Weird.

I'll try to take a picture of my beds so you can all see my new little garden.

spoke

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Some of you are lucky and can amend your soil and grow great gardens. I would have to amend my soil for the rest of my life before it would be good enough to grow a tomato! I live in the rocky, forested woods area of Northern Arizona....

I have 3 raised beds in the backyard. I added some compost already earlier this year and yesterday I got to plant.

Well, we have 'no' topsoil here in our yard....just shattered shale and poor clay stuff. So either way, whether we dig it out or put in raised beds, I will have to have topsoil brought in by the truckload to put in my veggie garden, and will need to buy a truckload or two of composted manure as well. We are talking a couple of dumptrucks' worth here. :eek: Not exactly amending- more like totally replacing!
It's going to cost a lot, but over the next few years it'll be nice to know exactly what's going into some of the stuff we are eating. We do pay a lot for organic veggies around here.

Spoke- it will be nice to see pictures of your garden!

[coyote]

The nice thing about raised beds is that you don't have to make them all at once. If the cost or even the size of the project is overwhelming you, try just making 1 or 2 beds this year and a couple more next year.

I started with 2 2x4 beds, then added a 10x10, then this past year we took out the 2x4s and added another 10x10. This enviroment is way to hard on wood (2x4 beds), so we got recycled bricks and made the 10x10 raised beds.

[OakLeaf]

Don't laugh, it keeps the groundhogs out:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysDQzXeYI/AAAAAAAAAFo/nN3-2BiRAc4/s400/charger.jpg

Gotta keep the deer out, too.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysDWv9HDI/AAAAAAAAAFs/m37xd9pBh0g/s512/patch.jpg

Red kale
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysDUssUYI/AAAAAAAAAFw/cOt9ZOi_nVQ/s576/kale.jpg

Volunteer cilantro
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysDRbUxtI/AAAAAAAAAF0/PWA1OHGs2lQ/s512/cilantro.jpg

Cannellini bean, in Uttanasana
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysDkstJkI/AAAAAAAAAF4/L9sCWTTOhjw/s400/shellbean.jpg

Carrots! (And a little crabgrass.)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysPdosV5I/AAAAAAAAAF8/R0VaCJmt7aQ/s576/carrots.jpg

Italian Roaster
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysPXpvLKI/AAAAAAAAAGA/jcb4_YybQJg/s400/pepper.jpg

Japanese Black Trifele, which is a Russian tomato, not Japanese. :confused:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysPa5UKtI/AAAAAAAAAGE/QHY34OWDaBE/s400/tomato.jpg

Pole beans, with pole
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShysPsq-sOI/AAAAAAAAAGI/Ax3noogZQx0/s400/polebeans.jpg

[Photoflygirl]

We built a raised bed garden over three years. I designed it kind of fancy, for the day when it might not be a vegetable garden but a flower garden. I'll try to post a pic soon. This year we put in a huge rectangular bed for strawberries. We grow tomatoes, lettuce (several kinds), green beans, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, sweet corn, peppers and strawberries (in a couple years). I liked the photo of cannelini bean plant! The soil is organic and we use rain barrels to water. We used city water only a couple times last year to water the garden.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oakleaf- Just lovely closeup photos of your veggie seedlings!

Doesn't the electric fence keep the deer out in addition to the woodchucks? :confused:

[OakLeaf]

Doesn't the electric fence keep the deer out in addition to the woodchucks? :confused:

If I added a couple of strands higher up and baited them with peanut butter or something so the deer would taste it, get a little shock and learn to stay away from the area rather than jump over, then yeah. At least that's how the local arboretum protects its saplings.

But I'd need a bigger charger, for one thing; and for another, I have my doubts that the deer would really be deterred from jumping over. The enclosures at the arboretum are a lot smaller IIRC. Without that final strand of twine at the top and the shiny crinkly strips of aluminum foil, they go right over any low spots that sag below about 7.5'. :mad:

[smilingcat]

Hi Oak,

Don't feel too bad about the deer and the effort taken to keep them out. There is a book titled The $64.00 Tomato. An idiots war with nature and his folly with nature.

The man obviously has no common sense when it came to gardening. He hired an land scape artist to design his garden and things just go downhill from there.

After reading one of the reviews on Amazon, I don't think I will bother with the book; but, the idea of $64.00 tomato just makes me shake my head. His "organic garden" ended up being a DOW chemical testing site and on EPA superfund site. Figuratively speaking ofcourse.

I tried posting my pics of my garden and it didn't upload :confused::confused: will try again when I plant my Japanese pepper tree (sansho) Zanthoxylum piperitum (http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Zanthoxylum+piperitum) This specie was banned in US till 2005? don't know why. but now its legal.

Anyway, should be receiving my berry plants today. and with the pepper trees by Friday, my garden will be more or less complete in terms of perennials. :) :D. Been a work in progress for quite some time. Removed sod, removed palm trees, removed giant tree ferns, removed giant bird of paradise over 20 feet tall... removed a sprinkler system, and replaced with drip irrigation... restarted on my collection of giant dahlias. Still have another palm tree and four other trees to remove on my property :( and about two years from now replace my magnolia tree with a Haas avocado tree. All of this on a 4000 sq foot property.

[NoNo]

I just planted my first garden on Monday, albeit over my aunt's house with much aide from her boyfriend. But I wanted to learn the process, and in exchange for my help I get all the veggies I want. They, too, have deer issues and he's setting up an electric fence soon. But they've also hung bars of Irish Spring soap all around and it's done a decent job of keeping them away. Has to be Irish Spring, though. Now if they could just figure out what's trying to eat their chickens:confused:

[GLC1968]

Ours is coming along...here are a few photos that I took on Monday:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-rowpatchwork.JPG
The 'row garden' area after planting on Memorial Day. Half of it is still covered and that'll be mostly squash varieties and additional corn. Straight down the left side are our potato plants (4 varieties) and they are growing like crazy! The black humps on the right are sweet potatoes just planted last week.

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-cds.JPG
The CD's are our attempt to keep the birds away from our seed. That is garlic in the foreground and tomatoes behind it...

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-boxes.JPG
The boxes are almost 100% planted. There is still some room for a few more things but this is mostly complete. It looked way more impressive two weeks ago before the goats got out and leveled everything green!

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-IMG_0013_567482_original.jpg
Kale plant mostly recovered from the goat trimming!

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-grapes.JPG
Grape arbors just starting to develop leaves...

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-goatsandgrass.JPG
The perps.

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-plumbranch.JPG
And for good measure, one of our plum trees. It looks like we will have a bumper crop of these babies this year. They are AWESOME eating red plums that should be ripe in August. Yay!

[papaver]

I'm just growing strawberries, rhubarb, and pumpkins this year. And I will plant 15 different types of berries next fall. And a sour cherry tree.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well I'm excited because I've now got rows of bright green baby leaf lettuce and rows of radish babies all coming up from the seed I planted last week. :p

I have never grown radishes before, and was flabbergasted at how quickly the seeds sprouted up into seedlings- in only 3 days there they were with sturdy leaves looking all happy and perky!!!

Can you eat radish greens? How do you prepare or eat them?

[coyote]

That is awesome!

Radishes are my favorite plant to grow, very satisfying as they come up the fastest.

[tulip]

GLC--that allee of grapes with the greenhouse at the end is going to be just gorgeous in the summer.

In France, it's traditional to grow roses at the end of every row of grapes. I don't know why, but I think the roses act as a trap crop for some sort of pest. It's very pretty.

[GLC1968]

GLC--that allee of grapes with the greenhouse at the end is going to be just gorgeous in the summer.

In France, it's traditional to grow roses at the end of every row of grapes. I don't know why, but I think the roses act as a trap crop for some sort of pest. It's very pretty.

Really? That's interesting and in some ways, it doesn't surprise me. Grapes do so well here because we have similiar climate to many parts of France (and same latitudes). Portland is known as the Rose city - there are roses everywhere. I've got quite a few types on our property, but I'd like to add a few more since they are so gorgeous and so easy to grow here. Maybe I should research putting a few at the ends of our grape rows!

[OakLeaf]

We toured some vineyards a couple of years ago and they told us that roses are a sentinel plant for diseases (pests?) that can also infect the grapevines.

Looks great! You gotta forgive those goats, that red kale is SO delicious. :p It's the only vegetable that my dogs ever stole directly from the grocery bag the minute I set it down to put my helmet, etc., away.

I've got basil and chard sprooters today. :)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've got basil and chard sprooters today. :)

Sprooters? Do you mean sprouts coming up from seed? :confused: :D


Ok, so I've been so excited by my new little rows of leaf lettuce sprouts and radish sprouts coming up....I went and bought MORE seeds today and crammed some more new things in real tight wherever there were any bare spots.

I already had the regular red radishes sprouting up from seeding them 10 days ago- and today I put in some new round pure white radishes and some long "French Breakfast" radishes. Also some scallions, some dwarf upright romaine lettuce, and some bok choy. Honestly, I'm hoping they can all grow so crammed in, but I put plenty of organic fertilizer, there's enough sun, and I'm hoping the leaf lettuces and radishes will mature and get pulled/used quicker than some of the slower growing items, and thus get out of the way in time for when other plants get big. I am also trying to stagger the seedings so things don't all mature at the same time.

I read that radishes like some shade when summer starts getting hot, so I planted some rows alongside the tomatoes as well. The tomatoes will get pruned and staked up but they'll still be big and will cast some shade below them.

I had some blue lake bush stringbeans and some bush wax beans already planted, but I bought some beautiful dark purple Italian pole beans and planted them near the fence on the ends and also on the empty trellises near the garage door, not in the garden at all. Last year I actually got some good bush stringbeans producing in that hot dry location.

I saw lots of baby earthworms in the dirt as I planted my seeds in the little garden today- a good sign that they like the organic fertilizer I had hoed in several weeks before. The fertilizer is based on ground chicken poop, chicken feathers, and some added minerals. Yummy! :D

I am now VERY anxious to get my larger garden put in...but it's proving hard to get the excavator over here to set up the plan. :(

[smilingcat]

front yard. It is California so there is a palm tree in the photo. wild parakeets/parrots?? the BIG tropical birds were eating the dates/nuts the other day out the palm tree. no more grass!

[smilingcat]

view the front from the other side. hard to tell but two kinds of cucumber, several pepper plants, giant dahlias, tomato plants, roses. herbs you can't see, hidden... and near the stop sign is a baby rio red ruby grapefruit tree. It's a dwarf so it'll only get to be 8 feet tall.

[smilingcat]

ands the sun & moon on the wall, as you can see, we don't follow "rows" or any particular pattern. We also mix flowers with vegetables etc. Will post picture when the front becomes a jungle. and we do grow our plants vertically. Our cantelopes, watermellon... will all be growing on a trellis of sort. :D and starting a new collection of giant dahlias. The purple one you see will have 10 inch (nearly 25cm) diameter flower on a 40 inch tall plant. Cosmos are hidden under the basket of flowers. So these are the picture of my front yard. :D :D :D and oh everything is on a drip system.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh my gosh that's all so pretty!
Imagine how boring just plain grass would look after seeing that!

[OakLeaf]

Somebody got in and gnawed on my pole beans last night. :mad::mad::( They didn't do much damage this time, but that's how it starts. Before long they'll have eaten all of them. :mad::mad: I reinforced the fence but I honestly don't know how they're getting in. I know deer *can* jump 8-1/2 feet if they want to, but WHY? There's plenty else for them to eat!

And mice made nests in three drawers in the toolbox. And there's one in the house. I just set out all the traps but it doesn't seem interested... hopefully it'll get hungry before morning.

It's a constant struggle, I swear. :rolleyes:

[grey]

Mice! Yes, me too. As I was replanting corn, I discovered a culprit carefully sneaking along the fence. Now I know why most of my earlier planting did not show up! And second planting... many of the shoots have been gnawed on, but the corn is growing anyway. hopefully as I keep a dog nearby the mice will stay away.

Also found evidence of a new mouse in the guest house. Traps are out. http://forums.teamestrogen.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:

however, i have my tomatoes looking happy, and several squash, cucumbers, various herbs both culinary and medicinal (time to harvest yarrow and st. john's wort tomorrow, if I can), four kinds of lettuce, lots of kale, swiss chard, four varieties of beans, plenty of peas. Had no luck with eggplant or paprika peppers yet this year. Going to try a fourth time on those.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My little garden is doing well still- lots of new lettuce, radishes and scallions planted, and the tomato plants are growing fast.
I'm a bit nervous because the weather forecast says it's going down to 37F degrees tonight. :eek: :eek: Typical night temps for this time of year are in the 50's. Still, 37 is not a frost, so I'm hoping for the best. Everything is on the side of the shed, where it is a tiny bit more protected I suppose.

The plans for my bigger veggie garden are slowly taking shape, but I have to do some coordinating between the excavator and get some fence quotes....lots of planning still ahead.

Yeah, why can't the mice and deer just be happy eating all the abundant lush grass and weeds growing everywhere?

[OakLeaf]

They got in again last night. For the time being I've put floating row covers over all my beans. Crazy way to protect against deer! If they dig through those, I give up. :mad:

Tomorrow or the next day I'll make a run into town and get some more netting to make smaller enclosures that hopefully they won't try to get in. It'll make it really tight trying to walk between the beds, but I can't think of what else to do. Maybe I should just leave the row covers on.

Stupid deer not only have plenty of grass and weeds, they've got acres and acres of other people's soybeans to chew on. But nooooooooo. (Okay, I'm sure they're chewing on those too.)

[GLC1968]

Smilingcat - that is one gorgeous yard! So much nicer than lawn and tastier, too! :D

Oakleaf - I'm sorry about your deer issue. I know people around here have real trouble and for the most part, only a tall, sturdy fence truly works.

We are very lucky. We have 8 ft tall buffalo fencing (and bison) on two sides of us, a 6 ft tall ancient privacy fence covered with wild grape vines and blackberry brambles on one side and the fourth side is the road (where we are lucky if cars slow down to 45 mph to make the turn. :mad:). We seem to be fairly well protected and so far, haven't had any deer visits. We do hear coyotes every night, but they don't eat our veggies. ;) So far, our biggest pests are moles - but again, they don't eat veggies. They just make a mess of the yard and screw with the root systems on the fruit trees.

Oh, and we do have mice, but so far they haven't really eaten anything of importance either in the garden or in our basement pantry. They only seem interested in the cat food. Both our cat and one of our dogs is constantly catching them and bringing them to us, so we figure they'll eventually find a safer place to live. :p

We planted more beans, and transplanted more squash and tomatoes. Next weekened, we'll do our second planting of corn. I have been harvesting spinach and kale like crazy. My basil is finally sprouting as are a few other herbs. I planted three kinds of lavender to replace the plants that our dogs destroyed last summer. I also got the last piece of the fencing puzzle to set up my permanent herb garden (or one of them). I can't wait to get started with it!

[Tuckervill]

I think I'd pen up one of my barky dogs out there over night for a couple of nights. My one dog would scare the deer away before they got near the garden. (my other dog, not so much.) I would hate waking up to the dog barking, but I could handle it for a couple of nights, and I might plan on going out there to scare the deer some more.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

The row covers kept 'em out last night.

I just measured, and turns out the fence is only 7.5' in the lowest spots, not 8.5. So I think I'll get some more PVC pipe to prop up the sags. The ground's uneven, even my 6' step ladder is pretty scary, so there's really no building it higher than 8.5', or sturdier, unless I were to erect scaffolding, and that is more than I'm willing to do. I'm not sure that sturdy is really the issue. They haven't shown any inclination to knock anything down; they just go over. I've read that deer are most wary of getting tangled in things, so I don't really think they'd attempt to go through the netting.

