The Vegtable Garden Thread (3 Viewers)

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rusty_tlc

rusty_tlc

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We are getting ready to plant the garden. I thought I'd start a thread for everyone to share pictures of their garden and ideas and tips.

If the weather cooperates we will have all the beds full for the first time this year. Last year we only planted 80% and still had plenty of fresh veggies. We use raised beds with a 80/20 compost/soil mix and plant intensively.

I'm also expanding to add a herb garden, right now I have on the list;
Rosemary
Basil
Thyme
Parsley
Cilantro

Any other ideas on herbs I should plant?

For vegetables it will kind of depend on what we can find in the way of organic seeds. For sure beets, Spressomon would probably stop talking to me if I didn't raise any of them.

Also;
Chard
Carrots
Potatoes, if I can find organic seed
Onions
Spinach
Tomatoes

I'll also interplant everything with some cool weather / short maturity stuff like lettuce and radishes. They should be up and out of the ground before they crowd the main crops.

I'll post some pictures after I till in some fresh compost.
 
I just finished a new raised bed, it is beauuutiful. Looks like a hawaiian temple. (Did it with retainer wall blocks.) Well, except for the ugly chicken wire fence around it to stymie the squirrels and bunnies :mad: . Planted it up already.

Some of the above and also mints, chives, peppers, eggplants, zukes, squashes, strawberries.

Have had good luck in the past with sweet corn, cantaloupes, and tomatillos also.
 
I'm nuts about acorn squash. Use 'em for ravioli, polenta and gnocchi.
Beets, any day of the week.
Corn, both sweet corn, and popcorn.
We used to try lettuce, but between the jackrabbits and deer, we'd always get aced out of them.
Zebra tomatoes, my favorite.

Our soil's so rocky, it's hard to grow a decent root veggie crop, and the feral pigs will take a bite out of every red or yellow tomato we manage to sprout.

I did see some cherry blossoms on the trees last Sunday.
 
I think we will grow some squash. They take a lot of room for not that much yield but I think I'll annex some flower beds into the garden for them.

Chuck, we live in an area that was swamp and pasture at one time. It was filled and raised about 3 - 4 feet using rock and very dense almost clay like soil. I need to use a breaker bar to plant anything bigger than a 4" pot. It would have been a lot of work to build a vegtable garden in the existing soil. SO we went with raised beds. The beds were filled with a combination of 20% soil and 80% compost, they are about 12" deep. I also tilled the soil down another 6" and removed most of the rocks. We grow some awesome root vegetables, carrots the size of a child's arm, beets the size of grapefruit. If we can find seed potatoes I plan to raise at least one or two each Yukon gold and Red boiler potatoes. The nice thing about taters is you can interplant other stuff with them and get double use out of the same area.


If you don't want to build raised beds you can grow root vegetables in containers.
A good way to grow taters is to used stacked tires. to hill you just add a tire and back fill. I've heard of people getting amazing yields from this method.
 
squash not bountiful? I did make once the mistake of planting more than 1 zucchini plant... :eek: I thought we were going to be driven out of the house by the dang fruits... Had to give them away to feed half the town... :)

Building this raised bed was a big effort (as in a good half-day). Mostly spent leveling the soil for the blocks. But it's set for the next 50 years and I hope will get better with time. Do you guys put much fertilizer in those?

I'm eyeing the horse pasture next door for manure...

Not so sure about the strawberries. First time. And between keeping the fruits clean and fighting off the birds, it may not be worth it...
 
e9999 said:
squash not bountiful? I did make once the mistake of planting more than 1 zucchini plant... :eek: I thought we were going to be driven out of the house by the dang fruits... Had to give them away to feed half the town... :)

Building this raised bed was a big effort (as in a good half-day). Mostly spent leveling the soil for the blocks. But it's set for the next 50 years and I hope will get better with time. Do you guys put much fertilizer in those?

I'm eyeing the horse pasture next door for manure...

Not so sure about the strawberries. First time. And between keeping the fruits clean and fighting off the birds, it may not be worth it...
Click to expand...
I would probably plant hard squash, butternut or something, they produce less fruit than Zukes but they keep better. I might do one Zuke in a container someplace.

We are doing the full on organic thing, no fertilizer or bug spray. As I mentioned above I used a 20/80 mix of soil/compost to start. I'll add a 6-8" layer and till it in before we plant. If you build healthy soil there really isn't a need for chemical fertilizer. Here in the desert that means adding as much organic material as you can since the soil is very low in plant matter. Be ware of fresh manure it will burn plants, to much ammonia. You want composted manure, stuff from the bottom of the farmers manure pile.

