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One of the things I use my garden for is to grow things that are either expensive to buy, hard to find, or just taste better. Garden tomatoes taste better partially because the store varieties are grown for shipping ability not taste, for example. I grow a few things (such as carrots) just to see if I can, but a lot of it is all about expanded taste, variety, and reduced grocery cost. I just don't have enough space in my garden to put in everything I want.
I just placed my first order at nicholsgardennursery.com. I have never used them before, so we will see how it goes. This year's "I've never tried THAT before" list includes winged beans, oca, and ground cherries. Winged beans are a neat-shaped bean that are sometimes referred to as a "supermarket" because the whole plant is edible, leaves, beans, and at the end of the season, tuber. Sounds like my kind of plant. Besides, it looks cool. Oca is a South American staple food that grows small colorful tubers. It is supposed to have a bit of a lemony taste and almost no pests. The ground cherry aka husk tomato is a member of the solanacea family the same as tomatoes, and potatoes. It grows a small sweet fruit in a husk that is supposed to have hints of pineapple and strawberry. I would like to try Murasaki sweet potatoes this year but I have yet to find a source that I can get a small quantity from with decent shipping. If anyone knows of one please share the link. Has anyone ever tried cinnamon vine? If so, tasty or just weird? How about bannana yucca? Oh well, wish me luck! Last year I grew purple tomatilas and really enjoyed the salsa verde they make, so I will plant them again this year. They are REALLY prolific though, so probably a single plant, with the suckers pruned like a tomatoe. |
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Other than the oca, which is scheduled for a spring ship, I received my seeds from Nichols garden nursery. I am starting the lettuce today indoors and will move it outside in a few weeks to see how it does in cold weather.
Varieties: Winter lettuce mix - deep red merlot lime green kweik butter head fine cut oak lettuce winter density romaine rouge d'hiver single variety packet - marvel of the 4 seasons My plan is to start a few cells every week until May or so and see how it goes. |
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2 years ago when we sodded the lawn we looked into tilling a bit first and found an inexpensive electric tiller was about the same cost as renting one for the small hand-held models (about 100$), so we bought one. Well, yesterday was a glorious 71 degrees and sunny so we took the opportunity to till all 4 of the veggies beds (pics to follow later). We added some rabbit poo on top a few months ago, and some Black Kow at the end of last year, so this let us till it in well and loosen the soil at the same time. I plan to let it sit until at least mid-March, then start planting.
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2 years ago when we sodded the lawn we looked into tilling a bit first and found an inexpensive electric tiller was about the same cost as renting one for the small hand-held models (about 100$), so we bought one. Well, yesterday was a glorious 71 degrees and sunny so we took the opportunity to till all 4 of the veggies beds (pics to follow later). We added some rabbit poo on top a few months ago, and some Black Kow at the end of last year, so this let us till it in well and loosen the soil at the same time. I plan to let it sit until at least mid-March, then start planting. View Quote Mid- March? When is your last average frost date? We don't plant until the first of April. |
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Mid- March? When is your last average frost date? We don't plant until the first of April. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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2 years ago when we sodded the lawn we looked into tilling a bit first and found an inexpensive electric tiller was about the same cost as renting one for the small hand-held models (about 100$), so we bought one. Well, yesterday was a glorious 71 degrees and sunny so we took the opportunity to till all 4 of the veggies beds (pics to follow later). We added some rabbit poo on top a few months ago, and some Black Kow at the end of last year, so this let us till it in well and loosen the soil at the same time. I plan to let it sit until at least mid-March, then start planting. Mid- March? When is your last average frost date? We don't plant until the first of April. First couple of years I planted in mid-March. Got lucky with warm temps. Then my worm turned and I got cold soils, late freezes and lost too many plants to the cold air and cold ground. I have some freeze hardy things planted, but, with a 6 month growing season, I have learned my lesson on planting too early. Onions, garlic, greens, beets, carrots, brocolli, kale, brussel sprouts ... all planted now, most 2-3" tall. Peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are going to be held until I am damn sure that there is no frost coming. The loss of 30-50 plants is too time consuming to justify the risk of mid-march now. TRG |
