Gardening

Some yard pics of this year, sort of late/end of season

Part 2

Electric fence is definitely the way to go with deer. It's not nearly as difficult as you think, nor is it as expensive. Go on ebay and get the components. It's easy to do, and it's a permanent solution. Believe it or not, if you run a wire near the ground, it'll keep the rabbits and such out as well.

We're behind here. I am just able to start working up the garden here now. I often have early potatoes in by now. I hope we have an extended fall.

What are you folks planting this year? We'll do
Potato
tomato (many kinds)
pumpkins
zucchini
green beans
sprouts
couple kinds of lettuce
corn
turnips
carrots
yellow squash
snap peas
cabbage
kale


And our orchard should provide four kinds of apples, pears, and peaches this year (don't think the plums will produce yet this year). We also added three varieties of raspberry last year, not sure what to expect from them, yet. And strawberries. Lots of strawberries.

Anyone know where I can get a hamburger tree?

I've got a decent size bed at my new place and trying to decide whether do flowers or veggies. I'm leaning towards edible stuff to do with the kids. They love gardening with me, but we haven't had room for much before, so we're all pretty excited at the idea of being able to eat something we grow together.

We have carrots we never pulled up before winter that look big and thick after the winter.is that normal? I guess some vegetables survive winter just fine.

Also we were really busy at the end of last year and totally forgot our winter garden clean up/prep so now it looks like a mess. Still hoping to get in there and clean up some of those dead plants and make some repairs before the growing season really starts. Looks like some onions may have survived winter also.

It is a great way to get kids to eat, for sure. My youngest eats anything that comes out of the garden because he thinks it is cool. He also loves all the herbs we grow together, as do all the other kids. They're all identifying herbs by look and smell. I love it.

Just saw this on another gardening blog, pretty cool idea for people that don't have a lot of space. Could do lots with it.

That's a pretty cool idea even if you do have space.wonder what plants work best in it.

Here is a picture of the garden boxes I built a couple of summers ago for veggies.



I need to get working on mine. General rule of thumb in this area is to not plant till May, but I think we are done with frost. This will be my 2nd year trying to grow my own veggies, so I am still learning. Had an amazing tomato crop with more than I knew what to do with. I still can't get over how much better a home-grown tomato is vs a store bought. Also had a great crop of green beans and will be doing that again. Had decent luck with kohlrabi. I totally failed at growing broccoli. And surprisingly my zucchini also failed. I thought is was supposed to be easy to grow, but I think it may have just been overpowered by my tomato plants (which were in the same box). Had decent carrots and radishes as well but I didn't thin them out properly so they never got to big.

My biggest challenge, my dogs. My black lab, who loves fruits and veggies, discovered the "magical boxes full of food" about halfway through the summer last year. My mini aussie made the connection that tomatoes look strikingly similar to tennis balls. It was weird because they pretty much ignored the boxes for the most part, but then I think they noticed I kept eating the green beans straight off the vine and made the connection. Going to put up some sort of fence this year. In addition to the stuff I had good luck growing last year I'm going to try some jalapenos. I may also try to dig up the grass in the corner behind my boxes and try some corn back there assuming I get it fenced off. I would love to also start growing my own hops but that is a whole nother level of challenge.

Hardest thing about broccoli is doing it and not having the bugs eat it. That seems to be a bug magnet, which is why I don't grow it anymore. If you're trying to garden with minimal to no chemicals, broccoli is tough.

Not a kit, I just put them together myself. Wasn't too hard, I am not exactly the worlds best carpenter but they were pretty straight forward. Measure twice cut once I plan on adding more boxes up the fence-line as we get better at growing stuff hopefully.

i made 2 4x8 beds in my side yard, getting them prepped and am starting the greenbeans and peas now
in the next month or so, doing peppers-green and a hot variety. tomatoes -brandywine, sweet 100 and one other i have not decided yet, cucumbers and lettuce and onions i planted for a lark last year (they sprouted last year and i went what the heck,,and they grew...

last year my green beans just kept going and going, from june until end of october. tomatoes i got enough for 2 batches of tomato sauce and ~3 months worth of cherry tomatoes
2 batches of green peppers from the same plants. lettuce lasted 2 ish months of leaf harvesting, etc

my kids have fun picking- i set up a irrigation system and it worked great- cost about 40 bucks total.

Ok time to get off my lazy ass and actually do the garden prep work... tomorrow.

Live in the middle of the woods, I use old dog kennel fencing that has been (thoroughly) cleaned to keep the deer, rabbits, and bears out of my garden. Last year was a good haul, plenty of carrots, radishes, tomatoes, and enough green beans that I just finished the last jar of them yesterday.

Going to do the same and potatoes this year, I think. Spent all day getting the area cleared up (first day in a while where it has been over 40. Reached 74 to be exact), but will probably not start until next week, as there are a few below-freezing temps in the week ahead.

With potatoes, I am considering doing the tire trick, just to save space.

Tomatoes are incredibly easy if you have plenty of sun, water regularly and build some type of structure for it to grow up.

This is what I am talking about and every garden store will have them for cheap. You may want to spray them a few time for pests. Generally easy