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Awesome!
I really like the concrete raised beds vs. the wood... I'm going to have to keep an eye on CLIST to find me some of those affordable :D |
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Thanks! They work pretty good at just 1 block tall as well and it's a lot cheaper to build. They're also cheaper to fill up that way. I'm lazy and liked the easy-access height.
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Wow. I really like the concrete bed idea. I may have to try this with some berry plants.
Tag for future pics. |
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very nice.
did you fill the blocks with concrete? or how are they held in place? |
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How long does a drum last you and how much does it need to be elevated to get enough pressure? That may help me avoid 200 feet of dedicated hose or trenching a line in.
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very nice. did you fill the blocks with concrete? or how are they held in place? View Quote Thank you. We filled every other block for stability for the beds that are 3 blocks high, and dug them about 1/4 block into the ground in order to level them. The perennial bed is only 2 block high (+cap block). It does not have concrete in the holes but it's only filled about 1/2 way. The leveling was the pain in the butt part, after that it went quick and easy. I have plans to glue the caps down with masonry glue in the future. |
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How long does a drum last you and how much does it need to be elevated to get enough pressure? That may help me avoid 200 feet of dedicated hose or trenching a line in. View Quote I get about 2 good waterings out of a barrel, and each barrel is set to cover 2 4ftx16ft beds. The water will flow until the level in the barrel matches the level of the soaker hose. For me that leaves about a foot of water in each barrel, which helps keep them from being blown over by the wind. I got my barrels already set up with mesh covers on the top and spigots on the bottom from the local feed store. I think they ran me about 75$/ea. I think they are 50gal old olive barrels. I don't know how much pressure you would lose in a long run, since my beds are only 16ft each. I also used quick-connectors so I can unclick everything and flip it out of the way when mowing the grass. There are quick connectors to the barrel at the bottom for the drip line, and at the top to match the hose connector if I choose to refill them manually. |
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very nice. did you fill the blocks with concrete? or how are they held in place? View Quote From what I can tell is that the blocks are landscaping bricks. They are already solid. They have grooves cut on the top and bottom so the rows fit nice and snug. Masonry glue can be used but is not necessary. Something like this. Edit: Just saw the OP's post, nevermind |
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From what I can tell is that the blocks are landscaping bricks. They are already solid. They have grooves cut on the top and bottom so the rows fit nice and snug. Masonry glue can be used but is not necessary. Something like this. Edit: Just saw the OP's post, nevermind View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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very nice. did you fill the blocks with concrete? or how are they held in place? From what I can tell is that the blocks are landscaping bricks. They are already solid. They have grooves cut on the top and bottom so the rows fit nice and snug. Masonry glue can be used but is not necessary. Something like this. Edit: Just saw the OP's post, nevermind -I did cap them with solid blocks to dress them up a bit. That is probably what you are seeing. |
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Are the beds filled to the bottom with dirt, or something else? What did you line the bottoms of the beds with?
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Are the beds filled to the bottom with dirt, or something else? What did you line the bottoms of the beds with? View Quote I left the bottom of the beds open - we get a ton of rain here and I wanted them to drain out the bottom. Since it was so deep I didn't worry about weed fabric either, and haven't had any problems in the last 2 years. If it had been shallower I would have added weed fabric at the bottom. I filled them with compost from the dump - 25$/cu yard, and that got a bit expensive. If I had to do it again and wanted to take the time I would have filled the bottom with yard waste, shredded paper, etc, and allowed it to compost in place. The nice thing is since it's really high in hummus from the all compost it acts like a sponge to hold a ton of water between rains, and drains beautifully once it has absorbed all it can hold. |
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Update - The blue, yellow, white and black strawberry seeds all have germinated. I just got the seeds for the blue ones in and planted them a day or so ago, so we'll so how that goes. So far germinating is taking a week or two for all varieties. I don't know if the different colors will taste different, but if I'm going to grow something I might as well grow something I can't get otherwise. Wish me luck! If they do well they will have a permanent home in window boxes along the top of bed 5.