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First couple of years I planted in mid-March. Got lucky with warm temps. Then my worm turned and I got cold soils, late freezes and lost too many plants to the cold air and cold ground. I have some freeze hardy things planted, but, with a 6 month growing season, I have learned my lesson on planting too early. Onions, garlic, greens, beets, carrots, brocolli, kale, brussel sprouts ... all planted now, most 2-3" tall. Peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are going to be held until I am damn sure that there is no frost coming. The loss of 30-50 plants is too time consuming to justify the risk of mid-march now. TRG View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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2 years ago when we sodded the lawn we looked into tilling a bit first and found an inexpensive electric tiller was about the same cost as renting one for the small hand-held models (about 100$), so we bought one. Well, yesterday was a glorious 71 degrees and sunny so we took the opportunity to till all 4 of the veggies beds (pics to follow later). We added some rabbit poo on top a few months ago, and some Black Kow at the end of last year, so this let us till it in well and loosen the soil at the same time. I plan to let it sit until at least mid-March, then start planting. Mid- March? When is your last average frost date? We don't plant until the first of April. First couple of years I planted in mid-March. Got lucky with warm temps. Then my worm turned and I got cold soils, late freezes and lost too many plants to the cold air and cold ground. I have some freeze hardy things planted, but, with a 6 month growing season, I have learned my lesson on planting too early. Onions, garlic, greens, beets, carrots, brocolli, kale, brussel sprouts ... all planted now, most 2-3" tall. Peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are going to be held until I am damn sure that there is no frost coming. The loss of 30-50 plants is too time consuming to justify the risk of mid-march now. TRG Kinda the same here. 2013 we planted on 3/16 and last year we had to wait until the 14th of April. |
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Only the cool-weather stuff will go in in March. The rest will go in around April 15th or so. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Mid- March? When is your last average frost date? We don't plant until the first of April. Only the cool-weather stuff will go in in March. The rest will go in around April 15th or so. Ok gotcha. |
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I heard that but I have had mine killed down to the soil level by 20f weather twice. I was curious because it was supposed to be very cold tolerant. According to Burpee's website cold tolerance ranges a fair bit by variety. I was using the Bright Lights variety - based on research after the fact it and neon lights are the least cold-tolerant varieties, but handle heat fairly well. I will try Fordhook Giant next time - it is listed as the most cold-tolerant.
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Progress report:
The turmeric from Whole Foods was in moist dirt for 2 weeks - it looked like it was starting to rot so I gave up and threw it out. The japanese sweet potato from Whole Foods that was started in water sprouted, but the bottom was not growing roots and looked like it was starting to rot so I put it into dirt along with another japanese sweet that had not been water-sprouted. It has been a week and so far the water-sprouted and moved to dirt sweet is still slowly growing stems. The one put directly into dirt hasn't done anything yet but it's early days. 2 of the of the sweet potatoes that were still in the garage from last year sprouted in the garage - I cut off the sprouting end and moved them to the window-sill in water a week or so ago but again - starting to rot on the bottom. I took away the water for now. I think next time I sprout a sweet I will plunk the whole starter potato in a small pot with dirt and be done with it. The seeds planted 2 weeks ago are doing fairly well - so far only the peppers and ground cherries are running behind. I don't know how long ground cherries take but I have found peppers take a very long time without a seed starting mat, which is why I started them so early. The cold-stratifying experiment where I left my beet seeds (along with blueberry, strawberry, and cranberry seeds) in the fridge was a success - almost all of the beet seeds germinated. Based on that success I planted a test pot of black and blue strawberries and cranberries, which I had trouble getting to germinate in the past. I also add a few more flats of beet seeds to the seedling tray. I started 2 pots of artichoke 2 weeks ago and they are starting to come up now The cranberries I transplanted out late last fall to test growing them over-winter and harvesting in the spring failed miserably - they were not large enough to survive when the cold hit. The lettuce seedlings started much earlier are looking pretty anaemic - I was hoping to have them outside during the day by now for sun but the weather has not co-operated. Does anyone know of a solar light setup that is less than 50 bucks to put together and won't jack my power bill? TL:DR - Some stuff worked, some stuff didn't. Does anyone know where to get/cobble a cheap plant light that won't jack my power bill? |
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Very impressive setup! As a second year gardener i will be checking this often.