House mousie got in the trap. :) I'll drop it off at the recycling center on the way into town. :p GLC, you're lucky with your mice - here, it's not what they eat so much as the destruction they cause building their nests. $600 just this most recent time for the car - some irreplaceable souvenir T-shirts before we learned to put everything in plastic tubs - the hose for a pneumatic wrench in their most recent foray into the tool chest, plus a lot of gnawage on a (formerly) beautiful wooden case for a set of taps. Never mind the garden variety destruction of shop rags, drawer liners, more easily repairable wiring, books, cardboard containers, basically anything not made of metal, plus the general disgusting-ness of mouse turds everywhere in the garage.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_3vDkQwuSTy0/ShSc1viUgfI/AAAAAAAAAE4/dE-xS1mHVgQ/s512/garter%20snake.jpg
This guy has taken up residence in the garage - not really big enough to eat adult mice I don't think, but I'm hoping its presence will be a deterrent anyhow. Now if I could only find a big blacksnake to live in the car. :rolleyes:



Tucker - I don't have dogs any more, but when I did, honestly I think I'd trust deer with my garden more than I would have the dogs. ;)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Our cats keep mice out of the living areas of our house, but the cats don't go in the garage or the basement. I regularly set old fashioned mouse traps in both those places, baited with peanut butter. You have to keep checking them- also sometimes the mice manage to eat the PB without setting off the trap, so keeping the traps clean and baited is necessary. The traps kill mice regularly and they never get to multiply or settle in. 98% of the time it seems like the mice are killed instantly. I like the old traps much better than the idea of glue traps or poison, both of which i personally consider cruel ways to kill. Outside mice are not a problem for us.

Oakleaf- wow you have some persistent deer! You have my sympathies. :(

[tulip]

I think I nipped my mouse problem in the bud. I had seen one several times, and had definitely seen (and cleaned up) mouse droppings--lots of them. In my NEW kitchen!

I set traps and got one. And that's been it.

Smilingcat--your garden is wonderful! I love front yard gardens, especially in small spaces. I'll snap some pics of mine and post them soon. The potatoes are going crazy!

[GLC1968]

here, it's not what they eat so much as the destruction they cause building their nests. $600 just this most recent time for the car - some irreplaceable souvenir T-shirts before we learned to put everything in plastic tubs - the hose for a pneumatic wrench in their most recent foray into the tool chest, plus a lot of gnawage on a (formerly) beautiful wooden case for a set of taps. Never mind the garden variety destruction of shop rags, drawer liners, more easily repairable wiring, books, cardboard containers, basically anything not made of metal, plus the general disgusting-ness of mouse turds everywhere in the garage.


Yes, we do have destruction, but so far, nothing irreplaceable. I cannot believe that they haven't knawed their way into things like oats and crackers stored in cardboard in the basement! But, so far, so good.

I did find the entire bottom of the bag holding my wedding dress chewed to shreds...but they didn't touch the dress, thank goodness. They have eaten the random blanket or cardboard box, too... If they touch my books I'm gong postal on them. :mad: I am now making a mental note to store all our winter clothing in rubbermaid tubs this year. Thanks for the idea!

We do have another annoying garden issue. Pets. Our cat and the neighbors cats and the neighbor's dogs seem to like to walk in our boxes and in the case of the cats - deposit extra fertilizer. They've messed up planted seeds too many times to count! Luckily, we've trained our dogs to stay out, but it's awfully hard to train someone else's dogs and the cats are a pain. I've discovered that coffee grounds sprinkled on the surface will keep the cats away if I keep them fresh...but it does nothing for the dogs. I'm starting to get annoyed by it, actually. As the chance for starting seed passes me by, I get more pissed off when they disturbed before they sprout.

[Tuckervill]

I put cayenne pepper on the soil around my house plants to keep the cats out. Maybe that would work in your garden?

I'm also using up the last of a roll of farm fencing curved over some boxes to keep the animals out (mostly my hypertufa flower boxes in the front of the house until the caladiums come up).

Karen

[spokewench]

You shoud be okay at 37 - it gets down to 38-39 almost every night at my house this time of year and mostly everything does okay. But, it is a challenge here


My little garden is doing well still- lots of new lettuce, radishes and scallions planted, and the tomato plants are growing fast.
I'm a bit nervous because the weather forecast says it's going down to 37F degrees tonight. :eek: :eek: Typical night temps for this time of year are in the 50's. Still, 37 is not a frost, so I'm hoping for the best. Everything is on the side of the shed, where it is a tiny bit more protected I suppose.

The plans for my bigger veggie garden are slowly taking shape, but I have to do some coordinating between the excavator and get some fence quotes....lots of planning still ahead.

Yeah, why can't the mice and deer just be happy eating all the abundant lush grass and weeds growing everywhere?

[spokewench]

Yes, we do have destruction, but so far, nothing irreplaceable. I cannot believe that they haven't knawed their way into things like oats and crackers stored in cardboard in the basement! But, so far, so good.

I did find the entire bottom of the bag holding my wedding dress chewed to shreds...but they didn't touch the dress, thank goodness. They have eaten the random blanket or cardboard box, too... If they touch my books I'm gong postal on them. :mad: I am now making a mental note to store all our winter clothing in rubbermaid tubs this year. Thanks for the idea!

We do have another annoying garden issue. Pets. Our cat and the neighbors cats and the neighbor's dogs seem to like to walk in our boxes and in the case of the cats - deposit extra fertilizer. They've messed up planted seeds too many times to count! Luckily, we've trained our dogs to stay out, but it's awfully hard to train someone else's dogs and the cats are a pain. I've discovered that coffee grounds sprinkled on the surface will keep the cats away if I keep them fresh...but it does nothing for the dogs. I'm starting to get annoyed by it, actually. As the chance for starting seed passes me by, I get more pissed off when they disturbed before they sprout.

Little spikes that stick up - like a stick with small tacs in it will keep the dogs out. They only have to step on them once.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well tonight we had our second salad for dinner this week using our very own garden lettuce!

All the leaf lettuce from seed that I planted about three weeks ago is doing well and is about 1 1/2" tall and frilly, too small to eat leaves from yet....but I had planted about a dozen little leaf lettuce babies at the same time to get a jump start, and those plants have tripled in size and I can now get a couple of nice young 4" leaves off each one every few days.
This gave enough for our first two nights of fresh green salads! I added a few young tender leaves from my Swiss chard as well- they were rather spinach like. To round out the salad, a few red radishes, sliced cucumber, and baby white turnips from our local organic farming family operation (they built some greenhouses last year to extend their season).
The salad was our whole dinner with a big glass of local milk (delivered to our back porch in glass bottles, from a local family run dairy).
The salad dressing was not local though- they just don't make olive oil around here in the northeast! :o

[short cut sally]

Last year I planted 2 batches of basil (one early, one later), so there would be plenty to use fresh and make into pesto. I learned that the best way to keep pesto was to put it into the ice cube trays, freeze it, and then store it in a freezer bag and use it when ever. I ran out of homemade pesto last week, and had to buy a jar to make our dinner. I used to enjoy store bought pesto, until you learn how simple it is to make and how much better fresh is. Boy, going to that store bought pesto was such a let down. One doesn't realize how much better homegrown/homemade stuff is until you don't have it. I think my basil patch will increase in size this year...
Oh Bleeker, real milk? OH take me back to my childhood. My dad's cousin had a dairy farm, we were always shipped there to learn work before the age of working permits. I spent a good share of my summers there with my "cousin". Granted it was 1 mile as the crow flys, so its not like I lived there to get out of the city life. But every night, we had fresh milk from the parlor, as soon as it was cooled it went into a glass jug and home for dinner.

[OakLeaf]

Does it seem wasteful, even cruel, to anyone else?

It's like, I made a promise to those seeds when I put them in the ground, and now I have to kill some of them because too many of them did the job I asked them to do.

Okay, I'm nuts. :o

[GLC1968]

Does it seem wasteful, even cruel, to anyone else?

It's like, I made a promise to those seeds when I put them in the ground, and now I have to kill some of them because too many of them did the job I asked them to do.

Okay, I'm nuts. :o

OMG, yes. I hate it! I hate ending the lives of those little baby plants!

That's why I like SFG - I don't have to thin much at all. You plant based on final spacing, so there is less to 'kill'.

I also used TP to create carrot 'tapes' where the seeds are spaced out in neat little rows before they go into the ground. I hope it means that I won't have to thin very much. Pulling out tiny carrots gets to me more than any other veggie!

[Blueberry]

Last year I planted 2 batches of basil (one early, one later), so there would be plenty to use fresh and make into pesto. I learned that the best way to keep pesto was to put it into the ice cube trays, freeze it, and then store it in a freezer bag and use it when ever. I ran out of homemade pesto last week, and had to buy a jar to make our dinner. I used to enjoy store bought pesto, until you learn how simple it is to make and how much better fresh is. Boy, going to that store bought pesto was such a let down. One doesn't realize how much better homegrown/homemade stuff is until you don't have it. I think my basil patch will increase in size this year...

Would you mind sharing how you make your pesto (I'm gardening for the first year this year, and have a LOT to learn).

I'll try to share pictures of my beds soon - we have a dry stack raised herb garden in the front, and 6 raised beds from gardener's supply in the back. Lots of yummy veggies coming up. And our tomatoes are actually starting to ripen. Yay!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'll try to share pictures of my beds soon - we have a dry stack raised herb garden in the front, and 6 raised beds from gardener's supply in the back. Lots of yummy veggies coming up. And our tomatoes are actually starting to ripen. Yay!!

Holy cow!!! All I have yet is lots of tomato flowers....and even that is from planting pre-started tomato plants already 8" tall!! :eek: :eek:

Am talking with a couple of different fence company guys now about options for our new large veggie garden fence (40' x 18'). All of the esthetically lovely fencing options are simply way too expensive for us. :(
So we're trying to choose options that will be sturdy, practical, minimal, yet still not the ugliest fence in existence. :o If it weren't for the damned deer, everything could be beautiful and way cheaper. :mad:

I'm excited though, to be starting the process of actually making it happen.

Meanwhile, my tiny garden is looking very pretty with its little rows of frilly green lettuce and radishes. It's completely crammed with stuff now. Satisfying.

[OakLeaf]

Ha, well at least I've given you a standard for the ugliest fence in existence! :D

I've got a few 2 mm tomatoes. :p I don't even really count them, since I bought the plants. One of these years I'm going to start some seeds and make sure there's enough room in the car to bring the flats north...

I did direct seed a few tomatoes just for the heck of it. My volunteer tomatoes have produced in past years, so obviously there's plenty of growing season. I've got the "boughten" plants for early tomatoes.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ha, well at least I've given you a standard for the ugliest fence in existence! :D

Hey I have one of those too, in my tiny garden patch! :D



I've got a few 2 mm tomatoes. :p I don't even really count them, since I bought the plants. One of these years I'm going to start some seeds and make sure there's enough room in the car to bring the flats north...
I did direct seed a few tomatoes just for the heck of it. My volunteer tomatoes have produced in past years, so obviously there's plenty of growing season. I've got the "boughten" plants for early tomatoes.

Our season is SO short, I'd have to start tomato seeds under lights in the house- just not into building tables or shelves and lighting for all that fussing- we don't have a lot of extra space in the basement. So I buy my tomato plants already started- I buy from a farmer's market locally that offers some nice heirloom varieties locally grown, in wonderful varieties, so I don't mind at all not starting the tomatoes from seed. :p

[Tuckervill]

We have a hugely long growing season (I've picked tomatoes in October!), and no one I know starts tomatoes from seeds. Plants are just easier.

Lisa, you could build an ugly fence, and then landscape around it to make it pretty. Think of the vines you could grow on an 8.5 foot fence!

Karen

[tulip]

I started my tomatoes from seed, and they're still so small. I'm going out to get some plants!

[OakLeaf]

Tomatoes need to be started 6-8 weeks before the transplant date, peppers 8-10 weeks.

It sure is simpler to buy plants, but not nearly as satisfying, and of course you're much more limited in varieties. We're lucky that we now have a local greenhouse that has dozens of heirloom tomatoes, but varieties of peppers are still pretty limited.

Plus I really want to start saving more seeds. I used to start everything from seed, but that all went by the wayside when we became snowbirds.

[tulip]

I started my seeds in March. They are just small and slow. They seem to have hit a plateau. I water them with compost tea and everything. Oh well, I'll just put them in the ground and see what happens. And I'll go buy a big honking tomato plant for good measure.

[Tuckervill]

I've never heard of this before, but I have a pot of petunias that come up year after year. It's a pot that I planted at least 2 years ago, bought the plant from Lowe's, and it has been hanging out there on a shepherd's hook all that time. It dies back and then every spring as soon as it gets rainy, it starts coming back. It's blooming like crazy right now!

I would like it in another place but I'm afraid to move it, for fear of disturbing its perfect environment.

Karen

[GLC1968]

Starting tomatoes from seed can be hit or miss. We started a bunch in January in our basement under an old florescent light (and sitting on a heating pad set to low). They did wonderfully and by the time we could safely put them in the ground (we too have a short growing season), they were 3 ft tall and already sprouting tomatoes. We had to transplant them twice as they grew and we pinched off most of the early flowers. They are doing very well right now after two weeks in the ground.

The tomatoes we started in Feburary never sprouted. The ones we started in March sprouted and then died (our own fault, they got fried in the greenhouse when our temps went above 80 degrees too early in the season).

Our peppers also died in this heat wave, so we had to go buy some starts at the farmer's market. :(

It's SOOO much more satifiying to grow from seed! This is the first year I've ever had luck growing tomatoes from seed and it's so exciting!

[tulip]

I did set up a grow light in the basement, and I used it for the seeds, but what I really need is a greenhouse...so maybe next year...(kayak?...greenhouse?...kayak?...greenhouse?...)

[Blueberry]

The putting in the beds and figuring out what in the world we're doing was enough for us this year! We might try seeds next year. All of our plants came from locally owned garden supply places and the farmer's market (plus a few we picked up on a farm tour). We have some great varieties - and yes, our first sungold is almost ready to pick!!

CA

[papaver]

I did set up a grow light in the basement, and I used it for the seeds, but what I really need is a greenhouse...so maybe next year...(kayak?...greenhouse?...kayak?...greenhouse?...)


get a plexi see through kayak that you can use as a greenhouse. :D

[OakLeaf]

You'll need someplace to store your 'yak anyway. Why not in the greenhouse? ;)

FWIW, I never had any trouble with my tomato seeds (or the other nightshades). The soil has to be maintained at 80-90°F (27-32°C) until germination, and the pots and soil should be sterile.

If the ambient temperature is low, to maintain the soil temperature, the heating pad should be set on high and the flats should be loosely covered (and if you're using a household heating pad, make sure it's one that's rated for moist heat!). With a tight cover you could probably get away with setting the pad lower, but then you'd run into troubles with moisture control and ambient molds. I never did invest in a thermostatically controlled seedling heat mat, but I always kept a soil thermometer stuck in one of the cells.

My sweet corn's up :). Pre-sprouting the seeds indoors under a damp paper towel for 36-48 hours gives me close to 100% germination of untreated seed, even when the soil temperature is only 60°F or so. I haven't done sweet corn in several years just because it's so resource-intensive - and it's not in the best spot in the garden - so we'll see how it does. I'm going to kidnap some horse manure from my new neighbor. :D

[tulip]

Ah, well I'm sure the soil wasn't and isn't so warm. My basement, which is a wonderful wine cellar, is about 63F year round. Next year I'll get the heating pad. This year, I'll just buy some plants. It's getting late already!

