RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow?

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suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 6:42:31 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: RainydayNE i can't wait to get the garden going :D the Person has made a wonderfully complicated plan that ought to make our little plot excrutiatingly efficient, so i'm looking forward to it. ^_^ last year was really haphazard but we still had a pretty good yield, so htis year should be really nice. i'd really like to build our soil back up with some compost or something. but i dont think there's enough time to make our own anymore. what kinds of things will you be growing? we're going to have yellow and zucchini squash, acorn squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, sugar snap peas, lima beans, carrots, radishes, umm... strawberries, cantaloupe, and... something else...? mushrooms i think? plus an herb garden :D should be cool Maybe too late for this season, yes... but never to early to start one for next year!

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 6:44:14 AM)
lol OneMoreWaste Since i don't drink alcohol (am allergic) i can't see my landscaping through such "rose colored glasses".. hehe

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 6:46:27 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: igor2003 As a mulch my mother and step-dad use strips of old carpeting cut just wide enough to fit between the rows. Holds in the water, keeps the weeds down between the rows, and it's easy on the knees! At the end of the year they roll up the carpet and save it for the next year. Once it is too old and rotten to be used they just toss it and watch for places that are having their carpet replaced to get some more free carpet. I always liked to use a light weight cardboard that was corrigated on just one side for mulch. I got it at work where the new cabinets I installed were wrapped with it, so it was free. Once it had been wet down a time or two it conformed to the ground nicely and didn't try to blow around. At the end of the season, or the beginning of the next season you just tilled the cardboard into the ground as you prepared the garden spot. I HAVE used black plastic as well, but didn't like it nearly as well. For those of you that have bunny problems I hope you will give this a try and give some feedback since I have only read about this. The article I read said that to keep rabbits out of the garden you should go to the local zoo and get a few days supply of big cat dung and spread it around the outer edge of your garden. The article said "lion dung" but I assume that the dung from any of the big cats should work, It may even work to keep deer out as well, though they weren't mentioned in the article. Thanks for the tips igor.. i have always hated seeing my nice pretty black walking rows.. turn green as grass would sprout up.. sooo now i will be looking around to see where i can find old carpeting...

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 6:48:19 AM)
popeye; Planting season is rather late around here also.. i always try to get everything into the garden and planted in mid May... and just hope that theres no further late frosts.

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 6:50:33 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: hizgeorgiapeach I'm still debating how much and what to plant this year. With dad home on hospice, I won't be able to devote as much time to things like weeding as I really Need to have, in order to grow a large plot. What I'm hoping to do is actually to spend the summer doing a complete landscaping project on the backyard, to compliment the deck which was built during the summer/fall Last year. If things go according to plan (as if they Ever go according to Plan) I'll be doing herb garden planting along the pair of pathways that are getting put into the backyard, along the sides of the mini-stream that is being dug. The "flower/herb" beds along that stream and along the walkways will carry a variety of herbs and medicinal flowering plants. Several more roses are being placed along 2 of the 3 fencelines - the third already has Blueberry and Blackberry bushes. There's another spot in the back yard, removed from where the stream and koi pond are going, which has good soil and drainage for a small garden plot - not nearly as much space as I would Like to have, but sufficient for a small plot for myself. That plot is currently planned for potatoes, tomatos, yellow crookneck squash, okra, green beans, carrots of 2 varieties, and onions. (Think "soup plot" lol) But what a delicious soup~ georgiapeach!

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 6:55:08 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LaTigresse Yes, I know someone that does that for their planters. I would have to use a swimming pool. lol LaT what an awful image that brings to mind.. i think i will do it... in early spring.. and smother the garden area with that "water" for several days.. and then let it sit.. before using the rototiller.. plant my garden... and put down my newspapers as mulch.. and from then on.. just use reg water and rain to water the garden..

