Gardening
Related: About this forumUpdating Greenhouse Project and garden.
Greenhouse project is going great, learning a great deal on growing in a house. We have grow tents inside, but this is different. Its a joy to open the house up first light and bask in the humid warmth. The seeing our future dinners growing is delightful.
A small dive into what weve been doing. I didnt include the root crops coming in carrots, beets, onions. The underground camera kinda sucks.
Marys white iris. First time blooming.
Overview of the greenhouse.
Cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes.
Tomatoes different slicing types New York, Sub-Artic, Black Seaman.
Closeup
Peppers, Red, Yellow, Cubanelle, Pablano.
Outside, we have potatoes, green beans, raspberries.
Snow peas coming along. Some of the Horseradish root should be ready later for harvest. Its in the background. Onions getting bigger.
Roma tomatoes, garlic at the top of the row, seed onions along the fence line.
The Elderberries are coming in great should have an awesome harvest.
Overall look at the Elderberry grove. It keeps getting bigger every year. For scale, Mary is in blue behind the bushes changing the critters water, its for the birds and other critters that wander through.
Strawberry beds are filling in nicely. Trying a new way to hold down the bird netting, pool noodles sliced down one side then fitted over the side of the bed with the netting in place under it.
The traditional mounds for zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash.
The straw bale garden experiment. Everything is looking great. I purposefully planted densely to see how it could be handled. Next is seeing if they cascade like Im expecting. Theres acorn, butternut, zucchini squashes and some lettuce in one bale.
marble falls
(62,394 posts)... it I bet, trying to figure out if I'm more impressed or envious. Kudos on your hard work and inspired effort.
MiHale
(10,835 posts)Theres the two of us but the neighbors always have gift baskets showing up at their door and the drive-by free for the taking basket.
badhair77
(4,645 posts)Ive had some health issues lately and cant work on a garden this year, and I miss it. Its the first time in 46 years we wont have our own tomatoes. Your work has inspired me to get back on my feet for next year. Thanks for sharing.
MiHale
(10,835 posts)Know the feeling, hip replacement couple years ago waylaid the garden for a year. The we came back with a vengeance.
MayReasonRule
(1,884 posts)Right up there with Black Krim, Big Rainbow, and Japanese Trifele!
Earthboxes have been a dang near a foolproof method for growing tomatoes and peppers whenever we've employed them.
My variety number is down this year. In past years we've had as many as 50 varieties of peppers and 40 varieties of tomatoes with a total high plant count between them of around 120.
We're currently at around 35 plants between tomatoes and peppers this year.
They're just now starting to come in as we didn't get our usual early indoor start in December this year.
We love gardening!!!!!!!!!!
Our first year for borage, currants, dill, papalo, and horehound.
We've got more varieties of basil and thyme this year as well.
We adore gardening, it's the stuff of life!
Here's to your personal success in your endeavors.
2naSalit
(93,098 posts)Oh to have the space for such a fabulous garden!
One thing I learned about planting squash, they can and will sometimes cross pollinate giving you some mutated things like butternut acorn squash. There was a strange zucchini and spaghetti squash the were not clearly edible.
MiHale
(10,835 posts)Only if edible but a butternut/acorn would be interesting. For years we had a postage stamp for a yard but still was able to get out a good harvest for immediate use. Nothing for storage for the winter months. Then Mary retired and we came back up north.
2naSalit
(93,098 posts)Not in permanent housing currently, I truly hope I can have a good sized garden. I'm making do with clay pots and a grape crate on my porch where I have an 18" pot with sugar snap peas right outside the door and two steps further I have a grape crate with my little lettuce garden with 8 rows of greens including spinach. The rest is a lot of morning glory and sweet peas in pots that will twine up the inside of the porch, some nasturtiums for cover along the building. Nasturtiums are edible but the deer won't eat them.
But I have ten tomato plants a double row - 8' - of red potatoes and a couple dozen onions in the ground at a friend's house. He let me use a 20' strip along the edge of the back yard.
We cook a meal on Sundays together just to make sure we have one nice meal a week, though we both cook and feed ourselves well enough individually, so this will be the summer garden that is available for both of us, he has to do the watering I deal with the weeds.
And it will have to do for this summer.
MiHale
(10,835 posts)then I, in my dreams, ever could
congratulations! My living on a small place is what I think triggered this experiment with the straw bales. Check it out.
https://youtube.com/@Strawbalegardens
2naSalit
(93,098 posts)Last edited Wed Jun 14, 2023, 07:16 PM - Edit history (1)
I love the idea and might have done that but any place where I could put those would be exposed to the deer. They eat all kinds of things you might not think they would. And snakes would take up in them. I'm right on the edge of civilization and the wildlife tend to have our neighborhood penciled in as a summer treat spot.
I used an old water tough that leaked for a couple years. Had to build up the bottom level with scrap wood then a foot of soil and 8" to the top. You can get a lot of plants in one of those things!
Here there are natural factors that dictate a lot about how and where the garden can go. It's getting brutally hot in summer and can roast everything in a full sun location. Shading is important as is protection from wind, which is why the tomatoes are not here on the hill. One wind event can trash everything in a short time so knowing where the wind blows is important too. And you have to add soil, in many places there's only dirt.
I might try the bales next year, though. Thank for the video!
MiHale
(10,835 posts)to a national forest. Snakes are a problem but sonic ground whatever they call em work. Deer we have lots. Planted Comfrey
ate it the first season, first harvest never came back
tummy problems. Lessons are passed on. Dont bother the garden because the comfrey it surrounds it. May not work for every deer but
works here.
https://www.amazon.com/Repellent-Outdoor-Ultrasonic-Groundhog-Repeller/dp/B0BK4LZ7FZ/ref=sr_1_10?crid=UK0HXV3DY8JB&keywords=ultrasonic+pest+repeller+outdoor+solar&qid=1686785981&s=lawn-garden&sprefix=ultrasonic+pest+repeller+%2Clawngarden%2C149&sr=1-10
This is an example of sonic ground whatever . They really work!
For sun protection
all sorts
this is just fabric only
not the tunnel.
https://www.gardeners.com/buy/all-purpose-garden-fabric-row-covers/8609574.html?VariationId=P_5637148784&channable=41187569640033322d363437cb&g_adtype=none&g_campaignid=16881552421&g_adgroupid=&g_network=x&g_keywordid=&g_campaign=%5BPLA%5D+%5BPMax%5D+Season+Extending+%7BNormal+Margin%7D&g_keyword=&g_adid=&g_acctid=543-582-4261&SC=GGLPLA&gclid=CjwKCAjwyqWkBhBMEiwAp2yUFhEh766yH0FPMk9bQ-neCvKqZEwTqt1APe5UWF18qJAimM3R0qxZSBoCqqQQAvD_BwE
Have fun!
Greg.