I love the plexi kayak idea!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Call me lazy, but no way I am doing all that stuff to start seeds in my basement! :eek: Our basement is fairly well used already, space wise.
Me, I get intense satisfaction from picking up some great heirloom tomato plantlings from my local nursery a little before Memorial Day weekend. :D ;) It's fun to pick them out!
I do like planting faster growing things from seed though!

I think if I planted corn I'd have every raccoon in the neighborhood climbing over my fence! (at least that's what the locals tell me)
Happily, organic corn is fairly obtainable and reasonably priced around here now.

Made tuna salad for dinner tonight, which we'll have over a bed of our own lettuces just picked an hour ago. :p

[short cut sally]

CA in NC
I can tell you what's in my pesto, I just can't give you specific measurements as I just throw it together
Basil, pine nuts (some people use other nuts), olive oil, real grated parmesan cheese, and garlic (use either whole cloves or that chopped stuff from a jar)
I usually put my pine nuts in the food processor first, then add the rest of stuff with the grated cheese absolutely last. You can add as much oil as you like. you want it so it spreads fairly nice but not runny.
From what I hear, in order to make good pesto, basil is to be picked before it flowers. I've used it both ways, When I set up to make pesto, it all goes in the processor. I can't tell one basil leaf from another.
Good luck, it really is simple. Once you get the hang of it..store bought just isn't the same.

[OakLeaf]

I've read that you shouldn't add parmesan to pesto that you plan to freeze; instead, mix it in after it's thawed.

Honestly, I've frozen it both ways and haven't really noticed a difference.

What I do get is a lot of oxidation and discoloration on the top couple of mm. Doesn't seem to affect the flavor though, if it's not too ugly we'll go ahead and eat it.

Any opinions on either of those?


Also, electric fence is mainly for groundhogs, but it keeps the raccoons out too. That's why I have a ground wire between the two hot wires, in case they try to climb it. :cool: They did walk off with most of my tomatoes one year. :mad: I tried to get a picture of two raccoons raiding my bird feeder last night, but it was too dark to shoot through the window, and when I opened the door, they took off. :p A friend of mine is having trouble with crows stealing his sweet corn seedlings this year - says this is the first time in years of gardening that that's happened to him. So far they've left mine alone, touch wood.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

This morning I took a few pix of my little tomato patch- that has now become way more than tomatoes!
Thanks to suggestions here, I rearranged the stone path to take up less space and planted quite a few rows of new seed up and down along every single available space...lots of lettuce (leaf and romaine), 3 kinds of radishes (cherry red, white, and French Breakfast), bok choy, scallions, and more chard. As you can see, things are happening!
We've been eating some lettuce and chard in salads already, and I'm now thinning radish seedlings. Today I saw a 1" toad hopping around under the lettuces. :p
I am so pleased with how much more I am growing (and hope to harvest) from my little space now! It's been about 20 years since I last grew my own lettuce, in Puerto Rico. :eek: Interestingly, the same variety- Black Seeded Simpson!

Here are some "Before and After" pictures:

From May 9th (pre-redesign):
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2221/3537146848_49536c3696.jpg

From today June 4th:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3395/3596236719_6dc8144c94.jpg
(Some of the seeds like the scallions and bok choy have not come up just yet)

Views from the other end:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2426/3596237545_7874572c6d.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3409/3596238329_9e9c70c492.jpg

[tulip]

Looks great, Lisa! If you want to squeeze even more room out of your space, you could remove every other stepping stone and plant low things (lettuce) in between each stone. Or you could remove some of the stones and space the remaining ones farther away from each other and plant lettuce or mesculn mix in between them. Or thyme. Or creeping oregano. Or all of the above.

You could also plant pole beans and/or cucumbers to grow up the fence, although the critters might get the low hanging fruit.

You may not need to bother with that big garden in back after all!

PS: is that rainbow swiss chard that I spy in the last photo? I love that! So colorful and delicious.

[Jolt]

Yesterday my roommate and I spent the afternoon weeding and turning the soil in the part of our garden that doesn't have anything planted yet. I wish we had taken before/after pictures because you should have seen the weeds!! There were quite a few dandelions so I took the greens and cooked them up last night with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic--not bad. Now we need to plant tomatoes, squash, carrots, lettuce, arugula, eggplant and peppers, set up the watering system (sprinklers and soaker hoses) and put the fence up around the garden to keep out the critters. I'm enjoying reading about everyone else's gardens!

[smilingcat]

Lisa, your garden looks beautiful. And getting a lot more use out of it too. Raddishes all around the stepping stone?

Lettuce looks yummy.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Looks great, Lisa! If you want to squeeze even more room out of your space, you could remove every other stepping stone and plant low things (lettuce) in between each stone. Or you could remove some of the stones and space the remaining ones farther away from each other and plant lettuce or mesculn mix in between them.

Can't do it I'm afraid. I'm already having a hard time balancing myself without tipping over on the path while I work over the plants as it is. I can't space the stones further apart without losing my footing or my balance. The photos make the garden look a bit larger than it really is, I think. I feel like a bull in a china shop when I'm in there! :rolleyes:

Hey, wait a minute!... If I hoist myself up on a pulley system hovering over the garden like Peter Pan (or "Bruno"!) then I can get rid of the stone path completely by tending to the plants while suspended over them in the air. I could plant more lettuce! ;D


You could also plant pole beans and/or cucumbers to grow up the fence, although the critters might get the low hanging fruit.

I'm afraid that would cut half of the day's sunlight out for all the plants inside, considering how they are so close to the shed and the sun mostly comes in from that fence side.


You may not need to bother with that big garden in back after all!

Awww...but I want to grow more food! Waaaaaaah, waaaaah!!!!! :(


PS: is that rainbow swiss chard that I spy in the last photo? I love that! So colorful and delicious.

Yes sir-eee- you can see it along the right fence in the first two photos, closest to the camera. I love swiss chard, both raw and cooked. There are 'normal' white stemmed, yellow, and red stemmed.

[jobob]

Wow. Nice.

You have me dreaming about heirloom tomatoes now. :cool:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow. Nice.

You have me dreaming about heirloom tomatoes now. :cool:

Thanks JoBob and Smilingcat!

Actually, last year all I was able to do was to dream about my heirloom tomatoes, since they got a late start and then winter frosts came early, killing all my tomato plants off while the tomatoes were still little hard green golf balls. :( It's always an adventure in weather every year.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Progress trudges along....

I have the estimates on several of the cheaper-end styles of permanent sturdy professionally installed garden fence. All obscenely expensive, but the fence will last longer than me probably, and be pretty maintenance free and varmint-proof. It'll be 7 feet tall- enough for the rare deer we get passing through here.
Now I have to decide on the fence style among the 5 or 6 choices in my budget range. Then it's wait for the excavator to be able to fit me in his schedule to come with the topsoil and digging.

We now have a red fox living right in our backyard under our shed. He is (so far) too smart to go in the big Havaheart trap set with cat food for the past 3 nights. :mad: He really can't stay here since we are pretty much right in the village and he needs to be more in the countryside. There was a litter of foxes and their mother wandering the neighborhood and this one picked our shed to burrow under.

Meanwhile, my little mini-veggie garden is literally exploding in growth now. Lots of baby green tomatoes the size of large marbles, everything looking so lush! I've been staking and pruning the tomatoes up off the baby lettuces, and thinning the many radishes to 1 1/2" apart. I've learned to spread the seed a bit further apart as I plant it. I have baby romaine and bok choy coming up nicely, and my scallions are happy 2" tall green shoots now in a long row. I'm judiciously clipping back some of the stringbean/waxbean leaves too, to continue letting the radishes get sun.

But harvest-wise, I've got plenty of Swiss chard and TONS of leaf lettuce- we are now having fresh green salads almost every day. In fact, I am going to pick some on Monday to give to a lady I know who would love some for her family with kids. We will not be able to keep up with eating it quite fast enough. :p But then, I just love giving away fresh garden stuff. Several years ago I had so many wonderful tomatoes that we would bring bags of them into town when we went for breakfast, and pick unsuspecting strangers to bestow them on- after an initial moment wondering if there was a 'catch' (which was always funny), people were delighted. :D

I haven't grown lettuce in about 20 years, and it's a great feeling to be doing it again and having success. :)

[OakLeaf]

I'll post pictures of my protomatoes in a day or two. ;)

Propping up the low spots in the fence seems to be keeping the deer out. Fingers crossed. I'm not ready to take the netting off the beans yet, though.

My volunteer mustard greens have all bolted, but they're attracting so many honeybees that I don't want to pull them out!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Pix from today....eating tons of lettuce, and stir-fried Swiss chard is on the menu for tonight, with shrimp and rice. Things are getting a bit crowded! :p Been pruning back some of the leaves on tomatoes and string beans so they don't completely shade the radishes and lettuce and scallions....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3583/3636763848_578b78a70b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3636764616_2fc8b28bea.jpg

[GLC1968]

Wow, look at all that lettuce!

We have an over-abundance of kale, spinach and chard right now:

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-IMG_0031_892713_original.jpg

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oooooh! That's so pretty!! I love those smooth river rocks as pathways! :eek:

Can you freeze the kale? Kale is like super-healthy for you.
Are those onions I see or scallions?

I wish I had planted some spinach. Well, spinach for the big garden this Fall, perhaps!
Some of what you see in my garden is radishes, while the lettuce is mostly the lightest green in the photos, and some ruby as well. I love tender leaf lettuce. :p

[jillm]

Lisa, your garden is looking great!

I've been checking in on this thread occasionally. Fun to read others' experiences! My yard is so tiny that i'm combining a sort of square foot gardening and a lot of vertical gardening.

I'm finally speaking up to share a book I just found- four-season harvest by eliot coleman. This guy lives in Maine and manages to have fresh greens most of the year! Haven't read the whole thing, but just from flipping through the pages I'm inspired to do at least some fall plantings.

ALSO! I got a vita-mix for my b-day. Y'all. If you can swing it, get your hands on one. I haven't done much with it yet, but come tomato season, LOOK OUT! The best thing I've made so far is a soup. Chop onions, garlic cloves and ginger in the v-mix, saute until cooked. add some collard greens (or any other green growing in yr garden). cook until just wilted. Dump this into the v-mix with a peeled lemon, a lil s n p, some water... i added some chia seeds because I had them... blend. The end: kick ax soup!

Love this thread!

[GLC1968]

Lisa - scallions and onions. Though, so many of our onions were planted incorrectly (oops) that I don't know that they'll have a chance to really develop at all. We'll see. Live and learn!

I think that you can freeze kale and for the variety that we have, you can dehydrate it as well. We plan to do some major dehydrating this weekend so that we'll have healthy kale greens to add to things all winter long!

I didn't do much leaf lettuce (just a few heads), so I'll definitely do that for the fall. In fact, once we get our bean trellis up, I plan to plant baby lettuce and other delicate greens underneath it (it'll be an arch). We'll see how that works.

Oh, and can I just say that right now, when things are growing like mad (weeds included) that square foot gardening is winning in the 'less work, more bounty' competition with our row garden area. I've barely had to weed anything in there!

[smilingcat]

Hi Lisa and GLC,

wow your gardens are so green and lush.

The June gloom is taking a toll in my garden. I don't know what is the problem with the Japanese cucumber. The cucmber sets, grows to about 3 inches in length and still very skinny. Then it stops growing, wilts and dies off. Have any idea?? The leaves of the plant are healthy deep green no yellow or spots, big leaves. If it was too much nitrogen, I think the plants would have grown to be giant but its not. This has never happened to me in the past. Can't find information in stack of books we have.

Meanwhile the Armenian cucmber has set. they are tiny like 2 inches long. Lemon cucmber is getting bigger and round. And the Green Zebra tomatoes are almost ready to pick.

Yes we love our baby greens too. So tender and so sweet. Could never get it like that at the store.

One of the brandywine yellow tomato plant may have to be pulled. It has zero flowers on it ??? All the other tomato plants do have flowers. Not only that the color of the leaves is really pale light green. don't know why??? We may replace it with one of the musk mellons.

will post pictures this weekend (I hope).

[short cut sally]

I've had a huge peat type dirt pile that was destined to be for flowers, but just never got around to putting in another bed. Hubby added some top soil to that, mixed it and made my garden with it last weekend. I know. It's getting late. I wanted a simple 8x4 area, put wood sides, make it presentable. I got a 7x 25 long and just there-like a runwaywith sides about a foot high. No wooden sides, so I'll be a weedin' more than I wanted.
I found some greenhouses that still had some veggie plants available and on sale. I had to do some searching. I planted zuchinni-more plants than I wanted!. I couldn't throw the plants away. cucumber, grape toms, musk melon, cauliflower, cherry type and regular hot peppers, and looking for eating toms like a beefsteak or something. Basil too.
I did find some little leaf lettuce seeds which I wished I could've gotten in the ground before all this rain hit. There is hardly any seeds even out there unless for things like pumpkins, corn, which will take a long time for maturity. Theres no herb seeds anywhere's. Hence, why I had to buy basil.
The only thing is next year it will be designed a little better, more user friendly, and I can start early. This year, was just too late. Worth a try though. :rolleyes:

[GLC1968]

smilingcat - how is your water situation? I know that we had similiar problems with one type of cuke last year and I'm pretty sure it was a hydration issue. I didn't mulch very well because I wasn't used to an arid environment and some things suffered needlessly. Some varieties apparently are more water hardy than others. That's just a guess though...

shellyj - definitely plant anyway, even though it's late. We did a few things from seed (summer squash/zucchini, beans, corn & baby carrots) early-July last year and still got something to harvest (we have a short season too). We also had tomatoes but we started those with starts from the farmers market. It's always worth a shot, even late in the season. And in about a month, you can start planting for fall harvests, too!

[Photoflygirl]

Here's pics of our organic raised-bed garden:

The whole garden, the lettuce bed, the strawberry bed, baby romas and the herb garden (the dill fell over! I have to get out and stake it.). We have had so much rain the last three weeks, we haven't had to water. And I haven't found a solution to what to put in the pathways. I like the rocks in your pathways, GLC.

[Photoflygirl]

We also have basil, sage and lettuce in some waist-high planters near our patio. The basil absoutely LOVES this location, because it gets so much sun everyday. It grows to at least 3.5 ft. tall every year. I make tons of pesto to give away and freeze each year.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Your lettuce bed is very pretty! And I love the strawberry runners being sent out in all directions. :p

I want to put some strawberries in my upcoming new vegetable garden too.

Today I bought some seeds to sow for a Fall harvest, hopefully in my new big garden supposedly getting dug within the next week or two. :o I 'could' have waited to buy the seed, but the seed racks at the stores are slowly getting emptied so I figured I better get some seed while they still have some choices left.
I bought seeds for spinach, kholrabi, turnip, carrot, beets, bunching onions, bibb lettuce, leeks, and chinese winter radish.
I didn't get cabbage or kale because... we just don't care for it! :cool:

[OakLeaf]

I didn't get cabbage or kale because... we just don't care for it! :cool:

You definitely need to try some of that red Russian kale. I'm not a huge fan of ordinary curly kale either, but I like black (lacinato) kale in soups and stews, and the red kale is just plain delicious and really, really tender.

[Photoflygirl]

Your lettuce bed is very pretty! And I love the strawberry runners being sent out in all directions. :p

I want to put some strawberries in my upcoming new vegetable garden too.