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 7:05:23 AM)
StrangerThan.. You will have to thank Your mom for me!.. Working with Your father in his garden sounds like a great idea! I have no where near an acre.. *sighs.. i live in a small city.. in a resendential area.. When we bought our house the lot next door was empty ( think the house had been destroyed years before) that is the same sized lot as what our house is on.. 50 by 120.. so.. doubling them up.. our property is now 100 by 120.. after we bought that empty lot from the city. Its a corner lot.. with public sidewalk running along the edge. A far corner of that lot..is what we use for the garden.. with the two fruit trees planted at property edge. The garden is aprox a third of the lot.. 40 by 20 id guess..so not huge.. We have a rather large family.. 5 children.. and i always wonder how to get as much yield as possible from the garden.. i want enough to enjoy some to eat fresh..but also enough to save for winter. Thus far.. its been impossible.. we have eaten fresh.but i have never gotten anything enough to save.

hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 7:15:37 AM)
Here in Oklahohum, it's already time to start getting out early plants and do the tilling for the later spring plants. I've actually got 3 harvests available to me if I start getting things in the ground during the mid to late point in March. Not much chance of late frost, and the early spring greens and first set of onions, peppers, and tomatoes should be ready no later than late May/early June. Once the tomatoes start producing, they'll continue to do so until early October. The squash, green beans, and carrots will start being ready in late June/early July, and continue until probably late October. The potatoes will be ready for a "baby" crop sometime in mid to late June, and will produce a "mature" crop in July, then a second mature crop in late Sept/early Oct. I started several pepper plants in containers already, and plan to move them outside to the edge of the deck in another week or two - and they should start seriously producing sometime in early May. Thing is, with the extended growing season around here, I can plant any time between March and July and get in at least One good harvest - it just depends on how the Rest of life is going as to whether I'll get 1, 2, or 3! (Somehow my grandfather, whom I dearly loved and still miss, always managed to get his huge garden planted by the second week of March and coax 4 harvests out of it..... old fart forgot to pass along his secret for that before he died back in 97 though.)

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 7:33:11 AM)
Cold Western NY.. we are lucky if we get even a single growing season.. Its always been a scary thing.. to plant a garden here.. wondering exactly is the best time..and when its least likely to have a frost I have mostly always grown my gardens from seed.. i used to just go poke a million holes in my garden..and press in a seed.. and just let it go.. That worked okay.. i guess..but wasnt neat nor orderly.. and was always a worry that id pull a seedling thinking it might be weed. One year i got a very late start on my garden..and lost any chance of planting by seeds.. and went to a nursery and bought established seedlings.. and while i LOVED how nice and neat and orderly my rows were.. i hated how much it cost to buy those plants. So.. last year.. i told everyone to stay away from my kitchen table.. and i used it to hold three seed starter green houses.. but as soon as the seedlings grew to a certain height.. i had to take the clear plastic dom off.. and thats when my cats decided that veggie seedlings made great nibble salads.. and killed all of my baby plants. Luckily i still had enough seed left over.. that when i planted the garden.. i just did the poke and cover thing again.. with the leftover seeds. And then.. i listened to the bad advice noted earlier.. and let those weeds grow and grow.. and ended the season with a few short ears of corn.. and that was it, from my garden.. a complete disaster and waste. You are lucky that you had some family history with gardening.. My grandparents on my mothers side.. lived in a farmhouse i guess.. but that was long before i was born.. and He died many years before..and she died when i was a few months..so i never really knew her. My mother never ever thought about having a garden.. nobody that lived here ever had one.. so.. planting my own.. i have learned through every step on my own.. with some ill advice.. and lots of hits and misses.. its been a classroom of learning for sure!

hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 9:07:19 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: suhlut You are lucky that you had some family history with gardening.. My grandparents on my mothers side.. lived in a farmhouse i guess.. but that was long before i was born.. and He died many years before..and she died when i was a few months..so i never really knew her. My mother never ever thought about having a garden.. nobody that lived here ever had one.. so.. planting my own.. i have learned through every step on my own.. with some ill advice.. and lots of hits and misses.. its been a classroom of learning for sure! I was lucky that I had my grandparents until I was in my 30s - both of my grandfathers died within a year of each other, but both my grandmothers are still alive - though one of them I'm not on speaking terms with (the one who's hubby always kept a huge garden) and the other has alzheimers to the point where she hasn't known who I was since about the time Her hubby died. All of 'em grew up in the Depression Era, and the pair that I lived with (the bat and farmer gramps) both grew up on family farms here in OK during that period. Before the bat got Toooo batty, I actually managed to learn a lot from the two of them - growing, planting/harvesting techniques that work well here in this state, canning and other preservative techniques, a lot of my cooking and baking skills came from growing up around them. It's weird - if it's a Vegitable or Fruit, I can grow it. No real problems, except every now and then if we get a bad bug year. Indoor plants? I may as well have 10 thumbs, all of 'em cursed to kill any plant they touch! I can't keep Houseplants alive to save my life - but a garden is no problem for me. Then again, grampa was the same way - give him a garden plot, roses, trees, even raised flower beds which the bat insisted he put in "for her" (which he then had to actually do all the gardening for lol) - and it went great. Have the bat ask him to keep an eye on her houseplants for a couple of days while she was visiting relatives - they'd be dead as doornails when she got home. Right now, my blueberry and blackberry bushes, and my Lavender and Roses are all thriving - but they're outside. The aloe plant that I was given by a friend - trying desperately to die, so I may end up transplanting it out into the back yard, or into the flower bed I have along the front porch, just to see whether it will recouperate. (Since Aloe is actually a succulent - like a cactus - I'm wondering if maybe I'm overwatering the poor thing.) My buddy that helps me out around here frequently, thinks that I'm being "to ambitious" with my landscaping & gardening project for this year. He's an absolute Genius at keeping anything that grows thriving and producing - and he's pretty much convinced himself (after watching a few of my attempts with houseplants) that he'll end up doing all the actual Work on any garden I happen to put out in the backyard. Then again, he also knows I have Lupus, and sunlight is NOT my Friend - to much UV and I go into a bad flare, and he knows that if I've got a garden out there, I'll be out there for a couple of hours a day doing things like weeding, which may end up making my health suffer. (Long sleeved shirts, loose jeans, and a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun off my face and I should be fine - though I can't guarentee it.) I just really miss having a garden to gather fresh from during the season, and keeping a seed bank for "emergency" purposes doesn't cut it any longer.

Vendaval -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 3:21:32 PM)
Rhi, I was just thinking about koi ponds and fountains last night. Will you post photos when your pond is finished?

hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 3:34:19 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Vendaval Rhi, I was just thinking about koi ponds and fountains last night. Will you post photos when your pond is finished? Absolutely, Ven. The plan right now (it may change lol) is to build a "wall" a couple of feet from the back fence, which will hide the workings of a waterfall on one side, and be rocked on the side you see, for the waterfall to flow over. it will fall into a stream we're digging, about a foot wide, and about 6 inches deep, which we're going to line with plastic and then cover the plastic with a thin layer of river rock to hide the liner. The stream will meander through part of the back yard, and then terminate in a pond which we're going to line the same way that we're lining the "stream" portion - but with an underground line that runs between pond and mechanical works for the waterfall, to keep the water circulating from one to the other. We're planning to try and Not make it actually Round - we're going to try and keep it a slightly irregular shape, so that it looks more natural. Hopefully, we'll have it done, finished, filled, etc by the end of April - though with my luck, the whole thing will take until some time in May to get completely ready to put any koi into. Between this month's whonky schedule with a selling trip to Mississippi with my medieval group, and dad wanting me to make plans to take him to his church on Easter (he's christian, I'm not)..... and the person who's helping me with a lot of the work only being down from an hour away 3 times a week.......

Vendaval -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 5:52:43 PM)
Rhi, Sounds like you have it all planned out and that it will be lovely when finished. There are Japanese gardens in San Jose and a stream running through it filled with koi. I have great memories from outings there as a youngster. How do you keep racoons from fishing in the pond though? Some of my friends had their fish disappearing right out of the back yards.

