Any gardeners here?

And while we are on the topic of gardening.

An easy way for those of you with young children to get them involved in the gardening process.

My mother would cut appropiate length sections from a yardstick so that my brother and I could help her plant the garden.

She would plow the furrows with a cultivator and we would plant the seeds. Put a seed in the furrow, put the stick in the furrow next to it, put a seed at the other end of the stick, move stick and plant another seed, etc.

As pre-school children we thought it was great fun crawling along in the dirt sticking stuff in the ground. And we certainly enjoyed the "fruits of our labor".

friedgreencorrado wrote: 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.

A decade ago, I was more into making wine- did a few kits, and a lot with grapes I bought. So I planted two different hybrid wine grapes in the backyard. Then I got busy, and didn't make too much wine.

Now, I'm back interested in all the stuff I grow. So we will see how this goes.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Ok, worms first:

1) You have three bins. First is( top to bottom layers) - paper - food - worms - potting soil( I think that's what you have? ) What's in the second and third bins?

2) Did u just dig worms out of your garden to use? Is there a pref. between night crawlers and red wrigglers? Or are they something dif altogether?

3) Do I need to do anything to the food b/4 placing it in the bin?

Now, my compost:

I think I have a few issues. 1) I normally rake a huge pile of leaves in the fall, and base my compost pile around these. I have mostly oaks, and I read somewhere that you shouldn't use oak leaves b/c they take so long to break down. I've had a pile to take almost a year to be done completely. 2) I made a bin out of pallets three years ago, but it didn't seem to help much. Then, I was left w/ a bunch of pallets to get rid of when we tried to sell the house. This year, its on the ground. It gets turned and watered once a week when I add the coffee grounds I collect from work and the kitchen scraps from the house. Is this enough maint? 3) I've only gotten a noticable amount of heat from the pile once this season. The rest of the time it just sits there. Clumpy in the middle. dry and flakey on the outside. I'm gonna try an activator( ie dry dog food, horse feed, etc. ), but if that doesn't work I'm at a loss.

What am I doing wrong?

I bought a cheap black plastic trash can from lowes, drilled a bunch of holes in it to allow airflow and drainage and have it sitting on a couple cinder blocks. I put in leaves, uncooked vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, and some paper. I mix it up every day or two with a machette (use it to chop and aerate). It gets nice and toasty in the center of the pile and the black coloring of the outside helps keep it hot from the sunshine. I only add water here and there if it gets too dry. It seems to be making waste into compost rather quickly my only problem is that I could use more green feed material than I have. I was going to go the pallet route, but I'm glad I spent to $9 on the trash can. I can even roll it around the yard a bit when I want to make sure things get nice and mixed up in there.

In reply to T.J.:

The plastic bin works for you? I've read a few places online that don't recommend it. That's easy enough to try though. I think I have an old plastic trash can w/o a lid. I can make a screen cover to keep the fruit flies out and let water in.

I'll try it. Thanks for the idea.

I think the biggest issue you are having with your existing compost pile is not enough green matter. You need a balance of browns and greens to get the decomp going. More grass clippings and kitchen scraps will help there. I turn mine MAYBE once a month, and since it's open I don't water it i just let the rain have at it.

In the worm bin, the top bin is layered: shredded paper, food, worms, worm castings. That soil looking stuff is what they make for me out of the food. I didn't add any soil, that's their job The second bin was exactly like the first but it got full. When it is full of food and worms you can't easily harvest the worm castings without removing a lot of worms. To remedy this I place the (empty) identical top bin right on top of the worms, food and all. Since this bin has "drainage holes" in the bottom, the worms can crawl up into the top bin where all of the new food will be placed. After a while, all of them will move up to the top bin because no food is left in the one below. Once they move up you have an entire bin of worm castings ready to be harvested from the sandwiched "middle" bin. The lower bin is just to catch the juices/runoff. I add the juices to my regular compost pile but some people will dilute it and spray it on their garden.
I got a big container of Red Wriggler fishin' bait and seeded the container with them, but now they make their own baby worms. I've probably got enough to start another bin.
MrWillie, you live in Garner, let me know if you wanna swing by and check it out. I live close to Fuquay-Varina.

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

I woke up this morning to a severe thunder storm and two of my sport pepper and one of my green pepper plants broke off the stem at the ground. This is aggravating because I can't plant very many plant.

