How Does Your Garden Grow??????

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Damn! It was a beautiful sunny 70f day. Spent a bunch of time out in the yard. Got all the weeds pulled in the front and most in the back. They were starting to flower and you got to get them early before they make seed. My back is killing me.

Since the tomatoes have another month before they go in the ground I planted some more radishes in a raised bed that will be used for a couple tomato plants. I plan on pickling a bunch. Radishes will be done in a month.

I'm now planting my seeds by using a small board to make the groove in the soil the right depth and then instead of spreading the soil back over I'm covering them with used coco. It's working really good and it marks where the seeds are.

I've also put the bean machine up with modifications. This year I added some cross braces. It's plenty strong now. I was worried it was going to fall over last summer and I had to reinforce my gourd structure because it was on it's way. I'm using 2 x 4's for the gourd structure this year.

Also dug up a bunch of volunteer snapdragons and viola's that seeded on their own. I have volunteers everywhere. I won't be buying any flower starts this year. I have dozens of zinnia's and marigold starts doing great in the green house. Those and my volunteers will keep my front yard in color all summer long. I have a bunch of foxglove as well. No shortage of flowers.

But overall things are getting there. I still have a bunch to do like hook up the irrigation system but I'm going to use a drip system hooked to a timer this year and it will be easy to setup. Just gotta break out the wallet and say goodbye to more of my money. Fortunately I have half of what I need already.

All this work and it will all be over in a few months.

Happy Gardening :peace:


Bean Machine





Radish bed





Volunteer flowers

 
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socaljoe

Well-Known Member
Damn! It was a beautiful sunny 70f day. Spent a bunch of time out in the yard. Got all the weeds pulled in the front and most in the back. They were starting to flower and you got to get them early before they make seed. My back is killing me.

Since the tomatoes have another month before they go in the ground I planted some more radishes in a raised bed that will be used for a couple tomato plants. I plan on pickling a bunch. Radishes will be done in a month.

I'm now planting my seeds by using a small board to make the groove in the soil the right depth and then instead of spreading the soil back over I'm covering them with used coco. It's working really good and it marks where the seeds are.

I've also put the bean machine up with modifications. This year I added some cross braces. It's plenty strong now. I was worried it was going to fall over last summer and I had to reinforce my gourd structure because it was on it's way. I'm using 2 x 4's for the gourd structure this year.

Also dug up a bunch of volunteer snapdragons and viola's that seeded on their own. I have volunteers everywhere. I won't be buying any flower starts this year. I have dozens of zinnia's and marigold starts doing great in the green house. Those and my volunteers will keep my front yard in color all summer long. I have a bunch of foxglove as well. No shortage of flowers.

But overall things are getting there. I still have a bunch to do like hook up the irrigation system but I'm going to use a drip system hooked to a timer this year and it will be easy to setup. Just gotta break out the wallet and say goodbye to more of my money. Fortunately I have half of what I need already.

All this work and it will all be over in a few months.

Happy Gardening :peace:


Bean Machine





Radish bed





Volunteer flowers

That's a good idea with the radishes. I used to love growing them as a kid, haven't grown any radishes in a long time.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
So I was at Fred Meyers yesterday and they have started stocking the garden department with plants. I got some trailing geraniums for hanging baskets and some regular ones for patio planters. Then I took a stroll through the vegetables they have out. I had something specific on my mind. I was hoping and hoping. And then I found them. They had three types of artichokes. First I grabbed a couple of the green globes but then I saw how long they take to finish. A minimum of 120 days. The Romanesco takes around 85 days. The leaves apparently aren't as meaty as the green globe but I like the hearts and I plan on harvesting most of them as baby artichokes so I can just eat the whole thing. Cut in quarters and put on pizza or in pasta salad.






I was also happy to see a couple mason bees pollinating my peach tree. I don't know if they were the bees I put out but I hope so. I'd like to think my money was well spent. It's been raining the last couple years when it was flowering so it didn't pollinate very well and what peaches it did have didn't make it because of peach leaf curl that I've been battling since I planted it. I used an aggressive spraying tactic this winter so hopefully I won't have a problem with it this year. If I do I'm going to cut it down and plant either another pear or a self pollinating apple. The peach is an Elberta which is self pollinating.




My pear is budding up nicely and should be blooming in the next week or so. It's a Comice which is also self pollinating. You can see my bee house on the post to the right of the shed in the back. And the strawberries behind the pear are doing really good. They're hoods and they're delicious. They are a million times better than those flavorless things in the grocery store grown for size and appearance. I remember picking them back in the seventies for $1.50 a flat. They picked us up in the morning and drove us out to the fields. I could make $10 - $15 a day during the season. That was enough to buy some pot, play pinball and foosball, with enough money left to get a cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake. I could have made more but we always got distracted with berry fights and trying to pick up the girls. Oh the memories...