Thanks! This is the first time I've grown lettuce so I tried several varieties to see what we liked. I did a third planting of 'Black Seeded Simpson' in between the strawberry rows, but something (birds?) ate all the sprouts when they were a few days old! I did try Arugla last year and it didn't come up. It doesn't seem to be doing too well this year either, and I planted in a different bed to see what happened. I don't know what it is needed.

I was surprised to find out the strawberries will perform better if we pick all the blooms off during the first two years! Oh well, it will be well worth the wait.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm so excited!!
Even though the ground is wet and the rain never seems to stop, the excavator says he's coming anyway tomorrow to lay out and dig my vegetable garden! He'll come back with topsoil a day or two later. He has to remove the sod and dig out about 6" of nasty shale/clay as well. YAY!!! :D
I'll have to take pictures of the process.

[tulip]

My spuds are blooming, which means I'll soon have new potatoes. I picked a bowlful of fresh peas, which are so good straight from the pod. My tomatoes are picking up, and my cucumbers, zucchini, and watermelons are blooming.

My onions died, I think because I mulched them when I should not have. I still haven't planted beans, but I'll do that his weekend for a late crop.

[GLC1968]

You definitely need to try some of that red Russian kale. I'm not a huge fan of ordinary curly kale either, but I like black (lacinato) kale in soups and stews, and the red kale is just plain delicious and really, really tender.

I have to second this! I like the curly Kale - but it would not be my first choice in terms of veggies. I wanted to grow Kale just because it's different and it grows almost year-round here. I bought red russian seeds because it looked pretty (and figured it would taste the same). We've been harvesting it like mad and I made my first big batch of sauteed kale and sweet corn the other day. I've made this 'recipe' before with curly kale and it was good. With the red russian? It's amazing! Sooo tender and slightly sweet...no bitter bite like the curly stuff. I'm a new fan (and super glad since I've got mounds and mounds of it)!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ok ok I will try some red Russian kale! :D (If I can get the seeds around here in the boondocks).

They broke ground for the new 40' x 18' vegetable garden in our back yard today- so exciting! :D They are coming back tomorrow to do some more digging and bring in some new topsoil and compost to heap in the middle. After that it's a matter of waiting for the fence to be installed around the perimeter (to keep all the marauding varmints and deer out), then lastly laying out and sculpting the beds and paths inside. I can't wait to starting planting! (but I'll have to).

Here are a few pix- I'm in the last two shots, after the guys went home for the day.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2438/3660602347_3523186cd0.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2477/3661402178_9be2364b6b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3377/3660601821_0e65929efd.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2483/3661400666_38107f449e.jpg

[tulip]

Lisa, that is going to be one wonderful garden! Congratulations!

EDIT: Wait, do you have TWO new gardens? Looks like another one over to the right.

[GLC1968]

Very nice!

(but I think you should have dug that by hand :p)

[OakLeaf]

Mmmmmmm, backhoe.

Sheesh, if her soil is as clay as mine was when I started, she'd still be digging out the third shovel full.

Plow attachment for the lawn tractor. Lots of shaking out sod by hand. :)

First year I pulled out the six-inch rocks.

Second year I pulled out the four-inch rocks.

Third year I pulled out some of the two-inch rocks.

Fourth year I grew beautiful carrots. :) (And I'm still pulling out two-inch rocks. :D)



PS. Seeds (http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/product.aspx?category=1&subcategory=413&item=363G).

[GLC1968]

Oooh yeah, I meant to post this...

Red Russian Kale from my two favorite non-local seed sources:

http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Kale/Russian-Red-or-Ragged-Jack

http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=625(OG)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, that is going to be one wonderful garden! Congratulations!
EDIT: Wait, do you have TWO new gardens? Looks like another one over to the right.

No- that area on the right was a decades-old old heavy 5" thick poured concrete parking area next to the house, it was cracked, heaving, and uneven and thus very hard to snowplow or shovel. Very ugly as well. My DH is so clever that he figured out why not, while we have the backhoe here and the fill freshly removed from the new garden spot,- well he had the excavator backhoe that cement out and haul it away and then use our own fill there and just seed it over with new grass. We have parking enough elsewhere. It was a brilliant and efficient move! :p



(but I think you should have dug that by hand :p)

I thought you were going to do it? Don't you remember offering?? :confused:


Mmmmmmm, backhoe.
Plow attachment for the lawn tractor. Lots of shaking out sod by hand. :)
First year I pulled out the six-inch rocks.
Second year I pulled out the four-inch rocks.
Third year I pulled out some of the two-inch rocks.
Fourth year I grew beautiful carrots. :) (And I'm still pulling out two-inch rocks. :D)

At 55, I decided I didn't want to spend the next few years hauling rocks and killing myself. I can kill myself weeding it instead for the next 30 years, and at least eat well while I'm doing it. :D

Thanks for the kale seed links, guys- I'll def look into it.

Ok now I hear thunder in the distance again...dire weather warnings of thunderstorms and hail again tonight. It was a miracle the sunny window we had today when they dug and worked.

[Tuckervill]

I thought you'd have to dig out about 12 inches to get rid of the grass? Are you going to have raised sides?

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I thought you'd have to dig out about 12 inches to get rid of the grass? Are you going to have raised sides?
Karen

Going to have a 6" raised board all around the garden perimeter (to keep soil from washing away) but will have a series of raised 'berm beds' for planting and mulched pathways around the berm beds.


Vegetable gardening is a practical way of keeping your household healthy and it is also cost efficient because you don’t have to spend much about buying vegetables anymore.

Yes. We figure the money we save on growing our own veggies will pay for the cost of putting in the garden in about... 50 years. :rolleyes: :D
Just kidding (sort of)- this garden will not save us money for many years to come....but it will give us a happier healthier lifestyle, and that's worth a lot! Sort of like our bikes. :p

[smilingcat]

Going to have a 6" raised board all around the garden perimeter (to keep soil from washing away) but will have a series of raised 'berm beds' for planting and mulched pathways around the berm beds.



Yes. We figure the money we save on growing our own veggies will pay for the cost of putting in the garden in about... 50 years. :rolleyes: :D
Just kidding (sort of)- this garden will not save us money for many years to come....but it will give us a happier healthier lifestyle, and that's worth a lot! Sort of like our bikes. :p

Hi Lisa,

Ohh I think your garden will more than pay for itself much sooner than later. You'll have better health and that alone is worth more than any money. It's the hidden cost you don't see. Not to mention, you will be enjoying fresh food which you can not get from a grocery store.

Our vegetables are not coated in the food grade wax. It is also free of pesticides and other harsh chemicals. We also harvest varieties of vegetables not available in the grocery store. We are growing three kinds of zuccini, one is called 8-ball. yes its perfectly spherical. Great for stuffing.

Wow. I keep forgetting how green the east coast is. It's very pretty... with land.

smilingcat

[Tuckervill]

That will be quite a garden! Such fun! Who cares what it costs?

I have a big garden like that, but it's covered in plastic, because I don't have time to grow right now. :(

Karen

[GLC1968]

I thought you were going to do it? Don't you remember offering?? :confused:


I could certainly use the workout! I'm actually committed to double-digging another section of our garden this weekend. Upper body workouts to go with my biking for the lower body! ;)

We are lucky that we have super rich soil already on our property, but that super rich soil means super strong and persistant weeds. Because we get so much rain for 3/4's of the year, it also gets VERY compacted...like cement if we don't loosen/aerate it in the spring. I've been slowly double-digging (http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/double-digging.html) different sections of our row garden with the hopes that eventually, it'll all get done and with attendence, won't need 'doing' ever again!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

GLC- yes you are lucky to have rich soil there! But.....double digging....{{{shudder}}} :eek: :eek: :eek:
I'm very glad to not do that. :cool:

Here are the pictures from our new topsoil (all 26 cubic yards of it) that has been brought in and put in the garden area:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/06/topsoil-is-in.html

I'm so excited!! :p

Next we start laying out the bermed beds and paths, while leaving the perimeter naked for the fence people to do their work in a couple of weeks.

[bmccasland]

That's an ambitious garden! Grow some zinnias too - my grandmother did, just for color. In my mind, a vegetable gardens still needs flowers if my practical grandmothers did it (they fed their families from the garden).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

That's an ambitious garden! Grow some zinnias too - my grandmother did, just for color. In my mind, a vegetable gardens still needs flowers if my practical grandmothers did it (they fed their families from the garden).

I have plans to sprinkle in some nasturtiums, borage, and calendula... then we could eat them in salads! :D

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Laid out and shaped the beds and the paths today!:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/06/forming-beds-and-paths.html
Gosh it all looks so neat- but of course the weeds will get wind of the new virgin real estate soon. :eek:

Can't do much around the perimeter because the fence people will be making a big mess there....but I can start planting seeds all around in the middle now...I'm so very excited!
It'll be my first time ever planting things like turnips, beets, spinach, carrots, kohlrabi, etc. I used to always be a flower and herb gardener with just a sideline of tomatoes and maybe one or two other veggies. This is a big step for me, and hopefully a big healthy step in our lifestyle too. :)

[GLC1968]

Wow, Lisa - that looks wonderful! How beautiful it's all going to be when all full of greenery!

When planting flowers in with veggies - marigolds and lavender are good choices because they repel lots of bad-for-veggie bugs.

[smilingcat]

so here are pics from my yard and yard itself.

5 round one on the left are lemon cucumber. The little black spec is hard spiky thing so we rub it off with a sponge. When fully ripe, it does have a hint of lemon. The two in the middle are Aremenian cucumber. When we first grew them, I thought it had crossed with a mellon of some sort. fruit is pale light green. Very mild refreshing taste. yummm... And dark rough looking thing is one variety of Japanese cucmber. Yes we do eat the skin on that one. It does have bit of bitter cucmber taste but even my partner really loves it.

Second pic: crooked neck squash and two kinds of zuccini

[smilingcat]

front yard with owl kachina, sun and the moon. Big tomato plants, taller than me but the fruit is languishing because its been overcast for the last three weeks. I think we've had two sunny days here. Cool too with highs only in the 70's. My side or back yard where its the squash and zuccinis are growing. Acorn, Crooked neck, two kinds of zuccini, and lemon cucmber. Out of pic are the red bell pepper, ginger, raddishes... Also we are having terrible bouts with aphids so we have been releasing thousands of lady bugs every other week. And the ladybugs are staying around. We also have marigolds scattered amongst the plants... :(

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, Lisa - that looks wonderful! How beautiful it's all going to be when all full of greenery!
When planting flowers in with veggies - marigolds and lavender are good choices because they repel lots of bad-for-veggie bugs.

Thanks GLC- I am so excited I can't stand it!
Unfortunately, lavender usually dies here every winter if left outside- unless it's planted in a very protected place like next to a sunny wall or an interior corner of walls meeting. I have never had lavender survive the winter- it can get as low as -25F or -30F here sometimes. I can't growe it in pots to take in during the winter because I have a large cactus collection inside my house which takes up literally every single window space inside.

My first planting here will be sort of an experiment of Fall crops. When Spring comes I will be able to plan and time everything much better. And the blueberry bushes and strawberries will go in their bed in the Spring as well.
I'll be able to start pole beans from seed and make bean teepees as well in the Spring. But for now I am happy to try out some Fall season root vegetable seeds and also succession planting of quick cool growers like lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc.


front yard with owl kachina, sun and the moon. Big tomato plants, taller than me but the fruit is languishing because its been overcast for the last three weeks. I think we've had two sunny days here. Cool too with highs only in the 70's. My side or back yard where its the squash and zuccinis are growing. Acorn, Crooked neck, two kinds of zuccini, and lemon cucmber. Out of pic are the red bell pepper, ginger, raddishes... Also we are having terrible bouts with aphids so we have been releasing thousands of lady bugs every other week. And the ladybugs are staying around. We also have marigolds scattered amongst the plants... :(

Cat, that is just lovely! Oh, you Californians with your mystical moons and suns and katchinas... :D ;) . I love seeing the diff kinds of cucumbers. Such a pretty garden you have!
A friend once served us a big pitcher of ice water that had been steeped with cucumber slices overnight in the fridge- it was SO REFRESHING and tasty! And then we ate the slices in our glasses too. :)

I might need to make a scraggly scarecrow of some sort, since the crows have been hanging around here in the back yard way too much lately and I'm about to plant lots of seeds! :eek: I can't put any wind chimes as they would drive my husband nuts. :rolleyes: Not sure I could deal with the 'look' of aluminum pie plates or CDs dangling on strings. This garden is our Main View from our kitchen and back porch. What do others use for shooing crows away?

I now need to read all my Fall seed packets to determine the best timing of planting seeds over the next two months. Everything pivots on the date of our first frost here, which averages around Sept 20 in our area. :( (so early!) Though of course many things like spinach and turnips will be ok beyond that depending on the conditions.

[tulip]

Lisa, you have plenty of room for an awesome greenhouse like GLC has...perfect for overwintering the lavender...yeah, I'll spend your money for you!

[GLC1968]

I have lavender in the ground near the house, but I also have it in pots so that I can move it around our boxes as necessary to chase away the right pests. You could do that and then move it inside in the winter.

I didn't want to plant it in our boxes precisely because it's a perennial here and I plan to rotate those boxes each year. Marigolds will die after the first frost, so they work well for our use.

We have cd's strung in a row on one string that stretches across one end of our garden. It's actually not as ugly as I had thought it would be. Personally, I can't stand the pie-plate look but I'm tolerating the cd's well enough. I've also seen people using those sinful plastic grocery bags on strings (since they catch the wind so easily) as well. I've heard that they'll chase off deer if you use white ones but we don't have a deer problem, so I can't say for sure. Unfortunately, that's not a very attactive solution either though.

Scarecrows don't work. We had one when we were kids and we watched the crows just eat our corn out of the ground each time we tried replanting. :mad:

You can see them in the back of this photo:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-potatoesandcorn.JPG
Some of our potatoes and our corn...

And for good measure here are a few more:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-wholegarden_original.jpg
The whole garden as of last weekend...

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-boxes_21036_original.jpg
The boxes - growing like mad. (see the lavender pot? I need to repot it still...there is another one out there somewhere, too)

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-chardharvest.JPG
Freshly washed swiss chard - to go into this:

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-chardandartichokedip.JPG
Chard and artichoke dip

And this:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-chardtunasalad.JPG
Swiss chard tuna salad

We also have kale, spinach and mustard coming out of our ears at this point!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ooooohhh.....that chard/tuna salad looks GOOD!!!! :eek: We love tuna salad and I'll have to make some with dark greens choppe din, and dill!

Your garden is looking great.
But- why no deer?? Look at all those hills and forests! No deer??
And....why don't rabbits and woodchucks just mow down all your vegetables systematically? I don't get it!
We have to put a MAJOR fence in here for deer, woodchucks, and rabbits...and we live practically in the village! Just trapped a big raccoon last week and 'transferred' him to a wild nature conservancy area. We were trying for the huge woodchuck under our shed, but got the raccoon instead. And a squirrel, which I just released again. Last year we got a baby skunk, and I just released him from the trap as well without trying to move him. Last month we had a red fox living in our yard for a week, but he seems to have moved on.

I just 'mapped out' all my successive seed sowings, to start in the next couple of days. Five successive plantings- July 4, July 18, Aug 1, Aug 10, and Aug 20.
First sowing will include: 4 types of radishes, spinach, bok choy, kohlrabi, turnips, Swiss chard, carrots, cilantro, Chinese winter radishes, purple bunching onions, scallions, leaf lettuce, romaine, butterhead lettuce, and 2 kinds of beets. (I already have some of these producing or maturing in my small older garden, which i planted in the Spring).
Last sowing will be planting radishes only, around August 20th- about 30 days before our average first frost.

