|
Post by Paws on Dec 17, 2005 11:12:44 GMT 12.75
;D I like veggies! Let's Git R Dun!! ;D
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Dec 17, 2005 14:58:55 GMT 12.75
I don't like most veggies, but I don't mind growing them. It's a good feling to have a meat on the table surrounded by vegetales you grew yourself.
My favorites to grow down here are collard, mustard, and turnip greens. We do pretty well with cucumbers, tomatos, and squash too.
After prepping the bed, we'll take a little miracle grow to it and go to planting. With plenty of sun and water, this ground around here does just fine.
I have a mess of greens and brussell sprouts coming on right now.
Also have some pepper plants along the front of the house. They make some ornamental shrubs and are always a conversation piece when folks see all the peppers.
|
|
|
Post by bloodlust on Dec 17, 2005 16:24:11 GMT 12.75
Awesome! Thanks, Phil!!!
Next year, I'm gonna get some doggone beets to grow. I tried a short row this past season, but didn't have them in enough sun. I also want a bunch of Roma tomatoes. I canned some, and found them to be the greatest chili ingredient I've ever come across. Otherwise, I don't know what all I'll grow. I'll really start figuring things out once February rolls around.
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Dec 18, 2005 11:54:06 GMT 12.75
Welcome man! You want to get those tomato seeds in flats by February in a nice warm place in the house. Thin and transplant into individual pots at about three inches and then cover them with plastic 2/3 liter pop bottles until the last frost is over and get them nice and hardy and ready to transplant. You want about a foot high plants to transplant in ditches planting all the stem but the last three or so inches. Remove all but the top leaves that are exposed. The pop bottles can be used to "hot house"and protect them from the bunnies until you are ready to set up cages. after they are hardened off keep the moisture consistent and feed with miracle grow once a week too. Do the same with your pepper plants. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Brikatw on Dec 18, 2005 14:21:13 GMT 12.75
In southern climates, it's almost time to start your tomatos. Around here we have alot of clay. If this is the case in your neck of the woods, put on some gypsum, peat and steer manure. This will break up the clay allowing for good strong roots and the peat moss will help hold the moisture. The sun down here can be too hot for tomatos. Try planting in a semi sunny area. Where I plant mine they get the morning sun until 10 or so and then are shaded until later in the afternoon around 4. this keeps them fruit from sunburning. Lettuce is a handy crop to plant around the edges. The bunnies will get it before the other plants and fill up before they can do too much else. It also grows very fast and will keep up with them in most cases. Marigolds between your plants will keep the insects down. Cut a 4 inch piece of pvc pipe to put around the bases of tomatos and peppers, it keeps the cut worms down, just be sure to bury it in the dirt at least 1 inch. It'll also hold water at the roots allowing it to soak in better. OK that's enough tips. Now dig...
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Dec 18, 2005 16:19:52 GMT 12.75
Brian I seen on some tobacco plots where they spread a white canopy over the plants around four foot high. Reckon something like that would shade your tomatoes? PVC looks like a pretty good idea. We just pick them off by hand and use them for fish bait. We also set out a pie tin half full of beer to collect the slugs. Rubber snakes and Hootie owls go around the garden too.
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Dec 18, 2005 16:47:47 GMT 12.75
I use rubber snakes around my blueberry bushes, Paws. I have to keep moving them around or the birds get used to seeing them and start ignoring them.
I remember my grandma always planted marigolds amongst her rows. I was too young to be smart enough to ask her why. I thought it was ornamental. thanks Brian. I'll put some out. Normally, I dust lightly with seven dust to keep the bugs down, but if the marigolds help, I'll try them. And does it have to be marigolds? I used to grow sunflowers pretty good. Think they'd work as well?
One thing I also do is use a rain barrel. I don't have any big areas planted and I water with an old brass waterer that's about a thousand years old, or something like that. (just looks like it)
The water here has a lot of lime and iron in it. It's not too much trouble to water it by hand, just keep climbing stick in the barrel. Ya'll know what hapens when a squirrel or 'possum falls in.
|
|
|
Post by bloodlust on Dec 18, 2005 18:14:16 GMT 12.75
Holy moly! We're off to a runnin' start, and it ain't even Christmas yet! I can't believe you southerners can already start plants. I thought duration of daylight played a bigger role in how plants grow. Winter solstice is less than a week away. Do you at least wait for that?