The rhubarb is still alive on the north side of the house. If it survives the summer I will dig a small bed beside the house and plant it permanently. The artichoke seeds I got haven't germinated yet but if/when they do I will try them over there as well. I am trying to avoid having the potted plants take over the patio by finding homes for anything that proves itself worth it and getting rid of the ones that fail. It's a tough kind of love, but I only have so much space. Next week the sweet potato slips should arrive, and it will be the first year for trying those; I am planting Bush sweet potatoes - both Vardaman and Porto Rico. If they do well I will probably plant them again next year. I will try to update the pics every 2 weeks or so on the garden progress. |
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Next week the sweet potato slips should arrive, and it will be the first year for trying those; I am planting Bush sweet potatoes - both Vardaman and Porto Rico. If they do well I will probably plant them again next year. I will try to update the pics every 2 weeks or so on the garden progress. View Quote Mine went in last week. About 85% of mine seem to have begun rooting properly. Where did you order your sets? TRG |
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Mine went in last week. About 85% of mine seem to have begun rooting properly. Where did you order your sets? TRG View Quote R.H. Shumway. They have a bush sweet potato combo of the 2, and the smallest quantity of more than 1 variety I could find. Since I don't have a ton of room (I love the amount of space you have, nice job!) I didn't want to order too many. How easy did you find it to carry them over from year to year? I am hoping to only buy them once, and re-seed next year from this years crop. |
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R.H. Shumway. They have a bush sweet potato combo of the 2, and the smallest quantity of more than 1 variety I could find. Since I don't have a ton of room (I love the amount of space you have, nice job!) I didn't want to order too many. How easy did you find it to carry them over from year to year? I am hoping to only buy them once, and re-seed next year from this years crop. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Mine went in last week. About 85% of mine seem to have begun rooting properly. Where did you order your sets? TRG R.H. Shumway. They have a bush sweet potato combo of the 2, and the smallest quantity of more than 1 variety I could find. Since I don't have a ton of room (I love the amount of space you have, nice job!) I didn't want to order too many. How easy did you find it to carry them over from year to year? I am hoping to only buy them once, and re-seed next year from this years crop. I stored mine, unwashed, in an old fridge. Rats or mice found them and removed 25% of the tubers. I did not have too many problems starting them from the leftovers. The main problem for me was timing the growth of the sprouts to my outdoor soil temps. I had sprouts ready to go in March, and since I thought I knew better than science ... I planted too early in soil that was too cool. It stunted the crop and the weakened plants just languished. I had a pitiful harvest as a result. I plan to carry over a crop this winter and try again to restart my plantings next year from my own sets. So, easy to store, easy to regrow, pay attention to soil temps to time your sprouts properly. TRG |
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Well, so far I have pulled 3 stuffed grocery bags full of spinach, and a lousy half-bag of turnips out of the garden. The lettuce grew so well I ended up composting most of it. Of the spring planting the cabbage is still in the ground but doing decently, and I have a pitiful amount of beets that are almost ready to pull. Next year I will plant a lot less lettuce.