[GLC1968]

We have no deer because we are surrounded by 8 foot buffalo fencing on two sides, a 6 ft privacy fence that is covered with blackberry brambles on one side and a road where cars routinely drive 65 mph all night long, on the 4th side. We are just too hard to get to in comparison to all the other bounty surrounding us, so the deer don't bother. :)

We do see the occasional racoon or rabbit - but with 5 dogs and 5 cats all pretty much free roaming within the space outlined above (our neighbors and us), they don't have much of a chance to do any damage before being chased off...

And the goats keep the hawks away from the chickens and the chickens keep most of the bugs under control.

We are just one big happy pest-controlling family! :p

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We have no deer because we are surrounded by 8 foot buffalo fencing on two sides, a 6 ft privacy fence that is covered with blackberry brambles on one side and a road where cars routinely drive 65 mph all night long, on the 4th side. We are just too hard to get to in comparison to all the other bounty surrounding us, so the deer don't bother. :)

We do see the occasional racoon or rabbit - but with 5 dogs and 5 cats all pretty much free roaming within the space outlined above (our neighbors and us), they don't have much of a chance to do any damage before being chased off...

And the goats keep the hawks away from the chickens and the chickens keep most of the bugs under control.

We are just one big happy pest-controlling family! :p

Oh, ok, that makes a lot of sense now! 8 foot buffalo fencing will certainly do it! Lucky you! :p
And 5 dogs in the yard will keep away the other critters for sure.

In contrast, our kitties sit about on velvet cushions inside the house nibbling bon-bons all day. They don't 'do' rabbits or woodchucks or squirrels.... :D

[deeaimond]

I look at all these photos of your bountiful land and i'm just quite jealous of it all... wish i was born somewhere that had less people and more room. :(

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Here is a very inspiring article in the NYTimes about urban food production and food sustainability:
StreetFarmer (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4&hpw)

And Deeaimond-
Here is an amazing website about an urban family who have transformed their 1/5 acre city lot into a self sufficient food garden of eden:
PathToFreedom (http://www.pathtofreedom.com/)
They have also started a large website here freedomgardens (http://www.freedomgardens.org/home.php)where you can find groups of all kinds of 'farmers'- even apartment dwellers who raise sprouts in tiny boxes or use only pots or window boxes to grow various food. Don't be discouraged no matter how little space you have!
I find these websites very helpful and full of all kinds of ingenious ideas for growing things in clever ways no matter what our home space is like.

[mudmucker]

Woohoo! Dance. Dance. My cherry tomatoes are turning and will be ripe by late this week. These are the ones I started from seed under the grow lights. I'm woo-hooing because and despite lack of humidity and sun which has just come back, this is early for where I am. Usually I am 2-2.5 weeks behind the rest of the state because of elevation. I started them about 3 weeks earlier than I usually do so when I put them out they already had blossoms.

And the sun is out for the second full day in a row, allowing me to catch up while on vacation and turn 2 of 3 bins of compost. Yay for the sun.

And I'm revelling in my snap peas. I could have the whole garden as snap peas I love them so much

[mudmucker]

Another woohoo!

I just found out my town will have a Farmer's Market on the common every Saturday. I am so excited. Now I don't have to bike 40 miles to the nearest Farmer's Market. I only have to bike 10. And the route goes by a new ice cream stand that just opened up. My little 1400 person town is startin' to be a happenin' place.

[mudmucker]

Hmm, 3 in a row. Not consolidating well.

Gee everyone is showing pictures. Here's a link to some garden photos (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2654934370102221940UepXvz) I already have set up elsewhere. It is stuff from last year but the garden set-up is basically the same for this year. I have expanded some areas for peas and potatoes this year. The narrative is actually for the purposes of communicating with my father to let him know what I've been up to.

Way in the back I have 3, 4'x4'x3' compost bin piles. I have it away from the house so any varmints stay away from the house.

You'll see in one of the photos where I show peas. In the background are some very large boulders. I, by myself because I had no help around, removed each one of those boulders when I was double digging for the raised beds. It took me 1.5 to 2 hours each to remove the largest ones. I had to use a series of boards as leverage as I would incrementally raise the rock out till finally I got it to the surface where I had to get down and use my legs to push the rock away. That was 6 years ago and I wonder if I could still do that now. I decided I had so many boulders that I physically couldn't move - I rolled them over to create a flower garden around the tree.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Mudmucker- nice photos, nice garden!
I love that little field of young peas plants. With the semi woodland situation, it seems that grass is not growing very aggressively around your planted plots- is that correct?
How is that little cold frame working out?- have you had it a year now? How'd it do through the cold weather and winter, and did it extend your food growing season?

This morning I saw the very first vegetable seeds start to sprout in my new big garden! So exciting!!! As i had expected, it was radish, bok choy, and turnips that were the first to poke their little heads up through the soil after only three days since sowing the seed. :)

[tulip]

Bleeker, you're going to have one Fabulous Fall Garden!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I don't know, Tulip, I hope so! :o
But in reality, I don't really know what will happen, since many of the things I have sown are things I've never grown before. And I never even knew what a "Fall garden" was until this summer! I had a wise gardening friend tell me about what Fall gardens are. Before that, I always thought people planted vegetables in the Spring and that was that. Imagine! :rolleyes: :D

I am thinking of this planting as a sort of experimental practice to find out a little about what grows well for me here. Since I was going to put the garden in anyway this summer, might as well throw some seeds in there to see what they do! I had fun working out a chart on how to time them in succession sowings while still giving each veggie enough time to mature before the first frost near the end of Sept.

I'm anxiously awaiting the Great Fence Installation scheduled for 10 days from now. Unfortunately they couldn't make it any earlier, and I can't finish the perimeter paths until the fence is done.
Now if only that wiley ground hog would oblige me by stepping into my Havaheart trap! I just keep catching that same little red squirrel, over and over! (I think the squirrel has figured out that it;'s worth it to get trapped, have a big feast on the bait, and then be set free again.) :cool:

[mudmucker]

I love that little field of young peas plants. With the semi woodland situation, it seems that grass is not growing very aggressively around your planted plots- is that correct?
How is that little cold frame working out?- have you had it a year now? How'd it do through the cold weather and winter, and did it extend your food growing season?

Most of my property is wooded and extremely rocky so the soil is thin and not very fertile. I have to really amend the soil every year so I have large compost piles I keep going. The grass doesn't grow well there but I was also double digging in the area for the cold frame and tromping around alot.

The cold frame is not too bad and does extend the season by a couple of months. I find it's the light levels that become too poor for any real growing as well. So it may not allow for much growing but is able to maintain what you have as temps get lower. I basically keep herbs in there plus some late season cold weather crops. The poly can often keep the temp 15 d warmer. It has kept the inside warm enough for temps in the high 20's, but once the real cold weather hits, like consecutive days in the low 20's things start to fade so it all depends on the year. Last year I was picking fresh herbs for Christmas dinner. Originally, I used to have old single pane windows set on haybales which I believe kept things really warm on the colder part of the year (picked herbs and carrots until January one year) but it was harder to control in the beginning Spring and I ended up frying some of the plants. Also I had the haybale one going successfully through February until back to back 18 inch snowstorms hit and I couldn't get out there in time and the glass cracked.


I don't know, Tulip, I hope so! :o
But in reality, I don't really know what will happen, since many of the things I have sown are things I've never grown before. And I never even knew what a "Fall garden" was until this summer! I had a wise gardening friend tell me about what Fall gardens are. Before that, I always thought people planted vegetables in the Spring and that was that. Imagine! :rolleyes: :D


But if this is new to you the fun is in the experimenting and discovery.

I've tried to plant a fall garden but I find at our latitudes, by the time early September rolls around the light levels are so poor my garden just didn't get any further. It was the poor light more than temperature because we've had some pretty mild autumn. Two years ago I picked my last tomato on Halloween. So I'm interested in what is successful in your fall garden, which will likely be the quick maturing varieties. Also it looks like your garden is in full sun so that may help. I'm wondering since some of your stuff will be coming up in late July and August that some of it will bolt during the dogs day we're likely to get. I have placed my garden in the most strategic position (other than being smack in the middle) where it can get the most sun at this time of year - on the east side where it gets southern and western sun. I wanted to leave room to allow for a future sunroom where the patio is and to allow a vehicle throught. Unfortunately because I have so many trees I am not able to get a full 8 hours of sun. I don't want to cut any trees.

[smilingcat]

Hi Lisa and mudmucker,

There is a book you may want to read. It's called "The Winter Harvest Handbook" by Eliot Coleman. His farming technique is Deep-organic in unheated greenhouse.

His farmhouse is located in Harborside, Maine. And if he can grow vegetables year round, you probably could too.

I just got the book from Amazon so its in the queue for reading. :D :D

The pictures, wow Lisa your garden is fabulous and wonderful location. so much space.

And mudmucker. WOW is all I can think of. What a beautiful place you have and you are so much more organized than we are. The raised bed, the light table, everything.

Another book I will be reading is more about zen of farming. "one straw revolution" Should be interesting.

We keep finding gigaenormous vegetables in our garden. Its time to start brown bagging them and leaving them in unsuspecting cars. :eek: nawww we wouldn't do that. :rolleyes:

[OakLeaf]

I love Eliot Coleman!

My fence keeps getting taller and uglier and the deer keep coming in. :(

Gotta pick those zucchini while they're 6". Yeah, I know they're best fresh picked and you don't want to pick those 6" ones to sit in your fridge for three days. Pick them now if you don't want ball bats. :D

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yes I have been looking at that winter harvest book on Amazon- looks cool. But there will be NO greenhouse here in the immediate future. This garden is costing us a fortune to have dug, topsoiled, and fenced. DH is now making plans for some needed other house repairs such as foundation wall repair and new driveway....so greenhouse ideas (even mini ones) cannot even be considered for a couple of years.
I'm just thrilled to get this wonderful fenced garden laid out as it is! It's a real dream garden for me.
What we might do is actually make a few cold frames for fun- DH has even been talking about ideas for cold frames- so I know he may be interested in helping do that. :)

Mudmucker, I can see that you do get limited sun there- that would definitely limit your growing season. I can totally understand your not wanting to cut trees down though.

I realize from looking at the photos of my new garden that the camera is somewhat distorting size. The cars to the right look like they are right next to the garden and they are dwarfed by the garden....but in reality the cars are much further away, down a slope that you don't see in the photo. Same with the shed in the background- it's further away than it looks. Thus the garden looks strangely huge next to the cars and the shed. Our lot is about 1/3 of an acre total- bigger than some, smaller than others. :)
It's a nice roomy garden- but hardly monstrous. Already I've run out of planting space in my planning daydreams! :rolleyes:

Today I cooked Swiss chard from the old little garden. We had broiled salmon for dinner, and I stir fried the chard in a bit of sesame oil and sprinkled with a seasoning mix of sesame seeds & 'sea vegetables' (meaning seaweed i suppose!). It was oriental tasting and very good with the salmon. It's amazing how twenty gigantic chard leaves will cook down in no time to two normal servings of greens. I love the little crunchy chopped bright red and yellow chard stems in amongst the dark green leaves.

Oakleaf- it sounds like maybe an electric fence might be something worth considering for your situation? Perhaps just two wires near the top? I don't know much about it, but seems like an idea to look into?

[OakLeaf]

I have an electric fence at the bottom, for the groundhogs, rabbits and raccoons.

Electrifying the top would be useless. Ever see birds sitting on an electric fence strand? They're not grounded, and neither is a deer 8 feet off the ground.

Anyway, I couldn't electrify the top without making the whole thing sturdier and more permanent... and I'm sure that doing that would keep the deer out without electrification. I could even do it with 10' PVC pipe the same as I have now, except I'd have to spring for larger diameter pipe that would be more rigid. I've just been balking at the price, which is obviously stupid. :p

[smilingcat]

Hi Lisa,

Have you considered making a cheap hoop house. Take several wooden bender boards and arch them over into a semi circle of sort. And nail bender boards together to form a semi rigid frame.

Make several of these semi-circles and screw/nail the semi-circle/hoop onto stakes in the ground. It doesn't have to be that big. only 4' - 5' wide on the ground.

Next take a clear painters plastic sheet (drop cloth) 10'x20' and stape 2"x2"x10' wooden pole along the edge. 10' width of the plastic gets stapled along the length of the pole.

Drape the plastic over the hoop then staple another 2"x2"x10' pole along the bottom edge of the plastic. The 2"x2" wooden pole on both sides helps to keep the plastic firmly in place without blowing around.

Cut off excess plastic. Use the excess to cover up the both ends of the opening.

In the winter time, I read that you can make a hot bed by burying thick layer of horse manure to compost (18 inch layer). cover it with 6" of sand/soil and let it cook. When the soil temperature drops back down to 90F place your potted plants and flats on the sand. it will keep it warm for weeks. Paraphrasing from "The Backyard Homestead", Carleen Madigan ed. copyright 2009. I also like this book. detailed description is on page 34. And if you place the cheap hoop with plastic drop "cloth" over the hot bed, I expect that you could be growing herbs in dead of winter.

Hoops can be reused for several season I imagine. And the $8.00 plastic, well I think it'll be good for only one winter.

--------------

suggested plants for winter growing according to winter harvest handbook. SPINACH. I also read that spinach will produce sugar to help protect itself against the cold so the spinach grown in colder climate will be much sweeter and more tender. Other suggestions I read are lettuce and carrots. Kale and the like will stop producing new leaves when it gets cold so not so good.

BTW, our spinach was wiped out so we are trying a new batch :( freshly picked baby spinach is soo soo good. yummo.

[mudmucker]

I'll check out that book by Eliot Coleman. I have some other bibles I use that I bought in the 80's, so I have heard of the "hot frame" with the hot unripe horse manure. Interestingly, there is a barn that boards horses a quarter mile down the road but I've never made an attempt to get any.

But sigh, my lack of full sun in many parts of the property is the biggest drawback. I still end up having a decent garden though. Although, I pretty much get full sun after the leaves drop.

For those of you with deer problems, have you ever heard of the water scarecrow (http://www.contech-inc.com/products/scarecrow/)? It has a sensor for up to around 35 feet. Obviously it may not be suitable for some setup situations but it might be a viable option for someone. It's fairly costly though but I've seen them for around $65. I have no idea how effective they really are.

[OakLeaf]

First green beans of the season. They're delicious, but I'm just so bummed I have no one to share them with. :(:(

I knew early on in this relationship that DH's family of origin would always come first, and to be fair, this particular crisis is real (though probably avoidable) - I'd probably be with him if it hadn't started while he was already out of town and closer to them than to me.

The only good thing is, having this happen just as the harvest starts coming in is forcing me to eat better. Normally when he's out of town it's frozen dinners for me (Amy's Kitchen, okay, but still). Right now, no way am I going to let these vegetables go to waste.

[Grog]

Right now, no way am I going to let these vegetables go to waste.

I have been thinking a lot about that recently, and it gives me a new take on "finish your plate."

I just have a small container "garden" this year, including four cherry tomato trees (lots of flowers, some green tomatoes, and lots of promise there!), various types of lettuce, a (single) zucchini plant (thanks Buddha Bellies!) that is gloriously blooming right now, and about a dozen beets and carrots (each). There is A LOT of love and work going into each gram of food that will come out of that "garden" because there are no economies of scale at all.

There is NO WAY I would let one leaf of lettuce go to waste from that garden. Or one single carrot. I don't think I could stand the stress of serving those beets at a dinner party when the time comes to eat them: what if a guest does not eat the beet? Or the last leaf of lettuce? I'll just keep them for myself and my husband (who's discovering what lettuce really tastes like).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Smilingcat-
Thanks!-Yes i will certainly look into making a plastic 'hoop house' of some kind....or even some discarded glass windows set on straw bales like people used to do a lot back when. We'll see whether I success this fall with what I'm planting from seed now.

