Vegetable Gardening

[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.

[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.

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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? 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!

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.