Does anyone have any decent recipes for turnips? This whole gardening endeavor started out as a way to try to eat more veggies, on the logic I was more likely to eat something really fresh than choke down crap in a can. That being said so far I still haven't found a way I like turnips much, although the only way I know to cook the silly things is boiled and mashed. They grow well here and they are pretty good glycemic-wise, so I'd like to find a way to make them palatable but if I don't come up with a way soon I am just going to give up on growing the silly things. Any suggestions from the hive? |
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They grow well here and they are pretty good glycemic-wise, so I'd like to find a way to make them palatable but if I don't come up with a way soon I am just going to give up on growing the silly things. Any suggestions from the hive? View Quote Dice them. Pan fry in bacon grease like country style potatoes. I am not a huge fan of turnips, but, they are one of the things that I can grow like crazy around here. Shred them. Add them in to egg/chicken/tuna salad in lieu of carrots. TRG |
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Dice them. Pan fry in bacon grease like country style potatoes. I am not a huge fan of turnips, but, they are one of the things that I can grow like crazy around here. Shred them. Add them in to egg/chicken/tuna salad in lieu of carrots. TRG View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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They grow well here and they are pretty good glycemic-wise, so I'd like to find a way to make them palatable but if I don't come up with a way soon I am just going to give up on growing the silly things. Any suggestions from the hive? Dice them. Pan fry in bacon grease like country style potatoes. I am not a huge fan of turnips, but, they are one of the things that I can grow like crazy around here. Shred them. Add them in to egg/chicken/tuna salad in lieu of carrots. TRG I will try to dice and fry option. They usually grow like crazy and are supposed to be pretty good for you. Thanks for the suggestion. |
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Giving this a bump since I'm considering a cinder block garden. Any lessons learned about using that material? I'm in Texas, so heat & water are concerns, but I've also heard cinder block can make soil more alkaline which would be bad since I'm already pretty far in that direction (pre-ammendments).
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Giving this a bump since I'm considering a cinder block garden. Any lessons learned about using that material? I'm in Texas, so heat & water are concerns, but I've also heard cinder block can make soil more alkaline which would be bad since I'm already pretty far in that direction (pre-ammendments). View Quote On lessons learned, concrete raised beds drain well. In SC this is good. In Texas you may have water issues and may want to consider putting something in the bottom to reduce drainage, and if you are making it more than 1 block deep putting non-pressure treated scrap wood in the bottom to serve as a hugelculture-esque water sponge. I live in a nice neighborhood and don't have a high expectations of break-ins, but you may want to consider that concrete blocks can be used to break windows were someone inclined to larceny, and plan to glue them down with construction adhesive. I haven't noticed any alkalinity issues with the cinder blocks so far (2 years in). If you are concerned there are things you can add to your soil to acidify it though. What I did for the top 6 inches was to fill it with a mix of back kow composted manure and peat moss (slightly acidic). I did not till it in based on the no-till theory that nutrients will leach down anyway with normal rain action. If you go this way I would suggest adding ground up tums and eggshells - my tomatoes had some problems initially with calcium deficiency. The beds don't seem to get too hot in the summer (we get in the 90's here pretty routinely, with high humidity). In the winter they seem to extend the season a bit. Hope this helps. As always, YMMV. |
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That asparagus is amazing!
We're elated when our three yr. old asparagus get "almost" pinky sized |
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Harvest year to date:
12 grocery bags of lettuce (I wasted a lot of this - due to the weather it all came in at once) 2 grocery bags of turnips and greens (1 night's worth of pan-fried turnips and greens) 1 grocery bag of beets (1 night's greens plus a jar of pickled beets) 7 heads of cabbage (6 shown plus 1 harvested earlier.) (This translated into a large batch of coleslaw, 2 nights of fried cabbage, and 7 quarts of chow-chow) 10 heads of broccoli (they were small, so only a few nights of dinner sides for my family) 2 grocery bags of spinach (shared with friends) About 1.5 lbs of asparagus Spring planting still in the ground: 3 large mustard plants (left them to go to seed) 16 sq ft of onions A few beets that were undersized when I harvested the rest. I am trying to see how much I can produce out of my 5 (4'16') beds this year, so we'll see how it goes. |
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I picked my first full-sized onion today: a 7oz bulb that will show up in tonight's dinner. I have started recording the weight on what I pull out to see exactly how much produce I am using from the garden. The plan is to use this when I decide what to plant next year based on how much it produced, how well that produce kept, and how much was wasted or given away. Well, that and to see if next year I can beat this year's numbers.