We are so much appreciating every leaf of lettuce coming out of the little garden these days! We are eating about 5 times the number of salads we used to, simply because we have all this wonderful fresh lettuce! I have so much lettuce right now that I have to give some away every few days, and I find myself very carefully picking just the right people to give some to. Makes me feel like I'm checking them out as 'suitable foster parents' for my lettuce! :rolleyes:

One week from today my big wonderful garden fence will be in and my garden will be relatively safe (except from possible climbing raccons, but nothing is perfect). No deer, rabbits, or woodchucks will be able to eat my stuff. I can't wait!

Tiny seedlings of radish, bok choy, beets, lettuce, and kohlrabi are poking up from the ground already in pretty little green 1/4" tall rows, and I'm hoping no rabbits will mow them down over the next few days before the fence goes in. (fingers crossed) There were deer footprints through the open garden beds the other morning, but nothing much there for them to eat yet.

Oakleaf- you could always blanch and freeze a small bag of green beans for your DH's return...

[Grog]

Cute moment at dinner last night, as my husband and I talked about the "garden":

Me, excited: And there is a little zucchini that's starting to grow there! I just saw it today!

He, nonchalent: How do you know it's there?
Me, puzzled: What do you mean, how do I know it's there? It's there!
He, getting puzzled: But how can you see it?
Me, laughing: It's not growing underground!! It's above ground!

My husband thought zucchini and cucumber grew underground.

However big the quotation marks around "garden," this is proving to be educational for everybody.

[smilingcat]

Cute moment at dinner last night, as my husband and I talked about the "garden":

Me, excited: And there is a little zucchini that's starting to grow there! I just saw it today!

He, nonchalent: How do you know it's there?
Me, puzzled: What do you mean, how do I know it's there? It's there!
He, getting puzzled: But how can you see it?
Me, laughing: It's not growing underground!! It's above ground!

My husband thought zucchini and cucumber grew underground.

However big the quotation marks around "garden," this is proving to be educational for everybody.

Too funny!! But I can see this happening.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We've been enjoying a surplus of leaf lettuces from my older little garden for the past few weeks. I have been giving fresh lettuce to a woman friend I fitness walk with, and once I gave it to her in a flat tupperware box.
She returned the box to me the other day full of soaked broccoli sprouting seeds.
This was something new to me. So I did what she told me and now three days later I had a nice 2 cup harvest of green broccoli sprouts- my first sprouts ever!

I've always liked alfalfa sprout sandwiches, so I did some quick reading on sprouting and today at the health food store I bought some more sprouting seeds to try: alfalfa, flax, and more broccoli seed.
I soaked and set some alfalfa up in a jar, and some flax in a plastic box.

Cool to think that I could grow fresh greens in the middle of winter blizzards. :)

Do you guys do sprouts too?

Deaimond- this is some 'gardening' you could certainly do without any land at all!

[mudmucker]

I've been doing red clover and radish sprouts for a while now. I like them better than alfalfa. There's a natural foods shop a few towns over so I get my sprouting seeds there.

[NoNo]

I stopped by my garden after work today. It's not really mine, it's my aunt's BF's, but I offered to help plant and weed in exchange for some veggies. Things are coming along, although the month of rain we had really has slowed development. The recent sunshine seems to be helping, so if things stay this way we should be in good shape. Plenty of tomatoes (those are just getting flowers now), the zucchini are starting to sprout, the eggplant and peppers are coming along well, the broccoli and cauliflower should be ok, there isn't nearly as much corn as we'd hoped, and the beans just aren't taking. There are some other veggies, I can't remember, but overall we're on the right track. And you can't go wrong with the fresh eggs from the chickens :D

[tulip]

I have a cucumber! It's very small, but it's there!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have a cucumber! It's very small, but it's there!

Destined to become a classic TE post.

[smilingcat]

I guess I should count my blessings.

Day before yesterday:
Zucchini, sqaush in marinara sauce. Salad was cucumber and maui onion sliced thin.

Yesterday:
Sauteed zucchini and squash. For a salad, cucumber, baby greens, green zebra tomatoes.

Today:
For lunch, left over zucchini, and squash.
Dinner today zucchini (three kinds woohoo), squash, snow peas and some chicken for seasoning. Schezuan style (sp) For the salad, it was cucumber, cucumber and cucumber salad three kinds of cucumber. wow... variety.

Tomorrow:
wanna guess? hint we've got lots of zucchini, squash, cucumber, tomatoes, baby greens. perhaps stuffed zucchini and squash. Stuffed with brown rice, tomato, cheese...

Zucchinis are too nice to turn them into a pizza crust. hmm maybe zucchini sticks, battered and deep fried. Served with ranch dressing. yummo :D :D :D in which case, I may have to pick up some mozzrella cheese for cheese sticks. super yummo. served with marinara sauce.

I like zucchini and squash but I could use a break.

I think there is going to be some random act of kindness. Brown bag filled with vegies are going to be found in people's car :D :D :D. Another reason to lock your car at night.

well somethings are total failure. we've had complete crop failure with spinach. We are trying it again with summer variety. Its a learning experience.

Overall happy.

[OakLeaf]

:D:D

I posted it over on the "stuff we see on rides" thread, but in case anyone here missed it -

on Saturday I was riding through through pasture and woodlands, and there by the side of the road was a zucchini as big as my lower leg. :D:D

Some people resort to illegal dumping this time of year.

Srsly, though, pick 'em when they're 6" even if they're going to have to sit in the fridge for a few days. I'm finally learning. :p

[papaver]

I guess I should count my blessings.

Day before yesterday:
Zucchini, sqaush in marinara sauce. Salad was cucumber and maui onion sliced thin.

Yesterday:
Sauteed zucchini and squash. For a salad, cucumber, baby greens, green zebra tomatoes.

Today:
For lunch, left over zucchini, and squash.
Dinner today zucchini (three kinds woohoo), squash, snow peas and some chicken for seasoning. Schezuan style (sp) For the salad, it was cucumber, cucumber and cucumber salad three kinds of cucumber. wow... variety.

Tomorrow:
wanna guess? hint we've got lots of zucchini, squash, cucumber, tomatoes, baby greens. perhaps stuffed zucchini and squash. Stuffed with brown rice, tomato, cheese...

Zucchinis are too nice to turn them into a pizza crust. hmm maybe zucchini sticks, battered and deep fried. Served with ranch dressing. yummo :D :D :D in which case, I may have to pick up some mozzrella cheese for cheese sticks. super yummo. served with marinara sauce.

I like zucchini and squash but I could use a break.

I think there is going to be some random act of kindness. Brown bag filled with vegies are going to be found in people's car :D :D :D. Another reason to lock your car at night.

well somethings are total failure. we've had complete crop failure with spinach. We are trying it again with summer variety. Its a learning experience.

Overall happy.

hey you can make zucchini-cucumbersoup!

1 onion (diced)
1 zucchini
1 cucumber
chicken stock (or vegetable stock)


stir fry the onion in some butter till soft, ad the diced zucchini and cucumber, stir fry. Add water and chicken stock. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for about ten minutes. Mix the soup, ad pepper and salt when needed... et voilà!

[tulip]

Or lasagne with strips of zucchini instead of noodles.

[GLC1968]

Zukeamole (like guacamole but with zucchini) or zucchini 'crab' cakes:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2007/07/never_enough_zucchini_recipes.html

I plan to shred all my extra zucchini and dehydrate it for future use. I've heard it rehydrates beautifully for use in breads or such in the winter. :) I'm also going to do some seasoned 'chips' for munching.

Right now we are still eating kale, swiss chard, and snow peas as fast as we can manage. We've also gotten quite a few of our first zucchini squash as well. And this year, I grew celery and broccoli for the first time ever and they both look fan-freaking-tastic! I can't wait to harvest them!

[jillm]

These are 2 soups I use for lots of zucchini. they both freeze well

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Zucchini-Coriander-Soup-10481

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Zucchini-Basil-Soup-242831

[OakLeaf]

You can always shred it and freeze it for some zucchini muffins in the fall, when (1) zucchini seems more appealing and (2) turning on the oven seems way more appealing.

[tulip]

Oh, and a marble-sized watermelon!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh, and a marble-sized watermelon!

:eek:


:D

[GLC1968]

Oh, and a marble-sized watermelon!

That reminds me...today I saw a canteloupe in our garden about the size of a raquet ball. I'm so excited! I've never had much luck with melons before so I hope this one makes it to maturity. :)

[tulip]

Hey Lisa, I take what I can get ;)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey Lisa, I take what I can get ;)

Don't we all. :D

My old tiny garden continues to churn out MASSIVE amounts of lettuce- both red and green leaf lettuce and wonderful romaine. (Thanks again Tulip, for urging me to jam more plantings in there). We're eating big salads every day and I'm giving lots of lettuce to friends as well. I get occasional radishes, and plenty of Swiss chard. Tomatoes are still green, scallions and string beans are growing quite well.

As for the new big garden- the fence is supposed to *finally* be installed (3 1/2 l-o-n-g weeks after putting in the garden) during this weekend and hopefully will be finished by Monday afternoon. I'm so hepped about it!
Meanwhile, I did sow lots of seed 2 weeks ago, most of which are all little 2" high green rows now- so cute! I'm very lucky no rabbits or deer have discovered them. Hopefully they'll survive another two nights until the fence is up. After the fence is up we can finally finish mulching up the paths and perimeter, and I'll no longer be walking in trenches around the beds.

This morning I did the second large succession sowing (2 weeks after the first). It included additional small sowings of radish, spinach, bokchoy, various lettuces, kohlrabi, turnips,chard, carrots, cilantro, bunching onions and scallions, and beets.
A third and fourth sowing in August will include only more cool-tolerant fast growing Fall crops like spinach, radish, turnips, beets, and lettuce.

This afternoon we go play music at our town's farmer's market, and eat Magdalena's wonderful fresh made Mexican burritos for dinner there at the market. :p It's now our Friday tradition. We play the music voluntarily, but we do get to take home a few fresh organic veggies as a thank you from one of the vendors.

[OakLeaf]

I'd love to plant some seeds for fall, but without rain, there's just no way.

I'm so afraid that this is just how our climate is, now. Last year was much the same.

We might get a few drops today - although once again, as the day goes on it looks less and less likely. Anything's better than nothing for what I already have in the ground, but there's no establishing new seedlings. :(

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'd love to plant some seeds for fall, but without rain, there's just no way.

I'm so afraid that this is just how our climate is, now. Last year was much the same.

We might get a few drops today - although once again, as the day goes on it looks less and less likely. Anything's better than nothing for what I already have in the ground, but there's no establishing new seedlings. :(

How sad! What state are you in again?...
here in NY we have had a very very WET summer.

Perhaps you could start a bunch of different seedlings in one small section of ground, like a 'nursery bed', and keep that small area watered until the seedlings are a 2-3 inches tall, then transplant them out in their regular beds?

[GLC1968]

Oakleaf - we have a similiar problem. While it rains most of the year here, it does NOT rain at all (hardly a drop) in July and August.

Luckily, we've got enough ground water saved up that our cistern is still quite full. We are being VERY sparing with that water this year because last year, we exhausted it in early August. This year, we hope to stretch it until the rain comes back. We did have a little rain last Sunday, so at least our rain barrels are full again.

I haven't planted anything for fall yet except for the squash and carrots already in the ground. I'm still debating about how much I want to do in the fall since we've just been so overwhelmed already and fall is a big fruit harvest season for us (apples, grapes and pears). I guess I could throw in some spinach and some new broccoli - that stuff doesn't require much work. Eh, we'll see.

Our garden is kind of taking over - I'll have to take more photos this weekend! I've never in my life had zucchini plants as big as the ones we have this year!

[smilingcat]

hmm sounds like GLC will be having my kind of diet.

yesterday: zucchini
today: zucchini
tomorrow: zucchini.

Isn't i amazin how a pencil thin short baby zucchini can end up to be a huge club by the end of the day.

Last night it was back to zucchini with squash in marinara sauce. And we had our first acorn squash aka queen's squash. Acorn squah was unplanned vegi for us. It had sprouted from a compost pile somehow. so we transplanted and wondered what it would turn into. Voila, we got acorn squash.

[Blueberry]

Keep an eye out for the tomato blight this year:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html?hp

So far, we've had great luck. Cukes will be in today or tomorrow, already zucchini and yellow squash, baby watermelon, baby pumpkin, (getting too big) radishes, etc.

CA

[GLC1968]

Acorn squah was unplanned vegi for us. It had sprouted from a compost pile somehow. so we transplanted and wondered what it would turn into. Voila, we got acorn squash.

We have the same thing, but we don't yet know what our compost plant will be. It's definitely of the squash/melon family. I'm guessing canteloupe, but it could be acorn...or pumpkin...or spaghetti... Luckily, I don't think it's *another* zucchini! ;)

[OakLeaf]

Wow, that's very unusual. Squash is promiscuous :p - it'll cross-pollinate with any other squash in the neighborhood, plus grocery store squash is invariably hybrid. So the chance of getting a recognizable volunteer squash is very, very slim. Congrats!

And, we had an unexpected 3/4" of rain this afternoon. :):) With luck, this will break the cycle of hot and dry that makes the big storms dissipate before they get here - <fingers crossed>

I messed up yesterday and didn't pick a 4" zucchini and a 6" zucchini. :rolleyes: One good thing about the drought is that they only doubled in size overnight. They're safely in the fridge now.

And, DH is home, trimmin' green beans as I type. :):):)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I messed up yesterday and didn't pick a 4" zucchini and a 6" zucchini. :rolleyes: One good thing about the drought is that they only doubled in size overnight. They're safely in the fridge now.

Too funny! :D
I'm glad you got a nice little rainfall.

We are having yet MORE thunderstorms today, and more coming tonight. This has been the rainiest 6 weeks that I can ever remember in my life.
Oddly, the gardens have been doing ok, if slowed down a bit due to much fewer sunny days.

At the farmer's market today I bought some more stuff for growing sprouts-
another sieve-topped jar, and some mung beans and 'salad mix' sprouting seed. Cool that it's all so cheap! I had also gotten a hemp sprouting bag, which is good for sprouting the larger beans and peas that don't need light for sprouting- like the mung beans i just bought.
So i already ate my broccoli sprouts from last week, I have a half-grown batch of alfalfa sprouts growing in a jar, some experimental flax, and am about to start some mung beans after soaking, in the hemp bag and will start some 'salad mix' seeds in my other new jar.

I feel like I'm back in the 70's for some reason. :confused: :cool:

[GLC1968]

Ah, sprouts! I haven't done any yet, but I really want to. I just haven't had time to do the research and get started.

I have this page bookmarked for when I do though. I've heard it's chock full of helpful info:

http://www.sproutpeople.com/

[spokewench]

I promised a while back that I would send pictures of my garden; and of course, I am a bit challenged when it comes to attaching pictures. Just trying to figure it out. I have not figured out how to attach multiple pictures in the same email. So, here goes, attached, (I hope) is a pictures of the pots in my front yard with vege plants. There are tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, zuchini, bell pepper out there that are doing real well. This was an experiment this year since my garden is slightly shady in the back yard and I was in search of the most sun out by my driveway. Already, we have had a couple of red tomatoes which is unheard of at my 7,000 foot elevation mountain garden in July. Hope the attachment comes through.:D

[spokewench]

Here's one of my raised beds; tomatoes, herbs, zucchini, green beans, marigolds

[spokewench]

Here's my perennial garden next to my raised vege garden beds

[spokewench]

That's all the pictures I can put in now; for some reason, it won't upload the other pictures I took at the same time as I took these others? Anyway, I just picked a huge bag of chard and will make something for dinner with that.