And it's looking like it's going to be another good year for the blueberries from the way their budding up also. Which reminds me, I need to put some fertilizer on them. Excuse the messy yard. I've been slacking on the chores. Gotta get my grass mowed but the mower won't start. I just put a new carburetor on it last summer and it was running fine. Looks like I'm going to have to tear into it or just buy a new one. It's a cheap piece of crap that someone gave us. I'm thinking about just buying an electric. I don't have that much grass anyway and I'm taking out the rest to the left of the raised beds and around the fruit trees and blueberries.




Happy gardening! The season is upon us! :)
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member

Your tomatoes are bigger than mine. I put my starts outside in the greenhouse too soon and they stopped growing. It's still getting down into the mid to lower 40's fahrenheit at night. I pulled a couple trays back inside under the light and they've doubled in a couple days inside a tent under T5's at 18/6. But I think I've found a way to control the growth. Last year I was running out of room inside. I didn't want to put them outside because I thought it was too cold. Now I realize that as long as it's not going to freeze I can use the cooler temps to slow them down after I germinate inside and are still seedlings.
 

RevRico

Well-Known Member
Eveyrthing is starting out good. Mostly.

5 kinds of peppers, carrots, and 3 types of tomatoes. I'm really excited for the brads atomic grape tomatoes, they're purple tye died outside, almost like gas on water.

Those jiffy pots though, beefsteaks on the left, choclate cherry on the right. Then 28 seeds from several local people. Not a single freaking sprout, I'm a little upset about that, but I really should have tried a papertowel instead of straight to the jiffy. They're also very old, and not very mature, I might try cracking a couple with plyers to see what happens. IMG_20190405_135621380_HDR.jpg I swear those beefsteaks look nute burnt, but nothing but tap water and everything else is doing good except for needing thinned out.


Found a pic to hotlink of the atomic grape tomatoes.
 
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too larry

Well-Known Member
I got most all my pots and trays moved today. Need to take down that section of backyard fence, then I can start chainsawing the tree that has my garden fence {and steel trash can lid} pinned.
 

too larry

Well-Known Member
My cousin sent me some pea seeds from my granddaddy's old strain. Ours got crossed up 35-40 years ago, so I was pretty stoked to find out he had some. They were called {Larry's Granddaddy's} Speckled Peas. I guess I'm going to grow them out by the road where I grew the Indian Broad Beans last year. Got to keep them separated.
 

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Damn! It was a beautiful sunny 70f day. Spent a bunch of time out in the yard. Got all the weeds pulled in the front and most in the back. They were starting to flower and you got to get them early before they make seed. My back is killing me.

Since the tomatoes have another month before they go in the ground I planted some more radishes in a raised bed that will be used for a couple tomato plants. I plan on pickling a bunch. Radishes will be done in a month.

I'm now planting my seeds by using a small board to make the groove in the soil the right depth and then instead of spreading the soil back over I'm covering them with used coco. It's working really good and it marks where the seeds are.

I've also put the bean machine up with modifications. This year I added some cross braces. It's plenty strong now. I was worried it was going to fall over last summer and I had to reinforce my gourd structure because it was on it's way. I'm using 2 x 4's for the gourd structure this year.

Also dug up a bunch of volunteer snapdragons and viola's that seeded on their own. I have volunteers everywhere. I won't be buying any flower starts this year. I have dozens of zinnia's and marigold starts doing great in the green house. Those and my volunteers will keep my front yard in color all summer long. I have a bunch of foxglove as well. No shortage of flowers.

But overall things are getting there. I still have a bunch to do like hook up the irrigation system but I'm going to use a drip system hooked to a timer this year and it will be easy to setup. Just gotta break out the wallet and say goodbye to more of my money. Fortunately I have half of what I need already.

All this work and it will all be over in a few months.

Happy Gardening :peace:


Bean Machine





Radish bed





Volunteer flowers

same box I use in the green house for the meds:bigjoint:
 

DCcan

Well-Known Member
be poping mine this weekend,ground still frozen here.
Just started 2 Black Crimean tomatoes (and Headband :leaf:), some Amish ones to follow.
The vines are purple/black and spring roots at every node above ground, taste amazing.
Real easy maintenance, no excessive leaves, drought tolerant
I can LST them and clone them easy if weather doesn't break.

Lost my Armenian Cuke seeds, now I got to find a pack.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
i got a pumpkin out, two watermelons, three burpless cucs, my garlic bed last year is already full of volunteers, so i added some peas between the rows...wanna try to make those pea chips you can only get for a few months a year...got a giant jalapeno for poppers, 2 green peppers, 2 tequlia sunrise, and 2 thai hots going...gotta pick up an eggplant or two. i have the worst luck starting eggplant from seed...oh, and the apparently perennial strawberries are back...
i'll take some pics in a day or two when it isn't raining..
 
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