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Very impressive setup! As a second year gardener i will be checking this often. View Quote Thanks! It has been an on-going learning experience. One of my goals this year is to pay attention to how many servings I get out of a given area, with an eye to eating as many different fresh veggies as possible, over as much of the season as I can. |
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Along the lines of eating out of the garden I just made 2 deep-dish pies from some of last year's blackberries and blueberries. The set wasn't perfect, but the taste was awesome! I have been enjoying blackberry cobbler on and off all winter as well, and I still have a gallon of frozen berries left! I hope to start pulling fresh produce out of the garden in a week or so once the swiss chard gets big enough to start harvesting leaves off of and the lettuce gets up to size.
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Your post convinced me to go with block for raised beds. The cost savings along makes it worth while. It'll cost more to fill it with dirt than to build them with basic 16" x 8" x 8" blocks.
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Your post convinced me to go with block for raised beds. The cost savings along makes it worth while. It'll cost more to fill it with dirt than to build them with basic 16" x 8" x 8" blocks. View Quote Cool! They don't have to be as deep as mine to be effective - my original non-concrete raised beds were only about 8 inches deep and worked fine. I made mine this deep because they are easier to work and I am a lazy gardener when the temp gets over 85 degrees. |
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It is amazing what you can do in a 1/4 acre lot, without even using the front yard.
In the annuals beds: mellow yellow bush beans yardlong asparagas beans winged beans sugar snaps brussels sprouts white and purple potatoes bloody butcher corn better boy tomato early girl tomato cilantro tomatilla ground cherry orange sweet bell pepper red sweet bell pepper jalapeno pepper beets kholrabi radish oca (south american tubers) 3 vardeman sweet potatoes 3 stokes purple sweet potatoes 3 japanese sweet potatoes fordhook zucchini yellow straightneck squash straight eight cucumber tendergreen cucumber rhubarb swiss chard In the perennial beds: 12ft x 4ft blackberries 8ft x 4 ft raspberries Other permaculture: 18 blueberry plants granny smith semi-dwarf apple tree red delicious semi-dwarf apple tree 2 methly self-fruiting plums 3 almonds - garden prince, non-parielle, and one other I lost the name for :P 2 lapins semi-dwarf cherry 2 japanese fuyu persimmons a bunch of hazelberts used as a hedge Pots: artichoke more rhubarb orange mint mixed lettuces lavendar rosemary greek oregano Pending: honeydew melons hakurei turnips (supposedly much milder and smaller with smooth leaves) sunchokes All of this fit in the 2 bits of side yard and the back, and the yard still has a fairly open feel to it. Of the trees the apples are the oldest, and 4 years since transplant. So far none of the trees have really produced anything yet - each year I hope this will be the year. We will see. |
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Well, I pulled my first harvest of swiss chard using Dimmu's suggestion of just a few leaves from each plant. Since I am not a swiss chard expert I went with the instructions on line and blanched it for 2 minutes in boiling water, then tossed it into a pan with chopped garlic and butter. A little salt, and it was fairly tasty.