Strawberries can be invasive, and as you mention a lot of work for not much reward.
 
if you do zukes, try eating the flowers if you haven't already.

strawberries are invasive eh? not good. Just fighting out some blackberries in the garden now... But I'll still do it for the kid.

yes, fresh manure is strong stuff, there is a pile that's been there for a while...

I used my own compost for the raised bed. Ten years old piles of green mulch that turned to the loveliest black soil.
 
rusty_tlc said:
We are getting ready to plant the garden. I thought I'd start a thread for everyone to share pictures of their garden and ideas and tips.

If the weather cooperates we will have all the beds full for the first time this year. Last year we only planted 80% and still had plenty of fresh veggies. We use raised beds with a 80/20 compost/soil mix and plant intensively.

I'm also expanding to add a herb garden, right now I have on the list;
Rosemary
Basil
Thyme
Parsley
Cilantro

Any other ideas on herbs I should plant?

For vegetables it will kind of depend on what we can find in the way of organic seeds. For sure beets, Spressomon would probably stop talking to me if I didn't raise any of them.

Also;
Chard
Carrots
Potatoes, if I can find organic seed
Onions
Spinach
Tomatoes

I'll also interplant everything with some cool weather / short maturity stuff like lettuce and radishes. They should be up and out of the ground before they crowd the main crops.

I'll post some pictures after I till in some fresh compost.
Click to expand...


Not to mention the eggplant you grew last year! :cheers:
 
Being in Wyoming we have a short growing season. The wife wants to have a garden, so we bought a small indoor greenhouse to get the veggies started and I will have a new project soon to frame up and poly cover a greenhouse on the side of the house to grow through the fall.
 
spressomon said:
Not to mention the eggplant you grew last year! :cheers:
Click to expand...
They were good, we had enough from those few plants to eat egg plant a couple of times a week and still have some to give away.
reevesci said:
Being in Wyoming we have a short growing season. The wife wants to have a garden, so we bought a small indoor greenhouse to get the veggies started and I will have a new project soon to frame up and poly cover a greenhouse on the side of the house to grow through the fall.
Click to expand...
Post up some pictures, I hope to build cold frames over our raised beds by next fall to extend the growing season and get a head start next year.
 
Rusy, I haven't decided if I'm gonna go the PVC route or 2 x 4 frame yet for the side of the house. If you have raised beds I would go with PVC.

Drive rebar down the inside, fasten to wood with a conduit clamp and bend some 1/2" to 3/4" PVC and slide the PVC over the rebar.. It's fast and very strong for a lower elevation bed. Then cover with a UV poly material.

Then in the spring,summer, or fall you can remove the poly if you wish and leave the frame standing year round.
 
I just got my ginger roots to take.... something kept stealing my roots, I guess it was a mouse?
 
reevesci said:
Rusy, I haven't decided if I'm gonna go the PVC route or 2 x 4 frame yet for the side of the house. If you have raised beds I would go with PVC.

Drive rebar down the inside, fasten to wood with a conduit clamp and bend some 1/2" to 3/4" PVC and slide the PVC over the rebar.. It's fast and very strong for a lower elevation bed. Then cover with a UV poly material.

Then in the spring,summer, or fall you can remove the poly if you wish and leave the frame standing year round.
Click to expand...
I've been researching hoop cold frames, I agree quick easy and inexpensive. I'm going to check out electrical PVC, it may be more UV resistant than the white irrigation stuff.

beaufort-fj60 said:
I just got my ginger roots to take.... something kept stealing my roots, I guess it was a mouse?
Click to expand...

Nice! Where do you live?
 
rusty_tlc said:
...

Chuck, we live in an area that was swamp and pasture at one time. It was filled and raised about 3 - 4 feet using rock and very dense almost clay like soil. I need to use a breaker bar to plant anything bigger than a 4" pot. It would have been a lot of work to build a vegtable garden in the existing soil. SO we went with raised beds. The beds were filled with a combination of 20% soil and 80% compost, they are about 12" deep. I also tilled the soil down another 6" and removed most of the rocks. We grow some awesome root vegetables, carrots the size of a child's arm, beets the size of grapefruit. If we can find seed potatoes I plan to raise at least one or two each Yukon gold and Red boiler potatoes. The nice thing about taters is you can interplant other stuff with them and get double use out of the same area.


If you don't want to build raised beds you can grow root vegetables in containers.
A good way to grow taters is to used stacked tires. to hill you just add a tire and back fill. I've heard of people getting amazing yields from this method.
Click to expand...

We're making noises about setting up some raised beds, it might be a year or two until then, but I might drop you a line for pointers when the time comes.


BTW, thanks Trollhole for making this a sticky! :cheers:
 
If you have a mower with a bagger, cut the lawns of the old lady/s in your neighborhood. Grass is excellent for composting. Once you get started you'll have a never ending supply of compost. Just keep amending your property with the compost.
 
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