|
|
|
Post by RogueWarrior1957 on Dec 18, 2005 18:56:02 GMT 12.75
You guys familiar with a potato barrel? If not I'll try to draw a sketch on the computer and explain it. They work very well, utilize water well, use very little space, and make very little mess at harvest time. Here goes with a cut-away: Use any 55 gallon barrel, preferably plastic that didn't contain anything toxic previously. Stay away from chemicals that could be potentially hazardous. 55 Gal barrels are available at some feed stores, co-ops, or Sam's Club, though cheaper or free is better. Syrup is often bulk shipped in barrels and is non toxic as are many food or water industry chemicals. Cut the top out of the barrel, put a piece of perforated PVC pipe in the middle extending to the bottom and fill the barrel with the soil/sand/compost mixture. Make about 3 or 4 half inch holes in the bottom of the barrel for drainage to prevent root rot from soggy soil. Cut 3-4 inch holes in the side of the barrel and plant potato slips in the soil through the holes. The potato vines will grow up the side of the barrel for sunlight while "doing their thing" inside the barrel. Water the plants through the perforated PVC pipe in the middle of the barrel. Liquid fertilizer may be added through the perf-pipe as well whenever needed. At harvest time, cut back on watering for a few days to let the soil dry out a little. Break off the potato vines flush with the barrel sides. Then dump the barrel upside down on a tarp and pick up the potatoes. Return the dirt to the barrel. You can get up to 50 pounds of potatoes per barrel this way, though I think mine produced more like 25-30 pounds each. It takes up less space than conventional and works well in the desert here.
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Dec 19, 2005 3:03:23 GMT 12.75
I've used Marigolds in my gardens for years and they work great at keeping the bugs away but they also take space a weed would take but now can't and they look good doing it. I plant Sunflowers outside of the veggie garden. They seem to attract more bugs then repel them but the birds that come around later to feed on the seeds more then make up for it. In Indiana the Wild Canaries loved the Sunflowers.
|
|
|
Post by Brikatw on Dec 19, 2005 3:35:04 GMT 12.75
n2, I've only ever used marigolds. instead of sevin dust I use a mixture of dishsoap and water to keep the bugs off the plants too. Always have some around. When finished doing the dishes, just put the dishwater in your liquid sprayer and spray the plants liberally. The soap, blocks the air ways on bugs and kills them and it is not toxic in anyway especially if you use that Ivory liquid soap. Dawn works good too. It also makes the leaves taste bad so the bugs or rodents don't like to eat them. Best of all it rinses right off the fruit or vegtable with plain water. I usually put my plants out here with the first full moon after spring equinox or as close as possible to it. I always plant on the full moon. Just the way I was raised. Depending on your area it will vary from that though. The only thing I ever counted on when moving around the world was to plant or transplant on the full moon.
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Dec 19, 2005 3:59:01 GMT 12.75
Cut a 4 inch piece of pvc pipe to put around the bases of tomatos and peppers, it keeps the cut worms down, just be sure to bury it in the dirt at least 1 inch. It'll also hold water at the roots allowing it to soak in better. OK that's enough tips. Now dig... 3 Litre pop bottles are cheaper than PVC Brian, or do you call it "soda" down there? ;D The mnarigolds do a great job; but they stink so keep them away from the house. I usually put pepper and tomato plants in the ornamental gardens too cause the leaves are so pretty. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Brikatw on Dec 19, 2005 7:02:29 GMT 12.75
Thanks Phil, I had forgotten to add that. I had a bunch of 4" PVC left over from jobs I had so Iused that. I don't drink soda so I didn't think of the pop bottle thing. If you plant your tomatos and jalapenos close enough they sometimes cross giving you a kicked up tomato. Not always though. Nice when they do. Not hot, just warm
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Dec 19, 2005 8:22:37 GMT 12.75
Down here in the far south you can plant almost anytime, but your amount of harvest can be determined by when you plant.
My Grandad and my Dad believe strongly in planting by the signs of the zodiac. In fact Grandaddy did almost everything by the zodiac sign. He'd carry his almanac with him often and you'd see him checking it for reference.
Cutting and bailing his hay, planting, fertilizing, and harvesting vegetables. Tending his fruit trees and grape arbors. Grandaddy always had big gardens and he always had good looking and plentiful results.
Being so well educated (I thought), I never worried about none of that supersticious stuff, but no matter what I did, I never planted anything that produced like his until I started watching and planting by the moon and the signs of the zodiac.