Back to the greenhouse I go.

In reply to mrwillie:

I used a plastic trash can sorta like this one:

I drilled a lot of holes in the top, bottom, and sides to get airflow/drainage and I think having the thing sitting up off the ground so air can get under it helps too. It's not all that different from those $150 contraptions that you can buy except it cost be $9.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Thanks for the info. I may take you up on that. My grass is mulched pretty fine when its cut so there isn't much left to gather. I did find a veggie distributor in Durham that sometimes gives away food that's about to spoil. I just need to find the ad on CL again. I've asked a few grocery stores in my area, but they have people stopping by already.

Thanks again.

@T.J. -- I'm gonna setup a trash can when I get a sec. It will give me a chance to get my ratios right on a smaller scale than what I'm doing now. Thanks.

alfadriver wrote: A decade ago, I was more into making wine- did a few kits, and a lot with grapes I bought. So I planted two different hybrid wine grapes in the backyard. Then I got busy, and didn't make too much wine. Now, I'm back interested in all the stuff I grow. So we will see how this goes.

Good luck! I was not a big wine fan, until my family reunion (we don't go to the "old home", we pick a cool spot we've never been and meet there) in the central CA wine country. Headquartered in Pasa Robles, and ran around sampling stuff. There's a big difference between a handmade product, and the factory swill my ex-girlfriends drank in college. My sister even had me drinking the reds by the end of the week! Oh, how could I have been so wrong..

I thought this was a pretty sweet composting bin setup... easy to turn... http://www.instructables.com/id/Double-Decker-Drum-Composter/

Happy 4th of July weekend. Just thought I'd show some temps. in a little garden in my back yard. Probably not very interesting as it's not about a pretty garden but here it is.

The planting is incomplete, tall stuff goes in in Sept. Pic is today at 2:00, shade temp. 107-111(approx humidity 10%), will increase until 4:00 or 5:00 to about 114. Plant leaves are between 101-109. The planter is a raised bed so soil temps are pretty high. Surprisingly, the Pentas are showing the most temp. damage but, ahaa, they are the plants at 109. Probably due to a nutrient deficiency/pH imbalance. They showed a little nutrient lock early on.The Potato vine is just starting to wilt and will continue to lose turgidity till about 5:00 and will then perk right back. The perimeter concrete blocks are 139. and will get about 10 warmer.

The growing medium is basically an organic mix n' match, nothing special, whatever I had to throw together. Salt base mineral fert., slow release. Mellow numbers and quantities to inhibit flowering with moderate leaf growth. No sqirmy wormies, teas, castings, bone/blood meal, mycorrihzae, etc. No pH balancing(very alkaline). Now watered every morning with drip for about 15 minutes. Every day is necessary due to the garden is chock full of roots from a nearby mesquite tree - the desert's version of an aggressive roots tree.

So, it's holding it's own I guess is the point. Planted in 100* heat, a relatively healthy root system is basically what is happening. Plants would grow more with extra fert. and watering but that's cheating. The best procedure would be to use the organic stuff above and it would be a jungle even in this weather with minimal watering.

I will play with a top dressing of goodies, tea, and foliar ferts. in a couple of months when it "cools down" a little. Plants will double in size in a couple of weeks.

How's that for a flower from a 12" plant! The mother plant will die after expending so much energy.

And, lastly, Billie, the stressed out cat.

Whoa. I need a moment to digest all of that.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Whoa. I need a moment to digest all of that.

Yeah, pretty dull stuff. Now that I'm over one thousand posts it's safe to expose my dorkness. Case in point; I'm working on a really neat (to me) interior grow lighting system that is made up of T5 HO Fluorescent bulbs. These are not your father's fluorescent bulbs. 12-16 bulbs above and about 6 to the sides. Specific spectrum bulbs instead full spectrum (sun). A lot of these bulbs come from tech. for growing coral in aquariums. They use a lot less energy than the popular High Pressure Sodium bulbs, less heat and more specific spectrums for various stages of plant growth. I'm hoping it's the next stage before plasma lights become fine tuned and affordable. It will be about 1,000 watts of serious grow lighting in 200 cubic ft.

Are you using an infrared thermometer for your readings? I got one recently and I am using it for lots of things but I had not thought about taking plant temps.

Yes, it's a good one. I use it for tires, air ducts, cooking, weather- it's 107 in the garage, and the sun tea is 118. You name it. Anyway, do you really want to take plant temps.?