I've also cut my second salad. I started using black seeded simpson in the more recent plantings, as the interwebs lists it as fairly heat tolerant. I am going to try to keep the lettuce going through cucumber and tomato season. The kholrabi and radishes should be harvest-ready in the next few weeks, followed later by the beets. Is anyone else harvesting yet? |
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Well, I pulled my first harvest of swiss chard using Dimmu's suggestion of just a few leaves from each plant. Since I am not a swiss chard expert I went with the instructions on line and blanched it for 2 minutes in boiling water, then tossed it into a pan with chopped garlic and butter. A little salt, and it was fairly tasty. I've also cut my second salad. I started using black seeded simpson in the more recent plantings, as the interwebs lists it as fairly heat tolerant. I am going to try to keep the lettuce going through cucumber and tomato season. The kholrabi and radishes should be harvest-ready in the next few weeks, followed later by the beets. Is anyone else harvesting yet? View Quote Not harvesting yet. We're still eating carrots, sweet potatoes and stuff we canned or frozen. Try this when you harvest a good bit of swiss chard. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sauteed_greens_with_pine_nuts_and_raisins/ Use swiss chard for the greens and sunflower seeds in place of the pine nuts. Only use enough wine to deglaze. |
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Not harvesting yet. We're still eating carrots, sweet potatoes and stuff we canned or frozen. Try this when you harvest a good bit of swiss chard. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sauteed_greens_with_pine_nuts_and_raisins/ Use swiss chard for the greens and sunflower seeds in place of the pine nuts. Only use enough wine to deglaze. View Quote That sounds pretty good; I will have to try it. Thanks! |
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Well, so far the oca I planted a few weeks ago has not come up yet. I am hoping it just needs some warmer weather, so I haven't planted anything over that spot yet.
Last year's biggest productivity issue was that once summer came I couldn't get anything to germinate in the ground and the stores no longer had seedlings. I lost about half a season last summer trying to get things going mid-year in the ground from seed on the logic the space was already open and they didn't have to deal with transplant shock. That means when something either died *cough* zucchini *cough* or finished I needed to already have the replacement ready to go. The timing on when things come out varies with the weather so I decided this year I would run sequential seedlings. If I have to let them die they were the cost of a seed. This way if something comes out, I have something else ready to go in. I started a bunch of different things on that logic a few weeks ago. Yesterday I started a set of parsnips in toilet paper roll middles on the logic they can take up to 6 weeks to get going and I haven't tied up the garden space waiting like I currently am with the oca. Once they come up I will start some carrots seedlings with the same method. |
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Nice work Ratling. How much space do you need for the black zucchini plant?
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Nice work Ratling. How much space do you need for the black zucchini plant? View Quote I give mine a 4ft x 4ft block. The zucchini's actually come out a really dark green - but by veggies labeling standards close enough I suppose. Now the black krim tomatoes I tried once - those were a really decent dark red. They also had a nice tomato flavor, but the huge size and irregular shape made them a bit more of a pain to use than the regular ones. |
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Good to know. I planted a row this year and I only gave them 3ft between seeds, but I have 4ft between rows. I hope I didn't overcrowd it.
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Good to know. I planted a row this year and I only gave them 3ft between seeds, but I have 4ft between rows. I hope I didn't overcrowd it. View Quote You will probably be fine. Unlike my summer squash they kind of grow in a straight line whichever way the stem is headed, if it helps. I don't know if that is a variety thing, or if all zucchini do that. |
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Damn good looking garden man.
What's your spacing on the corn? |
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Damn good looking garden man. What's your spacing on the corn? View Quote Thanks. I am not sure how you manage to keep your garden rolling with no apparent dead spaces (I am still working on that) but it looks great! I used 1ft spacing on the corn, for 16 plants in a 4ftx4ft block. Not a lot for eating, but enough to try it. I am hoping the less sweet corn will have fewer pests. If it does, I may grow it again next year for the novelty. |
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Well, after giving the zucchini issue some thought I decide to turn the 8ft x 4ft panel upright so there is a 4ft gap in the trellising by the zucchini. This way I only had to pull 2 cucumber plants and was able to leave the other 2.