I'll keep trying and get a few more pictures up later.

spoke

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Spoke, those are just wonderful pictures!
I love all those pine trees, and how you got creative to take advantage of the full sun along your driveway. Clever. :p
I love seeing everyone's gardens- they are all so beautiful with their lush green things growing in all different types of environments!

Here is my old little veggie garden, which is now totally bursting with stuff. We've been harvesting huge amounts of fresh lettuces from it, with no end in sight yet. Most of the bright lightest green you see here is Black-seeded Simpson leaf lettuce. It's very quick growing. Tomatoes are along the right wall, and bok choy nearest the camera, along the path. Also some romaine along the left side of path, further up.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/3733702112_d745d50b4f.jpg

And this morning the fence guys finally started erecting the big fence for the large new veggie garden which was previously useless back lawn. They are supposed to finish the fence in another two or three days:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2638/3733701514_4d90917c14.jpg
You can just see some of the green rows of baby seedlings sprouting up in the garden already. They mostly about 2" high now, and are from the seeds i planted two weeks ago. I made a new sowing yesterday, and will plant more seeds in another two weeks again- this will hopefully make for staggered maturity times.

[spokewench]

Oh, your new big garden is wonderful! I wish I had enough sun in my yard to do something like that!:D

[Trek420]

Oh, your new big garden is wonderful! I wish I had enough sun in my yard to do something like that!:D

Me too. Or room :o I got a chard and golden chard plant at the local farm market today. Let's see if they survive in my patio. :rolleyes:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well it's all relative I guess.
We have friends with large rambling farmhouses and acres of fertile land, while we live on 1/3 acre sitting on rocky shale, which is why I had to BUY a whole mess of topsoil to put this garden in. We are foregoing some things in order to put this garden in. Yet, I do realize we are lucky indeed to have the space and the funds to do it.
My daughters both live in apartments with no yard at all. One has herbs in pots on the fire escape and is going to start growing wheat grass in her windowsills in trays- her little garden! I am sending her some other sprout seeds to grow in jars. You can grow sprouts anywhere inside- in jars, trays, or in hemp bags.
It's an art to find creative ways to raise edible things in the smallest and/or most unlikely places (as i'm sure some of you already do). :)
I read that some people grow oyster and other mushrooms under their kitchen sinks. I keep my worm-powered compost bin 'hive' in my kitchen, mostly because I enjoy them being right there to tend to them. Other people in apt's have their worm bins in their closets, or under the bed or under the sink, in a tupperware bin. :p

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I discovered a whole bunch of ready to pick string beans that were hiding under the top leaves in my old little garden today. :p
I made them into a vinaigrette bean salad.
Here's the 'recipe' if anyone else has string beans from their gardens coming on now...(I didn't actually measure anything though):
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/07/string-bean-salad.html

[tulip]

Lisa, I LOVE your "old" garden! You really packed it in. In my opinion, a garden should have "no dirt;" that is, no dirt visible. You can really, really get alot of production out of a small space if you plan it right.

Your new garden will be a delight, too, no doubt.

[arielmoon]

I am in envy of all these gorgeous gardens!

I am soooooo frustrated with my garden this year. I do containers since I live in a condo. I had a gorgeous tomato plant in a topsy turvey that got demolished by caterpillars in several hours. Grrrr. Now my smaller cherry tomato plants have been ravaged by some sort of bugs.

I just want to cry!


My peppers, at least, are doing ok.

[papaver]

My peppers, at least, are doing ok.

For now. :D:D:D:D

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, I LOVE your "old" garden! You really packed it in. In my opinion, a garden should have "no dirt;" that is, no dirt visible. You can really, really get alot of production out of a small space if you plan it right.


I agree, the less dirt showing in a vegetable garden, the less weeding and less watering you have to do. Of course, I have almost nothing BUT dirt in the new garden right now. :rolleyes: But planning, and sowing seeds is great fun too. I have a lot of little seedlings coming up now that I want to thin and move around a bit to even their spacing.

The fence guys are finishing the fence right now, in the steady rain for the past several hours. I hope it stops raining long enough for me to take a few pictures of the very impressive anti-varmint fence before it gets dark this evening. i think this fence will be there long after I'm dead and gone...hopefully with someone else happily gardening inside it. :)

Arielmoon- I feel your pain- I have not had a decent tomato harvest in 3 years now, and this year's crop don't look very promising either. Instead I did well with lettuce this year, what with all the cool weather and rain. Lately I am having GREAT fun 'farming' sprouts in jars, trays, and cloth bags in my kitchen- you might try sprouts if you want a quick confidence boost- they are really EASY and delicious! I'm totally hooked on sprout sandwiches now. I love their cool refreshing green-ness.

[OakLeaf]

My tomatoes have a disease. :( It's not late blight, it's either bacterial spot, bacterial speck, or fungal spot - not 100% sure which, although I'm leaning toward bacterial spot.

I'm trying garlic oil spray on it. May try neem oil if that doesn't work.

At least I haven't seen any hornworms yet this year. Those things are voracious. So sorry about your plants arielmoon! Keep an eye on your pepper plants though, tomato hornworms will eat them when they run out of tomato.

Froze about 5 lbs of green beans today. :)

[arielmoon]

Just frustrating cause I want it all organic but I cant find anything that works. My co-worker uses a water/Murphy's Oil Soap/ Cayenne pepper mixture that I may have to try. :(

So far the peppers are hanging in there. The squash refuses to grow anything- just maybe doesnt like containers but I was trying it out.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Froze about 5 lbs of green beans today. :)

Did you blanch them first? Good harvest!



The squash refuses to grow anything- just maybe doesnt like containers but I was trying it out.

I don't know myself, but do squash maybe need more than one plant to pollinate each other's flowers?

[OakLeaf]

Insecticidal soap will kill any and all adult insects - including the beneficials, but I've been known to "nuke" plants that are seriously infested. A tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's in a quart of water.

Bt (Thuricide) is considered organic caterpillar control. Hand picking is best, although I know how hard it is to see the hornworms when they're small (sometimes even when they're big!).

Have you got female blossoms on your squash? If you don't have a lot of bees you may need to pollinate them by hand. Easy enough with a small kid's paintbrush.

Yep, blanched my beans. :)

[smilingcat]

I love Lisa's garden. You so lucky. Everything is so green. Around here its brown borwn brown.

Spokewench, your place looks like its up in the mountains with all those pine trees. Lovely place. Its just matter of water... Oh do keep the pine needles away from the garden. I was told that pine trees release an herbicide of sorts. And that is why ground underneath the pine tree is barren. Its their way of survival of the fittest keep the competition down.

Oh we ended up pulling one of our tomato plants out. Second one will be yanked this weekend. We've been battling with aphid problem. All thanks to the june gloom fog during the last month. We've also had some 2 legged varieties, who are helping themselves to not quite ripe tomatoes. We had to install a pad lock to our gate!! And we are installing a green colored chicken wire mesh around some plants.

I HATE CALIFORNIA!! :(

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I love Lisa's garden. You so lucky. Everything is so green. Around here its brown borwn brown....
Oh we ended up pulling one of our tomato plants out. Second one will be yanked this weekend. We've been battling with aphid problem. All thanks to the june gloom fog during the last month. We've also had some 2 legged varieties, who are helping themselves to not quite ripe tomatoes. We had to install a pad lock to our gate!! And we are installing a green colored chicken wire mesh around some plants.

I HATE CALIFORNIA!! :(

Wow, I never heard of anyone who hated living in California before! :eek:
I've never been on the west coast, so what do i know.
Brown brown brown...are you being prohibited from watering plants because of drought conditions there?
2 legged?- you mean people are going into your garden and taking tomatoes??
Maybe it's kids- I actually did that once with a kid pal when we didn't think very logically about 'private property'. We were so ashamed and mortified when the grownups called us on it! :(

We've had the weirdest summer....SO SO much rain and of course that means way less heat and sun. That meant (aside from way less bicycling :rolleyes: ) a great lettuce crop, but not so great for tomatoes. A lot of people are now having mildew/mold blight problems in their veggie plants around here.
Though my lettuce is still going great, I can see lots of it is starting to want to bolt, which means many of the larger lettuce plants will soon need to be pulled and composted. Bolted lettuce can look pretty and lush, but often tastes bitter. ;) We are due for some hot dry weather soon, and my lettuce will definitely hate that, along with my spinach seedlings. I'll just keep planting a little lettuce and spinach seed every week or so in the new garden, so that when things start to cool down at the end of summer the babies will be ready to quickly spring into action.

Our giant garden fence is DONE...next comes the finishing phase of filling in all the garden paths and the perimeter with mulch and cleaning up and reseeding the lawn that was torn up with all the work going on.
I'll try to take some pix of the fence later today. It's quite impressive! :eek:

[arielmoon]

I don't know myself, but do squash maybe need more than one plant to pollinate each other's flowers?

Oh interesting, I figured I barely had enough room for one plant in the pot, let alone 2... however there have been two itty bitty growths that just never developed into anything. They got about 3 inches long before shriveling up. :( So maybe I have some bees!

[OakLeaf]

A squash plant can pollinate its own flowers. But they're definitely pollinated by bees and not by wind. Next female flower you get, take a little paintbrush, grab some pollen off the anther of a male flower, and gently brush it onto the stigma of the female flower.

If you plan to save seeds, then you need to isolate the female flower before it opens, with a little cheesecloth or screen or whatever; and hand pollinate it from the same species of squash with a clean brush.

[arielmoon]

omg! performing sex acts on my plants! LOL

ok next silly question... how do I know if the flower is male or female?

[OakLeaf]

Yep, squash sex. ;)

The female flowers are the ones with the ovary (proto-squash) on the stem end, and the big sticky stigma in the middle. The male flowers have a single anther that's covered with pollen.

If your female flowers are shriveling before they even start to grow into squash, that's a pretty sure sign they're not getting pollinated.

[GLC1968]

If you plan to save seeds, then you need to isolate the female flower before it opens, with a little cheesecloth or screen or whatever; and hand pollinate it from the same species of squash with a clean brush.

I just read somewhere that if you get to the flowers first thing in the morning (before even the Mason bees are active), hand pollinate them, and then use a piece of string or yarn to tie the flower shut, you can get pure seeds. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to eventually!

[OakLeaf]

Do you know whether beans will cross-pollinate? I've got green beans and cannellini this year - is it worth saving any seed if I don't isolate the flowers?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I took a few first pictures of our completed new big garden fence, here:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-new-garden-fence-is-in.html
The edges and paths are not all mulched in yet, it should look a bit more finished when that's all done next week.
But I love it so! For me, it's a dream garden. No grand landscaped grounds with curved beds and stone walls... but rather a wonderful ultra simple and sturdy 'utilitarian' food garden. It's SO good to not have to worry at all anymore about the varmints devastating everything!
Best garden I ever had...I'm so happy! :p

[smilingcat]

Do you know whether beans will cross-pollinate? I've got green beans and cannellini this year - is it worth saving any seed if I don't isolate the flowers?

They can, I believe... but did they flower at the same time? and I'm not sure about between cannelloni and green. Only way to find is save the seeds and plant next year. If the seed doesn't look quite right then it might be better to start fresh.

while at it, unabashed self promo. from my yard. First is a zucchini called 8 ball. second is a Japanese cucumber that turned into a club. They are supposed to be only 8 inches long. not the 3 pound club. The last picture is our haul for yesterday and today. For tomatoes we have Isabella's golden globe, Azyocha (yellow), Cherokee purple, green zebra, ?? red variety, zucchini name escapes me, and two Acorn squash. zucchini had turned into a monster... all of the tomatoes are heirloom with exception of the mystery red tomato, zucchini is a heirloom variety, Acorn is not an heirloom variety.

It's been really exciting this year as we finally managed to get our act together. So we are growing most of the veggies we need. We made salsa the other day. And it was so gratifying that almost all the ingredients came from our yard.

Lemon: Meyer lemon and yes from our yard,
tomato: yes
cucumber: yes
cilantro: yes
garlic: yes
serrano chilli: yes

only two items were bought at farmers market: yellow onion and avocado. Hopefully, we'll have our own avocado in about two years. We are going to remove a magnolia tree and replaced with Haas avocado.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

SmilingCat, those are wonderful! All that variety in shapes and colors.
I like your artfully arranged photos and backdrops. :p

With all the rain we are getting dumped with this 'summer', it's a wonder we have as much vegetables as we do. Yesterday alone we had 4.4 inches of rain in one day! :eek: Yikes.
Yet the lettuce and stringbeans and chard etc are still bravely producing.

I'm having a weird gardening summer even aside from the rain, since I'm slowly transitioning to my new garden. Next Spring things will be a bit more normal when I start Spring plantings right from the logical beginning of the year. But of course I am so thrilled with having my new space to plant in. :)

[spokewench]

Bleeker and Smiling Cat:

Bleeker: I absolutely love your new garden and fence! Oh, how I wish I had that much space to plant; I could actually can some! Oh what wishful thinking!

Smiling Cat: The produce looks absolutely wonderful. I'm just smacking my lips for the flavor of those wonderful tomatoes

I've been getting nice chard and zucchinis, but not much of anything else yet. We are too high 7,000 feet and too cold late to get an early crop. Most people and magazines that I hear about or read about are all getting their big bumper crops in June and July and I barely have anything to show for my garden yet. I do have several bell peppers that are pretty good size, some eggplant too; but they are by no means ready to harvest yet. I've had a few small tomatoes, but we never have great big ones or heirlooms. The larger tomatoes with the great acidic flavor just won't turn red here in our short season climate. I'm pretty happy so far with the garden this year. The plants out front in the pots are really doing well. I'll send another picture soon.

[OakLeaf]

Darn it, I've got my first ball bat of the season... a zucchini that was hiding under a big leaf when I looked yesterday. :mad:

Spent the morning trying to stay ahead of the squash bugs and vine borers.

[smilingcat]

Darn it, I've got my first ball bat of the season... a zucchini that was hiding under a big leaf when I looked yesterday. :mad:

Spent the morning trying to stay ahead of the squash bugs and vine borers.

ROFLOL... maybe trying your hand at making zucchini pickle.

[GLC1968]

Yeah - we've had quite a few zucchini bats this year already! They shred nicely and still make tasty zucchini bread. ;)

I've made three different types of zucchini bread and one kind of zucchini cookie, tons of zucchini chips in the dehydrator, I've shredded and diced and dehydrated piles and piles of zucchini and we are grilling and roasting it to eat with every meal. It gets sauteed and put in eggs, and shredded and tossed in salads. We also feed it as treats to the dogs and the goats. I swear that if I start to sprout a striped green skin, I'll post a picture. :p

I harvested our first cuke yesterday...and our first tomato. And one of our heirloom varieties (tomatoes) has an issue. All of the fruits are getting blossom end rot. I can't figure it out as all the other varieties are doing fine.

And seriously, what is up with the snow peas? Will they EVER stop producing? The plants basically look dead and yet every day we harvest more. You'd think that 107F weather would put an end to it, but apparently not! :eek:

[OakLeaf]

Hmmmm. If it's just the one variety and all your plants are getting the same amount of water, maybe it has greater calcium needs than the other tomatoes? Maybe try top dressing with a little bone meal?

I'm not having much success controlling whatever disease my tomatoes have. :( I've got a couple more tricks up my sleeve for tomorrow after it stops raining, but right now it doesn't look good.