I really hadn't thought about it before. I want to check my compost pile now too.
I am interested in your grow light system, as I would like to start plants indoors before the frost threat has passed to give the garden a kick start next year. Any pics? Can I source all the parts at a Lowe's or Home Depot?

Good point. Compost temps are critical and most piles are not correctly "cooked". A day at 150-160 is essential for correct breakdown. Over 160 is detrimental. Another important item is the carbon(dead) material/green material ratio. And correct moisture. Don't know why but most people screw these up.

As far as indoor growing for getting ready for an early outdoor grow you can get away with regular fluorescent grow bulbs. Much cheaper. If you want to go the the T-5 HO lamp route you'll be spending a bit more but they kick ass! Talk to me before going this route as it isn't usually done correcty - very misunderstood and often maligned. What I'm doing is based on a professor's research that he based on lighting research at Oxford so it's pretty cutting edge. Oh, I mentioned V-HO lamps the other day - I meant HO. V-HOs cut most bulb's life in half. Here's a supply house with really good prices: http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/quantum-badboy-t5-ft-lamp-grow-light-p-3353.html Be aware that the bulbs they supply you with are worthless. The 4' bulbs I use average about $20.00 each.

You have a pretty good sized yard, have you ever thought of a greenhouse? They are heaven on earth, like your own little world. I had a 10,000 ft2 one back in the day and even though it was commercial I practically had to tear myself away from it - never wanted to leave.

If I lived in your climate I would at least have a cold watchamacallit or a hoop house. Hoop houses are really fun and can be built on a budget with PVC pipe and plastic sheeting, from a foot tall to 10'+.

I would love a greenhouse but most of my yard is wooded. I do want to build a coldframe to start some seedlings outdoors and protect them from frost. I also have a bunch of ExoTerra glass terrariums with daylight spectrum compact florescents that I use to germinate in the house. These are fantastic at keeping the cats from grazing on my tender young sprouts, and they have pretty decent air circulation with a small computer fan set up on top.

I wanted to revive this pretty old thread- to pat myself on the back.

This evening, we made gazpacho out of tomatos, cucumbers, and basil (yea, not really for gazpacho) all grown in my back yard. The only parts not from our back yard was salt, peper, garlic and parsley.

Wow. Fresh, fresh, fresh. It was room temp since that's what the tomatos were.

So very cool.

I am disappointed that you did not mine your own salt. Sounds delicious.

new here, my wife and i have a small 10x12 raised garden, last summer was great, this year not so much as the damn rabbits chewed through the plastic fencing and ate all of teh cucumbers and tomatoes. after this season is over i will be back next year though with metal fencing and a home made rain barrel hooke to the downspout for watering. oh yes homemade bead and butter pickles and salsa are amazing.

this thread is but one of many threads over the years that has made me really appreciate the GRM forum participants.

I made some Salsa a couple weeks ago from some of tomatoes, a jalepeno, a bell pepper, some cilantro and garlic. Added a little olive oil and vinegar and salt that came from the store. It was great. Also made bruschetta a few times using more tomatoes, onions and basil.

I've had lots of salads this year and am looking forward to planting some more spinach. My carrots, brocolli, and beans were not successes, but I can always try again next year. Cucumbers seem to grow like weeds, my strawberries are so-so. My cantelopes have been miniature so far, but taste good. I planted some asparagus, but that will not be ready to harvest until next year.

Thought it's a good fall time to revive this thread. Been doing more work outside getting things ready for next year- vines (which produced for the local animals....), preping a new garden, and just cleaning things up.

Tomatos all got blight. So production went down a TON. Not wanting to go get new chemicals, I tried a Jerry Baker spray that had tobbaco tea, mouth wash, and soap just to see what would happen. So the tomatos decided to start growing again! Too little, too late, though- lots of green tomatos were ready right at first frost- some even frozen. Made some pickled green tomatos that should be ready soon. One thing for sure- tomatos were WAY too close together. And I have some good ideas to prevent anything next year, too.

Started a new raised bed this fall, too. Adds about 64 sqft more of gardening. Not bad. Plan on trying some small space gardening for corn, peas, and some various squash. And putting some short plants in front of the blueberries I planted last fall.

No going back, that's for sure- the veggies I got were so good. Just need to plan a little better.