Any gardeners here?

We are trying. This is the second year I've ever tried to have a garden, and we're kind of just winging it.

Our lame garden is about 10' by 8'. We have a bunch of tomato plants (the tomatoes get big, green and then explode before they ripen) , a rosemary shrub (doing great!), some oregano (doing great!), a few pepper plants , some basil and an bunch of weeds (doing great!) that we have to attack every day or they take over the garden. We have some strawberry plants in a planter thing, but we've only gotten about 6 strawberries out of it all year. I think it might need more sun or something.

We also have a pumpkin plant that is growing in our flower garden. The kids are very excited about it. I have no idea how it got there, but we're hoping we get a pumpkin or two on it.

Next year I'm going to catch some sunfish and grind them into the soil. I remember one of my friend's grandparent's sending us out every year with a 5 gallon bucket to fill up with fish for his garden, and his tomatoes were incredible. I have no idea why this worked so well, but there is a small pond full of stunted fish not far away, so I guess I'll try it.

I have a homemade worm bin made with nested rubbermaid containers. The top container has the worms in it and is equipped with vent holes near the top (I covered mine with screen to keep the flies out) and drain holes in the bottom. The lower bin catches the juices, which I dump on my regular compost bin. I actually made two identical "top" bins so that when it gets full I just set another on top and start placing the food there. Eventually all the worms move up to that bin through the drain holes and then the lower bin can be harvested easily without removing any worms from the composter.

I love feeding my kitchen scraps to the worms, I also use my shredded bills and junk mail to cover the food once it's in the worm bin to keep the moisture up and the smells down. It's easy and they make so much great soil additive, I use it mixed in with potting soil for containers and in the ground.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Let's go fishin'!

I have to dig up a yellow jacket nest first, apparently them's good eats for a fish! NAH! Worms is good enough eats fer fishes, lets GO!

Heh. I go for quantity and expedience when fishing. Therefore, my preferred methods are either 1) a quarter stick of dynamite or 2) a hand cranked field telephone. #2 is preferable when you are trying to be quiet.

ECM stole my setup (MY setup being the one somebody gave me...). I'm sure I need more worms, as this set has been neglected since...oh, the fall. But there's a bunch of good tea in there, plenty of live worms, surprisingly, and nothing really funky aside from a fuzzy potato.

The friend who gave it to me pointed out the tea, and said to basically dilute it 1:1 - too rich? And is a garden sprayer a good way to disperse? Before/after watering?

I mean, I really don't know what I'm doing here, aside from having some confidence that plants want to grow, so long as I let them.

What I really want to try next is making an Earthtainer

EastCoastMojo wrote: What I really want to try next is making an Earthtainer

That's basically a big version of what my wife used inside to start the plants this spring.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Can I get pics of your worm setup? My compost pile is taking forever, and I've been considering doing worm castings.

carguy123 wrote: 2 people simply can't eat 20-30 tomatoes a day

I put in around 25 tomato plants and have a rash of tomato's.

Save a bunch and blanch them, then cut them up on a Saturday. Either make spag sauce or not. If we don't have time, we blanch, and put into freezer bags. We defrost in the winter to use for chili or spag sauce. We are always happy we do!

My dad throws the large decent tomato's in used bread bags and freezes them. When ready he takes them out and runs them under hot water which would be similar to blanching. Then he makes sauce........YUM!

mrwillie wrote: In reply to EastCoastMojo: Can I get pics of your worm setup? My compost pile is taking forever, and I've been considering doing worm castings.

Sure, I mean Pics or it didn't happen, right?

I will try to take some tonight when I get home. It's not terribly exciting though.

My garden is 10' x 20'. Each fall I cover it with ~4" of leaves and till that in. In the spring I give it a double dose of plant food/fertilizer and till that in.

We plant green beans(two plantings a year), 12-18 Roma tomato plants, 6 Bell Pepper plants and a couple cucumbers. I put the plants a lot closer than you are supposed to but with all the ground prep it seems to work just fine.

In a good year we can 30 - 50 quarts of tomatos. Freeze 20 or so butter tubs of chopped green peppers. And make ~10 pints of pickles.

I've looked at a bunch of internet how-to's on how to make self watering containers. Never heard the earthtainer name before. Not really sure how that guy thinks it is like a hybrid car, but whatever. I haven't tried one of those yet, maybe next year. I also would love to try aquaponics. Just got a layoff notice today, so if I don't find another job in 2 weeks I'll be unemployed and may have a lot more time to garden.

I've got sweet corn, cayenne and Hungarian peppers, garlic, leeks, red leaf lettuce, mesclun lettuce mix, green beans, and carrots. For herbs in planters I have parsley, basil, and cilantro.

This is the second year I've done it. Had some luck last year, but I got lazy about halfway through July and didn't water and fertilize it enough, and a lot of stuff died. Gotta stay on that, especially the corn. You apparently have to fertilize the crap out of it.

Twin_Cam wrote: For herbs in planters I have parsley, basil, and cilantro.

We've got a big bay window behind the sink in the kitchen where we grow various herbs. Fresh herbs instantly available while cooking is awesome.

carguy123 wrote: 2 people simply can't eat 20-30 tomatoes a day,

Heh, heh..ancestors to the rescue! I didn't know people still home canned until I saw folks doing it at my buddy's CSA farm.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeSQmYK8uE4
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

EastCoastMojo wrote: What I really want to try next is making an Earthtainer

Hey, that's cool. It really is a hybrid of dirt & hydroponic farming, isn't it?

OK as promised, pics of the worm bin! Here, you can see my bad placement of the top vent holes.