[GLC1968]

You know, that's a really good idea! I'd ruled out a calcium problem because the other varieties were fine, but why it never occurred to me that they may have different needs is beyond me! Duh! Would eggshells work, you think? Or I *may* have some blood & bone meal left from last year... Thanks for the ideas!

[OakLeaf]

I got curious and started googling the extension services. :)

They recommend a foliar spray of calcium chloride to control blossom end rot in established plants. I used to use the stuff to curdle tofu, but there are issues if too much of it gets into the soil and its use in "organic" agriculture is iffy (safest and most accepted in just that application, though).

Maybe try whirling some eggshells and water in the blender to use as a foliar spray? :confused: Just a thought.

Another thing I read is that plants that have a lot of fast, leafy growth are more susceptible to blossom end rot, because nitrogen is involved as well. Maybe that's why your one variety is affected?

[GLC1968]

Yeah, I thought about the nitrogen issue, too. We have high nitrogen levels in some of our soil due to the chicken coop - but that's mostly the 'row garden' area and most of the plants that have the problem are in the boxes (which is fairly controlled as these particular boxes are new this year). We do have one plant of this same variety in the row area, but it looks just like the rest of the diseased ones (no better or worse).

I'll try the eggshell spray on one plant - it probably can't hurt, right? If it works, I can do more. All of the plants have a new crop of tiny tomatoes, so hopefully if I treat them soon enough, these will develop well. I've been trying to pull off all the end rot ones right away so that the plant doesn't waste any energy on them. Not sure if that matters or not, but that's my brains' logic for you! ;)

[OakLeaf]

Not sure if that matters or not, but that's my brains' logic for you! ;)


http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/oldnotes/vg19.htm:


Removing affected fruits when symptoms are first observed may be worthwhile for subsequent development of other fruit on the plant. This is particularly recommended for tomatoes.

:)

[spokewench]

Here is a whole sink full of rainbow chard that I harvested this morning with a couple of zucchinis.

Oh, boy can't wait for that Italian style soup tonight!

[spokewench]

And, here is the result. One bag of stems, two great huge stuffed bags of chard leaves.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, a whole sink full!
So now tell us what you are going to do with the bags of leaves and stems...:confused:

The sun is finally out, I went for a nice 25 mile bike ride already...
Now Im going out to do some garden tending right now! :D

[spokewench]

Well, for starters, I will make a soup. Saute onions, carrots, some of the stalks, garlic; add a little bacon and cook a bit; add stock, cannellini beans, lots of chard leaves, a can of diced tomatoes or fresh if I have them, a small rind from my parmesan cheese, some small pasta at the end yummy soup!

[OakLeaf]

Beautiful chard!

Wow, you have cannellini already? Or are you talking about dried?

Rabbits, or somebody, have been into mine - I took the opportunity to look inside a chewed-up pod, and the bean kernels are still really tiny, smaller than the ones in a lot of my green beans even (planted at the same time).

But I pulled a carrot yesterday just to thin the row a little, and it came out 6" long! I wasn't expecting that. :) Yummy.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Spoke- that sounds like good soup. I especially like the parmesan part. :)
I like to quickly stir fry my swiss chard, like I also do with my bok choy I am getting now too from the garden.
Everything in the new garden is of course still only 2-3 inches tall, and hopefully I will start getting the first lettuces, spinach, & radishes to eat from it in a few more weeks.
Meanwhile, the small old garden is putting out some nice things to eat.
At the end of autumn when the plants there have become exhausted, I might hoe it all up, fertilize it again, and plant some lettuce and spinach there for late autumn/early winter growing, since with the existing little mesh fence I could easily throw some clear plastic up and create a mini greenhouse of sorts as an experiment. In the Spring that whole little garden will be dug up and planted over to raspberries- it's a great spot for it!

[Selkie]

GLC - Would you mind sharing your zucchini bread and zucchini cookie recipes, please? I saw those pictures of your crop! WOW. By the way, I still love that pumpkin bread of yours (you posted the recipe last fall, I believe).

No zucchini in our small garden but our tomato plants are going gangbusters. I planted heirloom varieties, which I got a a "hoity toity" mail order place. Worth the money. One plant is producing purple ones, that are just now ripening. On my way in the house after work, I stop by, grab some ripe tomatoes and have a treat before I head off to the pool for a swim.

Our pepper plants got big but no peppers. Odd. Maybe due to lack of pollination?

[OakLeaf]

Peppers are self-pollinating.

I'd guess soil nutrients, with weather a close second. Did you have blossoms? Did they turn into tiny peppers and then fall off, or wither before they even started to look like peppers?

[spokewench]

No cannelinis from my garden; dried (cooked) is what will go in the soup!

I haven't even got any regular green beans from my garden yet. I think in about 2 weeks.

MMMM raspberries - i tried growing blackberries here; but they don't like my yard. They do grow in some places in town, however.

[anakiwa]

Sorry to join in late and miss all the fun.

Does anyone have an effective way of getting the green worms off the broccoli? (Someone told me soak it in salt water, but it doesn't seem to work very well.)

[OakLeaf]

Hand picking is best. They're well camouflaged, but finding them is part of the Zen of gardening. (Although I don't suppose it's very Zen to squish them after you find them. ;))

In a pinch, Bt (Bacillus thuringensis, brand name Thuricide) is considered organic - it's a bacterium that specifically targets Lepidoptera larvae. Right now I'm using an old syringe to inject Bt into squash vine borer holes. :rolleyes:

[badger]

I've not read a single page of this thread so pardon me if this question's been posed:

I have a mystery squash (from my compost, either banana squash or acorn), and while it's growing like a weed and producing a lot of blooms, not many end in fruit. And what's worse, the fruit that it does bear, soon turns yellow and dies. Any ideas?

ok, another squash question:

My zucchini's doing similar things. Tons of flowers, but I've only gotten one zucchini so far. Do you know why some are just flowers and others actually turn into a squash?

p.s. they're in terra cotta pots.

[OakLeaf]

Artificial insemination (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showpost.php?p=448481&postcount=201) for squash. ;)

The one from your compost is as likely to be an inedible gourd (the result of something hybridized either intentionally by the grower or randomly in the garden) as anything you want to save, but it could be fun to just let it grow and find out.

[NoNo]

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v5204/235/91/1538774168/n1538774168_30479413_897213.jpg

This is what I picked from "my" garden yesterday. The giant zucchini is 15" long! Wax beans, string beans, just a few peas, those didn't take well, and some banana peppers. I see the bell peppers are starting to bud, as are the eggplant and yellow squash. Tomatoes are growing, but nowhere near ready for harvest. There is still plenty more zucchini to come, I saw several I could have picked and then some nubs just starting to grow, and there were lots of flowers meaning more are on the way. I wish I knew which flowers I could pick so I can fry them up.

[spokewench]

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v5204/235/91/1538774168/n1538774168_30479413_897213.jpg

This is what I picked from "my" garden yesterday. The giant zucchini is 15" long! Wax beans, string beans, just a few peas, those didn't take well, and some banana peppers. I see the bell peppers are starting to bud, as are the eggplant and yellow squash. Tomatoes are growing, but nowhere near ready for harvest. There is still plenty more zucchini to come, I saw several I could have picked and then some nubs just starting to grow, and there were lots of flowers meaning more are on the way. I wish I knew which flowers I could pick so I can fry them up.

IT's looking yummy nono

[anakiwa]

Hand picking is best. They're well camouflaged, but finding them is part of the Zen of gardening. (Although I don't suppose it's very Zen to squish them after you find them. ;))

In a pinch, Bt (Bacillus thuringensis, brand name Thuricide) is considered organic - it's a bacterium that specifically targets Lepidoptera larvae. Right now I'm using an old syringe to inject Bt into squash vine borer holes. :rolleyes:

I'm winding up hand picking (as I'm processing)- I'm just afraid I'll miss one and serve up broccoli with worms (spraying makes me a little nervous- organic or not I think some of the organic stuff is sometimes still toxic).

Here's another question- how do you tell when your garlic is finished drying (it's been on the balcony for a week)?

[GLC1968]

If you want a quick way to get those worms out, dip your veggie in a pot of boiling water (literally, just dip it, don't boil it). The worms die, turn a bright yellow, and generally fall off. Even if they don't all fall off, they are much easier to spot when they are yellow!

(I learned this with my Kale - worm city!)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I keep planting little rows of lettuces in my new garden- like a couple little rows each week to have a successive harvest.
i love all the different textures and colors of the different kinds!...bright green, dark green, green with purple flecks, solid dark purple, ruffled, smooth...so pretty to gaze at!

[GLC1968]

Zucchini Recipes for mickchick -

This is a reasonably healthy version that is quite tasty (it's not going to be as rich as my grandmothers pumpkin bread, but not using a full cup of oil will do that to a recipe ;)):

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
Natural cooking spray
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 egg
1/3 cup expeller pressed canola oil
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Method
Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray an 8-inch loaf pan with natural cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, oil, applesauce, yogurt, sugar and vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until well combined. Fold in zucchini and walnuts then transfer batter to prepared pan and bake until risen, deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.

Cool in pan on rack for 30 minutes then remove bread from pan and continue cooling on rack. Freezes very well.



And the cookies (this recipe came from the Washington Post and I altered it a bit to reduce the fat & sugar):

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup butter, softened
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (1 cup of white + 1 cup of whole wheat also works)
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (next time, I’ll cut this amount in half)

Method
Combine egg, butter and applesauce and beat until creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, and stir to combine. Slowly integrate dry ingredients into wet, until well combined, with beater or by hand. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonfuls on a lightly sprayed baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350 degrees, 10-15 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen soft cookies. These cookies freeze well.


I also have a great lemon zucchini muffin recipe from a cookbook that I need to type up. Once I do, I'll share it.

[jillm]

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/turkey-burgers-grated-zucchini-carrot-10000001617870/

I used more zuke than the recipe called for. It seemed very wet but cooked quickly and easily and they were nice and moist. Very easy!

[NoNo]

Picked more zucchini last night, as well as some more wax beans and some broccoli. The cabbage has been decimated by slugs and the tomatoes are in need of re-staking. Also picked a bucket of blueberries off the bush :D

I'll add to the zucchini recipe collection. Made this this week and it's super-yummy! Better yet, you can freeze individual pieces so you're not tempted to eat the whole cake (well, you'll be tempted, but this will keep you from actually doing it:p). It even passed the office test, where there was lots of nose-scrunching and whining about zucchini - until they came back for second and third pieces:rolleyes:

Zucchini Chocolate Cake (from Light&Tasty)
Prep: 30 min
Bake: 30 min +cooling
Yield: 18 servings

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup 1% buttermilk (I used skim milk)
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

In a large bowl, beat sugar and oil on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the eggs, applesauce and vanilla; beat 1 minute longer. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; add to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating just until blended. Stir in zucchini.

Transfer to a 13x9x2" baking pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and pecans. Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

1 piece: 286 calories, 13g fat (3g sat), 24mg cholesterol, 152mg sodium, 42g carbs, 2g fiber, 4g protein.

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs179.snc1/6732_1184024450962_1538774168_30485245_2731451_n.jpg

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

1 piece: 286 calories, 13g fat (3g sat), 24mg cholesterol, 152mg sodium, 42g carbs, 2g fiber, 4g protein.

I don't think this is what they meant when they say you should have 4-6 servings of vegetables per day. :eek: ;)

[NoNo]

I don't think this is what they meant when they say you should have 4-6 servings of vegetables per day. :eek: ;)

True, but that entire pan is supposed to yield 18 pieces. Those would be BIG pieces if you only cut 18!

[spokewench]

Well, so far the garden is okay; but we have had two record nights in a row. Yesterday night, it was 38 I think and last night it was 37.

Yikes, its August for goodness sake!

WE are getting into the low 80s during the day. That's mountain weather for you - so unpredictable.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We are getting a cool snap here as well- last two nights in the 40'sF...in August?! At least no fear of frost.

Here are some adorable 'baby pictures' from my new big veggie garden:

Romaine lettuce:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2573/3804638720_f80bbb912c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2628/3803822967_98371d6ef4.jpg

Carrots:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2506/3803821393_7c193cb2ac.jpg

Beets:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3526/3804637214_5faf2da504.jpg

Butterhead lettuce:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3803820659_1c0f1b0f56.jpg

Radish:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3453/3804634788_7da40b67db.jpg

Spinach:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3490/3804634088_b43abf92f2.jpg

[spokewench]

We are getting a cool snap here as well- last two nights in the 40'sF...in August?! At least no fear of frost.

Here are some adorable 'baby pictures' from my new big veggie garden:

Romaine lettuce:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2573/3804638720_f80bbb912c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2628/3803822967_98371d6ef4.jpg

Carrots:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2506/3803821393_7c193cb2ac.jpg

Beets:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3526/3804637214_5faf2da504.jpg

Butterhead lettuce:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3803820659_1c0f1b0f56.jpg

Radish:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3453/3804634788_7da40b67db.jpg

Spinach:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3490/3804634088_b43abf92f2.jpg

OOOOH, aren't they cute!

[tulip]

Here are some potatoes and basil from my garden. I made a wonderful salmon with potatoes, basil, and white wine in my Romertopf last night. Delicious!

Lisa, those lettuces (lettuci?) are beautiful! It's still very hot here, but I've been growing leeks all summer in pots and will be transplanting them to the garden next weekend for my winter crop. Then the collards, kale, and first of the fall lettuce go in. Can't wait!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Here are some potatoes and basil from my garden. I made a wonderful salmon with potatoes, basil, and white wine in my Romertopf last night. Delicious!

Lisa, those lettuces (lettuci?) are beautiful! It's still very hot here, but I've been growing leeks all summer in pots and will be transplanting them to the garden next weekend for my winter crop. Then the collards, kale, and first of the fall lettuce go in. Can't wait!


Perfect potatoes, Tulip! I don't grow potatoes but am lucky to have a friend who gave me some surplus from her garden. :p I'm a sucker for old fashioned boiled buttered parsley potatoes - and I've got some garden parsley!

Yes, those multi-colored lettuces are SO pretty- especially the speckled ones.
I also have a little patch of teeny baby mesclun greens sprouting- all different colors as well.

Golly, when i think about how all I ever saw growing up as a city kid was pale flavorless iceburg lettuce, often slightly brown around the edges from age....look at the gorgeous bounty we can enjoy now. We are so lucky. :cool:

[Selkie]

THANKS for the recipes!! Once it cools down and I feel like turning on the oven, I'm going to bake some of these goodies!!

[bmccasland]

Yummy looking pictures Tulip and BleekerSt! Good thing Farmer's Market is tomorrow. And I have to wait, waaaa.

I'm partial to roasted new potatoes myself. Olive oil, herbes, big chunks of red or yukon gold - roast in 400 (?) degree oven for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes until golden. Salt and pepper to taste. I could eat the whole pan. I can't WAIT until it's cool enough to fire up the oven for an hour!

[OakLeaf]

I can't WAIT until it's cool enough to fire up the oven for an hour!

Dang, I need a summer kitchen.

Maybe this'll be the year I build myself a solar oven, anyhow.

Or maybe next year. It's too hot to saw. :rolleyes:

[skhill]

I ate my first ear of home-grown corn last night-- yum! 15 minutes from garden to plate....

I'm in a tomato lull, and the green beans are about done (thank God) but the zucchini is sure producing. And producing....

[tulip]

I'm partial to roasting potatoes on the grill outside. Prepare just like Beth said, put them in foil and do the same thing on the grill, but not for as long. The kitchen stays cool that way.