He even scheduled hunting and fishing trips according to the almanacs predictions.
|
|
|
Post by brittonfaith on Dec 23, 2005 19:54:09 GMT 12.75
Just went through my seed basket yesterday. Getting the order filled out next week. My garden is a quarter-acre of what used to be alfalfa field. All my rows are 55 feet long. I'll start planting here in eastern Ohio around March 17 (peas, lettuce, spinach, cabbage & potatoes). I use milk jugs with the bottoms cut off to protect any transplants I set out from the still frosty weather. By May 10, most first plantings are in the ground. And YES, I do plant real early for this area! 2006 garden is planned to consist of 6 double rows of snow peas, 25 hills of muskmelon, 15 rows of greens (spinach, lettuce, kale, collards, turnips), 12 rows of beets, 14 rows been beans, 40 plants of each brussel sprouts and red cabbage, 15 okra plants, a large section of carrots, and 20 hills of pickles. Could be some watermelon too. Might set out 200# of seed potatoes. All depends how my space serves me. I rotate crops annually and seasonally. And may have three or four plantings of most crops harvested by mid- Sept. My fertilizer is a 6-inch layer of cow manure which is spread each year in late February and early November. All planting, cultivating, weeding, and harvesting is done manually by me & our 3 kids. The only time machinery enters the patch is to turn over the soil and spread manure. We also have a section reserved for the giant pumpkins we grow for our local pumpkin weigh-in/festival. I've decided that this coming year, I'm NOT planting zucchini, peppers, winter squash or tomatoes. Why plant when all of the neighbors are trying to find folks to take theirs? On top off all this, I've got a bed of bohemian horseradish, some old fashioned "pie plant" (rhubarb), and a couple of montmorency cherry trees. The farm we live on also has an orchard of apple, peach and pear trees that we partake of regularly. If you include the wild stuff, then we have elderberries, black raspberries, asparagus, ramps, lambs-quarter & dandelion galore, and over a mile of blackberry thicket. What I can't can, freeze or put in long term storage, I take to the local farmer's market. It helps pay for my seed and all the diet cola & iced tea I guzzled down while working in the sun. Hmmm... Hot sun + pop loaded with caffeine & salt + not being a young pullet anymore + having the body of an over-plumped roasting bird + phlebitis + a lot of bad habits (dietary & other)...Is there any question as to why my legs swell and quit on me during the summer. ;)When I get my scanner hooked up, I'll let you see a picture of my daughter's first 4-H garden in 2000. We lived near Columbus that year. The entire garden was grown in a kiddie's wading pool on our porch plus one trellis off the porch. She grew cucumbers, brocolli, beets, lettuce, potatoes, acorn squash, flat dutch cabbage, muskmelon, carrots and peas. She won an award for the most creative use of urban garden space in central Ohio that year. ;D ;D
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Dec 24, 2005 8:09:14 GMT 12.75
You just inspired me buck-n-bean's! My neighbors are throwing away a plastick wading pool they had for their kids last summer. I'm gonna ask them if I can have it and set out a mess of strawberries in it. We just had our first freeze of the year and the oranges and tangerines are really sweetening up. There's a lot of fruit on the trees, but it's been kinda sour. Funny how the temperature makes such a diference in the taste of it.
|
|
|
Post by brittonfaith on Dec 24, 2005 8:22:39 GMT 12.75
You're going to be surprised at how much dirt a little pool will hold!!
We used a blend of top soil, peat moss, sand, and manure for our growing medium. We also went to the bait shop and got a carton of night crawlers. I think they really did a good job at keeping the dirt worked up.
Remember to jab some drainage holes in the pool and keep it watered. If I recall, she used about 2 gallons every other day or so. You'll probably need more because of the heat.
My most memorable garden experience?.........Our FFA chapter in Lake Co. FL set out a truck patch of cabbage in 1984. The cabbage was just starting to form heads in January when we got a freeze! Nothing like 70 farm boys & girls eating frozen cabbages during class. The affects left the school stinking of flatulence for weeks! I'm glad I'm back up here in the froze north and don't have to help keep smudge pots and sprinklers going all night.
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Dec 24, 2005 8:29:36 GMT 12.75
The enviro-nazis at the EPA outlawed smudge pots a while back. I never had one because I've only got a handfull of trees. Most times, we'd build a bonfire and light it about midnight and let it burn.
We'd have to stay p all night to keep an eye on it, but we never lost any trees. This year, I used a pair of kerosene space heaters I got cheap at a yardsale.
|
|
|
Post by brittonfaith on Dec 24, 2005 19:45:57 GMT 12.75
I promised a picture of our daughter's first 4-H garden in 2000. Well I hope this works..... At the time this was taken, you can see (l-r) collards, lettuce, beets, cabbage, cucumbers and brussel sprouts. Spinach was in the empty section. Carrots were just planted there and had not come up yet. She also had a trellis on the end of the porch with green beans and peas. As you might figure, it wasn't a huge crop. But it gave a kid a chance to learn a little about gardening and good eatin'.
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Dec 24, 2005 20:18:46 GMT 12.75
Now we are talkin'! That needs to be planted right outside the kitchen!! ;D
|
|