[stoney]

I've been super stoked on the results of my garden and want to see how others are setup and what you're growing.

I am limited by my patio space, so I have 12 10-gallon fabric pots on the edge of my deck. I will probably add 2-3 more pots this week though.

In the little redwood pot are my habanero and jalapeno plants, which aren't doing so well. Green onions to the right - I picked these up at Safeway and they started rooting in the fridge, so I planted them. The three basil plants have their own pot because we use it a lot for pesto, so I wanted enough to keep a good cycle going. In the large redwood pot the tarragon is flowering and hiding the sage behind. To the left is my giant cilantro/coriander plant that is overrunning the mint.

From the cilantro back I have three pots of red leaf lettuce, an empty pot which I just planted broccoli into, and a mixed pot of carrot and lettuce sprouts.

The remaining two pots are my carrots - of which I have a ton going - and my snow peas. There are five snow pea plants in that mess of leaves.

I am heading to the store to get two pots and more soil today. I have a potato in my kitchen that I am waiting to eye so that I can plant it. I also have some spinach seeds that I want to plant.

I'm thinking about getting onions going in a third pot, because we use a lot of them too.

 

[DamienC]

You could try garlic as well. Last autumn I broke up a few bulbs of garlic from the kitchen and planted the cloves in three rows in our garden. When we harvested them this summer each clove had become a full bulb. We used the scapes (green shoots) in salads and stir fries.

 

[stoney]

That's a good call! I might get some dill going, but I just dried the leftover fresh that I got at the store and will try to get through that first.

 

[UNHrider]

I just started my garden this summer. So far I've had success with snow peas and green beans. Have gotten a few banana peppers, and one each of striped zucchini, reg zucchini, and a summer squash. My basil looks terrible, but my chives, parsley, thyme, and rosemary are all doing well.

looking forward to next year, after i clear out some space in the backyard for a much bigger garden.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Here is some of what I have going on.

Cayenne peppers...tons of these.

California Wonder GP.

Butternut squash.

Squash, melon, basil, okra and a bunch of other stuff.

Gnome in the pole snaps.

There are probably 20 of these in various spots around the yard, cantaloupe the same way.

 

[UNHrider]

Since I live in NH, I'm looking at starting some seedlings and setting up grow lights to get my garden going early this year. Anybody have experience doing this? I've got a couple books, squarefoot gardening, and another one from an old PBS show dealing with the victory garden that breaks gardening down by month But im looking for some pointers from people who have done it before.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Da backyard terrace garden:

 

[Pesqueeb]

Da backyard terrace garden:

Are you starting stuff already?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Are you starting stuff already?

Uhh... no. THat pic is from like 3 years ago.

 

[UNHrider]

I've got some stuff started, broccoli, red cabbage, parsley, cauliflower, and eggplant. Will get some other stuff going in about another week.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Uhh... no. THat pic is from like 3 years ago.

I was gonna say, were just talking about starting seeds, never mind putting stuff in the ground.

 

[SkaredShtles]

I was gonna say, were just talking about starting seeds, never mind putting stuff in the ground.

We have a really nice big sunroom on the S side of the house which will probably get some starts in it this weekend...

 

[stoney]

Bringing it back from the dead. Now that I have a house, I have some space to get a real garden going. the previous owners left a large playground in the backyard, which we had no use for. We thought about selling it, but I realized hat I could use the wood to build raised garden boxes. My Dad and I spent almost a whole day breaking down the playground and finding the wood we could use and fit.

I finally have good weather and time to get it all setup now. This morning I built out one of the boxes and will be getting it filled with dirt shortly. I am hoping to get my April/May plants seeded today. A few pictures of the process.

The lower section where all of the wood is stacked will be pulled out and have sod laid down.

The prior owners did have a small raised garden already, so Wifey will be putting in her flower garden there. Some spinach and carrots have already started growing in that box, so I will move then over this afternoon.

 

[stoney]

I made a big dent on Saturday and got one of the raised beds installed. I was able to pull most of the mulch/sand mix from the rest of the area. The prior owner had laid down root-guard cloth, which is great for the raised beds, but horrible for where I will be putting the turn in.

I got the garden area scrubbed down to the root-guard, but getting the rest of it out is a ibtch. Once I get that down to dirt, I need to then dig down another 1-2" so that I can get soil down to start the grass/turf.

I'm hoping to get the remainder of the root guard, the leveling for the grass, and the other raised beds done by the weekend. I also need to get the first seeds down too.

 

[stoney]

And... it's gone. Massive hail storm leveled the garden last night. The peppers lost 50% of their leaves and the buds are all gone. The tomato is pretty hammered, but has a lot of leaves still. The lettuce, carrots, spinach, basil, etc are all gone. They are just pulp.
I'm going to get some fertilizer tonight after work, but I don't think it will help. I think I might get a bail of hay to keep in the backyard for the next storm coming through. Hopefully I will have time to get it down to protect the crops.

