Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've got basil and chard sprooters today.

Sprooters? Do you mean sprouts coming up from seed?


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!

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. 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. 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. They didn't do much damage this time, but that's how it starts. Before long they'll have eaten all of them. 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.

[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/image....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. 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.

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!

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. ). 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.

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. 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.


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.



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. 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.