Jeptha -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 8:32:40 PM)
LaT, that spread sounds great. I'd love to have space for an orchard. As it is, I've got a plum, a pear, and an apple on a city lot. I found some really neat abandoned apple trees out in the country, though. They have great tasting little apples that have almost wine-dark skins. I would like to try and get a root stock and graft cuttings from those apple trees onto it. As far as the pests in the garden, I took to going out before bedtime with a headlamp on and manually picking the caterpillars off of the greens. It was a little labor intensive, but after a week or two the results were pretty good.

hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 8:59:11 PM)
How do I plan to keep the racoons from fishing in the koi pond? Easy - I live less than a mile from a major air force base, in the middle of the city, with Large dogs living in every back yard except my own for 5 houses in every direction. If a racoon can make it past the cars and the dogs to GET to my house to go fishing in the koi pond - assuming it doesn't get distracted by someone Else's koi pond, pets, garbage cans, etc - it's welcome to fish.

Vendaval -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 9:02:03 PM)
Lol...sounds like you have the varmits covered. [:D]

Hippiekinkster -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/6/2009 9:54:28 PM)
I'm a great believer in Organic Gardening. The magazine. I don't subscribe anymore, but I have probably about 10 years worth here. Also a fairly decent library. Rodale's Low maintenance gardenign Techniques Rodale's Guide to vegetables and Fruits Four Season harvest by Elliott Coleman (lives in Maine) Backyard Market gardening by Andrew Lee Rodale's Encyclopedia of Natural Insect and Disease Control Fundamentals of Soil Science by Henry D. Foth (drove to Athens - UGA for this) Hydroponics by Richard E. Nicholls The Story of the Plant Kingdom by Merle Coulter and Howard Dittmer (evolutionary botany & genetics) The New Seed-Startes handbook by Nancy Bubel American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants and a couple on home preserving, one on mushrooms, and a few other plant-related books. They've all been useful at one time or another. Rodale publishes "Organic Gardening" By using compost, organic fertilizers, and some judiciously selected minerals like Epsom salts, Borax, Ironite, limestone, etc., one can meet all of a plant's nutritional needs, not just the macro-nutrients N, P, & K. Learn about companion planting, living mulches like clover and alfalfa, raised bed gardening, drip irrigation, and compost. Tilling can be uiseful, but overtilling disturbs the soil structure and chops up the worms (I have LOTS of worms everywhere, even in my lawn). Snakes, spiders, and toads are your friends. So are bees and ladybugs. Kill aphids with insecticidal soap (basically Dr. Bronners - ask hizGApeach). Use bacillus thuringensis on tomato worms, etc. Use wettable sulphur for fungal diseases. The previously mentioned Neem oil is good for insect control. SO are bats. I REALLY recommend Four Season Harvest, suhlut. I grew up near Albion, west of Rottenchester. Just on the outskirts of The Muck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muck_(soil) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muck_(soil) (OH, hell. I got to the Wiki page by googling "muck soil") You know where Elba is, right? Batavia, Genesee County? I was born in Rochester and grew up in North Chile until 7th grade, then we moved to Clarendon, about 6 miles north of Byron, which is about 3 miles east of Elba. Man, what a digression. [8D] Anyway, I know what the weather is like. My niece in Brockport is a damn fine gardener. Could be I could put you in touch. SO is my bud Chuck in Holley. His family has/had a roadside produce stand. Killer blackberries. We had a couple cherry trees on the farm in Clarendon, Wild horseradish in the little creek. Had an asparagus bed. BTW, Jersey Asparagus Farms has the best looking plants I've ever seen. I sent some to my niece a few years back, and she harvested year after she planted them. We grew strawberries, corn, rhubarb, spinach, English peas, Brussels Sprouts, and the usual warm-weather stuff. Had raspberry and blackberry bushes, and a boatload of mint. Sister-in-law in LeRoy has a killer black cherry tree, and my cousin in Fancher has a pear tree that won't quit. For a couple summers, I helped weed potatoes on a muck potato farm. Soil was so soft you just grabbed the stalk of the weed and pulled it out, without having to bend over. Well, there ya go.

suhlut -> RE: sherry sherry quite contrary.. How will your garden grow? (3/11/2009 10:48:05 AM)
i bought two huge bags of potting mix.. to get the seeds started in.. and also got a pack of strawberry plants 10 for 3 bucks! so gonna expand my strawberry garden this year also! whoo hoo!

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