 

[SkaredShtles]

And... it's gone. Massive hail storm leveled the garden last night. The peppers lost 50% of their leaves and the buds are all gone. The tomato is pretty hammered, but has a lot of leaves still. The lettuce, carrots, spinach, basil, etc are all gone. They are just pulp.
I'm going to get some fertilizer tonight after work, but I don't think it will help. I think I might get a bail of hay to keep in the backyard for the next storm coming through. Hopefully I will have time to get it down to protect the crops.

You might be surprised - a lot of that stuff will likely bounce back. Just stay the course... hail wasn't as bad here - green beans got their leaves a bit poked full of holes but most of the rest of the stuff isn't too badly damaged.

 

[Pesqueeb]

You might be surprised - a lot of that stuff will likely bounce back. Just stay the course... hail wasn't as bad here - green beans got their leaves a bit poked full of holes but most of the rest of the stuff isn't too badly damaged.

I haven't had a chance to check in the light, but we've been hit harder than we were last night, and stuff that I thought was gone bounced back pretty well. Plus its still early in the year. Get a storm like last nights in late august/september, that might be a different story.

 

[dante]

Well, for the stuff that is destroyed, you do still have two options: One is to plant more seed, which isn't *that* late if your area gets a lot of sun. My grandfather (New England farmer) didn't used to plant till Memorial Day, and he said that the warm ground helped the seeds germinate and grow faster. His theory was that even if you'd planted 3-4 weeks earlier, by the end of June they'd all be the same height anyway.

Your other option is to find a local greenhouse and see if they still have any seedlings available. We bought these ~3 weeks ago, and the total came to about $20.

Here they are in the *one* place on the entire piece of property that gets sun from 8:30am to 4:30pm (yes, I planted them too close to each other, or at least I did with the 4 tomato plants. The peppers look perfectly happy):

Yes, it's right down next to the road, but that's what you get when you have 130 year old oak trees surrounding your property.

Edit: But yes, if you can find someplace that still has seedlings, I bet that they'd practically give them to you at this point. We're probably not even going to bother trying to start them from seeds next year, since other people seem to be far better/more proficient at it than we are.

Edit2: Also, losing the buds on the pepper plants might not have been that bad. In the past couple weeks I've pinched the buds in an effort to get the plant to grow bigger and stronger before bearing fruit. There's a *lot* of new growth coming out, and from here on out I'll leave the buds as-is. Nature is pretty resilient, even if they don't normally get hail storms where pepper plants natively grow.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Whoa - that's gonna be one BUSY box in about a month.

 

[dante]

Already is, I'll have to see if I can take an updated picture. Tomato plants are trying to take over, but they're only along the back side of it. It's literally the *only* place on our entire property that gets sun all day. At about 4pm when you look at our yard, the entire thing is covered in shade except for that one lonely corner. We have a sprawling garden closer to the house that does well for green leafy things (swiss chard, beans, peas, kale, bok choi, etc), but *sucks* for tomatoes and peppers.

Each plant in there has ~1 square foot (the rows are offset), but I'm guessing that the tomatoes were probably a bad idea. Might build more boxes down there, or expand this one if things go well (which it definitely have been so far). Biggest problem has been cold at night, since it regularly drops into the 50s and occasionally low 40s, which does *not* make pepper plants happy. Next year I'm thinking about using clear or black plastic "mulch" across the top, and using it to keep the ground temperature warmer than it is now. So far, though, I'm *loving* the raised bed aspect. Makes it so much easier to tend, fertilize and water than having everything spread out in a huge garden.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Train those tomatoes out away from the boxes...

 

[UNHrider]

Train those tomatoes out away from the boxes...

or if theyre on the north side and the vining type, train them up a trellis.

heres my garden from a couple weeks ago, have since put in all my pepper plants.

been fighting a pretty big battle with slugs this year.

 

[dante]

Done (benefits of working from home).

Not quite as crowded as it looks (bright sun + no contrast = sea of green), but next year I'll definitely give each of them a bit more room. The tomato leaves that were hanging over the side got munched by the bunnies, so I'm trying to train them to the sides and up. Overall you can see the massive difference in just 3 weeks.

On a slightly more humorous note, we tried doing peas from seeds, but the weather got cold (April was colder than March), we didn't transplant them in time, and they pretty much are dead (we transplanted them sometime in early May). However, there were a couple *wild* sugar snap pea plants just outside the garden that grew naturally from the pile of compost that we had near the side of the garden. By mid May they were ~5' tall (vines), and we've already harvested a few snacks from them (probably 20-25 pea pods over the last couple weeks).

No water. No special care. No trying to time the growing season. No covering through frost (it got down to ~25deg at one point when they were about 1-2 feet high). No special fertilizer. NOTHING but utter neglect. Our plan for next year is going to be plant the early/hardy seeds in the fall and let nature take it's course. Fertilize and turn over the soil, plant seed sometime around October, and just see what happens. If they die or don't come up, we wasted all of a couple dollar's worth of seeds. We're probably planning on doing that for: Peas, lettuce, spinach and maybe kale, all of which has survived the winter and and randomly sprouted in our garden the following year...

 

[SkaredShtles]

Jokey - might want to run home and cover what survived:

 

[UNHrider]

what the hell is a red flag warning?

