I thought a nice simple gardening thread would be fun. Here's what I started with, bell peppers along the front, tomatoes along the back, eggplants at the far end with a big cilantro volunteer in the middle.
I'll update you as things get growing!
Let's see what you've got growing this spring!
It's still so cold I'm not even starting seeds until this weekend.
Looking like 6 roma tomatoes for sauce, 4 purple tomatillo, about a dozen varieties of peppers in various colors and levels of heat from sweet mini bell to habanaros.
4 more baby bush watermelon, 6 new England sugar pie pumpkins, I'm going to try a run of carrots and beets as well.
I also got some beautiful sunset sun flowers from a friend I'm going to try out.
More peppers not pictured because they're somewhere else, but let's call this a preview
In the construction phase
Mine's a mess right now, as I change from watered containers to a whole watered raised bed system. In theory, I can plant some outside stuff next month, but the heavier stuff can't go in until May sometime anyway. (it was some years ago that I showed this "rain gutter grow system" as I have some terrible invasive roots nearby).
But I have a lot of tomatoes and squash in the basement getting ready.
We got a vicious cold snap the last two nights. This morning here was 19 degrees F. I have onions in, but nothing else yet.
It's warming up nicely today. Long range forecast looks promising....
Last night it was 32, but we are right around the last frost. I've started seedlings, hoping to plant them this weekend.
This is the current status:
Got the garden cleaned and turned but 19deg weather means typically no planting till Mother's Day. The plan is 8 tomato plants and a variety of peppers in the main garden. In the landscaping I'll do a few strawberry plants, a few cilantro, and a few basil.
In reply to ProDarwin :
What is the purpose of the plastic bottles?
In reply to mtn :
My guess is to fill space. Those hold a LOT of dirt otherwise, kinda overkill amounts unless you're going for an annual organic setup.
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seeds all started. My 72 base plants are in the tray, the 90 cups are supposedly for my friend Val, but I suspect I'll wind up with half of them anyway.
My back hurts.
I probably should lower the lights a bit, but the LEDS are kinda intense, and that fluorescent is picky. There's other ways to combat light stretch. I don't plan to mainline any of these, but I might have to try some LST on a few peppers just to see what happens.
mtn said:In reply to ProDarwin :
What is the purpose of the plastic bottles?
Water reservoir.
Instead of that fancy insert to create the water reservoir at the bottom, just poke some holes in plastic bottles. There's also some corrugated drain pipe in the bottom.
The PVC pipe sticking up is to fill. You can see the drain tube sticking out the side right below my dog's head (hard to see because it blends in).
Better view?
Its the same thing I did with the buckets last year:
I've been unsuccessful maintaining a garden or even a few pots of herbs in my yard due to various and sundry pests, so right now my garden setup is a solitary olive tree, the book "Edible Wild Plants" by Thomas Elias and a self-made powerpoint of edible plants that grow naturally in my yard and how to identify them. I call this the "yard salad" plan.
I also planted some giant sunflower seeds in a few of the flowerbeds on impulse recently, but I'm about 70% sure the squirrels have already eaten them.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Well that's an interesting idea. I like it.
RevRico said:In reply to ProDarwin :
Well that's an interesting idea. I like it.
I mean it was basically your idea :)
RevRico said:
Sub irrigated planters are going to be what you want if you only have limited time to work on things.
17 gallon totes from Lowes depot for reservoir on the bottom, 4 inch corrugated French drain pipe, cap on the bottom full of holes, filled with soilless mix, sunshine or promix
In reply to ProDarwin :
Yea, but I just cut holes in the lids and ran the wicks down. 2 5 gallon pots fit on top of a 27 gallon tote pretty will. When we used them outside we just buried the tote or set it on the ground.
using the water bottles as a reservoir would be a good adaption for existing containers that aren't water tight.
It's almost done. A few more wheel barrows worth from Mt Woodchip and it'll be ready to move all the raised beds back in.
I'm jealous of you Floridians and your growing season. The weather in ohio has been legit garbage this year. I am still wearing coveralls to do stuff outside and its April. I've been considering getting my spinach and lettuce planted because it likes the cold, but it's been so wet and gray that I'm afraid it won't germinate and just rot the seeds.
Be jealous of our growing season, don't be jealous that I sweat like a pig weeding this bed and it's only April. I've got a fair number of green tomatoes coming. I had to yank out my cilantro since it bolted. The lavendar and marigolds are bringing in plenty of pollinators, which is great since the one of the eggplants and all the peppers are covered in blooms.
Should I give up on that second eggplant and yank it out before it attracts disease? It's in the cage at the back right of the plot.
What do you call working in the yard? Some call it gardening, I call it yard work. Good on you for your plots and the bounty you bring. And yes, a home grown tomato is so much better that anything you can buy.
Here's my garden. $6 and change gets me a salad that is pretty amazing.
Added 7 more wheel barrows worth to the garden today. Almost done with coverage and we've almost used 3/4 of Mt Wood Chip
I finished up my SIPs yesterday. Dang, the initial fill took a long time. I'd say about 10 mins for the first, and 6 or 7 for the second after I figured out it was so much faster just to take the spay nozzle off the hose. And that one had already been through a few heavy rains so accumulated some real water.
You can't really see in this image, but I transplanted some small blackbery and raspberry plants about 4 ft offset from each of the main white vertical posts. Not expecting anything from them this year, but if they grow/expand its less I have to mow, and one more thing keeping my dog from going crazy at the other dogs on the other side of the fence.
I have room to plant some more things in the big planters, any suggestions? I'm thinking I could mix in some herbs next to the tomatoes on the right. Not sure what to do with the abundance of space on the left. How easy is canteloupe?
Vals tomatoes have broken dirt, the peppers should be in the next few days.
If it ever stops raining long enough to not be mud, I still need to till and build my tall plant frame.
I did find a perfect top dressing for my watermelon and pumpkin buckets, so I'm excited for that. May plant those seeds May 1 and hope, may just wait until the 20th.
Love seeing this! I just put some seeds in the greenhouse. I'll post some pics when I get more going.
Many blessings to you all as you garden!
Apparently store bought popcorn will germinate just fine, contrary to what the internet says. Now let's see how it grows
the survivors are in. Had adventure E36 M3 germination this year for some reason. Did everything the same as always but lost almost half.
Black bags are carrots, buckets are watermelon, tomatoes, tomatillos, and a handful of types of peppers made it into dirt today.
up to date ish pic of the planters
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