I went ahead and ordered some BT to see how well stem injecting works for keeping squash vine borers out of my zucchini and squash. The instructions I found online is to use a 3cc needle, fill with 1cc, and inject slowly into the stem 1 inch from the ground. Repeat every 7 to 10 days, beginning right after the first blossoms appear. I will see how it works and report back to the hive. I have seen mixed reviews but for ~14 bucks I will give it a whirl. I tried spraying the stems with 7 last year with very limited success. Part of the problem with that method is reaching the bottom of the stems without breaking them once they get to a good size. I may also try the yellow plastic bowl with soapy water trap to try to kill the adults and the tinfoil-under-the-plant deterrent that is supposed to confuse the little bastards. On the potato front I started a bucket of potatoes to see how it goes. I used a standard 5 gallon bucket and put a number of drainage holes close to the bottom. In years past it has been the rain that destroyed my potatoes, and even out-doors rotten potatoes are nasty to dig up. If this solves the problem I will grow them in buckets from now on. Since I also put some from the same package in the beds with the other potatoes, I will be able to compare the bed-grown outcome to the bucket-grown outcome and see how they measure up. |
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You sure do get an amazing harvest from the square footage you work with and quite the variety.
How much exposure to the sun do these beds get a day and is it mostly morning, afternoon or all day? With the solar heating on the blocks do you have different growth rates between the edges and center for same variety? do you need to compensate for it? Is there a PH change that can come from the blocks or is too minor to take into account? I like the idea for areas that may be subject to the monsoons we get but am concerned somewhat about doing the same down here in Fla due to radiant heat with the amount of nasty bugs, mold etc in our soil/ sand. The height sure would be helpful for old worn out backs as well. Thanks |
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You sure do get an amazing harvest from the square footage you work with and quite the variety. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
You sure do get an amazing harvest from the square footage you work with and quite the variety. Thanks! The massive amounts of lettuce I ended up with last year made me realize I needed to tailor my plantings to how much I would use of each item before it wasn't at peak anymore, and this year I planted accordingly. Instead of 4ft blocks of a few things I planted (what I think will be) an eating quantity of everything that would fit, and immediately started cranking seedlings to fill in as the old things came out. Quoted:
How much exposure to the sun do these beds get a day and is it mostly morning, afternoon or all day? They beds get sun from 11am to 5pm this time of year, and as the season goes on that moves towards a start time of 9am. Quoted:
With the solar heating on the blocks do you have different growth rates between the edges and center for same variety? do you need to compensate for it? I don't notice the solar heating much in the summer, oddly enough. I think the solar mass of the blocks just evens it out, absorbing mid-day and releasing in the evening. In the fall and winter I notice the edges survive cold snaps a lot better, again probably due to the heat absorbing during the day and releasing during the nights. Quoted:
Is there a PH change that can come from the blocks or is too minor to take into account? I have not noticed a ph change, although I confess I haven't done a soil test since everything has been growing like gangbusters. I used mainly a combination of peat and Black Kow compost, and filled in with compost from the dump for volume to get to the right height. I try to get a straw mulch on before summer hits, and in the fall I add a few bags of the Black Kow to each bed to help keep up the fertility. Quoted:
I like the idea for areas that may be subject to the monsoons we get but am concerned somewhat about doing the same down here in Fla due to radiant heat with the amount of nasty bugs, mold etc in our soil/ sand. The height sure would be helpful for old worn out backs as well. In regard to mold, etc, and radiant heat I have not see any problems. There are some year/year pest issues - I really need to black plastic them for a month or 2 when it's still warm to kill off the pests, but I never seem to get around to it. I do practice rotation, so the plants with certain pests do not go into the same bed year after year. If you had enough beds it would be good to leave 1 fallow each year and rotate, but I always seem to end up planting them all. Yes, the height really does help old backs! |
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WOW, looking good. We got to harvest some of Our first crops, spinach.
Keep up the good work, wish We were alittle warmer this time of year. |
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