 

[SkaredShtles]

what the hell is a red flag warning?

Conditions which make this possible: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/article/259211/6/USAs-largest-wildfire-continues-to-scorch-New-Mexico

 

[Pesqueeb]

or if theyre on the north side and the vining type, train them up a trellis.

We do that with our tomatoes every year, no matter what the variety, always seems to have worked great.

However, there were a couple *wild* sugar snap pea plants just outside the garden that grew naturally from the pile of compost that we had near the side of the garden.

We have several plants that we kind of let run like that. Some snap peas that made an early appearance, and some carrots. We also haven't actively planted herbs in years, in fact, there is a mint variety I've been actively trying to eradicate for at least two years now.

 

[SkaredShtles]

We do that with our tomatoes every year, no matter what the variety, always seems to have worked great.



We have several plants that we kind of let run like that. Some snap peas that made an early appearance, and some carrots. We also haven't actively planted herbs in years, in fact, there is a mint variety I've been actively trying to eradicate for at least two years now.

Here's how you eradicate that fvckin' mint:

 

[dante]

I wish we had a mint infestation.... Instead we get that goddamn creeping charlie.

 

[UNHrider]

Conditions which make this possible: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/article/259211/6/USAs-largest-wildfire-continues-to-scorch-New-Mexico

hmm, thought that would be included in the fire weather warning, but the more you know and all that

 

[SkaredShtles]

hmm, thought that would be included in the fire weather warning, but the more you know and all that

"a red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions
are either occurring now...or will shortly. A combination of
strong winds...low relative humidity...and warm temperatures will
create explosive fire growth potential."

 

[Pesqueeb]

As of yesterday afternoon everything looked okay except for my red leaf lettuce, which appeared to have been mashed into the ground. My roses lost most of their petals but the bushes themselves seemed in good shape. Last night we got even bigger hail, so I'll be out doing inspections again when I get home.

 

[TheTruth]

Ohhhh fvck yeah! These gardens look good!

I could never get my basil to grow that large. Maybe I needed to transfer it to a larger pot.

 

[SkaredShtles]

I got basil almost 2 feet tall in my sunroom... I love basil.

 

[stoney]

My carrots, spinach, lettuce, and basil are pretty thrashed. My melons and squash started popping up after the storm too. The more resilient plants are coming back pretty quickly. We now have enough HD buckets to cover the plants now though.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Nothing but good things here in NC, a mild winter, some intensive soil prep and a decent amount of rainfall have things growing so fast you can hear it. We've been harvesting radishes, carrots, new potatoes, turnip salad and assorted salad greens for the last couple weeks and are gearing up for canning/drying season.

If you do the Facebook thing, check us out here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tar-River-Permaculture-Project/294986380529007

Or check out the album...

http://imgur.com/a/aUyh1

All that and 10 miles of sweet singletrack in the back yard....

 

[kazlx]

Any tricks to basil? Every time I have tried planting it, it dies after a couple weeks. Maybe I'm just a hack.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Any tricks to basil? Every time I have tried planting it, it dies after a couple weeks. Maybe I'm just a hack.

No tricks I've ever found. Plant a bunch of seeds in dirt and it goes ape$hit. I think being in a sunroom probably helps...

 

[Bushwhacker]

A pic of yesterday's harvest, cukes, some wax beans, about 5 pounds of snaps, sugar snap peas and apple butter I made from our ancient June Apple tree. Tons of potatoes, carrots and radishes in the ground, tomatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cantaloupes should be ready next week. Basil?? We have four kinds and volunteers everywhere, along with thyme, sage, several mints, parsley, chives, oregano...sorry, I ramble.

 

[dante]

An update on our "box":

Everything is going crazy, with at least a half-dozen buds/flowers/peppers/tomatoes on each plant. Not every flower is turning into peppers, but some of them definitely are. Next year I'll probably plant the 4 tomatoes in their own separate box and spread out the peppers a bit, but they definitely don't seem too unhappy. I'm just relieved since our other/main garden suffers from soil compaction (our soil is heavy/clay), little sun after ~2pm and lack of nutrients (due to my wife's opposition to fertilizer, although after last year's disaster and this spring's stunted nature she's recanted and let me start pouring on the Miracle Gro)... *Definitely* going to raise 2 long beds next year where the current garden is, as it's so much easier to weed, water, fertilize, avoid walking on it, and so on.

And, uh, this was my latest project.

I really have no excuse. It'll never pay us back in water saved (we pay ~$2/1000 gallons of water) since it's only 120 gallons (4 x 30 gallon barrels), and we're not even on water restrictions even though we've had a dry spring/summer so far, 3.5" and 2.5" below normal rainfall, respectively. Whole project was somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-70 (barrels $5 apiece from the University, the rest was in fittings, blocks, sand, etc), and it should be able to have the barrels swapped out for 55g ones when they're available in the future. Just seems a shame to keep dumping city water on our lawn/garden, and then watch the rainwater filter down the street into our lakes......

Dammit, when did I become a goddamn hippy??!?