Under the shredded paper is the kitchen scraps, the paper keeps the moisture high (you want to spray it with water to make it damp but not sloppy wet - I use the mist setting on the hose) and it helps keep the gnats to a minimum. You can also see the screen that I glued in place to keep the flies and other undesirables out. I put a line of silicone around the holes and smushed the screen in place, little bit of tape to hold it in place until the silicone cured and it was good to go.

Here's the obligatory close up of worms.

After the food is in you cover it all up with shredded paper again, adding more if necessary to keep food from being exposed. Spray with water and cover with the lid, using something heavy to keep varmints out.

What kind of issues are you having with your current compost pile? I like to add a good balance of greens and browns. Too much brown content and it takes forever to get hot enough to break down much. Too much green and you get mold and it packs down making it harder to aerate. I should have taken pics of our compost bin made of pallets. I started out using the Earth Machine composter, they look kinda like Darth Vader's helmet, but quickly found I needed more capacity then they can offer. We used five pallets of approximately the same size and screwed them together in the shape of an E to make two compost bins side by side. That makes it easy to turn, as you just toss it from one side into the other. Cheap, easy, works great. We put grass clippings in there to add greens, you can also add the kitchen scraps (no bones, meat or fat), we add leaves in the fall and wood chips after a storm brings down a bunch of branches.

friedgreencorrado wrote:

carguy123 wrote: 2 people simply can't eat 20-30 tomatoes a day,

Heh, heh..ancestors to the rescue! I didn't know people still home canned until I saw folks doing it at my buddy's CSA farm. http://www.freshpreserving.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeSQmYK8uE4 http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

I want to start canning this year, I have already sourced all of the equipment to do water bath canning, and I also want to do pressure canning at some point. I will be hitting up the farmer's market once I narrow down the list of recipies that I want to try.
We have a local gardening and homesteading club that hosts demonstrations about stuff like gardening and preserving, dehydrating etc. They have also hosted tours of local chicken coops within the city limits to show how chickens can work in regular residential neighborhoods and offer a chance to see many different coop designs. They have seed swaps and do tours of the local arboretum at least once a year. You can tour any time by yourself, but it's fun to go with other gardeners and pick up new ideas.

I digress..

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Digress what? Canning and preserving is an intregal part of gardening food.

While I have wine grapes that are looking really good this year, I'll probably be canning some jelly I make from them.

As for my tomatos- uh, I think I totally underestimated them. wow, they grow fast.

Strawberries- seem like they are a little behind right now. Not dying at all, but not exactly growing and making berries.... hmmm Too wet and cold this spring?

The rest? Well, leafy stuff looks good right now. As does the radishes and garlic that I optimistically put between the tomatos. But I'm learning, and probably will put a raised bed in a few places.

New rasberries my neighbor put in and my new blueberries look quite good right now. Nothing this year, but next year!

EastCoastMojo wrote: I want to start canning this year, I have already sourced all of the equipment to do water bath canning, and I also want to do pressure canning at some point.

Pressure canning is much easier than water bath, plus it takes 1/2 or less time. My mother and mother-in-law both used water bath. The wife and I used my mother's canner when we started but very quickly changed over to a pressure canner

alfadriver wrote: In reply to EastCoastMojo: Digress what? Canning and preserving is an intregal part of gardening food.

I felt like I was Bogarting the thread.

I forgot to post my recipe for homemade bug repellent for plants, I use this on my roses to repel Japanese beetles, but it works well for spider mites and caterpillars and even repells deer, although you do have to reapply after it frequently and especially after it rains.

1 Qt water
3-4 hot peppers, habanero or hotter (I actually use Tepins, but they can be hard to find if you don't grow your own.)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
3 drops liquid dish soap

Place all ingredients except soap in a blender and puree. Strain through a coffee filter or french press. Add dish soap and transfer to a spray bottle. Spray foliage at the first sign of pests, being sure to get the underside of leaves. Be extra careful not to be downwind of the spray, it is effectively pepper spray when atomized. Better to spray in the morning when the heat of the day can evaporate off the spray, then to spray in the evening and let it sit on the leaves for an extended period of time.

Another thing I have made is a Japanese Beetle trap, using lures that are commercially available and a setup that consists of a 2.5 gallon bucket with a hole in the lid, a transmission funnel and a clothes hanger, and some soapy water. I will have to post pics of them later.

I just ate two handfuls of cherry tomatoes(4 varieties) that I plucked off my plants just minutes ago. yum, so sweet and juicy.

got 5 types of chili peppers going along with basil, cilantro, leeks & green onions. ruby red grapefruit & mandarin orange trees were already on the property.

nothing beats the taste of fresh picked fruits and veggies

watering and weeding for a few moments after work is my way of unwinding and letting go of the stresses of the day.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to EastCoastMojo: Digress what? Canning and preserving is an intregal part of gardening food.

I'm Fried Green Corrado, and I approve this message. Especially since Alfadriver beat me to the punch. ECM, how many folks here are talking about being lucky enough to have their plants produce more than they can immediately consume? In a "good year", it will happen. So, you do what you can to preserve what you grew in the good year for when the "bad year" eventually comes along.

Aside to alfadriver...I still recall that as a teen, we had a big bunch of scuppernong vines around the place. We'd go pick grapes, and bring back the ones we didn't eat to our folks. My mom made great jam out of them..some of my neighbors made wine instead.

EastCoastMojo wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to EastCoastMojo: Digress what? Canning and preserving is an intregal part of gardening food.

I felt like I was Bogarting the thread.

I agree with alfadriver. As far back as I can remember the idea of canning food for later in the year was as important as having the fresh stuff in my family. Our "garden" was the same size as the lot my current house sits on 75' x 150'

When my parents built our house in 1950 it was designed with a special room (cold cellar) in the basement under the front porch. The sole purpose of this 10' x 20' room was to store the fruits and vegtables my mother canned.