Is anyone else tracking productivity per sq ft? Based on casual observation last year my most productive annuals were: tomatoes zucchini summer squash cucumbers butternut squash pole beans peppers - especially the jalapeños and banana peppers. basil Based on this, they all made the cut this year. Things that disappointed and were not re-planted: peanuts acorn squash watermelon corn bush beans |
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OP, I love seeing the variety in gardens like you have. There is always something growing or being harvested. |
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OP, I love seeing the variety in gardens like you have. There is always something growing or being harvested. View Quote Thanks. I try to keep something growing year round, although they don't get much larger between October and February. I don't have a lot of space so I entertain myself trying to see how far I can stretch the space I have. |
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Looking good. If you want to keep your chard going, you can just harvest a few leaves from each plant and they will grow back.
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Lettuce as well. Trim them about 1-2" tall and the plant will regrow. TRG View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Looking good. If you want to keep your chard going, you can just harvest a few leaves from each plant and they will grow back. Lettuce as well. Trim them about 1-2" tall and the plant will regrow. TRG Thanks guys! Do either of you know if chard bolts in the heat? |
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Its actually a pretty resilient green. It can take a frost and survive a pretty rough summer as long as you keep it watered. I've grown it through summer here in AZ and it didn't bolt on me.
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Its actually a pretty resilient green. It can take a frost and survive a pretty rough summer as long as you keep it watered. I've grown it through summer here in AZ and it didn't bolt on me. View Quote I may try that next year; just plant a couple of them and let them stay all summer. Thx! |
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Today's harvest: 20oz zucchini and 36oz onion bulbs.
This is the first of the zucchini, and less than half the onions to bring the onion total up to 60oz so far this season. The onions were only about tennis ball sized but I didn't want to leave them too long after the tops folded over. Looking around we should be getting summer squash, tomatillas, blueberries and blackberries in the next week or so. |
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About those stinkbugs... it is not Febreeze that kills them..
Mr. Clean w New Zealand Scent Febreeze is the killer. TRG |
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About those stinkbugs... it is not Febreeze that kills them.. Mr. Clean w New Zealand Scent Febreeze is the killer. TRG View Quote Good to know. I tried fabreeze alone earlier - I think I saw them washing their armpits in the stuff. Then I followed up with a bit of dishwashing liquid in water and they died. |
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I harvested more onions and zucchini today, and the first of the summer squash. If the vine borers don't get the plants we should start being buried alive in zucchini and summer squash any day now. Has anyone personally tried any canning recipes for either of these that they can vouch for? Most of the canning recipes I have seen don't sound very appealing, and I know enough non-gardeners I can always give away the excess if need be.
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Good to know. I tried fabreeze alone earlier - I think I saw them washing their armpits in the stuff. Then I followed up with a bit of dishwashing liquid in water and they died. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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About those stinkbugs... it is not Febreeze that kills them.. Mr. Clean w New Zealand Scent Febreeze is the killer. TRG Good to know. I tried fabreeze alone earlier - I think I saw them washing their armpits in the stuff. Then I followed up with a bit of dishwashing liquid in water and they died. The soapy water and Mr. Clean are both surfactants and change the surface tension of the water in the spray. It's actually the water, in both, that kills the bugs. Since bugs breath through their bodies, without lungs, they rely on the surface tension of the water to keep them from drowning. Almost any Mr. Clean will work, or other homemade surfactants (like yours). Soap, in too high of a concentration, will clog your plant's airways as well. The New Zealand scent seems to work better than regular Mr. Clean at repelling bugs. Avoid the Mr Clean with Gain. Too soapy, burns leaves. TRG |
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I pulled 1 of the 2 4'x4' blocks of onions today in preparation for re-planting with something else. Final tally = 7lbs, 10oz onions. Not a lot money wise but this is more of a hobby for "see how much I can grow, so I am happy with it. :) This evening I will re-plant the block if it's not raining.
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Be careful when harvesting the mustard seeds. I dropped some and still have volunteers from two falls ago.
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Thanks for the heads up. How can I tell when they are ready to harvest? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Be careful when harvesting the mustard seeds. I dropped some and still have volunteers from two falls ago. Thanks for the heads up. How can I tell when they are ready to harvest? The seed pods will be light brown and dry. Leave them on to long they will open up and spill the seeds. |
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